Full text of "An exposition of the prophecy of Hosea"

EXPOSITION 



THE PROPHECYOF HOSE A. 



REV. JEREMIAH '^BURROUGHS, 



RECTOR OF TIVETSHAXL, NORFOLK. 

1643. 



COMPLETED BY THE 



REV. THOMAS HALL, B. D. RECTOR OF KING'S NORTON, 



RIGHT REV. EDWARD REYNOLDS, D.D., BISHOP OF NORWICH. 



REVISED AND CORRECTED 

BY THE REV. JAMES SHERMAN, 

MINISTER OF SUEilEY CHAPEL. 



EDINBURGH: JAMES NICHOL. 

LONDON : JAilES NISBET & CO. 
M.DCCCLXm. 



EDINBLTROU : 

PBOrtEO BT BALLA>T\TCE AlfD COSIPAST, 

piOl'8 WORK. 



BRIEF NOTICE 



THE REV. JEREMIAH BURROUGHS, A. M. 



It is deeply to be lamented that no life was given to the church of this excellent minister of 
Christ ; concerning whom Mr. Baxter says, " If all the Episcopalians had been like Arch- 
bishop Usher, all the Presbyterians like Mr. Stephen Marshall, and all the Independents 
like Mr. Jeremiah Burroughs, the breaches of the church would soon have been healed." 
From the few scattered notices of him in different authors, and chiefly from those of his 
enemies, we learn that he was born in 1599. He studied and took his degree at Emmanuel 
College, Cambridge ; after which he became colleague with the Rev. Edmund Calamy, at 
Bury St. Edmund's. In the year 1631 he became rector of Tivetshall, in the county of Nor- 
folk; but upon the publication of Bishop Wren's Articles and Injunctions, in 1636, he was 
suspended and deprived of his living. 

The Earl of ^Varwick, who was the friend and patron of the persecuted ministers, and 
one of their constant hearers, gave him an asylum in his house, till the fire of persecution, 
which raged so strongly against him, obliged him to fly to Holland. He was chosen as- 
sistant minister to the church at Rotterdam, of which the Rev. William Bridge was pastor. 
The violence of party strife at that period raised against him many accusations for leaving 
his country, but his vindication of himself and his conduct in retiring to Rotterdam is so 
ample and circumstantial, and withal written in so meek and humble a .spirit, as to raise in 
the reader a high estimation of his veracity and piety. 

The church at Rotterdam gave him a most hearty welcome, and belaboured among them, 
in conjunction with Mr. Bridge, with great acceptance and usefulness for several years. 
After the commencement of the civil war he returned to England : " Not," says Granger, 
" to preach sedition, but peace ; for which he earnestly prayed and laboured." The renown 
which he had acquired at Rotterdam accompanied him to his native land. His popular 
talents as a preacher, his peaceable spirit, and his exemplary character, soon excited great 
attention ; and as a proof of it, he was chosen lecturer to the congregations of Stepney and 
Cripplegate, then accounted the largest and wealthiest in England. At Stepney he preached 
at seven o'clock iu the morning, and Mr. Greenhill at three in the afternoon : one was 
called the morning star, and the other the evening star, of Stepney. He was chosen one of 
the Assembly of Divines, and united with his brethren, the Revds. Thomas Goodwin, 
Philip Nye, William Bridge, and Sydrach Simpson, in publishing their " Apologetic Nar- 
ration" in defence of their own distinguishing sentiments, which contain the general prin- 
ciples by which congregational churches are governed in the present day. In the year 1645 
he was elected one of the committee of accommodation, and was of great service in all their 
important deliberations. 

Though, after his exile, he never accepted a parochial benefice, or became pastor of a 
separate church, he laboured extensively in preaching at various and distant places, and in 
rendering other important services to the church of Christ. But his incessant labours, and 
grief for the distractions of the times, brought on consumption, of which he died in the 
forty-seventh year of his age. 



iv BRIEF NOTICE OF JEREMIAH BURROUGHS. 

In the spirit of union among all Christians, which he so powerfully advocated, he was far 
before the opinions of his day. The following sentiment, in reply to one of his bitterest 
enemies, does equal credit to his piety and discernment : " I profess, as in the presence of 
God, that upon the most serious examination of my heart, I find in it, that were my judg- 
ment presbyterial, yet I should plead and preach as much for the forbearance of brethren 
differing from nic, not only in their judgment, but in their practice, as I have ever done. 
Therefore, if I should turn Presbyterian, I fear I should trouble Mr. Edwards, and some 
others, more than I do now ; perhaps my preaching and pleading for forbearance of dis- 
senting brethren would be of more force than it is now." The last subject on which he 
preached, and the last treatise he published, was his " Irenicum," or an attempt to heal the 
divisions among Christians. Oh that we had more of his spirit among all who take the lead 
in the Christian church ! The estimation in which he was held by unprejudiced persons 
who were capable of forming a judgment of his spirit and character, was very high. Granger 
says, " he was a man of learning, candour, and modesty, and of an exemplary and irreproach- 
able life." And Fuller has classed him among the learned writers of Emmanuel College, 
Cambridge. 

The following Exposition was delivered in lectures to the wealthy citizens of London, at St. 
Michael's, Cornhill, where crowds constantly attended to hear his luminous exhibitions of truth, 
and forcible appeals to the conscience. The first volunie'only was published during his life, in 
the preface to which he remarks, the expositions " were taken from me in preaching. I per- 
used the notes, but I could not bring the style to the succinctness that I desired, except I had 
written all over again, lor which I had no time." Both this volume, and those published 
after his death, were most imperfectly printed ; unimportant sentences were reprinted over 
and over again ; and the supervisors had literally, as they say, done little more than usher 
the books into the world with the sanction of their names. Mr. Burroughs lived to carry on 
the Exposition as far only as chap. xiii. ver. 1 1 . The remaining verses of that chapter were 
expounded by the Rev. Thomas Hall, who published his Exposition as a supplement to that 
of Mr. Burroughs, and will be found exceedingly valuable. The fourteenth chapter had 
been previously treated in a very able manner by Bishop Reynolds, who must ever rank high 
as an expositor of God's word. The whole are united in this volume, and form a most useful 
comment on this difficult book of Scripture, to aid the minister of Christ and the private 
Christian in rightly interpreting the sacred text. Dr. Williams, in his " Christian Preacher," 
observes, that the Exposition of Mr. Burroughs on Hosea, is a pleasing specimen, to show 
how the popular preachers of his time applied the Scriptures in their expository discourses to 
the various cases of their hearers. 

The editor has only to remark, that the present volume is produced at great labour and 
expense ; that the most scrupulous regard has been paid to accuracy, and in no single in- 
stance has a sentiment of the writer undergone any change to adapt it to the editor's mind. 
He commits it to the blessing of the great Head of the church with nmch prayer and hope 
that it may prove equally useful with the other Expositions which he has ventured to 
publish. 

Surrey Parsonage, 
Jan. 14, 1843. 



THE ORIGINAL PREFACES. 



TO THE EXPOSITION 

ON 

THE FIRST THREE CHAPTERS. 



TO THE RE.\DER. 



You have these lectures as they were taken from me in preaching. I perused the notes, but I could not bring 
the style to the succmctness that I desired, except I had written all over again, for which I had no time ; my 
perusal was but cursory, therefore many things have slipt me : you have them as I preached them, without any 
considerable alteration. I had thought to have been far briefer, but meeting with so many things almost in 
every lecture so nearly concerning present times, caused me to go something beyond an expository way. In 
the remaining part of the prophecy, if God gives life to go through it, I shall keep myself more closely to ex- 
position. What here you have, take it as you find it ; what good you meet with, receive it in. This will be the 
encouragement of 

Thy friend in Christ, 

J. B. 



TO THE EXPOSITION 

ON THE 

FOURTH, FIFTH, SIXTH, AND SEVENTH CHAPTERS. 



TO THE READER. 

Readee, 
AVe here present thee with a continuation of Expositions and Observations upon other four chapters of the 
prophet Hosea, delivered by that worthy man, now with God. Himself in his life-time published the three first 
chapters : these, now made public, were compiled out of the manuscripts which himself under his own hand 
left, which, being short, have been filled up and enlarged out of the best copies of sermon notes taken from his 
own mouth. We must not undertake for aU imperfections or mistakes that haply may be found, though a 
diligent and a skilful hand had the collecting of them. We only give letters of credence to them, that they are 
genuinely the author's, and that they are singularly worthy of all acceptation, especially by such readers as have 
their thoughts exercised in observing the ways of God's proceedings in and towards the nations of the world 
where his name is called. One great piece of his dispensations under the Old Testament, was that towards the 
ten tribes, who remain in captivity to this day, and who were set up (as their predecessors in the wilderness) as 
types of God's dealing in like cases with us under the New Testament, 1 Cor. x. ; Rev. vii. ; as we may see in 
the instance of the Eastern and Grecian churches that have groaned under the Mahometan tjTannies and op- 
pressions, of whom the ten tribes may seem to be the liveliest pattern, as the condition of the saints in the 
AVestem European churches under the pope was exemplified in the captivity of Babylon, which befell the other 
two tribes. Yet so as, both in sins and punishment, tlie one and the other are general examples unto us, " upon 
whom the ends of the world are come," in which God acts over with a quick and swift motion, as being the last 
act, what was done more slowly under the Old. The worthy author was one of the most accurate spectators in 
b 



vl THE ORIGL\.\L PREFACES. 

his time, that with a curious and searching eye beheld what God was a doing in the world. He was as one of 
those "wise men that knew the times," (as it is said of Ahasuerus's seven counsellors, Esth. i. 13,) and skilled 
tliercin not, as they, in a human or political way, but as the transactions in the world do relate unto God, who 
governs this world by the rules and precedents in his word. He was one of those who, as the psalmist speaks, 
Psal. cxi., had pleasure to seek out the great works of the Lord, and to parallel those in these times with those 
of old under the Old Testament ; and unto that end, in the entrance to these alterations in our times, he pitched 
upon the explication of this prophecy, which the studious reader will with much delight read over, when he shall 
observe how he made application all along to the dispensations of that time in wliich he preached them. The 
I-ord bless them to them of this nation, for which they were principally intended. 



THOMAS GOODWIN, 
S'iDRACH SIMPSON, 
WILLIAM GREENHILL, 



WILLIAM BRIDGE, 
JOHN YATES, 
WILLIAM ADDERLY. 



TO THE EXPOSITION 



EIGHTH, NINTH, AND TENTH CHAPTERS. 



TO THE READER. 

Wii.\T we have by way of preface set before the edition of the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters, may 
sufficiently 8er\'e for a premise to these eighth, ninth, and tenth chapters, as holding forth the use and scope of 
the whole prophecy, and the authors intentions in his comment thereon : so as we shall only need now to give 
letters of credence before the world, to the passing of these, as the best and most authentic notes that could any 
way be obtained, both as the extracts of the best notes of sermons taken from his mouth, and chiefly his ovni 
writings, which were more brief. Expect shortly the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth chapters from the same 
hand. We commit them, and the reader, to the blessing of God. 



THOMAS GOOD^VIN, 
SYDKACH SIMPSON, 
WILLIAM GREENHILL, 



WILLIAM BRIDGE, 
JOHN YATES, 
WLLLLAM ADDERLY. 



TO THE EXPOSITION 

OM TUB 

ELEVENTH, TWELFTH, AND THIRTEENTH CHAPTERS. 



TO THE READER. 

God, who alone is perfect in himself, has retained this prerogative to himself, that his work should be per- 
fect (as Moses speaks) ; and, as another holy one hath it, doth all his pleasure. Paul, though in whatever he 
was to commit to writing (in matters sacred) had«infallibility of assistance, yet perfected not all he intended: 
" These things we will do, if God permit," said he to the Hebrews, Ileb. vi. But we no where find extant any 
evidence, that he accomplished what he there intended, namely, a full, methodical discourse upon those first 
principles and foundations of religion, which that speech had reference unto. It is no wonder then, that if such 
a kind of imperfection accompanied the works of so great a master-builder, it attend those who build on this 
foundation, and are not privileged (a< yet he was) from building hay and stubble. 



THE OKIGINAL PREFACES. Tii 

This sort of incompleteness hath befallen the works of this worthy author, in respect to the finishing of this 
prophecy, which he intended, and had performed ; wherein yet to the church of God there shall be no loss, 
there being no thoughts nor notions suggested to any man, which, though for the present they die with him, but 
the same Spirit who is the inspirer of all, doth bring to light in some one or other servant of God, in his own 
time. 

What a treasury of thoughts seemed to be lost and to die with the Saviour of the world, which he had not, 
could ;iot then utter ! which yet the Spirit, that filled him without measure, distributed amongst the apostles 
that came after him, according to the measure of the gift of Christ in each. There is no beam of Divine light 
has shone into any man's heart, that shall finally and for ever be put under a bushel, but in the end shall be 
set up, to give light to the whole house. 

The purpose of this preface is, to consign the passport through the world of these last notes of the author 
upon this prophecy, namely, the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth chapters ; and to assure the reader, that they 
are the best and most genuine that can be expected, being collected out of those under his hand, all along, and 
the best copies of those that took them from his mouth ; and to subjoin this hearty prayer, for a blessing from 
Heaven on these, and the rest of these our brother's kbours that are published, that his works may follow him, 
and he receive (at the latter day) a full reward, even according to the fruit of his doings. 

THOMAS GOODWIN, WILLIAM BRIDGE, 

WILLIAM GREENIIILL, JOHN YATES, 

SYDRACH SIMPSON, WILLIAM ADDERLY. 



POSTSCRIPT BY THE SUPERVISOR 



THE LAST SER:M0N BY BURROUGHS. 

The author was prevented by several providences from preaching the foregoing sermon for some months to- 
gether, insomuch as himself wondered what purpose God had in it ; till at last God visited him by sickness, 
whereof he fell asleep in the Lord : his disease was thought to be infection, but without any sore, yea, and (as 
the gentlewoman his wife has related) without any spots or tokens of the plague ; there was only a black settling 
of blood on one side of his back, which she supposed might have arisen from a fall from a horse, which he had met 
with not long before. This is mentioned by occasion of some contrary reports concerning his death. About the 
time of his immediate dissolution, he lifted up his eyes, and was heard to speak these words, " I come, I come, I 
come :" and so gave up the ghost. 

It had been much to be wished that the author had been more concise and brief in some amplifications, which, 
though all exceedingly useful, yet have deprived us of his preaching and completing both the former sermon, 
and the rest of the prophecy. But God was pleased (for our sin no doubt) to deprive us of that mediator-like 
instrument between the divided godly parties of this nation, and of the further mind of the Holy Ghost which 
he had revealed to this his servant, touching the scope and use of this prophecy in these days. 

God took him away in the strength of his parts and graces, that he might not lose in the reputation of his 
ministry or piety, as some have before their death. 

Also, though we cannot afiii'm, as one of Josiah, that he was taken away lest the evil of the time should have 
wrought upon his temper ; yet we may say, as another doth, he was " taken away from the evil to come," Isa. Ivii. 1. 

Moreover, it is not an unuseful note, that the Preface to the Tigurine Bible hath, whereof the inference is, 
That whilst in some weighty point we labour for great exactness and preparation, we are either disabled by our 
diligence, or prevented by our tardiness and delay; whereas moderate preparation seasonably applied might 
be more usefid to the cluu-ch, than such exactness so deferred. Which is not spoken to reflect any thing on our 
reverend author, but to admonish others. 

Now among other arguments (good reader) to commend this excellent piece, this is one. That it has been 
brought to thy hand thrqugh several elements, having been in danger, part of it to be rotted in the earth where 
it was buried ;■ part of it to be consumed in tlie fire wherewith much of the town where it was flamed ; * part of 
it to be lost in by-holes where it was hidden in the midst of enemies. Make special use therefore of what is 
come (as it were) through fire unto thee for that end. And if thou find that fruit the super\-isor did in preparing 
it for thee, thou wilt not repent thy pains or penny. Farewell. 

* Tlic original was with the supervisor in Colchester when besieged, and much of the town burnt. 



THE OlilGLN.-VL PREFACES. 

TO THE EXPOSITION BY BISHOP REYNOLDS, 

OS 

THE FOURTEENTH CHAPTER. 



TO THE HEADER. 



CiiuisTlAN" reader, understanding tliat my sermon, which was preaclicd three years since before the Honour- 
able } louse of Commons, on the day of their solemn humiliation, was to be reprinted, I thought fit to peruse, 
transcribe, and enlarge six other sermons, in which I had, at mine own charge in the country, on the ensuing 
fast days, briefly explained and ajjplied that whole chapter, (a portion only whereof was in the first handled,) 
and to send them forth together with it to the public : which I was the rather induced to do for these two 
reasons : 1. Because it has pleased God in his righteous and holy providence to make me, by a long infirmity, 
unserviceable to his church in the principal work of the ministry, the preaching of the gospel (which is no small 
grief unto me). So that there remained no other means whereby my life might, in regard of my function, be 
useful to the church, and comfortable to myself, than by inverting the words of the psalmist, and as he made 
his " tongue the pen of a ready writer," Psal. xlv. 1 , so to make my pen the tongue of an unready speaker. 2. I 
considered the seasonableness and suitableness of these meditations to the condition of the sad and disconsolate 
times wherein we live, very like those which our prophet threatened the ten tribes withal throughout this whole 
prophecy, unto which this last chapter is a kind of use, and a most solemn exhortation, pressing upon all wise 
and prudent men such duties of humiliation and repentance, as_ might turn threats into promises, and recover 
again the mercies which by then- sins they had forfeited and forsaken : which being restored to them according 
to their petition, they are here likewise further instructed in what manner to return unto God the praises due to 
his great name. And these two duties of humiliation and thanksgiving, are the most solemn duties to which in 
these times of judgments and mercies, so variously interwoven together, the Lord so frequently calls us. 

Places of Scripture I have, for brevity sake, for the most part, only quoted and referred thee to, without tran- 
scribing all the words, and have usually put many parallel places together, because by that means they do not 
only strengthen the doctrine whereto they belong, but mutually give light one to another. 

The L3rd make us all in this our day so wise and prudent, as to undei-stand the righteous ways of our God 
towards us ; that we may not stumble at them, but walk in them, and be taught by them to wait u])on him in 
the way of his judgments, and to fix the desires of our soul upon his name as our great refuge, and upon his 
righteousness as our great business, Isa. xxvi. S, 9: till he shall be pleased, by the dew of his grace, to revive us 
as the corn, to make us grow as the vine, and to let the scent of all his ordinances be over all our land, as the 
smell and as the wine of Lebanon. 

It will be an abundant return to my poor and weak endeavours, if I may have that room in thy prayers which 
the apostle Paul desired to have in the prayers of the Ephesians, " That utterance may be given unto me, that I 
may open ray mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel," Eph. vi. 19. 

The Lord sanctify all the ways of his providence towards us, that when we are chastened we may be taught, 
and may be greater gainers by the voice of his rod than we are sufferers by the stripes. 



AN EXPOSlTIOlSr 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



CHAPTER I. 



Verse 1. 

The iiord of the Lord that came v.iilo Ilosea, the son 
of Beeri, in the daj/s of Uzziali, Jotliam, Ahaz, and 
Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jero- 
boam the son of Joash, king of Israel. 

This day ve begin a Scripture exposition, an exercise 
which has lost much of its honour by its disuse. The 
best apology for it is to begin it immediately. It is an 
ancient practice in the church of God, old enough to 
speak for itself. In Neh. viii. 8, we read that Ezi-a, 
Jeshua, Bani, and the rest read in the book of the law. 
and gave the sense, and caused the people to understand 
the reading. 

I have determined to expound first the books of the 
minor prophets, of which Jerome remarks, * I know 
not which to wonder at most, the brevity of speech, or 
the greatness and abundance of sense. And the pro- 
phet Hosea in this respect is most excellent, of whom 
the same author says he is f exceedingly concise, and 
speaks by sentences. Why I chose rather to begin 
with Hosea than with Isaiah, I shall afterward inform 
you. If God continue life and this exercise, we may 
go tlii'ough all the prophetical books, both small and 
great. In these prophets we have most admirable 
truths revealed to us ; and it is a pity that the mind of 
God contamed in them should be so little known, even 
unto his chiUb-en ; that such treasures of heavenly 
truths should lie hid from so many for so long a time. 

"We might preface our work by labouring to raise 
your hearts to the consideration of the excellency of 
the Scriptm-es in general. Luther uses a high exprcs- 
.sion about them ; he calls them J the highest genus, 
that contains m it all good whatever. Take away the 
Scripture, and you even take away the sun from the 
world. ^Yhat is the world without the Scriptures, but 
hell itself ? AVe have had indeed the word of God as 
the sun in the world, but oh how many mists have been 

* Xescio utrura brevitatem sermonum, an magnitudinem 
sensuuiu atlinirari debeas. 

t Commaticum ct quasi per sententias loquentem. 

I Genus generali<simum omnium bonoruni. Si hoc au- 



before this sun! Seldom the sun shines clearly tons. 
Seeing there is such a glorious sun risen, it is distress- 
ing that there should be a misty day. Now the work 
to wliich we are called is, to dispel the mists and fogs 
from before this sun, that it may shine more brightly 
before your eyes, and into your hearts. 

Chrysostom§ in his twenty-ninth semionupou Genesis, 
exhorting his auditors to get the Scriptm-es into their 
houses, and diligently to exercise themselves in them, 
tells them that by them the seul is raised, elevated, and 
brightened, as ■\^•ith the beam of the Sun of righteous- 
ness, and delivered from the snares of unclean thoughts. 
In the Scripture the great God of heaven has sent his 
mind to the chilcben of men ; he has made known 
the counsel of his will, and opened his very heart unto 
mankind. The Bible is the epistle that ^ , 
God has sent into the world. Did w. ', 

but hear of a book dictated inmiediately ',_"' 

by God himself, to show the children nt ; , ; ', ;,. 
men what the eternal counsels of his will ; ' , "'™ 

were for conducting them to eternal ha])- ii 

piness, and his thoughts and intentions !u;[„'ij^..]^u;.i/^';,il 
concerning their everlasting condition; |SS'"i',ma„o ."S- 
did we, I say, but hear that there was such ri,";;'''"!"'',"^"^"*- 

1 ,. 1(11 f.i-ri. Wolfius in loc. 

a book m the larthest part of the Indies, 
should we not rejoice that the woi'ld was blest with such 
a mercy ? "NMiat strong and vehement desires should wo 
have to enjoy but one sight of it before we died ! AVe 
should be willing to venture upon any hazard, to pass 
through any difficulty, to be at any ex])ense, that we 
might have but a glance at such a book as this. My 
brethren, you need not say, AATio shall go to the farthest 
])art of the Indies to fetch us this book ? who shall 
descend into the depth, or go to the uttermost part of 
the earth, to gain us a sight of this book of Scriptm-e ? 
for, behold, the word is nigh unto you, it is in your 
houses, and we hope in yoiu' hearts, and in this exercise 
it is to be in our mouths, not only to toll you what it 
saith, but to explain to you the mind of God in it. 
To exercise om'selves in tliis book is sweet indeed. 

feras, solem e mundo sustulisti : quid mundus, sublato vorbo, 
quam infernus ? 

^ 'AXXi icai oiVrtOE tfi-ri Xiipa^ Xantai/iiVTa S-fTa piftXia.- 

n ^Uxi] TTTEpitTai K'Cti /XETapO-lOS yii/ETat, TW tpOlTl T8 T^? 

5iKaio(7vvi]'i iiXiH KaTavyuX^ofxiv)\; S;c. 



AX EXPOSITIOX OF 



Chap. I. 



Luther professes himself out of love wth 
^p.'opio.S'h!: his own books, and wished them burnt, 
SSiSliiK"".'. lest men, sijcnding time in them, sliould 
S.li1j2Si'sii> ^^ hindered from reading tlie Scriptures, 
turn, qua »*.<»»• which are the only fountain of all wis- 
«t'*c!"'LJui'S'in dom : I tremble, said he, at the former 
Gen. c. 19. jjgg^ wliich was so much busied in read- 

ing Aristotle and Averroes. AVe read in Neh. viii. 5, 
6, when Ezra opened the book of the law to expound 
it to the people, he " blessed the Lord, the great God : 
and all the peoi)le answered. Amen, iVmen." And now 
blessed be the Lord, the great and gracious God, for 
stirring your hearts uj) to such a work as this, and 
blessed be his name for those liberties we have thus 
freely to exercise ourselves in this sers'ice. Oh praised 
be the name of the gi'eat God for this day's entiance 
into so good a work as this. Yea, they not only blessed 
God, but " they lifted up their hands, and bowed their 
heads, and worsliipped tne Lord with their faces to the 
ground." Wliy ? Because the book of the law was read 
to them and expoimded. How came it to pass that 
their hcai'ts were so ready to hear the book oi tne law 
expounded to them ? Surely it was because they were 
newly retm-ned out of captivity. When they came 
into their own land, and heard the law of God opened 
to them, they blessed his gi'eat name, and bowed theu- 
faces to the ground, worshipping him. This day, my 
brethren, witnesses our great deliverance and retimi 
from bondage. Not long since we could not have 
either ordinances, truths, or religious exercises, but 
according to the humours of vile men. But now, 
through God's mercy, a great deliverance is granted to 
us, that we may come and have free liberty to exercise 
ourselves in the law of our God. O bless the Lord, 
and bow your faces to the ground, worshipping him ! 

In the 12th verse of that chapter we read, that after 
they had heard the law read and expounded to them, 
they " went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send 
portions, and to make great mirth." A\Tiy ? " Because 
they had understood the words that were declared unto 
them." I hope, if God shall please to give assistance 
in this work, many of you shall go away from this as- 
sembly rejoicing, because you know more of God's 
mind revealed in his word than formerly ; and this will 
be tlie comfort of your meat and drink, and of your 
trading, and the very spirit of all the joys of your hves. 
As the sweetness of tne fruit comes from the graft, 
rather than from the stock ; so your comforts and the 
blessing of grace must come from the word ingrafted 
in your souLs, rather than from any tiling you have in 
yourselves. 

In the 1st verse, Nehemiah saith, " All the people 
gathered themselves together as one man into the sti'eet 
that was before the water gate," to desire Ezra to bring 
the book of the law, and to read it and to open it unto 
them. Behold, it is thus this day in this place ; here 
is a great company met together, some to know what 
the business will he, some for novelty, and some for 
other ends ; but we hope many have come that they 
may have the book of tne law read and opened unto 
them. Now we expect that from you which is said of 
them, ver. 3, " And the ears of all the i)eople were 
attentive unto the book of the law," when it was read 
and ex])ounded. And truly that attention which now 
you show promises that we shall have an attentive 
auditory. But yet tliat is not all ; let us have further 
a reverential demeanour and carriage in the hearing of 
the law, as it becomes those who arc to deal with God. 
It is said, ver. 5, that when Ezra 0])cned the book of 
the law, " all the ])eople stood up." AVe do not expect 
the same gesture from you, but oy way of analogy we 
expect a reverential demeanour in your carriage during 
the whole work, as knowing we are to sanctify God's 
name in it. Those people after the first day's exercise 



were so encouraged, that they came again tlic second 
day: vcr. 13, '• On the second day were gathered toge- 
ther the chief of the fathers of all the people, the priests, 
and the Le^ites, unto Ezra, to understand the words of 
the law." And I hope God will so carry on this work, 
that you shall find encouragement too to come again 
and again, that you may know more of the mind of 
God ; and that this work shall be profitable not only to 
the younger and weaker class, but to tlie fathers, to the 
priests and Levites also. 

Let it be with you as it was with them ; according as 
vou have any truth made known unto you, submit to 
It, yield to it, obey it immediately, and then you shali 
know more of God's mind : " If any man will do his 
wiU, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of 
God," John vii. 17. Thus did they; for, ver. 14, when 
thev found it WTitten in the book of the law, that the 
children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of 
the seventh month, (this was one passage of the law 
wliich was expounded, how they should keep the feast 
of tabeniacles. and what booths they should make,) the 
peo])le immediately went forth to the mount, and 
letched olive branches, and palm branches, and branches 
of thick trees, and made themselves booths, every one 
upon the roof of his house. In this prophecy of Hosea 
you will find many truths suitable to the times wherein 
we live ; the Lord grant you obedient hearts to what 
shall be delivered. 

I must not retard the work, nor your expectations, 
any longer with a larger preface, only somewhat might 
have been said about the rides for the interpretation of 
Scripture ; I will only observe that, to the inteq)ret- 
ation of Scriptui-e, a Scripture frame of heart is neces- 
sary, a heart holy and heavenly, suitable to the holiness 
and heavenliness wliich are m the word. As it was 
said of TuUy's eloquence, that nothing but the elo- 
quence of TuUy could describe its excellency ; so it ma\ 
be said of the spirituality of Scripture, nothing but a 
heart filled with Scripture spiritualness can set fortli its 
excellencies. And because the authority of Scripture 
is supreme, wc desire the jirayers of you all to God for 
us that his fear may fall upon our hearts, that seeing we 
are men full of error and evil, yet we may not bring 
any scripture to maintain any eiToneous conceit of our 
owii heads, nor any evil of our own hearts : this we 
know to be a dreadful evil. It was a fearful evil for 
Lucifer to say, " I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt 
my throne above the stars of God : I will sit also upon 
the mount of tlie congregation, in the sides of the north: 
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds ; I will be 
like the most High," Isa. xiv. 13, 14. It is as great an evil 
for any to seek to make tlie Highest ajipear like Lucifer ; 
for they who make the Scripture justify any erroneous 
opinion, or any way of e\il, go about to make the blessed 
God and the "Holy Ghost to be the fathers of lies. It 
is counted a great evil in a commonwealth to jiut the 
king's stamp upon false coin ; and to put the stamp of 
the Spirit of God upon an error, upon a conceit of a 
man's own, is certainly a great evil before the Lord. 
God made the priests vile and contemptible btfnre the 
peonle, because they were partial in the law, Mai. ii. i). 
.Vnu for you, my brethren, our prayer shall be, that the 
fear of God may fall upon you likewise, that you may 
come to these exercises with Scripture frames of heart. 

ANTiat frame of heart is a Scripture frame? The Holy 
Ghost tells you, Isa. Ixvi. 2, God looks at him that 
trembleth at his word : come with hearts trembling at 
the word of God ; come not to be judges of the law, 
but doers of it. You may judge of your jirofiting in 
grace by tlie delight you iind in Scripture ; as Quin- 
tilian was wont to say of jirofiting in clo- 
ouence, a man may know that by the SHJHid'^liJ,'' 
delight he finds in reailing Cicero. It is JJ' .IS,™ cJS'ii." 
a true sign of profiting in religion, when 



V£E. 1. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



the Scriptures are sweeter to us than the honey and the 
honeycomb. 

And now the work we have to do is, to open the dif- 
ficulties and to show you the Divine truths contained 
in tills portion of Scripture. May they spring up from 
the fountain of Hfe itself, and be presented to your 
minds with freshness and power. 

These five things are to bo inquired concerning the 
prophet whose prophecy I am now to open, which are 
contained either in the Ist verse or in the chapter : 

I. 'V\'lio he was. 

n. To whom he was sent. 

in. A\'Tiat his errand was. 

IV. His commission. 

V. The time of his prophecy. 

I. "\ATio this prophet was. 

I will explain only what you have of him in the 1st 

verse, " Hosea the son of Beeri." His name signifies 

a sa^dour, one that brings salvation ; it is the same 

root fi'om wliich Joshua is derived ; and 

"•'itrirT s^'^^'^i'- ™^'^y saving and savoury truths we 

shall find this prophet bringing to us. 

He was the son of Beeri. We do not find who this 

Beeri was in Scripture, only that he is here named 

as the father of the prophet. Surely it is hotioris gratia 

to the prophet, and hence 

06s. That parents should so live and walk, that it 
may be an honour to then- children to be called by theii- 
names, that then" chilcben may neither be afraid nor 
ashamed to be named with them. 

The Jews have a tradition which is generally re- 
ceived among them, that wlienever a prophet's father 
is named, that father was a prophet as well as the son. 
If that were so, then sui-ely it is no dishonour for any 
man to be the sou of a prophet. Let the children of 
godly, gracious ministers be no dishonoiu' to their 
parents, their parents are an honour- unto them. But 
we find by experience that many of theii- chilcben are 
far from being an honom- to their godly parents. Hov,' 
many sons of ancient godly ministers, who heretofore 
hated superstitious vanities, have of late been the great- 
est zealots for such things. It reminds me of what the 
Scriptui'e says concerning Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, 
and of the difference between his father and him. 
WTien Josiah heard the law read. Ids heart melted, and 
he humbled himself before the Lord, 2 Kings xxii. 19. 
But when Jehoiakim his son heard the law of God read, 
he took a pen-knife, and cut the roU in wliich it was 
written in pieces, and threw ■' it into the fii-e that was on 
the hearth, until aU the roU was consumed," Jer. xxxvi. 
23. There was much difference between the son and 
the father : and thus it is between the sons of many 
ancient godly ministers and them ; their- fathers indeed 
might be an honour unto them, but they are a dis- 
honoiu- to then- fathers. 

"The son of Beeri." The word Beeri is derived 
from nsa puleus, a well that has springing water in it, 
freely and clearly running. So ministers shotdd be the 
chflcfren of Beeri ; that which they have shoidd be 
springing water, and not the mud, and dirt, and filth of 
their own conceits mingled with the word. This only 
by way of allusion. 

II. To whom was this prophet Hosea sent ? 

He was sent especially to the ten tribes. I suppose 
you all know the division of the people of Israel wliich 
took place in Eehoboam's time ; ten of the ti'ibes went 
from the house of David, only judah and Benjamin re- 
mained ^rith it. Now these ten tribes, rending them- 
selves from the house of David, separated themselves 
also from the true worship of God, and hon-iblc ■s\icked- 
ness and all manner of abominations grew up amongst 
them. To these ten tribes God sent this prophet. He 
sent Isaiah and Micah to Judah, Amos and Hosea to 
Israel; all these were contempcrary. If you woidd 



know the state of Israel in Hosea's time, read but 
2 Kings XV. 24, " Jeroboam did that which was eyU. in 
the sight of the Lord, he departed not fi-om all the sins 
of Jeroboam the son of Xebat, who made Israel to sin." 
But notwithstanding Israel was thus notoriously wicked, 
and given up to all idolati-y, yet the Lord sent liis pro- 
phets Hosea and Amos to prophesy to them even at 
tills time. Oh the goodness of the Lord, to follow an 
apostatizing jieople, an apostatizing soul ! Jlercy yet 
pleaded while God w'as speaking in anger ; but woe to 
that people, to that soul, concerning whom the Lord 
shall give in chai-ge to his prophets. Prophesy no more 
to them ! 

III. AMiat was Hosea's en-and to Israel ? 

His errand was to con\'ince them clearly of their 
abominable idolatry, and those other wickeihiesses in 
which they lived, and to denoimce severe tlu-eatenings, 
yea, most fearful desti'uction. This was not done be- 
fore by the other prophets, as we shall afterward make 
appear ; but it was Hosea's errand specially to tlu-eaten 
an utter desolation to Israel more than ever was before, 
and yet withal to promise mercy to a remnant to di'aw 
them to repentance ; and to prophesy of the great 
things that God intended to do for his chm-ch and chil- 
cb-en in the latter days. 

rV. "WTiat was his commission ? 

The words tell us plainly, " The word of the Lord 
came to Hosea." It was the word of Jehovah. It is a 
great argument to obedience to know that it is the 
word of the Lord wliich is spoken. '\ATien men set 
reason agauist reason, and judgment against judgment, 
and opinion against opinion, it prevails not ; but when 
they see the authority of God m the word, then the 
heait and conscience jield. Therefore however you 
may look upon the insti-uments that bring it or open it 
to you, as yoiu- equals, or inferiors, yet know there is 
an authority in the word that is above you all ; it is 
" the word of the Lord." 

And this word of the Lord " came to Hosea." Mark 
the phi'ase : Hosea did not go for the word of tlie Lord, 
but the word of the Lord came to him ; he sought it 
not, but it came to him, yii'W-Ss rrn irs that is, the 
word of the Lord came or was made into him, was put 
into liim. Such a kind of phi-ase you have in the New 
Testament, John x. 35, " 11' he called them gods, unto 
whom the word of God came," irpbg oi'ie o Xoyog tov 
etou lyeviTo, that is, to whom the commission came to 
place them where they were. So the word of the Lord 
came to Hosea. The knowledge of a call to a work 
will help a man thi-ough the difficulties of the work. 
One of the most notable texts of Scrip- 
ture to encom-age a man to the work to JJ^J q^'Deo" 
wliich he sees he is clearly called, is that Y^^S' ''°°""""'- 
which is spoken of C'hiist himself, Isa. 
xlii. 6, " I the Lord have called thee in righteousness." 
'^Tiat follows then ? "I will hold thy hand, and will keep 
thee, and give thee for a covenant to the people, for a 
light to the Gentiles." If wo know God's call to a 
work, (as for the present this of om-s is exceecbng clear 
imto us.) though the work be difficult and liable to 
much censm-e, yet the Lord will hold our hands, and 
^^■ill be with our minds, and om- tongues, and om* 
hearts, and make us instruments to give some light to 
others. 

V. AMiat was the time when Hosea prophesied ? 

You have it in the text, " In the days of Uaziah, 
Jotham, Ahaz, and Hczekiah, lungs of Judah, and in 
the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel." 
It is computed by ehronologers that Hosea lived about 
814 yeai-s before "Chi-ist. In his time the eit)- of Rome 
was buUt. It was the beginning of the Ohinpiads. 
Eusebius tells us that there was no ^^^^Ji^,,, ^^ 
Grecian histoiy, and if no Greek learn- Greca'dLTempln- 
ing, then not any that was of any author- creditlfr,°EuMb?de 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. I. 



rrrp>r.E.jn.LM. j^.^ extant beforc the time of Hosea. 
He ])roi)hesie(l in the reigiis of Uzziah, 
Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. AVe have much more 
of God's mind revealed in this than at first \-ie\v we 
a])prehcnd. Hosea prophesied a very long time, pro- 
bai)ly fourscore years ; but it is certain he was in the 
worli of his ministry above seventy years. I make that 
clear thus : He prophesied in the days of Jeroboam, who 
lhouf,'h he is here named last, yet was the first of these 
kings that took up some of his' time. But suppose you 
reckon from the end of Jeroboam's reign, from that to 
the beginning of Hezekiah were seventy years, ami yet 
the text declares he pro])hcsied both in Jeroboam's time 
and in Hczckiah's tmic. After the death of Jeroboam, 
Uzziah lived thirty-eight years. He reigned fifty-two 
in all. He l)egan" hisreign in the twenty-seventh year 
of Jeroboam, 2 Kings xv. 1. Now Jeroboam lived 
after that fourteen yeai-s, for he reigned forty-one in 
all. Take fourteen out of fifty-two, and there remams 
thirty-eight. After him Jotham reigned sixteen years, 
and then Ahaz succeeded him, and reigned sixteen 
years more. So that between these two kings, Jeroboam 
and Hezekiah, were seventy years, in which Hosea 
prophesied, besides the forty-one years of Jeroboam, and 
twenty-nine years of Hezekiah, in both whose reigns 
too you sec he lived; and therefore it is probable that 
Hosea continued in the work of his prophecy at least 
fourscore yeare. See what of God's mind will spring 
from tliis. 

Obs. 1. It jileases God sometimes that some men's 
labours shall aljide more full to posterity than others, 
though the labours of those others arc greater and as 
excellent as theirs. Hosea continued so long, and yet 
there is not much of his prophecy extant, onlv foin-teen 
short chapters. This is according to the diversity of 
CJod's administrations. Let the ministers of God learn 
to be faithfid in their work, and let God alone to make 
them eminent by having their labours extant. 

Obs. 1. It appears from hence that Hosea must needs 
begin to pro])hesy very young. If he were a prophet 
fourscore years, certainly he wa.s very young when he 
began to prophesy; and yet he was called to as great an 
emplovment as any of the prophets. It pleases God 
sometimes to stir up the hearts of young ones to do 
him great service. He sends such sometimes about 
great works and emplo^cnts ; so he did Samuel, and 
Jeremiah, and Tiraotny. Therefore let no man despise 
their youth. 

Obs. 3. Hosea prophcs^-ing thus long, it appears he 
lived to be old in nis work. When God has any work 
for men to do, he lengthens out their days. So he did the 
days of John the disciple, who lived a hundred years, 
if not more ; for the time of writing liis Gospel was in 
the ninety-ninth year of Christ, sixty-six after the 
ascension. Let us not be too solicitously careful about 
our lives, to maintain our health and slrengtli ; let us 
be careful to do our work, for according as the Lord 
hath work for us to do, so he will continue to us our 
health, and strength, and life, '\^'hen you come to die, 
vou mav die comfortably, having this thought in you : 
NA'cII, tfie work that the Lord appointed me to do is 
done, and why should I seek to live longer in the 
world ? God has others enough to do his work. It was 
a sweet expression of Jacob, "Behold, I die: but God 
shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land 
of your fathers," Gen. xlviii. 21. So may a prophet of 
fiod say. who has been faithful in his work, Behold, I 
die. but the Lord shall be with you ; my work is finish- 
ed, but God has others who are young'to carry on his 
work. 

Obs. 4. You may see by Hosea's continuance in so 
many several kings' reigns, that he went through a 
variety of conditions. Sometimes he lived under wicked 
kings, sometimes under moderate kings, sometimes he 



had encom-agement from godlv and gracious kings, 
though they were kings of Judah. Not only the people 
of God, but especially God's ministers, must expect a 
variety of conditions in the world ; they must not pro- 
mise to themselves always the same state. 

Yet further, Hosea projihesied in all these kings' 
reigns. Here appears the constancv of his spuit, not- 
withstanding the many difficulties lie met with in his 
work ; for, prophesying in the time of Jeroboam, Jotham, 
and Ahaz, who were wicked princes, he must surely 
have met with many discouiagements : and though he 
continued fourscore years, yet he saw but little success 
of his labour ; for the truth is, the people were not con- 
verted to God by his ministiT. Nav, it is apparent they 
grew worse and worse ; for it is said of that Jeroboam 
in whose time Hosea began his ]n-ophecy, that he did 
evil in the sight of the Lord, and continued in the ways 
of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, 2 Kings xv. 24; but after 
we read most horrible things of which Israel was guilty. 
In 2 Kmgs xvii. 1 7, it is said, " They caused their sons 
and their daughtere to pass through the fii-e, and used 
divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do 
evil in the sight of the Lord, to ])rovoke him to anger;" 
besides many other ibeadful things you may read in 
that chapter. This was in king Hoshea's time, which 
was towards the end of Hosea's prophecy. 

Obs. 5. God may continue a prophet a long time 
amongst a pcojile, and yet they may never be converted. 
It is a distemper in ministers' hearts to incline to aban- 
don their work because they see not desh-ed success. 
Latimer, in one of his sermons, speaks of a minister 
who was asked why he left off preaching, who replied, 
because he saw he did no good : this, says Latimer, is a 
very naughty answer. AMiat we have here may be a 
great stay to those who have laboured many yeai-s in 
the work of the ministry, and yet think they have done 
little or no good ; Hosea was fourscore years a prophet 
to Israel, and yet did not convert them. But notwith- 
standing all these discouragements, he continued con- 
stant, and that with abundance of freshness and liveli- 
ness, even to the end of his jirophesying. 

Obs. 6. It is an honour to the ministers of God, who 
meet with many difficulties and discouragements in 
theii' way, yet continue fresh and lively to the very end. 
Many young ministers are fresh and lively when they 
begin first : oh how full of zeal and activity are they 
then ! but after they have been a while in their work, 
or when they have gained what they aimed at, they 
gi'ow cold, and that fomier vigour, freshness, and zeal 
which appeared to be in them become much flatter. 
Like soldiers, who at the first are forward and active in 
service, but aftenvard come to live upon their pay, and 
can do no service at all ; or rather, as vessels when they 
are first ta])])ed, the wine is very quick and nimble, but 
at last gi-ows exceeding flat. As we commend that 
vessel of wine that draws quick to the very last, so it 
is an excellent thing for a minister of God to continue 
fresh, and quick, and lively to the last end. It is true, 
nature and natural abilities may decay, but a spiritual 
freshness may appear when natural abilities are decay- 
ed. To see an old jirophet of God, who has gone 
through many difficulties and sufferings, and yet con- 
tinues fresh and lively in the work of the ministiT, and 
has s|)iritual excellencies sparkling in him then, this is a 
most honourable sight, and calls for abundance of 
reverence. 

Obs. 7. It pleases God many times to let liLs prophets 
see the fulfilling of their thrcatenings upon the people 
against whom they have denounced them. Ho.sea pro- 
phesied so long, that he most ])robably saw the fulfilling 
of his prophecy; for he continued proiihesjing till Heze- 
kiah's time, and in the sixth vear of Hezekiah's reign 
came the destraction of Israel. Hosea had threatened 
an utter taking of them awav, but it was not done till 



Vee. 1. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



tlien. Perhaps the people go away, and scorn and 
contemn the prophets, and their words are but wind 
with them ; but God often lets his ministers live to see 
their words fidiilled upon them. For it ia common 
with individuals, when upon then- beds of sickness or 
death, to say, Ah, the word of the Lord is true that I 
heard at such a time, it is now come upon me ! So God 
dealt with the people in Jeremiah's time ; they laughed 
and contemned him, but Jeremiah lived to see the ful- 
filling of those thi-eatenings. And if they live not to 
see the fulfilling of then- words, yet soon after their 
death they are fulfilled, as it was at Hippo, where Austin 
threatened judgments against the people ; they were not 
executed in Ms time, but soon after he was taken away 
they came. 

Hosea not only prophesied in these Idngs' days, but 
in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel. Here are 
three questions : 

1. What is the reason that Jeroboam, who in truth 
was the fij:st of these kings, is named last ? 

2. AMiy only one king of Israel is named, and thi-ee 
kings of Judah ? for in the time of Hosea's prophecy 
there were six other lungs of Israel, Zachariah, Shal- 
lum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, Hoshea. 

3. Why Jeroboam is named at all ? 

One answer will be sufficient for the first two ques- 
tions, why Jeroboam is named last, and why there is 
but one king of Israel named. The answer is this, 
God took no gi'eat delight in the kings of Israel, for 
they had forsaken the true worship of God. Though 
there was much con'uption in Judah, yet because they 
kept to the true worship of God, God took more de- 
light in Judah than in Israel. Therefore he names 
Jeroboam in the last place, though he was fii-st, and 
only him. 

But why was Jeroboam named at all ? 

It Avas that you might understand the state of the 
people of Israel at the time of Hosea's projjhecy. Much 
is to be learned from hence. The state of the people 
of Israel in the time of Jeroboam's reign was very 
prosperous, though their wickedness was very great. 
2 Kings xiv. shows you, that a little before this they 
had been in very great distress, and under sore afflic- 
tions ; but in Jeroboam's time they had the greatest 
prosperity they had ever know^l. For this Jeroboam 
was not the first Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, that caused 
Israel to sin, and occasioned the rent of the ten tribes 
from the house of David ; that occurred above a hun- 
dred and forty years before this ; but the Jeroboam in 
whose time God sent Hosea to prophesy this great 
wrath against the house of Israel, was the son of Joash. 
Now in all this time the kingdom was never in a more 
prosperous condition than in the days of this Jeroboam. 

Two things are to be observed concerning the con- 
dition of the people at tliis time. 

Fu'st, That they were a little before this in gi-eat ad- 
versity, and then afterwards they grew up to great pros- 
pcritv. That Hth c'napter of the Second of the Kings 
informs you that they were under sore aftiiction, ver. 
26, " There was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any 
helper for Isi'ael." It is a comparison taken from shep- 
herds, that shut up their flocks when they would keep 
them safe from danger ; but now here was such a 
general desolation and woeful affliction upon Israel, 
that there was none shut up, nor any helper left. But 
then comes this Jeroboam, and it is said, ver. 25, that 
" he restored the coast of Israel fi'om the entering of 
Hamath unto the sea of the plain." And, ver. 28, " He 
recovered Damascus and Hamath, which belonged to 
Judah, for Israel." This Hamath of which he speaks 
was of great use, it was the inlet of the Assp-ians ; aiid 
for Jeroboam to conquer that place, to recover Damas- 
cus, and to add that to the crow^l of Israel which be- 
longed to Judah, shows that after their bitter affiiction 



God granted a great mercy by Jeroboam's means, and 
that now Israel flom-ished greatly, and grew exceed- 
ingly prosperous. There is much of God's mind held 
out to us m this : as, in that the people of Israel had 
been under sore affliction, and delivered, yet God sent 
Hosea to them to show them their horrible wickedness, 
and to threaten de.struction. 

Obi: 1. Hence see the perverseness of the diildi-en 
of men, that after great deliverances granted them from 
bitter and sore afflictions, yet they will continue in their 
wicketbiess and rebellion. The Lord grant this may 
not be true concerning us. God has delivered us in 
great measm-e from those sore and bitter afflictions and 
heavy oppressions under which we lately groaned, and 
has restored to us many gi-acious liberties ; now have 
we not need of an Hosea to be sent unto us to rebuke 
us, and to threaten judgment for the evU of oiu' ways ? 
This is a sad thing. 

Obs. 2. God may let a sinner continue a long time 
in the way of his sin ; and when he has flomished many 
years, and thinks surely the bitterness of death is past, 
God may thi-eaten judgment. Jeroboam reigned one 
and forty years, and Hosea must have prophesied in the 
latter end of Jeroboam's time. Jeroboam might tliink, 
AVTiy does he come to contest with me, and to tell me of 
my sin and wickedness, and to threaten judgment? 
have not I continued these forty years king, and have 
prospered ? and sm-ely God hath been with me. Well, 
a sinner may hold out long, and yet afterward judgment 
may come. 

Obs. 3. A people in a flourishing condition, when 
they prosper most, and overcome then- enemies, and 
have all according to their hearts' desire, even that may 
be the time for God to appear in his WTath against 
them. So it was here ; therefore we must not judge 
our enemies to be happy, nor fear them, because of 
their present flom-ishing state, nor be secure ourselves 
because of the mercies we- enjoy. God does not always 
act thus, but sometimes he is pleased, as here, to stay 
tiU sinners are at tire height of their prosperity, and 
then to come upon them. Sometimes God is more 
sudden. Zachariah the son of this Jeroboam thought 
he might venture as well as his father : Jly father pros- 
pered in such ways forty-one years, and why may not I ? 
No, God came upon him in six months, 2 Kings xv. 8. 

Secondly, "\ATien Hosea came to prophesy against Is- 
rael, he saw them in their prosperity, and yet continued 
to threaten judgment against them. It was a fui-ther 
argument of the Spiiit of God that taught him, and of 
the special insight which he had into the mind of God, 
that he should thus prophesy destruction to them, w hen 
they were in the height of their prosperity. It is true, 
if Hosea had prophesied in Zachariah's days, when the 
kingdom was declining, or ui Shallum's time, and 
others after him, then he might have seen by the work- 
ing of second causes that the kingdom was going 
dowTi. But he comes in Jeroboam's time, when there 
was no appearance fi-om second causes of their destruc- 
tion, and then prophesied destruction unto them. 

Obs. 1. It is a sign of the special insight the soul has 
in the ways of God, that can see misery under the 
greatest prosperity. The prophet did not think Israel 
in a better condition because of then- outward pros- 
peiity ; a sign his prophecy was from God. Yet fur- 
ther, this being in tire reign of Jeroboam, when they 
were in gi-eat prosperity, then- hearts were exceedingly 
hardened against the prophet ; and it cannot be imagin- 
ed but that they entertained his prophecy with sconi 
and contempt ; for it is a usual thing, w-hen men are 
in the height of their pride, like the wild ass's colt, to 
scorn andcontemn all that comes against them. 

Obs. 2. It is easy for a minister of God to deal plainly 
with people in the time of adversity, but when men are 
in their pride and jollity, to deal faitlifuUy with them 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



CliAP. I. 



then is very difficult. That their great prosperity raised 
up and hardened their hearts with pride against the pro- 
phet appears plainly, if you will road .Vmos vii. 10 ; (for 
wo must find God's mind by comparing one place with 
another ;) there you sec the fruit of Jeroboam's pros- 
perity, for Amos and Hosea were contem])orary. AVhen 
Amos was propliesyiiig, '• Amaziah the priest of Beth-el 
sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saving, Amos hath 
conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Is- 
rael : the land is not able to bear his words." This was 
said of Amos, and it is likely that Hosea did not meet 
with better treatment. Amaziah the priest of Beth-el 
did this. If there be any enemies against faithful 
ministers, they are the priests of Beth-el, idolatrous and 
superstitious ministers. And what course do they 
take ? They send to the king, to the governors ; O they 
liave consi)ired against the king, they are seditious per- 
.sons, factious men, who stir up the kingdom, and break 
the peace of the church, the land cannot bear thcii- 
worcb. Such a message as this you see .iVmaziah sent 
to the king concerning Amos ; he turns off all from 
himself to the king, and all the punishment that must 
be inflicted upon Amos must be in the name of the 
king. And mark the 12th verse of that chapter, " Also 
Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee away 
into the land of Judea, and prophesy there." We are 
not holy enough for you, forsooth we are idolaters, we 
do not worship God aright, we are no true church ; get 
you to Judah among your brethren, and prophesy not any 
more here at Beth-el. AVhy? Because ''it is tiie king's 
chapel, and it is the Icing's coiu't." It seems llien in 
those times that the king's chapel and the king's coiu-t 
could not bear with a faithful prophet. And what was 
the ground of it, but because at this time Jeroboam 
pro.spered in his way, and the Idngdom was in a more 
flourishing condition than it ever Avas before. Here 
then was the trial of the faithfulness of Hosea's spirit 
yet to go on in the work of lus prophecy. 

Yet further; in that Ilosea ])io])hesied in the time of 
Jeroboam, it will appear that he was the first prophet 
that ever brought tliese hard tidings to them of the 
utter destniction of Israel. " The Lord said not that 
he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven : 
but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of 
Joash," 2 Kings xiv. 27. Mark, there is given the 
reason why the Lord saved them by the hand of Jero- 
1)oam, because he had not yet said he would blot out 
the name of Israel from under heaven ; that is, the Lord 
never before sent any of his prophets thus plainly and 
fiilly to declare his intention to them, to blot out the 
name of Israel, upon their going on in their sins. So 
that it is clear that Hosea was tlie first that was sent 
about this message. And certainlv it was so much the 
harder, he being the first of all. I'or they might have 
said, AVliy do you come with these new things, and in 
so gi-eat scveritj- ? who ever did so before you ? AVe 
know if a minister come with any thing that seems to 
be new, if he presents any truth to you that has but a 
show of novelty, though it be never so good and com- 
fortable, he finds little encouragement. Nay, if he but 
comes in a new way, as this verj' exercise, because it is 
likely to be pursued in a way that lias been disused, it 
will meet with many discouragements. "What then will 
the threatenings of hard things, of iudgmcnts and de- 
struction, do when they come with novelty ? Surely 
Hosea had a hard task of this, and yet he went on faith- 
fully with it. Thus much for the time wherein Hosea 
])rophesied. 

Ver. 2. The beginning of the uord of Ihe Lord hi/ 
Ilnsea. And Ihe Lord said to Hosea,' Go, lake unio 
thee a wife of irhoredoms and childreti of vhoredom.1 : 
for Ihe land halh commilled great trhoredom, departing 
from the Lord. 



Some from these words gather, that Hosea was the 
fii-st of the prophets whose vmtings have come down to 
us. Though it is true we cannot gather it diiectly from 
hence, yet it is apparent that notwithstanding Isaiah is 
set first, yet Hosea was before him ; for if you look into 
Isa. i., you find that his beginning was in the days of 
Uzziali. Now Hosea was in the days of Jeroboam, 
and Jeroboam was before Uzziah. And this may be 
one reason why, though I intend the whole prophetical 
books, yet I rather begin with Hosea, because indeed 
he was the fh'st prophet : it is clear you see from tlie 
Scri])turc, though we cannot gather it fromjhese words 
in this 2nd vei-se. 

But yet thus much we may gather from these words, 
" The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea," 
that this was the beginning of his prophecy. And what 
was this beginning 'P what did God set him about first ? 
Mark the next words, " And the Lord said to Hosea, 
Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children 
of whoredoms ; " and so declare to the people of Israel 
that they had "committed great whoredom, dejiarting 
from the Lord : " the most grievous charge and most 
severe and temble expression of God's wrath against 
that people that you meet with in all the book of God. 
This is Hosea's work, and he was veiy young when first 
he went about it. Now, as I told you before, God some- 
times calls young ones to gi-eat sen-ices ; but to call a 
young man to go to thLs peojjle with such a message, in 
the midst of all their pride and flourish to contest with 
them thus, and to tell them that they arc chikfren oi 
whoredoms, and no longer the people of God, for a 
young man to do this ! A\'hy, men grown old and sodden 
m their sins might reason. If this indeed came from the 
mouth of some old prophet, reverend for his years and 
experience, it had been somewhat ; but to come from a 
green-head, for an upstart to upbraid us with such vile 
things ! But let us know, my brethren, if God send any 
message unto us, though by young persons, he expects 
our entertainment of it. A\'hen God would destroy 
Eli's house, he sends the message by young Samuel ; 
but Eli did not reason thus, '\\ nat, this young boy to 
come and speak thus malapertly to me ! No, he stoops 
to it, and saith, " Good is the word of the Lord." 

Again, Hosea must tell them that they are children 
of whoredoms, and not the people of God. AMiat, for 
a minister when he comes first among a people to begin 
so harshly and severely! is it not better to comply with 
the people, to come with gentle and fair means, to seek 
to win them with love ? if you begin with harsh ti'uths, 
surely you will make them fly off immediately. Thus 
many reason. Now I beseech you take heed to your 
own hearts in reasoning thus. >Iany have done so, and 
have sought to comply with the ])eople so long, till they 
have complied away all their faitlifidness, and conscience, 
and vigoiu". AAlicn they eoinc to gi'eat men, rich men, 
men in place and eminence, they will comply with such; 
but let them have any of God's people in their parish 
wlio are of a mean rank and poor, they comi)ly little 
enough with them, but are harsh and bitter to them, and 
regard not the tenderness of their consciences at all. 

It is true, if ministers have the testimony of their 
own consciences tliat they would take no other way but 
what shall be for the greatest profit of their people, 
maintainiiip such a disposition as to be willing to under- 
go any sufferings to which God shall call them, they 
may say first when they come to a house. Peace be to 
this house, especially when they come to a place that 
has not had the means before. "But if it be to a people 
who act directly against the light of their consciences, 
a su])crstitious jieople, that cannot but be convinced, 
and have had many evidences, that their conduct Ls 
against the mind of God, and yet for their own base 
ends will go on and not amend ; in such a case we may 
come with harshness at the very first So Paul gives a 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



charge to Titus in dealing with the Cretians, who were 
evil beasts and slow beUies, that he should " rebuke them 
sharply " (so we ti'anslate it) ; the word is, ilfforo/jwj, 
cuttingly, Tit. i. 13. 

" The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea." 
The particle which is translated by signiiies in as well 
as bij ; it is not El, but Beth, and so it is read by some, 
The word of the Lord came in Hosea. This expression 
notes the inward and intimate converse that the Lord 
had with the spiiit of Hosea in the work of his minis- 
try. The Lord spake first in Hosea, and then Hosea 
speaks out unto the people. Some such expression we 
have conceVning Paid, Gal. i. 16, That Clu-ist may be 
revealed in me ; not only to me, but m me. The more 
inwardly God speaks and converses with the hearts of 
his ministers, the more inwardly and efficaciously they 
are able to speak to the people. This is deep preaching, 
when it is ii'om the heart to the heart. 
?md"mKS;"' And so Augustme says of Hosea, be- 
!Sratuf."AuB"st°" cause that which he spake was so deep, it 
c°v"°°S' '' '*■ '"" wTOught more sti'ongly. Hosea's pro- 
phecy must needs be deep, for God spake 
in him before he spake out to the people. A^'e say that 
which comes from the heart will go to the heart ; sm'ely 
that which comes fi'om the voice of God in the heart, 
will go beyond the ears to the hearts of people. And 
blessed are the people that have such muiisters who 
will speak nothing to them, but what has fii'si. been 
spoken by God in them. 

Agaui in this 2nd verse he twice uses the same ex- 
pression : " The beghining of the word of the Lord by 
Hosea ;" and again, " The Lord said to Hosea ;" and yet 
in the beginmng of the 1st verse, '• The word of the 
Lord came to Hosea.'' "Why all this three times ? With 
good reason ; for Hosea was to come with a terrible 
message to the people, and to reprehend them with 
much sharijness, to tell tliem that they were the chil- 
di'en of whoredoms, and that they had departed fr'om 
the Lord, and he would have no more mercy upon 
them, but would utterly take them away. He had 
need therefore have an express command for what he 
did, and to have much evidence of the Spirit, that what 
he said Avas from God, and not any thing of his own 
spu'it. A\Tien a minister of God shall come and repre- 
hend a people severely for then- sins, and tlu'eaten 
God's judgment, let liim then, if ever, look to it that he 
has a good wai'rant for what he saith, that what he shall 
deHver may be nothing but the word of God in him, 
the sheer word of God, without any mixture of his o-mi. 
It is an ordinary thing for ministers m reprehending 
sin, and denouncing tlu'eatenings, to mmgle much of 
theu' own spu-it and \^Tath. But if at any time minis- 
ters should take heed of mixing then' own wrath, then 
especially when they denounce God's wi'ath, then they 
shoidd bring nothhig but the word of the Lord ; for it 
being a hard message, the spu-its of men will rise up 
against it. If they once see the spu'it of the minister in 
it, they will be ready to say as the devil in the possessed 
man, " Jesus I know, and Paul I know ; but who are 
ye ? " So they. The word of the Lord I know, but what 
are you ? here is yoiu' O'mi passion, your own humom'. 
O let not any tliink to oppose sin with sin ; " the wi'ath 
of man worketh not the righteousness of God," James 
i. 20. You that are ministers, would you have a sen- 
tence ? I wUl give you one : TVIien you are called to 
reveal God's WTath, conceal yoiu- own. 

The scope of the prophecy is the very same as the 
scope of tins chapter, to declare, fii'st. The evil condi- 
tion m which the ten tribes were, both in regard of then- 
sins, and the punishment that was to be executed for 
their sins. Secondly, Gracious promises of mercy to a 
remnant ; to Judah, in the Tth verse ; and to judah 
and Israel both', from the 10th verse to the end of the 
chapter. 



First, God begins with conviction, to show them 
their sin, and the dreadfulness of it. Conviction should 
go before correction. Y''ou must not presently fly in 
the faces of those who are under you when they cross 
you ; fu-st Instruct them, and then correct them. God 
would fii'st convince them of the greatness of their 
sins, not by verbal, but by real expressions.- Things 
that assail the ear slowly stu' and work ^^^^^ .^,^^1^^ 
upon the heart, but things that are pre- unSnos demiss. 
stnted before the eye ai-e more operative ; !j"a.\"uni'<.cuS"' 
and therefore Hosea must not teU them J^oSplSf' 
only that they had committed whoredom, gorat ?e A?t° Poet, 
but must tell" them in this way; he must 
go and take a wife of whoredoms, and beget children 
of whoredoms. 

In the enti-ance of the prophecy you see we meet 
with a great difficidty. Fu-st, a command from God, 
from the holy God, to a prophet, a holy prophet, to go 
and take " a wife of whoredoms ;" not an ordinary harlot, 
but a most prostitute woman, " a wife of whoredoms :" 
as, in the Scripture phi'ase, a man of bloods, is a man 
who has shed much blood ; and a man of sorrows, is a 
man who has been exercised with many son'ows ; so 
" a wife of whoredoms," is one who has committed vUe, 
notorious lewdness. Y^et such a wife must the prophet 
take to himself, and his cliilcken must be children of 
whoredoms too. How can tliis be ? 

St. Austin, who had been a Manichee, havmg to deal 
much with Manichees, met with this objection against 
the Old Testament from one Faustus, a JSIaniehee : 
That Old Testament of yom'S, r^Ioses and the prophets, 
said Faustxis, is that of God ? do you not find there 
a command to take a wife of whoredoms, and can this 
be from God ? 

Austin answers it thus : Though she Quid , 



might be reclaimed; and so she might 'tSfoSuSe 
be called a wife of whoredoms, from that in cKstum conjuei- 
whoredom of which .she was heretofore &J! 'l^colt^' 
guilt)-. And so he thinks that it was a ^■^""- '- -=- '■ *- 
reality that Hosea did take to himself a wife of 
whoredoms. 

Theodoret is somewhat angry with Eorum nudnciam 
those who think it was not really done, "'f"i^*'f,eS'°' 
but only in a way of vision. I find many Jiccre jerba hsc 

,, Y , r ...1, -J esse rebus destituta. 

ot om- later men are of the same mmd : Theod. in hos. 
so Ai-ias Montanus, Piscator, Parens, ™"- "■ '- 
Tarnovius, and others think, and they explam it thus ; 
that it is a command of God, and therefore though it 
had not been lawful for Hosea to have done it, yet, God 
commanding it, he might do it. As they instance in 
other cases that seem to be somewhat of the like na- 
ture, as the chilcb-en of Israel's borrowing of the Egyp- 
tians, Abraham's kiUuig his son, and the like. 

K this shoidd be so, (and as many interpreters so 
explain it, it appears a thing not impossible,) we might 
learn thus much from it. 

Obs. 1. That God's command takes away all matter 
of ofl'ence. It would be a notorious, offensive thing for 
a prophet, a minister of God, to marry a wicked harlot ; 
vet so far as the offence is, God's command is enough 
to take it away. For the subject of offence is not duty, 
but indifference : any thing that is a duty to be done, 
we must perform it, "thougli it be never so offensive to 
others ; but if it be a tiling of indifference, then we may 
stop. God's command takes away all plea of offence. 
I speak not thus of man's command, for men, even 
raagish-ates themselves, are bound not to offend their 
brethi-en, as well as others. 

But then it may be said they should command nothing 
at aU, for some- or other would be offended. And shall 
not they command because some weak ones may be 
ofl'ended ? It is true, that which they believe in their 
consciences to be their duty, they are bound to com- 



,VN EXPOSITION OF 



CiiAr. I. 



mand, and they would sin against God if they did not 
command it, and require obedience to it ; they must do 
it, though never so many be offended. But in matters 
which they themselves acknowledge to be neither for 
God's ser\ice or for the good of a commonwealth, the 
rule binds them as well as others in regard of oflcnces 
to forbear. 

Obs. 2. That the prophet must suffer much in his 
credit before men, only to be ser\iceable to God for a 
further expression of his mind. Our credit, our names, 
and all we are or have, must lie down at God's feet to 
be seniceablc to him in the least thing, if but in a way 
of expression of his mind, much more in bearing witness 
to his truth. 

Obs: 3. AVe see the wisdom of God in putting the 
prophet in the verj- first service upon a very difficult 
work. It could not but be a tiling exceedingly ii'ksonie 
to his spirit to marry such a one, yet God commands 
him to do it. It is the usual way of God, when he calls 
any to great services, at the beginning to put them to 
such difficult works as shall try them, that if they go 
through them, then they may be confided in, that they 
will go through more afterward. 

But we shall rather undoi-stand this in a way of 
\ision, as others do ; not that Hosea did really marrv' 
such a wife, but it appeared to him in a vision, as if 
such a tiling were really done, only to declare what the 
condition of the people of Israel was at this time in re- 
spect of God : as if God should say, Ilosca, this people 
of Israel is to me no other than as if thou shoiddst have 
a wife that were the most notorious harlot in the world, 
and all their ehihb-cn arc to me as if thy chikken were 
the children of whoredom and fornication. And this I 
conceive to be more directly the mind of God. I will 
not give you my mere conception of it, but reasons why 
it must be so. 

First, Because we find in Scripture that which is his- 
torically related was sometimes done in a way of vision. 
It is a usual way of Scripture to express that which is 
done in vision as if it were a history, as if it were really 
done. I will show you two examples for this : one of 
Jeremiah, when he was at Jerusalem, yet the Scripture 
speaks as if he had been at Babylon ; and the other of 
Ezekiel, when he was at Babylon, it speaks as if he had 
been at Jenisalem. It is as fully related as this is here, 
and both must therefore needs be understood a.s in a 
way of vision. First, for Jeremiali, vou have it chap, 
xiii. 4. God requires there that he should " go to Eu- 
phrates, and hide his girdle there in a hole of the 
rock :" but this river was a river in Babylon, and Jere- 
miah was not in Babylon at that time, nor in all the 
time of the siege, nor in the time of the captivity ; nei- 
ther could he go to Babylon, for the city was now be- 
sieged, and when he did l)ut essay to go a little way to 
Anathoth, his own town, he was seized as if he had been 
a ti'aitor to his country. Therefore that which is de- 
clared as a history was only done in a vision. So 
Ezekiel was nt Babylon (for he was the prophet that 
pro])hesied to the pco])lc who were earned eajitivc to 
Babylon ; God sent a projiliet to them to help them 
there in their cajitivity) ; yet, chaji. viii. of his prophecy, 
l'2zekiel seems to be l>roiight to Jeremiah, and he is 
bidden there to dig a hole in the wall to see the wicked 
abominations that the aneicnts of Israel did there. 
Now Rzekiel was not there, he was at Babylon ; but it 
is declared as if the thing had been done really. So 
we arc to understand Isaiali's going naked twenty days, 
and Ezekiel's lying three hundred and ninety days on 
the one side, and forty-three on the other, Ezek. !v. 

Secondly, That it was a vision, and not really done. 
We observe, it was God's command, Lev. xxi. 7, that 
the priest must not marrv' with a whore. Of all men's 
wives, God is most careful of the wives of those who are 
In the work of the ministry, and who are church officers ; 



therefore when, in 1 Tim. iii. 11, but a deacon is de- 
scribed, his wife is described also, that she should be 
" grave, no slanderer, sober, and faithful in all things." 
You never read that when God appoints what a magis- 
trate's office should be In a commonwealth, that he 
takes such care to set down what his wife should be ; 
but when he appoints the lowest officer in a church, a 
deacon, he appoints what his wife should be too. 
Therefore the wives of ministers should go away with 
a lesson from hence, and know that God has a more 
special eye to them than to the wives of all the men in 
the world besides. God is tender of the credit of the 
officers of his church, and so should man be, for their 
discredit is a hinderance to their work. 

Yea further, we read, Amos vii. 16, that it was threat- 
ened as a curse to Amaziah the i)riest of Beth-el, that 
his wife should be a harlot, for resisting the prophet : 
shall then the wife of Hosea be a whore ? for Amos 
and Hosea prophesied both at the same time. And the 
Scripture saith, 1 Cor. xi. 7, that " the woman is the 
glory of the man." VThat a glory would Hosea have 
had in such a match as this ! ITie woman is the glory 
of the man; how? In two respects she is so. 1. Be- 
cause it is a glory to a man that he has such an image, 
for she is from the man ; and as the man, being the 
image of God, shows the glory of God, because he is 
the image of God and from him ; so the woman, being 
from the man, and as it were his image, she is the glory 
of the man. 2. Because man has such an excellent 
creature brought under subjection to him. Man is not 
only made glorious by God, in that God has put all 
other creatures under him ; but especially in this, that 
God has put such an excellent creature under him as 
the woman, for the woman is the glory of the man. 
This could not be here in such a match as this. 

Thirdly. It could not be that it was a real thing, but 
a vision, from the projihecy itself. If real, Hosea must 
have stayed almost a whf>le year before he could have 
gone on in his prophecy. For, fii-st, he must take to 
him a wife of whoredoms, and beget a child of whore- 
doms ; then he must have stayed till the child had been 
born, before he could have come to the people and said, 
My child is born, and his name is Jezreel, and it is 
upon this ground that I have named him thus ; and then 
he must have stayed almost a year more before he could 
have had Lo-ruhamah ; and then after that he must stay 
almost another year longer before Lo-ammi could be 
born. 

Foiu-thly, The expression used here is, that God 
spake in Hosea; speaking and appearing to him by an 
inward vision, as it were in an ecstasy, saith I'olanus ; 
therefore we must understand that this wife of whore- 
doms whom Hosea was to many was in a way of vision. 
It was to signify that Israel was to God as a wife of 
whoredoms, and as chilfken of whoredoms should have 
been to the prophet if he had been married to her. 

From all these reasons there is this residt, that the 
people of Israel were gone a whoring from God. Idol- 
atry is a.s the sin of whoredom ; and I cannot open this 
scripture, except I show you wherein idolatry is like 
the sin of whoredom. The idolatry of the church, not 
the idolatry of heathens, is whoredom. One that com- 
mits adultciT gives herself to another. The heathens, 
because they were never married to God, their idolatry 
is not adultery; but the people of God, being married- 
to the Lord, their idolatry is adulteiT. 

1. Adultery breaks the man-iago bond. There is 
nothing breaks the marriage bond lietween God and 
his people but the sin of idolatrj-. Though n wife may 
be guilty of many failings, and be a grievous trouble 
and burden to her husband, yet these do not break the 
marriage knot except she defile the mamage lied. So 
though a ]>eo]>lc may be guilty of notorious and vile 
sins, yet if they keep the worship of God pure, they are 



Vee. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



not guilty of whoredom, but still God is married to 
them. 

2. "SATioredom is a loathsome thing. Though delight- 
some to men, yet loathsome to God. Idolatiy is the 
same ; therefore the Scripture describes the idols that 
men set up by a cSlVj a word which signifies the very 
excrement that comes from creatures, Ezek. xxii. 3. 
Idolaters think their way of idol worship to be very 
delightsome, but that which they call delectable God 
calls detestable, if you compare these two scriptures : 
Isa. xliv. 9, they call their idols " delectable things ; " 
but in Ezek. v. 11, God calls them " detestable things." 
Idolatry is a detestable, loathsome thing. 

3. There is nothing causes so irreconcilable a breach 
between a man and his wife as defiling the marriage 
bed by adultery : Jealousy is the rage of a man, and he 
wUl take no ransom. There is nothing wherein God 
is so iiTeconcUable to a people as in the point of false 
worship. 

i. Adultery is a besotting sin. " 'Wlioredom and 
new wine take away the heart,'' saith the prophet, chap, 
iv. 11 ; and in Isa. xliv. 19, saith God, He hath no un- 
derstanding to say, " I have burned part of it in the 
fii'e ; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals there- 
of; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it : and shall I make 
the residue thereof an abomination ? shall I fall down 
to the stock of a tree ? " He hath no understanding to 
consider this. Idolatry is a besotting sin, as well as 
adultery. And therefore we need not marvel, though 
men of great parts and abilities continue in their su- 
perstitious way of worship, for notliing besots men's 
hearts so much as that. 

5. AMioredom is a most dangerous sin. " The mouth 
of strange women is as a deep pit : ho that is abhorred 
of the Lord shall fall therein," Pro v. xxii. 1-1. Oh most 
dreadful place to an adulterer ! If there be any adid- 
terer in tins place tliis day, when thou goest home turn 
to that scripture, and let it be as a dart to thy heart, 
" The mouth of strange women is as a deep pit : he 
that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein :" a sign 
of a man abhon-ed of God. And so is idolatry ; for in 
2 Thess. ii. 11, 12, God gave them over to believe a lie, 
that they might be damned. Those that follow the 
idolatries of anticlu-ist are given over by God to believe 
a lie. ThatKe of popery altogether is one lie. Hence 
it is that the popish party invent so many such strange 
lies, all to uphold that great lie. ^\^ly is this ? That 
they might be damned. Idolatry is a dreadful, danger- 
ous sin. Though idolaters think they please God in and 
by such ways of worship, yet they are given over by 
God that they may be damned. If this prove to be a 
place that concerns those who follow antichrist, and if 
Rome proves to be as that scriptm-e describes her, it is 
a di'eadful text to all papists. 

6. Harlots are accustomed to deck themselves in 
pompous atth-e and gaudy raiment. So idolaters 
deck up their idols in bravery, and lavish gold (as the 
Scriptiu'e speaks) upon their idols ; whereas "the King's 
daughter is all glorious within," and the simplicity of 
the gospel will not permit such things. 

7. Though women go a whoring from then' husbands, 
yet stdl they retain (before the divorce) the name of 
wives, and then' chUcben (though bastards) retain the 
]iame of chiUben, and bear the father's name. So 
idolaters retain the name of the church, and those that 
they beget must still be called the -only sons of the 
church. 

But how are his children said to be childi-en of 
whoredoms ? for suppose his wife were a wife of whore- 
doms, yet, being man-ied to her, wherefore should the 
ehildi'en be called chUtben of whoredoms ? 

To that is answered, 1. Some think upon this ground, 
because the children when they gi-ow up would follow 
the way of the mother, as is usual for children to do. 



Therefore you need take heed how you enter into the 
estate of marriage for your chUdi-cn's sake, for they 
wUl foUow the way of tlie mother. Or rather, 2. Be- 
cause, though they were begotten after marriage, yet 
they will Ke under suspicion as those that are illegiti- 
mate. The children of one that has been a harlot 
are always suspected, and so in repute they are the 
chikben of fornication : so says God, These people are 
to me as if their cluldren were accounted chilcben of 
fornication. 

" For the land hath committed gi-eat whoredom." 
Or, as Arius Montanus reads it. In going 
a whoring it will go a whoring. They to?L""2 aSS'"" 
not only have, but will ; they are set upon "^^'o'fJroif "iJJJj,', 
it, they are stout-hearted in the way of 
idolatr-y. It is the land that has done it, the people 
of the land. 

But why the land ? It is a secret check to them, and 
an upbraiding them for theb unthankfulness, that when 
God gave them so good a land, the land of Canaan, that 
flowed with milk and honey, the land of promise, and 
gave it to them to nourish u]) the true worship of God, 
yet they made this land of God, this land of promise, 
to be a land to nomish up most vile idolaters. 

"Departing fi'om the Lord," from Jehovah. The 
more worthy the husband is, the more vile and odious 
the adultery of the wife. What ! to go a whoring from 
God, the blessed God, in whom is all beauty and ex- 
cellency, and turn to blind idols ? AVhat ! change the 
glory of the invisible God into the similitude of an ox 
that eateth gi'ass ? AVith what indignation doth God 
speak it ! O you that go a whoring after your sinftil 
lusts, this will lie most tbeadfully ujion your consciences 
one day, that it was from the Lord that you departed, 
from that infuiite, glorious, eternal Deity, the fountaiii 
of all good, to cleave to base, sinful, and unclean lusts. 

Who is this whore ? and what are the chikben that 
are begotten to Hosea by her ? 

Ver. 3. So he icent and took Gonier the daug/iter of 
Diblaim ; tihich conceived, and bare him a son. 

We must obey God in things that seem to be never 
so much against om- reason and sense. 

" He took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim." The 
word Gomer, noj comes from a word which signifies both 
perfection and defection ; and so it may be applied botli 
ways. Some apply it to perfection ; that is, a harlot 
that was perfect and complete, both in her beauty and 
in her fornication. The word hkewise signifies rotten- 
ness, corruption, and consumption : so indeed are all 
things in the world ; as soon as they grow to any per- 
fection, they begin to decline quickly to con'uption. 
AU but spbitual things do so ; they Mideed gi'ow still 
higher and higher. 

This Gomer we wiU take rather in t.. '■ second ac- 
ceptation of it, as it signifies rottenness and consump- 
tion. AMio was this Gomer ? She was D'Vat-na " the 
daughter of Diblaim." The signification is, according 
to some, " one that dwells in the desert," in reference 
to that famous desert Diblath, of which we read Ezek. 
vi. 1-1, noting the way of idolaters, that they were wont 
to go into woods and deserts, and there to sacrifice to 
their idols. But rather, according to most, Diblaim 
signifies bunches of dried figs, which were the delicacies 
of those times ; so CEcolampadius, from which he ob- 
serves, that rottenness and corruption proceed from 
voluptuous pleasm-es and delicacies. Though the plea- 
sures of the flesh are very contentful to you, yet 
desti'uction is the fruit of them ; destruction is the 
daughter of sensual pleasm-es and delights : so saith the 
Scriptm-e : '• If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die," Rom. 
viii. 13. ""VATiose end is destruction, whose God is theb 
bellv, whose glory is in theb shame," Phil. iii. 19. 



AX EXI'OSITIOX OF 



Chap. I. 



But to apply it to Israel Israel vas as " Gomer the 
daughter of IJiblaim ; " that is, the people of Israel were 
now near to destruction, and were the daughtei-s of 
sensual delights, they gave themselves over to sensual 
pleasures. 

It is the usual way of those idolatei's who forsake the 
true w orslii]) of God, to give themselves up to the plea- 



sures of tlie ilcsh. Sensuality and idolaUy usually go 
oeelher. ^^^len tlie peojjle of Israel sacrificed to the 
alves, what did they ? They ate and (bank, and rose 



up to ])lay ; that was all then- work, and good enough 
for llie worshipping of such a god, a calf. You know 
the more we began to decline in the worship of God, 
we began to be more sensual ; there must be proclama- 
tion to peojjle to take their sports and delights upon 
the Lords day ; and indeed it usually accompanies de- 
fection in tlie way of God's worshi]). False worship 
lays not such bonds upon men's consciences for the 
mortifying the lusts of the llesh as the worship of 
God does. Therefore those men wlio love to give 
liberty to the flesh arc soonest enticed to ways of super- 
stitious worship. Jeremiah, in chap. xxiv. 9, sets forth 
the state of those naughtv Jews that were in captivity 
by the similitude of a baslict of rotten figs ; which is 
agreea))le to this, and the more confinns this intcrra-et- 
ation, that Israel was as Gomer the daughter of Dib- 
laini, that is, rottenness, the daughter of sensualit)'. 

Thus for the mother. But now the son that is be- 
gotten of this mother is Jezrecl. 

V'er. 4. And the Lord said unio him. Call his name 
Jezreel ; for i/el a Utile u-hi/e, and I will avenge the 
blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause 
to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. 

" Call his name Jezreel." The prophet must give a 
name to his son. It belongs to parents to give names 
to their children. Goilfathers and godmothers (as they 
call them) are of no use for this, or for any thing else 
that I know ; and, in such holv things as sacraments 
are, we must take heed of bringing in any unuseful, any 
idle things. 

But here we are to inquire, Fii'st, The signification 
of this name ; Jezreel signifies the scattered of the 
Lord. Secondly, The reasons why tlie son of Hosca 
must be called by this name, Sxynf Jezreel. Five 
reasons may be given. 

First, That hereby God might show that he intended 
to avenge tliat blooil which was shed m Jezi-eei. 

Secondly, To show that Israel had lost the honour of 
his name, and was no more Israel, but Jezreel. There 
seems to be much similarity between the name Israel 
and Jezreel, but there is a great deal of difl'erence in 
the signification : for Israel is one that prevails with 
God, " the strcigth of the Lord ;" Jezreel is one that is 
" scattered 1)' the Lord." Many outlive the honour of 
their name and reputation. These ten tribes are no 
more worthy to be called by the name of Israel, their 
famous progenitor; but now Jczi-eel, the scattered of 
the Loru. 

Thirdly, Jezreel, to show the way that God intended 
to bring judgment upon these ten ti-ibes. And what 
was it ? God would scatter them. 

God brings judgment speciallv upon n kingdom when 
he scatters the people. 'U e read, 1 Kings xxii. 17. that 
when Micaiah saw the destruction of .Uiab and his 
])co])le lie had this vision ; " I saw all Israel scattered 
upon the liills, as shcc]) that have not a shepherd." There 
is a twofiiUl scattering ; a scattering among ourselves liy 
(hvisions, and a scattering by the enemy one from 
anotlier to flee for our lives. I'hc one part of tliis judg- 
niKTit (tlic Lord lie merciful to us) is upon as alrcaJ\-, 
a).d 111 this sense we may lie called Jezreel. Oh iioiv is 
our kinjidoni divided ! how is it statlcred! The Lord 



keep us from the other scattering, that we be not scat- 
tered one from another bv being forced to flee for our 
lives before the enemy. It is just ^vith God, that if we 
scatter ourselves sinfidly by way of division, that God 
should scatter us in hLs wrath to our destruction by 
giving us up to our enemies. If wc love scattering, if 
we delight in di\-ision, we may soon have scattering 
enough, there may soon be divisions enough one from 
anotlier. 

Foiurtldy, Call liis name Jezreel, to note that the 
Lord would scatter them even in tliat ver)- place where- 
in tliey most gloried, as they did in the valley and city 
of Jezreel. But God woid({ scatter them even in that 
place in which they so much boasted. 

Fifthly, Jezreel, because the Lord would hereby 
show tliat he would tuin these conceits and apprehen- 
sions that they might have of themselves quite the con- 
trary way. As thus : Jezreel signifies indeed scattered 
of the Lord, but it signifies also tlie seed of the Lord, 
or sown of the Lord ; and so the Jews were ready to 
take the name Jezreel, and would be content to own it, 
because it signified the seed of God: and hence it 
comes to signify scattered too, because that seed is to 
be scattered when it is sown ; and hence it was that 
they might glorj' so much in that name. O, they were 
the seed of the Lord, in an abiding condition, as beuig 
sown by the hand of God himself. No, saith God, you 
are mistaken, I do not call you Jezreel upon any such 
terms, because you are sown of me ; but quite the otlier 
way, because you shall be scattered and eventually de- 
stroyed by me. It is usual with God to ixam those 
things which men take as arguments for tlieir comfort 
to their confusion. Haman made a false interpretation 
of the action of Esthers inviting him to tlie banquet 
alone with the king, the right interpretation of it had been 
that it was to his destruction. And so here ; whereas 
they might make such interpretation of Jezreel, as that 
they were the seed, the sown of the Lord, the true in- 
terpretation is that tliey are tlie scattered of tlie Lord. 

All these five reasons you have cither in the nearness 
of tlie name Israel with Jezreel, or otherwise in the 
words that follow after. 

" For yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood 
of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu." Here now we 
come to that whicli is the main part of this scripture ; 
and tliese four questions are of great use, and will tend 
much to edification. 

I. What is this " blood of Jezj-eel " that God will 
avenge ? 

II. Why God " will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon 
the house of Jehu?" 

III. AMiy is it called " the house of Jehu," and Jehu 
alone, without the addition of the name king, as it is 
usual in othci-s, as Hczckiah king of Judah, and such 
a one king of Israel ; but here only the house of Jehu ? 

IV. A^^lat is this " little while " bod speaks of? •• yet 
a httle while." 

The words arc read and passed over ordinarily, as if 
there was little in them ; but you will find that they 
contain much of the mind of God. 

I. AXTiat was the '-blood of Jezreel" that here God 
threatens to avenge ? You may read the historv' of it 
in 2 Kings ix. 10, 11. It was tlie blood of the house 
of Ahab, the blood of Jezebel, the Vdood of tlie seventy 
sons of .\hab, whose heads the elders of Jezreel sent to 
Jehu in baskets. This was the blood that was shed in 
tliis place, which God saith he will avenge. God will 
certainly avenge blood ; and if God will avenge the blood 
of Ahaf), he will surely avenge the bhiod of Abel ; if 
the blood of Jczelicl, tlien sumv the blood of Sarah ; if 
the blood of idolaters, tlien the blood of his saints. 
What vengeance then hangs over antichrist for all tlie 
blood of the saints that has been spilt by him ! The 
scarlet wliore has d\ed liersclf with this blood; vca, and 



Veu. 4. 



THE PKOPHECY OF HOSEA. 



11 



Vengeance will come for that blood of cm- brethj-en 
which hath been slied in Ii'eland, upon those who have 
been instrumental in it, gi-eat or small : certainly the 
righteous God will not sufter that wicked and horrid 
work to go unavenged, even here upon the earth. Let 
us wait a wliile, and we may live to see that time wherein 
it shall not only be said by the voice of faith, but by 
the voice of sense itself, " Verily there is a God that 
judgeth the earth." 

II. "Why will God " avenge the blood of Jezreel upon 
the house of Jehu ? " 

Indeed tliis at fii'st sight is one of the strangest things 
we have in all the book of God. Compare it with 
other scriptm-es, and nothing appears more singular 
than that it should be said that the Lord would avenge 
the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu. For in 
2 Kings is. 7 you find that Jehu was anointed by the 
Lord on purpose to shed that blood. He had a com- 
mand fi-om God, he was bidden to go and shed it, and 
the holy oil was poured upon liini for that end, that he 
might shed that blood ; yet now it must be avenged, 
and avenged upon the house of Jehu. Yea, chap. x. 
30, God said, because he had shed the blood of the 
house of Aliab in Jezreel, he woidd reward him for it, 
and that his children to the fourth generation should 
sit upon the throne of Israel and govern that kingdom. 
But that which Jehu was anointed and commanded to 
do, that for which God afterward rewarded him for do- 
ing, now God says he will avenge, and avenge it upon 
his house. 'What are the reasons of this ? There are 
three reasons why God would avenge this blood upon 
the house of Jehu. 

1. Because though Jehu did it, yet he looked at 
himself and his own ends rather than at God in it ; his 
aim was to get the Idngdom to himself, but he never 
aimed at God in the work, therefore God says he will 
avenge it upon his house. 

2. Because though he did that which God set him 
about, yet he did it but by halves. Indeed he destroyed 
Allah's house, but he should have destroyed Ahab's 
idolatry too ; but he omitted that, and therefore now 
God comes upon liim. 

3. Yea, though he was made Ahab's executioner for 
his idoIatiT, yet he proved Ahab's successor in his idol- 
atry. He was God's rod in punishing Ahab, but he 
continued in the sins that Ahab committed ; therefore 
now God saith he " wUl avenge the blood of Jezreel 
upon the house of Jehu." 

From hence we have most excellent observations that 
spring natiu-ally, as a fountain bubbles up li-esh and 
springing water. I wQl only show them to you, and so 
pass them over. 

Obs. 1. That a man may do that which God com- 
mands, and yet not obey God. He may do that which 
God would have done, and yet not please God. He 
may do what God requires, and yet serve himself 
therein, and not God. 

Ohs. 2. A canial heart is contented to go so far in 
God's commands as wUl serve his own turn, but there 
he stops. So far- as might serve the elevation of Jehu 
to the crown of Israel, to settmg him on the tlu-onc, so 
far he goes in the way of God's command, but no far- 
ther. Such a heart is like the hand of a rusty dial : 
suppose the hand of a rusty dial stand (as now) at ten 
o'clock; look upon it, and it seems to go right, but 
it is not from any inward right state of the clock it does 
so, but by accident ; for stay tdl after ten, and come 
again at eleven or twelve, and it stands still as before 
at ten. So let God command any thing that may hit 
with a man's own ends, and be suitable to him, and he 
seems to be very obedient to God ; but let God go on 
further, and reqiui-e sometliing that will not serve his 
turn, that ■n-ill not agi-ee with his own ends ; and here God 
may seek for a servant ; as for him, he will go no farther. 



Obs. 3. God knows how to make use of men's parts 
and abilities, and yet to punish them for their wicked- 
ness notwithstanding. Jehu was a man of a brave and 
valiant spu-it, full of activity and com'age, and God 
would make use of this for the destruction of the house 
of Ahab ; yet Jehu must not escape. INIany men have 
excellent parts of learidng and state policy, which God 
may use for pidling Aovra his proud adversaries ; yet 
God may pimish them afterward notwithstanding. 
Many that have but weak parts, and can do but little, 
shall be accepted of God : and others that have strong 
parts, and can do much, shall be punished by God. ^ye 
read, Eev. xii. 16, " the earth helped the woman ;" yet, 
chap. xri. 1, the vials of God's -ni-ath were poui-ed 
forth upon the earth : men may be useful for the pub- 
lic, and yet not freed fi'om the -oTath of God. 

Obs. -i. The Lord knows how to make use of the 
sins of wicked men to fui'ther liis own comisels ; yet no 
excuse to them, but liis curse will come upon them at 
last for those sins. God knows how to make use of 
the proud heart and ambitious spirit of Jehu to fulfil 
liis purpose against tlie house of Aliab ; and yet after- 
wai'd, when God has done with him, he comes agamst 
Jehu with a judgment. There are many whose strong 
lusts God overrides for liimself, and overpowers for 
the furtherance of liis ow^n ends. Many a scholar 
who, through the mere pride of his heart, will study 
hard and preach very often and well, God makes use of 
for the good of otliers, and yet the minister may be 
damned liimself. 

0/is. o. God may sometimes rewai'd a work in this 
world, yet may cvu'se a man for the work afterward. 
Many there ai'e who perform some outward service for 
God, and perhaps rejoice m it, and think that God must 
,needs accept them : they have been excellent men in 
the commonwealth, they have stood for mmisters, they 
have been forwai'd m a good cause. Well, thou hast 
done these : has not God rewarded thee ? Hast thou 
not health and strength of body. Look upon thy estate ; 
art not thou blessed there ? look upon thy table, thy 
wife and chQdi-en ; art not thou blessed there ? Thou 
hast thy penny for what thou hast done. But yet, after 
thou hast had' thy pay here in this world for what thou 
hast done, God may ciu'se thee hereafter even for the 
sinfulness of thy heart in that work which for the mat- 
ter of it was good. God may reward thee for the mat- 
ter, but curse thee for the manner of thy work. 

Obs. 6. It is a most dangerous tiling for men to sub- 
ject the works of God, especially the public works of 
God, to their avm base ends ; God ^•iU be sm'e to be 
even with them for that. The more excellent any work 
is, the more dangerous it is to subject it to a lust. It 
is an evU thing to make meat, and druik, and clothes 
scrriceable to om' lusts ; but to make public services to 
God stoop and bo serviceable to your base lusts must 
needs be grievous mdeed. It is accomited bui-den 
enough for the basest servant to be serdceable to some 
base lust of his master ; but if the master shoidd make 
his wife serviceable to his filthy uncleanness, oh what a 
vUlany were that ! So I say, the greater the thingis 
any man makes serviceable to liis lust, the more vile 
and the more dangerous is the sin. Hearken to this, 
you that are professors of religion. The di'unkard 
makes beer serviceable to liis lust, and he shall be 
danmed for tliat : but you make the worship of God, 
prayer, and hearing, and fasthig, serriccable to your 
lusts; oh what shall become of you ! A base wTetch, that 
sits tippling in an alehouse, you account vile, but it is a 
poor creature that he subjects to his base lust. A 
minister or a magistrate subjects things of a higher 
natm-e to then- lusts : oh this is exceeding vile. We 
had need, my brethi-en, all pray earnestly for those 
whom God employs in public works, that they may not 
onlv have strength to assist them, and success in them, 



12 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. I. 



but that they may have hearts to give God all the glorj- 
of them ; for though they may do never so worthily for 
God in the diurch or in the commonwealth, yet if they 
be not careful to give God all the glory, God will curse 
them at last notwithstanding. 

Obs. 7. When but half the work is done, God curses 
the whole for our neglect of the other half. Jehu does 
somewhat which God commanded him, but not all. I 
remember Calvin upon tliis place likens Jehu to king 
Henry the Eighth : Henrv', saith he, east off some de- 
gree of popery so far as would serve his own turn, but 
there were the five articles in force still, for which many 
suffered at that time ; and so he was like Jehu in that. 
God will be served with the whole heart ; for all our 
good is in God, and therefore all om- hearts must make 
out after God. God must have perfect obedience in 
the desire and endeavour, or else he will have none. 
Certainly that which must make any man acceptable, 
is not so much that there is somewhat done, but that 
that whidi God commands is done, or done in regard 
of the endeavour ; for that indeed will be acceptable : 
thougli we cannot do all at once, if we bring somewhat 
to God as a part, and acknowledging the whole debt, 
work for the remainder, it will l)e accepted. As 
suppose a man owes you one huncb'ed pounds, and 
brings vou but fifty in part of jiaj-ment, yet if he ac- 
knowleiige the rest, and promise tlie jiajTnent of it, 
if you know he will be foitliful in tlie payment of 
the other, you will accept it ; but if a man bring 
you fourscore pounds in lieu of all, you will not accejit 
it. So it is here ; hypocrites say they cannot be ])er- 
fcct in this world, and so think to put off God with 
a little. It is true, if thou hadst an upright heart, and 
didst bring God but part and labom- after the whole, 
lie would accept it ; but if thou bringest him ten times 
more than a smcere Iieart can bring liim, it will not be 
acceptable, no, not ninety-nine pounds will be accepted, 
if brought instead of the whole. God must have a 
man according to his own heart, such a one as David : 
you know what was said of iJavid, " I have found a 
man after my own heart, that shall fulfil all my wills ; " 
for the word is plural in the original, not all my will, 
but all my wills. 

Obs. 8. Jehu (Ud but half, and the worst half too, 
and therefore God comes upon him. For the great 
care of Jehu was only to reform things in the state and 
kingdom, and therefore that indeed lie did thorouglily; 
he transferred the government from the Iiouse of 
Ahab, and set up another government. But for the 
matter of the worship of God, he cared not what be- 
came of that. StiU the calves continued in Dan and 
Bethel. He took no care that the people of Israel should 
go up to Jerusalem, the place that God had appointed 
to worsliip him in a right way. This is that for which 
God thus cureed him and his house. It is a very evil 
thing in reformers, who have power in their liands, to 
be more careful of the state than of the church ; to be 
more solicitous about affairs in civil jjolicy than in re- 
ligion ; to be so afraid to meddle with religion, because 
of hinderances and disturbances in civil jiolicy, that 
they sacrifice religion for it : this is an evil thing and a 
bitter. Or if tliey reform the church, yet to reform 
only that which is notoriously evil and vile : so far Jehu 
went; he destroyed the priests of Baal, but not the 
priests of Dan and Bethel ; tlic idols of Ba.al were de- 
stroyed, but the idols of Dan and Betliel were retaine<l. 

.^^^ It is the speech of the philosopher in his 

f,li^ i7Tiu>\ti. politics, when he gives a rule of ])olicy, 
,vr,.,. „ . I. ,. c. . pi^p ^.^j.^ ^j. jjjyjijp thiiirrs must bc first ; 

and that is the best policy. Politicians must tnist God 
in tlie way of policy, and take care of divine things 
first. Yea, and go to a thorough reformation too ; for 
Jehu did something in religion, but left other things, 
therefore God cursed him. Men must take lieed of 



betraying the cause of God for the maintenance of 
state policy; let them be never so excellent in their 
way, yet if they do thus, God will blast them. 

Obs. 9. Men can see the evil of sin in others, rather 
than in themselves. Jehu saw the danger of that wicked 
and abominable sin of idolatry in others, but he coidd 
not see it in himself. " What peace," said he to Jorani, 
" so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel " con- 
tinue ? Wiat peace ? Then what peace, Jehu, so long 
as the whoredoms of Israel continue afterAvards ? This 
is common, my bretliren, for men to see e\"il and danger 
in the sins of others ; but when they come to themselves, 
to be blind there! to inveigh against the sins of other 
men, when they seem to be far off fiom them, or that 
they cannot make use of them ; but when they can 
make use of them, then to embrace them. Thus it 
was with Saul ; he was exceedingly severe against witch- 
craft, all the witches in Israel must be put to death ; 
but in liis hour of need Saul himself goes to the witch 
of Endor. 

Obs. 10. Those ways of sinful policy, by which many 
think to raise theii- houses or themselves, are the means 
to ruin them. Jehu thought, by retaining the calves in 
Dan and Bethel, to preserve the kingdom to his pos- 
terity, and this proved the ruin of his posterity. He 
that walks uprightly walks surely. 

06*. 11. Let tlicm who punish the sins of others 
take heed what they do, lest they be found guilty 
themselves ; for if they be found guilty, God >vill plague 
them, as if they did the greatest act of injustice. God 
punishes Jehu because he continues in the same sin that 
Ahab was punished for. This is of excellent use, espe- 
cially to magistrates ; and indeed it is a dreadful place 
to magistrates, if considere(L As for instance, suppose 
a magistrate should take away the life of a man lawfully 
for that for which God would have him take it awav ; 
yet if this magistrate shoidd be guilty of the same sin, 
or that which amounts to the same sin, God wiU avenge 
himself upon this magistrate as upon a murderer : as 
here, God avenges himself upon the house of Jehu as 
for murder, yet Jehu was a magistrate, and this was 
conmianded Jehu by God himself. So supnose a magis- 
trate fine a man for any evil, and that justly ; vet if he 
be guilty of the same himself, God will deal with this 
magistrate as if he robbed by the highway-side, and 
took away a man's money by violence. It is apparent 
out of tlie text. Certainly, my bretliren, great wrath 
and vengeance hangs over the head of wicked ma^is- 
ti-ates. All this you learn from what is here said, that 
God " will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon tlie liouse 
of Jehu." 

III. "Why is it called " the house of Jehu ? " 

The house of Jehu is his posterity, or family who 
were to succeed. Though it was to the fomth gener- 
ation till God came against them, vet the posterity of 
the ungodly, especially idolaters, shall suffer for their 
fathers' sin.' It is very observable, that God in no other 
commandment but the second tlu-eatens the sin of the 
fathers ujion tlie chiKben. The reason is this : 

That commandment forbids images, and superstitious 
worshippers, above all men, are strengthened by the ha- 
dition of their fathers. Our fatliers did thus and tlius, 
and what shall we be wiser then our forefathers ? We 
have now a company of upstart men, and they will be 
wiser than tlieir ancestors. Because superstitious wor- 
shijijiers liarden themselves so much from the example 
of their fathers, tlierefore in that very commandment 
against making and worshipping of images God threat- 
ens to visit the sin of the fatliers upon the cliildi'cn, 
and in no other. 

What, the huiise of Jehu, after Jehu was dead ! how 
can that be ? Yes, as a prince tliat has to punish two 
traitors, both of whom have deserved death, but the 
prince is inclined to show mercy. Against the one there 



Vee. 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



13 



comes this accusation, This man's father was a traitor, 
and his grandfather and his gi-eat gi-andfiither were 
traitors. Then let liim die, saith the prince. But of 
the other, that is guilty of as much as this man was, it is 
told the king, Sir, this man's father perfonned excel- 
lent service for the commonwealth, not one of his 
liouse but was a loyal person. This man is spared, 
though he deserveth death equally with the other for 
the same treason ; and the king is just in this. The 
first man may be said to die for his fathers' sin ; that is, 
he would not have been executed if his forefathers had 
not been in the fault. Take heed what you do in the 
com-se of your lives ; if you regard not yourselves, yet, 
for yom- chikben's sake, leave not a curse behind you 
u])on your offspring; look upon them, pity them. 
Though you youi'selves may escape in this world, yet 
you may leave the inheritance of your sins unto yom- 
chilcb-en. Pity yom- children, that they may not have 
cause to curse the time that they were born of such 
parents, and wish that they had rather been the off- 
spring of dragons, and a generation of vipers, than to 
be bora of such parents that have left them a ciu'se for 
an inheritance. It had been better if you had not left 
them a penny, than to leave them to inherit the cur.sc 
of your wickedness. 

" Upon the house of Jehu." Tlie house of Jehu fares 
the worse for Jehu. Those who desire to raise and 
continue the honour of their houses, let them take heed 
of ways of wickedness ; for wickedness will bring 
do\m any family whatsoever. But why is it " the house 
_ of Jehu," without any addition of Jehu the king, as in 
other cases it is usual? Hereby God woidd give a 
check to Jehu, and bid him look back to the meanness 
of his birth, for Jehu was not of the kingly race : yet 
how unthankful was he, who was raised from the dung- 
hill, thus unworthily to depart from the Lord ! You 
whom God has raised up on high to great honours and 
estates, look back to the meanness of your beginning, 
from which God has raised you, and laboiu- to give him 
an answerable return of oliedience. Those who will 
not give God the glory of their honours and estates, it 
is just that theii' honours and estates should be taken 
from them. 

IV. ■^^1at is this " little while" God speaks of? 

" Y'et a little while." This is to be understood either 
in reference to Jehu, or in reference to the house of Is- 
rael. " Y'et a little while, and I will avenge the blood of 
Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and wiU cause to cease 
the kingdom of the house of Israel." It was a long- 
while before God came upon the house of Jehu, still he 
saith, yet but a little while, I will stay but a little 
longer ere I avenge the blood of Jezi'eel upon the house 
of Jehu. It was now the third generation since Jehu 
committed those sins, nay, it will appear that it was 
above a huncb-ed years from the sins of Jehu to God's 
avenging the blood of Jezreel upon his house : for Jehu 
reigned twenty-eight years, his son Jehoahaz seven- 
teen years, and Jehoash his son sixteen years, and 
Jeroboam his son forty-one years, and then in the days 
of Zachariah, the son of this Jeroboam, God came to 
avenge this blood, which was above a huncbed years, 
2 Kings X. 36 ; xiii. 1, 23. Oh the patience of the 
Lord towards sinners ! But though he stayed long, he 
saith, " yet a little while." 

Obs. 1. That God sometimes comes upon sinners for 
their old sins. Sins a long time ago committed, and 
perhaps forgotten by you, yet remain, are filed and re- 
corded in heaven above a hundred years after the com- 
mission. It is likely that these sins of Jehu were for- 
gotten, yet God comes now at last to avenge the sins 
of Jehu upon his house. So he did for the sins of 
]\Ianasses, and for the sins of Joseph's bretlu'en. It 
was twenty-two years before they had their consciences 
troubled, and then say they, "We are verily guilty 



concerning our brother; therefore is tlus distress come 
upon us ;" and now (saith Keuben) " behold also his 
blood is reqidi-ed," Gen. xlii. 21, 22. 

Look to yourselves, you that are young, take heed 
of youthful sins. Y'outhful sins may prove to be the 
terrors of age. Perhaps you think it was a great while 
ago, when you were a young man, that you were in 
such a tavern or in such a joiu-ney, and committed such 
and such sins. Have you repented for them ? have you 
made your peace with God for them ? Though you 
were then young, and did not fear the wrath of God 
to come upon you ; yet now you are old the wrath of 
God may come upon you for sins committed in your 
ajjprenticeship. '• A sinner being a huncbed years old 
shall be accursed," Isa. Ixv. 20. 

Obs. 2. A long time after the floui'ishing of a nation 
God may reckon with it in ways of judgment. " Y'et 
a little while, and I will cause to cease the kingdom of 
the house of Israel." This nation had continued a 
pompous, successful nation, though idolati'ous, for about 
two hundi'cd and sixty years before that ^^Tath of God 
came upon it which was here tlu'catcned. This may 
make us look back to the sins committed in the days of 
Henry the Eighth, and of Queen Mary. Let us not 
plead from our forefathers for the maintenance of super- 
stitious worship, but let us look to the sins of our fore- 
fathers, and bewail them before the Lord, for God may 
come upon a nation for former sias after it hath flourish- 
ed a long time. Y'ou ask me, Was it really but a little 
while from the beginning of this prophecy till the 
ceasing of the kingdom of the house of Israel ? No, 
my bretlu-en, it was many years. And it is very ob- 
servable, that fi'ora the beginning of this prophecy, 
Avhich was in the end of the reign of Jeroboam, to the 
fulfilling of what was here threatened, viz. to the ceasing 
of the kingdom of the house of Israel, it was seventy- 
six years. For, from the end of this Jeroboam, spoken 
of ver. 1, unto the time of Hezekiah, was seventy years, 
and in the sixth year of Hezekiah Israel was destroyed 
by the king of Assjiia; and yet God saith here by 
Hosea, " yet a little while." 

Obs. 3. Seventy-six years are but a little while in 
God's account. Sinners think, either in ways of judg- 
ment or mercy, a little while to be a great while. If 
God defer mercy seven years, it is a gi'eat while in our 
account. We think our parliament has sat a long time : 
how long ? Almost two years. A gi'eat while ! We 
think every day a great while, but seventy-six years, 
yea, a hinidred, a thousand years, are but as one day 
unto God. So for judgment : a sinner, if he has com- 
mitted a sin seven years ago, he thinks it is a great while, 
and he has not heard of it, therefore surely it is forgot- 
ten. But what if it be seventy years ago ? You that are 
sinners of seventy years old, all is but a little while in 
regard of God. 

Obi-. 4. The apprehension of a judgment just at hand 
is that which will stir the heart and work u])on it most. 
" Y'et a little while," and God vnW cause the kingdom 
to cease ; therefore if ever you repent, repent now, for it 
is but a little while ere God will cause the kingdom to 
cease. The apprehension of a sinner to be u])on the 
brink of judgment, beholding his poor soul ready to 
launch into the infinite ocean of eternal destruction, 
and to lie vmder the scalding ckops of the wTath of the 
Almighty ; this works upon the heart indeed. It is the 
way of the flesh and the devil to put far from us the 
evil day, to make us believe the day of death is a great 
way off. But it is the way of God to exhibit things 
present and real ; and in this consist the efficacy and 
power of faith to make things future as if present. We 
say in nature there must be a contiguit)' and nearness 
between things that must work. So we must appre- 
hend a nearness between the evil that is to come upon 
us and ourselves, that so it may work upon our hearts. 



14 



AX EXPOSmON OF 



Chap. 1. 



An excellent scripture you have to this purpose in 
1 Kings xiv. 14; where the Loril threatens to " raise 
him up a king over Israel who should cut off the house 
of Jeroboam that day: but what?" (he immediately re- 
calls his word :) " even now :" you may think the day a 
great way ofl', but it is " even now ;" and therefore now 
come in, return and repent. O sinners, consider that 
your danger is now ; not only in that day of C'luist : but 
what P even now, it may be at hand. 

Obs. 5. God suffers some sinners to continue long, 
others he cuts off speedily. Jeroboam had continued 
above fort}' years in liis sin, but now Zachariah liis 
son, upon whom this threatening was fulfilled, con- 
tinued but six months. Perhaps he tliought to escape 
as long as his father. No ; though the father continue 
old in his sins, if the son presume to follow his steps 
he may be cut off presently. 

" And I will cause to cease the kingdom of the liouse 
of Israel." Kingdoms and monarchies are subject to 
change. "V^'hat is become of all the glorious monarchies 
in the world ? how hath the Lord tossed them up and 
down as a man would toss a ball ! IdolatiT is enough 
to destroy the greatest monarchy in the world. 

But there is some instruction in the elegance of the 
word 'nswni " and I will cause to cease." It is a 
metaphor (according to some) taken from instruments, 
that a man uses for a while, and when he lias done 
with them, either hangs them up against a wall and 
rcgaids them no more, or else brings them to the fire to 
be biuTied. So saith God, " yet a little while, and I 
will cause to cease," &c. As if he shoidd say. Indeed 
there was a time wherein I made some use of the rent 
between Judah and Israel, and of tliis kingdom ; but I 
have done with that use, there is an end of it, and now 

1 will cause to cease the kingdom, I will take them 
away, they shall be to me as an instrument not to be 
used any more, or for the fire. When the Lord has 
any use of a pcojile, or of any particular men to do him 
service, he will preserve them, though they are wicked ; 
and when he has done with them, he either lays them 
aside, or else brings them to the file. A husbandman, 
so long as he can use thorns to stoj) a gap, he destroys 
them not, but when there is no further use for them, 
he bruigs them to the fire : so God here, " I will cause 
to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel." 

But how and where will God cause to cease the king- 
dom of Israel ? 

Ver. 5. .-Ind it shall come to pass at that day, that I 
will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. 

By " breaking the bow," is here meant tlie blasting 
and Winging to nothing all the sh'cngth of their warlike 
power, all their arms and ammunition ; for the bow was 
a great warlike instniment in those days ; therefore, in 
Psal. xlvi. 9, " He maketh wars to cease ; he breaketh 
the bow, and cutfeth the spear in sunder." 

But here, by " breaking the bow," something more 
is meant. There is this particular reason why the bow 
is instanced here, because, whereas Jehu did many 
memorable things in his warlike affairs, yet none 
more than that he did by his bow. Mark that place, 

2 Kings ix. 24, " And Jehu (b-ew a bow with liis full 
strength, and smote Jehoram between his arms, and 
the aiTow went out at his heai't." So that the victory 
that Jehu obtained over the two kings of Israel and 
Judah was by the bow especially. '\Yhat observe we 
from hence ? 

Obs. 1. That even in those things wherein mcked 
men have been most prosperous and successful, God 
will curse them, and let out liis wrath upon them. 

Obs. 2. Carnal hearts tmst much in their warlike 
weapons, but they are nothing when God breaks a 
people's strength. " Break the bow," Wast all tlie 



power of their ammunition. God has the power of all 
ammunition. The Lord is called the Lord of hosts, and 
he delights much in this title, first, because God has 
not only the power over ammunition and all warlike 
weapons, so that they cannot be used but by him ; but 
secondly, because when they are used, they can have 
no success at all but by him : and so the Lord is the 
Lord of hosts in a peculiai- sense. He is the great 
General of all ai-mies, more than all other generals, for 
the success of all depends upon him. My brethren, 
why then need the church of God fear the strength of 
weapons, the bow, the cannon, or all the ammunition 
of the enemies of the church, seeing our Lord is the 
Lord of hosts ? No weapon can be used or have success 
but by tills Lord of hosts : he can break the bow, 
tliough of steel, when he pleases, and can give his 
])eoplc strength to do so too. For this you have an 
admirable promise, Isa. liv. IG, 17; " Behold," (saith 
God,) " I have created the smith that bloweth the coals 
in the fire, and bringeth forth an instrument for his 
work ; and I have created the water to destroy. No 
weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper." 
'What need the church fear then? God breaks the 
bow when he pleases ; for as God has a providence over 
all the things m the world, so he has a specialty of pro- 
vidence to order battles, to give the victory not to the 
strong or to the multitude, but sometimes to the weak 
and few, even as he pleases. And therefore he is the 
Lord of hosts, because though his providence is general 
over all creatures, yet there is a specialty of providence 
exercised by God in warlike affairs. 

But what was this valley of Jezreel ? 

It is worthy our time to inquire after this valley, in 
which God will break the bow of Israel. There were 
two places called Jezi-cel, the one belonging to Judah, 
Josh. xv. 56, the other belonging to Israel, Josh. xvii. 
16; xix. 18. Jezreel was a fruitful valley, ten mUes 
long, and by it there was a famous city built, which, in 
Ahab's time, was the metj-opolis of the kingdom, in 
which was a glorious tower, from whence they might 
see over Galilee and Jordan. Now there were two 
gi'cat cities that belonged to the ten tribes, Samaria and 
Jezreel ; as we in England have two principal cities, 
London and York. But this Jezreel was the most for- 
tified, in which they put much confidence, yet God saith 
here, " He will break tlie bow of Israel in the valley of 
Jezreel ;" that is, in that verj- city which they accounted 
the great strength of their kingdom, there he would 
break the bow of Israel. 

06*. 3. Fortified cities cannot help when God comes 
out against a people. If we can fortify our cities 
against sm, we may soon fortify them against an enemy. 
If sin once get in, the enemy will quickly follow. " AH 
thy sti-ong holds shall be like fig trees vnth the first-ripe 
figs : if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the 
mouth of the eater," Nah. iii. 12. With the least wind, 
like tlie fii-st-ripc figs, all your strong holds shall fall ; 
yea, " thy people in the midst of thee are women : the 
gates of thy land shall be set wide open imto thine 
enemies : the fire shall devour thy bars," ver. 13. You 
see what the valley of Jezreel is, and the meaning of it. 

But why will God " break the bow of Israel in the 
valley of Jezreel ?" There are these two reasons for it : 
1. Because God would deal with tliis people of Israel 
as judges deal with malefactoi-s ; hang them up where 
their fact was committed, as we see some hanged up in 
chains near to the city, at or about the place where 
their villany was done. So in Jezreel was shed the blood 
of Jezebel, and the blood of the seventy sons of Ahab, 
and the blood of Jehoram, and there will God break 
the bow. Hence guilty consciences arc often afi^d to 
go near the places where they have committed wicked- 
ness, because they fly in their faces, for fear God should 
come upon them where the crimes were peqietrated. 



Vek. 6. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



15 



But, 2. He " mil break the bow of Israel in the val- 
ley of Jezreel," that is, in that fortified place in which 
they so much gloried. 

Ubs. 4. Even in the place in which a kingdom most 
glories, and seems to trust most in, God many times 
comes and breaks the kingdom in that very place. " Ai't 
thou better than populous No, that was situate among 
the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose 
rampart was the sea, and her wall was fi'om the sea ?_" 
Nah. iii. 8. Mark, a people just like England in this 
ease. AATiat ! we overcome by the enemy ? we that 
have the seas for om- wall, and such a multitude of 
people amongst us ? These have been and still are the 
two pleas which England uses for herself, because om- 
people are many, and we have the seas for a wall : but 
" art thou better than popidous No ? Yet was she car- 
ried away, she went into captinty," ver. 10. Thus the 
prophet pleads with them. 

But fm-thcr ; These trusted in Jezreel, they seemed to 
scorn the prophet. What! the kingdom of Israel 
cease ! what think you of Jezreel, such a strong place 
as that ? Just as we shoidd say, TVTiat ! an enemy come 
to us ! what say you to London, a brave city, a strong 
city ? "What say you to the ammunition, to the militia, 
to the strength that is there ? Ai-e the)- not able to re- 
sist all that can come agamst it? Have we cause to fear 
danger ? It is true, the kingdom has cause to bless God 
for London, and London has not yet been " the valley 
of Jezi'eel,'' but Israel, the strength of the Lord, and 
has prevailed with God, as an instrument : and there- 
fore we bless God for the protection we have had. 
But yet let us not trust in it, for even in London, in the 
valley of Jezreel, the bow may be broken ; and God 
knows how to bring things about, so as to make the 
ammmiition of London to be broken in pieces, and 
turned against its people : O, therefore, do not trust 
here. Only let it be yom- care, ye people of this city 
of London, that you prove not the valley of Jezi-eel, 
and then we shall do well enough, oiu- bow shall not 
be broken. 'UTiat attempts have there been to make 
London by this tmie the valley of Jezreel, that is, a 
scattered valley, and to bring divisions into this city, 
that it might be a scattered people ! And woe to the 
kingdom if this had been effected ! better these men 
had never been born, than that they should have had 
success in that horrid enterprise. O London, now the 
blessing of God is over you, the means of grace abund- 
antly among you, the eyes of the kingdom are upon 
you ; take heed you be not the valley of Jezi'eel ; your 
divisions will cause gi-eat thoughts of heart : continue 
you united one to another, and then you are as one 
Israel of God, the instrument of God for om- sti-ength. 

Thus we have done with the mother and with the 
fu'st son. 

Ver. 6. And she conceived again, and bare a daugh- 
ter. And God said unto him, Call her name Lo-rwia- 
inah : for I tcill no more have mercy upon the house of 
Israel ; but I will utterly take them away. 

" She conceived again." This conception sets out 
also the estate of Israel in regard of her sm and miser)' : 
sin is fruitfid, and what does it bring forth ? Parents 
bring forth a lilceness to themselves, and so does sin ; 
and what is that ? notliing but ruin and misery. 

This second child is a daughter, denoting the weak- 
ness of the ten tribes at this time. They were gro^^-n 
effeminate in regard of their' lust, and the baseness of 
their spu-its ; and in regard of their strength also they 
were weak like the female sex. 

There are tlu'ee estates of the people signified by the 
thi'ee chikh'eu of Hosea ; fu'st, then- scattered estate, 
and that was signified by Jezreel, the first son ; and the 
story of that you have 2 Kings xv. 9 — 19, where you 



may read their woeful seditions ; for Zachariah reigned , 
but six months, and then Shallum slow him, and reigned 
in his stead, and he reigned but one month, for Mena- 
hem came and smote ShaUum and slew him, and reigned 
in his stead : so here were nothing but murders and se- 
ditions amongst them. A scattered people. 

The second state of the people of Israel v.as their 
weak condition, signified by this daughter; and the 
liistoi-y of that you have from ver. 16 of tliat chapter 
onwards, where, when Pul the king of AssvTia came 
against Israel, Menahem jielded to liim liis demand, 
gave him a thousand talents of silver to go from him, 
and laid a tax upon the people for it. Here they were 
brought into a very low and v.'eak condition. And af- 
tei-wards this lung of Asspia came to them again, and 
earned part of them into captivity. 

The thii'd child was Lo-ammi ; and the history of 
the state of the people signified by that you have in 
2 Kings xra. 6, where they were fully earned away, 
and wholly rejected for ever. And because they were 
a little before that time grown up to some strength more 
than formerly, therefore this last was a son. We are 
now to speali of the second. 

" She conceived again, and bare a daughter. 

From the intei-pretatiou I have given, this denotes 
the weakness and effeminacy of the people at this time, 
a little before their ruin. 

TVTien the manliness, and courage, and vigour of the 
spu'its of people are taken away, they are under a fear- 
ful judgment and near to ruin. Even when then- men 
shall be as women, as Nah. iii. 1 3 ; when there shall 
be such baseness of spmt in people, that for the enjoy- 
ments of then' present ease and quiet they yield to any 
thing. So it was -with these, and their effeminateness 
was showed, 

1. Allien the king of Assj'ria came to them, they 
v-ielded to any terms he would appoint; and when the 
taxes were laid upon the people, they inquired not 
whether they were just or no, but merely for their peace 
and safetj' paid them. We must take heed of brmging 
oui'selves into ti'ouble, we had better pay this than ven- 
tiu'e the loss of all ; we must not displease those that 
are above us, we know not what hard things may follow ; 
it is our wisdom, though things are hard, and we com- 
plain the taxations are heavy, to suffer something. 
They had rather have a little, though with baseness, 
than venture any thing for fiu:ther peace and Kberty 
for themselves and then' posterity. 

2. The efleminateness of their spirits was shoA^-n in 
this, that they were willing to submit to the govern- 
ment of most vile miu'dercrs, without any inquii-ing 
after them, or taking any com-se to find out then' mur- 
ders and -ndckedness. Zachariah was slain by Shallum ; 
then came Menahem, and he kiUcd ShaUum ; after Me- 
nahem reigned Pekahiah, and against liini conspired 
Pekah, the son of Rcmaliah, and smote liim m Samaria, 
and with him killed fifty men, and reigned in liis room ; 
then came Hoshea the son of Elah, and made a con- 
spu'acy against Pekah, and slew him, and reigned in 
ms stead. Here were miu'derers upon murderers, and 
yet the people aU this while bow down then' necks, and 
look not after these tilings : They have gotten power in 
then- hands, and we must take he-ed of inquiring after 
those things that are above us, it wiU displease them, 
we had better be quiet and hold oiu- peace: and so 
they bowed then- necks to the yoke. Such hon'ible 
guUt of mm'ders must not be questioned, because the 
murderers had got power in their hands. Theii' cow- 
ardly, timorous spu'its were much like the temper of Is- 
sachar : " Issachar is a strong ass coucliiug down be- 
tween two bm'dens : and he saw that rest was good, and 
the land that it was pleasant ; and bowed his shoidder 
to bear, and became a servant unto ti'ibute," Gen. 
xlix. 14, 15. 



16 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



ClIAP. 1. 



And when men's spiiits are effeminate with respect 
to the civil state, they quickly grow so in regard of 
their consciences, and religion too. Purity of religion 
in the church cannot stand long vith slavery admitted 
in the state. We read, Itev. iv. 7, of four ages of the 
chui'ch set out by four living creatures : the thuxl 
li\'ing creatui'e had the face of a man, and that was to 
note the state of the cliurch in the time of reformation ; 
they began then to be of manly spirits, and to cast off 
that yoke of bondage which was upon them, to inquire 
after what liberty God liad granted to them. Not like 
those we read of, Isa. li. 2.'5, that would obey such as 
would say to their souls, '• Low down, that we may go 
over." 

This, my brethren, was the condition of many of us ; 
there has been that cffeminateness of spirit in us that 
we have bowed down our necks, yea, our souls, to those 
that would go over us ; yea, as it is in Isa. li. 23, they 
made themselves the very street to them that went 
over them, their very consciences were ti-amplcd upon 
by the foot of pride, and all for the enjoyment of a little 
nutward accommodation in their estates, in their shops, 
and in their trading ; O, they dare not venture these, 
rather yield to any thing in the world. And traly we 
were ah-aid, not long since, that God was calling us by 
tho name of this daughter Lo-ruhamah, for our cffemi- 
nateness of spirit ; that the Lord was departing from om' 
nation. But blessed be God, that now there is a rising 
of spirit among us, especially among oiu- worthies in 
parliament; and their warmth, and vigour, and life 
liave put warmth, vigour, and spirit into the whole king- 
dom. Now our kingdom will never bow do^ni and sub- 
mit their consciences, nor estates, nor liberties, to the 
foiTiier bondage and oppression. No, they had rather die 
honourably than live basely. But why do I make such 
a disjunction ? Die honourably, or live basely ! Had we 
spii-its we might free ourselves and posterity from Uving 
"basely, and we need not die at all ; for the malignant 
party has neither spirit to act nor power to prevail; if' 
we keep up our spirits and are strong in the Lord, we 
ore safe enough, we shall not have our name Lo- 
ruhamah, but Piuhamah ; the Lord will have mercy 
upon us. 

In 1 Kings xiv. 15, God threatens to smite Israel, that 
they shall be " as a reed sliakcn in the water j" and mark 
what foDows, and then " he shall root u]) Israel out of ' 
this good land, which he gave to their fathers." If this 
judgment be upon England, that our spirits be shaken 
as a reed with the wind, that we bow and yield to any 
thing in a base way, the next may justly follow, that the 
Lord may root us out of this good land. As Israel grew 
effeminate before their destruction, so do Judah also be- 
fore theirs : Isa. iii. 2, 3, when God intended judgment 
against them, you may observe that lie took away " the 
mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the 
prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, the captain 
of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor ;" 
men of truly noble spirits were removed, tlieu' nobles 
became vile and sordid, and yielded to any humours 
and lusts, then they were near ruin ; and ver. 12 saith, 
'•women rule over them:" for women that have manly 
spirits to rule is no judgment at all, but for women of 
revengeful spirits to rule over a nation is a most fearful 
judgment. But so much of the first, that it is 8 daujriitia: 
born to Hosea. 

'What is this daughter's name ? Call her name " Lo- 
ruhamah," eitlier not beloved, or one that has not ob- 
tained mercy, for God's mercy proceeds from his love. 

" I will no more have morcy," or, I will add no more 
mercy ; noting that God liad showed abundance of 
mercy to Israel before, but now he declares, I will not 
add any more, I will sliow no further mercy to tliem. 

" But I will utterly take them away ;" so turned by 
some, in taking them away I will take them away"; 



others, I will lift them up, that I may east them down 
so much the more dreadfully. The old Latin thus 
reads, oblivisce7ido obliviscar, forgetting I will forget. 
And this was upon a mistake of the Hebrew word, be- 
cause there is httle tlifference in the Hebrew between 
nr: signifying to forget, and SC'J which signifies to 
take away. The Sejituagint, avrtraaaofitvoQ avrtra^ofiat, 
setting myself against them I will set myself against 
them. AV'ell, the name of the child must bear this 
upon it, that God will have no more mercy upon them. 
Hence, 

Obs: 1. Sometimes the very children of families, and 
in a kingdom, bear this impression upon them, that 
God will have no mercy upon this family. My Ijrethren, 
one may read such an impression upon the eliikb'en of 
many great families in tliis kingdom, when we look 
upon the hoiTible ■\Wckcdness of the young that are 
growing up. How ditt'erent from their former religious 
ancestors ! Wc may see, with trembling hearts, such 
an imj)rcssion of wrath, as if God had said, I have done 
with this family, I intend no further mercy to it. As 
sometimes, ■« hen we see in a family gi-acious childi'cn, 
gracious young gentlemen, noblemen, we may see the 
impression of God's mercy to that family ; Kuhamah, 
I intend mercy to it. 

It was not long since that we might, and we thought 
indeed we did, see such an impression upon tlie young 
people of this kingdom, in the city, and in the chief 
families in the country, that we were afi-aid Lo-ruhamah 
to England was ^n■itten upon them ; for, oh the rude- 
ness and wickedness of the young ! But blessed be God 
that we see it otherwise now. Because of that graeious- 
ness and forwardness of so many young people amongst 
us, we think wo see v.ritten upon them Kuhamah to 
England, mercy to England ; God has taken away his 
Lo, and writes only Kuhamah, mercy to you. The 
great ground of the hope we have for mercy to England, 
is the impression of God upon the young : when God 
has tender jilants grooving up in his orchard, certainly 
he will not l)reak down tlie hedge or dig it up. 

Uba. 2. There is a time when God will not have 
mercy upon a kingdom, or upon a particular people. 
" Gather yourselves together, yea, gather togetlicr, O 
nation not desii'ed ; before the decree come forth," 
Zcj)h. ii. 1, 2. There is a time for the decree to come 
forth against a kingdom ; a time when, though Noah, 
Job, and Daniel should stand before him, yet he will 
not be enti'cated ; though they cry, cry early, ci-y aloud, 
cry with tears, crj' \\-ith fasting, yet God will not be en- 
treated. God's mercy is precious, and lie will not let it 
run out to waste, he will not be prodigal of it ; a time 
wherein God will say, Now I have done, I have done 
with this people, mercy has had her tmn. It is true, 
except we had that immediate revelation whicli the 
propiiets had we cannot now determine the ))articular 
time. Those wlio laboiirrd n" DSt to search God's mind 
in his word, were afraid tliat this decree had gone out 
upon us in England. It is true, God seems for the 

{iresent to tell us that he has a prerogative, and he will 
lave mercy u])on whom he will have mercy. But they 
are not altogetlier to be blamed who, even in their own 
hearts, determined tliat mercy was gone, except they 
wholly limited God. and left nothing of prerogative to 
him. It wa.s God's ordinarv way, and except God liad 
wrought with us in a w ay of sovereignty other^vise than 
ever lie did with any nation before, they concluded that 
the decree was gone forth : and so it might be true ; and 
what God may do with us yet we do not know. But 
this we can say, if the decree be not gone forth, if there 
be mercy for us, God shows his prerogative, that he will 
now go on in a way different from his former paths in 
tlie world ; and if God icill do so, who can say against it ? 
A time tlierc is likewise for God to say against jiar- 
ticular persons, he will not have mercy upon them ; a 



Vee. 6. 



1'HE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



17 



time when God will s-ay, Those men that were bidden 
shall not taste of my supper, Lvdie xiv. 24 ; he that 
u-ill be filthy, let him be filthy still, Kev. xxii. llj 
my Spisit shall no longer strive with them, Gen. vi. 
3. He has no need, my brethren, that we should 
receive or entertain his mercy ; we have need that God 
should grant it. God many times is quick in the offer 
of Ills mercy ; " Go and preach the gospel ; he that bc- 
lieveth shall bo saved, he that believeth not shall be 
damned." A quick work God makes many times in 
the effect of mercy. 

06s. 3. " I will not have mercy :" this is pronounced 
as the most di-eadful judgment. What! not have mercy 
upon them ? then indeed is a state or kingdom in a 
dreadful condition, when God shall say of them, that 
he will not have mercy. " AVoe to you," saith the Lord, 
"when I depart from you!" woe then to you, when my 
mercy is for ever gone! then all judgments and mise- 
ries must needs flow in upon a nation, or a particular 
soul. 'Wlien the sea-bank is broken up, then the waves 
will all flow in. " All ye beasts of the field, come to 
devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest." WHiy, what is 
the matter ? " His watchmen are blind," Isa. hi. 9, 
10. I argue fi'om thence, if the prudence of the watch- 
man is taken away, which should stop miser)', then all 
evils come flowing in upon a nation. "VATiat then, if the 
mercy of God, that should stop misery, be taken away ? 
whither shoidd the poor creature go if mercy be gone ? 
to what creature should it look for help ? if it cries to 
any creatm'e, the creatm'e saith, I can afford no com- 
fort, because God affords no mercy. Wliat shall uphold 
the heart when it has no hope at all ? It must needs 
sink. 

Obs. 4. Jlen best know what the worth of mercy is, 
when mercy is taken away from them. I will not add 
mercy ; showing that what good they had received be- 
fore, it was from his mercy, though thev would take no 
notice of it. Well, saith God, you shall have no more ; 
vou have taken no notice that it was my mercy that 
helped you before, but when my mercy is gone, then 
you will know it ; but then I will not add more. 

Obs. 0. God usually takes not away his mercy fully 
from a people, or from a soul, until after much mercy 
has been received and abused. You have a parallel 
place to this, Judg. x. 13 : " I will deliver you no more," 
saith God ; I have deHvered you many times, my mercy 
has been abused, I will deliver you no more. It is just 
with God, when mercy is abused, that we should never 
know further what mercy means. Mercy, as it is a 
precious tiring, so it is a tender thing, and a dangerous 
thing to abuse. There is nothing that more quickly 
works the ruin of a people, or of a soul, than abused 
mercy. 

Ob.s. 6. God's second strokes usually are more di'ead- 
ful than the first. '• I will utterly take them away." 
Before it was only that they should be scattered, the 
name of the fii'st child before was but Jezreel, that they 
should be the scattered of the Lord ; but the second is 
Lo-ruhamah, that they shall have no more mercy from 
the Lord. God begins fii'st with the house of coi-rection 
oefore he brings to the gallows. There is branding 
first, before hanging : there are warning pieces before 
mm-dering pieces. God makes way for his wTath by 
lesser afflictions before he comes with desti-oj-ing judg- 
ments. 

I remember Knox, in his History of Scotland, relates 
that Sir James Hamilton, having been mm-dered by the 
king's means, he appeared to liim in a vision with a 
naked sword cb-awn, and struck off both his arms, with 
these words. Take this before thou receive a final pay- 
ment for all thy impieties; and within twenty-four 
hours two of the king's sons died. God comes to na- 
tions and particular persons with a sword, cuts off 
arms before he takes their lives. As when the Lord 



comes in a way of abundance of mercy, lesser mercies 
make way for greater mercies. When manna was 
rained down, the dew ever came before it: so, lester 
judgments to the wicked are forerunners of, and make 
way for, greater judgments ; first they arc parboiled, 
before they come to be roasted in the iii"e. 

Obs. 1. AVith God a multitude of sinners is no argu- 
ment for then- escape of judgment. I will not add 
mercy to the house of Israel. He does not say, I will 
nbt add mercy to this or that particular man oi' Israel, 
but to the house of Israel. It is a ride, indeed, with 
man, Multiludo peccantium tollit peccalum, Multitude 
of offenders take away their offences : men know not 
how to execute the offenders when they are in multi- 
tudes ; here and there some of the ringleaders may be 
taken, for example' sake. But it is no rule with God ; 
though it be the whole house of Israel, God has no 
mercy for the whole house of all the people of Israel. 
Let no man presume to sin against the Lord because 
there arc multitudes that offend, and thiiik that he shall 
escape with the multitude. No ; all the nations of the 
world with the Lord are but as the drop of a bucket, 
and as the small dust of the balance ; nothing, even less 
than notliing. 

Obs. 8. The nearness of any to God exempts them 
not from the wrath of God. " No more have mercy 
upon the house of Israel ;" though it be the house of 
Israel, yet no mercy upon her. If it were the house of 
Pharaoh it were not so much ; but what I no mercy 
upon the house of Israel ! God hates sin, and hates 
sin most in those nearest to liim : '' You only have I 
knoTiTi of all the families of the earth ; therefore I will 
punish you for all your iniquities," saith the Lord, 
Amos iii. 2. As we hate a toad in oiu' bosoms more 
than when it is at a farther distance, so God hates sin 
in those that are nearest to Mm more than in those 
that are farther off; for " God wiU be sanctified in all 
those that cbaw nigh unto him." 

But why will God have no more mercy upon the 
house of Israel ? Wiat hath the house of Israel done 
that God shoidd be so angry with it ? It is worth our 
searcliing and inquii'ing after, it concerns om'selves 
nearly. 

1. The first and a main reason is, because of their 
continuance in theu" false worship, notwithstanding all 
the means that God had used to bring them oft'; not 
only by his prophets, sending them again and again to 
show them it.s evil in those two calves that were set up 
in Dan and Bethel, but by most remarkable works of 
his providence against them. As for example ; the 
work of God against Jeroboam, when he was stretching 
out his hand against the prophet that came to denoimce 
judgment against the altar upon which he was offering 
sacrifice ; his hand chied up, so that he could not pull it 
in again to liim, and upon the prayer of the prophet it 
was restored, and became as it was before, 1 Kings xiii. 
4, 6. Again, the remarkable work of God in anointing 
Jehu to destroy the house of Ahab and his seed for 
their idolatry. Y'et, notwithstanding these prophets, 
and these works of God, with many others, they still 
persisted in theii' way of idolatry ; and this caused 
the Lord now not to have mercy upon the house of Israel. 

Let us take heed of this : God has used and still uses 
means to bring us oft' fully from all ways of false wor- 
ship ; not only by sending his ministers from time to 
time to declaim against such things, but by wonderful 
and remarkable works of his providence towards Eng- 
land, especially at this day. Never had any nation, 
never had England heretofore, more remarkable works 
of God to di-aw them off from all ways of false wor- 
ship, to bring them to worship God in the right way 
according to his will. Now let us ti-emble at this sen- 
tence; I will not add mercy, I wiU have no more 
mercy. God has added mercy to us again and again. 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. I 



from time to time. And now, methinks, in this work 
of God's mercy, that he is about concerning us, he 
speaks to us as he tlid to the people, " Come and put 
off tliy ornaments ft-om thee, that I may know what to 
do unto thee," Exod. sxsiii. 5 ; come now and humble 
yourselves that I may know what to do ; as if God 
should say. Come and'pve in your last answer. Now 
I am showing mercy once more, take heed of rejecting 
it, lest vou have a Lo-ruhamah upon you, I will add no 
more mercv. Consider not only what we have done, 
J)ut what we do ; how we have abused mercy, and how 
we now abuse present mercy ; how opposed the spirits 
of most are to the work of rcfomiation now com- 
mencing, who even say to the Lord Christ, Depart from 
us, we {Icsire not the knowledge of thy ways. AVlicn 
the people of Israel were offered Canaan, and God bade 
them go in and possess it, they were then near unto it ; 
but as they then refused Canaan, God sware in his wrath 
that they should not enter into his rest. If ever a 
people were offered Canaan, were offered the ordi- 
nances of God in liis OAvn way, certainly we are at this 
time. Let us tremble lest God, if we reject tliis mercy, 
should swear in his wrath, I will have no more mercy 
upon you, and so we prove to be a Lo-ruhamah indeed. 

2. fiut a second reason why this people could have 
no mercy, might be because of tlieir foi-saking God 
even in the ci^il state : for the people of Israel had 
not only left God in their churcn state, and defiled 
themselves with false worsliip, but they had in their 
civil government wickedly departed ft-om those whom 
God had appointed over them ; they had departed from 
the house ot David, and rent themselves from it. It 
is true, tliis was of God's permission, but yet it was the 
wickedness of their hearts, and no excuse at all for 
them. Hence, Hos. viii. 4, God charges tliem that they 
had set up king«, but not by him. From whence we 
observ"e, 

Obs. 9. It is a most dangerous thing for a people to 
forsake, or to rebel against, the civil government which 
God sets over them. When the people, in 1 Sam. viii. 
7, required a king, and would not be ruled by judges 
any more, the Lord saith to Samuel, " They have not 
rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should 
not reign over them." A most fearful declai-ation: and 
I confess freely to you, this one text of Scripture was 
the first that made "impression upon my thoughts and 
heart, about fearing to adopt a wav of chmch govem- 
mcntthat God had not appomted. Eor thus I reasoned: 
What ! is God so provoked against a people that will re- 
ject but a ci\il government that he has appointed, which 
concerns but the outward man ? Tlien if God has ap- 
pointed any government in a church, which is a Divine 
mstitution, which concerns the good of the soul, and 
is immediately to work upon that, siu-ely God will be 
much more provoked for rejecting it. And though we 
have not a civil government appointed by God, as the 
Jews had, yet for the church state we have one ap- 
pointed even by God himself. And reason there must 
138 for it ; for whatever has a spiritual efficacy upon the 
heart, must have a spu-itual rule for its warrant and 
direction. Indeed prudence and reason are enougli 
for ordering things that concern the outward man, ex- 
cept God will come in with his ovm institution : but 
when it comes to the ordering of the heart, and there 
is a spiritual efficacy expected, as in all church ordi- 
nances there must be, and that authority by which they 
are executed gives a gi-eat influence into them, nothing 
can go beyond its principle, tlierefore it must have a 
Divine institution to give it its efficacy. 

It may here be demanded, whether God has not ap- 
pointed over us a pai-ticular civil govenunent, as he cbd 
over the Jews ? That our government, and all lawfiU 
government of other nations, is ajjpointed by God, we 
must conclude Is a certain truth. But not so appointed 



by God as the government of the Jews was. And the 
reason is this, because the church and commonwealth 
of the Jews were involved in one, and therefore the 
apostle, speaking of the Gentiles, saith they were " aliens 
ft-om the commonwealth of Israel;" it was meant of 
the chui-ch state. There was such a kind of pedagogy 
under the law, that the church and state were involved 
in one, for Christ would be the Head of the chiuch and 
commonwealth too, and appoint them laws ; and so 
their government was immediately fiom heaven. Now 
for us : that we should have a govei-nment according to 
the rules of wisdom and justice, that indeed is appointed 
by God. God would have us have a just and wise go- 
vernment ; but he leaves the ordering of that govern- 
ment to general rules of prudence and justice. So 
that now it is lawful for any kingdom or coimtn- to 
agree together, and, according to the rules of wisdom 
and justice, to appoint what kind of government they 
will, as whether it shall be a monarchy, or an aris- 
tocracy, or a democracy ; and to limit it according to 
covenants of agreement, as whether the fiindamental 
power shall be wholly put out, or any part reserved, 
how far this or that man or societ)' of men shall have 
the managing of it, and the like ; then so far as it is 
agreed upon, we are bound in conscience to obey either 
actively or passively, but no fiuther are we bound to 
obey any man ; conscience is not tied. Though such 
men be in authoritj-, yet not to do what they would 
have, is no resisting of authoritv-. Yea, though the 
thing be lawful which thev command, if it be not ac- 
cordEng to the law of the kingdom, to the first agree- 
ment, I may be bound by the rules of pi-udence to save 
myself; but it is not authoritj" that binds me to obey 
out of conscience : for we must of necessity distinguish 
between men in authoritv', and the authority of those 
men. TMierefore so long as we seek to keep authority 
in the right channel, that it flows not over the banks, 
we cannot be charged with resisting the govei-nment 
God hath set over us, though we do not obey the will 
of those who are set over us ; and thei-cfore there is no 
cause that wc should fear, that God should say to Eng- 
land, upon this ground, Lo-ruhamah, he will have no 
mercy. 

Ver. 7. Bui I will have mercy upon the house of 
Judah, and uill save them by the Lord their God, and 
will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, 
by horses, nor by horsemen. 

The people of Israel might say, Hosea, thou ait a 
severe preacher ; what ! preach nothing but judgment, 
nothing but wrath, to be utterly taken away ? Is there 
no mercy at all ? Is not God a merciful God ? Yes, 
saith the prophet, though you be taken away, God 
knows how to glorify his mercy ; he has othei-s that he 
can make objects of liis mercy, though you be destioyed. 

Obs. 1. TTiough God utterly reject some, yet in the 
mean time he has others to wnom he can show mercy. 
Therefore it is no plea for any sinner to say. Well, I 
have sinned indeed, but God is merciful. What if God 
be merciful ? so he may be, though thou perish ever- 
lastingly. Yea, whole" kingdoms and nations may 
perish, yet God may be merciful, God has still infinite 
ways to" glorify his mercy. Many people, in desperate 
moods, lay violent hands "upon themselves, and certainly 
there is a kind of spirit of revenge in it, as if they 
thought there would be some trouble about it, and so 
God shoiUd lose some honoiu:. But if you will have 
yom- will in this, or in any tiling else, though you be 
dead, and your souLs perhaps in chauis of darkness, God 
will have ways to be glorious in his mercy, whatever 
become of you. 

Obs. 2. "God -n-ill always have a church. He will 
never destroy liis church at once. The Lord loves pub- 



Vee. T. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



19 



lie -worship in the world. Though he will utterly talic 
away the house of Israel, yet he '' will have mercy upon 
the house of Judah." Israel might say to the prophet, 
^\^lat ! ^^•ill not God be merciful to us ? What does Judah 
get by worsliippiug God in that which you say is the 
only right way r" Judah indeed keeps herself to Jeru- 
salem, and to worship in the temple, but what does she 
gain by it ? for aught we see, Judah is in as hard an 
estate, and as low a condition, as we ? Well, saith God, 
let Judah be what she will, I will have mercy upon 
her. 

06s. 3. Though carnal hearts, when they look upon 
the low condition of the true worshippers of God, think 
that there is no diflerence between those who are iu a 
good way, and themselves who walk m the ways of 
sin, yet God will make a difference ; I will have mercy 
upon Judah, but not upon Israel. Many carnal men 
please themselves with argiung thus : I see others who 
are strict, who pray in their families, who nm to ser- 
mons, and will not act as others, yet they are as poor, 
in as mean a condition, as others ; what do they get by 
theu' forwardness in religion ? Ai'e not we in as good 
a condition as they ? Well, friend, though thy carnal 
heart think there is no difference " between lum that 
serveth God and him that serveth him not," God has 
a time to manifest a difference : " Then shall ye retm-n, 
and discern between the righteoiLS and the wicked, be- 
tween him that serveth God and liim that serveth liim 
not," Mai. iii. 18. I \dll not have mei'cy upon Israel, 
" but I will have mercy upon Judah." 

066". 4. If a people keep the worsliip of God piu-e, 
God ^vill favom' them, though there be many weak- 
nesses, j-ea, many wickednesses, amongst them. Judah 
indidged at this time in many gross and fearful cvUs. 
It woidd require much time to show you the horrible 
wickedness of Judah ; yet God saith, " I wiU have mercy 
upon the house of Judah." "\ATiat is the reason of 
this ? Because though Judah had many gross evUs, 
yet Judah kept to the right way of worsliipping God, 
kept to Jerusalem and to the temple ; and so far kept 
the worship of God pure. It is true, many spirits ai'e 
most bitter agauist those who seek to woi-ship God in 
the right way ; if they observe them tripping in any 
small thing, they charge it against them with all bitter- 
ness. This is not like God, who favoiu's those that 
worship him in a right way, though in other respects 
he may have many charges against them. 

But, you will say, this seems to contradict what you 
said before, that the nearer any are to God, the more 
he hates their sins ; and the sins of those that make a 
show of worshipping God in a pm-e manner are worse 
than the sins of others. It is ti-ue, but as their relation 
to God in the nearness of his worship is an aggravation 
of their sins, so their relation to God is a foundation of 
their- hope of mercy from God. How is this ? It 
makes then' sin indeed worse, so as to provoke God to 
punish them sooner, and perhaps more bitterly; yet 
then- relation to God keeps this ground of faith, that 
God is then' God still, and will have mercy upon them 
at last. But the wicked, though God spare them longer 
than his own people, yet when he comes against them 
he rejects them utterly ; so he did Israel. Judah mdeed 
was punished, but yet Judah had mercy at last ; but, 
saith God, " I ■niU have no more mercy upon the house 
of Israel ; but I wUl utterly take them 'away." 

06*. 5. God sometimes shows mercy to poor affiicted 
ones, and yet rejects those who ai'e greater and enjoy 
more prosperity m the world. Israel had prevailed a 
little before against Judah, for in 2 Kuigs xiv. 12 — 14, 
you find that " Judah was put to the worse before Is- 
rael; and they fled every man to theii- tents. AndJehoash 
king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of 
Jehoash, the son of /Uiaziah, at Betli-shemesh, and came 
to Jerusalem, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem 



from the gate of Eplu'aim unto tlie corner gate, four 
huncbed cubits : and he took all the gold and silver, 
and all the vessels that were found in the house of the 
Lord, and in the treasm-es of the king's house, and 
hostages, and retm-ned to Samaria." And tliis was but 
a little before this time, Israel had thus prevailed 
against Judah, and brought Judah under; yet now, saith 
God, I will have mercy upon Judah, but not upon Is- 
rael. Many who are in a low, afflicted condition, God 
tooks upon and shows mercy unto them, when brave 
ones that carry it out, and tm-ive and hve gallantly in 
the woiid, are often rejected of God. Mai'k what God 
saith, Zeph. iii. 12, " 1 will also leave in the midst of 
thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust 
in the name of the Lord." God looks not at the brave 
and gaUaut ones of the world, but at the poor and 
afflicted ones, and they shall ti'ust in the name of the 
Lord. We must not then judge of the happiness of 
men from their success m the world ; for you may 
now be delivered, and others kept under affliction, yet 
afterwards you may be rejected, and they received to 
mercy. 

06*. 6. How impartial the ministers of God ought to 
be in then- work. Hosea was the prophet of Israel, he 
was sent to the ten tribes, yet Hosea tells Ihem, whose 
prophet especially he was, that God would have no 
more mercy upon them. And he speaks to Judah, (to 
whom he was not sent,) and tells them that God would 
have mercy upon them. Ministers must not go accord- 
ing to their private engagements with any people, 
though bound to them in many respects : if they be 
wicked, they must deal faithfully and plamly, and de- 
nomice the judgments of God. And if others, though 
sti'angers to them, be godly, they are to give them that 
comfort which belongs unto them. ]\Iy brethi'en, par- 
tiality m those in pubKc places, especially of the minis- 
try, is a great evil : it was for this that God said he 
had made the priest and the Levite " contemptible and 
base before all the people :" why ? because they were 
" pai'tial in the law," Mai. ii. 9. 

066-. 7. It is a great aggravation of the misery of 
some, that God shows mercy to others. For it is here 
set down as a part of the threatening against Israel, " I 
wUl have no more mercy upon the house of Israel, but 
I will show mercy to Judah." To aggravate the miseiT 
of Israel, God manifests his mercy to Judah. Mai-k 
how God, in Isa. Isv. 13, makes it a part of his thi'cat- 
ening against the wicked, that he will show, mercy to 
his servants : " Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye 
shall be hungry : behold, my servants shall di'ink, but 
ye shall be thu'st)' : behold, my servants shall rejoice, 
but ye shaE be ashamed: behold, my seiTants shall 
sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of 
heart, and shall howl for vexation of spuit." These 
"buts" are cutting ones to the heart of the wicked. 
And observe, the word " behold " is fom- times used in 
setting out the difference that God will make between 
his servants and the wicked ; and how God will aggra- 
vate the misery of the wicked by showing mercy to his 
people, because it is a thing much to be considered. A 
sipiilar passage you have in Matt. viii. 11, " Many shall 
come fi'om the east and west, and shall sit do-rni with 
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of 
heaven; but the ehikben of the kingdom shall be cast 
out into outer daiioiess : there shall be weepuig and 
gnashing of teeth." Mark, they shall gnash their teeth 
when they shall see how they are rejected and others 
received, gnash then- teeth for enTy and vexation of 
spuit, for it is a great aggi-avation of men's misery. 
And is it not fulfilled this day ? How do many gnash 
their very teeth to see the mercy that God shows to his 
people in these days; giving them libert)' to meet 
together, and encouragement in his service, while he 
casts shame and contempt upon their faces, and bruigs 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



^HAP. I. 



them forth to answer for theii- wickedness, anil to suffer 
condign puni-.hment ! 

It is observable, that, in Acts xxii. 21, 22, Paul was 
speaking a great w hile to the Jews, and they heard him 
quietly till he came to that sentence, " Depart : for I 
will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles. They gave 
him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their 
voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the 
earth ! for it is not fit that he should live." What ! to 
disgrace us thus, and to think that the Gentiles should 
come to have more mercy than wc ! Away with such 
a fellow from the cartli ! We have such an expression 
likewise in Luke iv. 25 — 29 ; our Saviour, Christ, told the 
Jews of the widow of Sarepta, that Elias the ijrojihet 
was sent only to her, and that Xaaman the Snian, of 
all the lepers in Israel, was cleansed. They of tlie sjnia- 
gogue, when they heard these things, " were filled with 
wTath, and rose up and thrust him out of the city, and 
led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city 
■was built, that they might cast him down headlong." 
They were so vexed at Christ's seiTOon that they would 
have broke his neck as soon as he had done j)reaching. 
It was at this statement, " many widows were in Israel 
in the days of Elias, but unto none of them was Elias 
sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman 
that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the 
time of EUseus the projdiet ; and none of them was 
cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian." Christ intimated, 
that though there were many of the jjeople of Israel, 
yet the Lord would have mercy but upon a few of 
them ; yea, that God would choose to show mercy to 
other people rather than to them : at this they were 
enraged. And certainly tliis will bo the 
S'or" "S,""'" aggravation of the misery of the lost, 
ffiJloSoJusI""'''"' *° li-now the mercy of God to others. It 
may be wicked parents shall see their 
chiltb-en at the right hand of Jesus Christ in glory, and 
themselves cast down into eternal torment ; this will be 
a stinging aggravation of misery, no mercy unto thee, 
but mercy unto thy gracious cliild ; the child that thou 
rebukedst for being forward is now at the right hand of 
Christ, and thou cast into everlasting misery. So a 
])oor servant, or a poor boy in a family, may stand at 
the right hand of Jesus Christ hereafter, and ascend 
with him in glory ; while his rich master, that mur- 
mui'ed at him, and would not suffer him to have the 
least time for God's service, but checked and mocked 
him in every thing with, O, this is yom- preciseness, 
finds himself cast down into eternal misery. 

But yet further ; God declares, " I will have mercy 
upon the house of Judah." Here is another remark 
very oliservable, and wliich much concerns our jn-esent 
condition. God promises to Judah mercy, after Israel's 
rejection; yet if we seai'ch the Scriptures we shall find 
tliat both before and after the rejection of Israel was 
executed, Judah was under very sore afflictions. In 
2 Chron. xxviii. G, you find that '■ I'ekah the son of 
Kemaliah .slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thou- 
sand in one day." We never heard of such a slaughter ; 
we wonder when we hear of five or ten thousand slain 
in the field ; here we have one hunibed and twenty 
thousand slain, and this slaughter was made after this 
promise : yea, further, vcr. 8, there were besides •' car- 
ried away captive two hundred thousand, women, sons, 
and daughters ;" yea, furtlier, ver. 17, " again the Edom- 
ites had come and smitten Judah, and carried away 
captives." And, ver. 18, " The Philistines also had in- 
vaded the cities of the low counti-y, and of the south of 
Judah ; and they dwelt there :" and, vcr. 10, it is said, 
" tlie Lord brought Judah low :" and, ver. 20, it is said, 
" Tilgafh-pihuser, king of Ass\Tia," (whom Ahaz had 
sent Id lulp him.) " came unto him and distressed him, 
but strengthened him not." Pekah, the son of Kema- 
liah, slays one hundred and twenty thousand, and 



carries away captive two hundi'cd thousand : then come 
the Philistines and invade the country ; and then the 
Edomites cany away captives, and God brings them 
low ; and then comes Tilgath-pilneser, and he, instead 
of helping, distresses them. AVhat a case were they 
in now ! Yet this was after the promise, for this promise 
was made to Judah in the beginning of Hosea's pro- 
l)hecv i so it is, ver. 2, " The begimiing of the word of 
the Lord by Hosea," which was before the rejection of 
Israel. It was in the reign of Ahaz that Judah wa3 
brought into this low condition, about twenty-two years 
before the execution of the sentence against Israel, for 
that was fulfilled in the sixth year of the reign of Heze- 
kiah, which, if you take it from the begimiing of the reign 
of Aliaz, who reigned sixteen years, makes twenty-two 
yeai's. Now this promise to Judah was made in the 
days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and of Jeroboam, king 
of Israel, which was at least seventy-six years before the 
rejection of Israel ; and vet, after the making of this 
promise, Judah is reduced to this sad condition. 

Yea, and we shall find, besides, that though God had 
said he would reject Israel, and be merciful to Judah ; 
so that when Israel was rejected a man would think 
that Judah .should come into a better condition than 
ever ; yet see how Judah was dealt with. 2 Kings 
xviii. 13 saith, that '• in the fourteenth year of Heze- 
kiah, Sennacherib king of Assj-ria came up against 
Judah ;" and this was after the casting off of the ten 
tribes, for that was in the sixth year of Hezekiah, as 
ver. 10 : and seven years after came Sennacherib 
against Judah, thinking to prevail against them as they 
had done before against Israel ; and then Hezekiah 
was disposed to give him all the silver that was found 
in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the 
king's house; yea, ver. 10 saith, that "Hezekiah cut 
oft' the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, 
and from the piUai's, and gave it to tlie king of Assyria." 
Now the Lord keep our kingdom and our parliament 
from giving the gold of the temple doors in any way of 
compliance with any malignant paity, who regard with 
an evil eye the beauty of our Zion. 

Yea, and after Sennacherib had gotten this, not con- 
tent with it, he sends Kabshakeh from Lachish, with a 
great host against Jerusalem. The adversaries of the 
chm'ch are never satisfied, yield to them, gratify them 
in what you will : this is the fii'st temptation. 'What ! 
will you be so strict and rugged, and yield to them in 
nothing ? say some : but if they prevail with you to be- 
gin to yield, they will encroach upon you. Hezekiah 
yielded to Sennacherib, even to take away the gold of 
the temple doors, yet a little while after he comes again 
w itii a great host, so that Hezekiah said, it was " a day 
of trouble and rebidse," chap. xix. 3. Nothing will quiet 
them but the ruin of the church, they must needs have 
that ; " Down with it, down with it, even to the ground ! " 
nothing else will satisfy them. 

To this low estate and sad condition was Judah 
brought, though God promises mercy to them. 

Obx. 8. God may intend much mercy, yea, God may 
be in a way of mercy to a people, yet may bring that 
people into very great straits and difficulties. The pro- 
mises of God's mercies are always to be understood with 
the condition of the cross. If we think that upon the 
promise of mercy we shall be delivered fiom all trouble 
and affliction, wc lay more upon the promise than the 
promise w ill or can bear. It is a great evil, which pro- 
ceeds from much weakness of spirit and distemper of 
heart, in people for whom God has done great things, 
if there come any difficulty or trouble, to say, Now we 
are all lost, now God has left Us ; we hoped that there 
would have come mercy, we looked for liglit, and behold 
darkness ; now the heart sinks, and all hope is abandon- 
ed. Know, my brethren, this is an evil, untliankful, 
and unbelieving heart. God lias indeed done great 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



21 



things foi- us ; yet how ready are -we, though God be in 
such a glorious way of mercy, if we hear of any diffi- 
culty, any combining of the adversaries together, to ex- 
pect nothing but blood, and to bid adieu to all our 
peace : we thought to have had happy days, but now 
the Lord is coming out against us, and all that is done 
must be undone again. "WTiy are you so full of unbe- 
lief ? Surely this is unworthy of Christians that pro- 
fess an interest in God, and unworthy of all the good 
that God has done for us. Though Peter had walked 
upon the sea through the power of Christ, when the 
waves came, he cried, " Master, save, or else I perish." 
Has not God made us walk upon the waves of the sea 
all this while ? wTOUght as great a mu-acle for us in 
England as he tUd for Peter ? Yet when a wave does 
but rise a little higher than before, we are so distressed 
in oiu' spirits that we can scarcely cry, O blaster, save 
us ; but we look one upon another, and instead of cry- 
ing unto God, we cry out one to another in a discou- 
raging way, and so pine away in our iniquities. Cer- 
tainly God is exceedingly angry at such a demeanour 
as this, and yet this is common, both with nations and 
particular persons. 

With nations : it was so with Judah. Though God 
had made this promise to Judah, yet if we look into 
Isa. vii. 2, (Isaiah was contemporary with Hosea, and 
it was not much after the making of this promise,) we 
shall see how they were troubled with fear : " It was 
told the house of David, saying, Sp-ia is confederate 
ivith Ephraim. And the heart of the king of Judah was 
moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the 
wood are moved with the wind j" they were afraid, and 
shook as the very leaves of the trees shake. "Well, but 
God speaks to the prophet, in chap. viii. 11 — 13, " with 
a strong hand, and instructed him that he should not 
walk in the way of this people, saying. Say ye not, A 
confederacy :" — Oh, the king of Israel and the king of 
SjTia are confederate together ; what shall we do ? we 
are undone, we are lost for ever ! " Say ye not, A con- 
federacy, to all to whom this people shall say, A con- 
federacy ; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. 
Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; let him be your fear, 
and let him be your cb-ead." Thus God would have 
his saints act now. Wlien you hear of confederate ene- 
mies, or any ill tidings abroad, exclaim not, Oh, the 
papists are linked together, a confederacy, a confede- 
racy ! Do not say, A confederacy, fear not their fear, but 
" sanctify the Lord of hosts himself, and let him be 
your fear, and let him be your cbead ; and he shall be 
for a sanctuai-y" to you. And mark the resolution of 
the prophet afterward, ver. 17, " I will wait upon the 
Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and 
I will look for him." Oh that this were the disposition 
of oiu' hearts ! Take that note away with you, amongst 
many, though you cannot remember all : when you hear 
so many rumom-s of fears and troubles, as if all were 
gone, and there were now no more hope, let this be 
your answer, '• I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth 
his face from the house of Jacob ;" for God is in a way 
of mercy, and mercy certainly we shall have, let us look 
for it then. 

AA^th particular persons : though God be in a won- 
derful way of mercy towards them, yet if they do but 
feel their corruptions stirring never so little, how com- 
mon is it for them to say, All is lost ! I was indeed in a 
good way, but God is gone, Christ is gone, mercy is 
gone, and all is gone, surely God intends no thoughts 
of good to me. O, be not faitliless, but believing: 
for this is the way of God, though he promises great 
mercy, yet in the mean time he may bring into great 
afflictions. 

" I will no more have mercy upon the house of Is- 
rael, but I will utterly take them away ; but I will have 
mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them." 



For a people to be saved when others near them are 
destroyed, is a great display of God's goodness to them : 
as to stand upon the shore safely, and see others suffer 
shipwreck before us, is a gi'eat augmentation of God's 
mercy towards us. AATien the people of Israel stood 
upon the banks, and saw the Egyptians tumbling in 
the Ked Sea, and then- dead bodies cast upon the shore, 
then " sang Moses and the cliildren of Israel unto the 
Lord," Exod. xv. 1. And this kind of mercy the Lord 
has granted to us in England, for while neighbouring 
nations have been in a combustion, and many of them 
spoiled, we have sat under our own ^■incs and fig trees, 
and our greatest afflictions have been only the hearing 
of what our bretlu-en have suffered, and yet do suffer. 
All about us is as the fieiy furnace, and we walk in the 
midst of it like the thi-ee children, and our garments 
are not touched, nor the smell of the fii-e passed on 
them. We see all countries as Gideon's fleece, wetted 
with the tempest of God's ^^Tath, yea, with their own 
blood ; but, behold, we are cb-y, and the sunshine of 
God's mercy is upon us ; the blackness of the misery of 
our brethren is the brightness of our mercy. 

" I will save them." It is the Lord that will save 
them. This is an upbraiding of Israel. O Israel, you 
think to be saved by your own policy, you have gone 
beyond God ; you are afraid that the people should go 
up to Jerusalem to worship, therefore you have set up 
the two calves to save yourselves. But Judah shall be 
saved, and saved after another way : Judah need not go 
to such carnal policies to save themselves, for the Lord 
shall save them. Though carnal hearts think and en- 
deavour to save themselves only by their own policy 
and carnal ways, yet let God's people know that they 
have a stronger means to save them than all the policy 
in the world. So long as the wisdom, the power, the 
mercy, the faithfulness of God is for them, they need 
no other string to their bow. 

" I will save them by the Lord." This, by interpret- 
ers, is expounded concerning Clirist : that God the 
Father promises to save by Clu-ist. In Dan. ix. 17, 
we have such an expression in prayer, " Now therefore, 
our God, hear the prayer of thy servant — for the 
Lord's sake ; " that is, for Christ's sake : so here, God 
will save by the Lord ; that is, by Christ. 

Obs. 9. The acbninistration of God's gi'ace to his 
people is given into the hands of Jesus Christ. It is 
Chi-ist that saves the people of God, and has saved 
them in all former times : " As for thee also, bj- the 
blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners 
out of the pit wherein is no water," Zech. ix. 11. All 
the prisoners of God's people, ever since the world be- 
gan, have been sent out of the pit by the blood of the 
covenant, by the merits of Christ : and not oidy so, but 
Christ, in the administration of God's grace, has been 
the chief; he has been the Angel of God's presence, 
who has stood up for his people in all their necessities ; 
he has been the great Captain and Deliverer, the Saviour 
of them all. Let Christ then have the honour of a 
sovereign to us mth respect to our salvation in outward 
deliverances. Let us look up to him for salvation in 
all om- straits. And if Christ was the Saviour of his 
people in all ages, and still will be, then surely those 
ages and places where Christ is most known and hon- 
oured may expect the greatest salvation. And this is 
our comfort, for above all the ages since the world be- 
gan, Christ is most known and honoured in this age ; 
and of all places in the world, here in England, and 
amongst our countr}Tnen ; and if Christ will be a Sa- 
viour "of those places where he is known and honoured, 
surely England may expect a salvation. England has 
had it ; and as England is peculiar in the knowledge of 
Christ, so England shall be peculiar in God's grace 
to her. 

Obs. 10. It is a great upbraiding of a people when it 



22 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. 1. 



can be said of them, that they have forsaken the Lord. 
" I will save them by the Lord their God." Not your 
God, O Israel, but their God. Thus lie upbraids the 
people of Israel that they had forsaken their God ; that 
Judah had kept their God, but Israel had not. It is a 
woeful thins not to have God to be our God at all ; 
when conscience can charge upon a man what Daniel 
did upon Belshazzar, " That God in whose hand thy 
breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not 
glorified," Dan. v. 23 : but it is dreadful when conscience 
can chai-ge this. That God, whom thou hast chosen, and 
with whom thou hast entered into covenant, O thou 
apostatized soul, thou apostatized nation, thou hast for- 
saken, he is not now thy God. This is a sore and 
hea\'y cliarge indeed. 

Obs. 3. Those, then, who do not worship God in a 
right way, God wiU not acknowledge himself to be 
worshipped by them at all. It seems he is the God 
of Judah, though Judah had many evils, but not the 
God of Israel. The people in the wilderness pro- 
claimed a fast to Jehovah, and yet the apostle, 1 Cor. 
X. 7, calls them idolaters ; and it is said they sacrificed 
to idols, because they worshipped God by a calf, and 
not in God's way. Though we may think we worship 
God, yet if we do not worship him in his own way, he 
does not own himself worshipped by us at aU. 

Ob.s: 4. Carnal hearts cannot endure that any one 
should think they have more interest in God than them- 
selves. This could not but sting Israel, that Judah 
should be thought to have more interest in God than 
Israel had. Thus they scorned at Clu-ist: O, he trusted 
in God, he thinks he has more interest in God than 
others, now let his God come and save him. We read in 
the Book of JlartjTS, that the papists were much vexed 
^vith the protestants, because they used to say, our God, 
and our Lord, by which they seemed to claim more in- 
terest in God than others. And, indeed, what is the 
cause of the quan'el against God's people, but because 
the world think they claim more peculiarity and inter- 
est in God than others ? And tliis is the reason that 
soul-searching preaching cannot be endm-ed, because it 
makes n diflerence between the one and the other, and 
shows that some have an interest in God more than 
others. Hence it is that in no places in the world men's 
sph-its so ft-et against preacliing as in England. A^Tiy ? 
Because there is not such soul-examining, such soul- 
distinguishing preaching in the world as in England. 
Yea, that is the reason of the bitterness of one professor 
against another, because one is a protestant at large, 
and the other manifests more power of godliness, is 
more stiict in his course, and seems to claim a greater 
share in God than the former. Profession in Eng- 
land is a more distinguishing profession than in other 
places. 

Obs. 5. So long as God is our God we need not fear 
our adversaries. God is the God of Judah still, there- 
fore God will save them. You have heard of the Pal- 
ladium of the heathens in Troy. They imagined that 
so long as that idol was kept safe, they were unconquer- 
able, all the strengtli in Greece was not able to prevail 
against it. 'WTierefore the Grecians sought by all the 
means they could to get it from them. I 
StAi''™'Sr have read that the men of Tvtus were 
fyi^imZ'S afraid their god A])ollo should forsake 
them : they therefore chained and nailed 
that idol to a post, that they might be sure of it, because 
they thought their safety was in it. Let us fiisten our- 
selves to God in an everlasting covenant, and certainly 
God will be fast to us, and then we we safe enough. 

" I will save them:" but how? "What shall Judah 
he saved by, and not Israel ? Judah, a poor, contempt- 
ible jieople ! How .saved ? 

" And will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor 
by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen." It shall not 



be by any outward means, but by the immediate hand 
of God. This promise, that God would save them not 
" by bow nor by sword," was performed two several 
times, and there is a tliii'd time for the fulfilling of it, 
which is yet to come. It was done fii-st when '• the 
angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camj) of 
the AssjTians an hundi'cd fourscore and five tliousand," 
2 Kings xis. 3d : and God tells them that the king of 
AssjTia should " not shoot an an-ow there, nor come 
before the city with a shield:" so God saved them 
without bow, for they had no need to use the bow then, 
because the angel of the Lord desti'oyed them. The 
second time was when he saved Judah in theu' return 
from captivity, then, as it is Zecli. iv. 6. he saved them 
" not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith 
the Lord of hosts." Mark the phrase : as if God should 
say, I have strength, for I am the Lord of hosts ; lean 
command annies, if I would, to save you : no, though I 
be tlie Lord of hosts, yet I wiU not save you "by might, 
nor by ])ower, but by my Spuit." Therefore, Isa. xxx. 
7, " their strength" is said to be "to sit still ;" and ver. 

15, " in quietness, and in confidence, shall be your 
sti-ength." Thus they were saved, " not by bow, lior by 
sword." Then the tliii'd time, which is yet to come ; 
that is, in the wonderful work of God in calling the 
Jews, when God shall raise up out of them a gloi'ious 
people to himself, and save Judah once again, and it 
shall not be by sword, nor by bow, but by the Lord 
then- God ; for, as it is said, Dan. ii. oi, the stone that 
smote the image " was cut out T\-ithout hands ; " so there 
shall be a power not visible from whence it comes, but 
Jesus Christ shall come from heaven to do his great 
works. " As the lightnmg eometh out of the east, and 
sliineth even unto the west ; so shall also the coming 
of the Son of man be." 

Obs. 1. God ties not himself to the use of outward 
means in procuring good to his people. Though all 
outward means fail, vet there may be ways of salvation 
for the saints. Wicked men's hearts presently sink, if 
outward means fail. And if ow hearts faint when 
outward means fail, it is a sign that we before rested 
upon the means, and if we had had the means we 
should have robbed God of his honour. We must use 
means, but not rely upon the means. I might show 
you excellent texts of Scripture for this, as Psal. xxxiii. 

16, " There is no lung saved by the midtitude of an 
host : a mighty man is not delivered by much strength." 
And Psal. xliv. 5, 6, " Through thee will we push down 
om' enemies : tlirough thy name \vill we tread them 
under that rise up against us. For I will not trust in 
my bow, neither shall my sword save me." 

Obs. 2. Deliverance of a people without bow and 
without sword is a great merey. For such are the 
woeful miseries that a people suffer when wai- comes, 
that usually the victory will scarce pay the charges of 
the battle. Though we are sure to be saved at last, 
yet if we must be saved by bow and by sword, the 
misery that we may suffer in our salvation may be 
more than the salvation. It was the height of that 
mercy promised, Isa. ix. 5, that it should be without 
" confused noise, and garments rolled in blood." Such 
a mercv we have had ; and had CJhrist come to have 
reigned amongst us, though he had come riding upon 
his " red horse," with his garments rolled in blood, we 
should willingly have entertained him : but bcliokl, he 
comes riding upon his " white horse," in peace and 
merey. Tlic mercies we have had have been very 
cheap, they have not been bv bow, nor by sword. And 
if God should come at length by the sword, and bring 
perfect salvation to us by blood, which God forbid, we 
lia\e had already more mercy without blood than our 
blood is worth. Should we now have our blood shed, 
God lias paid us beforehand. ^X]\o almost in this con- 
gregation, but two or three years ago would have lost 



\EK. 8. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



23 



bis blood to procure so much mercy to England, as 
England has had already ? 

Obs. 3. Such is the love of God to his people, that he 
is pleased to work for them beyond means. The other 
point was, that he can save his people -without means ; 
this, that he wiU do it beyond means : for the grace 
and love of God to Ms people is so high and glorious, 
that it is beyond that which can be conveyed by means, 
therefore it must be done more immediately. " Tliy 
right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power ; in the 
greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthi-own them 
that rose up against thee," Exod. xv. 6, 7. Fii-st, it is 
the " hand of God." Secondly, it is " the right hand 
of God." Thii-dly, it is " the right hand of God in 
power." Fourthly, this is " glorious in power." Fifthly, 
there is " excellency." And sixthly, there is " the 
greatness of excellency." It is a high expression, 213 
■|;1KJ in the gi-eatness of thy lifting up; for the same 
word signifies pride, which is here translated excel- 
lency ; and if God be Kfted up in any thing it is when 
he shows himself for his people. Now take all these 
six expressions, God's hand, God's right hand, his 
right hand in power, a right hand that is become 
glorioiis in power, his excellency, the greatness of his 
excellency, and all this for his saints; siu-ely this is 
more than can be conveyed by means ; God must come 
immediately and save them by himself. 

Obs. 4. 'The more immediate the hand of God ap- 
pears in his mercy to his people, the more sweet and 
jirecious ought that mercy then to be. " Be thou ex- 
alted, O Lord, in thine own sti"ength : so will we sing 
and praise thy power," Psal. xxi. 13. When God 
comes in his own strength, and not in the sti'ength of 
the creatm-e, then the saints sing and praise the power 
of God. We are accustomed to say, Dulcius ex ipso 
fonte, that wliich comes immediately comes exceecUng 
sweetly. Then the saints may boast in God, when he 
comes immediately with his salvation: "Thou hast 
saved us ft'om our enemies, and hast put them to 
shame that hated us." What follows ? " In God we 
boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever," 
Psal. xhv. 7, 8. So that the saints of God then praise 
God ; nay, they may la^^•fully give up themselves to 
boast, when God works immediately. '\^Tren God works 
by means, then they must take heed of ascribing to the 
means ; but when God comes immediately, then they 
see his hand, and may well boast. 

It is the blessedness of heaven, that God's mercy 
comes immediately. Created mercies are the most 
[Perfect mercies. vSuppose God had been with them by 
bow and by sword when Sennacherib came against 
them, coidd the salvation have been so precious ? God's 
hook that he put in his nose, and the bridle that he put 
in his lips, (for so God said he would do with him, that 
is, use him as a beast,) were better than their sword or 
bow. Surely, if ever any nation knew what it was to 
have immediate mercies come doi^Ti from heaven, Eng- 
land does ; if ever nation saw God exalting himself m 
his own power, England has; we have lived, blessed 
be God, to see the Lord exalting himself in his own 
power. O, let us cry out with the psalmist, " Be thou 
exalted, O Lord, in thine o-rni strength," amongst us ; 
" so will we," still, and still, and stiU, " sing and praise 
thy power." 

Ver. 8. Now uhen she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she 
conceived, mid bare a son. 

We finished the signification of the name of the 
second child of Hosea, Lo-ruhamah. We now come 
to its weaning, and the begetting of the thu'd child, 
Lo-ammi. 

" "\Mien she had weaned Lo-nihamah." We do not 
read that the fii-st child, Jezreel, was weaned; but that 



the second child, Lo-ruhamah, was weaned, before the 
thii'd child, Lo-ammi, was conceived. "VMiat is the 
meaning of this ? 

This second child, Lo-ruhamah, was to typify the 
people of Israel being carried out of their own country 
in capti\ity to AssjTia : it was to signify to them that 
they should be weaned from the comforts and delights 
wliich were in then- own land ; that they should be taken 
away fi-om their milk and honey, and be fed in Assp-ia 
with hard meat, even with the water of affliction and 
the bread of advcrsit)-. The fii'st child only signified 
tlieir scattering, especially in regard of theu' seditions 
amongst themselves ; but the second cliild signified 
tlie carrjing them away whoUy into captivity from their 
own land ; therefore the second child is weaned. Cibis 
sustentabitur immicndis, so Jerome mterprets it. They 
should be canued amongst the Gentiles, 
and be fed with imclean meat, they should SJa 'St dStifuL- 
be deprived of prophecy, of the milk oi "" Jf''" net j>ro- 
the word, and of the ordinances that they vatnS infoc.'"' 
enjoyed : so Vatablus. 

Ordinances are as the breasts of consolation, out of 
which the people of God suck soul-satisfying comforts. 
" That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of 
her consolations ; that ye may milk out, and be de- 
lighted with the abundance of her gloiy," Isa. ls«. 11. 
And, " We mil remember thy love more than wine," 
Cant. i. 4. The Vidgate reads it. We will ,, 

, ,, , ^ ^ , . ,Mcmcircs ubcnim 

remember thy breasts above wme ; and t..oruin super vi- 
so the words will bear. These people °'""' 
shoidd be deprived of tliose breasts out of which they 
had sucked much sweetness before ; even deprived of 
all comfort in God. God's people hang upon God, and 
(b'aw comfort from him, even as the urfant upon the 
mother's breast, which sucks sweetness, and comfort, 
and nom'ishment fi-om thence. 

This expression, then, of weaning the chUd, implies 
these two things : 

1. That tlie enjojTnent of the comforts of a sweet 
native land, specially where Divine ordinances abound, 
is a very great blessing of God ; and to be deprived of 
it is a great affliction, yea, to some it comes as a cm'se. 
The vei-y sucking of our native an- is certainly a great 
blessing fi-om the Lord. Those who have been banished 
and deprived of it, have been more sensible of it than 
many of you who always have enjoyed it. ^lany have 
lain so long sucking the sweetness of our Enghsh au-, 
and the comforts which flow from then- accommoda- 
tions, tin they have sucked in tliat which, if God's 
mercy had not prevented, would have proved poison to 
then- souls. But I speak not of aU, I make no question 
but there have been many of God's dear servants that 
have tarried in then- native soil, and kept the upright- 
ness of their hearts and consciences as clear as others 
that went away. It is true, the comforts of a native 
soil are sweet, but except we may enjoy them with the 
breasts of these consolations, the ordinances of the 
church, they are not able to satisfy the soid ; yea, ex- 
cept we may suck out of these breasts sincere milk, 
not soiled nor som-ed by the inventions of men, better 
a gTcat deal that we were weaned from all the sweet- 
ness and accommodation we have in oiu- native soU, by 
the mortifying of our affections to it, than that God 
should wean us from it, by sending us into captivity, 
or by giving the adversary power over us, or by making 
the land too hot for us. 

2. That it is an evil thing for a child to be taken 
from the mother's breast too soon, and sent away to be 
nursed by others. The expression fully imphes this, 
for it is to tell us the evil condition of the people, that 
they should be taken from their o-rni and sent to_ an- 
other country. The affliction is set out by a child's 
being taken from its mother's breast. It could not 
express what it intended, except it were to intimate 



24 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. I. 



thus much unto us ; that it is an enl thing for a child 
to be taken from its own mother's breast. It is un- 
natural then for mothers, out of daintiness and pride, 
to deny the fruit of their wombs the comfort of their 
breasts. It is true, in time of weakness and danger, 
when it may be dangerous to themselves and the child, 
God ])crmits it. But when it is merely out of pride 
and affectation, certainly it is an evil against nature 
itself. Hannah's care of her son Samuel is recorded, 
and it is mentioned liy the Holy Ghost in her com- 
mendation, that she gave him suck; "The woman abode, 
and gave her son suck until she weaned him," 1 Sam. 
i. 23. It is said of tlie ostrich, Job xxxi.x. 16, " She is 
hardened against her young ones, as though they were 
not hers : " the ostiich is reckoned among the fowls that 
are unclean : and Lam. iv. 3, " Even the sea monsters 
draw out the breast, they give suck to their young 
ones : the daughter of my peojile is become cruel, like 
the ostriches in the wilderness;" more cruel than the 
very sea monsters themselves, that draw out theu' 
breasts and give suck to their young ones. The in- 
struction of the son belongs to the father, the nursing 
of the son belongs to the mother. The mother's milk is 
the most profitable and wholesome for every one, (saith 
Lac uiiii«iimiim Plij^y') cccpt it be in some extraordi- 
cuiqtic maTemum. nary casc. Ue read, in 2 Tim. iii. 3, that 
_. c. . jj^ jj^p latter day, when evil times should 
come, some should be daTopyU, " without natural affec- 
tion : " that 'Topyri, wliich is there spoken of, is the af- 
fection of the parents to the children, as well as of the 
childi-en to the parents. 

But enough of this ; if not too much, to such as 
with theur pride and daintiness, the chikben of their 
own fancies, neglect natiu-e's duty to the childi-en of 
their bodies. 

But further observe here. That the Lord stays for 
the weaning of the child; he stays till Lo-ruhamah was 
weaned, before Lo-ammi was conceived. And there is 
much to be known in this. AMiy does God stay ? This 
is to show the gi'eat patience of God toward his people; 
for God was now about to reject them utterly from 
being his ))coplc ; God was coming in the height of his 
WTath, to declare that they were no more his people ; 
and here God makes a stop, stays till Lo-ruhamah was 
weaned. I have read that it was the custom of the 
Jews to be a long time, three years sometimes, before 
they weaned theii- children. God then it seems stayed 
long here, till the third child, Lo-ammi, was bom, 
before he would come with that cbeadful sentence, "Ye 
are not my people, and I will not be your God." First, 
T7hen Jezreel was bom, they are scattered up and down, 
but they arc not all carried away captive. Then Lo- 
ruhamah is born, and then they are canned away cap- 
tive, never to return again. But for all this, God may 
yet own them in their captivity. This is not so bad as 
for God to say, I will have no more to do with you as 
my people. Lord, though we be under affliction, under 
the power of our enemies, O'wn us still, acknowledge 
us to be thine; though we be in the fiery fiu'nace, yet 
let us have thee to be our God. No, (saith God,) you 
shall not only be scattered, but you shall be all carried 
away captive, and I will not own you, I will cast you 
of!', you shall not be my people, neither will I be your 
God. Now before this Go<l makes a stop. Hence, 

Obs. \. That God stops in his anger for a while, as long 
as he pleases. God is called, Nab. i. 2, The Lord of 
anger ; so the words ncn Sya signify, though trans- 
lated otherwise. We may apply it at least thus, God 
is the Lord of his own anger, he can let it out as far 
as he will, he can stoi) it when he will, he can command 
it to come in when he pleases. It is not so with us ; 
oui- passions are lords over us ; if we once let our anger 
arise, we cannot get it down again when we would, we 
cannot still our passions when we please ; if we let our 



affections run, we cannot rein them in in a moment. 
That is the frame of spirit which we should all labour 
for, to be like God, though angrv-, yet sm not, so that 
we can stop when we will, and command oiu' anger as 
we jjlcase. God says to the proud waves, " Hitherto 
shaft thou go, and no further." Oh that we were able 
to say to those proud waves of our passions, Hitherto 
arc you gone, but you shall go no further ! 

Obs. 2. Those who have been once the people of God 
must not be suddenly rejected from being God's people. 
Mark here, God stops in his anger for a w liile. When 
this dreadful judgment was about to be executed, God 
is even ready to say, as he said aftenvard in this \>xo- 
phecy, " How shall' I give thee up, Ephraim ? How 
shall I deliver thee, Israel ? " Hos. xi. 8. 'When we 
are about eitlier to reject any particulai- person, who 
has made profession of religion, from being God's, or 
to reject a church from being God's, we had need 
pause, and examine the matter well ; yea, and when we 
nave examined it, to stop again, and betJiink ourselves 
what we do. We must not be too sudden in rejecting 
those who have been once the people of God, from 
being the people of God now. Many men are too hasty, 
in rejecting both particulai- servants of God, and par- 
ticular churches from belonging to God, as soon as they 
see some few things amiss in them ; especially if there 
be any thing gross, immediately they are no chm'ches 
at all, they are altogether anticliristian, they belong to 
the beast ; and so, while they strike at the beast, they 
wound the Lamb. Certainly there is to be acknowledged 
much of Christ, not only in particidar saints, but with 
respect to the church ordinances of many particular 
congi-egations in England : we must take heed there- 
fore of too sudden rejection of them from belonging to 
God, or refusing them, as his people, chui'ch fellowship. 

'' She conceived, and bare a son." ^^'e come now to 
the conception of the third child ; it was a son, and liis 
name was Lo-ammi. The second child a daughter, 
l)Ut the third a son ; what is the meaning of this ? 
I told you, that by the second child was noted the state 
of the ])eople at that time, that it gi-ew weaker and 
more efl'eminate ; weaker in regard of their ouhvard 
strength, and more effeminate in regard of their spirits : 
and tliat statement I made good to you out of the history 
of those times in the Book of the Kings. Well, but 
now it is a son ; what ! do they grow stronger now thev 
are nearer to destruction than before ? Yes, thougfi 
nearer to ruin, and more hea^-y wrath, than they were 
before, yet they get up a little strength before that 
time ; therefore the third child is a son. Concerning 
the strength this people had a little before thcu- utter 
rejection, upon which their spirits were raised, you shall 
find the history in 2 Kings xvii. 4, where you have a 
declaration of the state of the ten tribes when Lo- 
ammi was born ; for the text tells us, that they began 
to join in confederacy with the king of EgT|-])t ; and 
whereas fonuerly they had done homage, by presents, 
to the king of AssjTia, now being confederate with the 
king of Egypt, they refused to bring any more presents 
to him ; they begin now to be a jolly people, and hoped 
to cast off that Assyrian yoke of bondage under which 
they had gi'oaned. 

66s. God sometimes pemiits men, and nations, and 
churches, to rise a little out of their affliction before 
their utter ruin ; he gives them a little reviving before 
theu' death. Many men think themselves in a very 
good condition, if, having been in afftiction, their af- 
flictions begin to abate, and they begin to rise a little ; 
now they think they are safe, and they are ready to say, 
with Agag, " Surely the bitterness of death is past," 
surely the worst is gone, 1 Sam. xv. 32. But you may 
sometimes be recovered, when God mtends jou should 
be suddenly rejected. Many may be preserved from 
some judgments, bccflusc they are reserved to greater 



Vee. 8. 



THE PROPHECY OF ROSEA. 



25 



judgments. The Lord has begun, indeed, to give to us 
in England a little reviving, a little strength to enable 
us to rise against the cruel oppressions of our adver- 
saries ; but let us not be seciu'e, notwithstanding this ; 
for though we have some little reviving, if we follow 
not God in the way of humiliation and reformation, this 
our little reviving may be but a lightning before om- 
death. 

And yet further, it is very observable what the con- 
dition of Israel was at this "time, when God was about 
to say, " Lo-ammi, they are not my people ;" what it 
was not only in regard of their strength, but of their 
very sins. For if you examine the history, you find 
that the people of Israel not only had gotten somewhat 
more strength, but they were somewhat better in re- 
gard of their sins than they had been ; I mean, they had 
less sins than they had before : yet now God is saying 
to them, " Lo-ammi, ye are not my people." And if 
you read 2 Kings xvii. 2, you will observe that the very 
time of the utter rejection of Israel was in the days of 
Hoshea, a king who did " evil in the sight of the Lord, 
but not as the kings of Israel that were before him." 
He was not so bad as the former kings of Israel, and 
yet in his days there comes utter destruction upon Is- 
rael. Yea, and as the king was not so bad as others 
before him, so it seems the people were not so bad as 
in former time, for ver. 9 saith, that " the chilcken of 
Israel did secretly those things that were not right 
against the Lord theu- God." They were sinful, but 
tlieu' sinfulness was secret, they did not sin with such 
an open, impudent face as heretofore. Yet in this king's 
time, and when these people were thus improved, comes 
their utter ruin. 

Hence we learn, that sometimes when there are 
greater sins patience stays judgment ; and yet after- 
ward, when a people seem to be in a better condition, 
not only in regard of then- outward strength, but in re- 
gard of then' sins too, then God comes with his wrath 
upon that people. Let us not flatter ourselves, although 
_ we can say that some things amongst us are not so bad 
as they were heretofore. Suppose there be some par- 
tial refoiTiiation, this is not ground enough to secure us. 
We cannot reason thus, Why heretofore the land was 
more sinful than now, and the governors were more 
oppressing than now. This is not enough, we may be 
nearer the sorest misery at this time, if oiu' reformation 
be not a thorough reformation, than we were before. 
And the reason is this, because God, when he comes 
against a nation, does not only come against it for the 
present sins of which they are actually guilty, but to 
reckon with them for then- sins committed before, 
though the judgment is inflicted just at that time. A 
concourse of events in God's providence might so meet 
as to suit with God's ends, that the destruction of this 
nation should be now, rather than some time ago, yet 
the nation not more sinful than before, but m order to 
fulfil other events of providence that God intends ; and 
then he comes to reckon with them for sins that were 
long ago committed and for their present sins all toge- 
ther. As he does sometimes with particular persons : 
perhaps they have been cb'unkards, unclean, wicked, 
twenty years ago; God has spared them ; afterward, upon 
some lesser sms, God may take advantage to come 
Litim.is iciiu non against them for all then' other sins to- 
stetnit quEtcum. gethcr. We commouly say. It is not the 
last blow of the axe that fells the oak : perhaps the 
last may be a weaker blow than any of the former, but 
the other blows made way for the felling of it, and at 
length a little blow comes and completes it. So our for- 
mer sins may be the things that make way for our ruin, 
and then at length some lesser sins may accompHsh it. 

'V ou that have been guilty of gross sins, take heed of 
small sins ; for though God has spared you when you 
were guilty of great sins, do not say that he will spare 



you now you commit lesser sins ; at this very time of 
committing lesser sins, you may be called to an account 
for grosser. Did you never know a house stand out 
against many strong and blustering winds, yet after- 
ward some little puff of wind has thrown it down ? So 
it is with nations and jJeople that sometimes stand out 
through God's patience, when their sins are gross and 
vile, and afterwards upon some lesser sins are utterly 
undone. 

Ver. 9. Then said God, Call his name Lo-ammi : for 
ye are not viy people, and I ivill not be your God. 

The name of this son is Lo-ammi, and the word sig- 
nifies, as it is interpreted here by God himself, " j'e are 
not my people, and I will not be your God." The 
people to whom Hosea prophesied might have object- 
ed against him thus : What ! Hosea, do you say that 
God will not have any more mercy upon us ? '\Miat ! 
will not God have mercy upon his own people ? Is not 
God our God ? Why do j'ou tlu-eatcn such things as 
these ? The prophet answers. It is true, God has been 
yoiu- God, and you have been his people, but there is 
an end of those days ; God now degrades you from those 
glorious privileges that you formerly possessed, he wLU 
own you no more to be his, and you shall have no fur- 
ther right to own him to be jom-s. From whence, 

Obs. 1. A people that have been once a people dear 
to God, may be so rejected as never to become a people 
of God more. For so these did not, though afterwards 
we shall hear of the promise for others in other ages. 
God has no need of men. God is able to raise up a 
people wliat ways he ])leases, even from the very stones 
in the street " to raise up chikben unto Abraham." 
Rome may boast that she has been a glorious chmxh. 
True, there has been heretofore a glorious church in 
Rome. "\Miat then ? Those who were his people are now 
no more his people. ■ We shall meet further with this 
in the next chapter. 

Only here observe but this thing, the gi-eat differ- 
ence between the estate of a Christian in communion 
with Chi-ist by grace, and a church estate. Men and 
women may lose then- church estate, and that for ever ; 
but their estate in communion with Jesus Christ by 
grace they can never lose. This is a great difierence, 
and affords abundance of comfort. True, our church 
state, I mean in regard of an instituted church in con- 
gregations, is a great privilege and mercy ; but our 
communion with Jesus Chi'ist is a higher pri^^lcge, and 
that privilege can never be lost : we may be cut off 
from the one, but never cut off from the other. 

Obs. 2. It is a most heavy judgment for any to have 
been heretofore the people of God, now to be unpeo- 
pled, for God to be no more theirs, and for them to be 
no more the Lord's. A hea\-y judgment for the Lord 
to say. Well, I will be no more a God to you, whatso- 
ever I am to others, no more yom's in my goodness, in 
my mercy, in my power, or whatsoever I am in myself 

The being cast off from God, 1. Takes us oft' fi-om 
that high honour that was before upon a people. 
" Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been 
honom-able," Isa. xUii. 4. The people of God gathered 
together in church communion, certainly are in an 
honourable condition ; when they are dispeopled, they 
are cast oft' fi-om this then- privilege, from their honour. 
2. They have not the presence of God with them, nor 
the care of God towards them, nor the protection of 
God over them, nor the delight of God in them, nor 
the communication of God to them as before. But, 
among other privileges, they want this, namely, that 
great pri«lege of pleacling with God for mercy upon 
this relation, which was the usual way of the prophets 
to plead with God, because they were the people of 
God : so Isa. Ixiv. 9, " Be not wroth very sore, O 



26 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. 1. 



Lord, neithcT remember iniquity for ever." Upon what 
ground ? '■ Behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all 
thy people." This is a good argument. Again, Jer. 
xiv. 9, " Why shouldest thou be as a man astonished, 
as a mighty man that cannot save ? yet thou, O Lord, 
art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name ; 
leave us not." This text is ours this day, and well may 
we say, " O Lord, why shoiddest thou be as a man aston- 
ished?" Yet if we" can but take up the second part, 
and say, " ^Xe are called by thy name," we may make 
more comfortable use of the former, " Viliy shouldest 
thou be as a man astonished?" How doth a man 
astonished stand ? He stands still in a place, as if he 
knew not which way to go ; he is in a kind of distrac- 
tion, fii-st he goes one way, and by and by he returns 
again. The Lord knows his pm-pose from eternity, but 
the Scriptures are pleased to express God's ways to- 
wai'ds us in this similitude. Has not God stood 
amongst us " as a man astonished?" God has been in 
a way of mercy, and then stood still, and then gone 
fom'ard a little, and aften^•ard gone back again, and 
yet back and back still ; and we have prayed and cried, 
and God has again stood as a man astonished, as if he 
were not yet resolved which way to go. Let us pray 
earnestly "to God that he would not stand as a man 
astonished, but that the way of the Lord's mercy may 
be made clear before him, and clear before us. But 
this I bring in to show that the relation wluch a people 
have to God, is the ground of then- encouragement to 
pray to God, and when a people is rejected they lose 
this privilege. Our relations to God are veiy sweet and 
glorious things, though ordinarily they are exceedingly 
abused. As it is said of other relations. Relations are 
of the least entity, but of the greatest eificacy ; so it is 
here, our relations to God are of very great efficacy, 
whatever the entity be ; and therefore to lose our rela- 
tions to God, especially this relation of God's being 
ours, and we being his, is a sore and heavy cm'se. 

Obs. 3. We first begin with God in oui- apostacy, be- 
fore God begins with us in his rejection. Mark here ; 
the first is, " you are not my people," before the second 
comes, " I will not be your God." I woidd not have 
withdrawn myself fi-om being yom- God if you had not 
first rejected me, and would not be my people. Wlien 
God loves, he begms first ; we love not him, but he 
loves us first : but when it comes to departing, it bc- 
guis on our side, we first depart before the Lord does : 
and this will be a di-eadful aggravation to wicked men 
another day, .to think with themselves. This evil is come 
upon us, God is gone, mercy is gone ; but who began 
this first ? where is the root and principle ? Thy per- 
dition is of thyself. I began first, and therefore all the 
loss of that grace and mercy that is in God, I may thank 
this proud, this distempered, this base, passionate, 
wTetched heart of mine own/or it. 

Obs. 4. It is a gi-eater misery to lose God himself, 
than to be deprived of whatsoever comes from God. 
" I will not 'be your God." He does not say. You shall 
not have the frliit of my patience to be yours, you shall 
not have my crcatiu-es to be yours, you shall not have 
those fruits of my bounty to' be yours : no, but I will 
not be yours, I myself wUl not be yours. This is the 
sorest threatening that can possibly be to a gracious 
heart. And this indeed is one special difference between 
a h\-pocrite and a truly gracious heart ; a h^i)oeritc is 
satisfied with what comes from God, but a truly gi'acious 
heart is satisfied with nothing but God himself. Thn\igh 
God lets out never so many fruits of his boimty and 
goodness to him, yet he must have union with God 
himself, or else he is unsatisfied. It is a notable speech 
of Bernard, " Lord, as the good things that come from 
me please not thee without myself, so the good things 
that come from thee please not me without thvselt." 
This is the expression of a gracious heart. Let us 



tender up to God never such duties, with never so great 
sti-ength, except we tender up to God otu-selves, they 
never please him. So let God bestow never so many 
favours upon us, except God give us himself, they 
should never please us ; I mean, please us so as to 
satisfy us, so as to quiet us, if for our portion. 

Y'ou know what God said to Abraham, " Fear not, I 
am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. But 
Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, see- 
ing I go chOdless ?" Gen. xv. 1, 2. What is all this to 
me, so long as I have not the promise fulfilled, that so 
I may come in C'lmst to enjoy thyself? And Closes 
woultl not be contented though God told him his Angel 
should go before thm ; no, saith he, " If thy presence 
go not with me carry us not up hence," Exod. xxui. 20 ; 
xxxiii. 15. The harlot cares not so much for the per- 
son of her lover, as for his gifts; but the true lover 
cannot be satisfied T\-ith love-tokens, but she must have 
the person himself. So it is with a gi-acious heart. It 
is verj- observable that David, in Psal. li. 9, prays, 
" Hide tliy face fi-om my sins ;" it seems God's face was 
angrv-; and yet presently, ver. 11, "Cast me not away 
from thy face, or presence." God's face _ . , . . . 

J ' 1 . , , CujiH facimi limct, 

was an angi-y lace, yet Uavid would not ipsiui facicm imo- 
be cast away from tliis face of God : O "^ ' "=' 
no, rather let God be present with a gi-acious heart, 
though he be angry ; though his anger continue, yet 
let rac have his countenance. In that God says not. I 
will not give you these and these favours, but " I will 
not be yoxu- God ;" tliis is the sorest thi-eatening that 
possibly can be to a gracious heart. 

06s. 5. This is the judgment for sin, God not being 
their God. It hence appears that sin carries along with 
it in itself its o\\ii punishment. How is that ? Thus : 
by sin we refuse to have God to be our God ; by it we 
depart fi-om God, we do not trust God, nor love him, 
nor fear him. The very nature of sin causes a smner to 
depart fi-om God, yea, to reject God from being a God 
to him ; and this is" the pimishment, " I wiU not be your 
God." And this is the sorest punishment to a sinner, 
that he shall not have God for ever for his God. 

Obs. 6. AMien any forsake God, and disavow him to 
be their God, we should do as God does, reject them 
from being om-s. If they will not be God's, neither 
should they be ours. W'Ul not such a man have ac- 
quaintance with God, win he forsake him and his ways, 
then he shall not have our acquaintance, we wiU for- 
sake him. How far we may withdraw from a church 
that it shall not be ours, -we shall fully meet with in the 
second chapter. Only now thus much : though it be 
true, when a people forsake God, we ai-e to forsake them, 
yet lot them gi-ow never so -wicked, our natural and 
civil relations caimot be broken because of thcu- wicked- 
ness ; but the relations of husband and wife, father and 
cliild, master and servant, must be acluiowlcdged ; serv- 
ants mtist be dutiftd to their masters though never so 
wicked ; and the wife must be lo\-ing and dutiful to her 
husband, though he be never so wicked a man. But 
any intimate familiarity with those, not thus joined in 
such relations, ought not to exist ; if they reject God, 
if they will not be God's, they should not be ours. It 
is said, Job viii. 20, that God will not help the enl- 
doers ; it should be ti-ue of us all, that we should not 
take the ungodly by the hand, to help them in e\-il. 
Thus much for the name of this tlm-d cluld, " Lo-ammi : 
ye are not my people, and I will not be your God." 

That wliich remains in the chapter, is a promise of 
mercy both to Israel, ver. 10, and afterwards to Israel 
and Judah together, ver. 11. To Israel fii-st, and that is, 

Ver. 10. I'et the number of the children of Israel 
shall be as the sand of the sea, trhich cannot be measured 
nor numbered ; and it shall come to pass, that in the 
place uhere it was said unto them, Yc are not my people, 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



27 



there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the 
living God. 

And so lie goes on with wonderfully gracious pro- 
mises of mercy to Israel in futm-e generations, though 
for the present God had determined what to do with 
Israel. Here then we have, fii-st, a promise of mercy to 
Israel. Secondly, tliis mercy to be in futui-e generations. 
And thii'dly, to consist in the multitudes that should 
be gathered to Israel. 

I. Here is a promise of mercy to Israel. 

Obs. 1. That the Lord in judgment remembers mercy. 
It is a sore thing when God in mercy remembers judg- 
ment, but it is as comfortable when God in judgment 
remembers mercy. \Mien God thi-eatens most di-ead- 
fuUy, yet he promises most graciously. We should 
therefore, when we most fear the thi'eats of God, look 
up to the promises of God. look up to see, when wrath 
is denounced in the most hideous and dreadful way, 
whether we can spy a promise, whether there be not 
yet a little cloud, though but as big as a man's hand, 
whether there be not yet a little cre\ice, through wliich 
we ma)" see whether God doth not break forth with a 
little light in a way of promise. 

Obs. 2. It is usual, when we are in prosperity to 
forget all threatenings, and when we are in adversitj- 
to forget all promises. "Ulien we hear of mercy to 
God's people, we never think of God's wrath ; and on 
the other side, when we hear of Ms wrath, our unbe- 
lie^Tng hearts never think of his gi'aee and mercy. 
AVe ought to sanctify the name of God in both ; when 
God is in a way of justice, look up to his gi-ace ; and 
when he is in a way of grace, look up to his justice. 
For that end I shall give you two notable texts of 
Scriptiu-e, as famous as any I taiow in the book of God: 
the one declares to you that when God expresses the 
greatest mercy, yet then he declares the greatest wrath; 
and the other, when God expresses the greatest wi-ath, he 
then declares the greatest mercy : and I shall show you 
how the name of God ought to be sanctified in both. 

The fii'st is in Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7 ; when the Lord 
passed by before ISIoses he " proclaimed. The Lord, 
the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and 
abundant in goodness and ti'uth, keeping mercy for 
thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and 
sin." 'What abundance of mercy is here expressed ! 
Now it follows, •' and that will by no means clear the 
guilty; visiting the miquitj' of the fathers upon the 
childi-en, and upon the children's children, unto the 
thu-d and to the foiuth generation." Here is an ex- 
pression of gi-eat T\Tath. And then for our sanctifjing 
of God's name in this, it follows, ver. 8, And when 
Moses heard this, he " made haste, and bowed his head 
toward the earth, and worshipped." Thus we must bow 
and worsliip before God, sanctifying his name in both 
his mercy and justice. 

On the other side, Nah. i. 2, " God is jealous, and 
the Lord revengeth ; the Lord revengeth, and is fuiious ; 
the Lord will take vengeance on ms adversaries, and 
he reserveth \vrath for his enemies." Dreadful expres- 
sions! Yet, ver. 3, " The Lord is slow to anger;" there 
is a mitigation at first : then he advances in expres- 
sions of wrath, but he is " gi-eat in power, and will not 
at all acquit the wicked : " and ver. 5, " The mountains 
quake at h i m , and the hills melt, and the earth is hm'ued 
at his presence, yea, the world, and alL that dwell there- 
in : who can stand before his indignation, and who can 
abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured 
out like fii-e, and the rocks are thi-own down by him." 
■\\liat more terrible expressions of wrath than these ? 
Now mark, ver. 7, " The Lord is good, and a sti-ong 
hold in the day of trouble ; and he knoweth them that 
ti'ust in him."' "\Miat a sti-ong expression of grace is 
here ! observe it, my brethren, that in the midst of 



God's anger, yet God is good stUl. A gracious heart 
must acknowledge, though God be provoked to anger, 
yet he is a good God still ; and it is a good sign for the 
soul to fall down before God when he is in the way of 
his vrrath, and to say, " The Lord is good." As that 
good old man Eh did, after the denunciation of that 
dreadful sentence against him and his house by Samuel, 
" It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good." 

Obs. 3. God, in the midst of his anger, knows those 
that trust in him. All of you wOl say, when God be- 
stows fevom's upon you, The Lord is good, O bl&ssed 
be God, he is a good God : but when God reveals his 
greatest wrath, truly then the Lord is 
good. Luther declared he woiUd acluiow- JjLmS°omnM lo- 
ledge God to be a good God, though he ?i?« perderet. 

Ill 1 11 . 1 1 1 Luther. 

snould destroy all men in the world. 
JIuch more then is he to be acknowledged in a day of 
trouble, when he appears most gi'aciously to his saints. 
'• The Lord is good, and a strong hold in the day of 
ti'ouble." God is a sti-ong hold now, when such wrath 
is revealed, to his saints in the day of trouble ; and 
he knoweth those that trust in liim ; though his wrath 
is abroad in the world, he knoweth those that trust in 
him. Wlien men are angry they scarce Imow the dif- 
ference between then- foes and then- friends. K any 
displease them, they come home and are angry with 
then- wives, with their servants, with their childi'en, 
with theu' friends, with every one about them. "\Miile 
they are in their passion, their wives, and childi'en, and 
servants wonder what the matter is with them : Siu-ely 
some one has displeased my master to-day, he is so 
touchy, and angiy at every Uttle thing. jNIy brethren, 
it is a dishonour to you in the eyes of your servants, 
and it lays low yom- authority in your families, for them 
to see you come home in such a pet that you know not 
how to be pleased, though they have done nothing to 
chsplease you. God does not act so; though he be 
never so angiy, yet he knows those that trust in him. 
Let God's anger be never so public and general in the 
world, if there be but a gracious soul that lies in a poor 
cottage, or in a hole, the Lord knows it, and takes notice 
of it, and that soul shall understand too that God 
knows it. It is true, when the wrath of God is revealed 
abroad in the world, it seems as if it woidd swallow up 
all the saints ; and those wiiose spirits are weak and 
fearful are afi-aid that they shall be swallowed up in 
the common calamit)-. But be of good comfort, God 
knows those that trust in liim, even when his wrath is 
never so dreadful and general. In this case it is with 
God's childi-en as it is with a child in the mother's 
amis ; if the father violently lays hold upon liis serv- 
ant, and thrusts him out of doors for his demerits, 
there is such a tenible reflection of the father's anger 
against the servant upon the child, that the poor child 
begins to cry. So when the children of God see 
God laying hold upon wicked men. to execute wrath 
upon them, they cry out, they are afi-aid lest some evil 
should befall them too. O no, be of good comfort, 
" The Lord is good, and a strong hold in the day of 
ti-ouble ; and he knoweth them that ti'ust in him," when 
liis anger is never so great and general. So though 
this Israel be " not my people," yet " the number of the 
clulch-en of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea." So 
in Nah. i. 15, "Behold upon the mountains the feet 
of him that bringeth good titUngs, that publisheth 
peace !" What! at this time, though God's way be in 
the whirlwind, and so tenible, yet now, " behold the 
feet of him that bringeth good tiduigs, that publisheth 
peace." God abroad publishes war, yet he has a mes- 
senger to. publish peace and life to some. 

Is it not so this day ? It is ti-ue, the wrath of the 
Lord Ls kindled, and bmns as an oven against the un- 
godly, but peace shall be upon Israel. And let us 
sanctift- the name of God in this too, for so it follows, 



AN' EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. I. 



Nah. i. 15, "O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform 
thy vows : for the wicked shall no more pass through 
thee ; he is utterly cut off." And because God reveals 
such rich fp-ace in the midst of judgment, let this en- 
gage your hearts to the Lord for ever. 

Obs. 4. Not only when God threatens judgments, 
but when judgments are actually upon us, let us sanc- 
tify God's name in looking up to promises. Suppose 
we should live to feel most fearful judgments of God, 
yet even then we must look up to promises, and exer- 
cise faith, and have an eye to God in the way of his 
grace at that time ; this is more difficult than in threat- 
enings. You have a notable passage in Isa. xxvi. 8, 
" In the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited 
for thee ; the desire of our soul is to thy name." Bless- 
ed be God, my brethren, the Lord calls" us to wait upon 
him in the ways of mercy for the present. Not long 
since the Lord was in a way of judgment toward Eng- 
land ; and some of God's people would wait upon God 
and keep his ways ; but there were many, when they 
saw that they were likely to suffer, departed fi-om Goil 
and declined his ways. Much cause of bitterness of 
spu'it, and of dread of humihation, have they that did 
so. But others may have comfort to their souls, that 
in the very way of God's judgments they waited for 
him, and they can now with more comfort wait upon 
God, when he is in the way of his mercy. But if God 
sliould ever come unto us in the way of his judgments, 
let us learn even then to wait upon God and keep his 
way. 

jer. xxxiii. 2-1 may seem more pertinent to illustrate 
this truth : " Considerest thou not what this people 
have s))oken, saying. The two families which the Lord 
hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they 
have despised my people, that they should be no more 
a nation before them." Mark the low condition of the 
people at this time ; God has cast them off, they are 
despised and contemptible, not worthy to be accounted 
a nation : but though they were brought low, and in a 
condition contemptible, yet now God confu-ms his co- 
venant with them : for obser\e, ver. 25, 26, " Thus saith 
the Lord; If my covenant be not with day and night, 
and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven 
and earth ; then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and 
David my servant." As if God had said. Let them 
know that -nhatcvcr their condition is now, yet my love, 
my mercy, my faithfulness, is toward them as sure as 
my covenant with day and night, and as the ordinances 
of heaven and earth. An admirable text to help not 
only nations, but individuals, when they are under the 
contempt of ungodly men. Yet at that time the Lord 
is most ready to eonfh-m his covenant with them, to be 
as sure as his covenant with day and night, and heaven 
and earth. It brings honour to God when at such 
times we can look up to him and exercise faith. And 
indeed this is the glorj-, and dignity, and beauty of faith, 
to exercise it when God's judgments are" actually 
upon us. 

II. To whom did this promise refer ? It was not a 
promise to any who then lived, but to be fulfilled in 
future ages, yet introduced by the prophet as a comfort 
to the people of God then living. Hence 

06s. Gracious hearts are comforted with the promises 
of God made to the church, though not to be fulfilled 
in their days. If the church may prosper and receive 
mercies from God, though I be dead and mouldering 
in the grave, yet blessed be God ! AVhen Jacob was 
dying he said to Joseph, " Behold, I die ; but God shall 
be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your 
fathers," Gen. xlviii. 21 ; he will fulfil his promises to 
you though I am dead. Our forefathers, that genera- 
tion of the saints who lived a while since, how comfort- 
ably would the) have died, if God, before their death, 
had revealed to them, that within three, or four, or 



seven years, so much mercy shoidd come to England 
as we now see ! Y'ea, how comfortably would any of us 
have died (I appeal to any gracious heart here) if God 
had said thus to thee. Go and be gathered to thy fathers 
in peace, within these two years such things shall be 
done for England as we now live to see ! would not we 
■willingly have died ? would it not have been comfort 
enough against the fear of death, to have had revealed 
to us what should have been done to our posterity ? 
AMiat mercy then is it now, that it is not only revealed 
to us, but enjoyed by us ! 

III. AMiat was this promise ? " That Israel should 
bo a multitude, that the number of them should be as the 
sand of the sea shore." "We shall examine the excel- 
lency of the mercy of God in this promise by and by. 
Only for tlie present, inquire we a little why God 
should manifest his grace " to midtiply them as the 
sand of the sea shore ? " 

If we compare Scripture with Scripture, we shall find 
that God ])romises this, because he would thereby show, 
that he remembered his old promise to Abraham, that 
God would multiply his seed " as the stars of heaven, 
and as the sand which is ujion the sea shore ;" and now 
God a long time after renews this promise. Hence 

Obs. That the Lord remembers his promises, though 
made a long time since. '• God is ever mindful of his 
covenant," Psal. cxi. 5. AVhcn we have some new and 
fresh manifestations of God's mercy, oiu- hearts rejoice 
in it, but the impression of it is soon gone. "\Mien some 
of you have been seeking God, have had many mani- 
festations of his love, and God has entered into cove- 
nant with you, for a while you have been comforted, 
but you lose all yoiu' comfort again within a short, time. 
O remember, " God is ever mindful of his covenant," 
though made twenty or forty years ago ; he remains 
the same still ; be you the same still ; be you ever mind- 
ful of your covenants. Wien men are brought into 
the bond of the covenant, their consciences are awed 
with it, at first they M'alk very strictly, and dare not in 
the least thing go from the covenant ; but after a few 
months or weeks are over theii- heads, they forget the 
covenant they made with God. There is not such a 
strong bond upon their spirits as there was before. O 
my brethi'en, know that this is a gi'eat and sore evil in 
you ; " God is ever mindful of his covenant," so you 
should be. 

And as of his covenant, so of his threats too, by way 
of ])roportion. God remembers his tlu'eats that were 
made many years ago : we are affected with God's 
threats for the present, but within a while the impres- 
sion is gone ; but let us know, time alters not God as 
it does us. 

Vi'e must, however, inquii-e more fully into this pro- 
mise, because it is often declared in Scripture, that the 
childi-en of Israel should be like the stars of the heaven, 
and as the sand upon the sea shore. Viliy did God 
express himself thus in his covenant to Abraham ? 

First, Abraham left his father's house and all his 
kinda-ed at God's command, and upon that God made 
this covenant with him, that he would make his seed 
" as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is 
upon the sea shore." As if God had said, Abraham, be 
willing to leave your father's house, I will make a gi-eat 
house of you, a great family of youi-s. 

Secondly, Observe that afterwards God confirmed this 
covenant to Abraham, and that with an oath. A\'hen 
he came first out of his countn,', and left his father's 
house, God made this promise of increasing his seed, 
but not with an oath ; but afterwards, in Gen. xxii. 16. 
1 7, God renews this promise of multiplying his seed, and 
that by an oath : " By myself have I sworn, saith the 
Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast 
not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing 1 
will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply tliy 



Vee. 10. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



21 



seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which 
is upon the sea shore." Mark here, it was upon Abra- 
ham's being willing to offer up his son Isaac, his only 
son Isaac. Abraham was willing at God's command 
to offer up his own son, and upon that God promises to 
multiply his seed as the stars of heaven, and as the 
sand of the sea. Yea, with an oath. By myself I swear, 
saith the Lord, that I will do it, because thou hast done 
this. 

Ois. 1. There is nothing lost in being willing to lose 
for God. Abraham was willing to lose his father's 
house, the comfort of his family, for God : I wdl make 
thee a glorious family as the stars of heaven, saith God. 
Again, Abraham was willing to lose one son, his only 
son, for God. Art thou willing to lose one son for me, 
saith God, thou shalt have ten thousand sons for this 
one thou losest, yea, though it be lost but in thy inten- 
tion. Thou shait have thy own son, and yet have ten 
thousand sons besides. O, let us not be afraid to part 
with any thing for God. God's people know how to 
make up in God whatever they lose for God. But God 
will not oidy make it up in himself, but w-iU make it up 
even in the very creatui'e itself thou losest for God. 
Art thou willing to lose a little of thy estate ? Thou 
mayst with comfort expect, as far as, if thou knewest all, 
thou thyself wouldst desire, to have it made up in abund- 
ance, even m that very way. You know the promise, 
" And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, 
or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or chikben, or 
lands, for my name's salve, shall receive an hundredfold, 
and shall inherit everlasting life," Matt. xix. 29. How 
hath God fulfilled this promise this day in many of 
our eyes, and to many of om- experiences ! How many 
have you known who were willing to part with what 
they had. and to put it out, as it were, to the wide 
world! But God has made it up to them, not only 
in himself, but in the very thing itself; and thereby 
taught them, and all the world, to be willing to ventm'e 
to part with any thing for God and his cause. 

06^. 2. When we are ^^•illing to lose for God, then 
is the time when God will renew and confii-m his cove- 
nant with us. God confii-med his covenant with Abra- 
ham when he was willing to part with his son, to be 
deprived of all his seed. The way to make sure of 
what we have is to be willing to part with it. You all 
desire to be siu'e of your estates ; Oh that we could in 
these times, wherein we see nothing sure, make om- 
estates sm-e ! Would you make sm-e of your estates ? 
Be willing to employ yom' estates for God and for a 
good cause. This is the way to have God renew his 
covenant to you for an assurance that way. This is 
the best assiu-ance office in the world. 

But how comes this promise in at this time, and to 
this people, in Hosea's proph(Wy ? Because the Lord, 
by the prophet, would answer an objection of the 
people. They might have said, Hosea, do you thus 
threaten the destruction of Israel ? You promise mercy 
to Judah, and Judah is but a handful to us ; we are the 
ten tribes, and with us is the greatest part, almost all 
the seed of Abraham, and yet yo>i thi-eaten our de- 
struction ; it can never possibly be. What will become 
of God's promise to Abraham, that liis seed should be 
as the stars of heaven, and as the sand on the sea shore ? 
You seem to speak conti-ary to God ; God said that he 
would multiply that seed, and you take a coui-se to 
make men believe that the seed of Abraham shall be 
brought to nothing. 

The prophet answers thus : Do you say, "VATiat will 
become of Abraham's seed ? Know that God can tell 
how to provide for Ms church and fuhil his promise 
made to Abraham, whatever becomes of you. You are 
mistaken in thinking that you alone are the seed of 
Abraham. Abraham has not only a carnal, but a 
spiritual seed ; all those that shall join in the faith of 



Abraham, and subject themselves to the God of Abra- 
ham, shall be the seed of Abraham, and so they shall 
be the chUcb-en of Israel as well as you. Thus God 
will make good his word. To expound this truth the 
apostle quotes this promise, " As he saith also in Hosea, 
I will call them my people which were not my people," 
Rom. ix. 25 ; and applies it to the Gentiles. The Holy 
Ghost, who is the best interpreter of Scripture, there 
shows that it is at least in part fulfilled in so many 
of the Gentiles coming in, and being converted to the 
faith of the true ^Messiah. 

This and many other excellent prophecies concern- 
ing the glory of Israel, were made good in part in the 
fii-st times of the gospel. They were, however, but the 
fu-st-fruits of the fulfilling of those promises and pro- 
phecies ; the accomplishment of them is yet certainly 
to come, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall come 
in, and the Jews be converted. Then not only the 
spuitual seed, but the very carnal seed of Abraham 
shall have this promise made good, and be multiplied, 
and come into the faith too, Rom. xi. 26. The apostle 
speaks there of a general salvation of Israel that was 
to come after the fulness of the Gentiles. So it appears 
plainly, that those prophecies concerning the glory of 
Israel, though they were in part made good in the 
first times of the gospel, yet there was a fui'ther ac- 
complishment of them, when there should be a fubiess 
of the Gentiles come in, and then all Israel should 
be saved. From hence 

Obs. 1. All believers, though of the Gentiles, are of 
the seed of Abraham, they are of Israel, and therefore 
have the same privileges with Israel, the same in efl'eet, 
yea, better. They are all the heirs of Abraham, who, 
Rom. iv. 13, is said to be " the heir of the world ;" they 
have the dignity of Israel, to be the peculiar people of 
the Lord, to be God's treasure and portion. Whatever 
you read of excellent titles and appellations about 
Israel, they belong now to all believers, though they 
are Gentiles. A comfortable and most sweet point to 
us Gentiles. 

Obs. 2. God has a time to bring in abundance of 
people to the profession of the faith ; multitudes, even 
as the sand of the sea shore. He wUl do it, and he has 
ways enough to accomplish it. Though for the present 
men cast this reproach upon the people of God, that 
they ai-e but few, a company of poor mean people, a 
handful, that ai-e nothing in comparison of the rest. 
But this reproach will be wiped away, and we may yet 
expect, that before the world come to an end, the 
greatest part of its inhabitants shall embrace the faith 
of Ciurist, and become godly too. Isa. xlix. 19 — 21, 
" Thy waste and desolate places, and the land of thy de- 
struction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the 
inhabitants." This yet has not been fulfilled. Thy chil- 
di-en shall say, " The place is too strait for me, give place 
to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thine 
heart, who hath begotten me these ? " "WTien was this 
fulfilled ? '■ The stone," in Dan. ii. 35, " that smote the 
image became a great mountain, and filled the whole 
earth." God's people shall fiU the whole earth. Now 
take all Christians to be God's people that only ac- 
knowledge Chi-ist to be the Son of God, they are com- 
puted to be not above the sixth part of the world ; and 
yet tliis must be fulfilled, that the chm-ch shall be as the 
stone that smote the image, become a gi-eat mountain 
and fill the whole earth. " John saw," in the Revelation, 
" the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from 
God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her 
husband," Rev. xxi. 2, 10: and when God comes to 
dwell with men by his Spuit, all people shall come and 
flock to the chm-ch, as the prophet saith, like "the 
doves to then- wmdows," Isa. Ix. 8; and they, you 
know, fly together in flocks. In Chr-ist's time the 
people of God were a little flock ; " Fear not, little 



30 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. I. 



flock." The Greek has tno diminutives, 
^owwo"" ^it\c, little flock, and so it may be ti-ans- 
latcd, " Fear not, little, little flock ; for it 
is your Father's good pleasure to give vou the king- 
dom,'' Luke xii. 32. It ^\as a little flock then, but it 
shall be a gi-eat flock when the Father shall come to 
give them the kingdom. Clu-ist is promised to have 
the '• heathen for liis inheritance, and the uttei-most 
parts of the earth for his possession," Psal. ii. 8 ; he 
shall possess them. A king does not possess a king- 
dom who only possesses some town, or one shire of it : 
Christ shall jiossess the utteimost parts of the earth. 
Yea, it shall be said, " The kingdoms of this world are 
become the Idngdoms of om- Lord, and his Christ," 
Rev. xi. 15. They are the Lord's indeed in some sense 
always: but he speaks in a special sense, wherein it 
shall be said not only a few congregations are the 
Lord's, and his Christ's, but the whole kingdoms of the 
earth, which, with their great kings, shall come and 
bring their glory into tlie chuixh. 

Obs. 3. Is it so? let every one then come in, and help 
on this work. Has God promised this, that there shall 
be multitudes come into the church ? Come thou in 
then, and thou ! What ! shall so many embrace the 
faith of Jesus Christ, and shalt thou stand out, and be 
sliut out at last amongst the dogs ? Do you come in 
and add to the number-, to make good this word of the 
Lord. Yea, let us seek to di'aw in all others as much as 
we can : therefore it is that we have such excellent 
promises in the Scriptm-e to encourage us to di-aw in 
others to the faith. " He that turneth many to right- 
eousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever," 
Dan. xii. 3. 

Obs. 4. Although God defei-s fulfilling his promise 
for a time, yet at last he does it gloriously. The paucity 
of the number of the saints of God now shall not dis- 
com-age always ; let us be above this stumblingblock. 
There are but few yet ; what then ? there shall be many, 
" The number of the cliildren of Israel shall be as the 
sand of the sea." What though we do not see ways 
how this promise shall be fulfilled for the present, yet 
let us believe it. For, observe, when God fii-st made 
this ])i;omise to Abraham, that his seed should be as 
the stars of heaven, and as the sand of the sea shore, it 
required much exercise of faith in Abraham to believe 
it. It was twenty years after this promise before Abra- 
ham had a child.' At last he had a chUd, and a child 
by promise; then he must go and kill that chOd; but 
lie was spared. Well, Isaac grows up, and he was 
forty yeai's old before he man-ied ; all this while there 
^^ as but one of the promised seed. Wien Isaac mar- 
ried, Kebekah his wife continued twenty years ban-en ; 
wliat became of the promise all this wliile, that the 
seed of Abraham shoidd be as tlie sand of the sea ? 
Here are twenty years gone, and forty years gone, and 
twenty years more gone, and yet there are no other chil- 
di'tn of the seed by promise but Isaac. Nay, it appears 
that upon their going into Egj-jit, which was two hun- 
dred and fifteen yeara after the promise, there were but 
threescore and ten of them all. Wrere is the promise 
then, that Abraham's seed should be as the stars of 
heaven for multitude ? But now mark, God afterwards 
comes on apace, for in Numb. i. 4G, you find that at the 
end of the next two hundred and fifteen years they 
were reckoned when they came out of Egypt, and 
" they were sLx hundred thousand and three thousand 
and five hundr-ed and fifty" fighting men of twentj' 
years old and upwards, besides all the women and chil- 
(hen, and all the tribe of Levi, which made two and 
twenty thousand more, Numb. iii. 39. In the fii-st 
two hxmtbtd and fii'teon year's they were but threescore 
and ten, and the next two hunilred and fifteen yeai-s, 
w hile they were in bondage, they increased to six hiui- 
di'cd thousand and three thousluid and five hunchvd 



and fifty, besides women and children, and the tribe of 
Levi. Thus, though it was long, yet when God's time 
eame he fulfilled the promise to Afcraham. So though 
we do not for the present see God making good the 
promise, yet let us believe, for God has ways to fulfil all, 
and he will do it, and when he comes he will come 
gloriously above our faith. 

We can hardly believe there should be such great 
things done in England as we desire and expect, but 
there is nothing yet to accomi)lish which is more diffi- 
cult than that which has been ah-eady done, therefore 
we may believe : and when God once comes in the way of 
mercy, he ti'iumphs gloriously ; therefore let us be will- 
ing to wait his time. Let us not pro])ortion out God's 
ways, nor di-aw an argument from what has been done 
in one time, that therefore no more shall be done iii 
another. You see what he did m the f ulfillin g of the 
promise to Abraham ; and you may observe in yom' read- 
ing of the New Testament, what low beginnings there 
were of the chm'ch at the fii-st : therefore saith Christ, 
" AVliere tw o or thi-ee are gathered together ;" as noting 
that there would be but a very few at the fii-st. AMien 
Paul was called by a wonderful vision, in wliich he saw 
a man of Macedonia appearmg to him, and jjrapng 
him to come over to Macedonia and help them, Acts 
xvi. 9 ; one would have thought that when he preached 
there, aU would have come flocking to heai', and there 
would have been a glorious work done, that he would 
have brought in a great number to the faith. But when 
he came to Macedonia he was fain to go into the fields 
by a river's side to preach, and only a few women came 
there to hear him. That was all tlie autlitory he had, and 
amongst them there was but one poor woman ^^Tought 
upon, " God opened the heart of Lydia." This was 
the present result only of such a mighty call ; and vet 
we know how gloriously God wrought by Paul. Tliis 
I note to confii-m -^ou in this, that though the begin- 
nings be very small, yet we may expect a glorious in- 
crease afterward. As it was with the church at the 
beginning, so it wiD be here : that which BUdad said 
of Job, chap, \-iii. 7, may well be applied to the chm-ch, 
" Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end 
shall gi-eatly increase." 

Obs. 5. As God has a time to multiply his chmxh, so 
it is a great blessing to the chm-ch of God when it is 
multiplied. It is a fi-uit of God's gi-eat grace and mercy 
to m;ike the church a numerous people : as " in the 
midtitude of people is the king's nonom-," Prov. xiv. 
2S ; so it is the glory of Jesus Christ, and therefore it 
was prophesied of him, tliat converts should come into 
the church as the " dew of the morning," Psal. ex. 3. 
Thus it began in the primitive times, and soon after 
multitudes united with the church. I remember that 
Jerome, writing to Cromatius, affinns, that there might 
be computed for every day in the year (except the tir-st 
of January) five thousand martyrs ; therefore the chmxh 
was grown to a numerous multitude. And Tertullian, 
ui his Apology to the Heathens, states, they were be- 
come so numerous in his day, that they had filled then- 
cities; and that if they would they had strength enough 
to make their party good against them, but tliey were 
patient and submitted themselves to their tjTanny. 

I know many make this statement of Tertullian an 
argument that men ought to lay do^vn their necks, il' 
tAose who rule over them \\t11 it ; and that if they can- 
not obey actively, tliey must obey passively, anv thing 
that is according to the will of their rulers. Wliy, say 
they, did not the Christians resist in the primitive 
times? Yes, though they were under idolaters, and 
were commanded to deny Christ, which was utterly 
unlawful, if they could not obey activelv, they obeycel 
l)asslvely, they submitted themselves to their rage ; and 
though they had strength vet they would not resist. 
Whv slioulcl not Cluistians clo so now ? 



Vee. 10. 

You are exceedingly deceived witli this argument. 
True, we are bound to obey authority, actively or pas- 
sively, and yet this argument does not serve the tm-n. 
There is much difference between authority abused, 
and men that are in authority commanding ; here the 
difference lies not in authority abused, but in that 
which is no authority at all. " For there is no au- 
tliorit)' that we are subject to now, but according to 
the laws and constitutions of the country in which wc 
live. Not to the commands and mere will of men are 
we boimd m conscience to submit, either actively or 
passively. Though it be a good thing that is com- 
manded, conscience does not bind to it, ea ratione, to 
jdeld to it because it is commanded, tQl it be brought 
to a law, and is according to the agTeements and cove- 
nants of the country wherein we live. And suppose 
this authority is abused, and there Ls an LU law made, 
then I confess, if that law be of force, we must either 
leave the countay, or submit, or suffer, for then the 
power of God is in it, though it be abused, and we are 
to be subject to all powers. '\ATien then it comes to 
be a power, to be a law, it is authority, though abused, 
and we must peld obedience to it, either actively or 
passively. But we must inquu'c whether it be a power ; 
it is not because the man that is in authority com- 
mands it, except he command it by viilue of that 
authority which is according to the nature and condi- 
tion of the fundamental constitutions of the country 
where he lives. 

Now in the primitive times they submitted them- 
selves to suffer when they could not do the thmgs that 
were commanded, as to deny Christ, because by the 
constitutions of that country they had a legal power to 
proceed against them. Therefore the Clndstians were 
willing rather to suffer any thing than to resist ; and 
were om's the same case we should do so too. K once 
it come to pass, that mischief be established by a law, 
tliough it be miscliief, yet if we cannot obey it actively, 
we are bomid to suffer, or else to quit the country, if it 
be urged upon us. We may seek what wc can to get 
it alleviated, but we must either do or suffer, if once it 
be framed into a law ; otherwise we are not boimd in 
conscience ; bomid we may be in regard of prudence, 
and for preventing other disturbances, but conscience 
does not bind to the will of men, but to laW'S. Thus 
much for the satisfaction of conscience in this case. 

Obs. 6. We should rejoice in multitudes joining the 
church. The Chi-istians were wonderfully increased 
at this time. Now we know we are to rejoice when the 
chm-ch is uicreased, and to esteem it as the gi-eat bless- 
ing of God when its members ai-e made as the sand 
upon the sea shore. In Psal. Ixxii. S, there is a large 
prophecy made of the kingdom of Christ, and of his 
glory in this particular : " He shall have dominion 
from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends cf 
the earth :" then ver. 11, " All kings shall fall down be- 
fore him : all nations shall serve him :" and ver. 1 7, 
" His name shall endm-e for ever : his name shall be 
continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed 
in him : all nations shall call him blessed." Mark how 
the samts rejoice and bless God; what! shall all nations 
come m and serve Clirist ? shall there come multitudes 
in and join the church ? " Blessed be the Lord God, 
the God of Israel, who only doeth wondi-ous tilings, and 
blessed be liis glorious name for ever : and let the whole 
earth be filled with his glory; Amen,,and Amen," saith 
the chm-ch of God then. Let all the saints send forth 
their echo. Amen ; yea, and Amen too to this, that all 
the earth shall be filled with the glory of Christ ; this 
is that with which they ai-e affected, tliis is that they 
deske. as if they should say, This is a blessed thing 
indeed ! 

My brethren, it is- a good and comely sight in a gra- 
cious eve to see multitudes flock to Christ and to his 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



31 



ordinances. It is true that the spirit of anticlu-ist, which 
is in many, camiot look upon tliis but with a malevolent 
eye, and then- hearts rage and fret. They love to scat- 
ter Cluist's chm-ch up and down, but to see people 
flocking to ordinances, to see multitudes come and join 
themselves to Cln-ist, this they cannot endure. The 
same malicious spirit that was against Clrrist, of which 
we read in the Acts of the Apostles, yea, and in the 
Gospels too, we find still in such kinds of men. Mark 
that text, Acts siii. 44, 45 : " Almost the whole city 
came together to hear the word of God ;" to hear a ser- 
mon. Now when the Jews " saw the multitude, they 
were filled with emy :" w-hy, what harm was there 
done ? They saw no harm done, but merely saw- the 
multitude, and they speak against those things that 
were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. 
Mark again the vUe spu'its of the Pharisees, who envied 
at the multitude that followed Christ himself: not only 
did they emy the apostles, for they might be factious 
and singidar men in then- esteem ; but what say you to 
Clirist himself? John xii. 19, " The Pharisees said. 
Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing ? behold, the whole 
world is gone after him." Certainly the same Phari- 
saical spirit has prevailed in om- days. _ We know that 
many a godly, painful, conscientious minister, has been 
ousted of all" he had in an instant, and his mouth stop- 
ped, though his persecutors had notlimg against hini, 
no, not for their own laws, but because he was a popu- 
lar man, and multitudes foUow-ed liim. "SATiat a dan- 
gerous thing has it been of late times for men to be 
populai-, that is, to be such as multitudes would flock 
to the word preached by them. Certainly it is an evil 
spu-it, for the promise of God to liis church is, that 
there shall come midtitudes and join with the people of 
God in his ordinances. 

I Itnow some reply to this, they do not object that 
multitudes should ibl'low that which is good, but it is 
the humom- and pride of such men to have multitudes 
to follow after them, and that they oppose. Take 
heed of putting this accusation off w-ith such a plea. 
Consider whether it will hold at that great day. The 
devil himself never pleaded against Chi-ist or any of his 
ways, but with some colour. Surely these men judge 
thus by looking into their own hearts ; they know that 
if multitudes should come to tliem their hearts would 
be lifted up, and so they judge accordingly of others. 
But suppose it be so, for men are but men, that they, 
through coiTuption, should have any such workings of 
pride, yet do they say any thing that is not justifiable ? 
do they preach any thing that is not according to 
Chi-ist ? If they do not, then thou shouldst encom-age 
that which is good ; and as for that which is evil, leave 
it to the coming of Clirist, except thou canst by prayer 
and insti-uction help to remove it. It is worse to en\-y- 
at multitudes coming to hear the gospel now, tlian it 
was for the Jews to en-^y Paul for multitudes following 
hiim, for they thought they could contradict the false 
doctrine which they supposed Paid preached, and there- 
fore they had some colour for then- conduct. But here 
it is nothing but merely because multitudes come to 
hear the word. K men preach fii-st in comers private- 
ly, where they have but a few auditors, they object : well, 
if they preach publicly, and multitudes come to hear 
them, then they cry out of that too. Nothing can 
please en\-ious and malicious spmts. If we keep_ our- 
selves retired, that has exceptions enough, and if we 
come in a public way, they have exceptions to that too. 
Here the gi'oss malice aiid cunning of Satan appear, 
because when the thing itself camiot be excepted 
agamst, he runs to the intention of the heart, and to 
men's inward aims, and bringeth an argument against 
that w-hich he knows no man can confute. For who 
can say that that is either true or false, that men have 
mward amis of pride, and vain-glory, and self-seeking, 



32 



AN EXPOSITIOX OF 



Chap. I. 



in multitudes flocking; after them ? Nay, suppose we 
profess before the Lord and Christ, as we desii-e to stand 
before him, and answer it at that day, what our aims 
are, this will not serve the turn. A\"hy, then, my bre- 
thren, if men will choose such an argument as camiot 
possibly be answered before the coming of Christ, and 
so make a stumblingbloek, there is no help, but men 
must stumble and fall ; and many do stumble and fall. 
However, let " wisdom be justified of her children ;" let 
the saints rejoice in this, that .multitudes come to the 
ministrj- of the word and to the ordinances of Christ. 
Be careful and wise in your coming, and give no just 
occasion for reproach, but all due respect to those to 
whom you have the most relation. 

This you see is the promise, that there shall come in 
such multitudes to the church. But mark how the 
promise runs : 

" As the sand of the sea." Rabbin Ezra makes an 
allusion from hence : " As the sand," saith he, "keeps the 
waves of the sea from breaking in, and ib'owning the 
world ; so Israel, so the saints, keep the world from 
being drowned by the waves of God's ^^Tath." I do 
not say that this is the intention, but the intention of 
God is mainly to signify the multitudes that should 
come into the church. Only this idea we may use, as 
being a comfortable and pretty allusion, and it is a truth 
that Israel is as the sand of the sea, not 
maris voiunt obru- Only in resjject of multitudes, but as tlie 
mundum^'TiSlii- saiul to keep in the waves of God's wrath 
toi™nio7fn"riV fro™ cb-omiing the world. Were it not 
.i«. et non pnMiirit for thc cliuixli of God, the waves of God"s 

otmuian muntlo. , , , /■ ,, 1 11 , 

wrath would overilow all the world, and 
the world would quickly be confounded. So saith he, 
" When the waves of God's anger seem as if tliey 
would overflow all the world, they do but see Israel 
and immediately i-etum back ; they retire, and are not 
able to ovei-flow the world as they desire." 

Luther, in his comment upon tliis prophet, makes the 
second chapter to begin at the tenth verse ; from 
vvliich to the end we have the promise of future mercy 
to Israel, both to Israel and Judah together. Some 
part of God's promise of mercy to Israel we have ex- 
pounded. Now we proceed : 

" And it shall come to pass, that in the place." This, 
according to some, has reference to the land of Canaan, 
that God will have a very glorious church there, espe- 
cially in Jerusalem, before the end of the world come ; 
and many prophecies seem to mcline that way, as Zech. 
xii. G, " Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own 
place, even in Jerusalem." Tliis cannot be meant only 
of their return out of captivity, that was in the time 
of C)Tus. Thc ])ro])het saith, in the day that Jerusa- 
lem shall be inhabited, " the feeble among them shall 
be as David ; and the house of David shall be as the 
angel of God ; " and also that God will " pour upon 
them the spirit of grace and supplication ; and they 
shall look upon him whom they have pierced," ver. 8, 
10. The return of their captivity at first was not glo- 
rious ; if you read the story of it, you find that even 
all that while they were in a contcnij)tible condition 
before the surrounding nations. But God .speaks here, 
and in otlier places, of a glorious return of their cap- 
tivitj', and coming into their own land. 

The Jews have a tradition, that there 
f"ei'iu!iiicZ'^ is a time that all thc Jews, wherever they 
die, shall come tlirough viealua terra-, 
and rise again at Jerusalem ; and therefore when some 
of them tliink they have not long to live, they sell all 
their possessions, and go and live near Jerusalem, to 
prevent the trouble of coming through tliose yncalus 
lerrtp, of which they speak. Thus they are deluded in 
their conceits. 

But yet more generally, " In that place." 

A\Tiereas the place of my people was confined to a 



little and narrow room, hereafter it shall be enlarged. 
AMiere I was not known, amongst the heathen, even 
there shall I be known, and there I shall have a people ; 
and not onlv a people, but sons, the sons of the living 
God ; and that so apparently, that it shall be said unto 
them, " Ye are the sons of the living God." 

Thus St. Peter seems to interpret this place : 1 Pet. 
ii. 10, speaking of tlie Gentiles, that God would have 
a jjcople among them, the apostle saith, " ANTiich in 
times past were not a people, but are now the people 
of God." Inteqiretcrs generally conclude that the 
apostle liad reference to this very place in Hosea. A\'e 
may build then upon this interpretation, that it is the 
intention of the Spirit of God, tliat God would call 
home the Gentiles to himself, and so they that were no 
])co])le should become liis people, liis sons. It should 
be said in that place where before it was said that they 
knew him not, tliat now they are his sons. Yea, the 
heathen shall be brought in, they shall be convinced 
of the vanity of theu' idolatry. "We worshipped dead 
stocks ; our gods were dead stones. We were vassals 
to them : but now we see a people come in to the pro- 
fession of this Christian religion, they worship the liv- 
ing God, their God is the true God : certainly here are 
the sons of the living God. This is the scope of the 
Holy Ghost. 

Obs. 1. It is a comfortable thing to consider that 
where God has not been known and worshipped, that 
afterward in those places God shall be known and 
worshipped. 

That such nations, countries, and towns, which have 
been in darkness and idolatry, should now have the 
knowledge of the true God, that the true God should 
be worshipped amongst them, is a blessed tiling. Eng- 
land was once one of the most barbarous nations in the 
world, and in that place, where it was said, " Ye are not 
my peojjle," where there was notliing but a company of 
savage bai'barians that worshipped the devU ; how in 
this place, in England, is it said, even by the nations 
round about us, Smxly " tliey are the sons of the living 
God ! " And so many times in dark corners in the coun- 
try, where they never had the knowledge of Jesus 
Clu-ist, but were nursed in popery, and in all kinds of 
superstitious vanity, God is pleased to send some faith- 
ful minister to carry the light of the knowledge of 
Christ unto them, and efficaciously to work faith in 
their hearts, and then, oh what an alteration is there in 
that town ! It may be said of many a house and 
family, in which nothing but blasphemy, atheism, scorn 
of religion, uneleanness, and all manner of wickedness 
have been, now it is a family filled with the servants 
and sons of the living God. As it is a grievous thing 
to think that in a place where God has been ti-uly wor- 
shijjped, the devil should be served there ; so it is a 
comfortable thing to think of other places wherein the 
devil has been served, that God is now truly worshipped 
there. The Turks have possession of the temple at 
Jerusalem ; there where thc ark, and the cherubim, and 
the seraphim dwelt, now are tigers, and bears, and 
savage creatures : but on the other side, consider that 
in places where there have been none but tigers, and 
bears, and savage creatm'cs, they are now filled with 
cherubim and seraphim ; this is a comfortable thuig. 

04*'. 2. God has a time to convince the >\orld of the 
excellency of liis saints. It shall be said they " are 
the sons of the living God." They shall not only be 
the sons of tlie living God, but it shall come to pass 
tliat it shall be said they arc the sons of the living 
God: all about them shall see such a lustre of the 
glory of God upon them, that they shall say. Verily, 
wliatever other people have said hei'etofore, whatever 
tlie thoughts of men have been, these are not only the 
servants, but the sons of thc living God. We have an 
excellent prophecy of this in Zech. xii. 5, "The go- 



Ver. 10. 



THE TROPKECY OF HOSEA. 



33 



vernors of Judah shall say iii their heart. The inhahit- 
ants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of 
hosts then- God." Not only the people shall be con- 
vinced of this, but the governors of Judah shall say 
in their hearts. Our strength is in the inhabitants of 
Jerusalem, in the Lord of hosts theu- God. However 
they were heretofore scandaHzed as seditious and fac- 
tious, and as enemies of the state, yet now the govern- 
ors of Judah shall acknowledge that their strength is 
in them, and in the Lord their God, that this Lord of 
hosts is theu' God. That time will be a blessed time 
when the governors of Judah shall come to be con- 
vinced of this ; when God shall so manifest the excel- 
lencies of his saints, as that both great and small shall 
confess them to be " the sons of the living God." It is 
promised to the chui-ch of Philadelphia, Rev. iii. 9, that 
the Lord would make them that said they were Jews 
and were not, and said they were the church and were 
not; but were " of the synagogue of Satan, to come 
and worship before their feet, and to know that I have 
loved thee." There is a time that ungodly men shall 
be forced to know that God loves his people. 

And one thing, amongst the rest, that will much con- 
vince the men of the world of the excellency of the 
sauits, will be the beauty of God's ordinances that shall 
be set up amongst them, that shall even dazzle the eyes 
of the beholders. For this you have an excellent pro- 
mise, Ezek. xxxvii. 28, " The heathen shall know that 
I the Lord do sanctity' Israel." How shall they know 
it ? " When my sanctuary shall be in the midst of 
them for evermore :" they shall know that I the Lord do 
sanctify Israel, when the beauty of my ordinances shall 
appear in them. 

And if God be not only satisfied in doing good to his 
people, but he wiU have the world know it, and be con- 
vinced of it ; let the ])eople of God then not be satisfied 
only in having theii' hearts upon God, but'let the world 
know that they love God too. You must do that which 
will make it appear to all the world that you are the 
childi'en of the living God. '• Let your light so shine 
before men, that they, seeing youi' good works, may 
glorify yom- Father which is in heaven." It is one 
thing to do a thing that may be seen, and another thing 
to do a thing that it may be seen : and yet God's 
people may do both ; not do good only that may be 
seen, but if they keep the gloiy of God in their- eye, as 
the highest aim, they may desu'e, and be willing too, that 
it may be seen to the praise of God. But tliis, I confess, 
requu'es some strength of grace, so to act, and yet to 
keep the heart upright. The excellency of grace con- 
sists not in casting ofi' the outward comfoils of the 
■world, but to know how to enjoy them, and to overrule 
them for God : so the strength of grace consists not in 
forbearing such actions as are taken notice of by men, 
or not daring to aim to publish those things that have 
excellency in them, but in having the heart enabled to 
do this, and yet to keep it under, and to keep God 
above in his right place. 

Obs. 3. It is a great blessing to God's childi-en that 
they shall be accounted so before others. It shall be 
said they are sons. 

Not only that they shall be so, but that they shall be 
accomited so. " Blessed are the peacemakers : for they 
shall be called the children of God," Matt. v. 9. This 
is a blessing, not only to be God's chikken, but to be 
called God's childi'en ; we must account it so, and 
therefore we must walk so as may convince all with 
■whom we converse that we are the childi'en of God. 
Let us not think this sufficient; Well, let me approve my 
heart to God, and then what need I care \i-hat all the 
world thinks of me. God promises it as a blessing to 
have his people called the childi'en of God ; then this 
must not be slighted. You find in the gospel that 
Christ often made it his great business to make it mani- 



fest to the world that he was sent of God ; he would 
have them know that his Father sent him, and that he 
came from him : so the people of God should count it 
a blessing, and walk so as they may obtain such a 
blessing, that the world may know that they are of God. 

Obs. 4. The grace of God under the gospel, is more 
full and glorious than the grace of God under the law: 
" In the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not 
my people, there it shall be said unto them, Y'e are the 
sons of the living God." 

Mark, it is not in the place where it was said they 
" are not my people," it shall be said to them, they are 
my people. No ; but further, it shall be said they are 
sons, and " sons of the living God :" this goes' beyond 
being his people. 

For this is spoken of the state of the church under the 
gospel : they were God's people indeed under the law ; 
but the appellation, " the sons of the living God," is re- 
served for the times under the gospel. Sometimes under 
the law they are called by the name of sons ; but it appear- 
eth by this text, that in comparison of that glorious son- 
ship which they shall have under the times of the gospel, 
that in foi'mer times they were rather servants than sons. 
Tliere is very little of our adoption in Christ revealed 
in the Old Testament. No, that was reserved for the 
Son of God, for him that came out of the bosom of the 
Father, and brought the treasures of his Father's coun- 
sel to the world to reveal. Both adoption and eternal 
life were very little made known in the time of the law, 
therefore St. Paul saith, that " life and immortality 
wei'e brought to light tlu'ough the gospel," 2 Tim. i. 10. 

(2.) Sons, because, in the time of the gospel, the 
spirits of the saints are of son-like dispositions, they are 
ingenuous, not mercenary. In the time of the law, 
God induced his people to obey by ofi'ering rewards, 
especially prosperity in outward things ; but in the time 
of the gospel we have no such rewards in temporals. 
In the time of the law afflictions are not much spoken 
of, but much outward prosperity ; but in the time of 
the gospel more affliction, because the dispositions of 
the hearts of people should not be so mercenai')' as they 
were before, they should be an ingenuous, willing 
people in the day of Christ's power. 

(3.) Sons, because of the son-like affection toward 
God their Father, out of a natiu-al aropyij, that tliey 
should have more than in the times of the law. I sup- 
pose some of you have heard of the story of the son of 
Croesus ; though he was dumb all his days, when he 
perceived a soldier striking his father his afi'ection 
broke the bars of his speech, and he cried out to the 
soldier to spare his father. This is the affection of a 
son, and these affections God looks for from his chil- 
dren, especially in the time of the gospel, that they 
should hear no wrong done to him ; but though they 
could never speak in theii' own cause, yet they should 
be sure to speak in then- Father's cause. 

(4.) Sons, because they have not such a spirit of.ser- 
vility upon them as they had in the time of the law. 
Christ is come to redeem us, that we might " serve tlie 
Lord in holiness and righteousness before him, without 
fear, all the days of our life ;" to take away the spu'it of 
fear. Hence the apostle saith, 2 Tim. i. 7, We have not 
received " the spirit of fear ; but of power, and of love, 
and of a sound mind :" and Heb. ii. 15, Christ is come 
" to deKver them who through fear of death were all 
their Hfetime subject to bondage." The spu'it of a sou 
is not the spirit of fear : " Y'e have not received the spi- 
rit of bondage again to fear ; but ye have received the 
Spu'it of adoption, whereby we en', Abba, Father," Rom. 
viii. 15. It is unseemly in the children of God, espe- 
cially in the time of the gospel, to be of such servile 
spirits as to fear every httle danger ; to be distracted 
and amazed. Has not God revealed himself to us as a 
Father to his childi'en, that we should not fear ? He 



34 



AS EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. I. 



would not have us fear himself with a servile fear, as 
men do, and therefore surely not to fear men, be they 
what they will. We are sons. 

(5.) Sons. Not only sons, for we might find in Scrip- 
ture where the jieople of God, under the law, perhaps are 
sometimes called so, but older sons, sons come to years; 
(it is true, they were before us, and so in that respect we 
are not elder;) notchildi-en under tutorage, not under 
schoolmasters and governors, as they were imder the 
law. You know what comparison the Scripture makes 
of the difference between the chui-ch in the time of the 
gospel, and tliat in the time of the law. In the time 
of the law it is true indeed they were childi-en ; but 
how ? they were children under tutors and govemoi-s, 
they were not as yetT come to years, they were but as 
young children that were put out to school. But now. 
as the apostle saith. Gal. iv. 5, Christ hath redeemed 
us from being under the law, " that we might receive 
the adoption of sons :" mark, that we might receive it ; 
so that now the state of the church is like a child that 
is of age, and by that is freed from his tutors and go- 
vernors, and comes to his inlteritance, sui juris, as it 
were. 

Therefore the saints now are not to be dealt with as 
if still they were in their childish condition. How 
were the Jews dealt with in their childish concUtion ? 
Thus, they had external tilings to gain them to serve 
God, they worsliipped God much in external things. 
As we deal with childi-en, we give them apples and fine 
things to induce them to obey, so God dealt with them. 
And as chiltken, when they begin to learn, must have 
a great many pictures in theii- book ; so God taught 
the Jews with outward ceremonies, which afterward 
the Scripttire calls but beggarly rudiments. C'luldi'en, 
you know, are pleased much with gay tilings ; and they 
that would bring Jewish ceremonies, or ceremonies of 
their own invention, into the church, ti'eat the church 
as if in her chOdish condition still, as if gay things 
would please her. Therefore they must have pictures, 
and images, and such things to gratify the ijcople, 
which make the people of God beneatli themselves, as 
if they were yet cliildren. No, in the state of the 
gospel they are come to the adoption of sons. And 
so children you know are pleased with hearing music, 
and pipes, and such things, which men would bring 
still into the church in the time of the gospel. I re- 
member Justin MartjT, in answer tcf that 
■fbufTaTm u^ii- about musical instruments, saith that Uiey 
toKvti^ictsfif ' are fit for cliildren and fools, as organs 
?att *«''.fr;air »"d the like, and therefore they were 
irpooifirroi _n not in use in the church. iVnd indeed, 
i',j2"r\T^J' for the childish state of the church those 
upu'oTstr"'^ things ai'e fit, but now when they arc 
(MtSSuot'^ come to the adoption of sons, other ser- 
\ices that arc more spiiitual are more 
suitable and honourable. As a man, that is gi'owntobe 
a man, would think liimself wronged much to be taught 
as a chUd, to be ])ut off with gay things ; so shoiUd the 
people of God under the gospel think it a great WTong 
that has been done them, when men have sought to 
teach them witli pictures and images, instead of spiritual 
instruction. 

Obs. 5. A^^len God is pleased to be reconciled to a 
people, he is as fully theirs as ever, ^ea, sometimes 
more fiUly. "It shall be said. Ye are the sons of the 
living God." Israel, that was cast off from God, now 
shall be brought in more fully than before. He comes 
rather with more full grace than formerly he did. 

Peo]>le before, but sons now. Oh what an encou- 
ragement is tliis to all apostatizing souls that have fallen 
off from God ! Come in, come in, and be reconciled to 
God, and thou shalt not only find God as good as ever 
thou didst, but thou shalt find him much better and 
much sweeter than ever thou didst in all Uiv life. Sel- 



dom we act so. '\Mien men fall out one with another, 
though possibly they may be reconciled, yet it is sel- 
dom that they are so fully reconciled, ko fully one as 
they were before; they are but as a broken vessel 
soldered together, tliat is very weak in the soldering 
place ; or as gannents that nave been rent, and are 
mended, soon torn, and quickly ready to fall in pieces 
in the place where they were mended : it is not so be- 
tween God and a penitent soul. 

Again, " sons," not oidy of God, but " of the living 
God." There is much in tliis, that the people of God 
under the gospel should be called the " sons of the liv- 
ing God." The life of God is the glorj- of God : he 
swears by his life : by this he is distinguished from the 
heathen gods, tliat he is the li\-ing God. Life is the 
most excellent tiling in the world : Austin therefore 
saith, that the life of a fly is more excellent than the 
sun in the finnament : and certainly it is the glory of 
God, that he is the li\ing God. God, as the living God, 
is the object of our faith, and so he is the happiness of 
his people: "Trust in the living God," 1 Tim. vi. 17. 
" My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God : O 
when shall I come and appear before God?" Psal. 
xlii. 2. 

But why is God called " the living God" in reference 
to his church here ? Tliis is a treasure of comfort to 
his people, that he is called the living God in reference 
to liis chmch. God would hereby declare to them that 
all that is in him shall be active for the good of his 
church for ever. He will show himself not only to be 
a God, but a li\-ing God. He will show all liis attri- 
butes to be living attributes, for the good of Ids people. 
Did God show himseK active for his people in former 
times ? much more may liis church in the time of the 
gospel, expect the Lord to manifest himself to be active 
amongst them. Thei-efore^we may make use of what 
we read of jGod's activeness for the good of his church 
in fonner times, to plead with God to show himself as 
active now. See how the chm'ch pleads it : " Awake, 
awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord ; awake, as 
in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Ait 
not thou it that hatli cut Rahab, and wounded the 
dragon P .(Vrt thou not it which hath dried the sea, the 
waters of the great deep?" Isa. li. 9, 10. O Lord, 
hast thou not sho^vn thyself glorious in defence of thy 
people, in helping thy servants in their great straits, and 
in destro)-ing thine enemies ? wilt not thou be so still ? 
In the times of the gospel we may expect more active- 
ness of God than ever he manifested since the world 
began. Therefore, when God would set out the state 
of the church under the gospel, mark how he takes 
that tide to himself. Rev. iv. 9, the foiu- living 
creatures (mentioned in the verses before, by which 
is meant the state of the church under tlie gospel) 
" give glory and honour and thanks to liim that sat 
on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever ; " and 
ver. 10, " the four and twenty ciders fell down before 
Him tliat sat on the throne, and worsliipped him that 
liveth for ever and ever ; " and chap. v. 14, both join 
together: "The foui- livuig creatures said. Amen. And 
the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped 
him that liveth for ever;" and chap. x. 5, C, " The angel 
which I saw stand upon tlie sea and upon the earth 
lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that 
liveth for ever and ever." Thus life, the attribute of 
God, is made use of for the state of the church in the 
gospel, to show how active God will be for them. 
Hence, Heb. xii. 22, the church is called " the city of 
the li\ing God." Now to ajiply this to ourselves. 

Obs. 1. If we expect that God should be a living 
God to us, it becomes not us to have dead hearts in his 
service. If God be active for our good, let us be active 
for his honour. A living, and a lively Christian, is 
beautiful in the eyes of God and man. Let us labour 



Vee. 10. 



the; prophecy of hosea. 



35 



not only to be living, but to be lively, for God and his 
cause. Abundance of service and good may li\ing 
and lively Chiistians do in the places where they Uve, 
especially in these times. But oh how few are there, 
■\\ho are active and stu-ring, and are carried on by the 
spirit of wisdom and zeal for God and his caxise ! Away 
now with om- cold and dead wishes and desires, let us 
up and be doing, and the Lord will be with us. The 
adversaries are Hvely ; so saith the psahnist, " Mine 
enemies are lively, and they are strong," Psal. xxxviii. 
19. "We may well make use of that expression too ; om- 
enemies are lively and strong ; shall they be more lively 
and active for Satan, and for then- lusts, than we for 
the hving God ? As God is the object cf our happiness 
as he is the Kving God, so we arc the object of God's 
delight as we are living too. " God is not the God of 
tlie dead, but of the living." 

Obs. 2. We should be lively and active, for we live 

upon the bread of life, and dimk the water of life, we 

have lively oracles, lively ordinances, therefore life and 

activity are requu'ed of us : " fervent in 

^'''cwTil"' spirit, serving the Lord," Kom. xii. 11 ; 
be burning, boiling up in your spirits, 
for you are serving the Lord, the living God: dead 
spu-its become not the services of the living God. 
Grace is called " the Di^Tiie nature," 2 Pet. i. 4. It is 
also called the very "life of God," Eph. iv. 18. It is 
impossible, then, but a Chi'istian must needs be active, 
seeing his grace is the very life of God in Iiim. 

06s. 3. By being lively and active, we shall prevent 
abundance of temptations that otherwise will befall us. 
A dead, lazy spmt is liable to a thousand temptations : 
as when the honey is boiling, the flies t^tII not come to 
it ; when it is set in the window and gi'ows cold, then 
they come to it : so when the spirits of men are boiling 
hot for God, Beelzebub, the god of flies, with his tempt- 
ations, comes not upon them : but when their spirits 
begin to cool, and grow dull and hea\y, then comes 
Beelzebub, and all manner of temptation, upon their 
souls. The breath that comes from the body of a man 
is warm, but the breath that comes from a pair of bel- 
lows is cold, because it is artificial ; so when men are 
cold m the sei'vices of God, it is to be feared that their 
breath in praying, and other duties, is but artificial ; 
it is not the breath of Hfe ; if it were hvmg it would be 
warm. That was the reason why God would not have 
an ass offered him in the law in sacrifice, but his neck 
must be broken, because the ass is a dull creature : God 
loves not dull creatures in his service. 

I have read of a people who worshipped the sun for 
their god, to which they sacrificed a fl;iing horse ; the 
reason was this, because they would ofi'er to the sun 
somewhat suitable to it. They honom-ed the sun for 
the swiftness of his motion, and a horse you know is a 
swift creature, and therefore somewhat suitable, espe- 
cially having the emblem of wings upon him. They 
that would honom- the sun as a god for swiftness, would 
not ofler a snail, but a flj'ing horse ; so if we honom* 
God for a hving God, an active God, let us not ofi'er 
snails to Mm, dull, heavy, sluggish services, but quick 
and lively heai-ts. 

That which the coui'tiers of Nebuchadnezzar flatter- 
ingly said unto him, in the name of God say I to you, 
'• Live for ever." Saith Clirist, " As the living Father 
hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that 
eateth me, even he shall live by me," John vi. 57. 
Christ was active, exceedingly active, in the work he 
was sent about ; why ? because "■ the living Father sent 
him :" so let us consider that in all our seiTices and 
emploj-mcnts it is a living God that sets us about them, 
and we should be active as Christ was. 

I am wilUng a little to enlarge on this, because of its 
impoi-tance to oiu' present times, and give me leave to 
do it by teUing you wliat tliis Christian activeness is. 



1. Stay not for company in any good cause. An 
active spuit will not stay till he see others to accom- 
pany him, but if he must go, rather than the cause 
should fall he will go alone. Mark that saying, Isa. li. 
2, " I called Abraham alone, and blessed him." Be not 
discouraged, if C>od give thee a zealous spii-it, and others 
will not appear ; God calls thee alone, and he will bless 
thee. 

2. ^Then you have company do not lag behind, but 
be willing to be foremost, rather than any cause of God 
should Eufier by your indolence. Do not wait till 
others go before you. Hence in Prov. xsx. 31, amongst 
the goings of many things, the going of the he-goat is 
said to be very comely ; why ? because he is accustomed 
to go before the flock. Those who, out of love to the 
cause of God, are willing, if they are called to it, to go 
before the flock, go comely in the eyes of God. 

3. Do not forbear the work till all difiiculties about 
it are over. That is a sluggish spuit that ■niU not 
begin the work, till they can see how aU the difiiculties 
about the work are, or may be, removed. You must up 
and be doing, be doing presently, and fall to woi-k 
■wisely, to prevent and avoid the difficulties that come 
in it. As those active sphits did, of whom we read in 
Neh. iv. 17; when they were at work, ■with one of then- 
hands they ■pTOught, and with the other hand they held 
a weapon ; they did not stay the building of the wall of 
Jerusalem till all their adversaries were quashed, but 
immediately began it. This is an active spirit. 

4. We must not be active in a sudden mood, and 
upon a mere flash, and then give over, but in a con- 
stant, solid way. Active, yet solid. I\Iany indeed are 
stm'ing and active for the present, but are like the 
flame of a wisp of straw, wluch makes a noise and a 
great stir for the present, but soon after there remains 
nothing but black, dead ashes. But we must be con- 
siderately active. Therefore observe, the Scriptm-e saith 
(speaking of the saints, specially in the time of the 
gospel) that they are " Hvely stones," 1 Pet. ii. 5. 
What ! a stone, and yet Kvely ? A stone, of all things, 
is most dead, and so it is used to describe a d(?ad spuit 
in the stoi'y of Xabal ; when Abigail came to tell him of 
the business of David, " his heart died witliin him, and 
he became as a stone." A^Hrat is this but to show, that 
though we must be lively and active, yet we must be 
solid, fu'm, and substantial in our activeness ; and again, 
that when we arc soKd, fii-m, and substantial, yet we 
must be lively. There are many that know not how to 
be active solidly, and therefore gi-ow slight and vain in 
their acti\'ity ; and many others, striving to be sohd 
and substantial, quickly grow dull; many, thi-ough 
a kind of affected gi-avity, would forsooth be accomited 
solid and wise, and so become at last duU, and heavy, 
and of very httle use in the chvu'ch of God. Take heed 
of either, and labour- to unite both together : that is ac- 
ceptable to God, to be living stones before him. 

Ver. 11. Then shall the children of Jiidah and the 
children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint 
themselves one head, owrf they shall come np out of the 
land : for great shall be the day of Jezreel. 

Here you haye a promise both to Israel and Judah 
together. Great was the enmity between Judah and 
Israel heretofore. They worshipped the same God, but 
in divers manners. Judah worshi])ped God according 
to his own institution ; and Israel worsliipped the 
same God, but according to their o^mi inventions, as 
might best suit with theu- pohtical ends. Bitterness 
and vexation abounded betv.een these two people, 
though worshippmg the same God; and God here 
makes it a great matter to bring these two together, 
that they should be gathered together in one. Here 
we have the promise : Fh-st, that there shall be a 



36 



AX EXPOSITIOX OF 



Chap. I. 



union. Secondly, that there shall be a union under 
one head. Hence 

Obn. 1. The enmity of such as seem not to differ 
much in matters of religion, and yet do differ, is some- 
times exceedingly great and bitter. There shall be a 
union between jiidah and Israel, saith God. Here is a 
mercy, a wonderful work of the Lord. It requires a 
mighty work of God to reconcile those who differ even 
but little. It api)eai-s it was so between Judah and 
Israel. 2 Chron. xxviii. 9, the prophet Oded tells the 
cliildi-en of Israel, when he came to reprove them after 
the slaughter committed by them of the children of 
Judah, "Ye have slain them in a rage that reacheth 
u]) unto heaven." Wiat a rage was this ! and yet thus 
the people of Israel were enraged against the people 
of Judah ; yea, they were often more bitter against 
each other, than they were against the heathen, the 
Philistines, Assyrians,' and Eg.\-])tiaus, who were round 
about them. 

Thus it has been, and until that blessed time come 
here spoken of, thus it will be. Though the Calvinists 
and Lutherans agree together against papists in fun- 
damental articles, yet, oh the bitterness of their spirits 
one against another ! A Lutheran is scarce so bitter 
against a papist a-s he is against a Calvinist. Luther 
himself complains,' Not only openly wicked men are 
our enemies, but even our friends, and those who at 
first received the doctrine of the gospel from us. per- 
secute us most bitterly. iVnd he complains particularly 
of Zuinglius ; t Zuinglius accuses me of cverj' wicked- 
ness and cruelty, so that the papists do not tear me so 
much as these my fiiends. Again, speaking of C'arolo- 
stadius,! He is more deadly against me, more set against 
me, than any of mine enemies ever were. Even he, 
whom God used for the fui-therance of the gosjiel, has 
bitterness to another, with whom he agrees in doctrine. 

And has it not been so amongst us ? Those who are 
protestants, and such as are nick-named pui-itans, though 
they agree in all the fundamental ])oint.s against popen,-, 
yet for some difference m matter of discipline and cere- 
monies, oh what bittcmess of spu-it is there ! It is so 
much the more suiful in those who say that discipline 
and ceremonies are but indifferent things ; they are 
specially to be blamed for bitterness on their side, 
because the conscience of the other is bound up, and 
cannot yield. Yea, not only such as contend against 
popish discipline, but such as go a degree further in 
reformation of discipline, yet because they differ in 
some few particulars, oh the bitterness of spirit that 
exists even among them ! These are times that call all 
the peo])le of God to see in what they can agree, and 
in that to join against the common adversan,-, and not 
to tear one another by dissensions. God may justly 
give us over to our adversaries, if we agree not among 
ourselves, and they may chain us together. Perha])s a 
jirison may make us agree, as it was said of Ridley and 
Hooper. Kidley opposed Hooper in point of cere- 
monies, and they could not agree, vet when they came 
to prison they agreed well enougfi there. The Lord 
deliver us from that medicine of our dissensions, that 
we be not made so to agree : yea, that we be not sol- 
dered together by our own blood. 

04s. 2. God has a time to gather Judah and Israel 
together, that is, to bring peace to his church. God 
has a time to gather all his churches together, that 
there shall be a universal peace amongst his churches. 

For though it be meant here of Judah and Israel 
literally, yet Israel and Judah set out to us all tlie 
churches of God that shall exist among the Gentiles : 

• Kon solum hostcs palam iinpii persequunlur nos. scd 
cliani hi qui fuerunt dulces amici nostri, qui a nobis acccpcrunt 
iloclrinam Evan^clii, fiunt insensissimi hastes uostri, perse- 
quoiilos nos acemnie. 

t Nihil est scelcrum aut cruilclitatis, cujus mc non rcum 



and as God will fulfil this scripture literally, so he will 
fulfil it s])iritually, to bring Judah and Israel, that is, 
all the churches of God, under one head. " Ephraim 
shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex 
Ephraim," Isa. xi. 13. Ephraim envied Judah, because 
Judah challenged to himself the true worship of God ; 
and Judah on the other side envied Ephraim, because 
he was the gi-eatest ; they were vexing .spirits one agauist 
another. This shall not always be, saith God, but " the 
en^T of Ephraim shall depart," I will take away this 
envious, vexatious spirit. Those two staves of which 
the Holy Ghost speaks in Zech. xi. 10, 11, 14, the staff' 
of "Beaut)-," and the staff of "Bands," were both 
broken, but God has a time to unite them together 
again, and for that, mark that excellent prophecy in 
Ezek. xxx^li. 16, 17, 22, 24. There you find declared, 
God brings Judah and Israel, and joins those sticks 
together again. " Son of man, take thee one stick, 
and write upon it. For Judah, and for the childi"en of 
Israel his companions : then take another stick, and 
write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and 
for all the house of Israel his companions : and join 
them one to another into one stick ; and they shall be- 
come one in thine hand." And then, ver. 19, this is 
interpreted of the union of them, " Behold, I will take 
the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, 
and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them 
with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make tlicm 
one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand :" and 
ver. 22, " I «'ill make them one nation in the land upon 
the mountains of Israel ; and one lung shall be kiii^ 
to them all." And in the 24tli verse that king is saiu 
to be David, which we shall afterward show more fully, 
when we describe the head which they shall be under. 
Now this God has never yet fulfilled, that the ten tribes, 
and Judah and Benjamin, should come together and be 
set in one stick ; he has never set together the staff of 
Bands that was broken, and vet this must be done j it 
is the great blessing of God upon his churches, the 
bringing about of this union. Mark that text, Jer. 
xxxiii. 11; God having promised that in the latter 
davs he would bring Judah and Israel together, and 
build them as at first : in the 14th verse, "Behold, the 
davs come, saith the Lord, that I avUI perform that 
good thing which I have promised unto the house of 
Israel, and to the house of Judah." \Miat is that good 
tiling that God had promised to the houses of Israel 
and Judah ? That good thing, my brethren, is the 
building tliem up together as they were at first. " Be- 
hold, how good and how pleasant it is for bretluren to 
dwell together in unitv ! It is like the precious oint- 
ment upon tlie head, tliat ran down upon the beard, 
even Aaron's beard : that went down to the skirts of 
his gai-ments ; as the dew of Hci-mon, and as tlie dew 
that descended upon the mountains of Zion : for there 
the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for ever- 
more," Psal. cxxxiii. In the churches of God, where 
this peace and union dwell, there is blessing, there is 
God commanding blessing, that is, blessing comes 
powerfully and efficaciously, the blessing of life, and life 
for evermore. Oh, who would not then love union and 
peace in the churches ! " The Lord shall be king over all 
the earth ; in that day shall there be one Lord, and his 
name one," Zech. xiv. 9. The churches now have one 
Lord, they all acknowledge God and C'lu-ist to be their 
Lord ; yea, but this Lord has not one name : though 
they all pretend to honour Christ, and set up Christ, 
yet this one Lord has many names. But here it is ])ro- 
phesied that there shall be but one Lord, and his name 

agat, adco ut ncc papistx mc sic laccrent hotles mei, ut illi 
amici nostri. Ep. aJ Mich. Stifeliuum. 

X lufonsior nuhi est quam uUi hactcnut fueriot inimici. 
Luther cp. at) Spalatiiium. 



Vee. II. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



37 



shall be but one. And Zeph. iii. 9, " Then will I turn 
to the people a pure language, that they may all call 
upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one con- 
sent." The words in the original are, inN dd» one 
shoulder; all the people of God shall have but one 
shoulder, that they shaD set to the service of God. O 
blessed time, when they shall be so united as to have 
but one shoulder ! And the greater this blessing of 
Judah's and Israel's gathering together will be, if you 
consider these two things ; I beseech you observe them. 

First, That they shall have this perfect union toge- 
ther, even then, when " Israel shall be as the sand of 
the sea." AVhen there shall be such multitudes flock- 
ing to the chui'ch, yet then they shall be united in one, 
and then there shall be peace in the churches. It is 
not a hard matter, when there are but very few of a 
church, perhaps half a dozen or half a score, for them 
to be of one mind, and to agree lovingly together, and 
to have no divisions nor dissensions among themselves ; 
but when a chm-ch grows to be a multitude, then lies 
the difficulty. A\Tien did ever any chui'ch, though 
never so well constituted at first, but increase in divi- 
sions and dissensions, as they increased in number and 
multitude ? You find it very hard in a meeting in any 
society, when any business concerns a gi'eat many, so 
to agree as to be of one and the same mind. An in- 
sti'ument, as a watch, or any thing that has many 
■wheels, is sooner out of frame than that which has but 
a wheel or two. So when numbers come together about 
any business, it is mighty hard to brmg them to be 
united in one. There are few families that consist of 
many persons, but quickly dissensions gi'ow among 
them : perhaps, where there are two or tlu'ee in a family 
they keep well enough together ; but where there are 
seven in a family they cannot so well agree, nor so 
long a time togetherj as the seven devils did in Mary 
Magdalene. But God has made this promise to the 
church, that though it shall increase as the sand on the 
sea shore, and that multitudes shall come flocking to 
it, yet they shall be all gathered together into one, un- 
der one head, and they shall have peace. 

Secondly, They shall agree in one, not only when 
they are a multitude, but when they enjoy the full 
privileges and liberty that Chi'ist has purchased for 
them, even then there shaU be a blessed agreement. 
For it is spoken here of those times, when they shall 
come under one head, and Chi'ist alone shall rule them, 
and not men's inventions. Chi'ist will grant his chm'ch 
those privileges that he has purchased for them, and 
rule them according to those, and then there shall be a 
blessed agreement among them all. Men now think it 
impossible for those Kberties to be enjoj-ed without dis- 
sensions ; O, say they, let them have but such liberty as 
they speak of, and we shall have nothing but babbling 
and divisions. WTiat! shall every man be left to do what 
he Hst ? why then we shall have nothing but breaches 
in the chui'ch, and heai't-biu'nings one against another. 
No ; Christ has never purchased so much liberty, for 
every man to do what he lists in things apparently un- 
lawful, against the common principles of rehgion : in 
those there may be compidsion. But the liberty which 
Chi'ist has pui'chased, is the lawful use of things in- 
different, and the lawful use of his ordinances. And 
though now many think that, in things indifferent, if 
men be left at their liberty, there will be heart-bm'ning 
and dissensions, and no peace at all in the church, they 
are much mistaken in this ; for the only way to have 
true peace in the church, is to leave tilings as Chi'ist 
has left them, and to force nothing upon men's con- 
sciences that Chi'ist would not have forced ; this is the 
■way of peace. And the special way of dissension (we 
have had experience of it) has been, and ever will be, 
the urging upon men's consciences those things Christ 
■would not have urged ; this makes the greatest rent 



and division in tlie church. The m-ging of uniformity 
in all indifferent things as necessary to unity, is a most 
false principle. It is a principle that many have been 
led by, but it is a false and con'upt principle, and is, and 
mil be found to be, the cause of the gi'eatest distractions. 
"Wlien the time comes here prophesied of, there shaU 
not be such need of any antichi'istian chain to unite the 
servants of God together, but they shall be one without 
any such doings. It is ti'ue, papists and prelatical men 
ci-j' out against others ; they say, there ai'e such divi- 
sions among them, none of them can agree, there is 
more uniformity and unity with us than with them. 
Jlark these two answers to that. 

1. They have little cause to boast of theu' unity, if 
we consider all ; for though many thousands of Clu'is- 
tians, and huncb'eds of faithful, painful, and conscien- 
tious ministers of God, (that did more service to God 
and his chui'ch than ever they will do,) be banished out 
of their country, and put upon miserable extremities, 
and endure sore afflictions for their conscience' sake, 
this is no breach of unity with them. 

2. But suppose by then- power they could have 
brought all to a uniformity in their own inventions 
and innovations, as they desu'ed. '\^^lat then ? they 
have little cause to boast of that unity. Certainly, there 
the remedy 'vvoidd have been worse than the cUsease, 
and work a greater mischief. Their boasting of unity 
would have been, as if a couple of prisoners chained to 
a block, and kept close all day, should see others go 
abroad in tlie streets at a distance, and should cry 
out to them. Why do you not take example by us ? you 
keep at a distance one from another ; see, we keep close 
together from morning to night : pray take example by 
us, and do not go so distant one fi'om another. Would 
not such an argument be most ridiculous ? 'WTiat is 
the reason of their union, but their chain ? Certainly, 
there is the same argimient in pleatbng for that uni- 
formity which they force upon men by such a kind of 
antichristian chain. What breach of unity is it if, in a 
broad street, one goes a little distant from another? and 
so what breach is it if, in matters of indiftcrence, one 
take one way and another another ? It is the corrupt 
and perverse spii'its of men that think they cannot have 
unity, and yet have things as Christ has left them. 
Christ needs no such things to cause unity in his church, 
the spii'it of his people, which loves truth and peace, is 
enough to cause the unity he would have. And oh that 
this gathering together were come, of all churches to 
be made one, and to be under one head ! for abundance 
of mischief is done now among the churches, and in the * 
world, by the spirit of division and dissension. The 
devil delights (especially that devil that is the spirit of 
division) to live in the region of the church. There are 
some devils especially that are spirits of pride, as the 
dumb devil, and some of dissension, and some of one 
kind, and some of another. Cajetan remarks upon 
Mark v. 8, 9, where our Saviour t'hrist cast the devils 
out of the possessed man, they besought him that he 
would let them enter into the swine, and that he wotdd 
not send them out of that region ; because, saith he, 
they have several regions where they most haunt, and 
they that are in such a region are loth to be put out of 
it, but would fain keep theii' ])lace. "V^Tiether that be 
so or no we will not say, but this we say, that if there 
be any region m the world which the unclean spu'it of 
division loves, and is loth to be cast out, it is the region 
of the church, for there he does the greatest mischief. 
But Chi'ist has a time to cast this unclean spirit out of 
the region of the church so eflectually, that he never 
shall retui'n again. 

This point, as we meet with it so fitly, and is so fully 
agreeable to the necessity of oiu- times, I cannot tell, 
thougli I go a httle beyond the ordinal-)' way of expo- 
sitions, how to get away from it. 



38 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. I. 



This union of the church is that which wiU be the 
stability of it. You Iiave an admiiable place for this, 
Isa. xxxiii. 20, " Thine eyes shall sec Jerusalem a quiet 
habitation." Oh that our eyes might be blessed to be- 
hold Jerusalem a quiet habitation ! then we should be 
willing with old Simeon to say, " Lord, now lettest 
thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have 
seen thy salvation." Mark then what follows : " a quiet 
habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down ; 
not one of the stakes tlicrcof shall ever be removed, 
neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But 
there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad 
rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with 
oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby." The 
■cingdoms of the world, though they seem to be built 
upon mountains, yet God will toss them up and down, 
and they shall come to nothuig ; but the chm-ch, when 
it is made a quiet habitation, though it be bat a taber- 
nacle and set upon stakes, yet this tabernacle shall not 
be taken down, nor one of the stakes thereof ever re- 
moved ; though it be tied by hnes, yet not a cord 
thereof shall be broken. Yea, in this the glorj' of the 
church consists, for when it is a quiet habitation, the 
glorj' of God shall be there, God shall dwell among 
them as a glorious God. No church was more honour- 
able than the chiu'ch of Pliiladelphia, for that is the 
chm'ch the adversaries must come and bow before. Rev. 
iii. 9, and that church carries brotherly love in its very 
name, for so it signifies. Cant. \i. 9, " My dove, my 
imdefiled is but one, the only one of her mother." 
AMiat follows ? " The daughters saw her and blessed 
her ; yea, the queens and the concubines, and they 
pi-aiseil her." '\\Tien Christ's dove and undefiled comes 
once to be but one, the daughters shall see her and 
bless her. In Isa. xi. 13, you have a promise of Judah 
and Epliraim's joining together. Mark what follows, 
chap. xii. 1, " And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, 
I will praise thee." Observe, " in that day." And 
again, ver. 4, " And in that day shall ye say. Praise the 
Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the 
people, make mention that his name is exalted. Sing 
tmto the Lord ; for he hath done excellent tilings : this 
is known in all the earth. Cry out and shout, thou in- 
Iiabitant of Zion." God indeed does excellent things, 
when he makes Ephraim and Judah to be one. There- 
fore saith the apostle, 1 Cor. xii. 31, " Yet show I unto 
you a more excellent way." What is that way ? In 
the chapter following, he wi-ites his commendation of 
love, the liighest commendation of any grace found in 
the book of God ; that is the more excellent wav. In 
Cant. iii. 9, the church is comjiared to the chariot of 
Solomon : " The pillars thereof of silver, the bottom 
thereof of gold, the coveruig of it of jiurple, and the 
midst thereof being paved with love." Then the church 
rides in tj-iumph m her chariot, when tliere is miich 
love and peace in tlic midst of it. 

Itis true, my brethren, considering the weakness and 
peevishness of the spirits, yea, of good men as well as 
evil, we may wonder however this shall come to pass : 
Is it possible that this shall ever be so ? Indeed it must 
be a mighty work of God to do it. AVe must not tliiiik 
1o effect it by struggling one with another, and to say, 
We will make them be at ])cace and unity, or they shall 
smart for it, and we wDl pull them together by law. 
This will not do it ; but we must look up to God for tlie 
r.ccomplishing of this great thing. Jcr. xxxiii. 3, " Thus 
saith the Lord, Call unto me and I will answer thee, 
and show thee great and mighty things wlilch thou 
luiowest not." Miiat are those great and mighty things 
that we must call upon God for.' Amongst others, this 
is a prmciijal one, ver. 7, " And I will cause the caj)- 
tivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, 
and -nill build them as at the first," and so make them 
both one. And then, ver. 9, " It shall be to me a name 



of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of 
the earth, when they shall hear all the good that I do 
unto them." Mark, joy, praise, honom-, yea, a name of 
joy, jjraise, honour, follows upon this blessed imion, and 
that before all the nations of the earth. For the ac- 
comphshmg of tliis, " come. Lord Jesus, come quickly ! " 

Y'^et let us fiirther observe the difference between the 
scattering of the wicked, and the scattering of the 
saints. Judah and Israel were scattered, but now they 
shall be gathered together. 

06*. 1. There is a great deal of difference between 
the scattering of the saints, and the scattering of the 
wicked. When God scatters the saints, he scatters 
them that they may be gathered : when he scatters the 
^vicked, he scatters them that he may destroy them. 
Psal. Ixviii. 1, " Let God arise, let his enemies be scat- 
tered." How scattered ? " As smoke is driven away, 
so drive them away." Smoke, you know, is so chiven 
away and scattered, that it comes to nothing. Psal. 
cxliv. 6, " Cast forth lightning and scatter tliem, shoot 
out thine arrows and destroy them." This is the scat- 
tering of the wicked. But as for the saints, they may 
be scattered, but it is to spread abroad the gospel by 
them in the world. Acts viii. 4, " They that were scat- 
tered abroad" (by reason of the persecution of Said) 
" went everv where preacliing the word." But v\ ithin 
awliile our God shall come, and all his saints vdih him, 
and he \n\l gather together the outcasts of Israel with 
abundance of mercy. Micah iv. 6, " In that day, saith 
the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will 
gather her that is driven out, and her that I have af- 
flicted." Isa. Uv. 7, " For a small moment have I for- 
saken thee, but with great mercies wiU I gather thee." 
God will gather his people with great mercies. God 
has fulfilled this in a great part in our eyes even this 
day. I\Iany of those who were driven out of their 
places and countrv', those that were afflicted, and those 
the land could not bear, God has gathered together 
these outcasts of Israel. Let every one take heed how 
he hinders this work of the Lord, and how he adds af- 
fliction to those that have been afflicted. • 

Obs. 2. The more the gospel prevails, the more peace 
there shall be. They shall " be gathered together ;" 
that is, in the time of the gospel, when tliat shall pre- 
vail, then Judah and Israel shall be gathered together. 

The gospel is not the cause of divisions, of seditions, 
of factions. No ; it is a gospel of peace, the Prince of 
it is a Prince of peace, the embassage of it is an embas- 
sage of peace. It is next to blasphemy, if not blas- 
])hemy itself, to say that since the preacliing and pro- 
fession of the gospel we have had no peace, but it causes 
factions and divisions among the people. People who 
ai'C in the dark sit still and quiet together, as it is said 
of the Egv])tians, when they were m the dark for tliose 
three days together, they stiiTcd not from their seats, 
there was no noise among them; shall the light be 
blamed, because afterward, when it came, cveiy one 
stirred and went, one one way, and another another ? 
So when we were m gross darkness, we saw^ notliing, 
we knew nothing ; now light begins to break forth, and 
one searches after one truth, and another after another, 
and vet we cannot attain to ])crfection ; shall we accuse 
the light for tliis ? Y'ea, but we see too apparently that 
those who seem the strictest of all, that would worship 
God (as they say) in the purest manner m his ordi- 
nances ; yet there are woeful divisions and distractions 
even amongst them. How then is the gospel a gospel 
of peace ? 

Consider this one reason in answer to this, to satisfy 
your consciences, Uiat tlic gospel may not be blamed, for 
indeed wlierc the gospel comes there is promised peace. 
Because so long as we arc here we are partly flesn and 
))artly sjiirit. Those who have the gospel prevail with 
their consciences, cannot move any fui-ther than they 



Vee. 11. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



39 



can see light for, and their consciences will give them 
leave. But other men have more liberty, they quarrel 
not one with another ; why ? because they have wide, 
elastic consciences : having ends of their own, they 
will }-ield to any thing to attain those ends ; so that 
here they have this advantage, that if they see conten- 
tion will bring them more trouble than they conceive 
tlie thing is worth, they wUl condescend, though it be 
against the light of conscience ; wliilst others upon whom 
the light of the gospel has prevailed, have that bond 
upon conscience, that though aU the world should diifer 
fi-om them, they must be content to lie down and suffer; 
they cannot yield; though you woidd give them aU the 
world, they cannot go against that Hght. They may 
search, and it may trouble them that their apprehen- 
sions of tilings should be different fi-om the apprehen- 
sions of theii- brethi-en, and that they cannot jield to 
that to which their bretlu-en jield. It is true they 
should be humbled, and suspect then- hearts, and look 
to themselves, and fall down before God and pray, and 
use aU means for ad^^ce and comisel, and consider of 
things again and again. But suppose they have done 
all tills, and yet the Lord does not reveal to them any 
further light, though it be a sad ailiiction to them, yet 
they must lie down under it, for they camiot Afield; one 
known truth is more to them than all the world ; there- 
fore, unless others will bear with them in their infii'm- 
ity, they ■will suffer whatever men will lay upon them. 

The world calls this obstinacy, and stiffness, and being 
wedded to then- o\^-n opinion ; but they luio-\r it is other- 
wise, and can appeal to God and say. Lord, thou know- 
est what a sad affliction it is unto me, that I cannot see 
what my brother sees, and that I cannot yield to what 
my brother yields : thou hast hid it fi-om me : I will 
wait upon thee tiU thou shalt reveal it ; and in the mean 
time I will be quiet, and not make distm-bance in the 
places where I come, but pray, pray, pray for light, and 
that thou wouldst incline the heart of my brethi-en 
unto me, that they may not have hard thoughts of me. 
Do but thus, thou shalt have peace with God, and in 
tliine own heart. 

If we would have light let into us, we must so prize 
it, as to be willing that in the discussion of truths there 
should be some hazard of differences in lesser things. If 
a man have a house closed on every side with a thick 
brick wall, and he is so desirous to keep his house safe 
and strong, that he will rather aU Ms days sit in the 
dark, than be at the ti-oublc to have a hole digged or 
a few bricks broken to let in any light, we shoidd accuse 
that man of folly. It is true, we must not be so de- 
sirous of light, as to break so much of the waU as to 
endanger the house, we must keep that safe ; but yet 
it is difficult to let in light without taking away some 
bricks, and occasioning some trouble. A child, when 
he sees the workman with his tools breaking the waU, 
and making a deal of rubbish, thinks he is pidling 
down the house ; but a wise man knows it is but a little 
trouble for the present, to let in light that shall be for 
the beauty of the house afterward. 

Agi-eemcnt in error is far worse than division for the 

sake of truth. Better to be divided from men that are 

erroneous, than to agree with them in the ways of 

ubisivcfoiderepi- theu' en'or. A company gathered with- 

cis,sWeobser™,iia Qut the coveuaut of peacc, without the 

etreg.mintAcepha-vObservance 01 Gods law, IS a headless 

^gata fafririon multitude, says BernaKl, it has much of 

Ssio.'BSy^m"' Babylon, but" little of Jerusalem. 

^licumS'hir O**- '^- ^'^ ^°"'i ^5 '"i"}' are converted to 

bet. Bern s<.r, 5. do the faith, thev are of a gathering disposi- 

tion. ihey desu-e to gather to the saints 

immediately. Every child of God is a gatherer; as 

Solomon is called EcclesiastPs, in the Greek, but the 

p-,^., Hebrew wor<l is mterpreted by some, a 

■' '■ soul gathered, because it is in "the femi- 



nine gender. None in the world love good fellowship 
so much as the saints of God. They fly as doves to 
their -n-indows, and doves you know fly in great flocks, 
thousands together. The more spii'itual any one is, of 
the more joining and uniting nature he is. Thousands 
of beams of the sun will meet together in one, better 
than the beams of a candle. In the apostles' times, 
when men were converted, it is said, they " were added 
to the church," they gathered presently. So, in Isa. 
Ixvi. 20, it is obsei-vable : " They shall bring all your 
brcthi-en for an offering unto the Lord out of all na- 
tions upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters." How 
comes tliis ? Those who dweU a great way off shall not 
make that their excuse for not joining the people of 
God, It is a great journey ; no, but there are horses to 
be got. But it may be some cannot ride ? Then get 
chariots. But some, perhaps, are so weak that they can 
neither ride on horses nor in chariots. Then they will 
get Ktters; and litters you know are to eaiTy weak and 
sick persons. This shows the intention of spu'it in the 
people of God to be gathered to the chui-ch, either to 
be carried on horses, or in chariots, or in litters, one 
way or other they will come and join themselves to the 
people of God. For there is the presence of Clirist, 
and the protection of Christ, and the commmiication 
of Christ in tlieii- union and communion, and "'WTiere- 
soever the body is, thither wiU the eagles be gathered 
together." Oh they love a life to be going towards 
Zion, gathering one to another, as in Psal. Ixxxiv. 7, 
" They go fi-om strength to sti-ength, every one of them 
in Zion appeareth before God." " From strength to 
sti-ength," that is, thus : from one place of the country 
perhaps there come half a score, or twenty, to go to- 
ward Zion, and perhaps before they come to such a 
to^\ll or tm-ning they meet with half a score more, and 
so they gi-ow stronger ; when they are a mile or two 
farther perhaps they meet with another town coming, 
and they join presently and are stronger ; and so they 
go fi-om strength to strength comfortably together till 
they come before God in Zion. 

" They shall appohit themselves one head." Although 
they are multitudes, and are as the sand of the sea, 
yet this is no great matter, unless they come under one 
head, and a right head too. ^Multitudes are not a suf- 
ficient ai-gument of truth. A multitude coming under 
one Head, under Christ as one Head, they are the true 
church. The papists give universality as the mark of 
the church, that there are so many papists m the world. 

But, 1. We must not regard how many the people 
are, but under what head they are : they shall be ga- 
thered under one head: look to the head they foUow; 
for St. Paul teUs us, that there shall be an apostacy 
before the revelation of that man of sin, 2 Thess. ii. 3. 
And Rev. xiii. 3, " All the world wondered after the 
beast : " and ver. 2, " The di-agon gave him his power, 
and liis seat, and great authority-:" and Rev. xvii. 1, 
"The great whore that sitteth upon many waters;" 
and, ver. 15, these " many waters" are interpreted to be 
" peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." 
The whore sits upon them, that is, uses them \-ilely and 
basely ; sits upon the very consciences of them in a 
base manner. And who does she sit upon ? Upon 
peoples and midtitudes. It is not an argument then 
of a trulB chuich, though they are multitudes, though 
they are as the sand of the sea, though they are gathered 
together, for they must be gathered under one head, 
under Chiist. 

2. Neither is unity a suflScient argiunent of the verity 
of the chiu-ch. They shall be gathered together, they 
shall be joined together in one way, with one consent; 
but if it be not under one head, they are like Simeon 
and Levi, brethren m iniquity. It is not enough that 
we are one, unless we are one in Clirist ; and tnkt is a 
blessed union : for there shall be much unity under an- 



40 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. I. 



tichrist. " These have one mind, and they shall give 
their power and strength unto the beast," Rev. xvii. 
13. And chap, xviii. 5, " her sins have reached unto 
heaven." Tlieir sins cleave together, and so get up to 
heaven. Here is a union of persons, and a union of 
sins amongst them. The Turks have as little dissension 
in their religion as any ; they are all united in one. 
But well may that garment have no seam, that has no 
shape. Look at Psal. L\.\xiii. 5, " They have consulted 
together with one consent, they are confederate against 
thee." There are two or three things exceedingly ob- 
servable in this psalm about the union of the wicked : 
First you have ten countries join together against the 
church ; ver. G — S, " The tabernacles of Edom, and the 
Ishmaelites ; of Moab, and the Hagarenes ; Gcbal, and 
Amnion, and Amalek; the PhiUstines with the in- 
habitants of TjTe ; Assur also is joined with them : 
they have holpen the chikb'en of Lot." And it was 
not' by accident that they joined, but in a deliberate 
way, " they consulted together," and not only consulted 
together, but consulted together " with one consent," 
or heartily, for nn' sS which is translated there, with 
one consent, signifies, with heai't together, their very 
heart was in the consultation ; but mark, it was " against 
thy liidden ones," so ver. 3. Let them consult together, 
let ten of them consult together, and consult with their 
hearts, yet the saints are God's hidden ones. " They 
shall siu:ely gather together, but not by me : whosoever 
shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy 
sake," Isa. liv. 15. My brethren, peace, though we 
should all desire it, yet not at too costly a price ; peace 
is too chargeable when it costs us the loss of any truth. 
Take heed of any such costly peace : " Though hand 
join in hand " together in wickedness, yet they " shall 
not be unpunished." Prov. xvi. 5. And Nahum i. 10, 
" AViule they are folded together as thorns, they shall 
be devoured as stubble fully thy." Wicked men are 
as thorns to prick the people of God, yea, they are 
thorns folded together, there is a peace amongst them : 
yet, though they be folded together, they shall be de- 
voured, they shall be devoured even in their folding. 
The division that comes by truth is better than the 
union that comes by error. It is a notable speech of 
Luther, Rather than any thing should 
TCgiTcl^rliri, a "" fall of the kingdom of Clu-ist and his 
fiat^Tiium'pnx, glor>', Ict uot Only peace go, but let heaven 
Luther"'" '' """' ^^^ earth go too : we should love peace, 
yet peace and truth better. 

AATiat is this " head ? " 

I find both the Jews and divers of the ancients. 
Theodoret, C'jtLI, and others, would make this head to 
be Zerubbabcl, and only to have reference to the return 
of the people from their Babylonish cajjtivity. But 
this certainly cannot be, for these two reasons, to name 
no more. 

First, Because both Israel and Judah are here to 
join together and to return out of the land : there it 
was Judah, and not the ten tribes, tliat were delivered 
from their ca])tivity. 

Secondly, Compare this scripture with others, and 
we shall find that Zcrubliabel cannot be meant. In 
Ezek xxxiv. and xxxvii., wc have expressions such as 
plainly appear that they are but comments upon this 
text of Hosea (for Ezekiel pro])hesied after Hosea) : 
and especially in the 3Tth chapter we have a prophecy 
of the union of all the tribes together. Judah and Israel ; 
and ver. 24, " David my servant shall be king over 
them ;" and ver. 25, " My servant David shall be 
their prince for ever." The one head which they shall 
have when they come together shall be David. And 
so in chap, xxxiv. 23, "I will set one shepherd over 
them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David ;" 
and ver. 24. " I the Lord will be their God, and my 
servant David a prince among them." That head then 



that they shall have shall be David, not Zerubbabel. 
Now by Da^'id we are to imderstand Christ clearly, 
for in other places, as in Isa. Iv. 3, " I will make an 
everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies 
of David," they can only be meant of the sure mercies 
of Christ ; and so it is interpreted by St. Paul, Acts 
xiii. 34. Therefore, then, we conclude certainly this is 
meant of Christ ; thev shall appoint Christ to be their 
Head. 

This is then the first great point in this text, a head- 
point of divinity indeed, that Jesus Christ is the 
Head of the church. And, secondly, he shall be so 
appointed. 

Obs. Jesus Christ is the Head of the church, and 
shall appear so hereafter, further than now he doth. 

The church is not a headless multitude, it is a com- 
munity of saints who have a glorious Head. That body 
cannot be contemptible that has a Head so honoiu'able. 
It is he that is the brightness of his Father's glorj-, in 
whom " all fulness dwells," yea, " the fulness of the 
Godhead bodily." It is he by whom all things consist, 
that is the beginning of all things. It is he that is 
the Head of angels themselves : " Ye are complete in 
him, which is the Head of all principality and power,"' 
Col. ii. 10. 

1. He is the Head of angels; how? 

(1.) Because the angels are joined together with the 
chiu-ch, and are part of the church triumphant, and so 
Christ is their Head. 

(2.) Yea, the angels have influence from him. That 
gi'ace which they have from God, which is beyond 
naturals, is fi'om Christ, for Christ is canalii- ^raliee, the 
channel of grace from God. Their estabhshment in 
theh- condition is from Chi-ist, for it is not due to them 
in a natural way ; yea, the gloi-y they shall have in join- 
ing with the church is above that which is due to their 
natural state, and all that is fi-om Christ. 

2. He is the Head of all men ; '• the Head of everv' 
man is Christ," 1 Cor. xi. 3. " The Head of every man ;" 
how ? "What ! are all men in the woxdd the body of 
Christ ? if he be the Head, then it seems they are all 
the members. No, though Christ be the Head of angels, 
yet angels are not said to be members of him ; yea, in 
the same place of the Corinthians, God is said to be the 
head of Christ, and yet Christ is not a member of God. 
So that he may be the Head of every man, and yet every 
man not a member of Christ. He is the Head of every 
•man in regard of that superiority that Christ has over 
ever)' man, and some kind of influence e^•en from 
Christ comes to ever)- man ; he enlighteneth every 
man that eometh ijito the world. 

3. Yea, he that is the Head of his church, is the 
Head of all things ; " God hath given him to be the 
Head over all things to the chm-ch," Eph. i. 22. Mark 
it, it is a most admirable place, that Christ is " the 
Head of all things." But how ? " To the chmxh," for 
the sake of the church, as aiming at the good of the 
church especially. 

(1.) It is the honour of the church to have such a 
Head, who is the brightness of his Father's gloi-y, the 
Head of angels, the Head of every man, the Head of 
all things for the good of his church. 

(2.) He is their Head because he is their strength. 
Christ is the Head of the church in regard of the 
strength that the church has by him. An oppressed 
multitude cannot help itself if they have no head, but 
if God shall please to give them strength and a head, 
and that in a legal Avay, if they have hearts they may 
deliver themselves from oppression, this God has done 
for us ; if therefore Cod docs not vote us to misery and 
slavery, if we be not a 'leople given up of God to ruin, 
we may have help. Tl.^ church is a communion of 
saints op])ressed here in tht world ; their strength is in 
heaven, in their Head, who h. s received all power to 



Vek. 11. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



exercise it for them ; to him they cleave, for him they 
bless God, even the Father, because lie is theu- strength. 

(3.) He is then- Head, because the saints hold all 
upon Chi-ist ; aU that they have they hold in Capile, as 
the best tenure of all. The tenure upon which the 
saints hold all their comfort, all theii- good in this 
world, is in another way than other men hold it : other 
men have what they have through the bounty and pa- 
tience of God ; but the saints hold all ?>( Capi/e, in 
their Head, in Chi-ist, in the right they have in him. 

(4.) He is their Head, because their safety is in him: 
though all the members of the church be under water, 
yet all is safe when the head is above water ; our Head 
Lutherus apud iiios is in heavcn. Luther said he was even 
cSufre^atet <>s a devQ to some, they so violently ac- 
»'"'«■ cused him ; but let Chnst live and reign. 

Christ is above, the head is above water. 

(5.) He is their Head in regard of his compassion to 
his church and people. The meanest member here, if 
wronged, Christ is sensible of it. ^\^len but the toe is 
trodden upon, the head cries. Why do you hurt me ? 
Chi'ist the Head cries, " Saul, Saul, why persecutest 
thou me?" And observe, the meaner and the poorer 
the members of Chi'ist are here in the church, the more 
is Christ sensible of their soiTOWs and afflictions, and 
the more will he appear for them, when he shall appear 
a Head yet more gloriously than ever he has done. 
Ezek. xxxiv. 16 — 26, is very notable. You find there, 
Christ is said to be " one shepherd" to his people, and 
" a prince" to them ; but mark what is promised. That 
he will " bring again that which was driven away, and 
will bind up that wliich was broken, and will strengthen 
that which was sick : but he will destroy the fat and 
the strong, and feed them with judgment. — And he will 
judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and 
the he-goats. — He will judge between the fat cattle and 
the lean cattle ; because ye have thrust with side and 
with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your 
horns, till ye have scattered them abroad." "VVlien 
Christ shall appear, he will not show such respect to 
the brave, stout, joUy spirits of those that were in the 
church, who thought to cany all before them with 
force. Xo ; he will look to the poor of the flock ; and 
those that thrust with the side, and pushed with the 
horns, and scattered the poor and the lean, they shall 
be judged. 

Sly brethren, have you not known times when stout- 
hearted and cruel men have thrust with the side, and 
pushed with the horn, and scattered up and down in 
divers countries, thousands of weak and tender-con- 
scienced Clu'istians ? Well, but here is a promise, that 
Christ our Head will come, and he shall be one Shep- 
herd, and he shall show his tender afl'ection toward the 
poor afflicted of the flock, he shall take away fi'om the 
land the evil beasts, as you have it there in the 2.3th 
verse. He is the Head in regard of his compassion. 

(6.) Chi'ist is their Head in regard of guidance and 
direction. The body is to be moved and guided by the 
head ; so aU truths, all doctrines of religion, must hold 
on Christ. Col. ii. 19, the apostle, rebuking worship- 
ping of angels and other false opinions, saith, that 
they did not hold the head. All doctrines in the 
church therefore must hold the Head, and must not be 
obti-uded upon the chiu'ch, but as they come from the 
Head, and hold there. 

(7.) And that principally, and upon which we must 
stay a while, which is most of all intended in the text, 
Christ is their Head in regai'd of his rule and govern- 
ment ; and therefore he that is called " one head" here, 
is called " a prince " in those two forenamed chapters, 
Ezek. xxxiv. and xxxvii. It would spend time need- 
lessly, to show you in Scripture how governors are call- 
ed heads, that I suppose you are all acquainted with. 
This, therefore, is the main thing that we are now to 



open, how Chi'ist is the Head of the cnurch in regard 
of his rule and government. Tliere are many things of 
importance in this point. I shall desire to decline, what 
possibly I may, all things that ai'e controversial, espe- 
cially with OUT' brethi'en, and only speak of what I think 
for the present you are fit to bear. 

There are four things, especially of the government 
of Chi'ist in his cliui'ch, for which he is to be accounted 
the Head. 

1. AU oflices and officers in the church hold upon 
Chi'ist, and are from him as from the Head. As in a 
civil body, the offices of a civil state hold of the king, 
hold upon him in a legal way ; the power of the king 
being regular, it regulates all power in aU other officers ; 
that which is done, is done in the name of the king. 
So aU the officers and oflices in the chui'ch are in the 
name of Chi'ist, they all hold on liim. There can be 
no officer nor offices in the church, but such as Chi'ist 
himself has appointed, for they must be by institution. 
I beseech you observe the difference between officers 
in a civil state, and officers in a church. 

(1.) A civil state, because it reaches only to the out- 
ward man, has liberty to appoint what officers it please, 
according to the rules of prudence and justice; and 
more or less, according to the necessity of the country 
and place. But it is not so in the church, there we 
have no liberty to go accorcUng to the rules of prudence, 
merely to erect any office because we think it may 
make for the good and peace of the church. I say, 
therefore, to erect any new office not established before 
in the word, we have no liberty, we cannot do it, we 
are too bold if we attempt it, for such an office wiU not 
hold of the Head. In the state, none can erect new 
offices, new courts, but by the supreme legislative 
power ; so in the church, none can erect new offices, 
but only from the Head. In the civil state, God leaves 
a great deal of hberty ; there may be change of officers,, 
those that are good now, perhaps, may seem not so fit 
afterwards, and those in one country may not be so fit 
for another. But for the officers of the church, they 
must be aU the same in all places, where they can be- 
had, and no more than those appointed by Christ. 

(2.) The civil state may limit their officers as they 
think fit. They may choose one into an office, he shall 
have power but in so many things ; this shall be the 
object of his power, when he is come hither there he 
shaU stop ; though he that was before him had more 
power, yet he that comes after him may not have that 
power, the civU state may limit that, if it see fit. But 
in the church state it cannot be so ; and upon this 
gi'ound, because they hold upon tlie Head. Indeed the 
men that beai' any office in the church, are designed to 
it by the chui'ch, but they do not hold of the church, 
they hold of Christ the Head ; therefore it is not in the 
power of the church to limit them being in it, but they 
must go to the word, for their office once taken upon 
them, whether it be the office of teachers or of pastors, 
they cannot then be limited by any power, but what 
the word saith is the office of a teacher or of a pastor : 
they cannot have the rule so propounded to them, as. 
You shall go but thus far, and you shaU do so much of 
the office of a teacher and no more ; but when they are 
once ui, they are in without any limitation of the power 
of their office ; it is only from Christ the Head. 

(3.) In a civil state there may be alteration, raising 
the cUgnity of the office, and making it lower than be- 
fore ; but in the church no such thing, the officers of 
the church are always the same, no raising, no depress- 
ing ; why ? because they hold upon the Head. Others 
depend upon man's prudence, but these are institutions 
by Chi'ist, and hold of the Head. 

2. Chi'ist is the Head in regard of rule, because aU 
ordinances, laws, and institutions hold upon him. It 
is not in the liberty of man to erect any new spiritual 



42 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



CUAT. I. 



ordinance in the church, no nor to make spuitual laws 
in the church, for the government of the spirits of men. 
No new ordinance, no new institution, can be in the 
church. Li the civil state there may be thousands of 
new institutions. 

I call that an institution that has an efficacy in it 
for attauiing such an end by virtue of the institution, 
not by virtue of any natui'alness in the thing. As for 
example, to instance in Divine institutions : The sacra- 
ment is an mstitution, and therefore there is a virtue, 
a spiritual efficacy, to be expected from that and by 
that, through the strength of the institution, more than 
it has in it in any natural way. So iii preaching the 
word, and ecclesiastical censures, there is more to be 
expected, more efficacy to work upon tlie soul, for the 
spu-itual man, by vu-tue of the institution, than there 
is in the natm-al tilings that are done there. So for 
laws : Chi'ist makes a law in the church, it being an 
institution, there is to be expected a spmtual efficacy 
and vu-tue to go with that thing which C'lu-ist com- 
mands, beyond what it had before it was commanded. 
Now then, in this way, no man in the world can make 
any chm-ch institution, no, nor law for the church, so 
as to appoint any thing, to have any s])ii'itual efficacy 
by vii'tue of that institution, beyond what it has in a 
natural way. We must take heed of being so bold, 
that when Cluist has made an institution, an ordinance, 
and revealed it to us, for us to tliink we may imitate 
Christ, and make another ordinance, or another insti- 
tution, like that ; because Chtist has done so, because 
we find such a thing in the word, therefore we may do 
so too. No, this is too bold, this is to set our post by 
God's post, for which the Lord charged the people, 
Ezek. xliii. S. In Isa. xxxiii. 22, it is said, " The Lord 
is our judge, the Lord b our lawgiver, the Lord is oiu 
king " in this thing. 

We are to consider that there are some things be- 
longing to the chm-ch (I beseech you observe) com- 
mon with all other societies ; and therefore they have 
that which belongs to them, natural and civil, concern- 
ing which laws may be made : there the power of man 
may come in, there the rule of prudence may order 
things. Those things, I say, that belong to the chm'ch, 
that yet are not so peculiarly the chm'ch's, but belong 
to other societies, there man's reason may come m. As 
for instance : First, a church is a spiritual society and 
community, they must meet fogetlier, and if they do 
meet, they must meet in some place : this is common 
to all societies in the world, a they will meet, they 
must meet in a place. Yea, Secondly, if they meet in 
a place, this place must be determined where it shall 
be. Tills also is common to all societies. Thirdly, 
this likewise is common to them with all other societies, 
that what they tlo in that place, must be done decently 
and in order. As if many things are to be done, one 
thing must be before another, one thmg must not ex- 
clude another ; if they come together, they must come 
together as befitting men in a decent way. Therefore 
that rale of the apostle, " Let all things be done de- 
cently and in order," is not properly an histitution, it 
is nothing but the dictate of right reason ; so that if we 
had never found such a maxim in Scri])turc, it had been 
a ti'uth that we were bound in conscience to observe. 
Again, if men will come and meet together, it is natu- 
ral and common to all societies, that they should be 
decent in their garments and otherwise. 

But then vou will say, AVhen is it an institution [jro- 
per only to Christ, with which none must meddle ? 

Thus", when any man shall by virtue of any law, or 
impo'^ition, put more efficacy in an institution for tlie 
worship of God, than God or nature has done, this we 
call sinful. 

As for instance, (1.) Suppose we instance only gar- 
ments. That all who meet together in Clmstian as- 



semblies, ministers and others, should meet in decent 
garments, the light of nature tells us ; and there may 
be law, if men -will be refi-actory, to compel them so to 
meet. But now, if we say, such a garment shall be 
decent for God's worship because it is appointed, where- 
as if it were not appointed, it would not be decent at 
all ; then I say all the decency does not depend upon 
what God has put into it, or what is natural to it, but 
merely upon the institution of man. For some kind 
of gaiTuents, if men were left to their freedom, and 
there were no institution, would not be decent to wear; 
if it would not be decent, then it seems it is the insti- 
tution that puts all honom' upon them, and more than 
nature, or the God of nature, has put upon them. 

2. There is more put upon a thing, than nature liath 
put into it, when there shall be expected, by virtue of 
an institution, some kind of spiritual efficacy to work 
upon the soul ; then it is sinful. As thus, when that 
creatm-e, by vii-tue of the institution and appointment, 
shall be made, esteemed, or accounted more effectual 
to stir up my mind, or to signify such a thing, to piuity 
or holiness, than another creature that has as much in 
it naturally to signify the same tiling, and to stir up 
my mind ; this is to imitate God's institution, which is 
too much boldness in any man. 

As, when God appoints a thing in his church, a 
ceremony or the like, he -nill take something that has 
a resemblance, to put men in mind of such a holy thing, 
that has some kind of metaphor or likeness in it. But 
when God has taken this creature and sepaiated it 
from others, this creature must be expected to have 
more efficacy to signify' the tiling to my soul, and to 
stir up my soul to think of this holiness, than any 
creature in the world, not so appointed, though other 
creatines have as much in them naturally to do it. 
Tills is God's institution. Now man's institution, that 
comes near to God's, where there is a setting om- post 
by his post, is when man shall take one creature from 
thousands of others, and all those thousands have as 
much in them natm-ally, and put mto tlicni by God, to 
remind me of holiness, and to stu- up my heart ; but 
this creature shall be separated from the rest, and by 
vfrtue of an institution put upon it, there shall be ex- 
pected more efficacy in this to stir up my mind, and to 
thaw my heait nearer to God, than other creatm'es, 
that only do it in a natm-al way. This, I say, is in- 
trenching upon that which belongs to the government 

of Clu'LSt. 

Therefore I beseech you, my brethren, be not mis- 
taken ui this, because I know you are ordinarily led by 
that speech of the apostle, " Let all things be done de- 
cently and in order." Understand it aright : it is tnie 
we must do so, and it is a sin not to do tilings decently 
and in order, in the worship of God ; but this does not 
at all comitenance any institution of man, to diaw the 
heart nearer to God^ or God nearer to the heart, by 
virtue of man's separation of it from common use. 

I might instance other things, such as places : that 
tliere should be a convenient place for God's worship, 
the light of nature wdl tell us; but when any man 
shall set one place aside sepai-ated from another, and 
shall make the worship of God to be better, and have 
more efficacy to draw men nearer to God, or God 
nearer to men, than another place that has as much 
natural decency and fitness in it as that place ha.s ; then 
it has evil in it. 

By these few instances you may judge of all things, 
when they come to be institutions in God's woi-ship, 
and beyond the rule of the apostle, " Let all things be 
done decently and in order." Tliis is the second thing 
of Christ's government, that all ordinances, all laws in 
the church, must hold on him the Head. 

3. Those laws which Christ makes for the ordering 
and sovernment of his church, not onlv hold on him as 



<ER. 11. 



THE PROPHECY OP HOSEA. 



43 



the Head, but hare such a virtue and efficacy in them 
as coming from the Head, that they bind the con- 
sciences of men. Because they come from him who is 
the Head of the chiu-ch, they lay bonds upon con- 
sciences, and that primai-ily, and more efficaciously than 
any law of any man in the world can. Yea, they lay 
such a bond upon conscience, that though a thing bo 
commanded that has no other reason for the command 
but merely the will of Christ, and that we cannot see 
to what good the thing tends, Ijut merely because Christ 
TS-ill have it, yet we are bound to obey, yea, and that in 
secret ; yea, so far as the rule goes, we ai'e bound to do 
what is required by it, though we should suffer never so 
much prejudice to ourselves. Here is the binding 
power of CHn-ist in binding conscience. But no law of 
man can in this way bind conscience. 

But what will you say then to that text of Scriptm-e, 
which I suppose is in every one of your thoughts, and 
wotdd be ready in every one of yoiu' mouths if you 
were from the assembly, " Let every soul be subject 
unto the higher powers ; for there is no power but of 
God, the powers that be are ordained of God. '\\nioso- 
ever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordi- 
nance of God; and they that resist shall receive to 
themselves damnation," Rom. xiii. 1, 2. Yea, " ye 
must needs be subject, not only for -rn-ath, but also for 
conscience sake," ver. 5. This text seems to imply that 
the laws of men do bind the conscience ; and we find 
how tliis is urged by many, so that there is no institu- 
tion of man whatever, (except we can apparently show 
it is contrarj' to the word of God,) but they think by 
virtue of tliis text the consciences of men are boimd ; 
they do not submit to authority, they sin against theu' 
consciences. INIany men will jeer at those who are so 
conscientious in God's commands about those which 
seem to be but little things (and in themselves are little 
things) ; O, they dare not disobey because they are 
bound in conscience ; they will jeer at the scrupulosity 
of their consciences. But when it comes to man's com- 
mands, then they must obey in the least thing, whatever 
it be ; though in its owm nature it be never so indiffer- 
ent, yet tliey must obey for conscience sake. 

I shall desire, as fuUy and as clearly as I am able, to 
satisfy conscience in this very thing. To open therefore 
that scripture unto you : 

Fh-st, You must obsen-e, that every one is bound to 
be subject to the higher powers. JNIark, it is not to 
the man first, but it is to the power, " Let every soul 
be subject imto the higher powers," wherever this 
power lies. It is not to the will of a man that has 
power, but it is to the power of that man. Now the 
power, the authority, is that which man has in a legal 
way. That fii-st must be imderstood. 

Secondly, We must consider in what they must be 
subject. The laws of men are of three sorts. 

Some perhaps command that which is simply unlaw- 
ful, to which we all jield the Scriptm-e does not bind 
us to be subject ; there " we must obey God rather than 
man." Others command tilings that are lawful; and 
they are of two sorts. 

Either such thuigs as tend, by the rules of justice and 
prudence, to the good of the community of which we 
are members ; and there we are bound to obey for con- 
science sake. But stiU this is not according to that 
obedience we owe to Cluist our Head, it is secondary, 
not primary, because commanded by man : and then, 
because there exists a law of Cluist to us, to walk and 
live according to the rides of justice and prudence ; so 
we are bound for conscience in those things, but not 
primai-Uy, and so they cannot be said to bind conscience, 
as Cluist's laws do. 

There ara other things which are commanded bv 
man, (and that especially concerns our question,) and 
these are such things as indeed are neither here nor 



there for the pubUc good. The good of the community 
does not at aU depend upon them, and there is nothing 
in them but merely the satisfaction of the wiU of those 
who are in authority. Now here is the question, how- 
far those laws bmd men, and bind conscience ? Indeed 
many poor Clu-istians w-ho are conscientious have been 
extremely snared in these things. 

To that I answer, that though such things should be 
commanded to be done, yet if they be not done, (so 
that they'are not omitted out of contempt, nor so as to 
bring scandal upon the authority that enjouis them, 
and those that omit them patiently and willingly sub- 
mit to what pimishment the law of the land shall re- 
quu'e,) in such things a man's conscience shall not, nor 
need not, bind him over to answer before God, that he 
has sinned against that rule. 

You will say, How- do you prove that ? How doth it 
appeal- ? I will make it appear from the natui-e of sub' 
jection reqiiii-ed in the text, and fi-om reason. 

Fu-st, this text, Rom. xiii. 4, gives this as the ground 
why we are to be subject, " For he is the minister of 
God to thee for good." So that that which is the special 
ground of our subjection is, because they that are in 
place are ministers for oiu- good. But here is then an 
abuse of their power, if they command what does not 
tend to the good of the public, but merely the satisfac- 
tion of then- own rmiids. 

But suppose it to be an abuse, the text saith we must 
be subject. 

Mark, therefore, the text saith not, you must do the 
thing for conscience sake ; (I beseech you observe it ;) 
it saith, avdyKi) v-oruaaiadai, you must be subject, we 
must not resist, but be subject; the meaning is, w-e 
must be subordinate for conscience sake. Here is aU 
that is requii-ed, that I must be subordhiate and not 
resist, that is, if there be a thing commanded by 
authorit)-, though tliis authority should be abused, yet 
I may not resist, I must be subject. If then out of 
that reverent respect I have to authority, though I do 
not the thing, yet I do not forbear out Of contempt : it 
is a thing exceedingly prejudicial unto me, and it is not 
for the common good, but yet I am so careful that 
authorit)' sbaU not be despised that I will keep it 
secret, I will not refuse to do it so as shall be a scandal 
imto authority. And yet further, if authority shall so 
far urge upon me as to inflict punishment because I do 
it not, I will patiently bear it. Now when these tlu-ee 
thuigs are done, here is that subordination to authority 
which the apostle in that scriptiu-e reqmres. 

And the reason w-hy tliis of necessitj- must be grant- 
ed, is, because otherwise all that Chiistian liberty of 
which the Scripture so much speaks, may be utterly 
taken aw-ay in the practice, and be in the power of man 
wholly to "deprive us of it. This scriptm-e cannot be 
so understood, that all the liberty we have in things in 
their own natiu'e indifferent, should be so under the 
power of men, as that we for the practice, and for our 
consciences too, must be tied, that we cannot have 
liberty, no, not in secret. Certainly, that is against the 
judgment of aU orthodox divines of the Reformed 
churches. 

But it may be said, A^lio shall be judge whether 
things tend to the public good or not? will you take 
upon you to judge yourself? To that the answer is 
plaui, that indeed those who are ajipointed by law have 
the power to judge legaUy and authoritatively, to judge 
so as to bind others. "But every man has liberty so far 
as concerns his o-nii act to judge at his perO. And that 
a twofold peril. Fu-st at his peril, lest he, judging him- 
self, should sin against God in this, that he should judge 
that not good for the pubUc which indeed is good; 
that he should perhaps judge that to be of an indiffer- 
ent nature that justice and prudence require of him. 
Here he misjudges at his ]>cril, lie sins against the 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. 1. 



Lord, against the rules of justice and prudence, and 
endangers his own soul if he go amiss. Secondly, if he 
misjudge, it is at his peiil by the laws of men, as he is 
in danger then to suffer -what the laws of men shall in- 
flict upon him. And so submitting this way, his con- 
science may have some ease ; and yet no gap open at all 
to liberty, or any disturbance to any lawful authority. 
This is necessarj- for men to know, that they may un- 
derstand aright how to answer that question about laws 
binding of conscience. You hear it is the prerogative 
of Christ our Head, so to be our lawgiver, as to lay 
bonds upon conscience in sucli a manner as no man can 
do the like. That is the thii-d. 

4. Christ is the Head of the church, say some, even 
personally, so as to come and rule in the world in a 
glorious manner, personally. They think this may be 
interpreted, that Christ shall be a Head, that he shall 
come personally, and rule and govern things even in 
this world. As Christ in his own person exercised his 
priestly and prophetical offices, so they think in his 
own person he shall exercise his kingly power and 
office. AMiich opinion, because the further discussion 
of it I suppose generally you are not able to bear yet, 
therefore in modesty I will forbear ; and though out of 
modesty I shall for the pi-esent forbear, yet out of con- 
science I dare not altogether deny it, but so we will 
leave it, to see what ti-uth may be in it. We must ex- 
pect to have light let in by degrees. 

In these fom- things then we have the nale of Christ, 
three determined of, the fourth only propounded, about 
which Christ in time will show fui'ther light. Christ is 
then the Head. 

Now from all this there follows three consequences 
that are very useful, — That seeking after the right go- 
vernment of Christ in his church is not a light matter, 
it concerns the headship of Chi-ist. — By what has been 
said, we may learn to know what is properly antichris- 
tian, and what not; — and we shall come to have light 
how far the king may be said to be head of the church. 
In these things you will find it needful for conscience 
to be infomied, and I shall can-y them on too, I hope, 
with modesty, fulness, and safety. 

1. I say it follows from hence, that it is not a light 
matter to seek after the right government of Christ in 
liis church, it concerns the headship of Christ in a spe- 
cial manner. There are some other things in wliich 
the headship of Clrrist consists, which perhaps may be 
spoken of hereafter, but in this place especially that. 
In the primitive times, the greatest contention was 
about the doctrines of religion, what doctrines should 
hold upon Chi-ist and what not, and the people of God 
suffered most for contending about them. They would 
not receive a doctrine but what held on Christ ; and 
what was obti-udcd upon them, not holding upon Christ 
the Head, they rejected. And Luther upon this place 
saith how much the church in after-time suffered for 
this very thing ; What kind of dangers environed the 
church, and do environ it for acknowledging Christ to 
be the Head, these our times sufficiently testify. And 
further, because we preach Christ to" be the whole 
Head, therefore we are subject to anathemas, and to 
all kinds of punishment. Iia these latter times, it is 
likely that the great contention will be, ratlier about 
the headship of Christ in the point of his government, 
than in the other, the other bemg so clear unto us ; and 
the sufferings of the people of God will be so much the 
more gi-ievous, because this is accounted such a little 
thing, such a poor business. And rather, because this 
does not seem to be altogether so dearly re\ caled in 
the Scriiiture, as other doctrinal i)oints that hold u])on 
t'luist tlie Head. Christ has so disjjoscd of things, that 
this sliould not be so clearly revealed, because he in- 
tended to suffer antichrist to rise to his height: and it 
cannot be imagined, if the doctrine of Christ's govern- 



ment in his church had been clearly and demonstra- 
tively laid down, so as there could have been no gain- 
saying it, how it is possible for antichrist to have risen 
to the height he has attained. But the nearer the time 
comes for antichrist to fall, the more clearly this shall 
be revealed. 

2. By this we may leani, what to account antichris- 
tianism, and what not. For there are many amongst 
us, who cry out against every thing that displeases 
them, that it is antichristianism, and yet understand 
liut very little what antichristianism is. But by what 
has been said, you must know that antichristianism is 
not every error. It is true, in a large sense antichrist 
is as much as against Christ, and so evei-y sin, every 
eiTor, is against Christ, and is antichristianism, if you 
take it so. But you are to know the Scripture speaks 
of antichrist, and of antidmstianism, in a special ac- 
ceptation. ANTiat is that ? 

Antichristianism is that which shall oppose Ou'ist as 
a Head, and set up another headship ; this is the pecu- 
liarity of antichrist and antichi-istiauism. 

First, "Whoever shall obtrude any doctrine upon the 
church, to be beUeved by his own authority, he is guilty 
of antichristianism ; not whoever shall preach or hold 
an error in the church. But when any .shall presume 
to obu-ude upon the chui'ch any doctrine that holds 
upon human authority, to be urged by the authority 
of those that impose it, this, I say, is properly anti- 
christianism, for it opposes Chi-ist in his headship. 
Secondly, The intrusion of such offices and officers 
in the church, as merely belong to the spii'itual man, 
such as are properly church offices, that do not hold 
upon Christ the Head, but only hold upon men, this is 
antichristianism. Thirdly, The imposing of any ordi- 
nance, any new institutions, upon the chui'ch, belongs 
to antichi'istianism. Fourthly, The imjjosuig of laws 
so to bind conscience as the laws of Christ do, here is 
antichristianism. 

Not only because these things are directly against 
the headship of Christ, but because these things set up 
another head ; and so the word antichrist may signify- 
as well for one to be instead of Chi-ist (for so di/ri, the 
Greek, signifies, sometimes as wcU for, as against ; as, of 
his fulness we receive grace for gi-ace, it is x"?'" "*"■« 
xapiTog, grace for grace). So antichrist is one that shall 
claim to himself that headship which is proper unto 
Jesus Clu-ist, and not to be communicated to any fi-om 
Jesus Chi-ist. 

Now the apostle saith that there were many anti- 
christs in his time, and this mystery of iniquity did 
woi-k then ; but now it grows to a great height in that 
great antichrist of Rome, for (you know) in these four 
special things he is the antichrist : Because he obti-udes 
doctrines, articles of faith, upon the church by his own 
authority. He makes all offices of the church to hold 
on him ; and appoints laws, ordinances, and institutions 
likewise to hold on liim. He claims the binding of 
consciences, which is proper only to Jesus Christ. All 
those who hold thus on antichrist, and are his abettors 
in these things, are guilty of this great sin of anti- 
christianism. 

3. The third consequence. You say Christ is the 
Head, but you know the king is called the head of the 
church ; m what sense are we to understand that ? or 
how may we come to understand aright the oath of 
supremacy ? 

These things (my brethren) are necessary for inform- 
ation of conscience, and the burden lies upon us to 
make them out as clearly unto you as we can, that you 
may go along with the more freedom of spirit and 
conscience in your way, and yet give every one their 
riglit too. You are to know, therefore, that the oath 
of supremacy came into England thus : In the time of 
popery, the pope claimed to himself the headship of 



Ver. 11. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



4.3 



the church : he being exc.uded, then came in that oath 
to acknowledge the king or queffn the head of the 
churcli. But now you must know, fii-st, that this title, 
The head of the chxu'ch, as it has been attributed to 
the king, has been much abused, and has given some 
advantage to our adversaries ; for the king is not the 
head of the chmxh, neither as Christ is, nor as the 
pope claimed it. 

Not as Christ is. Christ is the Head to govern uij- 
limitedly. No limits or bounds are set to the govern- 
ment of Christ, but only his own will. No prince in 
the world is so the head to govern. But aU governors 
nave a twofold limit ; they are limited by the laws of 
God, and by the laws of man. 

Neither is he the head as the pope challenges to 
himself. How is that ? you will say. In the forenaraed 
four things, the pope challenges holding of doctrines, 
and holding of offices, and the like, upon him. Offices 
do not so hold upon any governors, upon the king or 
others, as the pope challenges to hold upon him. How 
does he challenge them to hold upon him ? Thus, that 
all are in him vu-tually, and so to be derived from him 
to others. And in great part many of oui- prelates say 
that they are the head of the chm-ch, thus ; that is, that 
all the offices hold on them, that they are all in them 
wtually, and so go fi'om them to others. Hence they 
account none others ministers but their cm'ates, and 
they must not pray but as they will, and do nothing 
but what they will. '\^'Tiy ? because they are but their 
substitutes, as if all offices were virtually in them, and so 
came from them to others ; whereas every officer in the 
church, even the meanest, holds upon Christ the Head. 

Now, in the ci'S'il state in some sense it may be said, 
that the officers of the commonwealth are ■sdrtually in 
the king, he being the supreme ; but you must not 
think that all ai'e thus \irtually in him in church affairs, 
for if they were virtually in him, then he could him- 
self cUspense those things that others dispense by \-ii'tue 
of then- offices, but that he cannot, as to give the sa- 
crament and the like. 

But how is he the head, then, or in what sense may 
we quiet our consciences in acknowledging the king to 
be the head of the church ? Only thus ; he is said to be 
the head because he is the supreme to govern in a civil 
way, not only the cinl state, but even afi'aii's that belong 
to the church. We do not deny the power of princes 
even in affau-s that belong to the church. And because 
the king is the supreme in that civil power, to govern 
by civil laws, to see Clii-ist not dishonoured, to keep out 
idolatry, to protect the chm-ch, to punish enormities 
that exist, to defend it fi-om enemies, in that sense he 
is said to be the head ; but the title of supreme go- 
vernor, being understood in a civil way only, is more 
proper. 

To make it a little plain that the king has some su- 
premacy, not only m the civil state but in chm-ch affairs. 
For we must not exclude the king quite out of all 
church affair's, as some would do ; but though we would 
inform yom- consciences aright, yet we would not by 
any means take away any lawful power God has put 
into him. Now that he has power even in church af- 
fau's, there are many reasons that fully move me to be 
persuaded in it. 

The first that I shall name I think will least prevail 
(though it be the most ordinary) with them that make 
most doubt of it, therefore I will not stand upon it, 
only name it. We know that among the Jews in the 
time of the Old Testament, the governors, and kings, 
and princes had power in affairs that belong to the 
church, as well as to the state. But this I say I do 
not think to be the gi-eatest Sitrength in this point, 
especially to persuade them that make any scruple of 
it ; they will tell us that the power there was but tj-pi- 
cal and the like, and so binds not now. 



There are therefore other reasons that persuade the 
same thing. 

The first is this, because I find that in the prophets, 
where we have a prophecy of the state of the church 
in the times of the gospel, God promises that he will 
make kings to be their nursing fathers, and queens their 
nm'sing mothers. Now if they are to be nursing fathers 
of the church, surely they must have some influence 
by their power in it. 

Secondly, Rom. xiii. 4, speaks indifferently, and saith, 
" he is the minister for thy good." It does not say for 
this good, or that good, for this civil good, or ecclesi- 
astical good, but " he is the minister of God to thee 
for good," for all good unto thee so far as his power 
can reach. It is a hard thing, you know, (if men will 
put us unto it,) to show in the New' Testament the 
power that kings had, because there was then no king 
but heathens, yet saith he, they are ministers for thy 
good, and he speaks to Christians. 

But thu'cUy, and that which yet may seem to have 
more in it, I find in the New Testament that St. Paul, 
when he was accused by his brethi'en in matters of 
religion, appealed unto Ca>sar, Acts xxv. 19, who was a 
heathen magistrate, his accusation was in matters of 
religion, in questions about their law, and about " one 
Jesus that was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive." 
Yet in his answer to those things he appealed to C^sar, 
therefore there is somewhat that Csesar has to do in 
overlooking the affairs of the chm'ch. 

But you will say. How can he be a competent judge ? 
Can Caesar, a heathen, be a competent judge in matters 
of religion ? is that possible ? Or suppose that a go- 
vernor be wicked, can he be a competent judge in 
matters of religion ? 

I answer, a governor, though he be a heathen, yet 
loses not his power, he has still a ti'ue and lawful 
power ; yea, he has some oversight in things that con- 
cern church affairs. How can that be ? I answer, 
Christianity gives not the authority, but enables to 
execute the authority; a heathen magistrate has au- 
thority, it is his duty to see that Chr'istians be not 
■vvi'onged, and if he does not, it is his sin ; but if he be- 
comes a Chi'istian, he is the better able to do what he 
ought, but this puts not the po-wer into him. 

But if a man bo wicked, and understand not the 
things of tlie church, how can he be a judge ? Thus ; 
though the king be not a competent judge of the 
principles upon which the church acts, whether right or 
no, yet he may have ability to judge between man and 
man, whether one wrongs the other in matters of re- 
ligion. As thus ; though he does not think the prin- 
ciples upon which they act to be right, yet he can judge 
whether according to those principles they do right one 
to another, or whether according to theii' principles they 
do not wrong one the other. And this is a great mat- 
ter, to be able to judge and to punish with civil punish- 
ment when any of the chm'ch ^^Tongs his brother 
against the principles which he himself professes. 

As for example, a man who is not a physician does 
not understand the difference between poison and a 
wholesome medicine, yet when things are brought be- 
fore him, he may be a competent judge, by evidence, to 
condemn a physician who has poisoned a man instead 
of giving him wholesome physic. And that objection 
against his competency in judging in the affau's of the 
church, has no moi'e power than if it should have been 
objected that he must not judge a physician, whether 
he has poisoned a man or no, because he himself is not 
a physician. 

Thus we have done with these thi'ee consequents that 
follow upon the opening of the headship of Chi'ist in 
point of his government. And now we see more clearly 
how Christ is Head, and none bat Christ, and what glory 
we are to give to Chi'ist as the Head of the chui'ch. 



46 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. I. 



There is one thing more belongs to the headship of 
Christ, which must not be passed by, though it is not so 
fully aimed at in the text as tliat which lias already 
been expounded, and that is, the influence of spiritual 
life which comes to the church by Cluist the Head, as 
the animal spirits come fi'om the head to the members. 
And this is the veiy reason, first, why gi'ace in tlie 
saints is of such a beautiful and glorious natui-c as it is, 
because it comes fi"om Christ the Head. Secondly, this 
is the reason of the power and efficacy of grace in the 
saints, because it comes from Christ the Head. Thu'dly, 
this is also the reason why grace in the saints is of such 
an everlasting natm-e. It has more beauty, it has 
more power and efficacy, and it is of a more everlasting 
natui'e, than the grace Adam possessed, because the 
grace of the saints holds upon Clu-ist the Head, and 
has an influence fi'om Christ, God-man, in a special and 
peculiar wav, such an influence as Adam had not. Tliis 
IS the excellency of grace in the saints. 

And to conclude this point of the headsliip of Christ. 
God the Father thus advanced Clirist to be the Head, 
because he was willing to stoop so low, to be as a worm 
under foot, for so he saith of himself, " I am a worm, 
and no man," Psal. xxii. 6. Clu'ist was low in his own 
eyes, and submitted himself to such a condition ; and 
now, behold, the Father has advanced him, God has 
made him " Head overall thmgs," Eph. i. 22 ; has made 
him Head over principalities, and powers, and do- 
minions, over angels, and over all men and all things 
in the church ; has advanced him to tliis high and 
glorious dignity. We see somewhat of it now, and we 
shall see more gloriously the headship of Christ here- 
after. 

In tlvis God the Father shows, that as he has dealt 
with his Son, so he is willing to deal with the mem- 
bers of his Son. His Son, who was willing to be so 
low and under foot, is now advanced to such high glory 
that all must stoop, and yield, and submit to him. Let 
us be willing to lie low, though it be under foot, to be 
trodden upon by the ^vicked and ungodly in the world : 
though we caimot expect to be advanced to be head, 
yet we may expect to be advanced to glory and dignity. 
You know wliat God said to Saul, " '\Mien thou wert 
little in thine o^ra eyes, then I made thee king," 1 Sam. 
-w. 17. The less any of us are in our o^ti eyes, the 
more are we likely to be advanced by God ; for God 
win observe a proportion between liis dealings with 
Clirist the Head, and his dealings with all liis members. 

" And appoint themselves one head." In Eph. i. 22, 
it is said, God gave Christ " to bo tlie Head over all 
things to the church." How then is it said here that 
they shall " appoint to themselves one head ? " 

It is ti-ue, God the Father has advanced his Son, and 
extoUcd him above all things, and given him to be 
Head over all ; but yet when the church chooses Christ 
to be theu- Head, when they shall willingly submit 
themselves unto liim, lifting liim up above all, honoui- 
ing Ills ordinances, laws, and uistitutions, and depend- 
ing upon him for light, then they arc said to appoint 
Cluist to be their Head. Tliough God's eternal decree 
has made himself to be the God of liis saints, yet when 
the saints choose God to be thcii- God, God accounts 
himself to be made their God by Uicm ; they make God 
to be their God in choosing him. So though Christ by 
the Father is appointed to be Head over all, yet the 
net of tlie church in choosing Christ, and coming to 
him freely, and submitting to liim as to the Head, Is 
accountecl an appointing of Christ to be Head. 

Tliis is that happy work wliich the saints have been 
doing, and which we are to do now, and which they will 
do to the end of the world. Though tliere lie some 
special time to which this text refers, yet in all ages of 
the church, when the saints choose Clirist to be their 
Head, they are said to appoint him. 



Let us join in this blessed work, an honourable work 
for creatures, to appoint the Lord Jesus to be Head 
over them. Let us say, as Hushai did in another ease, 
2 Sam. xvi. 18, " AMio'm the Lord, and this people, and 
all the men of Israel, choose, his will I be, and with him 
will I abide." So, he whom God the Father shall give 
to be Head over all things, he whom the saints have 
in all times chosen for then- Head, he shall be our 
Head and our King; his will we be, and with liim will 
we abide. Let us give Christ the pre-eminence, prizing 
his government, his ortlinanees, above all tlie comforts 
we have in tliis world. " If I prefer not Jjcrusalem 
above my chief joy," Psal. cxxxvii. 6. The words ai'e 
'nnce- vk-i hy if I make not Jerusalem to ascend above 
the head of my joy ; whatever is high in our thoughts, 
as a head, let Christ be above it. Christ in his ordi- 
nances must be above the head of our joy, for other- 
wise he is not a Head unto us. IS you invite a man of 
quality to your table, though you provide excellent 
cheer for him, yet if you set any people of mean quality 
above him, he would not regard all your com-tesies. 
\A'hen you tender up any thing unto Chiist, when you 
seem to entertain him with the greatest respect, yet if 
there be any thuig you set above him, especially if a 
vile lust be set above him, he cares not for all your en- 
tertainment. We read in Col. ii. 19, that there were 
some blamed for not '-holding the Head:" what is 
that ? because they gave more honour to angels than 
was due to them ; though never such glorious creatmes, 
yet by overprizing them they come not to hold the 
Head. AATiat ! is the gi^■ing undue lionoui- to angels 
enough to take us ofl' from Cnrist the Head ? Certainly, 
then, prostrating oiuselves before our vUe and base 
lusts, much more takes us ofi' from holding Clirist to be 
the Head. Let us look at all the offices and ordinances 
of Clu-ist, as holding upon him the Head, that so we 
may have a more reverent esteem of them. Let us 
depend upon him for influence of life, and not depend 
upon means. Let us manifest in our conversation the 
spirit and life that we have received fiom such a Head 
as Christ is, that we may not be a dishonoiu- to this our 
Head. Chrjsostom, in his comment upon ^-^ ;,,,v,\ui- 
the first chapter of the Ephcsians, says, /itAriow tiK><' 
in tliis respect we must be better than J^ixi» ut<{ow, 
angels, yea, greater than archangels. He '''^■ 
has three most excellent remarks, to prove that Chris- 
tians should take heed of dishonouring Christ their 
Head. First, saith he. Suppose a man had a precious 
tliadem upon liis head, or a crown of gold, that would 
be some argument to him to make liim take heed of 
doing things unworthy of that ornament : but we have 
not a diadem, not a croAvu of gold upon our heads, we 
have Clirist lumself to be om' Head, therefore let us do 
nothmg unworthy of tliis our Head. SecontUy, he re- 
marks, Oh the honour that God afibrds to us in this ! the 
tliought of this were enough to terrify us from sin, 
more tlian the setting of hell itself before our eyes. 
And indeed so it is. The right understanding of Christ 
to be our Head, and having so neai- a union with him, 
is of power to terriiy- us from sin more than the sight of 
hell, if it were before us. Thirdly, he observes, A\Tiat ! 
is Ciirist your Head ? Do you know next to whom this 
your Head sits in heaven ? Is he not placed at the 
right hand of the Father, above all jnincijialities and 
powers ? And shall the members of tins Head be 
trampled upon by tlic devil ? God forbid. 

And yet so honour the Head, as to give due honour 
likewise to those he has placed under him for the ad- 
ministration of any of his ordinances to us. AVe must 
not, under iiretenee of gi\ ing Cluist all the honour, dis- 
honour those that arc set over us by Christ. St. Paid, 
in 1 Cor. i. 12, when reproving the dissensions of the 
church of Corinth, remarks, '• Every one of you saidi, I 
am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and 1 of Cephas, and I of 



VEE. 11. 



THE PROrHECY OF HOSEA. 



47 



Christ." A\Tiy, are these all blamed ? how coiild those 
who said that they held Clii-ist be blamed ? Thus : 
amongst the Corinthians there were some that made 
divisions, some were for one officer, others for another : 
We are for Paul, said some ; We for Apollos, said others ; 
and, We for Cephas ; And for cm- parts, said others, we 
are neither for Paul, nor for Apollos, nor for Cephas, 
but for Christ. "^Tiat are men? what ai-e officers? 
W'hat are ordinances ? what are all those to us ? Christ 
is all in all to us, he is our Head, and wc are complete 
in liim, and we hold upon him. These are blamed_ as 
well as the other, because we must so hold upon Clmst, 
as to give all- due honour to the ordinances, institutions, 
officers, and offices of Christ. 

Yet I confess, if any that are in Christ's stead, to dis- 
pense his ordinances to us, prove to be wicked, of all 
people in the world they are the most contemptiblefand 
a just judgment of God is upon them. Isa. ix. 15, 
•• The ancient and honom-able, he is the head, and the 
prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail." Mark, the 
prophet speaks against those who were in place and 
power, though they were naught, yet still they retained 
the name of ancient and honom-able ; but the prophet 
that teacheth lies, a contemptible name is put upon 
him, he is the taQ ; no generation in the world more 
contemptible than those, when once they degenerate. 

But you will say, though they ai-e vile in theu- lives, 
yet their wickedness does not liinder the wtue and 
efficacy of the ordinances, they depend not upon the 
officers. True, the efficacy of no ordinance depends 
upon men, and it is not either because the minister is 
vile, or communicants ai'e wicked, that the vu'tue of an 
ordinance is lost, if the church contract no guilt upon 
themselves by retaining such in place, and by not cast- 
mg out such as come into communion with them. Take 
for granted that there is no guilt conti'acted, and then 
it is not the wickedness of the minister, or of the people, 
that hinders the efficacy of any ordinance. But if it 
prove that there be guilt conti'acted upon the chm'ch 
tlirough their negligence of duty, then the case is the 
same with those of Corinth, 1 Cor. v. G, " A little leaven 
leaveneth the whole lump ;" what is that whole lump 
but their communion ? 

They shall " appoint themselves one Head?" But 
was not Clrrist the Head before. It is spoken of a glo- 
rious time, when the Jews shall be called again, and 
Israel and Judah shall join together. Now they shall 
appoint themselves one Head, Clu-ist to be then- Head. 
Cmist was tlie Head to the fathers under the law, how 
now is he appointed then- Head ? I answer, 

Christ indeed was a Head to the forefathers, but now 
in the times' of the gospel, especially at the calling of 
the Jews, the time spo"ken of here, Christ ■nill appear a 
Head in another manner, to govern in another way, far 
more gloriously than he now does, and far more influ- 
ence of grace and light will come &om liim to liis 
members. Though Christ has always been a Head to 
his chm'ch, yet there is a time coming when the seventh 
ti-umpet shall be soxmded, spoken of Kev. xi. 15; when 
that voice shall be heard that yet was never heard, " The 
kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of 
om' Lord, and of his Cluist, and he shall reign for ever 
and ever." — A time conung, wherein Christ shall say to 
his people, " To him that overcometh will I grant to 
sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and 
am set down with my Father in his tlu-one," Rev. iii. 
21. The throne that Chi'ist sits upon now, is his Fa- 
ther's tlu-one ; he does not call it his ; and at the day of 
judgment, the Scriptui-e tells us that he shall give up 
the kingdom imto his Father. There is a time there- 
fore for the throne of Qirist to be exalted more than it 
has been, which Cluist has promised to those that over- 
come. — A time coming, when there shall be heard the 
noise, not only of " many waters," but as of " mighty 



thunderings, sajing. Alleluia; for the Lord God om- 
nipotent reigneth," Rev. six. 6. He shall be a Head 
another way. 

Now if it be true, that Christ himself is appointed by 
the church to be Head, then the officers and ministers 
of the chm-ch should not tliink much to be appointed 
in their places by the chm-ch too. It is true, their 
offices hold on Christ the Head, but the designation of 
the persons must be fi-om the chui-ch. We do not now 
list to enter into the controversy, who of the chiu-ch 
should do it, but there must be more than a civil act to 
make any man a pastor or teacher of a chm-ch ; some- 
what to make conscience yield and submit to him as an 
officer that Jesixs Clu-ist has placed over them. Christ 
himself would be appointed a Head by liis people, that 
they might submit to him the more cheerfully, and give 
glory to him vrith the more freedom of spu-it. And as 
for all such as tlu-ust themselves upon a people, no 
marvel if they complain of want of respect from them, 
or of theii- going away fi-om them. They never did any 
thing towards appointmg them as officers over them. 

They shall " appoint themselves one Head ;" not 
force Christ upon others by fu-e and ,„„eci„ritatiBcom- 
sword. Heretics are to be burnt with bVendi sunt hire- 
ih-e, saith Luther ; but with what fire ? the "' " '"' 
iii-e of chai-ity. 

They shall appoint to themselves. Let others 
choose what head they please, yet the saints will ap- 
point to themselves the Lord Christ to be theii- Head ; 
they will bless themselves in Christ, he shall be a Head 
unto them, whatever he is to others. Others, it may 
be, will choose to themselves other heads, but the saints 
say as they in Micah iv. 5, " All people will walk every 
one in the name of liis god, and we will walk in the name 
of tlie Lord om- God for ever and ever." Other people 
will walk in their ways, and choose to themselves such 
as give them most liberty ; they perhaps tluiik the go- 
vernment of Christ too strict for them : but for us, we 
will bless om-selves in our Clu-ist, we will never prosti- 
tute om- consciences to men, or to lusts and humom-s, as 
we have done ; Chi-ist shall be om- Head, and we will 
submit to liim. Secreia mea viecuin, (is a Hebrew 
provei-b,) My secret is with myself; what good we find 
in Cluist it is to ourselves : let Christ be a stumbhng- 
block and a rock of ofience to others, to us he is 
precious, he is one of ten thousand, " he is altogether 
lovely," Cant. v. IG. 

Tliey shall " appoint themselves one head." But 
one ; the church is not a monster of divers heads, it 
has but one head. There cannot be a ministerial head 
of the chm-ch, Christ is always present, and has left his 
laws -with his people. If we consider the difference 
between ecclesiastical power and civil power, we shall 
see clearly that there cannot be a ministerial head of 
the chm-ch. A ministerial head is absurd. In the 
civil power, it is not against any institution of Clu-ist, 
nor against any law, that there should be one head 
over all the world. But to have one head over the 
chm-ch, yea, to have any general officers over all the 
chm-ches, cannot be. The reason is, because there can 
lie no delegation of power that belongs to the chm-ch. 
There may be a delegation of a civil power, one man 
may be king over many countries, and he may appoint 
substitutes mider him, and delegate them to officiate for 
liim. But in- the church there is no delegation_ of 
power fi-om one to another. Grant but once delegation 
of the teaching power, and you establish nou-resideney ; 
gi-ant but delegation of the ruling power, and you im- 
mediately establish a papacy. There is no such thing 
therefore. 

Again, the civil power is by way of coaction ; _a 
magistrate is not always bound to give a reason of his 
injunctions, he may by way of compulsion require obe- 
dience. But church power is to deal with conscience ; 



48 



AX EXI'OSITIOX OF 



Chaf. 1. 



and therefore everj' one that has any power must of- 
ficiate himself, and deal with the consciences of men to 
l)ersuade and to instruct. 

These two things being granted, it is impossible that 
there can be a head over all the churches, yea, or over 
many. Vi'e must join nothing with Jesus Christ, in the 
way of his headship. As Alexander said to Darius, 
when he sent to him that he would be willing to divide 
the kingdom ; Xo, said Alexander, there is but one sun 
in the firmament, and there can be but one king in a 
kingdom. So saith Chiist, But one Head : he must be 
Head alone, or no Head at all ; nothing must be joined 
with him as head. Indeed, the heathen gods were 
contented to divide their honours : and hence the senate 
of Kome rejected Christ from taking liipi in to be a 
God, after they consulted about it ; For, said they, if 
Christ is acknowledged as a God, he will not share with 
the rest, he will have all himself; and so upon this reason 
they refused him. Thus many reject Chiist as God, 
and as a Head, because Christ will not share with others, 
he must be but one. 

And a special help is here given to our faith, in look- 
ing u]) to Clirist for help and protection when all means 
fail ; I beseech you, observe it. Does Chi'ist reqiure of 
us that we should make him Head alone, and j oLn no- 
thing with him ? Then we may well expect from him 
protection in all oin' wants, and that he alone will help 
lis. Or, otherwise, the condition of a Clmstian were 
worse than the condition of a heathen ; for the gods 
of a heathen would be content to have but part of the 
honour of the heart and life, because they could help 
but in part. If a heathen god should requu'e the 
whole soul to be lifted up to him above all, and he 
alone to be honoured and worshipped as a god, yet, 
•when help and protection are requu-ed, he could do 
nothing without another joined with him, a heathen 
might well reason the case against him, as doing him 
-wrong. Certainly Christ will never wrong his people, 
so as to require them to Lift up him alone, and join no 
other with him, and yet when they require help and 
SUCC0U1-, that there should be need to call in others 
hesides himself to their help. Therefore, as Chi-ist 
challenges us to make him our Head alone, so we may 
challenge Christ to help us alone, when there is no 
other help for us. 

Thus we have finished both the headshi]) of Christ, 
and the church's appointing liim to be that Head. 

Now follows the next blessing, and that but in a 
•word, and then we come to the conclusion of this chapter. 

" They shall come up out of the land." Jerome in- 
terprets it, a ferreitis affeclibus, a coming up from their 
earthly aiicctions ; Luther, a rtla miserabili, a coming 
up from their miserable life and condition. But rather 
thus, "come up out of the land," that is, out of their 
captivity. Judah and Israel shall join together in 
coming to Jerusalem, and so unite in the same kind of 
•worship. As they were wont to come out of all parts 
of the countn,^ to -worship at Jerusalem, and there were 
united in one kind of worship, so they shall now come 
from all parts of the world where they are scattered, 
and join in the same way of worship, yea, and it is very 
probable in their own land. 

There was a time when the peojjle of God sang songs 
of praise in the wilderness, Exod. xv. ; but the time 
shall come when they shall do it in their own land'; 
and this shall be a blessing of God u]ion them. " In 
that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah ; 
A\'e have a strong cit)- ; salvation will God ajipoint for 
walls and bidwarks," Isa. xxvi. 1. It shall be sung in 
the land of Judah. " In the mountain of the height 
of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house 
of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me : there will 
I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, 
and the fu-st-fruits of your oblations, with all your 



holy things," Ezek. xx. 40. " I will take the childi-en 
of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be 
gone, and will gather them on even' side, and bring 
them into their own land," Ezek. xxxvii. 21. 

This blessing has God granted to many of his serv- 
ants this day, -who never thought to have seen their 
own good land : but God has been pleased to gather 
them up, not only to come into their own land, but 
they find the arms and hearts of the saints open to 
embrace them, and call them to public employments. 
Not long since the land could not bear them ; we hojie 
that the time will come ere long, that the Lord Christ 
may so rule in our land, that it ■nill as hardly bear 
wicked and ungodly men as it has borne the saints ; 
though it were difficult to say that so much violence 
should be used, even to keep them from sin, as was 
usW against the saints to keep them fi-om their God. 
Yet, time may come ere long, that wicked men may be 
glad to flee, though not forced into another land, because 
they cannot have the enjoj-ment of their lusts so freely 
here ; as the saints have been forced to flee out of their 
land that they might serve the Lord, and keep their 
consciences clear. 

But we let this pass, and come now to the close of 
the chapter, to the epiphonema of it all. 

" For great shall be the day of Jezreel." They shall 
" appoint themselves one head, and come up out of the 
land; for great," &c. Tremellius renders it, although 
the day of Jezreel be great : and the Hebrew particle 
13 signifies quamvis, as weU as rjtiia, it may be translated 
" although," as well as " for." And translating it, al- 
though the day of Jezreel be great, takes it in this 
sense, that is, although the people of Israel shall be 
brought into great affliction, yet God wiU. be so merciful 
when his time comes, that they shaU be gathered to- 
gether again, and appoint themselves one head, and 
come up out of the land. And from such an intei-pret- 
ation of the words there might be an excellent medi- 
tation raised, and it is this. 

Obs. That the gi-eatness of the miseiy of the chuixh 
is no hinderance to the course of the freeness and 
abundance of God's mercy towards it. Although the 
day of Jezreel be never so calamitous, never so afflic- 
tive, never so grievous, yet they shall come up out of 
the land, and ajjpoint themselves one head. The great- 
ness of the church's misery is no hinderance to the 
church's deliverance. "\ATiy ? because their deliver- 
ance depends upon a God who dehghts not only to 
manifest some power, but the excellency and the glory 
of his power, in their deliverance. Isaiah (Ixii. 8) speak- 
ing of these verj- times of God's being merciful to his 
people, saith, " The Lord hath sworn by his right 
hand ; " and we have not only mention there of God's 
right hand, and swearing bv it, but his arm too ; mark 
that, " and by the ami of his strength :" there is God's 
hand, God's arm, the arm of his sti-ength, and God 
swearing by it. Surely when God delights to put forth 
such power for the deliverance of his church, it is no 
great matter whether its afflicted state be great or 
small. It makes no greater hinderance to the church's 
delivery than if you should see two bubbles of water 
rise up, one having a little thicker skin than the other. 
Now there is as much dift'erence in the difficulty of 
bursting that thick-skin bubble above the tliinner, when f 
a mighty piece of ordnance is shot off' with a weighty 
ball against them, as the greatest and sorest affliction 
that the people of God were ever under in this world 
makes a ditt'erence in tlic difficulty of their deliverance 
from the least affliction that ever the church endured, 
when they have to deal with an infinite God. If a 
child should see the thicker-skin bubble, he might think 
it is harder to be broken than the thinner; but if a can- 
non be shot off', nay, if it be but a gust of wind, it makes 
no difference. Now the afflictions of God's people are 



Veb. 11. 



THE PROPHECY OF ROSEA. 



49 



to this right hand of God's power, and the arm of his 
strength, but as a bubble of -n-ater before a mighty can- 
non. Yea, if there be no help at all to deUver God's 
people in time of affliction, God can create help, " He 
will create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and their people a 
joy." Y'ea, suppose their condition be such as never 
was the like since the beginning of the world, yet, 
" since the beginning of the world men have not heard, 
nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O 
God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for liim that 
waiteth for liim," Isa. Ixiv. 4. 

And as the greatness of the church's deliverance is 
no hinderance to God's power in delivering them, so it 
should be no hinderance to the work of our faith. Com- 
mon prudence and reason will go a great way to uphold 
us under some afflictions, but when the affliction be- 
comes giievous and long, prudence and reason sink 
under the bm-den ; but then shoidd faith lift up itself, 
and cast an eye upon this right hand of God's power, 
this arm of his sti'ength by which he has sworn, and 
exercise itself in the glorious acts it has WTOught. For 
certainly faith is appointed for such a time as this, when 
the chui-ch is under giievous extremities. The ordinary 
afflictions of the church do not call for such a work of 
faith, but when they come to extraordinary calamities, 
these require such a power of God for theii' deliverance, 
and call for a work of faith proportionable. As Alex- 
ander, when he was in great danger, said, 
■"amiJo Ai"x™d?i" Now there is a danger fit for the spirit of 
Alexander to encounter ; so when the 
church is in any great danger, all the members of it 
shoidd say. Here is a danger, here is a trouble, fit for the 
spirit of Clu-istians, fit for the spirits of those that ai-e 
able to exercise the most noble and glorious acts of faith. 

We are scarcely for the present put to tliis glorious 
exercise of faith, for reason and sense see much help. 
They see that the cause of God at tliis day has the bet- 
ter of the adversary. Let us not look upon every dif- 
ficulty as a thing that calls for such a mighty, glorious 
work of faith, when men, by reason and prudence, may 
carry themselves imder such difficulties much better 
than most of us do. However, we do not know but the 
Lord may call us to such difficulties and dangers as will 
require such an exercise of faith as I have spoken of. Let 
us therefore lay up this instruction for the time to come. 

" For great shall be the day of Jczreel." If the words 
be read as they are in your Bibles, and yet have 
reference to the calamitous time and grievous extremi- 
ties of the day of Jezreel, then 

Obs. 1. That God's bowels of compassion work toward 
his church because of the gi-eatness of then- afiliction. 
WTien then- afflictions are very gi'eat, and the greater 
they are, the more God's bowels of compassion work 
toward them. AVe know the misery of God's people 
was a marvellous quickening argument to the compas- 
sion of God ; " I have sm-ely seen the affliction of my 
people, and then- soiTows, and therefore am come doAvn 
to deliver them," Exod. iii. 7, 8. Kthe greatness of the 
affliction of the church move the bowels of God's com- 
passion, then let not the greatness of affliction hinder 
cm- faith. Let not the greatness of ti-ouble reason 
downi our faith, but let it rather reason up our faith, for 
so indeed it should ; and so the saints of God hereto- 
fore have done. It is time for thee, O Lord, to work, 
for men have almost destroyed thy law ; yea, the high 
time is come for thee to have mercy upon Zion, for thy 
people begin to favour the dust thereof. Was this a 
good argument, " For thy name's sake, Lord, pardon 
mme iniquity, for it is great," Psal. xxv. 11, to move 
God withal ? Sm'ely then this is a good argument. De- 
liver us in afflictions, for they are verv great. For sin 
makes more distance between God and us than afflic- 
tions : yet if the greatness of sin can be put as an argu- 
ment for God's mercy and compassion to work, much 



more the greatness of afflictions. Yet this is the grace 
of God in the second covenant, that even the sins wliich 
before made the creature an object of hatred, now make 
it an object of compassion. So afflictions, that before 
were part of the cui'se, are tm-ned to argume!its for 
moving the bowels of God's tender compassion toward 
his people. 

Obs. 2. The promise is the only support of the soul, 
and that which caiTics it through the greatest affliction. 
Afflictions are as lead to the net ; the promise is as tlie 
cork, which keeps above water when the lead pulls 
down. But I leave these meditations, though I find 
many mterpreters run this way ; and I rather take it 
as a fm-ther expression of God's wonderful mercy to liis 
chm-ch. 

" For great shall be the day of Jezi'eel ;" that is, God 
has a great day of mercy for Jezreel. They shall ap- 
point themselves one head, they shall be gathered 
together and be made one, they shall come up out of 
the land ; why ? for God has a great day of mercy to 
his people, a " great day of Jczreel." And herein, there- 
fore, God makes use of the name of Jezreel in a good 
sense. They who interpret Jezreel the other way would 
have the name signify, great is the day of scattering, or 
of the scattered people. But Jezreel signifies Uke^\ise 
the seed of God. Before Ciod used thcu- name in the 
worst sense, that lie would scatter them according to 
their name ; now he uses their name in the best sense, 
they are the seed of God, and there is great mercy from 
God for them. 

Obs. A^'^len God is reconciled to a people he takes all 
in the best sense, and makes the best acceptation of every 
thing, as he does here of the name Jezreel. We have 
only these two things to consider in tliis expression : 
That the saints of God are God's Jezreel ; that is, 
they are the seed of God. And that there is for tliis 
seed of God a great day. 

1 . They are the seed of God ; the seed of the blessed, 
and there is a blessing in them. They are the precious 
seed which God preserves in the world, and has done 
ever since the beginning of the world. They are that 
seed that preserves the glory of God in the world. 
Were it not for a few gracious, holy people in the 
world, where would the glory of God be ? what would 
become of it ? The godly, however contemptible in the 
world, are the precious seed, that God reserves for great 
and glorious ends. They are the seed to preserve the 
continuation of the doctrine of the gospel ; as Isa. xi. 
13, " The holy seed shall be the substance thereof." 
Though they are under great afflictions, yet there shall 
be a holy seed that shall be the substance thereof, and 
there shall be his blessing. Psal. Ixxii. 17, "His name 
shall endure for ever ;" the words are read by !Monta- 
nus, Fitiabilur nomen ejus. His name shall be childed ; 
that is, so continued as families are continued, one 
generation after another, one begetting another. Thus 
shall the name of Christ continue in the world, as it 
has done. 

Though seed be but a handful in comparison of the 
harvest, so the samts of God then were, and yet are 
but as a handfid in comparison of the glorious harvest 
that shall arise, yet they are very precious before God, 
and God win make the world hereafter know that they 
are the precious ones of God. Isa. Ixi. 9, " AU that see 
them shall acknowledge them that they are the seed 
which the Lord hath blessed." A man vAM be careful 
of his seed, whatever becomes of his other corn. In 
time of dearth, the husbandman will rather pinch his 
stomach, than have his seed-corn spent. So in times 
of common calamity or dearth, God's care is over his 
seed. The saints are (as I may say) God's seed-corn, 
to preserve his name in the world to succeeding gener- 
ations, he will not therefore have them destroyed. 

Seed is the most precious of the corn, which is most 



50 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. I. 



■winnowed and cleansed ; so are the saints the clean and 
the most precious ones. God winnows them more than 
others by the fans and winnows of afflictions ; why ? be- 
cause they are his seed. Other com wliich has chaflf 
in it, the husbandman will give to the fowls and the 
cattle, he bestov.s not much winnowing upon it ; but 
the corn that is for seed he carefully winnows, he would 
not willingly have a darnel an-.ongst it. It may be 
thou eomplaincst thou art more wmnowed than other 
men ; perhaps thou art more precious in God's eyes, and 
thou art resen'ed as seed, as the seed of the blessed. 

The wicked indeed ai-e seed too, but a conupt seed, 
" a seed of evil-doers," Isa. i. 4 ; the grandfather was an 
enemy unto God, yea, the gi'eat-grandfather ; and the 
father, and the childien after him, continue enemies to 
God. And God, in mercy unto his church, many times 
cuts down the wicked before they seed too much. You 
who have gardens, if you see the weeds come up and 
grow towaids seed, you think then that it is time to 
pull them up, you will not suffer them to seed. God 
looks upon many families, and sees wretched and sinful 
men as " a seed of evil-doers " ready to seed', and if 
they be not cut do\^-n suddenly, there will be a -m-etch- 
ed brood of wicked ones in such a family. This is the 
reason of God's sudden cutting down many wicked 
families. 

But to come to the point chiefly intended, that is, 
that this seed of the Lord shall have a great day. 

" Great shall be the day of Jezreel." The men of 
the world have their day in which they ruffle it out. 
St. Paul seems to .speak of tliis in 1 Cor. iv. 3, that he 
did not regard'" man's judgment," the words are, avBpoi- 
■!riv)js I'jiiipac, man's day. Nov.' men have the day, they 
have all the bravery of the world ; well, observes St. 
Paul, I do not regard man's day, I expect another day. 
I know not how it is otherwise translated ; you translate 
it judgment in your books, but in the original it is day, 
man has a day. As men have a day, so shall God's 
.saints have a day too. We used often to say, when we 
saw our enemies jocund and mei-ry, Sm-ely they hope to 
have a day. ^ly bretlu-en, be joj'ful in the Lord, God 
has a day for you, and a gieat clay too, " Great shall be 
the day of Jezreel." The beginning of God's mercy to 
his people, is called " a day of small things," Zech. iv. 
10 ; and that must not be despised, " AA'ho hath de- 
spised the day of small things ? " It was the beginning 
of the refoi-mation, and deliverance of the people of 
Judah from then- captivity. But God has a day of 
gi-eat things, and certainly that day shall be honowable. 

1. It shall be a great day, in which the glory of God 
shall exceedingly appear, ^'herein God shall be (as I 
may so speak with holy reverence) as it were in his 
robes. As we know princes upon gieat days put on 
then- robes, so the King of glory shall have a day for 
his people, wherein even he himself will put on his 
robes: Psal. cii. 16, " T^^len the Lord shall buUd up 
Zion, he shall ajipear in his glory." It seems, while 
the church is in aftiiction, and the witnesses prophesy 
in sackcloth, that God is as it were clothed in sackclotli, 
" in all their afflictions he was afflicted ;" but because God 
I'.as a day, a gi-eat day to his chuichcs, he will reserve 
his robes till then, and when that day comes he will 
put them on. A great day it shall be for Jezi-eel, for 
the seed of the Lord. 

2. It shaU be a great dav, for this day shall be the 
riches of the world. Mark,lPaul, speaking of the Jews, 
saith, " If the fall of them be the riches of the world, 
and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles ; 
how much more theii- fuhiess?" Rom. xi. 12. It was 
a rich mercy to the Gentiles when they were brought 
out of darkness, and called to the knowledge of Jesus 
Chiist. But God has a gi'caler day than that, for it is 
spoken of here as a day that is to come ; that is, their 
fall wa.s the riches of the Gentiles, much more their 



calling in again. So then, there is such a day of call 
ing home the people of God, as shall be the riches of 
the Gentiles, the riches of all the world. 

3. Great shall be this day, for it shall be as a day of 
resunection from death to life : so Dan. xii. 2, " Many 
of them that sleep in the dust shall awake, some to 
everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting 
contempt." This is not spoken of the great resuri'ection 
at the last day of judgment ; for, first, it is spoken but 
of some that shall arise. Secondly, the greatest gloiT 
that is here put upon the just, is but to shine as the 
stars in the firmament ; but at the last day, the saints 
shall sliine as the sun in the firmament, more and 
above the stars. Yea, thirdly, tliat which is here re- 
vealed to Daniel, must be sealed up as a great secret 
till the appointed time come ; but the resurrection at 
the last day is no great secret, that they knew wel' 
enough. But this resurrection is to be scaled up as u 
great secret that was not known in the world, nor 
should be much known tUl tlie aj)pointed time should 
come. And then, lastly, it was promised to Daniel ii- 
the 13th verse, that he shoidd " stand up in his lot," r. ■ 
a peculiar and special favour that God would bestov 
upon him. Now it is not such a peculiar and specir, ; 
favom- for a saint to stand up at the last day, but tl.i- 
was a favour to Daniel as an eminent saint, that ht 
should stand up in his lot. Therefore this resurrection 
is the same with this gi'eat day of Jezreel, wherein there 
shall be such a glorious work of God in calling Israel 
and Judah together, and the fulness of the Gentiles, 
that it shall be as the resun-eetion from death to life : 
so the apostle calls it in Rom. xi. 15, " "Wliat shall the 
receiving of them be, but life from the dead ? " 

4. " Great shall be the day of Jezreel ;" for tliis day 
shall bring refi-eshing to all the saints, this is " the time 
of refreshing," Acts iii. 19. There shall be such things 
then as will refi'esh and revive the spuits of all the 
saints. 

5. A great day, for it shall be the day of restitution 
of all things. Acts iii. 21, " Until the times of restitu- 
tion of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth 
of all his holy prophets since the world began." I 
know this text is ordinarOy interpreted concerning the 
last day ; but that it cannot be so appears, because 
that then there shall not be the restitution of all things, 
but the anniliilation of many things. Further, tliis 
speaks of a restitution of all things, that was spoken of 
by the mouth of all the holy prophets. Now the holy 
])rophets spake but very little concerning the day of 
judgment, or the life to come; and therefore the apos- 
tle, in 2 Tim. i. 10, saith, that " life and immortality are 
brought to light tlu-ough the gospel." Not but that it 
was kiio'wn somewhat before, but it was verj- darkly 
kno-mi, there was vei-y little spoken of life and immor- 
tality in the prophets : but this speaks of a time of 
which aU the holy proi)hets spake, as an argument that 
was the general tnenie of them all. And, indeed, there 
is no ai-gument whatever that is more general among 
the prophets, than this great argument of this gi'cat day 
of Jezi-eel. 

G. A great day, for it shall be the day of a new 
creation ; a new heaven and a new earth shall be made, 
when tliis great day of Jezreel shall come. " Behold, 
I create new heavens and a new earth," Isa. Ixv. 17. 
In ver. 18, you see what this new heaven and new earth 
is : " But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which 

1 create : for, beliold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, 
and her people a joy." Those'are the new heavens and 
the new earth which are to be created, and plainly 
mean the chiuch, for ver. 21 sjjcaks of " building 
houses," and " inhabiting them," and of " planting 
vineyards," and "eating tie fruit" of them, upon the^ 
new heavens and this new earth's creation. And. 

2 Pet. iii. 13, " Nevertheless we, according to his pro- 



Vee. U. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



51 



mise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherehi 
dwelleth righteousness." This is usually taken for the 
kingdom of heaven hereafter. But where is this pro- 
mise ? We do not find it anywhere, but in Isa. Isv. 17. 
Now it is appai-ent that promise speaks of a state of 
the chiu'ch in this world ; it speaks of a new eartii, as 
well as of a new heaven; if it only spoke of new 
heavens, it had been another matter, but it speaks of a 
new eai-th likewise, therefore meant of a state in this 
world, that is, there shall be such glorious things done 
by God, as shaU manifest a creating power, as if God 
now made " new heavens and a new earth." 

7. " Great shall be the day of Je2a'eel," for it shall 
be as another world, when this day comes. '• Unto the 
angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, 
w'hereof we speak. But one in a certain place (Psal. 
viii. 4) testified, sajing, 'Wliat is man, that thou art 
mindful of him ? or the son of man, that thou visitest 
him ? Thou madest hiin a little lower than the angels ; 
thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst 
set him over the works of thy hands : thou hast put all 
thuigs in 'subjection under his feet," Heb. ii. 5 — 8. 
This the apostle interprets of Christ, as ver. 6, that 
all things must be subjected to him as man, " '\^Tiat is 
man, that thou shouldst regard him?" that is, that 
thou shouldst advance the nature of man so far a.s to 
unite it to thy Son, and " put all things in subjection 
under liis feet." But, saith he, " we see not yet all 
things put under him," that time is yet to come, for, 
saith he, " he hath not put in subjection the world to 
come, whereof we speak." Therefore, mark, my bre- 
thren, there must be such a time wherein all things, all 
creatures, must be put tmder subjection to Christ, and 
this is in the world to come. It cannot be meant of 
that world to come, where the saints shall reign glo- 
riously in heaven, for the heavens must depart as a 
scroll, and many things shall then rather be annihilated, 
and the kingdom must then be given up by Chi'ist to 
God the Father, 1 Cor. xv. 24. But this place speaks 
of a, time when all creatures must come under subjec- 
tion to Cluist, and it is called " the world to come ; " 
why ? because of the great change there shall be of 
thuigs, it shall be, as it were, a new world. As we call 
this world fi'om Noah's time, a new world, and when 
we speak of the other world, we call it the old world ; 
so the Scripture calls it, 2 Pet. ii. 5, God '■ spared not 
the old world ;" and, chap. iii. 6, " The world that then 
was, behig overflowed with water, perished." So, this 
world in wliich we live shall be as the old world ; this 
day of Jezi-eel shall make such a glorious change, all 
thmgs being put in subjection to Cluist, that it shall 
be as it were a new world. God has made an excellent 
world, in wliich there is much beauty and glory, and 
yet his enemies have the rule here ; what then will that 
world be that God intends for his saints ? 

8. " Great shall be the day of Jezreel," for it shah 
be such a great day that all former things shall be even 
forgotten because of the lustre and glory of that great 
day. As Isa. Ixv. 17, the former heavens and the 
former earth " shall not be remembered, nor come into 
mind." And so Jer. iii. 16, 17, "In those days, saith 
the Lord, they shall no more say. The ark of the cove- 
nant of the Lord : neither shall it come to mind : nei- 
ther shall they remember it ; neither shall they \isit it ; 
neither shall that be done any more. At that time 
they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord ; and 
all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name 
of the Lord, to Jerusalem : neither shall they walk any 
more after the imagination of their e\al heart." jMarli, 
my brethren, " In those days the house of Judah shall 
walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come to- 
gether out of the knd of the north to" the land that I 
have given for an inheritance unto your fathers," ver. 18. 
It is apparent that it is spoken of this great day of Jez- 



reel ; for now God declares he will gather Judah and 
Israel together, and they shall walk together, and that 
then former things shall be forgotten. '• They shall caU 
Jerusalem the tlirone of the Lord." Heretofore, even the 
temple itself, the glory of Jerusalem, was but as the 
place of God's feet, and the ark of God was but his 
footstool. 1 C'lu'on. xxviii. 2, " As for me, I had in 
mine lieai't, saith David, to build a house of rest for the 
ark of the covenant of the Lord, and for the footstool 
of oiu- God :" and Isa. Ix. 13, " I will make (Zion) the 
place of my feet glorious." But now m tliis great day, 
Jerusalem, that was but God"s footstool, shall be God's 
throne. A gi'eat day certainly this shall be, when all 
things are thus forgotten. 

9. " Great shall be the day of Jezreel," because it 
shall be a day after which there shall be no night. And 
that you will say wUl be a great day indeed, in which 
the saints shall be raised to such a state of prosperity 
and happiness, that it shall never be darkened any 
more. The chiu'ches here have often had some little 
release, they have had thek days of peace for a while, 
but it has soon gi"own to be night, and a dismal night 
of darkness. But when this great day shall come, it 
shall be a day that shall never be succeeded by night, for 
so God promises here to his Jezreel, to make it an eter- 
nal excellency, and to make Jerusalem an everlasting 
joy ; and, Dan. ii. 44, God shall in the days of those 
kiiigs " set up a kingdom which shall never be destroy- 
ed," that is, the great day of Jezi'eel. 

This win more clearly appear, if we consider more 
fully wiiat shall be done for the chm'ch and the world 
on this day. (1.) There shall be the deliverance of the 
churches from woeful affliction, in which they shall be 
fomid a little before. For so the Scriptm'e tells us, 
Dan. xii. 1, that before this day " there shall be a time 
of ti'ouble, such as never was since there was a nation 
even to that shme time : and at that time thy people 
shall be dehvered." I might tell you how much some of 
the ancients have spoken of this ; though it be a point 
that seems to be somewhat strange to us, yet it was 
one of the most ordinaiy things known in the primitive 
times. It was then so generally acknowledged, that 
Justin MartjT, who was but thu-ty years 
after St. John, observes. There is no sSt'pe'o'mnia'or- 
man who is of the orthodox faith in all 01^^,"^.°"* 
tilings, but acknowledges this. Lactantius l 7 c 15 m 28 
shows the glory of tliis great day of Jez- 
reel, but withal declares that a little before there 
shall be most grievous times, such times as that aU 
right shall be confounded, the law shall perish, nobody 
shall know what is Ills own, the wicked shall have the 
pre-eminence, and the saints shall be persecuted; so that 
though in this om- time wickedness is gi'own to such a 
height, that a man would think it could increase no 
higher, yet in comparison of the time a little before 
that great day, these times may be called golden ages. 
So that great times of affliction will be before that gi-eat 
day ; and it is therefore called a great day, because of 
God's appearing so gloriously in the deliverance of his 
chm-ch. The Sciiptm-e speaks of wonderful things 
which God wUl do, and show himself marvellous, as he 
did when Israel came out of Egj-pt. '^i^Tio knows but 
that God is now sending abroad so much of the light 
of his gospel, and so working in the hearts of men, and 
giving us such a time of reviving, and caUuig so many 
youths as he does, because this great day is at hand, 
and because before this day we may have a day of dis- 
mal darkness, and by this he will prepare people for 
those times ? God wiU have a numerous seed in the 
world, therefore so many yoimg people are converted 
and are so forward, because, I say, God means to pre- 
pare them, by this light that we now have, for this great 
day. And you that are young may expect to go thi'ough 
some difficulties and hardship before this great day 



52 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. I. 



comes, hut be of good comfort, you may hope to live 
to see all the glory of tliis gi-eat day : God gives you 
now time that you may lay uj), and be fit seed for such 
a glorious day as this, that, when sufferings come, you 
may not be found among the number of the fearful 
ones, spoken of in Kev. xxi. 8, who " shall have their 
portion in the lake which buraeth with fii-e and brim- 
stone." Those who through base cowardice and com- 
pliance shall yield to vile superstitious 'vanities, shall be 
cast out among dogs when that great day comes. God 
now gives you a day that you may see the evO of super- 
stitious vanities, that you may have truths revealed to 
you with more freedom than formerly ; and who knows 
but tills may be to prepare you for that darkness which 
may come a little before this gi-eat day of Jezreel ? 

(2.) There shall be the subduing of the adversaries 
of the church. Though they shall have gi-eat power a 
little before ; yet when that great day of Jezreel comes, 
they shall certainly be all subdued and brought under. 
Christ, when he shall come in this great day, shall have 
his " vesture dipped in blood," in desti-oying the wicked 
and ungodly, Kev. xix. 13; and when the saints sec 
the wicked destroyed as the Egyptians were in the sea, 
they shall again " sing the song of Moses," Rev. xv. ',i. 
AVhat was this song of Moses, but the praising of God 
for the destruction of their advei"saries in the sea? God 
has another sea to destroy the wicked, and another day 
for his saints to sing over the song of Moses again, 
especially for the destruction of popery. My bretlu'cn, 
be not troubled to see papists flock together, for when 
this day shall come, God will so order things that his 
adversaries shall flock together, but it shall be that 
they may be destroyed, for God has a gi'eat feast and 
a great sacrifice, and he will sacrifice them especially. 
.Vnd therefore Lactantius, who lived one thousand three 
Komanum nomen hundred ycai'S siucc, speaking of this 
1'ont.^nimus di- ' day, saith, I have a thing to say, but I even 
futuriim <5!_u.u'tur ti-cnible to uttcr it, but I must speak it ; 
c ttrra. . ,. c. 15. ^^^^^ ^vhat was it ? Pomanum nomen de 
terra lolletur ; the Koman name shall be taken off' from 
the earth. In those primitive times he prophesied of 
the destruction of Home. Terliaps, though he did not 
see it so clearly, God might intend it for these times. 
God will destroy the enemies of his churches then. 
Yea, Ezek. xxviii. 24, there is a promise to the saints 
that there shall be no more " a pricking brier, nor any 
grie\'ing thoni," of any that are round about them that 
despise them ; and in another place God saith, that he 
will " take away the Canaanite out of the land." 

(3.) The glorious presence of Christ among the saints 
shall be displayed. Let it be personal, or what it will, 
we detei-mine not, but thus far we may confidently 
aftii'iii, that tlicre shall be a more glorious presence of 
Jesus Clirist among his people, than ever yet was since 
the beginning of the world. Rev. xxi. 22, " The Lord 
God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it :'' 
and chap. xxii. 3, 4, "The throne of God and of the 
Lamb shall be in it ; and his servants shall scree him : 
and they shall see his face." And tlic very last words 
of Ezek. xlviii. are, " the name of the city from that day 
."ihall be" Jehovah-shammah, that is, "Tho Lord is 
there." 

(4.) Gloiy shall there be put upon the saints. Glor^' 
shall be put upon them, first in regard of their admirable 
gifts and graces, which shall be heightened and en- 
lai-ged ; tlie weak shall be as David, and they that arc 
as David shall be as the angel of God at that day. 
Their adversaries shall bow down before them. They 
shall have high esteem, even in the thoughts and judg- 
ments of many great ones of the world ; they sliall be 
called up to heaven, that is, those that are in liigliest 
])Iacc and dignity shall advance and honour them in 
that day ; yea, the kings of the earth in that day shall 
come in, and bring their glory to the church. There- 



fore it is apparent that Rev. xxi. 'M cannot be under- 
stood of heaven ; for it is said, " the kings of the earth 
do bring their glory into it ;" they shall not bring their 
glory to the chui'ch, when the church shall be in 
heaven. 

(5.) There shall be a wonderful change of all crea- 
tures, and glorious, fruitful times. Lactantius says, 
that the rocks themselves should issue Trm ai«Tict fi- 
forth honey and precious things ; but "°i',!^5Ss"(l!J!";g 
that we cannot affu'm ; yet that there shall •u»sp<.iite genera- 
be a wonderful change of all things, and mfiit'sul.w'nt.'&c. 
all creatures brought to a further happi- '^'»'"'- ■- '■ '■ *■ 
ness, even the sensitive creatures, as well as others, 
than they had before, the Scriptures are clear enough. 
And we are to understand many scriptures literally 
that tend this way, concerning the fruitfulness of the 
earth, and the external glory that there shall be in the 
creatures. As upon a great marriage feast, or corona- 
tion day, all the servants of the prince are in their best 
aiTay ; so when Clu-ist, this Bridegi'oom, shall come and 
meet his spouse, all creatui'es shall be put into a new 
dress, shall have further glory. 

(G.) A multitude of all nations and Tunc qui enint in 
]ieopIe shall flock to the church, that they SKtiJJSv"" 
shall be as "the sand of the sea." But jnuit sm.™ inBr.i- 
this I have spoken of before at large. g.nerabunt, et em 
Now put all these things together, and iktel'Ti^oS"'"^ 
" great shall be the clay of Jezreel." t^ictint. ibid. 

Yea, but shall these things be so ? Though flesh 
and blood may reason against these things, yet I may 
apply that place, Zech. ii. 13, "Be silent, O' all flesli. 
before the Lord, for he is raised up out of his holy 
habitation." God has made known in liis word the 
great things he intends to bring to pass. And Zech. 
^•iii. 6, " Thus saith the Lord of hosts ; If it be manel- 
lous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these 
days, should it also be marvellous in mine eyes ? saith 
the Lord of hosts." These things may seem marvellous 
to your eyes, especially because we have been but little 
acquainted with them, but they arc not marvellous in 
the eyes of God. Yea, we find it, that these things 
were to be kept hidden till the appointed time should 
come, till we cb'aw near to that great day. God tells us 
that they were to be scaled up even to tlie time ap- 
pointed, Dan. xii. 4 ; and God tells Jolin that he " must 
prophesy again before many people, and nations, and 
tongues, and kings," Rev. x. 11 ; that is, before the time 
of tlie fulfilling of all things, that book of the Revela- 
tion shall be made out as cleai' as if John were come to 
prophesy again before men. And we hope it is coming, 
because God begins to let in light, and the morning 
star seems to arise. 

In Zech. xiv. 6, 7, you have mention of a day, that we 
may apply to the present day : " And it shall come to 
pass in that day, that the light sliall not be clear, nor 
dark ; but it shall be one day which sliall be known to 
the Lord, not day nor night : but it shall come to pass, 
that at evening time it shall be light." Mark wliat 
shall be in that day, ver. 8, " And it shall be in that day, 
that living waters sliall go out from Jerusalem j" and 
ver. 9, " In that day shall there be one Lord, and his 
name shall be one;" and then ver. 20, "In that day 
shall there be upon the bells of the horses. Holiness unto 
the Lord ;" and ver. 21, " In tliat day there shall be no 
more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts." 
Certainly, my brethren, tliese scriptures speak of a 
glorious day that is apiiroaching, but yet, in the begin- 
ning of it. It is just such a day as we have at present, 
wherein the light is neither clear nor dark. It is tiue, 
not long since it was dark, now this darkness begins to 
be a little dispelled, but it is not clear yet. many things 
for the present darken the light. Opjiosition and many 
damps are upon the hearts of God's jieople, and things 
go not on as we desire ; but blessed be God, it is not 



Vek. 11. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



53 



night -iN itli us ; though it bo not so dark as it was, or as 
clear as we desire, it is as it were twilight. Well, but " it 
shall be one day," that is, a special day ; and indeed it is 
our day now, it is the greatest day that ever jet Eng- 
land had. " It shall be one day which shall be known to 
the Lord," a day in which the Lord has great purposes 
to do great things ; and, certainly, this our day is known 
to the Lord, great tilings God is about to do for his 
churches, and lay a foundation of glorious things for 
the good of his people. And then mark, though it be 
" neither day nor night," yet " at the evening time it 
shall be light." ■\Miat a strange exijrcssion is here ! 
It shall be a duskv, cloudy day, and then a man would 
think that at evening it should be quite dark. To be 
cloudy at noon, and darkish at three or four of the clock 
in the afternoon, swcly then it must needs be more 
dark in the evening. No, though it be not clear now, 
though it be a cloudy day, yet at the evening time it 
shall be light. When light is least expected, and when 
we most fear darkness, when we are ready to conclude, 
Our day is gone : once God did bring a day to England, 
a comfortable day; though it was a little dark, yet there 
was a glorious light in comparison of what we had be- 
fore ; but now the evening begins to shut upon us, '' we 
looked for light, but behold darkness." If we see 
things go on with difficulty and opposition, we shall be 
ready to have our hearts sink within us, and to cry, 
Now our day is gone, and the evening is coming. But, 
my brethren, be of good comfort, for " at evening time 
it shall be light;" when we expect evening, when it is 
most unlikely to be Ught, then shall the light of the 
Lord break forth most gloriously. For whenever this 
day of Jezreel comes, there must be such a glorious 
work of God, as may magnify his name before the eyes 
of all men, and therefore at the evening it shaU be 
light. " And it shall be in that day, that living waters 
shall go out from Jerusalem : " we have had some 
drops of living waters in this our day, but there is a 
day coming wherein living waters shall even flow out 
of Jerusalem. 

Now, to wind up all, there is a day for the saints, a 
rest for the people of God, a day wherein God will de- 
liver them from all afflictions. I have met with one, 
who, observing that the Jews might kindle no fire 
upon theu' sabbath, because that rest was to signify 
the rest of the saints, remarks, That was a type tluit 
there is such a time of rest for the saints, that they 
shall be delivered fi-om all fieiy ti'ials, all their afflic- 
tions shall be taken away. " Great shall be the day of 
Jezi-eel." 

Obs. 1. Let the consideration of this be a strong 
argument to draw all people to the ways and love of 
godliness, to come and join with the churches in aji- 
pointing Christ Head over them. All you wicked ones 
who have forsaken the Lord hitherto, come in and join 
now, and submit unto Jesus Chr-ist as your Head, " for 
gi-eat shall be the day of Jezi'eel." There is a great day 
for the church of God, a day of glory, a day of abund- 
ance of wonderful mercy &om God to the churches. 
They shall have their day ; come you in and embrace 
religion, that you may partake of their glory. Certain- 
ly, the saints of God shall have the best of it, shall have 
the day of all the world, let the world strive against 
them as they can. Every man desu-es to follow the 
stronger party, and to cleave to that. Would you clea\e 
to the stronger part? Cleave to the saints of God, for 
certainly they are the stronger part. The church is 
rising, and will rise more and more till it be risen unto 
the height. Though there be some opposition, yet it is 
such as shall make the glory of the day so much the 
more. 

Those men who now stand up to plead for antichrist. 
and to oppose this work of God, are men born out of 
time, born in an iU hour. Papists and superstitious 



people heretofore prospered in their way, because the 
day of God was not so near, but that was the day of his 
patience in permittmg antichrist to continue. But dost 
thou resist now ? what ! superstitious now ? what ! op- 
posing the work of God now, when God is coming out 
to fight against popery and superstition, when God is 
about to do such great things for his churches ? Thou 
fightest against God, and God will fight against thee, 
and thou shalt be thi-own. Thou art bom in the worst 
time that possibly could be, worse than all the adver- 
saries of the truth in former times. 

06s. 2. If there be such a day, let us be willing to 
suffer a little for a while, and to mourn for the chm-ches 
a while in that way of mom'ning to which God calls us, 
for there is a recompence coming, glory enough coming 
even in this world. There is a time of triumphing, let 
us be content with our warfare here for a while. 

Obs. 3. Let us study these things. It is useful for 
people in these times to search into these truths of God, 
that they may be the better prepared to meet Christ 
their Bridegroom when he comes. Ezek. xl. 4, speaks 
of the glorious times of the gospel, especially of these 
times which I am describing ; where God saith to the 
prophet, " Behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine 
cars, and set thine heart upon all that I shall show 
thee." And what did God show him ? The measure of 
the temple, and all the glorious things that should be 
in the chmxh in future times. So I say to you, my 
brethren, concerning all I have spoken of the gi'eat day 
of Jezreel ; behold with your eyes, look into God's book 
and see what is said there, and hear with your ears, and 
set your hear"ts upon what has been set before you. In 
Isa. xli. 20, you have a passage somewhat like this : 
speaking of the mercies of God to his church in latter 
times, the prophet saith, " That they may see, and 
know, and consider, and understand together, that the 
hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of 
Israel hath created it." IMark how one word is heaped 
upon another, that they may " see, and know, and con- 
sider, and understand" what God would do for his 
people. And when God revealed the glorious tilings 
he intended for his church in future times in the book 
of the Revelation, mark how he begins. It is said, God 
gave this fu-st to Clirist ; secondly, Christ to the angel ; 
thirdly, the angel to John ; and then there is pro- 
nounced a blessing to him that reads and hears the 
words of this prophecy, and understands it. What a 
solemn way of blessing is here ! There is no instance 
in the Bible of a blessing so solemnly proclaimed to 
the reading and hearing of any of the books of God, as 
to that book. Therefore, though they are things that 
seem to be above us, yet, certainly, God would have us 
to inqiure into these things. It is the fruit of the piu'- 
chase of the blood of Christ to open these seals, Rev. 
v. 9. There was no man in heaven nor in earth that 
was able to open the book, and to loose the seals there- 
of; only the Lamb that was slain, and that hath re- 
deemed us unto God by his blood, he was only worthy 
to open the seals. It is a fruit, I say, of the slaughter 
of Christ and of his blood, and therefore cry to him to 
open these things to thee. And though thou art very 
weak in regard of parts, and thinkest. How can I im- 
derstand such tilings as these ? know that Christ tlirough 
his blood comes to open these seals, and seeing it is a 
fruit of his blood, it is no matter whether thou art weak 
or strong if he open them to thee. God saith to the 
prophet," Jer. xxxiii. 2, " Call unto me, and I will show 
thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not ;" 
so I say to you, be a praying peo])le, call upon God, and 
he will cause you to understand great and excellent 
things that you have not known. 

Obs. 4. Seeing these things shall be thus, what manner 
of persons ought we to be ! how heavenly our conversa- 
tion ! Oui- hearts should rise up from the earth, seeing 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. U. 



God intends to do such great things for his people. 
" Arise, sliine ; for thy light is come, and the glory of 
the Lord is risen upon thee," Isa. Ix. 1. So I say to 
the churches now, Arise, ai-isc, shake off the dust of 
your earthly affections, for the light of God is now 
ready to aiise upon you. Now mrsicm corda, now lift 
up yoiu' hearts above the things of the world. We read 
in Rev. iv. of the fom- living creatures that appeai'ed 
unto John ; the first was like a lion, and the second 
like an ox, and the third had a face as a man, and the 
foui'th was like a flying eagle. They ai-e, according to 
the interpretation of Brightnian, to describe to us the 
four states and conditions of the chm-ch. The primitive 
times were lion-like for then- valour ; the second age 
like an ox, to bear the hui-den of antichrist ; the thii-d 
had a face as a man, that stood for theii- liberties, and 
would not be under slaverv', and they are om- times ; 
and then the foiu'th as an eagle that soared aloft. In 
the state of the churcli hereafter, they shall be like an 
eagle, have heavenly hearts, no such drossy, base, 
earthly hearts as we have now. Labour we even now 
to be so that we may be fit for that day. 

Obs. 5. Let us all prepare for the Bridegroom against 
his coming. How shall wo prepare? The clotliiiig 
then shall be " wliite linen, which is the righteousness 
of the saints." That great docti'ine of our justification 
by the righteousness of Christ shall be the great busi- 
ness of that day, in which the glory of the saints shall 
much consist ; they shall be clothed with that ; it shall 
be clearly understood of all men ; they shall be ashamed 
to rest upon duties and ordinances as now they do. 
Let us study the doctrine of the righteoiisuess of C'luist 
aforehand, for that is to be our clothing at that day, 
that is the white linen of the saints which shall be their 
glory. Let us prepare oiu' lamps, and keep them all 
burning and shinuig ; the oil not only of justification, 
but of sanctification, active, stUTing in om- heai-ts ; that 
so we may be fit to entertain the Bridegroom whenever 
he comes. 

Obs. C. All of you laboiu- now to instnict yom' chil- 
dren in the knowledge of God and of Christ, bring 
them up in the fear of the Lord, that they may be seed 
for tliat day. Acquaint them with these things, for 
though perhaps you may be dead and gone before tins 
great day, yet they may live to see it ; therefore cate- 
chise them', and mstruct them, and di'op into them 
those principles that may fit them for meeting Jesus 
Chi-Lst their Bridegroom. 

Obs. 7. To conclude all, Let us be all praying Chris- 
tians. It is that which is charged upon us in Isa. Ixii. 6, 
7, " Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, 
and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make 
Jerusalem a praise in the earth." God has a day to set 
up Jerusalem as the praise of the whole earth ; O be 
pravnng, praj-ing Christians ever)- one of you, and give 
Goel no rest tiU he effect this. Remind God of aU his 
promises, search the prophets, search the book of God, 
and urge God with these promises to the chiu-ch. And 
vou that are the weakest, be not discouraged in your 
prayers, you may be a means to fiurther and hasten this 
great day of Jezrecl. Psal. cii. 17, the psalmist had 
spoken before of God's building up Zion, (and certainly 
that psalm is a prophecy of the future, glorious times 
of the chm-ch,) mark what he now saith, " He will re- 
gard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise then- 
prayer." Speaking of those who shall Uve a little before 
this day of Jezreel, the Lord shall regard the prayer of 
the destitute. The word nj)ij)n translated destitute, 
signifies a poor shrub in the wilderness, that the foot 
of every beast is ready to tread down ; and that poor 
shrub, that perhaps is despicable in the eyes of the 
world, and despicable in his own eyes, yet saith the 
text, the Lord shall regard the prayer of that poor 
shrub. Is there ever a poor shrub present, though 



never so destitute or despicable in the eyes of the 
world, or in thhie own eyes ? yet be thou a praying 
Clii'istian, prajing for those glorious things for the 
church, and God will regai-d thy prayer, he will not 
despise thy prayer. Perhaps thou art ready to despise 
thy prayers thyself, but God will not despise them. Let 
all om- hearts be lifted up, and let us all cry with the 
chmch. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. O let this 
day come, " for great shall be the day of Jezi-eel." 



CHAPTER II. 



Ver. 1. Sai/ ye unto your brethren, Ammi ; and to 
yotir sisters, Ruhamah. 

Some join the fust verse of this chapter to the end 
of the foi-mer ; and (according to a sense that may be 
given of the words, agreeable to the scope of the latter 
part of the former chapter) it may seem more fit to be 
made the end of that, than the beginning of this. 
There God was promising mercy to Ms people, that 
those who were not his people should be his people, 
and those that had not received mercy shoidd receive 
mercy. Now he calls upon aU whose hearts were with 
God, to .speak to one another of this great favoiu- of 
God to his people, for their mutual encouragement, 
and for the praise of his name. As if he should say, 
WcU, you have been under di-eadful threats of God, 
yom- sins have called for severe punishment, but my 
grace is free, it is rich and powerful, therefore you that 
were not my people shall become my people ; you that 
had not obtained mercy shall obtain mercy : " Say unto 
your bretlu-en, Ammi ; and to your sisters, Ruhamah ;" 
that is, O you that are godly, speak one to another, and 
tell one another, for the quickening of one another's 
hearts, of this great favour of God, his free gi-ace ! O say, 
Ammi, Ammi, the people of God; Ruhamah, God's 
mercy : we were not his people, but now Ammi again, 
God has promised to make us his people, we were 
rejected ft-om mercy, but mercy is come again, now 
Ruhamah. Oh the mercy of God ! oh that free grace 
of our God ! that we who have been so vile, we who 
have so provoked the eyes of his glory, we who have so 
sinned against mercy itself, that mercy should thus 
follow us, to make us his people, and to save us from 
his wrath ! Ammi ! Ruhamah ! 

Obs. 1. It is a good thing to speak of the loving-kind- 
ness of our God. " It is a good thing to give thanks 
unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O 
Most High ; to show forth thy lovmg-kindness in the 
morning, and thy faithfulness evei-)- night." Psal. xcii. 1, 
2. That psalm is appointed for the sabbath. It is a 
woik of the sabbath to be speaking one to another of 
the goodness of God ; especially in tills case, when a 
people were afraid that they should have been for ever 
rejected, and yet God calls them agam, Ammi, my 
people, and says now that he will have mercy upon them. 
" One generation shall praise thy works to another, and 
shall declare thy mighty acts : I will speak of the 
glorious honour of thy majesty, and of tliy wondi-ous 
works," Psal. cxlv. 4. 5. Atark what the works of God 
are .toward his chm-ch, when he comes in tlie ways 
of mercy : they are wondi-ous works of God, they arc 
the mighty acts of God, they are such wherein the 
honour of God appears, yea, they are the honour of his 
majesty, yea, they are the glorious honour of his ma- 
jesty. He displays majesty, honoiu- of majesty, glorious 
honour of majesty, the mighty works of God, the won- 
derftd works of God. When these appear, these are fit 
to be declared indeed. And for them to be able to say 



Vep.. 1. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



to one another, Ammi, and Euhamah, it was to declare 
the -n-onderful works of God, and the glorious lionoui- of 
his majesty. Yea, it follows further in that psahu, ver. 
6, " men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts : 
and I will declare thy greati-.ess." And ver. 7, "They 
shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great good- 
ness." Montanus renders it, eruclabunt, they shall not 
be able to keep it in, but break forth in the memoiy of 
thy goodness. 

Happy are tho?e people to whom God grants such 
subjects of discoui-se, that they may say to their bre- 
thren and sisters, Ammi, and Ruhamah. It was not 
long since, that, when we met with our brethren, we 
could not have such a subject of discourse as this, but 
usually when Christians met together, after their saluta- 
tions, their first question was ; Oh ! what shall we do ? 
what course shall we talve ? All the news almost in the 
kingdom, and the subject of discom-ses, specially among 
the saints, was this ; buch a minister silenced in such a 
place, such a one banished in another place, such a one 
imprisoned in another place, such a one high-commis- 
sioned in another place, such signs of the wrath of 
God upon \ts, we are afraid that God is going, if he be 
not quite gone already ; we are afraid that he will not 
only reject us fi-om being his people, but reject us from 
being a people upon the face of the earth. 

But, blessed be God, he has changed the subject of 
cm- discoiu'ses. Now, God's ways have begun to be 
towai'ds us as if he intended to make us again his 
people. Now, when we meet together, we have plenti- 
ful subjects of discourse about God's gi'ace and mercy ; 
we say, Ammi, Ruhamah, O the Lord manifests good- 
ness to an unworthy nation, we have hope that yet he 
will own us to be his people, that yet he wQl show 
mercy to us, though never so unworthy. Who would 
have thought to have seen and heard such things as we 
have seen and heard ! who would have thought to have 
seen the hearts of the adversaries so daunted, their 
power so cui'bed, then' rage so quelled, the wicked in 
their own works so insnared, and theii' hopes so disap- 
pointed ! '\\Tio woidd have thought to have seen the 
saints so rejoicing, theii- liberties so enlarged, their 
hearts and expectations so raised! Tliis is the free 
grace of God : Ammi, Ruhamah, we have obtained 
mercy, God has dealt with us in abimdance of grace. 
But we must not discourse of this when we meet as 
matter of news only, we must speak of it to the praise 
of God, for the sanctifying of om- hearts. 

Oiu- brethi-en in Ireland have another subject of dis- 
eom-se at this day. AVhen a brother and a sister meet, 
they say. Oh my father, my mother, taken such a day 
by the rebels and cruelly massacred ; such a kinsman, 
such a kinswoman, taken such a day and fearfully mur- 
dered ; such houses were fired, such cities and towns 
were taken! and with what sorrowful faces do they 
look one upon another, when they are thus relating 
these sad things ? The word of God came out against 
England, but it has lighted upon Ireland. O unworthy 
are we of these mercies which we enjoy, if, when we 
meet together, oiu' discourses be frothy and light, about 
vain and trivial tilings, when God has given us such a 
subject of disooiu'se as he has done by such gracious, 
wonderful, and glorious ways of his mercy towards us 
in this latter age. 

Obs. 2. As the mercies of God are to be incidcated 
upon OIU- spirits, we should not only tell them one to 
another, but again and again impress them upon our 
hearts. " Say to yoiir brethren, Ammi ; and to your 
sisters, Ruhamah." Indeed God's mercies at fii'st seem 
to take impression upon our spirits, but the impression 
is soon vanished. 

Obs. 3. A gracious heart should rejoice in God's 
mercies towards others. " Say to your brethren ;'' that 
is, according to some. Let Judkh, to whom God showed 



special mercy, say to Israel, to the ten tribes, w'nich 
were more threatened to be cast off from being the 
people of God, than Judah was. Let Judah rejoice in 
tliis, that then- brethi-en are received again, to mercy. 
God's mercies are an infinite ocean, there needs no en- 
vjing there, no grieving for that which ot'ners have. 
\\Tien one man is richer than another, another is ready 
rather to envy liim than to rejoice. A courtier envies 
the favom- another has at comt ; why ? because these 
are naiTow tilings. But when wo come to God's mercj', 
there is room enough there ; that soul wliich has been 
made partaker of mercy, counts it a great happiness 
when in any way the mercy of God is magnified! 

Obs. 4. Those whom God has received unto mercy, 
we should receive into brotherly affection. "Say to 
your brethren and sisters :" has God showed mercy to 
such and such, well may vce account them our brethren 
and sisters then. If God takes them to mercv, we must 
be ready w iUingly to take them into brotherly society. 

But if we take these words as the beginning of the 
second chapter, we shall see them interpreted ui a dif- 
ferent way. And taking them so, as most do, I shall 
first show you the scope of the chapter in the parts of 
it, and then in what sense the words may be expounded, 
as the beginnmg of this chapter. 

The scope of this second chapter is much accordhig 
to that of the first, viz. to show to Israel then- sin and 
danger; and, secondly, to promise God's abundant 
grace and mercy again. The fii'st is especially from 
the beginning to the 14tli verse ; and the second from 
the 14th verse to the end of the chapter. 

Y'et this is not an exact division, neither can we give 
one, more than we could give of the other chapter, be- 
cause things are so intermixed. They are the pathetical 
expressions of a loving, and yet a provoked, husband. 
He is convmcing his spouse who has dealt falseh* with 
him, and showing her her sm ond danger ; but whilst 
he is manifesting his displeasure, the bowels of his 
compassion begin to yearn, and he must use some ex- 
pressions of love in the midst of all ; then, when he has 
had some expressions of love, he again rebukes her and 
shows her her sin, and then his bowels yearn, and he re- 
tmms to expressions of love again. We have found it 
so in the former chapter, and shall find it so in tliis : 
for though the beginning of this chapter, to the 14th 
verse, is specially spent in convincing of sin and tlu'eat- 
ening of judgment, yet in the 6th and 7tli verses there 
are promises of mercy and favoiu', and expressions of 
love ; and then in tlie 8th verse he thi-eatens again, 
and ill the 14th verse begins to express mercy again. 

As God acts in this case, so should we. Wnen we 
rebulie others we should manifest love to them : and 
when we manifest love, to do it so as to take notice of 
what is amiss, and to reprove them. Many parents 
know not how to rebuke then- children, they do it with 
nothing but bitterness ; and they know not how to mani- 
fest their love, they do it with nothing but fondhng and 
immoderate indulgence. God unites both together. 

What then must be the sense and the scope of the 
words, " Say to your brethren, Ammi," iS:c. Some- 
thing must be siipphed for nialdng up the full sense. 
As if God had said, O Ammi, you whom I have re- 
served to be my people, you to whom I have showed 
mercy, there yet is remaming a handfiJ of you ; while 
you remain to be my people, and otliers cast off, and 
you obtaining mercy, and others rejected, let it be your 
care to exhort, persuade, convince, and to use all the 
means you can to bring your bretliren and sisters to 
that grace of God which "you have received. " Say to 
vour brethi-en :" say; it is not expressed what they 
should say, but by that wliich follows we may under- 
stand what the meaning of God is. "N^lien he saith, 
" Plead with your mother," S:c., that is, Y'ou, the rem- 
nant, that have received mercy, and are my people, do 



oG 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



not think that, so long as you escape, and are well enough 
yourselves, it is no gi-eat matter what becomes of others ; 
O no, but let your hearts be much toward your bre- 
thren and sisters, let your bowels yearn toward them. 
O seek, if it be possible, to draw them unto God, that 
tiiey may receive mercy too ; labour to convince them ; 
say, and sjieak to them, that they may not yet stand 
out against God and he obstinate : " Say to your bre- 
thi-en, Ammi, and to your sisters. Ruhamah." 

Obs. 1. That in the most corrupt times God usually 
reserves a people, to deliver some from the guilt of the 
general con'uptions of the place where they live. This 
Ammi and liuhamah were a remainder, whom God 
delivered through his grace from the general corrup- 
tions of the place where they lived ; for otherwise they 
had not been fit to have said to their brethren, or to 
have spoken to their sisters, in this sense. . 

Obs. 2. Tliose whom God delivers from the guilt of 
general corruptions, are to be acknowledged the people 
of God. Such as have received mercy from God in a 
special manner. It is free grace that has made this 
„ ,. . ... . difTercnco between vou and others. Au- 

miiiia, non ait reuc- gustme remarks on 1 Jvings xix. 18, "I 
r'mt"s', Md'reliqS ; havc left me scvcn thousand in Israel," 
Mm'^£"A""°" God says not, there are left seven thou- 
f "v 'I'i c°Ts''"' ^^"fl' o"" tl'^y h^'^'6 Isft themselves, but 1 
have left. It is the special work of God 
to preserve any for himself in evil times. 

Obs. 3. The Lord takes special notice of those who 
are thus by his grace preserved in evil times. Ammi, 
Euhamah. There are a peo])le among these that are 
Ammi, my people, that have obtained mercy from nie, 
mine eyes are upon them, my heart is toward them ; 
there is a number who have kept their garments unde- 
filed even in Sardis, and I will remember this for ever 
for their good. "Noah was a just man and perfect in 
his generations," Gen. vi. 9 : and what then? chap. vii. 1, 
" Come thou and all thy house into the ark ; for thee 
have I seen righteous before me in this generation." 

Obs. 4. Such as keep themselves from the coiTuptions 
of the times wherem they live, they, and only they, are 
fit to exhort and reprove others. Those that are not 
guilty themselves as others are, are fit to speak to others, 
to say to their bretlu-en and to theii' sisters. They are 
Torpc^idoctei, fit to exhort, who perfoi-m the duties 
c.im culpa rcdarguit thcmselves that they exhort unto. AVe 
"'"'""■ say it is a shameful thing for one to be 

teaching, if he be guilty himself; he cannot with free- 
dom of spirit say to his brethren and sisters, Ammi. 

Obs. 5. It Ls the duty of those whom God has de- 
livered from the con-uption of the times, to seek to 
draw all others to God ; to seek to convmce others of 
theii- evil ways, and so bring them in to the truth. AVc 
read, Lev. xix. IT, ''Thou shalt not hate thy brother in 
thine heai't : thou shalt in any wise rebuke" thy neigh- 
bour, and not suffer sin upon him." Surely those who 
have obtained mercy, and have the impression of God's 
mercy upon their spirits, are far from having hateful 
hearts ; now it is hatred for any to sutler sin to lie u]ion 
liis brother, and not to do what in him lies to help him. 
It is des])erate pride for men to trium])h over others in 
theii- falls, and it is wiclced cruelty to suffer others to lie 
down when they are fallen, if they can raise them. 
Seafaring men, who are delivered themselves from shij)- 
wreck, and all is safe with them, if they see another 
ship ready to sink in the sen, and those on ship-board 
cry out to them to come to help to save them, tliough 
they be never so for remote, yet if it sliould be known 
that they decline to go out to help them, all the seamen 
■would cry out shame on such, and be readv to stone 
them for letting a ship sink when they might have 
helped. Certainly it is the same case with those to 
whom God has showed mercy, if others lie in their 
sins, and they do not what they can for their help. 



Obs. 6. The nearer the relation of any persons is to 
us, the more should our compassion be towards them, 
in seeking to deliver them from their sins. " Say to 
your brethren, and to your sisters." There is more 
likelihood of prevailing with your brethren and sisters. 
Has God converted you, and have you a brother or a 
sister not converted, or any of your kindred ? go, and 
tell them of the danger of their evil ways, tell them of 
the excellency of tlie ways of God, exhort them to 
come in, and to make ti-ial of the blessed ways of God. 
AATien a brother speaks to a brother, or a sister to a 
sister, it is the bringing a hammer of gold to work upon 
gold, and of silver to work upon silver. 

Obs. 7. Exliortations to and reprehensions of others, 
should be given with much love and meekness. " Say 
to your brethi-en and sisters." Look upon them as 
brethren and sisters, though they have not yet obtained 
the like mercy that you have. St. Paul, 2 Thess. iii. 
15, speaking of one that walks inordinately, from whom 
we are to withdraw in familiar society, yet, saith he, " ad- 
monisli him as a brother." Those who reprove and 
admonish others with bitterness of spirit and evil speak- 
ing, are like a foolish fowler, who seeks to get the fowl, 
but goes boisterously, and makes a noise : the way, if 
he would get it, is to go on quietly, softly, and gently ; 
so the way to gain a brother, is not by boisterousness 
and violence, but softness, and gentleness. It is ob- 
served by some of the Jews concerning Exod. xxv. o, 
where the matter of the tabernacle is said to be gold, 
and silver, and brass, stiU you do not hear of iron re- 
quired for the building of it ; no, u'on, rigid, severe, 
liard dispositions, are not fit either to be- matter of the 
tabernacle themselves, or to di'aw others to be the 
matter of it. 

Yea, but if saying will not be enough to do the deed, 
then follows jilcading. That is the second. Say to 
them, admonish them, exhort them, but what if that 
will not do? do not leave them immediately, but 
" plead," yea, and •' plead with youi- mother " too, not 
only with yoiu' bretlu-en and with your sisters, but with 
your mother. 

Ver. 2. Plead it-ilh your mother, plead : for she is 
not viy jt'ife, 7ieither am I her husband : let her there- 
fore put auat/ her whoredoms out of her sight, and her 
adulteries from between her breasts ; 

13>"\ Plead, Litigate, so some, Contendite, Strive ; the 
Vulgate reads Judicate, Judge your mother. It may 
seem to be a harsh phrase at fii-st, but we shall labour 
to acquaint you with the mind of God in it. Here is 
an exhortation to the private members of the church, 
to all, one or other, to plead with theu' mother, to plead 
even with the church of which they are members, and 
so to plead as to deal plainly, and to tell her that she is 
not the wife of God. 

Ohs. 1. Here we see God's condescension, that he 
will have us plead the case betwixt others and himself, 
as Isa. V. 3, " Judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my 
vineyard." This shows the equity of God's dealing. 
Plead the case ; perhaps some of you might think I 
deal hardly with your mother in so rejecting lier, and 
in bringing such judgments upon her. No, not so, but 
plead you the case, plead rather with her, than complain 
of me for my dealing with her. 

Obs. 2. Wlicn exhortations and admonitions will not 
do, we must strengthen ourselves by pleading. If there 
be any way more powerful than exhortation and ad- 
monition, we should take that way, and not presently 
give over ; for though it is not said here. Plead witii 
your brothers and sisters, yet they arc included in this, 
when ho saith " Plead with your mother." 

06*. 3. It is a hard thing to convince idolaters of 
their sin, and of the justice of God coming against them 



Vee. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



57 



for theii- sin. " Plead with your mother, plead ;" she 
will not acknowledge it, she will stand it out, and say 
she has not done so ill, she is not worthy to be cast oti'; 
you had need plead, and plead hard with her. Idolaters 
have so many distinctions, evasions, and pretences, that 
it is a thousand to one if you prevail with them. AMicn 
you deal with pajjists about worshipping of images, they 
will have such thstinctions of worship per se, and wor- 
ship per accidens, of honoui'ing the crcatm-e propter se, 
el propter aliud, proprie, improprie, and a Imndred of 
such distinctions and evasions, till they distinguish 
away the truth, and scarce understand themselves what 
they mean by then- distinctions. Hence, idolaters scorn 
at judgments threatened, they think only a company 
of foolish and timorous people fear such tilings ; they 
ci'V out, Say they that we are idolaters, and that griev- 
ous judgments of God are coming upon us ? a company 
of fooUsh, melancholy people, they fear their own fan- 
cies ! Was it not so heretofore, -when we were going 
on in the ways of idolatry apace ? Was it not the jeer 
and scorn of all such spiiits? If any seem but to 
question about idolatry, they would never be convinced 
of such a sm.nor ever fear any judgment hanging over 
our heads. Though God has prevented it through his 
grace, and has showed his prerogative in the ways of 
his mercy, yet certainly there was sign enough of 
drcadfid wrath hanging over us, and what yet may be 
we know not. 

Obs. 4. God loves to have people dealt with in a 
convincmg way. " Plead with your mother, plead." 
It is a forensic word, and carries with it such a kind of 
pleading as must be convincing and powerful. The 
Lord does not declare to the prophet, or to those other 
good people who were free from idolatry, that the peo- 
ple of Israel were generally corrupted ; he does not bid 
them go and terrify them, and .speak bitterly to them ; 
but go and plead the cause with them, seek to convince 
them, not rail upon them, but convince them. God 
loves to have people dealt with in a convincing way. 
Let not therefore any one think it enough, either minis- 
ter or lapnan, that he can speak terribly to people, and 
en' out against their sins ; but let him labovu- to con- 
vince them, to deal with them as rational creatiu'es, and 
to take away then- secret objections and shifts, and to 
make theu' sins plain before then- consciences. A con- 
vincing preacher, and a convincing Christian, is such a 
one as may be very useful, and do abundance of good 
to the church of God. 

Obs. 5. It is very fit that God should have some to 
plead for him, to plead his cause, as well as Satan has 
to plead his. The devil never wants pleaders. '\Mien 
did there ever such a bad cause come to a bench, or to 
any society, but found .some that would plead for it ? 
A shame that the worst cause in the world should have 
pleaders for it, and many times the cause of God sutlers 
by men being mute. God will take this very ill at theli- 
hands. It is true, God saith he wiU plead his own 
cause, and we are bound to pray, according to the 
psalmist, that God would " arise and plead liis own 
cause." And indeed, if God had not risen and pleaded 
his own cause better than we did, his cause would have 
been in the dirt before this. God is raising up his OMii 
cause, no thanks to us ; we have cause to lay oiu' hands 
ujion our mouths as guilty, in that we so basely and 
cowardly let the cause of God suffer ; and God appear- 
ing so immediately and gloriously, is the rebuking of 
us because we did not, we would not, before stand up 
to plead his cause. 

Obs. 6. AVhen any have found mercy from God, the 
sweetness of that mercy so warms their hearts, that they 
cannot endure to see that blessed God dishonoured. 
Plead you, Animi, Ruhamah : AMiat, my people, those 
to whom I have showed mercy, what' though it be 
your mother, what though it be any dear to you, what 



though they be gi'eat ones, what though they be a 
multitude, yet plead, plead for me against them. God"s 
mercy is so sweet, it so inttames them, that they must 
plead for God against any in the world. 

" Plead with your mother." That is, with the church, 
called a mother, because, as the mother is as it were 
the root from whence chikhen come, and divides her- 
self into branches ; so the community of a common- 
wealth or a church is called in Scripture a mother, and 
the jiarticular members are as several branches that 
grow from that root, they are as cliildren. Therefore 
you have such expressions in Scripture, as " the daugh- 
ters of Jerusalem ;" and there is no great difference be- 
tween calling Jerusalem which is the state, mother, or 
Jerusalem which is the church, mother ; for indeed the 
church and state were mixed both together. Learn 
hence, 

Obs. 7. It is lawful for childi-en to plead with their 
parents. Though it is true, this aims at something 
higher than what is between natural children and their 
parents, yet fi'om the expression tliis is intimated and 
implied. That it is lawful for chQcben to plead with 
their parents. If chUdi'en see then- parents in an im- 
godly way, they may lawfully plead with them, and 
their parents are bound to hearken to then- pleachng 
God's cause. It is a speech of Tertul- ^,„,„^,,, „, 
lian's. The begetter is to lie beloved, and ior.'siii', ripuuai- 
we may add, he is to be honoured, but 
our Creator is to be preferred. Childi-en must give 
due respect to their parents, yet so, as preferring the 
Lord before them ; and if the parents go agamst God, 
even then- chikhen must plead against them. As it is 
a great sin for parents to prefer their childi'en before 
God, so it is a great sin for childi'cn to prefer theu- pa- 
rents before God. 

L)o not think I aim to set chilch'cn against then- pa- 
rents, be but content to hear to the end, and you will 
be convinced that it is fit for children to plead with 
then- parents when they go from God. Thus we see it 
was with Jonathan, 1 Sam. xix. 4 ; he pleaded with his 
father, when he saw him in such a ])assionate mood and 
cruel sph'it toward poor David, " Let not the king sin 
against his servant, against David." " Let not the 
kmg," he gives him very respectfid words, and shows 
his due honour to his father : " Let not the king sin 
against his servant," and then goes on and tells his 
father of the good service David had done, and that 
David chd not deserve such ill usage from him. Thus, 
when childi-en see their fathers or mothers in a passion, 
it is fit enough for them in a humble, submissive man- 
ner to say, I beseech you, father, or mother, consider 
that by these tUstempered passions, instead of helping 
youi'self, you sin against God ; you know by experi- 
ence, that often in such passion many sins have broken 
from you, and you have grieved for it afterwards, oh do 
not again that wluch your conscience has so often 
checked you for. If chUdreu thus plead with their 
parents, they do no more than then- duty, and their 
parents are tjound to hearken to them. I confess, they 
shoidd be very careful to preserve due respect to then- 
parents, and not speak pertly, but with aU reverence 
and submission ; and privately too, if possible, not to 
(Uvulge their parents' weaknesses. You know Ham was 
cursed for di-scovering his father's nakedness, though he 
was drunk, he did not show due respect at that time to 
him ; but if he had sought to cover his father's naked- 
ness, and after had come and pleaded the case with 
him, certainly he had not been cursed, but received a 
blessing. 

Yea, and there is a great deal of reason that childi-en 
should plead with their parents, and that you should 
give them leave so to do, because, you know, childi-en 
are the worse for your sins, God threatens to " visit the 
sins of the parents upon the children, to the third and 



.\X EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. U. 



fourth generation ; " there are many threateuir.gs against 
children for the sins of their parents, therefore it con- 
cerns Your children that they should plead with you, 
and tfiat you should suffer them. For if you say. 
Sirrah, what have you to do with me ? v.hat does it 
concern you ? Yes, the child, if he does it in modesty 
and humility, may say, O father, it does concern mc, I 
may fare the worse for your sins ; God may come upon 
me for them ; therefore give me leave, I beseech you, to 
plead the cause of God with you. And if you will not 
give your children leave in tliis, they may rise up as 
witnesses against you another day. 

It is a very suitable and powerful pleading, that when 
children cannot prevail by humble and submissive ad- 
dress, then to plead with teai-s. We read that when 
C'ranmer and Ridley came to King Edward the Sixth, 
and were so earnest that he should give way to his 
sister, the Lady Mary, to have mass, he stood out and 
pleaded the case ■with them, and told them it was a sin 
against God. They used many carnal arguments to 
persuade the king, but he withstood them a great while. 
At length, when King Edward, who was but about fif- 
teen years of age, saw he coidd not prevail by pleading 
with words against those grave men, he burst into tears, 
and that so prevailed with them, that they went away, 
and concluded that the king had more cli\inity in his 
little finger than they had in all their bodies, and so 
yielded to him. Certainly, in such pleadings, the heart 
of a parent must needs be much hai-dened if he will 
not break and yield to his child. 

You that are parents, look upon your cliildren's plead- 
ing with you, and consider vdth yourselves, WHiat ! does 
God send one of my childi-en to come and plead the 
cause of God with me, to Axav; me from the ways of 
sin, and to do good to my soul for ever ? surely it is a 
mercy to have one out of my own bowels to stand for 
the cause of God ; sm'ely God is in it ; I see this child 
in other things walks humbly and obediently unto me. 
As indeed you cliildrcn, that plead -with your parents, 
need be careful so much the rather to be obedient to 
them, and not use an unseemly manner to check and 
reprove them ; and then it cannot but convince the 
heart of a parent. AVliat a blessing will it be to you 
children, if you, who have received your natural life 
from your parents, should be a means of their spiritual 
and eternal life ! 

Obs. 9. The members of a state and church shotdd 
behave towards it as children to a mother. They should 
have the affection of childi-en to it, they should take 
much to heart those things that conccni it, the suffer- 
ings of state or clun'ch should be the sufferings of all 
its members. There are children of Belial risen up 
among us, a viperous generation, who are even tearing 
the bowels of om- mother: let om- hearts break for this, 
as Psal. XXXV. 14, " I bowed down heavily, as one that 
mourneth for his mother." Let us not lift up otir heads 
and be merry now, but for the present bow do\\-n heavily, 
as those that arp called, tliough in some respects to re- 
joice, yet, in many others, to mourn this (lay for our 
mother. Yea, let our hearts rise against those vile 
monsters that join with a party to bring such woeful 
confusion and ti-ouble to our mother. We may say to 
them justly, as Saul said to Jonathan passionately, " You 
children of the rebellious and perverse, why have you 
chosen to join with them to your own confusion, and to 
the confusion of your mother's nakedness?" Let us do 
what we can to help. Shall we see her bowels torn, 
and not stu- at all ? She calls now to us to come and 
help her, and lets us know that if it go ill with her it 
cannot go well \nth us. If the mother's breast, through 
some incm-able disease, must be cut off, the tender 
father takes away the children, and will not suffer them 
to behold the torture of their mother. Who knows 
but that this has been God's end in taking aw-av his 



dear children in former times, because he would not 
have their tender hearts see so much sorrow and evil 
as should befall their mother ? And what God has re- 
served for us to see in the sufferings of om- mother, 
wc do not know. However, let her not suffer by us, 
let her not suffer for want of our help, let her not suffer 
without us, let us not be so unnatm-al as every one to 
be shifting for himself, neglecting our mother, that 
shoidd be as dear to us as the bowels out of which we 
came. 

06*. 10. Those that are godly should not only de- 
vote themselves to do good to themselves or friends in 
private, but they are to labom- to do good to the public 
also. Not only say to yoiu- sisters and your brethi-en, 
but " plead with your mother." There are many uan-ow- 
spiiited men, who, if they can discharge, as they think, 
their consciences with their families, and can plead 
with their servants and children, or some of their own 
near acquaintance, they have done enough, though for 
the public they take no care at all. 

06*. 11. It Ls apparently implied, that all those who 
are members of any chiurch ought to be men of know- 
ledge. Why ? because they are such as are called 
upon to plead -mih their mother. It is not for an ig- 
norant sot to plead ^ith a chmeh of God. The mem- 
bers of evei-)- church, therefore, should be enlightened, 
as in some cases they must plead 'ndth their mother. 

Obs. 12. God gives liberty to some private members 
of churches, yea, it is their duty in some cases to plead 
with the whole chm-ch. This we must speak of a little 
more. God's ways and his cause are so equal, that pri- 
vate Christians, though they are verj- weak, yet they 
may be able to plead with a chm-ch. It is true, a poor, 
weak, private Christian has a great disadvantage when 
he is to deal with a whole church, where there are many 
godly and learned : but if there is a disadvantage one 
way, the advantage is as much the other way, as the 
cause of God is on the one side, and not on the other. 
The goodness of the cause is as great an advantage, as 
the abilities and number on the other side is a disad- 
vantage. And sometimes particular members of a 
church have no other way to free themselves from tlie 
guilt of the sins of the church, but by pleading with 
them. 

Yea, and sometimes God has blessed the pleading of 
some few, and of weak ones too, with a multitude. 
Perhaps you may have heard of that notable story we 
have in ecclesiastical history of Paphnutius, who being 
in the council of Nice, where tliere were three himdred 
and eighteen bishops, and the business was about the 
marriage of ministers ; generally they decided, that those 
who were single shoidd not man-y. Paphnutius alone 
pleads against them aU in that case, and God so wrought, 
that he carried the cause, and he, one man, convinced 
all these tlii-eo hundi-ed and eighteen bishops. There- 
fore it is no discom'agement for one man to stand up 
and plead against a great many. So Petrus AValdensis, 
in the storr of the Waldenscs, though he was but one 
at first, yet ho stood against many thousands, and God 
blessed that wliich he did for the conversion of thou- 
sands. And Luther, you know, stood against almost all 
the world. 

. Yea, and though this one man may be but a private 
man, a weak man, God may bless that which he saith 
sometimes more than that which more learned men shall 
say. I have read in the Centuries this story : A com- 
pany of bishops being met together, there was a philoso- 
pher that stood out agauist the Christian religion, and 
so reasoned against them all, that he seemed to have 
the better of it. Amongst them there was one very 
godly and holy man, but a very weak man ; he, seeing 
the cause of CTod likely to suffer, desired leave to speak 
and encounter tliis philosopher. All the rest were 
troubled at it. thinking that God's cause would suffer 



Vee. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



59 



more by him, knowing that he was a verj- weak man ; 
but yet, knowing withal that he was a reiy holy man, 
none would oppose, but let him speak. So he began 
with the philosopher, reciting many articles of the 
faith ; TeU me, said he, -with majesty and authority, do 
you believe that these things are so ? do not so reason 
the case about these articles of our faith, but do you be- 
lieve ? Presently the philosopher acloiowlcdged him- 
self overcome. Hitherto, said he, I have 
"udM'e?vQba%d- heard words, and returned words, but 
S^Jirti'Sit'' °°'"' I f^^l ^^^ Di\-ine power, and I can- 
ijim respondere ' not fmlher answer ; and so yielded to 
be a Christian upon the pleading of this 
poor weak man, yet a veiy holy and godly man. God 
has blessed the pleading of weak ones, though against 
those that are very strong, therefore they must not be 
contemned. 

Qicolampadius saith,* Christ would be contemned 
and dishonom'ed, if we woidd not hear, were it but a 
child speaking with his Spmt, though all the world 
shoidd be against it. And in Isa. xi. 6, there is a 
promise, that in the times of the gospel the spirits of 
men should be so brought down, that they shoidd not 
stand upon their greatness and learning, but " a little 
ehUd should lead them;" that is the humble temper 
that God would have imder the gospel. 

But it may be said, "Will not tliis argue self-conceit ? 
"^Miat ! for one man, a private man, to plead with so 
many, with a church ? It is a sign that such a one is 
very opinionated, that should think that v.hat he ap- 
prehends is sufficient to stand against the apprehension 
of so many learned and godly men as are in the church. 
How can this be freed from aiTogance and proud con- 
ceitedness ? I answer, not so, it may be conscience, 
and not self-conceit, for the rvde of conscience is not 
the abOities, nor the holiness, nor the multitude of 
others, but it is that light that God lets in to convince 
according to his word. Nay, further, I suppose I may 
convince you that this pleading for God may proceed 
from much self-denial, and the not pleading may pro- 
ceed from vile, sinful self-respect. How will that ap- 
peal" ? Thus : for a private man when he sees the 
truth of God suffer, if he be of a humble and an in- 
genuous spirit, it cannot but be exceeding gi'ievous 
to him to think, that he must contest with such a mul- 
titude of able and godly men. He would rather a 
hundred times, if he looked at his own quiet and ease, 
sit down : For, t hink s he, if I speak, by this I shall be 
endangered to be accounted self-conceited, I sliall have 
the accusation of pride, I shall displease many of my 
friends, I shall make a great disturbance in myself; I 
am sure of my own peace, whatever I do to others, and 
how much better were it for me to sit still and be quiet. 
A htunble spirit would reason thus, but conscience 
puts him upon it : I shall contract guilt to myself if I 
be not, at least, a witness for God's truth ; therefore 
though I shall suffer so much in it, yet, rather than the 
truth shall suffer, rather than conscience shall plead 
against me, I will plead, though never so much to my 
(hsadvantage. Now, if such a one can-y it humbly and 
quietly, certainly he is rather to be accounted a self- 
deming man ; for it is a very hard task. AVhereas, on 
the other side, self-love is more likely to think thus : It 
is ti-ue, these things are not right, I see they are not ac- 
cording to the truth of God. Conscience indeed would 
have me speak, but I shall trouble myself, and what 
will they think of me on the other side, where there 
are so many able and godly men ? sm-ely I shall be 
thought a conceited fool,- and therefore I were as good 
hold my peace, and sleep in a whole skin, and be quiet. 
Thus because they have so much self-respect, and love 

* Contemneretur ecclesia Christi, si vel unum puelliim ejus 
Divino Spiritu loquentem non audiremiis, etiamsi oranes re- 
clament. CEcolampadius. 



then- own quiet, and cannot endure to suffer any trouble, 
they win leave the truth to suffer, and theij- consciences 
to be pleading against themselves, rather than thus 
plead for the cause of God. 

Certainly they that are charitable would rather take 
things in the better part, than in the evil. It is pos- 
sible that a man may through pride of spirit plead 
with others, but yet you may perceive it in the gei;eral 
course of his conduct. Now if, in the general com-se of 
a man, he carries himself humbly and submissively, so 
that you see him yielding as much as he can in all law- 
ful things, and when he pleads against an evil he is not 
sudden, nor rash, nor pleads against every light evil, 
but approaches it with trouble in his spii'it, and carries 
it with all quietness and humility ; it is your rigidness, 
and that spirit which does not beseem a Christian, 
which is not the spfrit of Chi'ist in this thing, to judge 
this to be pride. For certainly under this false judg- 
ment the cause of God has suffered much. 

You will say. How can it be imagined, that one man 
should see more than many, more than others equally 
able ? To that I answer. In a community, where there 
are many, though they should be godly, yet many of 
them may have their spirits biassed with prejudice and 
self-ends, and so not come to see the truth, though they- 
are more able. Again ; perhaps, though they may be 
more able in most things, yet in some one thing God 
may leave them ; yea, though they may be more able 
at other times, yet for some one time God may leave a 
man in a thing that he is very able m at another time. 
And perhaps a great many of them for the present may 
have so much distemper of spirit, as they may not speak 
according to what they tliink themselves. Therefore 
it may be useful for some one man to be pleading vdtb 
many others. 

I beseech you consider tliis, it is verj- useful. Men 
must not tliink that God dispenses the knowledge of 
his truth always according to natm-al abilities. For 
want of this consideration many are led into much evil. 
For they think with themselves,- if a man have more 
ability to understand natui-al things than others have, 
therefore he must needs have more ability to imder- 
stand spiritual things than others have. This is a mis- 
take. A learned man may have great abiUties, and un- 
derstand the rules of natm-e, yet a poor weak man may 
have the mind of Chiist more than he has. For the 
promise is to them that fear God : " The secret of the 
Lord is vrith them that fear him," Psal. xxv. 14. It 
may he another man has more abilities, but liis spirit 
may be more distempered than the poor weals, man's. 
" I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, 
because thou hast hid these things fr'om the wise and 
prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so. 
Father : for so it seemed good in thy sight," Matt. xi. 
25, 26. 

If multitudes had been an ai'gumeut against the 
truth, then in the primitive times, when the Chi-istian 
reUgion began, certauily very few would have followed 
Jesus Chi'ist. Yea, and" there is not more disadvantage 
and disproportion between one or two private members 
of a church and the whole church, than there was at 
that time between the whole church and tlie world. St. 
John saith, " We know that we are of God. and the 
whole world lieth in wickedness," 1 John v. 19. " We 
know:" what a singular spirit was here! here was 
singularity indeed, if you talk of singidarity ; you 
are aii-aid you should be counted self-conceited and 
singulai- in differing fi-om others. " We know that 
we ai-e of God, and the whole world Ueth in wicked- 
ness." 

Thus we see the thing a little cleared, as tliis point 
had need be, but we have not yet done with it. There 
must be some rules given, or otherwise we should wrong 
the point in naming it. 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



Cliristians may plead with their mother, yet they 
must observe these rules. 

First, They must not plead -with her for eveiy light 
thing ; for the Scripture gives us this rule, " Love 
covereth a multitude of sins." We must not stand 
pleacUng for ever)' infirmity with our brother, but rather 
pass by many and cover them ; much less then with the 
church. But if there be that which is notorious, so 
that I cannot have communion with them, and I shall 
be wrapped up in the guilt except I testify the truth, 
certainly then I am bound to plead 

Secondly, It must be orderly done ; that is, if pos- 
sible, you must make the officers of the church to be 
your mouth in pleading. I say, if it can be. If it 
come to declaring the evil to the chmxh, it should 
rather be by him whom God has appointed to be his 
mouth to the church ; for you do it in God"s name, 
therefore the most orderly way to do it, if it may be 
done, is by him that is God's mouth. 

Thii-dly, It must be so as you must manifest all duo 
respect to the church ; showing in your can-iage, that 
you are apprehensive and sensible, even at this time, of 
that distance that is between you and that whole so- 
ciety whereof you are a member. 

Fourthly, You must do it in a yeiy peaceable way, 
so as to manifest that you desire peace, and not to be 
the least disturbance to the peace of the church, but 
that the peace of it is dear and precious to you. There- 
fore, -nhen you have witnessed the ti'uth, and discharged 
your conscience, you must be then content to sit down 
quiet, for so the rvde is in that case ; that the spirits of 
the prophets must be subject to the prophets. But if 
it should jjrove that the churcli continues the evil, after 
all means used and all patience exercised in such a 
case, you may desire to be dismissed from it, and de- 
part ; but in as peaceable a way as possible, continu- 
ing due respect to the church, though you should de- 
part, only leaving your witness behind you. 

The papists cry out against us for pleading against 
them, and say it is an ill bird that will defile its own 
nest, and they tell us the curse of Ham is upon us for 
discovering our parent's nakedness. They are to know 
this, that there is more Uberty for a member of a church 
to plead with a church, than" for a child to plead with 
his parent. Though there be liberty for a child, yet 
there is more liberty for the member of a church. For 
a parent, though he should be never so evil, yet he 
does not lose his right over his child. Though your 
parents should be very wicked, yet know, that their 
wickedness does not discharge you of your dutv ; that 
all children should take notice'of. But a church may 
so fall ofi' from God, as that the members of it may be 
free from their duty to it, and therefore may have more 
liberty to plead, than a child with his parent. And 
certauily, so far have they fallen from God, when they 
discharge those that plead against them. 

Well, but if a member may plead with a church, with 
their mother ; certainly, then, there is no one member 
of a church so high, but he may be jileadcd with by 
another ; yea, any that is an officer of a clun-ch may 
be pleaded with, even by private pcojile in that church. 
Col. iv. IT, " Say to Archippus, Take heed to thy minis- 
try." It is an exhortation to all the churcli, to say to 
Archiijpus, and admonish him to look to his ministrv. 
For though the officer of a church bo nearer to Chi-ist 
the Head than other members are, as the arm is nearer 
the head than the hand ; yet if the arm sliall send fortli 
any thing to the hand that it has not from the head, 
(as in a flux of putrid humours that rest in the ann.) 
then it would be the strength of the hand to resist 
t'aose ill humours which the arm sends forth. So if 
any officer of the church shall send forth that which 
he did not receive from the Head, to any member, 
but some putrid humour of his own, it is the vurtue 



of that member to resist the receiving of any such 
humour. 

It is the pride of many that scorn any private per- 
son's pleading. Pride in men, which, through want of 
that right order which should be in all churches, is 
grown to such a height, that those who take to themselves, 
as proper, the name of clergy, think it a dishonour to 
them for any one who is not a clergyman to speak to 
them or achnonish them, or to reason with them about 
any thing ; or when they have preached, to come to 
them for further satisfaction in somewhat that they 
have delivered ; or if they be neghgent in their duty, 
to tell them of it, though never so submissively and 
meeldy; their pride makes them rise so high. And 
observe, that they do so upon the ground that thev are 
the clergy, which signifies God's inheritance and God's 
lot, and so contemn others as inferior. You shall find 
in Scripture, that the people are called clergy in dis- 
tinction from the ministers, and never the ministers in 
the New Testament in distinction from the people, the 
word K\i]poQ is not attributed to them to my remem- 
brance, but I am sure it is attributed to the congrega- 
tion, to the private members, by way of distinction from 
them. That you see in 1 Pet. v. 3, " Neither as being 
lords over God's heritage." Mijii' uig KUTaKvpuvovTiQ 
riiv Mfpuiv, not lording it over God's clergy, over God's 
lot. Certainly, that exhortation is adckessed to the 
officers of the church, that thev must not lord it over 
God's inheritance, that is, over God's clergy. The word 
k-Xijpoj, therefore, from whence clergy comes, is, you see, 
attributed to the jicople. We find in Acts xviii. 24, 
that Apollos, " an eloquent man and mighty in the 
Scriptures," and a man of a fervent spii-it, permitted 
AquUa and Priscilla, ivho were private people, to take 
him unto them, and expound to him the way of God 
more perfectly." AMiere have you an Apollos now, an 
eloquent man, a scholar, a great clergjinnn, Ijut would 
scorn and contemn a poor man and his wife, who should 
attem))t to take him home and instruct him in the way 
of God more ])crfectly ? Y'et Apollos, an eloquent man 
and mighty in the Scriptm-es, took it well, and was 
willing to receive further instruction from these people. 
And we find, Cant, v., that in the time of the refoma- 
ation of the chiu'ch, the church went to tlie watchmen, 
and the watchmen beat her, she had more relief from 
the daughters of Jerusalem than from them. 

There may, however, be a notorious abuse of both 
these, and it is exceccUngly difficult for a people to 
understand their liberty without abusing of it, either 
against the church, or against the officers of a church. 
This power may be abused by ])ersons, who in pride, 
arrogancy, and a spirit of contention, take delight in 
contradiction. There are many ])eople of such a hu- 
mour, that it is their very delight to contradict, and 
they think they are nobody except they have somewhat 
to say against then' officers, or against ^^•hat is delivered ; 
and upon that very groimd wiU quarrel not out of mere 
conscience, but that it may appear to others that thev 
see farther than other men. And if they be in a com- 
munity, they conceive that every one would think them 
nobody if they say nothing, therefore, that they may 
appear to be somebody, they will find fault, though they 
scarce understand what they say, or whereof they af- 
firm, showing their disapprobation in a vh'ulent spirit, 
and insulting those whom God has set over tliem. 
Certainly, this is a gross and abominable thing, whereas 
tlie rule of Christ is, "Rebuke not an elder, but entreat 
him as a father," 1 Tim. v. 1 ; do not think that because 
you may plead with them, and God's cause may suffer 
by your sdencc, that tlu'refore you may rebuke them in 
an undecent and unseendy manner. You may indeed 
go in a humble manner, acknowledging the distance 
betwixt you and him, he being an officer, and so "en- 
treat him as a father." Do many of you so when you 



Vr,E. 2. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



61 



go and reason the case with a minister, whom you 
yourselves will acknowledge to be an officer of Christ ? 
It may be that sometimes, through bitterness of spirit, 
you cast them off from being otKcers of Chi-ist before 
you have sufficient warrant for it ; and tlierefore the 
apostle saith in the same chapter, ver. 19, " Against an 
elder receive not an accusation but before two or tliree 
witnesses : " mark, you must not " receive an accusa- 
tion," much less a condemnation, for the credit and 
honour of the ministers of Christ are very dear and 
precious unto him ; therefore take heed how, through a 
violent and turbulent spu-it, you cast any dishonour 
upon those whom Christ has set over you. 

Thus I have endeavoured to discover the truth to 
you, and so Kmited as I liope it may be for edification, 
and not for injury to any. 

" She is not my wife, neither am I her husband." This 
pleading has much bitterness in it, yet it is in as fair 
terms as can be set out. " She is not my wife." He does 
not bid them say to their mother, she is a harlot, but, 
" she is not my wife." You will say, Why ? what cHfFerence 
is there between her not being his wife, and her being a 
harlot ? Jlay we not call things as they are ? True, the 
thing is the same, but hence the Spirit of God teaches us, 
that those who plead against others must not give ill terms, 
especially when they plead against superiors ; you may 
declare your minds fully, but in as fair, modest, comely, 
and the least provoking terms possible. It is a foul 
evil in many, if they see ministers or churches act im- 
I)roperly, to give reviling speeches ; they cry out. There 
is one of Baal's priests ; eveiy tiling they dislike tliey 
call antichristian ; whereas they should study if there 
be any term more mollifying than another, and use 
that : although the fault you plead against might bear a 
harsher term if rebuked by one in authority, yet they 
who are but private Christians should be very careful, 
in the fairest, gentlest terms to reprove wliat they dislike. 

" She is not my wife." That a people wiio have been 
God's people, may prove not to be God's people, we 
have aheady met with in the former chapter. "We 
shall not speak of it as then we did. Only now we 
have it more fuUy, that a chiu'ch may come to be un- 
churched. This is a difficult case. When I began this 
jjrophecy of Hosea, though I had spent some time in 
it before, I little thought to have met with so many 
things so fully presented to me as I have found, that, 
l5y God's providence, so nearly concern us and tlie 
times. I would not violently introduce any thhig but 
what is so presented to us, but I should injure the 
Scripture, and you, not to notice it. We have already 
met with chfficidt points, and this also is exceeding dif- 
ficult I desire in this to interpret as I have done, your 
own consciences witnessing with me as in the otlier, 
without the least spirit of contention and division, or 
meddling with controversies, but laying the truth in 
tlie principles of it plainly before you. 

Wlien may a church, that had God before to be her 
Husband, come not to have God to be her Husband P 

I confess that I cannot find any thing to pitch upon 
certainly, when the Jewish church ceased to be a church, 
but this ; either when God sent them a bill of divorce 
by some extraordinary men, (as they always had some 
propliets amongst them,) or when they wholly left off 
the schoolmaster which God put them under; for I 
find that then- idolatry was not enough actually to cut 
them off fi-om being a church. It is true their idolatry 
deserved it ; they broke the marriage bond by theij- 
idolatry, but God did not always take advantage of that, 
and alwajs send them a bill of divorce when they com- 
mitted idolatry. These ten ti'ibes had been idolaters a 
long time before God said to them they were not his 
Avife. Therefore, idolatry merely did not cut off the 
Jews. Neither do I think that all idolatry (if it be 
tlu-ough ignorance) cuts off a church now in the time 



of the Christians. The Lutherans are certainly guilty 
of idolatry by consequence, and so other churches may 
he through ignorance, and yet tliey do not cea.se to be 
churches. 'Therefore, in the time of the Jews, I say I 
do not find any particular sin that actually cut them 
off, so long as they kept under the pedagogy of the 
law ; unless God by some extraordinary messenger sent 
them a bill of divorce, they yet remained the people of 
God. " Where is the bUl of your mother's divorce- 
ment ? " saith God, Isa. 1. i. It is true you have de- 
served it ; but where is it ? I have not given you a bill 
of divorce ; therefore they were a church. 

But for the time of the gospel, this I tliink may very 
safely be asserted, that so long as there is a communion 
of saints embodied, holding forth the profession of all 
fundamental truths, and joining in all orcUnances as far 
as they are convinced, this multitude, though it should 
have abundance of corruptions, though many wicked 
be mingled amongst them, yet they are a church of 
God. Though they should not set up all ordinances, 
though perhaps, tlrrough ignorance, they are not con- 
vinced that such an ordinance is an ordinance of God ; 
yea, though they be convinced that it is an ordinance, 
and yet perhaps they are not convinced that it is God's 
mind they should set it up, though this shoidd be then* 
eiTor, yet this communion of saints embodied remains 
a true church of Chi-ist. Y'et, though it be a true 
church of Christ, it may be such a church, that perhaps 
you, or I, or another, cannot have communion with. 

You will say. How is that possible for any church to 
be a true church of Christ, and yet we may not have 
communion with it ? I answer, communion we may 
have, so far as to acknowledge it to be a church, and 
to have communion in some duties ; but it may be a 
true church of Christ, and I may acknowledge it so, 
and yet not have communion in all ordinances. In 
what cases may that be ? Fu'st, if this chm-ch shall so 
mingle any ordinance, any work of then- public com- 
munion, as I for the present cannot join without con- 
tracting guilt upon me, as not seeing God's will in it, I 
cannot have communion witli them in such ordinances. 
Yea, secondly, if a church shall requu"e me to jaeld in 
my judgment, and subscribe to such things as I cannot 
satisfy my conscience in, they put me off communion 
with them. It is not my fault, but they violently keep 
me off. Thirdly, when they shall not sufi'er me to do 
the duty that God requires of me, I cannot have com- 
munion with them ; because if I should join with them, 
not doing my duty which my conscience tells me I am 
Ijound to do, I thereby contract guilt. Nay, further, 
a man may be of a chui'ch, and perhaps tliey may not 
be so ill, but it may be lawfid to have communion with 
them in many ordinances, and yet, for those who are 
free, and are not by any special call of God tied to such 
a place, they are bound in conscience in some cases not 
to join with them, as members, in a constant way. As 
thus : 

(1.) "When I cannot enjoy all ordinances \rith them, 
but God opens a door to another place where I may 
have communion in all ordinances, I may receive sacra- 
ments with them occasionally, and yet not be constantly 
with them as a member of that church. If God did 
shut the door that I could not enjoy all ordinances any 
where, then it were better to join with a church that 
has not all, though I do but enjoy some. 

(2.) "\\Tien God offers me elsewhere that I may enjoy 
the ordinances with more power, purity, and fi-eedom 
of spu-it, and I am not tied ; then, if there be nothing 
but outward accommodations that shall cast the balance 
on the one hand, and the purity and power of the ordi- 
nances on the other, if I shall rather choose the one 
than the other, it will be apparent that I love my body 
better than my soul. In this case conscience bids me 
to show more respect to my soul than my body. This 



G2 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. U. 



can be no controversy, for it is generally acknowledged 
liy all, that if one will but remove his residence from 
one parish to another, he may go and join with that 
parisli. But that which 1 affinn is not so far as that ; I 
only suppose that a man is free, and not yet actually 
joined; then he should regard more the purity and 
power of the ordinances tlian outward accommodations. 

Obs. 1. The end of all pleading and exhortation, is 
reformation, and not contention. 

Plead with her ; to what end ? " let her put away 
her whoredoms." Plead with her that she may reform, 
do not plead for contention's sake. There are many 
men who will rebuke others, and plead with others, but 
what for ? merely in a spii-it of contention, merely that 
they may triumph over them, and shame them ; not out 
of love, to reform them, they caie not whether they re- 
form or not ; if they have vented their gall and malice, 
they have what they wish. 

But how will you know that ? How can you know 
a man's heart ? 

First, You shall know that men plead not for reform- 
ation, but for contention, if they rather make it appear 
that they are glad of the sms of their brethren, and do 
not giieve for them. Many a man comes in a fui-y to re- 
bulte those against whom he has advantage, but not 
v.ith a spirit of sorrow and moui-ning; if he came to 
plead and rebuke them for reformation, he should have 
come with a mom'ning spirit. Ye should have mourned, 
that such a one " might be taken away fi-om among 
you," saith the apostle to the Corinthians, 1 Cor. v. 2. 
Y"ou should mourn at your- very' hearts, that the church, 
or the member of it, has offended. 

Secondly, "When men are partial in their pleading, 
when tliey will sharply rebuke others who are distant, 
but are careless of such as are near. 

Tm-n ye, turn ye, that ye may not die, Ezek. xviii. 
32, " turn yourselves, and live." Now the word is laicn 
do you make to return, for so the Hiphil form may 
v> cil be translated. Alias ^lontanus renders it reverli 
facile, make others to return. Y'ou must plead so as 
to desire reformation, not that you may get the victory 
and have the bettor of it by youi' pleading, but with 
bowels of compassion seek reformation ; you must not 
cut as an enemy to conquer, but as a sui-geon to heal. 
Therefore before you go to rebuke and to plead, you 
must go to prayer, that God would bless your rebuking 
and your exhortation to youi' brethi'en ; and when you 
have done, pray again to God for a blessing upon it. 
And look after yom' reprehensions, and see what be- 
comes of them ; and if they do not prosper to reforma- 
tion, then momTi, and cry to God for your brethi-en ; 
and if they prosper, then bless God that you have con- 
verted a som. Thus when the tiibes on this side Jor- 
dan pleaded with the tribes on the other side Jordan, 
you find that the answer of their bretliren " pleased the 
children of Israel; and the cliildren of Israel blessed 
God, and did not intend to go up against them in 
battle," Josh. xxii. 33. So you should go and plead 
with your brethren ; perhaiis your brethi-en may plead 
best, ahd convince you that that wiiich you apprehend 
to be a sin is not a sin. Now many men perhaps are 
angry, and will not be convinced that it is a sin ; Shall 
I go away with the shame ? shall I rebuke liim of a 
sin, and is it no sin ? Jlany a man holds on in an ar- 
gument wliich he has begun, and is loth to yield tliat it 
is not a sin, whereas he should be glad to jield it. If 
a minister plead or preach that men commit that which 
he conceives is a sin, and another come and convince 
him that it was no sin, it is a vUe spuit in any minister 
not to bless God that he is mistaken : why ? because 
tlie guilt of his brother is removed from his heart. If I 
had not been mistaken, my credit had been greater ; 
but I am mistaken, tlie sin is removed from my bro- 
ther ; oh blessed be God that my brotlier is not gviilty, 



though I am mistaken. If we plead against others with 
such a spirit as this, God will bless it. 

" Let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of 
her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts." 
" Plead with your mother," and plead so as to teU her 
plainly that she is no more my wife, she has her biU of 
divorce, she is now none of mine. Well, it seems then 
there is no hope, no help, God has forsaken us, he ha-; 
said we are no more his wife, we have our bill of di- 
vorce, and must be gone. Not so either, but now it 
follows, "let her put away her whoredoms out of her 
sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts.'' 
Hereby insinuating at least, that her condition, not- 
withstanding the gi-eatness of her sin, and the fearful- 
ness of the threat, is not altogether hopeless, but he 
would have those that plead with her, exhort her and 
bid her even then to put away her whoredoms. It is 
true, when a man puts away liis wife for whoredom, 
and gives a bUl of divorce, he wUl never take her again 
upon any tei-ms. Jer. iii. 1, Will a man, when he put- 
teth away his wife, retiu-n unto her again ? As if he 
should say. No, certainly, no man will do it. " But thou 
hast played tlie harlot with many lovers; yet return 
again to me, saith the Lord." 

Obs. 1. God mercies ai'e beyond man's. There is no 
di'eadful tlu-eatening against any sinner in the word of 
God for any sms, (if we except the sin against the Holy 
Ghost,) but there is a door of hope left. Here seems 
to be the greatest sin, idolatiy and forsaking of God ; 
and the most di-eadful thi-eatening, "she is not my 
wife," .she is divorced from me. Y'et here is insinuated 
a hope of mercy. See that notable text, Judg. x. 13, 
14, compared with ver. 16. In the 13th and 14th 
verses, saith God, "Y'e have forsaken me, and seiTed 
other gods ;" wiiat then ? " I will deliver you no more." 
I am resolved against you now ; I have delivered you 
often, but now " I ^TiU deliver you no more. Go and 
cry unto the gods wliich ye have chosen ; let them de- 
Uver you in the time of yoiu- tribulation." One would 
tliink this people to be in an ill case, to whom God 
thus spake ; for observe these four things : Fu-st, God 
charges them with the gi'catest sin, they had forsaken 
God and tiu'ncd themselves to idols. Secondly, This 
great sin is aggravated with the most aggravating cu'cum- 
stance, they had done it notwithstanding God was won- 
derfully merciful to them, and had often delivered them. 
Thu-dly, Here is one of the most pcrcmptoiy resolutions 
against showing mercy that we can imagine, "I will 
deliver you no more," now I have delivered you so oft. 
Foiu-thly, Here is a most bitter sarcasm, a biting, up- 
braiding, taunting speech for their sening other gods. 
As if he should say, AMiat ! do you come now ? do you 
cry and how 1 to me now you are in your trouble ? In 
yom- prosperity I was no God for you, you left me then 
for other gods, and now I will be no God to you ; to 
other gods I leave you ; go now and cry to those other 
gods, and see whet'licr they will help you. Put these 
together, and one woidd think this people were in n 
hopeless condition. Is there any help for this people 
yet ? are they not a lost people ? Is not repentance too 
late for them ? No, for all this, repentance is not too 
late ; for mark the 15th verse, " And the children of Is- 
rael said unto the Lord, We have sinned ; do thou unto 
us whatsoever secmcth good unto thee ; deliver us only 
tills day:" and ver. 16, " They put away the sti-ange 
gods from among them, and served the Lord." They 
do not lie down sullenly in their sins, and say, Tliere is 
no help, therefore we may as well go on in our sinful 
ways ; but they venture to put away then- strange gods, 
and cry unto the Lord, and tell him that they had sin- 
ned. 'NATiat then? The ".soul" of the Lord "was 
grieved for the misery of Israel." Though he had thus 
pronounced against them, yet his soul was grieved for 
them. It is true he said, "I will deliver you no more," 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



63 



you impemtent ones ; but God did not say he would 
not give them repentance; but when they bad put 
away then- strange gods, though they had grieved Gods 
Spirit with their sins, God was grieved for theii- aiflic- 
tion ; though God had thus thi-eatened them, yet his 
bowels now yearn towai'ds them ; he comes again with 
mercy, subdues then- enemies under them, he conquers 
the c!iilch-en of Ammon, and gives them twenty of their- 
cities, Judg. xi. 33. 

God never thi-eatens any people, but the condition 
of mercy upon repentance is either expressed or im- 
plied, it is therefore the frowardness and suUenness 
of the hearts of sinners to give up hope, upon the 
thought of the greatness of then- sins, or the severity of 
God's threatenmg against them. Oh no, you great sin- 
ners, who have been guilty of many horrible sins, come 



hope in Israel concermng 

Many carnal hearts cavil against many faithful and 
zealous" ministers, that they do nothing but preach 
judgment and threaten damnation, and say people shall 
be damned, and go to hell, and tlie Like. This_ they 
speak agamst them, not mentioning the conditions 
upon which damnation and hell is threatened. Cer- 
tainly, there can scarce a minister in the world be found 
that threatens damnation or heU absolutely, but upon 
the terms of impenitence. I will give you one scrip- 
ture, to show how the perverse spiiits of men will take 
a piece of the words of the prophets, and separate the 
threatening from the condition, on pui-pose that they 
may cavil at the word. In Jer. xxvi. 4, 5, saith God to 
tlie' prophet, " Thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the 
Lord ; If ye ^411 not hearken to me, to walk in my law, 
which I have set before you, to hearken to the words 
of my servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you ; 
then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make 
this city a cm-se to all the nations of the earth." See 
how fairly the words of the prophet go, '■ K ye will 
not hearken to me, to walk in my law, wluch I have 
set before you, to hearken to the words of my servants 
the prophets, whom I sent unto you," then I will do so 
and so. The prophet delivers his message fau-ly. But 
see now their perverseness in the Stli verse, " It came 
to pass, that when Jeremiah had made an end of speak- 
ing all that tlie Lord had commanded him to speak 
imto all the people, that the priests and the prophets 
and all the people took him, saying. Thou shalt sui-ely 
die." What is the matter ? " A\Tiy hast thou prophe- 
sied in the name of the Lord, saj-ing, This house shall 
be like Shiloh?" They leave out "if," whereas he 
said, '■ If you will not return and hear the words of the 
Lord, this house shall be as Shiloh." They lay hold 
upon him with -siolence, " '\^Tiy hast thou said. This 
house shall be like Shiloh ? " and leave out the other. 
This is the perverseness of the hearts of men. Well 
then, the conclusion of this observation is tliis, that the 
best pleading against any for then- sins, is not to sink 
them in despair-, but to tui-n theu- hearts towards God 
that they may receive mercy. " Let her put away her 
whoredoms." 

Obs. 2. While God is pleased to speak to a people, 
and exhort them to turn to him, the condition of that 
people is not desperate. After such pleading, that in- 
cluded in it a most di-eadful thi-eatening, '■ She is not 
my wife," yet God exhorts, " Let her put away her 
whoredo.ms." Exhortations from God argue that the 
condition of a people may be hopeful. So long as the 
king is but speaking to a traitor, especially giving him 
good counsel, there may be hope. If he turn his back 
upon him, and wiU speak no more, then he looks upon 
himself as a lost man. Slany people are troubled, that 
God continues exhorting so constantly by his ministers 
and others, and they cannot be at rest. ' If thou hadst 



such a qidet, as that God should leave exhorting and di-aw- 
ing thee from thy sins, woe to thee, thou wert a lost 
creatiu-e ! !Make much of exhortations and threat enings. 

Come we now to the exhortation itself, '■ Let her 
therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and 
her adulteries from between her breasts." " Her whore- 
doms," and " her adulteries," in the plural number, 
they were many, she must put them all away. If a 
wife who has been naught, shall be contented to forsake 
divers of her lovers, and retain but one, there is no re- 
conciliation, aU her adulteries must be put away. 

Let her put them away out of her sight. The eye is 
the receiver of much uncleaimess into the heart, and 
by it the uncleanness of the heai-t is much expressed. 
The Scripture speaks of eyes full of adultery. " Let her 
put her whoredoms out of her sight," let them be abo- 
minable now in her eyes; those things that before were 
delectable, let them now be detestable. Let them cast 
away then.- idols, and ■«'ith indignation say. Get ye hence. 

Or, from before her face, so it is m the Hebrew, 
noting her impudence in her idolatry, that it appeared 
in her very face. Though men at fii-st may be a Uttle 
wary, yet "at length they grow to manifest outwardly 
their idolati-y in their very face. 

And because Israel did not, according to the exliort- 
ation of those who pleaded with her, put her whore- 
doms out of her sight, God put Israel out of liis sight, 
for so we have it, 2 Kmgs xvii. 22, 23. " The chilcben 
of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he 
did; they depai-ted not from them;" promises could 
not di-aw them, threatenings could not deter them : 
'■ untU the Lord removed Israel out of liis sight." They 
might have prevented this ; if they had put their whore- 
doms out of then- sight, God would never have put 
them out of his sight. 

" From between her breasts." Harlots used to dis- 
cover their filtliiuess, either in the nakedness of theii- 
breasts, or in those ornaments which they hung about 
them, as they were wont to do in those countries, to 
entice then- lovers. 

The nakedness of the breasts has been condemned, 
not only m the churches of God, but amongst the hea- 
tlien. Tertullian_, in his book de Habitu i^t^j. ^e Hat. 
JIuhebri, has this expression : AVomen ""i- <=• *■ 
adorning themselves immoderately with gold, and sil- 
ver, and precious apparel, is crimen ambitionis, the sm 
of ambition ; but for them to seek to adorn themselves 
solicitously about then- hah- and their skin, and those 
parts that draw the eyes, this is crimen prostitutionis, 
the sin of prostitution. 

Yea, besides, Tertullian, in his De velandis Virginibus, 
introduces the heathen rebuking Christian women in 
those times. The very women of Ai-abia, j„ai»abunt vo, 
saith he, shall judge you, for they not AiabisjtEmmiE^^^ 
only cover their faces, but even their caput'SsladcSi" 
hea"ds; rather than immodestly expose JJ'gT'uC'mo"' 
theli- whole face, they will let the Hght ?^„";°SSi'SSi 
but into one eye. Now if the heathen J;;jj^','„£'^''f„i,m 
did so, if they would not have their na- prostjtuere^ T«tui. 
kedness in any thing appear, much more ' "' ' "='"■ "' 
should Christians cover those parts that are incitements 
to lust. That which is the maniac's madness, and the 
beggar's misery, namely, nakedness, that is the harlot's 
pride and glory. 

" Let her therefore put away her whoredoms out ot 
her sight, and her adidteries from between her breasts." 
That wliich is intended especialh" here, is, that they 
should not be content merely with a change of then- 
hearts, to say. Well, we will acknowledge the Lord to 
be the true (3od, and oui- hearts shall wholly ti-ust iii 
him, but for these external things, what great sm is 
there in them ? Oh no, they must abstam from all ap- 
pearance of evil, fr-om the badges of idolatry-, there 
must cot be so much as the garb and dress of a harlot 



(H 



.\N EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



upon them, they must take away their adulteries from 
between their breasts." 

The breasts of the church are her ordinances, for out 
of them the saints suck sweetness and spii-itual nourish- 
ment ; so they are called in Isa. Ixvi. 11, "That ye 
may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her con- 
solations." Now certainly it is an evil thing, for any 
thing that is adulterous to be in the ordinances of the 
church. No, the breasts are so near the heart, that it 
is a pity any thing should be ujjon them but Christ 
himself; it is most fit that he should lie there. Cant. 
i. 13, " A bundle of mjTrh is my wcll-bcloved unto me, 
he shall lie all night between my breasts." JIjttIi we 
know is a bitter thing, but though Christ were as a 
bundle of mjTrli, and brought many afHictions which 
add bittemess to the flesh, yet the church would have 
Christ lie between her breasts, and slie would rejoice 
in Clirist ; Christ was sweet to the church, though witli 
afflictions, As " a bvmdle of m^-rh is my well-beloved." 
So, many faithful ministers of God have been contented, 
yea, joj-ful, tokeep Christ between their breasts, and in 
tlie ordinances, though as a bundle of mjTrh : he has 
brought some afHictions to them ; yet, rather than they 
would endure any expression of that which is adulter- 
ous upon the ordinances, the word and sacraments, 
Christ Jesus, a bundle of mjiTh between their breasts, 
has been delightful to them. 

I find another reading of the words in the Septuagint 
translation. Whereas we render it, " Let her put away 
her whoredoms out of her sight ; " they regard it as a 
speech of God, and translate it, i^apu'i tt/v wopviiav avrijg 
U jrpouuiTrou /jou, I will take away her whoredoms from 
my face. And C_n-il, reading the words thus, has an 
excellent remark : God, saith he, threatens 

VvireptaitTpuiTov , , ■!, 1 1 11 

Tffii. iv To.t cuiua- that he will take away her whoredoms 
l'iJxt^h'i^",i;^p'v f'-'O'ia his face ; as when a member of a 
Tfui'eTa, ,i7«i/ body is so putrified that it cannot be 
«i'c."cinL'm''Ho«. c. cured by medicine, it is cut off, and the 
disease removed : so God labours to cure 
the people of Israel by admonitions, by exhortations, 
by threatenings, by promises of mercy, and when all 
would not do, he threatens to cure them another way, 
that is, by cutting them oft' by the Assp-ians ; I will 
send an enemy against them, and he shall take them 
out of their own land, and carry them into a strange 
land, and then they shall be far enough from their 
calves, far enough from Dan and Bethel ; so I w ill take 
their whoredoms from before my face. Thus, many 
times God takes away the sins of a people, or of a par- 
ticular person, from before his face. As for instance, 
thou cb'unkard, thou unclean person, hast had exhort- 
ations, threatenings, and many merciful expressions 
from God to draw thee from thy sins ; they will not do ; 
God comes with some noisome disease ujjon thy body, 
that thou shall not be able to act thy sin any more, 
and God takes away the act of thy sin in such a violent 
manner by his judgments. Sometimes men and women 
wlio have estates will be proud, and vain, and make 
their estates the fuel of their lusts; when the word 
cannot take away their sins and the exjjressions of 
their wickedness, God by some violent judgment takes 
away their estates, that tney shall not be able to commit 
those sins they did before, though they woidd never so 
fain. This is a di-eadful taking away of sin. Yea, 
God shall so take away the sin of men and women, as 
to take away their .souls together with their sin : for so 
it is threatened. Job xxvii. 8, " Wliat is the ho])e of 
the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God takelh 
away his soul?" Thou that wouldst not suffer the 
word to take away thy sin, must expect tliat God will 
take it away anoflier way, even by taking away thy 
soul. It may be said of some sinners, as in Ezek. xxi. 
29 God tln-eatens, their " day is come, when their 
iniquity shall have an end." God will suffer them to 



live no longer to sin against him : he will take away 
their sins, but so as to take away their souls, they shall 
not sin any more against God in this world. 

Ver. 3. Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the 
dui/ thai she teas born, and make her as a wilderness, 
and set her like a dry land, and slay Iter with thirst. 

There is much in these words, and because they are 
so exceeding suitable unto us, you must give me liberty 
to insist a little upon them. 

"Lest I strip her naked." It seems by this that 
Israel, when she was bom, had been in a very low con- 
dition, in a very pitiful estate ; but God had put many 
ornaments upon her; and now he threatens to bring her 
again into the same condition, and to strip her naked. 

" In the day that she was born." This, I find, inter- 
jireters refer to divers conditions of Israel, but met to 
the time of their deliverance out of Egypt, called here 
l>y God, " the day that she was born." "We must in- 
quire, first, '\\liat was the condition of Israel " in the 
(lay that she was bom." Secondly, '\^^lat ornaments 
God had put upon her afterwards : and then we shall 
come to sec the strength of the threat, that God would 
" strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she 
was born." 

For the first two we shall not need to go far, we have 
them fully and most elegantly set out unto us in Ezek. 
xvi. Tliat chapter may be a comment upon tliis, what 
Israel was in the day wherein she was bom, and what 
ornaments God had ])ut upon her. In the third verse, 
" Thus saith the Lord God unto-Jerusalem ; Thy birth 
and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan ; thy father 
was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite." 

^^'hen thou wert born, thou wert in this condition. 
AATiat ! their father an Amorite, and then- mother an 
Hittite ? Abraham was their father, and Sarali their 
mother ; why here an Amorite and an Hittite ? Because 
there were other nations besides Amoritcs and Hittites, 
there were the Jebiisites and the I'erizzites ; why r'ather 
an Amorite and Hittite, than a Jebusite and Pcrizzite ? 
These two questions must be answered. 

First, Though Abraham was then- father, yet, because 
they were in such a disposition, so like the Amorites 
and Hittites, so vile and so wicked, they deserve not to 
have the honour of Abraham's being their father, but 
to be called the chilch-en of the Amorite and the Hit- 
tite. As John Baptist calls the Pharisees the viperous, 
the serpentine brood, so those that are like the devil, 
are called the chikb'en of the devil. 

Secondly, Why the Amorite and Hittite rather than 
others ? For the first, the Amorite ; because the Amor- 
ites were the chicfest of those nations in Canaan which 
were driven out. All the five were called by the name 
of Amorite : " The sins of the Amorites are not yet full." 
Sccondlv, the Hittite, because they seemed to be the 
vilest of the five, and there is a text of Scriptm-e that 
seems to infer so much. Gen. xxvii. 4G, " I am weary 
of my life" (saith Rebekah) " becau.se of the daugliters 
of Heth." She only mentions the daughters of Heth, 
and those that were now called Hittites were of the 
daughters of Heth : and saith slie, " What good will my 
life do me. if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of 
Heth?" Why, there were other daughters besides 
them, but those were the vilest, therefore slic only 
mentions them. Yea, but what was Lsrael at this time, 
when they w ere delivered out of Eg^'jjt ? for that is the 
time wherein she was born that is spoken of here. 
Were they in so ill a condition, as that their father was 
an Amorite and their mother an Hittite at that time? 
There are two most useful observations that flow from 
hence, before wc proceed any further in the explication 
of the words. 

Obs. 1. Israel, though they had been four hundred 



Vli;. 3. 



THE PIIOPIIECY OF HOSEA. 



years in Egypt under grievous afflictions, yet they con- 
tinued exceeding abominable and wiclved. The fire of 
their afflictions seemed to harden their heai'ts, as much 
as the foe of tire furnace liardencd the bricks. Their 
hearts were clay, foul, dii'ty hearts, and were hardened 
by their afflictions. 

' 064'. 2. "When God came to deliver Isi-ael out of 
EgjiJt, God found them in a very wicked condition. 
Then their father was an Amorite, and their mother an 
Hittite. They were thus vile when God came to deliver 
them, in the day wherein they were born. Oh the 
freeness of God's grace ! God often told them that his 
grace was free, and so indeed it was. Read the story 
of the people of Israel, and you find, when God sent 
Moses unto them, they were a very wicked and stub- 
born people, even at that very time when God came 
with liis deliverance. 

Let us then raise up oiu' hearts, and look up to the 
free gi'ace of God even toward us. We are vile, we 
are wicked ; mercies and chastisements have hardened 
us ; and yet all this hinders not the free grace of God 
for the deliverance of a people. God has begun to de- 
liver us ; and when did he begin ? Certainly England, 
never since it was born, since it was delivered out of 
spiritual Eg)i)t, out of the bondage of popery, was in a 
worse condition than when God came in lately with his 
mercies to us. Then, if ever, it might be said, that our 
father was an Amorite, and our mother an Hittite. 
We were in the very highway towards Egj^it again, 
when God came with his free grace to deliver us. As 
he dealt with his own people, so he has dealt with us. 
Magnified be the free grace of God towards us, an un- 
worthy people ! 

Further, Ezek. xvi. 4, " Thy navel was not cut." The 
loathsomeness of their condition is set out by that. 
Natui'alists observe, that the noxu-ishmcnt which the 
child hath fi'ora the mother is by the navel : as after- 
ward, the child sucks the breasts, and so is fattened ; 
but all the while it is in the womb, by a string in the 
navel it di'aws nourishment from the mother. Now 
when God deUvered Israel from Egypt, they had not 
their navel cut, that is, they di'ew their noimshment 
from Egypt ; they fattened themselves, and sucked out 
the Eg}-])tian manners, and customs, and superstitions ; 
and in their gi'oii\'th up, they seemed rather to have 
their noiu-ishment ft'om Egypt than fi-om God ; so God 
himself charges them, Ezek. xxiii. 8, " Neither left 
she her whoredoms brought from EgjiJt." 

Is it not thus in part with us ? Let me a little speak 
of this, by way of allusion at least. Is our navel cut to 
this very day ? It is true, God has delivered us from 
popery, from Egj-jjt, as he did Israel, but stUl do not 
we continue sucking, di'awing noiu'ishment from oiu- 
old superstitious ways of popery ? We seem to live 
still upon them, and to have our hearts delighting in 
them. Oh how just were it with God, to come in a 
violent way and cut oui' navel, even by the sword ! It 
is mercy he comes not thus to cut it, and so take from 
us all those secret hankerings that we have after the 
old Egyjrtian customs. 

Yet again, seeing it is such a full allusion, we may 
apply it to those that seem to be born again ; those 
that seem now to make very fan- profession of religion, 
and to forsake many evU ways in which formerly they 
have delighted : but yet then- navel is not cut ; they 
secretly suck sweetness from their former lusts; the 
curse of the serpent is upon them, upon then- belKes 
they go, and dust they eat ; their souls even cleave to 
the dust. 

" Neither wast thou washed in water." This also 
sets forth the woeful condition of Israel when he was 
born, he was not washed. AMien the infant comes into 
the world, it emerges from blood and pollution in which 
it was wrapped, so that (as Plutarch saith) it is rather 



like a child killed, than a child born ; ATuan ic^i'p- 
and were it not for a natural affection fpLufm. kL<" 
stirring in parents, they would even loathe .?'^i';i":^"''.i'.,"1.i, 
the fruit of then- bocUes. It is true, pa- i;;"'';"- f""*'„""' 
rents may see that with their bodily eyes, ;; tyv'q.v'Je, q',- 
but there is more pollution in their deAjiioie'p'rolis. 
souls ; they are wrapped up in original 
sin and filth, more than their bodies were WTapped up 
in blood and pollution in the womb. Therefore infants 
are washed ; but thou wast not washed, thou wast let 
go in thy filth. The barbarous Lacedemonians, when 
then- childi-en were born, used to thi-ow them into the 
ri\er, to consolidate their members and to make them 
strong. 

" Thou wast cast out in the open field." WTiat is the 
meaning of this ? We cannot xmderstand it fully, 
without examining the custom of the people in those 
times. We find in histories, that the custom of divers 
of the heathen was, when theii' chikben were born, to 
observe by their countenance, or by the structure of 
their members, whether they were likely to be useful 
to the commonwealth or not ; if not, they threw- them 
away, and if they were likely to be useful they nourished 
them up. They nourished up no other chikben but 
those that they judged by their countenance or shape 
would do good to the commonwealth. _^ 
Strabo tells us that the Indians and Brah- 
mins had certain judges appomtcd for that very end ; 
their office was, that when any child was born, to judge 
by the countenance and parts of the body of the child, 
whether it was likely to do any good in the common- 
wealth, and so either to save it or cast it out. So like- 
wise jEIian tells us, that the Thebans 
made an express law among them in these toeat'i Jfant,-m°e.f 
words. That none of them should cast ['ariaJ°m;f'ii"'ii 
out their childi'en ; noting thereby that 
it was wont to be the custom amongst them. So Cle- 
mens Eomanus tells us, as a thing pecu- „ 
liar to them, that amongst the Jews their ii.rans naius expo- 
childi'en are not cast out. "'""' 

So that the Holy Ghost alludes to the way of the 
Gentiles and barbarous people, and tells Israel that 
they were as a child cast out, such a one as the counte- 
nance promised no good. " Thou wast cast out in the 
open field," because they never hoped to have any good 
of thee ; and indeed (as if God should say) if I had re- 
garded what I saw in you, I might have passed this 
judgment upon you too, there was little hope of good 
from you. 

But v\hat though the child be cast out in the field, 
yet some may pass by accidentally, as Pharaoh's daugh- 
ter did, who may ])ity the chQd, and have compassion 
on it. No, saith God, thou wast not only cast out, but 
worse than this, thou wast so cast out as " none eve 
pitied thee." You have sometimes poor cliildren laid at 
yom- doors, and left there, some in baskets, or other wavs, 
yet, when you open them and see a cluld, and a child 
weepmg, there is some pity in you, and you wiU take 
care some way or other that it may be fed and brought 
up. But, saith God to Israel, " thou wast cast out in 
the open field," and " none eye pitied thee ;" that is, all 
the heathen were against you, and others in the land 
rose against you ; the Egy])lians came out to desti'oy 
you, you had the sea before you, and them behind you, 
none had pity upon you. This was the condition where- 
in you were born. 

Now see what ornaments God had put upon them. 
They were in a son'y condition, you see, when they were 
born. But mark, I took thee, '• and entered into cove- 
nant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest 
mine," Ezek. xvi. 8. That is the way a people become 
God's, his entering into covenant with them. The 
Lord has begun to enter into covenant with us, and we 
with him in former protestations, and if any further 



66 



AS EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II 



covenant binding iis more strictly to God be tendered 
to us, know that God in this deals ^vith us as he did 
with his owti people. We are as childicn cast out in 
the open field, and no eye pities us ; but many plot 
against us and seek our ruin. If God will be pleased 
now to enter into covenant with us, and give aU the 
people of the land hearts to come closer to the cove- 
nant, to renew their covenant with him, and that to 
more ])urpose than in fonner covenants, the Lord yet 
will own us. The covenant of God was the foundation 
of all the mercy the people of Israel had from God, and 
we arc to look upon it as the foundation of om- mercy ; 
and therefore, as in the presence of God, willingly and 
cheerfully to renew it with him. 

After God's taking this people to himself as his own, 
it follows, ver. 11 — 14, " I decked thee also with orna- 
ments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a 
chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, 
and ean'ings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon 
thine head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and 
silver ; and thy raiment was of fine Hnen, and silk, and 
broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, 
and oil : and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and tliou 
didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went 
forth arnong the heathen for thy beauty." Thus God 
did with the people of Israel ; he added to what they 
had when they were born. Miserable they were then ; 
but the mercies of God toward them are thus set 
out. ^\nd now he thi'catens that he will strip them 
naked, and set them as in the day wherein they were 
bom. 

Yet fui-thcr, for the opening of this, we must know 
that it was the custom among the Jews, when any mar- 
ried, that what dowiy they brought their husbands 
was wi-ittcn down in a table ; and if aftenvard he should 
divorce his wife, except there could be proved some 
gross and vile thing agamst the woman, though she 
should go away, yet she was to go away v. ith her table, 
with her dowry, she must not go away naked. But if 
there could be proved some notorious villany that she 
had committed, then she was sent away sine tabulis, 
naked, without those tables wherein her dowry and 
other things were 'written, and destitute of all things, 
as bemg unworthy of them, because she had played the 
liarlot. Thus God threatens this people. " She is not 
my wife," but unless she put away her whoredoms fiom 
before her face, and her adulteries from between her 
breasts, I will strip her naked as in the day wherein 
she was bom. She shall be sent away without any 
tables, naked and whoUy destitute. Thus you have 
the opening of the words. 

Obs. 1. The beginnings of gi'cat excellencies are 
sometimes very low and mean. This plainly rises from 
the opposition of her condition when she was born, and 
what she had gotten from God afterward ; " lest I strip 
her naked, and set her as in the day that she was bom." 
Tlierefore it is clear she was bom in a very mean con- 
dition, and gotten up to a verj- excellent condition ; 
tliough now high and glorious, yet once verv low and 
mean. God many times raises up golden pillars u])on 
leaden bases, and the most glorious works of God have 
had the lowest beginnings. This beautiful frame of 
licaven and earth was raised out of a chaos of confusion 
and darkness. This is tme, both personally and na- 
tionally, and that in regard of outward conditions, or 
sjiiritual. How poor, and low, and mean have many 
of your beginnings been in the world ! "Who could 
ever have thought that such low beginnings could have 
been raised to such high things, as some of you hiS\e 
been raised to in the world ? It was not long since 
when you came hither to this city, (which may be said 
to be tlie dav wherein you were bom for your civil 
estate, though not for yom' natural.) yoy were low 
enough, mean enough : you had but little to begin 



withal ; you came hither " with your staff," and " now 
behold two bands." 

It is sometimes so, likewise, in regard of the spiritual 
estate. You may remember, not long .since, what 
darkness and confusion abounded in your minds and 
hearts : what poor, low, and mean thoughts had you of 
God, and the things of his kingdom ; what unsavoury 
spuits, when at first God was pleased to work upon 
you ! Oh what a poor condition were you in then ! 
Though you had some Hght put into you, yet you were 
as a child new born, ^Tapped up in filth and blood, 
many noisome distempers there were in your hearts, as 
it is usual with new converts ; like a fu-e newly kindled, 
where there is a great deal of smother and smoke, that 
afterward wears away. But now, behold the shiuino; of 
God's face upon your souls. Oh the abilities that God 
has given you to know his mmd and do his ^-ill ! Oh 
the blessed communion that you have with God, and 
the sparkling of that Divine nature ! The glory and 
beauty of the Di\-ine natm-e is put upon you. 

So for nations, we will not go. farther than our own. 
How low and mean were we at the first ! We were 
as rude, barbarous, and savage a people, almost, as lived 
upon the earth. Britons had their name fiom hence ; 
in the old Britain language. Brith signifies blue- 
coloured, because those who lived here, instead of 
good clothes, as you have, with woad besmeared their 
bodies blue. Tania was added, as it is usual in other 
languages, for the signification of such a region, or 
countiT, as Mamitania, Lusitania, Aquitania, &c. So 
that Britannia is as much as to say. The region of the 
blue-coloured people ; so called because they were thus 
painted. The best food they were wont to eat (histo- 
rians teU us) was bark of trees and roots. HoUinshed 
in liis Chronicle says, ITiere were old men that he 
knew who told of times in England, that if the good 
man in the house had a mattress or flock-bed, and a 
sack of chafi'to rest his head on, he thought himself as 
well lodged as the lord of the town, for ordinarily they 
lay upon sti-aw pallets covered with canvass, and a 
round log under their heads instead of a bolster. They 
said pillows were fit only for women in child-bed : ancl 
in a good farmer's house it was rare to find four- pieces 
of pewter, and it was accounted a great matter tliat a 
farmer could show five shillings or a noble in silver to- 
gether. 

Camden, in his Britannia, tells of Aylesbury, a town 
in Buckinghamshire, where there was a king's manor, 
and the condition of holding certain lands there was, 
that the possessor or holder of them should find straw 
for litter for the king's bed, when he came there. Lati- 
mer, in a sermon before King Edward, relates, that his 
father, who, he says, kept good hospitality for his poor 
neighbours, and found a horse for the ting's service, 
brought him (Latimer) up at learning, and married his 
sisters with five pounds, or twenty nobles, apiece for 
their portions. This was the poor and mean condition 
of those times. And Jerome, contra Joviuianum, and 
Diodorus Sicidus, tell us concerning the people in Ire- 
land, our neighbours, that the best delicacies they used 
to eat in former times, was the flesh of yoimg children ; 
that the ships they used, were sallows wreathed together, 
and boughs twisted, and covered with the hides of 
beasts ; and the wives they had, were common to all 
their brethren and parents. As for their religion, they 
offered to the devil man's flesh, they worshipped Apollo, 
and Jupiter, and Diana, And Gildas, one of the most 
ancient historians, who relates the condition of these 
British people, says ilie idols they had were horrible, 
devilish, monsti-ous things, and that they even sur- 
passed the Eg\n)tian idols in number, „ _ , ^. . , 
JSn people had so many idol-gods, and so ?<■■«• numm>«fyi>- 
monstrous, as the Egyptians, and yet ""*'"■"" "• 
these went beyond them. 



Ver. 3. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



Afterward, no people in the world were more rent 
and torn with ei%'il wars than England has been. And 
in the times when popery was here professed and estab- 
lished, oh the outward and spiritual bondage we were 
under then ! Cm- bodies, our .souls, our estates, oui- 
consciences, were in miserable thi'aldom. 

It is the most sordid and miserable slavery possible 
for a rational creatiu-e to be under, not only to be bound 
to practise, but to believe for ti-uth, the dictates and de- 
terminations of men, yea, and that upon pain of eternal 
damnation. To believe what they say, as the articles 
of faith upon which salvation or damnation depends, 
and conscience must not question, or scruple any tiling : 
if any man that is a rational creatm-e should think 
there is any such distance between man and man, he 
debases himself beneath a man, and advances the other 
above a man. Better it is to be in slavery to another, 
to scrape kennels, than to be in this slaveiy. And to 
have the Scriptures kept from us, the epistle that God 
has sent fi'om heaven to us, that wliich enlightens the 
■world, revealing the great counsels of God concerning 
eternal life, is worse bondage than to be chained up in 
dark holes all the days of our lives. To have no ordi- 
nances but according to the lusts and humours of vile 
men, how great a slaverj- is this ! The manifestation of 
the least suspicion of the falseness of the vilest eiTors, 
dislike of the basest practices, was enough to confiscate 
estate, to imprison, yea, to take away life. Was not 
this a low condition, a base slavery, in which England 
was ? could any bear it. but such as were slaves to their 
own lusts ? But now, what ornaments has God put upon 
us ! No nation under heaven more renowned than we 
have been, oiu- renown has gone through the earth. 
England: its people. Angli, quasi Anoeli ; and itself, 
Albion, from the whiteness of its cliffs. From oiu' 
happiness we see now, that glorious excellences have 
many times low beginnings. 

Obs. 2. God's mercy is a people's beauty and glory. 
When we have any exceUencyj any beauty upon us, it 
is God's mercy that is all oiu- beauty. " I will sti-ip you 
naked, and set you as in the day wherein you were 
bom." If you have any excellency, it is my mercy. 
We have notliing belonging to us but shame, con- 
fusion, and misery ; if we have any ornaments, it is 
mercy, free mercy : therefore, in Ezek. x^^. 14, Thou 
wert perfect in beauty ; how ? " through my comeli- 
ness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord.'' Let 
God take away his mercy, we are quickly left naked, 
and poor, and miserable ; lilce the i-ugged walls in the 
court, when the king goes away, and aU the rich hang- 
ings are taken down, what a difference is there in then- 
appearance ! the beauty of the walls were the hangings, 
when the king was there. So, if we have any thing 
that makes us beautiful, they are the hangings that 
God has put upon us ; his mercies are those hangings 
of gold, and silver, and needle-work ; and when they 
are gone, we are poor, and ragged, and miserable. 

Obs. 3. Though sinners deserve gi-eat e\ils, to be 
stripped of all comforts, yet God, in patience and 
clemency, continues them a long time. " Lest I strip 
her naked." God had said before, that she was not his 
wife, she was guilty of whoredoms, yet it seems she 
was not yet stripped naked ; she was yet left with God's 
ornaments upon her, notwithstanding her sin. Sinners 
may be under fearfiil threatenings, and yet retain many 
comforts ; yea, the truth is, it is possible for a people 
to be cast off from God, and yet to continue for a while 
in outward prosperity. The tree that is cut up by the 
roots, may have the leaves gi'een for a while. Saul was 
rejected of God, 1 Sam. xiii. 14, yet, after that, God 
suffered Saul to prosper exceedingly in overcoming the 
Philistines and the Amalekites. 

Obs. 4. The mercies that God bestows upon a nation, 
are but common favom-s, not spiritual graces, they are 



such ornaments as a people may be stripped of. The great 
mercies a people have, they may whoUy lose. Here 
is the difference between true spiritual graces, in which 
Jesus Chi-ist adorns his spouse. When Chi-ist not only 
takes ill an outward way a people to himself, but marries 
them to himself in a spiritual way, he decks the soul 
with such ornaments, bestows .such mercies upon them, 
as shall never be taken away. Such a soul has no cause 
to fear that ever it can be stripped, as in the day wherein 
it was born, you need not fear that you shall ever lose 
the jewels given you at that marriage day. You may 
be stripped of common graces and gifts,.as many pro- 
fessors are, who have not truth at heart. "Ulien they 
prove naught, God takes away their gifts from them ; 
they have not that gift of prayer they were wont to 
have; though they have excellent words, yet a man may 
perceive such an unsavoiu-iness iflixed with their gifts, 
that it breeds loathing in others to join with them. 
As, when the king goetli away from liis palace, the 
hangings are taken do-mi ; so, when God departeth 
from a soul, (as from such he may,) then then' hang- 
ings, those excellent gifts, are taken from them. But 
of spu-itual gifts they are never stripped. We read in 
Ezek. xlvi. 17, when a king gave gifts to his servants, 
thev were to return to him again at the year of jubi- 
lee ; but when ho gave them to his sons, they were to 
be their inheritance. There are many who arc out- 
wardly in the church as God's sers'ants, they have many 
gifts, but God ^\^& take his gifts away, and strip them 
naked ; but then there are his children, they shall have 
their gifts as an inheritance for ever. It is ti'ue, God 
may stay a while : as, when the king is gone fi-om court, 
if there" be any thought of his retm-n_ the hangings 
continue, but if" the message come. The king will not be 
here these twelve months, or a long time, or, it may be, 
never any more, then the hangings are taken down ; 
so, though these gifts of the hj-pocrite may stay a while, 
yet they wiU vanish at last. 

Obs. 5. Continuance in sin, and especially the sin_ of 
spu-itual whoredom, is that which will sh-ip a nation 
fi-ora all their excellences, from all then' ornaments and 
beauty. The continuance in that sin especially : for so 
the -words imply, " Let her put away her adulteries 
from between her breasts, lest I strip her naked." If 
she continue thus, certainly naked .she shall be. _ This 
always brings nakedness meritoriously, but if continued 
in, eifectually, it makes them naked." In Exod. xxsii. 
25, you may" see what made the people naked at that 
time : the "text saith, that " Aaron had made them 
naked," that is, Aaron, by consenting to the people to 
make the calf, had made the people naked ; that is, 
destitute now of God's gracious protection, deprived 
of those favours fi-om God, which formerly they had. 
And as the priest had made them naked, so you may 
find, in 2 Chi-on. xx\-iii. 19, that the king made them 
naked too : " The Lord brought Judah low because of 
Ahaz king of Israel ; for he made Judah naked, and 
transgi-essed sore against the Lord." " He made Judah 
naked," that is, by countenancing idolati-)-, by siding 
■with those who were idolaters, he made Judah naked 
at that time. 

Here we may see who they arc that are liliely to sti-ip 
us, if ever God should come to strip us. We have 
many amongst us that see false bm-dens of all -the 
miseries and" troubles that come upon the nation ; they 
blame the puritans, and others that they say are factious, 
seditious, and turbulent spii-its, and all must be laid upon 
them. Certainly, whoever has eyes in his head,_ may 
easily see who makes us as naked as we are, and, if we 
be made more naked, who -will be the cause of all. 
Those who stand against the way of reformation, those 
that wUl keep their whoredoms in their sight, and then- 
adulteries between theii- breasts, those that will not be 
■willing that the church should be puiged fi-om that filth 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



and whorish attire it uses ; these are they that make us 
naked. We read in Lam. ii. 14, " Tliy prophets have 
seen vain and fooUsh things for thee : and they have 
not discovered thine iniquit)' to turn away thy cap- 
tivity ; but have seen for thee false burdens, and causes 
of banishment." ISIark it, " Thy prophets have seen 
vain and foolish things, and they have not discovered 
thine iniquity ; " they have not dealt plainly with thy 
people, neither have they told them the reason of their 
captivity ; " but have seen for thee false burdens and 
causes of banishment." The prophets say. It is a com- 
pany of these precise and strict ones, that will not be 
obedient to authority, and will not do what is com- 
manded in such and such tilings, and (when there were 
corruptions in God's worship) they would not submit 
to such and such orders. The prcqihets lay the blame 
ujjon them ; but they see false burdens, sa'ith the text, 
and folse causes of banishment. We have many such 
prophets amongst us, who see false burdens and causes 
of banishment, and they blame those who certainly are 
the causes of our peace, and of the good of the king- 
dom. TertuUian tells us, that in the primitive times, "if 
they had any ill weather, or trouble, they would blame 
the Christians as the cause of it, and presently the 
voice was, Ad leones, Let the Christians be ch-agged to 
the lions, and devoured by the lions. It has been so 
amongst us. But may we not answer, as EKjah an- 
swered Ahab, when Ahab told him that he was the 
man that troubled Israel, " I have not troubled Israel, 
but thou and thy father's house." May we not well 
.say to them, as Jehu to Jehorara, when he asked him 
whether there was peace, " AMiat peace, so long as the 
whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts 
are so many ? " Those that have been pojjish, certainly 
they have endangered us of being stripped of all. 
AMio were the causers of the first disturbances amongst 
us, even of all the persecution here of God's saints, and 
of all the discontent among the people ? who were 
they that persuaded the bringing in of an arbitrary 
government ? who were the cause of laying such things 
upon the people, that they could not bear ? who were 
the causers of the troubles in Scotland, and sending of 
books thither full of superstitious vanities ? was it not 
that prelatical faction, who are those that hinder the 
reformation at this day ? Certainly, if it were as appa- 
rent that they who are called puritans, had been the 
cause of such charge to the kingdom, and disturbance 
to the state, as the prelatical faction has been ; it had 
been impossible for them to go in the sh'eets, but they 
would have been stoned to death. I speak not this as 
though we should do the like, but to show what the 
virulence of their spirits would have been to them, if it 
had been apparent that they had been such charge to 
the kingdom, and such disturbei-s of the state. The 
truth is, we may charge our papists, and others that 
are of that way, (and we know who are next to them,) 
as the cause of stripping us so naked as we have been. 
It is clear enough, those that put not away their whore- 
doms fi-om them, but continue still superstitious and 
idolaters, they are they who endanger a people to be 
stri]5ped naked. 

Obs. 6. That it is time for peo])le to plead, when 
there is danger of desolation. " Plead witli your mother, 
])k'ad." AVhyso? why should we not be quiet ? "Lest I 
strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was 
born." '\Miat! )ou are in such a condition as you are 
in danger to be strip)(cd naked, and to be left desolate 
as a wilderness ? Is it not time then to plead ? O 
jilcad with God, and plead with those that are in au- 
thority, and plead one with another, and plead with 
all ; stir up yourselves, and do what you can ; let there 
lie no sluggish spii-it, no neutralizing spirit. It is no 
time for any to be neuters now. It is time now for all 
to :ome and plead, not so much now to dispute of 



things, but for every one to stand, and apjiear, and 
plead, not only verbally, but otherwise, as God calls 
them to it. Allien John saith, " The axe is laid unto 
the root of the trees," Luke iii. 9 ; what then ? Then 
every one cometh and saith, "AATiat shall we do?" 
" He," saith he to some, " that hath two coats, let him 
impart to him that hath none ; " and to the soldiers, 
when they say, " What shall we do ?" " Do violence to 
no man, neither accuse any falsely ; and be content 
with )our wages." Mark, "when the axe is laid to 
th.e root of the trees," every one then comes in, and 
saith, "What shall we do?" You that are women and 
inferior, do you pray, and cry, and fiu'ther your hus- 
bands in aU good. Be not you backward, do not cbaw 
them away, thi'ough your extravagance and folh', when 
they would be liberal and forward, and adventure them- 
selves. And you that are men of estates, if you ask 
what you should do, it is apparent ; " He that hath 
two coats, let him impart to him that hath none," be 
willing to part with much of your estates in such a 
cause as this. And so, soldiers, if you ask what you 
should do ; behave yourselves so as you may con\'ince 
others ; " Do violence to no man," but act according to 
an orderly way : and " be content with yom- wages ; " 
perhaps it may not come in so fully afterwards, yet let 
it appear that it is the cause that strengthens you, rather 
than youi- wages. Thus, every one should be of an in- 
quiring spuit when " the axe is laid to the root of the 
trees." When we are in danger to be stripped of all, it 
is not time then to stand about cm-iosities and niceties. 

Obs. "i. Those who will not be convinced by the word, 
God has other means to convince them besides the 
word. If pleading and connncing arguments will not 
do it, well then, stripping naked shall do it. The ex- 
pression is usual in the Scriptui-e, " Then ye shall know 
that I am the Lord," when I do thus and thus. As 
you do with those who are of a sleepy disposition ; if 
you call up a servant that is sluggish and sleepy, he 
answers. Anon, and then falls down and sleeps again ; 
you call liim again, and he answers, and sleeps again ; 
at length you come up and pull the clothes ofi' him, 
and leave him naked, and that will awake him. So 
God calls upon them to leave their whoredoms and 
idolatries, and to repent ; he threatens, and ofi'ers 
mercy, and they seem a little to awake, but to it again. 
AA'ell, saith God, I will come another way, and strip you 
naked, and that will do it. 

Obs. 8. AMiatever are the means of stripping a nation 
naked, it is God that doth it. " Lest I strip her naked, 
and set her as in the day wherein she was born." Lest 
/ do it. It is God that gives, and it is God that takes 
away. But let that pass. 

Obs. 9. It is a grievous judgment, for one that is ad- 
vanced from a low to a high degree, to be brought down 
again. " Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the 
day wherein she was bom." Thus Job (chap. xxix. and 
XXX.) aggravates his misery : " The cantHe of God 
shined upon my head ; I washed my steps with butter, 
and the rock poured me out rivers of oil ; my glory 
was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand," 
&c. " But now, they that are younger than I have 
me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained 
to have set with the dogs of my flock." Thus he aggra- 
vates his judgment, because he was brought into a low 
condition, having once been in a high one. The like 
aggravation of misery have we. Lam. iv. 2, " The pre- 
cious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are 
they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of men's 
hands !" and ver. 5, " They that did feed delicately are 
desolate in the streets : they that were brought up in 
scarlet embrace dunghills." Thus the Scrijiture is 
clear, and your experience is enough to confirm it. For 
a man who has been a bond-slave in the galleys, and 
afterward ransomed by the liberality of his friends in 



Vee. 3. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



69 



England, if lie should be taken and brought back again 
to the galleys, oh how tedious and grievous would it 
be ! but if he had lived long here, and floui-ished, and 
gotten preferment, and had grown a great merchant, 
and after this to be brought again to the galleys, how 
much more ten'ible would this be to him ! If some of )0u 
that have been beggars heretofore, if God by some way 
or other should bring you to your former poverty, oh 
how tedious would it be ! We see that many men, 
who have been raised fi'om a low estate to a high one, 
are so afi-aid of returning to a low estate again, that 
they will ventiu'e soul, and conscience, and God and 
all, ratlier than they will endanger themselves in the 
least degree in then- estates. 

Hence it is very observable, that the chief curse that 
God thi-eatens the people of Israel, is that they should 
return to Egj-jjt again, that the Lord would bring them 
back to the condition wherein once they were. That 
whole chapter, Deut. xxviii., is spent in denouncing most 
dreadful curses upon the people ; now the conclusion of 
all is the chief curse of all the rest, ver. 68, " The Lord 
shall bring thee into Egj-jit again with ships, by the way 
whereof I spake unto thee. Thou shalt see it no more 
again, and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for 
bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you." 

AVere it not a sad thing for us who have been ac- 
quainted with the glorious hght of the gospel, and with 
the blessed privileges that come in thereby, for us to 
be brought into popish bondage and thraldom again ? 
AVe may reason with Ezra, " Now for a little space 
grace hath been showed from the Lord oiu- God, to 
leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in 
his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and 
give us a httle revivmg in our bondage. Shoidd we 
again break thy commandments, and join in affinity 
with the people of these abominations ? " Ezra ix. S, 
14. As for ourselves, who have had of late a little taste 
of the sweetness of om- outward ])rivilcges and liberties, 
who could endure to be imdcr that bondage in wliich 
we were thi-ee or four years ago, under every apparitor, 
promoter, pursuivant, commissary, chancellor, and ty- 
rannical prelate, as formerly ? We could not have met 
together, and enjoyed the liberty of such exercise.s as 
these ; no, you could not have met in your families to 
pray, but one or other would have been upon you and 
endangered your estates. The bondage was intoler- 
able ; we may well complain, it was a yoke that neither 
we nor our lathers could bear. 

Obs. 9. When God has delivered a people out of 
miseiT, and bestowed upon them gi'eat mercies, it is 
then- duty often to think of the poor condition in which 
they were, and to use all the means they can that they 
may not be brought thither again. God loves this, that 
we should remember and seriously take to heart what 
once we were. " Lest I strip her naked, and set her as 
in the day that she was bom ;" as if he should say, I 
would have you consider what a low condition you were 
in when you were born, and consider the danger you 
are in to be brought thither again, look then about 
you, and seek to prevent it, if you have the hearts of 
men in you. This we shall find in Deut. xxvi. 1, 2, 5, 
6, AMien thou art come into the land which the Lord 
giveth thee for an inheritance, and dwcllest therein, 
" thou shalt take of the &-st of all the fruit of the 
earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the Lord 
thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and 
shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall 
choose, to place his name there. And thou shalt speak, 
and say before the Lord thy God, A Syrian ready to 
perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, 
and sojourned there with a few, and became there a 
nation, gi-eat, mighty, and populous : and the Egyptians 
evil entreated us, and afflicted u.s, and laid upon us 
hard bondage." And Isa. li. 1, " Look unto the rock 



whence ye are hewn, and to tiie hole of the pit whence 
ye are digged."' It is very useful for us to consider 
our former low condition. Mr. Deering, in a sermon 
preached before Queen Elizabeth, uses this bold ex- 
pression to her, If there were a tune that you thought 
yourself tanquam ovis, as a sheep ready to be slain, 
take heed that the words of the prophet be not now 
true, that )ou be not tanquam indomila jxivencula, as 
an untamed heifer. You may note the chfference be- 
tween the spu'its of men in former times, in their- plain- 
ness and boldness ; and if there were an excess that 
way, how far the other way are oiU' court sermons now ! 
Queen Elizabeth was once in a very low condition, and 
she thought herself to be as a sheep appointed for the 
slaughter. It is usual for men raised up from a low 
condition to forget God and themselves, and to grow 
proud and scornt'id. Nothing is more sharp than a low 
thing when it gets up higli ; so there is none that have 
more proud and scornful spirits than those who are 
raised from the dunghill, they know not tlien where 
they are : as the proverb is. Set a beg- ^^.^^ 
gar on horseback, and he knows not how humiii cum surgit 
nor whither to ride. '" '""' 

Thus it was with Saul : the way to humble Saul, was 
for him to consider what he once was ; and that is the 
way to humble us all who are subject to be proud of 
our prosperity, to which God has raised us. When 
thou wast little in thine own sight, then thou wert 
made the head of the tribes of Israel. There was a 
time that he was little in his own eyes, and I beseech 
you observe the difference between the spirit of Saul 
when he was in a low condition, and his spu'it when he 
was raised. AVhen Saul was in a low condition, his 
spu-it was low, therefore, in 1 Sam. x. 27. you find that 
though there were some children of Behal that would 
not have Saul to reign over them ; AVhat ! say they, 
•' how shall this man save us ? And they despised him, 
and brought him no jjresents. But he held his peace." 
But, chap. xi. 12, when Saul had gotten some credit 
and honoiu' by his victories, some of the people said, 
'• "\Alio is he that said, Shall Saul reign over us ? bring 
the men that we may put them to death." No, saith 
Saul, " There shall not a man be put to death this day." 
Oh how meek was Saul ! what a quiet spu-it had he be- 
fore he got up high ! But afterward, when he had had 
many victories, what a furious and outi-ageous spu-it 
had Saul ! You know the story of the fourscore and 
five priests that must be slain in the city of Nob, and 
the whole city, men, women, and chikben, sucklings, 
oxen, asses, and sheep, must be put to the sword. 
"WHiy ? because one of them only gave a Uttle refresh- 
ment to David. AMiat a different spirit is here in Saul 
to that which he had when he was low ! 

Is it not so with many of you ? When God has 
brought you low, you seem to be humble, meek, and 
quiet ; then you are content with every thing, and prize 
every little mercy. Oh a huncb-cd times more mercy 
will not serve yoiu' turn now, as you would have been 
glad of then, and blessed God if you had had it. But 
now )ou know not yourselves, your hearts are raised 
up as your estates are. Well, it is good for you to look 
to the condition you were in when )0u were low ; as 
we read of Agathocles, that king, who was a potter's 
son, and after advanced to a kingdom, woidd always 
be served at his table in earthen vessels, to put him in 
mind of the condition he was in before. Certainly, if 
in any place in England it be seasonable to speak of 
this, it is in London, where many that have been pot- 
ters' childi-en, and in a low degree, have been raised up 
high, and acquired great estates. Let them remem- 
ber in what condition they were, that they may be 
humbled, and so may prevent the danger of being 
brought thither again. Many put others in mind of it 
in a taunting way, — I know what you were not long ago. 



70 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



I know what your father was ! but do you put your 
own souls in mind of tliis in a humbling way ? this is 
the way to continue mercies. 

But now apply we it a little to ourselves generally, 
and then we shall conclude all. Let us work this upon 
our hearts. Look we back to what we were lately, and 
let us check our hearts for any discontent in oiu: pre- 
sent estate. Not long since would not many of us have 
been willing to have laid do'mi our lives, to have pur- 
chased that mercy we have liad this year or two ? God 
has granted to us our foraier mercies, and raised us 
fi-om om- low condition, of fi-ee cost hitherto. God has 
been beforehand with us ; and what if those mercies 
that are to come, are at somewhat dearer rate than those 
we have had akeady? Those mercies we have had 
already have been veiy precious and sweet ; but sui-ely 
tl'cy that are to come are more precious and sweet, and 
t'uerefore we may be content though they cost us dear. 
Yet how vile are the spirits of men in foi'getting the 
sad condition they were in, the taxes, and monopolies, 
and uncertainty of enjojing any thing that was your 
own ! and now, if there be but a little charge, you im- 
mediately murmur- and repine : Oh these heavy bur- 
dens ! the ])arliament bui-dens the kingdom and the 
countiT, and as good have ship-money and other taxes 
as these burdens. O, unworthy, unworthy are you to 
live to see the goodness of the Lord in these days ! un- 
worthy to have your eyes open to see what God has 
done, and thus to murmur ! Thou shouldst magnily- 
God's mercies, and not miinnur at his proceedings. 
We have a notable parallel to this (Numb, xvi.) in the 
story of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram ; those muiTnurers, 
when they were but in a little strait, came to Closes, and 
said, " Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up 
out of a land that floweth with milk and honey ?" ver. 13. 
"VMiat land was that, that ]\Ioses brought them up out 
of, that they said fioT.-ed with milli and honey ? It was 
the land of Egj-pt, the land of theu- bondage. Indeed 
tliey were promised a land of Canaan, that should flow 
Avith milk and honey, and they put that upon the land 
of Egj-pt; though they had been in bondage and 
slavery in Egypt, and were now going to Canaan, yet 
when they endured some trouble in the way, and had 
but some opposition, and were put to some straits, then 
Egj^it was the land that flowed with milli and honey, 
and who would come out of Egj-pt ? So though God 
be bringing us to Canaan, to a tlesscd land that flows 
with milk and honey, yet because there ai'e some straits 
in the way, some difficulties, some oppositions that may 
cost us Epmething, how do men cry out, We were bet- 
ter before ! you talked of reformation, but, for our part, 
would we might have but what we had before, and be 
as quiet as we were then ! why will you bring us out of 
a land that flows with milli and honey ? O base, mur- 
muring, and discontented spii-its, that forget what once 
they were, and rather prize the bondage they were in 
before, than arc thankful for God's present mercies. 

For us not to look back to God's former mercies, 
goes to the very heart of God. God has an expression 
in Ezek. xvi. 43, that it frets him to the very heart ; 
" Because them hast not remembered the days of thy 
youth, but hast fi'etted me in all these things." It is a 
thing that frets God to see a peojile so unworthy of 
mercy, when God comes in such ways of mercy to 
them. My brethren, God has done great things for us, 
■tthatever others say and think. Let them murmur, 
and repine, and say what they will ; let us .«ay God lias 
done gieat things for us. Let us lay to heart our late 
condition, that so we may be stirred up now to seek 
after God, that we may never be brought into that con- 
dition again. If ihey would have it again, much good 
may it do them ; but for us, let it be our care to seek 
God, and to use all lawful means to jnevent our bring- 
ing back to it again. 



For even our present straits are an aggravation of 
our former miser)- and present mercy, it shoxdd not 
therefore make our fonner misery, or present mercy, 
seem less, but gi-eatcr. How is that? you will say. 
Thus: if now we have so much help and power- to 
hinder a party that seek oiu- ruin, yet they have so 
much sti-ength and resolution, what w-ould have become 
of us if this had been before, when we had no way nor 
means to help us ? If men complain now, what would 
they have done then ? Therefore, whereas some make 
use of our sti-aits to lessen our foi-mer miscn-, and thinlc 
we are now in a worse condition than before, rather let 
us make it an aggi-avation of God's mercy towards us ; 
and if we be in such straits now, when God has raised 
up such means beyond all our thought to resist the 
flowing in of misery upon us. Lord, w-hither w-ere we 
going ? what would have become of us if the stream, 
wliich had been so long s-\velling, had broken in upon 
us when there was no means to have resisted it ? We 
may well see now, that if their intentions and resolu- 
tions are so sti-ong for mischief as will not be hindered, 
notwithstanding the present strength God has granted 
us to oppose them, surely they had most vile intentions, 
and dreadful things were determined against us, which 
would ha\e brought us low indeed, and have made us 
the most miserable people upon the earth, if God had 
not come in so miraculously for our help, as he has 
done at this day. 

Therefore, as we read in Jer. xxsra. 20, "Let my 
supplication," saith he to the king, " I pray thee, be ac- 
ceptable before thee, that thou cause me not to return 
to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there." 
So let us present om- supplications to the King of hea- 
ven, that we may not be sent back to that condition we 
were once in, that God may not strip us and leave us 
naked. We have many blessings ; Lord, do not strip 
us, do not striji us of all the oi-naments thou hast put 
upon us. 

And would you not have God stiip you of your orna- 
ments ? be you willing to strip yourselves of your oi-na- 
ments. Exod. xxxiii. 5, God calls upon the people 
there, "Put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may 
know what to do unto thee." This is true and season- 
able at this time, in the literal sense, you are called 
now to strip you of youi- ornaments. Strip from your 
fingers yom- gold rings now when there is need of 
them ; perhaps one of yom- gold rings would serve to 
maintain a soldier a month or five weeks, or more ; and 
yet you may have the benefit of it again aftenvard. 
Strip your cupboards from yom- pompous show of plate. 
It is much if you should not be willing to have youi- 
fingers stripped naked, when we are in danger to have the 
state stripped naked of all our comforts and oi-naments. 
Is it such a great matter to have yom- cupboai-d naked 
of plate now ? what if a white cloth were upon it, and 
all that glittering show taken away, were that such a 
great sacrifice now, when God is about to strip us naked, 
and set us as in the day wherein we were born ? Cer- 
tainly all of you, who shall keep your plate now for the 
pompous adorning of cupboards, cannot but be ashamed 
of it. Surely you must rather keep it up in your trunks. 
It cannot but be both a sin and a shame to sec such 
glittering ])omp and gloi-y in such times as these. 

Strip yoiu-selves of your ornaments, that God sti-ip 
you not ; and not only outwardly, but strip yourselves 
of your ornaments by your humiliation, for that is the 
meaning of that place in Exodus. O come and hum- 
ble yom-selves, and come now with naked hearts be- 
fore the Lord ; open your hearts befoi-e God, bring 
them naked and sincere before him, lest he strip you 
and the kingdom naked. Cry unto God for mercy : O 
Lord, thou knowest what a vile heart I have had, a 
l)ase, time-serving heart ; yet, Lord, I desire to take 
away all these cloaks now, and to rend and bring this 



\er. 3. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



71 



heai-t naked before thee ; though it be a fihliy heart, yet 
open it. Lord, thou knowest those vile things, those 
inuovations, those superstitions, those horrible wicked- 
nesses that were in danger to be let into the chui'ch 
and commonwealth, yet they were things that went 
down very well with me, and I had distinctions to 
colour them ; but, Lord, it was my base heart that I 
could not trust thee, but now here I open it naked be- 
fore thee. O Lord, these ordinances of thine, of the 
purit)' and power of which others spake so much, they 
have been things unsavoury to me, I had no skill in 
such things. Thou knowest I had a neub-ahzing spirit, 
I looked which way the wind blew ; how just were it for 
thee to give me up to be of a desperate malignant 
.spirit ! Now, Lord, I come as a naked, wretched crea- 
tm-e before thee, in the shame and guilt of my sin, and 
here I acknowledge thou mayst justly strip me naked 
of all the comforts of my estate, and leave me in the 
most miserable condition in which ever poor creature 
was left. My heart is open before thee, show me what 
I shall do ; and if thou dost reserve any of my estate 
and comforts which I have forfeited, in testimony of 
my humiliation for my former sins, I bring it before 
thee, and am wiUing to give it up for the public good, 
and to prevent that evil and mischief that I am sm-e 
my sins call for, for my sins cry for WTath against the 
land, that thou shouldst strip it naked. If all had been 
such base spii-its as I have been, what would have- be- 
come of the land by this time ? In testimony therefore 
of my humiliation for 'my sins, here I bring in this of 
my estate ; though indeed, if I had not been guilty of 
such sins, yet, out of common prudence, and respect to 
my own security, I might bring in some part ; but here 
is so much the more of my estate, because my conscience 
tells me of my former guilt. And, Lord, for the time 
to come, I am resolved to do the uttermost I can for 
thee and thy cause. And those worthies that carry 
their Uves in then- hands for me, God forbid that I 
should have the least hand in betraying them, in with- 
di'awing my hand and assistance fi-om them. Lord, 
here I give up myself to thee, and my estate, I sm-- 
render it to thee in an everlasting covenant. This is 
to come with a naked heart indeed before the Lord. 

Were it not better that we should be willing to strip 
om-selves naked, than that God should do it by violence, 
that God should send soldiers into our houses to strip 
us naked, as they have dealt with om- brethi-en in Ire- 
land ? they took not away their estates only, but aU 
then- clothes, and sent them in di'oves as naked as they 
were bom. We know we have deserved the like. If 
you W'ill not strip yourselves of your superfluities, God 
may justly by them strip you naked ; and not only 
bring you into the same condition you were in, but into 
a far worse ; for so he thi"eatens in Deut. xxviii.. You 
shaU not only be carried back again into Egypt, but 
" there you shall be sold unto your enemies for bond- 
men and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you;" 
they should be in a worse condition than when they 
were first in Egypt. So, if there be any of you will- 
ing to sell your consciences in hope of preferment, 
the other side may get power and prevail, and so, instead 
of being preferred, you may be disappointed, not only 
be brought into as iU, but into a far worse condition. 
And perhaps, though you would have sold yovu'selves, 
yet nobody will buy you ; if the papists come to have 
the power of your bodies and estates, you may miss 
that preferment you think of. So saith Ezi'a, chap. ix. 
1-t, after he had spoken of God's mercy in giving them 
liberty, and remitting their captivity, " Shoidd we agam 
break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the 
people of these abominations ? wouldst thou not be 
angTy with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there 
should be no remnant nor escaping ? " And, certainly, 
if God do not awaken the hearts of people now, if God 



do not give the people throughout the kingdom a heart 
to stick to the cause of ti'uth, and to those whom they 
have intrusted with theii' estates, liberties, and lives, in 
every good way, it would be the heaviest judgment of 
God that ever was upon a nation since the beginning 
of the earth, it would never be paralleled; that a people 
should have such an opportunity put into their hands 
to help, and to vindicate themselves fi'om slavery and 
bondage, yet, out of I know not what respects, to be- 
ti'ay all those that have ventm'ed their lives for them, 
I say it would be such an example as were not to be 
paralleled since the beginning of the world. There- 
fore I beseech you, my bretlu-en, let us lay this to heart, 
and the Lord make known to us all what is to be done 
in such a time as tliis, that we may not be " stripped 
naked, and set as in the day wherein we were born." 

" And make her as a wilderness, and set her like a 
cb'y land." God would bring this people, who dwelt in 
the land of Canaan., flowing with milk and honey, and 
were, for the beauty wliich God had put upon them, 
" excellent for beauty," now to be " as a wilderness." 
In the former chapter, the state of the ten tribes was 
set out by Hosea's wife, whose name was " Gomer," and 
this Gomer was the " daughter of Dlblaim." Gomer 
signifies perfection, and what Diblaim signifies I told 
you then. But there is another signification of this 
Diblaim, which we are to refer .to this expression of 
the Lord in this place, that he will " make her as a 
wilderness ; " for you find, Ezek. vi. 14, that mention is 
made of a desolate country, and a " wilderness towards 
Diblath," to which this that the prophet speaks of 
Gomer seems to have reference. 

Diblath then, it appears, was a place where there was 
a very desolate wilderness, and Gomer was the daughter 
of this Diblath, &om whence Diblaim ; that is, though 
the ten tribes were as Gomer, in regard of then- beauty, 
perfect, for so they were ; yet she was the daughter of 
Diblath, or Diblaim, that is, she came forth out of a 
low and mean condition, and was even brought out of 
a wilderness ; now she shall be brought again mto the 
same estate wherein she was, for I will set her '• as a 
wilderness." 

" As a wilderness." The chm-ch of God is in itself 
God's garden, Cant. iv. 12, " A garden enclosed is my 
sister, my spouse." It is the place of God's delight, 
not a place for beasts to invade, but enclosed, they are 
to be kept out of it ; a place where very precious fruits 
grow, which are very pleasing to God; a place that has 
the dew-, the showers of God's blessing, " the dew of 
Hermon," the dew " that descended upon the mountains 
of Zion ; there God commanded his blessing, even life 
for evermore," Psal. cxxxiii. 3. But now she must 
come to be " a wilderness." 

For, first, the hedge, the pale, the wall of God's pro- 
tection shall be taken away fi-om her, and she shall be 
laid open, liable for all wild beasts to come in and de- 
vour her. They loved liberty, and were loth to be en- 
closed, though it were in God's garden, though it was 
with tlie pale and wall of God's protection ; well, seeing 
you wUl have hberty, you shall have Hberty, and this 
pale and wall of my garden shall be taken away, and 
yom- condition shall be like the condition of the beasts 
in the wilderness. 

Again, you shall be " as a wilderness."^ There 
shall no good grow among you. No good thuig grew 
amongst you, that was your sin ; and there shall no 
good grow among you, that shall be your plague and 
punishment. The blessing of God shall be taken away 
from you, you shall not have those showers of blessing 
as formerly you were wont to have, but you shall be 
" as a wilderness." '• Cursed be the man that trusteth 
in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart 
departeth from the Lord." Why ? " For he .shall be 
like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



good .Cometh ; but shall inhabit the parched places 
in the wilderness, in a salt land and not 



hiTwlSi? Vstib "^ idolaters ; they are (by, unsavour)- 
tliey are destitute of all spiritual good. 
" And I will set her like a dry land." 
af' li^dtvi^oJ '^'^'^ Scptuagint read it, I will order her 
as a diy land. Your sins bring you out 
of order ; but God's plagues order that which sin dis- 
orders. " As a dry land." This is eontraiy to the 
blessing of the godly man, for he is said to be as the 
" tree planted by the rivers of waters," Psal. i. 3. The 
gi-aces and comforts of God's Spirit are compared to 
Avaters in the Scripture : " AH my springs are in thee," 
Psal. Isxxvii. 7; all my comforts, all my gifts, all the graces 
that I have, are in thee. But now God will set them as 
a cby land, he will take away his gifts and their com- 
forts from them, and so leave them waste and desolate. 
Obs. That sin is of a wasting nature : sin lays waste 
countries and places in which people live. We have a 
most remarkable place of Scri])tvn-e for that, Zech. vii. 
14, "They laid the pleasant land desolate." They; 
who are they? you shall find it, ver. 12, those that 
" made theu- hearts as an adamant stone, lest they 
should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of 
hosts hath sent in his spirit by the fonner prophets ;" 
they made the pleasant land desolate. AVe not only 
blame those that strip and waste, but commence actions 
against them. O let us not lay waste this pleasant 
land, this good land of ours, this garden of the Lord. 
It is indeed as an Eden, as a paradise ; our forefathers 
have left us this our land, as God's garden ; let not us, 
through oiu' sins, leave it to our posterities as a wil- 
derness, and a dry land. In Psal. cvii. 34, there is a 
thi-eatening that (3od will turn " a fruitful land into 
baiTenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell 
therein." Sin has heretofore laid waste as jjleasant 
and fruitful countries as om's. Those who travel in 
GeiTuany, their hearts bleed within them to see the 
spots where famous towns have stood, now overgrown 
with nettles, and laid waste as a wilderness. And in 
this God acts after the manner of great kings, who, 
when their subjects obey them not, threaten to lay 
then' countries waste, and to destrov thcLr cities. Eccle- 
siastical stories tell us of Theodosius, who laid gi-eat 
taxes upon the city of Antioch. at which the inhabitants 
were much grieved, and imagining, it seems, that the 
queen had a special hand in it, they pulled dowii the 
brazen statue of the queen, that was in the city, in 
anger. Upon this, Theodosius threatened to lay the 
city and country- waste, as a fruit of his displeasure. 
It IS a fruit of the anger of kings, accortUng to their 
power, to manifest it, not only upon particular men, but 
to lay whole countries waste. God is the great King, 
and he threatens this against his people for their sins, 
tliat he \i ill lay them waste as a wilderness. God had 
rather that the wild beasts should cat up the good of 
the land, than that wicked, stubborn sinners should en- 
joy it : God had rather have a land imdcr his curse, to 
have nothing but thoms and briers brought forth of it, 
than that wicked wretches should jiartakc of the sweet- 
ness and fniit of it ; for sin not only pollutes the sin- 
ner, but the land, and puts both the sinner and the 
land under a curse. 

" And slay them with thirst." In Psal. xxxvi. 8, we 
have a full expression of the ])lentiful provision of 
God's ])Cople that dwell in the house of the Lord ; 
"They shall be abundantlv satisfied with the fatness of 
thy house : and thou slialt make them drink of the 
river of thy pleasures." Oh what a sweet promise to 
those tliat dwell in God's house, and walk with God as 
hesecms those that are in his house ! they shall have 
fatness, and drink of the river of his pleasures; but 



here is threatened, that God will not only take away 
those rivers, but even (hops of water; they shall not 
have a drop to cool their tongues, bnt shall be slain 
with thirst. There was a time when God had such pity 
upon his people that he woidd cause water to gush out 
of the rock, rather tlian then- thii-st should not be satis- 
fied ; but now God threatens that he will make " the 
heavens as brass, and the earth as u-on ;" and though a 
little water might sa\e then- lives, they should not have 
it, he will slay them with thii-st. Oh what an altera- 
tion does sin make in God's administration of liis ways 
towards us ! 

It Ls a great judgment thus to be slain with thirst. I 
knew a man once, lying in a burning fever, profess, that 
if he had all the world at his disposal he would give it 
all for one (h'aught of beer : at so low a rate is the 
world at such a time as that. K the want of a little 
beer or water to satisfy thirst for a little while, be so 
great a judgment, what is it for all good to be etemallv 
withdrawn from all the faculties! I have read that 
w hen Darius fled from his enemies, and being in great 
thirst, (though those kings had a delicate drink that 
was pecuhar to them, which they called coaspis, and 
others, vcojp fiam\iK6v,) he met with a duly puddle of 
water, with can-ion h-ing in it, but he drank very 
heartily of it, and professed, that it was the sw-eetes't 
(b-aught that ever he drank. If a little 
dirty water can aftbrd so much comfort inM^m^'S"-"' 
when the faculties are in such a (hsposi- "nbiis inqoiuatim 
tion as fits them to draw comfort out of it, uliqlSip sT^ltUe 
oh, then, -nhat comfort and goodness arc qii'km''™iBc"t'""rt 
there in an infinite God, when he shall iiifSiinsbiSSt. 
communicate to his creature all that good 
which is communicable ! and when all the faculties of 
soul and body shaD be in a fidl disposition to receive all 
the good that is communicated; and not put into a 
disposition by reason of want, but by reason of the ex- 
cellency of the faculty- raised to such a height, and 
enlarged to receive what good God himself has to com- 
municate to his creature. 

But further, it is observable, though God brouglit 
them into a wilderness, and set them in a th-y land ; yet 
if they might have some drink, though but water," to 
refresh them in the wilderness, and in this dry land, it 
were not so much. Though they wei-e in a scorching 
country, in the wilderness, parched with heat, might 
they have but some refreshment there, the judgment 
were not so great ; but they shall be in a wilderness, 
in a (b-y land, and there they shall be scorched with 
heat, and then God shall deny them all succom-. He 
will slay them w-ith thirst. 

Obs. God bruigs wicked men into extremity, and 
there leaves them destitute of all succour. AVe have 
an excellent scripture for this, in Ezek. xxii. 20, " I will 
gather you in mine anger and in my fuiT ;" and what 
then? "I will leave you there, and melt you," saith 
God. This may be a comment upon this text, I will 
bring into the wildei-ness, and set them in a (b-y land, 
and slay them with thii-st. The saints may be brought 
into great extremity, but God leaves them not there. 
God makes their extremity his opportunity for mercv, 
he brings refreshing to them then. They never have 
more sweet refreshings from God than when thev are 
in the greatest extremities in regard of trouble" and 
affliction. God promises that he will be '• a shadow for 
them in the day time from the heat, and for a i)lace of 
refuge, and for a covert from stoi-m and from ram," Isa. 
iv. G. This is God's peculiar mercy to the saints ; jier- 
ha])s they have no shelter now, but when the storm 
comes they have a shelter then ; and they have a 
shadow when the lieat comes ; in their extremity they 
have comfort. But it is otherwise with the wicked ; the 
wicked perhajis mav have many slielters before the 
storm comes, hut wlien it arrives they ai-e destitute; 



Vi;k. 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



tliev may have many shady places before the heat 
comes, but -when it is felt they are left succom-less, then 
they are slain vdXh thu-st. When wicked men are in 
prosperity, there may come one blessing after another 
(I mean that which is in itself a blessing) heaped upon 
them, but when they come into adversity, when they 
have most need of comfort, they are left destitute. 

This slaying " with thirst" is applied by some spirit- 
ually ; I will bring a spu-itual famine upon them. 
When they shall be in a wilderness, in a dry land, 
when they .shall have most need of comfort for their 
souls, they shall be deprived of it. Many men, in the 
time of their health and prosperity, have sweet promises 
of the gospel revealed to them, many blessed manifest- 
ations of God's free grace and goodness in his Chi'ist 
made kno-rni to tliem, but they sUght and disregard 
them. But when God brings them into the wilderness, 
and causes them to be under the torment of a scorching 
conscience, then perhaps they may long. Oh that I had 
one cb'op of water, one promise out of the word to com- 
fort me ! Oh that I might have but never so httle re- 
fi-eshing ! Oh that I might hear again those things I 
have heretofore heard and neglected ! But then God 
may deny one drop of water to cool their scorching 
consciences, and slay then- souls with thirst at that 
time : and thus many poor creatures are slain with 
thirst, who so little regarded those rivers of consola- 
tion, which in the time of their prosperity they might 
have had. 

Ver. i. Jnd I will not have inerci/ upon her children , 
for they be the childreyi of uhoredoms, 

T confess, at the fii'st view, looking upon this vcrse^ I 
thought I might quickly pass it over ; the rather, be- 
cause we had some such expressions in the former 
chapter, where God threatened that he would have no 
mercy upon them : but the Scripture is a vast depth, 
and there are many excellent treasures in it, there is 
always alinuid reviienlibus, something for those that 
come and look again, and this something will appear 
to be much more than before had been observed. 

" And I will not have mercy." This particle a)id 
has much in it, it is a most terrible and. This con- 
junction many times in Scripttu:e is as a pleonasm, and 
does not serve for much use ; but in this place it is of 
great use, and is filled with terror, as full as it is pos- 
sible for such a little particle to hold. 

I know there may be many curious observations of 
particles and conjunctions ; but we shall not meddle 
with any curiosity, but speak of that which is plain, 
and the intention of the Holy Ghost here. I say this 
and is most dreadful ; mark the conjunction, you had 
four ands before : saith God, I will " strip her naked, 
and set her as in the day wherein she was born. a7id 
make her as a wilderness, and set her as a dry land, 
and slay her with thirst." Is not here enough ? O 
no, there comes a fifth, and that is more terrilile than 
all the former four ; '■ And I will have no mercy upon 
her chikhen." This adds terror to all the rest. Sup- 
pose that all the other foiu- had been executed, " I wUl 
strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was 
born, and I will make her as a wilderness, and set her 
as a dry land, and slay her with thirst," yet if there 
might be mercy in all this, then- condition had not been 
so miserable ; but (saith God) I will do all these, "and 
I will not have mercy upon them." O this has terror in 
it, impossible for the heart of a man that apprehends it 
to stand under. 

And for the opening of this, I shall show you that all 
the former four, not only may stand with God's mercy, 
but that they have stood with God"s mercy ; that God 
had heretofore showed mercy to them when they were 
in the low conchtion in which they were born, when 



thev were in the wilderness, when they were in a dry 
land, yea, when he did slay them, he showed mercy 
unto them. But now he saith, he will do thus and 
thus, and show no mercy unto them. So that then, 
though this and be conjunctive in grammar, yet in di- 
vinity it is a disjmictive, and a most dr-eadful disjunc- 
tive, to pai-t them and mercy asunder, yea, to part many 
of them and mercy eternally asunder. To show you, 
therefore, that in the fom- former God showed_ tliem 
mercy ; and that this is a more di-eadful condition in 
which God wUl show them no mercy, — observe. 

First, " In the day wherein they were born," they 
were " cast out in the open field," and they were " in 
then- blood," and " not washed," and the like : but 
mark, " I passed by thee, and looked upon thee ; be- 
hold, thy time was the time of love ; and I spread my 
skii-t over thee, and covered thy nakedness : yea, I sware 
unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, and 
thou becamest mine," Ezek. xvi. 8. Here are the high- 
est and fullest expressions of God's grace ; first, " I 
looked upon thee," and then, " the time was a time of 
love," and then, " I spread my skirt over thee, and I 
entered into covenant with thee, and thou becamest 
mine :" here are all these expressions of mercy, at that 
time when they were cast out as forlorn in the open 
field, and no eye pitied them ; but now they are threat- 
ened to be cast out into the field again, and no eye to 
pity them in heaven or in earth ; no, nor the eye of God 
to pity them : now God threatens to cast them off for 
ever, so that he will see them in then- blood, but it 
shall be no more a time of love, but a time of WTath, 
and he will no more enter into covenant with them, 
neither shall they be his. 

Secondly, When God brought them into the wilder- 
ness, he there showed them mercy : see Deut. xxxii. 10, 
" He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howl- 
ing wilderness ;" but mark, " he led him about, he in- 
structed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye." 
Though they were in a waste howling wilderness, yet 
they were as dear to God " as the apple of his eye." 
Yea further, ver. 11, " As an eagle stirreth up her nest, 
fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, 
taketh tliem, bearetli them on her wuigs, so the Lord 
alone did lead him." Paulus Fagius, citing Rabbi So- 
lomon upon this verse, observes, The eagle carries her 
young ones not as other birds, for other birds carry 
their young ones in their claws, the eagle bears hers 
upon her wings ; and this is the reason, because the 
eagle is more tender of her young ones than other birds 
are ; why ? for the other birds carrj-ing their young ones 
in their claws, if any shoot at them, they hit the young 
ones and kill them first, and may miss the old one, but 
the eagle can'ies hers upon her wings, that whoever 
shoots her young ones, they must shoot through her 
fii'st. So saith God, I cai'ried you in the wilderness, as 
tlie eagle carries her young ones upon her wings, that 
if any shoot at you to hurt you, they must shoot tlu'ough 
me before they can come at you. This was God's mercy 
to them when they were in the waste howling wilder- 
ness ; here is not such an and. 

Thirdly, God brought them into a dry land. In this 
wUderness they wanted water, yet (though they were 
ready to mmTiiur) " he made them suck honey out of 
the i-ock, and oil out of the flinty rock," Deut. xxxii. 
1.3. You will say. When did God make them suck 
honey out of the" rock? we read indeed, that water 
gushed out of the rock in a ch-y land, but here the 
Scripture speaks, that " he made them suck honey out 
of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock." Clu-ysos- 
tom, speaking upon God's making them suck honey 
and oil out of the rock, remarks : Not, saith he, that 
indeed honey or oil came out of the rock, but because 
they being in the wilderness, and in such great want, 
the water that came out of the rock was to them as 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chai'. II. 



sw'eet and delightful, as if it liad been honey or oil. 
Thence he gathers, that want and necessity will make 
every thing very sweet and comfortable, water will be 
as honey and oil to them that want. When you are at 
your full tables, this wine pleases you not,' and that 
beer gratifies you not ; but if you were in necessity, 
■water would be as wine, it would be as honey and oil 
to you. 

Yea, but what say you to the fourth and, " He will 
slay them with thirst ? " Can you show us any place 
■wherein God slew his people, yet showed mercy to 
them P Yes, I can. There is a place where it is "said, 
God slew his people, yet at that veiy time he showed 
abundance of mercy to them ; God came with his sword 
in his hand, yet with abundance of compassion in his 
heart. The scripture is Psal. Ixxviii. 34, 35, " A\1ien 
he slew them, then they sought him : and they returned 
and inquired early after God, and they remembered 
that God was their rock, and the high "God their re- 
deemer." "Well, "they sought him;" and "they re- 
membered " this, that '"' the high God was their redeem- 
er;" but did God redeem them at that time? Yes; ver. 
38, " He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquitv, 
and destroyed them not : yea, many a time turned he 
his anger away, and did not stir up all his WTath;" or, as 
the old translation has it. He called back his anger, 
lyhich here ho will not do. He -was " fuU of compas- 
sion," and " forgave then- iniquity," and called back 
his anger, though he slew them at that time. He denies 
to do so here, he lets out his anger to the full, and will 
not call it back; "I will have no mercy upon them." 
And it is observable, that the psalm declares before 
that, tliey did but flatter God with their mouth : though 
they did but flatter God with their mouth, yet such ■^vas 
God's mercy toward Ihcm, that he called back his anger. 
My brethi-en, God has a high esteem of his worship in 
a nation ; though it should be but external, (but ■n-e 
must not rest in that.) yet external humiliation and 
worshipping of God in a nation, has been effectual to 
deliver them from external judgments. Therefore we 
have much cause to be encouraged, in that God stirs 
up our nation at this day, and those particularly who 
are going in that expedition and ser\-ice for the "king- 
dom, to worship him. Our adversaries come against 
them with oaths and curses, andthey go against them 
with fasting and prayer, not externally only, but we 
hope many of them internally, and thousands' that join 
with them in our nation. And if God will show so 
much mercy to them ■n'hen they did but flatter him 
■with tlieu- mouth, surely, when there are so many true 
worshippers of him, yea, those that are the instruments 
of the work, we have much cause to thinlt that God 
will show mercy to us, and that if anger were come out 
against us, yet "God will call it back. 

Thus then wc sec, that so long as God's people be 
God's people, though they may be brought to great 
troubles, yet still there is 'mercy for them; so long as 
the knot is between God and "them, and they arc in 
covenant, there is mercy for them. But now when they 
are cast off, there comes an avcl, I will do thus and thus, 
bring them into those extremities, and I will show no 
mercy to them, there shall be judgment without mercy. 

064'. The oljservation then from hence is.AMien God 
comes upon the mckcd with wrath, he comes with pure 
\n-ath. wrath without mixture of mercy; and this is 
intolerable. "We have a remarkable passage in Ezek. 
vii. 5, " An c\ il, an only e^il, behold, is come." Mark, 
there may come an evil to the people of God, that 
which materially is evil, but it can never be said of 
God'.s people, that an evil, an only evil, is coming ; if 
an evil come, there comes a great good with that e\i\ : 
but ujion the wicked an evil, and an only evil, is coming. 
God tlu-eatens, Psal. Ixxv. 8, that he 'has "a cup" in 
his hand, " full of mixture ;" the mixture is an aggra- 



vation of the ■wrath in it : but here there is a cup in 
God's hand without mixture, and the want of mixture 
is the aggravation of the evJl of this cup. 

1. AVhen wrath is pme, then it is grown beyond 
anger, and gi-own to hatred. So long as it is but mere 
anger, it admits of mixture of love, but when once it 
is (as ■we may speak) gro^^ii to that height of somness, 
that all the mixture of love is gone, then it is turned 
to hatred. There was a time when Israel spake in a 
murmuring way, that God brought them into the wil- 
derness because he hated them, Deut. i. 27. But now 
God threatens to bring them mto the wilderness, and 
to hate them indeed, according to Hosea ix. 15, " All 
their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them." 
David prays, Psal. vi. 1, that God ■n'ould not " rebuke 
him in his anger, neither chasten him in his hot dis- 
pleasure ; " but what then ? " Have mercy upon me, O 
Lord." So long as God shows mercy, he does not 
chasten in his sore displeasure ; but when God comes 
with afflictions, and denies mercy, then he comes in 
sore displeasure indeed, it is hatred. 

2. AVhen God comes without mercy, he comes upon 
the wicked in the most unseasonable time for them. 
That is the difference betmxt the evils that come upon 
the godly and the wicked. There may be e^sils (that 
materially are so) upon the godly, yet they shall come 
upon them when it shall be seasonable for them ; but 
when they come upon the wicked, it shall be when they 
are most unseasonable for them. As a husbandman, if 
he would cut his tree so as only to lop it that it ma)- 
grow and flourish again, he mil be sure to do it in due 
time, as in January or Febi-uaiy, but if he would cut it 
that it may die, he will lop it when it flourisheth most, 
at midsummer. God indeed lets wicked men grow up 
and flourish to the height of theii- prosperity, and then 
he lops them, because then he knows they must die and 
perish. It were better to be lopped in January, in 
winter time before you flourish, then you may live for 
yom- good ; but if you stay tiU the summer, you die for 
it. You have an excellent scripture, Zeph. ii. 4, "They 
shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day." In those 
countries ■where the sun was exceedingly hot and scorch- 
ing, shepherds, and others who had theii- business 
abroad, used to keeji within then- houses at noon day, 
or get into some shady places and sleep. Now when 
God threatens a judgment in wTath, and denies mercy, 
he saith, " They shall di-ive out Ashdod at noon day," 
in the worst time that Ashdod can be driven out, in the 
midst of scorching. Because God intended to. destroy 
them, he drives them out at noon day. 

3. "VATien God comes upon the wicked and denies 
mercy, he regards not the proportion of any aflftiction 
or any e^\il ; whether it be enough or not enough for 
them, what is that to him ? "VMien he comes upon his 
own people he weighs out his WTatli. Never did any 
skilful apothecary more carefully weigh even" ilram of 
the potion which is to be given to a child, than God 
weighs out everv affliction which he sends upon his 
children. The difference is, just as if you should go to 
the apothecary's to take ratsbane to poison vermin; you 
do not weigh out how much you shoidd take, but give 
them it at an adventm-e, and let them take as much as 
they will, and die : but if you take any thing for your 
child, if it have any strong virtue in it. or without com- 
))osition may poison, you will take heed not to take a 
di'am or a grain too much, but will be sure to weigh it 
out exactly. Thus, though when God comes to his 
childi'cn, he weighs out their afflictions, yet when he 
comes with judgments upon the wicked, he cares not 
how much, how many or great they be, whether suit- 
able to their conditions or no, whether they can bear 
them or no, whether their backs break or no; he comes 
with judgments u])on them to destroy them. 

4. AAlicn affliction comes without mercy upon the 



Vkk. 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



75 



wicked, God stops his ears at tlieii- cries. If they cry 
when God comes -with judgments against them, he 
calls their crying howling ; he tells them, though they 
cry aloud, yea, cry -svith tears, he will not hear them, 
Hos. vii. 14 ; Ezek. viii. 18. 

5. God commands all creatures that they shall deny 
help to them. They may stand and be amazed, but 
help them they cannot. They all say, How can we 
help, seeing God helps not ? 

6. There is the curse of God mixed with eyery judg- 
ment to ch-ive them further from God, and to harden 
them more in then- sins. 

7. One judgment is but the making way for another ; 
yea, all judgments in this woi-ld are but the forerun- 
ners of eternal judgments. This is the poi-tion of the 
cup of the wicked, when God saith he will show them 
no mercy. The afflictions of the saints may seem to be 
more grievous outwardly, but thus God never afflicts 
them, there is mercy always for them. "V^lierefore, all 
ye saints of God who are under any affliction at any 
time, be patient and contented under it, for though 
your afflictions are sore and grievous, yet God delivers 
you from such afflictions as these, wherein he saith he 
will show no mercy. 

" I will not have mercy upon her childi-en." " Her 
children." -The judgment of God in punishing the sin 
of the fathers upon the cliildren, we spoke somewhat 
of in the chapter before ; we will wholly let that pass 
now, and only consider childi-en politically, for cer- 
tainly that is the meaning of the text ; " I will not have 
mercy upon her children," that is, I will not have mercy 
upon the particular people that belong to Jezreel. 
Private persons are called the daughters of Jerusalem, 
the daughters of such a country. So that the whole 
community together, with the officers and governors, 
are as the mother, and private persons are as the chil- 
dren. So that when God saith he wUl have no mercy 
upon her chikben, he not only tlii'eatens the state and 
the chm-ch, the governors and the whole community 
thus, but he threatens every particular person of them. 
Though you that are in the multitude perhaps think 
you may escape in the crowd ; No, saith God, I wUl 
look to every one of the private and particular persons 
of Israel, and my wrath shall not only come out against 
those that are in higher place, but it shall come out 
against you also, I wiU slay her childi"en. It is tiiie, 
indeed, the heads and governors of places are usually 
most involved in the guilt of the sins of nations, and 
their judgments are usually most di-eadful when God 
comes with national judgments ; as Numb. xxv. 3, 4, 
" Israel joined herself to Baal-Peor, and the anger of 
the Lord was kindled against Israel, and the Lord said 
unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang 
them up before the Lord, against the sun." The Lord's 
anger was kindled against the people, but he bade 
Moses especially look to the heads, and take them and 
hang them up before the Lord, that the fierce anger of 
the Lord might be tm-ned away from Israel. Certainly 
execution of wrath upon such as have been heads in 
e\il, is a sacrifice exceedingly well pleasing to God. 
But though God aim at them especially in national 
judgments, yet private persons must not think to 
escape ; and that upon these grounds. 

Fii-st, Because for their sins God often suffers their 
governors to do so much evil as they do. As Israel 
had sinned, and God was wToth with Israel, therefore 
David did what he did in numbering the people. 
When you see yom- governors do that which is naught, 
lament for your own sins ; do not spend your time only 
in ci-)'ing cut against them, but look to yourselves, it 
is for yom- sins that God has left them to do as they 
liave done. 

Secondly, The reason why governors do not refoim, 
may be the perverseness of people, that they are not in 



a preparation to receive that good which, otherwise, our 
governors had in then- hands and hearts to accomplish. 
As 2 Chron. xx. 33, " Howbeit the high places were not 
taken away :" why ? " for as yet the people had not 
prepared their hearts unto the God of then- fathers." 
Should they have pulled down the liigh places ? No ; 
but they should have been in a preparation for the 
pulling of them down. Certamly this is the great 
cause why our high places are not pulled down, why 
reformation has gone on no better than it has, and why 
we have so much evil remaining amongst us, because 
the people have not prepai'ed theii- hearts, are not in a 
cUsposition to receive the mercy that om* governors 
have hearts to bring to us. They have hearts to work 
for us, but when we speak to them of what is fit to be 
done, their answer is. But is England in a fit disposition 
to receive such a thing ? So that the truth is, although 
you are ready to blame yom- governors, and to say. 
They have power in their hands, why do they not re- 
form things ? yet the guilt, in great part, devolves upon 
the people, they are not in a fit disposition to receive 
such reformation ; therefore God threatens the chil- 
di-en, the people, here. 

Again, further. It may be that the governors who are 
evil, are so much encouraged and abetted in that which 
is evil by you ; though you do it not, yet you so much 
encourage them that the guilt redounds upon you. 

Yea, lastly. If you obey them in any thing that is 
exil, the guilt devolves upon you, for you should not do 
it, but rather obey God than man. Jlany think to 
make this their plea, they are commanded to do thus, 
and governors would have them do it, and it is a law, 
and the like ; and they think upon this plea they may 
do any thing in the world. This will not secure you, 
God may come with judgment without mercy upon the 
chilcb-en, as well as upon the mother. And if God's 
vrxa.Xh should come in national judgments against Eng- 
land, let the people know that they are likely to smart 
most dreadfully, for never was there a time in our days, 
nor in om- forefathers' daj-s, that so much depended 
upon the people as at this day ; never were they called 
to afford such help as they are now. So that the 
people now may liave reformation and blessings, if it 
be not thi-ougli their own fault. As in Cant. vii. 1, 
the church is described in her beauty, and it begins at 
her feet, " How beautiful are thy feet ! " And in Cant. 
V. 11, Cluist is described in his beauty, and it begins 
at the head, " His head is as the most fine gold." God 
sometimes makes use of the people to be great means, 
and perhaps the beginning of means, to bring beauty to 
the church, though they cannot perfect it. Heretofore 
private persons could do little ; alas, they were under 
gi'ievous oppressions, they knew not how to help them- 
selves. !^Ian)' men that had pm'ses, and strength, and 
heads, and heails, and all, knew not what to do, but 
make their moan one to another, and to Heaven ; but 
now it is otherwise, you may do somewhat besides 
making your moan one to another, yea, besides making 
youi- moan to Heaven : you that have piu'ses may see 
ways to employ them for the public good, for religion, 
for liberty ; you that have strength of body may know 
what to do ; you that have parts, you are called to help, 
you may join together for good, and the good of your 
countrj-, you may do much more than heretofore could 
be done. '\^1ierefore now, if you should desert the 
cause of God, and those you have trusted, you must 
expect the most dreadful -nTath of God upon the people, 
and that without mercy, that ever was upon any nation 
since the beginning of' the world ; for never any nation 
had more depending upon the people, than tliere is at 
this day upon the people of England. Consider it, and 
oh that all the people of the land did but know what 
God would have them to do in such a time as this ! 

" 1 will not have mercy upon her children ;" upon 



76 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



pai-ticular private persons in the society. One note 
more upon that, It is a dangerous thing for men in any 
society to do as the most do. If they be in a civil so- 
ciety, or in a church, to give their votes, and to act as 
the greater part act, without any examination, is dan- 
gerous. For though the community may do that whicli 
is evil, you shall not be excused by saying, "\Miy, what 
could I help it, when the most did the same ? God 
comes upon private and jjarticular men, upon the chil- 
dren, even every one of them : and why ? 

" For they are the children of whoredoms ;" that is, 
either passively or actively : passively, because they 
were begotten of whoredoms, and brought up, their 
education had been in whoredom, they had it from 
their parents : or else they are " the children of whore- 
doms" actively, they live in the same whoredoms their 
mother did. From hence, 

OLs. 1. There is little hope of children who are edu- 
cated wickedly. If the dye have been in the wool, it 
is -hard to get it out of the cloth. If evil principles 
have been dropped into children, there is little hope of 
them for good, especially of those children who have 
been brought up in ways of superstition and idolatry, 
their hearts being so defiled and hardened in super- 
stitious and idolatrous ways, that they seldom come to 
any good. Therefore that wliich has been ])roposed is 
very good, namely, to take the chikh-en of pajiists, and 
to bring them up in the education and knowledge of 
the truth. 

06*. 2. This shall not excuse childi-en, though they 
be '• children of whoredoms." It is no excuse for them 
to say, they had it from theii- parents, and they did as 
their parents have done, and as they commanded them, 
and according as they brought them up. for the wrath 
of God Cometh u])on " the children of disobedience." 
Then what a mercy is it for us to be brought up in the 
truth ; to have parents that profess the truth, and for 
our education to be in the way of truth ! It is a mercy 
of which we do not consider to give God the glory. 
How dangerous is it to have superstitious, idolatrous 
parents, and to have such kind of education ! If they 
have Turks, or Jews, or papists to their j)arcnts, and 
such education, it is not one of ten thousand that alters 
his religion. Therefore it is likely our contlition would 
have been the same, if God had not ordered it, that 
our parents should be such as profess the truth, and 
our education be according to the truth. Bless God 
for this. And you that are parents, look to your chil- 
di-en, and bi-ing them up in the truth. Chikben who 
have gracious principles dro])]icd into them, and water- 
ed by prayers and tears, there is hope of them ; and not 
of them alone, but of the nation where they live. 

Obs. 3. AV'hen God's judgments are abroad in the 
world, let " the chikb'en of whoredoms " look to it, God 
threatens " he will have no mercy u])on them, for they 
are the children of whoredoms." They are the butt of 
God's WTath when his judgments come. God saith in 
Isa. xxvii. 4, " Fury is not in me," that is, it is not in 
me toward my saints ; though I cojne out in fury, yet 
it is not in me towards them. AVhat then ? " Who would 
set the briers and thorns against me in battle ? I 
would go through them, I would bimi them together." 
■When my wrath comes against the briers and thorns, 
I will go through them and bm-n them together ; but 
toward my children, " fiuy is not in me.'' AMien God's 
wrath is abroad in the world, let not the children of the 
bride-chamber fear, but let the ehikh-cn of whoredcmis 
tremble. Let briers and thorns fear, but not the fruit- 
ftil trees in God's garden. God's judgments know how 
to make a difference between men, they are distin- 
gui>hing things when they come abroad : God sends 
not his judgments hand over head, but puts into tliem 
a distinguishing quality. God bas a chamber of rest 
and safety for his people, wherein lie will hide them till 



his indignation be oveqjast ; but for the children of 
whoredoms, superstitious, idolatrous, wicked, and un- 
godly people, they are the people of God's indignation, 
they are like Idumea, the people of God's curse, as you 
have it in Isa. xxxiv. 5. 

There are a people this day amongst us who are cer- 
tainly the people of God's curse, and let them look to 
it well. Kev. xiv. 8, " Babylon is fallen, is fallen," saith 
an angel ; and mark what follows, ver. 9, 10, '• And the 
third angel followed them, saying, with a loud voice. If 
any man worship the beast and bis image, and receive 
his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall 
(b'ink of the wine of the wrath of God, wliich is pom-ed 
out without mixture into tlie cup of his indignation." 
According to this text, God will have no mercy, they 
shall (b'ink of the wine of the wrath of God, without 
mixture of any mercy at all. And fm-ther, '• He shall 
be tormented with fii-e and brimstone in the presence 
of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb ; 
and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever 
and ever ; and they have no rest day nor night, who 
worship the beast and his image, and whosoever recciv- 
eth the mark of his name." Here is a di'eadful threat 
against such as follow the ways of that great whore of 
Babylon. Blessed are they that in these times have 
testimony in their own consciences, that it has been 
their care above aU things to draw themselves out from 
the guilt of all superstitious and idolatrous vanities, and 
to keep themselves, according to the light that God has 
tUscovered to them, pure from the pollutions of that 
man of sin. Blessed, I say, are these, they need not 
fear this day ; but for those who have involved them- 
selves in the guilt of those pollutions, they have need 
to himible their souls before God, and to ciy mightily, 
for wrath is going out against the children of whore- 
doms. It is not meant only of hell hereafter, but of 
judgment even in this world. And above all times that 
have been since antichrist began, it is a most desperate 
thing to be a papist in these days, because now is the 
time for God to make these cliikben of whoredoms the 
very butt of his WTath and indignation. 

We hear of wars, and rumours of wars : my bre- 
thren, keep your hearts chaste to God, and fear not, for 
God has another manner of people to deal with than 
you ; you shall be sealed fb'st, before the WTath come 
out. Though I cannot excuse you altogether from suf- 
fering some afflictions, these children of whoredoms 
may bring some trouble upon the saints for the pre- 
sent, yea, jierhaps some of you may have yom- blood 
spilt, but God has mercy to bestow upon you : but for 
them there is wrath, and wrath without mixture, God 
saith he wUl have no mercy upon the children of 
whoredoms. 

Let such as are going forth then in the service of 
religion and liberty, go forth with courage and un- 
dauntedness of spbit ; why ? for they fight against none 
but those whom God fights against. Wio are thev, 
but those who have showed themselves fighters against 
God, most abominable swearers and blaspliemers, such 
as make no other use of the light of the gospel, but 
to scorn and contemn it ; such as are open despisers of 
God and his truth, and of his jicople ? Certainly, if 
there be a cursed generation upon the face of the earth, 
these arc the people, whose mouths are full of curses ; 
and God's curse is upon them, who are so full of curs- 
ings tliemselves. If there be any of you here that are 
now going, or hereafter may go forth in this service, 
yoiu- spirits should rise with indignation against suc'n 
monsters upon earth, and go against them as David 
against Goliath, AVhat! shall this uncircumciscd Philis- 
tine defy the host of the living God ? Thus vour hearts 
should rise if you have any love to God and his truth ; 
Shall a company of cursed monsters, that do notliing 
but blaspheme, and curse, and swear, and defy God, and 



Ver. 5. 



THE PROPUECY OF HOSEA. 



his servauts, and his tabernacle, aiiJ worship ; sliall 
these uncircumcised Philistines go on thus, defying 
God and his truth >. If you have the hearts of men 
within you, especially of Christians, metliinks you 
shoidd not be able to bear it, but go forth against them 
with fulness of spii-it and resolution. Certainly, God 
■will make them a prey to you ; they are such as not 
only have put off Cliristianity, and are become atheists, 
but they have put off all kind of humanity, and are 
rather tui-ned monstrous beasts, or devils. Fear them 
not, though their hearts be full of pride and rage, and 
though they boast never so much what they are, or 
what they have done, or what they will do ; I say, fear 
them not, for this is part of the curse of God upon 
them, that though God fights against them, they wiU 
not see it, they shall not see it because God intends to 
destroy them ; though judgments are out against them, 
yet they wUI not repent. You find divers times in the 
book of the Revelation, that those who followed anti- 
christ, though they were tormented, and all the judg- 
ments of God were against them, yet they repented not. 
Rev. ix. 21 ; xvi. 9, 11. This, I say, is the curse of God 
upon such, God will not give them repentance unto 
life, for they are the childi'en of whoredoms, upon 
■n-hom God intends to have no mercy : therefore the 
higher their rage rises, the higher your hearts should 
rise against them. 

Ver. 5. For their yiwlher hath played the harlot : 
she that conceived them hath done shamefullij : for she 
said, I will go after my lovers, that give vie my bread 
and my icater, my ivoot and my flax, mine oil and my 
drink. 

" Their mother," that is, the state and the church, 
for they were both involved in one, " hath played the 
harlot." This "for" has reference two ways ; either it 
may have reference to those words, " I will not have 
mercy upon them," for not only they are defiled with 
whoredoms, but theu- mother also, she has played the 
hai-lot : or secondly, it has reference only to the latter 
part, " they are the children of whoredoms, for their 
mother hath played the harlot : " either it refers to the 
reason why God will not have mercy upon them, be- 
cause their mother hath played the harlot ; or to the 
reason why they are the chikben of whoredoms, for 
theii' mother hath played the harlot. And from both 
these references we have very usefid observations. 

Obs. 1. God cannot endm-e a succession in wicked- 
ness. I will not have mercy upon them, " their mother 
hath played the harlot," and they are children of 
whoredoms themselves, there is a succession of wicked- 
ness among them, and that I cannot bear. The ground 
is, because those that keep up a succession of wicked- 
ness from the mother to the clulcben downward, are 
guilty of all the wickednesses that went before them 
in that line : else, how can that be understood, where 
Christ saith he will require all the blood from Abel to 
Zaoharias upon that generation, but because they, con- 
tinuing in that way of sin, kept up the succession of 
that sm ; and so that generation was guilty of all the 
sins of that kind that went before, even unto Abel. 
The father is a whoremonger, and the child proves to 
be one too, and so it descends ; the child is not only 
guUty of his ovra sin, but of his father's, and of his 
grandfather's, and of all that land of sin committed 
before, even up to the beguming of the world ; why ? 
because he keeps up the succession of that sin in the 
world. This is a most terrible thing to consider, enough 
to wound the strongest heart in the world, especially 
of those that know they have had wicked parents. 

Obs. 2. Children usually follow the example of their 
parents. " For their mother hath played the harlot," 
is assigned as the reason why the^ are children of 



whoredoms. It is a usual thing where there are profane 
parents, to have profane children ; if the parents swear, 
to have swearing children ; if parents be superstitious, 
to have superstitious childi-en ; if parents be scorners 
at religion, to have children scoruers too. That new 
nick-name brought against the godly in room of the 
former, is as frequent in the mouths of children as in 
otliers, because chilch'cn follow theu' fathers. 2 Kings 
ii. 23, when Elisha the prophet was going up to 
Bethel, " there came forth little chdcben out of the city, 
and said unto him, Go up, thou bald-head ; go up, 
thou bald-head." The thing that I note it for is this, 
that not only the children did it, and so were destroyed, 
(for two she-bears came out of the wilderness, and tare 
forty-two of them,) but what chikbeii were they ? If you 
observe the text, you find that they were the childi'en of 
Bethel; and what place was that? one of the places where 
the cahes were set up, a place of much superstition, and 
the childi'en were as superstitious as their parents. A 
place that had the name. The house of God ; but no 
jilace degenerated more from the name than it, it was a 
Beth-aven, a house of vanity and wickedness. The 
place was most superstitious, and its children were those 
who scorned at the prophet. Again, the prophet saith, 
Jer. vii. IS, "The chiltbcn gather wood, and the fathers 
kindle the fire, and the women knead theu' dough : " 
the children joined, you see. Pelagius thought that 
there was no sin came into the world, but by children 
imitating theu' parents. Certainly, imitation is of great 
power and force to prevail with the hearts of chikben. 
You that are wicked parents, had need look to what 
you do before your chikb'en. He that sins before a 
child, especially a parent, sins doubl}', 
for a child will be ready to imitate it. "JueKspre"" 
^Vhat! wUl you not only sin against God, 
and be enemies unto him, but will you leave a succes- 
sion, part of yourselves, to blaspheme God after you are 
dead ? Suppose, parents, you had a plague-sore upon 
you, would you go amongst your chilch'en and breathe 
upon them ? This cruelty is much worse : will you go 
into your families, and breathe infection into yom' chil- 
cben, and so make them like you, and guilty of your 
sins, and of the plagues of God together with you ? O 
cruel parents ! 

On the other hand, as they were chikken of whore- 
doms, because " theu- mother hath played the harlot," 
why then should not childi-en be gracious and godly, 
who have gracious and gocUy parents ? Why should it 
not be said. This child is a godly child, for his mother 
was a gracious woman, his father was a godly man ? 
Children, let this be your encomium, Y'ou are godly 
and gracious chikben, because you had godly and gra- 
cious parents ; this wiU be yoiu' honour before the saints. 
But how vile is it, when it may be said. Here is a wicked 
wretch, yet he had a godly father and mother ; here is 
an unclean and filthy liver, yet he had gracious parents ! 
It is no wonder to say. This man is filthy, for his father 
was unclean, and his mother was a harlot ; but to look 
upon one and say, Here is an adulterer, yet his father 
was a godly, gracious man ; here is a harlot, yet her 
mother was a holy woman : oh how vile is this ! The 
reverend Mr. Bolton, upon his death-bed, called his 
chikb-en to come to him, and thus addi-essed them, " I 
do believe not one of you will dare to meet me at the 
tribunal of Christ in an um-egenerate condition." You 
that are evil chilcben of godly parents, let me, in their 
names, speak to you : AVith what face do you think you 
shall dare to nieet your godly father and gracious 
mother before the judgment-seat of Chi-ist Jesus? at 
that day, if yom- godly father stand at the right hand 
of Chi-i'st, how can you appear before that face in the 
guUt of those horritjle wickednesses in w'hich you now 
live ? Certainly, the thought of this has power to daunt 
your hearts. 



78 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



" She hath done slramefully." The word rnr»3in is 
in Hi])hil, and may be translated transitively, she hath 
made ashamed, as well as done shamefully; and by 
some it is thus interpreted, she has made ashamed her 
husband, she has made ashamed her chOdien, she has 
made ashamed herself: and all these three may be 
meant ; yea, I conceive the intent of the Holy Ghost 
is to express them all. 

Her husband first. The church is the spouse of Jesus 
Christ ; Christ is the husband of the church ; and you 
know the Scripture saith that '■ the woman is the glory 
of the man ;" so the church, being the spouse of Christ, 
should be the glory of Christ. The woman should be 
the glory of the man, but yet, being wicked, she makes 
her husband ashamed. The evil of the wife is a shame 
to the husband ; so the evU of the church is a shame to 
Jesus Clirist. The chiurch in Scripture is called the 
glory of Chi-ist : If " our brethren be inquired of, they 
are the messengers of the churches, and the glory of 
Clu-ist," 2 Cor. viii. 23. " Upon all the glory shall" be 
a defence," Isa. iv. 5. It should be so ; but when it is 
defiled it shames Christ, its wickedness reflects upon 
Chiist. Chi'ist is said to " walk in the midst of the 
seven golden candlesticks," Rev. ii. 1. Every- chm-ch 
is a candlestick, and it should be a golden candle- 
stick : but if it be a filthy and rusty candlestick, it 
is a dishonour to Christ who walks amongst them. 
Wicked men do not shame Clu'ist, but the godly do. 
Mv brethren, let us take heed of that ; it is an evU 
thing to bring shame to ourselves and one another, but 
to bring a shame upon Jesus Clu'ist is the greatest e\i.\. 
Many of you perhaps are ashamed of Christ, take heed 
that you be not a shame to Christ. They are ashamed 
of Christ that are ashamed to appeal- in the cause of 
Christ; but as for you that are so, Christ has more 
cause to be ashamed of you, for you ai'e a shame to 
him. I cannot deny, but many chmches of God of 
late have brought shame to Jesus Christ by their dis- 
sensions and fractions. They have taken shame to 
themselves, and have acknowledged it to the glory of 
Christ, and thus, in some measure, have washed off that 
shame which they have brought to Clirist. 

Again, wicked parents are a shame to their childi-en. 
"WTien a child appears in a place, and is luiown to be 
very hopeful, some who knew his family say, I Avonder 
to see him so forward, for his father is a drunkard, and 
his mother of a \ile and malignant spirit : how the 
child is ashamed to hear of the evil of his f;ither, and of 
the evil of his mother ! As foohsh children arc a shame 
to their parents, so %rickpd parents are a shame to theii- 
children. You that ha-\e gi-acious childi-pn, take heed 
you be not a shame to them, and so a shame to youi-- 
selves. 

And then a shame to herself. " She hath played the 
harlot : she hath done shamefully." Wherein had she 
done shamefully ? I \rill only mention one particular. 
Her shame was especially in subjecting rehgion to car- 
nal policy. For what was the gi-eat sin of the ten 
tribes ? It was this, the)- were afraid, if they went up to 
Jerusalem to worship, the people would then depart 
from the house of Jeroboam to the house of David, 
therefore out of political regards they would have wor- 
ship set up at Dan and Bethel ; there they would have 
cahes, and they would not go up to Jei-usalem, the 
jilnce which God had appouited for worship. This was 
a mere politic fetch, for they could not but acknow- 
ledge that God required them to worship at Jerusalem 
where the temple was. Here then they did shamefully. 

Obs. 1 . For govei-nors, or any other persons, to sub- 
ject religion to policy is a shameful tJimg. (1.) It is 
.shameful to make religion an underling, and to make 
pohcy tlie head. Perhaps they call this wisdom, pru- 
dent conduct. We must, say they, be careful and wise 
to foresee inconveniences that may foUow. But what 



if God give it another name ? God may give it a name 
of base temporizing, a name of folly and wickedness. 
To subject rehgion to poHcy is shamefid, because it 
abases that which is the gi-eat hoiioiu- of any country-, 
and makes it an underUng. "\ATiat is the excellency < 
man but religion? what is the excellency of a count i. 
but religion ? and what has England been glorious for 
more than for religion ? Now to put an excellent 
thing under an inferior, is to put the croAA-n, which is 
for the head, imder one's foot : although a thing has 
in itself but little excellency, if it be brought beneath 
itself under other things which have not so great an 
excellency in them, it makes it vile. 

(2.) Shameful, because it holds forth this, that we 
dare not ti-ust God for our cUil estate, and for our 
peace, therefore religion must come under. 

(3.) Shamefid, because it is gross foUy ; for there i- 
no such way to breed disturbance, or to tmdo a state, 
as to make rehgion an underling to pohcy. Was it not 
so here ? That verj- way which they took to uphold 
their pohcy, was the way to destroy their state ; and 
did desti-oy it at last. Wiat cause had they then to be i 
ashamed, when God took that by which they thought I 
to help themselves, and made that the very- thing tliat 
caused their ruin ! And certauily it will be so ; they 
that use the most deep and poHtic artifices, if they 
think to secm-e themselves, and preserve their peace, by 
the principle, that rehgion must come under, God will ] 
make them ashamed one way or other, it will be the ' 
only way to undo themselves and us. In matters of 
religion some commands are aftu-mative precepts ; these, 
thougli they ligare semper, yet not ad semper, there is 
not a necessity that at every time and mstant they 
should be urged ; so that a people may be in such a 
frame that men cannot but by degrees bring in a re- 
formation, and then it is not carnal pohcy to bring 
in such ways of God graduaDy, as are commanded 
by affirmative precepts : but negative precepts bind 
seviper and ad semper ; and the state must see, that ■ 
they do nothing against Christ out of jiohcy, that they 
do not hinder the gospel of Cluist by any positive law ; 
for though Chiist may be willing to forbear some ordi- 
nances for a time, and out of mercy to a people, and I 
will have mercy and not sacrifice, yet he will never 
allow any tiling done against him m that time. If, 
out of any state pohcy to preserve peace, or to gi-atify 
an evil party, they sacrifice any part of religion, or any 
godly person, Christ accounts this a shameful thing'; 
and whoever does so wiU be ashamed of it at the last. 
Now, my brethren, why should not God be trusted? 
Let us look at rehgion in the first place, and pray that 
those who are reformers, who have power in their 
hands, may never prove guilty of puttmg rehgion 
under pohcy. When Joshua had brought the people 
of Israel over Jordan, wliich you know was the begm- 
ning of their entrance into Canaan, they were to en- 
counter all their enemies. You may imagine, that 
when Joshua had passed the river, Israel might suppose 
that all the eounti-y woidd be about then- ears. One 
woidd think, that pohcy would have taught them to lay 
aside all thoughts of rehgion then, and to look to their 
enemies who were at hand ; If ever they are outrageous 
it will be now, therefore now let us mind nothing 
but arming ourselves against them. But mai-k, God 
goes another way to work ; as soon as they were gone 
over Jordan, and were upon the borders ot the land of 
Canaan, they must circumcise themselves, and when 
they were circumcised they could not fight. Simeon 
and Levi destroyed a whole city when tney were cir- 
cumcised, because they w-ere not then able to fight or 
defend themselves, but lay at the mercy of their ene- 
mies. But this was God's wisdom. Nay further, they 
must keep the passover too, tliey must mind and attend 
to religion : and mark the latter end of the chapter, that 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



79 



after they had been cuxumcised and kept the passover, 
then appeareth one to Joshua with a di-awii sword, and 
<iaith, " I am the Captain of the host of the Lord." 
'Die Captain of the Lord's host appeared to fight for 
them when they had obeyed ; whereas, had they neg- 
lected cuxumcision and the passover, and thought of 
fighting only, they might have missed the Captain of 
the Lord's host to have fought for them, and what 
would have become of them then ? So you see, God 
would have us mind religion in the most dangerous 
times ; and though we think we must mind our peace 
and safety, and lay oiu- hands upon our swords for om- 
defence, yet let us be careful of om- religion, and then 
we shall have a Captain of the Lord's host come and 
fight for us. 

In Mark viii. 15, we are charged to take heed of two 
sorts of leaven, " the leaven of the Pharisees, and the 
leaven of Herod." The leaven of the scribes and Pha- 
risees is cori-uption m chiu'ch afi'airs ; the leaven of 
Herod is corruption in religion, in bringing the things 
of God under the affau's of the state : for in this Herod 
was like Jeroboam, he was afraid of his kingdom, as 
Jeroboam was ; he had many ways and plots to keep 
himself in that kingdom, as Jeroboam had ; and many 
cleaved to Herod in his plots, as Israel clave to Jero- 
boam in his ; therefore says Christ, Take heed not only 
of the leaven of the scribes and Pharisees, but of the 
leaven of Herod. And it may be, the Lord saw us too 
prone to ways of sinful compliances, even ready to have 
sacrificed much of his worship and many of his saints, 
for obtaining peace ui the state, and so to have fallen 
off from that reformation that both God and his people 
expected ; hence he has taken the work uito his own 
hands ; he will bring about his ovra work, though it may- 
cost us dear, who knows how much blood ? 

Obs. 2. That sin, but especially whoredom, is a 
shameful thing. Prov. xiii. 5, " A wicked man is loath- 
some, and Cometh to shame." Prov. xiv. 34, ■' Sm is 
a reproach to any- people." Sui, of its own nature, let 
it be what it will, is shameful. All sin brings a man 
beneath the excellency of a man, it is conti-aiy to the 
image of God m man, to that wherein ti'ue honour, 
beauty, gloiy, consist. It makes men vile : Dan. xi. 
21, " And in his estate shall stand up a ^ile person." 
■^Mio was that ? It was, according to interpreters, An- 
tiochus Epiphanes, the great king of AssjTia, and yet 
a vile person. Josephus tells us, when the Samaritans 
were in danger of suffering from him, because he 
thought them to be Jews, they wrote to him in this 
manner. To Antiochus the might)' god ; and his very 
epithet, Epiphanes, is in English 'as much as illustri- 
ous, Antiochus the illustrious, the famous, bright in his 
glory. He that was so illustrious and gi-eat a prince, 
as to be addressed as the might)- god, yet in Scriptm-e 
language, being wicked, is " a ^-ile person." It is a spe- 
cial mark of one that is fit to dwell in God's mountain, 
Psal. XV. 4, that he is able to see the vileness of sin 
through all the glory of the world ; " in whose eyes a 
vile person is contemned." Sin is a shame, because it 
deceives a man : '■ The way of the wicked shall deceive 
him." " What fruit had ye then of those things, whereof 
ye are now ashamed ? " It is a good sign of gi'ace, to 
be able to see into the deceits of sin, so as to be ashamed 
of it._ But, though all sin be shameful, yet whoredom 
especially, and that either bodily or spuitual. 

First, bodily. The expression of shamefulness, though 
it especially aims at then- idolatry, yet has its rise from 
bodily whoredom ; if that were not shameful, the expres- 
sion coidd not be appropriate, that .she had played the 
harlot, and done shamefidly. Prov. vi. 32, 33, " "WTioso 
committeth adultery with a woman, laeketh under- 
standing, he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. A 
wound and dishonoiu- shall he get ; and his reproach 
ihall not be wiped away." It makes one to be as one 



of the fools in Israel : " And I," (saith Tamar, when 
Amnon defiled her,) " whither shall I cause my shame 
to go ? and as for thee, thou shalt be as one of the fools 
in Israel," 2 Sam. xiii. 13. Amnon, though a king's 
son, yet by his uncleanness makes himself as one of 
the fools in Israel. Deut. xxiii. 18, " Thou shalt not 
bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into 
the house of the Lord;" they are joined together, for 
Scriptiu'e makes those to be dogs who are unclean and 
filthy. When Ishbosheth charged Abner with the sin 
of uncleanness, 2 Sam. iii. 8, " Am I a dog"s head," 
saith he, " that thou chargest me to-day with a fault 
concerning tliis woman?" Many adulterers go veiy 
fine and spruce, many young wantons are bravely 
di'essed, but in God's esteem they are as dogs for then* 
uncleanness. It is not a harsher title than the Spfrit of 
God gives them. I have read of a people amongst the 
heathen, who condemned this sin with a shameful 
death, according to its nature. The adulterer's or adul- 
teress's head was put into the paunch of a beast, and 
stifled to death ; a punishment fit for so filthy a sin. 
This sin is ever shameftd, but especially the more lovely 
any yoke-fellow is who is forsaken, and the more vile 
and foul the harlot is, so much the more shameful is 
the sin. Athenaeus introduces Plato, bewailing himself 
and his own condition, that he was taken so much with 
a filthy harlot. It is more shameful for Christians than 
for heathens, because they know that the covenant of 
marriage is the " covenant of God," Prov. ii. 17. 

But fiu'ther, con'uption in God's worship is most 
shameful, for that is aimed- at especially here. The 
shamefulness of corrupting the woi'ship of God is ex- 
pressed in Exod. xxxii. 2.5. Aai'on made the people 
naked unto then- shame ; how was that, but by false 
worship, though it was of the true God ? In false wor- 
ship there is shame, because in that a man subjects his 
conscience to •v'ile tilings. Conscience, which is not to 
be subject to any creatm-e, only to God himself, is here 
made subject to low and vile tilings. It is not shameful 
to subject our consciences to God in the use of crea- 
tures, though never so mean, if appointed by himself; 
but those that subject them to creattu'es in wavs of 
false worsliip not appointed by God, subject not their 
consciences to God but to those creatures, and that is 
shameful. In false worship, though there may seem to 
be a great deal of humility, )'et there is notorious pride 
and presumption, and therefore much shame. For a 
creatm-e to take upon him, by liis own fancy and con- 
ceit, to raise up creatiu-es higher than God has raised 
them, to put higher respects upon crcatm-es than God 
has done, is boldness and presumption. Yea, he pre- 
sumes, by his own conceit, to raise up the creature so 
high, that God himself must come nearer to men, and 
be more present with these creatures than otherwise he 
would. Thus men presimie to bring God under their 
fancies ; and is not this shameful ? 

Fm-ther, it is extreme folly, for we contradict oiu-- 
selves when we think to honom- God, and yet go against 
him, when we put high esteem upon such things as are 
abominable and detestable. " I sent unto yOu all my 
servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, 
saying, Ob, do not this abominable tiling that I hate," 
Jer. xliv. 4. Mark, God cries out with energy. All my 
servants the prophets I sent, saying, " Oh, do not this 
abominable thing;" it is a delightfiJ thing in your 
eyes, but abominable in God's. And, Ezek. xxii. 3, 
they are denominated n'SlSj a word that signifies the 
very excrements of a man ; they glory in them, but he 
saith, they defile themselves by them. "^Mien God 
opens theii- eyes they will see false worship a shameful 
thing ; and when they do so God will show them the 
excellency of liis own. " Son of man, show the house 
to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of 
their iniquities : and let them measure the pattern. 



89 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



ClIAP. II. 



Aiid if they be asliamcd of all that they have done," 
that is, of all their false worship ; what then ? " sho^y 
them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, 
and the goings out thereof, and the comings in there- 
of, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances 
thereof and all the forms thereof, and all the laws 
thereof : and wTite it in their sight, that they may keep 
the whole form thereof and all the ordinances thereof, 
and do them," Ezek. xliii. 10, 11. Mark, my brethren, 
you see how God stands upon forms, " aU the forms 
thereof," and " all the forms thereof," and " the whole 
form thereof" Let us not slightly account any thing 
in God's worsliip, for God stands much upon liis own 
form in his own worship. Many who have no religion 
but a form, yet neglect God's form. Men love to stand 
much upon their own forms ; let them know God stands 
much upon his forms, and it is no hinderance, but a 
furtherance, to the power in religion, to keep close to 
God's form. If we would know what are God's ordi- 
nances, for many cry out. Oh that we could but know 
what is the right way, this is one way for you to know : 
First, be ashamed of what you have done, be ashamed 
of your former false worship, and then God will show 
you the ordinances of his house, and the true beauty 
of his worship : till then there are so many distinctions, 
and evasions, and objections, that you never come to 
understand it. When God humbles the heart, and 
makes it ashamed of what has been naught before, all 
the distinctions, and evasions, and objections, vanish 
away as the mist before the sun. 

And the more excellent the Lord is, and those ordi- 
nances are, from which we depart, the more shameful is 
that false worship to which oui' hearts decline. " She 
hath done shamefully :" why ? she has forsaken such a 
Husband, the Lord Jesus Clirist, who is so lovely ; she 
has forsaken the blessed ordinances that God has ap- 
pointed, and turned herself to vanities of her own. 
Christ is said, Cant. v. 16, to be altogether lovely, there 
is lovehness enough in Christ to satisfy the soul for 
ever. Ezekiel says, chap. vii. 20, '• As for the beauty 
of his ornament," "(speaking of God's orduiances in his 
temple,) " he set it in majesty : but they made the 
images of their abominations and of then- detestable 
things therein." Oh how shameful was this ! This 
shows the shamefulness of it, because God set the 
beauty of his ornament in majesty. The ordinances of 
God which he appointed himself, are God's " ornament," 
they are " the beauty of his ornament," they are " the 
beauty of his ornament set in majesty ; " and shall these 
beautiful and glorious things be forsaken for vanities 
of our o-mi inventions ? This is shameful. 

Obs. 3. Sin, especially whoredom, either bodily or spi- 
ritual, if suffered to grow, wUl make those who commit it 
not only shameful, but shameless in their doings. " She 
hath done shamefully, for she hath said." Here it is 
implied, that the thing done was not only shameful, but 
tliat she was shameless. " "Were they ashamed when 
they had committed abomination ? Nay, they were not 
at all ashamed, neither could they blush," Jer. vi. 15. 
At fii'st, sin may seem to be a little shame-faced, but 
afterward it grows brazen-faced; modest a little at first, 
but bold, impudent, and darmg afterward. If men 
were told beforehand what they Avould do afterward, 
they would be ready to say, as Hazael to the prophet, 
'• ]5"ut what ! is thy servant a dog, that he should do 
this great thing? " their hearts woidd even shake at the 
thought of it : yet, when sin has hardened their hearts, 
they will do it, "and that with open face too. AMiore- 
(liini, you know, at first, is that at which every man 
blushes ; but, within a while, unclean ones can boast of 
their filthiness. But especially spiritual whoredom, 
the coiTuption of God's worship, at first may be a little 
modest, but sec to what a height it grows if in time it 
be not prevented. I will give you a notable example 



of this. At first we find Solomon very modest in the 
matter of idolatiy. - Chron. viii. 11, saith, that he 
" brought up the "daughter of Pharaoh out of the city 
of David, to the house he had built for her, for he said. 
My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king 
of Israel ; " why ? " because the places ai-e holy, where- 
unto the ark of the Lord hath come." INIark, how 
careful Solomon was not to pollute any thing that had 
any seeming holiness in it. I have so much resjject to 
the ark of God, to the worship of God, and to those 
places that are holy, that my wife shall not so much as 
dwell there. But oh what did Solomon grow to after- 
ward ! he suffered idolatry most shamefully, he " went 
after Ashtaroth the goddess of the Zidonians, and 
after !Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites, — and 
built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of 
:Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem," 1 Kings 
xi. 5, 7 ; just there he built it too, as if it had been in 
defiance to the tem])le of God and his true worship ; 
and that " for Jlolech the abomination of the chikb-en 
of Amnion ; and likewise did he," saith ver. 8, " for all 
his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed 
unto their gods." Thus shameless was he grown! 
And thus we see it in experience. How fab- are men in 
their ways of superstition at fii-st ! decency is all they 
plead for. Well, afterward it rises from dc-cency to sig- 
nificancy, that is a little liigher, to put men m mind. 
Thirdly, from significancy it rises to efficacy, to stir ujj 
the dull mind of man. Fourthly, from efficacy it rises 
to necessity, that now it must be done, and the worship 
of God cannot be without it, and there shall be no or- 
dinance, no administration at all without it. Decency, 
significancy, efficacy, and necessity ; thus it rises to be 
shameful at last. So, amongst the papists in their tra- 
cbtions, at first they came with this argument, AVhat ! 
will you not regard them as you woidd other books 
and "histories ? they arc the traditions of om- fore- 
fathers ; but at length they came to this, in the fourth 
session of the council of Trent, the synod nmnes i.i.ros i»m 
" doth take and honour the books of the T'l'mJi'"' nil 'ou 
Old and New Testament, and the ti-a- '■"'''"-""'''Ji'^^ 
ditions of the fathers, with equal affec- !I"reKreni'n sus. " 
tion of piety and reverence." To this "f' »'= >™"-''""'- 
shamefulness they grew at last. And so for wor- 
shippping of images, why, it is for the decency of 
churches to have them, and they are but to put you in 
mind, at the most ; but at length these ,j^^ ^^^^^ j^,,,^,_,^ 
are the veiy words, " the same honoiu' is imagini et c»cm- 
due to the image and to the exemplar." '' "'' 

Obs. 4. "^ATien men grow shameless in evil, there is 
little hope of them. " I will have no mercy upon 
them ;" why ? for they have done thus, they are grown 
thus impudent. It is a good tiling to keep the bridle 
of shame as long as we can upon our children, serv- 
ants, and any of our inferiors : therefore take this one 
instruction, be not too ready to rebuke and chastise 
your servants, or your children, m a reproachful man- 
lier before others,' lest you bring them to see that they 
have no honour to lose, and then there is little hope of 
them : evermore keep such a hand over your chikkcn 
and servants that they may see they have some respect 
to lose ; that they may not" be so shamed by you, as for 
them to think th"cy cannot be worse, or more disgraced ; 
there is no such way to make them desperate as that. 
It is very gi'cat wisdom in governors to keep the briiUe 
of shanie. Your bridewell or jaU-birds seldom or 
never come to good ; why ? because they have no 
bridle to keep them in, they have lost all their honour, 
and they can lose no more ; and there is no rational 
creature' but would have honour. Not the meanest 
servant you have but has a respect to honoiu-, and that 
will do more than blows, except they are become very 
beasts. 

But how docs he prove that it is shameful ? Thus : 



Vle. 5. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



" For she said, I will go after my lovers, tliat give mc 
ray bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine 
oil and my chink." 

Obs. 1. Dehberate sins are most shameful sins. She 
hath said. This is a proof of her shamefulness, because 
that which she has done, she has done upon delibera- 
tion ; she said she would do thus and thus, she considered 
before what she would do, and yet she did it. Wick- 
edness committed de industria, ex consUio, of piu'pose 
resolved upon, is very shameful. Godly men may be 
overtaken with a fault : " If a man be overtaken with a 
fault," Gal. vi. 1. It is one thing to be 
■Eoi_Kt.; irpoXr'nd- overtaken with a sin, and another thing 
to overtake a sm ; a gracious heart may 
have sin overtake it, but it is a shameless heart that 
overtakes sin. 

Obs. 2. Those who are gtiilty of whoredom usually 
gi'ow extremely wilful. " She said, I will go." As if 
she had said. Let all the prophets say what they can, let 
them talk out then- very hearts, I will have my mind, 
I will follow my lovers still. Of those who commit this 
sin bodily, it is said, Prov. ii. 19, "None that go unto 
her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of 
life." It is a most di^eadfid scripture against all adul- 
terers and unclean persons : make it out how you will, 
there is " none that go unto her return again, neither 
take they hold of the paths of life." These are the words 
of the Holy Ghost : I leave the words with you. So 
Prov. xxiii. 27, " A whore is a deep ditch, and a strange 
woman is a narrow pit ;" they cannot easily get out, 
nor will they easily get out, they are so plunged in. 
" Having eyes fuU of adultery, and that cannot cease 
from sin," 2 Pet. ii. 14. AVhy cannot they cease to 
sin ? it is not because they have a heart but no power, 
but their wills are brought into that bondage and sub- 
jection that they cannot will otherwise ; therefore in 
Ezek. xlvii. 11, we find that though the -Raters of the 
sanctuary were very heahng. yet the miiy places and 
the marshes were not healed : mu-y, filthy, unclean 
hearts are veiy seldom healed by the waters of the 
sanctuaiy. jEKan rcjiorts, that there was 
'^''"fiSor!''"' ^ harlot who boasted she could easily get 
scholars away from Socrates, but Socrates 
could get no scholars from her, none of her followers. 
It is true that a harlot is prevalent, and when she has 
once overcome, it is almost impossible to get away from 
her. Therefore Heb. vi. 6, which speaks of that sin from 
which it is impossible to be renewed again to repent- 
ance, is intei"preted by TertuUian to be no other than 
the sin of uncleanness. Tlie author of this Epistle (saith 
he) knew no promise of second repentance to the adul- 
terer and fornicator ; showing how ordinarily those 
that are guilty of that sin, and are given up to it, grow 
wilful in it. And therefore in Eph. iv. 19, these two 
are put together, " being past feeluig," and " having 
given themselves over unto laseiviousness." Wantons 
usually grow past feeling. 

And for spiritual adultery, that usually is very wilful 
too, for those who are left by God to superstition and 
idolatry, seldom return again, but grow exceeding wil- 
ful in that mckedness. You have a notable text for 
that, Jer. xliv. 16, 17 ; the people say there, " As for the 
word thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord, 
we will not hearken imto thee ; but we will do whatso- 
ever Cometh out of our own mouth, to burn incense to 
the queen of heaven." We will go on to burn incense 
to the queen of heaven, talk as long as you will. And 
so Jer. ii. 10—12, "Pass over," saith God, '■ the isles of 
Chittim, and see ; and send unto Kedar, and consider 
diligently, and see if there be such a thing. Hath a 
nation changed then- gods, which are yet no gods ? " 
Alen are settled in the ways of idolatry, and will never 
give over worshipping their gods : " hut my people 
have changed then- glory for that which doth not pro- 



fit:" therefore "be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, 
and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the 
Lord." So Micah iv. o, " All people wiU walk every one 
in the name of his god." Theu- hearts are set upon it, 
they will do it. Spmtual whoredom mightily besots 
the heart. Isa. xliv. 19, 20, " None considere'th in his 
heart, neither is there knowledge and understanding to 
say, I have burned part of it in the fii-e ; yea, also I 
have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted 
flesh, and eaten it ; and shall I make the residue there- 
of an abomination ? shall I fall down to the stock of a 
tree ? He feedeth on ashes : a deceived heart hath 
turned him aside, that ho cannot deliver his soul, nor 
say. Is there not a lie in my right hand ? " And so 
Rev. xvi. 11, where those who were given up to anti- 
christ, though they were tormented they " blasphemed 
the God of heaven, because of their pains and their 
sores, and they repented not of their deeds." 

06*. 3. Wilfulness in any sin, but especially in this 
sin, is a very great aggravation of it. " I will have no 
mercy upon them," I will give them up ; why ? they 
have "done shamefully, and they have said, "I will go 
after my lovers." There are many who, in their passion, 
think it a brave spirit to say, I will, and I will, and I 
care not, say what you can, or whatever becomes of it, 
I win do, or I will have this. Especially men in place, 
and of estates, are not able to endure the controlling of 
then- will in any thing ; and therefore when their wills 
are but crossed,' they biu'st out into outrageous speeches, 
and fall blaspheming, and swearing, and saying they 
will have their will, though it cost them then- lives. 
Thus we find it in the people of Israel, 1 Sam. viii. 19, 
when Samuel came from God and told them in a long 
narration what hardship they should endm-e in having 
a king, for that was not then according to God"s mind ; 
they heard him all that he said, and they do not stand 
to answer any of Samuel's arguments, but presently 
they break out into this resolution, " Nay, but we will 
have a king." Those whom God leaves to hardness of 
heart, and intends to ruin, he usually gives them up to 
this wilfulness in their evil ways. The Scripture re- 
cords Pharaoh as a famous example of one hardened 
and prepared for ruin. He was of a most wilful spiiit. 
Exod. XV. 9, you shall find his wilfulness expressed four 
times in that one verse : " I will piu'sue," saith he ; and 
then again, " I will overtake ;" and, thu-dly, " I will 
divide the spoil ;" and then, fourthly, " I will draw my 
sword." There ai'e two other expressions to the same 
effect, which are equivalent to the former, even in the 
same verse, " jNIy lust shall be satisfied, my hand shall 
destroy them." Put all these six expressions, which 
you have in that one verse, together, and where have 
you such an exhibition of a wilful creature as Pharaoh 
was ? and what became of him you all know. Only- 
one more example I find in Scripture parallel to this, 
and that is the king of Babylon : Egjirt and Babylon 
were two countries most eminent for idolatry, and the 
persecution of the church, and these are the two most 
famous examples for wilfulness. In Isa. xiv. 13, 1-4, 
you have in those two verses five times / will : 1. '• I 
will ascend into heaven." 2. " I will exalt my throne 
above the stars of God." 3. " I wiU sit also upon the 
mount of the congregation." 4. " I wiU ascend above 
the height of the clouds." 5. "I will be like the 
:Most High." And what became of him you likewise 
know ; yea, the next words tell you, " Yet thou shalt 
be brought down to hell." 

These two little words, I and icill, do a great deal 
of mischief in the world. Luther, upon ^ ^.^^^ .^.^^^^ 
Psal. cxxvii., saith, I am of that opinion, sum. monarchias 
and verily persuaded, monarcliios would tms, J m'marcSe 
far longer endure, if those who are high ;;,°°„"°™rSnt. 
monarchs woidd but omit this one pro- ^^^^^ '" '"^ 
noun, /. It is true, in public ways they 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



exjiress themselves in the pltiral number, ue, but private 
resolutions are ni the singular number, /. The second 
is will, " I will," tliat is a little -word too ; but I may 
say of this will, as James saith concerning the tongue, 
It is indeed " a little member " in the body, but " it set- 
teth on fire the course of natiu'e, and it is set on fire of 
hell." So it is true that tliis little icill is but a little 
word, but it sets whole kingdoms on fire, towns and 
cities on fii-e, and is itself set on fii-e of hell. Bernard 
_ „ ... remarks, Take away 2L'ill once, and there 
«r noil erit infi-rn.is. Will be no hcll. Oil the mischiet that it 
docs in the world ! I will only say these 
two tilings to those that keep such ado with these two 
little words, /, uill. 

Fust, That which thou usest with so much pride, and 
thinkcst thyself such a man that canst say, I wUl, know, 
it may be .is heavy a judgment of God as can befall 
thee in this world, lor God to give thee up to thy will. 
There is nothing wherein God poui-s out liis wiath 
upon the chOchcn of men in this world, more than in 
giving them up to then- wiU. Therefore, tremble when 
thou usest so many expressions, I will, and I will do 
this. Observe what the Scriptm-e saith of those who 
had their will in ways of false worship ; " Go ye, serve 
ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if you will 
not hearken unto me," Ezck. xx. 39. Go, saith God, 
you will not hearken to me ; you hear out of the word 
what should be the way of my worship in its piu-ity, 
but you say, I love novelty, and you wiU not have it 
thus ; you answer not Goct's arguments, but you cast 
off his worship, and say you will not have it : Well, 
saith God, if you will not hear me, if you are set upon 
your will, go and serve youi- idols, and take yom- fill of 
your oflTi ways. And Psal. Ixxxi. 11, "My people 
would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none 
of me ; " they were all upon their will, they would not 
and they would not. Mark what follows ; " so I gave 
them up unto their own hearts' lusts, and they walked 
in theii- own counsels." You will have yoiu- own coun- 
sels, and your own will, and so God gives you up to 
them ; and then woe to you, you are undone ! 

Secondly, You that are set upon your wiU in that 
which is evO, know, God is and will be as wilful toward 
you as you can be toward him. ^Mark that notable 
text, Jer. xliv. 25, which sets out the notorious height 
of mcke(hiess that was in the people of those times : 
" Ye and your v^ives have both spoken with yom- 
mouths, and fulfilled -with yoiu- hand," that which is 
evQ; you will not only say you will do it, but will do it 
mdeed. WeD, saith God, vou have done so, " ye and 
your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and 
fulfilled with yom- hand, saying. We will surely per- 
form our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to 
the queen of heaven, and to pour out di-ink offerings 
unto her : ye will surely accomplish yom' vows, and 
surely perform your vows." You will" go on in your 
false w ays of worship. jSIark what follows in ver. 26, 
" Tlierefore hear ye the word of the Lord, all Judah 
that dwell in the land of Egypt ; Behold, I have 
sworn," you have vowed, and I have swoi-n, " I have 
sworn by my gi-eat name, saitli the Lord, that my name 
shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of 
.Tudah in all the land of Egypt :" and ver. 27, "Behold, 
I will watch over them for evil, and not for good : and 
aU the men of Judah that are in the land of Egj-pt 
shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, 
until there be an end of them." God will be as reso- 
lute as the stoutest sinner : you will, and God wOl; who 
shall have their will, think you ? Answer to tliis, you 
stout-hearted that are away from God ; answer to tliis, 
you stout-hearted children, and servants, and wives. 
A wilful man never wants woe. If you will be resolute 
in any tiling, my brethren, be resolute m that which is 
good; be resolute in the work of repentance, with 



David, Psal. xxxii. 5, " I will confess my transgressions :" 
indeed I had many thoughts to come and shame my- 
self, and open all unto God, but I could not get it off; 
at length I grew resolute and said, I will, and I have 
sworn to keep thy righteous precepts : and as they, 
Micah iv. 5, " We will walk m the name of the Lord oiu- 
God:" and as Joshua, I and my house will serve the 
Lord ; do you what you will, we are resolute that we 
will serve the Lord. This is a blessed wilfuhiess in- 
deed. Oh that the stoutness and wilfulness of many 
people might be turned to this resolution for God and 
for his truth ! Especially, carry this note home with 
you, you that give such often expressions of yom- will, 
and turn it to the wilhng of that which is good. I 
will follow my lovers, says the apostate fi-om God : I 
Mill follow my beloved, who is altogether lovely, let 
every gracious soul say. 

Obs. 4. Professed sins are shameful sins. " She said," 
she professed what she would do. It is an evil for sin 
to Ue Imking in any one's heai't, but for sm to break 
out into open profession, is a greater evil. This is to 
prove that she had done shamefully, because she said 
she would do it. There is a great deceit in the hearts 
of many men, they are ready to say, I may as well say 
so as think so ; I say so, and perhaps others think so, 
it were as well for me to speak it as to keep it in my 
heart. My brethren, there are two deceits in this kind 
of speaking. 

First, Y'ou suppose that when you speak so, it is not 
in your heart, and you make the comparison of what 
is in other men's hearts and in yom' mouths ; as if the 
evil were in your mouths only, and in their hearts 
only ; as if the comparison lay thus, they think and do 
not speak, and you speak and do not think. Here is 
the deceit, for if you speak you have it in yom' hearts 
too, you both speak and think, for so the Scriptm'e as- 
siu-es us, that " out of the abmidance of the heart the 
mouth spcaketh : " if you speak mahciously, you have 
a maUcious heart ; if you speak uncleanly, you have an 
unclean heart ; if oaths be in yoiu' moutlis, you have a 
profane heart. 

Secondly, Here likewise lies the deceit, as if you 
should have less in yoiu' heart because you vent it ; as 
passionate people will say, I may as well vent my mind, 
and then I shall be quiet. Thou dceeivest thyself ; the 
venting of corruption that lies in thy heart will never 
lessen it, but increase it. It is not with the corruption 
of om' hearts as it is with liquor in a vessel, that the 
more it is let out the less is witMn ; but as it is with a 
fii'e in a house, that when it is kindled within, and 
bursts out, there is not less within because it bursts 
out ; no, the more it flames out, the more it burns with- 
in : and as it is with water in a fountaui, when it flows 
out of the fountain, there is not the less water in the 
fountain ; it may rather have the less by stopping, and 
fu'c may be lessened by smothermg. Know, therefore, 
that professed wickedness is aggi'avated wickedness. 
Secret sms may be more dangerous m regard of the 
cure, but these arc more abominable to God in regard 
of the open dishonour that is done to him by them. 
The aggravation of the blood that was shed by the 
people is described. The blood that was shed, "she 
poured it not upon the groimd, to cover it ■n'ith dust ; 
that it might cause fiu-y to come up to take vengeance," 
Ezck. xxiv. 7, 8 ; you did not conceal the blood, you 
did not coyer it, but set it " upon the top of a rock." 
"\^'hat then ? Not being covered, but being professed 
and laid open, this causes fui'y to come up witn venge- 
ance against them. G'd's anger would have been 
against them if they had shed blood, though they had 
covered it ; but to shed blood and not to cover it, causes 
the fury of the Lord to come with vengeance. So you 
know he saitli in Isa. iii. 9, " They declare theu' sin as 
Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul ! " woe 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



83 



uuto them when they shall presume to declaie then- sin as 
Sodom. And as I said hefore, God will bo as wilful in 
punishing a sinner, as a sinner is wilful in sinning ; so 
here, God will be as professed in plaguing, as thou 
shalt he professed in sinning. In that forenamed place 
of Ezekiel, they did not cover the blood ; well, mark it : 
saith God, " I have set her blood upon the top of a 
rock, that it should not be covered. Therefore thus 
saith the Lord God ; Woe to the bloody city ! I will 
even make the pile for fire great." I will be as profess- 
ed in my plagues and punishments as you are professed 
in yom- sins. 

My brethi-en, if we will profess any thing, let us pro- 
fess that which is good, let us do that as openly as we 
can. 2 Cor. ix. 13, saith, that God is glorified for their 
professed subjection to the gospel; for then- subjection 
of profession, so the words are. It is not 
'Eji t;J tiroToT.? enousfh to be subject to the gospel, but 
there must be a proiessed subjection to 
it : therefore, in Piom. s. 10, confession with the mouth 
is made as necessary to salvation as beheving with the 
heart, they are put together. There may be times that 
confession may be called for, as well as believing, and 
as necessary to salvation. Wlien the friends of Gor- 
dius, a martyT, came to him, and would have him keep 
his heart to himself, and only with his mouth deny 
what in his heart he believed was true ; O no, saith he, 
it is fit that my mouth, which was made for God, should 
, speak for God. And ZuingUus is of the 

Ad aras JOTis aut ^ . . , ,, i . ^i 

Veneris adoraie ac opmiou, that WO may as wcU worship the 
fi'deii°o'i'cidtare. altar of Jupitor, or Venus, as hide our 
zuin. ep. 3. jf^jjjj ^^^ profcssion when we live under 

anticlirist. The way to honoiu- religion and bruig it 
into credit, is for those who are godly to profess what 
they know. I luiew one that was noble both in birth 
and grace, and who had to act often with those of his 
rank, who scorned at rehgion under the name of puri- 
tanism : he would usually take this coiu-se, — when he 
entered into such company, he would begin and own 
himself to be one of those whom they called pmitans, 
and by that means prevented much sm in them, and 
much scorn of religion, by thus avowing it. It is cer- 
tain, that the best way to honour rehgion is for every 
one to own it, though ignominious terms are put upon 
it. If ever we were called to profess what we believe, 
we are now called to it in these days. Certainly, God 
professes for us ; God not only respects us, but he does 
it professedly, in the eyes and before the faces of om- 
adversaries. Let us not only have God in our hearts, 
but profess his name openly before the faces of om- ad- 
versaries. It is time now to do it. It had been well, 
if you had professed heretofore when God's truth called 
for it. It may be, many of you are found gi-ulty of be- 
traying the truth of God, for professing no sooner than 
you did ; but, however, betray it not now for want of 
profession ; be wiUing now to profess of what party you 
are, that, as we read of Jonah, chap. i. 9, when he was 
in the storm, and the mariners awoke him, he said unto 
them, " I am an Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God 
of heaven, which hath made the sea and the di-y land," 
making an open profession of himself. My brethren, if 
we be not in a present storm, yet the clouds gi'ow 
black ; therefore, awake, you sluggards, you that are se- 
cure, awake out of your secm'it)', and now profess what 
you are. I am a Hebrew that fears God; however 
they give such men ignominious term.s and titles, I am 
one of them, and I am w illin g to appear so. Like 
Nicodemus, many of you come to Jesus by night, you 
are afraid to be seen. You would give money to the 
parliament, and help forward that work which God has 
in hand, but you are afraid to be seen. I know there 
may be possibly some reason why some men should not 
appear, but not many, the cases are very rare ; ordi- 
narily, it is not enough to do it, but to do it professedly, 



let it be declared who you are, and what side you 
take. 

If you say, We live in evil and wicked times, it is 
dangerous to appear ; I may not only keep my heart 
right, but I will do as much as another, but why should 
I appear ? 1. The worse the times are, the more thou 
shouldst appear. Mark viii. 38, " WTiosoever therefore 
shall be ashamed of me and of my words m this adul- 
terous and sinful generation ; of him also shall the Son 
of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of liis 
Father with the holy angels." K the generation were 
holy, it were nothing to appeal', not to be ashamed or 
afraid ; but we must not be either ashamed or afraid m 
the midst of an adulterous generation. 2. Why should 
wickedness have this advantage, that it dares appear, 
but godliness dares not ? 3. If all should reason as 
you do, what would become of the cause ? Why should 
others venture themselves more than you ? \Vhat is 
youi' flesh, yotu- estate, your hbertj', more than theirs ? 
4. You must appear for example sake, to provoke 
others. This is a duty as well as any. 5. If the ad- 
versaries prevail, they will find yon out, except you 
mean to give up your consciences to them, and then 
you will escape no more than others ; to be sure, you 
will not have so much peace as others who have most 
appeared. 

Obs. 0. It is a very dangerous and sinful thing for 
the people of God to jom in association with foreigners 
who are of an idolatrous rehgion, and to expect help 
fi-om them. " I wiU go after my lovers ;" — who are 
they ? either the Egyptians or Assyrians with whom 
they associated, or then- idols. Let us suppose the 
former : the people of God, Jer. xlii., were deteimined 
to have association with Egypt, and they coidd not be 
brought fr'om it : if you read that story, thefr conduct 
will appear very vile and dangerous ; they seemed to 
yield to God, that they woidd do what he w-ould have 
them, and they would not go into Egj-jjl if he forbade 
it ; but m chap, xliii., when Jeremiah told them the 
mind of God, that they should continue in the land of 
Judah, and not go down into Egj-jit, " Then spake 
Azariah the son of Ploshaiah, and Johanan the son of 
Kareah, and all the proud men, saying unto Jeremiah, 
Thou speakest falsely : the Lord our God hath not sent 
thee to say. Go not into Egypt to sojourn there." They 
are loth to break ofi' their association with Egj-pt. 
Gualter, in his comment upon Hosea, though not upon 
this text, states that the Grecian churches, who in the 
year 1438 were afi'aid of the Tm-ks breaking in upon 
them, sent to the bishop of Rome, and offered to be 
under his subjection, merely that they might have the 
help of the Latin churches to keep them fi-om the rage 
and tyraimy of their adversaries ; imt within a few years 
they were destroyed, Constantinople and the empire 
were subdued, so that heathenism and atheism prevail- 
ed ; and tills is the fruit, saith he, of seeldng the asso- 
ciation of others m a sinful way. But because this is 
not the chief tlung that is aimed at, we pass it by. She 
said she would go after her lovers, that is, her idols. 
Hence, 

Obs. 6. Idolaters usually keep good thoughts of then- 
idols. They call them then- lovers, they look upon 
their idols as those that love them ; and hence they 
used to call them Baahm, from Baal, a husband. So it» 
shoidd be the care of the samts evermore to keep good 
thoughts of God, to look upon God as then- lover, as 
one that attends to then- good. My brethren, let us 
not be ready to entertain hard thoughts of God, it is a 
dangerous thing. God's great care is to manifest to us 
and to all the world that he loves us. He has done 
much to manifest to us in England, and to our brethren 
of Scotland, that he loves us and them. In Rev. iii. 9, 
Christ saith of the church of Philadelpliia, that God 
loved them. Foi-tv vears ago, ^Ir. Brightman inter- 



84 



.\X EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. U. 



preted that text of the chui'ch of Scotland. Philadel- 
phia signifies brotherly love. You know how they are 
joined in covenant one with another, and we see that 
those who said they were Jews, that they were the 
church, but proved themselves to be of the sjniagogue 
of Satan, are forced to bow before them ; and if they 
were not mad with malice, they must needs acknow- 
ledge that God has loved that chiu'ch. And since God 
has done great things for us, to manifest that he is the 
lover of England, let us keep good thoughts of God. 

Obs. 7. Idolaters highly prize the love of their idols. 
They do not only maintain good thoughts of their 
idols, or think that their idols are their lovers, but they 
set a price upon them. She said, I will follow my 
lovers ; I make account of their love, they will do me 
good, for aught I know, more than any thing you speak 
of It is true both of bodily and spii-itual whoredom. 
I will only make use of one scripture, to daunt the 
heart of unclean persons, who so much prize the love of 
their hai'lots. You prize their love, but what get you 
by it ? you get God's hatred by it. Y'ou rejoice that 
you have their love ; and for that God hates and abhors 
you. Make that good, you will say. I will : " The 
mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit : he that is ab- 
horred of the Lord shall fall therein," Prov. xxii. 14. 
MTiat get you by this ? your harlots embrace you, and 
God abhors you. If there be any unclean wTetch in 
this congregation, either thou art an atheist, or this 
text must strike thee at thy heart. Art thou in that 
way, and yet not repenting, thou art the man Avhom 
this day God tells thee to thy face, that he abhors thee. 

But how then should we prize the love of Jesus 
Christ our Husband ! " We will remember thy love 
more than wine," Cant. i. 4. The church prizes the 
love of Jesus Christ, more than men in the world 
prize theu- delight in wine. And, my brethren, do you 
prize Oirist's love ; then Christ will prize yours : and 
it is observable, that according to the degree and way 
of yoiu- prizing Christ's love, so Christ will prize your 
love. In Cant. iv. 10, you have the same expression of 
Christ's love to his church, answerable to hers before : 
" Thy love is better than wine," saith the chm-ch to 
Christ ; " How much better is thy love than wine ! " 
saith Christ to the chm-ch. 

Obs. 8. The hearts of whoremongers and idolaters 
follow hard after their undeanness in bodily and spi- 
ritual filthiness. " I will follow them ;" not only say 
they are lovers, but I will express it by following them'. 
For bodily filthiness, observe how unclean men follow 
their lovers. Josephus. in his Antiquities, states, that 
Decius Mundus offered to give many hunch-cd thousand 
drachms, which amounted to six thousand pounds 
sterling, to satisfy liis lust one night with a harlot, yet 
could not obtain his desire. AVill not ye be content 
now who have been guUty of spending a great part of 
your estate in imcleanness, now to do as much for 
religion, for God, and Christ, and his kingdom, as ever 
you have done for that sin ? If there be anv in this 
place who have been profuse for their undeanness, and 
yet now arc strait-handed in these jmblic affairs, such 
are fitter to be taken out of Clu-istian congregations, 
and to be shut u]) in prisons. 

For sjiiritual whoredom, I shall show you how sujier- 
'stitious and idolatrous peo])Ie, as they prize theii" idols, 
so they follow hard after them. AV'hen the calf was 
to be set up. upon jiroclamation all the men and women 
took oft" tlieir earrings and their jewels, and brought 
tliem to Aaron to make the calf. AVhat a shame v.ill 
it be to us if we slioidd kce]) our earrings, and our 
jewels, and things perhajis that have not seen the sun a 
great wliile, now when God calls for them ! Let women 
do that for God and his truth, for their own liberties 
and ])osterities, that they did for their idol. Though 
you have earring*, and jewels, and rings, that you prize 



much, yet let them be given up to tliis public cause. 
And it were a shame that gold rings should be kept 
merely to adorn the fingers, when the church and state 
are in such necessity as they are. Away with vour 
niceties, your fineness, and bravery, now, and look to 
necessities, to tlie preservation of the lives and liberties 
both of yourselves and yom' childi-en. K you should 
see a maUgnant party come with their spears and 
pikes, and your cliildren writliing u]ion the tops of 
them, and theu- blood gushing out, what good would 
your gold rings and all your ornaments do you ? 

The Scripture strikingly describes the eagerness and 
earnestness of spirit which idolaters manifest m follow- 
ing after then- idols. Isa. Ivii. 5, exhibits them " in- 
flaming themselves with idols." In Jer. 1. 38, God 
says, " they are mad upon their idols." In Isa. xlvi. 6, 
it is said, " they lavish gold out of the bag." They not 
only gave theii- gold rings which were of no use, and 
parted with that which they could well spare, but they 
lavished gold that was in the bag ; they would not only 
bring some of it, but they lavished it ; and they lavished 
not their silver, but their gold ; and that not a piece or 
two out of a paper, but out of the bag, they brought 
their bags of gold, and lavished gold out of them. This 
they did for their idols : oh •nhat a shame is it then that 
any should l)e penm-ious, and not act generously, in the 
public cause of the chwch and commonwealth ! 

In Jer. viii. 2, we have five expressions in one verse, 
describing the pm-suance of the heart of idolaters after 
their idols ; the like we have not in all the book of 
God. First, he saith, " whom they have loved." Se- 
condly, " whom they have served." Tliirdly. " after 
whom they have walked." Foiurthly, " whom they have 
sought." And, fifthly, " whom they have worshipped." 
Oh how are the hearts of people set upon the ways of 
idolatry ! Camden reports that Canute, king of Eng- 
land, spent as much upon one cross, as the revenues of 
the crown came to in a whole year, he was so profusely 
liberal about his superstitious vanities. Calvin, in a 
sermon upon that text, " Seek ye my face," remarks : 
Foolish idolaters ! they endure much in then- pilgi-im- 
ages, spend their money, waste their bodies, and are 
abused in their journey ; yet they go on, and think all 
sufficiently recompensed, if they may see and worship 
some image of a saint, or holy reUc. ShaD the behold- 
ing some dead carrion, or apish idol, have more power 
to strengthen them, than the face of God in his ordi- 
nances shall have to strengthen us ? 

" My lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my 
wool and my flax, mine oil and my tb-ink." AMiat were 
these idols ? The idol that gave their bread was Ceres, 
she was the goddess whom the heathens worshijipcd for 
corn. Luna, the moon, was the idol they worsnip]Kd 
for their cb-ink, and all moist thuigs. For theii- wool 
and flax, Ashtaroth was their god ; and for their oil, 
Priapus. The Seventy tian.slate that " clothes " which 
we call here " wool ; " and that which we term " flax " 
they translate " linen." 

Obs. 1. Idolaters have a gi-eat many idols to supply 
their several wants. " My lovers," in the plural number. 
The idols of the heathen do not su])ply all good, but 
one one thing, and another another thing. And that 
is the difference between the ti-ue God and idols. The 
excellency of the true God is, that he is a universal 
good ; we have all good, flax, oil, bread, and wine, and 
all in one, in our God, in our lover. And that is the 
reason why God challenges the whole heart. Idols 
arc content with a partial obedience, because they are 
but partial in bestowing good things ; but God justly 
requires the whole heart of his worshippers, because he 
is a imiversal good to them. 

Obs. 2. The end at which idolaters aim in their wor- 
ship is very low. They follow their lovers, and arc 
very earnest ; for what, I pray ? for their wool and their 



Ver. 5. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



83 



flax, and their bread and their water, their oil and 
their di'ink. They desire no more, tliey look no higher ; 
satisfy their flesh, give them but liberty to sport on the 
Lord's day, to have their feasts, their wakes, and merry 
meetings, and they care for no more. Their S])ii-its are 
vile, and so accordingly is their worsliip. Therefore 
their worship is external, it is bodily, because their 
aims are at external and bodily things. As a man's 
end is, either base or honoiu'able, so is he. There are 
some men who seem as if they aimed at God and re- 
ligion in many things they do, they make a noise about 
religion, and (3od, and Christ, and his ordinances, and 
the public good ; but the ti'uth is, theu- aims are at gain 
and credit, at their wool and then' flax ; and herein they 
show the baseness of their spirits ; like lapwings, that 
scream aloud as if they were come near their nests, 
when their nests are some where else. MTiatevcr their 
cry be, for God or the public good, if you mark them, 
their nest is in their wool, in theii- flax, in their profit, 
in then- honour and preferment, in these outward things. 
But the end of the true worshippers of God is higher, 
they soar aloft, there is a spiritual height of soul 
whereby they are raised upwards by the grace of God. 
A godly man's feet are where a wicked man's head is ; 
that which he accounts his chief good, a godly man 
can trample under his feet. He looks at God himself, 
and his service. He worships the high God : he is a 
child of Abraham ; not Abram. but Abraham ; what is 
the signification of that ? Pater ea:celsus, A high 
father, for he is the father of chikhen of high spirits, 
not only of children that are believers, but of those 
that have high and raised spu'its. Cleopatra told 
ISIarcus Antonius, that he was not to angle for gudgeons 
and ti'out, but for castles, and forts, and towns ; so I 
may say of a Christian, he does not angle, especially 
in matters of religion, for wool, and flax, and oil, he 
has no such low and base ends, but at God, and Christ, 
and heaven, and gloiy, and immortality. He desu-es 
these things only that by them he may be fitted more 
to serve God. One who has been acquainted with the 
free grace of God in Clirist, will serve God for himself 
without bargaining with him, he will be willing to go 
into God's vineyard, and not indent for a penny a day. 
You that will indent with God m his service, and have 
your penny, you who have such low and mean spirits, 
God may give you your penny, and there's an end of you. 
Obs. 3. That way of religion by which we can get 
most bread, and wool, and flax, and oil, is the religion 
that most people will follow, because the hearts of most 
people are low and base, and aim at no higher things. 
That religion which brings the largest estate, and can 
please the sense, is the religion that pleases most people. 

Pamchtius, a heathen, once said. Make me 
« cSffnaflr" ^ bishop, and though I be now a heathen 

yet I will be a Christian as well as any 
other. He saw in what pomp the bishops hved, and 
by that he thought it was a fine thing to be a Christian. 
By outward pomp and glory antichi-ist draws many 
followers ; they go where they can have most wool anil 
flax ; they can get most preferment that way. ^neas 
Silvius observed, the reason why the pope prevailed 
against the council, though it was a general council, 
which was above the pope, was this, that the pope had 
a great many places of preferment and honour to give, 
the general council had none : the general council can 
inquii'e after truth, and present its decision, and can 
tell what is God's mind, but it has no honour, no pro- 
motion, no prefemient to give ; therefore, alas, the 
general council prevails little, the pope gets all, and 
all because he has bishoprics, and cardinals' places, 
and livings, and great honom-s, to bestow. Luther, in 
„ . ,. . his comment upon this text, relates that 

e^ uuo canonic.-,iu oue whoui liB knew, who lived like a 
«°!i"i?m"i3ito°de- noblcman by his many ecclesiastical pre- 



ferments, when excellent bread and wine ii.aiiorempanem,et 
were brought to the table, jiointing to siiutTsHmumSat 
them, said, These are the things that make ^mJ'l'.'T^ul'f;,."'' 
me that I cannot leave this kind of life. gl;;,"',"js';°;Vrc*on 
These are the arguments that [jrevaU hbrat Tnobuiiire 
most in the world ; arguments taken from 
bread, and flax, and wool, and oil, are stronger argu- 
ments than any taken from the Scrijjture, than any 
thing taken fi'om the honour of the Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost. "When men come with Saul's arguments, 
1 Sara. xxii. "i, '■ Will the son of Jesse give every one 
of you fields and \ineyards, and make you all captains 
of thousands, and captains of hundreds ? " will you 
foUow him ? can he prefer you ? O no, he can do little 
for you. And when men argue, I pray what will this 
way bring you in ? what preferment wQl jou get by 
tliis ? you may get preferment in the other way ; this 
draws, this prevails. In a speech delivered by the vice- 
chancellor, not many years ago, in a public commence- 
ment at Cambridge, speaking to the young scholars, 
and wishing them to take heed of being pvu'itans, he 
said, "WTiatcan you get in that way? you Ma;is soiicLti de 
shall live poorly, perhaps you may have """'"^f'""' 
some three-halfpenny benefice in follow- taJ';, \i\ii)eoi 
ing them ; but come to be chikb-en of "i''.i"'udai'"ua'!li™' 
the chm-ch, and then you may be sure of ^''""" ''"""»'■ 
good benefices, you may come to be prebends, to be 
deans, to be bishops. Thus he persuaded the young 
scholars to take heed of puritanism. There is mighty 
strength in this argument upon the hearts of most. 

Hence the poverty of Christ is a great scamlal and 
offence to most people. A\'hen they see that religion 
win not bring them flax, and wool, and oil, but that 
they must live poorly, they are offended at this exceed- 
ingly. Charles the Great, having war with Aygolandus, 
king of Africa, who, being anxious to make peace with 
Charles, made some profession to become a Christian ; 
Charles was very glad of this, and brought him to his 
court to parley with him. There he saw thirty poor 
persons whom Charles fed, who were halt, and maimed, 
and blind, and in a very ])oor garb. Charles the Great 
did this, because he would have poverty before his eyes 
continually, that he might not be too high in and proud 
of his prosperity. When Aygolandus saw them, he 
said, "\ATio are these ? These, saith Charles, are the 
servants of God. Nay then, rephcd he, if your Ciod 
keep his servants no better, I will be none of his ; 
I thought to be a Christian, and to serve your God, but 
seeing those that serve him liave no better food or 
raiment than these, I will be none of those servants. 
Thus it is with many, though their consciences are con- 
vinced which is the best way, yet. because of the want 
of flax, and wool, and oil. they will not decide for Christ. 

Obs. 4. It is a shameful thing for men to put religion 
in subjection to their wool, and corn, and oil. Before 
I showed, that it is shamefid to subject religion to the 
political affau's of a kingdom, but to subject religion 
to our own base sensualities, for profit and preferment, 
this is very shameful. Gain gotten this way, is filthy 
lucre, as the Scriptm-e calls it, yet hujusmodi lucri dul- 
f M' odor, the smell of this gain is very sweet to many. 
Is thy rehgion serviceable only to gain a trade, to 
gi-atify sensual lusts ? what is this, but to stop the hole 
of a mud wall with diamonds and precious pearls? 
That were a folly, you will say, to make such precious 
things serviceable" to such base ends : thou dost as 
much, thou wouldst make religion subject to that 
^^■hieh only satisfies the flesh, llehgion, my brethren, 
is the glory of a man, and the glory of a nation ; and 
shall we turn this glory into shame ?" It is a base thing 
in magistrates, to subject the acts of justice to their 
base ends, for gain and profit ; for a judge, or a justice 
of peace, or a prelate, to .show most favour where there 
is most flax, and wool, and oil, where butts of beer or 



86 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



rundlets of sack are to be gained, this is baseness in 
them. But to subject religion to such ends as these, 
this is the villany of all baseness. A generous spirit is 
far from tliis. It is observed of the generous spuit of 
Luther, that when a papist was vexed at him for his 
preaching and writing, one bishop remarked to another, 
There is such a stir with this Luther, why do you not 
stop his mouth with preferment ? He presently an- 
swered, That Qerman beast cares not for 
'jSfXi"w'!2S!'' money, he is above money. He called 
him beast in his anger, whereas he might 
have called him an angel, because his spii-it was above 
these things, his mouth would not be stopped witli 
them. A bisliop in this land, hearing that a kinsman, 
of his was a zealous preacher ; Well, saith he, let me 
alone, I will .silence him ; and indeed he did ; how ? he 
gave him two livings, and they silenced liim presently. 
Some men's lust of malice goes beyond then- lust of 
covetousness, like those cockatrices, Jer. viii. 17, that 
" will not be charmed." It is a shameful tiling then, 
that our zeal for God should not go beyond our lust for 
gain. To subject your religion to flax, and wool, and 
oil, springs from a base diffidence in God, as if he w ould 
not provide for us such outward things ; therefore Lu- 
ther saith in his comment upon Ilosca, 
ut'dirSJ.^TcS": They followed their idols for bread, and 
Sf.'^liaUalito ■"■oolj and flax, and oil, as if God would 
not give bread to his church, or as if it 
were more safe to go to Satan for it. O let us trust 
God for all, for our clothes, for our meat and drinlv, 
for our estates, for om- childi-cii ; God certainly will feed 
his chm-ch. And yet the men who have hearts so base 
themselves, thinli it impossible for any man not to be 
taken with such arguments : They may talk of religion 
and conscience, say they, but I will warrant you they 
may be bought with money, and preferment, and places 
of profit and honour. They think it impossible for 
men to stand against these arguments. It reminds me 
of that speech that Balak used to Balaam, " Did not I 
earnestly send unto thee to call thee, wherefore camest 
thou not unto me ? Am I not able to promote thee to 
honour ? " As if he had said. Thou art a sti-ange man 
indeed; did not I send thee word that I would promote 
thee *o great honour, and give thee silver and gold, or 
whatever thou wouldst have ? AVhat ! will not prefer- 
ment and money tempt you ? I thought this would 
have tempted any man in the world. And thus many 
men think : but let all such know that there is a gener- 
ation of men in the world of true generous spmts, wlio 
are above these things, and take as much delight, and 
have as much sweetness, in denying these places of 
honour, and preferment, and gain, as those that ofler 
them Iiave in enjoying them. It was a notable S])cech 
that Pliny made concerning Cato, in his Epistle Dedi- 
catory to liis Natural History, Cato took as much glory 
in those dignities and honours which he refused, as he 
did in tliose which he enjoyed. Certainly it is so with 
the saints, tlie true generous spirit of Cliristians take 
as much content in those places of preferment they 
deny for Clirist, as in any gain they enjoy. There is 
no tempting such men. . 

Let us pray therefore for those who arc intrusted by 
us, not only for civU things, but for matters of religion, 
that bread, and corn, and wool, and flax, and wine, and 
oil may never tempt them ; that prcfei-ment and gain 
may never bias their spirits. Such ways have not been 
left untried by some, and have prevailed ; but through 
God's mercy he has preserved others, and made the 
world know that Christ has a people to whom religion 
and the public good arc more dear than all the flax, 
and wool, and wine, and oil in tlie world ; than all the 
estates, and high places, and great ])rcferments that 
can be offered them. And now, the Lord our God 
keep this in their and in our hearts for ever. 



Obs. 5. Prosperity and success in an evil way, hai-den 
the hearts of men in sin. I will follow after my lovers, 
for they give me bread, and water, and wool, and flax. 
Eusebius reports that Maximilian the emperor, in an 
edict against the Christians, vilifying the Christian re- 
ligion as an execrable vanity, and seeking to confirm 
the heathens in the worship of their idols, remarks. Be- 
hold, how the earth brings forth fr-uit for the husband- 
man in abundance, how our meadows are adorned with 
flowers and herbs, and moistened with the dews of 
heaven, what health we have, and what quiet and 
peaceable Hves. Thus, by their prosperity, he seeks to 
confirm the hearts of idolaters in their wicked ways. 
Prosperity in a wicked way is exceedingly hardening. 
Dionysius, haviiig committed sacrilege against the idols, 
by robbing then- temples, yet liis voyage being prosper- 
ous, boasted that though he did not worship the gods 
as others did, he prospered as much as they. In that 
year when those innovations in God's worship were 
principally brought in amongst us, especially in tlie 
diocess of Norwich, it proved to be a very fruitful year; 
and one commissary, among the rest in liis court, after 
the harvest was taken in, addiessed the counti-ymen in 
tliis way. Do you not see how God prospers us ? What 
a plentiful harvest have we had this year! This is 
suice you began to worship God with more decency 
than you were wont to do. Thus attributing all tlie 
goodness of God to that way. Let it be all our prayer, 
that God would never prosper us in a sinful way. 

Obs. 6. Carnal hearts look upon what they enjov as 
their o\\'n, and think they may use it as their own ; and 
especially such as are idolaters. It is very observable, 
how often this word "my" is iterated: give me my 
bread, and my water, and my flax, and my oil, and my 
wool ; nothing but my. Though they will acknowledge 
that what they have comes from tlie idols, as here they 
did, for they said their lovers gave it them, yet when 
they had these tilings, they thought they might do with 
them what they would ; they were theirs. Mine, mine, 
all is mine. Thus it is usual for carnal spirits to ac- 
knowledge in general, that what they have conies from 
God ; but when they have it, they think it is theii' own, 
not that God reserves the propriety of what thej' have 
after he has given it them. You mistake, if you think 
that that is' all the acknowledgment you owe to God 
for what you enjoy, that you liad it from God ; but you 
must acknowledge likewise, that God reserves his pro- 
priety after he has given it you. God never gives any 
thing in the way that one fi-iend gives to another. A 
friend may give you a gift, yet, when you have it, it is 
your own, and you may use it as you please, your friend 
parts with his own propriety. God never gives any 
thing so as to part with his own propriety ; though he 
has given it you, yet vou cannot say, It is mine ; in re- 
spect of God, it is still his. 

There is no such bond upon conscience to use all the 
comforts we have for God as this, to look up to God, 
and see that all comes from him in the way of the co- 
venant of grace. I say, that will lay a bond upon con- 
science, to make use of your estates, and of all you en- 
joy, for God, and not think to employ them for your 
own ends. It is not the slight acknowledgment idol- 
aters make, that all comes from God, will do it. Car- 
nal men look upon what they have coming from God 
through second causes, and no further ; but a Christian 
looks upon that which he has as coming from God in a 
covenant of grace, and this engages the heart strongly to 
use all for God, from whom all is received in such a way. 

Ver. 6. Therefore, behold, I will hedge up ihy way 
in'lh thorns, and'make a wall, llial she shall ml Jind her 
jmlhs. 

This verse and the following are tne workings of 
C'.'.T . bowels of mercy, a jiarenthesis of grace to the 



Vee. 6. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



87 



elect, though mingled with some severity. They are 
indeed the epitome of the whole chapter, declarmg 
Israel's sin, with threatening judgment, and yet pro- 
mising mercy unto the elect, the penitent amongst 
them. 

" Therefore." Tliis has reference to somewhat before, 
end answers to wherefore : Because I have dealt witli 
you by the way of my prophets, in convincing, in ad- 
monishing, in threatenmg, and all this will not do, 
" therefore" I will deal with you in another way. 

" Therefore, behold." That way of mine of which 
I now speak, is a singular way ; you shall find much of 
mv grace in it, the way in which I will deal with you 
is full of wonders, " Behold." 

"I will hedge up thy way." There is a two-fold- 
hedge that God makes about his people. There is the 
hedge of protection to keep evil from them, and there 
is the hedge of afiliotion to keep them from evil. The 
hedge of protection you have, Isa. v. 5, where God 
threatens that he " -n-ill take away the hedge " from liis 
vineyai'd, that is, he wiU take away his protection ; and it 
is said of Job, that " God had hedged him about." But 
the hedge here meant, is the hedge of affliction. •' I 
win hedge up thy way," that is, I will bring sore and 
heavy afflictions upon you, but yet in a way of mercy ; 
these afflictions shall be but as a hedge to keep you 
from evil, they shall not do evil to you, or bring evU 
upon you. 

'• I wlU hedge up thy way with thorns." That is, I 
see you will go on in these ways of idolatry and false 
worsliip, I will make them difficult to 5-ou, you shall go 
thi'ough thorns: if you will get to yom- idols, you 
shall be pricked. It is a metaphor taken from a hus- 
bandman, who, when the cattle will break over pa.stm'es, 
makes thick and prickly hedges to prevent them, and 
to disti-ess them if they attempt it : so I -n-iU deal with 
you, saith God. Or, when a husbandman observes 
passengers make a path in his gi'ound where they ought 
not, and spoil the grass or the corn, he lays thoi-ns in 
the way that they cannot go into his corn ; or if they 
do, they shall go vrith some pain and ti'ouble : so saith 
God, "I will hedge up thy way ■nith thorns." 

'■ And make a wall." I will waU a wall, so the words 
are. It may be they will get tlu-ough the thorns, but 
if they do, I have another way to deal with them, I 
will come with stronger afflictions, and they shall be of 
more power to keep them from their" sin, they shall be 
as a wall ; and though they get through the thorns, 
they shall not get over the wall. 

" That she shall not find her paths." Mai-k the change 
of the person, " I will hedge up thy way," fii-st ; and 
then I wiU '■ make a waU, and she shall not find her 
paths." It often occm's in Scripture, and signifies some 
perturbation of spfrit. That maimer of speech is usual 
amongst men when their spuits are ti'oubled, they speak 
sometimes in one person, sometimes in another ; and, 
indeed, the Lord here speaks after the manner of men, 
as if his spuit were troubled witli the peiTerseness of 
his people. Besides, the change of the person is to 
express some indignation of God against their pervcrse- 
ness, therefore he speaks as if he would tm-n fi-om them, 
and rather speak to somebody else ; as if he should say, 
I speak to these, yet they are stubborn : well, I \yill 
speak to all tlie beholders. Take notice of their stub- 
bonmess and perverseness, and judge between them 
and me. 

Obs. 1. Though .such as are in covenant with God, 
may for their sins be involved in the same judgment 
with others, yet God will make a difference between 
them and others that are not in covenant with him. 
God wiU have other ends in his afflictions towards liis 
people, than he has towards the wicked ; though the 
difierence be not in the things they suffer, yet it is veiy 
broad in the ends for which the'v sufler.' When the 



briers and thorns, Isa. xxvLi. 4, are set before God, the 
fire of God's anger passes thi-ough them to destroy 
them; but when God comes to his people, though some 
anger be stin-ed up for a whUe, yet aU the fruit thereof is 
to talce away their sin, ver. 9. See what difierence God 
makes between persons even under the same aflliction. 
In Jer. xxiv. 5, God saith, " Like these good figs, so 
will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive 
of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the 
land of the Chaldeans for thek good." Though they 
be carried into the land of the Chaldeans, I wUl ac- 
knowledge them there to be my people, and it shall be 
for then- good. Well, now there was likewise a basket 
that had "very naughty figs," and tliey were carried away 
captive too, both went into capti\ ity ; what does he say 
of them ? ver. 9, " I will deliver them to he removed 
into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hm-t;" I 
win aim at thefr hm't when I deUver them into capti^ty. 

This should be a might)' support to the saints under 
aU their afllictions, though the affliction be tire same to 
sense and view with that of the wicked, yet you see 
the difference is broad. It is true, may the troubled 
heart say, there may be different ends of God's afflict- 
ing some and others ; he may afilict some for trial, and 
others for then' sins ; but what wiU you say if an afflic- 
tion come upon us for our sms ? Is there a difference 
here ? Yes, my brethi'en, though yom- afllictions come 
upon you for your sins, if you be in covenant witli 
God, the difference still may hold : so it is here ; tlrose 
afflictions wlrich God calls the hedge and the wall, were 
sore afflictions, and tliey were for thcu- sins, yet God 
intended good and mercy to them in those afflictions. 
This is the vu'tue of the covenant of grace, that it takes 
out the sting and curse even of afflictions, wliich are 
not only for trial, but for sin. If God bring some 
misery upon you, yet being in covenant with him, his 
blessing causes those troubles to keep you from greater 
misery that else would befall you. 

Obs. 2. There is even in the samts such a slamh 
disposition remaining, that they will stand out against 
God a long time, even against the admonitions, exhort- 
ations, convictions, and threatenings of his word. Not 
only the reprobate, but such is the perverseness of the 
heai-ts of men. that even the elect of God mil many 
times do so ; this is a sore and a grievous evd, that it 
should be said so of them. If there be ingenuousness 
in the spuits of men, the very intimation of the mind 
of God is enough to cause the heart to jield; and siurely 
grace makes the heart of a man ingenuous. God ex- 
pects that there should be melting of spirit at the very 
notice given of his displeasm'e ; yet, behold, even in the 
hearts of the godly there remains so much slavishness, 
that they ^vill not return but upon God's dealing very 
hardly witli them. They must have many afllictions, 
they must be whipped home before they wUl return 
home ; God must send the dog many times to worry 
his sheep before they will come into the fold. This 
God complains of : Jer. ii. 14, " Is Israel a servant ? is 
he a home-born slave? why is he spoiled?" ver. 11, 
"Hast thou not procm-ed this unto thyself?" So it 
may be said of many of the saints, when we see the 
dealings of God towards them ; yea, even God himself 
speaks thus, AMiat ! is such a one a servant ? is he a 
slave ? is not such a one my child ? how is it then that 
he must be dealt with like a slave, Ulie a servant ? 

Obs. 3. ^^lien one means wiU not keej) ourselves or 
others from sin, we must not rest there, but look after 
other means to prevent it. "WTiat ! wiU not this do it ? 
Is there any thing else that possiblv may do it ? That 
means then shall be used. Thus God (we speak with 
reverence) studies his administrations towards his people, 
when he is frustrated in one, if that will not do, he be- 
thinks with himself, Is there any thing else will do it ? 
if there be any thing in the world can do it, it shall not 



88 



AN EXPOSTTIOX OF 



Chap. n. 



he left unattempted. God does not presently cast off 
his people, because they stand out against him in the 
use of one means. It is true, for others that are not in 
covenant with him, God is quick ■nith them, and if they 
come not in presently, he cuts them off, and will have 
no more to do with tliem ; but for his own people, though 
they stand out long, yet God tries one means after an- 
other. This is the grace of God towards his own. 

It should be our care to imitate God in this. AATien 
you are to deal with others who are under you, with 
your chikken or servants, do not satisfy yom-selves 
with, I have admonished them, and tlu'eatened them, 
and persuaded them, yet they will not come in ; wliat, 
tlicn, will you have no more to do with them ? will you 
cast them off presently ? You should study what further 
course may be taken, study their (Uspositions ; "\\'liat do 
I think will work upon them, if this do not ? will fair' 
means ? will foul means ? will any thing do it ? If any 
thing will, you should labour to deal with them that way. 
So for your own hearts, when you are convinced of the 
evil of your sin, your consciences will not be quiet un- 
less you use some means against it. Well, but I have 
used means, I have laid the threatenings, the promises, 
to my heart, and I have followed God's ordinances. 
Will they not do ? will not thy heart come off? is there 
no other means to be used ? "\Miat do you say to the 
afflicting of your soul ? Try that : you have laid the 
word to your heart, and you find it does not work ; try 
the afflicting of your souls in humiliation, fasting, and 
prayer, for the overcoming of your sins. " This kind 
goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." Thus, when 
admonitions and exhortations of the prophet will not 
do, God saith, I will try another way, I will bethink 
mo of some other course ; " I will hedge up their way 
with thorns," and I will sec whether I can bring them 
in that way. 

Obs. 4. For God to make the way of sin difficult to 
sinners, is a most singular mercy. " Behold ! " It is 
better for the way of sin to be hedged with thorns, and 
to be made difficult to us, than to have the smoothest 
path for its commission. As it is one of the greatest 
judgments of God upon wicked men to lay stumbling- 
blocks before them in the way of righteousness ; so it is 
one of the greatest mercies of God to his cliildi-en to 
lay stumbHngblocks and difficulties before them in the 
way of sin. It is usual with God in dealing with repro- 
bates, to make theii- sins, and his providences, stum- 
blingblocks to them in tlic way of life. They hate 
godliness, and therefore the hedge of thorns compasses 
about the way of righteousness to the wicked. In 
Pro v. XV. 19, it is said that "the way of the slothful 
man is an hedge of thorns ;" that is, a .slotliful man looks 
upon any duty that he should perform, as compassed 
about with a hedge of thorns. God, in his just judg- 
ment, suffers such difficulties at least to appear to the 
wicked in the way of his duties as make him have 
no mind to them. Now tliis is a grievous judgment of 
God, to cause the way of his fear to appear so difficult, 
and to scare them from it : ■\\"hat should I do meddling 
V ith such ways ? I see I must suffer much ; there are 
these stumblingblocks that I must go over, these 
troubles that I must meet ; I had better sit still and be 
quiet, I shall never be able to go through them. Such 
stumblingblocks God lays in the way of godliness be- 
fore the wicked, and they stumble at them, and fall, 
aiul ruin their souls. On the other hand, God, in 
abundance of mercy, casts stumblingblocks in the way 
of sin before his jieople, whicli they cannot get over ; if 
they stumble, it is but to break their shins, and to save 
their souls. liut when the wicked stumble, they break 
llieir necks, and damn their souls. But the ways of 
(■lid "are all plain to him that understandeth, and 
right to them that find knowledge," I'rov. viii. 9. 
God's ways arc very plain to the godly, and sin's ways 



are very difficult ; but on the other side, to the -wicked 
God's ways are veiy difficult, and the ways of sin are 
veiT plain. O unhappy men, says Lu- 
ther, when God leaves them to' them- i^SlZt^it 
selves, and does not resist them in their P'^» !!°?JSruut 
lusts! but woe to them, at whose sins notii'm fuiori et cu. 
God winks! AMicn God lets the way to !uis'iid'q™rum ™ 
hell be a smooth and ])lcasant way, it is Ei'^Lut'l""' 
a heavy judgment, and a sign of God's 
indignation against men, a token of his rejection of 
them, that he docs not intend good unto them. You 
bless yomsehcs many times, that in the way of sin you 
find no difficulty ; if a lewd or a malicious man, who 
would accomplish his owii ends, find all things go on as 
he desires, so that lie has not in his way so much as a 
thorn, he blesses himself. Bless thyself! if thou knew- 
est all, thou hast cause to howl, and wring thy hands, 
for the curse of God is upon thee, a dreadful cm'se to 
make the way of sin jjlcasant. On the other side, per- 
haps many of God's saints, when they find the ways of 
sin somewhat difficult to them, are troubled that they 
cannot have theii- will. Troubled ! thou hast cause to 
bless God who has thus crossed thee, for it is an argu- 
ment of much love to thee. There is a " Behold " put 
to this, that God should be so mercifid to make theii' 
ways of idolatry and superstition difficult to them. 

Obs. 5. There is much brutishness in the hearts of 
backsliders. " I wUl hedge up her way with thorns." 
Not only slavishness, but brutishness. That is, they 
must not only be dealt hardly with, as slaves, and so be 
brought home, but, as brute beasts, they must have 
some present evil put upon them. They will not re- 
turn from their evil way, except their sin be grievous 
and troublesome to them. It is not enough, you know, 
to threaten beasts, but if we would keep them from the 
place to which we would not have them go, we must 
use something that will give them pain when they at- 
tempt to enter it. A man who has some understanding, 
though he has a slavish spirit, may be kept from sin by 
fear of futm'e evils ; but when nothing but present evils 
will keep him off, he is worse than a slave ; he cannot 
be kept from sin by the exercise of liis reason, God must 
deal with him then as a brute beast, God must make 
some hedge prick him, or else he will go on in an evil 
way. This is brutishness, even in the hearts of the saints. 

Obs G. See the proneness of men's natm'es to idol- 
atry. The way must be hedged up to keep them from 
it. It is not enough to forewarn men of it, for all 
means that can be used are little enough to deter 
tliem. How wicked then is the way of many amongst 
us, who seek to make the way to idolatry as smooth, 
])lain, and open as tliey can ! Yea, instead of stopping 
such as have inclinations to it, they lay before them the 
inciting and enticing occasions, which add to their own 
])ro])ensity such delectation as puts them forward with a 
swift facility. 

Obs. 1. Afflictions to the people of God, are God's 
hedges to keep them from sin. The command of God 
is one hedge, and affliction is another. Therefore sin 
is called by the name of transgression ; that is, going 
beyond our bounds, going over the hedge ; a man that 
sins goes over the hedge. VCe find, Eccl. x. 8, " 'WTioso 
brcaketh an hedge, a ser])cnt shall bite him :" it is true 
in regard of the hedge of God's command, he that will 
venture to break that hedge, must expect the biting of 
conscience, its anguish and hoiTor. But when that 
hedge is broke, God comes with another hedge to keep 
his peojile from sin ; so you have it expressed in Job 
xxxiii. 17, 18: speaking of afflictions, By them " he 
withdraweth man from his ])urpose," and " he keepeth 
back his soul from the ])it." Suppose a beast running 
in a ])asture, bounded by a hedge at the brink of a 
preci])ice, perhajis he does not see (he hedge ; if he 
should run a little further, he would fall over and be 



Vee. 6. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



89 



destroyed; but the husbandman sets a hedge there, 
that when the beast conies to the thorns, they may 
withdraw him from his purpose, and so preserve his 
life : so it may be with a man that is running to such 
a sin, when he meets with something that hinders him, 
he is withdra'mi from liis purpose, and his sold is kept 
back from death. If you live in the country near 
ditclies and pits of water, you will hedge them about, 
for fear your children should fall into them ; and so the 
hedge keeps the children alive. As afflictions keep the 
saints from sin, as a hedge to them, so the difficulties 
in God's ways keep the wicked from God. When diffi- 
culties therefore happen, it should teach us to consider 
what way we are in : why ? for God uses to compass 
about sinful ways with difficulties, on purpose to keep 
his peo])le from them. Well, I am going on in this 
coui'se, I am sure I am compassed about with difficul- 
ties, it may be these difficulties are but God's hedges 
to keep me from sin ; how shall I know that ? Some- 
times difficulties are but trials of our graces, and they 
be in the most blessed ways of God's people ; then the 
work of the saints should be to stir up their graces, and 
to break through this hedge, though they be pricked 
and torn thereby. It is the excellency of then- faith 
that -n-ill carry them tlu-ough all difficidties in God's 
ways. Therefore here is the trial; when I meet with 
difficulties, I must not forbear because there are diffi- 
culties, but I must examine. Is it the way of God or 
not ? If it be the way of God, then lay aside the 
thought of difficulties ; if I have authority for it, let the 
difficulties be never so many, and the hedge never so 
thick, I must break through, and God is so much the 
more honoiu'ed by it : but on the other side, if, upon 
examination, I find the way I am in is not warranted 
by God, then I must know that God's end in laying 
difficulties in the way, is to stop my going on in it. and 
it is desperateness in me to seek to break through ; in 
seeking to break through I may break my peace : there- 
fore I must examine whether I have warrant from God 
for those ways in which I walk. 

Oh that men would think of this when they meet 
with difficulties in their ways ! How many of the saints 
have met with cbfficulties in their paths, and yet have 
gone on with strength ! That of Jacob is one of the 
most famous examples we have in the book of God. 
The difficulties he met with were all in the way that 
God himself bade him take. God commanded him to 
return to his father Isaac, and yet he met with six or 
seven most prodigious difficulties, enough, one would 
iiave thought, to make him doubt whether he was in 
<Tod's way or not, and to cause him to return back 
again. First, Laban pursued him, and intended mis- 
chief against him ; then Esau comes to meet him with 
a purpose to desti'oy him ; then his wife's nm-se died ; 
then Rachel herself died; then he had his daughter 
Dinah defloured ; and then his two sons committed that 
horrible wickecbiess in murdering the Shcchemites ! 
All these things fell out in Jacob's journey ; he might 
have said, Am I in the way that God would have me ? 
Yes, Jacob was in his way, he had an express waiTant 
from God to go that journey. Difficulties therefore 
must not diseoui-age us, but we must break through 
them, especially in these times. It were a low and 
])oor spirit, to be kept from a good way because of a 
few thorns that it meets in the way. If we know it be 
God's way, go through it in the name of God. let the 
difficulties be what they will. But if the way be not 
warranted by God, let the difficulties we meet with stop 
us, for God intends them to be a hedge to keep us from 
sin. 

Again, it should make us content when any affliction 
befalls us, because it is more than we know but that 
God intends abundance of good to us. It may be, if 
tins affliction had not befallen thee, thou hadst undone 



thyself: if this affliction, that thou dost so VTiggle to get 
out of, and thinkest thyself so miserable under, had not 
befallen thee, thou m'ightest have fallen into the pit 
and been lost ; therefore be not troubled so much at the 
affliction, but examine whether it be not a hedge that 
God has set, to keep thee from a further misery. 

Oi.s. 8. The perverseness of a man's heart is such, 
that he will break through many difficulties to sin. It 
seems that a hedge wiU not serve, there must be a wall, 
as well as a hedge. 

Wc read of idolaters, who would cause their children 
to pass tlu-ough the fu-e to their idols ; that was more 
than a hedge of thorns. We see often, that men's 
hearts are so strongly bent upon then' sins, that though 
they were to pass through much trouble, though they 
prick and tear themselves, yet they will have their sin. 
Ambrose tells us, that Philotimus, who brought his body 
to grievous diseases by imcleanness and ch-unkenness, 
when the physicians told him, that if he did not ab- 
stain he would certainly lose his eyes ; as soon as he 
heard that, he answered, Valeat lumen amiciun, Fare- 
well. O pleasant light ; rather than I will deny myself 
in this, I w ill never see Ught more : he would ventm-e 
the loss of his eyes, rather than lose the satisfaction of 
his lusts. Thus it is w ith many. Oh what do they ven- 
tiu-e for their lusts ! What an argument should that 
be to us to venture much for God, to endui-e hard things 
for the blessed God ! though there be some hardship 
between us and om- duty, break tlirough all to get to 
that duty ; w icked men will break thi-ough great diffi- 
culties to get to their sins. There need be a wall as 
well as a hedge. 

Obs. 9. God, when he pleases, will keep men from 
their sins in spite of their hearts, that they shall not 
have their desire. Well, if there be need of a wall I 
will have a wall, saith God; though she may break 
down the hedge, she shall not break down the wall, it 
is too sti-ong and too high. A\Tien God sees men set 
upon their wicked desfres, if they be those that belong 
not to him, perhaps God may condemn them for their 
wicked desires, and yet they shall not have them ; they 
shall go to hell for them, and never accompUsh them. 
How desperately set was Saul to mischief David ? but 
God made a wall that he could not get to have his de- 
su-e, do what he would. Many, especially great men, 
how strongly are they set upon then- desu-o ! they must 
have it, and they will have it, nothing comes from them 
but must and will : well, they may be deceived, God 
knows how to cross the most stubborn and stout hearts 
that live upon the earth, that they shall not have what 
they woidd have in this world. '• I wiU make a wall." 
God thus makes a wall about men's sins, by sending 
sore and heavy afflictions. When God brings some 
grievous disease upon the drunkard's body, perhaps he 
is so stopped that he cannot drink, that is a wall about 
his sin, that he cannot foUow it according to his desfre : 
so the unclean person, God brings such a disease upon 
him, that he cannot have the pleasure of his lust though 
he earnestly desu'es it: so God brings poverty upon 
others, that they cannot follow their ambition and pride, 
do what they can : these are as walls to them. But 
God does not always send this in a way of mercy. 

Obs. 10. Wlicn " lesser afflictions will not serve to 
keep men from then- sins, God usually comes with greater 
and sorer. First a hedge, and then a wall. I sec some 
of them will break through the hedge, " I will make a 
wall " therefore, that is, I will come with stronger and 
greater afflictions, and so keep them off. Lev. xxvi. 
18, 19, " If you will not yet for all this," saith God, 
" hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times 
more for yom- sins. And I will break the pride of your 
power." You think there is a power in yom- hand, 
and there is pride in your power, for power raises the 
heart up to pride ; I will break it, I will never leave till 



90 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. n. 



I have broken your hearts in spite of you : and you 
TV-ill find in that chapter four or five times mention of 
" seven times more." This is after the hedge, then 
there comes a wall. 

Obt. 11. God is able to sti-ike men with blindness, 
that they shall not see their way. " And they shall not 
find their paths." Though there be an evil way of 
mischief before them, thougli there be nothing to hin- 
der them m it, God can stiike men with blindness one 
way or other, that tliey shall not be able to see their 
way before tliem. We have it this day exceedingly 
fulfilled in our eyes ; how does God blind and besot our 
adversaries, that they cannot see their way ' The truth 
of Job V. 13, is this day before our eyes, ''He taketh 
the wise in then- own craftiness ; and the counsel of the 
froward is carried headlong." How has God taken 
Avise men in their own craftiness ! their spuits are fro- 
ward, because they are crossed and vexed, and their 
counsel is carried headlong ; God takes away their- un- 
derstanding, and baffles them in their o^\^l counsels. 
" The stout-hearted are spoiled, they have .slept their 
sleep ; and none of the men of might have found their 
hands," Psal. Ixxvi. 5 ; they are cast into a slumber, and 
know not how to make use of that power which they 
have in their hands. It follows, ver. 6, " At thy rebuke, 
O God of Jacob, both the chai-iot and horse are cast 
into a dead sleep:" a sh'ange expression, that a chariot 
shoidd be "cast into a dead sleep ;" the meaning is, 
they can no more teU how to make use of them, than 
if they all lay dead, or asleep. Let us not be afraid of 
the power of adversaries ; suppose they had power in 
then- hand, God can strike them with blindness, they 
shall grope to find the door, they shall be baffled in 
their own ways, they shall not tell how to make use of 
their power. Isa. xxix. 14, " Behold," (saith God.) " I 
will proceed to do a maiTeUous work among this people, 
even a marvellous work and a wonder." 'NMiat is it ? 
" The wisdom of then- -n-ise men shall perish, and the 
tmderstandiug of then- prudent men shall be hid." 
This is a wonderful thing that God will do ; yea, and 
he will "mingle a pen-erse spirit in the midst of them." 
Thus, Isa. xix. 11, "Surely the princes of Zoan are 
fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is 
become brutish : " and ver. 12, " "NMiere aie they ? 
where are thy wise menP" And again, vei-. 13. "The 
princes of Zoan are become fools, the jirinces of Xoph 
are deceived;" and ver. 14, "The Lord hath mingled 
a perverse spirit in the midst thereof; and they have 
caused Eg)pt to en- in every work thereof, as a th-imkcn 
man staggereth in liis vomit." Here is the jiidgmcnt 
of God upon men ; w-hen he list, he can blind them in 
theii- way that they shall en- in then- work, and stagger 
in their comisels and designs, as a di-unken man in his 
vomit ; they shall not find then- paths, nor know what 
to do. 

Well, thus God deals with wicked men : but now let 
us consider this in reference to the samts, to God's 
own people, " they shall not find their paths ;" then, 

Obs. 12. It is a good blinthiess for men not to see 
tlie way of sin. It is promised here m a way of mcrev, 
that " they shall not find their paths." This darkness 
is not " the sliadow of death ;" but " the way of life." 
It is rich mercy. Mai-is, bishop of C'halcedoii, a blind 
man, whom Julian the apostate called a blind fool, be- 
cause he liad rebuked Julian for his ajiostacy, an- 
swered him thus, I bless God that I have not my siglit 
to see such an ungracious face as thine. So, many 
may bless God for their bodily blindness, because it 
lias prevented abundance of sin that might have been 
let in at tlie casements of their eyes. But especially 
for blindness, not to see the way of sin, if we may call 
that blinchiess. It is a mercy that God does not grant 
to all, it is a singular mercy to the saints : for you find 
abundance of people exceedingly quick-sighted in the 



way of sin, that can find the path there, and yet are 
exceedingly blind in the way of God, and cannot find 
the path there. On the other side, the saints are blinded 
in the way of sin, but are quick-sighted in the ways of 
God. How many men are wise to do evil, as the 
Scripture saith, able to see into the depths of Satan, 
and are profound to damn themselves ; they can find 
out so many objections against the ways of God, they 
can answer such arguments against tlieu- own ways, anil 
have such cunning devices to accompHsh them ; but 
when they come to the ways of God, they are as blind 
as moles ; they cannot see the necessity for such strict- 
ness ; tliey cannot luidersfand, though men of great 
parts and of great understanding otlierwise, yet they J 
have no skill in the ways of God. •■ I thank thee, O / 
Father, Lord of heaven and earth," saith Chi-ist, " that 
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, 
and hast revealed them unto babes." Hence the saints, 
though babes, are able to see far into the exceJlOTicy 
and glory of God's ways, they have understanchng 
there, though but weak othei-wise ; the beauty of the 
great mysteries of God. dazzles all the glorj- of the 
world in their eyes. They ai-e not so easily caught 
with temptations, but can see into the subtleties of the 
devil that would draw tliem out of God's ways ; but 
when they come to the ways of sin, there they want 
understanding, and it is God's mercy to them that they 
do ; there tlicy are but bunglers, they grope as blind 
men, they are not cunnuig artists in those ways. As 
the apostle saith, 1 Cor. ii. 12, "We have received not 
the spirit of the world," we cannot shift for ourselves 
as the men of the world can, we are not so cunning to 
contrive plots, and ti-icks, and devices for our on-n end*. 
as the men of the world ; but " wc have received the 
Spii-it of God," we can understand things (Uirough 
God's mercy) to eternal life. There are many men 
cunning for theii- own desti-uction, they can find ever-)' 
secret path of sin ; though sin be a labyrinth, they 
trace it, and find out even' by-path in that way. When 
the ways of God are propounded to wicked men, there 
is a mist before then- eyes, they cannot see ; and when 
the ways of sin are propounded to the saints, God in 
mercy casts a mist before their eyes that they cannot 
see. Eccl. x. 15, The fool " knoweth not how to go 
To the city;" wicked men know not the path to the 
chmch of God, to the ordinances of God : they talk 
much about such and such ordinances, and setting up 
of Christ in the way of his ordinances, but they know 
not what the true worship of God means. No, a fool 
does not understand the way to the city of God, he 
cannot find out that path. But the saints, though they 
know not the ways of sm, yet they can find out the 
paths of God, they know the way to the city. Possi- 
donius tells us, that when wait was laid for Austin's 
life, through God's providence he missed his way, and' 
so his life was preser\-ed, and his enemies were disap- 
jiointed. So many times when )ou are going on in 
such a way of sin, perhaps you httle think what danger 
there is in it; God in mercy therefore casts a mist 
before your eyes, and you miss tlrat way and save your 
lives. 

Ver. 7. And she shall follow after Iter lovers, but she 
shall not overtake them ; and she shall seek them, but 
shall not find them : then shall she say, I will go and 
return to mt/ first husband ; for then u;as it better tcilh 
me than now. 

In the 5th verse it was but .laSN vadam, " I will go 
after my lovers ;" but here it is, nsii " she shall fol- 
low," from a root w-hich signifies persequor, to foUow 
with eagerness ; not only sectari, but itiscctari ,- the 
word is the same that is used for persecutors, who 
eagerly pursue those they persecute. Psal. vii. 5, Da- 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



91 



vid speaks of his enemies following him, and uses the 
. same word, " Let the enemy persecute 
Ka.Ta 110 a., ep . ^^^ soul." The fomi of the word being 
in Piel, signifies to do any tiling anxiously, diligently, 
carefully, whereas in K.al it signifies barely doing a 
thing. Thus it is interpreted by Polanus, anxie prose- 
mta est, she has prosecuted or followed with a great 
deal of care. So that this is more tlian the other, for 
it seems that after she had some afiliction she grew 
worse for a while, and was more eager upon her idols 
than she was before. 

" But she shall not overtake them." Though she be 
never so much set upon that way of evil, yet I will 
take a com'se to keep her from it, she shall not over- 
take them. Yea, 

" She shall seek them, but shall not find them." Tlie 

word onit'pa signifies, to seek with much endeavour, not 

only to seek in one's thought and mind, but to walk 

up and down, that we may find. The 

'^Tia'^lmi iai'' Seventy use divers words, which signify 

a seeldng more than ordinary. 

" But shall not find them." Let her be never so set 
upon her ways of idolatry, yet I will keep her from 
them. 

" Then shall she say, I wiU go," &c. This shall be 
the efiect of it. One would think all this were nothing 
but thi'eatening ; O no, it is mercy, for it is for this end, 
that she might at length say, " I will go and retmn to 
my first husband," &c. 

You may take then the scope of this and the pre- 
ceding verse in this short paraplu'ase : as if God should 
say, O Israelites, you have grievously sinned against 
me, in forsaldng me and following yom' lovers. Sore 
and heavy e^ils are ready to befall you, even you, my 
elect ones, upon whom my heart is set for good. You 
have involved yourselves in the common guilt of tlris 
wickedness, therefore even you must expect to be in- 
volved in the common calamity that shall come upon 
the nation. "\Vhen you are under those calamities, 
know that I understand how to make a difierence be- 
tween sinner and sinner, though guUty of the same sm, 
and under the same afiliction. What shall be for the 
destruction of some, shall be in mercy to you, it shall 
hedge up your ways, keep you from further siiming, 
and make your ways of sin difficult, that so yom- souls 
may be saved ; and although your hearts will be a long 
time perverse, and will not submit to me, yet I will so 
' order things, in the way of my providence, that at 
length I wiU so work upon your hearts, that you sliall 
return unto me. You shall bethink yom-selves, and 
remember what sweetness once you had in my ways ; 
and you shall take shame to yourselves, and acknow- 
ledge that it was then far better with you than it is 
now ; and so I will remain to be your God, and you shall 
give up yom-selves to worship and serve me for ever. 
This is the meaning and scope of the words. 

06*. 1. Until God .subdues the heart to himself, men 
will grow worse and worse in then- sins. Even God's 
elect, to whom he intends mercy at last, tiU God comes 
with his grace to subdue theii- hearts, they may grow 
worse and worse. They would before '• go after their 
lovers," and now here afflictions come upon them ; yet 
still they vnH. follow their lovers, and that vdih more 
eagerness of affection, and with more violence, than be- 
fore. Afflictions in themselves are part of the curse of 
God, and there is no healing vii-tue in them, but an en- 
raging quahty to stir up sin, till God sanctify them by 
his grace ; and God may suspend for a time "the sancti- 
fying work of his grace to those to whom he intends 
good at last. Isa. h. 20, speaks of some whose afflic- 
tions were not sanctified, that " they lie at the head of 
all the streets, as a wild bull m a net : they are full of 
the fury of tlie Lord." They were fuU of the fury 
of the Lord, yet lay like a wild buU in a net, in a 



raging manner. This distemper of heai-t proceeds from 
two gi-ounds. 1. When outward comforts are taken 
away by affliction, the sinner, having no comfort in God, 
knows not where to have comfort but in his sin ; and if 
conscience be not sti-ong enough to keep from it, he 
runs madly upon it. 2. Because he thinks others look 
upon liim as one opposed by God for his sin ; there- 
fore, that he may declare to all the world that he is 
not daunted, and that he has no misgiving thoughts, 
(though perhaps he has nipping gi-ipes ■nithin,) he will 
put a good face upon it, and foUow his wajs more 
eagerly than foi-merly. 

Obs. 2. A man may follow after the devices of his 
own heart, and yet may not overtake them. "She 
shall foUow, but she shall not overtake." There is a 
great deal of difierence betwixt following God's ways, 
and om- own ways : there was never any in the world 
that was disappointed, if he knew all, in following 
God's ways, he obtained either the ven- tiling he would 
have, or somethuig that was as good, if not better, for 
him ; but in the ways of sin, in our own ways, we may 
and do meet with disappointment. Why should we 
not then rather follow God than om- o^^^l desu-es ? The 
desires after sin, as they are desideria futilia, so they 
are desideria inutilia, as one speaks ; as they are foolish, 
so they are fi-uitless desn-es, they do not attain what 
they would have. How has God disappointed men in 
our days ! they have not overtaken what they greedily 
sought after. Our adversaries blessed themselves in 
their designs, they thought to have their day, they 
propounded such an end and thought to have "it ; but 
how has God disappointed them ! But whether God 
has done this in mercy to them, as it is here, we know 
not ; we hope God has crossed some of them in a way 
of mercy, though perhaps he may deal in another way 
with others. 

Obs. 3. Disappointment in the way of sin is a gi-eat 
mercy. As satisfaction in sin is a judgment of God, 
and a fearful judgment ; so chsappointment in sin is a 
mercy, and a great mercy. God says in Prov. xiv. 14, 
'•The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways." 
A cbeadful threatening to backsliders and apostates ! 
AVhen God has no intention of love and mercy for back- 
sliders, he will give them theii- own devices, they shall 
have their fill of their own ways ; you woidd have such 
a lust, you shall have it, you shall be satisfied to the 
fuU, and bless yom-selves in yom- own ways. This is 
the judgment of God upon backsliders. But for the 
saints, when tempted to such a way of sin, God will dis- 
appoint them, they shall not have it. We accoimt it 
orduiarily very grievous to be disappointed of any 
thing, and many times I have had this meditation upon 
it : What ! does it so trouble the heart of men to be 
disappointed almost in au}- thing ? oh what a di-eadfiil 
vexation and hoi-ror ■wUl it be for a man to see lumself 
disappointed of his last hopes ! Remember this, when 
you are troubled at any disappointment ; what wLU be 
the terror and anguish of spuit then, if it should prove 
that any of you are disappomted of yom- hopes for eter- 
nity ! But those whom God disappoints in the way of 
sin, may have hope that God will dehver them from 
that great disappointment. 

Obs. 4. Governors should take such a course as to 
remove idols and superstitious vanities from those that 
wiU worship them, and sm agamst God by them. She 
would have her idols, but God will take them away ; 
though she foUow after them, and have a great mind 
to them, yet " she shall not overtalvc them." The 
meaning is, God will remove them from then- idols, or 
their idols from them ; they should not come to their 
Dan or Bethel, they should either be removed far 
enough fioni their calves, or the e.ilves from them. 
Hence governors must either take people awav from 
those vanities, or theii- vanities fi-ora them ; they should 



92 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



not so much as suffer those things to be enticements 
and snares for the hearts of people ; though they are 
very grand, and abundance of gold and excellent arti- 
ficial work ai'e about them, yet, "Thou shalt not desh-e 
the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, 
lest thou be snared therein : but thou shalt utterly de- 
test it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it ; for it is a cursed 
thing," Deut. vii. 25, 26. You shall not look upon the 
ingenious work of their idols, and upon the gi'eat cost 
bestowed upon them, and therefore spare them because 
of that ; O no, but take them away, that men may not 
be insnared by them. 

Obs. 5. Idolaters' hearts are after their idols when 
they cannot get them. " She shall follow after her 
lovers, but she shall not overtake thera." Though they 
cannot get them, yet they will be following them. 
Their conduct is of excellent use for us : so should we 
do in piu'suing after God's ordinances ; though perhaps, 
for the present, we cannot enjoy the ordinances of 
God, yet be sure to keej) our hearts working after them. 
Many deceive themselves in this ; they say. We would 
have all the orchnances of God, but we see we cannot ; 
and so upon that sit still, and do not laboiu- to keep 
their hearts in a burning desire after them ; and hence, 
many times they let slip the opportunities of enjopng 
them. But now if thou canst not have the beauty of 
an ordinance, if thou keejiest thy heart in a burning 
desire after it in the use of all means for attaining it, 
know then, that the want of an ordinance is an ordi- 
nance to thee. You shall find in the English Chronicle 
of Edward the First, that he had a mighty desu-e to go 
to the Holy Land ; and because he could not go, he 
gave charge to his son upon his death-bed that he 
should take his heart thither, and a])pointed £32,000 
to defray the charges of carrying his heart to the Holy 
Land, out of a superstitious respect he had to that 
place : though ho could not attain it, his heart should. 
Thus should our hearts work after ordinances. 

And now we come to the blessed fruit of all this. 
" She shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not 
overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not 
find them." AVhat follows after all this ? Now mercy 
appears ; they shall return, at length they shall bethink 
themselves. " Then shall she say, I will go and return 
to my first husband ; for then was it better with me 
than now." 

Obs. 1. In times of aflfliction, the only rest of the 
soul is to return to God. They kept wriggling, and shift- 
ing up and down, to provide for themselves, but they 
could find no rest. As a poor prisoner that is shackled 
keeps a stir with his chains, but instead of getting any 
freedom he galls his legs. But when the poor soul, 
after all shiftings, and turnings, and vexings, comes to 
think of returning to the Lord, and of humbling and 
repenting itself before him, then it finds rest. " Keturn 
to thy rest, O my soul." Kemembcr, after all your 
afilictions, here is your rest, in returning to the Lord. 

Obs. 2. So long as men can liavc any tiling in their 
sinful way to satisfy themselves M'ith, they will not re- 
turn to God. Then they shall say, tliat is, when they 
are so stopped in their way, when they are hedged, and 
walled, and cannot overtake their lovers, then they 
shall return to the Lord. Tlicre is that pen-crseness 
of spirit in men. Only when men are stojiped in the 
way of sin, that they can have no satisfaction nor hope, 
then they begin to think of returning to God. As 
the prodigal ; what shift did he make ! he goes to the 
farmer, to the swine, to the husks to fill his belly, and 
it is likely if lie had had his bellyful of them he would 
never have thought of going to his father; but when he 
came to the husks, and could not tell how to fill his 
bellv there, when he was in a desperate state, then he 
begins to think of returning to his father. So you 
have it, Isa. Ivii. 10, " Yet saidst thou not, There is no 



hope : thou hast found the life of thine hand ; there- 
fore thou wast not grieved ; " thou wast not brought to 
such a desperate stand as to say. There is no hope : that 
intimates that till men are brought to such a stand 
that they can sav. Certainly, there is no hope or help 
this way, they will seldom tliink of returning to God. 
Thus is God infinitely dishonoiu'cd by us. It is very 
strange how the hearts of men will hanker after their 
sin this way and that way, and tUl God take them 
quite off from hope of comfort by it, they will never 
have a thought to return to God. God is fain to be 
the last refuge. AVe account ourselves 
much dishonoured when we are the last d/'^t"^iur°dm"; 
refuge; when nobody will, I must. It 
seems God is fain to yield to this ; when no one will 
give satisfaction to the soul, then men come to God, 
and God must. 

Obs. 3. Returning to God, if it be in truth, though 
it be after we have sought out all other helps, yet God 
is willing to accept. This is an observation full of 
comfort, the Lord grant it may not be abused; but it is 
tlie word of the Lord, and a certain truth, that return- 
ing after men have sought other means, and can fuid 
no help, though they are diiven to it by afflictions, yet 
it may be accepted by God. !Man will not accept upon 
these terms, but the thoughts of God are as far above 
the thoughts of men, as the heaven is above the earth. 
It is true, sometimes God will not, nay, God threatens, 
Prov. i. 28, Though " they call upon me, I will not an- 
swer;" though "they seek me early," yet "they shall 
not find me." God is not thus gracious to all at all 
times ; therefore you must not presume upon it. God 
sometimes at the very first affliction hardens his heart 
against men, that he will never regard them more, for 
his mei'cy is his own ; but those that are in covenant 
with him, though they come to him upon such terms, 
yet they may be accepted of him ; therefore, take this 
truth for helping you against this sore temptation, 
which, when you are in affliction, will be apt to intrude : 
Oh ! I cry to God now in my afftiction ; 1 should have 
done it before, siu'cly God •will not hear nie now. I 
confess I cannot speak in this ])oint without a trembling 
heart, lest it be abused ; but the text presents it fau4y 
to you, and you must have the mind of God made 
known to you, though others abuse it. " Mine eye 
nioumeth by reason of affliction : Lord, I have called 
daily upon thee," Psal. Ixxxviii. 9. This is spoken by 
Heman, and God did accept him, as it is apparent in 
the psalm, yet he cried by reason of affliction. And 
Psal. cxx. 1, "In my distress I cried unto the Lord, 
and he heard me ; " though it wore in my distress, yet 
the Lord heard me. Only take this one note about it : 
Though our being stopjicd in all other ways may make 
us cry to God, and God may hear us, yet, when God 
does hear us, he works more than crying out by reason 
of that affliction ; at first our affliction carries us to 
God, yet, before God has done with us, and manifests 
any acceptance of us, he works our hearts to higher 
aims than deliverance from our affliction. 

06*. 4. A heart eflcetually wrought upon by God is 
a resolute heart to return to God. " I will go and re- 
turn." As they were resolute in their way of idolatry, 
" I will go after my lovers ;" so their hearts, when con- 
verted, shall be as resolute in God's ways ; " she shall 
say, I will go and return to my first husband." AVlicn 
God works upon the heart to purpose, he causes strong 
arguments to fasten upon the spirit, and nothing shall 
hinder, no, not fatlicr, nor mother, nor the dearest 
friend. Perhaps the Lord begins to work upon the 
child, and the father scorns liini, and the mother says, 
"What shall we have of you now? a iiiuitan? This 
grieves the sjiirit of the child ; yet there are such strong 
arguments fastened by God u])on his heart, that it car- 
ries him tlirough, he is resolute in his way, he will return. 



Veb. 



THE PROPHECY OF ROSEA. 



93 



Obs. 5. Those who have ever found the sweetness of 
Christ in their hearts, though they shoukl be back- 
sliders, have something remaining that will at length 
draw them to him. Christ has such hold upon then- 
hearts, as at one time or other he will get them in 
again ; there will be some spai'ks under those embers, 
that will inflame and cbaw the soul to retiu-n again to 
Christ. Therefore, if any of you have friends in whom 
you were verily persuaded there was a true work of 
grace, though they have exceedingly departed from 
Christ, do not abandon your hope, for if ever there were 
any true taste of the sweetness that is in Christ, Christ 
has such a hold upon their heai-ts, that he will bring 
them in again one time or other. 

Obs. 6. There is nothing gotten by departing from 
Christ. " I will go and return to my fu"st husband, for 
then was it better with me." You go from the better 
to the worse, whenever you depart from lum : " What 
fruit had ye in those things whereof ye are now 
ashamed?" Rom. vi. 21. " I am the Lord thy God 
which teacheth thee to profit," Isa. xlviii. 17: sin does 
not teach you to profit, you can never get good by that, 
but the Lord teaches to profit. You may think to gain 
something by departing from Christ, but when you 
have cast up all the gain, you may put it info your eye, 
and it wlU do you no hiu:t. " What is the hope of the 
hj'pocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh 
away his soul ? " Job xxvii. 8. Perhaps a hj-pocrite, or 
a backslider who has departed from God, once forward 
in the way of godliness, but who now, like Demas, has 
forsaken tliose ways and cleaves to the world, thinks he 
has gained, and perhaps is grown richer, and hves 
braver than before ; yet what hope has this backslider, 
this hypocrite, when God taketh away his soul ? then 
he will see that he has gotten nothing. As it is said 
of the idolater, Isa. xliv. 20, " He feedeth upon ashes : 
a deceived heart hath tirrned him aside, that he cannot 
deliver his sold, nor say. Is there not a lie in my right 
hand ? " '\\Tiat ! shall there be more in a lust than in 
the blessed God ? than in Jesus Chr-ist, who is the glory 
of heaven, the delight of angels, the satisfaction of the 
Father himself? Can a lust put thee into a better con- 
dition than Christ, who has all fulness to satisfy God 
himself? Certainly it cannot be. 

Obs. 7. There must be a sight and an acknowledg- 
ment of our shameful folly, or else there can be no true 
retm-ning to God. " I will go and return to my fii-st 
husband, for then was it better with me than now." 
As if the ehm-ch should say, I confess I have played 
the fool, I have done shamefully, I have lost by depart- 
ing from Christ, it was better far than it is now. Jer. 
iii. 25, " AVe he down in our shame, and our confusion 
covereth us, for we have sinned against the Lord our 
God," saith the church ; so it should be with all that 
retmn to Christ, they must lie down in their shame. 
This is very seasonable in these times : we have many 
now, who not long since were vile apostates ; they have 
gone with the times, they saw preferment went such a 
way, and their hearts went that way; now they see 
they cannot have preferment in that "way, and God of 
his mercy has changed the times, they will be converts. 
We have m England many parliamentary converts, but 
such we are not to confide in. Do you ask, Why should 
we not confide in them ? If they repent and return, 
God accepts them, and why should not we ? It is true, 
such a one was before an enemy, and followed super- 
stitious vanities, but now he is grown better and 
preaches agamst them, and why should not we receive 
him ? I answer, it is true, if deep humihation has gone 
before that reformation ; if, together with their being 
better, they have been willing to shame themselves be- 
fore God and his people, to acknowledge their folly in 
departing fi-om God, and be willing to profess before 
all that knew them, and have been scandalized by 



them. It is true, God began with me and showed me 
his ways when I was young ; I began to love them, anol 
to walk in them ; but when I saw how the times went, 
and preferment went, the Lord knows I had a base, 
time-serving heart, I went away from God. No argu- 
ments satisfied my conscience, but merely livings and 
preferment, and now I desire to take shame and con- 
fusion of face to myself. AVoe unto me for the foUy 
and falseness of my heart ! it is infinite mercy of God 
ever to regard such a WTetch as I. If they did thus 
take shame to themselves, and acknowledge their folly, 
this were something. AVe read in the primitive times 
of Ecebolius, who, when he had revolted fi'om the truth, 
came to the congregation, and, falling down upon the 
thi'eshold, cried out, Calcate, calca/e insipidum salem ; 
Tread upon me, unsavoury salt ; I confess I have made 
myself unsavoury salt by departing from the truth, let 
all tread upon me. It was a sign of ti'ue retm-ning, 
when this went before, and reformation followed. We 
have done foolishly, it was better with us than now. 

06^. 8. Though acknowledgment must go before, j'et 
returning must follow. " I will return." It is not enough 
to see and acknowledge, but there must be a retm'ning ; 
for as reformation without humiliation is not enough^ 
so humiliation without reformation suffices not. And 
I speak this the rather, because these are times wherein 
there is a gi'eat deal of seeming humiliation, and we 
hope time humiliation : but many in the days of their 
fasting will acknowledge how sinful, how vile, how 
passionate they have been in then- families, how world- 
ly, what base self-ends they have had ; and they will 
make such catalogues of their sins in those days of 
their humdiation, as cause admiration : the thing itself 
is good ; but I speak to this end, to show the horrible 
wickedness of men's hearts, that after they have ripped 
up all their sins, and with all aggravations acknow- 
ledged the folly of their evQ ways against God, yet they 
often manifest no returning ; after all this, they are as 
passionate in their families, as froward, as peevish, as 
perverse, as earthly, as light and vain in their carriage 
as ever. They will acknowledge what they have done, 
but they will not return. Remember, humiliation must 
go before reformation, but reformation must foUow^ 
after humiliation. 

Obs. 9. How much better it was when the heart 
cleaved to Chi-ist, above what it is smce its departure 
from Chi-ist, is an effectual means to cause the heart to 
return to him. This is the way that Christ himself 
prescribed. Rev. ii. 5, " Remember therefore from 
whence thou art fallen, and repent." Thou wert in a 
better condition once than now thou art : O return ; 
and that thou mayst retmni, " remember from whence 
thou art fallen." I will give a little glimpse of what 
might be said in this point more largely. The reason- 
ings of the heart in the sight of tliis may briefly be 
hinted thus : Heretofore I was able through Ood's mercy 
to look upon the fiice of God with joy. AATien ray 
heart cleaved to him, when I walked close with God, 
then the glory of God shuied upon me, and caused my 
heart to spring within me every time I thought of him ; 
but now, now, God knows, though the world takes little 
notice of it, the very thoughts of God are a terror to 
me, the most terrible object in the world is to behold the 
face of God. Oh, it was better with me than it is now. 

Before my backsliding I had free access to the throne 
of God's free grace, I coidd come with humble and 
holy boldness to God, and pour out my soul before 
him ; such a chamber, such a closet, can witness it : 
but now I have no heart to pray, I must be haled to it 
by conscience ; yea, every time I go by that very closet 
where I was wont to have that access to the throne of 
gi-ace, it strikes a terror to my heart ; I can never come 
into God's presence, but it is out of slavish fear. Oh, 
it was better with me then than it is now." 



94 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. U. 



Before, oh the sweet communion my soul enjoyed 
with Jesus Christ! one da)''s communion with him, 
how much belter was it than the enjo}-ment of all the 
world ! But now Jesus Christ is a stranger to nie, and 
I a stranger to liim. Before, oh the sweet enlarge- 
ments that my soul had in the ordinances of God! 
when I came to the word, my soul was refreshed, was 
warmed, was enhghtened ; when I came to the sacra- 
ment, oh the sweetness that was there ! and to prayer 
with the people of God, it was even a heaven upon 
earth to me : but it is othem-ise now, the ordinances of 
God are dead and empty things to me. Oh, it was 
better with me then than it is now. 

Before, oh the gracious mitations of God's Spirit 
that I was wont to have ! Yea, when I awaked in the 
niglit season, oh the glimpses of God's face that were 
upon my soul ! what quickenings, and enlivcnings, and 
refi'eshings did I find in them ! I would give a world 
for one night's comfort I then had by the visitations of 
God's Spii-it, but now they are gone. Oh, it was better 
with me then than it is now. 

Before, oh what peace of conscience had I within ! 
however the world railed and accused, yet my con- 
science spake peace to me, and was a thousand wit- 
nesses for me : but now I have a grating conscience 
within me ; oh the black bosom that is in me, it flies in 
my face every day ! I could come before from the society 
of the saints, and my conscience smiled upon me ; now 
I go to ■n-icked company, and when I come home, and 
in the night, oh the gnawings of that worm ! It was 
better with me then than it is now. 

Before, the graces of God's Spirit were sparlding in 
me, active and lively ! I could exercise faith, humility, 
patience, and tlie like ; now, I am as one bereft of all, 
anfit for any tiling, even as a dead log. Before, God 
made use of me, and employed me in honourable ser- 
vices ; now I am unfit for any service at all. Oh, it was 
better with me then than it is now. 

Before, I could take hold upon promises, I could 
claim them as mine own, I could look up to all those 
blessed, sweet promises that God had made in his word, 
as mine inheritance; but now, alas, the promises of 
God are very little to me. Before, I could look upon 
the face of all troubles, and the face of death, with joy ; 
but now the thoughts of affliction and of death, God 
knows how ten-ible they are to me. Oh, it was better 
witl> me then than it is now. 

Before, in all creattues I coidd enjoy God, I tasted 
the sweetness and love of God even in my meat and 
drink ; I could sit with my wL*e and cliildrcn, and see 
God in them, and look upon the mercies of God through 
them, as a fruit of the covenant of grace ; oh how sweet 
was it with me then ! But now the creature is as an empty 
thing unto me ; whether it come in love or Iiatred I do 
not know. Oh, it was better with me before than now. 

Before, I was under tlie protection of God wherever 
I went, but now I cfo not know what danger and 
miseries I am subject to daily, what may befall me be- 
fore night, God only knows. Before, the saints re- 
joiced with me in my company and communion ; now 
every one is shy of me. Before, I was going on in the 
ways of life ; now these ways I am in, God knows, and 
my conscience tells mc, are' ways of death. Oh, it was 
better with me then than it is now. 
_ Now then, put all these together, as I make no ques- 
tion these tlioughts are the thoughts of many back- 
sliders, if we knew all that were in their hearts. As 
the prodigal, when he was feeding upon the liusks, be- 
gan to bethink himself; AVhat! is not there food 
enough in my father's house ? every servant there has 
food enough, and here I am ready to starve. So may 
many backsliders say, Alas ! before, I had sweetness 
enough, and was satisfied with those abundance of 
pleasures that were in the house of God, and in his 



word and ordinances ; now I feed upon husks, and 
amongst swine : oh that it were with me as it was be- 
fore ! As Job speaks in another case concerning his 
aiflictions, " Oh that I were as in months past, as in the 
days when God preserved me ; when his candle shined 
upon my head, and when by liis light I walked through 
darkness !" Job xxix. 2, 3. Before, I had some aiflictions, 
but I could walk through all afflictions by the light 
wliich I had from God. Oh that it were with me now 
as it was then ; " as in the days of my youth, when the 
secret of God was upon my tabernacle, when the 
iVlmightj- was yet with me ! " It may be said of many 
backsliders, as Lam. iv. 7, 8, they were once as polished 
sappliires, but now they are become " blacker than a 
coal." 

But oh that you had hearts to say. Let me retm-n, 
let me return, because it was otherwise with me hereto- 
fore than it is now ! Oh that this day there might an 
angel meet thee, as he met with Hagar when she fled 
from Sarah! the angel said to her, "Hagar, Sarah's 
maid, whence comest thou, and wliither wilt thou go ? " 
So I say to. thee, O backslider, whence comest thou, 
and wliither wUt thou go ? Mark, " Hagar, Sarah's 
maid, whence comest thou ? " Dost thou come from 
Sarah ? fi'om Abraham's family, where God is worsliip- 
ped, where the church of God is ? and whither goest 
thou ? canst thou be any where so well as there ? So 
I say to thee, thou who wert a forward professor be- 
fore, whence comest thou ? Dost thou come from 
such ordinances, from such communion with the saints ? 
AVliat hast thou gotten by those base ways ? Thou 
canst eat, and drink, and laugh a little, and have some 
esteem with such as are carnal ; oh, whither wUt thou 
go ? Oh that God would show you this day whither 
you go ! 

Obs. 10. Seeing there is so much grief and shame in 
complaining of oui- backsliding, whenever God awakens 
us it should teach all that are not yet apostates, to take 
heed what they do, that they may never bring them- 
selves into such a condition. It is a note of caution to 
you who are, through God's mercy, in his way ; you are 
now well, know when you are well, and keep well. And 
you young ones who are beginning to give up yom' 
names to God, take heed that you do not decline from 
what you now do, that you do not apostatize from 
God aftemard, lest this be yom' condition at best ; for 
this is at best, thus to lament the change of your con- 
dition. Perhaps you wiU go on, and God will never 
cause you to see your shame and foUy, till you be eter- 
nally undone ; but at best you must be brought to this 
shame and confusion of face, to acknowledge how much 
better it was with you before than now. How much 
better was it when I lived in such a family, under such 
a master, in such a to-mi ! oh it was better then -with 
me than it is now ! Oh the precious days that once I 
liad when I was young! those days are gone, and 
whether ever they will come again, God knows. 

Yet, further, when the judgment passes on God's 
side, that it was better before than now, then the soul 
is in a hopefid way. So long as the judgment holds for 
God and his ways, though thou ai-t a backslider, though 
perhaps thy heart be drawn aside from God, and thy 
affections be »mruly, thou art not in a desperate con- 
dition, there is hope of thee. Tlierc are two sorts of 
apostates. There are some apostates, who though they 
are so tlirough the unrulincss of their affections, and 
the strength of temptation, yet they keep their judg- 
ment for God's ways, and acknowledge God's peojjle to 
be best, and his ordinances to be best, and themselves 
in the danger; these arc properly backsliders. But 
tlicre are some apostates who so fall off from God and 
his ways, that they begin in their very judgments to 
think that those ways which they professed Ijcfore were 
but fancies, and that the people of God are but n com- 



Ver. 7. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



95 



pany of humorous people, and bless themselves in theu- 
own ways, and think that they are better now than 
they were before. Oh, tliis is a hideous thing. If thy 
judgment be once taken, that thou thinkest the ways 
of sin to be better than those ways of God, that thou 
professedst before, then the Lord have mercy upon 
thee, thou ai't even a ruined man. We do not know 
what God will do mtli thee, but in the judgment of 
man thou art undone. 

Latimer, in a sermon before King Edward, has tliis 
passage : I have Ivaown many apostates, but I never 
knew more than one that proved a scorner, and yet re- 
turned again. Take heed therefore, saith he, of apos- 
tacy. Though a man may fall from God, and possibly 
return ; yet, if he fall off, so that his judgment is taken 
that he is become a scorner, that is a woefid condition, 
such a one scarce ever returns. Many such apostates 
you have in England, and I would challenge you all to 
give me one example of any one that ever retimicd 
again that so fell. I know many scorners are converted, 
but they that have been for\vard in professing, and then 
fall off, and prove scorners, where have you any of them 
come in ? In Lev. siii. 44, you find when the priest 
shall come and see a man that has the leprosy in his 
head, he shall pronounce him utterly unclean ; for the 
plague is in his head. Observe, when the priest found 
uncleanness in any other part, he was to pronounce it 
unclean, but if the leprosy be in the head, he shall 
pronounce the part utterly unclean ; there is not that 
utter imcleanness any where as when the plague is in 
the head. So I may say here, when a man falls off 
fi'om the ways of God by some strong temptation or 
imi'uly affection, this man is unclean, verUy, he is un- 
clean ; but when it comes to the head, that his judg- 
ment is against the ways of God, and so contemns 
tliem and those that follow them, and thinks his o-wn 
ways better, this man is utterly unclean, for the plague 
is in his head. The Lord deliver you from that plague. 

Obs. 11. Backsliders may have hope of attaining 
their former condition, to be as well as ever they were : 
" I will return to my first husband ; for then was it 
better with me than now." 

In this, God's goodness goes beyond man's abimd- 
antly. " They say, If a man put away his wife, and she 
go from him, and become another man's, shall he re- 
turn unto her again ? shall not that land be greatly 
polluted ? but thou hast played the harlot with many 
lovers ; yet return again to me, saith the Lord," Jer. 
iii. 1. Hence, ver. 22, the Holy Ghost exhorts to re- 
tm-n upon this veiy ground, " Return, ye backsliding 
children, and I will heal youi- backslidings." Is there 
any backsliding soul before the Lord ? God now offers 
to heal thy backslidings, thou knowest that it is not 
with thee now as heretofore ; lo, God tenders his grace 
to thee that thou mayst be in as good a condition as 
ever. Oh that thou wouldst give the answer of the 
church there, " Behold, we come unto thee ; for thou 
art the Lord our God. Truly in vain is salvation hoped 
for from the lulls, and fi-om the multitude of moun- 
tams : truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of 
Israel." It is true, God might justly satisfy thee in thy 
present ways of backsliding, as sometimes he does. 
" The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own 
ways," Prov. xiv. 14 ; he shall have enough of them ; 
and Prov. i. 31, " They shall eat the fruit of then- own 
way, and be filled with their own devices." But, be- 
hold, wisdom itself caEs thee now to retm-n again, and 
makes this fan- promise, Prov. i. 23, " Turn you at my 
reproof: behold, I will pour out my sphit imto you." 
There is not only a possibility of being received into 
thy former condition, but Christ woos thee, and calls 
after thee, he promises to pom- out his >Spirit imto you, 
yea, and there would be triumph in heaven upon "thy 
retiuTiiiig. 



But let me say thus much to thee, though there be 
a possibility of coming again into as good a condition 
as thou wast in before, yet, 1. There had need be a 
mighty work of God's Spirit to raise thy heart to be- 
lieve this. It is not an easy thing for one who has been 
left of God to that fearful sin of backsliding, to believe 
that ever God shoidd receive him, and that he should 
retm-n to the ways of mercy and comfort as before. 
Yea, 2. Though there be a possibility to be recovered 
to mercy, yet you must be contented to be in a meaner 
condition if God shall please. You must come to God 
with such a disposition as to be content with the lowest 
condition, only that thou mayst have mercy at the 
last ; as the prodigal, " Make me as one of thy hked 
servants." And know, lastly, that if you do not return 
upon Iris gracious offer, God may give thee up for ever, 
take thy fill and there is an end of thee. " He which 
is filthy, let him be filthy still." 

Yet, further, this expression sti'ongiy presents occa- 
sion to digress a httle in comparing our present times 
with former, to examine whether we can say, it was 
better with us heretofore than it is now ? In these days 
there is much comparing our present times with times 
past, and divers judgments about present times ; some 
complaining of the hazards and dangers we are in, in 
these present times. Much better was it heretofore, say 
they, than it is now. 

'To such let me say, fu-st, as the Holy Ghost saith. 
Eccl. vii. 10, " Say not thou, "What is the cause that the 
former days were better than these ? for thou dost not 
inquire wisely concerning this." Certainly, those people 
who make such grievous complamts of present times, 
comparing them with times past, do not wisely inquu-e 
concerning this thing. There are many sad things for 
the present amongst us, things that om- hearts have 
cause to bleed for, such misunderstanding between king 
and parliament, some blood shed ah-eady, and danger 
of sheddhig much more ; yet, perhaps, if we inqiure 
wisely concerning this thing, we shall find that, not- 
withstanding all this, we have little cause to complain 
that it is worse with us now in comparison of what was 
before. 

Consider, first, that which men most complain of, 
which makes the times hardest now, is but the break- 
ing out of those mischievous designs that lay hid long 
before, and would have done us a great deal more mis- 
chief if they had been kept m. Now they break forth, 
and break forth as the desperateness of the hopes of 
those who had such designs ; because they could now 
go no longer underhand, but being brought into a 
desperate pass, they are fain to see what they can do in 
ways of violence ; and this certamly is better than that 
mischief should work secretly under-board. Secondly, 
by this we have a discovery of men, wliich way they 
stand, what was and is in tlicir hearts ; and this is a 
great mercy. Tlui'dly, with the breaking forth of these 
things, God grants that help now to England, that it 
never yet had so fully in the like way, and puts such a 
fair price into the hands of the people of England, 
that never yet was put into their hands. Yea, and 
consider, fom'thly, that the more violent men are now, 
the more does it tell us what a lamentable time was 
before ; for if now, when there is such means of resist- 
ance, and yet the adversaries prevail so much, what 
would they have been by this time, if this means of re- 
sistance had not been ? "What a case were we in then, 
when they might do what they woidd, and we had no 
means to help om-selves ? Certainly things then lay at 
more hazard than now. Fifthly, though there be many 
sad things amongst us, yet God hath been beforehand 
with us, we have had aheady, even of free cost, as 
much mercy as all these troubles come to. SixtMy, 
these troubles are maldng way for glorious mercies to 
come ; though there be some pangs, yet they are not 



96 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



the pangs of death, they are but the pangs of a travail- 
ing woman that is bringing forth a man-child. Any 
prince would think, tliat though his queen should be 
put to some pain in travail, yet her condition is better 
than when she had no pain and was barren, or than 
that she should lie upon her sick bed, and bereft of her 
senses, and ready to die. The pai:is of a ti-availing 
woman are better than a senseless dying. Yet further, 
if you think that you had better times heretofore than 
now, to what times will you refer in making the com- 
parison ? 1 suppose you will instance the times of the 
first reformation ; then things were in a good way when 
thoi;e worthy lights of the church and blessed martjTS 
had such a hand in the reformation. Many magnify- 
the times of the beginning of reformation for their own 
ends, that they may thereby hinder reformation now. 
This, you know, is the great argument that prevails 
with most : AMiat ! were not those prayers composed by 
learned, godly men, as C'ratmier, Latimer, and Ridley, 
and othei-s ? and can we be wiser than they ? did not 
they seal their profession with their blood ? 

My brethren, we need go no further to show the 
weakness of this argument, but only to show how it 
was in the church in those times, and you will find that 
you have cause to bless God that it is not so with you 
now as it was then ; and if that will appear, then the 
argument you will see can no further prevail with 
rational men. Certainly, those first reformers were 
worthy lights and blessed instruments for God : I woidd 
not darken their excellency, but weaken the argument 
that is abusively raised from their worth. It is reported 
of Mr. Greerdiam, that famous practical divine, that in a 
letter to the bishop of Ely, in gi^^ing his reasons for re- 
fusing subscription and answers to that prelate's objec- 
tion against him, that Luther thought such ceremonies 
might be retained in the church ; he tlius replied, I 
reverence more the revealed wisdom of God, in teach- 
ing Luther so many necessarj- things to salvation, than 
I search his secret judgments, in keeping back il'om his 
knowledge other things of less importance. The same I 
say of those worthy instruments of God's glory in the 
first refonnation ; and that it may bo clcai- to you that 
God kept back his mind fi'om them in some things, 
consider, whether you would be willing that should be 
done now that was then : as in the achninistration of 
baptism, we find that in tlie book of liturgy in King 
Edward's time, which was composed by those worthy 
men ; fii-st, the child was to be crossed in the forehead, 
and then on the breast ; after a prayer used ; then the 
priest was to say over the child at the font, " I command 
thee, thou vmclean spirit, in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and ol the Holy Ghost, that thou comest 
out of this infant ; thou cursed spirit, remember thy 
sentence, remember thy judgment, remember the day 
is at hand wherein thou shall be bm-nt witli everlasting 
fire prepared for thee and thy angels, and presuine not 
hereafter to exercise any tjTanny over this infant whom 
Christ hath bought with his ]n-ec!Ous blood." Then 
they dipped the child thrice in the water, the godfathers 
and the godmothers laid their hands upon the cliild, 
and the priest put a white vestment over it, called a 
chrysome, saying, " Take this white vesture for a token 
of thine innocency, which by God's gi-ace in this holy 
.sacrament of baptism Ls given to tlice, and for a sign 
whereby thou art admonished as long as thou livcst to 
give thyself to innocency." Then the priest must anoint 
the infant upon the head, saying, " .Vlmighty God," tVc, 
" who hath regenerated thee by water and the Holy 
Ghost, who hath given thee remission of all thy sins, 
vouchsafe to anoint thee with the unction of his Holy 
Spirit." Would you now have your children bajitizcd 
after this order ? yet these learned, holy men thought 
that to be a good way. So at the burial of the dead, 
the priest casting earth upon the corpse shall say, " I 



commend thy soul to God the Father Almighty, and 
thy body to the ground ;" and in another prayer, " Grant 
to this thy servant, that the sins he committed in this 
world be not imputed to him, but that he, escaping the 
gates of hell and pains of eternal daikness, may ever 
dwell in the region of hght." 

You will say, things are otherwise now. True ; there- 
fore I say, there is no strength in that argument, that 
those men who composed the liturgy were worthy 
lights in the church ; for they were but newly come out 
of popery, and had the scent of popery upon them, 
therefore it is too uMcasonable to make that which they 
did the nile of our reformation now, as if we were to 
go no fm-ther than they did. The like may be said of 
the primitive times, which many plead for the justifica- 
tion of their superstitious vanities, for the Cluistians 
then came but newly out of heathenism, and lived 
among licathens, and therefore coiUd not so soon be 
delivered from their heathenish customs. I coidd re- 
late to you sad things there were in Queen Elizabeth's 
and in King James's days ; but I must not take too 
much liberty in this digression ; only let us hereby 
learn not so to cry out of e\"il times m which we live, 
as to be imthankful for present mercies ; let us bless 
God for what we have had, and look to him and his 
word for further reformation. 

Ver. 8. For she did not know that I gave her corn, 
and wine, and oil, and mxdtiplied her silver and gold, 
ichich they prepared for Baal. 

The Spirit of God returns here again to convincing, 
upbraiding, accusing, threatening of Israel. The sin 
of Israel went ver)- near to the heart of God, and God 
speaks here as a man troubled in spirit for the unkind- 
ness, unfaithfulness, unreasonableness of the dealings 
of his spouse with him. It runs in his thoughts, his 
heart is grieved at it, and he must vent liimself, and 
when he has told his gi-ief and aggravated his wrong, 
he is upon it again and again, still con\-i)acing, wp- 
braiding, charging Israel for dealing so unfaithfully 
and treacherously with him, all showing the trouble of 
his spii-it. These words depend upon the 5th verse, for 
the 6th and 7th are as a parenthesis : " She that con- 
ceived them hath done shamefully : for she said, I will 
go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my 
water, my wool and my flax," &c. She did thus and 
thus, " for she did not know that I gave her corn, and 
wine," &c. 

AVhat ! was Israel worse than the ox or the ass, that 
knows his owner, and his master's crib ? It is impos- 
sible but Israel, who were the only people of God in 
those times, wliere God was most, nay, we may say, 
only known in the world, should know that God was 
the cause of all the good they had ; certainly, they 
coidd not be ignorant of that, for in their 
creed (as Buxtorf and others mention) ""'i;'^ fT?; ^''■ 
thev had thu-tcen articles, and this was 
the first article, I believe with a true and perfect faith, 
tliat God is the Creator, the Govei-nor, the Sustainer of 
all creatures, that he Awought all things, still works all 
things, and shall for ever work all things. And at their 
feasts they had these expressions. Blessed be thou. O 
Lord our God, King of the world, that dost create the 
fruit of the vine. The master of the feast himself came 
in publicly to bless God for the fruit of the \\ne ; and 
yet the text saith that they did not know that God 
gave them wine. A\'hen they came to take bread they 
had this speech. Blessed be thou, O God, that art the 
King of the world, that bringest forth bread out of the 
earth. And at the end of the feast this. Let us bless 
him who hatli sent us of his own, of whose goodness we 
live. The question answered. And blessed be he of 
whose gooilness we live. Yea, to bless God solemnly 



Ver. S. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



for the sweet and fragrant smell of spices and herbs, 
was their constant way: and yet here God charges 
them that they did not know that he gave them bread, 
and wLnc, and oil ; they did not lay it to heart. 

■\\'e shall see afterward of what great use this is to 
us, to show what profession they made of acknowledg- 
ing that God gave them all, and yet God charges them 
that they did not know that he gave them; what? 
" corn, wine, and oil, and multijjlied her silver and her 
gold." Here God expresses himself more largely than 
they did before, in what they received from their idols : 
they talked in the 5th verse of receiving from their 
idols " bread, and water, and wool, and flax," (Stc. ; but 
here is '• wine, and oil, and silver, and gold," more than 
they had from their idols. God sets out his mercy to 
them, to upbraid them. 

" AVhich they prepared for Baal." 

We must inquire here, first, what this Baal was. 
The word \yi signifies primarily, a lord (and then 
a husband) : because they attiibuted dominion, ac- 
knowledging then- idols to be lords, therefore they 
called them by this name ; and because they chose 
them as their husband, therefore also they gave them 
this name : so with Bel too, for Baal and Bel are the 
same, the letter j? being omitted, and the points being 
altered in the Chaldee. 

Now this Baal either Aias some special idol, or else a 
general name given to all idols : sometimes it is a name 
given generally to all, in the plural number, Baalim ; 
Jer. ix. 14, They '"' have walked after the imagination 
of then- own heart, and after Baalim." But it likewise 
notes a special idol, an idol that was the same with that 
of the Zidonlans, which they called Jujiiter Thalassius, 
or their sea Jupiter ; that idol was called Baal in a 
special manner. In 1 Kings xvi. 31, you may see how 
the worship of Baal came into Israel at that time. It 
is true it had been introduced in Israel a long time 
before, for in Judg. ii. 11, you find that they "served 
Baalim ;" yet the idolatry of Baal was often cast out by 
the people of God : but see how it came in a fresh ; " Ahab 
took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Eth-baal, king of 
the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and wor- 
shipned him ;" that was the occasion, Ahab marr)ing a 
Zidonian ; to the end that he might ingratiate himself 
with his wife's kindi-ed, he would worship his wife's god. 

And this Baal has divers additional names. Some- 
times in Scripture he is called Baal-zebub, or Beelze- 
bub, and that signifies the god of flies ; tlie reason why 
Baal had that name was, because in those countries 
they were extremely peqilexed with flies, and they at- 
tributed the power of driving them away, and of help- 
ing them against their molestation, to their god Baal ; 
hence they called him Baal-zebub. 'We have other man- 
ner of deliverances by the goodness of our God than this, 
yet for this Baal-zebub was one of their principal gods, 
therefore it is said of Christ, that " he cast out devils by 
Beelzebub, the prince of devils," which is, " by the god 
of flies ;" and in Matt. x. 25, he is called B«X^{/3oiX, 
Beelzebul, which is as much as, the dung god, Zebel in 
the Spiao signifying dung. Then there was Baal- 
perazim, that addition was only from the place, the 
mountain where he was worshipped. There was also 
Baal-berith, that signified only the covenant they en- 
tered into with that god. So that it seems the very 
idolaters bound themselves to worship their god by 
solemn covenant, to teach us to be willing to bind our- 
selves in worshipping the true God by all the legal 
bonds we can, to make God to be the God of our cove- 
nant, as their god was. It is needless to name more 
who had this name. I shall afterward show' how God 
hin;i?elf had once the name of Baal, for the word signi- 
fyirg li'.e name of husband, or lord, was as due to God 
a» 10 any other, and God himself took that name. But 
here we are to understand it of their idols. 



They prepared them for Baal, SyaS wy they made 
them for Baal. It imports these two things : 

Fii-st, that they sacrificed these things to then- Baal, 
for so f'acere, to make, is often as much as -wcri/icare, 
to sacrifice. And Bellarmlne, taking advantage of this 
word, when Clirist saith, " Do this," draws an argument 
that the Lord's .supper is a sacrifice, for the word to do 
is used sometimes to sacrifice. 

But, secondly, they prepared them, that is, of their 
gold and silver they made images of this their idol god 
Baal ; they woidd not s])are theu' gold and silver, but 
laid aside and prepared it to make images of Baal, and 
they thought that gold and silver thus laid out as good 
as any in then' purses. 

Obi. 1. It is God that supplies all the outward good of 
liis people. "They did not know tliat I gave them,'' S:c. 
I gave not only mine ordinances, but I gave them com, 
and wine, and oil, and gold, and silver. It is the Lord 
himself that supplies all outward good to his people ; he 
does not only prize the souls of his people, but he takes 
care of their bodies too, and outward estates. " He 
keepeth all his bones," Psal. xxxiv. 20. Yea, he takes 
care of the very hair of their head.s. The bodies of the 
saints are precioiis in the eyes of God, the most precious 
of all corporeal things in the world : the sun, and moon, 
and stars are not so precious as the bodies of the saints ; 
how much more precious are their souls ! 

Austin, upon Psal. Ixiii. 1, " My soul thii-steth for 
thee, my flesh longeth for thee," has this note : If 
the flesh has any need of bread, of wine, xo„,oij a„i„a„ 
of monev, or cattle, seek this of God, for ''""• ne"s t«it, et 
God gives this too ; tor mark, " iMy tlesn feccmnt? qui fecit 
longeth for thee." Those who thirst for S .imbS.'''Aug"in 
God must thirst for him every way ; not _'''■ '^"'• 
only their souls thirst for him, but their flesh must 
thirst for him ; for, saith he, did God make the soul, 
and did the de\ils, or any idols, make the flesh ? No, 
he that made both soul" and flesh feeds them both ; 
therefore all Christians must say, " My soul thirsteth 
for thee, my flesh longeth for thee." If then we can 
trust God for our souls, and our eternal states, that he 
will pro\ide for them, we must trust him for our bodies 
also, for our flesh, for our temporal estates, that he will 
provide for them also. 

Obs. 2. All our supply that we enjoy in this world, 
Ls the free gift of God. " They did not know that I 
gave them corn, and wine," &c. AU of us live upon the 
mere alms of God; the greatest man in the world is 
bound to go to God's gate and beg his bread every 
day ; though he were an emperor over all the world 
he must do it, to show his dejiendence upon him, that 
he lives wholly upon alms. Men think it hard to live 
upon alms, and because they have so much coming in 
by the year, such an estate in land, they think they are 
well provided for many years. But whatever estate 
thou hast, though by "thy trading thou hast gotten 
much, yet God requires this of thee, to go to his gate, 
and beg thy bread of him even' day ; so Christ teaches, 
" Give "us tills day our daily bread : " and certainly, if 
we did but understand oui' dependence upon God for 
all outward comforts, we could not but fear him, and 
seek to make peace with him, and keep peace with 
him. It woidd be a means that our hearts should be 
enlarged to give to others who need oiu- alms, seeing 
eveiy man and woman of us is an alms-man and an 
alms-woman. 

Obs. 3. It is a duty that we owe to God, to know 
and take notice of God as the author of all our good. 
They know not, that implies they ought to have known. 
This" is a special duty of that worship we owe to God : 
it LS the end of God's communication of all good to 
us, that he may have active as well as passive glory 
from his rational creature ; and there is no creature 
else in the world that God has made capable of know- 



98 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



ing any thing of the first cause but the rational crea- 
ture ; therefore it is the excellency of such, that they 
not only enjoy the good which they have, but that they 
are able to rise up to the highest and first cause of all 
theii' good. It is observed of doves, that at cverj' 
gi'ain of corn they take in their bill they cast their 
eyes upward ; and in the Canticles you find the eyes of 
the church are called " doves' eyes," because they look 
so much up to heaven upon every good they receive. 
They have not dogs' eyes ; the men of the world have 
dogs' eyes : dogs, you know, look up to then- masters for 
meat, and when they have it they presently look down 
to the ground ; so the men of the world T\-ill pray to 
God when they want, but when they enjoy what they 
have, they look no more upward, but downward. 

This taking notice of God to be the author of all 
otu' good, and to give him praise, is all the rent we pay 
to God for what we enjoy, therefore it is fit we should 
do that. If we do any thing for God, God takes notice 
of that to the uttermost ; yea, though he enables us to 
do it, yea, though it be but a little good mingled with 
a great deal of e^^l, God takes notice of it, and will 
reward it; surely then we should take notice of the 
good that he gives out to us. This sweetens our 
comforts, to see that they all come from God. Observe 
the difl'erence between the expression of Jacob's bless- 
ing and Esavi's blessing ; when Isaac came to bless 
Jacob, he expresses hunscif thus. Gen. xxvii. 28, " God 
give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the 
earth, and plenty of corn and wine." Now when he 
comes to bless Esau, mark his expression then, ver. 39, 
" Thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of 
the dew of heaven from above ;" but he never mentions 
God in that. It is not Esau's blessing, " God give thee 
of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth," 
though it is true Isaac meant so ; but yet he does not 
mention the name of God in Esau's, as in Jacob's 
blessing. Certainly, my bretlu'en, the seed of Jacob 
count their blessing to be a double, a treble blessing, 
that they can see God in it. Carnal hearts do not 
much regard God, if they can have their flesh satisfied 
in what they desire, from what hand it comes they do 
not much care ; but a gracious heart, a child of Jacob, 
rejoices more in the hand from whence it comes, than 
in any good he can possibly enjoy. 

Obs. 4. God does a great deal of good m the world 
that is little taken notice of, or laid to heart. Many 
of God's dispensations are invisible, the angels, Ezek. 
i. 8, are described with their hands under their wings. 
God does great things sometimes so invisibly that he 
cannot be seen ; and when he does great things that 
we might see, yet, through the neglect, stupitlity, and 
di'ossmess of om- hearts, we do not see them. The 
most observing eye in the world, that takes the cxact- 
est notice of God's mercy, and has the greatest skill to 
set forth the riches of God's goodness to himself and 
others, yet, alas, notices very little. It Ls with the 
quickest-sighted Christians as with a skilful geographer, 
who takes notice of and understands many parts of the 
world, and is able to set out the several parts distinctly 
to you in such a climate, in such a counfi-y, but yet 
leaves a great .space for a terra incognita, for an lui- 
luiown world, and that unknown world, for aught we 
know, may be five times bigger than the known world. 
So they who have the most observant eye of God's 
mercies, and take the most notice of them, who can 
best setiout the mercies he bestows, spiritual mercies, 
temporal mercies, preventing mercies, past mercies, 

E resent mercies, delivering mercies, &c. ; yet when they 
ave done all, they must leave a great space for the 
terra incognita, for the unknown mercies ot God. 

The truth is, those mercies of God which are obvious 
to our knowledge every day, one would think were 
enough to melt our hearts : but besides the mercies we 



notice, there are thousands and thousands of mercies 
that we know not of. As we daily commit many sins 
that we know not, so daily we receive many mercies 
that we know not likewise. And as, in our confession 
of sins, we should pray to God first to pardon the sins 
we know, and so to name them in particular ; and when 
we have done, then. Lord, forgive us our unknown, our 
secret sins. So in om- thanksgiving, first bless God 
for the mercies before us, and when we . . . . ., . 

Till 11 1 Scire tuum nihil est, 

have done. Lord, blessed be thy name m.i te Kir. hoc ki 
for aU thy unknoini mercies, of which I 
have taken little notice. 

We soon grow cold and dead if we do good, and 
men take no notice of us. Neither what we know, nor 
what we do, is any thing to us, except others know it 
too ; but this is the vanity and pride of men's hearts. 
It is God's ])rerogative above his creatures, to do all for 
himself, for his own glory, and yet he doth much good 
in the world that none see. We are bound to deny 
om'selves in what we do, not to seek our own glory. 
The most excellent piece in the most excellent of our 
works, is our self-denial in it ; why should we not then 
do all the good we can cheerfully, though it be not 
known ? Wo should do good out of love to goodness 
itself; and if we would do so, we should be encouraged 
m doing good secretly. 

Obs. 5. In God's account, men know no more than 
they lay to heai-t and make good use of. The schools 
distinguish between nescientia, and ignoralia : nescience 
is of such things as we are not bound to know, it is not 
our sin not to know them; but ignorance is of such 
things as we are botmd to know, and that ignorance is 
twofold. There is an invincible ignorance, let us take 
what pains we can, we can never know all that we are 
bound to know ; and there is an affected ignorance, 
when tlu'ough carelessness we do not mind what is be- 
fore us ; and when we have minded it so far as to con- 
ceive it, yet if we lay it not to heart as we ought, in 
God's accoimt we know it not ; if we digest not what 
we know into practice, God accepts it not. As God is 
said not to know when he does not approve, " I know 
you not ; " so when any man has a ti'uth in notion, and 
it is not embraced by the heart, God accounts that that 
man knows it not. Therefore, in Scripture it is said, 
The seer is blind ; it is a strange expression, and seems 
to be a contradiction ; but it is not so, because God ac- 
counts those that have never so much knowledge, if it 
do not sanctify the heart so as to give him the glory, 
blind. The knowledge of the saints is another kind of 
knowledge than other men have. We have, saith 
C)-])rian, no such notions as many of your phi,osophi smniu 
philosophers, but we are philosophers in J,"''^^^^,',""',!?'. 
om- deeds, we do not speak gi-eat tlungs, mur, .J »irimus. 
but we do great thmgs m om- hves. in ■ 
1 Thess. iv. 9, 10, you have an excellent example of 
this : "Ye yourselves are taught of God to love one an- 
other." What follows? "And indeed ye do it." That 
is an evidence that you are taught of God when it pre- 
vails with yoiu- hearts ; when it may be said, indeed so 
you do. '\ATio is there in the world, but knows that we 
should love one another ? but men are not taught of 
God to love one another, until it may be said of them, 
that indeed so they do. 

There is nothing more obvious to the understanding 
of a man than the notion of a Deity, that there is a 
God : we may, as it were, grope after him, as the Holy 
Ghost .speaks ; but yet, 1 John ii. 4, " He that saith, 1 
know hmi, and kecpcth not his commandments, is a 
liar, and the truth is not in him." Any man, whoever 
he be, though the greatest scholar in the world, if he 
say he knows God, and yet keeps not his command- 
ment.s, he has the lie told him to his teeth, he does not 
know God at all. Though this be the most obvious 
thing to the understanding, yet Christ saith, " No man 



Vek. 8. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSE A. 



99 



knoweth the Father, saye the Son, and he to whomso- 
ever the Son will reveal him," Matt. xi. 27. Hence, 
when a soul is converted, you shall hear the.se expres- 
sions ; I never knew God before, I never knew what an 
infinite Deity meant, I never understood the infinite 
sovereignty and majesty of tlie great God, I never 
knew what sin meant before : yet if you had asked him 
before, he would say, I know God is a Spirit, that he 
is infinite and eternal : I know that sin is the transgres- 
sion of the law. I never knew what Chi-ist was before ; 
yet before he would have told you, that C'hi'ist was the 
Son of Mary, and came into the world to die for sin- 
u 1, jj- ■ ners. A German divine, when upon his 

Hoc morbo didici . , , , • i x i . t t i 

quid sit peccatum, sick bed. Said, In this disease 1 have 
De^^'ca'par'^oievt learned what sin is, and how gi-eat the 
"""■ majesty of God is : tliis man, though a 

preacher, and doubtless he could preach of sm and of 
the majesty of God, yet he professed he knew not these 
things until God came powerfully upon his heart to 
teach him what they were. The Hebrews say, words 
of sense carry with them the aflections, or else they are 
to no purpose : wlien men have notional knowledge, 
that comes not down into the heart, they ai'e like men 
who have weak stomachs and heads, when they (bink 
wine its fumes fly up to the head and make them 
giddy ; but if the vnne went to the heart, it would cheer 
and warm it : so aU this man's knowledge flies up to 
his head and makes him giddy, whereas, if it were di- 
gested and got to the heart, it would warm and refresh, 
yea, it would sanctify it. Eli's sous, 1 Sam. ii. 12, 
" knew not the Lord ;" they were priests of God, yet 
they were " sons of Belial," and " knew not the Lord." 
Be not ofiended at great scholars, who have skill in 
languages, arts, and sciences. Do not say, Would such 
great and knowing men do thus, if tlungs wei-o as you 
say ? They are not knoicing men ; God saith that Eh's 
sons did not know the Lord : the tilings of God are hid 
from them ; " I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven 
and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise 
and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." 

Obs. 6. Affected ignorance coming through distem- 
per of heart, is no excuse, but rather an aggravation. 
" They did not know." It is a high degree of ingrati- 
tude not to prize God's mercy, but not to take notice of 
God's mercies, what a high ingratitude is this ! That 
which shall be part of God's charge against sinners, can 
be no excuse of their sin. God tlu-eatens to cut people 
off, to have no mercy upon them, for want of knowing, 
as well as for not doing : " It is a people of no under- 
standing ; therefore he that made them will not have 
mercy on them, and he that formed them will show 
them no favour," Isa. xxvii. 11. Am- 
peccas, 6i diviiina' brosc salth. Thou dost sin greatly, if thou 
contl!ml?i"™avi'" dost coutcmn the riches of God's long- 
Ambro.'"""""' Suffering, but thou sinnest most of all if 
thou dost not know it. 

Ohs. 1. The not taking notice of and considering 
God's mercies, and laying them to heart, is the cause of 
vUe and shameful evils in men's lives. Therefore they 
" did shamefuDy," therefore they " went after then- 
lovers," because they " did not know :" the cause of 
almost all the evil in the world is from hence. " They 
that know thy name will trust in thee ;" those who know 
the Lord will fear him and his goodness. Isa. i. 4, 
" Ah sinfid nation," saith God: God fetches a sigh 
under the bm-den of it, his spirit is laden and troubled 
with it. Wliat was the matter ? " Tlie ox knoweth 
his owner, and the ass his master's crib, but Israel doth 
not know, my people doth not consider," they were 
more stupid than the brute creatures. O sinful soul, 
this is the cause of all thy inordinate walking, of all thy 
profaneness, of all the ungodliness in thy ways, because 
thou dost not know, thou dost not consider, thou dost 
not lay to heart the ways of God towards thee. In Jer. 



ii. 5, God charges his people that they were " gone far 
from him ;" and, verse 7, that they had " made his heri- 
tage an abomination." What is the reason given for 
both these ? It is in the 6th verse, " Neither said they. 
Where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land 
of Egj-pt ? '' They did not take notice of what the Lord 
had done for them, therefore they were gone far from 
him. If thou hadst but a heart to consider what God 
has done for thee, it is impossible thou shouldst go so 
far off from God as thou clost. For tliese deductions 
are easy and ob\ious to any fi'om such a principle. 

1. Justice, common equity, requires living to God, 
seeing we live by and upon God. 

2. Common ingenuousness calls for requiting good 
with good ; the publicans and heathens will do good to 
those that do good to them. 

3. If all be from God, then aU still depends upon 
God. 

4. How much good is there in God from whence all 
this good and mercy comes ! When God shall show 
another day to men and angels, how he was the Foun- 
tain of all good, it wUl confound those who have not 
laid it to heart. 

Obs. 8. God is more bountifid to his people than the 
idols can be. 

The idols, by their own confession, gave them but 
then- bread, and water, and flax, and oil, &c. ; but God 
gave them wine, and silver, and gold. God gives bet- 
ter pay a great deal than the devil, yet the devil usually 
has more servants to follow him than God has, though 
his wages be less and worse. It is usual for men to get 
soldiers fi-om adversaries, by giving them more pay : 
this is the way God takes, he offers a great deal better 
pay to those that will follow him, than they have that 
follow Satan, yet God can get few to follow him. This 
shows the vileness of man's heart against God. 

Obs. 9. '\\'Tien men get abundance, they soon grow 
wanton. 

"^Tien I gave them corn, and wine, and oil, and mul- 
tiplied theii- silver and then- gold, then they followed 
Baal. This is the reason of so many solemn charges 
of God. Take heed when thou ai't full, that thou dost 
not then forget the Lord. As they that are nearest the 
Sim are the blackest, so those to whom God is nearest 
in regard of outward mercies, are many times blacker 
than others. It is observed, that the fatter men's bodies 
are, the less blood and the fewer spirits they have ; so, 
often, the fatter men's estates are, the less spirit they 
have to any thing that is good; God has less spfrit 
from them ; sin has much more. We read of the sun 
melting the manna that fell down, but the same manna 
was able to bear the fire ; so many a man's heart is able 
to bear afiiictiou, and the affliction does him good, and 
prepares liim for much good, as manna was prepared to 
be eaten by fii'e ; but prosperity melts Mm, makes him 
useless. Many men, when they were poor and in a low 
condition-, were very useful ; but when they grow high 
and rich, they are of very little use in the places where 
they dwell. Trajan, the emperor, w-as wont to liken a 
man who had become rich, to the spleen in the body ; 
for as the spleen grows big, the body gi-ows less : so 
when men's estates gi'ow bigger, they gi-ow less useftd. 
Evagi'ius notes it as a special commendation of Mau- 
ritius the emperor, that, notwithstanding his prosperity, 
he retamed his ancient piety : it is a \evy rare thing to 
see men advanced to high places, who preserve then- 
former devotedness. 

Obs. 10. Even those creatm-es that wicked men abuse 
to then- lusts, God gives them. " "\^^lich they prepai-ed 
for Baal." Though he does not give them for that end, 
yet those creatures which they use for such an end are 
given of God. If thou art a di'unkard, that wine or 
drink which thou dost sacrifice to thy lust, who giveth 
it thee ? does not God ? Thou hast a good estate more 



100 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Ch-U-. n. 



than other men, and all the use thou makest of thy 
estate, is merely that it might be but as fuel for thy 
lusts. Who gave tliee this thy estate ? did not God ? 
God gives thee clothes, and thou sacrificest them to thy 
pride ; thou hast more money than others, and so canst 
vent thy maUcc more than others ; from whence hast 
tliou this? Thou hast more strength of body than 
others, and tliou ventcst it in uncleanness; where hadst - 
thou this ? Consider this, and let this meditation pre- 
vail with thy heart to stop tliee in thy sinful way ; let 
it be seconded with the next ; namely, 

064'. 11. That it is most horrible wickedness and 
abominable ingi-atitude, for any men to take God's 
crcatuies, and abuse them against God. A^Tiat ! " I 
gave them corn and wine, and multiplied their silver 
and tlicir gold," and have tlicy prepared these for 
Baal ? God speaks of tliis as of a monstrous sin, as if 
God should sav. Let all my people lament my condition, 
that I should do so much for them, and they do nothing 
for me, but all against me, sacrifice all to Baal. Some 
of you have been kind to your friends, and have raised 
them, and made tlicm, as we say ; if these men should 
turn your enemies, and that estate wliich they have ob- 
tained by you, thev sliould use to do you a raiscliief, 
would you not call in your neighbours and friends, to 
join w ith you in lamenting your condition ? AMiat ! did 
you ever hear of sucli an example, that I should do so 
much for them, and they turn all against me ? God 
does so here ; he makes this his grievous complaint. 
This is as if a bird should be shot with an arrow whose 
feathers came out of her own body. AVe should even 
pity a bird in that case. ^lany men make no other 
use of their estates, but to turn them against God ; 
they are not as the slothful servant who hid his talent 
in the napkin, that were not such guilt ; but they take 
their talents and employ them against God. "Would it 
not go to your heart if one should sue you in law, and 
bear the charges of the suit out of your own estate ? 
Vi'e complain, buch a man sues me, and it is my own 
money with which lie goes to law. So thou goest 
against God, and he is made as it were to bear all the 
charges. Is it not against the light of natm-e ? The 
very heathens, pubKcans, and sinners will do good to 
those that do good to them. Thou art worse than a 
publican and sinner : wilt thou do hurt to God who 
does thee good ? AMren JuUus Caesar saw Brutus come 
to give him a stab in the senate house, he cried out, 
. . , "WTiat tliou, my son, wilt thou do it ? But 

°' "" """' suppose that Julius Ctesar had given him 
the dagger with which he stabbed him, then, O thou. 
my son, what stab me with tliat dagger I gave thee 1 
If, when Jonathan gave David his sword and bow, 
David had turned against Jonathan and killed him with 
his own sword and bow, would not the unkindness, or 
rather the abominable wickedness, have pierced deeper 
into his heart, than any swords or arrows possibly 
could ? If you can find any creature that is not God's, 
with which to fight against him, you may do it ; but if 
all you have is from him, it is hoiTible wickedness to 
take that, and to sacrifice it to Baal. Certainly, God 
gives it for other ends. To cross God's ends is an evil 
thing : when God aims at such a thing, for us not to 
join with God in the same end at whicli lie aims, is an 
evil ; but for us to aim at a quite contrary end, is hor- 
rible wickedness. 

Obs. 12. A\Ticn once superstition and idolatry have 
entered a place, though there be much done to oppose 
it, it is not easy to drive it out. Hence, God so often 
complains of Baal. In Judg. ii. 11, (I think that is the 
first place in which it is mentioned that tliey served 
Baal,) it appears that they fell off from Baal, yet they 
returned to liim again ; for in Judg. viii. 33, after 
Gideon's death it came to pass " that the children of 
Israel turned again, and went a whoring after Baalim, 



and made Baal-berith their god." It speaks as if it 
were a new thing now, that they shoidd worship Baal 
after they had left worshipping liim ; after his death. 
And, 1 Sam. vii. 4, " The children of Israel did put 
away Baalim;" yet, if you read chap. xii. 10, they 
confess that they had sinned, because they had " for- 
saken the Lord and served Baalim ; " though they had 
put him away before, yet he had got up again. So in 

1 Kings xvi., Ahab would serve Baal ; it is introduced 
as a novelty, because Baal had been so much suppressed. 

2 Kings X., Jehu sought to destroy Baal and all his 
priests ; but yet liaal was not so driven out, but he got 
in again, for 2 Kings xxiii. 4, saith, that Josiah, who 
was long after that time, caused the vessels that were 
made for Baal to be taken away and burnt. 

This is seasonable for our times. K superstition be 
opposed, though it be cast out, as we think, in a great 
degree, vet, if there be not a thorough refoi-mation, it 
will wind in one way or other again. If we think it 
enough to cut things short, and to take away their 
strength, and their enormities, we deceive ourselves; 
they will grow up again ; it is but cutting tlie weeds a 
little ; if branch and root be not taken away, Baal 
will rear uj) his head one way or other. 

Cluvei-us, a late liistorian, yet much approved, saith, 
that one gave this counsel concernuig liome, when it 
was much annoyed with wolves ; " There is no way to 
save Home from wolves, but to cut down the woods 
wherein these wohes breed and live, for otherwise you 
may kill, but they will breed again." So certainly, this 
is the way to destroy superstition from amongst us, to 
take away the places and revenues of those men that 
have been maintainers and upholders of supei-stitious 
ways of worsliip. Let us, by cutting down the woods, 
destroy these wolves. 

Ver. 9. Therefore tcill I return, and take aicay v>y 
com in the time thereof, and my icine in the season 
thereof, and tcitl recover my wool and my flax given to 
cover her nakedness. 

In the former verse, Israel is accused for abusing 
her silver and gold in the service of Baal ; now it fol- 
lows, " Therefore I will take away my corn in the time 
thereof:" if there be a "therefore," we must inquire 
wherefore it was ; " because they did prepare their 
corn," &c. for Baal. 

Let us inquire, 1. What is the meaning of return- 
ing. 2. AATiat the meaning of the time and season 
thereof, " and take away my com in the time thereof, 
and my wine in the season thereof." 3. A\niat tliat 
phrase imports, " I will recover my wool," &c. 

1. For the first, " Therefore will I retui-n," that is, I 
will change the way of my administrations toward 
them ; I will go out of my way of mercy, and turn into 
my way of judgment, I will go back again. I was in a 
way of judgment toward them, and they cried to me, 
and I turned into a way of mercy ; but I wiU go back 
again into a way of judgment, " I will return." Monta- 
nus remarks. Whereas God has heretofore bid them not 
to be afraid of all the tokens of the soothsayers : that 
is, when they saw bv astrology some signs of death 
which might follow, ihcy were afraid ; Be not afraid, 
saith the Lord, but know your corn, and wine, and oil 
depend on me, not on second causes ; though second 
causes make against you, yet fear not, for I will give 
you com, and wine, and oil : but now it is quite con- 
trarj% though second causes ])roniise all kind of plenty, 
so tiiat there sliall be abundance of com, and wine, and 
oil, yet I will take a\vay your plenty, tlicre shall be a 
dearth of all tilings amongst you. 

2. " 1 will take away my com in the time thereof;" 
that is, first, irt the time of harvest, just when their com 
is to be gathered ; and m the time of their vintage, I 



Vee. 9. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



101 



will then take it away ; whereas I might take it away 
in the seed, I will let it grow till the harvest, and then 
take it away. 2. In the time when they have most need 
of it, when they are in tlie gi-eatest straits, and know 
not what to do without those creatures. 3. In tempore 
suo, so some, in the time I have appointed, though I 
have let them go on and enjoy the creatm-cs in abund- 
ance, yet my time is come that I will take away all. 

3. " And wUl recover ;" the word 'nSsn signifies, I 
will snatch it away, I will spoil you of it ; and it has 
reference to two things. 

First, I will recover it as out of the hands of usurp- 
ers ; you have my corn, and wool, and flax, as usurpers, 
but I will recover them out of your hands : as a man 
that has his goods usurped by others, by some means 
recovers them ; so, saith God, you have my coi'n and 
wine, and, as you have carried the matter, you are but 
usurpers, I will sue you for them, you shall not enjoy 
them long. 

Secondly, "I will recover:" it has a reference to 
prisoners and bond-slaves ; when the enemy gets any of 
our soldiers into their power, and makes them bond- 
slaves, a greater power goes against the enemy, and re- 
covers them out of his hands ; as Abraham recovered 
Lot and his goods. Gen. xiv. Or, as if mariners should 
recover those gaUey-slaves the Tm-ks have taken. And 
as if God should say. These creatures of corn, and 
wine, &c., are in bondage, and I will recover them out 
of yom' hands. You know the creatures groan under 
their bondage while they are in the possession of wicked 
men. My creatures are in bondage to you, and they 
cry to me, and I wiU recover them out of your hands, 
Rom. viii. 22. There are many precious truths to be 
presented to you out of the words. 

Obs. 1. Though God gives mercy out of free gi'ace 
without cause in ourselves, yet he takes not away mercy 
■without cause ; there is a '• therefore " for taking away 
mercy, but we have many mercies given without a 
" therefore." When God takes away mercy we have 
cause to look into ourselves to find out a " therefore ;" 
but for thousands of mercies which God gives to us, 
you shall find never a '• therefore " for them. It is not 
so gi'eat a wonder that thousands are in misery, as that 
any one enjoys mercy, for misery has a "therefore" in 
ourselves, for mercy there is reason onlv in the breast 
of God. 

Obs. 2. Sin causes God to change the way of his ad- 
ministi'ations towards his people. Though God walk 
in the ways of mercy, yet sin may put him out of those 
ways, and make him return to a way of judgment again. 
How much better were it for sinners to return, than 
that sin should cause God to return ! O sinner, return 
out of thy evil ways ; if God return, it will be a sad re- 
turn. Not long since God was in ways of judgment 
against us, and lately he has come into ways of mercy, 
and now he seems to return again to his former ways 
of judgment. Jer. xiv. 9 asks, " "Why shouldest thou 
be as a man astonied ? " A man astonished stands still ; 
or if he moves, it is up and down, as if he knew not 
which way to go. Though we have sufiered hard 
things, we cannot yet say, God is retm-ned, but he 
seems as a man astonished, that knows not which %vay 
to go. Thus God is pleased to speak of himself after 
the manner of men. Let us ciy to him that he may 
not tm-n out of his way of mercy into those sad ways of 
WTath to which he seems looking. - 

Obs. 3. Abuse of mercy causes the removing of 
mercy. " Woe to the idol shqjherd that leaveth the 
flock ! the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his 
right eye : his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right 
eye shall be utterly darkened," Zech. xi. 17. Has 
God given a right hand any abilities ? take heed God 
does not strike that right hand : or right eve, any 
quickness of parts ? take heed that, through abuse, it 



be not put out. How many shepherds, when they were 
young, had many excellent parts, great abilities, but, 
having abused them to their lusts, God has taken them 
away ! So in childi-en, there is no such way to lose 
your childi-cn as to abuse them ; if your hearts be inor- 
dinately set upon them, God takes them away. I will 
relate a remarkable providence concerning this ; and 
the rather, because I was an ej'e and car witness of it, 
living not far from the place. A godly man desu-ed his 
friends to meet and bless God for a plentiful harvest. 
After dinner was over a very lovely little child came in ; 
Ah, said the father, I am afraid I shall make a god of 
this child. By and by the child was missing, and when 
they went to look for him, he was found (kowned in a 
pond. Consider this, ye pai-ents, who have yom" hearts 
inordinately set on your children. 

Obs. 4. God keeps the propriety of all that we have. 
" I will take away my corn, and my wine, and my wool, 
and my flax." Mark, in the former verse, they said 
they were their- o\\'ri ; now, God challenges them for his. 
Here we have " my," " my," " my," r&peated on God's 
side, as often as before it was on theu-s. Though God 
gives all, yet he keeps the propriety of aU in his own hand. 
God has a greater propriety in oiu- estates than any 
prince in the world has. Subjects have propriety in 
their estates, and enjoy them -ndth as ti-ue a right as 
their- sovereigns ; but no creatm-e has any propriety in 
what it has, compared to God. Not only what we have, 
but what we do, and what we are, is all God's : yea, 
says Luther, Even our thanksgiving to 
God for gifts is a gift of God ; it is there- ii.sa '"n™ ;lo "i- 
fore a vei-y vile thing to attribute to our- q'u",to ma^^lpS' 
selves what is his. When God has en- i.'i^"i'„„J',^'l;",„i5. 
riched us, we add tliis odious phrase, I 'Y/ '^"""^ ''""" 
have done it, I have done it. By this .iddiiius,''ego'VKi" 
you may see they are not your goods '''' 
which yoM abuse. It is a great argument to be bounti- 
ful and liberal for good uses, because what we have is 
God's. "For all things come of thee, and of thine 
own have we given thee," 1 Chron. xxix. 14. David 
thought not much of his bounty towards the temple, 
because all was God's. 

06^. 5. The taking away the good things which we 
enjoy, is a means of making us retm-n to God. " There- 
fore I will take away." " Therefore" has not only re- 
ference to the abuse of them, but to the 7th verse, " And 
she shall follow after her lovers, but shall not over- 
take them," &c. : " then shall she say, I will go and re- 
turn to my fii'st husband ; for then was it better with 
me than now." God makes this a means of working 
that frame of spirit in them of retm-ning to theu- fii-st 
husband. It is a special means to convince us of sin, 
when God comes with some special proridence against 
us. Some real expression of God's displeasm-e works 
more upon us than when wo merely hear the threat. 
You tliat are tradesmen, and run into debt, and yom- 
creditors tell you they will come upon you, yet you go 
on, till the bailiff comes into yoiu- house, and takes 
away yom- bed from under you, and all ymir goods. 
AVhen you see all go, then you think of yom- negli- 
gence, and theu the husband and wife wring their 
hands. So, though God threaten you for the abuse of 
the creature, tliat he will take it away, yet you are not 
sensiljle of it till Giod indeed takes away all, and then 
conscience begins to awake and fly in your face. When 
David saw God taking away his people, then his heart 
smote liira for numbering them : he was told of the 
evil of his way before by Joab, but he went on in it. 
When Samuel prayed for rain in wheat harvest, and 
there came thundering and lightJiing, then " the people 
feared exceedingly," and acknowledged their sin in 
asking a king. Those who have abused their estates 
in these times, when the enemy comes, xvhat gratings 
of conscience will they have ! Then these thoughts 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. n. 



will arise, Have I used my estate for God? have I 
done -nhat I might have done ? have I not satisfied my 
lusts witli those things -which God has now taken from 
me ? There is usually a gi'ating of conscience for the 
abuse of any thing when God takes it away. Allien 
God takes away a wife, if the husband has any tender- 
ness of conscience, liis first thoughts are. Have I per- 
fonned the duties of my relation to my wife as I 
ought ? have I not neglected my dut)- towards her ? 
When he takes away a child. Have I done my duty to 
this child ? have I prayed for it, and instructed it, as I 
ought ? This causes sad thoughts. 

Obs. G. There is an uncertaintj- in all things in the 
world ; though they promise fair, yet they are ready to 
fail us when they promise most. ' " I wiU take away 
r'.y corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the 
season thereof." A husbandman who has a good seed- 
time, promises much to himself; it comes up and thrives, 
and yet at harvest it is all blasted. Hab. iii. 1 7, " Though 
the labour- of the olive shaU fail," the phrase is. 
Though the labour of the olive B'ns "shall he ;" that is, 
the oHve promised fair, it grew up, and looked very 
ftiir, and ripened ; but it did lie, that is, it did not per- 
form what it seemed to promise, for in the time thereof 
it vanished and came to nought. I had certain in- 
formation from a reverend minister, of a singular work 
of God this way. In his own town there was a world- 
ling who had a great crop of com ; a good honest 
neighbour walking by his com, said, Neighbour, you 
have a very fine crop of com, if God bless it. Yea, 
saith he, speaking contemptuously, I wiU have a good 
crop ; and before he could get it into the barn, it was 
blasted, so that the whole crop was not worth sixpence. 
Here we see the uncertainty of the creature in the 
time thereof, when it seems to promise never so fair, 
when we are ready to take it mto the barn, it depends 
on God, as well as when it is under the clods. Oh the 
blessedness of God's servants, who ai-e sure of their 
good for time to come ! We may promise ourselves cer- 
tainty, even for the future, in the things of Chi-ist ; but 
temporal things are never sure, no, not when men have 
them in theu- hands. Many things fall out between 
the cup and Up, as we have it in the proverb. 

Obs. 7. God often shows his displeasure to those 
who provoke liim, when they are at the greatest height 
of prosperit)-. When affliction seems to be farthest ofi' 
from them, then it comes heaviest upon them ; when 
they think least of it, when they think all suie, then 
God visits them with his displeasure, when it is most 
bitter to them ; for that is the strength of the point, 
he wiU not only take them away in the time thereof, but 
when the affliction sliaU be most grievous to them. Job 
saith, chap. xx. 22, " In the fulness of his sufficiency he 
shall be in straits." A man may seem to have sufficiency 
of the creatiu-e, and may have his fulness of sirfticiency, 
yet God saith, he shall lie in straits in the fuhiess of his 
sufficiency. I give you another admu-able work of 
providence to illustrate this very thing ; it came from 
that worthy divine. Doctor Preston, and happened in 
the town where he was born. There was a man who 
of a long time had no child, but when God gave him 
one, at the weaning of it he called his friends and 
neighbours to rejoice with him for this great mercy ; 
and while the nurse was dandling the child, the point "of 
a knife which she had placed in her bosom ran hito its 
bowels, when all liis friends were about him to rejoice 
with him. When men think the bitterness of death 
to be past, (as Agag did,) the curse of God comes on 
them. '• While the meat was vet in tlieir mouths, tlie 
%vrath of God came upon them"," Psal. Ixxviii. 30, 31. 

Pope John XXII. said, ho knew by the ])osition 
of the stars that ho should live a long time, and boasted 
that he could cast his nativity; and the same night, bv 
the fall of a chamber which "he had newlv built for his 



solace, he was slain. I have heard credibly reported, 
that a dnuiken fellow in an inn was swearing most 
dreadfully, and one came in and said, Sir, what if you 
should cUe now ? He replied, I shall never die ; and 
going down-stairs from his chamber, he feU down and 
broke his neck. 

"WTien Bibulus, a Roman, was riding in triumph in 
all his glory, a tile fell from a house in the street, and 
killed him. As, on the contrary. God's ways and deal- 
ings with the saints are such, that when their condition 
is most dark and gloomy, he comes with mercy to 
them ; so, when the wicked are in the height of their 
prosperitv', God smites them. AMien " the iron entered 
into " Joseph's " soul," God dehvered him. '\ATien the 
apostle " had the sentence of death " in himself, God 
comforted him, 2 Cor. i. 9. When Abraham was lift- 
ing up his hand to slay Isaac, the angel of the Lord 
stayed his hand. As it is observed in nature, that a 
little before day-break it is darkest, so a little before 
the happiness of God's people, there are some gi-eat 
afflictions. " At evemng-time it shall be light,'' Zech. 
xiv. 7. 

Obs. 8. When men abuse mercies, they forfeit then' 
right in those mercies, they ai'e then only usurpers. '• I 
will recover my wool," &c. They are not usurpers 
merely for the use of mercies, but for then- abuse: they 
are not charged for their right to use them, but for 
their not using them aright : there is great difierence 
between these tvvo. 

It has been taught by many, that all wicked men 
have no right at all to use any creattire, but are to an- 
swer as usurpers before God. But certainly there is a 
mistake. It is certam, man has forfeited all, but God 
has given a right by donation to all that they enjoy in 
a lawful way. They have not such a right as the saints 
have, a right in Christ ; once in Christ, we may chal- 
lenge of God all things that are good for us. Another 
man has right ; but how ? "WTien a malefactor is con- 
demned to die for his offence, he has forfeited aU his 
estate, and all the benefit of a subject. But if the 
king be pleased out of his bountj' to allow him pro- 
vision for a day or two, till the time of execution, he 
xannot be challenged as a usurper, for that which he 
has, he has it by donation: such a right all wicked men 
have ; they are under the sentence of condenmation, 
and have forfeited their right, and all the good of the 
creature, only the Lord is pleased, out of his boimtv, to 
give tliem such and such enjoj-ments, they shall tave 
such houses and such lands for a time, till the day of 
execution comes. 

This might daunt the hearts of wicked men : You 
look upon yourselves as great men, you have yom- 
shops ftdl, you have lai'ge estates ; you are like some 
malefactors, who have a better supper before execution 
than others. But, still, your not using them euight 
may make you usui-pers before God. You command 
yom' servant to buy certain commodities ; suppose yom- 
servant run away with your money, do you not follow 
him as a thief? you trust him with a stock, to keep 
such markets, he has right to use your estate for you, 
but if he rim away mtli your estate, and use it against 
you, if you meet with him again you wiU say, Wiat a 
thief are you to run away with your master's estate, 
and abuse it against liim ! "I will recover my wool," i&rc. 

Obs. 9. All the time the crcatui-e serves wicked men, 
it is in bondage, and God looks upon it with pit)'. God 
has made all things for his own praise. He gives the 
children of men many mercies, but for his own glor>- ; 
when therefore these creatures which were given for 
the glory of God, are abused to thy lust, the creatme 
groans under thee. Thou drinkest wine, but the crea- 
ture groans under thy abuse ; never any galley slave 
groaned more under the bondage of the Turks, than 
tliy wine and thy dishes on thy table groaned under thy 



Vek. 9. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



abuse, Rom. viii. 22. As God hears the ciy of the 
widow and fatherless, so he hears the groans of the 
creature. 

Cornelius a Lapide states, that a famous preacher, 
showing this bondage of the ereatiu-e, brings in the 
creatures complaining thus : Oh that we coidd serve such 
as are godly ! Oh that our substance and oui- flesh 
might be incorporated into godly people, that so we 
might rise into glory ! but if oiu' flesh be incorporated 
into the flesh of sinners, we shall go to hell ; and would 
any creatm-e go to hell ? The very creatui-es shall be 
in hell eternally which wicked men consume on then- 
lusts, being incorporated into then bodies. The crea- 
ture one day wiU have a kind of revenge upon ungodly 
men, and divers thuik that hell will be atm-niug all 
creatui-es into a chaos, into a confusion again, as at the 
first, and the wicked put into that, and so tormented 
there ; there shall not be an annihilation, but God shall 
take away all the beauty, comfort, and glory of the 
creature, and whatever shall be for the torment of un- 
godly men shall abide ; and so they shall be tormented 
eternally by the very creatures which they abuse. 

As in such a building as this, there are stones and 
mortar, and the art of man puts a beauty upon them ; 
but suppose all the art of man were taken away from 
this building in an instant, what would become of us 
then ? it would bury us in its rubbish ; now it is useful 
and delightful, but if the art were taken away, it would 
be om- destruction. So the creatures of God, which 
God suffers wicked men to enjoy, have much of God's 
wisdom, pov.-er, and goodness in them ; but God will 
take away all his -n-isdom, beaut)', and goodness, so 
that nothmg but the confusion and rubbish of the crea- 
tm-e shall be upon the wicked to all eternity. 

Obs. 10. God gives his blessmgs to us, not for luxury, 
but for necessity. " I will recover my wool and my 
flax given to cover her nakedness." 
ApToi' eiiouff.oi.. 'pjigj-efore when om- Saviour- teaches us 
to pray, it is for daily bread, or bread which is for our 
substance ; so much bread as serves for our substance, 
and that but for a day. Most are abusive in then- de- 
sires after and use of the creatm'e, they look at luxm-y 
rather than necessity. As Cj-prian observes. It is not 
the heat of their clothes, 7ion calor, but color, the colour, 
is rather regarded by many. God expects now, espe- 
cially, that we should cut off om- superfluities, when om- 
brethren want necessaries. 

" To cover her nakedness." Om- nakeehiess needs 
a covei-ing. Sin has made nakedness shameful. Hence, 
our bodies are called vile bodies ; those bothes that we 
study so much to pamper and adorn, are bodies of vile- 
ness, as the apostle speaks, Phil. iii. 21 ; 
TaTTti^S/u/. y^^> °^ *'^^t vileness, with an article, or of 
the vileness : to be proud of om- clothes 
that cover om- nakedness is an um-easonable thing. 
Would you have your bodies adorned ? labom- for god- 
liness, and then you shall have bodies like the glorious 
body of Jesus Christ ; you wiU then have bodies that 
shall not finally need a covering. 

Obs. 11. "V^'iien abundance is abused, it is just with 
God that we should want necessaries. " I wiU take away 
my corn," &c. How many are there who have lavish- 
ed out then- estates, upon whom you may see God's 
judgment so gi-ievous that they want a piece of bread ! 
You often tell yom- wasting servants, they will be glad 
of a crust before they die ; it proves ti-ue often of mas- 
ters and mistresses also, who, out of pride and delicacy 
of spii-it, will be so fine and Hve above their rank, that 
God blasts them that they have not to cover their na- 
kedness. Those who had gorgeous and splendid attire, 
are thi-eatened with " baldness," and " a gu-ding with 
sackcloth," Isa. iii. 24 ; and such as come to misery by 
their wasting superfluity have none to pity them. 

Alfonsus, king of Spain, when a knight, fell into 



want, and being arrested for debt, a petition was sent 
to the king to succour him : Yes, replied the khig, if he 
had spent his estate in my service, or in that of the 
commonwealth, it were reasonable he should be pro- 
vided for by me, or by the commonwealth, but seeing 
he has spent all in riotousness, let him sufier. 

Consider this, you who are so loth to part with your 
estates for the public good ; you murmur at every thing 
required of you for that, but you are profuse in ex- 
penses for yom- lust ; God has ways to bring you low 
enough in yom- estates. 

Ver. 10. And now tcill I discover her lewdness in the 
sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of 
mine hand. 

" And now," that is, when I recover my wool and flax, 
" I will discover her lewdness ;" I will take then- cover- 
ings from their ovm eyes, and from the eyes of others. 
Wicked men, and especially idolaters, have divers 
coverings for then- lewdness. These people had three. 

The first was then- outward prosperity : Do you speak 
so bitterly agamst us, as if we were idolaters, as if we 
had forsaken God? are we not in as good a condition as 
Judah, who you say has not forsaken God ? 

Secondly, their external worship, in that they yet re- 
tained something according to God's mind, they yet 
kept the sabbath and some solemn days according to 
the law, in this covering they rested ; as if they should 
say, '^Tiy do you accuse us as if we did not worship the 
true God ? have not we God's service with us, and om- 
solemn assemblies? 

Thh-dly, they had other services wliich were not 
God's, yet they covered them with pompous days of 
solemnity, pretended for God ; but bemg of their own 
invention, they were hateful. Well, saith God, I will 
take away yom- prosperity, and I wiU take away those 
things in which you tlunk to put me off, I will take 
away yom- solemnities, and all the pomp in your ser\'ices. 

" I yyU\ cUscover then- lewdness." The word nnSai 
lewdness, comes from Ssj wliich signifies to fall ; it in- 
timates the falling of the spirit to low, poor, ^-ile, and 
unworthy things. Hence the Hebrews use it for a 
fool ; one that has a vUe spu-it, set upon base, contempt- 
ible things, is Nabal, a fool. Hence that speech of 
Abigail concerning her husband. As is liis name, so is 
he ; he is Nabal, and foUy is with him. The Seventj' 
translate this by another word, wliich , 
signifies uncleanness, the mixtm-e of their """ "i"""''- 
spirits with vUe things that make them unclean. The 
English word lewd, comes from loed, an old Saxon 
word, which signifies one that is of a servDe disposition. 
Some are of servile spu-its naturally, they are born to a 
kind of serviHty ; they are inclined to baseness and 
vileness by their natm-al genius : others are of more 
sublime spu-its naturally,- as if they were born for ^eat 
thmgs : these people are lewd, they have vile spu-its, 
forsaking the blessed God and his glorious ways, tm-n- 
ing to vanities that can do no good. So we say of 
many, they are lewd, base fellows, that is, they are of 
such" sordid dispositions, that they seek only after such 
things as have no worth in them, and satisfy themselves 
with things beneath the excellency of a man, imseemly 
in a rational creatm-e to take content. The Greek word 
in Acts x-sdii. 10, translated lewdness, .p„3,„^p^.„„„, 
elegantly sets forth the disposition of a a iiiiioi. ko. h- 
lewd man, namely, one easUy drawn to ^ '°"-"- 
any wicked way. 

''I -wiU discover her lewdness in the sight of her 
lovers." " In the sight ;" this is a great aggravation of 
then- shame. God wiU discover them, not before those 
who are strangers, but those before whom they would 
be honoured. Calvin's remark seems to reach the 
meaning of the Holy Ghost, alluding to harlots who 



1C4 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



have favovu-ites wiih princes at the court for their 
lovers ; they rest on their power, and confide on their 
greatness, and care not what their husbands can do 
against them. 

I will take away their confidence, tliough their lovers, 
the Ass)Tians and Egj-ptians, be never so great, they 
i^hall have no power to help you, but I will discover 
your lewdness before their face. From hence take 
these obsen'atioiis. 

Obs. 1. All wickedness, and especially idolatr)-, has 
many covers. Except we look veiy nan-owly to those 
who are superstitious and idolatrous, we shall not see 
the evil of that sin. Some covers are subtilly woven, 
but it may be said of them all, as Isa. xxviii. 20, " The 
bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on 
it_, and the_ covering naiTower than that he can wrap 
himself in it." 

Fust, Prosperity in a sinful way is a great cover. 
This glitters in so many men's eyes, that the filth of 
.sin is hid; many a foul hand is under a fab-, perfumed 
glove ; an ill complexion may have a painted face, and 
prosperity is no other to wicked men than a painted 
face to a foul woman. As a painted face is no argument 
of a fan- complexion, so neither is prosperit)', of a good 
condition. Crooked and diseased bodies' may have 
fine clothes. Green leaves on a tree may hide the 
rifts, the mosses, and blackness of the body which ap- 
pears in whiter. Many men are abominably false in 
then- ways, cruel and bloody in their hearts against 
God and good men, their spirits are envenomed, they 
have given up themselves to most horrible sins ; yet so 
long as they have power about them, all is covered : 
were all theu- prosperity taken from them, and aU then- 
gloiT and gi-eatness, and nothing but then- falsehood 
and hatred of the ways of God appeared, what di'eadful 
creatures they would be ! 

Secondly, Retaining some ti-uths in worship is a 
great cover to much falseness. 'NMien some wicked 
persons have to pay a great sum, they shuffle in a coun- 
terfeit sixpence or shilling, or a light piece of gold : so 
some, though they retain many cn-ors, yet because 
they keep some truths, think to cover much supersti- 
tion. False wares will be holpcn off amongst good, 
and a man accustomed to falsehood will sometimes tell 
some truths to put off a lie. A man that is a base self- 
seeker will often deny himself; tlie proudest spirits 
are as crouching and subject to their superiors as any, 
and so by seeming humility cover a gi-eat deal of pride. 
So the evil of ceremonies, and false discipline, pass 
without much contradiction : You must not trouble 
yourself about these things ; have not we as wholesome, 
soul-saving doctrine as any church in the world? Be- 
cause of this tlie corruption of the other is covered. 
Mucli h\-])0crisy is covered under excellent gifts ; the 
gifts are gifts of God's Spii-it, but they often cover much 
vilencss. 

Thirdly, Outward, pompous devotion in God's wor- 
ship is a p-eat coloiu- of notorious idolatry. Gilded 
crosses, painted churches, pompous ceremonies, have 
covered the piost desperate hati-ed to the power of god- 
liness. 

Obs. 2. God has a time to discover wickedness. " I 
will discover thy lewtbicss," it shall ajipear one day in 
its colom-s ! Vile and abominalilc wickethicss shall" not 
always go uncovered. God will not discover her in- 
firmities, neither should we; we sliould do as God 
does, discover the lewdness of men, but not theu- in- 
fii-mitics. Love covers a multitude of faults, if they be 
but infii-mities. And when you discover the lewdness 
of others, take heed you do not iliscover your own 
lewdness at the same time. Many wlio discover the 
lewdness of other men, manifest "such bitterness of 
s])irit, and sucli rejoicing that they have obtained an 
advantage against those who are religious, that, whether 



true or false they care not, they relate it confidently. 
This is for men to discover their own lewdness, when 
they cry out against the lewdness of others. Those 
who are wise and discerning are able easily to see it ; 
but if we would not have God discover our lewdness, 
let us get such a cover as shall never be uncovered. 
You may liave many expecbents to cover your sins that 
are not lai'ge enough, but I will tell you of a cover amply 
sufficient to cover aU. AMiat is that ? The righteous- 
ness of .Tesus Christ. " Blessed is he whose transgres- 
sion is forgiven, whose sin is covered," Psal. xxxii. 1. 
l"hat is a cover which hides from the eyes of God and 
man for ever. 

Obs. 3. When God discovers men's lewdness, they 
shall do little hm-t. " I will discover her lewdnes's 
in the sight of her lovers." I will take such a way to 
manifest her vOe lewdness before her lovers, that she 
shall neither prevail with them, nor be upheld by them. 
" But they shall proceed no fm-ther : for their folly shall 
be manifest unto all men," 2 Tim. iii. 9. There are 
many men who have secretly gained on the spirits of 
others by fair pretences, that they seek nothing but the 
public good, and desh'e only the furtherance of the gos- 
pel ; but when opportunity serves, theii- intentions .are 
tUscovered to go another way than their words seem to 
import, and then they shall proceed no further, for they 
shall be vile and contemptible in tlie eyes of those witii 
whom they prevailed before. 

Oba.i. Wlien God sets himself against his enemies, he 
will go through his work in the face of all those that seek 
the contraiy. " In the sight of her lovers." God needs 
no tricks or de-s-iees to caiTy on his work, but he can 
carry it on in the sight of his adversaries, and shame 
them in the sight of their lo%ers, and bring them down. 
God can make use of the wisdom and policy of men, 
nor less of their indiscretion. The great works of God 
amongst us of late have been earned on with a high 
hand, in the sight of those who have been our adversa- 
ries : what discoveries have there been of the filth of 
men ! how has their nakedness been made naked ! 
what changes in their conditions ! what contempt has 
God east in the face of those who were the great cham- 
pions for lewdness, and that in the very face of their 
lovers ! Their lovers looked on them, there was little 
or no change in then' liearts, wliieh were as eager for 
them as ever, yet their shame has been discovered. 

Obs. 5. Dishonour before those fi'om whom we ex- 
pect honour, is a sad and gi'cat evil. " In the sight of 
her lovers." Oh, said Saul, honour me before the 
people, 1 Sam. xv. 30. Saul cared not much if he were 
dishonoured before strangers, but he would be honoured 
before his own people. It is such a cUsgi-aceful thing 
to be dishonoured before those by whom we would be 
honoured, that the stronger a man's spuit is, the more 
intolerable is the bmden : one of a mean and low 
spu-it cares not much for dishonom- any where, but 
a man of elevated spirit counts it the worst thing 
that can happen, to be (bshonoured before those that 
love him. Many tradesmen who are modest at home 
are lewd among strangers. Those wlio love C»od and 
tlic saints, are most afraid to have then- evil discovered 
before God and tlie saints, for a gracious heart desires 
honour from them most. A godly man can bear any 
contcmpt\ious aliuse from the jirofane, rather than from 
one that is g<idly. ^N'icked men care not for dishonour 
among the saints, because they cai'c not for their love. 
If dishonour before lovers be such a shame, what will 
dishonour before God at the great day be, and before 
the saints, and wicked men too who were your lovers ! 

Obs. 6. Carnal friends esteem men when they arc 
in [irospcrity, but when they are in adversity tlicy 
contemn them. " I will discover her lewdness in the 
sight of her lovers." M'lien I take away their com, 
and wine, and ffax, and tliesc things, their lovers will 



Ver. 10. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



105 



be ashamtd of them. "When huntsmen -would single 
out a deer, they shoot her &-st, and as soon as the 
blood appears, all the rest go out of her company, and 
push her from them. It is' so with carnal friends, if a 
man is in affliction, if they see then- friend shot, they 
look aloof from him. AVe have had woeful experience 
of this formerly ; when many godly ministers were per- 
secuted, those "who before seemed to be their lovers, 
gi-ew strange unto them. "\Mien the sun shines, men 
that pass by look on a dial ; but in a dark, stormy day, 
a hundred may ride by it and never look at it. AVTien 
we are in a sun-shine day of prosperity, men will look 
towards us ; but if the gloomy day of adversity come, 
then they pass by without regard to us. If a man of 
fashion come to a house, the dogs will be quiet ; but 
when a beggar comes m rags, they fly upon him. It is 
apparent, that men in their prosperity are not regarded 
for any thmg in themselves, but for their prosperity's 
sake, for their money's sake, for their clothes' sake. 
Suppose when you go to a friend's house, and your 
servant accompany you, if all the respect and kindness 
shown to you were only for your servant's sake, you 
would take' it iU. This is all the respect that men have 
from false lovers, it is not for any good in them, it is 
for their prosperity, for their servant's sake. Oh how 
vain is respect from the world ! K you be gracious, 
God will not deal with you thus ; ii" you have yom- 
estates taken fi-om you, God will not despise you as 
carnal fi-iends do. " For he hath not despised nor 
abhorred the affliction of the afflicted," Psal. xxii. 24. 
When the saints are afflicted. God does not liide liis 
face fi-om them, but when they cry to him he hears 
them. 

Obs. 1. Carnal hearts have much confidence in many 
things in which they titist ; in time of danger they will 
not believe but they shall escape. " None shall deliver 
her out of my hand." Let us not be troubled at the 
confidence of om- enemies; they expect to prevail ; tliis 
is fi'om the curse of God upon them ; their case is never 
• so desperate, but they have something to shelter them- 
selves in their- own thoughts. Oh what a shame is it 
that any thing is rather trusted in than God! The 
husbandman casts seed-corn, that costs dearer than other 
corn, into the ground. The merchant trusts all his 
estate to the winds and waves of the sea, and if they 
fail, all is gone. You ti-ust servants with matters of 
weight. K you go to "Westminster, you trust your 
lives in a boat half an inch tliick. God is not trusted 
so much ; that blessed God, who is the only true object 
of soid-confidence. 

Obs. 8. Lastly, when God sets himself against a 
generation of men, or any individual, all the means in 
the world shall not help. The prophet Ezekiel (chap, 
ix.) had a ■\-ision of six men with weapons of war in 
their hands : there were six principal gates in Jcmsalem, 
and God woidd set these six men ■nith weapons in their 
hands at each gate, that if they run to this, or the 
other, or any gate, the man with the weapon m liis 
hand should be sm-e to take them, they should not 
escape. " Seek him that maketh the seven stars and 
Orion," Amos v. 8; why are these named, " the seven 
stars and Orion ? " the one is the extreme of cold, and 
the other of heat. The Lord has the power of l)oth : 
if they escape the heat, the cold shall take them ; if 
the cold, the heat shall destroy them ; and I, likewise, 
saith the Lord, can make both these helpful to you as 
I please. Hence there is such blasting of means, for 
the cursing of those whom God opposes ; let us not be 
afraid, though oiu- adversaries have gi'eat assistance, 
they are in God's hand, and none can deliver out of his 
hand ; all their great strength is but as tow or flax 
before the flame of fire. " There is none that can de- 
liver out of my hand : I will work, and who shall let 
it?" Isa. xliii. 13. "V\Tierefore it is a fearful thing to 



fall into the hand of God when he is in a way of wrath, 
and it is a blessed thing to be in his hand when he is 
in a way of mercy. Clu-ist holds the stars, not only 
ministers, but aU "his elect, in his hand, and none can 
take them out. In the time of the massacre at Paris, 
a poor man for his deliverance crept into a hole, and 
when he was there a spider wove a cobweb before the 
hole. "UTien the officers came to search for him, one ob- 
served. Certainly he is got into that hole. No, said 
another, he cannot be there, for there is a cobweb over 
the place ; and by this means the poor man was pre- 
served. The hof>e of the wicked. Job saith, chap. viii. 
14, is as the spider's web ; yet, if God please, he can 
make a cobweb to deliver his people. The least tilings 
shall deliver when he will, and the greatest means of 
deliverance shall not deliver when he pleases. 

Ver. 11. / will also cause all her mirth to cease, her 
feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all 
her solemn feasts. 

In tliis verse we have a sore threat against Israel, for 
it is in part spu-itual. 

" Her mirth," nwitfD i^pocrivaQ, Sept. The word 
signifies the right temper and posture of the mmd ; 
when the mind is in a right frame, then it may be merry ; 
AATiosoever is merry, let him sing, James v. 13 ; the 
word, though not the same, signifies the ^,^_ ^. 
same thing ; whoever has his mind in a 
right frame, let him sing. 

" I will cause all her mii'th." God many times takes 
away from his saints much of the matter of their- mii-th, 
but never takes away all. Tliis is a di-eadful threat, to 
cause all their mii'th to cease. 

" I will cause it to cease." I will turn it away, A;ro- 
■rplil/w, Sept. I can soon have all theii- mfrth do-n-n, 
they shall never be able to rejoice more if I please; it 
is g"one with the turn of a hand. It appears that Israel, 
though an apostatizing people, designed to dreadful 
judgments, yet were a merry, jocund people, they went 
on stLU in then- mu-th and joviality. 

That which is here implied, is more fully expressed 
in Amos, chap. vi. 4 — 6, who was contemporary with 
Hosea, and, like Hosea, he was the prophet of the ten 
tribes : see there how Amos sets forth the mii-th of this 
people ; " That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch 
themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out 
of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the 
stall ; "that chant to the sound of the viol, and invent 
to themselves instruments of music, like Da^id ; that 
drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the 
chief omtments." This was theii- condition when they 
were under such fearful guilt, and in such cfreadful 
danger. Sensual men, while they prosper, look upon 
themselves as above the word, and bless themselves in 
satisf)-ing then- o^^^l carnal desires, as if it were but a 
poor, low, and mean tiling for them to fear sin and 
threatenings. Come, say they, let us sing away all care, 
let us live men-ily, let us take our pleasm-e for the pre- 
sent, and crown ourselves with rose-buds. This is the 
disposition of carnal hearts under all their guilt and 
danger. They swim delightfully in that river of Jor- 
dan, and suddenly fall into the Dead Sea ; they spend 
their days in pleasure, and in a moment go down mto 
hell. This is all the portion of their cup which they 
receive from the Lord. They have a little joy here, 
this is all they are like to have", and therefore they will 
take then- fill of what they have. But tliis will not 
hold, I will cause this mfrth to cease. 

Obs. 1. Sin and mirth can never hold long together ; 
there must be a separation between them. The union 
between sin and mirth at any time is a forced union ; 
God never joins them together ; and if you will join 
those things that God never joined, your joming cannot 



106 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chaf.il 



hold : sin is of such a canker-fretting nature, that it will 
soon fret out all the varnish of mirth and joy upon 
it. If you will not take away sin fiom your mirth, 
God will take away mirth from your sin. It is the hap- 
piness of the saints that tliey shall liave everlasting joy ; 
the " pleasures at God's right hand" ai-e " for evermore," 
but the pleasures of sin must cease. 

Obs. 2. "VMien afflictions come upon the wicked they 
are all dejected, their joy and muth are gone. We say 
of fire, it congi'cgates tilings of the same kind, and 
separates things that are of diverse kinds. So the 
fire of affliction congregates tilings of the same nature, 
as sin, liorror, trouble, anguish, sorrow, ve.xation, ac- 
cusation of conscience, condemnation ; these are of the 
same kind ; sin and these are homogeneal ; now, when 
affliction oomes, it congregates all these : you sin, but 
soiTOw, anguish, and hoiTor of conscience seem now not 
to unite with your sin ; but when the fire of affliction 
comes, it joins all these together. On the other side, 
sin, and joy, prosperit)', and peace, these aie hetero- 
geneous things of another kind; now when the fii-e 
of affliction comes, it separates these heterogeneous 
things ; then the hearts of the wicked sink as lead, they 
lie down in son'ow, the candle of the wicked is blown 
out, all theii- mii-th and joy are but the light of a 
candle, affliction makes all to be but as a snuff. ^AHien 
affliction comes, ungodly men have the poorest spirits of 
any men, they quickly die, they succumb, they fall 
down under the least weight of affliction ; they seem to 
outbrave the word of God, but they have mean and 
low sph-its when they bear God's hand upon them ; 
affliction takes away all that they conceive and under- 
stand good. There is notliing within them to support 
them, but dai-kness and blackness ; notliing but guilt 
and the gnawings of the worm : they look upon every 
suffering they endure but as the beginning of eternal 
suflering ; and the venom and cm'se of God go with 
then- affliction, which ibinks up their sph-its. 

Oh the happy advantage which the saints have in 
their attiictions above the wicked ! They have sphits 
that may well be called brave spirits, which can stand 
under the greatest weight of affliction, and with joy 
in the midst of them. Paul can rejoice in tribula- 
tion, yea, and glory in it too. They have comfort in 
the creatine, but they are not beholden to the creature 
for comfort ; they depend not upon the creature, theh 
joy is a great deal liigher : that is precious hght indeed, 
tliat no storm can blow out. See an example of a brave 
sphit, that in the midst of affliction can have the light 
of joy, Hab. iii. 17, 18: "Although the fig tree shall 
not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines ; the 
laboiu' of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield 
no meat ; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and 
there shall be no herd in the stalls :" what then ? '• yet 
I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my 
salvation." Perhaps in times of affliction they may 
abate somewhat of their outward joy, but all their 
mirth shall not cease, there shall be joy witliin, though 
none without. 

Obs. 3. All om- mirth depends upon God, he can 
take it away wlicn he pleases. " I will cause all their 
mhth to cease." God is called in Scripture, " The God 
of all consolation." Joy is God's propriety, he gives it 
when he will, and takes it away when he will. " Give 
them sorrow of heart, thy curse mito them," Lam. iii. 
65. Mark, the word rjjn translated sorrow, comes 
from one wliich signifies a helmet, or a shield to fence 
off any tiling, or to cover a thing, as a thing is covered 
by a shield and helmet ; and it notes to us that disease 
whicli ])liysicians call cardiaca passio, a disease where- 
by the licarl is so oppressed, and there is such a stop- 
ping, that it is, as it were, covered siott sculo, as with 
a sliield, to keep out all things that should comfort the 
spirits : let the most precious cordials in the world be 



given to those who have that disease, they cannot be 
refreshed by any of them ; and so the heart is at last 
suffocated with sorrow. This is the meaning of the 
word here, Lord, " give them son-ow of heart ;" put them 
in such a condition, that thek hearts may be so stopped 
and stifled with son-ow, that whatever means shall be 
used to bring any comfort to them, no creature in the 
world may be able to afford the least refreshment. 
They were wont to sliield and fence off thy word, wliich 
contains the treasm-es of thy mercies, and they lieard 
the sweet promises of the gospel opened, yet they 
fenced off thy word as with a shield ; now, when they 
are in affliction, let there be such a fence put upon 
then- hearts, that though there be never so many 
promises brought to them, they may be fenced off by 
thy secret curse. We find many wretches who have 
hved under the gospel, and resisted the treasures 
of mercies when opened to them, who in affliction 
have been in horrible desperation, and whenever any 
comforts of the gospel have been presented to them, 
tliey have ingeniously fenced them off. Those who 
read the storv' of Spira, will wonder w-hat eimning he 
possessed to fence off all comfort that was brought to 
him. This was from the Lord. Lord, " give them 
sorrow of heart," that is. Lord, put such a sliield upon 
then- lieai-ts, as all comfort may be fenced off from them. 

AVe see, my brethien, how we depend upon God for 
comfort ; we all cry for comfort, let us know oui- de- 
pendence upon God for it ; God can fence om- hearts 
from comfort when he pleases, let us take heed we do 
not fence off his word from our hearts. 

" I will cause aU her mirth to cease, her feast days." 
These two are put together; for the hearts of men, 
when they enjoy a more Uberal use of the creatm-e 
than ordinarj-, and are amongst cheerful company, are 
warmed, raised, and mflamed. If the heart of a man 
be gracious, and he feasts in a gracious way. Ins heai-t 
is warmed and cheered, and enlarged ui things that are 
good ; so the hearts of the wicked, when tliey are at 
then- feasts, their lusts are warmed, and their spirits are . 
raised and strengthened in things that are evjl. You 
have a notable example of cheering and raising the 
hearts of men in good things, in the time of the feast 
that Hezekiah made for the people of Jerusalem in 
that gicat passover, they " kept the feast of unleavened 
bread seven days with gi-eat gladness : the whole as- 
sembly took counsel to keep other seven days : and they 
kept other seven days with gladness," 2 Chron. xxx. 21, 
23. Now mark how their hearts were raised mightily 
by this ; chap. xxxi. 1, " Now when all tliis was fuiished, 
all Israel that were present went out to the cities of 
Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down 
the groves, and tluew down the high places and the 
altars out of aU Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also 
and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed tliem 
all." Theii- feasts being in a gracious way, their hearts 
were so inflamed that now they took upon them a 
mighty courage in doing great things for God. 

It were well if it were always so with us when God 
calls us to feasting, that our hearts were always wai-med 
and eidarged to do much good. That has been the 
honour of this city, that in their companies feasting 
yearly, they were wont when their hearts were up, to 
consult together what good to do for the coiuitries in 
which they were bora, and then to resolve to send the 
preaching of tlie word to one great town, and to an- 
other town. This was a gracious feasting, and for this 
thev were much envied. And though these feasts were 
prohibited upon other ])retences, yet the hindering this 
good done at those times, lay at the bottom of that 
prohibition. 

Feasting also warms the lusts and desperately in- 
flames the wicked resolutions of imgodly men. When 
a company of ungodly men get together in a tavern, 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



107 



and there have drunk and eat liberall)', how desperately 
are they set against the ways of godliness ! then they 
scorn and jeer godly mmLsters, and parliament, and 
Christians : when their lusts are heated by wine and 
good cheer, they are then as if they were above God, 
their tongues are their own, and who shall control 
them? Mark that Scripture, Psal. sxxv. 16, " With 
liypocritieal mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me 
with their teeth." Here is scorning and violence, 
gnashing upon the psalmist with their teeth, and this 
at their feasts. Hos. vu. 5, " Li the day of om- king 
the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine : 
he stretched out his hand with scorners." They brought 
bottles of wine, and when his lusts were heated with 
the wine and good cheer, he joined with them in scorn- 
ing the w-ays and worship of God ; they scorned at all 
those that would go up to Jerusalem to worsliip accord- 
ing to the institution. These must be so precise that they 
will not join with us, as if we had not the worship of 
God among us ; they tell tales to Jeroboam, and the 
other princes, of the godly who would not yield to 
their idolatrous ways of worship : now, saith tlie text, 
the king " stretched out his hand with scorners ;" takes 
them by the hand, and encourages them, and tells them 
he win take a course with them, not one of them shall 
be suffered to Hve in his dominions. 

But God has a time to take away feasting times from 
a people, a time when those who have delighted them- 
selves so in the use of the creatiu-es, shall have all those 
merry meetings cease, never feast more, never meet 
with such merry company more. As 
^i^Mao"!ra,'quo Pope Adrian said, when he was dj-ing, O 
JocSdabS.'S!''"" my soul, whither art thou going? thou 
shalt never be merry any more. 

For kingdoms also, though there be times for feast- 
ing, yet there is a time of mourning ; and God seems 
this day to be coming to us to take away our feasts, to 
call upon us to spend om- time in another way. It 
were good for us to do what we can to prevent God by 
voluntarily humbling om-selves, to take away our own 
feasts, and to change our festivities into humiliations. 
The times call for fasting now, rather than feasting ; 
and it is a most di-eadful sin for men to give liberty to 
themselves for feasting, when God calls for mourning and 
fasting. You are not at liberty to feast when you will. 

Isa. xxii. 12 — 14, might make the hearts of those 
who are guilty of this tremble : " And in that day did 
the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to mom-n- 
ing, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth : 
and behold joy and gladness, slaj-ing oxen, and killing 
sheep, eating flesh, and drinking Avine : let us eat and 
drink ; for to-moiTow we shall die. Siu-ely this ini- 
quity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the 
Lord God of hosts." "\\Tiile the bread is taken away 
from oui' brethren, and the land is miserably spoiled, 
and when such a black cloud hangs over our heads, 
there is no time for festivities. "S^liatever your- cus- 
toms have been, at the time now approaching, (I mean 
that which you call your Christmas festivity,) you are 
certainly bound to turn it mto a time of mourning. 
For if we should grant it lawful for men to appoint 
holy days for feasting, yet certainly it cannot but be 
sinful, so to set those days apart, that whatever provi- 
dence of God happens they must be observed. You 
will all grant this, that if it be la^-ful to keep this time 
of festivity, yet that God has not set it apart and en- 
joined it. AYe never have it requii-ed by Christ or by 
his apostles, that at the beginning of the year we should 
have days of festi\-iti,-. Well then, at the most, if we 
suppose it law-ful, it is but the institution of man ; if it 
be man's institution, then it must give way to God's 
work, to providence. For man to put so rnuch upon 
his institution, because he has appointed such a day at 
the commencement of the year for rejoicing, that v.-hat- 



ever providence happens that calls for humiliation and 
fasting, yet he wiU hold to his own institution ; what is 
this, my brethren, but to make the commandments of 
God to be of none effect thi'ough man's traditions ? It 
is the commandment of God now, that you should 
mom-n and fast ; if then, because of man's institution, 
you put by the command of God, and spend time in 
feasting and rejoicing, which ought to be only when 
God shines upon a kingdom in ways of mercy, know 
this is sin unto you. If you can say that God shines 
upon us now in present extraordinary mercies, then we 
may feast. I confess they are extraordinary mercies in 
regard of what we may hope to be the event and effect 
of them ; but for the present administrations of God 
towards us, they are such as, if ever they called for fast- 
ing, they call for it at this day. Therefore, by God's 
works amongst us, we know we have God's wUl reveal- 
ed to us, namely, to fast; the other, at most, is but 
man's institution and tradition. Now the traditions of 
men must yield to the commandments of God. 

AYith what conscience now can you take such a plen- 
tifid use of the creature, and suffer your brethi'en to 
want clothes and bread? If God have granted you 
such a comfortable estate that you have so much to 
npaie as to feast, know you are bound in conscience to 
lay that out in relieving yom- brethren who have been 
so cruelly used ; therefore God brings them to you to 
be objects of your compassion. It would be very ac- 
ceptalale to God, if so much as any of you have usually 
spent in feastings, or intended to spend in these twelve 
days, you would set it apart for the relief of those who 
want bread, and set the time apart also for mourning 
in your families, that God woidd pardon the sin of these 
times. And now, not only feasts in private families 
should cease, but the feasts of companies in your public 
halls likewise. 

AAliat abundance of poor plundered people might be 
relieved, if all that were spent in one year in the feasts 
of your companies were laid aside for their use ! These 
are times for mercy, not for festivity ; if we wiU not 
cease our feastings, let us know, God has thousands of 
ways to take away feasts from a kingdom, and to bring 
" cleanness of teeth " among us : I will take away their 
feasts, saith the Lord. 

The main thing in this verse to be opened to you is, 
what these feasts of the Jews were. 

The words here are n-j.n feasts, and myic, solemn 
feasts ; they are both in yom- Enghsh translated feasts, 
but the words in the Hebrew differ much, the fir-st 
comes from a word that signifies to rejoice and leap, the 
second from a word that signifies a stated, a settled 
time ; om' English word feast is derived fi'om tlie Greek 
iarla, the goddess which the Latins call Vesta, the god- 
dess both of the earth and of fii'e. 

The Jews had their ci\il feasts, and their holy feasts. 
Amongst their holy feasts, some were of God's appoint- 
ment, and some of their ov\ti. Of God's appointment, 
some were more solemn, some less. 

Their civil feasts were times wherein they took a 
more Hberal use of the creatiu'e, in rejoicing one with 
another upon some special occasion, this they called a 
good day, not a holy day ; Esth. viii. 17, " The Jews 
had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day." It wUl 
appear by examining that text, that though the day 
was appointed to be kept every year, yet it was but as 
a good day to them, and could not be said to be a holy- 
day ; we do not read of any religious solemn exercise 
that they had for the day." Such a day I take to be 
our fifth of November, a good day, not a holy-day, 
wherem we have a more liberal use of the creature 
than at other times, and remember the mercies of God 
with thanksgi-iiiig. But we know the day is not set 
apart for this end, so that it is milawful to be exercised 
in anv other thing. 



108 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. U. 



Their religious feasts, which they presumed them- 
selves to make holy, were their feasts, rather than 
God's ; for that, you have the example of Jeroboam, he 
appointed a feast of his own head, which the prophet 
speaks of, 1 Kings xii. 32, 33, " And Jeroboam ordained 
a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the 
month, like unto the feast that is in Judah. So he of- 
fered upon the altar which he had made in Beth-el the 
fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month 
which he had devised of his own heart ; and ordained 
a feast unto the chikhen of Israel." Mark here, Jero- 
boam is rebuked for appointing a feast of his own 
heart, like the feast God had appointed ; this is no ex- 
cuse, that he would be an imitator of God. This reason, 
many think, will justify theu- superstitious way, they do 
but imitate what God did; as thus, God had an ephod 
for the priests, therefore they will have a holy garment ; 
God had a temple consecrated, they will have one so 
too ; God had his feast days and holy-days, they will 
have theh's too in imitation of God. This veiT thing 
that Jeroboam did, he is rebuked for, that he would 
set up something as God did. 

"Where God has set his .stamp upon any thing, we 
must take heed we presume not to set our own stamp. 
Su])pose any one should take a piece of silver, and 
stamp it as nesr as he can like the king's coin. The 
silver is his own ; well, but if he be examined. Why 
did you thus ? "WTiat hurt, saith he, is there in it ? I 
have done no more than the king did ; why, may we 
not follow bis example ? Will this answer, think you, 
serve his turn ? It is as much as his life is worth. Just 
such a plea is this, they will do such and such things 
in God's worship; why? God has done so before, and 
they do but imitate God ; there is as much strength in 
the one as in the other. Therefore that word '-devised" 
in the Hebrew comes from a word that 
C"i3 signifies to lie. Jeroboam did lie. So in 

Mmjjcct. -^^^ ^jj^_ 25, " That ftiistrateth the tokens 
of the liars." Jeroboam, in setting this day apart, did it 
under a pretence to honoiu' and worship God ; but 
though it might seem to make God's honour and wor- 
ship better than before, yet the Scripture puts the lie 
upon it. I think this was the reason he set it apart in 
the eighth month; the feast of tabernacles was (lie 
fifteenth day of the seventh month ; now he would not 
alter the day, but have it the same day that God ap- 
pointed, but in the eighth month. The feast of taber- 
nacles was appointed to praise God for the in-gathering 
of the fruits of tlie earth. It was as upon our Sc])- 
tember ; now, upon the fifteenth of September, per- 
haps, all the produce was not gathered in, therefore 
Jeroboam might have this device, he would stay till 
every thing was gathered into theii' bams and their 
vessels, and was fit to eat and to cbink; then saith 
Jeroboam, Now is the time to praise God ; you praised 
God before when you were taking in the fruits, you 
could not use them, but now having them all in, and 
being able to make use of them, now is the time to 
praise God. This was Jeroboam's wisdom, by which 
he thought to make a feast to please the people, rather 
than God's feast. There are no s\iperstitious men but 
will have some pica to induce the hearts of people to 
embrace their ways, rather than God's simple, plain, 
and pure ordinances. But though Jeroboam did it 
under this pretence, yet he lied ; so, those men wlio 
will take upon them to sanctify days, or places, or gar- 
ments, or any vesture, that God never dia, thougli they 
say thev do it for God's honour, to make God's worship 
more glorious and decent, yet it is a lie. Just as those 
who will make images, brave, golden images of God, 
(), say they, it is for the honour of God : but mark what 
is said, Hab. ii. 18, " AVhat profiteth the graven image 
that the maker thereof hath graven it ; the molten 
image and a teacher of lies?" If images be laj-men's 



books, they are books that have abtudance of errata 
in them, they are full of lies. 

Now arises the question, whether there may be holy 
feasts (taken so in a proper sense) by man's appoint- 
ment ? Jeroboam is accused of it plainly : and in Gal. 
iv. 10, 11, there is a very severe charge upon the Ga- 
latians, " Ye observe days, and months, and times, and 
years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed ujion 
you labour in vain." It appears by tliis, that people's 
hearts were mightily set upon their feasts, their days, 
and months, and years, they were loth to be taken off 
from them ; so that the apostle speaks with bitterness of 
spirit, " I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon 
you labour in vain." And indeed when godly ministers 
take pains amongst people whose hearts are set upon 
such things as these, for the most part they lose their 
labour, httle good is done. 

Yes, some will say, to observe the Jewish days after 
they were aboUshed by God, was sinful and dangerous, 
but we do not keep Jewish days. But mark what these 
men sav, God abolishes his own, and yet they think he 
gives liberty to man to set up others. If upon God's 
abolishing his o\m, men have liberty to set up theirs, 
then C'lvristians are under a more heavy bondage, ami 
gi-ievous pedagogy, than ever the Jews were, for it i.4 
better to have a hundred days of God's appointing, 
than one of man's, and more honourable. Further, if 
God appoint, there needs no scruple, as if man appoint: 
yea, if God appoint, we may expect a special blessing, 
and efficacy, and presence of God ; we cannot expect 
such things in man's appointment. Now, if when God 
has taken away Jewish ceremonies and days, man 
might lawfully appoint others as he pleases, we may 
jiray to God with good reason to bring us under the 
bondage of the law again, rather than to be thus under 
man's power. 

Thus far we grant, that upon any special work of j 
God, the revolution of the year naturally reminds d 
it ; and so far as it is natural, it is good, I may make 
use of it. Therefore, I dare not say that it is altogether 
unlawful at such times to have some outward rejoicing, 
when God does not call for mourning some other way 
(except the argument from the extraordinary abuse there 
has been of it may be of force). Nay, that there may 
be advantage taken of the people's leisure, to preach 
the word and to hear sermons upon such days, we deny 
not. We know that Christ was in the porch of the 
temple at the feast of dedication, wliich was one of the 
davs of their own appointing, not that he was there to 
countenance or honour the feast, but because he had 
been there before, at another feast of God's a])])oint- 
ment. Now there being a multitude of people at that 
time also gathered together, he took advantage of the 
concourse, to come to the outer porch to preach to 
them. So much therefore as we may grant, we will 
not deny. 

For the right imdcrstanding of setting apart days, I 
sup])Ose these two things will be questioned. 

First, ANHiy may not governors of the church set 
apart days, as well as appoint times for preaching ; or 
as well as others who appoint such times, as once a 
week so nuich time set apart for a lecture ? 

Secondly, AA'e may ai)point fast days, and days of 
thanksgiving, these are set ajiart by man : how hap- 
pens it that a man may a]ipoint a time for ])rcaching 
constantly once a week, and he may appoint times of 
fasting, and days of thanksgiving, and yet not have 
this hbcrty, to make a day that may properly be called 
a holy-day ? 

AVe must clear that point from this objection, or else 
we do nothing ; and for the clearing this we must know 
there is a gre.it deal of ditf'ercncc in these tnree things, 
the right understanding of which will clear all the 
matter : 



Vek. 11. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



109 



Between the deputation, and the dedication, or sanc- 
tification of a thing. 

I may depute a creatiwe to be used to help me in 
holy things, and yet this creature is not sanctified by its 
deputation ; and so for a lecture, such an hour in such 
a day is deputed, but the time is not made holy by it ; 
the place is deputed, but is not made holy by it. Yea, 
I will appoint such a garment when I am in such a 
service such a day to wear, but yet the garment is not 
made holy by it. A creatiu-e is not made holy merely 
by being used at a holy exercise, or in a holy thing. 
As thus, suppose I read the holy Scripture, I make use 
of a candle to read it by, I do not make the candle holy 
by this. K the using of a creature in a holy duty did 
niake the creature holy, then it woidd be the same in 
all creatures. I use the very light of the air when I am 
reading and speaking holy things in public assemblies, 
but I do not make the light and aii' holy because I use 
them in holy things ; so I use this hour to preach in, 
though I use it in a holy duty, I make it no fm-ther 
holy than a man does his spectacles that he reads the 
Scripture by. A de])utation is this, when such a crea- 
ture as I shall think most commodious for such a 
service, shall be set apart for such a service ; or when 
such a creature as I use for such a service, wiU be a 
natural and usefid help to me, to appoint it for that 
service upon that ground. 

The second is dedication, that is, when I give a 
thing out of my own power for a pious use, so that I 
cannot use it for any thing again. As when a man has 
given so much of his estate to build a school or an hos- 
pital, it may be said to be a kind of dedication ; he has 
devoted, given away, so much of his estate to that end, 
so that he cannot make use of it for another purpose. 
Now we do not so set apart the time of jjreaching, as 
that we cannot use this time for any other end, we may, 
as we see cause, alter it, where it is from nine to eleven 
we make it from two to foiu' ; whereas, if it were a thing 
that we had dedicated, that is, given out of om- own 
power, then it cannot be changed by us. That is a 
second degree. 

Now sanctification is beyond dedication, that is, 
when any creature or time is so set apart for holy 
things, as it must not be used in any thing but that 
which is holy ; and though the same holy actions be 
done at another time, and with the use of another 
creatm'e, they shall not be accounted so holy as at this 
time, and when this creature was used. Sanctification 
is the setting apart of any day which God gives me to 
use for my ordinary avocations, and so to devote it for 
such a business that it may not, without sm to me, 
whatever happens, be used for any other occasion. 
And, secondly, when I have set it apart, if I so exalt it, 
as if the same holy actions performed at another time, 
shall not be accounted as holy as at this time, although 
that time has as much natural fitness in it, then I sanc- 
tify a time to myself; but this I cannot do without sin. 
There are two things in all holy feasts, and, indeed, in 
all things which are accounted holy. First, it was a 
sin for them to use that time for any other thing, or m 
any other way, than God had appointed. Secondly, the 
actions they did at that time were such as were more 
acceptable to God than if they had done the same thmgs 
at another time. Yea, it was so in their very days of 
humiliation. The day of expiation must not be used for 
any thing else ; if they humbled themselves or fasted 
upon another day, that would not have been so accept- 
able to God as upon this day. So in all superstitions of 
men, when they set apart either days, or places, or things, 
they put these two upon them. As for places, they say 
we_ may appoint a place for people to meet in a re- 
ligious_ w^ay. Yes, but it becomes superstitious, fu-st, 
when it is so set apart, as I shall make conscience of 
using it for no other purpose. Secondly, when I am per- 



suaded in my conscience, that God accepts the service 
in this place better than in any other, though as decent 
as this. So for superstitious garments. You say, May 
not ministers be decent ? I have heard a great doctor 
give this argument for a surplice : Sometimes I ride 
abroad to preach, and my cloak is dirty, is it fit for me 
to come into a pulpit with a diity garment ? and there- 
fore there is always appointed somewhat to cover it ; it 
is decent. Suppose it be so, but if this garment must be 
used only for such a holy exercise ; and, secontUy, if I 
think the wearing of it honours the service, and that 
God accepts the service performed in such a garment 
rather than in another ; this is supei-stition : as in one 
place in Suffollc, when that garment was lost, there was 
a strict injunction to the poor countrjTnen that there 
might not be any service or seimon till they had got 
another ; for which they were appointed ten days, and 
this being upon a Friday, there were two sabbaths 
without any service ; therefore it is apparent they put 
the acceptance of the duty upon it. So for days, if 
any man set apart a day, so that his conscience con- 
demn him before God as sinning against him if he do 
any thing upon that day but such holy duties ; second- 
ly, that though the same holy duties be done upon 
another day, they shall not be accounted so acceptable 
to God as done upon that day ; tliis is superstitious. 
Yet, certainly, of this nature have many of om' days 
been, for if you opened your shops what distm-bance 
was there m the city ! it was profaning the day, every 
proctor had power given him to molest you. Did not 
they also account it a greater honour to God to have 
service read that day than to have it read upon an or- 
dinary Tuesday or Thursday ? yea, preaching upon a 
lectm'e day that was not one of their holy-days, they 
accounted not so acceptable to God as upon one of 
them. Here comes then- institution, which puts more 
upon it than God does, and thus it becomes smful. So 
if you set apart the time you call Christmas, so as to 
make conscience of not doing any other senice or work 
on that day, and think that to remember Christ, and 
to bless God for Clrrist, upon another day, is not so ac- 
coptable to God as to do it upon this day, here is the 
evil of man's instituting days. 

Well, but this is not cleared except we answer an- 
other objection : Do not the king and parliament com- 
mand days of fasting and of thanksgiving, and are not 
they of the same nature ? WiU not you say it is sin 
for us to open shops upon these days ? I answer, om' 
days for fasting and thanksgivmg have not those two 
ingredients in them, for, fu-st, if God by his providence 
call any individual to special business in his family, 
then he need not have his conscience condemn him 
though he spend all that day in that business. They 
may set apart a day to be spent publicly, yet with this 
Hmitation, not to enjoin every individual, that to what- 
ever God's providence specially calls him, he must 
leave off all, and make as much conscience of doing 
this as upon the Lord's day. 

You will say. Upon the Lord's day, if any thing ex- 
traordinary happen, we may go a journey, or transact 
business, as a physician may ride up and down, works 
of mercy may be done, therefore this makes no differ- 
ence between God's day and these of man's appoint- 
ment. I answer, though a physician do a work of 
mercy upon the sabbath day, yet he is bound to do it 
with a sabbath day's heart ; whatever calls him_ fi-om 
those services that are God's immediate worship, he 
sins against God if he follow it as the business of his 
calling, as upon another day ; but if he do it with a sab- 
bath day's fi-ame of heart, as a work of mercy, he keeps 
the sabbath in that. But if there were a necessity to 
ride upon a fast day, a man's conscience need not to 
condemn him before God, if he went about that work 
as the work of his calling. It is not therefore so dedi- 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. H. 



eated, but God's providence may oblige us to do otlier 
civil actions, and that as the works of our calling. 
Secondly, neither is it so sanctified, as if the same 
works done on another day were not so acceptable to 
God as when done upon this day- Our fast days are 
fixed for the last Wednesday of the month, but to think 
that the work done upon another day were not so ac- 
ceptable to God as done upon that day, is to sanctify 
the day, and such a sanctification is sin. The same 
answer may be given for days of thanksgiving. 

Besides, there is another thing to be considered, that 
is, in stating the time. Though men may thus depute 
and appoint days to worship God, yet they cannot state 
any such days, but as God's providence permits, accord- 
ing to the present occasion. Therefore it would be a 
sin for a state to appoint nominally a day for religious 
fasting : God did so, but men have no power to do so, 
because they do not know but God may call them to 
rejoicing upon that day, they have not knowledge of 
the times. All that we can do is this, when God calls 
us to fasting, we must appoint days of fasting ; when 
God calls us to rejoicing, we must appoint days of re- 
joicing. Therefore to appoint tlie time of Lent as a 
religious fast is suiful, and the statute itself threatens a 
mulct upon that man who shall call it a religious fast : 
stated fasts, which arc not limited by Pro\idence, are 
certainly evU. The monthly fasts now enjoined, if we 
should say we will have them once a month till this day 
twelvemonths, or two years, I persuade myself the state 
should sin ; but to have it as long as God's hand is 
upon us, as long as the occasion lasts, and God's provi- 
dence calls us to it, is justifiable. 

Our brethi-en in Scotland wholly deny the appoint- 
ment, both of stated fasts and feasts : nay, they will 
scarce agree to the monthly fasting we have, because 
they are so loth to yield to any xtala jejunia. King 
James once made a speech in Scotland, in which he 
blessed God that he was bom in such a time, and was 
a member of such a church ; the reason he gave was 
this : The chui-ch of Scotland exceeds in this all other 
chiu'chcs. England, though it has pm-o doctrine, has 
not pure discipline ; other reformed chuixhes have pm-e 
doctrine and discipline, but they retain the observation 
of many holy-days; but the church of Scotland has 
])in'e doctrine and discipline, and keeps no holy-days, 
and therefore it is a purer cluu'ch than any in the world. 

Thus I have endeavoiu-cd to show you how far things 
may be set apart, and how far not, when it becomes a 
sin for any one to sanctify a day. By this we may see 
what a mercy it is to be delivered from those men who 
have robbed the kingdom of many days, and put many 
superstitious respects upon them, and so have involved 
us in much guilt; bless God for delivering us from 
them, and for those days in which God gives us liberty 
to exercise ourselves in his worship. Thus much for 
those feasts called their feasts, that were of their own 
appointment. 

" Her new moons." The ordinance of God in the 
new moons, is in Numb, xxviii. 11, " And in the be- 
ginning of your" new moons, or " months, ye shall offer 
a Inirnt ofiering unto the Lord," kc. It was God's 
ordinance, that the Jews at the beginning of every 
month, when they had a new moon, should keep that 
day holy to God. That which the Latins call the 
calends, were their new moons. 

The holy solemnity of these days consisted in tlu-ee 
things. 

First, The offerings that were there appointed by 
God particularly for that time, were many and charge- 
able ; two young bullocks and one ram, seven lambs of 

• Benedictiis csto ConJitor tuns, luna, bcncdictus esto 
Dominus tuus. 

t Tcr siibsiliunt coeliim versus quod, qiianto sublimius pos- 
sjnt tanto mehus est, lunamque sdloqucntes, quemadmodiitn, 



the fii-st year without spot ; besides their flour and oil 
for their drink-offerings, and one kid of the goats for a 
sin-offering. 

Secondly, At these times they were wont to repair 
to the prophets for instruction, to know the mind of 
God. The nusband of the Shunammite said to liis wife, 
" Wherefore wilt thou go to him to-day ? it is neither 
new moon, nor sabbath," 2 Kings iv. 23 : if it were new 
moon or sabbath, you might go, but since it is neither, 
why will you go ? That implies, that to repair to the 
prophets for instruction, and to hear God's word from 
them, upon those days was common among the Jews. 

Thirdly, It was unlawful to buy and sell upon those 
days. Ajnos viii. 5, " '\ATien will the new moon be 
gone that we may sell com ? " they were weary of it, it 
seems, because they might not buy and sell in it. 

Buxtorf, who describes the Jewish customs, relates 
three other things they were wont to do in their new 
moons. 

1. Those who ^vere most devout among them, set the 
day apart for fasting and prayer, to entreat God to bless 
the new moon to them. 

2. As soon as there was an appearance of the new 
moon, one steps up, and cries, thou Creator of the 
moon, be ever blessed,* and so he goes on in blessing 
God for this creature. 

3. They used to leap and to reach toward the moon 
as soon as they saw it, speaking after this manner : AVe, 
stretching to the moon, cannot reach it; so all our 
enemies that aim at us, are as unable to reach us to our 
hurt, as we that-t 

But why did God appoint this feast of the new moon ? 
It was appointed for these fom- ends. 

(1.) Because God would be acknowledged to have 
the govcmment of all inferior things in the world, and 
especially of aU the changes of times. As the sabbath 
was to put us in mind of God's creating the world, so 
the new moons were appointed for them to bless God 
for the government of the world. Many nations have 
attributed much of the government of the world to the 
moon ; the tides, you know, ebb and flow according to 
the moon, the great works of God in the seas seem to 
be governed by God in the use of that creature ; yea, 
things seem to be governed more sensibly by this crea- 
ture than by others : that they miijht not rest there- 
fore in the creature, but give God the glor)-, he ap- 
pointed the feasts of the new moon ; if they had any 
clianges of times and seasons, God caused it, rather 
than lliis creature. As the heathens called the moon 
" the queen of heaven," so did Israel ; and would not be 
hindered from offering cakes to her, because they attri- 
buted aU their prosperity to her, Jer. xliv. 17 — 19. 
Now from this God would take them off, therefore he 
a])pointed this solemn feast of the new moon. 

(2.) God would hereby teach, that the bringing of 
any light unto us after darkness is merely from him- 
self, and he must be acknowledged in it. The moon is 
a glorious creature, and causes much light ; but soon 
after there is darkness, and after this darkness light 
springs up again : this is the work of God. We are 
taught a moral lesson from this feast ; that is, has God 
at any time brought darkness upon a kingdom, or upon 
a family, or an individual ? docs he begin to bring light? 
he must be acknowledged and praised for it. 

(3.) God would teach them, also, that the beginnings 
of all mercies arc to be dedicated to him. When God 
renews a mercy, at the very first, before it comes to 
]ierfection, it is to be given up unto God ; they were to 
celebrate this feast upon the beginning of the light of 
the moon. 

inquiunt, nos to versus subsilientes attingere te non possumus, 
sic hostes nostri omncsnus ad malum uttmgerc nobisquc nocere 
lion potcrunt. Buxtorf. Synag. Judaic, c. 17. 






Vek. 11. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



(4.) This aimed at Chxist, as all other ceremonies of 
the law (lid. It pointed out our condition in our de- 
pending upon Christ ; for our light must be renewed by 
om- conjunction with Jesus Christ, who is the Sun of 
righteousness ; as the light of the moon is renewed by 
her conjunction with the sun, that gives the great light 
to the world. And as the hght of the moon increases 
as it takes it from the sun, so our light increases as we 
take it fi-om the Sun of righteousness. Thus this feast 
was typical, and thus we see these feasts were of spe- 
cial use. 

But when they abused these feasts, God said, I -will 
take them away, you shall have no more; and therefore 
God professes a loathing of their feasts, and, amongst 
others, of their new moons, Isa. i. 14. Not but that 
they were holy in themselves, but when they abused 
them, by adding then- own superstitious vanities, or by 
not obser\-ing the due end for which God appointed 
them, then God is oftended. Now, saith God, you ac- 
knowledge darkness and light to be from me, and 
change of time to be fi'om me, but what use do you 
make of your time ? You seem to give up the mercies 
you receive to me, but you do not honour me with 
them, nor for them. 

You seem to think of the Messias in these tilings, 
but your hearts are not with him, all your ways are 
after your lusts. I loathe your feasts. Just as when a 
man comes to God, and prays devoutly, Lord, lead me 
not into temptation ; and as soon as he has done, imme- 
diately goes into wicked company. God loathes you 
for going quite cross to yom- prayers. You pray, Lord, 
give us this day our daily bread ; as if you said, Lord, 
I depend upon thee every day for my bread, and for a 
blessing upon all my outward estate ; and as soon as 
you have done, you overreach, and cheat, and go to 
Satan for your bread : God loathes these prayers of 
yours, as God loathed then- new moons, because when 
he appomted such worship for those ends, yet they went 
quite contraiy. 

Yet there are two things very observable about these 
new moons. We often read these things, but pass 
them over and but little mind them. 

1. God will have the glory of his creature, of the 
new moon, and that solemnly, yet it must be at that 
time when the moon is very httle. God does not ask 
to be glorified in that creatm-e when it is fullest of 
glory ; but when it is, as we may say, in the meanest 
condition, when it exhibits but little light, scarce any 
at all, then God will be glorified. This is the instruc- 
tion and moral lesson from hence, which is no strained 
one, but I think intended by God himself, in appoint- 
ing this feast ; in that God will have the glory due to 
him fi-om this creature in the beginning of its light, 
rather than at any other time. We are taught in 
this, 

Obs. That there is much danger when we are giving 
God the gloi-}' of the creatm-e, of resting in the crea- 
ture, and not passing through the creature speedily to 
God. God is very jealous of his glory this way. God 
has made many glorious creatm-es, and he would have 
us give due esteem to them all ; but when we esteem 
them for any excellency, God is jealous lest any of his 
glory should rest in the creatm-e, therefore he calls for 
it at the time when the creatm-e is most mean. That 
is the reason why God's ordinances are so plain, we 
have but plain bread, and plain wine, and a plain table, 
and no pompous attire, because God "saw that when we 
are to deal with him spiritually, if we had pompous 
things we should rest in them. We see men so at- 
tracted with pompous things, that they give not God 
that glory which is due to him, but honom- the creatm-e 
rather than God. It seems that the heathens who 
made the moon to be their goddess, looked at it when 
it was most light, as appears, Job xxxi. ; therefore Job, 



to clear himself from that idolatry, saith, ver. 26, " If 
I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon -n-alking 
in brightness." They used to worship the moon when 
they saw it " walking in brightness ; " because they 
could not reach the moon, they kissed then- hand, and 
bowed to it in acknowledgment of a deity ; therefore. 
Job would free himself from worshipping this creatm-e. 
When the creature is most glorious, there is danger of 
giving God the less. It is thus with us ; God has often 
more glory fi-om us when om- estates are small, than 
when they are very great : many a man, when he has 
been in full light of prosperity, never minded God, but 
when God brought him into darkness, he gave God 
glory ; and then it has been most acceptable, because 
then he sees God's hand helping him without the crea- 
tm-e. God had most glory from the moon when it had 
the least light, so God may have glory fi-om us though 
our light be extinguished. 

2. There is yet another remai-kable thing concerning 
this feast. You observe what difference there is be- 
tween the feasts of the new moons by God's appoint- 
ment under the law, and the feasts of the new moons 
as they are set forth to us in Ezekiel. Those chapters 
in Ezekiel fi-om the fortieth and so on, though they 
seem to speak of the Jews' ceremonies, and temple, 
and feasts ; yet then- scope is to describe the glorious 
condition of the chm-ch of God in the time of the gos- 
pel ; as in Isa. Ixvi. 23, " And it shall come to pass, 
that fi-om one new moon to another, and fi-om one sab- 
bath to another, shall all flesh come to worship me, 
saith the Lord ; " that is, their constant worship shall 
be in comparison as a sabbath, and they shall not only 
worship me at the beginning of the moon, but at all 
times, it shall be full and constant : therefore, though 
Ezekiel there speaks of new moons and other feasts, 
yet it is to set out the condition and blessed state of 
the times of the gospel under those shadows and tj-jjes, 
according to the phraseolog)- of the Jews. Tliis being 
granted, let us compare the institution of the feast of 
the new moon, in Numb, xxviii., with what is said in 
Ezek. xlvi. In Numb, xxviii. they were to off'er for a 
burnt-offering, two bullocks, one ram, and seven lambs; 
but ui Ezek. xlvi. 6, in the days of the new moon, 
there should be but one bullock and six lambs. God 
liimself had said, that m their new moons they shoidd 
offer tn-o bullocks and seven lambs : yet when the pro- 
phet sets out a more glorious condition of the church, 
they must not offer so much as they did before, but one 
bullock and six lambs. What are we taught fi-om 
this ? Two excellent lessons, which are the reason of 
the difference. 

First, that there is a blessed state of the gospel 
coming, which shall not be subject to such changes as 
heretofore, but a more settled condition of peace and 
rest ; so that they shall not have the same occasion to 
bless God for his providence in the changes of times 
as before they had. Their solemnity of the new moon, 
was to do that spiritual thing in a ceremonial way, that 
is, to give God the glory for the change of times : but 
in the times of the gospel, they shall not have so many 
sacrifices, to make it such a solemn business. Why ? 
Because the church shall be in a condition of more 
rest and safety, and more constancy in then- ways, not 
hurried up and down by men's humom-s, and lusts, and 
wUl, as before. 

Secondly, as the state of the gospel shall not be so 
subject to danger as it was before, there shall not be 
that occasion to bless God for bringing light immedi- 
ately after darkness. After it had been dark a long 
time, and they could not see the moon, as if that erea- 
tm-e had been lost out of heaven, when they saw it 
again they were to bless God for it : but in the time 
of the gospel that is coming, there shall be no such 
darkness ; this time, however, is not yet come, we have 



112 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. U. 



need of our seven lambs and two bullocks, for we have 
much darkness. 

"And her sabbaths." Plutarch thought that the 

sabbath of the Jews was from Sabbos, a name of 

Bacchus, that signifies, to live jovially 

ioriSita^vi'Tie. ^"'1 merrily. Indeed, the sabbaths which 

many keep may have such a derivation : 

tlieir sabbaths are sabbaths of Bacchus, to be mcrrv, 

and to eat, and drink, and i)lay, is the end of them ail. 

But the word has a better root. God would have us 
upon the sabbath rest from all other works, that we 
may be free to converse with him ; therefore it is so 
much the more inexcusable if, when we have nothing 
else to do, we shall refuse to converse with God as he 
requh-es of us. If a friend came to your house to 
converse with you, and he should know you have no 
bujiness to take up your time, yet you will scarce sec 
him, or spend a little time with him, will he not take it 
ill ? If, indeed, you had an excuse that your business 
was extraordinary, it would not l)e so ill taken ; but 
w hen he knows you have nothing to do, and yet you 
refuse time to converse with him, will not this be taken 
for slighting liim ? Thus you deal with God : had you 
indeed great business to transact u))on that day, though 
you did not converse with God in lioly duties, God 
might accept of mercy rather than sacrifice. But when 
he appoints you a day to rest, wherein you have nothing 
to do but to converse with him, yet then to deny it, is 
a slighting the majesty of God. 

Now the Jews had iivers sabbaths ; amongst others, 
these were principal ones, the sabbaths of days, and 
the sabbaths of years. 

The sahbatlis of days. Every seventh day they had 
a sabbath, and it was kept unto the Lord. Now this 
feast of theii's had somewhat in it memorative, some- 
what significative, and somewhat figui'ative. It was a 
memorial, a sign, and a figiu'e. 

First, it was memorative ; a memorial of two things : 

1. Of the work of God's creation. After God had 
finished his works of creation, then he rested, and sanc- 
tified the seventh day. Psal. xcii. is appointed for the 
sabbath, the argument of it is, the celebrating the me- 
morial of God's great works. 

2. Of their deliverance out of Egypt, in remembrance 
of the rest that God gave them from theii" bondage. 
'■ Kemember that thou wast a servant in the land of 
Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out 
thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out 
arm : therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to 
keep the sabbath day," Deut. v. 1<5. 

Secondly, it was significative, a sign. Exod. xxxi. 
17, " It is a sign between me and the children of Israel 
for ever :" and ver. 13, " It is a sign between me and 
you, that I am the Lord that doth sanctifv you." God 
made it a sign, that as this day was by liis command 
to be sanctified, set apart from other days, so God had 
set apart this nation of the Jews from other nations. 

Thirdly, it was figurative, it prefigured or ty])ified 
the rest that remained for the jjeople of God. Heb. 
iv. 9, " There remaineth therefore a rest to the people 
of God," both here, in the time of tire gospel, and in 
heaven eternally. 

Now there was some specialty in this day of rest, 
in this sabbath of the Jews, more than in any other 
sabbath. As, 

(1.) In the antiquity of it. It was the most ancient 
of all the days set apart for any holy use, being from 
the time of the creation. 

(2.) It was WTittcn with God's owni finger in the 
tables. 

(3.) God rained no manna upon thi's day. and that 
even before the law was given in Mount Sinai for the 
honour of this day. 

(4.) The whole week takes denomination from the 



sabbath. Luke xviii. 12, '■ I fast twice in the week," 
cif -oS (ra/3/3drou, twice a sabbath. So Mark xvi. 2, 
'• The fii-st day of the week," the first of sabbaths, rqi; 
/iiaf oafifiuTuv. 

(5.) This sabbath is called an everlasting covenant 
by way of eminency, as if nothing of God's covenant 
were kept if this were not. Exod. xxxi. 16, "Ye shall 
keep the sabbath for a peii)etual covenant." 

(G.) Yea, God puts a remembrance upon this day, 
and not upon any other sabbath. If a friend who 
would fain converse with you, send to you a week be- 
forehand, saying, I pray think of that day, I will come 
to you then and converse with you, we will enjoy com- 
munion together ; now, if when he comes he find you 
employed in xranecessary businesses, will he take it well ? 
God does so with you : I desire to converse with your 
souls, and I ajipoint you a day, think of it, remember 
that day, that you and I may be together, and converse 
sweetly one with another : if God find you then occu- 
pied in unnecessary busmesses, he will not fake it well. 

This sabbath the Jews rejoiced much in, and blessed 
God for it, Neh. ix. 14, as a great mercy. Philo Juda-us, 
speaking of the fourth commandment, Q,„rt<,m vvkt^. 
saiih, It is a famous precept, and profit- '""> 'gnjBium pw 
able to excite all kind oi virtue and piety, ntm nnuirm n- 
TIic Hebrews say we must sanctify the pltut'miero'prr- 
sabljath at its coming in and going out, "'""' 
and bless God who gave it to us. Yea, it is called by 
some of the Hebrews, the very desire of days. Drusius 
ttUs of a Jew, who, when the sabbath day ajHiroached, 
was wont to put on his best clothes, sajing. Come, my 
spouse, &c., as being glad of that day, as a bridegroom 
of his spouse. It is not my work to handle the point 
of the sabbath day, or Lord's day now, but to o])en it 
as we have it here in the text, to show what kind of 
sabbath the Jews had. Only observe this one thing 
about this sabbath ; if you compare Numb, xxviii. 9, 
with Ezek. xh-i. 4, you find that the ofi'erings in the i 
time of the gospel, were more than those in the time 
of the law. In Numbers, you find but two lambs ; but 
in Ezekiel, six lambs and a ram, for the sabbath. This 
by way of type shows, that iu the settled times of the 
gospel, God's worship u])on the Christian sabbath should 
be solemnized more fully than it was in the time of 
the law. 

The next is, the sabhallis of years, and they were of 
two sorts. There was one to be kept evei-y seven years, 
and another every -seven times seven, every fiftieth 
year. Every seventh year there was a rest of the land; 
as every seventh day there was a rest of the labour of 
then- bodies: Exod. xxiii. 10, 11, " Six yeai-s thou shall 
sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof: 
but the' seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still ; " 
tlicy must not prune theii- \-incs, nor gather their vint- 
age'. The sabbath of days signified that tliey themselves 
were the Lord's, therefore they ceased from then- own 
labours. But the sabbath of years, the resting of the 
land signified that the land was the Lord's, at his dis- 
posal, and that they were to depend upon the provi- 
dence of God for their food in the land. When they 
])loughed, and when they sowed, and gathered in the 
fruits, God would dispose the land as he pleased. 

And we must acknowledge, for that is the moral of 
it to ourselves, that all lands are the Lord's, and the 
fruit that we enjoy from the land is at his disposing. 
If any man ask, A\'hat should we eat that seventh year? 
seeing they might not plough, nor sow, nor reap, nei- 
ther have vintage, nor harvest; the Lord answers 
thom. Lev. xxv. 21, "I will command my blessing 
upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit 
for three years." God, vou see, will not have any to be 
losers by his service. Let us trust God then, though 
perhaps you have now one year in which you have no 
trading. People cry out. Oil this twelvemonth we have 



Vee. 11. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



113 



had no ti'iiding in the city ! we can get no rent out of 
the country ! Do not murmur, trust God ; it may be 
God has been before-hand with many of you, j'ou have 
liad full ti'ading formerly which may preserve you com- 
fortably now. K not before, trust God for the next : 
the Jews were to trust God eveiy seventh year, they 
had nothing coming in for one year in seven. If once 
in aU youi- lifetime God takes away yom' trading upon 
an extraordinary occasion, do not murmur, do not give 
less to the poor : I speak to those whom God has 
blessed in former years, so as that they are not only 
able to subsist, but to give too : " Beware that there be 
not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, Tlie seventh 
year, the year of release, is at hand ; and thine eye be evil 
against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought ; 
and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto 
thee," Deut. xv. 9. If a poor company of distressed 
and plundered people come to you and desire your 
help, because you have not such a full income as you 
were wont to have in your ti-ading, you refuse to relieve 
them, if they cry unto God against you, it will be sin 
unto you. 

This rest of the land was also to put them in mind 
that there was a time coming when God will free them 
from labom'. Now they were fain to eat their bread in 
the sweat of their brows, but God would supply them 
once in seven years, without the sweat of their brows in 
tilling the land, showing, that there was a time wherein 
God would bring his people to such a rest, that they 
should have fidl supply of all things without labour. 

The second thing in this seventh year was, all debts 
that their brethren owed to them were to be released. 
Deut. XV. 2, it is called there, " the Lord's release ;" the 
Lord is merciful to those that are in debt. God knows 
what a gi-ievous burden it is for his people to be in 
debt ; rich men, who are full-handed, do not understand 
what a bm-den it is to be in debt to every man they deal 
with ; they cannot sleep quietly, they can have but little 
joy and comfort in theu' lives, the burden is so grievous. 
Now God, in mercy to liis people, that they might not all 
their days go under such a burden, and so have little joy 
of then- lives, granted this favour to them, that once in 
seven years then- debts were to be released. But it was 
the debt of a Hebrew, Deut. xv. 12 ; foreigners' debts 
they were not bound to release. By that we are to learn, 
that there should be more pity and commiseration 
shown to those who are om' brethi'en in the ilesh, or in 
the Lord, with respect to their- debts, than others. There 
is a complaint that many of the gocUy have httle care 
and conscience in paying theu- d'ebts ; the justness of 
that complaint I know not, but there may be slothful- 
ness, if not unfaithfulness, and if there be cai-elessness 
and unfaithfulness in some, it is enough to cast an 
aspersion upon all. Though those who are godly 
should be more careful to pay their debts than others, 
yet Lf you see them godly and laborious in their calling, 
and the providence of God only prevent, and not any neg- 
ligence of theirs, it must be a vile and wicked heart that 
would take advantage of then- being godly, to ojipress 
them ; no, you are bound to show them much commi- 
seration. Beware there be not an evil heart in thee, to 
be less mercifid to thy poor brother because of the 
seventh year's rest of the ground, or because the debt 
w-as to be released that seventh year : but " thou shalt 
sm-ely give him, and thy heart shall not be gi-icvedwhen 
thou givest unto him ; "because for this thing the Lord 
thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all 
tliat thou puttest thy hand unto," Deut. xv. 10. Not- 
withstanding there must be a cessation of ploughing, and 
sowing, and vintage, in the seventh year, yea, notwith- 
stancUng they were bound to release theii- debt in the 
seventh year, yet they must do this, and not do it 
grudgingly; they must not mm-mur and say. Docs God 
require of us that we must neither plough nor sow, and 



that we must release our debts, and give too, nay, and 
give, and not have oui- hearts grieved too, that we must 
not complain of tliis ? O my brethren, God loves 
exceedingly cheerful givers, and hearts enlarged with 
bowels of compassion, not hearts grumbling and olj- 
jecting against giving. ISIany men have no quickness 
of understanding in any thing else but against works of 
mercy ; how quick are they in theii- objections, and find 
such subtle ways to save their pui-ses, that we are 
astonished ! Against this there is a solemn charge, 
Deut. XV. 11, "Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto 
thy brother, to thy poor, and to the needy, in thy land." 

The thhd thing to be done once ru seven years was the 
release of servants, they too must go free, and they must 
not be sent away empty neither; "It shall not seem 
hard unto thee, -n-hen tnou sendest him away free from 
thee," Deut. xv. 18; you must give them liberty, as 
ver. 14. It is true, we are not bound to the letter, every 
seven years to do thus, but there is a moral equity in 
it ; when servants have done you faithful service, you 
must not think that it is enough that you give them 
meat, and di-ink, and clothes, but you must be cai-eful 
of youi- servants how they should live after they are 
gone from you. This was the fb-st sabbath of years. 

But the second was the most famous, and that was 
the rest that was every seven times seven years, the 
fiftieth year, w-hich was called the year of jubilee, from 
the trumpet by which they were wont to proclaim that 
year, which, as the Jews tell us, was of a ram's horn. 
In this year clivers of the same things were done as in 
the seventh year, as the release of debts, the release of 
servants. But there are some things observable that 
were done at this time beyond what was done every 
seventh year. 

As for servants, the release of them was not only of 
such as had then served seven years, yea, if they had 
served any time, they were then to be released ; but 
there were some that would not be released, and there 
was a command given by God respecting it, Exod. xxi. 
6, if there were a servant that loved his master and 
would not go free, then his master should bring him to 
the post of the door, and with a nail bore his ear, and 
then the text saith, " he shall serve him for ever." 
Now, that " for ever" is by interpreters interpreted but 
for the time of jubilee, and then he should have rest. 
Here it is to be understood of the fiftieth year, the year 
of jubilee. 

There are some kind of spirits so slavish, that when 
they may have liberty they wiU not ; they deserve to have 
their ears bored, to be slaves to the filtieth year, if not 
for ever. Many amongst us at this day have such spu-its. 
God ofli'ers us a release from bondage ; how many of us 
love servitude stiU ! It is just with God that we should 
have our ears bored, and that we should be slaves even 
for ever ; but we hope there w-iU be a jubilee come at 
length for our deliverance. God would have a jubilee 
even to deliver those that were of the most servile 
spii-its. AMien God began with us at the commence- 
ment of oiu- parliament, Kke the seventh year he ofl'ered 
to us a release, and we refused it then, and we deserve 
that om- ears should be bored ; but God is infinitely 
merciful, though we be of servile spirits, and know not 
how to pity ourselves, we hope the Lord w ill pity us, 
and grant us, out of free and rich grace, a jubilee, even 
to deliver those who have a mind to be bond-slaves. I 
am sure God does so sphitually ; if God did not de- 
liver those who at-e wiUuig to be slaves, he -ffould de- 
liver none. 

It was a great mercy so to provide for servants, that 
they might thus be delivered. The greater, because 
servants endm-ed a great deal of hardship then, more 
than now ; they were bought and sold, not only other 
nations, but the Hebrews were bought for servants 
also, as you find it, Exod. xxi. 2. Besides, servants 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



were in such bondage then, that if the masters beat 
tliem -w-ith a rod until they had killed them, yet they 
mast only be punished, they must not have blood shed 
for their blood ; yea, though the servant died under hk 
ma-ster's hand, yet the master was only to be punished ; 
and if the servant lived but two or three days after, the 
master was not to be punished at all : " And if a man 
smite his ser\ant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die 
under his hand ; he shall be surely punished. Notwitli- 
standing, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be 
punished: for he is his money," Exod. xxi. 20, 21. 

Oh that servants woidd consider this, and bless God 
for the liberty they have now, more than servants had 
in former times I It was so likewise with the Romans, 
t'ue word " servant " comes from senando, because the 
Komans used to have such for servants as were pre- 
served in time of war, who would otherwise have been 
put to death ; whether they were those or others, yet 
the condition of all was very servile both amongst Jews 
and Komans. This may justly rebuke the pride of 
senants now ; if they be but crossed in the least thing, 
they make such a complaint as if they were exceedingly 
WTonged. Let servants rather bless God for tlieir con- 
dition, than murmur at a Utile liardship ; the hardsliip 
of servants in former times was more severe than any 
vou can endure now, who liave the hardest masters, 
hence, in the time of jubilee the servants so rejoiced. 
Jewish antiquities tell us, that nine days 
*'bq"Li).''rJMa" before their release, the servants feasted 
and made merry, and wore garlands, be- 
cause of their freedom approaching. 

Tlie second thing extraordinary in the day of jubilee 
was, that not only debts, but lands were released : Lev. 
XXV. 23, " The land shall not lie sold for ever." And 
there were divers reasons, why the land must not be 
sold for ever, but must return to the first possessors in 
the year of jubilee. 

1. One reason is in Lev. xxv. 23, " For the land is 
mine," saith God, " for ye are strangers and sojourners 
witli me." God would herebv teach them that thoy 
must not account themselves aljsolute lords of the land ; 
" the land is mine," and you that are the greatest land- 
lords of all, are but as strangers and sojourners with 
God, the land is still God's. Ver. 28, " But if he be 
not able to restore it to liim," nor his kinsman for him, 
it shall remain unto the year of jubilee, and m the ju- 
bilee it shall go out, and lie shall return unto his pos- 
session. If he could redeem his land himself, or a 
kinsman for him, he was to redeem it before ; but if a 
man was so poor that he -could not give any thing to 
redeem it, yet in the year of jubilee it should return to 
him. 

2. God would not have his people too greedy to 
bring the possession of the country in to tliemselves, to 
have a perpetual inheritance to themselves and theu- 
posterity. This is the greediness of many covetous and 
ambitious men, they lay land to land, and house to 
house, to get a perpetual inheritance for themselves and 
posterity. God would not have his people be of so 
greedy dispositions, for a few of them to get the whole 

»country into their own possession ; therefore no man 
gained a possession for ever, but once in fifty years 
that possession must return to the original owner 
again. 

3. The land was to return to the first owner, that the 
distinction of tribes might be continued, which was 
knovvn much by continuance of the possessions that 
belonged to every tribe and family. God liad great 
care before Christ's time to keep the distinction of tribes, 
that it might be clear out of which tribe Christ came. 

But further, this year of jubilee aimed at something 
higher, it was a t)-])e of Christ, to set out the blessed 
redem|>tion we have by him. The trumpet of the gos- 
uel whicli ministers blow is a triunpct of jubilee. Isa. 



Ixi. 1, 2, seems to have reference to a jubilee. Christ 
was appointed to proclaim Uberty to the captives, and 
the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to 
proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord ; now that 
acceptable year was the year of jubilee, there was the 
opening of the prison, and the releasing of them that 
were bound. " Blessed is the people that know the 
jovful sound," Psal. Ixxxix. 15 ; that hear and know the 
jubilee. Oh blessed are our ears who live at such times, 
to hear the trumpet of jubilee blowing in one congre- 
gation or other ahnost every day ! Now, first, we have 
a release of our debts and bondage, this is the joyful 
sound. We are all by nature in debt, (sins, you know, 
are called debts in the Lord's prayer,) every soul is 
bound over to God's eternal justice to answer to the 
law, for not obeying it ; now comes this jubilee and re- 
leases all debts. And, secondly, we are all bond-slaves, 
in bondage to sin, to the law, and to the devil ; now 
comes the gospel, this jubilee, and releases our bond- 
age, sets us at liberty. And, thirdly, we have forfeited 
our right to the creature, yea, to heaven itself; the 
gospel comes and restores all, we have right now to the 
comforts of this world, and to heaven. Canaan was a 
t)i)e of heaven, and the loss of their inheritance was a 
tvpe of the loss of heaven, and the bringing of them 
again to the possession of it, a type of the restoring of 
right to heaven. Oh happy are they who hear this joy- 
ful sound, not only with the ears of their body, but who 
have it sounding in their hearts, by the work of the 
Spirit of God in them ! 

In this vear of jubilee, there is one thing further very 
remarkable, and that is, the time when this trumpet was 
to blow that proclaimed this year. Lev. xxv. 9, the 
trumpet was " to sound on the tenth day of the seventh 
month." "VMiat remarkable thing is there in this that 
the trumpet must be blown the tenth day of the seventh 
month ? The tenth day of the seventh month was their 
day of expiation, (the' day of atonement, their public 
fast,) this day was appointed every year for all Israel 
to afflict their souls before God, to humble themselves 
for their sins, and so to seek mercy from God. It is a 
strange tiling, that upon the day in which they were to 
afflict their souls before God, and to mourn for their 
sins, the trumpet of jubilee was to sound, that was to 
proclaim joy and mirth, things of a contrary nature to 
humbling and mourning. Yea, but this afibrds us 
chvers excellent instructions. As, 

1. God would have his people so to mourn, as to 
know there is joy coming. In the darkest day they 
had, wherein they were bound to afllict their souls 
most, yet they were so to mourn, as to know there was 
a jubilee at hand. We are not to moiun as those with- 
out hope ; in our most grievous mournings, we must 
not have our hearts sink in desperation, we must so 
mourn as to expect a jubilee. 

2. The saints' mourning is a preparation for a jubilee. 
Joy then is near at hand, when the saints most mourn 
in a godly manner. Did not the Lord deal graciously 
with us the last fast day, when we were mourning he- 
fore him ? There was, amongst our brethren in other 
parts, a kind of trumpet of jubilee blown ; the Lord 
was then working for us ; what great dchvcrance did 
God grant tliat very day at Chichester ! God shows 
that the mournings of his people make way for joy. 

3. The sound of the trumpet of jubilee is sweetest, 
when we are most afflicted for our sins. When we are 
most apprehensive and sensible of the evil of sin, then 
the joy of God, the comforts of the gospel, are sweetest 
to the" soul. When the trumpet of jubilee is blown in 
congregations, if it meets not with hearts sensible of 
sin, they are not delighted with its sweet sound, it is 
not melody in their ears, it rejoices not their hearts : 
but let a poor soul be brought down, and made sensible 
of the evil of sin and God's vtTath, then let but one 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



113 



promise of the gospel be sovmded forth, how sweet, how 
joyful is it ! 

4. Pardon of sin is the only foundation of every ju- 
bilee. For this tenth day of the seventh month, wherein 
the trumpet of jubilee was to be sounded, was a day of 
atonement. ^Tiat is that ? A day of covering, (as the 
word means,) of pardon of sin to the people of God. 
Many men keep a continual jubilee, live merrily, do 
nothing but eat, and drink, and play, and dance, and 
laugh, and cannot endure these sad melancholy people. 
■\Vhat is the foundation of this thy jubilee ? Art thou 
sure there is an atonement made between God and thy 
soul ? Art thou sure thy sin is pardoned ? Is this the 
foundation of thy rejoicmg ? Know it will not last, it 
i3 not God's, but the devil's jubilee, except there be an 
atonement made between God and thee, as the found- 
ation of it. 

5. When God has pardoned us, then our hearts are 
in a fit frame to pardon others. Now, now comes the 
jubilee ; and now you must release your debts, and 
your lands, and forgive those that owe you any thing. 
This is the day wherein God testifies his mercy in par- 
doning your sins. They might well say, Now, Lord, 
command us what thou wilt, in showing mercy to our 
brethren ; we are ready to pardon, to release them, to 
extend the bowels of our compassion towards them, for 
thou hast pardoned our sins. The reason of the rigid- 
ness, cruelty, and hardness of the hearts of men, and 
straitness ot their spirits to their brethren, is, because 
God has not witnessed to their souls the pardon of their 
own sins ; an atonement between God and them. 

Their -solemn feasts." Among their feasts, they 
had three that were especially more solemn than others : 
and they were the feast of passover, pentecost, and 
tabernacles. 

These three were imited in one thing ; that is, upon 
these three feasts all the males were to ascend up to 
Jerusalem to worship in the place which God chose. 
" Three times in a year shall all thy males appear be- 
fore the Lord thy God in the place which he shall 
choose ; in the feast of unleavened bread, (that was 
the passover.) and in the feast of weeks, (that was pen- 
tecost,) and in the feast of tabernacles," Deut. xvi. 16. 

But how could the ten tribes then keep these feasts, 

for they went not to the temple ? You may as well say, 

. How had they an ephod ? Jeroboam was 

° ''■ "^ wise enough to keep the feasts, though 

not in the way God appointed ; he could tell them that 

going to the temple was but a circumstance of place. 

From the cormexion of these three together in their 
solemn feasts, there are divers things to be noted. 

First, We may see a reason why there were some- 
times so many believers at Jerusalem. An argument 
is brought by some from Acts xxi. 20, to prove that 
there may be in one church more than can possibly 
assemble together in one congregation ; " Thou seest, 
brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which 
believe," Trdaat iivpiah^. how many myriads. Now, 
say they, so many could not join in one congregation. 
The answer to this is clear, that the time of which the 
passage speaks, was when the people of the Jews were 
all assembled together at Jerusalem to keep the feast 
of pentecost; for chap. xs. 16, states, that the apostle 
" hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem 
the day of pentecost." Now, reading the story on, it 
plainly appears that, by hastening his journey, he ar- 
rived at Jerusalem at the day of pentecost, aiid being 
there at that time, no marvel they said imto him, " Thou 
seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are 
which believe ; " for all the males of the people of the 
Jews were together at Jerusalem, according to that law 
to which as yet they submitted. They were not in a 
church state at Jerusalem, therefore there is no strength 
in that objection against congregational churches. 



Secondly, AMiere there is a national church there 
must be a uniting of the nation in some way of 
national worship. The Jews, by institution from God, 
were united in national worship thi-ee times in a year 
at the temple. And there should be some kind of in- 
dividual worship not in the same species ; that is, as 
others are praying, so are we, and as others are hear- 
ing, so are we ; for so all the churches in the world 
may be joined ; but to join in one act of worship to- 
gether, as that was of going up to the temple, that 
made the Jews a national church. But we have no 
such institution now ; no nation in the world can, in 
a proper sense, be said to be a national church as 
theirs was ; in some figurative sense we may so call it, 
but not in that proper sense as it was among the Jews. 

Thirdly, There are some ordinances that caimot be 
enjoyed but in the way of church fellowship. The 
Jews could not enjoy these feasts as they ought, unless 
they went together to Jerusalem in the way that God 
appointed. As among the Jews there were some ordi- 
nances they might enjoy in their synagogues and pri- 
vate houses, but some which they could not enjoy but 
m the temple ; so there are some ordinances we may 
enjoy in our families, but others that we cannot enjoy 
but in church communion, of which Jerusalem is a 
tyjie. 

Fourthly, These three times, wherein they were to 
go up together to Jerusalem, were all in summer. The 
first, which was the feast of the passover, was in the 
latter end of our March, and the beginning of April : 
the feast of pentecost was fifty days after ; the feast of 
tabernacles was about the middle of our September. 
It was very laborious for them to go up to Jerusalem 
to worship ; but God so commiserated them, that they 
were not to go in winter time. That is the reason 
of that phrase in Acts xx\-ii. 9, "Sailing was now 
dangerous, because the feast was now already past ; " 
that is, the feast of tabernacles was past, which was 
about the fifteenth of September, and so it began to be 
winter. It would be an afiliction to go up to Jerusa- 
lem in the winter, and therefore God would be so in- 
dulgent to his people, that they should go in summer 
time. Oh what an affliction is it, then, to fly from Je- 
rusalem before our enemies in the winter time I We 
had need pray the more hard now for those that are in 
danger of the enemy, that God would be merciful to 
them in this. 

Fifthly, When they went up to these three feasts 
they must not go empty, but fuU-handed : " They 
shall not appear before the Lord empty," Deut. xvi. 15 ; 
noting thus much, that whenever we come to acknow- 
ledge God's mercy for any thing, we must come witli 
full hands and liberal hearts, with hearts ready to dis- 
tribute, or otherwise we only take God's name in vain. 

Sixthly, The wonderful providence of God toward 
them, that though all the males in the whole countr\' 
were to come up to Jerusalem three times in the year, 
yet their country should not be in danger of the ene- 
mies. The Jews had not such walls of seas about their 
country as we have, but they lived in the very midst of 
their enemies, who surrounded them ; on the east, the 
Ammonites and Moabites : the west, the Philistines : 
the south, the Egyptians, Idumeans ; the north, the 
Assyrians, to whom the prophet seems to have refer- 
ence, Zech. L 18. Now they might say, If all our 
males go up to Jerusalem three times a year, then our 
enemies that lie close in our borders, (for they lay as 
near them as Y'ork is to us.) may come upon us and 
destroy us : therefore God made provision for their en- 
couragement ; " Neither shall any man desire thy land, 
when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy 
God thrice in the year," Exod. xxxiv. 24. God took 
care that none should desire their land. Let us go on 
in God's service, and he will take care to deliver us 



116 



.\X EXPOSITION OF 



CiiAP. II. 



from our enemies. Oflcn out of slavish fear of ene- 
mies, and the disturbance they are able to make among 
us, we are ready to betray the cause of God, and neg- 
lect his worship. Let us learn from hence to go on in 
God's ways, and not fear anv injury which our enemies 
can do us. God saith he will take care, when they are 
all at Jerusalem in the exercise of liis worship, that 
none should desire tlieir land. 

Now, by opening these several feasts, vou may be 
helped to read the Old Testament profitably, for much 
of it is spent in things that concern some of these. 

The first was the passover. You have the history of 
it Xunib. xxviii. 16, 17, and in divers other scriptures. 
That feast was in the beginning of the year. It is true, 
our September was the beginning of their ciWl year, 
but the month Abib, which was the middle of >farch 
and part of April, was the ecclesiastical year ; and upon 
their deliverance out of EgJTit, when God commanded 
them to celebrate their passover, he apppointed that 
that month should be unto them the beginning of 
months, the first month of the year. lielivcrance 
from great evils are mercies that we are highly to prize ; 
the Jews were to begin their year in memorial of the 
mercy they received in that month. 

The name " passover " arose from God's sending forth 
a destroying angel that " passed over " tlie houses of 
the Israelites that night ; he went through the land and 
destroyed all the firstborn of the Egyptians, but saved 
the Israelites. This feast was also called " the feast of 
unleavened bread," Luke xxii. 1, because they were to 
go out of EgjiJt in haste, and could not have time to 
leaven their bread. Josephus tells us that they took only 
a little flour mingled with water, that might sers-e them 
with great economy for tliirty days. God taught them 
thus to depend upon him. We are ready to murmui- 
if we see not enough to serve us for many years, if our 
annies have not enough for so long a time ; but many 
hundreds of thousands had but a little meal and water 
to serve them for tliii-ty days, and they knew not where 
to have more when that was spent : no marvel that it is 
said of Moses, Ileb. xi. 27, " by faith he forsook Egy])t." 
This bread is called " the bread of affliction," Deut. 
xvi. 3 ; and it was unleavened bread, not only to tyjrify 
that we must not have om- hearts leavened with malice, 
but to put them in mind of the sore affliction they en- 
dured both when they were in Egj-jit, and when they 
went out of Egv'jit. 

Now this passover was partly memorative, and partly 
figurative. 

Memorative. First, To remember the deliverance of 
their first-born. 

SeconiUy, To remember their deliverance from the 
bondage of Egjnit. 

06.V. 1. "NA'lien others are smitten and we are "passed 
over," it is a ifieat mercy. 

Obs. 2. Deliverance from the bondage of the out- 
^7ard man, and from bondage in respect of religion and 
conscience, is a mercy for ever to be celebrated. God 
is pleased now to offer us this mercy of deliverance 
from both these kinds of bondage ; certainly we are a 
people devoted to misery if we take not God's offer of 
mercy. We have been in bondage in our estates and 
liberties, God offers us freedom, and freedom also from 
antichristian bondage, whicli is worse than F.gv-])tian 
Iwndage. The text saith, when they were delivered 
from the bondage of Egypt, " Moses sang ;" and in the 
Revelation, when they were delivered from antichristian 
bondage, " they sing the song of Moses," Rev. xv. 3. 
We were long since delivered fiom a great part of this 
bondage, now the Lord offers to deliver us altogether. 

• 'Tcmplum tuurn brevi, valde cito, vatdc cito, in dicbiis 
nostrls, eiti^siinc. nunc sdifica tcmplum luum brevi. Miseri- 
cors Dcus, magnc Ueus. beiiignc iJeiis, pulchcr Dcus, Uultis 
Deus, virtuc&e Deus, JuUaicc Deus, uunc xdifica tcmpliiin 



Obs. 3. AMien God offers us mercy of deliverance we 
should not go forth slowly. They were to eat this 
passover with then- staves m their hands, this was to 
note their hasty going out of Egj'jrt. Our misery at 
this day is, that the Lord offers deliverance, and we lie 
slugging on our beds, and are like that foolish child the 
prophet speaks of, that sticks in the birth : we have 
stuck these two years in the birth, whereas we might 
have been delivered long before this. It concenis us 
all to consider what the cause is, and to lament it before 
the Lord, that we may make our peace with him. 

06.V. 4. In thank.sgiving for a mercy, we are ever to 
remember what we were before that mercy. They must 
eat unleavened bread at this feast, the bread of afflic- 
tion, to remind them of the afflictions they were in be- 
fore they had this mercy. AMien we bless God for a 
deliverance, we must really present before our souls the 
sad condition we were in before we were delivered. 

But tlie special thing aimed at in the passover was, 
that it should be a t\pe of Christ, who was the ])aschal 
Lamb that was to take away the sins of the world ; he 
that was roasted in the fire of God's wrath for our sins, 
as that lamb that was to be eaten in the passover was 
roasted in the fire. And if ever the angel of God'a 
vengeance jiass over us, it is thi'ough the blood of that 
Lamb sprinkled upon our hearts, which was signified 
by sprinkling the blood of the lamb upon the posts of 
then' houses. In the Lord's supper we celebrate, in 
effect, the same feast of the passover they did ; and by 
this we may learn, 

Obs. 5. There is little comfort in the remembrance of 
our outward deliverances, except we can see them all 
in Chiist. They were in this feast to remember their 
deUverance out of Egjiit, but they were in it to have a 
figure and tii-pe of Christ. That sweetened their re- 
membrance, that made the feast a joyful feast, when 
they could see it as a fruit of Christ's sufferings ; when 
this lamb that put them in mind of it, put them in mind 
hkewise of Christ the paschal Lamb. If you would 
have the remembrance of deliverances from any kind of 
affliction sweet unto you, you must look upon them all 
ui the blood of Clirist, and then yom- hearts will be 
enlarged to bless God. 

This was the ortlinanee of God in the passover ; but 
besides God's ordinance, the Jews added divers other 
things. 

The first thing they added, was earnest prayer to God 
for the building of the temple, which many of them 
observe to this day. Buxtorf tells us, tliat because the 
temple is destroyed where they were to go up thrice in 
the year to solemnize these feasts, therefore they pray 
earnestly and mightily for the temple in this manner : 
they cry all together to God,* Lord, build thy temple 
shortly, very quickly, veiy quickly, most quickly in our 
days. And then they go over it again, Merciful God, 
great God, kind God, high God, sweet God, with divers 
other epithets, now build thy temple quickly, vei-y 
quickly, &c. Now, now, now, five times together. They 
teach us how much the temple concerns us. Their mis- 
take was, they rested in the material temple, and did 
not consider that this temple was a type of Christ; 
therefore as earnestly as they prayed for the building 
of their material temple, let us ))ray for the building up 
of the mystical body of Christ ; Now, Lord, build quickly, 
do not defer it, even in our days do it ! 

A second thing they added was the manner of casting 
out unleavened bread. In this they obseiTed tliree 
things, their inquisition, their extermination, their ex- 
ecration. First, witli a candle they would narrowly 
search every corner of the house to see if they had the 

tuum brevi, vaUle cito, in <1icbus nostris, vaMo cito, vaUle cito^ 
nunc o^dtfica. nunc (cdifica, nunc aulttica, nunc ODilitica, nunc 
a-dilica tcmplum tuum cito. robustc Dcus, furtis, potciis Dcus, 
SiC. Baatoti. dc Synag. Jud. c. 13. 



Vek. 11. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



m 



least crumb of leaven ; if any were found they cast it 
out with solemnit}' : and then they used to wish a curse 
upon themselves if there were any left in their houses 
that was not cast out. 

This moral observation may be taught from it ; it 
should be our care when we are to receive the sacra- 
ment, to make narrow inquisition, to get the candle of 
the word, and to search every corner of our hearts, 
every facidty of the soul, to see if there be no leaven in 
it. 2. 'WTiatcvcr we see, to cast it out of doors. And, 
3. To be so much set against sin, as to be willing to 
take a curse upon oui'selves, if we should willingly let 
any knoi^-n sin be in our hearts, and to acknowledge 
that God might justly curse us in his ordinance if we 
be false in this. 

Thii-dly, they used to display all their treasures ; if 
they had any splendid clothes, or furniture, or curiosity, 
they woidd show all at this feast. By their superstition 
we may learn, that in the time of our coming before 
God, it is fit for us to exercise and manifest all those 
beautiful graces with wliich the Lord has endowed us 
by the work of his Spirit ; for in them the riches of a 
Christian, liis splendid clothing, his jewels, and all his 
excellences, consist. 

Fourthly, after the passover was at an end, they 
fasted three days, to humble themselves for their fail- 
ings in keeping that feast. This was not God's institu- 
tion, but it was then- custom; and we may learn from it, 
(though we do not bind om'selves to do as they did,) to 
look back to our receiving the sacrament, and to be- 
wail all our miscarriages : I believe, if things were ex- 
amined to the quick, in our receiving the sacrament, we 
should find matter enough lo fast and pray, and to 
humble om- souls for oiu' miscaniages. 

Lastly, in the passorer they used to read the book 
of the Canticles, because that book ti'eats especially of 
the conjunction of the soul with the ^Messiah, which is 
sealed up specially in the passover. And that, indeed, 
is a special meditation for us when we come to the 
Lord's supper, to meditate upon our conjunction with 
Christ. 

The next is the feast of pentecost. This feast is 
called also the feast of weeks, because there were seven 
weeks to be reckoned, and at the end of them it was 
solemnly to be kept, Lev. xxiii. 15. In the feast of the 
passover, the first day of seven, and the last day of 
seven, were solemnly kept ; now they were to count 
from the morrow after the first sabbath, seven sabbaths, 
that is, seven weeks complete ; the fii'st sabbath of the 
passover was the fifteenth day of the month Abib, and 
the next day from that they were to count seven weeks, 
and at the end of seven weeks the feast of pentecost 
was to be kept. Now in this fir'st day, wherein they 
began to count their weeks, you find the fij'st-fi-uits 
were to be offered up to God ; it was a kind of distinct 
feast, called the feast of the fii-st-fruits, in which they 
were to bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of their harvest 
to the priest, to be offered to God ; and the reason was, 
because now then- harvest began : as soon as the pass- 
over was killed, and they had kept the first sabbath of 
the passover, (for they were to keep it seven davs,) they 
began theii' harvest ; they must not put a sickle into 
the corn, nor reap any thing of their ground, until they 
had kept the passover. 

Now their harvest began in the month Abib, that is, 
jiart of our March and part of April, and thence it has 
its name, for Abib signifies, an ear of corn. Hars'est 
began so soon in the land of Canaan, not only because 
it was a hot country, for it is observed that Africa was 
a hotter country than theirs, and yet their harvest be- 
gan later, but because of the blessing of God upon 

'3S n'jn: *''"* ^^'^^> therefore, Jer. iii. 19, it is call- 

Htreditj'ipm eie- ed, " a goodly heritage," because of the 

^"''"'- timely bringing forth the fruit ; the words 



translated " goodly heritage," signify an heritage of come- 
liness ; the same word translated "goodly," signifies " a 
roebuck," to which this land was compared, and so it 
may be said to be a land of a roebuck, because of the 
speedy and swift ripening of the corn. 

06s. 1. It is the blessing of the church to have their 
fruit ripe betimes, for Canaan was a tj-pe of the church. 
You young ones, consider this, the Lord loves to have 
the fruits of Canaan ripe betimes : if you grew in the 
wUdemess, though you did not bring forth fruit in your 
youthful days, God would not so much regard it ; but 
if you live in his church, in Canaan, the Lord expects 
you should begin betimes, in the very spring of yovu' 
years, to bring forth fruit unto God. Men rejoice much 
in early fruits, they are lovely ; yea, and God rejoices 
in them too, Micah vii. 1, " My sold desired the first- 
ripe fruit ;" this is true of God himself. Y'our parents 
and godly friends may say. Our soul desfres that grace 
may spring up betimes in these young ones : so it may 
be said of God, his very soul desires to see the first- 
fruits ; fruit in young ones is that which is pleasing to 
God's soul. 

Obs. 2. "We cannot enjoy any sweetness or blessing" 
from any fruits of the earth, but through the blood of 
Jesus Christ. After they had solemnized the memorial 
of the blood of Christ, then they might put a sickle in 
the corn and reap it, not before ; and as soon as they 
had solemnized the remembrance of Christ in the pass- 
over, they might go with comfort and take the fruits of 
the earth and rejoice in them, but not before. 

Obs. 3. '\ATien we have had communion with God in 
holy things, then we may have a holy and more com- 
fortable use of the creatures. As when we have solem- 
nized the blood of Christ, then we may enjoy sweetness 
from the comforts of the earth ; so when we have en- 
joyed communion with God in his ordinances, it is a fit 
time to have a holy use of the creatures, yea, then you 
must be careful to have a holy use of the creatures ; as 
soon as ever they came from the passover, the first day 
they were to celebrate the first-fruits unto God. 

Obs. 4. After the blood of Christ is sprinkled upon 
the conscience, men will be ready to dedicate things 
unto God. Then, as Zaccheus said, '• Half of my goods 
I give to the poor," Luke xix. 8 ; here ai-e my goods, 
here is my estate : does the church, do my brethren, 
stand in lieed of help ? lo, we are ready to ofier them 
up to God. 

06.$. 5. The first of blessings arc to be offered up to 
God. God gives them charge, that the fu-st of the first 
of all the fruits of their land should be otl'ei-ed to him, 
all that come afterward should be the more blessed. 
Learn this, you young ones, dedicate the first of your 
years unto God, the verj' first of your first, the dawning 
of your years, Exod. xxiii. 19. 

06y. 6. If you dedicate your young days to God, 
when the consummation of your years comes, how may 
you keep a feast of pentecost ! The Jews dedicated 
the first-fruits fifty days before, and at the fifty days' 
end kept their joj-ful feast of pentecost : so might you 
if vou dedicated yom- young years unto God. On the 
otlier side, what a sad thing" will it be for old men that 
but now begin to think of God and Christ ! it is well 
you do so, but you cannot do it so comfortably as you 
might have done, if you had begun in your younger 
years. If the Jews, when their harvest was done, had 
brought two loaves to God, might God say, A\Tiy did 
you not bring the fii-st-fruits unto me ? God might so 
upbraid you ; but, however, come in to God, and he will 
not upbraid you, he upbraids no man; but the comfort 
will not be s'o much, because your consciences will up- 
braid you. 

06s-! 7. Happy is that man, who, when he comes to 
reap the fruit of his actions, shall have a feast of joy. 
Thus it was with the Jews, the very begimiing of their 



118 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



han-est -was with a feast, and the conclusion with a feast 
too. All the actions of our lives are a sowing of seed, 
if you sow sparingly, you shall reap sparingly ; and 
happy those men when they come to reap, who find both 
the beginning and conclusion of then- reaping a joyful 
feasting. Many sow merrily, but they reap honor and 
anguish ; but when the saints come to reap, they shall 
have a feast of joy. " At thy right hand are pleasures 
for evermore." 

04s. 8. Much praise is due to God for the fruits of 
the earth, for outward comforts. On the fiftieth day 
they were to solemnize the mercy of God in giving 
them the fruits of the earth for their harvest. How 
much praise then is due for Jesus Christ, and all spi- 
ritual mercies in him ! Though we ought to bless God 
for the things of the earth, yet we should be so swal- 
lowed tip in blessing God for'his word and ordinances, 
and spiritual mercies, that in comparison om- hearts 
should be above the fruits of the earth. Therefore, 
observe that when Ezekiel prophesies of the blessed 
state ^ of the church, by the Jewish feasts, though he 
mentions the passover, and new moons, and sabbaths, 
and the feast of tabernacles, yet not the feast of pcnte- 
cost ; there is no mention of keeping a feast for bless- 
ing God for these things. Not but" that they should 
do so, but that thcu- hearts should be so carried \\\i with 
abundance of spiritual mercies, that then they should 
be all for Christ, and for heaven, and for etcmitv. 

Obn. 9. It was a gi-cat engagement to them rightly 
to use the creatures, when they had fu-st dedicated 
them to God, and in the conclusion of harvest had 
solemnized his mercy in giving them. For God thereby 
taught tliem that they might be fui-ther engaged to use 
all creatures for his service. If God give a heart to 
dedicate the beginning of a mercy to himself, and when 
the mercy is fvdfilled, in a solemn manner to bless God 
for it, it is a mighty engagement to make use of this 
mercy for God's honour. The reason why many are 
so loose in their conversations, and do not employ the 
creatures of God to his glory, is, because they do not 
in a solemn manner bless God for that they enjoy. As 
in yom- trading, if you have comfortable incomes, and 
you take these comforts, and thank God in a slight 
manner for them, how do you use them afterwards ? 
only for yourselves and for" the flesh. But when you 
hear of riches flowing in upon you, if you can imme- 
diately take the first-fruits and give some part to God's 
service as a testimony of thankfulness, and in your 
families and closets in a solemn manner give God the 
glorj- for the good success you have had in your estate, 
this will be a mighty engagement to you to use your 
estates for his ser\ice. 

Mark tliat at the first, in their preparation, thev were 
to bring but a sheaf, but afterward. Lev. xxiii. H, they 
were to bring " tvo wave loaves;" in the first they were 
to offer "one he lamb without blemish," but afterward 
" seven lambs, and one young bullock, and two rams," 
&c., both burnt-offerings, and sin-offerings, and peaee- 
offerings, when they had received the full harvest. 

Obx. 10. Though you arc forward to give God glorj' 
when you are young, the first-fruit of your years, yet 
when you come to be old, you should "still flourish" in 
the courts of God's house. " First they offered but a 
little unto God, afterward abundance. " Do you so ? I 
appeal to all old men who arc here this day, if God 
gave you heart to give up your young years to him, 
bless him for it; but now when you are old, are you as 
forward as ever you were ? You ought to be not only 
so, but much more abundant in the work of the Lord. 
Nay, cannot others witness against you, that there was 
a time wherein you were more forward, and that now 
you begin rather to temporize ? The Lord forbid this 
should be spoken of any old men. God expects more 
aften^ard than at the first-fruits ; and though nature 



may decay, yet there is a promise that in theii- old age 
they shall flourish in the courts of God's house, and 
shall manifest the graces of liis Spirit much more. We 
are ready at the first-fruits to offer unto God somewhat, 
when his mercy comes first ; but when mercy comes 
afterward more fully, we should be more full in our 
offerings. 

You will say, 'What is the meaning of this, that there 
is a burnt-offering, a sin-offering, and a peace-offering 
in the feast of pentecost ? what is the difl'ereuce of these 
three offerings ? 

The difference is this ; the bumt-offering was in tes- 
timony of their high respect to God, that is, they ten- 
dered up something to God as a testimony of the high 
and honoui'able esteem they had of his majesty, it was 
wholly to be given up to him. Now in the other they 
had respect to themselves, the sin-offering was not to 
offer a sacrifice merely to testify respect to God, but to 
be a typical signification of Christ's sacrifice for sins ; 
they were to look through their sacrifice to Christ, and 
their sin-offering was to be an atonement for their sin. 
The peace-offering was in thanksgiving for a mercy, 
or when they would petition to God for a further mercy. 
All this must be done in the day of pentecost. 

But, beside solemnizing the mercies of God in their 
harvest, there is another object that is constantly af- 
fkmed by the Jews, and I find many divines making no 
question of it ; but it is not so clearly laid domi in the 
word. They say, God in this feast solemnized the giv- 
ing of the law, and this is their gi-ound ; because fifty 
days after their coming out of EgJ^pt, God gave the 
law, and so they say pentecost was appointed to bless 
God for giving the law. The Jews say that God dealt 
with them as a king might deal with a poor man in 
prison, first he releases him of his bondage, and then 
tells him, that after such a time he -nill marry him to 
his daughter ; now. say they, will not this man count 
cvei-y day till tliis time come ? so, when God delivered 
us out of Eg5-])t, he told us, that after such a time he 
would give us his law, and many us to his daughter, 
which is the law ; and this is the reason why we count 
so diligently the very weeks, nay, the days, as longing 
for that time when we are to be married to the law. 

04*. From whence we may note, that wc are not 
only to keep God's law, but to rejoice in it : not only 
to look at what is commanded as a duty, but as a high 
privilege, and so bless God for the law. It is a higher 
thing to love God's law and rejoice in it, than to obey 
it : Great peace shall they have that love thy law. 
David professed that he loved the law of God more 
than silver and gold, that it was sweeter to him than 
the honey, and the honeycomb. The Jews at this day 
rejoice when the law of God is read, and in their syna- 
gogues, when the law of God is brought out, they lift 
up their bodies in a kind of exultation, rejoicing that 
God gave this law to them. 

Further, the time of their pentecost was the time of 
the descending of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles : 
as God at that time gave the law by Moses, so the 
Spirit at that time came by Christ, to show that we are 
in the gospel to receive the Spirit of God, to enable us 
to fulfil the law. They had tlie letter of the law, but, 
in compai-ison of what we have, they had not the Spirit, 
but now the Holy Ghost is come in a full measure ; as 
he then came upon the disciples, so he comes now in 
the time of the gospel in a fuller way than formerly, 
there is a continual pentecost. 

But the works of God do not of themselves sanctify 
any time ; hence observe, that we may nin into a 
thousand absurdities if we argue, because the Jews 
had such a time, we may have such a time, or because 
tliere were such blessings at that time, therefore we 
may sanctify that day. No, the works of God do not 
sanctify any time, of themselves ; it must be either the 



VKE. 11. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



119 



word written, or some immediate dictate of the Spii'it, 
that must sanctify any day. Certainly, the work of our 
redemption itself is not enough to change the sabbath, 
if we had not some footing for a new institution. We 
usually give this gi'oimd for the change of the day, 
because of the greatness of the work ; but though the 
works of God be never so great, we sin in sanctifnng 
any .set and stated time for such work ; except there 
come an institution, it will be but will-worship in us, 
and God will not be put off with this. AVhat ! is not 
this as gi-eat a work as the Jews had, and may not we 
celebrate the memory of it as they did ? But God will 
say, " WTio required these things at yom- hands ? " 
Thus far you may do, that is, bloss God for those works 
aU the days of yom- lives ; but to sanctify any particular 
day for them, certainly that cannot be done without 
sin : we have oiu' waiTant for the Lord's day, as well 
as the greatness of the work, because of the prac- 
tice of the apostles, who were inspired by the Holy 
Ghost. 

The next is the feast of trumpets : oidy one particidar 
about it at this time, because Providence makes it so 
seasonable. In the seventh month (which was the 
first month of their annus civilis) there were tliree 
feasts ; of trumpets, of expiation, and of tabernacles. 

The first was THE feast of trumpets. There was 
a tlu'ccfold use of trumpets among the Jews : 1. For 
the calling of the congregation together, as we do with 
bells. 2. The calling of them to war. .3. For the 
solemnizing of their feasts. 

There are fom- ends given by divines for the feast of 
trumpets ; some I confess are very improbable, but there 
are two very probable. The one is, this feast was to 
celebrate the new year with them ; as every new month 
they had the feast of the new moon, to celebrate the 
beginning of the month, so in the beginning of the 
year they had a feast to celebrate its commencement ; 
that was this feast, for it was on the first day of their 
ci^'il year : so that it is very probable this feast was ap- 
pointed to bless God for the new )"ear, as well as one to 
celebrate the new month. Yet this can be no gromid for 
us now to consecrate the beginning of every new year 
to God : that was Jewish, and it ceased : if we will have 
any consecration of a new year, it must be by virtue of 
some institution or other ; let who can, show the insti- 
tution : we must not think because it has a show of 
wisdom, and seems reasonable, therefore it may be ; 
this is not enough in matter of worship, you must 
strictly tie yourselves to an institution. As it is Jewish, 
so it is heathenish ; the heathens consecrated their new 
year to the honour of their god Janus ; and we read in 
C'oncilimn Antisiodorense, in France, m 
obserTatio'Saycre the year six himdred and fourteen, it 
vacTre'ocntUibm"' was "the judgment of that council, that 
Sla&wL it is not lawfid to observe the_ festivities 
cingere domos. of the Geutilcs, to keep thou- worsTiip 

Omnls enim hfPC ,, ,'. , \ , . i 

observatio paganis- and oDservo their calends, (that is, the 
mies. anon. . j5go.if,jj;j[g gf thej). months.) to adom 
houses with lam-els and green bays, for all these prac- 
tices (saith the council) savom- of paganism. And like- 
mse an ancient -rn-iter saith, that the calends of Januarv 
are ratlier to be taken heed of, than to be accounted 
calends, and so to be sanctified. And further, he saith, 
stat-jit imivereaiis ^^^ chuTch has appointed a solemn feast 
ecciesiijci'mium to bc upou that vcrv day, because of the 

publicum in isto die . . *^ i i ' -^ , 

fieri. Air.iinus notOHOus abuscs there w-ere wont to be 
deDiviiii. Office. 4. ^pon ^^^^ ^g^y_ ^^ Polydore Virgil 

saith, that these solemnities of laurel, and bays, and 
ma.sks, and mummings, and such vanities, come from 
the heathens' BacchanaUa and Saturnalia, that were 
wont to be at that time of the year. However, there- 
fore, we think we honour Christ, and call it the cu-cum- 
cision day of Chi'ist, yet by those customs we dishonour 
him, for they are rather heathenish than Christian. 



Though there may be some natural reason of rejoicing, 
yet no ground for consecration. 

Let no man object and say, These solemnities have 
been a long time in the church. It is true these ai-e 
ancient, but from whence comes the antiquity ? From 
hence, because Christians, being newly converted from 
paganism, kept as much as possible of the pagan cus- 
toms, only they gave them a tm-n to Christian solemni- 
ties ; therefore all the argument of antiquity, either for 
these days, or ceremonies, or prelatical government, 
comes from their pagan customs. They lived among 
pagans, and having been lately pagans, they savoured 
and smelt of heathenism still. So now, many plead 
that such things were in the tu'St reformation : no mar- 
vel they retained them, for they w'ere newly come out 
of popery, and they savoured and smelt of popery. la- 
deed to plead the antiqiuty of these things, which men 
must show when they are put to it, is one of the great- 
est arguments against them. Thus the feast of All- 
saints was tm-ned from the heathens' feast Pantheon ; 
and on the feast of the pm'ification of the yu-gm Mary, 
which they call Candlemas, the heathens had the fes- 
tivity of their goddess Februa, (who was the mother of 
^lars,) from whence comes the name of om- month 
February, and they celebrated that time with candles, 
and such tilings as papists do now. 

The like may be said for the argument of antiquity 
for the prelates. O, say some, such government has been 
ever since the Chi-istian religion has been in England. 
Grant that there has been some kind of bishops ever 
since, but from whence came they ? AYe find in histo- 
ries, that when the pagans were in England they had 
their flamins, and then- archflainins, London was one, 
and Y'ork was another : and when they were converted 
to the Christian religion, stiU keeping some of their 
heathenish customs, instead of theii- archflamins they 
made archbishops, and of their flamins, bishops, and 
that in their very places, as London and York, and 
some say Chester. This is the very ground of the an- 
tiquity of them ; therefore, my brethren, let not us be 
put off with such arguments as these ; men delude you, 
and baffle you by these arguments. 

The second reason of that feast, the Hebrews think, 
was a remembrance of Isaac's deliverance, when he 
should have been sacrificed, and the ram was caught 
by the horns to be sacrificed in his stead ; they draw it 
from this argument, because that feast is called a me- 
morial, (say they,) to remember the deliverance of Isaac, 
and it must be by the trumpets of rams' horns, to call 
this to remembrance ; but it seems to be far- from the 
meaning of the Holy Cihost. A thfrd reason of the 
feast of trumpets, some say. (Cajetan among others,) 
was instituted for a memorial of God's giving the law 
by sound of the trumpet. But that is not likely, be- 
cause tliis feast was not kept at the time of God's 
giving the law ; if there were any time for the celebra- 
tion of giving the law, it must be at the feast of pcnte- 
cost. A fom-th, it was for a celebration of a memorial 
of all the mercies of God to them in their wars, which 
was declared by the blowing of the ti-umpcts. But I 
rather take another reason, to be a main and principal 
reason of God's institution of this feast ; to be a prepara- 
tion to the feast of atonement and expiation. It is 
called " a memorial," saith Calvin, Lev. xxiii. 24. for 
this reason, to put them in mind to humble themselves 
before God, "to afflict their souls" in the day of atone- 
ment; and, secondly, "a memorial" before God, that 
God may remember them for mercy ; so the Jews ob- 
serve, that from the fii-st day of the seventh month to 
the tenth day, there were more than ordmary exercises 
in giving of alms, in prapng, in going to their syna- 
gogues ; they were very devout for those ten days in 
preparation for the day of atonement. From whence 

Obs. Ministers should blow their trumpets to the 



120 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. U. 



people to prepare them for the day of fasting. God has 
accepted those poor fasts that we have kept, abundance 
of mercies we have received on them ; scarcely one, but we 
hear good news after it ; if we had kept fast days as we 
ought, if we had been prepared as we should, oh what 
might we have obtained of God by this time ! If God 
accepts such poor things as we do, (as God knows they 
are ])Oor and mean,) if we had every time a trumpet 
blown before us to prepare us for the day of atone- 
ment, what atonements might England have made 
with God before this time ! 

The n(»ct feast was, the FE.\ST OF EXPIATION, in the 
tenth day. I tliought not to have spoken of that, be- 
cause the feast of expiation is a fast rather than a feast ; 
but tliat is meant here as well as any of the other, for 
this reason, though it were a fast, yet the Hebrew word 
translated solemn feasts, signifies only a settled, stated, 
solemn time. And, secondly, it was a great mercy to 
them to have such a fast day ; though the day of atone- 
ment was a day for afflicting themselves, yet it is the 
cause of rejoicing to a nation that God grants them 
such a day of atonement ; it is a special means to make 
way to the joy of a nation, and therefore is included 
amongst the other : now the histor)- of that you have in 
those two famous scriptures. Lev. xvi. and xxiii. In this 
day of atonement, there are divers things very observ- 
able and useful. 

1. The solemn charge that God gave for afflicting 
men's souls upon that day. In a few verses, tlu'ee 
several times God charges them to afflict their souls, to 
humble theh- souls. Lev. xxiii. 27, 29, 32. God ap- 
pointed one day in the year for all the Jews to afflict 
their souls, to make an atonement between God and 
them in a day of fast, and they were charged to afUict 
their souls ; and that soul that did not, God tiu-eatcned 
to cut it ofl'. 

2. The priest was to go into the holy of holies, where 
he went but once a year ; Lev. xvi., the beginning and 
the latter end compared together, you shall find it. 
This may teach us, that if ever we are to look upon 
Jesus Christ in the presence of God, in the holy of 
hoUes, making intercession for us, it is in tlie day of 
atonement. In the day of a public fast of tlic kingdom, 
we are to exercise our faith upon Christ, as entering 
before God into the holy of hohes for us. After we 
have charged upon our soids our sins, and afflicted 
them, we must likewise cast up an eye of faith, behold- 
ing Jesus Christ our High Priest at that day before the 
Father, making intercession for us. 

3. On that day the priest was to make an atonement 
for all the holy things ; in Lev. xvi. 20, " AVlien he hath 
made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the taber- 
nacle of the congregation, and the altar," Sec, the priest 
Avas not only to seek to make reconciliation between God 
and the ])eople, but to reconcile the holy places ; even the 
holy of holies, and the tabernacle, and the altar had a 
kind of pollution in them, and must be reconciled : so 
infectious is the sin of man. This teaclies us, that in a 
day of atonement, of fasting, we are to ha\e a special care 
to seek mercy from CJod, to be reconciled to us, in res])ect 
of all oiu' holy duties and offerings ; we are to seek then 
to get the best services that ever we ])erformed in all our 
lives cleansed, that God may be ])acified in regard of 
tlie filth and uncleanncss that cleaved even to them. 
In the day of a fast, you are not only to confess your 
notorious sins to God, those which in their own nature 
are sinful : but ■\ovi arc to examine all your holy duties, 
and seek to make ))eaec with God in regard of the un- 
cleanncss that has been in them. This few think of; 
in the day of a fast, they confess such sins as are vile 
in themselves ; but to be sensible of the uncleanness of 
holy duties is as necessary. 

4. In their day of atonement the priest was to lay 
the sins of the congregation upon the scape-goat. The 



stor^- of the scape-goat was this, the priest must come 
and confess the sins of the congregation, lajing his 
hand upon the head of the goat, and then he must send 
this goat into the wilderness. The meaning is of great 
use to us ; Jesus Clu-ist is the scape-goat, and in the 
days of our humiliations we are to come and lay our 
hands upon Jesus Christ, and confess all our sins over 
him, and look upon all our sins as laid upon him. 
Now the scape-goat was to be sent into the wilderness. 
MTiat is that ? That is, sent into a land of forgetfulness, 
so as the Jews should never see that goat again upon 
which their sins were laid ; it signified to them, that 
their sins were now so forgiven, that they should never 
hear of them again. Thus are our sins upon Christ, as 
we shall never see nor hear more of them. In the day 
of our fasts we should thus exercise our faith upon 
Christ. 

5. A fifth thing that was to be done, was to sprinkle the 
blood of the slain goat U])on the mercy-seat, and before 
it. It is the blood of Christ that is upon and before 
God's mercy-seat, that procures mercy from thence 
for us. 

6. The priest must " take a censer full of burning 
coals of fii-e from off the altar before the Lord, and his 
hands fidl of sweet incense beaten small," Lev. x\\. 12; 
to teach us, that in the day of our solemn fasts we 
must be sui'e to get our hearts full of burning coals 
from the altar, full of afi'ection and zeal, fuU of mighty 
workings of spirit to God. Although you that are 
godly, and so are priests to God, at other times come 
with few coals from the altar, yom' affections scarce 
heated; but in a day of atonement you must come with 
your hearts full of coals, and be sure it be fu'e from the 
altar, do not satisfy yom-selves in natural afiections 
then, but be sm'e you be fuU of s])iritual afiections. 
And then, " full of sweet incense." A\'hat was that ? It 
tjijically represented om- prayer ; you must be sm"e to 
have your hearts full of ])rayer, to send up abundance 
of incense before God. The incense must be of .S2)ices 
" beaten small." What is that ? The prayers that we are 
to send up to God in the day of atonement, must come 
from much contrition of sjjirit, our hearts must as it 
were be beaten small to powder, then they are able to 
send forth such incense as is a sweet savour to God. 
Many of you in the day of a fast seem to be full of 
prayer, but is this ])rayer a sweet incense to God or no? 
How shall I know that ? By this; God has appointed the 
incense upon the day of atonement to be such as must 
come from spices beaten ; if thy heart be beaten to pow- 
der, and thy prayers be the savom- and odour of thy 
graces, which are as spices, and heated by the fu'e of 
God's Spirit, then there will be incense that pleases 
God : fii-st, graces, which are the spices ; secondly, the 
contrition, that is the beating small ; then the fire of 
God's Spii'it, to cause the incense to rise up before 
God as a sweet savour. 

7. In the day of atonement, the cloud of the in- 
cense must cover the mercy-seat, ver. 13 ; and then the 
blood both of the bullock and the goat must be " sprin- 
kled upon the mercy-seat," and that "seven times;" and, 
ver. 15, the blood of the goat must be sprinkled, not 
only " upon the mercy-seat," but " before the mercy- 
scat." AVhat is the meaning of this ? must our mercj- 
seat be clouded in the day of atonement ? we had need 
have it appeal- to us, and not be clouded. Yes, in the 
day of atonement it must be clouded, but with incense; 
the incense that was sent up was a ty])C of the sweet 
perfume of the merit of Jesus Christ. Now, in days of 
atonement, we must look uj) to the mercy-seat, and see 
the merit of Jesus Christ round about it as a cloud 
covering it ; to teach us, that no man must dare to look 
upon the mercy-seat of God as it is in itself, but must 
have the incense of the merit of Christ round about it. 
The reason was given why the Lord must have the in- 



Vek. 11. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



121 



cense as a cloud, " lest he die ;" if he had entered into 
the holy place and there looked upon the mercy-scat, 
not clouded by incense, he must have died for it. 
Those who think to come into God's presence, and to 
receive mercy from God out of Christ, they die for it. 
This is the damnation of men's souls. Mercy is an at- 
ti-ibute of God, but if we, who are sinfvd creatures, dare 
to look upon this attribute of mercy, and not have the 
incense of Christ's merit, it is the way to destroy our 
souls. Oh how many thousands are in hell for this ! 
Many who are afflicted for their sins, and cry to God to 
forgive them, and think to exercise their faith upon 
God as merciful, yet not looking upon the mercy-seat 
as clouded with the merit of Christ, it proves the destruc- 
tion of their souls. In a fast, you must not look upon 
God as the Creator of heaven and earth, or as merciful 
in himself barely, but upon God's mercy in his Son, 
and so exercise your faith ; or else vou can 
S,", wdttiS"" never make an atonement, but rather will 
chrisuun" "iute. pMCure God's wrath. It is not only dan- 
Luti.er in rfai. gerous, but horriblc, once to think of 
'^"'"' God without Christ, says I,uther. 

Again, the blood of the bullock and the goat must 
be sprinkled " seven times " upon the mere v-seat. AVhen 
we come to make our atonement with God, we must 
exercise faith in the blood of Christ, and sprinkle it 
seven times, that is, again and again, upon the mercy- 
seat. "We look upon God, when we pray to him, as a 
God of mercy, and we ])resent ourselves in humiliation 
before the mercy-scat ; but know this, that the mercy- 
scat will do us no good without the blood of Christ ; 
faith must take this blood of Christ, and sprinkle it, 
tender it up to God the Father for the atonement of 
our souls, and procuring our mercy. Not only so, the 
blood of the bullock and the goat must be sprinkled 
upon the mercy-seat, and before the mercy-seat ; we 
must not only think there can be no mercy obtained 
from God but by the blood of Christ, but we cannot 
so much as have access to God's mercy-seat. AVe must 
know, that all sinners are banished from the presence 
of God, and cannot have access to God's presence as 
they are in themselves. 

8. Lastly, this day divers times is called " a sabbath 
of rest," that is, a sabbath of sabbaths ; so it is in the 
original, as one of the principal sabbaths they had. 
I did not handle it amongst the sabbaths, because it 
comes in now more fuUy amongst these solemn feasts. 
There must be more rest in the day of atonement, than 
in thcli- other solemn days. That was ])ermitted in 
others that was not permitted in this, to teach us, that 
in the day of fasting, above any day, we must get our 
souls separated from the world, there must be a rest in 
our hearts, a rest from sin, a rest from the world ; it 
must be a sabbath of sabbaths unto us. 

Now, notwithstanding God had given this .solemn 
charge for this day of atonement, yet, Theodoret tells 
us, that in his time they had so degenerated, that they 
spent it in sports, and made it a day of mii-th. God 
grant, that fi'om the ordinariness of our days of atone- 
ment this abuse may not spring, as in some places it 
docs ; by the wickedness of men's natures, the most 
solemn things that ever God gave us in charge in time 
degenerate. 

One note more from this feast of expiation. We 
find in Grecian history, that yearly the Grecians were 
wont to have a kind of expiation for their cities, in 
imitation of the custom of the Jews. Certain con- 
demned persons w°re brought forth, with garlands in 
manner of sacrifices, and were cast down from some 
steep place into the midst of the sea, and offered to 
suijaj Neptune the god of the sea, with these 

words. Be thou a Trtpiiluifta for us. In 
times of public infection in their cities, to make an 
atonement between them and their gods, certain men 



were brought to be sacrificed to their gods, for an ex- 
piation for the whole city ; and they were called KaSap- 
fiara : this word was used to signify, that that man 
who was to expiate for all the sins of their cities to 
then- gods, having all their sins upon him, was ac- 
counted as filth and ofi'scouring. The apostle, in 
1 Cor. iv. 13, uses the same expression, by which we 
may understand the meaning of those two words he 
employs ; " AVe are (saith he) made as the filth of the 
world, and are the ofi'scouring of all things ;" Tripi^l/tj/ia, 
Kai nipiicaOapfiaTa, alluding to the custom of the Gre- 
cians. AVe, for our parts, (saith he,) are made as de- 
spicable and odious in the sight of the people, and are 
as much loaded with curses, as those condemned per- 
sons who had all the sins and curses of the people laid 
upon them, and were offered to theu- gods for expiation. 

The feast of tabeexacles. The history of this 
feast is in Lev. xxiii. 34. The Jews were to take 
houghs off the trees, and make booths of them ; and 
those that WTite the history of their manners tell us, 
because they could not make booths and tabernacles 
for all the people, some of them thought it sufficient 
to carry boughs in their hands, and those boughs they 
used to call hosanna ; Do thou fold, or 
jirepare, the hosanna. Therefore, when 
Christ came to Jerusalem, they cried, " Hosanna to the 
Son of David ;" the meaning was not a prayer, Save us, 
O thou Son of David, as some would have it ; but, 
Hosanna to the Son of David ; that is, AVe hold forth 
these boughs to the honour of the Messiah, the Son 
of David. Now for those boughs, vcr. 40, there was 
a command of God, that they should be of goodly 
trees, palm trees, or willows of the brook; but why so? 
It denoted, that whereas they had lived forty years in 
the \\ilderness, in a dry place, they were now brought 
to a fruitful land, that had much water, which was a 
great advantage in those hot countries; and therefore 
they were to bring boughs of the willows of the brook, 
and of goodly trees, that might most testify the good- 
ness of God in delivering them from the wilderness, 
and ui bringing them to a land filled with sweet and 
pleasant brooks. Observe the reasons why God would 
have this feast kept. He aims at these three things 
chiefly. 

I. God would have them bless his name for his 
mercies to them in the wilderness, when they dwelt in 
booths. He appointed, that once a year they should 
call to mind the great mercies of God in his dispensation 
towards them, who for forty years were in the wilder- 
ness, and had not a house all that time, but dwelt in 
tabernacles. This was a mighty work of God! That 
so many hunched thousands should live forty years 
without a certain dwelling, manifested his exceeding 
protection over them, and his movidence every way to 
supplv necessaries for them, even as well as if they had 
had the strongest houses. God would declare thereby, 
that the church in this world is not to expect any settled 
condition, but to be as men that dwell in tents, remov- 
ing up and down, and so seek after a city that hath 
foundations, as is said of Abraham. At this feast, the 
Jews were wont to read the Book of Ecclesiastes, prin- 
cipally because it speaks so much of the works of God's 
providence. All the while God's people dwelt in booths 
and tabernacles, God himself would dwell in a taber- 
nacle. God would not have a house built unto him, 
till he had brought his own people to be settled in 
houses of theu- own ; and therefore when David began 
to think that he had a house of cedar, and sm-ely God 
must have one too, God tells him. Did I ever speak, 
saying, " AA^hy build ye not me an house of cedar?" 
as" if he had said, As long as my people went up and 
down in booths and tabernacles, I was content to have 
a tabernacle for my dwelling. Thus God is willing to 
suit himself to the condition of his people : saith God, 



.\N EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



If your conditions be afflicted and unsettled, I will be 
so too. In all their afflictions, God was afflicted ; in all 
their unsettledness, God seemed to be so too. After- 
wards, wlten God's people were settled in Jerusalem, 
then God would have a house built him. God would 
hereby teach us, that if he be content to be in a con- 
dition like us, then we must be content to be in a con- 
dition like him ; as thus, when we are afflicted, will 
God be afflicted with us ? when we are unsettled, will 
God be (as it were) unsettled with us? then let us not 
think it much, if God's truth and gospel suffer, to suffer 
with God. AVhen God is magnified and praised, oiu" 
hearts sliould be enlarged too, and rejoice in his ijraise. 
We should consider the condition that God is in in the 
world, and suit ourselves with that. 

Obs. 1. It is good to have a real remembrance of 
our former low and mean condition. Does God now 
bring us into a more settled condition than heretofore ? 
Let us not forget our former afflicted and unsettled 
condition, how ready we were to fleet up and down. 
If God should grant liis people to think themselves 
settled in their own kingdoms, yet let them never forget 
the time when they were imsettled in this and other 
countries. !Many of the people of God have thought, 
what shaU become of them, and whither shall they go, 
unless there be some special mercies of God to prevent 
their scattering ; and yet that may be the condition of 
thousands in the land, before a year has closed. If 
God should prevent you, ever remember your fleeting 
condition. It was God's great care of the people of 
Israel, that they should never forget theu' dwelling in 
tabernacles. 

Obs. 2. After our humiliations for our sins, and 
making up our peace with God, it is good to keep our 
hearts low with meditation of the uncertainty of all 
tilings in the v.-orld. Note, the time of their feast of 
tabernacles, they were to dwell in booths upon the 
fifteenth day of their month, which was but five days 
after theu- day of atonement ; as if God had said. You 
have been humbling yourselves, and making your peace 
with God, yet, when your hearts are comforted with 
the hope of atonement made, keep them low, take 
heed of^ pride ; the feast of tabernacles must be kept. 
And one special means to keep our hearts low, is to 
remember the uncertainties of the comforts of this 
world. If your hearts are lifted up, and conceive some 
excellences in things here, go into your booths, and 
work your hearts down, keep your feast of tabernacles. 

Obs. 3. To keep those humbled who are raised from 
a low condition to a high one, it is good actually to go 
into the houses of the poor, and look into their cup- 
boards, and see what provision they have. This will 
be a means to humble your hearts, Avhen you consider. 
This was once, or might be now, my condition. God 
woidd have Israel's hearts kept low by actually going 
into booths and tabernacles. Though they had fair 
and sumptuous houses in the city, yet they were to go 
out, and live in their booths a while. You might think, 
Was it not enough for the jiricst to bid them remember 
their dwelling in tabernacles, but they must go forth 
from their houses, and abide in booths ? 

II. A second end of this feast was, to bless God for 
all the fruits of the earth they had received, when they 
had gathered in their vintapfe. The feast of pentecost 
was to bless God for their first-fruits, and their harvest ; 
but now they were to join all together, and to bless 
God for all the fruits ot the earth. That this is God's 
end, is clear in Deut. x^•i. 13 — 15, "Thou shalt ob- 
serve the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that 
thou hast gathered in thy com and thy wine: and thou 
shalt rejoice," &c. ; " because the Lord thy God shall 
bless thee in all thine increase, and in all tiie works of 
thy hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice." 

From hence there is this lesson. 



It is useful to remember what a poor condition we 
were once in, and tlie uncertainty of all things we have, 
even when we have got om- riches into our houses. We 
think them uncertain when they are growing in the 
field, but after the vintage was gotten in, then they 
were to keej) the feast of tabernacles, to remember the 
uncertain condition of all tilings in the world : this we 
are very loth to do, it is unsuitable to our natures, and 
therefore this feast of tabernacles was much neglected 
among the Jews. AMicn God carried them into Baby- 
lon, and brought them back again into their own coun- 
try, they kept the feast of tabernacles more solemnly 
than ever they had done; Neh. viii. 17, "Since the days 
of Joshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the 
childi-cn of Israel done so ; " they never kept the feast 
of tabernacles so solemnly from tlieir first coming into 
Canaan, as then they did. Now, having come out of 
prison, they could remember the uncertainty of things 
in the world ; men forget this, but if they be driven 
from house and home, and lose all, then they remem- 
ber what they have heard and confessed of the uncer- 
tainty of all worldly things. Some of oiu- brethren 
who are plundered and driven from their habitations, 
if God should ever restore them to their habitations 
again, their hearts would be enlarged in blessing God, 
they would be more sensible of the uncertainty of the 
comforts of the creature than before. 

III. The feast of tabernacles had an aim at Christ 
and the state of a Christian. It was to tj-pify- Jesus 
Christ coming into the world, and pitching his tent 
amongst us; as John i. 14, he "dwelt amongst us ;" he 
came and pitched his tabernacle amongst us, i(TKi)vioaiv 
h itn'iv. 'The state of a Christian, likewise, is a taber- 
nacle; 2 Cor. V. 1, "If om- earthly house of this t.iber- 
nacle be dissolved : " till we go where Jesus Christ is 
gone before us, to prepare mansions for us, our dwelling 
is in tabernacles. 

In the ofleriiigs that God appointed to offer in this 
feast. Numb. xxix. 12, there are some things very ob- 
servable, but it is difficult to understand their precise 
meaning. The feast was to be kept seven days ; the first 
day was a great day, and the last day a gre.at day; the first 
day thirteen bullocks were to be ofiered, and fourteen 
lambs ; the second day but twelve bullocks, the third 
day but eleven, the fourth day but ten, every day ore 
decreased, and the last day there was but one ottered. 
Now, divers expositors have sought to find out the 
meaning of this. Calvin confesses that he does not 
understand its meaning, and rather than guess, I will, 
saith he, be silent in it ; and yet he ventures upon a ■ 
very unlikely conjecture, therefore I shall not name it. I 
That which is most likely seems to be in two things : \ 
the fiist is, they must offer even,' day less and less, that 
is, (saith another interpreter.) to show their increase in 
sanctification, tliat they should gi-ow to more and more 
perfection every day of their feast, and so have less 
need of sacrifices than they had before. Thus, it will ] 
afford a good note to us, that when we keep days to 
God, eveiT day we should grow more and more in 
sanctification, and have less and less sin to answer for, 
than we had before. 

Another intei-pretation is, that it was to show the cc-- 
sation of tlic sacrifices of the Jews, that they were to de- 
crease day by day ; and this I take rather to be the meaii- 
ing, because the last day but one bullock was offered, 
and yet that was the great day of the feast. " In the la-' 
day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, 
saying. If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and j 
drink," John vii. 37. There is somewhat to be noted i 
about Clirist there : though it is true it was the feast of 
dedication, which was their own feast, from when( 
many would prove the lawfulness of holy-days, yet thi 
truth is, upon examination you shall find there is scarci- 
strength enough from that place to prove it, though it 



Vek. 11. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



123 



be lawful to take the advantage of such times ; but it 
will appear there, that it was the feast of tabernacles, 
as in 2 Clu-on. viii. 9. Theia- feast of the dedication of 
the temple was at the same time as the feast of taber- 
nacles. One thing is to be observed fi-om Christ's being 
at the feast. Why did Christ upon the great day of 
the feast crv out thus, " If any man thirst, let him come 
unto me, and di-inlv ? " One reason may be, because 
when men are most strongly possessed with the uncer- 
tainties of all outward things in the world, they are fit 
to entertain the gospel, fit to hear of Jesus Clu-ist. 
"When their hearts are taken off from the world, and 
they look upon all things here as unsettled, the conclu- 
sion of that feast is a special preparation to the gospel. 
Isa. xl. 6, 7, &c., the preparation to the good tidings 
of the gospel, is the proclamation that " All flesh is 
grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of 
the field;" yea, the withering of the grass and the 
fading of the flower must be proclaimed again and 
again. And then seasonably and acceptably it follows, 
ver. 9, " O Zion, that bringest good tidings," &c., " say 
unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God ! " 

Tremelius thinks, that the expression of Chi-ist at this 
time had reference to the custom of the Jews at this 
feast. At the feast of tabernacles the Jews were wont 
with great joy to bring water out of the river of Shiloh 
to the temple, where, being delivered to the priest, he 
poured it out upon the altar, together with wine, and 
all the people sung that song of Isaiah, " With joy shall 
ye di'aw water out of the wells of salvation." Isa. xii. 3. 
Though it was their own invention, Clu-ist improves it, 
as if he said, AVhat do you expect fi'om this ceremony of 
yours ? your custom will die and perish in the use of it, 
but come to me, and there you shall have water ; I am 
the well of salvation ; a spring of grace shall be con- 
tinually in the heart of that man that believeth in me. 

One note more is observable in this feast. We have a 
prophecy, that the feast of tabernacles should be kept in 
the times of the gospel, that is, in the truth of it, not in 
the ceremony. In Zech. xiv. 16, there is a prophecy, 
that when Christ comes, then all people shall " worship 
the King, the Lord of hosts, and keep the feast of 
tabernacles." Wliy is it there prophesied that all 
people shall come and keep that feast ? The reason this 
feast is named may be this ; because in the times of the 
gospel, men shall acknowledge their outward comforts 
to be fi'om God, and the uncertainty of aU things here, 
and that they are strangers and pUgrims on earth. In 
the times of the gospel this shall be made more evident 
to the hearts of people than ever before. The more 
Jesus Christ is known in the world, the more shall the 
hearts of men be taken up with this knowledge, and of 
the imcertainty of every creature, and have them taken 
off from the comforts of the world, and never expect 
any settled condition here, but account themselves 
pilgrims and strangers. It is a sign that the gospel 
has pi'evailed with yoiu- spirits, if you have your hearts 
taken off from the crcatm-e, and you look upon your- 
selves as sti-angers in the world, and expect an abiding 
city ; then do you keep, in an evangelical sense, this 
feast of tabernacles. 

Thus yoti have had a view of the chief of the Jewish 
feasts, which God threatens here shall cease. 

There are only these three observations to be di-a-mi 
from all together. 

Obs. 1. Even those things which are appointed by 
God himself, if once abused, God will not own theni, 
they are then accounted ours rather than God's. " Her 
sabbaths ;" why not my sabbaths ? why not God's sab- 
baths ? God appointed them, but because thev were 
abused, God would not own them : " her sabbaths, and 
her solemn feasts." The ordinances of God, though 
never so good in themselves, if you pollute them, God 
rejects them, they are your onlinances then, and not 



God's. See then that all ordinances are as God would 
have them. 

Obs. 2. It is a grievous and lamentable aiHiction 
upon any people, for God to deprive them of his sab- 
baths and ordinances. His ordinances are included in 
their solemn feasts. Nay, (saith God,) you will go on 
in your wickedness, and would put me off with your 
sabbaths and solemn meetings, which were once my 
ordinances, and attempt to satisfy me with them, though 
you continue in yoiu- %vickedness ; no, you shall be de- 
prived of them, you shall have no more sabbaths, no 
more solemn feast days. It is a sad affliction for a 
people to have no more sabbaths. How many of you 
neglect solemn meetings of God's people ! Time liiav 
come, when God wiU rend these privileges from vou, 
and then your consciences will grate upon you : Oh 
the sabbaths that once wc had! oh the solemn meet- 
ings that once we enjoyed ! but om- hearts were vain 
and light ; we did not make use of them, and now they 
are gone. Perhaps thou mayst be cast into a jail, or a 
dungeon, and there thou shalt keep thy sabbaths, and 
think upon thy solemn meetings. Oh how unworthy is 
this land of sabbaths ! how did many persecute those 
that kept sabbaths! never any such thing occurred 
in any Christian nation : other places, though they arc 
somewhat loose upon their sabbaths, yet they never 
persecute them that wiU keep sabbaths. How justly 
might God have taken away our sabbaths I let us ao- 
knov.iedge God's free grace. What reproach has it been 
in England to assemble to hear sermons ! how justly 
might God have taken away these solemn assemblies 
from us long before this ! Let us pray, that whatever 
judgment God sends upon us, he will not take away 
our sabbaths, nor our solemn assemblies ; but that we 
may still enjoy those we have, and enjoy them to bet- 
ter purpose than ever we have done. 

Obs. 3. God has no need of oirr services. If God call 
upon us to worsliip him, it is for our good, not for any 
need he has of what we do. What do I care, saith 
God, whether I have any sabbath kept or no ? I can 
provide for my glory, whatever becomes of your duties ; 
I need them not, I can be glorious without you. 

But these threats are but to take away spiritual things ; 
carnal hearts think, if they may live and prosper in tlie 
world, what care they for sabbaths, and for solemn 
meetings ? Tell them of taking away ordinances, or 
removing the truth of God's worship, what is that to 
them ? Let us have our peace, oui- trading, and om- 
outward blessings, and truth will follow. O no, a 
gi'acious heart will rather reason thus ; O Lord, let us 
have thy ordinances, let us have thy gospel, and then 
for our vines and fig trees, our tradings and om' out- 
ward blessings, we will leave them to thy disposal ; if 
thou wilt give us thy sabbaths and thy ordinances, we 
will trust thee for om- vines and for our fig trees. But 
if the Lord be so angi-y as to deny us his ordinances, how 
can we think that he will be so merciful to us, as to 
continue our peace, or oiu' civil liberties ? No, be sm-e, 
if truth be gone, vines and fig trees wiU not stay long : 
the next words therefore are, " I will destroy her vines 
and her fig ti'ees." The Lord may suffer those places 
that never had sabbaths and ordinances to prosper in 
theii- civil peace a long time ; but where they had these, 
and the ■OTath of God is so incensed as to take them 
away, it cannot be expected that outward peace and 
plenty can hold long there. " Seek ye first the king- 
dom of God and his righteousness," saith Christ, " and 
all these things shall be added unto you." No, (say 
they.) let us m-st seek the kingdom of earth, and the 
things of heaven will be added to us ; wliich shows the 
slightness of thefr account of heaveirly things. As the 
paper and the tlu-ead in a shop is given in with the 
commodity, if a man bargain for the paper ,and thread, 
and think the commodity will be given in, what a folly 



121 



AX EXrOSITION OF 



Chap. H. 



were it? Many men have their thouglits altogcflicr 
upon the things' of this life, ami they think the gospel 
vill be given into the bargain ; as, if they have i)eace, 
they shall, no question, have truth ; as if the gosi)cl 
vere the paper and the thread, and the things of the 
vorld were the commochties. It is your wisdom, if you 
would enjoy outward peace, to fix youi- hearts on ordi- 
nances, to crj' to God for ordinances, and tlien God will 
take care you shall sit under your vines and under 
yoiu- fig trees in peace. 

Ver. 12, 13. Jiid I iri/l destroi/ her vines and her Jig 
trees, uhereof she hath said, These are mi/ reuards that 
vti/ lovers have given me: and I will male litem a forest, 
and the beasts of thejield shall eat them. And I trill 
lisit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned 
incense to them, and she decked herself tcith her earrings 
and hcrjeuels, and she went after her lovers, andforgat 
vie, saith the Lord. 

In the former verse God threatens Israel to take 
away spiritual mercies, their sabbaths, and ordinances, 
and solemn feasts ; but because such a judgment would 
not be so gi'icvous to many as the desti'oying of the 
fiuit of the ground, the spoiling of theu' land, and the 
loss of those things wherein then- riches and outward 
comforts lay, therefore God joins this threat with the 
former, " And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees." 
In vines and fig trees there is n sviiecdochc, by these 
are meant all her outward prosperity ; I will not lop 
their vines, I will not cut down some branches of their 
fig trees only, but destroy them. 

04*. If God stays long before a judgment comes, he 
comes fearfully indeed, he comes with destroying judg- 
ments ; then he strikes at the verj- root of a peoi)le's 
l)rosperity, and leaves them hopeless of ever recovering 
themselves. It concerns us to hural)lc oui-selves under 
God's hand, when he only cuts off some branches of our 
vines and fig trees, of our outward comforts, lest ere 
long there follows a destroying judgment, cutting to 
the very root. Does God come into your families, and 
cut off a branch or two, a child or two ? Humble your 
souls before him, he may cut downi the tree, stub up 
the root ere long, come to the mother or the father, and 
so root out the family. So in a nation : that is a very 
remarkable passage in F.zek. xxi. 27, '• I will overturn, 
overturn, overturn." This was spoken to Israel, and 
to Israel when they were in cajitivitv, and yet God 
threatens them thus even there, " I will overturn, over- 
turn, overturn." 

" Whereof she hath said. These are my rewards that 
my lovers have given me :" the word n:n translated 
'• rewards," signifies merces meretricia. It comes from 
n:n which signifies to hiie with wages, but such wages as 
arc given to harlots ; and yet idolatry makes her so 
impudent, tliat she uses that verj' word, " These are my 
rewards." 

Obs. 1. Wioredom is a costly sin to many a man. 
Many men secretly waste and consume their estates, 
and their neighbours wonder how they come to be so 
low. Uncleanness is as a gangrene, as it will consume 
the body, so the purse ; it beggars many men, when the 
world little thinks the cause. 

Obs. 2. God may suffer men in wickedness to pros- 
per, to gain their hearts' desires. " These are my re- 
wards ;" (hesc, that vou call idols, give me liberal re- 
wards, I have what 1 served them for. 

Obs. 3. It is a dangerous thing for sinners to look 
back to the sins which they have committed, and then 
to liless themselves, as if they had gained by them. 
Before a sin is committed, the sinner by temptation 
may be persuaded there is much gain to be had ; and 
in th(» very act of commission, he may find some tlash 
of false couteiUraent and delight ; but usually after tlie 



act is over, when he looks back, he sees nothing but 
shame, guilt, and horror. Sinners dare scarcely look 
back to their sins, after they are committed, except 
such as are most desperately hardened ; but here you 
see, they look at w hat they have done, and bless them- 
selves, as if they had obtained a goodly reward by it. 
As the sight of the evil consequences of sin is a means 
to humble, so the apprehending of gain by sin is a 
special means to harden in sin. Judas thought it a 
brave thing to get the thirty pieces of silver, yet when 
he saw the evil fruit his sin had produced, he looked 
with horror upon his sin, and his soul sunk under the 
burden of it. If Judas, looking back upon his sin, has 
his spirit filled with horror, what hojie is there then of 
any one, who, looking back upon it, blesseth himself as 
a gainer by it ? If a man prospers, either at the time he 
sins, or more a httle after he has committed it than he 
did before, or so prospers as that he conceives his sin 
to be some way instrumental to bring in the gain that 
he obtained ; tliis hardens exceedingly. 

Obs. 4. It is a provoking sin to attribute the blessings 
of God to our own wicked, sinful ways, and thereby to 
harden our hearts in those ways. " These are tny re- 
wards that my lovers have given me." It is too much 
to attribute any of God's blessings to second causes, 
even to our lawful endeavours, to our industry, to oiur 
care, to any instruments ; but to attribute them to our 
wickedness is abominable. God ex])ccts glory in the 
acknowledgment of eveiy mercy, and im])rovement of 
it to him : where then there is not only a denial of this 
to him. but a giving it to his enemy, to wickedness, to 
the devil, whom he hates ; this goes exceeding near to 
the heart of God. It is a great part of our sanctifying 
of God's name in the use of all the creatures, to ac- 
knowledge liim in all, that all depends upon him, and 
thereby to be quickened in his service : but to think all 
de])en(ls upon that which is contraiy to God, and there- 
fore, if we want what we would have, to begin to tliink 
we have not served our lusts enough, and to be urged 
to serve them more ; this exceedinf;ly ])rovokes him. I 
will give you a notable example oi this WTctchedness of 
man's heart. There was a consultation of many of the 
Lutheran ministers of Germany, in Hamburgh, to find 
out the cause why the hand of God was so heavy in 
those parts of Germany where they lived, that so they 
might reform what was amiss, and make their peace 
witli God. The issue of their consultations came to 
this, that the reason of all their calamities and troubles 
was. because the images of their churches were not 
adorned enough ; and therefore, for jiieventing the con- 
tinuance of those calamities, they unanimously con- 
sented to improve all the strength they had. to beautify 
and adorn the images in their churches more. It was 
a sad thing for ministers who profess against popery, as 
the Lutherans do, to keep images in churches. But 
could it be thought that they should be thus vain, yea 
wicked, a.s to attiibute the unfruitfulncss of their vines 
and fig trces to the want of their superstitious vanities, 
and to bring their consultations to this conclusion, that 
if they were more zealous in the one, they should be 
more prosperous in the other ? was not this a sore and 
a grievous evil, going near the heart of God? 

^lany attribute the increase of their estates to their 
lying, tlieir overreaching, and their swearing, and re- 
joice. This I have gained by these ways. Zeph. i. 0, God 
threatens to " punish all those lliat leap on the thresh- 
old, which fill their masters' houses with violence and 
deceit ;" that is, the servants of great men, who by oi>- 
iirtBsion and fraud bring in gain to their masters* 
nouses, and then they leap upon the threshold for joy. 
apjilauding themselves in the success they have haa in 
their wicked ways. It is usual if men meet with pros- 
]H'rous success, to bless themselves, as if this success 
came because of their ways, let them be never so 



V£K. 12, 13. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



125 



wicked. Of late, have not some made the world be- 
lieve they have had great success, and ha^■e argued that 
their ways were good, and that God had blessed them 
on account of tliem, though we know their ways are 
such as bring most fearful guilt u])on themselves and 
their families ; we have all cause to tremble for them, 
and to pray, " O Lord, forgive them, for they know not 
what they do :" and as for the success of which they 
boast, who would not, if he might, wish such success to 
his enemy ? 

Obs. 5. Idolaters encourage themselves in their ways 
from the good they suppose they derive by them ; how 
much more should the saints encourage themselves in 
the rewards they have from their lover, from the Lord 
Christ ! Psal. cxix. 56, " This I had," (saith David,) 
" because I kept thy i)recepts ;" this is the reward I 
have had from my lover ; I bless God, I have in some 
measure got my heart to break before the I^ord, and to 
melt after him, and the Lord has come mercifully to 
me. Though there is no wortliiness in what I have 
done, yet the Lord has been gracious, he has encou- 
raged his poor servant in his way : these and these 
mercies the Lord has given me as a fruit of seeking 
him ; he has not said to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me 
in vain ; I have sought for comfort, for peace, and at 
last it is come ; I will call upon the name of the Lord 
as long as I live. We should consider what mercies 
fi'om God we have, and rejoice in them ; these are the 
rewards, these are the love-tokens, that come from our 
deai'ly beloved. Hereafter, when the saints come to 
heaven, how will they bless God, and bless themselves 
in theii' God, for those glorious things, those blessed 
rewai'ds, that they shall then receive from their beloved, 
and enjoy for ever with him ! Tlien they shall triumph- 
antly say, The world said heretofore, "WHiat profit is 
there in serving of the Lord ? But blessed be God 
that I went on, notwithstanding, in the ways of God, 
and now I see there is profit to purpose : O these joys ! 
this gloiy ! O this cronNii ! O this happiness ! these 
ai'e the rewards that I have from my beloved. 

Obs. 6. Whatever any man gets by sin, or looks upon 
as gotten by sin, or uses as a means to harden himself 
in sin, the curse of God is in it, and it will rend him 
from it, or he shall never enjoy it. " I will destroy her 
vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said. These 
are my rewards that my lovers have given me." Ahab 
blessed himself in getting Naboth's vineyard by the 
device of Jezebel; 1 Kings xxi. 16, he "rose up to go 
down to take the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to 
take possession of it;" but, ver. 19, "Thus saith the 
Lord, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession ? In 
the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall 
dogs lick thy blood, even thine." What ! you have got 
the vineyard, you have obtained possession ; how ? by 
wickedness. Though you bless yourselves in it now, as 
a reward of your vile ways, certainly the Lord will 
either force you, in the anguish and terror of your soids, 
to vomit up those sweet morsels again, or some fearful 
judgment of God upon you will rend them from you. 
That which many have obtained by unjust and sinful 
ways, they have rejoiced in for a while ; but after a 
while that estate has been in their consciences, as drops 
of scalding lead in the very apple of a man's eye : so 
terriljle has it been unto them. I will give you a late 
example, that came to my own hands, in restoring that 
that was wrongfully obtained many' years ago, from 
one near myself. I name it because the party desired 
that the thing might be made known to the gloi-y of 
God. He sent that which he had \\Tongfully obtained, 
many years after, with a letter, with these expressions ; 
" Many a throb of conscience had I about it, many an 
aching heart, and many promises have I made of restitu- 
tion, and thousands of times have I wished unto you vour 
sUver again, '^^■hat shall I do ? to keep it, it is to con- 



tinue in sin ; to give it to the poor, alas, it is not mine 
own, or at least the evil purchase of gain hoarded up 
in the stuff of my iniquity ; to send it home, the owner 
is dead : I would to God I had sent it before, that it 
might not have lain so hard upon me ; but seeing that 
is past, and cannot be recalled, here I send it you ; I 
ask God forgiveness, and I ask you forgiveness, and 
pray you fail not to pray for me. Sweet Jesus, forgive 
me." It was kept divers years, but was biting all the 
while in the conscience of the poor man, and at length 
it must break forth in such expressions as these. Con- 
sider this, every one who has obtained any thmg dis- 
honestly, and has blest himself in it ; This is the reward 
I have got by such a cunning device, by such an unjust 
and deceitful way : you got it cleverly, and have enjoyed 
it, and been merry with it ; well, one day it may thus 
lie grating in your consciences. Oh then how terrible 
will it be to you ! The best way to be rid of the re- 
wards of sin, when they begin to cause aching in your 
consciences, is to cast them out yourselves ; all your 
praying to God for forgiveness will never ease you with- 
out, if you be able to restore ; but if you will not do so, 
God may come by some hideous judgment, and force 
them from you in spite of your heart.s ; and then how- 
terrible will it be to you when you look upon them as 
being rent by God from you ! Oh, now I must part with 
all that gain and sweetness, that such ways of sin have 
brought me ! the gain, the sweet is gone ; but the 
guilt, the curse, the th-egs, the filth remain upon my 
spirit, and, for aught I know, must stick by me to all 
eternity. God's judgments will come upon you one 
day, as strainers, to let out whatever is sweet and de- 
lightful to you, and to keep in the filth and th-egs. Re- 
member this, you that have got rewards by sinful ways, 
jour rewards of sin may now delight you, but there is 
a time you shall have rewards for your sins that will 
not ])lease you. 

" I will make thei)i as a forest." God threatens his 
people to make them as a forest; the Seventy read, 
6/;ffo/i«t avrd f7i; ^unpTvpiov, tliat is, fiia9ui^ara, I will 
put those things (the rewards) as a witness. You will 
say, Here is a great difference ; " I will make them as a 
forest," and, I will put those things as a witness : those 
things, that is, those rew-ards ; they rejoice in the re- 
wards of their iniquity, but I wUl make them as a wit- 
ness against them. Certainly there is a truth in this ; 
those things in which you rejoice, as obtained by sin, 
the Lord wUl make rise up and witness against you. 
Be sure now you cast them out, they wiU else be wit- 
nesses against you another day. A guilty man w-ould 
be glad, when he knows one that woidd witness against 
him was dead, or out of the w-ay : have you gamed any 
thing by a sinful course ? put it out of the way, for 
otherwise it will be a witness against you, cither u])on 
your sick bed, or at the great day of judgment. i5ut 
how- can these two readings be reconciled, I will make 
them as a witness against you, and " I will make them as 
a forest." It is true the English words seem to be very 
wide from the Septuagint, but there is an easy mistake 
that might cause the Seventy to render them thus, I 
will ]nit them as a witness, for ij?' signifies a forest in 
the lleljrew, and iy to witness, so it is used Zech. iii. 
6. IMontanus reads those words, conlestabalur angelus : 
now those that are skilful in the Hebrew know that, 
there being no more cUft'erence in the words than in 
those letters i and l which are so like one another, 
there might easily be a mistake. But we take it as it is 
here, " I will make them as a forest." The church is 
God's garden, hedged in with God's protection, but God 
threatens to take away the hedge, and let in the wild 
beasts. The wild beasts are one of God's sore judg- 
ments often threatened ; those who will not be subject 
to the blessed holy God, shall be subject unto the 
ravening and rage of beasts; and it is probable the 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. U. 



Seventy understood it literally of the judgment of 
noisome beasts to be let in upon them ; for I find that 
they add to the words, " the beasts of the field shall 
eat them," icai ra Triruva roii ovpavov Kai to. fprerd rijf 
yi)C, and the fowls of the heaven and the creeping things 
of the earth shall devour ; but they are not in the He- 
brew text, and therefore we must let them pass, and 
only speak of what wo have here, of the beasts' eating. 
Now, according to most interpreters, I am persuaded 
that it is the intention of the Holy Ghost, to express 
a judgment beyond the interpretation, of letting in 
noisome beasts, namely, the Assyrians, the adversaries 
of Israel, who should come upon them as ravening 
beasts to devour them. 

Obs. 1. Sin makes men lilie beasts, the beasts of the 
earth. He means the Assyrians, great ones, and yet he 
calls them the beasts of the earth. To be like a beast 
is worse than to be a beast ; for to be a beast is but to 
be as God made the creature, it is no dishonour to it ; 
but to be like a beast is the con-uption of a creatuie, 
and the deformity of it, the worst deformity that pos- 
sibly can be. Chrj'sostom shows it thus. Beasts (saith 
he) have but some particular evil, take the worst of aU, 
as the swine, sensuality ; the tiger and the bear, cruel- 
ty ; the fox, subtlety, &c. ; but wicked men have all 
evils that all beasts of the w^orld have in them. One 
wicked man has the sensuality of a swme, and cruelty 
of a tiger, of a bear, the subtlety of a fox ; and what- 
ever is set out emblematically by any beast, a wicked 
man has it all in his heart ; yea, and further, wicked 
men ai'e worse than beasts in this, that they corrupt 
themselves in those things wliich they have in common 
with beasts, more than beasts do. As the di'unkard 
corrupts himself in his di'ink, which a beast will not 
do ; a glutton corrupts himself in his meat, more than 
ordinarily a beast will do : and that I think is the 
meaning of that text in the Epistle of Jude, ver. 10, 
" These speak evil of those things which they know 
not : but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in 
those tilings they con'upt themselves." As for their 
intellectual parts, they will take upon them as if they 
knew much ; but the truth is, they understand little, 
and yet will speak evil of that they know not. It is a 
(b-eadfid text against such, as ciy out against men and 
then- ways, when in truth the)- know not what they 
are. But, further, " what they know naturally, as brute 
beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves ;" that 
is, in things they know merelj' by sense, as they know 
by tasting, and by smelling, as brute beasts do, in those 
very things they corrupt themselves more than brute 
beasts, that is, by excess in meats and di'inks. 

"Would not any account it to be one of the greatest 
judgments that could befall him, if God should turn him 
into the fashion of a beast while he lives in this world, 
though he should still retain the mind of a man ? Su])- 
pose God should inflict this judgment upon a ckunkard, 
he would still have his intellectual parts as he now 
has, but his body shoidd be turned into the form of a 
swine, or a railer into the foi-m of a dog, as they say 
Hecuba the wife of Priam was, for her railing : would 
not this be a fearful judgment ? Lactan- 
fm"ri"mn"io"am tius, from Ciccro, obscrvcs, If it would 
conTcrtiuiriiquam jjg jucli a judgment as a man woidd be 

nguram bestia!, .,,, , • • i , i 

qu«mTi» homims Willing to cndure any misery in the world, 
t!l^"<|u»"" frt '. rather than to have his body turned into 
n'liu'ii'anlmi'SSe"'^ the fashion of a beast ; is it not as great 
rflirato. Laciimt. 1. ^ miscry to keep the fashion of llic body, 
and to have tlie mind become like a beast, 
to keep a human shape with the soul of a beast ? surely 
it is worse than to have the shape of a beast with the 
soul of man. 

Obs. 2. God looks upon wicked men, who do great 
things in the world, with a contemptible eye. " The 
beasts shall devoiu';" that is, the great king of Assyria, 



and all his corn-tiers above him, and cavaliers with 
him, shall come \o devour them ; they are but beasts. 
God speaks in a contemptible manner, as he does 
against Sennacherib king of AssjTia ; in Isa. xxxvii. 29. 
God threatens to " put a hook in his nose, and a bridle 
in his lips," because of his rage and of his tumult ; that 
is, he would use him as a beast, to hook liis nose, and 
to put a bridle into his jaws. Mark, likewise, how con- 
temptibly God speaks of the great king of Babylon, 
and his whole army, Joel ii. 20, " His stink shall come 
up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath 
done great things." And so in Psal. lix. 7, "They belch 
out with their mouth," (saith David,) " they make a 
noise like a dog, and go round about the city." David 
means his adversaries that were about Saul in his court. 
And in Ezek. xxxvLii. 3, 4, God says to -'the chief prince 
of Meshech and Tubal, I will put hooks in thy jaws." 
In Dan. vii. the four great monarchies, Babylonian, 
Persian, Grecian, Roman, are described by four beasts, 
and the fourth monarchy, which is by most interpreted 
the Roman empire, Dan. vii. 7, is described to be 
" dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly ; and it 
had great u-on teeth : it devoured and brake in pieces, 
and stamped the residue with the feet of it : and it was 
diverse fi'om all the beasts that were before it." Now, 
tills beast raged first in the heathen empii'e, and after 
it gave its power to the beast antichi'ist, as you may 
read in Rev. xiii., and that beast was like a leopard, 
spotted, fuU of uncleanness and filth ; or, as some trans- 
late it, a panther, who by his scent draws other beasts 
to him, but devours them; and his feet like a bear, and 
his head like a Hon. Thus, you see how God describes 
the great ones of the world as beasts, and looks with 
contempt upon them. 

Obs. 3. It is a sore and heavy judgment for a people 
to be delivered up to the rage of cruel adversaries. " ITie 
beasts shall devour them." I will give you up to cniel, 
wicked men, who will bring you under ; you wiU not 
be obedient to me, but to them you shall. Hence 
David prayed, •' Let me not fall into the hand of man;" 
when God put him to choose what judgment he would 
have, he was quickly resolved to refuse to be given up 
to the hands of men ; that he knew was dreadful : and, 
Psal. Iv. 6, 7, he prays, " Oh that I had wings like a 
dove ! for then would I flee away and be at rest. Lo, 
then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilder- 
ness." In the wilderness ! why he would be among 
the wild beasts in the wilderness, and yet he cries. Oh 
that I had the wings of a dove ! AAHiat is the rea.son ? 
It was because of the cruelty of Saul and liis corn-tiers : 
David apprehended that he had better fall into the 
hands of tigers and wild beasts in tlie wilderness, than 
mto theirs, ^^^len Scipio came against Numantia in 
Sjiain, and the inhabitants were afi-aid it would be taken, 
all the )oimg men fii-st took all the old people in the 
city, and killed them with as easy a death as they could; 
then they brought all the riches and treasure of the 
city to the market-place, and set all on fii-e ; and after 
that they all took poison ; and thus, in one day, old and 
young, and all in the city, were quite destroyed, rather 
than they woidd fall into the hands of their enemies. 
'■ Deliver my soul," saith David, " from the sword ; my 
darling from the power of the dog,* Psal. xxii. 20. 
The jiower of the dog, and the sword, is but one the 
inteqiretation of the other. Paul declares, 1 Cor. xv. 
32, " If after the manner of men I have fought with 
beasts at Ephesus : " some interpret this literally, that 
he did indeed really fight with beasts, as being one way 
of torment to which they subjected the Oiristians; but 
most interjireters think that the meaning is, with men 
that were beastlv, with cruel men ; and Estius thinks 
the men to be those who are mentioned in Acts xix. 9, 
"Divers were hardened, and spake evil of that way 
before the multitude." Paul then " departed from them, 



Vek. 12. 13. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSE A. 



127 



and separated the disciples." Paul saw that it was a 
most devilish design, to get the multitude together, 
and there to speak against hini and his doctrine, and 
against Christ ; upon which the spiiit of Paid was so 
provoked, that " he departed from them, and separated 
the disciples." Thus with many, the more sedition is 
raised, the better are their designs furthered. Chi-ist 
tells his disciples, Mark xvi. 17, 18, that serpents shall 
do them no hurt, poison shall not injure them, and 
they shall have power over devils ; but in ]SIatt. x. 17, 
'•Beware of men:" they might say, Wiy, blessed 
Master, serpents shall do us no hurt, we shall have 
power over devils, what need we be afraid of men ? 
But Chi'ist bids them take heed of men ; as if there 
were more danger from wicked men, than fi-om devils, 
or from serpents. Therefore St. Paid, in 2 Thess. iii. 
2, prays that they may be delivered from aTon-uiv, absui-d 
men ; those that had lost the very principle of reason, 
and were even as beasts. There is a generation risen 
up amongst us, who have sucked the poison of the old 
serpent, who are set on fhe of hell, and the poison of 
asps is vmder thefr lips. As Romulus and Remus, the 
founders of Rome, were, as reported, suckled by wolves ; 
so these, who desfre to bmld up Rome again, are Kke 
the first founders of that Rome, they seem to be men 
suckled by wolves ; or as the poets feign of Lycaon, 
tui-ned into wolves for their cruelty ; or as it is said of 
then- St. Dominic, who was the father of the Domini- 
cans, that before he was bom, his mother cbeamed that 
she brought forth a wolf, with a fh-ebrand in his mouth ; 
and according to that representation in her dream, so 
he proved afterwards. K we look at the cruelty and 
rage of these men, we may think, that then- mothers 
have indeed brought forth wolves with fii-ebrands in 
their mouths : Satan rages in them, and we hope there- 
fore his time is but very short. Had they prevailed, to 
bring every thing under their power, no chi'onicle of 
any nation under heaven, would afford similar stories of 
horrid cruelties, as the chronicles of these times. ^Vliere 
they have prevailed, in Ireland, such barbarisms have 
commenced, as here woidd have risen to the perfection 
of cruelty. The Lord deliver us fi-om being scourged 
with these scorpions. Let us humble our souls before 
God, that God may not humble us before such beasts ; 
that he may not say that England shall be as a forest, 
and these beasts shall devom- them. In the mean time, 
let us not be offended at their prevailing in some places, 
for then we should be as beasts om-selves. " So foolish 
was I and ignorant, I was as a beast before thee," 
saith David. God saith. He will requii'e of the 
beasts the blood of his people. Gen. ix. 5. Certainly, 
God wUl require of these beasts the precious blood 
they have daimk : had it been coiTupt blood, God 
woidd not so much have cared for it, but it is the blood 
of his saints. Let us believe that God wUl turn the 
rage of man, the rage of beasts, to his praise, Psal. 
Ixxvi. 10. Surely the Lord cannot possibly behold 
without indignation his lambs, who are so precious in 
his eyes, torn and won'ied by such beasts as these. 
We may well say with the prophet, Hab. i. 2 — i, " O 
Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wUt not hear ! 
even ciy out imto thee of violence, and thou wilt not 
save ! Why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause me 
to behold grievance ? for .spoiling and violence are be- 
fore me : and there are that raise up strife and conten- 
tion. Therefore the law is slacked^, and judgment 
doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass 
about the righteous ; therefore wrong judgment pro- 
ceedeth." When the Jews made use of Philo to apolo- 
gize for them to Caius the emperor, Cains used him 
very ruggedly ; when he came out of his jjresence, to 
encourage the Jews he said, Smely Caius will arm God 
against himself for us. 
But, some may say, surely these men are not beasts. 



for they are skilful wai'riors : mai'k that text of Ezek. 
xxi. 31, '• I will deliver thee into tlie hand of brutish 
men, and sldlful to destroy;" they ar-e skilful to de- 
stroy, and yet brutish men. We have a promise fi-om 
God, and om- prayers shoidd hasten its fulfilment; "I 
will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land ; — the 
beast of the land shall no more devom- them," Ezek. 
xxxiv. 25, 28. Oh that that time were come ! Oh that 
the Lord would so work for us as to cause om- beasts to 
cease out of om- land, that they might no more devom:! 
Such a time is coming ; '■ No lion shall be there, nor 
ravenous beast shall be found there ; but the redeemed 
shaU walk there," Isa. xxxv. 9. In the mean time, 
though om- brethi-en endm-e hard things by these cruel 
beasts, and though God may perhaps bring some of us 
under the rage of them, let us be patient, and comfort 
ourselves in these promises. 

Ver. 13. And I will visit upon her the days of Baal- 
im, tcherein she bunted incense to them, and she decked 
herself uilli her earrings and her jewels, and she went 
after her lovers, andforgat me, saith the Lord. 

This is the conclusion of the tlu-eatenings in this 
chapter ; now God wUl punish them for aU their sins 
together. If a generation succeed in wickedness, God 
may justly come upon that generation, for all the sins 
of former generations ; all the blood from Abel to Za- 
chariah shall be requu-ed of tliis generation. " I wiU 
visit upon her aU the days of Baalim ;" ever since they 
served Baal. Let men take heed of continuing in the 
ways of sin : who can tell what sin may put a period to 
God's patience with a nation, a famUy, or an individual? 
Though God has spared heretofore, upon the next sin 
committed he may put such a period to forbeai-ance as 
to come upon the famUy, not oiUy for that sin, but for 
all the sins it has committed since it was a famUy ; and 
so for all the sins of a nation, since it was a nation ; 
and for all thy sins, ever since thou wast a simier ! Men 
go on awhUe in the ways of sm prosperously, but when 
God visits, what will become of them ? " "V^Tiat will 
ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation 
which shall come fi-om far ? to whom wUl ye flee for 
help ? and where wiU ye leave yom- glory ? " Isa. x. 3. 
Now you are men-y, now you fear nothing, but " what 
will je do in the day of visitation ? " what wiU become 
of you then ? -whither wUl you flee then ? " and where 
wUl you leave your glory ? " 

'• i -wUl visit upon her the days of BaaKm ;" m the 
plm-al number, Baalim ; by which some thiiJi, and not 
improbably, that their inferior gods are meant, which 
they caUeil Baalim; for the heathen had theii- chief 
gods, and then- Dii minores, then- lesser gods, who were 
as mediators to then- chief gods ; and so om- papists have 
their Dii minores, lesser gods, who are tutelar gods, 
either over nations, or over families, or over particular 
diseases, &c. As they say, for England, St. George ; 
for France, St. Dennis ; for L-eland, St. Patrick ; for 
AVales, St. David ; for Scotland, St. An(b-ew, &c. These 
saints are in imitation of the heathens. Baal, or, in the 
Clialdee dialect, Bel, was the fii-st king of Babylon after 
Nimrod, the fii-st that was deified, and reputed as a 
god after death ; whence those men who were deified 
after then- death, and worshipped as gods, as the papists 
worship their saints, they caUed Baalim ; as from Julius 
Ca-sar, those kings who foUowed after were caUed 
Casars. This intei-iiretation tlu-ows light upon 1 Cor. 
\-iu. 5, 6, "Though there be that are caUed gods, 
whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, 
and lords many,) but to us there is but one God, the 
Father, of whom are all things, and we m him ; and one 
Lord Jesus Christ." If the "apostle had spoken in He- 
brew, it -n-ould have been, " Though there be many 
Baalim, there is to us but one God, and one Baal ;" for 



128 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



in Hebrew, Baal is Lord ; there are many gods, (say 
they,) i. e. divers gi-eater gods, and many lords, i. e. 
many Baalim, wliicli are mediators to their- chief gods ; 
but to us (saith he) there is but one God, and but one 
Lord, but one Baal ; we have not Baalim, not many 
meiliators between us and God; but as we have but one 
God, so we have but one Lord, but one Mediator, who 
in regard of his human nature is inferior to the Father, 
but vet such a Lord, " by whom are all things, and we 
by him :" the papists acknowledge but one God, but 
thev have many lords, many mediators, many that must 
stand between God and them. This is a heathenish 
opinion. 

Again, Baalim, in the plm-al number. Another reason 
not improbable, given by some, is, that it intimates the 
several images they had of their Baal, in various places, 
even in their private houses; for idolaters did not 
satisfy themselves with worshipping their gods in pub- 
lic, but worshipped them in their private houses also. 
Now, though the Jews had only tw'o idols set up, one 
in Dan, and another in Bethel ; yet they had some re- 
presentations of those images in their private houses, 
which may be grounded upon Hos. x. 5, " Because of 
the calves of Beth-aven," that is, of Bethel, calves of 
Bethel. ^VTiy, how many calves were there there? 
there was but one calf set up there, and yet here it is 
plural : now the reason of that is given, that though 
there was but one calf set up for ])ublic worship, )'ct 
they had in tlieir private families the picture of that 
calf, and so brought the worship of Baal into their 
families. A good lesson for Christians, not to satisfy 
themselves with public worship, but to bring as much 
of the worship of God as they can into their families. 

" 'WHierein she burned incense to them." Incense was 
a tj-jjical signification of prayer, in two respects. First, 
in the sweet savour of it. And secondly, in its ascend- 
ing by fu'e : so all our prayers should be as incense, 
sweet before the Lord, and ascend up with the fervency 
of zeal and faith : it is proper to God alone to have 
such incense bui'nt to him : the heathens bunit incense 
to their idols, imitating the worship of God. 

" She decked herself with her earrings and her jew- 
els." They worshipped their idols in a sumptuous man- 
ner, adorning themselves with costly apparel, especi- 
ally in front : the word ncu translated jewels, signifies 
the nose jewel; and in Isa. iii. 21, is translated "nose 
jewels : " they hanged upon their faces jewels to make 
themselves beautiful before their idols. Harlots adorn 
themselves more pomjiously than grave matrons. By 
this many simple peojilc are dra\m to the love of idol- 
atry, which is spiritual whoredom. They thought that 
God would accejit of their service the rather, because 
of the costly jewels, that hung about their ears and 
nostrils. From whence 

Obs. To think that God will accept our service the 
rather because of any apparel, or any thing of our 
own devising, is to deal with God as the heathens with 
their idols. AVe must take heed of that. The hea- 
thens instituted garments that they might be accepted. 
A council in the year of Christ 3:S.'J, by 
r°"n«ihcrm.uLnt'"" OHB of its canous, anathcmatizcs all those 
i™1di'«TOnciiorrin '^'^'^ shuW judgc One vcstm'e more holy 
aui pim faccrc a<i than another. AVe are to learn from 
' '" ' idolaters to beautify and adorn our souls 

when we come into the presence of God; did they 
deck their bodies and hang jewels about ears and noses, 
when they came before their idols for acceptance ? let 
us beautify our soids every time we come before tlie 
living God. And would you know wliat fine clothes 
you should wear wlien you come into God's ])rescnce ? 
I will tell you, and especially those women wlio delight 
so much in fine clothes, 1 I'et. v. o, " Be clothed with 
humility : '' tlie word iyKoiijiwaaoBi, means, to clothe 
■nith a dress that gentlewomen used to wear in those 



times, of ribands about their heads : "Well, (saith the 
apostle,) would you have a fine dress, ye women ? " be 
clothed with humility," the finest di-ess you can pos- 
sibly have. I will tell you of another gannent, 1 Pet. 
iii. 4, adorned with " a meek and quiet spirit, which is 
in the sight of God of great price," TrokvnKig, much 
set by of God, so translated in some of yoiu- books. 
If you come into God's presence with quiet and meek 
spu-its, and clothed with humility, you wiU be beautiful 
in the verj' eyes of God; but withal remember, both 
men and women, except you come clothed and decked 
with the robe of Chi'ist's righteousness, you can never 
find acceptance. 

"She went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith 
the Lord." Their lovers were remembered, but I was 
forgotten, saith God. God here speaks as a man be- 
moaning his sad condition ; as if he had said. How am 
I slighted by my people ! the idols can be followed, 
they can be remembered ; but I am neglected, I am 
forgotten ; they have activity for their idols, but none 
for me ; memory for them, but none for me ! 

Obs. God takes it very ill, when men can find memo- 
ry, strength, and activity enough for their sinful ways, 
but none for liim. Many complain of weakness, but 
who was ever so weak, but had strength enough to 
sin ? though memories are weak, yet sinful ways can 
be recollected. 

" Forgat me ;" that is, first, they have forgotten what 
a God I am ; secondly, what I have done for them, the 
great works I have done before them ; thu'dly, all their 
engagements to me. Many follow wicked ways, yet 
sometimes they have checks of conscience, some re- 
membrances of God, and so long there is hope ; but 
when a sinner has so far departed from God, and fol- 
lowed his ungodly ways, as that God is quite worn out 
of his thoughts, then he is in a sad case indeed. I 
appeal to you, is it not the case of some here ? There 
was a time when you had mighty impressions of God 
upon your spirits, and then you could never ti"ansact 
your business, or go into the streets and fields, or 
awake in the night season, but the thought of God was 
in yom' hearts ; but there was some haunt of wicked- 
ness which you hankered after, temptation came, and 
you have given way to it, and now, friend, you can go 
one day after another, and scarce think of God at all. 
Why have you no thoughts of God now, as you were 
wont to have ? Now and then there come darting in 
some thoughts of him, but yotu' guilty conscience knows 
they are very terrible to you ; now you can never have 
a thought of God, but it is as a dagger at youi' lieart. 
Well, take heed what thou doest, O sinner, go not on 
in thy sinful ways, till thou wearcst out all thouglits of 
God. Some have done so, though they had checks of 
conscience. When they have been in wicked company, 
God has come into their thoughts, and troubled them ; 
but they have gone to wicked company again, and 
some thoughts of God have followed them ; but they 
have gone again and again, and now they have forgotten 
God as mucli if there were no God in heaven ; as if 
God had nothing to do with them, and they nothing 
to do with God. Oh this is a sad condition indeed ! 
If any of you are decUning into such a condition as 
this, the Lord stop you this day ; the Lord awaken 
your consciences ! Ordinarily, the more prosperity men 
liave, the more forgetful they are of the Lord. They 
" forgat me." As, Gen. xlviii. 20, Jacob sot E))hraira be- 
fore Manassch, first Ephi'aim, then Manasseh ; Ephraim 
signifies fruitfulness, and Manasseh signifies forgetful- 
ness: thus it is with men; Ephraim comes first, fruit- 
fulness, God is fruitful to you, and blesses your estates ; 
and then comes Manasseh, forgetfidness. Aly brethren, 
if always we had sucli inqu'essidns of God as we liave 
sometimes, oh liow liapjiy were it ! AAHien God shall 
again present himself to you, and cause you to remcm- 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



129 



ber what impressions of his Divine majesty once you 
had, it ivill terrify you. I ■will give you this rule for 
your lives : Live such lives, as by them you may hold 
forth to your brethren such remembrances of God, that 
they may conclude by what they see in your convers- 
ation, Certainly there are deep impressions of the Di- 
vine majesty upon the heart of this man ; there was a 
time when he walked lightly, vainly, and foolishly ; but 
now he is serious, considerate, heavenly, and walks 
with fear. If we act so, how jojful will it be to us 
hereafter, when God shall appear in his glory! Then 
to have our consciences tell us, I now see the glory of 
the great God shining, and, blessed be his name, even 
this God tliat appears so gloriously, has appeared often 
to my soul before ; I have kept the impressions of his 
glory upon my heart, and he was continually in my 
thoughts. It is a wonder that God should ever thinlc 
of us, who are so forgetful of him. Psal. viii. 4, " What 
is man, that thou art mindful of him ?" What is man ? 
The word U'ljs translated man, some would derive 
from ntt'3 which signifies forgetfulness. I find Euse- 
bius taking it thus : " AVhat is man, that thou shouldst 
remember him?" that is, what is forgetfid man, that 
thou shouldst remember him ? Yet 1 think it comes 
rather fi-om WJN which signifies weakness, sickness : 
what is weak man, what is sick man ? yet if this word 
come not from the root that signifies to forget, I am 
p.^ji, sm'e there is a word derived from such a 

" As women!" jer. root, uscd for womcu, becausB of their 
forgetfidness. We would be glad to 
have God remember us in the day of our adversity ; let 
us remember God now. All you young ones, remember 
your Creator in the days of yoiu' youth : you old people, 
whatever you forget, forget not the Lord : let us all 
remember the Lord, who has remembered us all ; who 
has remembered England in her low estate, for liis 
mercy endureth for ever. 

Ver. 14. Therefore, behold, I uiil allure her, and 
bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably 
unto her. 

The former part of this chapter was spent in convic- 
tion, threatening, and pronouncing of judgment ; but 
fi'om ver. 14 to the end, contains the opening up of the 
free and rich grace of God to Israel. It may be said of 
this chapter, " ^lercy and truth are met together ; right- 
eousness and peace have kissed each other," Psal. Ixxxv. 
10. There is a blessed connexion between threatening 
of judgment and profiering of mercy ; but where is the 
copula of this conjunction ? what is it that knits these 
two together ? Here is a bond of union, but it is a 
very wonderful one, it is in the iu'st word, " therefore ;" 
" Therefore I wiU allm-e her:" wherefore ? This " there- 
fore " has a very strange and wonderful wherefore, if 
wejdweU on what precedes : " She went after her lovers, 
and forgat me, saith the Lord. Therefore, behold, I 
will allm-e her :" there needs indeed a behold to be put 
to this therefore. " Therefore, behold, I will allure her." 
LjTa could not see how these things could bo joined 
together, therefore he thinks that tliis verse has not re- 
ference to the one immediately preceding, but to the 
words in the beginning of the" chapter; " Say ye unto 
your brethren, Ammi," my people, " and to your sisters, 
Ruhamah," she that hath obtained mercy ; '" therefore, 
behold, I will allure her." And Cornelius ;\ Lapide, 
not understanding the cause of such a connexion, 
would refer the beginnmg of this verse to the end of 
the seventh : " She shaU say, I will go and return to my 
fu-st husband; for then was it better with me than 
now: therefore, behold, I will allure her." Both of 
these, though learned men, are papists, and therefore 
understand but little of the ft-ee, rich grace of God, and 
hence ai-e so much at a loss to connect what goes be- 



fore with this " therefore ;" but the right knowledge of 
the fulness and the riches of the grace of the covenant, 
will help us out of this difficulty, and tell us how these 
two, the greatness of man's sin and the riches of God's 
grace, may have a connexion one with another, and 
that by an illative " therefore." I con- , 

fess, the Hebrew word is sometimes con- 
junct io ordinis, rather than causalis; a conjunction in- 
timating the order, rather than at all implying the 
cause of a thing; but the reading here by way of infer- 
ence, I conceive to be according to the scojie of the 
Spuit of God, and it gives us this excellent note. 

Obs. Such is the grace of God to those who are in 
covenant with him, that it takes occasion from the 
greatness of their sins, to show the greatness of his 
mercy ; from the vUeness of theu' transgressions, to de- 
clare the riches of his grace. And the ScriptiU'e often 
adopts this form of expression ; as in Gen. viii. 21, " The 
Lord said in his heart, I will not again cm'se the ground 
any more for man's sake ;" why ? " for the imagina- 
tion of man's heart is evil from his youth." Strange 
reasoning : " I will not curse the ground any more for 
man's sake,_/b)- the imagination of man's heart is evil 
from his youth." One would have thought it should 
have been rather, I wiD therefore ciu'se the groimd for 
man's sake, because the imagination of man's heart is 
evil from his youth ; but the grace of God knows how 
to make another manner of inference than we could 
have imagined. So likewise, Isa. Ivii. 17, 18, " For the 
iniquity of his covetousness was I ■nToth, and smote 
him : I hid me, and was WTOth, and he went on fro- 
wardly in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways," 
saith God : now one would have thought that the next 
word should have been, I will therefore plague him, I 
will destroy him, I will em'se him ; but mark the words 
that follow, " and will heal him : I wiU lead him also, 
and restore comforts unto him and to his moimiers." 
This is a consequent at least, if not an inference. Da- 
vid understood this reasoning to be agreeable to the 
covenant of grace, and therefore pleads thus with God, 
Psal. xxv. 11, " Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great :" 
Lord, my iniquity is great, therefore pardon it. Hearken, 
ye saints, hearken, I say, this is the gi'eat blessing of 
God to you, this is the glorious fruit of the covenant of 
grace ; whereas otherwise your- sins shoidd have made 
you objects of God's hatred, they now render you ob- 
jects of his pity and compassion. 

I would saints alone heard me in this thing; but W'hy 
do I say so ? I will recall my word ; let all sinners hear 
me, let the vilest, the worst sinners in the world, hear 
of the riches of the grace of God in this his covenant, 
that, if they belong to God's election, they may, seeing 
the fidness and the glory of God's grace, be enamom-ed 
and have their hearts i-avished with it, and never be at 
rest till they get evidence to then- souls, that God in- 
deed has actually received them into this his covenant. 
If, then, God be pleased in the riches of free grace to 
make such an inference, let us take heed that we cross 
not the mind of the Spirit, by dwelling on the greatness 
of ovu' sins, instead of the infiniteness of God's grace. 
God reasons thus : You have followed your lovers, 
you have forgotten me, therefore will I ahure you. 
An unbelieving heart would make this inference : I 
have followed my lovers, I have followed after vanity 
and foUy, and therefoi-e God has rejected me, God 
wiU have no mercy upon me, I am undone, the gates 
of mercy are shut against me. O unbelieving heart, do 
not sin against the grace of God : he saith. You have 
forgotten me, therefore wUl I allure and speak comfort- 
ablv to you ; do not you say, I have forgotteu the 
Lord, anil therefore the Lord will for ever reject me : 
these discouraging, despairing therefores are very- 
grievous to the Sph'it of God, which would have us all 
entertain good thoughts of God, and not to regard Mm 



130 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Ch.vp. II. 



Tola Script ,.r» hoc 3* ^ haxd. master. It is an excellent say- 

Sj'.immi!?on-' i"? °f Luther, That the -whole Scripture 

Bdimnu, cred'araut, principally aims at this ; tliat ■ne should 

dcm esse benimum, not doubt, but that We should hopc, and 

paiieniem. Luther, ^j^^j^ ^^^j ^eiig^.g^ j^at God is a mercifu], 

bountiful, gracious, and patient God to his people. 
Master Bradford, in one of his epistles, thus expresses 
himself: OLord! sometimes, metliinks, I feel as if there 
were no difference between mj' heart and the wicked, a 
blind mind as they have, a stout, stubborn, rebellions 
spii'it, a hard heart as they have ; shall I therefore con- 
clude tliou art not my Father ? nay, I wiU rather reason 
otherwise ; because I do believe thou art my Father, I 
will come to thee that thou mightest enlighten this 
blind mind, that thou mightest soften this hard heart, 
and sanctify this unclean spu-it. This is good reasoning 
indeed, and worthy of one who professes the gospel of 
Jesus Clirist. Again, as the inference of the unbeUev- 
ing heart is grievous to God's Spirit, as it draws its 
therefore from the greatness of sm against God's mercy ; 
so the profane heart taking its therefore from the 
greatness of God's mercy, to the hardening of itself in 
sin, " treasures up for itself wrath against the day of 
wrath." What ! shall God make his therefore fi'om oiu- 
sin to his mercy, and shall we make our therefore from 
his mercy back again to our sins ? Where sin abounds, 
grace abounds ; but where gi-ace abounds, sin must not 
abound. Because God takes occasion from the great- 
ness of our sins to display the greatness of liis mercy, 
let not us take occasion from the greatness of liis mercy 
to be imboldened in the greatness of oui- sins. 

" Behold." Here is a wonder in this inference to 
occupy the thoughts of men and angels to all eternity ; 
behold, notwithstanding all this, yet you, men and 
angels, behold the fulness, the riches of God's grace. 
" I will allui-e her." Wiat ! will not God cast us away 
notwithstanding the greatness of our sms ? let not us 
then reject God's ways, notwithstantling the greatness 
of any sufferings we meet with in them : this surely 
is most reasonable : you should bear with sufl'crings in 
God's ways, and yet embrace them, as God bears with 
sins in your hearts, and yet embraces you. But there 
follows, " I will allure." The Hebrew 
' ' ' word translated " allure," signifies to en- 

tice, and is often used in a bad acceptation, blaiidiendo 
decipere, to deceive by subtle enticing : the Seventy, in 
their translation, render it by irXavu, " I will deceive 
them ;" the Vulgate, by lactabo ; and others, by seducam, 
" I will seduce them :" God made use of the word to 
express the sweet and gracious ways in wliich he in- 
tends to deal with them from his gracious affection 
towards them. 

Wliat God means by alluring his people, when once 
he is reconciled to them, may be expressed in these 
three things. 

Fii'st, I will unfold the beauty and excellency of the 
infiniteness of my goodness and lo%-ing-kindness, and 
set in array before their souls the exceeding glorj' of 
the riches of my grace. 

Secondly, AAHiereas before they went a whoring fr-om 
me, because theii- hearts were allured by their lovers, prof- 
fering unto them various contentments, and so subtlely 
beguiling their minds ; I will now deal with them in a 
more powerful manner than then' lovers possibly could, 
and outbid them all. Did their lovers proffer to tliem 
comfort ? I will bid more than they. Did their lovers 
proffer gain ? I will bid more gain. Did they proffer 
more honour and respect ? I will outbid them in this 
too : so that I will persuade their hearts that they sliall 
enjoy more in me, than they possibly could in all that 
tlieir lovers could do for them. And indeed, then the 
gospel has the true, full, and gracious work upon the 
heart of a sinner, -when it yields to its proffers, as finding 
that all that the world can bid is now outbidden, and 



that there is more gain in Ctuist than in aU else besides. 
You know, when one comes to offer so much for a com- 
modity, and another outbids him, he carries it away : 
so when the world and sin proffer to the soul such 
and such contents, if God come and outbid all, the bar- 
gain is made u]), and God can'ies away the heart. 

Thirdly, I will come ujjon them even unawares, and, 
as it were, steal away theii- hearts by a holy guile ; as 
St. Paul tells us, that he caught the Corinthians with 
guUe, 2 Cor. sii. 16. I will secretly insinuate myself, 
and cfraw their hearts in such a sweet and hidden way, 
that I -will take them before they are aware. God 
deals thus with many a soul, taking it ^^efoi-e it is 
aware, and the soul aftenvard comes to imderstand 
some of the dealings of his gi-ace. Indeed the sinner 
himself sees he is not where he was before : Sm'ely there 
has been something working on my heart ; I find it is 
otherwise vdth me now than it has been ; but how this 
comes to pass I imderstand not at present, but shall 
understand hereafter. " Or ever I was aware, my soul 
made me like the chariots of Ammi-nadib," Cant. vi. 12 ; 
that is, the chariots of " a willing people," so the word 
Ammi-nadib signifies. My heart was caught, and run 
amain to God, before ever I was aware ; God's grace 
came in such a manner into my heart, and so ra^■ished 
my soul, that it ran freely and swiftly after the Lord. 
And this is a blessed deceit when the heart is so de- 
ceived and so allured. Thus Cluist sometimes sends 
such a glance of his eye into the heart of a shiner, as 
surprises the soul, and brings it involuntarily into love 
with the ways and with the tiiiths of God. His grace 
has a subtlety in it, as well as the serpent, Prov. i. 4. It 
is a blessed thing to be thus outwitted, as I may so 
speak, for the grace of God to be too subtle for our 
sins. As I remember, Luther, when he was charged 
with apostacy, acknowledged it, saying, " I confess I 
am an apostate ; but how ? an apostate from the devil, 
falling off from the de\'il, and returning unto God ; such 
an apostate I am." And happy that man who can say, 
Blessed be God, I am deceived indeed ; but so deceived 
that my sin is beguiled : I am seduced, but it is out of 
the ways of sin, into the paths of God and of peace. 

" And bring her into the wildemess." 

There is some difficulty here ; how comes this in be- 
tween allui'ing, and speaking comfortably ? I told you, 
that this second part of the chajiter was altogether 
mercy ; what can be meant tlien by bringing into the 
wilderness ? Some, in order to show that it is yet a 
way of gi-ace that God intends by this phi-ase, " and 
bring her into the wilderness," ti'anslate the words, 
after I have brought her into the wilderness, poslquam 
perduxero earn. So Tremelius, who was a _ . 

Jew, and therefore could well under- ■ • -- 
stand the Hebrew, renders them ; telling us that 1 which 
we translate and, is eqmvalent to nns poslquam, after, 
and then the meaning would be, after I have humbled 
them thoroughly, as I did their forefathers in the 
wilderness, then will I speak comfortably unto them. 
God humbled their forefathers in Egypt, yet that did 
not suffice ; he humbled them afterwards in the wilder- 
ness, and tlien brought them into Canaan. Many 
times God sends successive afflictions upon his own 
people, tobrcak thefrheai-ts, to humble them thoroughly, 
and at last " speaks comfortably unto them." It has 
been so with us ; tlie Lord, not many years since, 
brought us into bondage, it might have humbled us 
and broken our hcaits before him ; but when we began 
to be delivered, the Lord brought us into the wilder- 
ness, and follows us with afflictions to this day, that he 
may thoroughly subdue us ; and yet oui' trust is, that 
these trials are working together for oui' good, making 
straight the paths, and prepaiing the way for us into 
Canaan. 

But, secondly, if you take it as it is here translated, 



Vee. 14. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



131 



" I will allm-e her, and bring her into the wilderness ; " 
then the scope of it may be not the afflicting part of the 
wilderness, but only a declaration to Israel, that he 
would show to them the great and wonderful works of 
his power, and wisdom, and goodness, as he did to 
theii- forefathers in the wilderness. Whatever the con- 
dition may be into which you shall be brought, yet you 
shall have me working in" as a glorious way for your 
good and comfort, as ever I did for yoiu- forefathers 
when they were in the wilderness ; and tliis exposition 
is rather sh-engthened by that wOiich we have ex 
„ , , Tharvum Jonalhw, "I will work mira- 

ct grandia facinora, clcs, great, wonderfiil, ana lamous things 
?e"Sf Th»gum ■ for them, such as I wrought in the desert." 
jonatte, jjjjg Q,^^ wrought gloriously for his people 

hitherto in the ways of his mercy ? if reconciled to him, 
they may expect the same wonderful manifestations for 
their good, even to the end of the world. _ We may read 
the stories of God's wonderful power displayed in de- 
livering his people out of their straits in the wilderness, 
and make them om- own ; and plead with God, that he 
would show forth that old, that ancient power, and wis- 
dom, and goodness of his, as he did unto his people 
formerly. This is the gi-ound of that excellent prayer, 
Isa. h. 9, 10, " Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm 
of the Lord, awake, as in the ancient days, in the 
generations of old. Ai't thou not it that hath cut 
Rahab, and woimded the di-agon ? Art thou not it 
that hath dried up the sea, the waters of the great 
deep?" Awake, awake, thou art he who hast done 
such gi-eat things formerly. It is a great help to our 
faith to consider what God has done for the church 
of old. 

But, thu'dly, Pareus saith, this expression is taken 
bom. the condition of a poor man di'awn aside out of 
ills way by a thief, who, having allui-ed him fi-om his 
path, carries him into some desolate place. Then the 
man begms to bethink liimself where he is, and seeing 
himself in a sad condition, knows not what to do ; and 
yet at that very time there may come in supply, com- 
fort, and help. So, saith God, I -will bring you into 
the wilderness, that is, I will allui-e you, as the thief 
aUm'es, and put you into a condition similar to that in 
which such a poor man is placed. I will, by specious 
proffers of abundance of good, draw you into situations 
wherein you shall meet with very gi'eat straits for a 
while, and be confounded, and sore amazed, as not 
knowing what to do; and then, in the midst of all your 
distresses, will I come with the fulness of my grace, 
and "speak comfortably" to your hearts. Thus, though 
God speaks of bringing into the wilderness, yet stiU it 
is with an intention of showing mercy there. And does 
not this just agree with oiu- condition ? have not the 
ways of God towards England for these two or tlu'ee 
years been ways of aUiu-ement ? God has proffered to 
us a great deal of mercy, and raised the hopes of his 
people ; and the ministers of God have spoken encou- 
raging words, that surely the Lord intends great good- 
ness towards us, and God knows that we have endea- 
voured to foUow the leadings of his providence, and to 
render instant obedience to its commands ; and yet we 
are now brought even into the wilderness, into a kind 
of desolate condition, that for the present we are at a 
stand, and see afflictions round about us, and the veiy 
beasts ready to come and tear us, and pull us in pieces : 
and yet we can say, to the comfort of our hearts. Lord, 
if we be deceived, thou hast deceived us ; for. Lord, 
thou knowest that whatsoever we have done, it was om- 
duty to do ; and although we are brought into gi-eat 
straits for the present, yet we repent not of having 
thus followed thee, and the gracious intimations of 
thy mercy towards us in the beginning of the par- 
liament. We will not therefore sav, \\Tiat is now 
become of all om- hopes ? but we expect God, even 



in this wilderness, to "speak comfortably" unto us. 
Let not men then upbraid us for what we have done : 
we repent not, for God has brought us into this situ- 
ation: and if we are in no other wilderness than that 
into which he has allured us, we may fully expect de- 
liverance. In this lies the difference between men 
bringing themselves into trouble, or being brought 
into it by the allmements of the de\'il or Uie world, or 
by the dealings of God's providence. In the one we 
cannot, but in the other w-e may confidently, expect that 
God will speak comfortably unto us. 

Further, there is yet another interpretation, wliich I 
think the fullest and most genuine. That you may un- 
derstand what I shall advance, you must know, that 
fi-om the beginning of this part of the chapter to the 
end, God is expressing himself to his people conjugally ; 
that is, whereas his people had gone a whoring from 
him, yet he would receive them again into conjugal 
affection and commimion. By this expression, then, of 
God's " bringing into the wilderness," the prophet ap- 
pears to me to allude to a custom observed by the Jews 
in their marriages. The "bridegroom used to conduct 
Ids bride out of the city into the fields, and there they 
sang their nuptial songs, and delighted themselves one 
with another; and afterwards he brought her back again, 
leaning upon him, into the citj-, to his fathers house, 
where they rejoiced together, and solemnized the nup- 
tials. Now, these fields are called the wilderness, either 
because they might be some champaign, di-y fields sur- 
roimding the citj- ; or, because he would allude to the 
mercy of God iii bringing Ms people up out of Egj-pt 
mto Canaan, and by giving these fields this title, would 
remind them of it. Allusion seems to be made to this 
custom of the Jews in Cant. viii. 5, " Wlio is this that 
Cometh up fi-om the wilderness, leaning upon her be- 
loved?" Such was the ceremony of marriage, they 
came out of the fields, leaning upon then- beloved, and 
so were brought into the house of the bridegroom's 
father. So Chi'ist brings his spouse tlu'ough this world, 
which is as the wilderness, and here has his nuptial 
songs, and takes " his delights among the children of 
men ; " and the church, leaning upon her Beloved, is car- 
ried onward to his Father's house, where, ere long, she 
shall be with him for ever, solemnizing her marriage 
with the Lamb in a more glorious manner. Thus then 
we may see the meaning of this expression, " I will 
allm-e her, and bring her into the wUdemess." As "the 
bridegi-oom rejoiceth over his bride," so, God saith,_ I 
will deal with" you in the fulness of my grace, I will 
perform all the nuptial rites with you, and be man-ied 
again to you; and look, whatsoever solemnities are pub- 
licly regarded as most sacred and most glorious in yom- 
city of Jei-usalem, or hi any other of yom- cities, with 
these will I betroth thee unto me for ever. Let aU 
backsUders, then, amongst us learn fi-om hence, that if 
they retm-n and repent, God is willing to manifest all 
expressions of love and goodness to them. '• Tm-n, O 
backsliding childi-cn, saith the Lord ; for I am married 
unto you : and I will take you one of a city, and two 
of a family, and I will bring you to Zion," J'er. iii. 14. 

" And speak comfortably unto her." 

The words translated, " And I will speak 
comfortably," mean, And I will speak to nr'w 'mm 
her heart ; ' I wiU speak to her, either so 
as to prevail with her heart, or speak to her so as to 
do her good at the veiy heart. Many scriptm-es may 
be brought to show, that speakuig Idndly, fi-iendly, or 
comfortablv, the Hebrews express by " speaking to the 
heart:" thus. Gen. xxxiv. 3, " Shechem spake kindly 
unto the damsel," the Hebrew is, Shechem spake to 
the heart of the damsel : so, Ruth ii. 13, " Thou hast 
spoken ft-iendly unto thine handmaid;" that is, Thou 
hast spoken to the vei-y heart of thy handmaid: and in 
Isa. xl. 2, " Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem ; " that 



132 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. U. 



is, Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem. '\ATiat should 
be spoken to the heart of Jerusalem ? " Cry unto her, 
that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is 
pardoned." These are the comfortable words which 
God required should be s])okcn to the heart of Jeru- 
salem. Oh that God would speak thus to England ! 
it would do her good at the very licart, if God would 
en,- from heaven, Thine iniquity is pardoned, and thy 
warfare is accompUshed. But a ])lace still more in ac- 
cordance with the expression in the text, is Judg. xix. 
3 ; there you have the stoi-y of a Levite, who was will- 
ing to be reconciled to his wife after .she had played 
the harlot, and the text saith, that he " went after her, 
to s])eak friendly unto her ; " now the words are in the 
Hebrew, he went after her to speak to her heart ; and 
indeed it is a word that must reach the heart of an 
adulterous spouse, if that heart be humbled, when she 
knows that her husband will be willing, notwithstand- 
ing all her transgressions against him, to be reconciled 
to her. This was the condition of Israel, they had 
gone a whoring from God, and when God promises a 
renewal of the mamage rites, he saith he will speak 
to her heart ; from whence we might 

Obs. 1. That an apostatizing people, or an apostate 
soul, require words of comfort spoken to their hearts, 
or else their terrified consciences can find Uttle ease. 
AV'e read that Spira, that famous apostate, had words of 
comfort enough spoken to his ear; but God did not 
come in and speak to his heart, therefore his conscience 
could not be quieted, the tumult of it could not be al- 
layed. How many lie under the troubles of an accusing 
conscience, and have to endui'e the coiTodings of a 
guilty spirit, because they have been backsliders from 
the truth ; and though they come to semions one after 
another, and hear the covenant of grace opened to 
them in all its fulness, and the riches of God's goodness 
set before them in aU its beauty, yet go away without 
comfort, because the words come to tlie ear first, God 
all this time speaks not to the heart ! Sometimes, how- 
ever, it ])leases God, when the time of liis love is come, 
to take but the hint of a truth, and dart it upon the 
heart of a troubled sinner, to work eft'ectually in him, 
so that he is constrained to say. Well, this "day God 
has spoken to my heart ; and he then goes away re- 
joicing, cased, comforted, and pacified. God shows 
hereby that it is not in the word of man to comfort an 
afflicted conscience. 

Hence au expression Luther has in his comment 
Muiiodimciiiux-it up"" Genesis, It is far harder to comfort 
<onxiciiii«iii afflic an afflicted conscience than to raise the 
inortu'os'cxcVuur."'" dcad. You think it is nothing to aposta- 
''°'''"' tize from the Lord, you think it is easy 

to receive comfort ; you will find it no such hght mat- 
ter. But you told us before, how, in the riches of his 
grace, God takes advantage from the greatness of our 
sins, to show the greatness of his mercy. Grant it, let 
the grace of God be never so rich, but till this grace be 
applied, till God be ))leascd to speak hiraseli' to the 
heart of a sinner, it will avail nothing. One who had 
made profession of religion, afterwards apostatized and 
scofl'ed at it. His acquaintance told liim that he now 
did what he would smart for one day ; but he thought 
that he understood something of the gospel, and that 
it was merely to believe in Jesus Christ, that he came 
to pardon sinners. On his sick-bed, however, being in 
great horror of conscience, and bitterly lamenting his 
a])OStacy, there came some of his acquaintance to him, 
and spake words of comfort, and told him that Christ 
came to save sinners, and that he must trust in God's 
mercy, &c. At length he began to close with this, and 
to get a little ease by applying it to himself; upon which 

* Rf'miltant aliqiiid de ciira nitoris cuUusqiic verbonim ve- 
nuslali< ct numrnisilatis sentcnliariim, ct \crx bumilitati ct 
mui'tillcutiuni, impaidant ut chariliitcm liabcaut, sine qua si 



his companions began to be hardened in their ways, 
because they saw, after a life so ill spent, it was so easy 
a matter to gain comfort ; but not long before he died, 
in a most miserable anguish he exclaimed, Oh I I have 
prepared a plaster, but it will not stick, it wiU not 
stick. We shall find, though the grace of God be rich, 
and the salve a sovereign one, unless God be pleased to 
apply it by speaking to our hearts, human efforts are 
unavaihng. 

Obs. 2. That as, when God speaks comfortably to his 
people, he speaks to their hearts ; so God's ministers, 
when they come to speak in his name, should labour to 
speak to the hearts of his people. It is true, indeed, it 
is im])ossible for man of himself to reach the heart, but 
God both assists and blesses the earnest endeavours of 
his servants; and though I know God can take that 
which comes but from the ]i\>s, and render it effectual, 
yet, ortlinarily, that which comes from the heart goes 
to the heart. Ministers, therefore, when they come to 
declare the gi-eat tilings of the gospel, should not seek 
so much for eloquent tcnns and enticing words of man's 
wisdom ; but try to get theii- own hearts warmed with 
the grace of the gospel, and then they are most likely 
to speak to the hearts of their hearers. Kibera saith,* 
Let ministers remit somewhat of their care for fine, 
curious words, brave, neat plu'ases, and cadences in 
their sentences ; but let them bend their studies to 
manifest humility and mortification, and to show love 
to the souls of people ; otherwise, though they speak 
with the tongues of men and angels, they shall become 
but " as sounding brass, or a tinkling e\Tnbal." A 
Jesuit thus expresses himself, and it were surely then 
a great shame for God's ministers not to labour to speak 
so, that they may speak to the hearts of the people. 
You must be desu'ous of such kind of ])reaching as you 
find speaks to your hearts, not that which comes merely 
to your ears. Many men love to sit, like Israel of old, 
listening to the words of tlic preacher as to " a pleasant 
song ;" but when you find a ministry which speaks to 
your hearts, close with it, bless God for it, and eoimt it 
a sad day when you go from a sermon unaffected. 

But because many godly and learned men under- 
stand by "the wilderness" a continued series of afiiic- 
tions, wherein God would comfort his people, I dare not 
wholly reject that interpretation : and we may on tliis 

Obs. 1. That there are many obstructions in the 
hearts of men whilst in prosperity ; but when afflictions 
come, though they camiot of themselves convert the 
heart, yet by them God often o])ens a way for his word 
to reach theh hearts. Many of you have heard thou- 
sands of sermons, and scarce know of one that has come 
to vour hearts ; but when God casts you upon your sick- 
becls, and you apprehend death, then you feel the same 
truths that you were not sensible of before : the tlu'cat- 
cning word of God that went but to the ear before, now 
reaches the heart, now it terrifies, now you lament vour 
sins, and relish the sweet promises of the gospel that 
afflictions make way for. To his brother, who was a 
riotous and profane solilier, Bernard gave manv good 
instructions, wholesome admonitions and counsels ; but 
his brother seemed to .slight them. Beniard came to 
him, and putting his hand on liis side, said, God will 
one day make way to this heart of yours by some spear 
or lance; meaning God would wound him in battle, 
and so open a way to his heart, and then liis admoni- 
tions would get to his heart: and as he said, so it hap- 
pened, for going into war, lie was wounded, and then 
he remembered his brother's athnonitions, they lay 
upon his heart to purpose. If God should let the enemy 
in upon us, their swords or bullets may make way to 
oiu- hearts, that God's word may come to have entrance 

linguis hominum loquantur ct aniclorum, facli sunt sicut a;s 
soiiaus vcl cvmbalum tiunicus. lUbera 



Vee. 15. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



there : the Lord rather pierce our hearts by his Spirit, 
than gain that way to our hearts. 

064'. 2. Great afflictions are the time for God's mer- 
cies. This should make us not be so much afraid of 
afflictions. How alarmed are we ! how do we shrink 
back when we see them coming ! Why art thou so cast 
down, O Chi-istian ? the time of affliction is the time for 
God to speak to the heart of a sinner : many a one may 
eay that their condition has been Uke Jacob's, who 
never had a more sweet vision of God than when he lay 
abroad in the fields, with no other pillow under his 
head than a stone. It may be God will take away all 
your outward comforts, and when they are all gone, then 
inay be God's time to speak comfortably to your heart. 

Obs. 3. The words of mercy, oh how sweet arc they 
■when they come to the heart after an affliction ! " AVhen 
their judges are overthi-owm in stony places, tliey shall 
hear my words ; for they are sweet," Psal. cxli. 0. 

Again, There is yet one more interpretation put on 
this expression, of "bringing into the wilderness, and 
speaking to the heart; but as it is not very probable, I 
will only brietiy mention it for the sake of the improve- 
ment to be drawn from it ; it is this : that, by bringing 
into the wilderness, God means that he would take 
them off from their engagements, from their houses, 
lands, shops, estates, friends, and acquaintance, from 
all the pomp and glory of the world which they en- 
joyed, and were snared by in their ovm country; and so 
carry them aside into desolate places, and there, when 
he has got them, as it were, alone, instruct them. God 
often works thus toward those upon whom he has set 
his love. There is an illustration of it in Mark viii. 
23, where it is said of the poor blind man, whose eyes 
Christ intended to open, that Christ took him by the hand, 
and can-ied him out of the city, and there, apart from 
the tumult of the people, wrought the mii-acle upon 
him : so many of God's people have found by experi- 
ence, that, whereas there were many truths of his word 
which they had read and heard much of here, and in 
some slight measure understood, yet would not be per- 
suaded of them, and still their consciences bore them 
witness that they were not walking against its light ; 
but when God took them aside from their engagements, 
and from the pomp and glory of thcii' own land, and 
carried them into remote places, where the glory of 
their o-W7i counti-y did not so glitter before their eyes, 
they then coidd clearly discern truths which they saw 
but imperfectly before, and their hearts were opened 
to receive them in the •' fuU assurance of faith." "VVTien 
God had taken them aside, then God opened their eyes. 

Ver. 15. And I will give her her vineijards from 
thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope : 
and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, 
and as in the day when she came up out of the land of 

Egypt. 

Some translate the word ott'B her vine-dressers, and 
indeed the Hebrew words for vine-dressers, vines, and 
vineyards, differ only in the vowel points ; but we will 
read it as it is here. " From thence ; " either from the 
time they are in the wilderness, or from that condition 
of their affliction in it, wherein I will speak comfort- 
ably to her, thence I will give her'her vineyards : God 
threatened to destroy her vineyards, now God saith, he 
will give vineyards. 

Obs. God can as easily restore, as he can destroy. 
It is an easy tiling for men to make havoc, and do mis- 
chief, but not so easy for them to restore ; it is easy to 
ravage a country, but not so easy to heal the breaches 
thereof. Psal. lii. 1, ""\ATiy boastest thou thyself in 
mischief, mighty man ? " There is no reason for this 
vain-glorying. Plutarch tells us of one 
commending the power and valour of 



Philip, for having utterly destroyed OI)-nthus, a city of 
Thrace : a Lacedemonian standing by, answered, But 
he cannot build such a city. And some amongst us 
make it then- boast, that they can roam about the coun- 
try, plundering, spoiling, and making havoc; but it is 
not in their power, nor in the power of thousands such 
as thev, when peace comes, to remedy the unhappy 
consequences of their actions. This is God's property 
alone, who, when reconciled to a nation, can restore 
her her vineyards, and " bless her latter end more than, 
the beginning." 

But, moreover, on this passage Calvin remarks, that 
God saith not, I will give them theii- corn, that is, supply 
then- necessities, but, I will give them their vineyards, 
that is, minister to their delights. AVHicn God is recon- 
ciled to a people, he will not only give them subsist- 
ence, but abundance ; even for delight, as well as for 
necessity. 

Obs. i. AVlien God is reconciled to a people, although 
he reserves an abundance of mercy for the future, yet 
he always comes immediately with some real evidences 
and demonsti-ations of love. He saith not only, I will 
speak comfortably to Israel, and they may expect mercies 
hereafter ; no, but " I will speak comi'ortably to her, 
and I will give her her vineyards " again ; I will give 
them present manifestations of my love : so it should 
be with us, when we come in to be reconciled to God, 
we should approach him with real expressions of un- 
feigned repentance. Many, when they lie upon their 
sick-beds, will promise what they will do for God, if he 
restore them ; but they cannot resolve on an immediate 
surrender of themselves to his service, and so the op- 
portunity passes away unimproved. 'Wlien, therefore, 
you find your hearts "wrought upon, broken, and melt- 
ing, do not content yourselves with fair promises, but 
set upon the w-ork presently, and so engage your hearts 
to God; and if once you be engaged by doing some- 
thing, the work will go on. This is of the greatest 
consequence, for a man has even a natural reluct- 
ance to turn back, after having put his hand to the 
plough. 

Obs. 2. "^^Tien God restores vineyards, after speak- 
ing to the heart, then the^ are blessings sweet in- 
deed, for they are the fruits of reconciliation with 
him. !Many a poor afflicted soul knows the comfort I 
allude to : I thought my sinfulness had forfeited all my 
mercies, and God indeed took away many comforts 
from me ; but it pleased him to come in graciously upon 
my heart, and in some measure to break and humble 
it before him; so that I hope peace is made. Notwith- 
standing those great ofi'ences of mine, he has now re- 
stored mercies ; he took away a child, but he has given 
another, a better ; he has taken away one mercy, and 
he has given a greater : and tliis I do confidently, yet 
humbly regard as a fruit of my reconciliation with God. 
Oh how sweetly may such a one enjoy that mercy 
from God ! If after the meltings of thy heart after God, 
he then comes in with mercies to thee, thou mayst take 
them as tokens of love ; now thy house is a comfort- 
able blessing to thee, and thy yoke-fellow, and thy chil- 
di-en about "thee ; yea, the meat on thy table is sweet 
with a double sw"eetncss, wiien thou canst look upon 
all as the fruit of God's reconciliation with thee : as 
the Christians, wiien they once believed on Christ, " did 
eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, 
praising God," Acts li. 46, 47. AVe may enjoy all oiu- 
common mercies, in another manner than other men, 
they will be blessings doubled, yea, a hundi'ed-fold in- 
creased : I will speak to her heart, and then, " I will 
give her her vineyards." Perhaps God has given thee 
an estate in the world, more than thy neighbours, or 
brother ; but has God spoken to thy heart ? Are God's 
blessings upon thee as a fruit of God's speaking to thy 
heart, through reconciliation ? Otherwise it is but a flat 



134 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



comfort, to have an estate, and not to feel God speak- 
ing to our hearts. 

I v-ill restore unto you your vineyards from thence. 
From whence ? From the -wilderness. 

06*. 1. God can bring \'ineyards out of wildernesses. 
Let us not be afraid, only let lis make up our peace with 
God, and then, though we be in a wilderness, God can 
from thence bring us vineyards. Our brethren have 
foimd vineyards in the wilderness, and many of God's 
people in the midst of their straits have found abund- 
ance of mercy. 

Obs. 2. " From the wilderness :" they shall have 
more love, mercy working more strongly for them now, 
it seems, than it did before. They had ^■ineyards be- 
fore, but they had none in the wUderness. God \nl\ 
diaw now mercies out of those things that were un- 
likely ; he will bring forth good to them, from what 
seemed to be for evil : the Lord has done so for us, out 
of those things which seemed against us ; God has 
brought much good, as if he had made %-ineyard3 to 
spring out of a wilderness. But the close of all is, 

Obs. 3. Those mercies that come to us out of great 
difficulties, and seem to be raised out of contraries, are 
sweet mercies indeed, and what we are to rejoice in ; 
and therefore it follows, " and she shall sing." Deut. 
xsxii. 13, " He made him to suck honev out of the 
rock, and oil out of the flinty rock." AVlien did God 
so ? when did God cause his people to " suck honey 
out of the rock," or, " oil out of the flint)- rock?" we 
read, indeed, that the rock was smitten, and water 
gushed out ; but where is it said that oil or honey came 
out of the rock ? No where ; and the meaning therefore is, 
that God brought forth water out of the rock by a mighty 
hand, and it was as oil and honey to them, being given 
in an hour of greatest need. So all the mercies which 
God gives his people when he brings them out of dif- 
ficulties and straits, are sweet and glorious mercies. 
Let us be patient awhile ; though we seem to be in the 
wilderness, and see nothing to fetch out water fi'om, 
but only rocks, stones, and difficulties, God at length 
will bring mercies out of those difficulties ; and they 
will be honey mercies unto us, mercies for which we 
shall sing and praise the name of our God with joj-ful 
hearts. 

" And the valley of Achor for a door of hope." The 
words are an excellent expression of mercy to Israel. 
To open wliich, these tlii'ce things are to be inquired 
into. 

I. What this " valley of Achor" was. 

II. The reason of the name. 

m. "WTiy said to be " a door of hope." 

I. Achor was a verj- pleasant and fi-uitful valley, near 
Jericho ; the first place that Israel came to when enter- 
ing upon and taking possession of the land of Canaan. 
" And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and tlie valley of 
Achor a place for the herds to lie down in. for my 
people that have sought me," Isa. Ixv. 10. First, It is 
joined with Sharon, Cant. iii. 1, "I am the rose of 
Sharon," which was a sweet, pleasant place. Secondly, 
It is said to be " a place for the herds to lie down in ;" 
a fat pasture that they shall even tumble in. And, 
thirdly. It is promised as a blessing to them that " have 
sought the Lord-" 

II. The reason of the name Achor. Josh. vii. shows 
that Achan, who, in 1 Chi-on. ii. 7, is also calle<l Achar, 
having taken the accursed tiling ; God left the camp, 
and Israel fell before the men of Ai, which was the first 
battle they fought for the possession of Canaan. Upon 
this their minds were exceedingly troubled : notwith- 
standi:ig all the experiences of God's mighty power 
going along witli them, so lately bringing them over 
Jordan in such a wonderful manner, and so miracu- 
lously giving them Jericho; vet at the loss of thirtv-six 
men their hearts begin to fall, and Joshua falls with his 



face upon the earth. Josephus, in his Jewish Antiqui- 
ties, gives us his prayer at large, and in it occur these 
expressions : " Beyond all expectation, having received 
an overthrow, being tenified by this accident, and 
suspicious of thy promises to Moses, we both ab- 
stam from war, and after so many enterprises, we 
cannot hope for any successful proceedings; by thy 
mercy relieve our present sorrow, and take from us the 
thought of despair, wherein we are too far plunged." 

God then asks him why he lay upon his face, and 
bade him get him up, for Israel had sinned in the ac- 
cursed thing. Upon search being made, Achan is de- 
tected ; whereupon Joshua tells him, that he had 
troubled the host of Israel, and God would trouble 
him ; upon which they stoned him, and from hence 
the vallev was called nwy scy the valley -o? 

of Achor, that is, the valley of trouble. ■^""'•'"• 

III. AVTiy tills valley is called " a door of hope." 
And here we shall inquire, first. How it was " a door 
of hope " to Israel then, when they first came into Ca- 
naan ; secondly. How it is promised to be " a door of 
hope " to repenting Israel in al'ter-times. 

1. It was " a door of hope " for tliem in two respects. 
Fu-st, Because it was the first place of which they 

took possession in Canaan, and began to have outward 
means of subsistence, and to eat of the corn of the land. 
WhUe they were in the wilderness, although God pro- 
vided wonderfully for them, by sending them manna 
from heaven ; yet because they had no way of subsist- 
ence by ordinary means, they always feared lest they 
should want upon any strait into which they were 
brought. Now in this valley God gave them outward 
means, and this raised their hopes that their danger was 
over, and that they should do well enough. This is 
our natm-e, when ordinary means fail, our hearts fail ; 
yea, though, in regard of God's extraordinary workings, 
we have never so many gracious encomagements ; and 
when God gi-ants means again, then we hope. 

Secondly, God made then- great trouble there a 
means of much good to them, for by that tliey were 
brought to purge their camp ; they learned to feai- the 
Lord, and were prepared, more than before, for so great 
a mercy as the fui-ther possession of the promised land. 
The Septuagint, instead of " a door of hope," render 
the clause, fidvoiiai avviatv avrtit, " to open their un- 
dei-standing ;" for there indeed they learned the dread- 
fulness of God, who, for one man's sin, was so sorely dis- 
pleased, and began clearly to see that the God that was 
amongst them was a holy God, and that he would have 
them to be a holy people. 

2. How this "valley of Achor" was to be "a door 
of hope " to Israel in after-times. 

First, The Jews thuik that Israel shall retmn into 
their own countiy again by the same way to Canaan, by 
that valley, wliich shall thus be a door of hope to them. 

Secondly, .\s God tm-ned this valley of trouble to 
much good to them ; so he would tm-n all the sore 
afflictions of Israel in after-days to theii' great advan- 
tage, grievous afflictions should make way for glorious 
mercies. 

Thirdly, and chiefly. In this expression God follows 
the allegon" of man-iage : now it was the custom amongst 
the Jews for the husband to give his spouse, as a dowry, 
•some piece of ground, more or less, according to his 
means; and this, as a pledge of love, to a.ssure her thai 
whatever was his, she should have the benefit of: so 
saith the Lord, Although you have gone a whoring 
from me, and may justly expect that I should for ever 
reject you, yet I will betroth you to myself, and fully 
perform all marriage rites, to show my love towards 
you to the uttermost ; and that you may know that you 
are married to a wealthy husband, I will give you a rich 
and plentiful dowrv, that valley of Achor ; and this but 
as a token and pledge of further love, mercy, and riches, 



Ver. 15. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



135 



that you shall receive at my hand as the first-fruits 
of all those glorious things that I have ti'easured up 
for you. 

From this " valley of Achor," as it concerned Israel 
of old, we may 

Obs. 1. Sometimes when God gives men tlieir hearts' 
desii-es, and they tliink themselves happy, as if all 
trouble were past, then he visits them witti great and 
sore afflictions. 

Obs. 2. Although God has been humbling men's 
hearts with long and sore aiHictions, yet, just before he 
bestows great mercies, he aflliicts again, to humble and 
break their hearts still more. 

Obs. 3. SLn wiU make the pleasantest place in the 
world a place of ti'ouble. 

Obs. 4. The afflictions of the saints are not only har- 
bingers of mercies, but doors of hope to let in- mercies, 
means to advance their progress. God commands light 
to shine, not only after darkness, but out of darliness. 
Joseph's prison, David's persecution, Daniel's den, made 
way for the glorious mercies God had iii store for 
them. That which once Themistocles said to his chil- 
dren and fiiends, the saints have much more reason to 
say to theirs ; I had been midone, if I had not been mi- 
done ; had it not been for such a grievous affliction, I 
had never come to the enjoj-ment of such a mercy. 
Hence we must learn not only to be patient in tribula- 
tion, but joyful. 

But the especial thing intended in this expression is 
this. "When God is reconciled to his people, then pre- 
sent mercies are doors of hope to let ui futui'e mercies. 
Every mercy a door to another mercy, and all mercies 
here put together, are a door to eternal mercy. "VVTien 
Rachel had a son she called liis name Joseph, saying, 
"The Lord shall add to me another son," Gen. sxx. 24. 
Every mercy the saints have may well be called Jo- 
seph, it brings assm-anoe of mercy to be added ; such is 
the high privilege of the saints : every mercy that a 
wicked man has, he may look upon as his utmost, his 
all, he may write a tie plus ultra upon it. One misery, 
one judgment upon a wicked man makes way to an- 
other, but not one mercy : however God in the riches 
of his forbearance may extend mercies to him, yet it is 
more than he should expect, and he has rather cause to 
wonder that he has received so much, than reason to look 
for more. But God ever ch-aws out liis loving-kindness 
to his saints. " Continue thy loving-kindness unto 
them that know thee ; and thy righteousness to the 
upright in heart," Psal. xxxvi. 10. Fii'st, The good 
which others receive fi'om God is bount)', patience; but 
that which the saints have is loving-kindness. Secondly, 
That which others have is in no way tied to them by 
promise, but that which the saints have they have by 
promise, it is righteousness. Psal. xxiii., Thou makest 
me lie down in green pastures, thou anointest my head 
with fresh oU, my cup rxmneth over. Here is much ; 
but is this all ? no, ver. 6, " Sm-ely mercy and goodness 
shall follow me all the days of my life." "What we 
read of David in 2 Sam. v. 12, is very observable ; from 
God's prospering him in his present way, he draws an 
argument to assure himself for the future, that his 
kingdom was established to hun : why ? did not Saul 
prosper at the begiiming of his reign, as well as David ? 
and yet it was no e\ddence of his establishment : but 
David could see God's mercy coming to him after an- 
other maimer than Said could. AU mercies the saints 
have, come fi-om the covenant in which there is a most 
rich treasm-e of mercies, a blessed connexion of mercies. 
The covenant between David and Jonathan was, 1 Sam. 
XX. 15, That loving-kindness must not be cut off from 
the house of Jonathan. The covenant between God 
and the saints is. That lo\ing-kindness shall never be 
cut off fi-om them, but the links of mercies shall be 
fastened one to another, so as to be coeval with etcrnitv. 



Mercies to the saints proceed from love, and mnov 
nescit yiimium, love Itnows no such thing as excess. 
The saints, understanding this mystery in the deaUngs 
of God's grace toward them, follow on to seeking his 
face then, especially, when he is most in the way of 
mercy ; whereas the men of the world, who know not 
tliis, seldom seek after mercy, but in times of affliction, 
when God is in a way of justice and wi'ath: this is their 
foUy. 

Infinite reason there is, O ye saints of the Lord, 
that one duty should be but an inlet to another, seeing 
mercy ever succeeds mercy. Here lies the great dif- 
ference between performing duties from the strength 
of common grace, and from the power of sanctifjing 
grace ; in the one, the spirit after a few efforts is wearied, 
and thinks it may now rest ; but in the other, the veiy 
doing still increases strength, and incites the heart to 
greater activit)'. But may not security promise con- 
tinuance of mercy ? Yes, but if so, then when affliction 
comes, the heart will sink from an apprehension of ' 
continuance in miseiy, as before it hoped for continu- 
ance of mercy. 

"WTien then may we assure om-selves that oiu- mercies 
are doors of hope to further mercies ? 

Fii-st, "^lien they are created mercies, wrought by the 
more immediate hand of God. Generation may be im- 
perfect, but creation never: onme creatum est perfeclum. 
" Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us ;" what is the ar- 
giunent ? " for thou also hast WTOught all oiu- works in 
us," Isa. xxvi. 12. 

Secondly, "N^Hren they are spii-itual mercies. Ezek. 
.xxxix. 29, " Neither will I hide my face any more from 
them ; " what is the ai'gument ? " for I have poiu'ed out 
my spuit upon the house of Israel." But is not this 
yom- private opinion that this argument will hold? 
No, the words following are, " Thus saith the Lord God." 

Thirdly, when mercies carry us to the God of mercy, 
and are tm-ned into duties. As if we can tui'n our duties 
into mercies, that is, accoimt every duty a mercy, it is 
a good argument that we shall persevere in duty ; so 
when we can tui'n mercies into duties, that is, make 
every mercy an engagement to duty, it is a good argu- 
ment that mercy will continue to aboimd. 

But are there not inteniiptions many times in the 
coiu'se of God's mercy to his own people ? 

It must be granted, that an interruption may some- 
times occiu", as after Israel's retiu'n from eaptivitv' and 
beginning to biuld the temple, fi'om vaiious hinder- 
ances seventy years elapsed before it was finished ; but 
though there may be a temporary interruption, yet the 
work ceases not entirely ; there is still strength in the 
grace of the covenant sufficient to carry it on, and per- 
fect it at last. By ceasing in one way of mercy, God 
prepares for another ; the very ceasing in such a way 
may be a mercy. "We om"selves at tliis day are a sad 
spectacle of the inteiTuption of the course of God's 
mercies towards a nation. Mercy, that fonnerly shone 
in her beauty upon us, now seems in a great measure 
to have withdrawn the beams of her glory ; om' door 
of hope, wliicli we thought so wide open, appears almost 
shut against us. I dai-e not say that it is shut, lest I 
should wrong the present grace of God yet continued 
to us. But, 

1. Sm, yea, om' many and fearful sins, lie at this our 
door. Gen. iv. 7. 

2. A crowd of difficulties seem even to stop up the 
door, they come thi-onging still to it, as if they would 
certainly shut it against us. 

3. As the prophet, Ezek. xi. 1, 2, saw " at the door 
of the gate five and twenty men ; " among whom there 
were some " princes of the people who devised mis- 
chief, and gave wicked counsel in the cit)- :" so may we 
at this day see many, even of the chief ones, devising 
miscliief, and giving wicked counsel, by which they 



136 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



labour to shut, yea, to lock and bolt up tliis our door 
of hope. 

4. \Ve hoped that this our door of hope would liave 
been like the doors that entered into the oracle, of which 
we read, 1 Kings vi. 31, 32, made of the olive tree, yea, 
the side posts and lintels of olive tree, and carvings of 
palm trees and cherubims, all overlaid with gold ; but 
now our door seems to be of uon, and the way to our 
help and mercy must be through the iron gate, we 
must get to it by suffering hard things. 

5. Our door that was wide, at which mercy began to 
flow in freely, now seems to be straitened, and we must 
be content to strij) ourselves of a gi-cat part of our 
estates, of many of our outward comforts ; yea, we must 
venture them all, and judge ourselves happy " if by any 
means at length " we may crowd in. 

6. Yea, our door-posts are like the Israelites' in 
Eg>-pt, besprinkled with blood ; the keeping up our 
means of mercy has cost us much blood, and may cost 
more. 

7. Now when we knock, and would step in, the dogs 
bark at us, and are ready to fly upon us ; yea, the 
servants, yea, some of our brethren, are discontented 
with us, fro-rni upon us, and speak against us. 

8. Alas, we have rejected the right key that should 
have opened this our door ; no marvel, then, though we 
stand blundering before it and it open not to us. What 
is that right key which would have opened it before 
this time, had we made use of it ? That " key of David" 
that we read of, Kcv. iii. 7, which " o])cneth and no 
man shuttcth." This key the church of Philadelphia 
had, therefore it follows, vcr. 8, " I have set before thee 
an open door, and no man can shut it." 

But what is this key of David ? 

It is the ruling power of Jesus Christ in his chui'ch. 
David in his government was a special tj-pe of Christ, 
tlie first godly king over the people. Government is 
emblematically set forth by a key : thus, Isa. xxii. 22, 
God promises to commit the government to Eliakim by 
tliis expression, " The key of the house of David will 
I lay upon his shoulder." And in Isa. ix. 6, 7, the 
government is said to be upon Christ's shoulder, and 
he sits upon the throne of David. It is worthy of re- 
mark, that to Eliakim there was promised only the key 
of the house of David ; but to Christ, the key of David 
himself: the one was to govern but as a steward, the 
government of the other was to be princely. If we had 
been like the church of Philadel])hia, united in bro- 
therly love, and had this key of David amongst us, we 
might before this time have had set before us an open 
door that no man could have shut ; but woe unto us ! 
how many amongst us say of Christ, " We will not 
have this man to njle over us ! " Mr. Brightman, more 
than thirty years ago, compared this church of Phila- 
delphia with the church of Scotland, apjilying it typi- 
cally to set forth the dealings of God toward that chvirch 
in after-times ; and, indeed, in many things they have 
been similar. 1. They are both Philadelphians, united 
in a brotherly covenant, no churchrs in any kingdom 
more. 2. It was said of Philadelphia, it had but a lit- 
tle strength, and yet it kepi God's word. AVhat churches 
in any nation have been more eonlcmptiblc than those 
in Scotland ? They have been accounted a poor, beg- 
garly jieople, despised of all, and yet God has enabled 
them to do great things. 3. God has caused their ene- 
mies to come and bow before them, and to know that 
tie has loved them ; even those who said " they were 
Jews and were not," that they were the only church, 
when indeed they were " the sjTiagogue of Satan ;" and 
they have rejected false government, and received much 
of the government of Christ ; the key of David is more 
amongst them than in any kingdom in the world : no 
wonder, then, that their door be so opened through 
God's mercy, that none can shut it. Oui- houses of 



parliament have cast away the false key, the Lord de- 
liver them and us from ever meddling with it any more, 
whatever befall us. They have, moreover, professed 
their desire to inquire alter the true key. This door 
of hope, we trust, will open to us in due time, so that 
none shall prevail to shut it. 

9. AVe have lost many fair o]iportunities for the 
opening this door, and we cannot look back upon them 
without trembling heai'ts ; wc may see cause to lament 
their loss with tears of blood. Even ah'cady it lias cost 
us much, and is likely to cost much more blood. 

10. Yea, woe unto us! our Father comes forth and 
seems to be angry with us, and commands the door to 
be shut against us, yea, he shuts us out himself. Is not 
that complaint of the church's truly ours, " O Lord 
God of hosts, how long wilt tliou be angrv with the 
prayer of thy people ? " Psal. Ixxx. 4. If God be angry 
with our knocking, what shall we do ? 

1 1 . And well may God command the door to be shut 
upon us, for we have shut it upon ourselves. This our 
door of hope has a spring lock, and is easily closed, 
but cannot so easily be opened again : we have stood 
wrangling and struggling one with another, and shut 
the door upon ourselves before we were aware. Hos. 
vii. 1, belongs as truly to us, as ever it did to Israel; 
" When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity 
of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Sa- 
maria." When the Lord would have healed England, 
then its iniquity has been more fully developed. The 
vilest spirit of malignity against godliness, against the 
saints, against the way of Christ in his ordinances, now 
rages. Men care not though they ruin themselves, 
bring themselves and posterity to be bond-slaves, so 
they may but gratify themselves in the sujiprcssion of 
the godly. The controversy now is almost ^rown to 
such a height, that the kingdom divides itself into those 
who have some show of religion, and the haters of it. 
The times comjilaincd of in Micah vii. 5, are even oiurs ; 
" Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a 
guide : keep the door of thy mouth from her that lietlj 
in thy bosom :" yea, we are almost come to the pass 
s])oken of in the 4th verse, " The best of them is a 
brier : the most ujjright is sharper than a thorn hedge." 
There is much frowardness and perverseness even in 
the best, many contentions and grievous breaches 
amongst them ; they cannot endure you should be jea- 
lous of them, and they give you cause of jealousy daily. 
The greater part of this generation show themselves to 
have spirits so defiled with superstitious vanities, and 
so imbittered by a sjiirit of malignity, that we may fear 
God has no pleasure in the generality of it : yea, Closes 
and Aaron have sinned, the best have so sullied them- 
selves with antichristian pollutions, that it were just 
with God that this whole generation should be first 
taken away, and that the young, who have not so defiled 
themselves, should have this door info Canaan opened 
to them, that they only might go info and possess that 
good land, but our carcasses fall in the wilderness. 

Ye godly youths, whose hearts began betimes to 
yearn after Christ, know that his heart yearns after 
you : and although some of you may fall fighting for 
your bretliren, and so be received into heaven ; yet you 
arc of that generation to which God will ojien this door 
of mercy, you shall go in and possess Canaan, all this 
valley of .\ehor is but a door of nope to you. Continue 
then in your sincerity, and God will reveal liimself more 
fully to you than he has done to us. If wo be cut off 
before those treasures of mercy that God lias ready for 
his ])cople be opened, we must accept of the punishment 
of our iniquity, and even bear tins indignation of the 
Lord, because we have sinned against him. 

12. Yea, the Lord has struck us with blindness at the 
door, we gro])e up and down and cannot find it. Gen. 
xix. 11. Never were a peojde at a greater loss, or in 



Vee. 15. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



137 



greater confusion, than we now are ; every man runs his 
own way, and we know not what to do, nay, the truth 
is, we know not what we do. 

13. Many, because they have found some difficulties 
at the right door, have gone away from it, and sought 
back doors to help themselves by, even base, false, 
shifting, treacherous ways, seeking to comply for their 
o^^•n private en-ds, as if themselves must needs be saved, 
whatsoever becomes of the public. 

14. This enhances our misery, that we are gi'oping 
up and down at the door, and night is coming upon us, 
storms and tempests are rising, dangers are approach- 
ing, and yet God opens not to us. 

15. Above all our misery, this is yet the greatest, 
that even our hearts ai'e shut up too : were they open, 
our condition had still comfort in it ; but there lies a 
stone rolled at their door, and such a stone, as is be- 
yond the power of an angel to remove. 

AVhat then shall we do ? 

1 . Let us yet resolve to wait at this door, wait upon 
God in those ways of help which in mercy he still 
affords us : certainly we are at the right door ; let us 
then say with Shecaniah, " AVe have trespassed against 
our God : yet now there is hope in Israel concerning 
this thing," Ezra x. 2. Let us resolve, whatever be- 
comes of us, not to go from our Father's door ; if we 
perish, let us perish at his gates. 

2. It is said, Ezek. xlvi. 2, 3, " The prince shall worship 
at the threshold of the gate," and " the people of the land 
shall worship at the door :" so let us worship the Lord 
at this our door, though we be not entered in ; let our 
hearts bow before om" God in acknowledgment of his 
greatness, power, dominion over us, to do with us 
what he pleases. 

3. Let us look in at the key-hole, or at any crevice 
that we can, to see somethmg of the riches of mercy 
into which this door opens. AVe may discern within, 
liberty of conscience, enjoyment of ordinances, the 
blessing of God's true worship, and the ways of God 
and his saints made honourable in this kingdom, in a 
higher degree than any where upon the face of the 
whole earth ; we may see too many sweet outward 
liberties, the free enjoyment of our estates, peace, 
plenty, and prosperity in abundance : all these, and 
more than we can think of, would appear, if this door 
were but once opened to us : however, it is good to look 
in, to quicken our hearts meanwhile, and to excite more 
strongly our desires and cndcavoiu's. Oh how happy 
were we if we possessed these mercies ! 

4. Let us knock louder still, and cry still louder at 
our Father's door. But did not you tell us our Father 
seemed to be angi'y at om- knocking ? Yes, but mark 
what we have in that very scripture, where the church 
complains that God is angry with her prayer; Psal. 
Ixxx. 4, " How long wilt thou be angry against the 
prayer of thy people ? " Yet, ver. 14, " Return, we be- 
seech thee, O God of hosts : look down from heaven, 
and behold, and visit this vine : and, ver. 19, " Turn us 
again, O Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine ; 
and we shall be saved." 

5. Let every one sweep his own door, and take away 
the sins that contribute to stop up this avenue of hope. 
"Again have I thought in these davs to do well unto 
Jerusalem and to the house of Juclah : fear ye not." 
But mark what follows ; " These are the things" that ye 
shall do ; Speak ye every man the truth to his neigh- 
bom- ; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your 
gates : and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts 
against his neiglibom-," Zech. viii. 15 — 17. Both pri- 
vate men and men in public place must reform. How 
far are we from this ! Never more plottings, more 
heart-burnings one against another, and those'^ in pub- 
lic station neglect the execution of judgment; they 
would stretch their policy beyond God's wisdom. God 



joins these two together, the execution of judgment 
and peace, and commends one as a means to the other ; 
but they aim at something more, they will not execute 
judgment for fear of the breach of peace. It is just 
with God that we should never have peace till we can 
trust God for it in his o'wn way. 

6. Let us seek to God again, and call to him for the 
right key. Lord, reveal the way of thy worship and thy 
government to us, and we will yield ourselves luito it. 

7. Let us stir up ourselves against all difficulties. 
Things are not yet so bad, but we may help ourselves 
if we took courage. Our Father hears us, he can com- 
mand many angels to come to help to roll away the 
stone ; yea, he has opened divers doors to us already. 
AA''e are indeed come to the iron gate, yet the Lord can 
make that at length fly open of its own accord ; as, in 
Acts xii. 10, the church was praying, and after the 
prison doors were opened to Peter, and he had passed 
the iii'st and second ward, lie o*me to the ii-on gate that 
led unto the city, and there he found as easy passage 
as any where else. " In the mount will the Lord be 
seen." 

8. Let faith act as well as prayer ; let us exercise 
faith in the blood of Christ ; let us, as it were, be- 
sprinkle this our door with the blood of the Lamb ; 
yea, look up to Christ as the true door to all mercy. 

9. Let us now especially watch all opportunities of 
mercy, and take heed we no more neglect, as we 
have many times most inexcusably, lest hereafter we 
knock and cry, " Lord, open to us," and it px-oves too 
late. 

10. Let us open to God who knocks at our doors, if 
we would have him open to us. God knocks at the 
door of every one of our hearts, let us set all wide open 
for him. " Lift up your- heads, O ye gates ; and be ye lift 
up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall 
come in," Psal. xxiv. 6, 7. Those who do thus are the 
true generation that seek the Lord. Let England open, 
for God yet stands at the door and knocks, and if we 
will jet open to him, he wiU yet come in and sup with 
us, and we shall sup with him. It is true, God rebukes 
and chastens us severely ; so he did Laodicea at the 
time when he stood at her door and knocked. Rev. iii. 
19, 20. If any church was like to that of Laodicea, it is 
ours ; we have been lukewarm as she was ; a mixtm'e in 
God's worship has been amongst us, more than in any 
other reformed church ; we have been a proud people, 
thought ourselves rich, and wanting notlring, whereas 
we knew not that wc were indeed ■OTetched, and miser- 
able, and poor, and blind, and naked ; and those who 
would be the angels of this church, how has God spued 
them out of his mouth, and cast them forth as an, 
abominable thing! AVith all that belonged to their 
courts, they have made themselves loathsome. He is 
now at our door and knocks, calling to us to let him in, 
that he may come and rule us, and bring peace and 
salvaiion unto us ; but, however, whether Christ be ad- 
mitted by the state or no, yet let the saints who are 
willing that Christ sliould rule over them, hold on to 
the end ; the promise is, even to those in Laodicea, " To 
him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my 
throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with 
my Father in his throne." 

11. Let us encourage, as far as we are able, all our 
faithful dom--keepers, those who are the public instru- 
ments of God for om- good, and upon whom, under God, 
so much of the great affairs of the kingdom depends. 

And for the quickening of our licarts that we may 
do all we can, that this our door of hope be not shut 
against us, consider further, 

First, This door was opened to us when we began to 
think, yea, almost to conclude, that all doors of hope 
had Ijeen shut against England, and were ready to give 
up all for lost. 



138 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IL 



Secondly, It was opened to us after much knocking 
by prayer. If ever there was a parliament of ])raycr 
since the world began, this was, and is. How dread- 
ful then would it be to have this door shut against us ! 
Thirdly, It was opened by a mighty hand of God. 
Josephus tells us of a door of the temple that used to 
have thirty men to open it, and yet, as a prognosti- 
cation of some great occunencc, it opened of its own 
accord. This our door was more hard to be opened ; 
thousands of men could not have prevailed, it was work 
for the mighty hand of God to effect. 

Fourthly, It is a door which opens to the greatest 
mercies that ever England had : how happy would Eng- 
land be in the happy success of this parliament ! 

Fifthly, It is a door which our adversaries have la- 
boured all they can to shut, by policy and by force ; but 
hitherto, through God's mercy, they have laboured in 
vain. 

Sixthly, How sweet have the manifestations of God 
been to us, in the beginnings of his goodness, and in the 
infancy of our endeavours ! " My beloved put in his 
hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved 
for him. I rose up to open to my beloved ; and my hands 
dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smell- 
ing myrrh, upon the handles of the lock," Cant. v. 4, 5. 
The hand upon the door is sweet ; what then would the 
work completed be ! 

Seventhly, If this door should be wholly shut against 
us, what a miserable people would we be ! If these men 
have their wills, then never expect parliaments more, 
nor any good from parliaments ; they will be the most 
contemptible and servile things imaginable, doors to 
let in all miserj-, agents to legalize miscliief. Then 
what would we and our posterity be, but slaves ? The 
popish party must, yea, would, be gratified, and their 
designs efiiected : what contempt of the saints and of 
religion would ensue ! what hatred ! what persecu- 
tion ! what hoi-rid blasphemies ! how will they be 
hardened in all manner of wickedness ! oiu: estates, our 
liberties, our religion sacrificed ; yea, perhaps our very 
lives, and if not, so miserable would our existence be, 
that it were better to have the grave open her mouth 
upon us and shut us in, than to live to see, and hear, 
and feel such things as we and our friends are like to 
hear, and see, and feel. 

It would be the most horrid judgment that ever befell 
a nation, a thing to be told to all the kingdoms of the 
world: God gave England a fair opportunity to help it- 
self, to be a most happy nation, but they had no hearts, 
they were besotted, blinded, their heai-ts taken from 
them ; the worthies whom they chose, and who ven- 
tured themselves for them, they basely deserted and be- 
toayed : moreover, they vilely betrayed themselves, their 
liberties, their religion, their posterity, and are now 
become the most miserable nation, tfie most fearful 
spectacle of God's WTath, upon the face of the whole 
earth. Wherefore, beloved in the Lord, let us at all 
risks make sure of Christ, who is our hope, and who 
saith of himself that he is " the door ; " as mdeed he is, 
to let in upon us all the mercies of God, that however 
oiU' hones here be fi-ustrated, yet we may not be disai)- 
pointeu of our last hopes ; and that though it should 
prove that here, looking for light, behold darkness, yet 
when looking for the light of God's face eternally, "we 
may not be driven out into the blackness of darkness 
for ever. But shall I end thus ? nay, the close of all 
shall rather be the close of the 31st Psalm, " Be of good 
coiu-age, and he .shall strengthen your heart, all ye that 
hope in the Lord ; " hope yet that God will make our 
valley of Achor a door of hope unto us. The next 
words in the ])ro])hecy before us are words of joy, 
" She shall sing as in the days of her youth." 'NN'as 
there ever a time wherein England had cause to sing 
praise unto God ? there are times coming that shall be 



as joj-ful as ever yet times have been ; God hath mercy 
in store for his people, he hath singing times for them. 
" And she shall sing there, as in the days of her 
youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the 
land of Egj-pt." 

You heard of the valley of Achor, which God gave 
to his people to be a door of hope. This day you shall 
hear oi God's people standing singing at tJiis door of 
hope. Though it be but a door of hope, yet at that 
day she " shjill sing there, as in the days of her youth, 
and as in the day when she came up out of the land of 
Egy-pt." 

There are six things needful to be opened, for the 
meaning of God's mind here, in their singing at the 
door of hope. 

First, The reading of the words ai'e to be cleared. 
Secondly, The sco])e is to be showed. 
Thirdly, 'What the days of youth here spoken of are. 
Fourthly, What was the song of the aays of their 
youth. 

Fifthly, '\r\Tiat cause they had to sing in this, the day 
of their youth. 

Lastly. How this is applicable to repenting Israel, 
and what time this prophecy aims at, aie likewise to 
be manifested. 

I. The reading of the words. There are only two 
words that require explanation. 

First, the word ti'anslated singing. Secondly, that 
which is ti'anslated, coming out ot the land of Egypt. 

The word for singing the Sept. trans- 
late, She shall be humbled ; a sense very '"""'""•laerai. 
difierent from what is in our books ; but I find several 
translate the words so ; amongst others, CjtII and 
Theodoret, who explain it, that she shall be humbled 
by the Assj-rians as she was before humbled by the 
Egy-ptians. But certainly this is not the meaning of 
the words, for it is spoken of ascending or coming up 
out of the land of Egypt. But they might easily mis- 
take in rendering the words, because the 
Hebrew signifies both to be humble, and i„ uj. huSuirii, 
to sing ; as it is usual with that language, I^J^f iSurtiJl"f"Ml, 
by the same word to express contrai-y i''«i- cc«mit, c»au- 
things ; thus "ina signifies both to bless 
and to curse, and many similar might be named. 

The word translated singing, signifies also "she 
shall answer," and it is so rendered by some, as CjTil 
and others observe on this. " She shall answer as in the 
days of her youth." A\1iat answer did she make ? 
Thus, God in the days of her youth, when she came 
out of Egj-pt, declared to her his covenant ; " Now 
therefore," saith God, " if you will obey my voice in- 
deed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar 
treasure unto me abo%-e all people :" a sweet promise 
to all in covenant with God, that they " shall be a pe- 
culiar treasure unto me above all people," Exod. six. 
5. Now, ver. 8, "All the people answered together, 
and .said, AM that the Lord hath spoken we will do." 
And some would explain the pa.ssage before us by re- 
ferring to tliis ; as if the meanmg were, "WTiereas God 
in the days of their youth told them, that " if they 
would kecj) his covgnant," they should be " a peculiar 
treasure unto him above all people," and they all with 
one consent answered, " -AH that tlic Lord hath spoken 
we will do ; " so, saith God, when I shall again convert 
them to myself, I will renew my covenant with them, 
and u])on my setting it before them they shall finely 
and willingly answer, Lord, we accept of this thy cove- 
nant. Thus some interpret the passage; and the expo- 
sition is very sweet. 

But we shall join both these significations of the 
original together, which I take indeed to be the mean- 
ing of the Sjjirit of God : they shall sing by way of an- 
swering ; thus, tlicy were wont to sing alUrnis charts, 
in theii' joyful songs to answer one another, his prirci- 



Vek. 15. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



139 



nentibus, aliis succinentibus, some singing before, and 
some answering, a canticum dramaticum, or a kind of 
song admitting of alternate responses. And thus, 
saith God, shall be the melody of my people, when I 
am again reconciled to them upon their repentance, 
there shall be mutual singing ; one singing to another, 
and the others answering in a joyful way. 

The other word requiring explanation is, nniSy 
" when she came," that is, ascended " up out of the 
land of Egj-pt.'' They may be said to have ascended 
out of the land of Egjqjt, partly because Egj-pt was a 
country that lay very low; but chiefly because they 
were in a low condition, their lives being made " bitter 
with hard bondage." 

II. The second tiling to be showed, is the intent of 
the Spirit-of God : they shall sing as in the days of 
their youth, when they ascended out of the land of 
Egj'pt. Read it so, and 

It is a ftu-ther expression of the nuptial solemnity 
that there should take place between God and his people, 
ia the time of then- reconciliation, as if he should say, 
Man'iage is an ordinance I have appointed for the 
mutual joy and delight of the man and his wife ; so I 
wUl bring you and betroth j'ou to myself, and there 
shall be the singing of the Epithalamium, the nuptial 
song, between us, and I wiU rejoice over you. Think 
with yourselves the greatest joy that ever you experi- 
enced in your lives, and I v\'ill realize it all to you. 
AMiatever mercies you received when you came out of 
the land of Egy^5t, and rejoiced in, you shall hereafter 
enjoy again. Did I then appear in a miraculous way 
to you ? I will do so again. "Were mercies long pro- 
mised fulfilled, blessings long prayed for bestowed ? 
you shall receive the like again. Did Moses and 
Mu'iam go before you singing, and you follow after, 
making melody in yom' hear-ts unto the Lord ? the like 
time shall come again, when both governors and people 
shaU join together in singing and praising the name of 
the Lord. 

ni. "Wliat is meant by "the days of her youth?" 
Tliis is the same that is afterward expressed by " the 
day when she came up out of the land of Egj-pt," that 
is, the time when they were delivered out of bondage, 
after they had passed thi'ough the Red Sea, and seen 
the great works of God m their deliverance. " I re- 
member thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of 
thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wil- 
derness, in a land that was not sown," Jer. ii. 2. When 
this people were delivered from Pharaoh, and saw the 
great works of God in the wilderness, that is the season 
of then- youth. Li the time of thehf bondage they did 
not outwardly appear to be the Lord's ; but when God 
manifested himself so gloriously m their deliverance, 
then he took them, as it were, again to be his people, and 
they seemed to be bom again, and the years they passed 
in the wilderness were God's training time. For a 
people under bondage can scarce be said to be born, 
they are at least in that prison but as the embryo in 
the womb, they cannot be said to be a people, a livmg 
people. Hence, chap. xiii. of tliis prophecy, when they 
were in bondage under Jeroboam's wicked commands, 
it is said, ver. 1, that they died ; " "V^Tien Ephraim spake 
trembling, he exalted himself in Israel ; but when he 
offended in Baal, he died." 

But here a question arises : How can God refer to 
this time, and tell them they shall sing as then, whereas 
in the beginning of the chapter we find, that when God 
thi-eatens them, lie tells them he wUl set them as in the 
day wherein they were born ? so that there to be brought 
again into the same condition, would apjjear to imply 
a threatening ; how can it here be a promise ? 

Vt'e may answer. It is very ti'ue, when they came up 
out of Egj'pt was indeed a time of much merev, but 
still thev were in great straits with regard to outward 



means, a succourless and helpless people. Allien there- 
fore God thi-eatens to set them as in the day wherein 
they were boni, he only refers to their former destitute 
condition with regard to creatui-e-helps ; but when he 
promises mercy, and tells them he ^vill bruig them into 
the state they were in in their youth, he rather looks at 
all the loving-kindness shown them in their deliver- 
ance out of Egj-pt. As it is a great affliction for a 
people to be brought into the same condition they 
once were in, that is, to have all the sour and bitter 
without any of the sweet ; so it is a great privilege for a 
people to be brought into a former condition, when they 
shall have all the blessmgs without the ciu'sings ; when 
God shall take away all the bran, and give them only the 
piu-e grain, strain out aU that is evil, and give them all 
that is good. Such mercy the promise before us holds forth. 

IV. AMiat the song was tliat they then sang m the days 
of then- youth, when they came out of the land of Egj-pt. 
That song you find, Exod. xv. 1, " Then sang Moses 
and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord," 
&c. ; and afterwards you read that " Mu'iam and all the 
women" sang likewise. In this song of thch-s there 
are these five things observable. 

Fii-st, This song of iloses, Exod. xv., was the most 
ancient that we know of. Orpheus, Musteus, and 
Linus, the earliest of the poets, were five hundred years 
after this time. 

Secondly, It was a song of triumph; "Then sang 
Moses and the chikken of Israel, The Lord hath tri- 
umphed gloriously," &c. \Mien they saw God's judg- 
ments upon the adversaries, then they sang in a ti'i- 
umphant manner. But you wUl say. How coidd they 
sing thus when they saw such a di'eadful spectacle 
before then- eyes, the Egj'ptians so miserably destroyed ; 
when they heard their shrieks and doleful cries, and 
beheld tlieu- bodies cast upon the sea shore ? shall 
Moses and the people of Israel sing then, and ti-iumph 
over then- adversaries thus fearfully perishing ? To 
that we answer, We must not be more pitiful than God 
is ; " The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the 
vengeance : he shall wash his feet in the blood of the 
wicked," Psal. Iviii. 10. 

But you wdl say. This is austerity, they are cruel- 
hearted people who could do so. 

Not so. Closes was the meekest man that ever lived 
upon the face of the earth, the most full of tender com- 
passion ; yet Moses sang thus when he saw the Egyp- 
tians destroyed : so that to rejoice in God's judgments 
against the ungodly, may consist with meekness and 
quietness of sphit, -mith a loving and sweet disposition 
as Jloses had. It is true, we ought not to insult over 
wicked men in way of revenge on our ovra account ; but 
when we consider the righteous judgments of God on 
his adversaries, we may be swallowed up in the con- 
sideration of his justice, and rejoice in it ; but so, as 
not altogether to be without some pity and commisera- 
tion of the persons perishing; as Titus Vespasian is 
said to have wept when he saw the desti-uction of 
Jerusalem, though a hostile city. But there is a time 
coming, when afl the sauits shall be so swallowed^ up 
mth God, that they shall rejoice in the desteuction, 
yea, in the eternal damnation, of the wicked, without 
the lease mixture of pity or commiseration ; they shall 
wholly have a regard to'God and his glory without con- 
sideration of them ; yea, though they were the fruit of 
then- o-mi bodies, and came out of then- oati loins. But 
for the present, though we are to rejoice and tiiumph 
in the works of God and his judgments upon the wicked, 
yet our joy is not to be unmixed -srith feelings of pity 
and compassion towards the persons of the sufierers. 

And mark by the way, the difierence with which God 
regards his own people and the wicked. "\^lien God's 
people come to be in a distressed condition, if there be 
any that dare to rejoice over them, God will avenge 



a:s exposition of 



Chap. U. 



himself on them; yea, if they do but look upon his 
afflicted servants with any kind of satisfaction, the Lord 
will be avenL'cd on them' for it. But when the wicked 
are destroyed, God not only gives us leave to look at 
them, but to rejoice and sing praises to God for theii' 
destruction. Thus, Obad. 12, "Thou shouklcst not 
have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that 
he became a stranger ; neither shouldest thou have re- 
joiced over tlie children of Judah in the day of their 
destruction." Mark, God has a quarrel agamst them 
who only looked upon the day of their brother's dis- 
tress ancl rejoiced. But when destruction comes upon 
the enemies of God, then the people of God may look, 
and rejoice, and triumph. 

Thirdly, It is a song most excellent, in regard of the 
elegance of the expressions, and variety of the matter. 
There is great force and beauty in the expression, ver. 
1, "He hath triumphed gloriously," or, He is become 
gloriously glorious, or. In magnifying himself he hath 
magnified nimself j or, as some render it. He is mag- 
nified above the magnificent. All God's works are 
glorious, but some are gloriously glorious ; and so is 
the work of God toward his ])eo])le. Rivet observes on 
this. The greatest glory of God, in which he is most 
glorious, is in doin" good to his own people : so, adds 
he, great men sliould account theii- true gloiy to con- 
sist, not in spoiling others, especially those that are 
their own, but in doing good. In Isa. xiv. 20, a dis- 
honourable burial to the king of Babylon is threatened, 
" because," saith the scripture, " thou hast destroyed thy 
land, and slain thy people :" yea, the threatening is 
continued to his seed, " the seed of evil-doers shall 
never be renowned." 

Again, the abstract tcnns employed are verj- elegant, 
thus, " Tlie Lord is my strength and song, and he is 
become my salvation." 

So, beside many other instances, that elegant cpipho- 
nema, with which he breaks forth in the midst of the 
song, though it would more properly liave been intro- 
duced at the close as a summarj' of all the rest ; " AMio 
is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods ? who is 
like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing 
wonders ? " 

Fourthly, A prophetical song, not only nan-ating the 
past, but prophesymg of what is to come : " The dukes 
of Edom shall be amazed ; the mighty men of Moab, 
trembling, sliall take hold upon them," &c., ver. 15. 

Fifthly, A tj-jiical song, that is, a song pre-signifying 
the rejoicing of God's people in after-times, when the 
saints shall overcome antichrist, and the song of Moses 
shall be sung over again. Of those that overcome the 
beast. Rev. xv. 2, li, saith they sung " the song of 
Moses," that is, tliey sung that song of whicli this of 
Moses was but a type. 

Sixthly, A miraculous song, according to some ; so 
Augustine, l)e Miral)ilibus Scripturic, 
tionc digrium min- calls it, a mlraclc worthy of unlimited ad- 
'""""■ *"«""• miration. 

MTierein did he think the miracle of this song to 
consist ? 

In this ; he imagined that both Moses and all the 
people were at once inspired bv God to sing this song : 
which idea has been received by some ; but as we have 
no authority for this from Scripture, we rather tliink 
that God nispired Moses only, and the rest of the 
people followed him as he sung. 

I note it the rather, because hereby we may see that 
singing is an ordinance in the church of God, not only 
in tlie time of the law, but in the time of the gospel ; for 
this place, " she shall sing as in the days of her youth," 
refers to gos])el times. Therefore, not only when one 
jnan has an extraordinary gift (as the Scripture speaks, 
if any one hath a ])salni, an extraordinai-y gift n\ the 
congregation of making a psalm) he should sing ; but 



others are enjoined to unite with those who have the 
gift of making a psalm ; so were the people to do here. 

V. The reason of their singing thus in the days of 
their youth. It was briefly this, they sang on account 
of the great deliverance they had experienced out of 
Egv-pt. Observe, 

First, They then sang because of their freedom from 
outward bondage. Bondage imjilies three tilings. 

1. That a man is under the power of another, under 
some law, without liis consent given, either explicitly 
or implicitly. 

Here you may see the difference between a free sub- 
ject and a slave ; the former, as in England, is not bound 
to any laws of men, as men's laws, liut such as some 
way or other he gives his own consent to ; whereas the 
l^ter, like the Tiuks, are subject to the mere will of 
their rulers. 

2. That a man serves another, aiming to satisfy his 
wUl alone, without any reference to his own benefit. 
A slave is forced to obey thus, although there is natur- 
ally no such distance between man, that one should 
serve another, without respect to his own good. Such 
a distance indeed exists between God and us, and the 
more we are swaUowed up in aiming at God, and the 
less at ourselves, it is the better and more reasonable 
service ; but as regards our fellow creatures, it is far 
otherwise. In England, therefore, when any thing is 
gi-anted to the king, it is usual to send up some other 
bill for the good of the subject, thus giving the ruler 
somewhat, but withal expecting some benefit from him 
in return. Indeed in our very service to men we arc 
to aim at God, and in the condition God has put us, to 
seek to glorify him, more tlian to provide for ourselves; 
but as regards man only, we are not bound to serve 
him, further than with respect to ourselves, and the 
good of others. AN'herefore subjects may know that 
they are not made merely for the will of those above 
them ; they indeed render them obedience, but do it 
for the good they expect from them. 

3. That a slave is forced to serve with rigour ; his 
service is not one of love. 

Now the people of Israel were under bondage in all 
these three respects. Fii-st, they were forced to serve 
without any consent at all. Secondly, they who go- 
verned them, cUd not at all aim at their good ; it con- 
cerned not them ; Let them perish as dogs, we will have 
our work done, and well done too. AVhen men govern 
so as to care not what becomes of thousands of others, 
provided they may have their own wills satisfied, this is 
to make free subjects bond-slaves. And thirdly, all was 
done with rigour ; the Egvptians " made their lives 
bitter witli hard bondage," ^ut cared not for Israel's 
love. Wherefore when freed from these three things, 
they sang, and they had cause to do so. 

Secondly, They sang when they came out of the land 
of Egypt, because they were not only in bondage in 
Egjlit, out in bondage under such a ^ing. For, con- 
sider this, and surely to be delivered from such a one 
afforded abinidant matter for rejoicing. 

1. They were bond-slaves to a king of another nation. 
Sometinjcs regard for country and kindred moves com- 
passion ; but of Israel, being strangers, he desired merely 
to get his own turn served, and cared little what even- 
tually became of them. 

2. They were bond-slaves to a king whose rule was 
arbitrary, and his will the law, wlio imposed what tasks 
he pleased, the numlx-r of bricks they should make, and 
when he jilcased took away their straw, and yet tied 
tlieni to making the number. He govemed them not 
by law, but by will. 

3. They were in bondage under a cruel king, who in 
the Scripture is called a dragon, on account of his cru- 
elty ; " I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egjpt, the 
great dragon," Ezck. xxix. 3. 



Veh. 15. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



141 



4. Tliey were in bondage to an unnatural king. A 
progenitor of the Israelites had saved Egj^it from 
perishing, and the king and his family from destruction ; 
yet now, without any regard to former services, the new 
king who " arose up over Egj^pt" " made their lives 
bitter with hard bondage." 

5. They were in bondage under a king, in whose 
eyes they were impui-e and unclean. " The Egyptians 
might not eat bread with the Hebrews ; for that is an 
abomination imto the Egyptians," Gen. xliii. 32. 

6. They were in bondage under a wilful king. We 
scarcely read of any one so set upon his wUl as this 
king was. Judgments were denounced and executed 
in vain, his language stQl was, " I will pursue, I will 
overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shaU be satis- 
fied upon them ; I will di'aw the sword, my hand shall 
desti'oy them," Exod. xv. 9. Something similar has been 
remarked of the king of Babylon, but of none else ; and 
the text refers partly to then- deliverance fi'om under 
the king of Babylon also; as if he shoidd say, You sang 
jo)fidly when you came up out of Egj-pt, because you 
were delivered from such a cruel, wilfuJ king; you shall 
sing so once more, for you shall hereafter be delivered 
from a like bondage : for though all the ten tribes came 
not back, yet it was in part fulfilled to many of them. 

7. They were in bondage under a lung suspicious 
and jealous, lest they should "multiply" and rise up 
against him, Exod. i. 10. It is a sad thing when there 
are such suspicions betwixt a king and his people, that 
they cannot confide in and trust each other. Well 
might they sing therefore in the days of then- youth, 
when they came up out of the land of Egji^t. 

Thii'dly, They sang when they came up out of the 
land of Egypt, because they were then freed from hin- 
derances in the exercise of religion ; as !Moscs told 
Pharaoh that they could not sacrifice in Eg^i-jjt, but 
must go three days' journey into the wilderness to sacri- 
fice unto the Lord their God, Exod. viii. 25 — 27. 

Fourthly, They sang, because theii' deliverance out 
of Egj-jjt was wrought with a might)- hand: " The Lord 
hath triumphed gloriously," hath been gloriously glo- 
rious, Exod. XV. 1 ; and, ver. 6, " Thy right hand, O 
Lord, is become glorious in power." The " hand of 
God" is God's strength, the "hand of God in power" 
implies something more, and still more " God's right 
hand in power ;" but, " the right hand of God is glorious 
in power," is a most forcible expression, denoting the 
greatness of the work -nTOught by God in their deliver- 
ance : and to enhance it stdl more, it is said, ver. 16, 
" by the greatness of thine arm;" not only God's hand, 
but his ann, and " the greatness of his arm," were en- 
gaged on their behalf. In ver. 7, there is a phrase 
more expressive stiU, " in the greatness of thine excel- 
lency," in the multitude of thine elation, or proud lift- 
ing up of thyself (for the word translated excellency 
there signifies pride also) ; and God indeed in this 
wrought for his people in the multitude of his excel- 
lency, that is, in a manner which combined in it a mul- 
titude of glorious works, which if you could analyze, 
you would find each replete with a multitude of glo- 
rious excellences. AVell might they sing, when God 
did manifest himself thus. 

Fifthly, They sang when they came up out of the 
land of Eg\-])t, because this mercy was the fulfilling of 
a ])romise made long before. " At the end of four hun- 
ch-ed and thirty years, even the self-same day, the hosts 
of the Lord went out of the land of Eg\-pt ; " which 
refers to a promise, and shows us that "God kept his 
word to a very day. Hence, Exod. xv. 2, " He is my 
God, I wUl prepare him an habitation ; my fathci-'s God, 
and I will exalt him." As if he would say, O Lord, 
thou didst make promises to our forefathers", and now 
thou hast fidfiUed them to us, thou art our God and 
our fathers' God. 



Sixthly, It was a mercy got by much prayer. They 
cried unto God by reason of their afflictions, Exod. iii. 
7 ; and then' prayers being now answered, their hearts 
rejoiced. 

Seventhly, It was a mercy succeeding a sore and long 
bondage. 

Eighthly, It was a mercy precursive to an entrance 
into Canaan ; therefore this they mention as the especial 
cause of the joy of theu- hearts, in ver. lo, " Thou hast 
guided thy people in thy strength to tliy holy habit- 
ation;" and, ver. 17, "Thou shalt bring them in, and 
])lant them in the mountain of thine inheritance." The 
Holy Ghost speaks here as if the thing were done al- 
ready ; O Lord, thou hast indeed granted unto us a great 
mercy in delivering us out of Egvpt, but herein we 
especially prize it, as bringing us to thy holy habitation, 
and planting us at length in the momitain of thine in- 
heritance. 

Now, saith the Lord, you shall sing as you did then ; 
look, whatever causes you had then for rejoicing, you 
shall have the same when I am reconciled to you. 

VI. The time referred to when this was fulfilled, is 
the last thing requiring explanation ; and this pr-)phecy 
seems to relate to fom' periods. 

First, It began in some degree to be fulfilled at their 
return out of captivity from Babylon. Though it is 
true, few of the ten tribes retm-ncd ; yet it is clear from 
Scripture, that many of them did then rejoice in the 
first-fruits of this mercy. The whole of Isa. xii. is a 
song, blessing God for their return ; " Jehovah is my 
strength and my song, he also is become my salvation." 

Secondly, In reference to spiritual Israel, it is applied, 
as in Ilom. ix., to the calling of the Jews and Gentiles 
together, when the gospel was fii-st preached. Jews 
and Gentiles being then called home, became the spi- 
ritual Israel of God, and there was singing : " And 
again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people," 
Rom. XV. 10. 

The third period referred to, is the delivery of God's 
people from under the tjTanny of antichrist, t)i)ified 
by that of the Egyptians : " And I saw as it were a 
sea of glass mingled -with fu-e : and them that had got- 
ten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and 
over his mark, and over the niunber of his name, stand 
on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And 
they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and 
the song of the Lamb, saj^ing. Great and marvellous 
are thy works, Lord God Almighty ; just and true are 
thy ways, thou King of samts. Who shall not fear 
thee, Lord, and glorify thy name ? for thou only art 
holy : for all nations shall come and worship before 
thee ; for thy judgments are made manifest," Rev. xv. 
2 — 4. In this song, which I make no question but the 
scripture before us refers to, there are divers things ob- 
servable. 

Fii-st, The singers were those " that had gotten the 
victoiy over the beast, and over his image, and over his 
mark ; " that is, a full victory, not only abominatmg 
anticlirist himself, but the very image or character of 
him, any tiling whereby they might seem to allow of 
him, to be o'mied by him. 

Secondly, They stood upon " a sea of glass mingled 
with fii-e." The sea of glass I find interpreted, Chris- 
tiau doctrine ; so called for its clearness ; though not so 
clear as afterward it should be, for there is some dark- 
ness even in glass, but clear in compai-ison of what it 
was before, for, 2 Kings xxv. 13, the sea was of 
brass, which is far thicker and more opaque. But 
there was fire mingled with tliis sea of glass ; that is, 
though they had a clearer doctrine than before, yet 
there were many contentions in the chm-ch through 
diversity of opinions, and much division even amongst 
the godly. It is a sad condition indeed, yet not un- 
usual, especially when doctrines are first cleared, to 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IL 



have great contentions arise in the church among godly 
men. It is no wonder that they should differ in opinion, 
yea, and contend with some heat of spirit, when the 
light first breaks forth. AVhen men arc in the dark 
thev sit together, and walk not at such a tUstance from 
each other ; but when light comes, it cannot be expected 
but there will be differences. But yet, raai-k, the godly 
then did not reject the doctrine, because there was fire, 
heat of contention, mingled with it ; but, " stood on the 
sea with their harps in their hands," professing the 
doctrine, and rejoicing that ever they lived to have the 
gospel so clearly revealed to them. 

" And they sing the song of Moses," and not only of 
Moses, but "the song of the Lamb" too. \\Tiat was 
tliat ? First, " Great and marvellous are thy works ;" in 
that we see we are delivered from antichi'istian bondage, 
as the people of Israel from Egyptian, with a mighty 
hand of thine : oh it is a marvellous work of God that 
we are thus freed. Therefore know tlxis, that whenso- 
ever the church shall be dehvercd from antichristian 
bondage, it shall be by an extraordinary manifestation 
of God's power ; and let us not be discouraged, because 
we meet with some trials by the way, for oxir deUver- 
ance would appear as nothing marvellous, except our 
difficu'.ties were many and great 

Further, " Just and true are thy ways." God, in that 
dehverance, will show the fulfilling of all his promises, 
and will fully satisfy the hearts of his people who have 
been a long time seeking him, and suffering for him. 
Whereas tlie adversaries, who, because of the for- 
bear.-i,".;;, and long-suffering manifested towards them, 
thought there was no God in heaven that regarded 
them, but scoffed at the fastings, and prayers, and faith 
of the saints, will find that God avengetli his own elect ; 
and the hearts of the saints, ready to faU, at last shall 
say, " Just and true are thy ways ;" Lord, we now sec aU 
thy good word fulfilled, all thy promises performed; 
now we see it is not in vain to seek thee, and to wait 
upon thee, for "just and ti'ue are thy ways." 

"Thou King of saints." God is indeed the King 
of the world now, and the King of his saints ; but the 
glory of Clirist's kingdom, being now obscured by the 
surrounding shades of this world's sin and guilt, its 
manifestations do not shine forth so brightly as they 
will then a])pear. We have somewhat indeed of his 
priestly and prophetical office discovered to us, but very 
tittie of hLs kinglv ; but when God shall fully deliver 
his people, then shall they magnify Jesus Christ as in 
very deed the King of saints. 

Lastly, "Wlw will not fear thee, thou King of na- 
tions, " for thy judgments are made manifest :" as if they 
should say, AVe see now it is good to fear God, he has 
now made a difference " between him that feareth God, 
and him that feareth him not." The angel, John saw 
fljnng " in the midst of heaven, having tlie everlasting 
gospel to j)reach," cries, " with a loud voice. Fear God, 
and give glory to him," Rev. xiv. 6, 7. The fear of God 
will powerfullv constrain the hearts of the saints in 
those times. This is the song of Moses to which tliis 
scripture refers ; and they shall thus sing, as Israel did 
in the daj's of her youth, when she came up out of the 
land of Egy^t ; yea, and their song shall be much the 
more glorious one. 

The last period this prophecy refers to, is the great 
calhng in of the Jews. Then the Scripture saith, " liver- 
lasting joy shall be upon their heads : tliey shall oljtain 
gladness and joy ; and sorrow and moiuTiing shall flee 
away," Isa. li. 11. They shall sing as those who will 
mourn no more in tiiis world, on account of the malice 
and rage of adversaries. This was not fulfilled at tlieir 
return from the Babylonish captivity, but the Scripture 
is explicit about its accomplishment even in this world : 
Rev. xxi. 4, is almost a repetition of the words of the 
prophet ; " God shall wipe away all tears from their 



eyes ; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, 
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain." The 
foi-mer things shall be passed away for ever, and they 
shall sing, as they did in the days of their youth, when 
they came up out of the land of Egypt 

From these remarks many important observations 
will flow. 

Obs. 1. It is a great mercy for ])eople to be dehvered 
from outward bondage. It will be found a gieat mercy, 
when the world shall be delivered from their outward 
bondage, and men shall see that they were bom free- 
men, and not slaves ; and tliat the world was not made 
for twenty or tliirty to do what they pleased in, and to 
account all the rest as beasts, yea, dogs ; as if the lives 
of thousands might be recklessly squandered for the 
gratification of their humours and lusts. When men 
shall become sensible that they are subjects and not 
slaves, men and not beasts, and so shall not suffer 
tliemselves, like beasts, to be driven at the will of 
others, this will be a great mercy. 

But to be delivered from antichristian bondage, is a 
greater mercy than it was for the children of Israel to 
be delivered from their Egy^jtian bondage. For, 

First, AVe read not of any attempt in Egypt to bring 
their consciences under the thraldom of any false wor- 
ship. Pharaoh did not thLs, but antichrist forces to 
idolatry. 

Secondly, Though Pharaoh imposed heavy tasks and 
burdens, yet he did not kill them ; at length indeed he 
commanded their fii-st-boni to be slain ; but tiie people 
of Israel themselves continue to exist, though with 
their lives made bitter by hard bondage. But anti- 
christ thii'sts for blood ; papists are men of blood. 

Thh-dly, It was the affliction of God's people to be 
in bondage in Egypt, but not their sin ; but to be in 
bondage under antichrist, is not only an affliction, but 
it is sin, and that of a high nature. 

Fourthly, Though under Egyptian bondage, yet they 
were delivered fi-om Egyjitian jwagues ; but those who 
are under antichristian bondage, shall come under an- 
tichristian plagues. " Come out of her, my people, 
that ye receive not of her plagues," Rev. xviii. 4. You 
must' not think to escape as they did out of Egypt; if 
you stay in that bondage, you will be involved in their 
plagues. How, therefore, should we regai'd those who 
would bring us into this bondage again, when God has 
begun to revive us a little ! " O my lord the king," 
(saith Jeremiah,) "let my supplication, I ])ray thee, be 
accc])ted before thee ; that thou cause me not to return 
to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there," 
clia]). xxxvii. 20. So let us cry to the King of heaven 
and earth, O Lord, our King, let our su])plication be 
accepted before thee ; since we are begun to be de- 
livered from that bondage, cause us not to return to 
that house again. 

Obs. 2. A reconciled condition is a singing condition. 
\Mien there is a harmony between heaven and the 
soul, between God and a smner, there is sweet melody 
indeed, there may well be singing. "The ransomed 
of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs 
and everlasting joy upon Uieir heads," Isa. xxxv. 10. 
And chap. xliv. 23, " Sing, O ye heavens ; for the Lord 
hath done it : shout, ye lower parts of the earth : break 
fortii into singing, ye mountains." " We being justi- 
fied by faith have peace with God," saith the apostie, 
and not only rejoice in hope of the glory, but we even 
" glor>- in tribulation also." Having peace with God, 
though war wiUi all the world, we rejoice. 

Obn. 3. It is a great mercy when magistrates and 

{leoplc join together in praising God ; when Moses 
icgins, and Miriam and the leaders of Israel follow, 
and then all the people join in, and answer one another 
in their singing. AAlien that day shall come that God 
shall stir up the hearts of the magistrates and the groat 



Vee. 15. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



143 



ones amongst us, to sing hallelujahs to him that sitteth 
upon the thi'one, and to the Lamb for evennore ; and 
when he shall so move the hearts of the people, that 
they shall answer one another in their singing, and 
join, with one accord, in this sweet melody ; this will 
be a blessed time indeed. Now, perhaps, in one place 
there is singing and blessing of God for what is done ; 
in another, cm"sing and blaspheming against those en- 
gaged in praise. Some men's hearts are rejoicing, 
whilst others fret and rage when they hear of the great 
things God is doing ; and this discourse has rent asim- 
der, not only the political, but the social relations of 
life. Such is oiu' condition at this day, but there ai-e 
better times coming, when oiu' Moseses, our Aarons, and 
Miriams, and aU our people, shall join together in sing- 
ing praises to our God. 

Obs. 4. Thankfulness to God for mercy implies joy- 
fulness. A sad, gi-umbling, discontented spu-it consists 
not with true thankftdness of heart. God wUl not ac- 
cept, in tliis sense, of tlie bread of mourners. It is 
grievous to his Spirit, that we should hang uji our harps 
and be sad in the midst of abundance of mercies. 

Obs. 5. T^^lcn God brings into sti'aits, yet if he sanc- 
tify them and make them means of good to us, wo have 
cause to rejoice. " She shall sing there." Where? At the 
" door of hope "in " the valley of Achor ;" that is, that 
God would make the greatest troubles and afflictions of 
his chmx'h to be a door of hope, an inlet to mercy. 
" Li the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams 
in the desert ; and the parched ground shall become a 
pool, and the thirstj' land springs of water." AMiat 
seemed most conti'ary to you, I will make to work for 
yom- good, saith God ; and " then shall the lame man 
leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing," Isa. 
XXXV. 6, 7. Though our tongues be dumb, yet it should 
make us sing when we sec God bruiging good out of 
e^il ; and things that of themselves tend to our ruin, 
and would reduce us to miseiT, that are as the valley of 
Achor, yet rendered by his mercy a door of blessed 
hope. If men, we ougHt ; if Clu'istians, though dumb 
before, we must sing and teU of all his lovdng-kindness. 

Yea, this overruling prowdence is introduced as an 
argument to sti'cngthen the weak hands and the feeble 
knees, and as a reason why those who are faint-hearted 
should not fear; but stay themselves upon God, who 
biings sweet out of bitter, good out of evQ. " Say to 
them that are of a fearful heart. Be strong, fear not, be- 
hold yom- God will come with vengeance, even God 
with a recompence : he will come and save you." 

Are we in " the valley of Achor," a place of trouble 
and straits ? we have cause to sing even there, for we 
have not yet been brought into any difficulties which 
God has not overnded for oui' good ; he has tiu'ned 
" the parched ground into a pool, and the thirsty land 
into springs of water." And it is om' great sin, that 
when God calls us to smging, we are dejected and cast 
down, and ready to conclude that " aU these things are 
against us." Oh no, God calls you to suiging, notwith- 
standing all yom- difficulties. " " Sing, O heavens ; be 
joyful, O earth ; and break forth into singing, O moun- 
tains : for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will 
have mercy upon his afflicted." But mark now what 
follows : " But Zion said, the Lord hath forsaken me, 
and my Lord hath forgotten me." At the very time 
when the Lord was calling them to singuig, even then 
they were concluding of rejecting. Let us take heed 
that this be not our condition. 

Obs. 6. "WTien the Lord is beginning with liLs saints 
in the ways of his mercy, though they have not all they 
desire, yet is theii-s a smging condition. That is, that 
valley of Achor was some special mercy, which God gave 
at ffl-st as a door of hope to further mercies which he 
had in store, and there they should sing. Though you 
be but brought into the valley of Achor, and only at 



the door of hope, and not yet entered in, nor gotten 
possession of all the mercy God intends for you, yet he 
expects you should sing. You must not stand com- 
plaining and murmm-ing because you have not all that 
you desu-e ; though God makes you wait at the door, 
you must wait there singing. It may be said of his 
mercy as of his word; " The entrance of thy word giveth 
light," Psal. cxix. 130; so the entrance of God"s works 
of mercy gives hght. And Psal. cxxxviii. 5, " Yea, they 
shall sing in the ways of the Lord : for great is the glory 
of the Lord." In the ways of the Lord they shall sing, 
though their day be but still the day of small tilings. 

Because we stand at the door miu-muring and quar- 
relling one with another, whereas God expects that we 
should wait there singing and praising his name, is cer- 
tainly one great reason why our door of hope is not yet 
fully opened, or, at least, that we have not that abund- 
ant entrance into it which we desu-e. Yet, though the 
mercy we look for should be reserved for the generation 
that shall follow, we have cause to bless God that ever 
we lived to this day, to see so much of God as we have 
done. Let us then stand singing at om- Father's door ; 
and if we must sing at the foot of Zion, what song shall 
we sing when we come to the height ! " They shall 
come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow 
together to the goodness of the Lord," Jer. xxxi. 12. 

If God is dealing with any of you in a way of mercy, 
though you can see but a little light through the key- 
hole, yet you should sing there. There are many poor 
souls, with whom God is beginning in very gracious 
ways, )-et because they have not then- minds enlightened, 
their hearts humbled, as they desn-e, complete power 
over coiTuptions, and ability to perform duties ; are pre- 
sently ready to conclude against themselves, Surely the 
Lord will not have mercy, we are rejected. They tliink 
they have nothing, because they have not all they de- 
su-e. O unthankful heart ! this is the very thuig which 
keeps thee under bondage ; because, when the Lord 
is setting open a door of hope to thee, thou wilt not take 
notice of it, but art presently mm-mui-mg and repin- 
ing, because aU thy desu-es are not fulfilled. Wouldst 
thou enter in at this door, and have God perfect the 
mercy he has begun ? be observant of the beginnings, 
and bless God for what thou hast. 'This woidd be of 
marvellous use to many a ch-ooping soul, if it taught 
them, by this day's coming hither, to sing- hereafter at 
the door of hope. 

Obs. 7. It is often the condition of God's ovm people, 
when &-st made free, to be in a singing condition, but 
afterwards to lose then- joy. " She shall sing there, as 
ill the days of her youth." A\1ien God's mercies were 
new to them, in the days of their youth, oh how theu' 
hearts were affected! how then with joy and gladness 
sang Moses and all the people ! but in process of time 
it appears they kept not up this singing, tliis making 
melody in then- hearts ; therefore God promises they 
should sing as in the days of theii- youth. 

We find it so when people first come out of a state of 
bondage to enjoy chiu-ch hberties. How they rejoice 
in them ! how they bless God for them ! how sweet are 
these mercies to then- very hearts ! they rejoice that 
ever they lived to tliis time ; but soon the flower of 
then- youth is gone, and the " teats of then- vu-ginity 
bruised." At fn-st, indeed, oh the sweetness, the blessed 
condition that God has brought us to, to have these 
liberties and ordinances according to liis own way ! 
But stay a while, and you shall find contention or scan- 
dal ai-ising among them, or deadness of heart befalUng 
them ; and we may say, as the apostle to the Galatians, 
" Where is then the blessedness you spake of? " Gal. 
iv. 15. They " would have plucked out their eyes " for 
Paul. "\\Tiat is become of all now ? All then- beauty 
and glory is quite faded. Let us take heed that, when 
our hearts seem raised and strongly affected by mer- 



144 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



eics, -n-e do not soon lose the vigour and -warmth of 
our zeal. 

Wien the city of Berne -was first delivered from anti- 
christ, they \^Tote the day of their deliverance upon 
pillars, with letters of gold. AVas it not so with us in 
England? 'WTicn mercies were fresh we rejoiced iu 
them exceedingly. I will only instance that deliverance 
U])on the fifth of November ; how mightily were both 
king and parliament affected with it ! their hearts elated, 
and blessmg God for having saved them from papists. 
Then there were prayers and thanksgivings set forth, 
and in them this expression against poperj-, " Whose 
faith is faction, whose religion is rebellion, whose praCi 
tice is murdering of souls and bodies." A\Tien the mercy 
was new, how did their spirits work ! then they jiro- 
tested against all kinds of po]ieiT. From the procla- 
mation about the solemnity of that time, and the ex- 
pressions in the prayers then set forth, one would verily 
think that popery could never more have prevailed in 
England; who would have deemed it jjossible for a 
popish army ever to be countenanced in England again? 
Certainly, if it had been raised then, when men's feel- 
ings were so excited, all the people of the land would 
have risen and beaten them to pieces, if it had been 
but with clubs. 

It is so with many young persons, when God first 
begins to work upon their hearts ; oh how zealous are 
they for the Lord ! then their spirits are mightily up 
for Christ. " O satisfy us early with thy mercy ; that 
we may rejoice and be glad all the days of our lives,"' 
Psal. xc. 14. It is a sweet thing when the latter part 
of that prayer foOows, when God satisfies young people 
with his mercy, and that satisfaction abides, so that they 
rejoice all the after-days of then- lives in him. The 
Lord many times satisfies young ones with his mercy, 
but they quickly grow dead and cold ; their hearts soon 
become hardened and polluted, and they cease to re- 
joice. 

Obs. 8. Restored and recovered mercies ai-e veiT 
sweet and precious. " She shall sing as in the days of 
her youth." They were once in a sweet singing con- 
dition, but liad lost it ; and now God promises to recover 
them. '• Oh that I were as in months ]iast, as in tlie 
days when God preserved me ; when his candle shined 
upon my head, and when by his light I walked through 
darkness ; as I was in the days of my youth, when the 
secret of God was upon my tabernacle !" Job xxix. 2 — 4. 
The patriarch desired this earnestly, that he might have 
restored, recovered mercies. A\Tiat a happv condition 
should I be in, saith he, if it were now wtli mc as in 
the days of my youth ! May not many in this ))lace 
say so ? God has been gracious to them in former days, 
given them many sweet manifestations of his love, many 
soul-ravishing communications of himself ; but oh, how 
have thev lost them ! They may well say. Oh tliat it 
were with us as in flie days of our youth ! Oh that 
God would restore to us the mercy we once had ! how 
blessed then would be our condition ! 

But God here gives a gi'acious ])romise that he will 
restore tliem, that he will grant them the i)Ctition of 
David, '-Kcstore to me the joy of thy salvation," I'sal. 
li. 12: Lord, I have lost it; oh that I might have it 
again ! how happv sliould I be ! So Psal. cxxxvii. 1,2, 
" By tlie rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we 
V ept, wlien we remembered Zion. AVe hanged our hai-ps 
upon the willows." If one had come to tliem and said, 
AVhat will you say if you be restored and go to Zion 
iigain, and have songs there, as many and as delightful 
as before ? Theii' hearts could not but have leaped for 
joy. This mercy would be hke the wine mentioned 
Cant. vii. 9, so sweet that it " causes the lips of those 
tliat ai'e asleep to speak :" if there be any lite left, such 
a mercy would raise and animate it. " When the Lord 
liuTied again the captivity of Zion, we were like them 



that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, 
and our tongue with singing," Psal. cxx«. 1; 2. As a 
poor prodigal, who, ha-vmg left his father's house and 
become reduced to want, misery, and bondage, sits down 
beneath a hedge, wringing his hands, lamenting the loss 
of his father's house, and, considering what comfort he 
had in that father's presence, exclaims at his own folly 
and madness : if one should then come and say to him. 
Your father is reconciled to you, and sends for you home, 
and promises to put you into as comfortable a condition 
as ever ; what heart-music would this cause ! Thus 
God promises to his people, that he will restore them to 
their former singing condition. 

Obs. 9. Promised mercies are sweet mercies. " Bless- 
ed be the Lord God of Israel ; for he hath visited and 
redeemed his people, and hath raised up an horn of 
salvation for us in the house of his servant David; as 
he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets," Luke i. 
68 — 70 : and ver. 72, " To perform the mercy pro- 
mised ;" there is the cause of singing. Blessed be the 
Lord God of Israel, that hath performed the mercy 
promised. 

The declaration of a promise is sweet to a gracious 
heart, it can sing then ; much more sweet is the promise 
fulfilled. 2 Cluon. xx. 17, "Stand ye stUl, and see the 
salvation of the Lord;" there is the promise. Mark 
now how Jehosha])hat and the people were affected with 
it : ver. 18, 19, " And .Tehoshaphat bowed his head with 
his face to the groimd : and all Judah and the inhabit- 
ants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshii)i)ing the 
Lord. And the Levites, of the children of the Kohath- 
ites, and of the childien of the Korhites, stood up 
to ])raise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice 
on liigh." And ver. 21, "He a])pointed singers unto 
the Lord, that should praise the beauty of holiness, 
and say, Praise the Lord ; for his mercy endureth 
for ever." Jehoshaphat had not the promise fulfilled, 
it was only made ; they had not obtained the victory 
over their enemies ; but only a promise that God would 
be with them, and presently Jehoshaphat and all the 
people began singing. A gracious heart sees cause 
enough to sing if it receive but a promise, but much 
more when it is enjoying the fulfilment. If the promise 
of a mercy has such sweetness in it, what sweetness 
then has the mercy of the promise ! 

Obs. 10. AVhen God appears remarkably, with a high 
hand in delivering his people, then the mercy is to be 
accounted precious indeed, and all the people of the 
Lord should sing and praise him ; as in Isaiah, when 
God had told of an extraordinary manifestation of mercy, 
I will plant them in the wilderness, and so on : then, 
saith lie, shall this be, that they may " see, and know, 
and understand, and consider, that the hand of the 
Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath 
created it." A\Ticn a thing is effected by God's hand 
immediately, which helps a ]ico])le much, he expects 
that they should see, and know, and consider, and un- 
derstand together: all these expressions are heaped one 
upon another. And if any |)eople be called to this, we 
arc at tliis day ; God has appeared extraordinarily to 
us. Oh that we had eyes to see ! oh that we had hearts 
to consider and understand, that we might give God 
the glory due to him ! 

Obs. 11. Mercies which have been much sought for, 
and to obtain which many cries have been sent up to 
God, when once granted, should cause us to sing his 
praises. The peo])le of Israel cried much before God 
granted them deliverance from Egj'jjt. " I liave heard 
their cry," saith God, Exod. iii. 7. And here, They shall 
sing as in the day w hen they came up out of tlie land 
of Egypt. " Thci/ sliall praise the Lord that seek him,'' 
Psal. xxii. 20. Tlic more we seek to God for any mercy, 
tlie more we shall praise him when we have obtained 
it. " Blessed be the Lord, because he hatli heard tlie 



Ver. 15. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



145 



voice of my supplications; my heart ti-usted in him, 
and I am helped." "WTiat follows ? " Therefore my 
heart greatly rejoiceth, and with my song wiU I praise 
him," Psal. xxviii. 6, 7. Because God had heard the 
voice of his supplication, therefore with his song he 
would praise him. The mercies we get by crying unto 
God are singing mercies indeed ; such as come to us 
only through a general providence, without seeking to 
God, are not so sweet : as Hannah said to Eli concern- 
ing her son, whom she obtained by prayer, (and there- 
fore named Samuel, that is, " Asked of God,") " As thy 
soul liveth— for this child I prayed ; and the Lord hath 
given me my petition which I asked of him." This she 
spake, triumphing in God's goodness. Mercies gotten 
by prayer may be triumphed in. 'WTien you want a 
mercy, pray much for it ; the more you pray for it, the 
more you will sing when you receive it ; and the less 
prayer that went before, the less praise will follow 
after. 

Obs. 12. Mercies which make way for the enjoj-ment 
of ordinances are truly sweet, singing mercies. They 
shall sing as they did when they came up out of the 
land of Eg)-])t. '\\Tiy did they sing then ? Because the 
deliverance from Eg^'pt made way for that richer mercy, 
the enjojTnent of God's worship in his ordinances, 
as appears from Exod. xv. 2 : " I will prepare him an 
habitation," saith Moses, rejoicing that Israel was now 
going on in the way to build God a habitation ; and 
ver. 13, "Thou hast guided them in thy strength unto 
thy holy habitation :" as if he should say, It is indeed 
a great thing to be delivered out of bondage, but it is 
only a foretaste of a higher mercy that we look for, 
that is, the guiding of thy people "in thy strength 
unto thy holy habitation ;" we look upon this present 
mercy of our deliverance, for which we now sing, and 
give thee praise, in this light ; and although. Lord, 
there are many difficulties between this and our coming 
to enjoy thy habitation, thou wilt guide us in thy 
strength, and cany thy people all the way through to 
the house of thy holiness : this made them sing so 
cheerfully. And again, ver. 17, " Thou shalt bring 
them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine in- 
heritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made 
for thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary, O Lord, which 
thy hands have established." So David, Psal. xxvii. 
4, " One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I 
seek after ; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord 
all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the 
Lord, and to inquire in his temple." This is a choice 
mercy, therefore all mercies that make way for it are 
indeed sweet. So we should look upon all our deliver- 
ances from outward troubles, and whatsoever peace 
God gives us, as sweet and comfortable preludes to this 
mercy of enjoying God's mountain, of living in God's 
habitation, that we mav dwell there all the days of our 
life. 

Obs. 13. New mercies should recall the memory of 
old. They shall sing as in the day when they came 
up out of the land of Egj-pt ; that is, I will grant to 
them yet further mercies, and these shall renew the 
memory of all the fonner ones they have enjoyed from 
me. As new guilt summons up the recollection of 
former transgressions, so new mercies recall the memoiT 
of former ones. Has God rescued you from any dan- 
ger now ? were you never delivered before ? if even 
when a child, the present deliverances should remind 
you of what you then received. So in a nation ; does 
God grant it any new mercy? this should bring to 
then- remembrance all the mercies they ever have re- 
ceived. " Bless ye God in the congi-egations, even the 
Lord from the fountain of Israel," Psal. Ixviii. 26. You 
who are ti-ue Israehtes, bless God now ; but in your 
praises, let present mercies be to you as streams to lead 
you to the fountain. Consider in order the whole series 



of them till you come to the source, even tliat covenant 
which God has made with Israel. 

Obs. 14. All former mercies to God's people should 
strengthen our faith in future ones. Why does the 
prophet remind them of coming out of the land of 
Egj-pt ? that he might help and strengthen their faith 
in believing the mercy which was to come. As if he 
should say, That God who has 'OTOught so wonderfully 
for you, in delivering you out of the land of Egypt, is 
able and willing to make good his word in granting 
you deliverance hereafter. Many scriptures confu-m 
this, as Psal. Ixvi. 6, " He turned the sea into diy land, 
they went through the flood on foot : there ihd we re- 
joice in him." Mark, " they went through the flood," 
and " there did we rejoice in him."' How did we rejoice 
in him ? it was many hunda-ed years after, that we re- 
joiced. But by the manifestation of God's great good- 
ness to his people in former days, our faith is strength- 
ened in his mercies for our times ; and " there did we 
rejoice in"' his leading of Israel tlu-ough the Red Sea 
upon dry land, as an argument to us of the power, 
goodness, and faithfulness of God. Again, Hos. xii. 4, 
" He had power over the angel : he found him in Bethel, 
and there he spake with us." Mark, " He had power 
over the angel : he found him in Bethel." Who " found 
him ? " Jacob, who lived many years before. But " there 
he spake with us;" not with Jacob only, but with us,- 
that is, whatsoever goodness the Lord showed to Jacob 
in Bethel, it concerned us for the sti-engthening of our 
faith. So, Matt. xx. 31, 32, " Have j-e not read that 
which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the 
God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God 
of Jacob ? " This was spoken to Moses many hundred 
years before ; but that expression of God's grace then, 
was a sti'engthening of the faith of the godly when 
Christ spake, and now confii-ms ours. 

Obs. 15. Mercies ought to be met with proportionate 
thankfulness. They shall sing as they did in the davs 
when they came out of EgT,-pt. I will grant you as 
great mercies as they had, and I expect as much" grati- 
tude : as they sung to my praise, so must you sing also.. 
God shows as much mercy to you now, as heretofore, 
and I appeal to you, nay, God appeals to yom- con- 
sciences, Is there proportionate thankfulness ? There 
has been a time when your hearts have been enlarged 
to ascribe praise to God, why should it not be so now ? 

Obs. 16. Deliverance out of Eg^'jjt is an ascending 
condition, as in the original, " They shall ascend out of 
the land of Egyjit :" as then God would never rest tiU 
he brought them up to Mount Zion; so when he begins 
to deliver his people from anticlu-istian bondage, they 
should never rest in their minds until they reach the 
height of their deliverance, that is, come to enjoy God's 
ordinances in his own ways, in the pui'ity and power of 
them. Our misery and baseness lead us upon some 
little deliverance presently to rest, whereas we should 
aim yet higher and higher, and expect that God would 
go on still with us, and exalt us in the ways of mercy, 
until he has brought us even to the top of Moimt Zion. 

Obs. 17. When God raises the spirits of people to 
rejoice in his mercy, and their hearts are warmed, in- 
flamed, and enlarged with his goodness ; tlien is the 
time, if ever, to set upon a thorough reformation, to 
cast out all the remainders of superstition, and every 
species of false worship. This observation is derived 
from the connexion of these words with what follows, 
" And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou 
shalt call me Ishi ; and shalt call me no more Baali ; 
for I will take away the names of Baalim out of her 
mouth, and they shall no more be remembered ; " that 
is. there shall lie a most glorious reformation, and so 
complete, that they shall be delivered from all the re- 
mainders of their idol worship, and not so much as re- 
member the very names of then- false gods. " Thou 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



shalt weep no more : he will be very gracious vinto thee 
at the voice of thy crj-," Isa. xxx. 19 : the Lord pro- 
mises abundance of mercy, tells them that they shall 
weep no more, and that he will be very gracious ; now, 
mark w hat follows in ver. 22, '■ Ye shall defile also the 
covering of thy graven images of silver, and the orna- 
ment of thy molten images of gold : thou shalt cast 
them away as a menstruous cloth ; thou shalt say unto 
it. Get thee hence." And 2 C'liion. xxx. 26, you find 
" there was great joy in Jerusalem " on the celebration 
of theu' passover, such joy as was not " since the time of 
Solomon." JMark then the beginning of the next chap- 
ter ; " Now when all this was finished," that is, when 
they had celebrated a passover so full, and had such 
abundance of joy as had not been in Jerusalem since 
the time of Solomon, " all Israel that were present went 
out to tlie cities of Judah, and brake the images in 
pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the 
high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benja- 
min." Their hearts were inflamed with the joy. and they 
went with fiiU pmijose of mind, and brake down the 
images, &c. And mark, it was Israel that did this ; 
" Israel went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the 
images in pieces, and threw down the liigh iilaces, and 
the altars out of all Judah." ^Miathad Israel to do with 
Judah ? Judah and Israel were divided ; but now their 
hearts were so inflamed for God, that they were not 
able to sufler any false worship among their brethren. 
Tliough it belonged to Judah, yet they would help their 
brethren to cast down all their images, and to cut do^Yn 
their groves and altars, when their hearts were warmed 
witli joy in blessing the name of God. In such a case, 
men will do much for God ; they will not stand ex- 
amining eveiT point, but commence work directly ; the 
joy of the Lord will be the strength of tlieir hearts. 
As when wicked men get together drinking, at feasts 
and in taverns, and their lusts become inflamed, what 
desperate resolutions to do evil are they filled with ! 
so when God's saints are exercised in his ordinances, 
and refreshed with the sweetness of liis love, when that 
lies glowing at their hearts, how resolved are they for 
God ! they can then do any thing for liim. Now the 
verj- names of Baalim must be taken away. 

Ver. IG, 17. ^nd it shall be at thai day, sailh the 
Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi ; and shall call me no 
more Baati. For I will take aicay the names of Baalim 
out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered 
by their name. 

Here we have a prophecy and promise of a thorough 
reformation of the church," as full as any I know of in 
Scripture. God has a time to refonn liis chm-ch tho- 
roughly, the very names of their idols and the remem- 
brance of them shall be taken away. This reformation 
is God's work, I will do it, saith God, " I will take away 
the names of Baalim." 

" Thou shalt call me Ishi, and shalt call me no more 
Baali." 

A\Tiy ? what great difference is there between these 
two names, Ishi and Baali, that God will have one, but 
not the other ? 

Both of them signify almost tlie same thing ; names 
very fit for a wife to apply to her husl>and. But Ishi 
comes from a word signifying strengtli, and the woman 
being the weaker vessel! therefore calls lier husband 
shi, my strength ; for the husband should be strength 
o the wife, he should live with her as a man of know- 
edge, be a protection to her, and lielp her in all her 
weaknesses and afflictions. Baali signifies my lord, as 
well as my husband ; it is a word denoting rule and 
authority, and marking the inferiority of the wife ; but 
Ishi has more love and familiaritv in it : now God 
saith he w ill be called Ishi, but uot"Baali. Vilix ? the 



word Baali is a very good word, and has a good sigm- 
fication, and is as proper to God as any name that 
can be given to him by the church (except that God 
forbade it here) : for when the chmch calls God Baali, it 
only means, O God, that art my Lord, my Husband, who 
art to rule and govern me : yea, and we find that God 
applies to himself this name,"lsa. hv. 5, " Thy Maker is 
thme husband ;" in the Hebrew, Thy ^laker is thy Baal; 
so that husband and Baal are the very same. But now, 
because they had abused this word Baal, and given it 
to theu' idols, therefore God would have it no more. 
As the word tyrannus was a name once for a king, 
kings were called tjTants, without any such bad mean- 
ing as now ; but because when kings had gotten the 
sole power into their own hands, they so often abused 
it to oppression, tlierefore oppressors were caUed ty- 
rants. So/«r, a thief, was once the ordinary term for 
a servant, /i<re« and «en;!'impl)-ing the same; but be- 
cause many servants were false and dishonest, there- 
fore _/«re* began to be altogether understood in tlie 
worst sense, and at length apphed only to thieves. So 
sophista, a sophist, was one who studied wisdom ; but 
because they so much degenerated, and many, under 
pretence of the study of wisdom, deceived others, there- 
fore the name sophist became equivalent to deceiver. 
I might instance many others. 

But fm-ther, God saith that he would " take away 
the names of BaaHm out of her mouth." May not we 
use then this word Baali ? 

Yes, it is not imlawful for us to use it, notwithstand- 
ing this, for the Holy Ghost long afterwards saith, " I 
have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have 
not bowed the knee to the image of Baal," Eom. xi. 
4. Thus it is mentioned and remembered even by the 
Spirit of God, therefore it is not a sin. Nay, not only 
the word Baal, but it is not unlawful to mention the 
names of any idols of the heathen ; for the Holy Ghost, 
Acts xxviii. 11, speaking of the ship Paul sailed in, 
saith, " whose sign was Castor and Pollux," the names 
of two heathen idols. And you may observe, that in 
our text the remembering is as much forbidden as the 
mentioning. Now if it were a sin merelv to mention 
the names of the heathen gods, it were a sm to remem- 
ber them ; therefore God means the mentioning of them 
honoris gratia, by way of honour, or without maiked 
detestation of them. 

From the words thus opened, there arise many ob- 
senations vei-j' useful and seasonable for our times. 

Obs. 1. There is much danger m words and names. 
You shall call me Ishi, I will not have you call me 
llaaU, I will not have that word used. The devU has 
obtained much by words and names, formerly by the 
word puritan, though men luiew not what it meant, 
and now by this new name that he has lately invented ; 
the devil has always some words, some names, in which 
he sees advantage to distinguish men. Speaking of the 
ways of religion in the lan<niage of superstition does 
much injur)-. Concerning this, we have a notable ob- 
servation from the papists themselves in the Rhemist 
Testament, in then- notes on 1 Tim. vi. 20, " Keep that 
which is committed to thy tiust, avoiduig profane and 
vain babblings;" so we translate it : they render it, pro- 
fane novelties, and obsene on it, " Let us keep our fore- 
fathers' words, and we shall easily keep our old faitli. 
The lieretics call repentance amendment, but let us" 
(say they) " keep the old word penance ; they call it the 
Lord's supi)er, but we will keep the old word mass ; 
tluy say communion table, but let us retain the word 
altar ; they use the terms elders and ministers, let us 
say priests ; they say superintendents, but let us retain 
the word bishop ;" (it is a Scripture word indeed, but 
not in the sense they use it, for in the Scri])ture sense 
everj- prcsbj-tcr is a bishop:) " they say sacrammit, let us 
keej) t lie words sacrifice and host ; they say congregation, 



Vee. 16, 17. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



147 



let us keep the word church ; they, morning and even- 
ing prayer, let us keep the words matins and evening 
song ; and so oblation, and Lent, and Palm Smiday, and 
Christmas day," &c. This was the policy of papists, and 
it has been the means many of us have used to bring in 
poper)". Let us take heed of this, for the devil is subtle 
in it, and though these words have some kind of good 
sense in the original, yet there is danger in the use of 
them. Augustine, in the preface to liis Commentary 
Meiior in ore ciiris- °° ^^^ Psalms, has this expression, " It 
tiano ritus loqucndi is a better thing for Christians to speak 
August, in Praf. accordiug to the manner of the chttrch." 

Enar. in Ps. scm. g^ ^^ ^^^y ^^^jj ^^^^ jj. ^^^ |jggj^ bcttCr, 

that in the mouths of protestants there had been the 
ordinary language of protestants, and not the language 
of papists. Certainly, if God had not been very merci- 
ful to us, the very language of papists that began to be 
used amongst us would have done abundance of mis- 
chief: and you should avoid it, and take heed, whatever 
pretence they ma}- have for then' words. In that place 
of the Ehemist Testament quoted, they say, " Let us 
take heed of the words of heretics ;" they there confess 
that heretics (as they call us) use many words which 
have no gi-eat danger in them ; but because they are the 
words of heretics, let us not (say they) use them : they 
are wise m thek generation, they wiU not use our words ; 
though they confess the words themselves contain no 
harm, yet because they consider them as om- proper 
language, distinct from themselves, therefore no catho- 
lics should use them. VThy shovJd not we be as wise as 
they ? 

Obs. 2. Idolatry is a most loathsome and abominable 
thing. "OTiy ? Surely that is most loathsome that we 
may not so much as mention, nor even remember. We 
must seek to abolish the very name, the very remem- 
brance, of idolatry as much as possible. We do not 
love the presence of one whom we hate ; if we hate him 
veiT much we do not love so much as to see him ; and if, 
perhaps, we see him afar off, om- hearts rise against him ; 
but if we cannot endure to name him, that is a greater 
degree of hatred ; and if not even to remember him, it 
evidences still more our hatred. Yet thus should it be 
in om- manifestation of om- hatred to idolati-y; we 
should not admit it into our company, much less then 
into the ordinances of God. We should not admit the 
sight, the name, no, not even the memoi-y of it. without 
much indignation. " Oh, do not this abominable thing 
that I hate," saith the Lord, Jer. xliv. 4 ; exclaiming 
emphatically, as, if any of you should see one ready to 
mm-der yom- child or yom- father, you woidd shi'iek 
out, Oh, what mean you to do ! do not such a horrible 
viUany as this. So God as it were cries out, " Do not 
this abommable thing." It is observable in the second 
commandment, that God saith. He wOl -(isit the sin 
upon the thii-d generation of them that hate him : 
none seem to love God more than will-worshippers; 
they not only worship God as he has appointed, but de- 
vise ways of their o-^-n ; and yet God charges the break- 
ers of no other commandment with hatred of him but 
these. _ As if God should say, Y'ou pretend love to me, 
in finding out new ways to worship me by you pretend 
decency and reverence, but I account it hating me, you 
principaic eiimen '^'"^ '^^ nothing provokc me more. Ter- 
tullian remarks, Idolatn- is the most 
heinous crime of mankind, it is the cliief 
guilt of the world, and the only cause of 
— """■ judgment in the world. 

It were good therefore, seeing God hates and loathes 
it so much, that we should hate and loathe it also, and 
therefore cast out even the name and memory of it ; it 
were a hap])y thing if the names .of popish, "as well as 
heathenish, idols coidd be banished from the chm-ch ; but 
I know not how it happens that we Clii-istians stdl^retam 
the use of them ; the verv davs of the week among us are 



Tertul. lib. de 



called by the names of planets, or heathen gods : not that 
I think it a sin, when it is the ordinai-y language of the 
world, to speak so as may be understood, for the apostle 
mentions the name of Castor and PoUux ; but if there 
could be an alteration by general consent, (as our bre- 
thren m New England have,) it were desirable ; and still 
more so, that om- children might not be educated in the 
use of heathen poems, whereby the names of heathen 
idols are kept up fresh amongst us : the papists them- 
selves acknowledge so much in the Rhcmist Testament, 
in then- notes on Eev. i. 10 : " The name Sunday is 
heathenish, as all other of the week-days, some imposed 
by the Romans after the name of jjlanets, some from 
certam idols which the Saxons worshipped, and to 
which they dedicated then- days before they were 
Chi-istians. These names the chm-ch rejecting, has ap- 
pomted to call the fii'st day Dominic, (the Lord's,) the 
others by the name of Feries, successively to the last day 
of the week, whicli she calls by the old name sabbath, 
because that was of God, and not by imposition of the 
heathen." And in their Annotations upon Luke xxiv. 
1, " The fii-st day of the sabbath ; tliat is, the fii-st after 
the sabbath, wliich is om- Lord's day. And fi'om the 
apostle, 1 Cor. xvi. 2, commanding a collection to be 
made on the fii-st day of the sabbath, we leam," (say 
they,) " both the keeping that day as the sabbath, and 
the church's naming the days of the week the 2nd, 3rd, 
and 4th of the sabbath, and so on, to be apostolical, 
wliich St. Sylvester afterward named the 2nd, 3rd, and 
4th Feriam." Thus you have the papists acknowledging 
the Lord's day to be apostolical, and the calling of the 
days of the week the second, the third, the fourth, iS;c., 
to be likewise apostolical. The heathenish Roman 
names of the days were taken from the seven planets : 
1. Sol, thence Dies solis, Sunday, dedicated to the 
sun. 2. Luna, Monday, dedicated to the moon. 3. 
Mars, Tuesday, dedicated to ISIars. Our Tuesday is a 
Saxon name, from Tuisco, who they say was, since the 
tower of Babel, chief leader and rider of the German 
nation, who, in honour of him, called this day Tuesday, 
Tuisco's day. 4. Mercurius, to whom Wechiesday is 
dedicated, and we call it so, is from the Saxons' Woden, 
who was a great prince among them, and whose image 
they adored after his death. 5. Jupiler, to whom 
Thursday is dedTcated ; so called by us from the Saxon 
Thor, the name of an idol which they anciently wor- 
.shipped. 6. J'^enus, to whom om- Friday, which name 
is given it ft-om Friga, an idol of the Germans. This 
idol was an hermaphrochte, and reputed to be the giver 
of plenty, and the causer of amity ; the same perhaps 
which the Romans called Venus. 1. Saturnus, dedi- 
cated to Saturn, whence om- Saturday; or, as others 
think, ft-om Seater, an idol of the Germans. Exod. 
xxiii. 13, we have this charge, "Li all tilings that I 
have said unto you, be cii-cumspect : and make no men- 
tion of the names of other gods, neither let it be heard 
out of thy mouth." And Psal. xvi. 4, David professes 
he ^\ill not take the names of idols into his lips. 

Obs. 3. In God's worsliip, even trivial things, any 
way tending to idolatn-, are to be avoided. The mere 
mention of the word Baali one would think to be one 
of the smallest things imaginable ; but yet we see God 
would have his people avoid even that. 

There is no commandment in which God speaks of 
himself as a jealous God, but in the second. Now 
jealousy, you luiow, not only causes one to be offended 
at some gross action, but with any tlimg tending to it ; 
as a husband, if jealous, watches suspiciously the very 
looks of his wife. So saith God m this commandment, 
"I am a jealous God;" to note, that though we should 
not agree to gross idolatry, yet if we do any thing that 
even tends that way, that faintly approaches supersti- 
tion, the Lord is jealous of that, and displeased even by 
such a thing. In his worship little thhigs are not to be 



148 



AS EXrOSITIOX OF 



Ciur. 11. 



contemned, when we come to deal with him we should 
conscientiously perform even the smallest. The Phari- 
sees, doubtless, when they washed their hands, and 
Christ would not wash liis, would he ready to accuse 
him of bein"; too scrupulous ; 'What ! is there any hai-m 
in the washing of a man's hands ? yet Christ would not 
wash his. Though this might appear a little matter 
before others, yet because it tended in some measure to 
show some respect to their superstitious observances, 
Christ would not consent. 

That noble servant of God and minister of the church, 
Marcus, bishop of Arcthusa, in the time of Constantine, 
caused the overthrow of an idol's temple. AVlien Julian 
came to be emperor, and forced the people of that place 
to rebuild it, they were ready to do it, but he refused ; 
whereupon the people over whom he had been bishoji, 
took him and stripped him of all his clothes, abused 
his body, and gave it up to the children to lance with 
their pen-knives, and then caused him to be put in a 
basket, and having anointed his naked body with honey, 
set him in the sun to be stung with wasps. All this 
cruelty they showed because he would not do any thing 
toward the building up of this idol temple ; nay, they 
were content to spare him, if he would do even the least 
thing towards it, or give the merest trifle : but though 
the aiding in the smallest degree the re-edification of 
that idol temple might have saved his life, he would not 
do it ; for a little thing in that which concerns the wor- 
ship of God in religion, is of more concernment than 
your life or mine. 

Theodoret recounts that Valentinian, who was after- 
wards emperor, going before Julian into the temple of 
the goddess Fortune, the priest had his holy water, 
(just as the papists, who imitate the heathen,) and as 
he sprinkled it upon Julian, there came by accident a 
di-op on Valentinian, who ]n'esciitly sh'uck the priest, 
and taking his garment, cut that part of it in pieces upon 
which the water had fallen. Some would say, Alas, why 
that ? It was but a little water that dropped on him, 
and that by accident ; yet, in detestation of idolatry, 
he cut in pieces that part of his garment. A\'e can- 
not show our hatred against idolatry fully, except 
we show it in little, as well as in things vei-y gross and 
vile. 

Theodoret, lib. 4. cap. 15, tells of the zeal of cliildren 
of Samosaten, who because a tennis ball with which 
they played had but touched the foot of the ass whereon 
Lucius, their heretical bishop, rode, they cried out it 
was defiled, and burnt it in the market-place. Hatred 
is much shown in little things. 

Obs. 4. It is the duty of all God's people, to keep 
themselves as free as ])ossiblc from all appearance of 
idolatry and superstition. Here they are forbidden so 
much as to mention the names of their idols, certainly 
therefore they must scrupulously avoid idolatry. AVe 
must not think it enough to say. Can any man convince 
us that this is idolatry ? Though it be not, yet if it 
borders on it, it is our duty to abstain. " There shall 
be no strange god in you," or " by " you, Psal. Ixxxi. 9. 
It is not only forbidden you to worship a false god. but 
you shall not even have a false god by you : as Deut. 
XXV. 13, when God would forbid the sin of injustice, of 
selling wares by false weights, mark the expression, 
" Thou shalt not have in thy bag {livers weights, a great 
and a small ;"' it was a sin to have a great and a small 
weight in a man's bag. Why ? Because, on detection, 
a man might sav. But can you prove that ever I sold 
wares by the small, or took wares in bv this great weight ? 
Yea, but, saith God, that you may lie far off from the 
sin of injustice, I require of you that you shall not have 
them in your bag : God would have us keep from the 
ven' verge of that sin, much more from idolatry, which 
is ilie worst of all sins. Isa. Ixv. 4, God charges upon 
tliem, not only that gross sin of " eating swine's flesh," 



but having the " broth of abominable things in their 
vessels." Thev might say, A\'e use not the flesh but the 
broth. Xo, you must not have the broth of abominable 
things in your vessels ; you must keep far off from that 
defilement : as the Lord speaks concerning " the strange 
woman," " Remove thy way far from her, and come not 
nigh the door of her house," Prov. v. 8. If one should 
say, AVe will not commit uncleanness ; But, saith God, 
you must remove your way far from her, and not come 
nigh her, no, not nigh the door of her house. AVe must 
not come nigh popery, but abstain from the appearance 
of that evil. Certainly, it has been a great distemper 
in many of your hearts, that you went so nigh to popery, 
especially when the tide was coming in upon you. lo 
stand at the edge of the water when the sea is coming 
in, especially in some places, as in the AA'ashes in Lin- 
colnshire, is dangerous ; but when the tide is going away, 
is less dangerous. Many of you, when the tide of popery 
and superstition was flowing, stood upon the very edge 
of the water : this is a sin of which you ought to 
repent. 

Obs. 5. The church of God must not worship God 
after the manner of idolaters. They must not even make 
mention of the names they did ; certainly, then, not 
worship God in a manner conformably to their customs. 
Deut. xii. 30, 31, " Take heed to thyself, that thou be not 
snared by following them, after that they be destroyed 
from before thee ; and that thou inquire not after their 
gods, saying. How did these nations serve their gods ? 
even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto 
the Lord thy God ;'' and ver. 32, " AATiat thing soever 
I command you, observe to do it : thou shalt not add 
thereto, nor diminish from it." Thou shalt not so much 
as inquire how others serve their gods, what their rites 
and ordinances and manner of serving their gods are, 
thou shalt not worship me so. As if he should say, 
" AA'hatsoever thing I command you, observe to do it, 
thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it ;" you 
must keep to that, and not think to worship me as 
others worship their idols. The Lord insists much on 
this, though the thing in itself be lawful, yet because 
adopted by idolaters, it must therefore be rejected. In 
p^zek. xliv. '20, there is a commandment to the priests of 
the Lord, that they shall not " shave their heads," nor 
suflcr their " locks to p-ow long ;" but " they shall only 
poll their heads." Arias Montanus ti-ans- 
lates the words, " They shall clip equally ^T.'rj'Su'iS"' 
their hair all of a length ;" and the old 
translation. " They shall round their heads,'' both which 
are agreeable to the Hebrew, and refer to the practices 
of the idolatrous priests, and their several ways of wor- 
shipping their idols ; some of them shaving their heads, 
others wearing long hair as women, and both carrying 
it to an extreme. Now, saith God to his priests, you 
shall do neither, but "only poll "or " round your heads." 
Certainly, the devil forgot this scripture, when he raised 
up such a name as Kound-heads, to reproach men by; 
seeing the word of God is thus express on the point. 
And on the other side, when the Scripture would de- 
scribe the enemies of God, it notices, on the contraiy, 
their " hairy scalp," Psal. Ixviii. 21. 

AA'hen the Lacedemonians wished to reform excess in 
a])parel, which prevailed amongst them, they at length 
resolved, that there should be a law forbidding any but 
harlots to wear rich and showy clothes; thinking by 
this means to induce all women wlio regarded their 
rejjutation, to adopt mean or i)lain clothing, and they 
succeeded. If by the light of nature, when a thing be- 
came fashionable with harlots, grave and sober matrons 
disused it ; then wliat idolaters adopt in worship, the 
church should abstain from : if there must not be a 
conformity between matrons and harlots, there must 
not surely be a conformity between the church of God 
and idolaters. 



Ver. 16, IT. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



149 



-Tredecim msnsu Arias Moiitanus ssith, that the Jews 
upideu in Atnis report of thirteen tables of stone that 
■^uibus adsuntes ' wei"e in the outwai'd court of the temjjle, 
fue™v??o°iSp!,rtim at which men were wont to pray, all of 
'«slfra?ld sepiein"^ them Were made, so that some looked to 
wSt™ nuia'' ^^'^ north, some to the south, and some 
Montan. de fabric! to ths WBst, but Hot One towoi'd the east. 
Tempu, L 96. ^^^j q^^ built his temple so that the 

holy of holies should not look toward the east, but 
toward the west. Hence, Ezek. viii. 16, it is said that 
those who worshipped the sun with " their faces toward 
the east," had " theii- backs toward the temple ;" so that 
it appears plainly that the temple stood westward. As 
there were so many among whom the Jews Uved that 
were worshippers of the sun, and In their adorations 
would ever look eastward, for that very reason the 
Lord would not have the holy of holies built eastward. 
Now all your chancels in England are built eastward ; 
and it used to be the custom of your superstitious wor- 
shippers, when they came into such a place, to look 
eastwai-d, and bow solemnly themselves not only to the 
altar, but toward the east. I have myself seen a bishop, 
when the communion table was set in another place, 
neglect that, and go to the east end of the chancel and 
bow himself, though his back was toward the table. 
And you may observe, that in all your burials the corpses 
are laid east and west, in order (say some) that when 
Christ comes to judgment they may be ready to look 
him m the face ; it being a tradition that he shall come 
from the east. You must not think that those who do 
not follow the old customs of superstition are influenced 
by perverseness of disposition ; God thus enjoined his 
people, when they saw idolaters worship one way, that 
they should worship another. AVe must refrain from 
borrowing of the Eg^-pfians, lest with the imaginary 
riches we contract their botches and boils. "We have 
sufficient in the word of God, and need not to imitate 
idolaters and papists in then- forms of worship. 

Obs. 6. Things that, in themselves considered, are 
hamiless, yet, if abused to the service of idolatry, must 
be cast away. On this the text is most explicit : " I 
will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth." 
The name was good, but being abused, was to be taken 
away ; yea, not only such things as originate with 
idolaters, but even such as at first were of God's own 
institution ; if they cease to be so, if he require not the 
continuance of them, they must be not only refomied, 
but wholly rejected li-om God's worship. Many will 
easily grant that the inventions of idolaters should be 
rejected by us; but they say that the present cere- 
monies originated with the ancient fathers in the pri- 
mitive times, before popery appeared. For a full an- 
swer to this objection you have an express command, 
Exod. xxxiv. 13, " Ye shall desti-oy their altars, break 
then- images, and cut down their groves." Here the 
groves were to be cut down, and they originated not 
with idolaters, for Gen. xxi. 33 saith,"that " Abraham 
planted a grove, and called there on the name of the 
Lord, the everlasting God :" groves had a good original 
in Abraham, but afterwards being abused by idolaters, 
God requires them to be cut down. And 2 Kings xviii. 
4, the " brazen serpent" spoken of originated with God 
himself, as a temporary ordinance, and they might think 
and plead that it was kept as a religious monument ; 
but Hezekiah, according to the command of God, beat 
down the brazen serpent, and called it, by way of con- 
tempt, Xehushtan, a piece of brass. It had once been a 
notable instrument of good to the people of Israel, but 
now it was but Nchushtan, a piece of brass. And fur- 
ther, to the abolishing things that have been abused to 
idolatry, there is added a gracious promise, Isa. xxvii. 9, 
" By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be pm-ged ; 
and this is all the ft-uit to take away his sin ; when he 
maketh all the stones of the altar as chalk-stones that 



are beaten in sunder." Then indeed has Jacob's cor- 
rection produced the desired efl'ect on him to purge 
away his sin, " when he maketh all the stones of the 
altar as chalk-stones." And Josiah is commended, 2 
Kings xxiii., for destroying the high places, the groves 
and altars, and the chariots for the sun. And repent- 
ing Manasseh, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 15, is commended for 
taking away the strange gods, and the idol out of the 
house of the Lord, and all the altars. And Daniel, 
chap, i., would not eat of the king's meat, because it 
had been abused and consecrated to his idols. 

But to explain this matter fully it will be necessary 
to meet an objection. You will say, Do not those pro- 
hibitions particularly concern the Jews, and not so fully 
apply to us ? they sometimes are forbidden to take off 
the gold and silver off the idols ; do such prohibitions 
concern us in every thing abused to idolatry ? 

For answer, I confess, I thiidc we are not bound in 
every particular to follow the commandments that God 
gave them; neither do I think that if they had not 
been prohibited by some express commandment, their 
using the silver or gold of an image for some civil pur- 
pose, had been no sin in them ; these things being re- 
quired of them by a positive law, and not contained in 
the second commandment, fui'ther tlian by moral im- 
plication. 

But how far do these commands bind us ? 

In a three-fold manner. 

Fu-st, "\Ye must retain nothing that conduces to hon- 
our any false worship. If Mordecai would not bow to 
a living monument of that nation whose name God had 
ordained to be blotted out from under heaven, much 
less should we reverence dumb monuments of those 
idols which God has devoted to destruction. We must 
not show respect to any thing that idolaters have 
abused, when our reserving or respecting them may in 
any way maintain their honom-. Therefore, certainly, 
this is true, that to take a ceremony from papists, and 
introduce it into the most solemn ordinance of Christ, 
yea, to incorporate it with it, that it may add to the 
honour of that ordinance, can never be justified. There 
ne^•er was any ceremony more abominably abused than 
that of the cross : now though it be not a sin to make 
a cross, yet to bring it into one of the most solemn 
ordinances of Christ's church, and to make it there 
conduce to the honour of that ordinance, is plainly a 
great evil, if men will but open their eyes to the extent 
of it. So for vestments ; suppose there might be some 
use in them, yet to bring them to add decency to the 
worship of God, to thiidi that those vestments that 
have been so notoriously abused should do honom- to 
Divine worship, must needs be sinful : surely all those 
scriptures that required the Jews to abolish things 
abused by idolaters, if they carry any moral obligation 
in them, prohibit these. 

Secondly, When any thing once abused to idolatiT, 
implies in the use of it any communion with idolaters, 
then it must be rejected. 'This is clear from Rev. ii. 20, 
where the church of Thyatu-a is charged that they did 
" eat things sacrificed unto idols." Why ? the meat 
sacrificed to idols was good meat, a good creatm-e of 
God, for we know that " every creature of God is good, 
if it be sanctified by the word and prayer," yet they 
are charged as sinning against Christ in the use of it. 
You will say, AATiat is it to them if it were offered to 
idols ? they might eat it as God's creature. But it was 
a sin, because the eating argued communion with the 
idolaters: this is plain in 1 Cor. x. IS— 21, where you 
have the argument of the apostle against eating things 
offered to idols, and he reasons thus ; When you eat the 
same bread in the sacrament, it is a mark of your com- 
munion one with another ; so your eating of the things 
sacrificed to idols, is an acknowledgment of your com- 
munion with them. Such is the argument of the apostle 



150 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



in that place, and upon that gi'ouncl it is made a sin ; 
" You cannot " (saitli lie) '• be partakers of the Lord's 
table, and of the table of devils ; '' in eating of their 
meat you communicate with them, and so sin. 

Thii'dly, It is a sin against God to make use of any 
thing abused by idolaters when it becomes a scandal 
to our bretluen, a snai'C to the veak, 1 Cor. x. 28. Eating 
meat offered to idols is forbidden in the place before 
referred to, on the gi-ound of communicating ; but in 
this place it is forbidden upon the ground of scandal. 
Cahin, in liis Epistle to the Lord Protector in King 
Edward's days, saith, AVhat were the cere- 
moniili^ia fucmft monies maintained in England, but so 
c^a.v^lTJn^ many pleasing allurements, that insnare 
P^ISuctren™'''"'" P°™" miserable souls, and bring them into 
evil ? Certainly, what we have retained 
have brought in abundance of evil, and been the means 
of insnaring many souls. In these three things the 
rules that concern the Jews have a bearing on us. 

But yet they must be observed with some cautions, 
and miderstood to regard, 

Fu'st, Things that are not ordinances continued by 
God ; for certainly if it be an ordinance that God has 
appointed, though idolaters abuse it never so much, v.e 
must maintain it. It is true, the brazen serpent was an 
ordinance of God, but only to serve a temporary occa- 
sion, and therefore, being abused to idolatry, was to be 
destroyed ; but when a thing is an ordinance appointed 
by God to be continued in the church, we must perse- 
vere in the use of it, though it be abused. As in bap- 
tism, the ordinance is water ; though they abuse water 
we must continue its use : in the Lord's supper, the 
elements are bread and wine ; and though they are 
abused we must continue them. A\Tiy ? Because no 
abuse is an argument to refuse that which is a duty : 
the subject causing scandal may in itself bo a thing 
indifferent ; but if it be an ordinance, we must continue 
oiu: obedience, whether men be offended or not. 

Secondly, Neither do any of these rules affect any 
thing indispensably necessary for the worship of God. 
Suppose idolaters have abused a place of meeting for 
God's wor.ship ; when we have no other place to assem- 
ble, this is, for the present at least, necessary for God's 
worship ; a place is required, and if no other can at 
the time be had, we are bound to worship in that place: 
the abuse of men must not hinder the service of God. 
God has never put his worship under the power of 
wicked men, that they should deprive his people of it 
at theu- pleasure. 

Thirdly, Any ceremony that naturally, and not merely 
by virtue of man's appointment, has such decency in it, 
that its absence would be improper, then, though never 
so much abused, we are to ])reserve } for it .is the duty 
of God's people to worship him in a decent way ; it is 
the rule of the apostle, " Let all things be done de- 
cently," that is, conformably to what the light of nature 
teaches, though not exi)ressly revealed in the Scriptures. 
Such a decency as a thing derives from the institution 
of man is not here referred to ; but such as God in the 
nature of the thing puts upon it, so that if it were 
wanting there would be a dehcicncy. But if the things 
be merely man's inventions and institutions, having 
theii" su])posed decency, not from what is indeed in the 
things themselves, but from tliat which man's institu- 
tion puts on them, then they come not under that rule 
of the apostle; but the abuse of them is a sufficient ar- 
gument for their rejection. 

But it may be objected. If we can in.struct people 
what the abuse is, and what right use they may make 
of such things, will not that excuse the retaining of 
■^licm ? 

No, certainly ; it was not allowed the Jews to use the 
name Baali. though their prophets might teach them in 
what tlie abuse of it consisteu. Things that have had 



poison in them, none will be so unwise as to kee]) by 
them, under pretence of washing them clean ; if they 
be broken vessels of which there is no use, they are 
cast upon the dunghill with less trouble and more safety. 

-AH things that are of man's invention, yea, those 
things that have been God's ordinances, but now are 
out of date, the Scriptm-e calls "beggarly elements:" 
you cannot com])arc men's iaiventions to clothes, or 
any thing worth the airing or keeping; but the truth is, 
all such things as have been abused to idolatry, are but 
as dirty rags and plasters laid upon plague-sores. 

But, further, you will say, K the use wc retain them 
for be not the same they were employed in, why may 
we not do so ? 

The text answers that, though the Jews should call 
God Baali in a right sense, it was not enough, they 
must wholly reject the very mentioning of the name. 
The church is the wife of Christ, he is jealous, and has 
cause to be so, for he knows, while we are in the flesh, 
that wc are prone to spiritual adultery ; and if we take 
any ceremony fiom popish idolatry, and join it with his 
ordinances, and think to plead that we intend to make 
no ill use of it, this will not satisfy Clirist. 

If any say, Why should we not retain oiu- liberty if 
the things be good? 

But why shouldst thou not manifest thy hatred to all 
idolatn' ? And why shouldst thou not tender thy bre- 
thren so, as to prevent all scandal that may come by 
the use of such things ? 

But, you will say, the idolatiy of papists and the 
idolatry of heathens is not the same, there is a great 
deal of difference between the heathens in their wor- 
ship of their idols, and the papists worshipping of God, 
though in a false way. 

Indeed the difference seems great, but yet the idol- 
atry is the same in both ; for you are mistaken, if you 
think that many of the heathens worshipped a false 
god, otherwise than the papists do ; though they made 
stocks and stones their idols, yet they worshipjied the 
God that was Primiim Ens, the First Being, in and 
through those idols. Therefore, Austin upon Psal. xcvi. 
introduces one answering thus, Wc do .. , ., 

, . 1 , . 1 -^'^" Upidem coll- 

not worship a stone, but the virtues, the mu», wd rirtuto 
strength, and the powers of the great ' '"'^'• 
God. And one Maximus Madaurensis, whom Austin 
speaks of in his 43rd Epistle, saith, Wio is so mad, or 
so void of sense, as to doubt whether there be more 
gods than one? we invocate the virtues of this one 
God, under many names, diffused through the frame of 
the whole world. What more fair answer can papists 
give for their idolatrj- ? Therefore the thing continues 
.«till clear, that (with the rules and cautions before- 
mentioned) such things as have been abused to idolatry 
must be wholly cast away ; we must not retain them 
and think to excuse ourselves to God with such distinc- 
tions. To what end do we retain them ? Is there not 
sufficient in the worship of God itself to make it ac- 
cci)table to him ? 

To add a word or two more upon this subject; it has 
alwavs been the care of the chm-ehes of God, to distin- 
guish then- worship from that of idolaters. The Mani- 
cliccs were wont to keep their fasts on the Lord's day, 
on account of wliich the churches utterl)- prohibited the 
keeping of fasts on that day, because they would not 
do as the Manichees. Tertullian saith, it Tcrt. dc coron. jii- 
is lie fas, a detestable wickedness, to fast r'^^j',"""- '''''■ "* 
on tne Lord's day. And Ignatius saith, 
to fast on the Lord's day is to kill Clirist. Tertullian 
states, that a Christian soldier in the army of the hea- 
then, who, when they, in honour of their idol gods, wore 
on theu' heads coronets of bavs, instead of wearing his 
on his head, held it in his hand ; upon which there 
arose a great mutiny in the ai-my, his fellows being in- 
dignant that one soldier should be in a different garb 



Ver. 16, 17. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



151 



from all the rest : Surely this is some nice-eonsciencetl 
soldier, that, forsooth, cannot do as others, he must 
hold the coronet of bays in his hand, whereas others 
wear it on their heads. " The murmurs of the soldiers 
reached at length the officers of the ai-my, and the 
Christian being asked why he differed from his fel- 
lows, gave this answer, I am a Cluistian, and therefore 
it does not beseem me to do as these do, who wear the 
,bays on their heads in honom- of their idol gods : at 
this they were all greatly incensed, and not only he 
himself, but all the Christians near at hand, were in 
danger of great persecution. Nay, there was much 
murmuring amongst other Christians, that this one man, 
by such over-scrupulousness, should endanger not only 

himself, but others. TertuUian there- 
fratabus^ui'duoijus fore, in his defence of this soldier, saith, 
PMM'prasumunt. that he was hoher than his brethi'en, who 
Miuti''''^"""'' thought and presumed they might serve 

two lords, that, in order to avoid perse- 
cution, they might comply with the heathens in their- 
superstitious observances ; and exclaims, in commend- 
miuiem in Deo aticu of this actiou, O most glorious .sol- 
gioriosum ! ubi djev. who would thus venture himself, 
corolimu?' "t'ubi and rcfuso to comply with idolaters ! And 
™OT"mii?fTe'tui. whereas some, even Clu-istians, who 
*"'■ would rather comply than endanger 

themselves, would plead agamst him, and say, Wliere is 
it written m all the word" of God, that we should not 
wear bays upon oiu- heads ? TertuUian replies, WTiere 
is it wi-itten that we may do it ? We must look into the 
Scriptures to see what we may do, and not think it 
enough that the Scripture does not directly forbid this 
or that particular act. By this we see, that some, to 
avoid trouble and persecution, will, as far as possible, 
comply with the ways of idolatry ; yet those who are 
truly of a Cliristian spii-it, will courageously refuse, and 
rather hazard the sorest persecution. 

Thus it should be with us, we must not retain, with 
the view of doing it honom-, any thing that has been 
abused to idolatry ; we must not so comply with idol- 
aters, and especially in regard of that great idol, the 
cross, as to retain it, and bring it into the ordinances of 
God, into the very sacrament, which is siu-ely doing it 
a gi'eat honour ; yea, and too gi'eat an honour is put 
upon it, by placing it in the highest part of the city, 
and thinking it is an ornament to it, whereas it is in- 
deed a great disgi-ace and dishonour, and retains the 
memory of your forefathers' superstition and shame. 

Augustine saith. It is better to die with 
quam^ShJ^is hunger than to eat things offered to idols : 
Bono c«njug!'c.''f8. SO far Were these ancients from confomi- 

ing with idolaters. Gabriel Biel saith, 
The church of Rome thought fit to use leavened bread, 
lest in unleavened they should seem to resemble Ebion 
the heretic ; and Bellarmine would not have Paul call- 
ed diims Paulus, but beatus, because divus and diva 
were terms applied by the heathen to their gods and 
goddesses. 

Obs. 7. When God is reconciled to his people, there 
will be a thorough reformation both outward and in- 
ward. This promise to take away the names of Baal- 
im, is introduced upon God's reconciliation to this 
people. Idolatry is cast out not only &om the heart, 
but fi'om the mouth ; the taking away the names from 
their mouths is a synecdoche, and denotes the utter 
abolishing of all ways of idolatry in the outward prac- 
tice, as weU as in the inward affection. The more per- 
fect the reconciliation with God is, the more enmity 
against idols and superstitious worship. A fearful proof 
then it is, that we in England were never thoroughly 
reconciled to God, because we never yet have cast off 
our idols. As some remnants of superstition, still abid- 
ing amongst us, not long since broke forth in the most 
horrid and vile forms of false worship : so some remain- 



ders of God's WTath amongst us this day break forth 
into a most di-eadful flame. AVlicn the Jews shall be 
called again, and God shall be i)erfectly reconciled to 
his churches, then idolatry shall be wholly rejected, and 
their idols shall not even be mentioned any more ; and 
to these times this text refers, and shall then be perfectly 
fulfilled. 

Obs. 8. When a people is reconciled to Ctod, then 
they call God theirs. My husband, ■' Ishi." Psal. xvi. 
3, 4, David professes that he would not so much as 
take up the names of idols mto his lips ; and mark what 
follows, ver. 5, The Lord is my portion ; when the pro- 
phet is so taken off from idols, as not to mention then- 
names, then " the Lord is the jjortion of his inherit- 
ance :" so here, now, " Ishi," the Lord is my husband ; 
now can we claim a peculiar interest in God. This is the 
evil of sin, it hinders a nation, it prevents a soul, from 
claiming this interest in God. God is a blessed and 
glorious God; yea, but what is that to this apostatizing 
people ? what is that to this apostatizmg soul ? but " 
when the sold comes to God, and begins thoroughly 
the work of reformation, then, This God ig my God, Ishi, 
my husband. Can any comfort, any profit, that 5'0ii 
have in ways of sin counterbalance tliis great loss ? you 
gain some contentment to the flesh, some profit in your 
estate ; but you lose the comforts of your interest in 
God, and "what profiteth" it you? Think of this 
when temptation comes; I may by pelcUng toit gratify- 
so far- the flesh, but I shall lose the blessed privilege of 
claiming an interest in my God, I shall not be able to 
say, Ishi, my husband. 

06*. 9. God delights to have his people look upon 
him with love and delight. It is his cai-e and good 
pleasure that his people shoidd not look upon him so 
much as one that has dominion over them, but regard 
him with joy and love, and call him Ishi, and not Baali. 
But the more reconciled we are to God, the more may 
we use loving appellations. For a sold to be always 
under the spirit of bondage, to look unto God merely 
as file Lord of all, is not so pleasing to him ; but when 
you come to have the spii'it of adoption, the spirit of 
grace, an evangelical spii-it, so that you can regard him 
with affection, and use that title of love and goodness, 
Ishi, my husband, this is well-pleasing to Ciod. It is 
reported of Augustus, that he refused the title of lord, 
and would rather have his people look upon him under 
the notion of love as a father, than fear him as a lord. 
It were happy if all princes were of this mind, to desire 
that then- people should rather love than fear theni ! 
It is a most wicked and cursed principle, that which 
some infuse into the mmd of princes, Let yoiu' people 
fear you, no great matter whether they love you or no. 
Suetonius relates of Augustus, that when a poor man 
came to present him a petition, with hands shaking and 
trembling from fear, the emperor was much displeased, 
and said. It is not lit that any should come with a pe- 
tition to a king, as if a man were giving meat to an 
elephant, fearing every moment to be desti-oyed by him. 
God loves not "the bread of mom-ners to be offered up 
in sacrifice ; but to have his people come before him 
with a holy boldness, with a filial, not with a servile 
and slavish" spirit. Christ laid down his life to redeem 
us, that we might serve the Lord without fear. 

Obs. 10. The church should look upon Chi-ist as the 
strength of it. " They shall call me Ishi," that is. My 
sti-ength. " Thy IMaker'is thine husband ;" and who is he ? 
" The'Lord of hosts is his name : thy Redeemer: The God 
of the whole earth shall he be called." AMien the people 
of God can look upon Christ then- husband as the Lord 
of hosts, and their Redeemer as the God of the whole 
earth, then they find quiet and satisfaction in their 
minds. Psal. Ixxxix. 17, God is said to be the glory 
of the strength of his people : though we be weak in 
regard of outward aid, let us look up to Christ our 



1.52 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. H. 



strength, he has been our strength, and is " the glory 
of it." 

06*. 11. Repentance must be proportionable to men's 
sins. How do -ne infer that? Ver. 13, God charged 
them that they had forgotten him, " She went after licr 
lovers and forgat nie, saith the Lord." Now, saitli 
God, your idols .shall be forgotten : your hearts were so 
set upon your idols that vou forgat me ; now in your 
repentance your hearts shall be so fixed on me, that 
you shall forget your idols. Men who have been here- 
tofore so wicked and ungodly that they have forgotten 
God, God has not been " in all their thoughts," he now 
expects from them that their lusts should be " no more 
remembered." It is not enough that you forbear the 
act, but you must not roll the sweets of them in your 
thoughts ; you must not so much as remember them, 
except with detestation. If there be not a proportion 
between your repentance and your former sins, you 
may expect there will be a proportion between God's 
vTath and your former sins. 

Obs. 12. " And they shall no more be remembered by 
their name." All superstitious vanities, though they 
may seem for the present verj' glorious, yet in time will 
vanish and come to nothing ; God has a time to make 
them vanish, so that they shall not even be thought of. 
In Col. ii. 22, it is said of the rudiments of the world 
which are according to the doctrine of men, that they 
" all are to perish with the using ;" that is, they effect 
nothing that they seem to be appointed for, no present 
good arises from them, but in the very use they come 
to nothing ; and God in his time will cause them all to 
perish utterly, and the verv' remembrance of them shall 
be taken away. It is true, that for the present, while 
men's hearts are set upon their superstitions, they are 
glorious in then- eyes ; but these glorious things will 
come to nothing ; whereas those ordinances of God 
■which seem to be but mean, and in which only the 
simplicity of the gospel appears, shall be manifested to 
"be tull of beauty ; and though at present they be ob- 
scured, yet shall they be glorious in the eyes of the 
■saints to the end of the world. Not long since, what a 
stir was there about the more than decent, nay, even 
superstitious, embellishing of temples, and building 
of altars, and splendid canopies ! what sumptuous and 
fine trappings had they, and all to adorn a pompous, 
superstitious mode of Avorship, which altogether pre- 
vailed ! As for the i)uritv and simplicity of God's ways 
and worship, how were they trampled under feet as un- 
worthy and contemjitible ! But those things which for 
a while seemed so glorious, begin to vanish, and we 
hope ere long will come to nothing ; the very memon,' 
of them shall ])erish. The purity of God's worship, 
and the simplicity of the gospel in God's ordinances, 
shall recover their pristine beauty and glory, when 
those braveries shall be no more. 

Obs. 13. A true ])enitent cannot remember former 
sins without indignation, for so the phrase " they shall 
not remember " signifies. Some of us may remember 
how we have been entangled in vvavs of false worship, 
and how we have defiled our consciences therein. We 
said we would yield a.s far as we could, but we yielded 
farther than we could, for id posmmus quod jure pos- 
iumus, kc, and have cause to remember it with shame 
and confusion of face. Ye old men may remember the 
sins of your youth ; but how can you remember them 
and speak of thcra with joy and memment ? That is a 
desperate sign, that you are in a higli degree left of 
God, and given up to hardness, when you so remember 
the sins of your youth, as to tell tales of the ])ranks of 
your younger days with joy ? You should remember 
them ■with shame and indignation, the sweet morsels of 
former sins coming up into remembrance should l)e 
bitter and sour unto you. 

Obs. H. The taking off men's hearts from idolatrous 



ways, is a special work of God. " I will," saith God, 
" take away the names of Baalim out of their mouths." 
The people in these times cleaved to their false ways of 
worship, and had many arguments to uphold them ; 
but there shall come a day, saith the Lord, when I will 
take away the names out of their mouths ; I will stop 
your mouths, I will take off' your hearts from all those 
reasonings by which you maintain those ways, I will 
silence all ; and then you shall see convincingly to 
your shame, that vou have been gulled by such vain 
and false distinctions. AMiat numerous means God 
uses to take off men's hearts from ways of false wor- 
ship ! AVhat a number of distinctions and objections 
have men, their hearts cling to them, unwilling to be 
loosed from them ! Now and then their consciences 
are wrung, yet they hold fast ; and then conscience has 
another wring, and then they have another objection, 
and another distinction; and yet perhaps true grace 
exists notwithstanding this. 

But God having love to them, by some way or other 
takes off their hearts, either by settUng truths upon 
their souls by his Spirit, or by some notable works of 
jirovidence. As long as men cannot enjoy their estates, 
liberties, and comforts, without yielding to the ways of 
superstition, they will not be taken off from them ; 
they please themselves (and perhaps speak what they 
think) that they do nothing against the light of their 
consciences ; for why ? their engagements keep off the 
strength of truth, that it comes not with a full conviction 
to the conscience. But when God by any work of his 
providence takes off their hearts from engagements, 
and sets before them the same truths as formerly, they 
see now a convincing evidence in those truths, and 
wonder that they discerned it not before. They read 
books before that had the same arguments against their 
■ways, and for the truth, but they could not see their 
full strength ; now they see it a|)])arently, and are 
ashamed of themselves every time they go into the 
presence of God. Now they see them with such clear- 
ness, that they think they could lay down their lives 
for them ; whatever they suffer for time to come, they 
can never yield to what they have yielded before. 
AMiy ? God has come with power ! God has taken off 
their hearts ! ^V^len God thus comes, the thing will 
easily be done. 

Let us take heed we do not stand out too long, lest 
God take off our hearts by some dreadful judgment. 
It were better our mouths were stopped, our objections 
silenced, and all the relics and remainders of false 
worship taken from us through the word and Spirit of 
God. If that will not do, God will come in some other 
way, and take the name of Baalim out of our mouths. 
If we will keep the memory of superstitious ways, 
God may extirpate the memoiT of them by such ways 
as may prove fearful to us, and make our hearts ache, 
and our cars tingle. " In all your dwelling-places," 
saith God, "the cities shall be laid waste, and the 
high places shall be desolate that your altars may 
be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may 
be broken and cease, and your images may be cut 
down, and your works may be abolished," Ezek. \i. 6. 
Observe, " In all your dwelling-places the cities shall 
be laid waste ;" to what end ? " that your altars may be 
laid waste." So that God will lay waste their cities for 
this very end, that he may lay waste their altars; if 
they will not lay waste their altars, if they will not 
abolish their superstitions, God will abolish their cities. 
God has begun to put it into the heart of our governors 
to abolish many su])erstitious pictures and crosses in 
divers places ; tliere is yet one great one remaining, 
and we hope God, u])on the same grounds, may i)ut 
info their hearts to abolish that. It would be a dread- 
ful thing if we .should not obey God, now calling upon 
us to cast out the remainders of idolatry and supersti- 



Vek. 18. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



153 



tion, to lay waste all idolatrous pictures, images, and 
crosses ; and he should lay waste your cities, to lay 
■waste your altars, crosses, and relics of idolatry. You 
see, God threatens this here, as if God did not really 
desire to lay waste their cities, he would preserve 
them; but because he could not (we speak according 
tr. the manner of men) abolish their altars, but by 
laying waste their cities, saith God, Rather than your 
altars shall stand, your cities shall ftiU. God has 
ways, and most ten-ible ways too, to take away the 
memoiy of superstitious vanities. Oh that we had 
hearts to join with God before he comes in so di-eadful 
a manner, to abolish the memory of such things ! '\^'cre 
our prelates in their power, such a speech as this could 
not be borne. When Master Udal, a godly preacher in 
Queen Elizabeth's days, was charged with this expres- 
sion, " If it come in (that is, the true govemment of 
Christ, as he means) by that means which will make aU 
your hearts ache, blame yourselves ;" for these words 
especially was he then condemned to be hanged : such 
was the rage and potency of the prelates in those days. 
A\Tiat I have said may be against the spirits of such as 
cleave to superstitious vanities ; but we have no cause 
to fear exasperating such, for surely they cannot be 
more angi-y than they are, and it would be a foolish 
thing to provoke God, for fear of further exasperating 
those who are ah-eady exasperated so much against us. 
WTiat is the exasperation of vile men, to the abiding of 
the wrath of God upon us ! 

Ver. 18. And in that day will I make a covenant for 
them with the beasts of the field, and with the fouls of 
heaven, and ivith the creeping things of the ground: 
and I trill break the bow and the sivord and the battle 
out of the earth, and wilt make them to lie down safely. 

In this verse God promises peace and security; 
peace, in regard of their deliverance fi-om the beasts of 
the field, and fowls of the heaven, and creejjing things 
of the ground ; peace from the hostility of their adver- 
saries, he " wUl break the bow and the sword and the 
battle out of the earth :" and security, " I will make 
them lie Aawn safely." 

I. The first part of the promise is peace with the 
creatures : " And in that day will I make a covenant 
for them with the beasts of the field, and with the 
fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the 
ground." 

Some allegorize these words, " the beasts of the 
field," and say they mean cruel men ; the fowls of the 
air, ambitious, who are lofty in their thoughts and 
counsels ; " the creeping things of the gi-ound," subtle 
adversaries : God here promises, they say, to deliver 
them from all these. But I desire not to allegorize, 
unless there is a necessity, and therefore understand 
the words literally. But how may God be said to 
"make a covenant for" his people " with the beasts of 
the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the 
creeping tilings of the ground ? " for, to speak properly, 
none but rational creatures are capable of a covenant 
with God. 

The meaning is, there shall be such an establishment 
of God's work on the beasts, and fowls, and creeping 
things for the good of his chui'ch, as if God had bound 
them to serve it by way of covenant ; that dealing of 
God is called " making a covenant with them," here and 
elsewhere ; as in Jer. xxxiii. 20, " If ye can break my 
covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, that 
there should not be day and night in their season." 
How does God covenant with the day, and with the 
night ? Thus, there is an establishment of God's de- 
cree on the day, and on the night, that it should be in 
such a way from the creation to the end of the world ; 
and that estabHshnient is called God's covenant : so 



CEcolampadius renders my text, I will or- 
der inviolably and unalterably, there '"vI'jSu",'"' 
shall be an establishing decree upon these 
creatui-es, that they shall do you no hm't, but good. 

Obs. 1. Sin has caused enmity between man and the 
creatures ; this is implied here, I will, saith God, upon 
your reconciliation with me, and your reformation, 
make a covenant with the creatures, now tliey shall be 
at peace with you ; denoting, that by our sin there is 
grown enmity between us and God's creatures. We 
have lost by sin a great part of the dominion which 
God gave us over his creatures, and which resulted 
from the image of God wherein man was created. 
Therefore when you see any creatm-e rebel against you, 
call to mind your rebellion against God. It is true, ijod 
maintains, in some measui'e, man's dominion over the 
creatures still, that the world, and human society, may 
be preserved. Sometimes you may see a little child 
dri\-ing before him a hundred oxen, this way or that, 
as he pleases, showing that God has continued some- 
what of man's dominion over them. But a great part 
is lost by our sin. If we, who are the servants of 
God, rebel against him, it is just with God that the 
creatm'es, which were subjected to us, should rebel 
against us. And you who are superiors, when any of 
your inferiors are stubborn agamst you, your servants 
or your children rebellious, raise your hearts up to this 
meditation. My servant is rebellious against me, how 
have I been rebellious against the Lord! my child 
stubborn against me, how has my heart been stubborn 
against the Lord my Father ! 

Obs. 2. Peace with God biings peace with the crea- 
tures. " I will make a covenant with the beasts of the 
field," with the fowls of the ah-, &c. In Job v. 23, you 
have a strange promise, " Thou shalt be in league with 
the stones of the field : and the beasts of the field shall 
be at peace with thee." This goes somewhat deeper 
than that which is here promised ; There shall be a 
league, not only with the beasts, but with the stones of 
the field. How in league with the stones of the field ? 
It is more easy to be understood to be in league with 
the beasts of the field, for they are many times hurtful 
unto us ; but how with the stones of the field ? It was 
customary (and so it is still in many places) in fixing 
the bounds of then- fields, to set up stones for land- 
marks, and engrave them, to denote to whom this or 
the other parcel of ground belonged. Now the Lord 
promises that he would be so gracious to his people, 
that they should enjoy the bounds of their own habita- 
tions secui'ely, they should not be wronged, nor their 
landmarks taken away. " Thou shalt be in league with 
the stones of the field ;" that is, the stones of the field 
that stand for your landmarks shall abide, and none 
shall take them away ; I wiU preserve your bounds, as 
if you were in league with the stones that are your 
landmarks, as if they had agreed with you, and cove- 
nanted that they would stand, and set out the bounds 
of your fields for ever. 

But you will say, Sometimes the beasts of the field 
do injure the saints, how then does God make a cove- 
nant with them ? 

Many answers might be given. In ver. 17, of the 
chapter of Job referred to, he speaks of a time when 
" God correcteth," and men " despise not the chasten- 
ing of the Almighty :" now the expression in ver. 23, 
relates to that time ; that is, when any make use of 
God's correction, do not despise it, but reverently sub- 
mit to his hand, then God will make this " league with 
the stones of the field," and " with the beasts of the 
earth." If God has coiTCCted you with any sickness, 
and you do not profit by it, it is just with God that 
some or other of his creatui'cs should meet you, and 
be more terrible to you than ever your sickness was. 
And the promise here in Hosea is to those who are 



154 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. H. 



reconciled to God, and have east off their superstitious 
vanities ; and because we are not perfectlv reconciled, 
therefore this promise is not perfectly fulfilled. But I 
make no question hut the Holy Ghost here refers to 
the time of the calling of the Jews ; and then I verily be- 
lieve that this promise, and those in Isaiah and other 
places, where God says he will make " the lion to eat 
straw with the ox, and that " no venomous creature 
shall do them hiul,'' shall be literally- fulfilled. When 
the Cidling of the Jews shall take place, the creatures 
shall be restored to a state of excellence, resembling 
their condition with Adam in Paradise. The lion was 
not at its creation made to live upon prey, nor the crea- 
tures formed to devour one another, therefore the pro- 
mise is, that the lion shall return to its state previous 
to the fall. And at the calling of the Jews it is very 
probable there will be such " a restitution of all things," 
Acts iii. 21, that the creature will be restored to its 
original excellency. And though this may be partly 
fulfilled to God's people, that the beasts of the field 
shall do them no hurt, that is, if they prevail against 
them it shall be for some gracious ends which God has 
in view ; yet the hteral accomplishment of the promise 
is reserved for that day. 

Obs. 3. When God is reconciled to his people, shall 
the beasts of the field, and tlie fowls of the air, and 
the creeping things of the earth be at ])eace with the 
saints ? what a wicked and ungodly thing is it then in 
men, that the more any are reconciled to God, tlic 
greater enemies are they to them ! God promises, when 
his people arc reconciled to him, the creatures shall be 
reconciled to them ; yet, thou vile wretch, when thou 
seest one grow up in the ways of reconciliation with 
God, thy enmity increases towards him : what horrible 
wickedness is this ! it is far more than brutish, it is 
desperate wickedness. As with those five kings of 
Canaan, spoken of Josh. x. 5, who, as soon as the 
Gibeonites had made peace and a league with Joshua, 
conspired against them. They hved quietly enough 
before with them, but when they heard that they had 
made a covenant with Joshua, they immediately made 
war upon them. Thus it is with many at this day, 
when your companions would drink, swear, and break 
the sabbath, and be unclean, and scorn with you, they 
were good fellows, then you embraced them, and de- 
lighted in them ; but as soon as God WTOught upon 
their liearts, and they were brought from enmity into 
a state of reconciliation, your minds rise against them, 
and you regard them •with hatred and abhorrence. 
Oh horrible and desperate wickedness ! tlie Lord re- 
buke you this day, the Lord strike xi])on such hearts. 
Before Saul's conversion he was in much repute, but 
as soon as he became a Christian, he was a " pestilent 
and seditious fellow :'' " Away with such a man from 
the earth, he is not worthy to live ;" and forty of them 
conspired together and bound themselves with an oath, 
that they would neither eat nor drink till they had 
killed him. 

06.». 4. Covenant mercy is excellent mercy indeed. 
" I will make a covenant," saith God, you shall have 
this mercy, and have it by covenant. The same mercy 
coming in the course of general providence is nothing 
so sweet, nothing so firm, a-s that which arises from the 
covenant. WTien the saints receive a mercy, though 
it be in external circumstances, they rejoice not in it, 
merely because they have some comfort and content- 
ment to the outward man by it ; but because they see 
that even this outward mercy comes to them by virtue 
of God's covenant, which sweetens and confirms every 
gift; when they go up and down the field, and the 
beasts come not upon tnem to destroy them, they can 
look upon their ])resent safety as enjojnng it in the 
covenant. 

You will say, the wicked can walk up and down in 



the fields, and the beasts not destroy them. Though 
they can, yet a godly man has more enjo)-ment as he 
can see that this his safety arises from the covenant : 
when he goes on a journey, his beast is not made an in- 
stnmient of God's wrath to dash out his brains ; per- 
haps it is so with his wicked neighbour who accom- 
panies liim i but the preservation of the godly man is a 
mercy from the covenant which God has made with 
him, " to ])reserve him in all his ways," whereas to the 
other it Ls but general providence. Wicked men may 
have the same mercies for the matter of them that the 
godly have, yet there is a kernel in the mercy which 
only the saints enjov. 

There are two tlungs obser»'able in mercies coming 
by covenant. First, 'They are more sweet. " All the 
paths of the Lord are mercy and truth imto such as 
keep his covenant," Psal. xxv. 10. This is a sweet 
promise, a soul-satisfying promise, more worth than all 
the riches of your city : all the dealings of God's ordi- 
nary providence " are mercy and truth unto such as 
keep his covenant." Mark, perhaps they are mercies 
to you, there is a general bounty in your ordinary pre- 
servation, but thev are not "mercy and truth" to you; 
there lies the empliasU ; they are " mercy and truth " to 
the godly, that is, they ai-e such mercies as are bound 
to them by covenant ; therein David rejoices, and there- 
fore saith in the beginning of the Psalm, " Unto thee, 
O Lord, do I lift up my soul," as amongst other reasons, 
so for this, that all the paths of God are not only mercy, 
but " niei'cy and tnith." You have been preserved, and 
have had many mercies from God; well, they are God's 
mercies to you, but are they mercies and truth to you? 
that is, do they come to you in a way of promise? 
Look to tliat, the sweetness of a mercy consists in it, 
and it is a good sign of a gracious heart to look more 
to the source whence mercy comes, than to the outward 
advantage it conveys. 

Secondly, They are more firm. Isa. liv. 10, •' The 
mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed ; but 
my kindness shall not depart from thee;" why? for 
" the covenant of my i)eacc shall not be removed." 
The mercy which you nave, I give in a way of cove- 
nant, and the hills and mountains shall be removed 
rather than that kindness of mine .shall depart from thee. 

06.V. 5. Is it such a blessed thing for God to make a 
covenant with the beasts for us ? what a mercy is it 
then for God to make a covenant with our souls ! The 
covenant which God makes with his peo])le is a cove- 
nant in Clirist, and abounds in mercy. In Gen. xvii. 
you find that, in ten vei^ses, God repeats liis covenant 
which he made witli Abraham thirteen times, to im- 
press this, that that was the mercy indeed which must 
satisfy Abraham in all his troubles, sorrows, and afflic- 
tions : as if God should say, Ue satisfied with this, 
Abraham, that I have entered into covenant with thee 
and thy seed, that I am your covenant God. .\nd 
2 Sam. xxiii. 5, David saith, " Although my house be 
not so witli God, (as I desire, as I expect,) yet he hath 
made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all 
things, and sure : for this is all my salvation, and all 
my desire, although he make it not to grow." Take 
this .scripture, Christians, take it, I sav, and make use 
of it in these times of trouble ; though things do not 
go as you desire, yet say as Da^•id did, " yet the Lord 
hath made a covenant with us, onlered in all things 
and sure, and this is all our salvation and all our 
desire." 

Obs. 6. Is it a mercy for God to make a covenant 
with the beasts for his people ? wliat a mercy is it then 
for him to make a covenant with his Son for Iiis peo- 
ple ! If we are to bless God, that he will make a cove- 
nant with brute beasts for om' gowl, how should we 
extol and magnify his name, in that he has m.idc a 
covenant with his o\Tn Son for our eternal good, and 



Vee. 18. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



155 



brought the second person in Trinity, to be the head of 
this covenant for us. The apostle speaks, Tit. i. 2, of 
" eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised be- 
fore the world began." Whj', what promise was there 
ever made before the world began ? to whom was it 
given ? who was there before the world began for God 
to make any promise unto ? The Son of God alone, 
the second person in the Trinity ; and there was a most 
blessed transaction between God the Father ani God 
the Son, for our everlasting good, before the world be- 
gan, and upon that depends all our salvation and all 
our hope. WTien we read the promises of the gospel 
which the Lord has given to us as branches of the cove- 
nant of grace, we are ready to think we are poor, weak 
creatures; we cannot keep covenant with God, we can- 
not perform its conditions : but, Chi-istian, know this, 
thy peace, the salvation of thy soul, does not depend so 
much upon a covenant God has made with thee, as 
upon the covenant he has made with his Son ; there is 
the fu-mness, the original, the foundation of all thy good, 
and all thy salvation ; and though thou art a poor, weak 
creatm-e, not keeping covenant with the Lord, yet the 
Son of God has perfectly performed all the conditions 
the Father required of him ; by him the work has been 
perfected, and herein is our comfort. Raise up then 
your drooping hearts by this meditation. 

II. The second part of this peace, is a promise of de- 
liverance from the hostility of their adversaries :^" I 
will break the bow and the sword and the battle""out 
of the earth.'' 

Obs. 1. Peace is a great blessing, it is a gi'eat mercy 
to have the bow and the sword broken. It is a part of 
the covenant that God makes with his people, to take 
away the instruments of hostility. Isa. ii. 4, God pro- 
mises the beating of swords " into ploughshares, and 
spears into priming-hooks." You find, on the contrary, 
when God denounces judgments on a people, Joel iii. 
10, that he threatens to beat their ploughshai'es into 
swords, and then- pruning-hooks into spears. It is a 
great deal better that the swords should be beaten into 
ploughshares, than that the ploughshares shoidd be 
beaten into swords ; that the spears should be made 
pruning-hooks, than that the pruning-hooks should be 
made spears. 

0/is. 2. Peace is a most amiable thing, and lovely in 
all our eyes, every man desu'es it, and God promises it 
to his people in many places as a most special fruit of 
his love. Isa. xxxiii. 20, " Jerusalem shall be a quiet 
habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down." 
And Numb. vi. 25, 26, " The Lord make his face shine 
upon thee, and be gracious imto thee : the Lord lift up 
his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." The 
shining of God's face appears in the giving of peace to 
a nation : therefore, Jer. x\d. 5, where God threatens to 
take away peace, mark the expression, " I have taken 
away my peace from this people, saith the Lord, even 
loving-kindness and mercies." He does not say, I have 
taken away peace, but I have taken away '• my peace ;" 
and then, when " my peace" is taken away, I will take 
away " even loving-kintbiess and mercies." ' How easy 
were it to discourse lai"gely in commendations of peace ! 
God teaches us in these days to set a high price upon 
it. We have had peace a long time, and the Lord 
knows we have not prized the mercy ; now we know 
what a sad thing it is to have war in our gates. And 
if peace be a fruit of God's covenant, we have cause to 
bewail the breach of it with us. Surely there is great 
displeasure of God out against us ; this cup of blood 
which is prepared, poiu-ed forth, and in a great meastue 
drunk, is a most cb-eadful one. Our brethren have 
drunk deep of it, and we have long feai-ed it, having 
heard of riunours of wars ; and when the cup was abroad, 
we prayed that, if it were possible, it might pass from us, 
and it did pass to oirr brethren in Ireland ; but now is 



it come to us ; the sword has had its chcuit and is now 
in our midst, and that which aggi'avates the evil is, that 
our wars are not with foreign enemies, but civil. I 
have read in the Roman chronicles, that in a battle be- 
tween Sylla and Marius, a soldier by accident killed 
one, not knowing who it was ; but after he was slain, 
seeing it was his brother, presently, in anguish of spirit, 
he ran his sword into his own bowels. This we find 
occurring ordinai'ily among us, even brother to be 
against brother, yea, son against father. Certainly, 
therefore, it is time for us to fall on our kujees, and to 
be humbled before the Lord for the breach of our peace. 

Obs. 3. Peace is a sweet mercy, therefore it is a pity 
that it should be abused and not improved. Oh how 
have we abused om' former peace ! God gave us peace 
before j to what end ? That we might be edified, and so 
built up in the fear of God and comfort of the Holy 
Ghost; as. Acts ix. 31, it is said, '• The churches had 
rest, and were edified ; walking in the fear of the Lord 
God, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost." AVe have 
not made this use of the rest which God has been 
pleased to aflbrd us, but have grown wanton with that 
precious jewel peace, and just it is with God to talce it 
from us. And now we desu'e peace; but to what end? 
to have more fi'eedom to satisfy om- lusts and make 
pro^^sion for the flesh, is the very gi'ound of most men's 
desire of peace ; whereas if we understood the ti'ue 
worth of peace, we would think it were a very low end 
to desire it only for the attainment of this. Mark the 
promise in Ezek. xxxvii. 26, " I wiU make a covenant 
of peace with them ; it shall be an everlasting covenant 
with them : and I will place them and multiply them, 
and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for 
evermore." Yea, that is a comfortable peace, dcsiraljle 
indeed, when God by peace shall make way to set his 
sanctuary in our midst. If we truly desired peace upon 
these terms, we might soon expect an answer from the 
God of all peace. 

Obs. 4. Peace is sweet, therefore not to be falsified. 
Psal. xxviii. 3, there are some that " speak peace to 
their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts." It 
is pity that such a precious thing as peace should be 
made serviceable to men's lusts, that it should be pre- 
tended only to compass mischievous designs ; peace is 
too good to serve men's base ends. 

06s. 5. Peace is a great blessing, therefore it is a 
pity not to endeavovu- by every means to attain it. 
Yea, cm-sed be that war which has not peace for its 
end. Sic qiKsrimus pacem, Even thus do we seek peace, 
ought to be as the emblem written on the sword of every 
soldier. It is a great deal better to have a war that 
aims at and effects peace, than to have a peace which 
aims at and creates wai\ It is true, war produces very 
dreadful efi'ects ; but war that shall bring forth peace, is 
better than peace that produces war ; and the more we 
commend peace, the more do we still commend the war 
that tends to bring forth true peace, rather than to seek 
for a false peace, which wiU produce afterwards most 
di'eadful war. 

Ob.i. 6. Peace is a great blessing from God, but we 
must take heed we buy it not too dear : we may say of 
this as we are wont to say of gold, We may buy gold 
too dear. 

You wiU say. How is it possible to buy peace at too 
dear a rate ? If you give these thi-ee things for it. 

Fkst, If you sell truth for it ; selling any truth for 
peace, is bujing peace too deal', for the least truth of 
God is better than all the kingdoms of the earth. It 
fii-st cost the blood of Christ, and since has been water- 
ed by the blood of thousands of martyrs. 

Secondly. If you betoay those who have been most 
active for the public good, only that, by way of compli- 
ance, you may provide for yom- own particidar peace. 

Thii-dlv, If, through desire of peace, you subject 



156 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. U. 



yourselves to tjTanny or slavery. This is peace at too 
dear a rate, and the posterity that comes after, may 
curse that baseness of spirit and cowardice of their 
forefathers, who purchased peace at so dear a rate as 
to bring not only themselves, but their posterity, under 
the bondage of miserable tyranny and woeful slaver)-. 
It is true, it is a great deal easier for a man who is 
striving and fighting with his enemy, to lie down, than 
to spend his strength in the combat : why will he 
weary himself? is it not better to lie down upon tlie 
soft grass, than to tire oneself in the conflict ? but if 
by lying down he has his throat cut bv his enemy, has 
he, think you, done wisely for himself? to spare ex- 
ertion he has lost his life. If we should be so wearj- 
of ])resent troubles as to lie down and be destroyed by 
our adversaries, shall the generation to come commend 
either our wisdom or valour ? 'When a stream runs 
strong you cannot expect to stop it without some 
trouble ; and the war now on foot amongst us, though 
it has much trouble in it, and many of our brethren 
suffer grievously, yet, let us consider it is a means to 
stop a stream of miserj' which was coming upon us, 
and that it is better to undergo some difficulties in 
damming it up, than tamely suffer it to flow in till all 
be past recovery. Our adversaries exclaim tliat we are 
enemies to peace, and they are all for peace, that is, 
thev would have us to be so quiet as to let them do 
their pleasure ; they would fain have us so to love peace 
as to give uj) our strength to them, and to be irrecover- 
ably under their power. Therefore let this generation 
be wise, for great things depend upon the present 
affairs of the kingdom, which concern not only their 
own outward comfort, but the glory of God, and the 
good of their posterity, to many succeeding generations. 
Ohs. 7. Peace is God's peculiar work. We may treat 
about peace, but until God is pleased to permit it, it 
Tiill not ensue. If God comes in with exce])tions, our 
treaties and our plots will never succeed. " 1 will break 
the bow,"saith God. Jer. xlvii. 6, 7, " O thou sword of 
the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet ? put 
up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still." The 
answer is, " How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath 
given it a charge against Asiikelon ?" TiU God give a 
commission to the sword, it cannot " rest, and be still." 
Job xxxiv. 29, " AVTien he giveth quietness, who then 
can make trouble ? and when he hideth his face, who 
then can behold him? whether it be done against a 
nation, or against a man only." If he cause trouble, 
who can make quietness ? O no, none can ! It is 
God that is to be regarded in the breaking of treaties, 
it is he who hardens the hearts of men thai they shall 
not make ])cace till his time come. In Josh. xi. 19, 21), 
it is said, " There was not a citv that made peace witli 
the children of Israel, save the Ilivites the inhabitants 
of Gibeon : all other they took in battle. For it was of 
the Lord to harden their hearts, that they should come 
against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them 
utterly." Of all the cities in Canaan which God's ])coi)le 
" came against," though liis hand was very remarkal)le 
in going along with them, working many miracles for 
them, yet the text observes that there was none that 
would make peace with them, save Gibeon only. AVhy ? 
" For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, to come 
against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them ut- 
terly." God intended to destroy them, and therefore 
hardened them that thev should not make peace with 
his people. God is the Prince of peace, ana therefore 
disposes of it as he will : many devices may be in the 
hearts of men, manv plots and contrivances, but tlie 
counsel of the Lord shall stand. " The Lord sitteth ujion 
the flood ; vea, tlie Lord siltetli King for ever. The 
Lord will give strength unto his people ; the Lord will 
bless his people with peace," Psal. xxix. 10, 11. That is 
not the peace for God to bless his people with, for which 



they must expose themselves to everj- danger, and be- 
tray his cause, God uped give no strength for that ; 
but his way is to " givf strength unto his people," and 
then " to bless them with peace." We love peace, but 
let us take care to gain it through the strength of God : 
join these promises together, and plead them j and 
though we seem weak, yet " the Lord will give strength 
unto his people," and so " bless his people with jieace." 
A\'e must procure our peace by working in God's 
strength, and not think to obtain it by a sluggish com- 

i)liance, and base, unwortliy yielding to our adversaries, 
fer. xiv. 19, '• We looked for peace," it seems they were 
forming some treaties, '■ and there is no good ; and for the 
time of healing, and behold trouble ! " all their treaties 
came to nothing : but mark w hat follows, vcr. 20, " W'e 
acknowledge, O Lord, our wickeilness, and the iniquity 
of our fathers." O Lord, we dwell amongst people that 
are set on fire, and when we speak of peace, yea, when 
they speak of peace, they have mischief in their hearts : 
" O Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our 
fathers," is great. O Lord, pardon our iniquity. To 
make our jieacc witli God is the way to obtain ])eace. 

Obs. 8. Thorough reformation is the way to procure 
peace. Mark the gradation, " They shall tall me no 
more Baali," then " will I break the bow ;" when thev 
shall break off thoroughly from their idolatry, then will 
I break the bow and the sword : so long as they wor- 
slii]) false gods, war shall be in their gates; but when 
they shall thoroughly reform, and set up mv worship in 
the way that I choose, then will I break the bow. So 
should we act if we had sufficient reliance on God. 
Our baseness is, that we will not trust God in this way 
of peace ; but arc ready to think tliat reformation will 
introduce disturbance, whereas rcfomiatioii is the way 
to a thorough peace. Let our wisdom be Jiure, and then 
certainly it wiU be peaceable. In Isa. xxxiii. 20, Jerusa- 
lem is promised to be " a quiet habitation." A\Tiat follows ? 
ver. 22, " For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our law- 
giver :" the more we regard him as our judge and law- 
giver, the more peace we shall have. Isa. ix. 7, " Of the 
increase of his government and jieace there shall be no 
end." When the government of Christ is felt, then comes 
peace. Zech. vi. 13, "He shall sit and rule upon his 
throne ; and be a priest u])on his throne : and the coun- 
sel of peace shall be between them both ;" tliat is, when 
Christ shall be advanced in his kingly as well as in his 
priestly office, then there shall be a counsel of peace. 
AMiat is the reason that the counsel of peace has not 
prevailed to this day ? We have cause to fear it has 
not been set between the kingly and priestly office of 
Chri.st to advance them. Isa. xxxii. 17, 18, "The 
work of righteousness shall be peace ; and the effect of 
righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. And my 
peo])le shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure 
dwellings, and in quiet resting-jilaces." Sec how the 
Holy Ghost adds one word to another to show that true 
peace is in the ways of righteousness. A\'hen men 
strive for peace by unfair means, and seek to serve their 
own ends, disregarding the honour of God, it is just 
with him to dash all their counsels. "The way of 
peace they know not," saith God, " and there is no 
judgment in their goings : they have made them crooked 
paths : whosoever gocth therein shall not know peace," 
Isa. lix. 8. We know the path of the seq)ent is crooked, 
it winds up and down ; so many of our counsellors of 
peace have gone, like the serpent, winding up and 
down in their carnal policies ; have not studied reform- 
ation, but pursued crooked paths, and therefore have 
not effected true iieace. Jlut further, in Jer. xxxi. 22, 
23, when the Lord was about to deliver his people from 
captivity, he asks, "How long wilt thou go about?" 
that is, you do not go steadily on, but comjiass about, 
and ho|K', by time-serving com|)liaiices, to escape the 
difficulties in your path, and by various means to avoid 



Vek. 18. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



1J7 



troubles. "\^Tiat follows? "The Lord bless thee, O 
habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness." En- 
deavour to make your way to be the " habitation of 
justice, and the mountain of holiness," and the work is 
done ; execute justice upon delinquents, and set up the 
ordinances of God in the right way of worship, and this 
■will lead to assured peace. Oh that the Lord would 
deliver our great counsellors from unworthy compli- 
ances. 

III. The effects of this peace. " I wUl make them 
to lie down safely." 

Obs. 1. God's peace alone brings safety. If we patch 
up a false peace on base and unworthy terms, we must 
not think " to lie down safely ; " but when God promises 
peace as a fruit of the covenant, then follows, " I will 
make them to he down safely." And I suppose none 
of you would like any other peace, but such as would 
enable you to lie down safely ; and how is it possible, do 
you think, to do so, except the Lord destroy the evil 
beasts out of the land ? " I will give peace in the land, 
and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid : 
and I will rid evil beasts out of the land," Lev. xxvi. 
6. What is the end of our present war, but to " rid 
the evil beasts out of the land," that so we may " lie 
down safely ? " Can you think to dwell safely among 
them, exasperated, as their fui-y is, to the highest de- 
gree ? Certainly, if a false and patched-up peace were 
made, we should be in a condition full of hazard. 
Could those amongst us who have openly espoused the 
cause of God, and showed themselves most faithful, lie 
down safely, confiding in such a peace ? If you have 
the hearts of true Englishmen, you would never desire 
any peace, but such as would enable you and your 
brethren, your ministers, and those worthies in par- 
liament, and all that have stood forth in your behalf, 
" to lie down safely." Acts xxvii. 13, 14, we read of a 
" south wind that blew softly ; " but the text adds, that 
not long after there arose " a tempestuous wind called 
Euroclydon." So if we have a false peace, it may blow 
as that south wind, " softly ;" but certainly Eui'oclydon, 
that most ten-ible east wind, will succeed. 
j^m£"t,s ent'. 2 Chrou. XX. 30, " The realm of Jehosha- 
'"""■ phat was quiet: for his God gave him rest 

round about." Suppose we should be quiet, and our 
own base counsels and compliances should procure us 
rest, our peace would never be certain, but dismal 
things would follow; for a people dwell safely only 
when they have the peace of God together with the 
God of peace. " The peace of God which passeth all 
understanding, shall keep your hearts," Phil. iv. 7. 
Then follows, ver. 9, " The God of peace shall be with 
you." AVe would be loth to be without the God of 
peace, let us then refuse to have any but the peace of 
God. You all desire peace, and so the adversary pre- 
tends : take heed you be not deluded with vain words ; 
that which your thoughts regard as the end, is with 
them a means to further theu- designs ; and what good 
will such a peace do you ? you will be no more secure 
than you ai"e now, nay, your danger will be far greater. 

Obs. 2. " To lie down safely," is God's own gift to 
his people. It is an additional blessing to having the 
sword and bow broken. We may be delivered from 
our enemies, but the Lord may affi-ight our consciences 
with visions in the night, he may terrify us a thousand 
ways and take away our security ; therefore, when he 
saith, '_' I will break the bow and the sword," he adds, 
•' I will make thee to lie down safely." This is a precious 
mercy, it is recumbere faciam, inf'ducia dormire fociam 
Jiduciatiler, I will make them to lie down in trust and 
confidence, that is, without any fear of evil befalling 
them before morning. We little think what a mercy 
it is, to have many nights lain down safeh-, and slept 
quietly, and risen up comfortably; and little do we think 
of praising God on this account. Many of our bre- 



thren in various countries would prize such a mercy 
now, they are afraid of evciy stir, and can scarce ob- 
tain a night's sleep unbroken by alarms. What would 
some of them give for one night's calm repose, that 
when they go to bed they might say, AVcll, I hope this 
night I shall enjoy quiet rest, tranqud and uninterrupted 
sleep ! In many places they sleep in the day, and watch 
during the night. Here in the city, indeed, you can go 
to bed and sleep quietly, and rise quietly; but oh, think 
of those who are deprived of this mercy, and while you 
enjoy it, give God the glory. It is a great blessing for 
the Lord to calm our minds in these dangerous times, 
in these days of trembling, when every man's hands 
are upon his loins. Many who are free from their ad- 
versaries, yet, through the timorousness of their spirits, 
cannot enjoy one night's quiet, but agitate themselves 
with their own thoughts, Oh, what will become of us 
hereafter! It maybe the enemies will come, and we 
shall lose our lives, and all will be torn from us ; and 
this makes them that they cannot lie down safely, though 
danger be not yet near them : but when God is pleased 
so to stay the heart on him, that in the most trouble- 
some times you can lie do^\Ti securely, this is a choice 
mercy, a ft'uit of the covenant. 

This mercy the Lord promises, Prov. iii. 23, " Then 
shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall 
not stumble." And mark the 24th verse, " When thou 
liest do^vn thou shalt not be afraid : yea, thou shalt lie 
down, and thy sleep shall be sweet. Be not afraid of 
sudden fear : for the Lord shall be thy confidence, and 
shall keep thy foot from being taken." This made good 
to one in these days were a text worth gold indeed- 
So Psah cvii. 3, " He givethhis beloved sleep;" others 
labour and toil, and "eat the bread of sorrow," and are 
mightily perj)lexed, but " He giveth his beloved sleep ;" 
that is, takes away care and thought fi'om liis beloved, 
and gives them rest, so that they can repose quietly as 
in his bosom. 

There is a folse rest and security of the wicked when 
they make a covenant with death and with hell, as Isa.. 
xxviii. 15, " Ye have said. We have made a covenant 
with death, and with hell are we at agreement ; when 
the ovei-flowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not 
come unto us : for we have made lies our refuge, and 
under falsehood have we hid om-selves." This text is 
as appUcable to our adversaries as any one I know of 
in the Scriptures ; they aU promise to themselves se- 
curity and safety, they make a covenant with hell and 
death ; but how ? they make lies their refuge, and 
under falsehood have they hidden themselves. Here 
is a security, and that by a covenant with hell and 
death ; but this text points to " a lying down safely " 
by virtue of another covenant, even the covenant of 
God; therefore there follows, ver. 16, " Behold, I lay in 
Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious 
corner-stone, a sure foundation : he that believeth shall 
not make haste." This text wonderfully suits oia- 
times ; we have a security on that ground, that though 
the overflowing scourge break down all, yet, saith God, 
" I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone," &c. ; you may 
rest secm-e, though your enemies vaunt themselves, and 
boast in their own ways, that they " have made a cove- 
nant with death, and with hell are at agreement ;" but, 
for you " I lay in Zion a corner-stone, a sure foundation : 
he that believeth shall not make haste." Although God 
come not with present deliverance, yet, believers, quiet 
yourselves, and " lie down safely," and do " not make 
haste." " A horse," saith the Scripture, Psal. xxxiii. 
17, " is a vain thing for safety," vain is all creature-de- 
pendence ; but, " behold, the eye of the Lord is upon 
them that fear him," ver. 18; they are more secure 
than if troops of horses lay round about to defend 
them. So ver. 20, " Our soul waiteth for the Lord; he is 
our help and our shield:" and Prov. xxi. 31, "The horse 



158 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



is prepared a;;ainst the day of battle : but safety is of 
the Lord." Let us therefore cit willi the psalmist, 
" Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon 
us ; then we will he down in peace, and sleep, for thou 
only makcst us dwell in safety." AVould you have quiet 
sleep in these troublesome times ? make your peace 
\rith God. If there be ))eace within, then you may he 
down safely notwithstanding all the rumours and tumults 
of war abroad ; but if your heart be luireconciled, though 
you should live to see outward i)eace, your sins would 
pursue you, the terrors of the Almighty would be upon 
you. 

But, Lord, what is all tliis e.Kcept we may have com- 
munion with thyself, except we may have communion 
with Jesus Chnst ? is the voice of a gracious heart : 
therefore follows that blessed promise, as a further fruit 
of the covenant which God woidd make with his people, 
I will betroth thee unto m)-self ; I will be yours, and 
tliere shall be a most blessed uiuon and conjugal com- 
munion between us; you shall enjoy me in all the sweet- 
ness and love in which the wife enjoys the husband, 
though you have most wretchedly departed from me. 

Ver. 19, 20. And J uill betroth thee unto me for ever ; 
yea, I uill betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in 
judgment, and in lovingkindness, ayid in mercies. I uill 
even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness : and thou 
shall know the Lord. 

But how betroth ? This phrase seems to be very 
strange ; she had been the wife of God before, and de- 
parted from him ; tliough God were reconciled to her, 
one would have thought it should rather have been, I 
will receive you again : no, but " I will betroth thee ;" 
to note, that God woiUd receive her with the same love 
as if she had been a pure wgin, and never upbraid her 
with her former departure from him : You have been 
an adulteress, bear your sliamc ; but for my own name's 
sake I ^vill be content to receive you again : nay, " I 
will betroth thee unto me," you shall be as a bride, and 
your sins shall be no more remembered, but passed 
over as if they had never been committed. 

Obs. A\Tien God pardons sin he will remember it no 
more, the Lord will never charge upon sumers their 
former transf^ression. .\nd if God will not remember 
the sins of his repenting jjcople, to charge them upon 
them, we should not remember them, to upbraid them 
for them ; whatever they liave been before, if now con- 
verted, it is too much boldness in any of us to upbraid 
them for any of their former sins. I remember that 
Beza relates, that the jjapists reproached him much 
with the sins of his youth, the lasci^^ous poems he 
made before hLs conversion ; but he answered them 
thus, Ni homines invident mihi gratiam din'nam, These 
men envy me the grace of God. 

The repenting church might say, 1. How is it pos- 
sible that so vile an adulteress, one who has so shame- 
lessly foreakcn the blessed God, her glorious Husband, 
and continued so long in filthy whoredoms, should yet 
expect to receive mercy ? What ! such a mercy as to 
be betrothed to God, to be taken by him as if she were 
a chaste spouse ? Yes, saith God, I will do it ; and 
therefore, to assure the humbled, repenting chiu-ch that 
he will fulfil his promise, there is repeated three times 
emphatically, " 1 will betroth," " yea, I will betroth," 
'• even I will betroth ;" to show how much the Iieart of 
God is set upon it. As if God should have said, Though 
you may think such a thing can never be, and see 
nothing l)ut cause for doubt and discouragement in 
yourselves, yet I will do it, yea, I will do it. This re- 
l)etition marks also the excellency of the mercy ; an 
excellent one indeed, that the Lord should take a peo- 
ple into BO near a communion with himself; and from it 
How other most glorious mercies. 



But will this merey hold ? is it sure ? I have already 
apostatized from the Lord, and have still an aposta- 
tizing heart, and am Uke to fall off from God again, and 
so my condition to be worse than ever. No, saith God, 
" I will betroth you unto myself for ever," mv heart 
shall be for ever towards you, and your heart shall be 
for ever towards me, there shall never more be any 
breach of conjugal love and communion between us. 

2. But the Lord is a righteous God, a God of infinite 
justice, and I have most fearfully transgressed against 
him : oh tlie hideous sins that I st.ind guilty of before 
him ! how shall tliat infinite justice of God be satisfied? 
This is the care of a repenting heart, not only to obtain 
mercy for pardon, but satisfaction for the justice of 
God. Yes, saith God, I will have a way for that too ; 
though you have been verj- sinful, yet when I receive 
you to mercy, I will do it so that I shall be righteous, 
as well as gracious, I will do it " in righteousness ;" 
my taking you agaui to myself shall cast no stain on 
my righteousness. And I will put such a righteous 
frame into your hearts, that tlie nations shall not blas- 
pheme my name, that I have betrothed such a one as 
you to myself. 

3. But what reason can there possibly be that God 
should act thus ? God has ten thousand ways to 
honour himsell', though we perish for ever, and no 
people have ever provoked liim as we have done, saitli 
tliis repenting Israel AVell, saith God, though you 
know no reason why it should be done, yea, mdeed, 
though there exist none at all in yourselves, yet what I 
shall do I will do in judgment. AXHiat I now promise 
you, I have exercised my wisdom about from all eter- 
nity ; it is not only a work of my grace and mercy to- 
ward you, but of my wisdom also, which shall one day 
appear and be justified gloriously in this my work of 
taking you unto myself again. I know what I do in it, 
yea, and on your part, though hitherto you have seen 
no such excellency in my ways to cleave to them, but 
have departed from them and followed other lovers ; yet 
when I come with mercy to you, I shall so convince 
you of tlie vanity of aU other objects Oi" desire, and of 
the fulness of good which there is in me to satisfy your 
souls for ever, that you shall see infinite reason to join 
yourselves unto me in an everlasting covenant. You 
thought the ways of false worship wore a more specious 
appearance, but when you shall be reconciled, you shall 
see there is infinite reason in the ser\ice your souls 
have heretofore rejected ; you shall not only have yoiu' 
affections a Uttle roused and warmed for the ])resent, 
but the change which shall take place in you shall be 
in judgment, " I will betroth thee unto me in judg- 
ment ;" in judgment on my part, I will have reason for 
what I do ; and in judgment on your part, you shall see 
reason for what )ou do ; so much reason for coming to 
me, tliat you shall wonder at the former folly of your 
hearts, when you departed from me, and sought your 
comforts elsewhere. The workings of my heart shall 
be in judgment toward you, and the workings of yoiu* 
hearts shall be in judgment toward me. 

4. But suppose that my heart does indeed come in 
to God, yet I sludl remain a poor, sinful, weak creature, 
there wdl hang upon me many infirmities that will be 
grievous to tlie Spirit of tlie holy and just God. Well, 
saith God, " I wilt betroth thee unto me in loving-kind- 
ness :" I will deal gently and favourably with you ; I 
will not take advantage of your failings and infirmities ; 
I will remember you are but flesh, and have a tender 
regard to you. 

5. But, perhaps, there will not only be some ordinary 
infirmities whicli may grieve, but I may even fall into 
offences that will provoke the Spirit of God bitterly 
against me, and so my condition become worse than 
before. No, saith God, " I will betroth thee imto me 
in mercies" as well as " in loving-kindness ;" my bowels 



Ver. 19, 20. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



of merey shall yearn towards you, not only to pass over 
the lesser infirmities, but to swallow up the greater 
transgressions. And accordingly, I will work in you 
gracious dispositions of loving-kindness toward me, and 
create a most sweet and ingenuous spirit, and cause 
your- services to flow from principles of love ; that per- 
verse, distrustful spu-it of yours toward me shall be 
changed into a sweet, gentle, dependent frame. And 
when I am once reconciled to you, you shall be recon- 
ciled one to another ; and the hearts that were so ragged, 
so harsh, and unldnd towards one another before, shall 
be joined together in the bonds of love. And as my 
bowels yearn towards you, so youf bowels shall yearn 
towards me ; as it shall pity my soul to see you in mi- 
seri|-, so it shall pity your soids to see me dishonom-ed ; 
and you shall likewise be compassionate one toward 
another, pitying, helping, and relieving one another in 
the greatest straits. 

6. But there are many glorious promises which we find 
God made to his people, and great things to be done 
for them ; shall ever those promises be made good to 
us ? If we may have mercy, though in never so low a 
condition ; if God's loving-kindness be manifested to us 
in a way of reconciliation, though we be but as hii'cd 
servants ; if we may be spouses, thougli kept hardly, it 
will be well with us. But, saith God, there are glorious 
promises made to the chiu'ch, and I will fulfil them all 
to you; though you have" departed from me and pro- 
voked me against you, yet, upon your returning, you 
shall become interested in them. I wiU fulfil them aU 
to you, for " I will betroth you imto me m faithfulness," 
as well as " in mercy." Look, whatever I have said 
concerning my church, is yours to be made good to the 
uttermost : and there is nothing that concerns me as a 
loving husband to do, but you shall assuredly receive : 
and as for you, however yom- hearts have been hitherto 
unfaithful toward me in departing from me, yet now 
you shall have put into you a faithful spirit; your hearts 
sliall confide in me, that I will deal faitlifuUy with you, 
and my heart shall confide m you, that you will deal 
faithfully with me ; so that whatever befalls you, you 
shall stUl be faithful to me, and to each other. " I will 
betroth you unto me in faitlifulness." 

7. And whereas it is but Httle that you yet have known 
of me, and this ignorance has been the cause of all your 
unworthy wanderings; therefore " you shall know the 
Lord ;" know him in a manner far different to youi' 
former experience ; I will show my glory to you, I will 
open my very heart to you, the secret of the Lord shall 
be with you, though your conceptions be but weak and 
mean, yet you shall all be taught of God ; perhaps you 
may be ignorant of other things, but " you shall know 
the Lord." 

8. And as for outward blessings, you shall receive 
them also in abundance ; all the creatures shall be mov- 
ed towards you to comfort and to succour you : " And it 
shall come to pass Ln that day, I wUl hear, saith the 
Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the 
earth ; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, 
and the oil ; and they shall hear Jezreel." Tliere shall 
be in them a readiness to help, an eagerness to relieve 
you ; yea a combination of them all, established by me 
for the good of Jezreel. 

9. But yet we are a people scattered about the world, 
and most of us consumed : But, " I will sow her unto me 
in tlie earth :" you were scattered in judgment, but now 
it is turned to a mercy ; yom- scattering is as seed, 
whereby you shall fructify and mcrease abundantly, 
and so be a blessing to the whole earth. 

10. But we have been under the cm-se of God a great 
while, and have seemed to be rejected : But, saith God, 
" I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained 
mercy." 

11. Lastly, we are a proverb in all the world, a by- 



word, a scora, and a reproach amongst all people ; God, 
say they, has rejected us, and so they trample upon us. 
No, saith God, I wiU not oidy betroth you to myself, 
but make it manifest to all the world that you are my 
people ; " I wiU say to them which were not my people. 
Thou art my people ;" though you be a people scorned 
and «lified in the world, yet I will acknowledge you 
openly ; your low and miserable condition shall not 
liinder me fi-om sajdng, " Thou art my people :" and as 
for you, whatever you shall meet with in my ways, 
whatever you suffer for my worship, though it be scorned 
and despised of men, yet )ou shall confess it before the 
world, and say, '■ Thou art my God." 

Thus you have a short paraphi-ase upon this and the 
succeeding gracious expressions of God to his reconciled 
people, a slight view of tlie mercy of the Lord to his saints. 

But when was aU this fulfilled ? you wOl say ; or to 
what times does this prophecy refer ? 

Tliis prophecy is partly fulfilled when a soul is brought 
to embrace the gospel; but the full accompbshment 
shall be at the calling in of the Jews ; then not only 
the spu-itual estate of particular converted souls shall 
be thus happy, but the whole visible church shall be 
betrothed unto the Lord for ever. We cannot say so 
of any visible chiu'ch at present, none of them but may 
fall ok; but when God shall bring in the Jews, they 
shall never lose the visibility of then church commu- 
nion. Eev. xxi. 2, 3, seems to Iiave reference to this 
prophecy : " And I John saw the holy city, new Jeru- 
salem, coming down fi'om God out of heaven, prepared 
as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great 
voice out of heaven, sa}'ing, Behold, the tabernacle of 
God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they 
shall be bis people, and God himself shall be with them, 
and be their God." This contams almost the same 
words which we have here in this prophecy to be fvd- 
filled in that glorious church estate, when God calls 
liome to him self his own people. Mark there, " God 
himself shall be with them :" God is always with his 
people ; but " God liimself," that is, a more especial, and 
immediate, and full presence of God, shall be with them. 

But the words must yet be more fully examined. 

" I will beti-oth thee." The Scriptui-e often mentions 
espousals and marriage, to express the gi-eat mystery of 
the grace of God to his people. The Holy Ghost seems 
to delight much in this allegory : there is none more 
frequent in Scriptm'e, and it sheds very great honour 
on the marriage state ; and the lives of those united in 
marriage ought to resemble the blessedness, as fiu' as 
possible, of the condition of a people reconciled to God, 
for in all comparisons a simiHtude should exist. Max- 
ried people should so live, that all who behold the 
sweetness, the happiness of their lives, may be reminded 
thereby of the sweetness and happiness which is in the 
chm-ch's communion with Jesus Chi'ist. I appeal to 
you, are yom- lives thus ? 

Now in a man-led condition there are these four- 
tilings most remai-kable. 

First, There is the nearest possible miion. " They 
two shall be one flesh." Consider this power of God m 
an ordinance ; two that perhaps not a month before 
were mutually strangers, never saw eacli other's faces, 
and knew not that there were such in the world, when 
they enter into tliis, though but a civil ordinance, these 
two sliaU be nearer one to anotlier than the child that 
came out of the mother's womb. "Whence arises this, 
but merely fi-om the power of an ordinance? One- 
would thuik that the aflection of a mother to the fruit 
of her o^vn body should be more than it were possible 
for her to have to a stranger she had never seen before 
ui her life ; but it is not so ; when a woman comes under 
the obKgation of this ordinance, she should entertain 
more affection to one who was ere while a stranger, 
than to her own child. Such is the power of God's 



:eo 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IL 



ordinance, though but a civU one. Now then, -what 
efficacy must Divine ordinances have ! Certainly, most 
powerful on the soul, when they are administered in the 
way of God's appointment. So here, " I will betroth 
thee :" as if God should say. Thou wast not long since as 
a stranger to me, as one cast off, yea, as an enemy; but 
now all the creatures in heaven and in earth, the very 
angels themselves, shall not be more dear to me, nor in 
closer communion, than you. This is true of a WTetched, 
sinful creature, who has not only been as a stranger, 
but as an enemy to God ; on conversion and union with 
Chi-ist he is admitted into a nearer connexion and more 
intimate communion with God, in some respects, than 
the very angels in heaven, for they are never said to be 
the spouse of the Son of God, as the saints are. Such 
is the mighty power and love of God in uniting his 
Baints to his Son. 

Secondly, In nothing in the world is there so full a - 
communication of one creature to another as in marriage : 
so in our spu'itual man-iage with Christ there is a most 
intimate communion. God has two ways of communi- 
cating himself: one is infinite, that is, to his Son in that 
inconceivable mystery of Divine generation ; the other 
modes are of a finite kind, and of these, the greatest is 
liis communication of himself to his saints in Christ. 
God does not so communicate himself to the creatures 
generally indeed : in comparison he communicates little 
or nothing of himself to the whole frame of heaven and 
earth. As far as communion is wanting in marriage, so 
far is the blessing of it from being complete. The 
communion of God to his church is a full communion ; 
his wisdom, power, riches, are made over to the saints ; 
the merits, the righteousness of Christ, are all theirs. 

This communication is mutual : one converted to 
God, lets out his heart into God in a fuller manner than 
any creature can do to another. Suppose all the beauty 
and excellency in the woi-ld were combined together 
and presented to thee, to be an object of thy delight, 
yet it were not possible that thou shouldst communicate 
thyself so fully to it, as thy soul will to God upon thy 
conversion. The soul jields itself to God, as into an 
infinite ocean of goodness, so that it would retain no- 
thing of its own ; but, as a di-op of water in a vessel of 
wine, assume the flavour and colour of that with which it 
is united. And hereby you may know whether your con- 
version be real or not, if as that which is Christ's comes 
to be thine, so that which is thine comes again to be 
Christ's. " My Beloved is mine, and I am his," saith 
the church. Hence it is that the honour which Christ 
the husband has, is reflected on the saints ; they shine 
with the brightness of his beams. " Since thou wast 
precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable," Isa. 
xliii. 4. Among the Romans, when the newly man-ied 
wife was brought home, she was wont to say, Where 
you are Caius, I am Caia. How mean soever the woman 
may be before, yet, when married, she partakes of the 
honour of her husband. So tlie saints, whatever they 
were before, are now looked upon as honourable in the 
eyes of the triune God ; and in those of the angels and 
of the rest of the saints, who are able to discern their 
excellency. And on the other side, (for it is ever 
mutual,) as the chiu'ch derives honour from the lustre 
of the beams of Christ's glory, so also is the chui'ch a 
glory unto Christ. As the Scripture saith, " The wife 
is the glory of the man j" so, in tnith, tlie church is the 
glory of Chi-ist. 

How is that ? you will say. True, Clu-ist is the glory 
of the church ; but that the church, which is a company 
of poor creatures, should be the glory of Clirist, how 
can that be ? 

Yes, it is so, Christ accounts himself glorified before 
the Father in having such a spouse. Thus, 2 Cor. viii. 
23, " Whether any do inquire of Titus, lie is my partner 
and fellow helper : or our brelliren be inquired of, they are 



the messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ." 
Titus and the brethren are there called " the glorv of 
Christ." And Eph. i. 23, the church is said to be "the 
fulness of him that filleth all in all." However low we 
should be in our own e^es, yet this is certain, that it is 
the glory of Christ before the Father and the blessed 
angels that he has such a spouse. Hence, Rev. xxi. 9, 
one of them saith, " Come hither, and I will show thee 
the bride, the Lamb's wife :" the very angels rejoice in 
this ; Come, behold the bride, the Lamb's wife ! Cer- 
tainly they would not, in such triumph, have called all 
to behold the bride, had it not been for the glorv' of 
Christ in her. Psal. xlv. 14, the church is described as 
brought in to the King all glorious and beautiful, " in 
raiment of needlework." Christ rejoices, and his very 
heart even springs forth, to present his church to his 
Father ; Father, he saith, here behold my spouse that 
I have married unto myself. It is ti-ue, a child may 
sometimes marry against his father's consent, one whom 
he may be ashamed to brin*; to his father's house, be- 
cause she will disgrace it ; but how mean and sinful 
soever we are in om'selves, when once we are betrothed 
to Christ, he will not think it any dishonom- to acknow- 
ledge us even before his Father, but account it his 
glorj-, before him and the blessed angels, that he has 
such a spouse. 

But further, this communion makes the afflictions 
between Clirist and his church mutual. There is a com- 
munion in tilings evil as well as good. The verv sins 
of the church are to be charged on Christ. As a woman 
who had contracted debts before marriage, and so was 
liable to arrest, when married is no more troubled with 
the officers of justice, but all claims are to be made on 
the husband : so, though we be in debt, owing a debt 
of punishment because we have not paid the debt of 
obedience, and whilst out of Clirist may fear every mo- 
ment to have some sergeant of the Lord to arrest us, 
and to hale us to prison, there to lie until we have paid 
the uttermost farthing ; but when the soul is man-ied 
to Christ, aU debts, all sins, are all transferred upon 
and charged to him ; and if the law now require satisfac- 
tion, if justice pleads against you, you may send it to 
your husband Clirist, and he wLU jo)-fully answer all 
demands. An earthly husband perhaps may take it ill, 
and think he has brought himself to misery, when ar- 
rested for his wife's debts, and his heart may be alien- 
ated from her ; but Christ will never love you the worse 
for all the debts charged against him on your account, 
but will willingly discliarge them, and rejoice in it be- 
fore his Father. And if any affliction befall you, Clirist 
sympathizes with you : " In all then- affliction he was 
afflicted," Isa. Ixiii. 9. So, on the other side, all the 
afflictions of Christ are the afflictions of the church. 
Doth Christ suffer ? you are affected as if you sufl"ercd 
yourselves. Christ feels for your suflerings as if they 
were liis ovm, and you sj-rapathize in those of Christ 
in return. 

Thirdly, In a maiTied condition there is a mutual, 
entire love. That is, 

1 . Loving the person more than the benefits received 
from him. True conjugal love is fixed on the persons, 
rather than on the estates, or any thing they enjoy by 
them. So, on Christ's part, his love is fixed on the per- 
sons of the saints, more than on their actions. It is 
true, all the gracious actions you do are lovely before 
Christ, for they are the fraits of his Spirit ; but' Christ's 
greatest love is toward your persons. So your chiefest 
love, if it be a true conjugal affection, settles on the 
person of Christ ratlitr than on any thing derived from 
him. Notwithstanding those riches of pardon of sin 
and precious promises whicli thou enjoyest through 
him, his person is that which ra\islies thy soul. 

2. True love can be satisfied with nothing else but 
love. Love vilifies every thing tendered, except it comes 



Vee. 19, 20. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSR\. 



161 



as a fruit of love ; and where love exists, even a little 
cup of cold water is more highly prized than a king- 
dom without it : the giving the body to be burned, 
without love, is nothing. I will give you two scrip- 
tures, one wherein the saints prize God's love, the other 
wherein God prizes the love of the saints. Psal. xxxvi. 
7, " How excellent is thy lonng-kindness, O God ! " 
Psal. xci. 14, " Because he hath set his love upon me, 
therefore I will deliver him : I will set him on high, be- 
cause he hath kno\ni my name." 

3. This entire love is a love in all conditions. Chi-ist 
loves his church in their alBictions as entirely as after 
then- deliverances. " He found him in a desert land, 
and in the waste howling wilderness ; he led him about, 
he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye,'' 
Deut. xxxii. 10. !Mark, they were in the wilderness, 
" in the waste howling wilderness," yet even there they 
were dear to Christ, and were " kept as the apple of his 
eye." The church in return regards Christ in his afflic- 
tions as lovely still as ever : " A bundle of mjTrh is my 
weD-beloved unto me, he shall lie all night betwixt my 
breasts," Cant. i. 13. Alp'rh is a bitter thing, yet the 
church professes that Cliiist, though bitter in liis afflic- 
tions, should stUl be most dear to her. Herodotus and 
Pliny report of Ai'temesia, queen of Halicamassus, that 
after her husband's death, she took his ashes and drank 
them in wine, from excess of love to him though dead. 
The church loves a crucified Christ, as well as a glorified 
Christ. A most remarkable example of the love of a 
spouse to her husband we have in om- English History. 
King Edward the Fu-st, having been wounded by a 
poisoned dagger, his wife Eleanor, to show the entu'e 
love she bare him, and because she thought if the venom 
was suffered to remain there would be no possibility of 
a cure, herself sucked the poisoned wound, and so ven- 
tm'ed the loss of her own liife to preserve her husband's. 
Here was love in a spouse to her husband. The church 
bears a hke love to Chi'ist. If he be wounded with the 
poisonous tongues of ungodly men in reproaches and 
blasphemies, and persecuted in the world, the truly 
gi'acious are wilKng to suck in that vei-y poison to them- 
selves, so they may take it fi'om him. Let the re- 
proaches of Chi'ist fall upon me : oh let me suffer rather 
ciiiura Dominus than Christ. It was Ambrose's wish. Oh 
ab^c'teh cTiQme ^^^^ ^°^' would tiu'n all the adversaries 
omnia suiiiia Ml), of the church upon me, that they might 
g"i 'e'sitSVuam dii'ect agaiust me all theii' weapons, and 

cxpleant. Ambr. ^ ^j^^J^fy ^j^^^. ^j^j^.^^ ^.;,]^ ^^, j^j^^^jj . ^^^ 

such is the disposition of a h'ue spouse of Chi-ist. 

4. In it there is unspeakable delight. Communion 
has delight ; the gi-eatest communion, the greatest de- 
light : the greatest delight that God has is to commu- 
nicate himself, fu-st to his Son, and then to his saints. 
If God delights in communicating out of his fulness to 
the saints, one would think the saints must needs de- 
light in flowing out into God. God delights in impart- 
ing mercy to his saints, because he was well pleased 
with the death of his own Son as a means conducing 
thereto. One would think that the death of Chris't 
should be most abhorrent to the heart of God, yet the 
Scripture saith God was well pleased with it, Isa. Uii. 
10. AVhy so ? Because he saw this opened the way 
for him to communicate himself in the fulness of his 
grace to his church, and, therefore, though it cost him 
so dear as the death of his own Son, yet was he well 
pleased. And as for Chi-ist, he takes delight in com- 
municating himself to his people ; after his suffering^ 
he was satisfied, saith the prophet, when he saw of the 
travaU of his soul. As if Christ had said. Oh let me 
have a chm-ch to communicate myself to, and though 
I see it has cost me my blood, and' all these fearful suf- 
ferings, yet am I satisfied, and tliink all well bestowed, 
so I may have a people to partake of my love and mercy 
for ever. " Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, mv 



spouse, thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine 
eyes," Cant. iv. 9. Then for the saints, the deUght they 
have in intimate communion with Clu-ist is unutterable. 
" Stay me with flagons, 'comfort me with apples, for I 
am sick of love," saith the church. Cant. ii. 5. " My 
soul shall be satisfied as 'n-ith marrow and fatness ; and 
my mouth shall praise thee with jo^-ftd lips : when I 
remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in 
the night watches,'' Psal. Lxiii. 5, 6. 

Observe, The more fully you lay out yourselves for 
Christ, the more comfort you shall have in your lives. 
Here is the great difference between the hypocrites and 
the sincere. It is impossible that a hv-[iocrite can have 
the same comfort in his h'fe as a gracious heart has, and 
for this reason, because a hj-jiocrite makes reservations, 
and gives not himself wholly to Clu-ist, but always 
keeps somewhat back, and thereby loses his comfort; 
but a gi-acious heart, fully giving itself up to Christ, de- 
rives comfort and sweetness in the ser'v-ice of its blas- 
ter, far above all the joy of the hi|-]iocrite. Perhaps 
you thinli that the only comfort you can have is by 
receiving some benefit, some mercy from God : you are 
much mistaken ; the letting yoiu- hearts out to God is 
a greater comfort than any you can derive fi-om his gifts. 

And now, how happy are they to whom Christ is 
thus espoused ! How comfortably may you live, being 
affianced to Christ ! and how comfortably may you die ! 
It is our work to seek to tb-aw souls to Christ, to allure 
them to be in love with him. In Gen. xxiv. 35, you see 
the course which Abraham's servant took to excite the 
lo^"e of Rebekah and her friends to liis master's son ; 
he begins with telling them, that he is the servant of 
Abraham, and that the Lord had blessed his master 
greatly, so that he was become great ; and that the Lord 
had given him flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold ; 
and that he had an only son who was to inherit all. 
This is the work of ministers, to tell people what riches 
of mercy there are in God, and that all the treasures of 
those mfinite riches of the infinite God are in Jesus 
Clu-ist, and to be communicated through him. Yea, it 
is not only the work of ministers, but it should be the 
work of every gi-acious heart, thus to seek to di-aw souls 
to Christ : as Rev. xxii. IT, not only the angels say, 
Come, but " the bride saith. Come. And let him that 
hearcth say. Come. And let him that is athirst come. 
And whosoever wiU, let him take the water of life freely." 

"Were I not thus expounding, we sm-elj- could not 
leave such a point as this ; but for the present I .shall 
only add. Know that it is not want of any worth in you 
than can hinder communion with Jesus Clu-ist ; and do 
not reason thus, I am a poor, wretched, sinful creatui-e, 
■n-ill ever Christ be married to me ? It is not thy sin- 
fulness, nor thy base condition, that can hinder it : 
Christ never joins himself to any because they ore wor- 
thv, but that they tiiaij be worthy ; and he makes them 
so by the very act of union. The woman is not man-ied 
to the king because she is a queen, but the king mar- 
ries her to make her a queen. 

And further, remember, if your hearts be not taken 
with Chi-ist, to join with him in this holy marriage, if 
he be not your husband to enjoy conjugal communion 
with you, he wiU be your judge to condemn you. 

But besides this betrothing between Christ and a 
soul, there is a betrothing between Christ and a visible 
church, es])ecially the church of the Jews when called in. 

God shall appear in his glory when this marriage shall 
take place between Chi-ist and the Jewish church. If 
a wealthy man has a son to marry, and intend to so- 
lemnize the nuptials accorcUng to his means, he arrays 
himself in his best attii-e : so, at the caUing of the Jews, 
the King of heaven wUl put on the robes of his majesty, 
and appear in a more glorious manner to the world 
than lie ever did since the creation. Yea, and as the 
bridegroom on the marriage day decks himself sump- 



162 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. U. 



tuously, so Jesus Christ will then appear ; whether 
persoually or otherwise, we say not, but certainly he 
will then appear resplendent with glory. So Tit. ii. 
13, We look " for the glorious appearance of the great 
God, and our Saviour Jesus Clirifit." And 2 Thess. i. 
10, Christ sliall come so as " to be admired in all them 
that believe :" the church likewise shall then be clothed 
with beauty, " arrayed in fine linen, clean and white : 
for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints," Rev. 
xix. 8 ; and in that day the great doctrine of justifica- 
tion by Christ shall be made out full and clear. Yea, 
and as in a great marriage the servants in the house 
receive new clothes ; so at that day tlie creatures, her 
servants, shall put on new raiment, and the face of the 
world shall be changed. Then will follow the marriage 
supper, and happy shall tliose be that shall then be 
found worthy to enter the bridal chamber. Let us now 
love Christ, cleave to liim, and sufler for him ; we may, 
perhaps, be of those, who, beside their eternal enjoy- 
ment of Christ in heaven, may enjoy him in tliis mar- 
riage upon the earth. But we must pa.«s on, as we 
spake something of this in the end of the first chapter. 

" And I will betroth thee unto me for ever." " For 
ever ;" this addition to the mercy makes it glorious, this 
'' for ever " renders a miscn,', though never so sliglit, an 
infinite niiserj- ; and a mercy, an infinite mercy. Tins 
betrothing for ever shall be fulfilled in a visible cliurch 
communion to the Jews, and in the spiritual communion 
of Christ with the soul at present. Of the visible form 
first. 

" I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of 
many generations," Isa. L\. 15. I think this not only 
regards the spiritual hajipincss of the saints, but that 
God has a time to make liis visible church to be " an 
eternal excellency, and a joy of many generations ;" an 
excellency that shalj never have an end. And this 
their perpetual condition, their enduring happiness, 
shall arise from these three grounds. 

First, from the precious foundation that shall be laid 
of that church when it shall appear : Isa. liv. 8, '• With 
everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith 
the Lord;" but mark the ground, ver! 11, "Behold, I 
will lay thv stones with fair colours, and lay thy ftumd- 
ations with sapphires;" all the i-ubbish shall be re- 
moved, it shall not be raised on such a foundation. 
God will lay "t];e foundations of that church with 
sapphires;" and then with everlasting mercy lie will 
embrace it 

Secondly, That church shall be in a peaceable condi- 
tion, no rent, no division there, therefore in a peri)etual 
condition : " A tabernacle that shall not ')e taken 
down ; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be re- 
moved," Isa. xxxiii. 20. ^\']\y ? The very words be- 
fore show the reason ; " Jerusalem shall be a quiet 
habitation." 

Thirdlv, This church shall look wholly at Christ as 
their Juige, their Lawgiver, and their King: "The 
Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord 
is our King," Isa. xxxiii. 22. Churches are ready to 
change while they mix otlier things with tlic worship 
of Christ, and the laws of men with his laws ; but when 
they can look to him, I mean in that w hich is spiritual, as 
tlieir Lawjjiver, as their Judge, and as tlieir King ; then 
tlieir happiness shall be perpetual even in this world, 
the Lord Christ will betroth them unto liim for ever. 

Though I verily think the Holy Ghost refers chiefly 
to tliis, yet we are ftirther to understand this " betroth- 
ing for ever," of the suiritual communion the soul has 
with Christ. 'Wlien Cnrist betroths himself to a soul, 
it is " for ever :" the conjugal love of Christ with a 
gracious soul shall never be broken. At first, man's 
condition was such, tliat man laid hold upon God, and 

• Sicul impossiliilc rat fomiPiUum mixluni n )>a<|a srpnraii. 
quia immutaTcrit pasiic naturam. ita impnssibilc Chriitiiuim 



let go his hold ; but now God lays hold upon man, and 
he will never let go his. The bond of union in a be- 
liever runs througli Jesus Christ, is fastened upon God, 
and his Spirit holds the other end of it, so that it can 
never be broken. This union is in the Father, who has 
laid "a sure foundation," 2 Tim. ii. 19; Kom. ix. IL 
In the Son, who loves his to the end, John xiii. 1. In 
the Spirit, who abides in the elect for ever, John xiv. 
16, 17. "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be 
removed ; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, 
neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, 
saith tlie Lord that hath mercy on thee," Isa. hv. 10. 
My loving-kindness shall be more stable with thee, and 
endure longer, than the mountains themselves. It is as 
sure as the ordinances of heaven. " Thus saith the 
Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the 
ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by 
night : If those ordinances depart from before me, saith 
the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from 
being a nation before me for ever," Jer. xxxi. 35, 36. 
And chap, xxxiii. 20, 21, "Thus saith the Lord; If ye 
can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant : 'f 
the night, and that there should not be day and night '.n 
tlieir season; then may also my covenant be broken 
with David my 6er\ant." You have these three ex- 
pressions of the abiding of God's love with hispcople ; 
1. The continuance of the mountains. 2. The con- 
tinuance of the ordinances of heaven and earth. .'!. 
God's covenant with night and day. Here is tl-.e 
ground of consolation to the saints, they shall be " kept 
by tlie power of God," 1 Pet. i. 5. As if God should 
say. The special power I mean to exert in tliis world, 
shall be to uphold the spirits of my saints, and to bring 
them to salvation ; and certainly, tlie special work in 
which God has in this world to exercise his power, is to 
keep Christ and the saints together. Though it be 
through God's power that the heavens and the earth 
are sustained, yet if God must withdraw his power from 
one, he would rather' witlidraw it from u])holding hea- 
ven and earth, than from sustaining one gracious soul 
that has union with his Son. 

The union between Christ and his people is too near 
a union ever to be broken. Luther has a remarkable 
expression about this:* As it is impossible for the 
leaven in the dough to be separated from it, after it is 
once mixed, for it turns the nature of tlic dough into 
its own : so it is impossible, saith he, for the saints ever 
to be separated from Cluist, for Clirist is in the saints 
as the leaven in the dough, so incoi-porated, that Christ 
and they are, as it were, one lump. Christ, who came 
to save that which was lost, will never lose that wliich 
he has saved. Heb. vii. 16, it is said tliat Clirist wa.s 
made a priest " not after the law of a carnal command- 
ment ;" that is, he was not made a priest as the priests 
in the law, after a ceremonial way, " but 
after the power of an indissoluble life ;" , 'i'V' *»»<"• 
cotlesti virlule, by a celestial energy, as 
Calvin on the place saith. The argument why Clirist's 
life is indissoluble, rather than the i)riests in the law, 
is because they were made " after the law of a carnal 
commandment," not by a celestial power. So those 
who profess godliness, in a ceremonial way, " accord- 
ing to a carnal commandment," mav fail, vanish, and 
come to nothing in their way of worship, as manv have 
done; but such as are professors of religion Sy the 
virtue of God's Spirit in tiiem, have the power of a life 
indissoluble. 

There are two soid-staying and soid-satisiynng grounds 
to assure of Christ's betrothing liimself for ever. 

First, when a soul is taken in to Clirist, it receives 
not only pardon for all the sijis previously committed, 
but there is forgiveness in store for all future transgres- 

rapi n (*hri9to, qtiia est in cis Christus fcrmpntum, ita incor- 
porotiii, III untiin tit corpus, uoa moua. Luth. 



Vf.k. 19, 20. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



J 63 



sions. " There is forgiveness with thee," Psal. cxxx. 
4. There lie pardons with God beforehand for all that 
is to come, as well as for that which is past. " There 
is therefore now no condemnation to them wMcli are 
in Christ Jesus," Rom. viii. 1 ; that is, there is no in- 
stant of time after they are once in Christ Jcsns, wherein 
it can be said that they are under the sentence of con- 
demnation. Now, were it not that there was a pardon 
laid in beforehand for all futiu-e sins, they might upon 
commission of some new transgression be brought un- 
der condemnation ; for if the least sin remain unpar- 
doned, there is condemnation ; but this cannot be. I 
do not say the sin is pardoned before it is committed, 
for it were harsh and improper to say so ; for when we 
speak of pardoning sin, we speak of a work applied to 
the creatm'e, not of that which is in God : a pardon is 
laid up to be applied by God whenever the sin is com- 
mitted, so that there shall no time elapse wherein the 
sinner is unpardoned, and so under condemnation. 
Then surely he can never fall from Clu'ist ; for what 
endangers his safety, but the commission of sin ? Clnist 
has as well merited at the hand of God pardon for any 
future sin, as he has pardon for sin past. Do not say 
that this opens a gap to licentiousness, and that then 
we need not care ; no, the grace of Christ has no such 
malignity in it ; in saying thus, thou speakest against 
thine own life. 

The second soul-stajing argument for perseverance 
is, that it is a spiritual mercy purchased by Christ, as 
well as any other grace. " Blessed be the God and Fa- 
ther of oiu- Lord Jesus Clu'ist, who hath blessed us with 
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Clirist," Eph. 
i. 3. Now you ■mil say, faith, and humility, and joy, 
are all blessings, and we have them in Christ ; is not 
perseverance then a blessing, a spiritual blessing also ? 
Chi-ist has as tridy and as really laid dowm his life to 
pui'chase thy perseverance, as to piu'chase thy pardon, 
or any other thing he has procured for thee. That 
which Christ has shed his blood to purchase, surely 
must be obtained, he cannot have died in vain. Have 
you any thing by vii'tue of that purchase ? Thou mayst 
be as sux'e of perseverance, for Clirist has laid down his 
life to purchase that also. 

Christian, then, satisfy thy soxU, God gives thee com- 
forts in this world, but he gives them not for ever; but 
when he betroths thee unto his Son, he betroths thee 
for ever. Perhaps the Lord, in mercy, has made thy life 
here in this thy pilgrimage very comfortable, by giving 
thee a meet yoke-fellow ; in this thy betrothing thou art 
happy, but this happiness continues not : thou canst look 
on thy companion as a mercy of God, making thy pil- 
grimage sweet, yet there must be a dissolution between 
thee and her ; but thy union with thy husband Cluist 
is for ever, it shall never be dissolved. Perhaps some 
of you have lost comfortable yoke-fellows, death has 
come and snapped asunder the union between you, and 
you complain, Never woman lost such a husband, never 
husband such a wife ; if you be godly, you have a Hus- 
band that you shall never lose, one who will M up all 
relations, who saith, " Thy Maker is thine husband," 
Isa. liv. 5. 

And further, this is mutual; " I will betroth thee unto 
me for ever," and give thee a heart that thou shalt 
cleave unto me for ever. This will afford us another 
useful meditation, viz. "When the Lord chooses any soid 
to himself, as he sets his own heart for ever on that 
soul, so he imparts to it a principle of grace to cleave 
unto liim ; and to j-ield itself to liim in an everlasting 
covenant. Paal. cxix. 112, " I have mclined mine heart 
to perform thy statutes alway ;" is not that enough ? 
no, he must have another word to express the " al- 
way," " even unto the end." David's heart was much 
taken with the statutes of God ; O Lord, through thy 
mercy mv heart is inclined to keep thy statutes, yea. 



and it is so ahvays, and it shaD be " even unto the end." 
Tills is a kind of pleonasm, or rather the expression of 
the fulness of his heart, in his resolutions never to de- 
part from God. 

But what are those riches which Christ bestows on 
his people w^hom he betroths to himself? The bracelets 
and ornaments he puts on their necks and on then- 
hands are these : 

"I wiU betroth thee unto nie in righteousness, and 
in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. 
I will even betroth thee unto me in faitlrfidness : and 
thou shalt know the Lord." 

There is much of the gospel in this. 

" In righteousness." This, according to some, is 
imderstood as opposed to dissimulation, and that by 
this he assures his people that they shall find his deal- 
ings with them altogether just and' equal ; and so I ex- 
pect from you, and will effect it ui you, that in your 
dealings towards me, you shall be the same, there shall 
be nothing feigned betwixt us, all shall be plain, right, 
and just. There is often much dissimulation in mar- 
riages,^ great promises, and overtures of what one should 
enjoy in the other, and when they meet not with what 
they expect, it causes great dissension between the par- 
ties, and makes their li^■es very uncomfortable. But 
now, saith God, there shall be no dissimulation between 
us, I will deal with you in the plainness of my heart, 
and you shall do so likewise. So the word "" right- 
eousness" is taken in Scripture. Isa. xlviii. 1, "They 
make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor 
m righteousness ;" the one explains the other : Though 
you have departed from me, I will receive you again in 
the very integritj- c-f my soul ; do not feari do not sus- 
pect me, do not think though I make a show of love and 
of great favoiu- to you, yet that I intend to cast you off 
at last : these are the jealous thoughts of many troubled 
consciences. Indeed, I heai- of mercy, and God is 
working as if he intended mercy to me ; but I am afraid 
he will finally reject me. No, saith God, do not fear ; 
this mercy I oifer in the very sincerity of my heart, 
therefore let not such suspicious thoughts arise between 
us ; you may be sure that what is fit and right for you 
to have from such a husband as I am, you shall cer- 
tainly receive. This I conceive a part, though not all, 
of the meaning of the Holy Ghost here, "I will betroth 
thee unto me in righteousness ;" that love I profess to 
you, I do it not to mock you, saith God, but I do it in 
truth. From whence veiy usefid observations may be 
di'awn. 

Obs. 1. Guilty hearts are full of suspicions of God's 
real meaning in all his expressions of love and mercy. 
They judge God by themselves. As they fh-st slight 
sin, and see not such a dreadful evil in it, they thiiJc 
God sees it not : so after they have sinned, they mea- 
sure God's mercy by then- own, and thmk thus. If any 
had offended us as we have offended God, though we 
might say we would be reconciled to him, yet we coiUd 
not bring our hearts wholly to it, some grudge would 
remain : they tlierefore think the like of God, and sus- 
pect that he is not really sincere in his expressions of 
love and mercy to them. But beware of this, do not 
judge of God by yourselves ; though you have a base 
and cruel heart, and cannot be reconciled to those who 
provoke you, it is not tlierefore so with God. There 
arc these two evils in sin : fii'st, in the nature of it, there 
is a departing fi'om God ; secondly, it causes jealousies 
and suspicions of God, and so hinders the sold fi-oni re- 
turning to him again. 

Obs. 2. God is very careful to prevent all these sus- 
picions in the hearts of his people. He desires you to 
entertain good thoughts of him, and we plead with you, 
and so often open the riches of God's grace, for this very 
end, and to remove your jealousies and suspicions of 
him. as if there were no real intention in all the proffers 



164 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



of mercy he makes you ; do not think that all those 
riches of God's grace are mere -nords, they are certain 
intentions of God's heart towards you. " I will betroth 
thee unto me in righteousness." 

And for yom- part I will give you a heart, and you 
sliall return to me in sincerity and truth. There was 
a time, indeed, when God complained of his people, 
that they sought him and returned unto hizn, '■ never- 
tlieless they did flatter him with theh' mouth, and they 
lied unto him with their tongues," Psal. Ixxviii. 34 — 36 ; 
there was no reality in their retiuiiing to him, nor in 
theu- professions of obedience : But, saith God, there 
shall come a time that you shall have righteous hearts, 
and that which you promise to me you shall truly per- 
fonn ; you shall no longer make a show of love, but shaU 
return to mo with all ycui' hearts " in righteousness." 

God has much difficulty at fu-st to make us beUeve 
that he is sincere in his proffers of mercy ; and long is 
it before our hearts can be prevailed on to turn to him 
in good earnest. 

06s. 3. One reason why God betroths "for ever," 
is, because he does it in the sincerity of his heart ; and 
this is also a good reason why the saints continue for 
ever, because what they do to God is in the sincerity of 
tlieir hearts. Those who return to God hypocritically 
will fall off, but they that return in uprightness will 
contmue constant. Prov. viii. 18, it is said of wisdom, 
that with her " are dm-able riches and righteousness ;" 
they are conjoined : where there is true righteousness 
in the heart, there are durable riches. 

But there is yet another thing in this betrothing in 
righteousness, and that I think of even more import- 
ance than the former. God will be reconciled to liis 
chm'ch so as yet to manifest himself to be a righteous 
God. In the works of the riches of his gi-ace he will 
manifest the glory of his justice too : I -nill do it " in 
righteousness :" though indeed the Lord intends to 
glorify rich grace, yet so as to declare his righteousness 
to men and angels, that in tlus very work of his he may 
lie acknowledged by them, to all eternity, to be a right- 
eous God. Tliat place, Rom. iii. 2o, 26, confirms this ; 
" Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation tlu'ough 
faith in his blood." How ? " To declare his righteous- 
7iess for the remission of sins." Mark it ! it is not that 
lie had set forth Christ to be a projiitiation, to declare 
Ills mercy in the forgiveness of sins ; you will say, 
"\\'hat is there in the forgiveness of sins, but only the 
mercy of God ? Yes, there is somewliat else, there is 
righteousness too ; and the Lord declares his righteous- 
ness in the forgiveness of sins, and therefore it is that 
he has set forth Christ to be a propitiation. If the Lord 
had said but thus, Well, you are great and grievous 
sinners, I will be content freely to forgive you all your 
transgressions ; this would have declared God's mercy, 
but not liis righteousness : but now, when the Lord has 
set forth Christ as a propitiation, and forgives sins 
through the blood of his Son, in tliis God declares as 
much righteousness as grace. This text Luther had 
great difhculty in understanchng, and prayed much be- 
fore he could discern the right meaning of it. Yea, it is 
repeated again, " To declare, I say, at this time his 
rigliteousness : that he might bo just, and the justifier 
of him which believeth in Jesus ;" not that he might 
be merciful in justifying him that believeth in Jesus, 
but that he might be just. 

And this is the great mystery of the gospel, this it is 
which the angels desire to look into ; and the saints 
and angels shall admire and bless God to all eternity, 
for reconciUng the riches of mercy and infinite justice; 
this it was that engaged the infinite wisdom of God 
from all eternity how to find a way to sa\ e sinners, and 
to be infinitely righteous notwithstanding. If all the 
angels in heaven, and all the men in the world, had 
been asked this question, How shall sin be pardoned. 



the sinner reconciled unto God, and yet God glorify- his 
justice? they could never have answered it; but God 
in his infinite wisdom has found out a way. This cost 
God dear, even the life of his own Son, and that was a 
sign that God's heart was much in it ; and indeed we 
are not Cliristians until in some measure we see, and 
have our souls taken with, the glorj- of God in this 
mystery. AVe must look at righteousness in our recon- 
ciliation, as well as at loving-kindness and mercy. 

When God is reconciled to a sinner, not only his 
mercy is glorified, but, in the plan for a sinner's salva- 
tion, the glory of his justice is magnified as much, yea, 
more than if the sinner were eternally damned in hell. 

IIow is that ? you wUl say. 

I prove this three ways. 

First, Allien God appointed his Son as a surety-, and 
charged the debt of his justice upon him, in tliat God 
would not spare this Son of his the least degree of 
punishment, would not remit any thing, he hereby 
showed a stronger and more intense love to justice, 
than if he had damned ten thousand thousand creatures. 
Sujipose a malefactor comes before a judge, and the 
judge refuses to spare him without satisfaction to the 
law, this shows that the judge loves justice ; but if the 
judge's own son bo a delinquent, and it is made mani- 
fest before all that the judge will not spare him, unless 
the penalty of the law is paid to the uttermost, you will 
say the judge honoui"S justice more in this than in con- 
demning many other malefactors. So when the Lord 
shall cast many thousands into hell, there to be torment- 
ed for ever, this will show that God loves justice ; but 
when his own Son takes our sins upon him, but by im- 
putation, and God will not spare him, (for such ai-e the 
very words of Scripture, " He that spared not liis own 
Son," Rom. viii. 32,) this declares God's love to right- 
eousness more than if all the world had been damned. 

Secondly, Suppose the reconciled sinner had been 
damned, then the justice of God had been but in satis- 
fying, and never had been fuUy satisfied; but in the 
way that God has found out to save a sinner, his justice 
is not only satisfying, but it is fuUy satisfied at once 
and for ever. Now it is a greater honour to justice to 
be fuUy satisfied than to be in satisfj-ing. As for in- 
stance, suppose a creditor has one who owes him five 
thousand pounds, and the man is poor, and the utmost 
he can pay is but sixpence or twelvepence a week ; sup- 
pose the creditor should put him in jail until he had 
paid aU, this man would be receiving something, but 
would never be paid as long as the debtor lived ; but if 
another rich man should come and lay down five thou- 
sand pounds at once, the man is satisfied forthwith. 
Such is the difl'crence between God's satisfying his jus- 
tice on sinners and upon Jesus Clu'ist : God comes on 
the sinner and requhes the debt of punishment, because 
he did not pay the debt of obedience ; casts him mto 
prison ; the uttermost he can pay is but little, and there- 
fore he must be still paying and jiaying eternally, which 
is tlie very ground of their eternal punishment in hell, 
because thev cannot pay enough in any finite time: 
now Christ inteqioses and fully jjays the debt, so that 
justice saitli it has enough, it is satisfied, and the greater 
glory accrues to the justice of God. 

Thirdly, If the sinner had been sent down to hell, 
God had had the glor)- of his justice passively upon 
him, lie should be for ever under its power and stroke j 
but in the mean time the sinner would have hated God 
for his justice, and abhorred justice itself: but when 
justice is honoured activelv, tlie sinner falls down and 
acknowledges himself guilty, puts himself under the 
stroke, and accepts of the punishment of his iniquity : 
now God is delighted more abundantly in this active 
wav of glorifying his justice than if the sinner had been 
satisfying it eternally in hell. 

And now devils aiid all wicked men must needs have 



Vee. 19, 20. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



165 



their mouths stopped for ever, they cannot ciy out 
against God because he wiD maiTy himself to such sinners ; 
This is mercy, but where is his righteousness ? where is 
the gloiy of his justice ? Here is an answer to them 
all. Though the Lord sets his love upon vile sinners, yet 
he does it in righteousness. And this is a great en- 
couragement to come in and believe, for if the sinner 
be terrified with the apprehension of his sins, and sees 
that by them the wrath of God is incensed, and that 
infinite justice demands satisfaction ; this bids the sin- 
ner know likewise that God has a way to satisfy infinite 
justice, and yet to save his soul ; he will man-y him unto 
himself, and yet he will do it in righteousness. 

And this is a great help to a sinner against all fail- 
ings afterwards, a mighty establishment against a thou- 
sand objections the sinner may make against himself 
Thus we must seek to God when we seek to be received 
again when we have departed from him ; whatever God 
does for us, he must do it in the way of righteousness 
as well as in the way of mercy. Take this with you, 
sinners, if ever you have a pardon sealed to you. it 
must be sealed in the court of justice as well as in the 
court of mercy ; therefore, ye need not appeal from the 
court of justice to the mercy-seat, for in the mystery of 
God's reconciling himself to a sinner, there may bo as 
much comfort in standing before the bar of justice as 
at the mercy-seat ; that is, by standing there, in and 
through Christ, for he has made justice propitious to us, 
and now it pleads to mercy for us. 

And indeed this is the very work of faith, thus to go 
to God, when by faith the sinner shall present to God 
the Father the righteousness of Jesus Christ for an 
atonement and satisfaction for sins : this brings the 
comfort of justification. When you come to God in 
any other way than this, it is but in a natm-al, and 
not in a ti'ue evangelical way ; a man by nature may 
know thus much, that when he has sinned he must seek 
unto God for mercy, to pardon his sin, or else become 
miserable ; but to seek to God for pardon with a price 
in our hand, to tender the merits of Christ as a satis- 
faction to Divine justice, here is the mystery of faith ; 
faith is not only to rely upon God's mercy for pardon, 
but speaks thus, I see riches of grace in Clu'ist, that 
he, as my sm-ety, has made an atonement, has laid 
down a price, and now I tender up this to God the 
Father, and I thus believe my soul shall be accepted 
through him. 

Wha.t a mighty engagement is this for us to be right- 
eous before God ! the Lord betroths us unto himself in 
righteousness, and we should give up ourselves to him 
in righteousness also. O my brethren, lake this away 
with you, whatever you forget: if the Lord has thus 
engaged himself to us in a way of righteousness, and if 
it has cost him so dear to show himself righteous imto 
us ; what an infinite engagement lies upon us to be 
righteous before him, to glorify God's righteousness in 
oiu- conversation ! I will do it in righteousness, and 
you shaU have such a righteous heart, as you shall never 
be a dishonom- to me before the people ; neither devils 
nor wicked men shall ever be able to upbraid me, that 
I set my love upon such creatures as you, because, 
whatever you were, you shall be now righteous. When 
we profess ourselves to be the spouse of Christ, and be 
um-ighteous in our conversation, we upbraid Jesus 
Christ, and are a dishonour to him before men and 
angels ; What you, the spouse of Christ ! where is this 
ornament, this bracelet of righteousness, then ? Whom- 
soever Chi-ist marries, he puts on them this 
jew-el of righteousness. He blasphemes 

.,_.^ religion which he seems to honom-, says 

pTdfitoTa'er Cn)rian, who makes not good in his life 
what he professes. 

• Secimda gemma maritalis annuli. Luther. 

t Jam mult OS aunos hoc agit Sathan ut per impios magistra- 



Blasphemiam 
colit, qui quod 



" And in judgment." Some interpreters understand 
this and righteousness to be the same, according to 
Psal. xxxiii. 6, " He loveth righteousness and judg- 
ment," and so pass it over ; but we must not do so, for 
we shall find much of God's mind in this. 

Others take judgment, as frequently it is understood 
in Scripture, for sanctification ; so they would make this 
promise correspond with that of Chiist, John xvi. 7, 
8, I will send the Comfortei', and he shall " convince 
the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment." 
Righteousness there is of the same sense as here : 
judgment there, by many interpreters, is understood of 
sanctification ; because the prince of this world is judg- 
ed, the power of Satan is aheady broken, he is aheady 
cast out of your hearts. And tliey tliink to sh-engtheii 
that by ^latt. xii. 20, He will not quench the smoking 
flax, nor break the bruised reed, "till he send forth judg- 
ment unto victory;" that is, until he perfect the work of 
sanctification, that it shall overcome corruption. The 
text in Matthew is quoted from Isa. xlii. 5, but there 
we have the words somewhat difi'erent, " He shall bring( 
forth judgment unto truth." Now, if that should be 
the meaning, that by judgment is meant sanctification, 
then we may leam an excellent note from the compar- 
ing these two texts together ; that it is all one to bring 
judgment, sanctification, unto h-uth, and to bring it unto 
victory, when it is in ti-uth it will certainly be in victory. 
But we shaU a little more examine this intei-pretation of 
judgment presently; for my part, I do not think that 
that is meant either in this text, or in any of the texts 
named. 

I find others understand " in judgment," to be God's 
judgment against the adversaries of the churcii. "I. 
will betroth thee unto me in righteousness ; " I will 
deal with you in a way of righteousness ; and I will 
deal vnth your adversaries in a way of judgment, you 
shall have judgment against them. So Luther inter- 
prets it, and he says, that judgment here is the second 
pearl of the husband's ring * which he gives to his 
spouse, God promises to exercise judgment and ven- 
geance against the adversaries of the church, and so 
applies it to his times in Germany : " For these many 
years, wicked magistrates have oppressed the chiu-ch, 
and profane doctors have con-upted its doctrine, but 
Germany has seen God judging his adversaries."! If 
we imderstand it in this sense, Isa. liv. 5 confii-ms it, 
where God tells his church, that he that is her Maker 
Is her husband, even the Lord of hosts, and her Re- 
deemer, the God of the whole earth ; the word there 
is KiWea?, the Avenger ; he that will avenge thee of 
thine enemies, is the God of the whole earth, is thy 
husband. This might afford a sweet meditation, that 
the Lord will defend his church from the rage of ad- 
versaries, as the husband will defend his spouse because 
he is betrothed to her. The Lord certainly will take a 
valuable consideration at the hands of the adversaries 
who ■mong his church. But this I think not to be the 
scope of the phrase. 

" In judgment ;" that is, say others, though things be 
now out of order, and seem to be in confusion, yet the 
time is coming when all things shall be ordered in the 
church according to equity and right. 

The two preceding interpretations are applicable to 
the former texts : " He will convince the world of judg- 
ment." that is, the world shall be convinced that Christ 
has all judgment committed to him, and he shows it in 
this, that the ])rince of this world is judged : so that 
passage, " I will cause judgment to retm-n unto victoiT ;" 
that is, though the adversaries of the chmxh be many, 
yet he will cause them all to be vanquished, judgment 
shall conquer them all ; though there be much op])o- 
sition and confusion in the chm-ch, yet I wiU order 

tus ecclesia opprimatur ct doctrina per prophanos doctores de- 
pravetur, sedvidet GermaniaDeum judicantcm. Luther iij loc. 



166 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



and compose all things in the chuich according to 
equitj'. 

In Isa. iv. 4, the Lord saith, he will purge his 
church " by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of 
burning." I know some intei-pret it as if it were meant 
of the spirit of sanctification, that is as fixe to consume 
lusts : hut rather as there were those who oppressed the 
church l)y false judgment, the Lord would cleanse her 
from \\Tong and oppression, by giving a spirit of judg- 
ment to its officers, and by consuming its adversaries. 

But I think we have not yet the fuU scope of this 
place, and would rather settle on this, as principally in- 
tended, though the other may be in some degree in- 
cluded : viz. " I will betroth thee imto me in judgment ;" 
that is. there shall be good reason for what I do ; that 
which I wiU now do in beti-othing thee to myself, shall 
not be done rashly, nor unadnsedly, but TOth under- 
standirr;^ and good deliberation : I know what I do in 
il. ani^ I know what glory I shall have by it ; I wiU do 
it '• in judgment." So I find the word judgment taken in 
Scripture, Jer. iv. 2, " Thou shalt swear, The Lordliveth, 
in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness." " In judg- 
ment." that is, when you swear, know it is worshipping 
God, and you must do it in judgment : you must not 
only sv/car " in tnith," that is, swear to that which is 
true ; and " in righteousness," that is, not to the wrong 
or prejudice of yom- neighboui", for you may sin in 
swearing, (though you swear in truth,) if you have an 
intent to wrong any ; but, thii'dly, you must swear '• in 
judgment " too ; you must understand what you do, 
that is, when you take an oath, you must know that it 
is not as the oath ex officio was, to swear to answer to 
. eveiT thing that shall be asked you ; but you must im- 
derstand before-hand what you are to swear to, and so 
swear " in judgment." So saith God, " I wiU betroth 
thee unto me in judgment," that is, I have considered 
what I am to do in this thing, and I do it from judg- 
ment. And for your parts, when you shall close with 
me, in this blessed conjugal union and communion, you 
shall do it from judgment also. " I will betroth you in 
judgment," so as to make it appear before tlie world 
that I had good reason so to do ; and vou shall likewise 
so close with me, that you shall be able to justify it be- 
fore men and angels, that you had good reason for what 
you did, that it was done " in judgment." 

In nothing is there more need of judgment than in 
marriages and contracts ; therefore the heathens were 
wont to set Mercury, tlieir god of wisdom, by Venus, 
their goddess of marriage, to note that there was need 
of judgment there ; yet there is notliing, usually, m the 
world undertaken with more rashness and inconsider- 
ateness, wliich is the reason of so much subsequent un- 
happiness. But though there be many conti-acts be- 
tween men and women that are not out of judgment, 
yet, saith God, " I will beti'oth you in judgment." 
Christ's union with liis chui'ch is an union out of judg- 
ment. Christ considers of our meanness before he 
marries us; knows fully what we are, oiu- sinfulness, 
our ■WTetchedness ; knows we are in debt, and whatever 
else wc can think might be a liinderancc, he knows as 
perlcctly as ever lie sliall know it, and yet he goes on. 
Yea, tlie marriage between Christ and his chiu-ch is that 
which has been planning in heaven from all etemitj' ; it 
is not a sudden, rash engagement, but arranged in the 
" counsel of peace," between the Father and the Son, 
from everlastmg. God the Father gives consent to this 
union ; God the Holy Ghost is sent to draw the hearts 
of his people to come in and consent to it likewise, as 
a union out of the deepest judgment. 

Though it be tnic that God can see no reason in us 
why we should lie thus united to his Son, yet he can 
see abundance of reason in himself; therefore the con- 
version and salvation of a soul is-not only out of God's 
mercy, but it is also from God's wisdom. Hence the 



Scripture attributes oiu: predestination and our calling 
to his wisdom, as well as to the frceness of his grace; 
as Eph. i. 11, "Being predestinated according to the 
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel 
of his will." Mark, it is not only because God will, ■• I 
wiU have mercy because I wiU have mercy;" I will 
choose such, and I will refuse .such ; I will do it : no, but 
it is " after the counsel of his will." Our wills are often 
bent on doing a thing when there is no reason for it, 
there is no counsel of our will ; but God, even in this 
thing that we can see no reason for at all, works ac- 
cording to " the counsel of liis wUl :" and, Eph. iii. 10, 
the apostle, having said before, ver. 8, that he was " to 
preach the unsearchable riches of Christ," adds, he was 
to preach to the intent that now might be " known by 
the church the manifold wisdom of God.'' In all things 
in the gospel there is much wisdom. Vocation is one 
of the mysteries of the gospel ; and, 1 Cor. i. 24, the 
gospel is said to be " the power of God, and the wisdom 
of God :" the apostle there instances what one would 
think has as little reason in it as any thing in the gos- 
pel, that is, tlie leaving of the rich, wise, and noble, the 
great ones of the world, and calling the poor; but herein 
is not only the power, but the wisdom of God ; God 
does even this in judgment. And although we can now 
understand little or nothing of any reason that there 
can be of God's choosing us to himself ; yet this will 
be made known at the great day of judgment. It will 
be a great part of the glory of that day for the Lord to 
make known " the counsel of his wUl :" we now know 
liis will, but we shall then know "the counsel" of it, 
and praise him to all eternit)' for it : this shall be the 
glory of the saints, that they shall see into the counsel 
of God's will in choosing and calling them, and suffer- 
ing others to perish. 

God's betrothing himself thus to his people in judg- 
ment, is an especial reason of the perpetuity of this 
betrothing. " I will beti-oth thee unto me for ever." 
Why ? First, It is " in righteousness," therci'ore it will 
continue. Secondly, It is " in judgment," therefore 
also it will continue. Things done rashly seldom hold, 
and though eager for them at present, we quickly undo 
them afterwards ; but that which is done in judgment 
abides : the calling of a sinner, and uniting him to 
Christ, is done in judgment, therefore it will hold ; that 
is the ground of his perseverance. K a man. before 
mai-riage, understands thoroughly all the faults his wife 
has, or ever shall have, and knows perfectly her estate, 
and all the encumbrances he shall have with her, yet 
loves her out of judgment, .sm-ely this love will continue. 
It is so between Christ and his church ; Christ, before 
he betroths his church, perfectly knows all the faults 
the chui'ch has, or shall have, all the sins that she shall 
ever commit, and aU the encumbrances and dishonour 
he shall have ; yet out of judgment he beti-oths her to 
himself, and therefore surely this will remain stedfast. 
Comfort yourselves with this. Christians, though there 
may be many failings after your coming to Christ, Christ 
knew them all before you were united to him, yet out 
of judgment he betrothed you to himself. 

There must also be judgment on our parts : I will 
put into you a judicious heart, to choose me out of judg- 
ment. 'The saints who choose Oirist know what they 
do. " They shall be all taught of God ; even* one 
therefore that hath heard, and learned of the Father, 
Cometh unto me." None comctli unto me, but such as 
are taught of God; they who hear and leam of the 
Father, come to me out of judgment. " I know whom 
I have believed,'' saith Pau'l ; and so may every Chris- 
tian say. They do not emlsrace Christ and Ins ways 
because they are new things, as manv do, and so vanish 
to nothing ; though it is true there is al- 
ways some new excellency in Clirist, S^'jiJ'.S'oI'anJi" 
something revealed more than we knew 



Vee. 19. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA- 



167 



before, and delightful he is in that respect, if we love 
novelty. It is not a sufficient plea against any truth, 
that it is only now revealed, and was not knowii before. 
2 Pet. i. 12, " Be established in the present ti'uth." 
Though ti'Uths be fi'om the beginning, yet they are pre- 
sent truths in regard of manifestation ; but the saints 
must not therefore receive them, merely because they 
are new to them, neither must any reject them, because 
they ai'e now revealed, whereas before they lay liid ; 
but all must proceed with judgment, and when any truth 
is presented, reject it not because you have not heard 
of it before, neither adopt it for that reason ; but trj' it, 
and when you are convinced, then from judgment em- 
brace it. Neither must the saints follow God, or any 
way of ti'uth, merely from the example of others, but 
from their own judgments. Perhaps you see some of 
whom 5'ou have a reverent esteem, and that justly, doing 
thus and thus ; I confess, that is enough to put you on 
examining, to make you bethink yourselves, Sm'ely there 
is something in it, or else it is not probable they woidd 
do it ; but that must not be the only reason ; but if on 
examination you find it to be good, then embrace it out 
of judgment; never rest tiU you come to that which the 
men of Samaria said to the woman, " Now we believe " 
that this is the Messiah, " not because of thy saying," 
not because you told us so, " for we have heard liim 
omselves, and know that this is indeed the Chi-ist, the 
Saviour of the world." At fii'st, they came to Christ 
upon her relation, but they did not believe in Christ 
until they had seen and heard him for themselves. 
You may come to examine the ways, the truths of God 
upon the relation and example of others, but you must 
not engage your hearts in them till you see the reality 
of them yom'selves. 

You must embrace Christ and his ways out of judg- 
ment, not out of sudden flashes of affection, which pass 
away as quickly as they come. You have a remarkable 
example of this, Luke xiv. 15 : " Blessed is he that shall 
eat bread in the kingdom of God," they exclaim ; this 
is blessed doctiine indeed. But by that which follows, 
we may infer that they were such as presently went to 
their farms and to their oxen, and prized them before 
Christ, and refused to come to the supper. Sudden 
flashes there were in those that shouted Hosanna, Ho- 
sanna, but presently then- cry was, " Crucify him, cru- 
cift' him." In Josh. xxiv. 19, the people seemed to be 
moved with sudden afiections, they uould " serve the 
Lord," yea, that they would ; but they considered not 
what they said ; " Ye caimot serve the Lord," said 
Joshua to them. So Deut. v. 27, " All that the Lord 
cm- God shall speak unto thee, we will hear it, and do 
it ;" but presently saith God, Oh that there were such a 
heart in this people to do it ! The truth is, they know 
not what they say, they have sudden afiections, but 
they w-iH quickly vanish. We must choose Christ out 
of judgment. 

You must not choose him from mistake ; we must 
understand who he is, we must sit down and count with 
ourselves beforehand what we are like to suffer in liis 
ways. Compare Cant. v. 9, with the beginning of chap, 
vi. : " What is thy beloved," say they, " more than an- 
other beloved?" Let us know what thy beloved is. 
Then the chm-ch begins commending her beloved ; and 
in the beginning of chap, vi., " A\Tiither is thy beloved 
gone ? whither is thy beloved turned aside ? that we 
may seek h im with thee ;" that he may be our beloved 
too. 

Nor out of by-ends, but from a right knowledge of 
the excellences of Chiist, having om- judgments over- 
come by them. We must not choose any truth or ways 
of God, because the times favom- them : we have now 
a number of parliament converts, who were formerly 
prelatical and ceremonial, they see how the times sway; 
but this is not from judgment. Ever)' Christian should 



be a judicious Christian : such adorn religion, and are 
an honour to Christ. As the more deliberation and 
judgment there are in sin, the worse it is ; so the more 
dehberation and judgment there are m godliness, tha 
better it is. When a soul chooses Christ and his ways 
on this ground, I see a beauty in the Lord Jesus that I 
never saw before, I see him to be the character and 
the engraved form of the image of the Father ; in him 
dwell aU ti-easm-es, the very Godliead dwells in him 
bodily ; he is the most precious among ten thousand, 
and the ways of God are holy and righteous ! here is 
the rule of eternal life, here lies the happiness of the 
rational creatm-e, these are the ways that my soul closes 
with, and shaU cleave to for ever, whatever I sufler in 
them, for I see the excellency, the beauty, the equity, 
and the glory of them, and that the Lord is worthy of 
aU honom' from all his creatures : this is a choice 
which will hold. The world thinks the saints are fools ; 
why? because they cannot see any reason for what 
they do ; they cannot see ground enough m reason for 
such activity, strictness, and zeal ; they think they do 
incalescere in re frigida, that they are very hot about a 
very poor, sorry, cold business, and therefore they count 
their ways foUy : so any man, when he sees another do 
a thing that he imderstands not the reason of, will 
either suspect his own judgment, or think the man fool- 
ish ; now wicked men are tod proud to suspect their 
own judgments, to think theii' own reason folly, there- 
fore they count the ways of God foolishness. They 
look on his ways from a distance, and therefore think 
there is no reason for them. 

It is reported of the famous Marcus Galeasius, that 
he was converted by a sermon of Peter Martyr's, in 
which he expressed the excellencies of God's ways, and 
the mistakes of the world, by this simUitude ; The men 
of the world (said he) mistake God's ways : as, if a man 
were to see a company of musicians playing and dancing 
according to the exactest rides of art ; regarding them 
from a distance, he sees them skipping and leaping up 
and down as a company of mad men, and wonders what 
they mean ; but when he comes nearer, and hears the 
melodious sormd, and observes how all their motions 
are directed agi-eeably to rules of art, then he begins 
to change his thoughts : so the men of the world look 
on the ways of God and on the saints from a distance, 
and think their motions and ways are madness ; but 
when they come nearer, and observe the exactness of 
the rule they walk by, and the wisdom of God that ap- 
pears in them, they change their judgments, and begin 
to think, surely there is something in them more than 
they conceived. This similitude God blessed, so that 
it was the means of converting that nobleman, and 
made him leave all his possessions in Italy, and come 
to Geneva, where he became a pattern of self-denial, 
such as scarce any age has ever produced. When you 
come near God's ways, and see them indeed, you will 
discern infinite reason in them, and charge yom-selves 
with infinite folly that you shotdd have had such low 
thoughts of them heretofore. 

This is the reason why the saints hold on in their 
ways. This judgment is as the ballast of the ship. 
Many hiu-ry on in a profession of religion, and the truth 
is, they know not what they do nor what they profess ; 
if there be any new opinion, I mean, not only in re- 
gard of new manifestation, but in regard of the thing 
itself, presently they follow it, that they may be counted 
sometlmig, and seem to go beyond other men : they 
ai'e as a ship that moves at a mighty rate, all the sails 
are up, and winds blow fau'ly, but there is no ballast ; 
so it is tossed up and down, but never comes to the 
end of the voyage. A^Tien the seed was sown in the 
stony ground, it sprung up presently ; but because there 
wanted moistme at the root, it " withered away," Luke 
viii. 6. This judgment is as moistui-e at the root. We 



168 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



read, that notwithstanding the stony ground " received 
the word with joy," yet when " persecution arose because 
of the word, by and by they were oftended ;'' they were 
mightily taken with the w'ays of God, with the gi-eat 
tilings of the gospel, at first ; but not having judgment, 
as soon as suffering came, " by and by they were 
offended." If times should change again, and the ad- 
versary should prevail, (which God forbid,) we shall soon 
have experience enough of abundance of professors, 
who, having chosen the ways of God not out of judgment, 
•wiU by anci by be offended. 

" I will beti-oth thee unto me in loving-kindness." 
Though Christ takes us to himself, and will not cast us 
off, yet he may see such failings and frailties in us as 
may render us so grievous and burdensome to his spi- 
rit, that we shall enjoy but little sweetness in our com- 
munion together, through the WTetchedncss of our 
hearts. No, saith Clu-ist, " I will betroth 
' you unto me in loving-kindness ;" my 

heart and ways toward you shall be full of gentleness 
and sweetness, and I will jiut such a frame likewise 
into your hearts, both toward me and toward one an- 
other, that you shall have hearts full of sweetness and 
gentleness. 

The Scripture speaks much of the loving-kindness of 
God to his ])eoplc in Christ. Eph. ii. 7, " The exceed- 
ing riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through 
Christ Jesus." Tit. iii. 4, " After that the kindness and 
love of God our Saviour toward man a])pcared." You 
have these epithets given unto God's kindness : " Great 
kindness," Neh. ix. 17. " Marvellous kindness," Psal. 
xxxi. 21. " Merciful kindness," Psal. cxix. 76. " Ever- 
lasting kindness," Isa. liv. 8. " Excellent loving-kind- 
ness," Psal. xxxvi. V. " Multitude of loving-kind- 
nesses," Isa. Ixiii. 7. Thus full is the Scriptui-e of the 
loving-kindness of God towards us in Christ. 

To open it a little. The kindness of God to us in 
Christ consists, 

First, In the freeness of God's goochiess. Kindness 
in a friend is seen much in this, when he does a thing 
freely, with good nature ; when he docs a kindness so 
as not to burden it, nor upbraid his friend with what 
he has done ; nor in a mercenaiy spirit, as if he ex- 
pected great matters in lieu and rceompence, but leaves 
it to his friend to answer him in a way of kindness again 
as he tliinks fit. Thus, in all God's dcaUngs with us, 
he looks not for much at our hands before, but what he 
docs is out of his free grace, and not burdened with 
conditions ; he " giveth liberally and upbraideth not," 
James i. 5. But does not God biu-den his kindness, 
requiring that we sliould give up ourselves to him, and 
serve him, and sufl'er for him in return ? I answer, God 
requires notliing in lieu of all his kindness to us ; but it 
is an additional kuulncss in God to enable us to do, and 
a further kindness in him to accept at our hands when 
we have done it, and therefore is his kindness free. The 
heathens were wont to paint their Gratup, their god- 
desses of kindness, naked ; for thi.s rea.son, because all 
actions of kindness shoidd be free, unclogged and un- 
burdened. " The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, 
and he addeth no soitow with it," Prov. x. 22. The 
kindnesses of this world are ordinarily clogged, scarce 
worth the having ; the kincbiess of God not so, it is 
free. 

Secondly, Kindness consist-s much in our tenderness 
over those to whom we show kindness. The kindness 
of God in Christ is much in compassionating our weak- 
ness, and dealing with us in all his ways accordingly. 
Isa. Ivii. 16, " I will not contend for ever, neither w ill I 
be always wroth ;" why ? " for the spirit should fail be- 
fore me, and the souls which I have made." lie con- 
siders our weakness : I'sal. ciii. 14, "For he knowcth our 
frame; he rememberetli that we are dust." Isa. xl. 11, 
Christ " sliall gatlier the lambs with liis arm, and cany 



them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with 
young." Isa. Ixiii. 9, "In his clemency" (so the word 
is) " he redeemed them ; and he bare them, and carried 
them all the days of old." Kindness makes one long- 
sufl'ering, he bare them always and continually. It is 
kindness for the man to consider all the weaknesses of 
the wife, and to deal with her in a loving way accord- 
ingly, intending her good : this is the kindness of Christ 
to his church. 

Thirdly, Kindness in passing by all infirmities, not 
taking advantages of his people because of ticm. Christ 
notices all the good that is in his people, though it be 
never so little; but that which is a weakness he will 
pass by. The Lord is not " strict to mark iniquity," 
but the Lord is strict to mark what we do well ; if there 
be never so little good in an action that has a hunched 
weaknesses in it, Chiist will mark the good and ])ass 
by all the weaknesses. Sarah is commended by Peter 
for calling her husband lord : in that speech of hers 
there was nothing but sin, saving that expression, and 
yet the Holy Ghost takes notice of that one word and 
passes over all the rest. If thou aimest at serving Clirist, 
and canst ajipeal to him that thy heart is toward him 
to honour him as he requires, I say. though there be a 
huncked weaknesses in an action, if there be but one 
thing good, all thy weaknesses are passed by, and that 
one good thing is taken notice of. 

Fourthly, Kindness is in a loving, sweet, amiable car- 
riage toward one another in our converse one with an- 
other. Oh the sweet, amiable carriage that Christ 
exhibits toward his people ! and that Christ expects 
hkewise from them to him again. In the Canticles you 
find what sweet, amiable expressions there are between 
Christ and his church ; what rebounding, as it were, 
there is of love and kindness one to another ; " Thy love 
is better than wine," saith the church to Christ ; and, 
" Thy love is better than wine," saith Christ to his chui-ch. 
In 1 Cor. xiii. 4, love is said to be " kind," 
no moroscncss, but all sweetness in it, and »"'"'^"'"'"'' 
such should exist between husband and wife. 

I'ifthly. Kindness consists in easiness to be entreated ; 
" peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated," Jam. iii. 
17. Thus, in Christ, he is easy to be entreated by his 
church, and the church should easily be entreated, and 
indeed is : when the hearts of the saints are right, there 
is an ingenuousness in them, and they are soon moved 
to any service Christ requires. 

Lastlv, Kindness is compassionate, sensible of all 
sufferings ; so Christ and his saints mutually are. 

Such loving-kindness as this should be in all mar- 
riage communion ; where tliis does exist there is a sweet 
conjugal communion indeed, and so far as this is want- 
ing, so far the blessing of a marriage estate is from 
being complete. One reason, amongst others, why God 
makes so much use of this allegory of marriage, to ex- 
press so great a mystery of godliness as the union be- 
tween Christ and his church, is, to teach those who are 
married, to live so together as to show forth all that 
excellency of communion which exists between Clu-ist 
and his saint.s. Now I ])ut it to you who arc married, 
is there such loving-kindness in you as may shadow 
forth the loving-kindness which exists between Clirist 
and his spouse ? So far as you come short of this, so 
far there is an evil. 'When you go home take this lesson 
with you, labour to show such mutual loving-kindness 
as may express the loving-kindness of Christ to your 
souls. There arc many frailties in each, but not so 
many as there are in vou in reference to Christ ; he 
bears with more infirmities in you than you can bear 
with in your wife, and yet is not morose, nor a bitter 
husband to you. I liave read of Monicha, Austin's 
mother, that she had a husband of a very cross and 
perverse disjiosition ; and that a heatlien, who lived near 
lier, came to her once, and asked, IIow is it that you 



Vek. 19, 20. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



169 



find your husband live so well together ? We know 
Tour husband is of a very cross and perverse disposi- 
tion, yet we see nothing but a great deal of sweetness 
and love between you ; it is not so with us, we cannot 
do so for om- lives. Monicha gave her this answer, It 
may be, when your husband is untoward and perverse, 
yoii are perverse and answer unkindly in return ; but 
the Christian religion teaches me, when my husband 
comes home and is in a passion, to be as loving, and 
dutiful, and amiable to him as I can, and so I have 
won his heart. It were a happy thing if all women 
would take this home with them, and learn of ^lonicha, 
Austin's mother. And likewise, on the other hand, the 
man should so act in reference to his wife : this loving- 
kindness exists between Christ and his spouse, let it 
then appear between husband and wife, who profess an 
interest in Chi-ist. 

And this loving-kindness of Christ, oh how should it 
draw om- hearts to him ! "What more powerful means 
to attract than loving-kincbiess ? Mark that passage 
in proof of its power, 2 Chron. x. 7, " If thou be kind 
to this people, they will be thy servants for ever,"' say 
those ancient counsellors of Rehoboam, who counselled 
him wisely. If this be the way to di'aw the heart, surely 
Christ must needs have ours ; he is not " a bloody hus- 
band," but a kind one to us ; let us then be his " serv- 
ants for ever.'' It were a good tiling for all governors 
to consider that it is kindness that wins the hearts of 
people : and as they rule not over beasts, but men, if 
they would rule with comfort and safety to themselves, 
they should temper their authority with kinchiess. 
Hence, Cant. iii. 10, it is said that the chariot of Solo- 
mon was " paved with love for the daughters of Jerusa- 
lem ; " thus expressing Solomon's gentleness toward its 
people. AVhen the mother and wife of Alexander 
Severus would incite him to severitj-. and objected to 
him his mildness and readiness to yield to his subjects, 
saying, You have made your power more contemptible 
by your kindness and compliant spirit ; his answer was. 
At securiorem, But more secure and lasting. Certainly, 
if magistrates would follow the advice of the ancient 
counsellors, to be kind to the people, they woidd be 
tlieir servants for ever, and their own peace and safety 
be better secm'ed. 

Chi'ist expects loving-kindness from you to himself, 
and loving-kindness likewise one to another. 

First, Christ expects you should be full of loving- 
kindness to him. O blessed Redeemer, what is it 
that we should do, that we should be kind to thee ? 
The very phi-ase seems to be too low for Clirist, that 
he shoidd look for om- kindness. Yes, Christ looks 
for it, and prizes it dearly, nothing in the world is 
valued by him more than it; as a fond husband prizes 
nothing more than kindness in his -nife. But how 
kind to Chi-ist ? 

1. When you cleave to him when he stands most in 
need of you. 2 Sam. x^^. 17, Absalom saith to Hushai, 
"Is this thy kindness to thy friend?" that is. Is thy 
fi-iend in danger, and requii-ing thy present aid, and 
dost thou now forsake him ? thou shouldst now be with 
him in the time of Ws need, and thus prove thy kind- 
ness. So, I say, there are times in which Christ stands 
in more need of us than at other, in suffering times, in 
times wherein his cause has many enemies, and om- 
help is called for ; if we should forsake him then, may 
not Christ, nay, may not the holy angels and saints say, 
" Is this your kindness to yom- friend ? " To come to 
Christ when you have need of him is not so much kind- 
ness, but to come to him when he has need of you, tliis 
is kindness. 

2. It is kindness when we serve Christ in the midst 
of diiBculties. You have tliis strongly marked in Jer. 
ii. 2, " I remember the kindness of thy youth, the love 
of thine espousal?, when thou wentest after me in the 



wilderness." To be willing to follow Christ in the wil- 
derness, that is kindness. Chi-ist does not account it 
kindness for us to serve him when we may prosper in 
his service ; when it may suit our own ends, when we 
may keep our shops, our lands and possessions, when 
no difficulty at all presents itself, what great kindness 
is this ? But when, from love to the ordinances and the 
truths of Clu-ist, you are willing to follow him even in 
the wilderness, this is kindness, and Clu'ist will accoimt 
it such : however, some have thought that they have 
shown great kindness to Christ, because they have staid 
and borne the brunt ; but how have they borne it ? by 
yielding to superstitious vanities, and being ceremonial 
and prelatical. It will be found that those who have 
been willing to follow Christ in the wilderness, from 
love to him, his truth and ordinances, tliat Christ will 
remember such service as kindness. 

3. It is a kindness for young people to dedicate their 
prime to Christ. By way of allusion, at least, we may 
make use of that Scripture, " I remember the kindness 
of thy youth : " when thy bones are full of marrow,, 
and the world seeks to draw thy heart after its vanities, 
when thou niayst have thy delights and pleasures in 
the flesh to the fuU ; if then thou art willing to deny 
all, and to give up thyself to Christ, tliis is loving-kind- 
ness. One that is old may possibly reach heaven on 
repentance ; but what kindness is it for him, who has 
nigh worn out all his days and strength in the ways of 
sin, and the delights of the flesh, when he is leaving 
the world, and can have no more pleasm-e in his sins, 
to come to Chi'ist for mercy ; what kindness is here ? 
here is self-love indeed, but little kindness. 

Secondly, Lovmg-kindness one to another. " I wUl 
betroth you unto me in loving-kindness : " I will put 
such a spii-it into you of loving-kindness unto your 
brethren, as I have towards you. The word Ton Iier& 
rendered lovmg-kindness, often in Scripture is used for 
saints. Those who are called godly, and saints, in the 
English Bible, in the Hebrew are called kind ones t 
thus, Psal. iv. 3, " Know ye that the Lord hath set 
apart iStdpi him that is godly," or, the kind one, " for 
himself;" the Lord hath set apart for himself those that 
are kind, those who are of sweet, gentle dispositions.. 
And Psal. xvi. 10, Not " suffer thine Holy One to see. 
corruption," the Hebrew is, "^'"I'Dn thy kind one. So 
Psal. c.x.lix. 1, " Sing his praise in the congregation of 
the saints," D'TDn of the kind ones ; and the same 
word again, ver. o, " Let the saints be jojful in gloiy ; " 
that is, the kind ones. All come from the same root 
with that wliich here is translated " loving-kindness," 
denoting what an ingrecbent lovmg-kincbiess is to 
saintship and to godliness ; therefore it is not enough 
for Chi-istians to be godly, but they must be kind one 
to another also. 2 Pet. i. 3, " And to godliness add 
brotherly kindness." You think you are godly ; but are 
you of a rugged, rough-lie\\'n disposition, sm-ly, severe, 
and perverse ? here is the exhortation to you this day 
from God, if you will approve yom-selves to be godly, 
" Add to j'om- godliness brotherly kindness ; " except 
you add that, you can have little comfort in yom- god- 
Imess. It is impossible indeed for one who has the 
power of godliness, and its true comfort and sweet- 
ness, to be of a liaish and unkindly disposition ; such 
a heart has in God such infuiite satisfaction, that there 
is nothing that can come from without that can make 
it bitter ; there is so much sweetness in the satisfaction 
it enjoys in God, that not all the bitterness from with- 
out can som- such a heart; as the scriptm-e saith, " A 
good man is satisfied from himself." 

If you have a vessel of honey, a little gall will make 
it all bitter, yet a little honey will not make sweet a 
vessel of gall. But in grace, though there be niuclv 
bitterness in men or women, though they be naturally 
harsh, yet a di-op of true saving grace will sweeten all 



170 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. H. 



that gall ; and if they be once gracious, a great deal of 
gall and bitterness from without will not imbitter that 
sweetness. I beseech you to 

Oba. 1. When God' has left men they grow more 
pa.ssionate and froward than they were before. And I 
verily believe one ground of the frowardness and pas- 
sionatcness in professors is, that tliey have made breaches 
between God and their souls, and their peace being 
broken, nothing: then can give them content. As when 
a man has been abroad and others have angered him, 
and his inward comfort and joy are gone, then every- 
thing annoys him, he is pleased with nothing, his coun- 
tenance is loui-ing, and he is unkind to all ; and why ? 
because he has lost the sweetness of his own spirit, and 
now all seems bitter, nothing from without can content 
him : but let tliis man go abi'oad and things succeed 
with him, let him make a good bargain, hear excellent 
news, that his goods are come home safely, he can now 
beai- a hundred times more than before, and you can 
scarce anger him ; why ? because his heart is filled with 
sweetness. So, let a Chi-istian walk close with God, 
maintain his peace with liim, and he will have so much 
sweetness in liis heart that it will not be easy to incense 
him. AMiy ? He has enough within. Perhaps Ms friend, 
his wife, his neighbour is unkind, but his Chi-ist is 
loving : Though there be little comfort in my man-iage 
with one who is so peevish and pen'erse, yet in my 
man-iage with Christ there is satisfaction enough. But 
when the heart has made breaches between Christ and 
itself, when it has lost the sweetness of that man-iage 
communion, no marvel if there be no sweetness in the 
other. 

A remarkable example of this is Saul, who, before 
his breach with God, was of a sweet, mild. Mid loving 
disposition, but afterwards perverse, cruel, and fi-oward. 
M'heu fiist chosen king, how humble was he ! he ac- 
knowledges himself to be of " the least of the tribes of 
Israel," and " the least in his father's house;" and when 
some contemptuously exclaimed, " Shall this man reign 
over us?" the text saith, "he held his peace;" and 
when others would have had them killed, No, by no 
means, they must not be slain, because God had shown 
him mercy in a late victory. But after Saul had fallen 
from God, how rugged, perverse, and cruel his disposi- 
tion then ! even to Jonathan his son, a gracious, loving 
youth, he saith, " Thou son of the perverse, rebellious 
woman," and casts a javelin at him to kill him ; then 
the fourscore and five prie^its in the city of Nob must 
be all slain in his anger. What was the reason of all 
this ? The breach between God and his own soul. Oh 
take lieed of those breaches, for what does a man 
get by the want of this kindness and loving disposition ! 
he troubles himseK; Prov. xi. 17, "He that is cruel," 
of a harsh disposition, "troubleth his own flesh." I 
appeal to you who are married, do you not lose much 
of the sweetness of your lives ? what comfort have you 
in tliem when there is nothing but snarling at and cross- 
ing one another? you trouble yo\u- own house, and 
your own flesh ; whereas, if there were lovuig-kindness 
between you, it would sweeten all your comforts, yea, 
all vour crosses. 

Obs. 2. The loving-kindness of a man or a woman is 
their beauty. " The desire of a man is his kindness," 
Prov. xix. 22; and of a "virtuous woman" w-ho had 
" done excellently," among other high commendations, 
this is one, " In her tongue is the law of kindness," 
Prov. xxxi. 26 ; kindness gives a law to her mouth : 
many women arc under no restraint, and their tongues 
are lawless when they ai-e provoked ; but of a woman 
commended by God, the text saith, "The law of kind- 
ness is in Iier tongue," the kindness of her heart guides 
her lips, and that is the honour of a woman. 

To be of a sweet, kind disposition, is an exceeding 
beauty, adding a glorious lustre to any man. Isa. xl. 



6, " All flesh is as grass, and all the goodliness thereof 
is as the flower of the field ;" the word for goodliness is 
"ion the same word that is used here, and translated 
" kindness," denoting that kindness is " the goodliness" 
of the spirit of a man or woman ; as the flower impai-ts 
beauty to the field. Justin Martyr, in his Apology for 
the Christians, saith, That their adversa- . 
ries hated only the name of a Christian, M°<7eJ<^iTJf4.- 
but had notliing against the Christians ; ""°'- ■'"^'- ""^- 
and what is there, saith he, in the name ? Nothing but 
that which is good and lovely enough : now, it is not 
just to hate what is profitable and gentle, yet so the 
word may signiiy-, if you call them Chrintiani, from 
XP>/<Tr6f, mild, profitable ; and so they are indeed, pro- 
fitable, gentle, and kind ])eople, and why should you 
hate such ? 2 Cor. vi. 6, " By kindness, by the Holy 
Ghost," are put together, and there is much of the Holy 
Ghost where there is much kindness. The spirit of 
Clu-ist is a .spirit of kindness and gentleness, and though 
you may think that your harshness and severity argue 
com-age of mind, (for it is usual for froward and pas- 
sionate people to think they have more courageous 
spirits than others,) know that they only prove you 
more base and degraded. I will cite, m proof only, 
Psal. xlv. 4, where it is said of Christ, " In thy majestj- 
ride prosperously because of truth and meekness ; 
now the word for meekness is, in 2 Sam. xsii. 26, 
translated " gentleness ;" " thy gentleness hath made 
nie great :" mark, gentleness and majesty may consist 
together, yea, Christ is magnificent and fuU of majesty 
in the gentleness and quietness of his spirit ; Ride on in 
thy majesty prosperously, because of thy meekness, be- 
cause of thy gentleness. Would you have a brave 
spirit, like to the spiiit of Christ in his glory ? let your 
spirits be gentle, sweet, and loving. 

" I >^-ill betroth thee unto me in mercies." 

Loving-kindness and mercies mw seem, at first view, 
sjTionjinous, but there is much difierence in them. 

" And in mercies ;" viscera, so the word is ; "I will 
betroth thee vmto myself in bowels." Not the fruit 
only, but the root ; not the water only, but the fomi- 
tain ; thou shalt have the fountain of all good, my very 
bowels, from whence flow all mercies. MTierefore, 
Chi-istians, you need not fear the want of the supply of 
mercies ; why ? because vou have the Fountain fi-om 
whence mercies spring. Ood may grant to wicked men 
many fi-uits of his bounty and goodness ; but they have 
not liis bowels, they have not the fountain, the root 
from whence all mercies issue. 

Here is the happiness of a Christian, not only to have 
much good from God, but to have those very bowels 
ft-om whence that good comes. Herein hes the dignity, 
the glor)' of a Christian, the vastness of his riches. 

Christians, you need not therefore fear to resign any 
mercy God requires at your hands, for the bowels of 
mercy are yours ; the spring-head of all mercy, whence 
you may fetch all seasonable and all suitable supplies 
at pleasiu-e, is yours. Here is the reason why many 
carnal persons, when they have received a mercy from 
God, cling to it. so closely, and are so unwilling to part 
with it, though God requires it again : why ? because 
they are not acquainted with the true privilege of a 
Christian, know not what it is to possess the bowels of 
God, nor where to go for more, and therefore ai-e loth 
to part with what they have. Now the .saints can part 
with any thing for God ; Let him take what he will, let 
him strip me as naked as he pleases, I have the bowels 
of God, the spring-head, to resort to for new- mercies 
If tlicre were a scarcity of water, and you had on!} 
some in a cistern, and your neighbour came to borroiv 
of you, you woidd be unwilling to lend any ; but if you 
have a well-spring, a fountain, that never was and 
never wiU be drawn dry, is it a great matter for you to 
lend water then ? So, the men of the world are needy 



ViiK. 19, 20. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



171 



creatures, they have something indeed, but it is as 
■water in a cistern, when that is gone they think that all 
is gone ; therefore they -wUl not lend it, no, not unto God 
himself when he requii-es it of them. But the saints 
have the bowels of mercy, the sprmg-head of all grace, 
therefore whatever God calls for, they presently say, 
Lord, here take all, I know where to have it again, and 
much more than that. This makes godly men so in- 
genuous for God, and so free-hearted to him, and to his 
servants. 

But let us search a little into these mercies : it is an 
argument that has much depth in it. 

1. They are a depth swallowing up the greatest evils 
of sin or affliction. K you pour a pail of water on the 
boards of your chamber, it seems like a little sea ; but 
take the same and pom- it into the deep ocean, it is 
there swallowed up, and appears nothing. Our afflic- 
tions and oiu- sins in themselves seem gi-eat, but when 
they are swallowed up m these bowels, in these depths 
of God's mercies in which he betroths himself to us. 
they are as nothing in comparison. Therefore the 
Scripture uses such strong expressions for the wonder- 
fulness of God's mercies to his people in Christ. 

There are three chiefly remarkable words to express 
the fubiess of God's mercies in Clirist. The fu-st in 
_, , „... Eph. ii. 7, " The exeeeduig riches of Ms 
TO 9tAo5to»' TSt grace, the riches that ai'e cast m over 

The second in Rom. v. 20, " The grace 
'vjrepejrep.Vtrei;- gf God did much more abound ;" there 
IS a second vntp. 

And the third m 1 Tim. i. 14, " The 
'^"■■f v'ipfi'!""'"' grace of oui' Lord was exceeding abund- 
ant." There was a pleonasm before, but 
here is a super-pleonasm. Here ia-tp is thi-ee times re- 
peated, to mark the riches of the glory, and the depth 
of the mercy, of God in C'lmst. 

2. Consider these mercies in the effects. They set 
on work all the fulness of God for the good of his 
people. If there be any thing that God's wisdom, or 
power, or all that blessedness which is in God, can 
effect, they -naU engage all to work for thy good, for the 
bowels of mercy yearn towards thee, if thou art in Clu'ist. 

3. It is the great design, yea, the greatest design, that 
ever God had from all eternity, to honom- his mercy, and 
to set out the infinite glory and riches of it in Christ. 
Certainly God had great designs in doing such mighty 
things as he has done, but, above all the designs that 
ever God had in all his works, to glorify the riches of 
his mercy in Chiust is the chiefest. They are indeed 
bowels of mercy when they are such, as that in the glory 
of them God attams his great design in making the 
world, for he would never have created it had it not been 
for that. 

4. They are the heart-blood mercies of Jesus Christ, 
such mercies as cost the blood of Christ ; and his was 
certainly most precious blood. Wlien Christ sees any 
converted and brought home to him, to be made a sub- 
ject of God's mercy, he thinks his blood well bestowed. 
The Scriptm'e saith, " He shall see of the travail of his 
soul, and shall be satisfied." I have enough for all the 
blood I shed. I came indeed fi-om my Father, and was 
made a servant, a curse ; yea, I suffered the \vra.tb of 
my Father, and my blood was shed ; but if this be the 
fruit of it, that such a soul shall obtain this mercy, I 
have recompence sufficient. 

5. Yea, God the Father is well pleased with it, he 
thinks the blood of Christ but a valuable price to pm-- 
chase such mercies as these. As for all the glory of the 
world, God can give it to men whom he hates, to re- 
Tiiicicumimpmum, probatcs : as Luther saith of the whole 
?"(" m^™ S"".!™ ' Tiu-kish empire, It is but a crumb of 
pt'erfamiiias cani- bread that the master of the house thi-ows 

us ptojici • " • -to his dogs : but when his mercies in 



Christ are concerned, they are such as are worth the 
blood of his Son, which alone could purchase them. 

6. They are such mercies as God designedly bestows, 
that he may declare to all eternity, before angels and 
all his saints, to what a height of excellency and gloi-y 
these infinite mercies are able to raise a poor creature. 
These must needs be great. 

7. Yea, they must be an object for angels and saints 
to wonder at, and adore and magnify the name of God 
everlastingly. 

WTiat shall I say more in naming the fruits of these 
mercies ? Such mercies as, whereas before sm made 
thee the object of God's hati-ed, it now makes thee an 
object of his pity ; God takes occasion from thy sin to 
chsplay his mercy. Take heed of abusing it, it is chil- 
dren's bread ; let us not sin that grace may abound, 
but rather, seeing thy sin cannot overcome God's good- 
ness, let God's goodness overcome thy sin. Let us learn 
also to wonder at these riches of mercy in Christ, and 
to exercise much faith about them. Certainly we would 
tluive in godliness much more if we exercised faith in 
the bowels of God in Christ. Those fruits, Hke your 
apricots and May cherries, that grow up by a wall and 
enjoy the warm beams of the sun, are sooner ripe, and 
have more sweetness, than those which grow in shady 
places ; yom' grass that is shaded by the trees in orchards, 
is sour : so the fruit which Christians bring forth under 
discouragements and despairing thoughts, is very som' ; 
some tilings they do, for conscience compels them to 
duties, but, alas, it is sour fruit ; though it be better to 
do what conscience requires than not, yet to do it 
merely because conscience compels, is but as sour grass. 
But when a Christian can by faith set himself before 
the sunshine of these mercies of God in Christ, and 
continually hve in the midst of the beams of that grace, 
he grows ripe sooner, and his fi'uit is sweeter. 

You may easily know whether the Sun of righteous- 
ness shines on you. Does your fruit gi'ow lipe ? and 
is it sweet ? Those who talk of mercy, and of Clirist, 
and have his name in their mouths, but bring forth 
som' and crabbed fi'idt, are not m the Sun ; they are 
blind, and cannot discern it ; and are but in a hght of 
then- own fancy, and in a heat of their own making. 

Li Eph. iii. 18, 19, the apostle prays that the Ephe- 
sians " may be able to comprehend with all saints, what 
is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height " of 
the riches of God in Clirist. Mark, the philosophers 
tell us of only three dimensions, but here are four ; and 
what is the fruit of this ? " To know the love of Christ, 
which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with 
all the fidness of God." Here is the effect of it ; when 
we know the breadth, and length, and depth, and height 
of God's love, and have that knowledge by the Spirit 
of God, that passeth all natm-al knowledge, then we 
are filled with all the fulness of God. Here now is a 
glorious Christian ; a Chiistian filled with all the ful- 
ness of God. Would you be so ? Learn then to ex- 
ercise faith much about the infinite riches of the mercy 
of God in Christ, tliis wiU ffll you with all the fubiess 
of God. You complain of barrenness and emptiness in 
yom- hearts and lives, it is because you give such Uttle 
heed to tliis. 

God betroths his church to himself in mercies, in 
bowels. Let us learn, when we are in any strait, to 
plead with God for bowels of mercy. Isa. Ixiii. 15, "Look 
do-wn from heaven, and behold from the habitation of 
thy holiness and of thy gloiT : where is thy zeal and thy 
strength, the sounding of thy bowels, and of thy mer- 
cies toward me? are they restrained?" Lord, hast 
thou not said that thou wilt betroth thy church unto 
thyself in bowels ? "Wliere is " the sounding of thy 
bowels ? " Lord, let us have these bowels of thine in 
which thou hast betrothed us tlu'Ough Christ. 

Oh what confusion will there be one dav to those who 



172 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. U. 



shall miss these mercies of God, in which the Lord has 
betrothed himself unto his church ! "What ! will you 
content yourselves now with crumbs which God casts to 
dogs, with the fruits of his general bounty and patience, 
when you hear of such glorious mercies in Jesus Christ ? 
These things should raise oiu- hearts, so that we should 
protest as Luther did : I protest, saith he, 
«um 'nKoiu^Mc God shall not put me off with these things 
utmi .b «>. Luih. p|. jj^g ^-orld, with my portion here. 
no, the Lord has showed me greater riches, and though 
I be unworthy of any, yet, as I know his mercy is free, 
why then should not I have my portion in these glo- 
rious things ? 

Come in, then, come in, O sinful soul, be in love with 
Jesus Chi'ist and the ways of godliness ; know that all 
these mercies are tendered to thy sold this day, to break 
thy heart, even that hard heart of thine; and they arc as 
free for thee as for any. There is nothing moi'e pleas- 
ing to God, than for thee to be taken with the glory of 
the riches of his mercy. Thou canst perform no duty 
so acceptable to God as this, to have thy heart broken 
on the consideration of his bowels, to have thy bowels 
yearn again, and to come in and close with this infinitely 
rich and glorious grace. Which if thou dost, know 
that, the first moment thou art united to Christ, thou 
dost launch into the infinite ocean of mercy, dost 
breathe in the element of mercy, and live on nothing 
but mercy. 

Is it so ? Then know God expects a merciful dis- 
position from thee too. God betroths thee in right- 
eousness, and puts righteousness into thee ; in judg- 
ment, and gives thee judgment too ; Ln loving-kindness, 
and makes thee loving and kind likewise ; and in mer- 
cies, and puts mercies into thee. 

First, toward himself. Can we be merciful to God ? 
AVhat good can we do to God ? God expects you should 
have bowels toward him. How? Thus. Dost thou 
see the name of this blessed God thy husband dishon- 
oured in the world ? Oh, thy bowels should yearn. 
AVhat ! does God look upon tliee in thy blood, in thy 
misery, and do his bowels yearn toward thee ? Canst 
thou look on God in his dishonour, and his cause 
trampled under foot, and do not thy bowels yearn to- 
ward him ? It should move thy soul to see this blessed 
God so much dishonoured in the world as he is, to see 
that there arc so few that love and fear him, who is 
thy God and has done thee so much good. Is there 
any good cause hi which the name of God may be hon- 
oured ? Thy bowels should forthwith work toward it. 
" My beloved put his hand by the hole of the door, 
and my bowels were moved for him," Cant. v. 4. A^^lcn 
Christ but l)Cgan to open the door, but put in his iiand, 
my bowels were moved, saith the church, and I could 
never be at rest till I had inquired after, yea, and 
found my beloved. Is there any beginning amongst 
us to let Christ in his government into the kingdom ? 
Do we feel him putting his hand in at the door ? 
certaurly, if skilled in his way, we may feel him. 
Oh that our bowels then would yearn, and cause our 
hearts to flow out to the bountifulness of the Lord, 
and join with Clu'ist in tliis blessed work which he is 
commencing. 

Our bowels must be toward the saints also. It is 
extremely against the Spirit of Chi-ist, for a Christian 
to be hard-hearted toward his brethren. Christ expects 
bowels ; and as you would account it a grievous miserv 
to have your bowels tliseased, know it is a greater evd 
to have your hearts unmerciful, than to have a disease 
in your bowels : as the Scripture phrase is, .;Vmos i. 11, 
" He cast off all pity, and his anger did tear peiiictu- 
ally," 80 it is in your ICnglisii Bibles ; but the words in 
the original are, " and corrupted his bowels;" their 
bowels were corrujited when they were not pitiful to- 
ward their brethren in miserv. The condition of Je- 



horam was grievous, when his bowels came forth by 
reason of his disease, 2 Chron. xxi. 15. An unmerci- 
ful heart is a worse cUsease. 

"N^'hat are we, and who are we, that Gods mercies 
should be shown to us? and why not oiu' mercies toward 
our brethren ? The Scri])ture expressly requu'es mercy 
in the saints towards one another. " Put on, as the 
elect of God, bowels of mercy, and kindness," Col. iii. 
12. AVould you have an argument to yourselves that 
you are God's elect ? put on bowels then. Never was 
there a period in your own life, or that of your fore- 
fathers, in which God called for bowels of mercy, more 
than now. Do you hear of the miseries of yoiu- bre- 
thren, their goods spoiled, houses burnt, wives and 
children ravished, themselves imprisoned, their bodies 
wounded, and yet have no bowels all this while ? what ! 
do you remain hard-hearted ? Are you the elect of 
God ? A\Tiy, I pray you, what is your flesh more than 
the flesh of others ? AMiat are your comforts more than 
the comforts of others ? A^'hy should you lie soft and 
safe more than others ? Is there any such difference 
between you and your brethren, that they should be in 
misery, and you pampered, and scarce feel the very 
wind blow on you ? You will say. It is God that has 
made the difference. I grant it, and it would not grieve 
God to make such a difference between you and them, 
if he saw your bowels yearn towards them. But if 
God lay such afflictions on yom- brethi'cn who are bet- 
ter than you, and have done more for him than ever 
you have, and yet you continue haid-hearted, this will 
grieve God at the heart. " M'hoso hath this worUfs 
good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up 
his bowels of compassion from him, how dwellcth the 
love of God in him ?" 1 John iii. 17. If thou hast 
bowels and shuttest them up from thy brother, surely 
thou never knewest what the love of God meant 

Mark what encouraging expressions we have to 
bounty and liberality towards om- brethi-en, in 2 Cor. 
ix. 8, " God is able to make all grace abo\md toward 
you ; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, 
may abound to every good work." There is no such 
text in all the book of God to encourage the o])ening 
our bowels to the administering to the necessities of 
the saints, for that scripture expressly bears on the 
point ; and if you beheve any thing in the word of God, 
if you have any experience of God's bowels towards 
you, read over this, and see if it will not open your 
bowels. " God is able to make all grace abound : " 
" grace abound," that is something ; " all grace," some- 
thing more ; but all kind of grace, that is still more, 
and that from God's almighty power too ; but even that 
is not enough, mark, " that ye, always having all suf- 
ficiency in all things." It were enough, one would 
think, for God to say. You shall have things needful, 
nay. you shall have sufficiency in that you have ; but 
no, he saith, Y*ou shall have " aU things," and " suf- 
ficiency in all things," and " all sufficiency in all things." 
Y'ea, but I may want before I die ? No, you shall have 
" always all sufficiency in all things." Well, this may 
make us do something, and you may think, If I do this 
or that good work, it were enough : no, but you must 
abound, you must do every good work, and abound in 
eveiT good work. But I shall exhaust myself if I be 
so abundant in every good work : no, God is able to 
make all grace in yovi to abound towards you, " that 
you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may 
abound." You shall never be drawn dry, for you have 
the bowels of God's mercv. Some asked Alexander, 
when giving large gifts, M hat will vou keej) for your- 
self? -S/Jci, replied he ; I will keep liope for myself; I 
believe that there are still greater things in store for 
me : what he had he gave away, because he had a sjiirit 
that looked after and hoped for great things to come. 
Certainly, Cln-istians have hope left always ; why ? be- 



Ver. 19.20. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



cause they can have recourse to the bowels of God's 
mercies. 

One thing more, to knit all together ; all righteous- 
ness, all judgment, all lo\-ing-kindness, all mercies, 
come from God through our union ■with Christ. 

Though God be an mfinite ocean of goodness, yet 
■we can expect notliing from God, but through om- union 
with Christ. Man has forfeited the title he had to all 
the goodness of God, and now the title upon which he 
is to hold all Iiis good, is the imion he has with this 
husband, with Jesus Clrrist, by wtue of this marriage. 
^^^lenever faith goes to heaven for any good from God, 
it goes by vu'tue of this right, and obtains all the bless- 
ings it gets fi'om God, by vii-tue of that conjugal union 
which the soul has with Jesus Christ. 

How blessed then was the time when Christ was first 
revealed to the church ! " Behold king Solomon with 
the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the 
day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of 
his heart," Cant. iii. 11. The things explamed regard- 
ing our espousals with Christ, must needs make that 
day the day of the gladness of our hearts : oh how dear 
should this Christ thy husband be to thee ! how happy, 
when thou shalt have full communion with him ! AVhen 
Isaac met Rebekah, he carried her into liis mother's 
tent : when the Lord Christ shall meet his spouse, he 
will carry her into his Father's palace. Behold the 
riches, the glory of my Father whom I told you of, 
these are all yoiu:s in my right eternally. 

" I will even beti'oth thee imto mc in faithfulness." 

Here is a third betrothing, " I will betroth, I will be- 
troth, I will beti'oth." Jerome remarks that it is thrice 
repeated, to note the three several times of God's be- 
trothing himself to his people : 1. '\Mien he called 
Abraham. 2. After they went out of Egypt and were 
in the wilderness at Mount Smai. 3. In the time of 
the gospel. And of this exposition, Calvin saith, it may 
be accounted wdtty, but frivolous ; and gives himself a 
better reason for the repetition, which I think agreeable 
to the mind of the Holy Ghost; Because apostatizing 
Israel could hardly beheve that God would do such a 
thing as this. What ! after the Lord had cast her away, 
yea, cast her to the beasts, (for so he tlu'eatens in the 
former part of the chapter,) yet now betroth her to 
himself? this was unlikely. 

'• I will even betroth thee ;" so it is in your Bibles : 
the particle here rendered " even" is the same that is 
before ti^anslated " and ;" but because it is repeated the 
tliii-d time the translators thought there was an em- 
phasis in if, and therefore, to express that, employed the 
word " even." 

" In faithfulness," or steadiness : I will betroth thee 
unto me in a steady way ; my goodness toward thee shall 
be stable and fii'm : so the word is often used in Scrip- 
ture: '-His hands were steady," Exod. xni. 12; and 
Deut. xxviii. 59, I " will make thy plagues of long con- 
tinuance ;" thy plagues stable and constant : in both which 
places the same word is used that is here translated 
" faithfulness." Thus 1 Sam. ii. 3.5, " I will raise me 
up a faitlrful priest ; and I will build him a sure house :" 
there the word is of the same root ; " a sure house," a 
firm, steady house. Faithfulness here imports God's 
stability and steaduiess in his covenant with his people. 
It denotes not so much the perpetuity, for that was be- 
fore, " I will betroth thee imto me for ever ;" but fu-m- 
ness and constancy, as opposed to fickleness and un- 
certainty. 

There is much inconstancy and fickleness in our love 
one to another ; but the love of God to his people is a 
stable, settled, th-m, and constant love. That is the 
meaning in the fii'st place, though not all. " As the 
bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God 
rejoice over thee," Isa. Ixii. 5 ; that is, the love of Christ, 
after thousands of years, is still but as the love of a 



bridegroom on the wedding day ; then, ordinarily, love 
is ardent, and shows itself much. There is no moment 
of time in which Christ does not rejoice, not only as a 
husband, but as a bridegroom, over every faithful soul. 

Christ's love is steady, because it is pure, without 
mixture ; it is a holy love. Compare Isa. Iv. 3, where 
"the sure mercies of David" are promised, with Acts 
xiii. 34, where that scripture is quoted, and 
there it is, the holj- things of Daxid. " "'"'' ^''' ' ' 
Thus noting, because the love of God is holy, therefore 
it is sm-e and stedfast. 

Cluist's love to his people is from the sweetness of his 
natm-e, and therefore it is steady and firm : " with him 
tliere is no shadow of change." It is grounded on a 
sm-e covenant, and therefore firm. Though indeed the 
love of Chi-ist may be to us as the sun, not always in 
the fruits of it, shining out with equal glory ; yet still 
like the sun, steadily pursuing its coui'se, though some- 
times obscm"ed by clouds. 

The saints should fasten on the love of Christ in the 
covenant ; and though other things be very uncertain, 
yet they should quiet their hearts in this, that their 
happiness in the covenant of grace is sure. Perhaps 
the love of our friends is very fickle and inconstant ; 
they may speak smooth things, and seem as if their 
hearts were with us ; but what sullen moods and fits, 
at times, come over them ! and when you have most 
need of them, you know not wliere they are to be found : 
but the love of Christ is certain and stable. !Mark how 
David comforted himself in the stability of God's cove- 
nant love : Though he causes not my house to grow, 
" yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, 
ordered in all things, and sure : for this is all my salva- 
tion, and all my desii-e," 2 Sam. xxiii. 5 ; that is, that 
the covenant is sure and stedfast. 

And this faitlifidness must be mutual. " I will be- 
troth thee in faithfulness," and make thee faithfid too ; 
that is, thou shalt have a firm and stable s])irit in thy 
love to me : though not to be compared with Christ's 
love to them, yet there is a reciprocal stability in the 
hearts of the saints, they are not carried up and down, 
as other men, with every wind of doctrine, with every 
breath of temptation. '• The righteous is an everlast- 
ing foundation," Prov. x. 25. " The righteous shall 
hold on his way," Job xvii. 9. It must needs be so, 
because the afi'ections of the saints to Christ are holy 
affections also ; and though they have some mixture, 
and therefore some instabOity ; yet they are holy, and 
therefore stable. 

And they choose Chi'ist in righteousness and in judg- 
ment. The)' have the Di^ine nature in them ; and as 
that has no shadow of change, they attain to some sha- 
dow of its immutability. Isa. xxvi. 3, a godly man is 
described as one '' whose mind is stayed upon God :" 
he has a stable, not a wandering, fickle spirit, and has 
fixed himself on God, and can say, " My heart is fixed." 
The men of the world, because they have not that 
which can satisfy, run up and down, fii'st after one con- 
tentment, then after another, and can settle no where ; 
but the saints find an all-sufficiency in God ; there their 
hearts are satisfied, and there they fix : as a bee, light- 
ing on a flower, and finding but little houey, tries many 
in succession ; but when it comes to one laden with 
sweets, it settles there. The hearts of the saints find a 
fulness of good in God, and there stay themselves. 

A fickle, wavering, unstable spirit, is exceedingly un- 
becoming a Clu-istian. As in the body, some, who have 
flushings of heat, have a very good colour for a while ; 
but when we know that this is but a flush, it is rather 
a proof of disease, than of a good complexion. A can- 
dle burning down m the socket gives some flashes of 
light now and then ; but a candle set up upon a table 
yields a steady and constant light. Mad people, you 
know, have then- lucid mtervals ; but you may perceive 



174 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. n. 



they are insane, because there is not constancy and 
evenness in their actions. This stableness, this even- 
ness in a Christiaii way, is its beauty and glory. Though 
you be forward sometimes in that which is good : yet, if 
at other times your hearts be off, there is no beauty in 
your conversation. Give nie a Christian whose ways 
are even, in whom you find a constancy. 

Those who have such fickle, uncertain, inconstant 
hearts, are never likely to excel ; if they have any truth 
in them, yet they will never be eminent Christians. 
Gen. xlix. 4, it is said of Reuben, " Unstable as water, 
thou shalt not excel :" so it mav be said of an unstable 
Christian, He is one of good auctions ; at some times 
veiT zealous, but being unstable as water he shall not 
excel. 

Constancy in love is exceedingly comely and beauti- 
ful between mamed persons, it adds much to the lustre 
and comfort of their lives ; and to this allusion is here 
made. For men to seem sometimes \eiry fond, and at 
other times to be bitter and unkind, like Nabals ; or the 
wife to show much love occasionally, and to be grievous 
at other times; this takes away the beauty, the com- 
fort of their lives. 

But there is more in this faitlifulness than stability 
and firmness : " I will betroth thee in faithfuhiess ;" 1 
wlU certainly perform all the good which is befitting a 
husband, yea, such a husband as I am, to do to my 
spouse ; you may confide in me, I will be faitliful to you ; 
not only my love, but my faithfulness, shall bind me to 
you. My loving-kindness, my merciful disposition, is a 
great bond, but my faithfulness shall bind me also ; I 
will be content to engage myself to you, to engage all 
that I am and all tliat I have to you, that you may cer- 
tainly confide in me ; so as not only to expect it from 
my love, but to challenge it from my faithfidness. We 
deny not God's providence to other erea- 
rii'Si'non''n5amM, ttiTes ; but the spouse has a claim on God's 
J"di'?at.''°Rjn.'''' care, saith Bernard, which is beyond his 
providence, grounded on his faithfulness 
as well as his love. Christ here condescends to his 
spouse, as a man is willing to give satisfaction to his 
wife and her friends ; and though indeed he would do 
any thing in the world from love to his wife, yet in re- 
gard of her weakness, and to satisfj- some fi-iends, he 
is content to enter into bond, to do whatsoever is fit- 
ting. It is good to make all things sure beforehand, say 
her friends : he presently yields, in order to satisfy their 
minds, for it is only what he is willing to do without 
bonds. Thus it is between Christ and his spouse : the 
love of Clirist is enough, sufficient to insure a supply 
for all wonts; but we are weak, and would fain have 
tilings made sure ; therefore, saith Cluist, in condescen- 
sion to our infirmity, I will even enter into bond, and 
you may llien rest assured I will be faithful : I will bind 
ray faithfulness to you for all the good you desire. 

And this faitlifulness of Christ respects either the 
great mamage covenant, there he will be sure to be 
faithful to his spouse, or all particular promises con- 
tained in it. Tliere is the great marriage covenant, 
about reconciling God, and paving all debt-'s, and satis- 
fying God's justice, and bringing to eternal life; but 
tliere are many undcr-promises, and Christ will be 
faithful in them all. In Psal. xxv. 10, you have a pro- 
mise worth a kingdom, '• All the patlis of the Lord are 
mercy and tjoith ;" not only mercy, but mercy and truth, 
mercy engaged. Wicked men may have mercy from 
God, from the general bounty and goochiess and mer- 
ciful disposition of God ; but what the saints have is 
from truth, as well as from mercy, it is tlieirs by 
covenant. 

God urges much that the hearts of his saints should 
confide in him. He accounts not himself honoured 
without it : therefore mark how Ciirist suits himself to 
our weakness, that we may confide in his faitlifulness. 



'\\Tiat is it (saith he) that you poor creatures do one to 
another, when you would make things sm'e between 
you ? We answer thus. Lord, we engage ourselves by 
promise. I will do so, saith Christ, you shall have my 
taithful promise. Acts ii. 39, Peter invites to baptism 
on this groimd, because " the promise is unto you, and 
to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as 
many as the Lord our God shall call." In the first 
clause he adtfresses the Jews, in the other the Gentiles. 
As if he should say, Come in and receive baptism, for 
to you and to your chikfren the promise is made ; to you 
that aie Jews and to yom- children, and to the Gentiles 
and their children likewise, they have the same promise 
as you, and come under the same covenant for the 
main. And this promise in which Clirist has engaged 
himself, is no other than a draught of that which was 
from all etcmity, and therefore is so much the more 
sure. Tit. i. 2, the gospel is called a promise before the 
world began. All promises in Scripture are but a 
draught of that grand promise which God the Father 
made before time to his Son. As if Clirist sliould say, 
Will you have an engagement by promise ? This is 

East long ago, my Father has engaged himself to me 
om all eternity, and if you have any promise now, it 
is but a draught of the first copy of that great promise 
which my Father has made me from all eternity. 

AVhat do you more when you would make things 
sure one to another ? We answer. We not only make 
a verbal, but a written promise. God has therefore 
given us his Scriptui'e, and the chief thing in it is the 
promise, God has set to it his hand. Hence, Luther 
saith. The whole Scripture especially aims at this, that 
we should not doubt, but believe, confide, and hope 
that God is merciful, lund, and patient. 

Here you have my promise and my hand, is there 
any thing else you are wont to do, to make things sure? 
We answer, Lord, we take witnesses. I will do so too, 
saith God. When we would make tilings siu'e indeed, 
we sometimes take not only two, but three, or four, or 
more witnesses. You shall have witnesses, saith God, 
as many as you wiU, witnesses of all kinds, witnesses in 
heaven, and witnesses in earth. In heaven, " the Fa- 
ther, the Word, and the Holy Ghost," witnesses authen- 
tieal, of credit sufficient, the three persons in the Tri- 
nity. On earth, " the spirit, the water, and the blood," 
1 John V. 7, 8. 

AVhat do you more ? Lord, we set to our seals like- 
wise. You shall have that too, saith God, you shaU have 
seals of all kinds ; you shall have the broad seal of hea- 
ven, the sacraments, the seals of the covenant ; and you 
shall have my pri-\7 seal, I will take my ring oflT my 
finger, I will give you even the seal the Spirit ; show- 
but this seal, it willcarry with it sufficient autliority. 

Is there any thuig remaining 'r Yes, we answer, there 
is one thing more, we take an oath. I will do that too, 
saith God, that you may confide in my faithfulness . 
" God, wiUiiig more abundantly to show unto the heirs 
of promise the immutability of his counsel, conftimed it 
by an oath," Heb. vi. 17. As if he should say, There is 
no need of an oath, but I will abound toward you, be- 
cause I would have you trust me. and confide in me 
thoroughly. And mai-k, this is for the sake of the heu-s 
of promise, God would never have done this for other 
men ; it is for your .sakes only, because of yom- weakness 
he confirms all with an oath. And if we would liavc 
tilings sure, we will not have the oath of such as are of 
no great credit. Mark, therefore it is God that swears, 
and that by the greatest oath ; " because he could swear 
by no greater, he swaro by himself,'' Heb. vi. 13. 

Is there any thing more, saith God, that you are 
wont to do amongst yourselves, to make things siu'e ? 
Yes, Lord, we are accustomed to take a pledge. You 
shall have that too, .saith he, I will give you a pledge, 
and such a one that if you never had any thing more you 



Ver. 19, 20. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



ns 



would be happy. What is that ? 2 Cor. i. 22, " Who 
hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spii'it 
in our hearts." I will send my Spu-it to be an earnest 
in your hearts of all the good that I intend to do for 
you everlastingly. 

Is there any thing else you -woidd require of me to 
confide in me ? Yes, if God would do some great and 
notable work, as a beginning and engagement of that 
which is to come after, this is yet more than an earnest. 
When some special thing is done as an opening to om- 
expectations, then we have not merely a promise un- 
der hand and seal, an oath and a pledge : but the matter 
is actually begun, and so begim, that the diihcidty is 
over. Those who live mtder tlie gospel see the great- 
est part of oiu- salvation aheady accomplished. God 
made a promise of sending his Son into the world ; now 
the perfonmng of tliat promise, that God-man should 
come into the world to be made a curse for sin, is the 
greatest work of all eternity, and if God coidd have 
failed in any thing, it would have been in that. It is 
not so much for God to deliver us in this world, nor to 
bring us to heaven, as it is to send his Son into the 
world to be made a cm-se for us. Now when God has 
done so great a work, and been faitliful in that great 
promise, he has taught us for ever to ti'ust in liini, to 
believe his faithfulness in accomplishing the rest. If a 
man who owes five thousand poimds, pays you four- 
thousand nine hundi-ed of it, you think siu-ely he will 
never break for one hundi'ed, I may trust liim for the 
rest, seeing he has dealt so faithfully with me in the 
great sum. God has paid the four thousand nine hun- 
di'ed, and much more ; in comparison of what God has 
done for us, take aU the gloiy of heaven, and we have 
not one hundi-ed of the five tliousand left behind, there- 
fore sui-ely we may well confide in Mm for the paj-ment 
of the rest. 

It is true, God is faithful ; but is God able P This 
is seldom an objection, at least an explicit objection in 
the mouths of people, but surely an implicit one in the 
hearts of many ; that appears by the cautions God gives 
to remove it. " Commit the keeping of yom' souls to 
him in well-doing, as tmto a faitlifid Creator," 1 Pet. 
iv. 19 ; as if he had not said enough in declaring he is 
faitliful, he adds, " faithfid Creator ;" as if he slioidd say. 
If there be no means to help you, I will create means, I 
will put forth my almighty powei- to aid you, and you 
shall have help. " He shall confii'm the covenant," Dan. 
is. 27 ; the word translated " confirm," 
is of the same root with that for " mighty 
one," in Gen. s. 8. God wiU come forth as a giant, 
as a mighty man, to perfomi the covenant he has made 
with Ills people : if there be any thing in the world 
wherein God mU stu' up liis infinite power, the excel- 
lency of Ills might, and the glory of his right hand, it 
will be in confii-niing his covenant to liis saints. " Trust 
ye in the Lord for ever : for in the Lord Jehovah is 
everlasting sti-ength." " Thy Maker is thine husband ; 
the Lord of hosts is his name ; The God of the whole 
earth shall he be called," Isa. xxvi. i ; liv. 5. 

Seeing God is so faithful, let not us be faitUess. But 
tilings go very cross, and how shall we believe, oui' 
faith wavers ? The true, geniune love of the samts is 
such as will love God for himself alone, without gifts ; 
so genuine faith is to beUeve in God without experi- 
ences, yea, though things seem against us. That is but 
a poor love that loves God oidy for that which we re- 
ceive from him for the present ; and that but a weak 
faith which trusts God only for things that are seen. 
Do things go cross? they are corrections, and may 
come from faithfulness, as well as any thing the chm-ch 
enjoys : Psal. cxix. 75, " I know, O Lord, that thy judg- 
ments are right, and that tliou hi faithfulness hast 
afiiicted me." As God comes do-rni and suits himself to 
you as his poor creatures ; so you should laboui- to raise 



your hearts to him, and to believe in him as a great 
God. God deals with you as with weak creatui-es, you 
should deal with him as with an infinite God. You 
must give God leave to do his work in his own way. 
The object of our confidence in God is, that the thing 
tcill be done : not hou; or vlien, but that God will 
eventually complete his work. Shall our weakness be 
so much regarded as that things must not work so as 
to evince God's power ? Certainly, it is too much for 
us to expect such consideration for om- weakness. One 
would think it enough for God to express himself so to 
you that you 7>mi/ believe ; would you have God con- 
descend to reveal himself, so that he shoidd not have 
the glory of his work, nor you the glory of your faith ? 
this were too much. Though we be bound to deny 
om'selves much because of the weakness of our bre- 
thi-en, must God deny his glory because of om- weak- 
ness ? We burden God too much with om' mfirmities. 
It is for God's glory things happen as they do : Lazarus 
was dead, and dead so long, that the work of God 
might appear. 

But I find not things turn out as I had hoped ; I 
think I have believed, and sometimes m prayer I have 
thought my heart closed with the promises of God, but 
yet things have not answered my expectations. 

It may be God calls for new acts of thy beheving, and 
a renewing of thy faith in his faitlifulness. Y'ou must 
know, the continual actings of faith di'aw out the con- 
tinual actings of the power of God. I will give you, in 
proof, one remarkable text ; perhaps you may have read 
and heard it often, but not perceived its force ; " Oh how 
great is thy goodness, wliicli thou hast laid up for them 
that fear thee ! " but mark what follows, "which tliou 
hast wrought for them that trust m thee," Psal. xxxi. 
19. " Great is thy goodness, wliich thou hast laid up." 
God's goodness is wonderfully great for them that fear 
him ; but how ? it is " laid up " for them ; but now 
mark, " for them that trust in thee." 

AU the goodness that is in God, is for them that fear 
him ; but it is not fearuig God thatVUl bring it to work. 
Do you fear God ? God has laid up abundance of 
goodness in a treasury for you, but you must not expect 
this t\t11 work for you, unless j'ou trust in him ; your 
faith must bring it forth into action, and that " before 
the sons of men. Thou shalt hide them in the secret of 
thy presence fi'om the pride of man." Would you be 
hid iu the secret of God's presence &om the pride of 
men ? you must not only fear God, but trust m his faith- 
fidness. Matt. xiii. 58, Chiist " did not many mighty 
works there because of theh unbelief." And Mark vi. 
5, " He could there do no mighty work." One says 
he did not, and the other says he could not. 'When 
we have a promise, let us put forth faith, to get the 
goodness of God to work. A remarkable example of a 
beheving heart lajing hold on a promise for God's 
faitlifuhiess to work out, occiu's in 1 Chron. xvii. In 
the former part of the chapter God promised David to 
estabhsh his house, to buDd liim a sm-e house. Well, 
as soon as David had received tliis, mark how he works 
on God's word ; as if he had said. Seeing I have got 
his word, I wiU hold him to it, he shall not go from it. 
" Therefore now. Lord, let the thmg thou hast spoken 
concerning thy servant and concerning his house be 
estabhshecl for ever, and do as thou hast said," ver. 23 : 
thou hast spoken it, do as thou hast said. And ver. 24, 
" Let it be even established ;" I expect and rely on it, 
seeing thou hast been pleased in such a gracious way 
to promise it to me ; " let it even be established, that 
thy name may be magnified for ever." I will plead thy 
name m it, if there be one thing more than another to 
be pleaded, I vrill plead it before thee. But is not this 
enough ? Ver. 25, " For thou, O my God, hast told thy 
servant that thou wilt build him an house : therefore 
thv servant hath found in his heart to pray before thee." 



ll 



AX EXPOSITION OK 



Chap. II. 



He had said before that God }iad spoken it ; here he 
goes over it again, as magnifying God's woi-d ; Thou liast 
told me, and I pray for nothing but what thou hast told 
me. Nay, David encroaches yet still more upon God : 
ver. 26, "Now, Lord, thou art God, and hast pro- 
mised this goodness unto thy servant." I have not to 
deal with a man tliat will be fickle and inconstant, 
•wavering and unfaithful; but thou art God, and I will 
trust in thee as God ; thou art God, and thou hast pro- 
mised this goodness ; it is thine own gootbicss, now 
therefore do it. See how he urges God's promise ; 
and mark what admirable effects followed, chap, xviii. 
After this he prospered: when Hadarezer came 
against him, he took " a thousand chariots, and seven 
thousand horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen. And 
wlien the Syrians came to help Hadarezer, he slew of 
them two and twenty thousand men." "After this :" mark 
the connexion of the chapters ; " Now after this," after 
David had improved the ])romisc, he might have what 
he would ; thus the loving-kindness of God was laid uji 
in a promise, but wrought out by David's faith. It is 
our misfortune that we do not plead this faitlifulness of 
God J we lose abundance by it, and prove that we liave 
"base spirits. It is a gi'eat evil betiveen husband and 
wife, when they cannot confide one in another, but are 
jealous ; how can such live comfortably together ? So 
we are jealous of God, and lose our comfort in him. 
Jealousy comes often from meanness of spirit and self- 
^iltiness ; because we are of such base hearts om-selves, 
we are jealous of God. A^^lere much love exists be- 
tween husband and wife, tlicre cannot be much jealousy ; 
and if there were entire love in the spouse of Christ, 
there woidd not be jealousy. You have a suitable 
passage in John v. 40, " Ye will not come to me that ye 
might have life;" you will not believe in me, that is the 
meaning : then ver. 42, " I know you, that ye have not 
the love of God in you." Is there any thing in tlie 
world more grievous to a husband than that tlie wife 
should be jealous of him ? think of it; the same grief it 
is to the Spirit of Jesus Christ, tliat thou shouldst bo 
jealous of him, and not confide in his faithfulness. 

Siu-ely, if we did trust in God's faithfulness we should 
not compound with him as we do, but improve his 
promise to the uttcraiost. As long as you merchants 
confide in your debtors, you will not compound with 
them for less than your debt ; if you should go to one 
that owes you money, and say, I prav, sir, pay your 
debt to me, and I shall be content to take ten or fifteen 
In the hundred, the partv would think himself dis- 
graced : A\'hat I do vou distrust me ? do you think I 
will break ? No, I will pay you every penny. The truth 
is, we, poor wretches, because we have not God's pro- 
mises immediately fulfilled, would fain compound with 
God; that is, if he would give us any little present com- 
fort we would be satisfied, rather than wait for that 
■which is to come, though it be infinitely more : this is 
a great dishonour to God, and an argument of our un- 
faithfulness. It were an argument of little faith if thou 
couldst be satisfied, should God give thee ten thousand 
worlds for the present. Were lie to say, Wliat will you 
have? AVould you have your enemies destroyed? 
'\\'ould you have your peace, and your trading in tlie 
world, your ease and quietness, a.ssurcd ? Is tliis all ? This 
is to compound with God for twelve])cnce in tlie ])ound, 
as it were. No, saith a gracious heart; Lord, thou hast 
promised me mercy, and I expect it to the full, I will 
not abate the least farthing. God loves we should 
stand with him for his promise to the uttermost. No, 
but I hope God will give me heaven at last, yet I doubt 
he will forsake me here. This is to conijiound witli 
God in another way. There arc some who, ])erha]is. will 

Say eighteen or fifteen shillings in the ])ound; but it is 
ishonouring God to abate one shilling : therefore we 
must not only believe in God for heaven, but for earth, 



and for safety and comfort, and that in times of greatest 
trouble. God is well pleased with such kind of holy 
impudence, as we may say ; that is, with our following 
him for the uttermost, and urging him on his word 
again and again, to pay what he is engaged for. 

Again, had we faitli in God we should attempt gi-eat 
things, though we see but little means. Many of you 
who have but small stocks, yet, if you have rich friends 
that have given you encouragement, and that you know 
will be faithful to you, you will trade for great things 
with your little, because you know you have friends 
who will stand by you : so, though we have but little 
strength, if God call us, we should be willing to under- 
take great things, because God has stock enough, and 
has engaged himself to stand by us. 

" I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness." As I 
will be faithful to you, and you shall confide in my 
faithfulness, so you shall be faithful to me, that I may 
confide in your faithfulness ; as I fulfil all my promises 
and covenant with you, so you shall make good all your 
promises and covenant with me. The spouse of Ciirist 
is one that the Spirit of Christ can confide in. It is 
said of the virtuous woman, Prov. xxxi. 11, "The heart 
of her husband doth safely trust in her." Let him be 
abroad or at home, in what company soever, yet his 
heart trusts in her, he can leave all his business, his 
writing, or any thing that concerns him with such a 
wife. Where this trust is wanted in the heart of the 
husband toward the wife, there is want of comfort in 
their lives : thus God saith of his people, Isa. Ixiii. 8, 
"They are chikh'en that will not lie;" I can confide in 
them, I can employ them on any business that I will, 
for " they are children that wiU not lie." 

They are faithful to God fii'st in the great covenant, 
in siu'rendering themselves to God, as they do at their 
first closing with Christ. Then every gracious soul 
enters into solemn covenant with God, and it will be 
faithful in that covenant. And they will be faithful 
likewise in all their inferior promises and vows which 
they make to God, in days of fasting, and thanksgiving, 
and at other times. As God's promises are God's gifts 
to us, so should our promises be as gifts to God. "Ac- 
cording to his own purjjose and gi-ace, which was given 
us in Christ Jesus, before the world began,'' 2 Tim. i. 9; 
not only jn-omised, but given unto us in Christ Jesus. 

So in thy conversation thou must be faithful to Christ, 
not prostitute thyself unto another, but keep thyself 
for Christ. Indeed, the spouse of Cluist may be rav- 
ished by open violence, but she will not prostitute her- 
self to any other, she keeps herself only for Christ. 
Thus the saints are described, Eph. i. 1, "Faithful in 
Clu-ist Jesus." There is a kind of natural faithfulness, 
as I may so speak ; as in Isa. viii. 2, " I took unto me 
faithful witnesses : " Calvin saith it is meant of Urijah, 
that base, temporizing man, who made the altar accord- 
ing to the pattern that Ahaz sent from Damascus ; he 
is said to be faithful, that is, he was a fair, honest deal- 
ing man, his word was as good as his bond : so, many 
civil men will be faithful to their word. But mark here, 
it is " faithful in Christ Jesus ; " not only faithfulness 
between man and man, for many heathens were so, they 
would rather die than cheat one another ; but this is a 
higher degree of faithfulness. The saints must be 
faithful, faithful fo Christ Jesus, and faithful in Christ 
Jesus. T'hey who are thus faithful, are fit for the service 
of Christ ; Christ has much w ork to do, they only are 
fit for it. Kev. xvii. 14, " The Lamb shall overcome ;" 
why ? " for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings : 
and they that are with him, are called, and chosen, and 
faithful;" not called faithful, but called and faithful ; and 
therefore the Lamb shall overcome. If all who are in 
the public service of the kingdom, and profess to be 
with Christ in his cause, were called and faithful, the 
work would soon be at an end. It is for faitlifulness 



Vek. iv, 20. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



177 



we shall be hereafter rewarded : " Well done, good and 
faithful servant;" not, Well done, good and rich servant, 
or servant who had great emplojinent in public works, 
but, " Well done, good and faithful servant." Every 
one of us cannot be eminent, every one cannot be em- 
ployed in public services, but you may every one be 
faithful : you that are poor servants may be faithful, as 
well as a magistrate or as a minister : you that are 
poor labouring men, porters and watermen, the mean- 
est of you may be faithful, as well as the nobles of a 
kingdom. God regards faithfulness rather than service ; 
he has no need of the ser\'ices of men, great or small, 
but he looks upon the faithfulness of their hearts. 

And as you must be faithful to God and his cause, 
so you must be faithfid one to another. You who are 
godly servants, be siu'e you be faithful to your masters, 
that there may be no occasion of such scandal as is 
often used concerning professors ; Such a servant must 
go to sermons, and he is set against ceremonies, &c. ; 
I never had any so faithful, that, if mine eye were off 
him, he did not cease to work presently. God forbid 
there should be such scandals given of you. Wives 
who profess godliness, be sure you be faitliful to your 
husbands ; and tradesmen who profess more than ordi- 
nary strictness in reUgion, be you faitliful in your deal- 
ings. Has Christ man-led himself unto thee in faith- 
fulness ? he expects that his faitlifulness to thee should 
have that reflection upon thy heart as to make thee 
faithfid to others. 

I add one note, taken from all together. As if God 
should say, O Israel, you have dealt unrighteously with 
me, you have broken your covenant, but I will betroth 
you to me in righteousness. You have done foolishly 
in departing from me, but I will betroth you unto me 
in judgment. You have been unkind to me, but I will 
betroth you unto me in loving-kindness. It has not 
pitied yom- souls to see me dishonom-ed, but I will be- 
troth myself in bowels of mercy to you. You have 
been unfaithful to me, but I will even beti'oth you unto 
me in faithfulness. The note from thence is this, 

Obs. God deals not with those in covenant with him as 
they deal with him. This remark is of admirable use 
and comfort. Mark the difierence between God's deal- 
uig with others and those that are in covenant with 
him. Let others deal with God in a perverse way, God 
will deal with them so too. Psal. xviii. 26, " With the 
froward thou wilt show thyself froward." Will you 
be froward with God ? God wUl show himself froward 
with you. AYill you be proud with God ? In the thing 
you are proud God will be above you. Will you be 
subtle, and contriving mischief against God and his 
ti'uth? God wUl meet w'ith the wicked, and msnare 
them in the work of their own hands. Are you reso- 
lute in wickedness ? God will be as resolute as you, 
Jer. xliv. 25, 26. But when God deals with his saints 
in covenant, though they deal fi'owardly with him, he 
will deal gently with them : though they deal proudly 
with him, he deals in a way of condescension with 
them ; though they be unfaithful to him, yet he will be 
faithful to them. O my brethren, this point has abund- 
ance of sweetness in it, take heed of abusing it. Thy 
sins cannot overcome God's goocbiess, let God's good- 
ness then overcome thy wickedness. 

" And thou shalt know the Lord." 

But why does this follow, " In faitlifulness ; and thou 
shalt know the Lord." 

Thus, upon these two reasons : 

First, llie church shall know Christ to be the Lord, 
and this shall be the means to keep his spouse in faith- 
fulness for ever. As if Christ should say. The reason 
of all your vile departings from me is, you do not know 
me, you do not see my bounty and gloiy, or discern the 
excellency of my worship. Hence you are gone fi-om 
me, and have been unfaitliful to me ; but when I be- 



ti-oth you to myself again, you shall know mo, you shall 
see so much beauty and excellency in me and my or- 
dinances that you shall never depart from me. 

Obs. Low thoughts of God are the cause of super- 
stitious vanities. Had men high and honourable 
thoughts of God, they would never think to put him oft' 
with such poor bauble-worship as they do. Acts vii. 2, 
it is said, " The God of glory appeared to Abraham ;" that 
is given as a gi-ound why Abraham forsook his counti-y, 
his father's house, and his kincked. K we once knew 
the Lord, and that the God of glory had appeared to 
us, we should be ready to forsake all for him, and give 
up ourselves unto him in an everlasting covenant. 

Secondly, This is as a fruit of my betrothing myself 
unto them, a fruit of the covenant. " They shall teach no 
more every man his neighbour, and every man his bro- 
ther, saying. Know the Lord : for they shall know me, 
from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith 
the Lord : for I will forgive theu- iniquity," &c., Jer. 
xxxi. 34. It is a fruit of the conjugal union betwixt 
Christ and the soul. Allien a man and his wife are but 
suitors, or well-\^'illcrs, they do not communicate their 
secrets one to another ; but when they are married, they 
open all then- hearts, there is no secret but they will 
disclose one to another. So saith God, When I am once 
married to you, I will even open my whole heart to you : 
" The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." 
Those who have but natm-al knowledge, imderstand 
something of the waj's of reUgion. A man in the dark 
may know where he is ; by feeling, he may discover 
the length and tliickness of many things in the house ; 
but w'hen the light of the day comes, he luiows what 
there is in the room after another manner than he did 
in the dark : this is the difference between knowledge 
of God in a natural man, and the knowledge of one 
espoused to Christ. By his natural knowledge he may- 
understand the history of the gospel, and have some 
general notions of God and of Christ ; but -when the 
Smi of righteousness arises, he sees the excellency and 
glory of God shining in all his attributes, he sees that 
in Christ which chaws his heart unto him in an ever- 
lasting covenant. As we read, Cant. vii. 5, Christ " is 
held in the galleries ;" that is, Chi-ist, as soon as he is 
married to the soul, takes her, as it were, by the hand, 
and walks in the galleries, and there opens his heart 
unto her. There is many a sweet tm-n that a gracious 
heart has w-ith Christ in his ordinances, wherein Christ 
opens his whole soul unto it. " All things," saith Clu-ist, 
" that I have heard of my Father, I have made known 
unto you," ,fohn xv. 15. An admirable text; sm-ely 
you cannot but know the Lord then. Here is the fi-uit 
of our union with Christ. Oh that our hearts were in- 
flamed with desu-e after further conjugal communion 
with him ! According to the capacity of the soul, so 
Christ makes known to it -n-liat he has heard of the 
Father. Certainly Christ has heard great things of the 
Father ; he is the w-isdom of the Father ; he has been 
with the Father from all eternity ; and the Father loves 
him, he -will tell him all the glorious things he has in 
his heart, and Christ -n-ill hide none of those things 
from his saints ! This is the privilege of a saint. Wlio 
woidd not be godly, by which he shall come to know 
the mind of the Father, according to what Christ knows 
ofit? 

Yea, and Christ makes God known to the saints in 
another way than others know him. >ij<-p[^ 7,,-|.V;i 
2 Sam. vii. 27, " Thou, O Lord of hosts, i ' " ' 
God of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant :" the 
Hebrew reads. Lord, thou hast revealed this to the ear 
of thy servant. I wonder how the words " to the ear " 
come to be left out in yom- books, in which the empha- 
sis lies. Allien God makes known himself to his people 
he reveals things to their ear, as we to a fi-iend who is 
intimate with us. Many a secret Jesus Christ speaks 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. II. 



in the ears of his saints, ■with which others are never 
made acquainted. 2 Cor. iv. 6, " God, who commanded 
the h'ght to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our 
hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the gloiy 
of God in the face of Jesus Christ." It would require 
time for fully opening the gi-adations of this scrip- 
ture ; here is " knowledge," and " the knowledge of the 
glory of God," and " the light of the knowledge of the 
glory of God ; and " shining," and " shining into our 
hearts," and " into our hearts in the face of Jesus Chi-ist." 
Surely, then, they shall know the Lord, and they shall 
know him in a very spiritual way. The light of the 
saints is a light three stories high. First, They have 
the liglit of reason, which other men have. Secondly, 
They have the light of common gifts, which other men 
have too, and that is a storj- liigher than the other. 
Thirdly, They have the light of a sanctifying Spu-it, 
that is a third loft ; and they shall come to a fourth 
stop,-, and that is the light of glory. The light that 
other men have, is but as the light which you have in 
a lower room, in warehouses, wliich in some is so little 
that you use a candle at noon-day ; others have some- 
what more light, they have common gifts, which is like 
the light in the next storj-, somewhat more clear ; but 
the light of the saints is higher than all these, they 
know God as their God. Great is the excellency of 
this knowledge ; the soul has blessed satisfaction in it : 
" Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us." The sanc- 
tification of the heart by the presence of the beams of 
the glory of God, transformuig it into the same image, 
is the very beginning of eternal life. "What superior 
means liave we to know God than the heathens had ! 
The Roman histories describe the poor and mean ways 
those wise men took to know God ; as thus, they woidd 
look into the entrails of beasts, thereby to find out the 
minds of their gods ; they would observe how the 
beasts came to the slaughter, whether willingly or un- 
willingly; they woidd observe the fire of then- sacrifices, 
whetlier the flame ascended right or not : thus they at- 
tempted to ascertain the mind of their gods, \^^lat 
poor ways are these ! Vi'e have Jesus Christ, God blessed 
for ever, the eternal Son of the Father, who is come 
from the bosom of the Father, to make known to 
us the mind of God, his and oiu- Father. We know 
the truth as it is in Jesus, Eph. iv. 21, not onlv as it is 
in the works of nature. Some know much of God in 
the works of creation and providence, and we may 
learn much of God in those gi-eat things which the 
Lord has lately done amongst us ; but to know the 
truth as it is in Jesus, to know God in Chi-ist, is another 
kind of knowledge than to know God in the way of 
his works. Here we see the truth really, wlien we see 
it in Christ Jesus. Certainly, then, no one united to 
Clvrist in a conjugal union can be an ignorant sot, for 
Christ engages liimself in liis faithfulness, upon this 
marriage of a soul with himself, to reveal liimself and 
the Father unto it. John viii. 54, " Of whom ye say he 
is your God ;" but mark the next words, "yet ye have 
not known him." A likely matter, that he should be 
your God, and you not know him ! a likely matter, that 
Christ should be your Saviour, and you not know him, 
seeing he has engaged himself in his faithfulness, that 
if you be married to him vou shall know him and his 
Father! 

Ver. 21 — 23. Atut it shall come to pass in that day, 
I uill hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavetis, and 
they shall hear the earth ; and the earth shall hear the 
corn, and the trine, and the oil ; and they shall hear 
Jezyeel. And I will soic her unto me m the earth ; 
and I uill have mercy upon her that had not obtained 
mercy ; and I will say to them which were not my 
people, Thou art my people ; and they shall say, Thou 
art my God. 



Now, after the assurance of mercy in the covenant, 
come temporal promises, promises of com, and wine, 
and oil : God would hereby teach us thb lesson, that 
all our outward things (at least the sweetness and com- 
fort of them) depend on the covenant in Christ. 

" I wiU hear : " the word may be ren- 
dered, I will answer ; God will so hear ^^^ 
that he will answer. Many times a poor man cries to 
the rich, and he lieai's him, but he will not answer; but, 
saitli God, I will hear so that I wUl answer. This is a 
most elegant expression : " I wUl hear the heavens, and 
they shall hear the earth ; and the earth shall hear the 
corn, and the wine, and the oil ; and they shall hear 
Jczreel." Mira orationis sublimitas, A wonderfid sub- 
limity of speech, saith one expositor; Hyperbolica 
metaphora, A hj'perbolical metaphor, saith another ; 
Puhherrima prosopopoeia, A most beautiful and delight- 
ful prosopopoeia, saith another ; these creatures beuig 
addressed as if they understood what they did. As if 
the Lord should say thus. My people, you have indeed, 
through your sins, been brought into great straits, you 
have wanted com, and wine, and oil, and have been 
scattered in your banishment; but when I shall betroth 
myself to you, and enter into a covenant with jou, 
then, when you crj-, Oh that we might have these out- 
ward comforts! immediately the com, and the wine, 
and the oil, as if theyjieard your complaints, shall say, 
Lord, we would help Jezreel, and satisfy these thy 
servants : the corn shall cr)' to the earth, earth, let 
me come into your bowels, I will rot there that so I 
may bring forth fruit for this people : the vines and the 
olive shall desire the earth to receive them, to impart 
juice and nourishment to them, that they may rcfresli 
these reconciled ones to God : the earth sliail say. Oh 
that I might receive the com, and %vine, and oil, that I 
may be fruitful in my kind ; but, ye heavens, I can do 
nothing except I have your influences and the warm 
beams of the sun to make me fructify ; come, tlierefoie, 
and assist me, that I may beai- fruit for Jezreel : and 
the heavens shall cry, Lord, we would fain help the 
earth, that the earth may help the com, and wine, and 
oil, that they may supply Jezreel; but we can do no- 
tliing without thy hand ; therefore, heai- us, and sufler 
us to rain upon the earth, that it may become fruitful. 
Thus the creatures are introduced, pleading that they 
might help Jezreel. Hence 

Obs. 1. Our condition in this world is such, that al- 
though reconciled to God, yet, while here, we must be 
beholden to the com and wine, to the earth and 
heavens, and cannot do without them. 

Obs. 2. When we are reconciled to God, then the 
creatures will be serviceable to us, yea, they ^vill be 
desirous to do us good, they will cry for it. Let us 
take heed of provoking God, the creatures then will be 
against us. Gordius, a martjT, gave this answer to 
those who urged him to deny the truth. If I deny it, 
the sun, and moon, and stars will deny me light. If 
we sen-e God, the creatures will account it then- hap- 
piness to serve us. 

064". 3. God is wont to work good for his people by 
second causes. He sends not thmgs immediately from 
heaven, but the heavens liear the earth, and tlie eartli 
hears the com and the wine. We must look to second 
causes, but take heed of resting on them. It has been 
God's work amongst us of late, by detecting plots and 
giving successes, to manifest liimself very strangely, 
wlien the means have been very weak ; nay, indeeti, 
God has made as much use of men's weakness, as of 
their strength ; but let not us therefore be slack in the 
use of means, but do the best we can. Though God 
sometimes works beyond means, ;.nd even conlrarj ta 
them, yet, ordinarily, he uses second causes, not only 
to work ad pr<esentiam, as Biel the schoolman, and 
others say, that is, conjointly with the creature ; for 



I 



Vek. 21—23. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



179 



they assert that there is no efficacy at all in them to 
produce results ; but the truth is, God does make use of 
second causes, so that they are efficient to accomplish 
that which he purposes. 

Obs. 4. There is a concatenation in second causes, 
and not merely a use ; eveiy one in theu- order minis- 
ters to the other ; the heavens hear the earth, and the 
earth hears the corn. If we could discern tlie comely 
order of the creatm-es, we should see them all Knked 
together by a golden chain : as in the joints of the 
body, one bone supplies another, one part is hollow to 
receive another ; so in nature, one thing supplies and 
aids another. As in om- salvation there is a golden 
chain, Rom. viii., so in the creatui'es there is a golden 
cham of beauteous order and mutual suppliance. 

Obs. 5. Nothing can be done by any Knk of the chain 
of second causes, but by God's being at the uppermost 
link. Jezreel must cry to the corn, and wine, and oil, 
and they must cry to the earth, and the earth must crj' 
to the heavens, he must be the highest cause. 

Obs. 6. It is most comely, and a great blessing, when 
the right order and chain of second causes hold ; as in 
nature, so in any societj-, when aU presers'e their due 
subordination; as when the tradesman works in his 
way, the magistrate in his, the minister in his, every 
one in his place. But when they are out of order, it is 
great misery to a city or kingdom. As once among 
the Athenians, Themistocles said of his son, a bold 
youth. This boy can do more than any man in aU 
Greece. Why ? Because, the Athenians command the 
Grecians, I command the Athenians, my wife com- 
mands me, and my son commands my wife : here was 
the concatenation of that government. God deliver 
all societies from such a concatenation, that the begin- 
ning of any public work, I mean the lower link of the 
chain, shoiild be in an ungodly man, and he should 
command one, and that one another, and so on in suc- 
cession. Wheresoever this occurs, it is a fearful judg- 
ment. 

Obs. 7. God, the giver of all plenty, accounts it his 
glory to give rain. In Jer. v. 24, God wonders that 
men will not fear him because of that ; " Neither say 
they in their heai-t. Let us now fear the Lord our God, 
that giveth rain." As if he should say. It is strange in 
men ; what ! will not they say in their hearts, Let us fear 
God, seeing he gives us rain ? Thus God glories in this 
great work of hearing the heavens, and the heavens the 
earth. The heavens will be as brass over us, and the 
earth as iron, unless God hear them, and send rain. 
Therefore let God be aclmowledged in that rain which 
we have, had of late : the creatui'es wanted gi'ass, and 
the grass cried to the heavens, and the heavens cried 
unto God, and God has heard the heavens, and sent 
down rain ; and so we see the earth has been refreshed, 
and abundance of good has come to us by these show- 
ers. Give God the glon' of this. 

Obs. S. All plenty is given for the sake of the saints. 
How ? God hears the heavens, and the heavens hear 
the earth, and the earth hears the com, and the wine, 
and the oil, and they hear Jezreel. It is all for Jezreel's 
sake. Were it not for the saints, the earth would soon 
come to confusion ; they are " a blessing in the midst 
of the land," Isa. xix. 24. 

Obs. 9. If the creatures work so graciously for us, 
how should we then work for God, and for one an- 
other ! \^^lat ! shall the creatm-es cry one to another, 
and hear one another for our good, and shall God cry 
to us, and we not hear God ? The senseless corn cries 
to the earth, O earth, help me, that I may help Jezreel ; 
and the earth cries to the heavens, O heavens, send do-mi 
your influences ; and the heavens say, We will hear, and 
the earth saith, I will hear ; shall the earth hear, and 
the heavens hear- for our good, and shall not we hear 
when God cries for help ? God often cries to you to 



help in his cause, and wilt not thou hear, to work for 
him ? O vile creature, how unreasonable are thy ways 
before the Lord ! 

Obs. 10. How should we hear the cries of the poor! 
"^Tien we are in want, the corn cries to the earth, and 
the earth cries to the heavens, and the heavens cry to 
God for us. AVhen the poor, I mean God's poor, whom 
God's hand has made poor, cry, will you not hear ? 
Will you be more hard-hearted than the earth and the 
heavens are ? seeing they hear you, do you hear the cry 
of your poor brethren. 

06s. 11. If God wlU hear the creatures when they 
ciy for us, how much more will he hear Jesus Chi-ist 
when he cries for us ! It is a part of om- happmess, 
that we have all the creatm'es crying to God for our 
good ; but the summit of our bliss is tliis, that we have 
Jesus Christ, the Mediator of the new covenant, making 
intercession at the right hand of God continually for us. 

064'. 12. God's mercies go on to perfection, when 
they work for the saints ; the corn begins to cry to the 
earth, that stays not there, but the earth goes on and 
cries to the heavens, and the heavens to God. God's 
mercies to lus saints never cease till the thing is per- 
fected. 

" And I will sow her unto me in the earth." 

What great mercy is this for God to gi-ant plenty, if 
he destroy his people ? Our oountiy is plentiful, but if 
God should consume us out of the land, what good 
would our plenty do us ? Therefore saith God, " I Mill 
sow her unto me in the earth." Indeed, she is now a 
poor, contemptible people, and there are but few of 
them remaining on the earth ; but I will make them a 
seed, and a seed that the Lord has blessed. 

" I win sow her." Here the Lord alludes to the 
name Jezi'eel, which signifies the seed of the Lord. It 
was used in the first chapter as a reproach ; and in the 
latter end of the same in a way of mercy. I spoke of 
it there, therefore I shall now say only this, God uses 
the word here, to remind her of what she deserved ; as 
if he should say. Though thou art a Jezreel, and deserv- 
est to be scattered, yet, out of free gi'ace, I will be mer- 
ciful to thee, I will sow thee ; there shall come a blessing 
upon thee, and though scattered in the earth, yet in aU 
places thou shalt be as seed from whence my chm-ch 
shall spring. Hence we may 

Obs. 1. God's people are the seed of the earth. But 
of that I have spoken before, in the latter end of the 
fii-st chapter, and shall now only add an observation of 
Eibera. The seed, saith he, lies imder the clods, and 
at length fructifies : so should the saints be content to 
lie imder the clods, and though, because of their afflicted 
condition, they may seem as dead, yea, rotten, yet shall 
they afterwai'ds fructify- and be glorious. Before the 
time of the church's glon', times of great calamity and 
distress came, which this rotting of the seed before 
fructification shadows forth. 

Obs. 2. Every godly man shotdd so live, as, either in 
life or death, to be as a seed from whence many may 
spring ; he should be a means that many should be be- 
gotten to God. In the history of the church, it is re- 
corded of Cecilia, a poor vngin, that by her gracious 
behaviom- in her martpdom, she was the means of 
converting four hundi-ed to Christ. As in the Indies, 
one grain jields many hundi'eds ; so we should labour 
to convert as many as we can, that some that live after 
may continue to bear up the name of Chiist, and the 
profession of his tnith. Especially be careful of your 
childi-en, leave them as seed to hold up the name of 
God in yom- family when you are dead and gone. 

Obs. 3. The saints are sown unto Christ, they are 
seed for Clu-ist, therefore all then- fruit must be conse- 
crated to Christ. " I will sow her unto me." Christ 
must have aU the fruit we bear : who should have the 
fruit, but he that sows it ? Therefore it is said. Cant. 



180 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. U. 



\ii. 13, " At our gates are all maimer of pleasant fruits, 
new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my be- 
loved." Are we able to bear any fruit ? AVe must not 
sow to ourselves, not to the flesh, for then wc shall reap 
corruption ; but lay it all up for Clu-ist Jesus, for it is he 
that soweth us unto himself. 

" And I will show mercy upon her that had not ob- 
tained mercy." 

Many things about God's showing mercy after rejec- 
tion have been spoken of in the fii'st chapter ; and I 
shall at present only 

Obs. 1. There are none so rejected tliat they can con- 
clude that they shall never have mercy, those that 
have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost except- 
ed. Though Israel " had not obtained mercy," though 
they were cast out, yea, cast out to the beasts to be de- 
voured, yet, saith God, I will show mercy upon her. 

Obs. 2. Children of wicked parents may at length 
obtain mercy from God. Though Israel be cast ofl', yet 
her children shall have mercy : a comfort to us in re- 
gard of the idolatry of our forefathers, yea, a comfort in 
regard of the children to come. Our forefathers have 
broken the covenant, why may not we obtain mercy ? 
But suppose we should be the generation of God's WTath, 
and not obtain mercy, yet we may hope that our pos- 
terity shall. 

04^. 3. Mercy after it is thought to be past, if then 
it come, oh it is sweet mercy indeed ! when she seemed 
to be utterly rejected, then to have mercy shown, this 
■was sweet. 

Obs. -i. Mercy is the cause of all the good the saints 
receive. Psal. Ivii. 3, " He shall send from heaven." 
saith David. David was in the cave, in a ])oor condition, 
hunted for his life, persecuted by Saul ; I see little help 
from earth, therefore, saith he, " He shaU send from 
heaven." What ! shall God send angels from heaven 
to deliver thee, David ? No, but mark what follows, 
" God shall send forth his mercy and his truth :" as if 
he should say,' Lord, though I have no help in earth, 
though I see no angels from heaven to aid me, yet let 
me have thy mercy and trath, and that suffices. It 
satisfies a gracious heart if he may have God's mercy 
and his truth, that is, God's mercy revealed in a promise. 

Obs. 5. God has a special day of mercy for lus jjeoijle, 
for his churches. " I will have mercy u])on her that had 
not obtained mercy." Let us cry to God to hasten this 
day ; let us open i)cfore liira the miseries of our own 
kingdom, and of Ireland : Oh when shall this day come, 
that thou wilt show to thy people the mercy of which 
thou hast told us ! Oh that that day may hasten ! Come, 
Lord Jesus, come quickly. 

" And I will say to them which were not my people. 
Thou art my people." 

This is wliat we had in the first chapter, with only 
some slight difference ; there it is, " In the place where 
it was said, Ye are not my people." And when I ex- 
plained that ])lace, I sliowed you, both out of the Ko- 
mans and out of I'eter, how the ajiostles make use, 
both of the expression in the first cliapter and this in 
the second, and shall here only 

Obs. 1. God takes a special interest in his people; 
they are his pcojile, they are called his " peculiar 
people," Tit. ii. 14. The word has this 
""""I"""'""'- emphasis in it, God looks upon all other 
things as accidents in compai-ison, and his substance is 
his people ; they are his very portion, as Deut xxxiii. 
29 ; Exod. xix. 5 ; they are his peculiar treasure above 
all people in the world ; and Isa. xix. 25, " AssjTia the 
woi-k of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance :'' I 
have made all ])co])le, but Israel is mine inheritance. 
This is the liajjpiiiess of the saints, therefore they arc 
not as other ])eople arc; Numb, xxiii. 9, "This people 
(ihall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the 
nations." This is a great ground of prayer, Lord, leave 



us not, we are thy people, cafled by thy name, we have 
an interest in thee. 

Obs. 2. Our being God's people is an argument so to 
walk that he may not be (lishonoured by us. If thoiie 
in a man's family walk disorderly, it is a dishonour to 
the master. It is no dishonour to him for a stranger, 
or one who has but little connexion with him, to do so; 
and it is not so much dishonour to God for the wicked 
to walk disorderly, as for the saints, because of their 
nearness to him : and, besides, their light is (as I told 
you) three stories high, and if they sin, they sin against 
a greater light than others, their sin is greater than the 
sin of the wicked in that respect. 

06s. 3. It is a great mercy for God to make it known 
to tJie world, that his people are his peo])le. " I will 
say to them which were not my people. Thou art my 
people." The world will not believe it, they think they 
are a poor, contemi)tible ))eople ; but there shall come a 
day in which I will make it known that they are mine : 
and amongst other things by which God will make all 
the world to know that liis ])eople are his, fhLs is one, 
by setting up the beauty of his ordinances amongst 
them. Ezek. xxxvii. 27, "My tabernacle also shall be 
with them : yea, I will be their God, and they shall be 
my peojile ; and the heathen shall know that I the Lord 
do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in tlie 
midst of thein for evermore." Thus they shall know, 
saith God, that they are my people, and that I am their 
God, when I have set my sanetuarj' in the midst of 
them for ever. Were the ordinances of God set up in 
their piu-ity amongst us in England, were refonnation 
perfected, and did the saints walk humbly and peace- 
ably as they should, the whole world would be con- 
vinced that these are indeed the people of the Lord, 
and that God is amongst them. 

" And they shall say. Thou art my God." 

Obs. 1. God must begin with us ; we cannot begin 
and say, " Lord, thou art my God ;" but God must fii-st 
say, " You are my people." There are a great many 
who say God is their God ; but God never said they 
were his people. John i. 12, it is said of those who be- 
lieved in Christ, that God " gave them" itovaiav, "power 
to become the sons of God ;" the word signifies author- 
ity, that they might with authority acknowledge them- 
selves to be the sons of God. and call God Father; they 
had the broad seal for it. 'Will you call God, Father? 
where is your i^ovaia, your authority ? If God eaU you 
chikhen, if he say, Y'ou are my people ; you may give 
the echo to God's mercy, and say. Thou art our Father, 
thou art our God. 

Obs. 2. AMien God speaks mercy to us, we must 
answer accordingly. Does God say. You are my people ? 
we must answer, Lord, thou art our God. This is a 
great fault amongst Christians ; God manifests himself 
to many a gracious heart in abundance of love and 
mercy, and they return an answer to God of despond- 
ency and discouragement. God's ways toward thee 
.speak thus, " Thou art one of my people ;" but tliy heart 
works as if God were none of thy God. Has not God 
done much for thee ? thou thinkest all that thou dost 
is h)-])ocritical, whereas the truth is, it is the fruit of his 
love and kindness to thee. He speaks aloud in what 
he has done for thee, that tliou art one of his people ; 
and yet thy heart thinks that he is thine enemy, that 
he hates thee, and will cast thee off at last. The ways 
of God are full of mercy to thee, and he has set his 
stamp on thee, and, by fiis dealings of love, tells thee 
tliat tliou bclongest unto him. O unbeheving soul, 
answer. Lord, thou art my God ! and lay aside these 
discouraging and dcsjiairing thoughts of thine ! Oh that 
thou wouldst go away with such an answer in thy 
mouth ! Do not answer God's loving-kindness, and his 
gracious dealings toward thee, with a distrustful heart ; 
it is dishonourable to him, and grievous to his Spirit. 



Veu. 1. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



I'Si 



Obs. 3. God works an answerable disposition in the 
liearts of liis people to him. This is thj' duty, but God 
will work it in time if thou belongest to him. As thus : 
does God choose us to be his people ? then the hearts 
of the saints choose him to be theii' God. Does God 
say, You are my people ? the saints say, Lord, thou art 
oui- God. Does God say, I will dwell with them ? they 
answer, Lord, thou art our habitation. Does God say, 
I delight in them? they say, Lord, oiu- delight is in 
thee. Does God say, I will rest in them for ever ? the 
church saith, O my soul, return unto thy rest. Here is 
a sweet answer, a rebound of all God's loving-kindness. 

Obs. 4. The saints must profess God to be theirs. It 
is not enough to believe with the heart, but thou must 
confess with the mouth. 

Obs. o. It is the liighest happiness of the saints, that 
God is theii- God ; then they can say, they have enough. 
If we could say, This house is mine, this street, this 
lordship, tlris city, kingdom, or world is mine ; what is 
aU this ? A Christian can say. The God that made all 
is mine. As it is reported of the French and Spanish 
ambassadors meeting together : My master is king of 
Spain, said the former. !My master (replied the French) 
is king of France. My master, said the Spaniard again, 
is king of Naples. And my master, returned the other, 
is king of France. My master is king of Portugal. And, 
My master is king of France : still he answered with, 
My master is king of France, as being equivalent to aU 
the different kingdoms of the Spaniard. So one saith, 
I have this house, this stock, this estate, this trade ; 
Yea, but, saith a Clii'istian, I have God, God is mine. 
Surely, having him, thou hast enough. And if God be 
thy God, he wiU be a God to thee. 1 Chron. xvii. 24, 
" The Lord of hosts is God of Israel, even a God to 
Israel." So it must be with thee, if thou ai't a saint of 
God, be a saint to God : are we a people of God ? then 
■we must be a people to God. Blessed are the people, 
that are in such a case ; yea, happy are the people, whose 
God is the Lord. 

Thus have we opened the gracious manifestations of 
God to his chm-ch, in part realized spiritually, to spi- 
ritual Israel here ; but to be more sensibly fulfilled at 
the great day of Jezreel, that is. when the Jews shall 
be called, then the spouse of Cluist shall visibly be 
thus married to liim, and the Lord will be their God. 
Qus omnia jiidei Jeromc saith on the text, All the things 
fost antichrisium here promised to the chm-ch, the Jews 
stoiantur. Hiero- cxpcct at the end of the world, after the 
nym.m locum. ^j^^^ ^|. ajj^ipjiiist : and I question not, 
that though in a spmtual sense this scriptm-e is ful- 
filled now to the saints, yet in a more visible and 
sensible manner it will be all made good to the people 
of the Jens ; and the Gentiles then joining with them 
even literally, the gloi-y of the chm-ch shall be visible 
and apparent. 



CHAPTER in. 



Ver. 1. Then .said tlie-Lord imto me, Go yet, love a 
vomaii beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, accord- 
ing to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, 
uiio look to other gods, and love flagons of wine. 

The close of the former chapter had in it much 
mercy, and this contains the expression of much love 
also to Israel ; but yet God tells them of the mean and 
low estate they are likely to be in, before the time comes 
for the fidflUing of all the good which he intends for 
them. God pm-poses gi-eat mercy, but they must, for 
a long time, bear their iniquity, and be brought into a 



vile and desolate condition in their captivity ; even until 
a second appearing of Christ. But in all this time the 
heart of God would be toward them ; his intentions 
would be strong for good to that people, above all the 
peo])le on the face of the earth, as a people that he in- 
tended yet to mari-j- unto himself; and ui time, mercy 
should break fortli gloriously upon them, and his name 
be magnified in then- so retm-ning to him, that their 
hearts should melt toward his goodness, and not abuse 
it any more as formerly they had done ; but they should 
" return, and seek the Lord then- God, and David their 
king ; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the 
latter days." This is the scope of the chapter : 
In which you have tlu'ce things. 

1. God's love continued to " an adulteress," Israel. 

2. The low and mean condition of this "adulteress" 
for a long time. 

3. The return of God in infinite mercy toward them 
at tlie latter da\-, together with their return to him. 

" Then said the Lord unto me. Go yet, love a woman 
beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress." 

We have here a new injunction to the prophet, and 
that more cUfficult than the former. In the fii-st chapter 
God commanded him to go and " take a w ife of whore- 
doms," but here, to " love an adulteress," which is some- 
what more than to take her unto himself. What was 
meant by taking " a wife of whoredoms," has been ex- 
plained in the fonner chapter, and may save us some 
labour in this. Here there is a vision, as there ; as if 
God should say, Hosea, it is just with me as it would 
be with thee, if thou hadst a wife an adulteress ; not- 
withstanding all the love she has foimd, yet still an 
adulteress ; and thine affections were fixed on her, so 
that thou couldst not withcbaw them, but must needs 
continue to love her : so this people, whom I have loved, 
and to whom I have done so much good, have gone a 
whoring from me, and are an adulteress ; yet, for all that, 
my heart cannot be estranged, but is still toward them ; 
I yet love them. 

Obs. It is through the strength of the covenant that 
God's love is so permanent. Others, who are not in 
covenant with him, God casts off for lesser sins, for any 
sins; but as for his covenant people, not even their 
adulteries, their idolatries, alienate the heart of God 
wholly from them. Surely then, if thou canst appeal 
to God ; O Lord, thou that knowest aU things, knowest 
that there is nothing of thy mind revealed to me but 
my heart is ready to do, and if I fail in any tiling, thou 
knowest it is the greatest bm-den to my soul ; oh that I 
knew more of thy mmd ! and that I had power to do 
more ! surely God will love thee. Y'ou hear he loves 
his people, though an adulteress : so, now take tlxis 
lesson, as thy sins cannot overcome God's goodness, let 
God's goodness overcome thy sinfulness. 

'■ A woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress." 

That is, (as Calvin, Vatablus, and many others in- 
terpret it,) beloved of her husband ; as if God should 
say. Had they any such excuse for departing from me, 
that I have been a bitter liusband to them, that I have 
used them hardly, and with rigom-, then indeed they 
might have some plea ; but I have loved them dearly, 
done much for them, and ever treated them in the kind- 
est manner; yet are they gone a whoring from me. 
The wife that follows other lovers, tliinks, if she can 
but say, her husband is hard to her, cares not for her, 
and loves her not, it palliates her adulteries ; and so if 
the adulterous husband can say. What -n-iU you have 
me to do ? I never come home but my wife is ill-tem- 
pered ; and .she loves other men : he thinks this is plea 
enough for him. But Israel could not have this excuse 
for herself, for she was an adulteress, yet beloved of the 
Lord. If we understand the passage thus, we may 
briefly 

Ob's. 1. The husband should be a frlenct to his wife. 



162 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. m. 



There should be nothing inconsistent with a friendly 
demeanour between them. Yea, the love of the hus- 
band to the wife should far surmount the love of any 
friend in the world ; he should be, at least, a friend to 
comfort and cherish her in time of sorrows, to bear the 
burden of affliction with her : and so the wife in return 
should act toward the husband. 

Obs. 2. A ba-se heart will prove base against all bonds 
of love. " Beloved of her friend, yet an adiJteress." If 
you should ask, 'Who is he, or where is he, that is so 
tase ? Lay thy hand on thine own heart, and consider 
what the love of God has been toward thee all the days 
of thy life, and what return thou hast made to him. 
Thou hast had from God love that might break the 
heart of a de^-il ; yet when any temptation comes to 
draw thee from God, thy base heart listens to it. 

06s. 3. It is a great aggi'avation of sin to sin against 
much love. We ought to fulfil our relative duties, 
though others do not so towards us. If a ■\rife has an 
unkind, churlish, ungodly husband, yet she is bound 
to love and to obey him, to be observant of him in 
whatever may give him aU lawful content. So, if serv- 
ants have froward, churlish, cruel masters or mistresses, 
yet are they bound to be obedient to them : " Servants, 
be subject to your masters with all fear ; not only to 
the good and gentle, but also to the froward," 1 Pet. ii. 
18. It is no sufficient excuse for the wife to say, My 
husband is froward and unkind, and therefore what shall 
I do ? nor for the servant to say. My master, or mis- 
tress, is unreasonable and cruel, what can I do ? You 
must do your duty to them, though they do not theirs 
to you. But if you have a loving husband, tender over 
you, then love is required much more. Love, above all 
things, should di-aw the heart ; the knowledge that it is 
our duty may force obedience, but it is love that draws 
the heart most kindly. So, if a servant have a godly 
master and mistress, who respect and tender liis good ; 
if he should sin against them, this aggravates the sin 
exceedingly. To wrong love is a very great sin. Deli- 
cata res est amor, Love is a most delicate thing, and must 
not be rudely handled. A man who is of an ingenuous 
spirit had much rather be ^^Tonged in his estate than in 
hLs love ; he cannot bear the injurv' done to it ; when 
his love is abused it goes to his very heart : so it affects 
God when his people sin against his love ; therefore it 
is said of the saints, when they sin, that they grieve 
the Spirit of God : he never says so of the wicked ; 
they anger God, but the saints gneve him, because they 
sin so much against God's love. Charge this aggi-ava- 
tion of your sin on your souls, and be humbled ; collect 
together all the expressions of God's love to vou, and 
let them lie glowing at your hearts, and melt tliem. 

But inasmuch as God bids him take " a woman be- 
loved of her friend," and calls not this friend husband, 
I think those express the intention of the Holy Ghost 
in this more fully, who interpret it thus : this friend is 
not meant of one who is fully married, but rather one 
in a way of marriage. Among the Jews it was usual 
for women to be under the protection of men : " And 
in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, 
saying. We will eat our own bread, and wear our own 
apparel : only let us be called by thy name," let us be 
under your protection, Isa. iv. 1. Kvcn "the strange 
women," Prov. vii. 5, were wont, though they had many 
lovers, yet to have some in particular, under whose pro- 
tection and care they might be ; who was to see that 
they were not ^^Tonged, and to make provision for 
them ; and such a one they were wont to call their 
friend ; and often these friends would so provide for 
them, as to give them good hopes of marrjnng them at 
length, if they would be reclaimed, and forsnke all 
their oilier lovers. Ariiis Montanus refers us to the 
Mcond Elegy of Propertiu.s; respecting the charge and 
rare of such a friend. The CJrecians had a similar 



custom : they called him under whose protection they 
put themselves, eraTpof, and the woman, iralpa. It is 
said of Plato, that he had one Archenassa, who was 
called Plato's ha'ipa. Here the Lord would have the 
prophet take an adulteress beloved of her friend, that 
IS, one that was a common adulteress, and yet luider 
the protection of some special friend ; so that if he could 
supplant that friend, and in time reclaim the love and 
affection of this adulteress, he might marrj' her to him- 
self This is according to the love of God to his people, 
that is, as if God should say. This people is going a 
whoring, but I will be content to take them unto my- 
self, I will be as their friend, and so protect them, and 
care for them, until there be some proof of their being 
reclaimed, and then I will niarrj' this adulteress fully 
unto myself. For God is not now fully manied to the 
Jews, neither will that marriage take [ilace until the 
glorious time of their calling comes ; but yet God is as 
a friend to them to this dav, that is, God takes this 
people yet under his protection, though they seem to 
be in a rejected condition, and .so gives hope, yea, 
makes many promises, that upon their return to him he 
will mam- them unto himself; yea, there shall be a 
more glorious marriage between the Jews and the I,ord 
Christ, than ever yet there was between him and any 
people on the face of the earth. Tliis I think to be 
the very scope and meaning of the words, " beloved of 
her friend." 

Somewhat suitable we have Deut xxi. 12, 13: when 
one of the Jews took captive a woman, he might not 
forthwith marry her ; but if he loved her, she was to 
continue a certain time, and undergo certain purifica- 
tions, and then he might take her. The Jews are for 
the present as that captive woman, in bondage, yet 
God has a love for them unto this day ; but so, that 
they must abide a while until God be married to them ; 
they are beloved of God, but as yet with the love of a 
friend. 

The Seventy read the words "beloved of her friend," 
" one that loveth evU things," a mistake easily arising 
from the Hebrew words, for friend, and 
evil, differ only in the points. 

" Who look to other gods." 

Their eyes are upon other gods, ^^'here the heart 
is, there is the eye. Timor figit oculuin, so amor ; 
Fear fastens the eyes, and so docs love. The workings 
of the soul apjiear as much in the eye as in any mem- 
ber ; it well conveys emotions of love, of trust, and of 
confidence. They " look to other gods." that is, they 
have confidence in other gods. Looking up to a thing, 
in Scripture phrase, is to have some confidence in it 
Psal. cxxi. 1, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills 
from whence Cometh my help ;" that is, I look for help, 
and confidently expect it. But how from the hills? 
What ! does David's help come from them ? Some 
think this to be the place where afterward the temple 
was built, and the same as was then the place of the 
.sanctuar)-; but because that is usually in Scripture in 
the singular number, the hill of God, not the hills ; 
therefore I find Calvin, Mollenis, and others, think that 
David here speaks of confidence in the creature, be- 
cause he presently retracts in the second verse, " My 
help Cometh from the Lord." As if he should say, I 
lift up mine eyes unto the creature for help, this is the 
frailty- of my nature and of the nature of man, to look 
for auxiliary- forces from Jinisalem (which was a hilly 
])lace) ; I look for forces to come from thence, but they 
come not ; well, I will not tni.st any longer in them, 
Jehovah is my help. So they interpret it. But now I 
would rather free the prophet from vain confidence in 
the creature, and so the words may, if ^ou read them 
thus, Do I lift up mine eyes unto the iiills? do I ex- 
pect help from the creature ? God forbid I should, for 
" my help cometh from the I-ord." 



Vvs. 1. 



IHE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



Fi'.rther, sometimes the Hebrew Ss« is used for Sy 
aiui so might be translated " above tlie hills ;" other 
men look to the hills, I look above the hills. But rather 
thus, " I lift up mine eyes to the liills," that is, I look 
to God ; why ? because the place where the temple was 
to be built was hilly ; and so this expression refers to 
those two hills, or rather, two ridjtes of the same hill, 
on which it was built, Moriah and Zioii : as 2 Chron. 
iii. 1, " 'riien Solomon began to buUd the house of the 
Lord at Jerusalem m mount Moriah ; " and Psal. ii. 6, 
" Yet have I set my king upon my holy liill of Zion." 
I look, saith David, unto God, my faith has reference 
to the place which God has chosen for himseh': that 
tliis is the meaning will appear if we compare this 
with Psal. Ixxxvii. 1, " His foundation is in the holy 
mountains ;" not mountain, but moimtains. The respect 
idolaters had for their idols, being manifested by lifting 
up their eyes to them, therefore God commanded them 
not so much as to lilt up their eyes to their idols, Ezek. 
xxiii. 27 : and mdeed, we had need take heed of so 
much as liftmg up our eyes to look on the enticements 
of the flesh ; many will not commit their former sins, 
but they love to be looking that way. I have read of 
a loving wife, who, being at the marriage of C)Tus, 
was asked how she liked the bridegroom ? How ? saith 
she ; I know not, I saw no one but my husband. Love 
and respect di'aw the eye either to God or to the crea- 
ture. According as our hearts are, so our eyes will be. 
" And love flagons of wine." The word 
comes from one which aigtti&es fundaint, 
he has established. The Vulgate renders it, viracia 
iivarum, the leaves, skins, and stones of the gi'ape that 
remain after pressing, and sink down into the bottom 
of the vessel ; noting thereby, how sapless, tasteless, 
and degi-ading idolatrous worship is in comparison of 
the true worship of God. The true worship of God is 
sweet, and lovely, and excellent ; but man's institutions, 
how improfitablc are they ! ,The spirits of such as plead 
for and delight in superstitious vanities, the devices of 
men, how dead and vapid do they soon become ! though 
heretofore they have had some life and energy, yet, if 
once they delight themselves in the inventions of men 
in God's worship, their spu'its gi'ow very unsavoury to 
those with whom they converse. 

But take the translation as it is in your Bibles, 
" flagons of wine," called by this name in the Hebrew, 
because the flagon, broad at the bottom, stands securely ; 
that is, (as some interpret it,) they are as drunkards 
that call for one flagon after another. Superstitious 
and idolatrous people, when they have one mode of 
superstition, call for another ; and when they have got 
that, they will have another, and are still deshous of 
more, never satisfied, but, as drunkards, they still thu-st 
after their flagons. 

Or rather, to denote the sensuality of the forms of 
then' idolatrous worshi]), then- flagons of wine are joined 
to then- gods. The Seventy translate the word Trf/i- 
fiara, brttaria, delicacies made of wine and grapes by 
every art they could devise in order to please the appe- 
tite. From thence this observation evidently arises : 

Obs. Spiritual adultery and carnal sensuality go to- 
gether. They used flagons of wine in their idolatrous 
solemnities, and that made them love then- idols so 
much the more. In the true worship of God, there is 
abundance of sweetness to satisfy the hearts of the 
saints, they need not sensual pleasiu'cs to complete their 
hapi)iness ; but in superstitious worship there is none 
such, therefore they are fain to call for flagons of wine, 
and other sensual tilings, to make up a full delight to 
themselves. Superstitious and idolafa-ous rites bring 
with them pleasm-e to the flesh, and hence are they 
loved and followed ; people can hardly ever be taken 
off from them. In their idolatrous solemnities, thev 
were wont to have feasts to pamper the flesh. Judg. 



ix. 27, " They went out into the fields, and gathered 
then- vineyards, and trod the gi'apes, and made merry, 
and went into the house of their god, and did eat and 
drink, and cursed Abimelech." So Amos ii. 8, " They 
drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their 
god." What is that ? By oppression and violence they 
would rend the estates of men from them, and then 
make merry, yea, come into the house of their gods, 
and (h-ink bowls of wine which they had gotten from 
the possessions of those whom they had wrongfully 
condemned. Let idolaters have their lusts satisfied, 
and they care not what god they serve. 1 Cor. viii. 
10, " If any see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat 
in the idol's temple ;" " at meat," they had their flesh 
satisfied in the idol's temple. Thus God complams of 
his people here. As if he had said, Let all bemoan my 
condition, for though I have loved Israel dearly, she 
has gone a whoring fi-om me, and loves flagons of •nine ; 
and because she has more pleasure to the flesh in serv- 
ing idols, she will serve them, "\^^lat an abominable 
thing is it to forsake the blessed God merely for the 
love of wine ! How many are there in the world who 
forsake all that good which is in God, in Cluist, in hea- 
ven, in eternity, merely for flagons of wine ! 

Calvin renders it flagons of grapes, so the words are 
in the Hebrew, not flagons of wine ; and observes, of 
grapes rather than wine, because there were artificial 
means used by them to make their superstitions more 
grateful to them : as when dnmkards have drunk even 
ad nauseam, and begin to loathe what they delighted in, 
then they will use some artificial mixtiu'e of grapes or 
something else with the wine, to give it a new flavour, 
that they may still delight themselves in chinking : so, 
(saith he,) because their old superstitions have nothing 
in them to satisfy the heart, therefore they invent new 
kinds to please themselves with ; and although they 
boast of theu' antiquity, yet the truth is, they are de- 
vising new ceremonies every day, to give a fresh lustre 
and pomp to then- worship, or else it woidd grow loath- 
some even to themselves. We have seen in our own 
experience, that the wantonness of men's hearts in su- 
perstitious ways is very great, they are ever inventing 
new devices to uphold their old moth-eaten vanities. 

Ver. 2. So I bought her lo me for flftetn pieces of 
silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of 
barley : 

The prophet obeys God in this other hai'd command. 
God many times sends liis prophets on very u-ksome 
duties, yet they must be willing to serve the Lord in 
the hardest work. " So I bought her." 

The word here ti-anslated " bought," 
signifies also to dig, and is taken (as some ' '^' 
think) from the piercing of the servant's ear, who was 
to be a slave tmtil the year of jubilee, to denote the 
slavish condition this people should be m for a long time. 

It signifies also to cut, excidit, " he jo»„j,,„„ ^,^ 
has cut asunder." These difi'erent signi- ma Pagn. 
fications may be reconciled by reference Contahenie. dex- 
to the customs of the Jews, who in then- „"?/„ nitSn''essc 
bargainings were wont to cut a beast in "u^Sn'mscmde- 
sunder, and so to go between the two te;'' jl;"'^!'?? 
pieces ; or because they joined then- right dissecabaniar. 
hands together, and then another came °^' 
and put his hand between theirs, (as a spade is put into 
the earth.) and so did, as it were, cut them asimder : 
thence arose the various acceptations in which the word 
was used. 

" To me." This buying was in order to marrying, 
that she might be under his care for a while, and then 
come to be his wife. It was the custom of men in those 
days to buy their wives. Jacob served twice seven years 
for Rachel, and so bought her. David bought his wife 



184 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. III. 



for a hundred foreskins of the Philistines ; and C'hi-ist 
purchased his church to himself at a dear rate, even by 
his ovm blood : but " I bought her" (saith he) " for fif- 
teen pieces of silver." 

There is a necessity for fuUy explaining tliesc words, 
that you may not only see tlie meaning of this, but like- 
■n'ise better understand some other passages of Scri])ture. 

" Fifteen pieces of silver." How much is that? Fif- 
teen shekels ; for it is a rule among tlie Hebrews, when 
a piece of silver, and not the sum, is named, alwavs to 
understand a shekel ; and when a sliekel is set Aovn\, 
and the metal not expressed, there silver is understood. 
Kow the common shekel was, according to some, of the 
w eight of one hundred and sixty grains of barley ; ac- 
cording to Jerome on Ezek. iv. it weighed hjjf an 
ounce. Josephus saith its value was about four 
drachms ; that is, about eighteen or twenty pence of 
our money ; and so I find most consider it, though much 
ditference exists among interpreters. 

This was to signify the vile and base condition into 
■which Israel had brought herself, for thu-ty shekels of 
silver was to be given for the ])rice of a maid-servant. 
Exod. xxi. 32, " If the ox shall push a man-sen-ant or 
a maid-servant, he shall give unto theii- master thu-ty 
shekels of silver." Thirty shekels must be given as a 
recompence for the loss of a slave ; yet the prophet 
must buy this adidteress for half as much, fifteen she- 
kels. Israel, all the ten tribes, yea, the whole people 
of the Jews, are signified by this adulteress, beloved of 
her friend. So that now Israel, who were heretofore 
the dearly beloved of God's soul, his only people on the 
face of the earth, the peculiar treasure of God, his por- 
tion, his inheritance; had now by their sin brought 
themselves into a meaner condition, and were worth 
but half as much as any poor bond-woman in Israel. 
Tliis thirty pieces of silver was the goodly price Christ 
was valued at by the Jews, Zech. xi. 12 ; Matt, xxvii. 
9. This showed how Christ was humbled, that he 
must be sold for no more than was the price of a slave. 
But the price of Israel is but fifteen pieces, half as 
much. Israel was proud in the day of lier prosperity, 
but now she has brought herself by her sin into a 
meaner condition than a slave. 

" And for an homer of barley, and an half homer of 
barley." AVhat that homer of barley was, and what 
the Holy Ghost intends by mentioning it, must be in- 
quired into. First, an homer contained ten cphahs, and 
an ephah is nearly as mucli as our busliel, so that this 
homer contained about ten of our bushels. In Ruth 
ii. 17, it is said, that when Kuth gleaned in the field 
afterthe reapers, she beat out tliat she had gleaned. 
and it was an ephah' of barley. And by this you may 
know the meaning of Isa. v. 10, " The seed of an homer 
sliall yield an e])hah :" why an homer was ten bushels, 
how then should the seed of nearly ten bushels yield 
but one bushel ? It was a threatening of a famine, 
that thoiigli thev sowed much they should reap but 
little, thev should sow ten busliels, and reap but one. 

Some, however, intcrjjret an homer to be about the 
burden that an ass was able to bear; for n*cn in the 
Hebrew signifies an ass, and so the burden of that 
creature was called an homer; but Ezek. xlv. 11, tells 
us ])lainly that an ephah is the tenth part of an homer. 

There is great difficulty in understanding tliis, if we 
compare it with Exod. xvi. IG, where it is said they 
were to gather of the manna " even,' man according to 
his eating, an homer for every man ;" and ver. 3(i, " an 
homer is the tenth part of an C])hah." This seems con- 
tradicton,-, here an ephah is the tenth part of an homer, 
and there an homer is the tenth part of an ejihah. lint 
those who imdcrstand Hebrew kjiow that these words 
are written witli difl'erent letters, though in our Eng- 
lish the pronunciation is the .same; that in Exodus 
with y and the other with n in Englisli the former is 



Gnomer, the latter Chomer, and so they should be read. 
Xow this homer of manna which God gave for each 
man daily, was almost the tenth part of a bushel, four 
or five times as much as the Roman dimensum or 
chtpm'x, the allowance given by them to their servants ; 
noting thereby that God is exceedingly Hberal to his 
people. 

But why " an homer of barley ? " Because it was a 
mean food, and in those times rather the food of beasts 
tlian of men ; God jjromised to feed his people with the 
finest of the flour of wheat : therefore. Rev. vi. 6, " A 
measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of bar- 
ley for a penny." But what means this, that there must 
be an homer of barley, and a half homer of barley, given 
for this adulteress, whom the prophet was to take unto 
himself? The scope of all is, to signify tlie mean con- 
dition in which the ten tribes, and afterward all the 
Jews, should be, till ClirLst came to marry them to him- 
self First, they should be in a contemptible condition, 
they should be valued but at half the price of a slave. 
Secondly, tliey should be fed but meanly and basely, 
even as slaves, or rather as beasts ; this homer and half 
of barley should be for their sustenance. 

This not only refeiTed to the time of their captivity 
before Christ, but to all their captivity ever since, and 
that which they shall endure until their calling. Their 
mean condition, in the time of their first captivity, you 
may see, I.am. iv. 5, " They that were brought up in 
scarlet, embraced the dunghills ;" they cither lay in 
filthy places, like beasts, or else they were employed in 
carrjing dung up and down. And to this day, we 
know that, in the esteem of others, the Jews ai'e the 
vilest people on the face of the earth. An historian 
tells us of an emperor travelling into Egj-jit, and there 
meeting with some Jews, by whose appearance he was 
so disgusted, that he cried 6ut, O Marco- „ M.r.oa,..,i, o 
mani, O Quadi, &c., at length I have Qu«di, o s.nn.», 

' . , "1 .1 1 1 taiidcm aliod vol>u 

met With men viler tlian such or such, arimion-! inrjni. 
reckoning up divers of the basest people ^"™""- "''■ *■ 
on the face of the earth. And to this day the Turks 
will suS'er no Jew to turn Mahometan, unless he first 
become a Christian : so much more they esteem the 
Christians, acknowledging that Jesus Christ, though 
not God, yet was a great prophet ; but as for the Jews, 
they think them a dishonour to the Turkish religion. 
And we read that the Romans, when they conquered 
other nations, would permit the vanquished to call them- 
selves liomans, except in the case of the Jews, though 
never so willing to conform themselves to 
their customs, and to be their servants ; p^iLui |x-r^,iioi.?ii, 
lest the glory of the Romans should be q'uid'ub!r'.^hij. 
tarnished by that odious jieople. Thus S?SS'.°°i«rfiii''' 
we see what shame God has cast on that genOT-Auguain. 
jieople even unto this day, that they are 
counted as the very oft-scouring of all nations. Sueto- 
nius tells us, that in tlie exactions that 
the Romans require of people, they im- *n,'ii',1Io,'c'."i2. 
posed on the Jews more than on any other 
])coplc. Thus, history and our own experience ])roye 
the fulfilling of this scripture, which I am now opening 
to you : She shall be bought for fifteen pieces of silver, 
and fed with barley ; she' shall be in a verj- low, base, 
and mean condition, imtil Christ shall come and marr)- 
her to himself 

Hence we may 

Obs. 1. A people who liave been high in outward 
glorj-, when they depart from God, make themselves 
vile and contemptible, God casts contempt on wicked 
men, especially on the w icked who corrupt his worship. 
Do we not see it at this day? In Aial. ii. 9, it m 
threatened that the priests, who departed from the law, 
and corrupted tlieir ways, should be base and con- 
temptible i)el'ore the people. Has not the Lord done 
thus at this day ? Even those who, not long since, gave 



Vek. 2. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



18J 



themselves the title of the triumphant clergy, and the 
triumphant church, and boasted as if they ■would out- 
face heaven itself, and scare all men with their high- 
commission coui't. But what shame has God east on 
this generation ! the people loathe them, and we hope 
in time the Lord will sweep away the proud and haughty 
of them as the refuse of the earth. Yea, our whole 
nation has been a proud nation ; what vaunting has 
there been of what a glorious church we had ! Never 
such a one on the earth ! AVe sat as a queen amongst the 
nations, and have behaved ourselves haughtily, and God 
may justly cast contempt upon us. The Jews called them- 
selves " The temple of the Lord," " The temple of the 
Lord;" but God has now made them the basest nation 
on the earth. And indeed God has now begun to cast much 
shame upon us. The time was when the kingdom of 
England was a terror to other people, but of late they 
have been the scorn and contempt of nations. " When 
Ephi-aim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel ; 
but when he offended in Baal, he died :" he became as 
a dead, poor, vile, contemptible people, Hos. xiii. 1. The 
Lord loves to stain the pride of men. How many have 
you known who have been proud and lofty, and the 
Lord has cast shame and contempt in theh' faces ! even 
before those whom they looked upon heretofore with 
contempt, have they now been humbled. 

O/).?. 2. Though a people be under contempt, yet 
God's heart may be towards them to do them good at 
the latter end. The love of God's election still is on 
this people ; God remembers them, and yet intends 
good to them. "Who knows what contempt God may 
cast upon us ? Perhaps he may let our proud adver- 
saries trample us under theu' feet ; but we hope he will 
not, because he sees their- hearts so proud. But if he 
should, we should not despau' ; we must not conclude 
that God has quite cast off England, though he should 
bring all his people under contempt, so as to be ti-ampled 
under the foot of pride. And if there be any of you 
■whom God has so depressed as to render you contempt- 
ible, humble yourselves before God, but do not despair, 
the Lord may yet have a love for you ; though you are 
now under shame and contempt, who knows but that 
this was the only way that God had to bow yom- 
hearts ? God puts his own people under contempt, and 
yet it is all from love to them, and with an intent to do 
them good at last. 

Obs. 3. After many promises of God's mercy and of 
a glorious condition, which he intends for his people, 
he may yet hold a very hard hand over them for a great 
■while ; and this we should especially remember. God 
having promised so much mercy in the former chapter, 
Israel might quickly grow wanton, and say. Though we 
be vile and wicked, yet God will marrj' us to himself, 
and we shall be a glorious people ; and why need we 
take care ? Nay, saith God, stay, though my heart be 
toward you, yet this generation shall suffer, and the 
next generation, and the succeeding one, shall suffer 
hard things, you shall be brought into the very vilest 
condition ; yet my promise shall be fulfilled at the last. 
Here we see what care God takes that people should 
not grow wanton with his mercy, and think, O we are 
in covenant with God, and God has jiardoned om- sins, 
what need we care ? Take heed of growing wanton, thou 
mayst suffer fearful things in this world. Though God 
may save your souls, yet you may be brought into as 
woeful a condition in your own apprehensions as ever 
any creature was on 'the earth. And for England, 
though it is true we have as many proofs of the love 
of God to us as any nation ever had, yet who knows 
what tliis generation may suffer, that has so suUied itself 
with superstitious vanities ? We may be brought into 
•woefid slavery, and then God may raise up unto him- 
self another generation, upon whom he will bestow the 
mercy intended. 



Obs. 4. Those who will delight then flesh to the full 
in a sensual use of the creatiu-e, it is just with God they 
should be cut short, and made to live meanly and 
basely, made to feed on coarse fare. The Jews had 
their "delicacies before, and fared deliciously ; now they 
must be fed with barley, worse than then- servants, and 
cat that which was meat for beasts. How many has 
God thus dealt with, ■nho not long since had their tables 
furnished with the choicest fare, and are now, perhaps, 
glad of a barley loaf for themselves and their childi-en ! 

Obs. 5. If God will not utterly destroy a people as 
he might, but reserve mercy for them at last, yet they 
have cause to bless God, though their subsistence for 
the present be most mean. Though there be a threat- 
ening here, yet it contains a promise. The people of 
Israel, had they known all, had no cause to nim-mur 
at God's dealing, but to wonder at his mercy, though 
they had but a little barley to sustain them. And sup- 
pose God should bring us, in England, into such a low 
condition as to be glad of a barley loaf ; and we know 
famine commonly follows war, and God may bring that 
upon us in a manner far beyond what we or our fore- 
fathers ever knew ; but yet if the Lord do not cast us 
off utterly fi'om being fiis people, though he feed us 
with brown bread, though we have never so mean a 
subsistence for the present, we shall have cause to bless 
his name. It was wont to be a phr-ase, Brown bread 
and the gospel are good fare. 

Obs. 6. It is the way of God to humble those to 
■n-hom he intends good, to prepare them for mercy, by 
cutting them short of outward comforts. If any of 
you have lived full-handed, your- ■wives, perhaps, brought 
you good portions, and now all is lost ; you had good 
friends in the country, and many of them now are 
plundered in their estates ; and you fare meanly, and 
if you have bread for your childi'en think it weU ; but, 
consider this. Is not God now humbling nie, and thereby 
preparing my heart for himself? Oh blessed be God for 
this my condition ; this bread is sweeter to me than all 
the provisions of my former life. When you sit in 
your house with yom- wife and childi-en, and have no- 
thing but barley bread to feed on, have these thoughts; 
I hope God does this in love and mercy, he is making 
this my condition the best I was ever in, and the great- 
est blessing to me. 

Ver. 3. And I said unto her, Thou shall abide for 
me many days ; ihou shall, not play the harlot, and Ihou 
shall not be for another man : so tcill I also be for thee. 

You shall not only be in such a low condition as a 
slave, and worse than a maid-servant, and be fed with 
barley ; but you shall abide thus, and that for " many 
days." Thus they have abode these sixteen hundi'ed 
years since Clu-ist's time, besides their former captivity. 
The Lord would fully prove Israel, that then- hearts 
were thoroughly humbled, before he would take them 
to mercy again. Never did any people deal more 
falsely with God in then- humiliations, than they for- 
merly. How often when they were in misery did they 
come with their seeming repentance and cry for 
mercy, and God showed them mercy ; and as soon as 
they were delivered, they fell oft" again and went after 
their idols ; and then, being in misery again, they cried 
to God and he delivered them, and then presently they 
returned to their idols again ! WeU, saith God, I wiU 
not deal so with you hereafter, I wQl not tnist you as 
I have done; you have been in misery, and I have 
delivered you when you have cried to me, and then you 
have returned to your sins : but now you shall be tho- 
roughly humbled," you shall be many years in this low 
and mean condition, and then your hearts will be com- 
pletely broken, so that, when you return to me again, 
you shall never backslide. God has dealt so ■with 



186 



AN EXPOSITIOX OF 



Chap. in. 



many of you j you have been in afRiction, and he has 
delivered you, and you have returned to your sins: 
you have been in affliction again, and he has delivered 
you once more, and you have backslidden again ; and 
thus you have trifled with the great God: God may- 
bring a sore and long affliction on you, that you shall 
be so thoroughly humbled, that you shall never return 
to your sins again as you have done. This is the 
meaning of " abide many days." ^Vhen we would 
thoroughly cleanse a filthy garment, we do not only 
ira-sh it, but we lay it soaking a great while, and let 
the frosts of many a night fall upon it : the Jews have 
so lain many hunched yeai-s. The hardness of man's 
heart is such, that afflictions will not work immediately. 
Though many wedges be inserted, and many blows 
struck on knotty wood, it stirs not: some metals are 
long in meltuig, yea, though the fire be very fierce. 

Obs. 1. "When God promises mercy, it is his ordinaiT 
method to seem to go quite contrary to a people, to 
seem as if he would quite destroy them. I will marry 
myself unto them in loving-kindness and in mercies : 
but yet I will let this people be above sixteen hundred 
years in this forlorn condition. And so it has been in 
all God's administrations since the beginning of the 
world. 

06*. 2. When God comes to humble sinners, they 
must be content to be humbled God's own time ; thev 
must not impatiently exclaim, "Lord, how long?" 1 
have been thus long in a sad condition ; I have prayed 
thus long. Is your sadness and affliction eternal ? O 
no, a year or two perhaps ; yet you have deserved an 
eternity of misery. 

" Thou shalt abide for me many days ; thou shalt not 
play the harlot, and thou shalt not be' for another man : 
so will I also be for thee." That is, All this time you 
must take care that you do not seek after other lovers ; 
let me have experience that you Avill now worship the 
only true God, and I wiU promise to stay for you as you 
abide for me. 

" Thou shalt not be for another man." The Hebrew 
phrxse, " to be" to or " for another man" means, thou 
shalt not marry another. Ezek. x^^. 8, " I entered into 
a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou 
becamest mine." Fuisti mihi, thou wert to me, that is, 
thou wert married to me. Lev. xxi. 3, " A virgin 
which hath no husband:" qucenon/uit mVo, a virgin 
that was not to another man. Hence we may profit- 
ably 

Obs. 1. That husband.s must be to their wives, and 
wives to their husbands ; that is, live to them : whatever 
thou hast, any knowledge, any parts, any grace, it must 
be to thy wife, for the benefit of thy wife'; and what the 
wife has must be to the husband. 

Obs. 2. In the time of the sorest affliction and trouble 
we must take heed we forsake not God. " You shall 
abide for mo many days." Though I use vou hardly 
for a long time, yet you mu.st not think to go and shirt 
for yourselves any other way. Li time of afllliction, 
though trouble continue long,' we must not seek to help 
ourselves by false comforts. We have an excellent 
text, Psal. xliv., which describes a most afflicted state 
of God's people. Vcr. 11, "Thou hast .'-cattercd us 
amongst the heathen." Ver. 12, "Thou sellest thy 
people for nought." Ver. 13, " Tliou makest us a re- 
proach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to 
them that are round about us." Ver. 17. " All this is 
come upon us ; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither 
have we dealt falsely in tliy covenant." And, ver. 19, 20, 
" Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dra- 
gons, and covered us with the shadow of death. If we 
have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out 
our hands to a strange god." As if he should say, God 
forbid such a thing as this ; though we be in the place 
of dragons, under reproach, and in great affliction, yet 



we have not lifted up our hands to another god. AVo 
must not say as king Jehoram, 2 Kings vi. 33, " What 
should I wait for the Lord any longer ? " He seemed 
to be humbled, and put on sactcloth ; but would not be 
contented to wait longer for the Lord. Men's spirits 
under affliction are prone to think, Why should I wait 
for God any longer ? I will now seek to help myself in 
mine own way, to shift for myself. The Lord forbid 
that such thoughts should be in any of our hearts. 
Sedebis mihi, Thou shalt be quiet, though thou dost 
abide in this sad condition a long while. Isa. xxx. 7, 
" Their strength is to sit stUl." And, ver. lo, " In re- 
turning and rest shall ye be saved ; in quietness and in 
confidence shall be your strength." Alas ! tliou art now 
afflicted j where wilt thou find help, poor soul ? Wilt 
thou go to false gods, to thy former sinful lusts ? that 
is not the way to help thee ; thou must abide until God's 
time come to show mercy to thee. The heart of man 
is strongly set upon good, and cannot be content to 
stay God's time ; but if God subdue thy heart so far as 
to render it content to abide, though never so long, for 
God, and that it will not try to relieve itself by any 
tinlawful means, this is a good sign that there is much 
love in reserve for thee. It is a proof of a strong affec- 
tion in a woman, when there occur things that hinder 
the match between her lover and herself'; Well, saith 
she, though there be some obstacles, and you make 
many objections, I will never marry as long as I live, 
except I may have him : this argues fen'our and strength 
of affection. So here, I will marry you unto myself, 
saith God, and many things are to be done before that 
day, but then, after you have stayed my time, I will 
come to you in a glorious manner. As God deals with 
the Jews, so often in liis marrying himself to a particu- 
lar soul. 

06*. 3. God not only commands them to do it, but 
it is a promise and a prophecy that they shall do ii. 
" Thou shalt abide," &;c. 13ut you will .say, I low have 
the people of the Jews abode for God ? Thus ; they 
have never to this day chosen any other god, ancl 
though they have not received the Messiah, yet ever 
since the captivity they have hated idolatry, and that 
was tlie thing God specially meant in this ; Thou shalt 
not have any more idols, thou shalt choose no other 
god, no other husband ; though tliou hast been very 
wicked and sinful in tliis way, and formerly chose all 
manner of gods, the gods of the Amoritcs, and Moab- 
itcs, and of all the heathens round about you, yet now 
thou shalt choose no other gods but me. Thus to this 
day the Jews have acknowledged Jehovah to be the 
only true God, and cannot endure images. There Ls a 
remarkable passage relating to this in Eusebius's An- 
tiquities, cap. 18. "Ulien Caius Caligula sent one Pe- 
tronius to set up an image in the tcmjjlc of Jenisalem, 
many of the Jews pleaded with Petronius, saj-ing. Sir, 
what is it that you do ? we beseech you do it not, de- 
prive us of oiu* lives first ; for it is impossible, while we 
live, to submit to this, wc will all die tirst. But, replied 
he, it Ls the command of the emperor: op])osition is 
vain, it must be done. They answered. Seeing you will 
not transgress Ciesar's command, neitlicr will wc violate 
the command of our God ; we are not so faint-hearted, 
nor have we such a vain desire for the continuance of 
our lives, as to enjoy them at the risk of Uiat eternal 
life, which is projiosed for the keeping of God's com- 
mands. Such was their spirit then, and to this day 
they will not endure idols ; and their being scattered 
here and there among papists, and seeing so much idol- 
atry among them, they are thereby stumbled at Chris- 
tianity, and their conversion greatly prevented; Init if 
God would once pull down popery, certainly the Jews 
would quickly come in. God now seems about to do it, 
therefore all of us should assist as far as we can to de- 
molish all monuments of idolatr)-, to make the worship 



V. 



3. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



187 



i of God more pm-e, and this mil be a means to bring 
about the conversion of the Je-ws, and in this respect 
they have abode for God'all this while : such I conceive 
to be the meaning of tlie text. 

•' So will I also be for thee." "What is the meaning 
of that ? First, though you shall be long in captivity, 
saith God, and in a low' condition, be content, do not 
take any other god as your husband ; I will be content, 
I will stay, I will have no other people upon the earth 
but you, all the time you are in captivity. 

But how does God abide for Israel now ? God has 
chosen the Gentiles, how then does he stay for them ? 

First, All the Gentiles who are called" come in to 
God, as being joined to the people of the Jews ; God 
honoured the Jews so far, as that all the Gentiles who 
come in are to be made the Israel of God. 

But rather thus, God abides for the people of the 
Jews to this day, m this sense, God never has taken, 
nor ever will take, to liimself any nation upon the earth 
to be a national chui'ch, as the Jews were,_ and as it is 
'i probable the Jews shall be at theii- conversion : though 
God takes the converted Gentiles by their several con- 
gregations to be chm-ches, yet to man-y himself to a 
whole nation, as he did to the Jews, that is, if a man 
be born of that nation it shall be sufficient to make 
him a member of the church, this God never did smce 
the Jews' rejection, and never will till the Jews be called 
again. God chooses kingdoms now, and so, in some fi- 
gurative sense, a nation perhaps may be called a chm-ch ; 
but to speak properly and saictly, there is no such 
national church as the Jews were. But then God will be 
married to that nation in a more glorious manner than 
ever ; and God abides to tliis day for the glory wliich 
he intends for Jesus Chr-ist, until, they come in. And this 
i take to be a great reason why God, for the present, suf- 
fers his chui'ches to be persecuted as they are. The church, 
ever since Christ's time, has been in a low and perse- 
cuted condition ; the wicked have prevailed. "What is 
the reason ? God abides for this people of the Jews, 
and he is pleased liimself to undergo many sufi'erings; 
and seems to say. In the mean time do you abide for 
me. I will be content to suffer much dishonour myself : 
many shall come in to Chiist ; but yet they shall be a 
poor, contemptible people, the wicked of the world shall 
prevail against them, shall scorn tlicm, shall contemn 
them, so that I shall not appear to the world to be their 
husband, until you be called again : but when you shall 
return to me, then I wUl manifest myself indeed ; you 
shall be a most glorious church, and there shall be such 
a full marriage between us, that all the world shall 
acknowledge it, and shall say, Come, behold the bride, 
the Lamb's wife. Tliis is the scope of this scripture. 

Obs. 1. Husbands .should not require of their wives 
any thing but what they will answerably do for them. 
God doth so here ; " Abide for me," saith he, " and I 
will abide for you ;" there shall be par pari, hke for 
like. Many husbands will rcquii-e hard tilings from 
" t:r wives, but will do little themselves; and, on the 

nr side, wives expect great things from their hus- 
iils, but do little themselves. There must be a pro- 
portion between what they expect from each other, and 
what they do to or for each other. 

Obs. 2. In om- sad condition God suffers as well as 

. . This may help us in our sufferings, to tliink, though 
suffer much, God suffers as much as we. The people 

: the Jews, if they had heai'ts, might see now that 
God stays for his honour till they come in. So in all 
the persecutions of the chm-ch, does not Christ suffer, 
because the great work of reformation does not ad- 
vance ? K we arc grieved, the Spirit of God is grieved 
■IS well as we, and suffers as much as we ; God, as it 
were, abides for us, and stays for his glorj-. "We desire 
■ iliat God would come and manifest himself, then we 
might be happy and rejoice ; but so long as God stays 



our happiness, he stays his own glorj-. "\Miat abund- 
ance of glory does God lose in those praises he would 
have if the refoi-mation were immediately perfected ! 
but God has other ends, and is content to stay for his 
praises. Let us be content to stay for what we desire 
to have ; it concerns God to hasten the work as much, 
yea, far more than it concerns us to desu-e it ; we suffer 
something for want of it, but God suffers more. 

Obs. 3. That soul which endures hardship a long 
time for God, and resolves to reserve itself for him, so 
that if it cannot have comfort m God it will have none 
elsewhere, may assui'e itself that God resen'es himself 
for it. Certainly, nothmg shall take oft' the heart of 
God from that soul, but there will be a blessed marriage 
between it and him. Is there ever a poor creature 
here with whom God seems to deal hardly, yet finds in 
himself this frame of spu'it, "Well, though God seem to 
leave me, and I am thus desolate, yet if I can have no 
comfort here, I will have none elsewhere : I will be 
content to wait ; no creature shall have my heart. It 
is true, I am not able to guide myself, but I am resolved 
Satan shall never guide me ; I am not able to do the 
will of God, but I will never do the will of the devil : 
and if God should leave me never so long, nay, leave 
me eternallv. I wiU never have any other husband, 
I will rather die a widow ; if he do not many himself to 
me, I wOl be without comfort as long as I live. Is thy 
heart in this frame ? Peace be unto thee ; certainly 
God intends thoughts of mercy to thy soul ; there will 
certainly be a maniage between God and it. And 
wheresoever this fi'ame of heart is, oh how will it help 
against temptation ! "Wlien a soul is in distress, and 
God seems to go oft' farther and farther, it exclaims, I 
have prayed long, and yet God seems not to hear, and 
afliictions prevail. AA'"e may ask, "Why do you pray 
any more ? why do you come and hear any more ? if 
God wiU never come, you might as well take your plea- 
sure for a wliile, you can but perish at the last. But 
when the heart answers. It is true, the Lord indeed 
seems to be gone, and I have cause to fear lest he 
should reject me : but, become of me what w-iU, yet I 
will never have any other husband but God, never any 
other comfort but God's comfort, no other peace but 
the peace of God, and I am resolved that, if I perish, I 
will perish cning for it. In this fi-ame thou art wait- 
ing for God, and God is waitmg for thee in ways of 
mercv ; and at length the bowels of God's mercy will 
yeai-ii towai-ds thee, as the bowels of Joseph yearned 
towards his brethren. For a long time Joseph used his 
brethren roughly, but they behaved themselves humbly 
and submissively towards him, and at length he could 
not refrain : so God may be using thee somewhat hardly 
for a wliile, yet keep thou in a humble and submissive 
frame of spirit towards him, do that which beseems a 
creature to do, whatever God does to thee ; say. It is 
fit God should exercise his absolute power over me, and 
that I should do my duty to him : do this, and be sure 
thou art a soul that God will maiTy to himself in the 
end. 

Obs. 4. So far as we are willing to be for God, God 
is -nining to be for us. God requires that you should 
seek him with your whole heart, Jer. xxix. 13. Mai-k 
how God answers, " I will rejoice over them to do them 
good, and I will plant thcm'm this land assuretUy with 
my whole heart and with my whole soul.'' Jer. xxxii. 
41. AVUl you seek God with your whole heart ? I will 
do you good, saith God, with 'my whole heart. If all 
thefaculties of vour souls work t'oward God. all the at- 
tributes in God shall work for yom- good. If thy estate 
be wholly given up for God, God's riches shall be 
wholly for thee. Wouldst thou know how God's heart 
works' towards thee ? lay thy hand upon thine own 
heart ; according to the beatings of thy heart towards 
God, so are the workings of the heart of CJod towards 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



CiiAP. m. 



thee : thou mayst determine it thus ; thou canst not 
go up to heaven to know it, but go into thine own 
heart, and there thou mayst know : as a man may dis- 
cover by the working of an engine within, what its oper- 
ations are abroad. That is the reason why the saints, 
when thev have had their" hearts enlarged in prayer, 
have resolved what God will do for them, or for his 
church : as it is said of Luther, when he had been one 
time more than ordmarily earnest with God in prayer, 
he came to his friends and said. Well, it shall go well 
■with Germany all my days ; look ye to it afterward. 
He knew what was decreed in heaven, by what took 
place in his ow^i heart. We may know in a great 
measure what God means to do with his church, ac- 
'Cording to the inward beatings of oui" own hearts. 

Obs. 0. See the happy advantage of the saints, beyond 
the men of the world, thus : Be you for me, saith God, 
and I will be for you. The men of the world can say, 
I am for the world, and the world is for me ; I am for 
my honour, and my honour- is for me ; this is all their 
happiness : but now a saint can say, I am for God, and 
God is for me. 

Oh the goodness of God towards us, that he is will- 
ing to be for us as we are for him ! For him ! alas, 
what can we be for him ? we are poor wonns, vile 
creatm-es in oiu-selves, what can we do ? he has no need 
of us, we are bound to do all that we do. It is as if a 
king should come to a poor beggar, and say. Poor man, 
thou hast but little, yet do what you can for me, I will 
do what I can for you. This were a mighty dispropor- 
tion. Alas, what can the beggar do for the king ? If 
you will but use your staff or what you have for me, I 
will use my riches, and glory, and all for your good, 
saith the king to the beggar. So saith God to a poor 
creature. Be you for me, and I will be for you ; stand 
for me, and I will stand for you ; use any thing you 
have for me, and I will use what I have for you. Oh 
the blessed condition of the saints ! Who would not be 
for God ? Do not now say, Alas ! I am a poor, vile, and 
unworthy creature ; so were the Jews : do not say, I 
have gone a whoring from God, and dealt falsely with 
him ; the Jews did so : Yet, saith God, whenever you 
will be for me, I will be for you. It is now the great 
question amongst us, "\^'^^o are you for ? I will put the 
question to you all, AVho are you for ? Ai-e yoiu' hearts 
■s\ holly given up to God, or are you for your lusts, for 
the creature ? Certainly the creature will deceive you 
ei-e long, and bring you no good : if you be not for God 
now, he wUl send you to the creature in the time of 
your distress. There is a time coming that evei-y one 
■of us shall see the need we have that God be for us ; 
let us be for God now, that God may be for us then. 
When we ay to him, and say, O Lord, let thy mercy 
and goodness be for us ; he will say, "VMio were you 
for ? You were for your lusts, now go to your lusts ; 
you would have none of me before, I will have none of 
you now. " You would none of my reproof ; I also will 
laugh at your calamity ; I will mock when your fear 
Cometh," Prov. i. 2o, 2G. Mark, they would have none 
of God's reproof: he does not say, They would have 
none of my mercy, they would have none of my grace, 
therefore 1 wLU laugh at their destruction ; but they 
would have none of my reproof. AVTiy ? The reproofs 
of God are the bitterest and harshest things ; yet, be- 
cause they would have none of God's rejiroofs, he laughs 
at their destruction. AVhat shall become of them then, 
who will now have none of the riches of God's gi'ace 
offered to them in Christ ? 

Ver. 4, 5. Far the children of Israel shall abide ma7i!/ 
dat/s icilhout a king, and tiilliout a prince, and without 
a sacrifice, and uilliout an image, and uilhoul an cphod, 
and without teraphim : afterward shnll the children of 
Israel return, and seek the Lord their God. 



Here is much privation, six "withouts:" 1. "With- 
out a king ;" 2. " Without a prince ;" 3. " "\Mthout a 
sacrifice ;" 4. " AVithout an image ;" 5. " Without an 
ephod ;" 6. " Without a teraphim :" but the last verse 
makes up for all ; " They shall return, and seek the Lord 
theu- God, and David theu' king." These " withouts " 
show the woefuU)' confused estate that Israel was to be 
in for " many days," many years, both in regard of theii' 
civil and of their church estate. The civil state, " with- 
out a king, without a prince." Their chmxh, without 
the foiu- thmgs wliich succeed. Though once they were 
the happiest peojile on the face of the earth in both re- 
spects, yet now they shall be most miserable. This they 
liad brought on themselves, by setting up theu- idols in 
Dan and IJethel ; Dan, the place of judgment ; Bethel, 
the house of God ; there was abundance of coiTuption 
both in places of judgment, and in the house of God ; 
and now there comes on them abimdance of confusion 
both in theu' ci\il and in their chru-ch estate. They re- 
ceived their laws, as well for civil as for church govern- 
ment, fi'om God himself out of heaven, which no other 
people ever did ; but they leave God's institutions, and 
so are brought into all confusion. 

They shall be " mthout a king." 

How " without a king ? " AVhen they were in cap- 
tivity, they yet were under a king, the kings of Babylon 
and AssvTia ; and they are still, in theu' dispersion, un- 
der the govenmient of kmgs and princes. I answer, 
they have kings over them, but not of theu' own nation ; 
and that is the judgment : neither are they governed 
by theu- own, or rather by God's, laws : and for them to 
be in slavery under kings, is to them as bad, yea, worse, 
than to have no king at all. How sad a condition, for a 
people to be without a king to protect them, and to 
maintain their laws, jjrivileges, and liberties ! 

When men reject God from ruling over them, it is 
just with God to put them under the rule of tyrants, 
of oppressors, of destroyers, and public enemies to their 
state. The blessing of government is very gi'cat, if just; 
and therefore the Persians were wont, on the death of 
theu- king, to let all the people be for five days without 
any government at all, that, seeing the inconvenience 
and mischief resulting, tliey might the more willingly 
submit to government, and be more obedient when 
under it. 

It is a question among politicians, whether t)Tanny 
or anarchy, tjTannical government or no government 
at all, be preferable. Though tvTanny (unless carried 
to a great extreme) may be better than anarchy, yet 
certainly it is not better than to reduce power luider 
good regidations, though that be attended with some 
trouble. The Power wliich fu'st raises power, designs 
such persons and families to hold it, and puts limit to 
it, surely cannot be unable to regulate it that it should 
not prove its own destruction. 

But hero they were not only to be " without a king," 
but "without a prince" also. The word 
translated " prince," signifies a rider, judge, 
or governor, and so I find it often used in Scripture. 
" All these were the rulers," the princes, " of the sub- 
stance," 1 C'hron. xxvii. 31. And Neh. iii. 9, "The 
ruler," the prince, " of the half part of Jerusalem.'' So 
that by " prince " here is meant judges, or any kind of 
rulers ; they shall be " without a prince," that is, without 
any judges or rulers. Though they had no kings, yet 
if the government had been in the hands of eminent 
men, judges over them, their condition had not been so 
sad. No long time had elapsed since their hapjjiness 
consisted not in being governed by kings ; they were in 
a flourishing condition before they had any, and when 
first they came under their government it wa.s from their 
own choice. God i)rofessed they had rejected him, and 
sent them their first king in his WTath. Therefore their, 
misery certainly did not depend wholly on being with- 



Vee. 4, 5. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



189 



out a king. If God restrain not kings, they often desire 
to encroach on those hberties which the laws of the land, 
the light of natm-e, and God liimself, give to subjects. 
Plutarch tells us, that, on PjTrhus' coming 
^'"'"vr'Jhf ^"^ to Athens, the Athenians, to show theii- 
respect and do him honoui", admitted him, 
contrary' to then- custom with strangers, into then- citadel, 
to sacrifice there to Minerva. When he came out, he 
told them that he was much indebted to them for that 
great favour, and in requital would give them this ad- 
vice : Take heed that you never let a king agam enter 
this place ; intimating how easily they may be persuaded 
to inti-ench on the liberties of those who come under 
their power. 

And this should " abide for many days." It did abide 
for 700 years and upward before Christ. From the 
sixth of Hezekiah to Clu-ist, the ten tribes never were 
under any governor of theu' own in all that time ; and 
since Christ's time neither Judah nor Israel have had 
either king or prince of their own. Oh what a blind- 
ness is there upon this people ! how di-eadful is that 
darkness in which they now are ; that, notwithstanding 
the prophecy was so clear, that " the sceptre should not 
depart from Judah until Shiloh came," and they have 
now been without a prince these 1600 years, yet they 
■wiU not beheve that Shiloh is come ! Thus, when God 
gives men over to blindness and liardness, the clearest 
declarations will not be believed. 

But their confusion in their chiu'ch estate is more 
grievous than then- civil ; they shall " be without a sacri- 
fice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and 
without teraphim." Two of these foiu- express their 
being deprived of God's own ordinances, and the other 
two, of theu- being deprived of their false worship. They 
made a mixture in worship, and would have their 
sacrifice and their- ephod, but, together with them, then- 
image and their teraphim. 

Obi: 1. Man's perverseness leads him to introduce 
mixtm-es into God's worship, he will retain something 
of that which is God's, but will also bring in something 
of his own, and that spoils all. An emperor of Rome, 
in one temple would have Christ and Orpheus wor- 
shipped both together. And of those who were sent 
into Samaria by the king of Babylon, we read, 2 Kings 
xvii. 33, " They feared the Lord, and served then- own 
gods ;" but, ver. 34, it is said, " they fear not the Lord ;" 
that is, though they acknowledged the true God, yet 
they woxdd mix the worship of idols with his -worship, 
and so God rejected all ; " they did not fear the Lord" 
at all. It is no fear of God except we fear him only ; 
it is no acceptable worship of God unless we worship 
him only. The heathens are content with mixtui-e in 
their worship; you may worship one god, and join 
with it the worship of another, because there is not one 
of them who challenges to himself to be the universal 
good ; but our God being the universal good, must be 
worshipped alone, without mixture. 

There are two things m which we must take heed of 
mixture : the one is in Divine worship ; the other is in 
that great point of justification. It is as much as om- 
lives are worth to introduce foreign matter into either 
of these, we must in them both adhere to the rule laid 
down closely and strictly. These people had both, and 
God thi-eatens they should be without both ; seeing 
they would not confine themselves wholly to his insti- 
tutions, they should have none at all ; neither God's 
institutions nor their own. ' 

We this day much resemble Israel. With respect to 
our civil state, much confusion is in that, though not 
altogether so much as was in theirs. And our church 
estate is vei-y similar : we have neither the right way of 
■worship, nor the false, in respect to the government of 
the church ; the false is cast away and professed against, 
and yet we have not the true ; only here is the mercy 



of God, that we are inquiring after the true, and " seek- 
ing the Lord, and David our king." The Lord gives 
us hearts to inquu-e to pm-pose. 

The Septuagint translate these four words, naxrj nst 
D'B-ini n^SN by terms expressing true worship only ; and 
therefore they render naSD by OvaiaaTriptov, an altar ; 
D'Bnn by 'upareiac, priesthood; and tlSN by SiiXwamg, 
or diiXiov, manifestations, a word used for the Urim 
and Thummim. But the Hebrew means, " Sacrifice, 
image, ephod, and teraphim," as expressed in your 
books. 

Fu-st, then, to inquire into that which was the right 
and true worship, " sacrifice and ephod," and in what 
it consisted ; and then into the other, " image and 
teraphim." 

" Sacrifice." They should have no sacrifice at all, for 
since then- temple was destroyed it was impossible 
they could. Hence it is that they pray with that 
mighty fervency of spu-it, that God would build the 
temple again, " Lord, build, build, build thy temple in 
our days, in our days, in om- days," iJcc. ; because they 
knew they could have no sacrifice so long as their 
temple was in ruins. This was then- sad condition, 
and to this day they have not the legal sacrifices, nor 
that which was t)-pified by them. There were these 
tliree things in their sacrifices : 

1. Their dedicating of themselves to God, showing 
then- respect to him in the way he required, in theii' 
bm-nt-ofl'ering. 

2. Seeking the expiation of sin, in their sin-offering. 

3. Seeking for mercy, and rendering thanks, in their 
peace-ofi'ering. 

Now to have no sacrifice in any of these three kinds, 
that is, to have nothing to offer up to the high and 
blessed God to show om- respect to him ; to have no 
means to expiate our sins when we have offended him 7 
to have no way to seek to God for mercy in oui- neces- 
sities, nor to retm-n praise ; this must needs be a sad 
condition : this is the present state of the Jews. We 
have Christ, who is to us all these. Presenting 
him to God, is showing the gi-eatest possible respect to 
God ; presenting him is the expiation for our sins, the- 
seeking of whatever blessing we desire, and oirr eucha- 
ristical sacrifice too for all oiu- mercies. But those who 
are without Christ, are to this day without sacrifice, 
they have nothing to present to God. K thou wilt off'er 
up thine estate, thy body, thy liberty, or thy name^ 
this is no sacrifice acceptable to God ; except thou hast 
Christ to present it to him, and canst ofi'er all in him 
and through him, then indeed God graciously accepts. 
"When thou hast sinned, what sacrifice wilt thou ofi'er 
to God to expiate thy sin ? all thy prayers, thy tears 
are nothing, unless accompanied with this sacrifice, 
Jesus Chi-ist; in him, indeed, a contrite heart is an 
off'ering very acceptable to God. But so long as thou 
art without "Christ, the judgment of the Jews is upon 
thee, thou art without a sacrifice. 

" And without an ephod." 

By this he means, first, that they should be without 
the priesthood. They .should not have any church 
officers. And, secondly, they should have no means to 
know the mind of God. That this is the scope, ap- 
pears thus : 

First, That by the " ephod " is meant the priests, is 
evident from that expression, 1 Sam. xxii. 18, where it 
is said that Doeg " slew on that day fourscore and five 
persons that did wear a hnen ephod ;" that is, fourscore 
and five priests. 

Secondly, Without the means of knomng God's mind, 
for the Urim and the Thummim were on the breastplate 
that was fastened upon the ephod ; so that when they 
were without the ephod, they must needs be without 
their breastplate, for it was attached to the ephod, and 
coidd not be used for discovering the wdl of God, 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. Hi. 



but only by applying it to the ephod. 1 Sam. xxx. 7, 8, 
"David said to'Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, 

1 pray thee, bring me liither the ephod. And David 
inquired at the Lord, saying. Shall I pursue after this 
troop ? " It -was by the presence of the ephod that he 
inquired what God wished liim to do in the matter, 
whether he should follow the troop, or not. And the 
6th verse is very observable : you may see when it was 
that David was so anxious to make use of the ephod, 
to know of God what he should do. He was in an 
exceedingly disb'cssed condition, for Ziklag, his own 
city, of wliich he had the charge, was bm-nt ; and the 
men were all " grieved in soul," and talked of stoning 
him, because the Amalekites had come in his absence 
and taken away theii' goods, their wives and chUdi'en, 
and burnt the town. If the acts of men in public 
places turn out unsuccessfully, the people are ready to 
fall in a rage upon them ; this renders their condition 
verv dangerous and troublesome, and should lead us to 
pray much for them. AVe are ready to em7 those 
above u.s, who are employed in public services; but con- 
sidering theu- danger, and how far the blame of every 
thing that falls out otherwise than we desire, is forthwith 
laid upon them, their condition is not so happy as we 
imagine. In this state was Da-sid, nay, in a worse, for 
the text saith that he and the men that were with him 
" lifted up then- voice and wept, until they had no more 
power to weep," their hearts were so broken ; yet in this 
sad and grievous condition " David encom-aged himself 
in the Lord his God," and called for the ephod, to in- 
quire of God what he should do. You observe, that 
this is the fh'st time we read that David in his battles 
called for the ephod : v. hen he went to Achish, he did 
not mqiure : when he invaded the Geshurites and 
Amalekites before, he did not inquire ; but now, when 
he was brought into straits, when his heart was broken, 
when he was in a weeping condition, he called for the 
ephod. MTien God brings men into straits and humbles 
them, then they will inquh-e of God with pm-pose of 
heart. We are now about to inquire of God, to know 
his mind : but we are not humbled enough, our sti-aits 
have not broken our hearts, and perhaps we shall not 
so readily know God's mind; God may yet humble us 
more ; and then we will come to inquire God's mind 
more effectually. 

But to open this garment a little. The 
AccmLi word"ephod,"signifies, to closein.orgird 

about, because of the fitting of the gar- 
ment to the priests, and the girding of it about them. 
There were various sorts of ephods : one peculiar to the 
high priest, which you have Exod. xx\"iii. 6. Others 
wiucli the ordinary priests wore, and that you have in 
the place before referred to, about the fourscore and 
five priests slain by Doeg. A third was common to the 
Levites; thus Samuel, 1 Sam. ii. 18, "ministered before 
the Lord, being a child, girded with a linen ephod." 
A fourth, worn by others in theu- holy actions, especially 
by kings ; "David danced before the Lord with all his 
might; and David was guded with a hnen ephod," 

2 Sara. vi. 14. And to this day the Jews have a kind 
of linen gamient, but not like om' ephod, yet with 
some resemblance to it, which they wear upon then- heads, 
and sufi'er to hang down. When Alexander came to 
Jerusalem, Jaddus the high priest, an-ayed in all his 
priestly garments, met him ; which caused him, out of 
reverence, to fall do'HTi and prostrate himself before 
him. Josephus tells us, that the people likewise came 
with white garments, garments that had some kind of 
resemblance to this ephod ; and adds, that the ephod 
■was a garment a cubit in length, covering only the 
shoulders and the breast, open above and on cither 
side, and girt around the chest. Others make it a long 
robe reaching down to the very feet. But the ephod 
was worn also over another robe ; so Christ appeared 



to John, Rev. i. 13, "clothed with a garment down .> 
the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle," 
like the priests, for so they were wont to be arrayed ; 
and Rev. xv. 6, the muiisters of the churches, called by 
the name of " angels," are described as " clothed in pure 
and white linen, having their breasts girded with golden 
girdles ; " not gu-t about their loins, but about their 
breasts, near their hearts. That which makes ministers 
of the gospel ready prepared for their work, is the girdle 
of truth, and this must be about their hearts ; if then- 
own devices and selfish aims gird them, that is, incite 
them to do what may advance their own interest, this is 
not the golden girdle, but like that rotten girdle of 
Jeremiah's, that "was profitable for nothing," chap, 
xiii. 7. 

This ephod then was a holy gannent, and others must 
beware of meddling ^vith such, or of seeking to imitate 
them. "WTien God had given Gideon a great victory 
over the Midianites, he imitated tliis ephod : and of the 
spoO he took from the Jlidianites, he made a rich and 
a glorious ephod; but the text observes, that thing 
proved to be " the destruction of Gideon's house," for 
" the people went a whoring after it : " he made it with 
a good intention, to testify' his thankfulness to God for 
his ^^ctol7, not thinking that it woidd be ever worship- 
ped. It is dangerous for governors to imitate God's 
ordinances in garments or the like, and to preserve 
them amongst people : though with never so good an 
intention, that will not excuse them. Gideon's pre- 
sumption in making an ephod, in imitation of the ephod 
appointed by God, proved to be the destruction of his 
house ; yet this was that Gideon who a little before had 
destroyed the altar of Baal, and though then so much 
against idolatiy, yet now he does that which promotes 
it. So may governors, if they take not heed, pidl do\ni 
one kind of false worsliip anil set up another. 

The Jews have many mysteries about this garment, 
it would weai-y you to hear them. I shall only observe, 
as most useful for you, that we must not read the books 
of the Old Testament as if they concerned us not. 
First, upon the shouldei-s of the ephod were set ranks of 
precious stones, with the names of the twelve tribes, 
according to their generations, engraven on them. And 
in the middle of the ephod, upon the breastplate, wliich 
was to be four-square, there were four rows of precious 
stones, and upon them likewise were engraven aU the 
names of the tribes of Israel : and he bore them upon 
his heart. There is much to be observed in this. 

Obs. 1. Let the tribes be never so mean in them- 
selves, yet, upon the ephod, they were precious stones. 
The priest wearing the ephod was a type of Chi-ist : let 
the godly he never so mean in themseh-es, yet, in Christ, 
God looks upon them as precious stones. 

06*. 2. These precious stones, that were lipon the 
shoulders of the ephod, are called "a memorial," Exod. 
xsviii. 12. First, to signify Qirist bearing the namt > 
of all the saints before his Father for a memorial, thosi 
twelve tribes representing aU the chm-ehes that shoiih! 
be unto the end of the woild. AAHien God remember 
his chui-ch, it is through Christ. God never remember- 
his church, but by Christ's carrying it before him : and 
that is the comfort of the saints ; he therefore can never 
remember them to revenge himself upon them, for he 
never thinks of them but only as Christ presents them 
unto him. 

Secondly, a memorial, (say the Jews,) not only because 
the priests were to bear the names of the twelve tribes, 
engraven in those stones, for a memorial before the Lord, 
but to signify- that the priests themselves were to re- 
member to pray for the tribes. 

And thirdly, a memorial, to signify' that both the 
pnests and all the people .were to remember their godly 
ancestors and predecessors, and to follow their virtues, 
and not in any wise to dislionoiu- them. 



V£U. -1, 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



But the first is tiie chief. These precious stones with 
the names of the tribes, were first upon the shoulder, 
and then upon the heart : upon the shoulder ; this notes 
that Chi'ist carries his chiu'ch upon his shoulder, bears 
its burden, all then weight, all their afilictions. The 
shoidder of Chi-ist stands under the churches, certamly 
therefore they shall never sink. 

But may they not be so biu'densome to Christ as to 
induce him to shake them off? No, Christ carries the 
memorial of his churches at his heart as well as upon 
his shoulders, and that makes Christ laboiu- strenuously 
for the good of the churches. There is an infinite com- 
fort in the spiritual meaning of this ephod, that belongs 
to all the godly ; Chi-ist night and day has thee upon his 
shoidder, and upon liis heart, as a precious stone before 
God the Father. One thing further is observable 
about it. In Exod. xxviii. 12, the names of the tn^elve 
tribes were to be engraven on these stones in order, ac- 
cording to then- bu-th : now in Rev. xxi. the twelve 
apostles, who in regard of their doctrine are made the 
twelve precious stones of the foundation of the new 
Jerusalem, are all the very same precious stones by 
name, excepting fom', and these four' I find intei-preters 
think to be the same as the others, only imder difierent 
names ; for precious stones, either in regard of the 
places where they are fovmd, or then- quality or colour, 
bear various names : so that it is very probable that the 
stones in the Revelation were the same with those in 
Exodus : but there we do not find that they are set ac- 
cording to any dignity in one apostle above another, as 
there was in the setting of the names of the tribes ; for 
the fii'st precious stone to be laid of the foundation of 
the new Jerusalem, of the glorious church that should 
be, is the stone of Benjamin, who was the youngest ; 
and if there might be any myster)' in it, we may think 
it signifies thus much, at least we may thus adapt it by 
■way of allusion, that the Lord will make use of the 
young ones of tliis generation, to open the way for the 
new Jerusalem, before any of the other tribes ; God will 
cuU out them to be the first stone of the foundation of 
that glorious church. In that we find there was not 
such order observed among the apostles as among the 
tribes, we are taught that Cliiist woidd not have us re- 
gard the apostles as superior one to another, and there- 
fore you find they ai'e never named in one unvarying 
order ; in one evangelist they ai-e set do'mi in one order, 
and in another in another, as Matt. x. ; Mark iii. ; 
Luke ix. ; so Acts i. ; noting thereby, that there is no 
superioritj' nor inferioritj- in the ministers of the gospel. 

Upon the ephod there were likewise the Urim and 
Thummim. It is very hard to tell the true signification 
of these ; men liave difi'ered so much about it, that 
it would be tiresome even to enumerate their various 
opinions. Augustine, in his 117th question upon Exod., 
saith, it is hard to discover what tliis Urim and Thum- 
mim was ; and Cajetan declares, that none yet have ever 
Faientur Rabbmi ^^P^f'™^'! it ! ^ud they add, "that even the 
summiun esse ip'ud Rabbins thcmselves sav, the Jews were 
?™?^'oiS;Si'' very ignorant on this point. But most 
probably one of these two, especially the 
latter. Some think that they were stones set in the 
breastplate, which by then- brightness or darkness gave 
an answer to what they demanded of God ; that is, 
when the high priest went to inquii-e of God what was 
to be done in any great and public affairs, he presented 
this breastplate with these stones before tlie Lord, and 
if God would give an affirmative answer, the stones 
gave a more than ordinary brightness and lustre ; but 
if a negative, then the stones were darker than before. 
But we ai-e not certain of this, and may rather conclude, 
on the other hand, that the Urim and Thummim 
(though we know not what matter they were made of, 
no more than we know what manna was made of) were 
somewhat that God gave Moses to put into the breast- 



plate, which by him was appointed as an ordinance, 
and to be presented before the Lord by the priest when 
they would know the mind of God ; and when this was 
presented. God usually gave an answer to the priest, 
either by an audible voice, or by secret inspu-ation ; 
yet not always obliging himself to answer thus, for we 
find that sometimes God did not reply when sought to 
by Urim and Thmnmim, as when Saul thus inquired of 
God no answer was returned. And it seems likely 
Josiah would not have sent only to Huldah the prophet- 
ess, if he might have had an answer by Urim and Thum- 
mim ; but the answer depended on the pleasure of the 
Lord. 

The words Urim and Thummim signify " lights and 
perfections:" some would make them to signify the 
knowledge and integrity of life that should be in minis- 
ters ; but I rather think the meaning is, that they were 
bright, precious stones, perfected and fitted to do that 
for which God appointed them. The Septuagint calls 
them \6yiov, the oracle. Hence, 1 Pet. iv. 11, "Kany 
man speak, let h im speak oig \6yia, as the oracles of 
God." 

Now this must be on the breastplate of the priest, 
which the priest using, the people thereby came to 
know the mind of God. This was to signify' that we 
must look for the mind of God by Christ. It is Christ 
who is come fi-om the Father to reveal his counsels to 
us, and if we expect a revelation of the wiU of God in 
any other way than through him, we are mistaken. 
And further, this Urim and Thummim, this breastplate 
of judgment, was to be on the heart of the high priest, 
and that when he went in before the Lord, Exod. 
xxviii. 30. 

Obs. 1. The answer that any minister of God in the 
name of Clirist should give his people, should be an 
answer from his very heai't, he must speak nothing 
but what it dictates ; when he would answer any case 
of conscience, or make known any thing of the mind of 
God, his answer must proceed from his heart. 

Obs. 2. It must be as in the presence of the Lord, 
as before God ; he must consider in whose place he 
stands, to answer as fi-om God through the great Pro- 
phet of the church. 

To be thi-eatened with the deprivation of the Urim 
and Thummim, seeing it was of so much use to them, is 
a great judgment. And this should be for " many days." 
Josephus saith, that they were without this two hun- 
ihed years before he wrote his Antiquities, that was a 
hun(h-ed and five years before Chiist ; but it appears 
that they had no Urim and Thummim long before that 
time, for at then- return fi-om captivity, Ezi-a ii. 63, " the 
Tii-shatha," that is, the rider, " said unto them, that 
they shoidd not eat of the most holy things tQl there 
stood up a priest -with Urim and with Thummim ;" 
tlierefore they had not then a priest with Urim and 
Thummim, but expected to have one ; whether that 
hope was realized afterwards is not known. This was 
the reason of that giievous complaint of Asaph, Psal. 
Ixxiv. 9, " We see not our signs, there is no more any 
jn-ophet, neither is there any among us that knoweth 
how long." Now it is probable that Psalm was made 
about the very time of their retm-n from captivity, for 
in Ezra ii. 41, Asaph is named among those that came 
to Jerusalem from the captivity ; " The smgers, the 
children of Asaph, an hundred twentj- and eight." But 
let it be then or afterwards, by this Psalm we may find 
that it was very lamentable to be without Urim and 
Thummim. 

Obs. 3. The result of all is, that it is a grievous thing 
to the samts, when in the time of their straits they 
know not God's mind. "When God at any time l^rings 
his people into straits, yet if they can discover the mind 
of then- God, they are refi-eshed and encouraged ; but 
when they shall seek to know God's mind, and the 



192 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. III. 



Lord refuses to declare it to them, this is a sad condi- 
tion indeed. 

About their being without an ephod — Jerome ob- 
ser\'es, That the hardness of the hearts of the Jews is 
very remarkable : that tliey should be so many huntbed 
years without sacrifice and without ephod, without the 
true worship of God among them, or means to know 
his mind ; and yet not guilty of any greater sin than 
the sin of idolatry, except it be the killing of Jesus 
Christ ; is it not surprising that they do not reason 
thus, A^^lat sin is it that thus provokes God against us 
more than ever ? Sm-ely there is some greater sin than 
we have ever yet committed.* But, saith he, they can 
never find any offence, except the killing of Christ, to 
be a greater offence than idolatry, and yet they have a 
heavier judgment on them than ever they had, though 
they are not guilty of that sin as formerly. Sui-ely, were 
they not extremely hardened, they would be convinced 
that all this is because of their rejecting and cniclfying 
Christ the Son of God. 

As they had the ordinances of God, so they had ways 
of false worship of their own, images and teraphim. 
I must shoiv you what those were, and then how it is a 
threatening that they should be without them. 

" Without an image," seems to refer to the two calves 
they had set up in Dan and Bethel, in which they so 
much gloried ; they should be taken away. 

" Teraphim ; " that likewise should be taken away. 
Now if you ask what this teraphim was ? in the 
general, Taraph is a divining image : as the ephod was 
God's ordinance by which to know the mind of God ; 
so the teraphim was an invention of Satan to foretell 
things that were to come.f The teraphim w-as the 
image of the head of a man wrung of!' his body, per- 
fumed by precious spices. Upon this head was a plate 
of gold with the name of that spirit by whom they 
would divine, or, (as some,) put under the tongue of 
this head ; and tliis being set up upon a wall, burning 
candles and incense were offered to it, under some con- 
stellation : \ thus they inquired concerning something 
that was to come. It was an oracle of the devil, that 
told them what success they sliould have in this or 
the other business ; and sometimes it hit right. See 
the superstition of the Jews ; they desired much to 
know the mind of God, but because they were afraid 
they should not know all by the ephod, which was the 
ordinance of God, they would join with the ephod the 
teraphim. 

Obs. It is a very great and fearful evil, when men, 
in searching to know any thing of God's mind, do not 
keep themselves to God's ways of knowledge, to God's 
own ordinances. It concerns us much now at this day. 
A^'e are about inquiring the mind of God, that we may 
know it in matters which regard the commonwealth, 
but more especially concerning religion. I suppose 
there is none of us but will acknowledge, that the me- 
dium which God has ajipointed for the revealing of his 
will, is the Scriptures ; that we must look into them, and 
seek to know God's mind there. So far is good, but let 
us not join teraphim with them. Then do we join tera- 
phim, when we rest not iipon Scripture alone, but 
search after rules of man's devising, and what may con- 
sist with our own carnal ends. The Lord may justly 
meet with us in WTath, if we presume to join our tera- 
phim with his ephod. Pray that at this day, w-here 
there is so much searching after God's mind, that those 
who are employed in it may confine themselves to the 

* Qua? sit causa tarn Rrandis offensae ut tanto tempore relict i 
sunt ? maxime cum itiola non colant, pro-ter intcrfcctioncm 
Salvatoris aliam nnn valent invenire. Hieron. in loc. 

t Qucmadmodum per ephod Deo consecratum quid agendum 
esset consulentibus signiticabattir, ita per teraphim idolorum 
prtcdictiones dcclarabantur. Procop. -in Sam. xv. 23. 

X Mactabant hominem, cujus caput torquendo prxscinde- 



ephod, to the Scriptures, to that which is God's ordi- 
nance for the revealing of his mind, that they may not 
join the teraphim, tlieir own fancies and inventions of 
men, with them. So long as we keep to that rule, we 
may hope to do well enough ; but if the teraphim be 
joined with the ephod, if any thing be joined with the 
Scriptures, though apjiarently never so rational, we 
have cause to fear God will leave us. 

"We find this word teraphim used sometimes in Scrip- 
ture for the image of a man : as 1 Sam. xix. 13, when 
Michal took an image and laid it in the bed instead of 
David, the word in the Hebrew is teraphim : so wlien 
Rachel stole away her father's images, the word is, she 
stole away her father's teraphim ; and some think they 
were her father's divining images, and that she rather 
stole those than any others, because she woidd not have 
her father divine which way they were gone. Zech. x. 
2, it is said, " The idols have spoken vanity ;" the word 
is, the teraphim : by which we may see they were wont 
to consult their idols about their successes. And some- 
times we find in Scripture that idolatiy is called by 
this name, as 1 Sara. xv. 23, " stubbornness is as ini- 
quity and idolatry ;" the word is, is as teraphim. 

But here occurs the question ; God threatens to take 
away the sacrifice and the ephod, and that plauily is a 
threatening, but how is it so to take away the image 
and the teraphim ? 

You may imderstand it as a threatening thus r It is 
as if God would tlu-eaten to bring Israel into as deso- 
late condition as a strumpet is brought mto, when not 
only aU her kindred and true friends leave her, but 
when all her lovers forsake her too, even those who pre- 
tended the most love to her, in whom she took abund- 
ance of comfort, and from whom she expected protec- 
tion ; yet now she is brought into such a concUtion, 
that she sitteth desolate, forlorn, and helpless : so shall 
ye be, saith God, your sacrifice and youi- ephod, yea, 
and teraphim, shall leave you. 

Or rather thus : Howsoever it is a mercy for God to 
take away false worship from a people, images and 
teraphim, yet here it is a threatening, because it would 
much disquiet them to be deprived of these images and 
teraphim, and would be in their apprehension a judg- 
ment : as for instance, what trouble have we when the 
people conceive that any false worship is about to be 
taken away from them ! they think they are undone ; 
nay, when the inventions of men in God's worship are 
but questioned, what excitement is there ! men think 
their gods are taken away ; as Judg. xviii., when the 
children of Dan came to the house of Jlicah and took 
away his ephod and his teraphim, he cried out after 
them, " Ye have taken away the gods that I have 
made, and what have 1 more?" what worse thing 
could you have done more ? I had rather you had 
taken away all I had ; and yet you say unto me, " "WTiat 
aileth thee ? " Is it not so at this day ? WTiat is it that 
now breeds such disturbance in England, but that jico- 
ple think their teraphim shall be taken from them ? 
whereas they have heretofore worsliij)ped God in a false 
way, after the inventions of men, and now he is ])leascd 
to shed some light, and there is an inquiring after a 
right foi-m of church government, and the true manner 
of worshipjjing God, they are even mad at this, and 
would rather lose their lives and their estates, than that 
their tera])him should be taken away : let that be taken 
away, and how shall they be able to pray ? what ! w ill 
you take away Uieir religion ? This is the language of 

bant, quod pnstca sale el aromatibus condiebant, scribebant- 
quc super laminam auream nomen spiritus immundi, qua sup- 
posita eapiti ejus, ponebant illud in pariete incendentes coram 
eo candclas, et adorantes coram co, supnonebant nomen spi- 
ritus immundi sub lingua ipsius, et ille alloquebatur eos. Sic 
R. Eliez. 



Vek. 5. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



193 



men in many ignorant places in this kingdom, yea, the 
very language of many even amongst us here ; they are 
verily persuaded that the parliament intend to abolish 
all religion in the kingdom ; and the adversaries go 
about to infuse into men, that the parliament are a 
company of Brownists, merely because they anxiously 
inquire after the true way of -n-orshipping God, and 
•n-Quld have the land purged of all superstitious vanities : 
thus people cry out for theu- teraphim : " Great is Diana 
of the Ephesians." When King Edward the Sixth 
had but banished the mass, an army rose in Devon- 
shii-e, and sent several articles to the king about their 
grievances, as causes of their rising. First, they said 
that their children were denied baptism : and as they 
now cry out that none but a company of Anabaptists 
do all this ; so then the popish priests infused into the 
people of those remote counties, that they were to 
have no more children baptized, thinking this would 
exasperate them then against king and parliament. 
And secondly, they complained that their service, 
meaning the mass, was taken from them. King Ed- 
ward was fain to write, to tell them that they were ex- 
ceedingly abused, that they should still enjoy what was 
according to the word of God, that their children should 
be baptized ; and as for the mass, that the Common 
Prayer Book was just the same, only whereas it was in 
Latin before, it was now turned into English : and so 
he quieted and satisfied the people. Thus it comes to 
be a threatening, that God will take away their image 
and teraphim, because the hearts of people are so vex- 
ed when theu' forms of superstition are abolished. 

Now upon this confusion, when they are without 
king, prince, sacrifice, ephod, image, and teraphim, what 
shall be the result ? 

Ver. 5. Afterward shall the children of Israel return, 
and seek the Lord their God, a7id David llteir king ; and 
shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days. 

A little before God's time is come to raise the most 
glorious church that ever existed in the world, the 
greatest confusion is likely to arise. Lac- 
■•'''■ ■a,"''il*- -*' tantius tells us, that just before the glo- 
rious church, all right shall be confound- 
ed, laws shall perish, men shall possess all things by 
force, good men shall be scorned and contemned ; and 
though, in the times in which we live, one would think 
that wickedness had reached its highest, yet, in com- 
parison of those evil dajs that shall hap])en just before 
this glorious time, these maybe called the golden age. 
God will reduce all to a chaos first, as he did in the 
fii'st creation, and then bring out of it a glorious build- 
ing. We know the raising of that glorious church of 
which so much is prophesied, is called a creation, '• a 
creating a new heaven and a new earth ;" and it is pro- 
bable enough, that as the heavens and the earth were 
first made out of a chaos, so those " new heavens and 
new earth " will be raised out of a chaos, out of that 
which seems to us to be but confusion. Of what do 
people complain at this day but of confusion? All things, 
they say, are brought into confusion. It is true, confu- 
sion is an evil thing, and we are to grieve for it, and to 
seek to prevent it; yet let us not be too much troubled, 
for you see, when the greatest confusion comes on the 
people of the Jews, then follows the greatest mercy, 
then they shall " return, and seek the Lord their God":" 
never return before that time. Indeed, till men be 
taken off from all others they will not return to God. 
AVhen Saul had but a witch to whom he could go, he 
would rather have recourse to her than seek the face of 
God in repentance. Because God seems to leave us 
for the present, and suffers us to be in confusion, and 
we know not what to do, let not our hearts be disquiet- 
ed, let us not reciu- to unlawful means; for mark, it 



was just a little before Saul was to be destroyed that he 
had attained that height in evil. There was a time that 
Saul inquired after God's mind, and God refused to an- 
swer him, but yet he would not then adopt such an un- 
lawful course, but searched to see what sin was amongst 
the people that caused God to refuse him an answer. 
When Jonathan took the honey, '• Saul asked counsel 
of God, but he answered him not that day. And Saul 
said. Draw ye near hither, and see wherein this sin hath 
been this day," 1 Sam. xiv. 3T, 38 : but afterward he 
became so evil, that when he was in a strait, and God 
answered him not, he forthwith went to the witch ; but 
this was when he was near destruction. 

Ohs. 1. Wicked men near destruction, (as Saul was,) 
finding things in confusion, and God not showing them 
what is to be done, are soon in a rage against God, and 
seek after unlawful means to deliver themselves. Tlie 
Lord forbid that this should be our condition. Let not 
us say. Things are now in such disorder that we cannot 
discover the mind of God ; we consult ministers, and they 
know not what to say ; they have cast out one govern- 
ment, and they know not what to bring in ; and therefore 
it were better we were as before. If this be our reason- 
ing, it is a sign that we are, like Said, nigh to destruc- 
tion. Let us be content to wait ; they shall be " many- 
days without a king," kc, and " then they shall re- 
turn ;" the fruit of then- being without king, and prince, 
and ephod, and sacrifice, shall not be vexation and dis- 
quiet, but a returning to God and repentance. If 
things be worse, and we be brought into greater straits 
than ever we supposed, let us not murmur, but let us 
repent. Every one is complaining, but who is repent- 
ing ? if there were as much repenting as there is mui'- 
muring, then we should soon know the mind of God. 

Ohs. 2. The use of sanctified affliction is to cause re- 
turning to God : " Then they shall return." Jerome 
expresses the life of an impenitent sinner by a line 
stretched out, he goes from the centre in a right line, 
and so goes in infinitum from it ; but a penitent sinner 
is like a line bent, and turning back to the centre, 
though by sin he goes from it, yet by repentance he 
turns to it again : They are gone from me a great way, 
saith God, but I will turn them, they shall bend back 
again and return to me. 

Obs. 3. Repentance is described by the word " re- 
turn," to denote the folly of sin. In sin thou goest out 
of the way, and the truth is, though you think you 
choose a good path for yourself, yet you must either 
return or perish. It is just like a traveller, who sees a 
dii-ty lane before him, and is told that is the way he 
must go ; but on the other side of the hedge there is a 
green and pleasant path, and he gets over into it, and so 
rides on a mile or two, till at length he is compassed 
about with ditches and rivers, so that he must either 
turn back or else lie there and perish ; he returns with 
shame, and if any one that before told him of the 
other way see him, he now reproaches him with his 
folly. So it is with sinners ; there are ways of God 
that lead directly to heaven, but because these ways are 
rugged, and they meet with trouble and persecution in 
them, and they see by-paths, though leading to hell, yet 
more plain and smooth, they will transgi'ess, (for that 
is the word for sin,) will pass over, and for a while, in 
this their w-ay, enjoy pleasure : but, friend, you must 
come back again, and if ever you mean to be saved, you 
must go in the way that you have refused. i 

Obs. 4. Here is an encouragement for old sinner?. \ 
" They shall return, and seek the Lord their God." The 
Jews have been above sixteen hundred years in this 
woeful condition, forsaking God ; but in their latter 
days they shall return, and seek the Lord, and God shall 
be'merciful to tliem. Hast thou been forty, fifty, sixty 
years going from God ? there is hope for thy soul : O 
return, return, ye old sinners. 



194 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. III. 



But further, they shall rettim to " Jehovah," and seek 
him. Jer. iv. 1, "If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith 
the Lord, return unto me." They shall not turn from 
one false way of worship to another, but from the false 
way to the true, they shall retiuTi to God. It is that 
we now should look to. We must not think it enough 
to cast one false mode of government out of the church, 
and turn to another, though not so bad, yet not God's 
mode ; if from any carnal policy we reject the way of 
God, it will prove a sore e^^l to us : it is one thing not 
to be able to bring in the way of Christ, another to re- 
ject it. 

Tliey shall seek Jehovah. The word " seek " signifies, 
conalu ac studio qutsrere, to seek with endcavouiing 
and study, rather than merely to ask and inquire ; they 
shall be studious in seeking after God. They " shall 
seek the Lord," that is. 

First, They shall seek his face and favour for the par- 
don of all theu' evil ways ; they shall come and acknow- 
ledge their false ways and doings, and seek mercy to 
pardon. 

Secondly, They shall seek the trae worship of the 
Lord. Calvin, in a sermon on " Seek ye my face," in- 
terprets it to be a seeking of the ordinances and the 
ti-ue worship of God. So IPsal. cv. 4, " Seek tlie Lord, 
and his strength : " what is meant by the strength of 
God there ? It is the ark, for that Psalm was made at 
the bringing of the ark into the place which David had 
prepared, as you may see by comparing with 1 Chron. 
xvi. where tlie ark of God is called the sti-ength of God, 
and Psal. Ixxviii. 61, He gave " his strength into cap- 
tivity." Sui-ely, if the true worship of God be the 
sti'ength of God, it is oiu- sti-ength too : a people are 
then strong when they entertain the ark of God, the 
true worship of God ; and then indeed we seek God 
aright, when we seek to know the way of his worship. 

Lastly, They shall seek to know his will in all their 
ways, and to do it. 

Obi: It is not enough for them to be content to do just 
that which he has commanded, but they shall seek to 
know his mind, and what his worship requires. Some 
yield thus far to God, if any com-ince them that this 
should be done, then they will do it, they dare not then 
but comply ; but when the heart is in a ti'ue repenting 
frame, it is in a seeking frame, it is laborious and in- 
dustrious to know the mind of God. AVTiercas the 
heart of a sinner heretofore lay dead and dull, never 
stirred after God, now it is in a stiiTing, in an inquiring 
way ; which is a sign of much good. Though thou hast 
not what thou seekest for, yet be comforted in this, tliat 
thou art seeking ; " Their heai-ts shall rejoice that seek 
the Lord." Though thou complainest, I have been 
seeking a long time, but I know not the mind of God, 
I cannot apprehend the love of God, and the pardon of 
my sins : True, but the hearts of those " shall rejoice 
that seek the Lord;" if thou art in a seeking way,thou 
art in a saving way, there is cause thou shouldst rejoice 
in this, that God has led thee thus far. 

They " shall seek the Lord," and that not faintly, but 
anxiously and effectually. Jer. 1. 4, 5, They, " the chil- 
dren of Israel, and the children of Judah," when they 
shall be together, " shall go weeping, and seek tlie Lord 
theu- God ; and they shall ask the way to Zion with 
their faces thitherward." Many of youask questions, 
but your hearts are not right, your faces and the strength 
of your sjjirits are not set to yield to the will of God 
when it is revealed to you. And mai-k how it appears 
that their faces are thitherward, " Come," (say they,) 
" and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual 
covenant that shall not be forgotten." To seek God, 
is not merely to go to a minister and ask him a ques- 
tion, l)ut to go with the strength of our spirits set to 
know the mind of God above all things, and so to re- 
solve to obey, as to be willing to enter mto a perpetual 



covenant, to bind ourselves to jield to whatever God 
shall reveal. AVhen you come to a sermon, come not 
to get a little notional knowledge, but with your faces 
toward Christ and his truth previously ; if you be a true 
seeker, enter into covenant witli God, that to whatever 
God reveals to be his mind you wUl yield ; and though 
you have heretofore opposed many revealed truths, say, 
Lord, here I am, ready and willing to enter into an ever- 
lasting covenant to be under the command of every 
truth. This is seeking God aright. 

They " shall seek the Lord their God." This " their 
God" has two references, either to what is past, or to 
what is to come. To what is past ; " their God," that 
is, the God who was once the God of the Jews, the God 
of their forefathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and 
of Jacob. And secondly, " their God," that is, that God 
who is yet ready and willing to be reconciled to them, 
notwithstanding all thek sins. Thus they " shall seek 
the Lord their God." 

Obs. 1. It prevails much with the heart of a backslider, 
to think what God was once to him before he apostatized, 
and what he was to his gocUy parents and progenitors. 
There was a time that I enjoyed God sweetly, when I 
went to prayer I had blessed communion with him ; it is 
othei-wise \vith me now, I have apostatized. Let this con- 
sidei'ation catch hold on thy heait and turn it this day : 
O turn, turn, thou apostate sou! ; God, who was once 
thy God in a gi'acious manner, is the same that thou 
hast vilely forsaken, yea, thy father's God also. Thou 
hadst a godly father, a godly grandfather ; remember 
what a blessed God he was unto them, and return. 

06s. 2. The apprehension of a possibility to obtain 
mercy from the Lord, is a strong means to draw the 
heart to retui-n to him. '• Their God," the God whom 
they may yet hope to enjoy, notwithstanding all their 
departings from him. MTien they look on God as a 
God in covenant with them still, there is nothing to pre- 
vent his yet becomin"; their God. Let this argument 
arrest the spirits of all sinners who have departed from 
God. Backslider, thou hast departed from God in 
a foul and vile manner, but men and angels know no- 
thing to the contrary but that he may be thy God for 
all this. Let me speak to the vilest sinner in this place 
before the Lord this day. Thou hast indeed most despe- 
rately and wickedly sinned against God ; the Jews have 
done so. Hast thou crucified Christ ? they have done 
so. Hast thou denied the truth and followed false ways ? 
tliey have done so. Notwithstanding all thy wicked and 
evil ways, seeing thou art yet alive. I do this day yet 
once more pronounce to thee in the name of the great 
God, that there is nothing to the contraiy, that either 
angels or men can possibly know, but that God may be 
thy God, and that this day God may enter into cove- 
nant with thee, and thou with him ; this night he may 
come in and sup with thee, and thou with him ; there 
may be a blessed reconciliation between God and thee ; 
return, return, thou sinful soul. ■ 

"And David their king." That the ' 

Jews shall retm-n and belieVc in Christ, is JSlZ>'"cS!i'uS!; \ 
most ordinarily spoken and believed by Srmonibua™ cSdS i 
the faithful, saith Augustine. In this their ^""'jj; fiJeUum. . 
return and seeking God, they "shall seek "^ 
David their king." 

For the explanation of this, there are five things to 
be inquired into. 

1. Who tills David was. 

2. Why David is named rather than any other. 

3. Why he is mentioned in tliis place. 

4. ^Tiy joined with seeking of Jehovah. 

5. AVhy this epithet is added to David here, " David 
their king." 

First, 13y " David " is evidently meant Jesus Christ. 
Nothing is more manifest than that Christ Nihu «i in w. v^ 
is meant by the name of Datid, saith ^,'^ iSJa'",!): 



Vee. . 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



195 



nomine significatus Augustine. The Scriptui'e is explicit on 
iif ^rS.^'ut. this, in the New Testament caUing Christ 
'*■ =■ ^*- by the name of David. Compare Isa. 

Iv. 3, Tvith Acts xiii. 34.- Isaiah saith, " I will give you 
the sure mercies of David." "\^^lat are they ? In Acts 
xiii., where that place of Isaiah is quoted, the words are 
TO. oaia Aajii?, the holy things of David ; the Holy Ghost 
there adopting the translation of the Septuagint,_ as is 
usual in the Xew Testament. And Psal. xvi. 10, 
where David seems to spealc in his own person, " Thou 
wilt not leave my soul in hell ; ueitlier wilt thou suffer 
thine Holy One to see corruption ; '' is appUed to Christ, 
Acts xiii. 36, 37. And Acts xv. 16, in the assembly of 
the church of Jerusalem, James, in his speech to the 
assembly, tells them of a prophecy that God would " re- 
turn and build again the tabernacle of Da\-id," that is, 
convert the Gentiles to the profession of Chi-ist. But 
you will say. Is this quoted right? for it was James's in- 
tention in the assembly (and it concerns all in such a 
grave assembly) to speak to the point ; but how does 
James so here ? The question at issue was, the caUing of 
the Gentiles, and he proves it by that scripture where 
it is said, that God would " build again the tabernacle 
of David ; " but how does that prove that God would 
call the Gentiles ? You may see, if you examine the 
prophecy whence this was quoted, that this text was 
most appropriate; it is in Amos ix. 11, 12, where, after 
he had said that he would " build again the tabernacle 
of David," there follows, " that they may possess the 
remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are 
called by my name." So that the tabernacle of David is 
indeed the tabernacle of Clu-ist, and it shall be raised 
to this end, that ho may possess the remnant of Edom, 
and of aU the Gentiles that were to be called by the 
name of God. David is Christ because he was liis type, 
and Christ was the seed of David. 

Secondly, 'Why David is named rather than any 
other, rather than Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob ; others 
were tj^es of Christ as well as he, and Christ was their 
seed as well as David's. The reason is, because David 
tj-pified Christ, especially in his kingly power over his 
own people, David was the first godly king over God's own 
people. Melchisedecwasaking,king of Salem; but over 
the people of God David was the fust tj-]]e of -Christ. 

Thirdly, '\Vhy he is mentioned in this place, why the 
Holy Ghost adds to seeking the Lord, that they shall 
" seek David ? " Was it not enough if the Holy Ghost 
had said, TVTien the ten tribes of Israel (for he speaks 
of them especially) shall retm-n they shall " seek the 
Lord" and the Messiah, but that they shall " seek the 
Lord and David." The reason is, the expression is 
introduced to remind these tribes of then- great sin in 
revolting from the house of David ; when they shall re- 
pent, this will lie near then- hearts, they will moiu'n for 
this their transgression, and when they choose Christ to 
be their King, shall do it under the name of David ; as 
if they should say. We mdeed have cast off the house 
of David sinfiilly, but we now come and choose the Son 
of David to be our King. Thereby reminding us that, 

Obs. Ti'ue penitents, in mourning for their sin and 
returning to God, will go as far as possible to the foot 
of their transgressions, to theii- first defection, and mourn 
for that, and labour with all diligence to refomi in that 
very thing wherein originated their sin. 

Fourthly, V^iy joined with seeking the Lord ; " they 
shall seek Jehovah, and David then- lung." It is add- 
ed to show us, that none can seek God rightly but 
through Christ, they must seek God in Christ. "This 
is Mfe eternal, to know thee, and Jesus Christ whom 
thou hast sent : " to know God alone is not eternal life, 
but to know God and his Son ; so to seek God alone is 
not eternal life, nor will it ever bring to eternal life, 
except there be a seeking of God in Christ, seeking 
Jehovah and David con'oivitJv Grace from God the 



Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ must go to- 
gether : no grace from God the Father, but from him 
through Christ; so no seeking of God the Father, Je- 
hovah, but it must be with seeking of David likewise. 
It is not only dangerous, but terrible, to ^on solum pcii- 
tliink of God without Christ; the very ^.-gS'™; d^Dc"' 
thought of him out of Christ is most 5,'.;^^-'^''j;;;',;;'" "^ 
tbeadful to the hearts of those who know ^ ''"' 
God. There are some indeed who have bold, pre- 
sumptuous hearts, who will go into God's presence 
though reeking in the very guilt of their lately-com- 
mitted sins, and seek to Clod for mercy, and never 
think of Christ the IMediator ; they understand not the 
necessity of seeking God in Christ, because indeed they 
know not with what a God they have to deal ; but the 
soul that knows what God is, dai-es not think of God, 
much less come into his presence and seek him, but 
only through Christ. Plutarch, in the Life of Themis- 
tocles, relates. That when the Molossians would seek 
the favoiu- of the prince, they were wont to take the 
king's son in their arms, and so go and kneel before 
his altar m his chapel ; and that Themistocles did so 
when he sought the favour of King Admetus. So 
Cluistians, in 'seeking the face of God the great King, 
should take up his Son in the arms of 

„., ^ ^ 1^ -r»i 1 Ego sxpB et ulien- 

faith. Luther, on Psal. cxxx., observes, ter hoc inaaco, ut 
Often and willingly do I inculcate this, fc5rt*iuV."cS°.™' 
that you should shut your eyes and your J|;'^"„^ Jis\"!re 
ears, and say you know no God out of ?""°'JJi'J'j'}5JJ |^' 
Christ, none but he that was in the lap of rts^u1™beraejus. 
Maty, and sucked her breasts ; he means, ^''"""■• 
none out of him. We must not, we should not, dare to 
look upon God but through Christ, and seek him to- 
gether with David. 

This is the evangelical way of seeldng God ; when 
we have sinned, if there be any way of help, it must 
be by seekuig a merciful God ; thus far nature goes, and 
most people go no farther ; yea, most Cluistians, though 
they have the name of Cluist in then- mouths, yet 
their hearts go no farther than natural principles carry 
them. But the seeking God in Christ, is the true sphit- 
ual and evangelical way, " the mystery of godliness," 
to present a Mediator to God every time we come into 
his presence. I fear that many of our prayers are lost 
for want of tliis. There is much fasting and prayer, 
tlu-ough God's mercy, amongst us, and I would to God 
there were no abatement ; but though we ask. Will God 
leave his people when there is such a spirit of prayer ? 
let us know, if it be not a seeking God in his Son, it is 
om- own spuits rather than the Spirit of God. We 
may be earnest in prayer and cry mightily to God, yet 
if we take not up his Son in the "arms of faith, and pre- 
sent him to the Father, thousands of prayers and fast- 
ing days may be all lost for want of this. The trath 
is, we must not depend so much on our prayers, though 
we are to rejoice and to bless God that there is so much 
prayer ; but God's dealings towards us seem as if he 
would take us off, not from the practice of prayer, but 
from relying on it, to rely upon free grace in Christ 
alone. As this is the supernatural seeking of God, so it 
is the most powerfid. It is not enoughto seek God by 
vu-tue of a promise, except we seek him by vii'tue of 
Christ, who is the foundation of all the promises. We 
seek him because he is merciful, that is one way ; yea, 
we seek him because he has promised mercy, this is a 
step higher ; but we must go higher yet, we must look 
to his Son, in whom all the promises are Yea and Amen ; 
otherwise, though we seek him never so earnestly, 
though we challenge his promises, and cry to him to 
remember them, yet if we do not act our faith on his 
Son, we may altogether fail. _ 

And herein we sanctifj- that great name oi God m 
that which is his gi-eat work, his master-piece, as we 
may say, or the gi-eat design he has to honour himself 



196 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. HI. 



by in the world here, and everlastingly hereafter. Cer- 
tainly, though God has made the creature for his own 
glory, and expects we shoidd honour his image in it ; 
yet the great uesign God has to honour himself in and 
by is, that the children of men may behold this his glory 
as manifested in his Son, and reflect it on his own face; 
except you glorify God in this, he cares not much for 
whatever other glory you can give liim. 

AATien you seek God, you must not, therefore, expect 
good things from him merely because he is merciful, 
you must not think tliat the mercy of God serves to 
eke'out our righteousness. Perhaps some will say. It 
is true, we are poor sinful creatures, and what can we 
expect from God, being sinful ? but we hope that the 
mercy of God will pardon our sin, and so accept of our 
poor services. This is the way with most, they, as it 
were, employ God's mercy in a work that God never 
intended it for, that is, they would make the mercy of 
God to eke out their own righteousness, that so both 
joined together might serve as a means of atonement. 
No, you mistake God's mercy ; the work of God's mer- 
cy is not this, but it is to show us our unrighteousness, 
our misery, our uncleanncss, to show us Jesus Christ, 
to cb'aw our hearts to him, to empty us of ourselves 
that we may wholly rely upon that rigliteousness that 
is bv faith in him, and jirosent that to the Father for 
sanctiiication and atonement : this is the work of God's 
mercy, and when it thus works, then it has its true, 
genuine effect. 

Fifthly, Why this epithet is added to David, " David 
thcii- king." 'True, we must seek the Lord and Christ, 
but why Christ the King ? Because Christ in the latter 
days shall be fully honoured in his kingly power ; they 
shall look upon him not only as Prophet and Priest, 
but as King. Hitherto Christ has been much honoui'- 
ed in his prophetical and priestly office, but not so 
much in his kingly ; but in the latter days, when God 
shall call home his people, (the Jews,) then Christ 
shall be fully honoured in his kingly office. The taber- 
nacle of Christ was raised in the primitive times, ac- 
cording to that speech of St. James, Acts xv. 16, "God 
shall build up again the tabernacle of David," he speaks 
of its accomplisliment then ; but there is a time when 
God shall not only raise the tabernacle of David, but 
the throne of David ; Christ the King shall appear in 
glory. Ezek. xxxvii. 24, 25, " And i)avid my servant 
shali be king over them ;" it was spoken on the union 
that should take ])lacc between Judaii and Israel, then 
" David my servant shall be king over them." David 
was long dead, but there is a time when David must 
again be king, that is, Christ shall reign on the union 
of all the tribes together. And again, the text adds, 
" David sliall be their ])rincc for ever ;" when they are 
brought back into their own land : surely this pro- 
phecy is yet to be fulfilled. And Luke i. 32, 33, " The 
Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father 
David : and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for 
ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." I 
know we usually think that this is meant only of his 
sjjiritual reign, but certainly there is to be a fulfilling 
of this prophecy in a reign that shall a])])car outward- 
ly before the children of men. This o])inion gathers 
strength liy comparing this witli other passages. Kev. 
xi. 15, "'The kingdoms of this world are become the 
kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ ; and he shall 
reign for ever and ever." In a spiritual sense the king- 
doms of this world are always the kingdoms of the 
Lord and of his Christ, but a time is here spoken of, 
when the kingdoms of this world shall manifestly ap- 
pear to be the Lord's and his Christ's, and then " he 
shall reign for ever and ever." Kev. iii. 21, "'I'o liim 
that ovcrcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, 
even as I also overcame, and am set down witli my 
Father in his throne." Mark this text, as one of the 



most remarkable we have. Thai kingly lule which 
Christ has for the present, is on his Father's throne ; 
he is not yet on his own, but reigns conj[ointly with the 
Father; but there is a time in which Cmist will have a 
throne himself 

Now you will perha])s tliink that that throne of Christ 
is in heaven at the day of judgment ; but we find, 
1 Cor. XV. 24, that at that day he comes to resign tlie 
kingdom : the words do not seem to import that be 
came to take it, but to gi\ e up the kingdom unto God the 
Father ; therefore there is a time for Christ himself to 
have a throne, and with him the saints shall reign. 
!Matt. xxi. 9, the childien cried out, " Hosanna to the 
Son of David," because they looked upon the Son of 
David as one who was to reign. 

In these "latter days" Christ shall break the kings 
of the earth who stand against him, a.s, indeed, many, 
yea, most of the kings of the earth have ever stood out 
to hinder this his kingdom. There will be a mighty 
shaking of the kingdoms of the earth when this shall 
be : " Whose voice then shook the earth : but now he 
hath jiromised, saying. Yet once more I shake not the 
earth oidy, but also heaven ;" quoted in Heb. xii. 26, 
out of Hag. ii. (5, 7. God, in giving the law, shook the 
earth, but then he will shake the earth, and the heavens, 
which some interpreters expound thus : not only the 
power of the meaner people, but that of the highest 
kings and emperors, and whatever is lofty in the world, 
sliall be shaken when Clu'ist comes to take the king- 
dom to himself; the Father wUl set him King upon 
his holy hill. Though " the kings of the earth set 
themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against 
the Lord, and against his Anointed, saying. Let us break 
their bands asunder, and cast away then- cords from us ; 
he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh : the Lord 
shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto 
them in his wrath, and vex them in liis sore displeasure. 
Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion :" 
"yet" have I done" it, though the lungs of the earth and 
great ones of the world fret, and vex, and rage, and col- 
lect their might ; though they blaspheme, and say he 
shall not reign, the Lord sitteth in heaven and laughs 
at them ; let them do what they can, and gather what 
strength they can, and oppose it to the uttermost, " yet 
have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion." 

Tills is acceptable news, it is the joyful voice of the 
gospel, to tell you of Christ's coming to reign in the 
wond. Isa. Iii. 7, " How beautiful upon the mountains 
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings !" '\\'hat 
arc those "good tidings?" those that say unto Zion, 
" Thy God leigneth." This, indeed, is the triumph 
of the church. Isa. xxxiii. 22, " The Lord is our judge, 
the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king ;" for 
then shall tlie churches be delivered from the oppression 
of all tyrants in the world. 

And this kingdom of Christ shall indeed be like Da- 
vid's kingdom j Christ shall be " David their king." I 
might show you many pai'alleLs, but I will only instance 
these two: 

Fust, David was one of the most gentle of princes, 
and exceedingly loving and kind to his subjects: 
1 Chron. xxviii. 2, " Then David the king stood up upon 
his feet, and said. Hear me, my bretliren, and my peo- 
I)lc." Mark how be, a king, speaking to his jieople, 
addresses them ; he stood upon his feet, and said, " Hear 
me, my brethren, and my jieople." Tlius the king- 
dom of Christ is declared to us, Psal. xlv. 4, " In thy 
majesty ride ]>ros])crously, because of truth and meek- 
ness." Christ shall be a most meek king ; not a king 
of blood, ruling «itli violence and harshness, so as not 
to care for the love of Ids people, making his finger 
heavier than the loins of others; but he shall rule his 
people with all gentleness. Therefore the government of 
Clirist is expressed by " a ^epherd gently leading those 



Vek. 5. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



197 



that are with young ; '" and in this David and Christ 
are alike : Psal. Ixxviii. 70, 71, " He chose David also 
his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds : from 
following the ewes great with young, he brought him to 
feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance." So 
Isa. xl., having spoken of the glad tidings of Christ's 
kingdom, adds, " lie shall feed his flock like a shepherd ; 
he shall gather the lambs with his ami, and carry them 
in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with 
young." AVhen Christ shall reign, he shall have great 
respect to the good and comfort of his people, he shall 
not disregard their liberties, but their benefit and his 
own glory shall be blended in one. 

Secondly, " Band their king," in regard of faithful- 
ness. David was very faithful to his people, and there- 
fore the mercies of God in Christ are called " the sure 
mercies of David," because " David was found faithful 
before the Lord." In Psal. xlv. 4, a prophecy of Christ's 
kingdom, the text saith, " In thy majesty ride prosper- 
ously, because of truth, and meekness, and righteous- 
ness:" there shall be righteousness in the kingdom of 
Christ. It is a blessed thing when we may confide and 
fully ventiu'e our estates, our liberties, and our lives on 
the promises of those who are above us. We know 
how many there are about great personages to draw 
them from things that they have promised with the ut- 
most seriousness, and most solemn protestations to per- 
form. I will give you one or two remarkable instances 
of this. King Edward the Sixth sends letters to Lon- 
don in the behalf of the duke of Somerset, the then 
protector ; many of the lords had risen up against him, 
thinking he o])pressed the peojile, and they sent at the 
same time to London for aid and assistance. On this 
there was a common council called in the city, and 
amongst them a wise and an honest man, one George 
Stadlowe, addressed the council thus ; I remember 
a story in Fabian's Chronicle, of the wars between 
Henry the Third and his barons ; the barons then de- 
manded aid of the city of London, as our lords do now, 
and that in a rightful cause, for the good of the com- 
monwealth, for the execution of divers good laws which 
the king would not sufl'er to be enforced; and the city 
did aid theni, and an open battle ensued, and the 
lords prevailing, took the king and his son prisoners. 
The lords afterwards restored the king and his son to 
their freedom, on certain conditions, amongst which tliis 
was one, that the king should not only grant his pardon 
to the lords, but also to the citizens of London ; and the 
conditions of this accommodation of peace were ratified 
by act of parliament ; but what followed ? was it for- 
gotten ? no, surely, nor forgiven neither, during the 
king's life : the liberties of the city were taken away, 
strangers appointed to be our head and governors, the 
persons and goods of the citizens endangered, and one 
persecution succeeded another. Again, in the history 
of Queen Mary's time we find, that because there was 
some dispute about her coming to the crown, she went 
to Sufiblk, to the place where the duke that then rose 
up for another was most hated ; and being at Fram- 
lingham castle, the Suff'olk men came to her and pro- 
mised their aid, on condition that she would not at- 
tempt the alteration of religion, which her brother King 
Edward had just established : she promised them there 
should be no innovation in religion, no, God forbid, yea, 
she promised it so solemnly that no one would or could 
doubt the performance ; but afterward, when she got the 
power into her hand, the Sufiblk men came to make 
supplication to her, that she would be pleased to per- 
form the jjromise she made them, and she replied thus : 
Forasmuch as you, being but members, desire to rule 
your head, you fhall one day be made sensible that 
members must obey their head, and not expect to bear 
rule over the same. And not only so. but to cause the 
more terror, one Master Dobs, a gentleman that lived neai- 



Windsor, who presumed in a humble adtU'css merely 
to remind her of her promise made to the Suffolk men, 
was three times set in the pillory, and others for the 
same cause sent to prison. We may see what hold 
heretofore promises have had on those who had the 
power to break them, and what temptations they have 
to withdraw then- hearts from the fulfilment of their 
engagements. But when this om- Prince comes, David 
our King, we shall find " the sm-e mercies of David," 
we shall find nothing but faithfulness in all his dealings. 

" And shaU fear the Lord and his goodness in the 
latter days." 

" Shall fear the Lord." The words are, shall fear lo 
the hord, pavebuni ad Dominum. The fear of God is 
much upon the heart of a sinner in his return to God. 
Such a sinner has higli and honourable thoughts of God. 
They shall return, and fear the Lord. The unthinldng 
vanity of his spu'it, the boldness of his heart, are gone, 
and the fear of God rides in it. The majesty, the 
power, the authority of the great God are strongly im- 
pressed on him ; when he comes to worship, the fear of 
God makes him worship God as God, it abides with 
him even all the day long, you may see written on his 
life the fear of the great God. And this not a servile, 
slavish fear, but a holy, reverential, filial fear. Isaac 
had such a fear of God, that from it God is called '• the 
fear of Isaac." This is a most precious fear : others fear 
poverty, imprisonment, disgrace, their fellow men ; but, 
saith a true repenting heart, " I fear the Lord : " this 
fear is the well-spring of life to him, it is the very 
treasure of his soul, Isa. xxxiii. 6. 

I shall speak of the fear of God here only as it con- 
cerns this place. It is introduced here, to show that when 
this glorious church shall be formed, when God shall 
call home his own people the Jews, and bring in the ful- 
ness of the Gentiles, then shall the fear of God mightily 
prevail upon the hearts of people ; and the greater God's 
goodness shall be, the more shall the fear of God be on 
their hearts. It is remarkable, that almost all the pro- 
phecies which speak of the glorious condition of the 
church, ever make mention of the fear of God that 
should rest then on the hearts of the people. One 
would rather think there should be a reference to the 
joy they would have, and that there should be nothing 
but mirth and triumph in those times ; but the Scrip- 
ture speaks much of fear that shall be then, and more 
then than at any other time. Thus in Rev. xi. 18, a 
most remarkable prophecy of Christ's coming, and taking 
the kingdoms of the earth, and bringing his reward with 
him, it is said, he shall come and give a reward to those 
that fear him. And Rev. xiv. 6, 7, " I saw another 
angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting 
gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, 
saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to 
him." Mark an angel when he comes to preach the 
everlasting gospel, how does he preach it? what, Cast now 
away fear and rejoice in this everlasting gospel ? No, 
preaching this everlasting gospel, he saith with a loud 
voice, " Fear God and give glory to him." So Rev. xv. 
3. 4, contains the song of the saints when they are deliver- 
ed from the power of antichrist, and what saith it, Rejoice 
and be glad ? No ; " Great and marvellous are thy works. 
Lord God Almighty ; just and true are thy ways, thou 
King of saints. Who shall not fear thee. O Lord, and 
gloriiy thy name ? for thou only art holy : for all nations 
shall come and worship before'thee : for thy judgments 
are made manifest." And again, Rev. xix. 5, " And a voice 
came out of the throne, saying. Praise our God. all ye 
his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great." 

But why fear the Lord in these times ? 

For these four reasons. 

First, Because of the glory of Christ their King. 
They shall behold their King in glory that shall cause 
fear. Rev. xix. 12, 13, 15, 16, Christ is described with 



198 



AK EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. m. 



his " eyes as a flame of fire, and on liis liead many 
crowns ; and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in 
blood ; and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, and 
he hath on his vestm-e and on his thigh a name written, 
King of kings, and Lord of lords." Thus they shall 
behold Christ, and therefore they shall fear. 

Secondly, Because of the great works of God that 
shall then take place ; " the heavens shall depart like a 
scroll, and the elements melt with fervent heat." This 
is meant of the time when there shall be " new heavens 
and a new earth," and refers to the prophecy of Isaiah, 
and apparently, and so interpreters generally explain 
it, regards the state of the church. Heb. xii. 26, quoted 
out of Ilag. ii. 6, " AATiose voice then shook the earth, 
but now he hath promised, saying. Yet once more, I 
shake not the earth only, but also heaven." There 
shall be wonderful works of God in the earth when 
those days come, therefore there shall be much of the 
fear of God. 

Thirdly, Because the holiness and purity of the wor- 
ship of God, and of his ordinances, shall cause fear. 
Did we see the ordinances in their true and native pu- 
ritj' and holiness, it would inspire us with much awe. 
Some have but seen the execution of thai one ordinance 
of excommunication solemnly performed, and it has 
daunted their spirits, and struck awe mto the most proud, 
profane, stubborn, and wicked heai-ts ; the beholding, 
tlien, of all the ordinances, and all duties of worship, in 
tkeir native purity, holiness, and glory, cannot but 
cause much fear. Psal. l.wiii. So, "O God, thou art ter- 
I'ible out of thy holy places :" God will be ten-ible out 
of his holy places and out of all his holy ordinances. 

Fourthly, Because the holiness of the saints, appear- 
ing brightly in their very faces and conversations, shall 
strike great fear. " Holy and reverend is thy name," 
is said of God, and so it .shall be said of the saints in 
that day ; their gi'aces shall be much exalted, they shall 
sparkle with abundance of the gi-aces of God's Spirit 
resting on them ; theu- wisdom and holiness shaU make 
their faces shine, "holy and reverend shall be their 
names." Psal. Ixxxix. 7, " God is greatly to be feared 
in the assembly of the saints ;" saints who walk close 
with him have a majesty in tlieh appearance which ap- 
pals guilty consciences. I appeal to apostates, to ])ro- 
lessors who frequent secret haunts of wickedness ; when 
you come but into the presence of one who is a truly 
gracious and godly person, whom your conscience tells 
you walks close with God, does not even the veiy sight 
of such a one awe you ? the very lustre of the holi- 
ness you see in such a one strikes on youi' conscience ; 
then you think, he walks close with God indeed, but I 
have basely forsaken the Lord, and have frequented 
haunts of wickedness, and have brought (headful guilt 
on my soul smee I saw him last. Ecclesiastical history 
tells us, when the officers came to apprehend Basil, be- 
ing then engaged in holy duties, such a majesty and 
lusti-e came forth from his countenance, that the offi- 
cers fell down backward (as they did who came to ap- 
prehend Christ) and were not able to lay hold of him. 
Surely, when the saints shall be exalted in their holi- 
ness, when eveiy one of them shall have their souls 
filled with God, it will cause abundance of fear in 
the hearts of all those who shall even converse with 
them. 

But the wicked shall fear too, as well as the saints. 
Luke xxi. 26, " Men's hearts shall fail them for fear," 
shall be verified in these days, as it was in the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem. 

The saints .shall " fear the Lord and his goodness ;" 
the words in the original are, they shall fear nrn'-Sx 
to the Lord, and ^aia-Ss to his goodness. It is in 
eflect the same ; the goodness which God sliall manifest 
shall excite this fear in their heai'ts. 

You will say, Mliat goodness ? what shall that good- 



ness of God be that shall move the hearts of this jieople 
with so much fear ? 

I will tell you briefly, for I have spoken of it at large 
on the last words of the first chapter of this prophecy, 
" great shall be the day of Jezreel ;" and shall now only 
add, The goodness of (3od which in that day they shall 
fear, shall be this : 

First, That ever he should regard such a wretched peo- 
ple as they, and pardon all theh sins. 'N^Tiat! Israel, the 
ten ti'ibes, who had most wretchedly forsaken God, who 
had crucified Jesus Clu-ist, crucified David theu- King, 
yet that that blood which they shed shoidd be applied 
to them for the pardon of then- sin ! Oh the goodness 
of God ! They shaU fear this goodness in showing mercy 
to such a hai'd-hearted, stubborn, stiff-necked people as 
they have been ; this goodness of God will break their 
hearts. 

Secondly, Because God shall then make the differ- 
ence between him that feareth God and him that fear- 
eth him not. Then shall God take away all the re- 
proach of his saints. What bitter reproach has there 
been on the saints since the beginmng of the world, 
especially since the times of the gospel! Reproach, 
first, because they are a mean people. Secondly, because 
they suffer so much, and God lets his adversaries pre- 
vail over them. Thirdly, because they wait upon God, 
and God seems not to come, the adversaries say, %Vhere 
is yom- God ? no marvel you pray and fast, what is be- 
come of all ? Here will be manifested the goodness of 
God at that day in wiping ofl" all this reproach. They 
shall have so much mercy, so much honour li'om God, 
that it shall appear before all the world that it was good 
to wait upon him ; so much as shall compensate abund- 
antly all theh sufferings ; they shall bless God that 
ever it was put into theu' hearts to suffer for him, and 
to wait upon him. And because God foresees what 
goodness he has laid up for his people, which they shall 
enjoy ere long, (and we know a thousand years with 
him are as one day,) is the reason why he suffers them 
to be so oppressed for the present ; he knows he has 
such goodness for them hereafter, yea, in tliis world, 
that all the world shall say that God has dealt well 
with them, that he was not a hard master to them, to 
make them wait so long, and to let them suffer so much 
as they do. I wUl give you for this one excellent 
scripture, perhaps you have not considered the em- 
phasis of its argument, it is Heb. xi. 16, "But now they 
desu'e a better country, that is, an heavenly : wherefore 
God is not ashamed to be called their God : for he hath 
prepared for them a city." The poor persecuted saints 
wandered up and down, were content to leave theu' 
own country, then- estates here, and sought another 
country, a heavenly, but they had it not, theii- enemies 
prevailed over them, as if God had forsaken them ; but 
" God is not ashamed to be called then- God ;" why ? 
" for he hath prepared for them a city." Mark the force 
of the argument, " for he hath prepared for them a 
city." This city is the one referred to in the text I am 
now speaking of: sometimes it is described as a taber- 
nacle, " The tabernacle of God shall come down from 
heaven ;" sometimes as a ci<,y, sometimes as a country, 
as a kingdom, sometimes as an inheritance ; here, " God 
hath prepared for them a city," that is, there is a glori- 
ous time for God's people, when they shall have the 
new Jerasalem come dovn\ from heaven unto them. 
Now then, saith God, though my people be in a suffer- 
ing condition, " I am not ashamed to be called their 
God," I am not ashamed to own them, for I lune glory 
enough for them : as if God woidd be ashamed that he 
should ever profess such an interest in this people, and 
they such an interest in him, if there were notliing in 
store for them, if there were not a time to recompense all 
their sufferings. As if a master should liave a servant, 
or a orince a subject, and they suffer extremely, and 



Vek. 5. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



199 



iiave no help ; but still -when they expected aid, none 
should arrive, and when they think, Sui-ely now it will 
come, still it should fail them ; yet if you know that at such 
a dav you shall be able to recompense them for all this, 
and to advance them and bring them to such honour 
that they will bless God that ever they were in your 
service, you wUl not be ashamed to own them. But 
If these servants shall suffer in your cause, and you 
have no time nor ability to recompense them, but they 
must suffer, and suffer for ever, you would be ashamed 
to ow:i them. So God is pleased to speak here ; Be- 
cause I have prepared for them such a city, though 
they be in present persecution, I am not ashamed to 
own them for my people, and do not accovmt it any dis- 
honour to me, for there is a time coming that will an- 
swer all objections. This is the goodness of God. 

They shall fear this goodness. Fear it; how? 

In these several respects. 

First, They shall admire "his goodness," and in theu' 
admkations stand even amazed at it ; the fear of amaze- 
ment shall possess them. 2 Thess. i. 10, when Christ 
shall come, " he shall come to be admired in all them 
that believe." In Luke v. 26, it is said, "They were all 
amazed, and glorified God, and were filled with fear, 
: ying, We have seen strange things to-day." AMien 
:':ii " goodness" of God shall come, all the saints shall 
itand admiring it with amazement, and say one unto 
another, We did heretofore hear of prophecies and pro- 
mises, and we thought when they were opened to us, 
our hearts did bum within us ; oh, they were blessed 
things ! but now here is goodness we never thought of, 
this is higher and more glorious than we ever imagined. 
Thus they " shall fear the Lord and his goodness." You 
have a similar place in Jer. xxxiii. 9, " It shall be to 
me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the 
nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that 
I do unto them : and they shall fear and tremble for all 
the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure 
unto it." 

Secondly, They shall upon this fall down and wor- 
ship this God with fear. Oh how shall their hearts 
adore this God, because of this his goodness! As 
we read Exod. xxxiv., when God had told Moses that 
he would " make all his goodness pass before him ;" 
when God came and " passed by before him, and pro- 
claimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, 
long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquit)- and 
transgression and sin;" the text adds. When Moses 
heard this, he " made haste, and bowed his head and 
worshipped" before the Lord. Indeed nothing will 
cause a gracious heart to make more haste to worship 
God, than the beholding the glory and lustre of God's 
grace and goo'dness ; then the heart will not stand dal- 
Ijing and trifling any longer, but will make haste to 
worship before the Lord. God often shows his great- 
ness to you, and that convinces yom' consciences a little, 
and you think you must abandon you"" Rinftil courses ; 
then temptation prevails over you ag».iJ ; but when 
God comes and makes known £is goodness, then the 
heart stands out against the Lord no longer, but gives 
up itself to him in an everlasting covenant. 

Tliirdly, They shall fear to offend this goodness of 
God. It shall be a mighty engagement on their hearts 
1 I walk close with God. It is a sweet disposition in- 
deed when the heart has been both humbled before 
God and his justice, and fgars God and his goodness. 

Obs. Whereas many will say. Oh the goodness of 
f -od will break our hearts, if ministers did preach only 
it ; but when they preach the law, when we hear of 
terror, that hardens our hearts : take heed of this, 
there is more evil in it than you are aware. A tndy 
gracious heart will fall down'before any exhibition of 
the Lord, and it is not a good sign to be .WTOught upon 



only by the goodness of God, but may arise from much 
stubbornness of heart. Have you never known a per- 
verse servant, or child, that as long as you are dis- 
pleased with them, would resist you ; but, perhaps, if 
you would yield a little, they would j-ield to you ? Is 
"this a good disposition? does it not arise from obsti- 
nacy in a child, or in a servant, or in a neighbour, that 
they will never yield to you tiU you yield to them ? 
This is precisely the disposition of many ; as long as they 
hear of God's greatness, and the terrors of the law, and 
God's justice, they are hardened; and why? because 
they stand out stoutly against God, notwithstanding his 
wrath is revealed from heaven. But, say they, when 
God's goodness is preached, then we )ield ; that is, ex- 
cept God wUl yield to them they will not jield to God. 
But when I can yield both ways, fear his goodness and 
his justice, then it is a sign of a gracious disposition 
indeed. 

Fourthly, They " shall fear his goodness," so that they 
shall no longer slight nor abuse the goodness of God ; 
they shall not do evil because God is good, but shall fear 
his goodness. We have a generation of men who, at this 
day, extremely abuse the goodness of God, even God's 
goodness in the gospel, m those blessed thuigs revealed 
to us in Jesus Christ. As thus: we find this revealed 
in the gospel, that it is God that must work the yyiH 
and the deed ; the covenant of gi'ace to be such, as that 
God does not only requu'e, but work all for us : how is 
this goodness misinteri)reted and abused ! Therefore, 
say they, what need we do any thing ? why do minis- 
ters urge people to duties ? Your principle is good ; 
the truth is good, that it is God that works all in the 
covenant of grace, but it is very absurd and vile, and 
an abuse of God's goodness, to infer that therefore you 
must not work together with the Lord as rational beings. 
Again, the gospel reveals to us " the righteousness of 
God iir Christ," that we must not stand before God in 
otir own, but in the righteousness of Christ ; this prin- 
ciple is good, but how is it abused ! false deductions 
and absurd consequences di-awn from it : therefore say 
they. To make conscience of duties, what is it but legal? 
and they who do it, what are they but duty-mongers ? 
Oh ! wanton, wanton spirits, who do not fear God and 
his goodness, but abuse them both ! Again, the Scrip- 
tiu'e tells us m the gospel, that all sins are pai'doned to 
believers in Christ, all sins both great and smaD ; " there 
is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in 
Christ Jesus," no, not one moment after they are once 
justified: this is God's goodness, and thou shouldst 
fear it : the principle is right, but it is vile to deduce 
as a consequence, that to preach that we must be 
humbled for sins is legal preaching ; neither wiU these 
men ever confess their sins because of this goodness of 
God. This is to be wanton indeed, not to fear this 
goodness of God. Moreover the goodness of God in 
the gospel tells us, that the grace of God is strong, that 
the saints shall persevere, that those that ai-e once in 
CTirist shall never fall away ; therefore say they. Let us 
indulge ourselves ; why need we be careful of om- ways, 
seeing the grace of God will cany us thi-ough ? Oh ! 
thus to abuse this goodness of God is wicked ; the hea- 
vens may blush to behold it, and the earth tremble 
under it. But we have not so learned Christ ; the more 
of the goodness of God in Christ that is made known to 
us, the more should we fear him. 

The goodness of God in the gospel is so rich, that, 
the tnath is, because the hearts of men are so vUe, and 
so ready to abuse it, we are almost afraid to preach it. 
Oh ! is this the fi-uit of the preaching of the gospel ? 
Never was the gospel so clear as in England, and in no 
age as in this; and is this the fruit of all, that men 
should draw such absirrd consequences from it, and go 
away harder from that which is the softening word ? 
^^^len we come to preach the goodness of the gospel, 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. Ill 



■\ve come, I say, with fear, yoa, trembling, lest it slioukl 
cost the damnation of some soul. The preaching the 
goodness of God in the gospel certainly causes, ex acci- 
dente, the damnation of many a soul. Therefore, mean- 
while, you who are God's saints, know how dearly God 
tendereth you, when he will have the goodness of the 
gospel preached to you though at the risk of the damn- 
ation of manv a soul. You had need prize it there- 
fore, and make a good use of it. Let this meditation 
cause you to improve to the uttermost what you hear 
of all the goodness of the Lord : That which I hear is 
costly to some, it costs the perishing of many a soul 
that I may have it ; and though God see that many 
souls will 'be hardened by it. Yet, saith God, let them 
be hardened, these my servants shall not want it, though 
they perish for ever. "When a man hath a thing in his 
house, and he hears that it cost dear, even the lives of 
many men, he has other thoughts of it than before. 
David had a reverent respect to the water of the 
well of Bethlehem, because procured at the hazard 
of men's lives. Learn then to fear God and his 
goodness. 

Fifthly, In all rejoicing in and praising God for his 
goodness, there shall be a mixture of fear. They shall 
be well skilled in this mystery of godliness, when they 
enjoy so much of God's goodness, and are called upon 
to sing and rejoice, yet sing with a mixture of fear. 
Their hearts shall be" very serious and spiritual in all 
their joy. It is veiy hard for us to rejoice in God's 
goodness, and not to have our heai-ts grow light and 
vain, to keep a day of thanksgiving with a serious spirit ; 
for joy commonly causes vanity in the heai'ts of men. 
But now the goodness of God shall be so strong in their 
hearts, that though they shall seek and rejoice abundant- 
ly in God's goodness ; yet with such an abundant mixtiu-e 
of fear, that their hearts shall be kept serious, holy, and 
spiritual in his service : thus, in Exod. xv. 1 1 , when Moses 
was blessing God for his goodness in delivering the people 
out of Egypt, (which was a typical song, as appears m the 
Revelation, that bondage typifying antichristian bond- 
age,') mark the expression, " Who is like unto thee. O 
Lord, among the gods ? who is like thee, glorious in ho- 
liness, fearful in praises ? '' God is to be praised, but so 
praised, that his name must be " fearful in praises." Con- 
sider this in all yom- joyful celebration of the memorial of 
God's goodness ; you must so rejoice and bless God. as 
to manifest this before all you converse with, that the 
name of God is fearful in the praises you offer to him : 
this a slight, trifling spirit cannot do. So Psal. lii. G, 
" The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh 
at him." Mark what a mixture is here, " The righteous 
shall see, and fear, and laugh," he " shall rejoice," but 
" with trembling," Psal. ii. 11. 

God much delights to have the glory of his goodness 
appear thus. We have much goodness of God at this 
day, and he calls us to fear him and his goodness : if we 
give him not his glory in this, he may soon call us to 
fear him and his greatness; to fear him and his justice ; 
to fear him and his wrath. This is the argument now, 
" There is forgiveness with thee, that'thou mayest be 
feared." But how soon may God justly turn this, and 
oblige us to say, There is wrath, vengeance, sword, fire, 
blood, storm, an horrible tempest, with thee, therefore 
thou shalt be feared ! Our consciences are ready to 
misgive us when we have any evil tidings, for we have 
much guilt on our spirits ; we have had much goodness 
indeed from God, (who ever thought to have lived to 
see the goodness that you liavc seen?) but because 
you have not feared God and his goodness, this is the 
reason of your hearts misgiving at evil tidings, and saying, 
Oh, now God is coming against us with his wrath that 
he may be feared. 

Sbmething might be said to explain a little the dif- 
ference between fearing God and his goodness, and 



fearing God and his wrath and justice in a legal way ; 
but 1 shall only briefly observe, 

1. Such a fear as enlarges the heart, is the fearing 
God and his goodness ; other fear contracts it. We 
have an excellent text for this in Isa. Ix. 1, compared 
with ver. 5 : '• Arise, shine ; for thy light is come, the 
glory of the Lord is risen upon thee : " and so he goes 
on describing God's goodness, in reference to the times 
that we are speaking of; then adds, "Thou shalt see, 
and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be 
enlarged:" when the heart so fears that it is enlarged 
unto God, this is the fearing God and his goodness 
aright. 

2. It is a fear that leads the heart to cling to God 
for ever ; it drives not from God, but makes the heart 
cleave closer to him ; such is the force of the Hebrew 
here, they shall fear to God and to his goodness : " I 
will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not de- 
part from me." This binds the heart to God. 

3. This fearing God and his goodtiess works the 
heart to a high degree of sanctification. 2 Cor. vii. 1, 
'■ Having therefore these promises, let us cleanse our- 
selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfect- 
ing holiness in the fear of God ; " and Heb. xii. 28, 
" Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be 
moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God 
acceptably with reverence and godly fear." 

Lastly, It is a fear joined with love, whereas the other 
fear leads the heart to have hard thoughts of God. Beware 
of that fear of God that makes you to think hardly of 
him. In times of danger many begin to fear, and jn'esently 
they wish they had never engaged themselves so much 
in ways that succeed so ill ; and ciT out of others. You 
would needs do thus, and you see the result. But the 
fear of God and his goodness, is joined with blessing 
God that ever you knew his ways and were engaged 
in them. 

" In the latter days." 

God is content to stay for that which is indeed his 
chief glory until the latter days, for though in these 
former days God has had glorj-, yet he has had but very 
little. Let this be an argument for our patience ; though 
we have sufi"erings now, let us wait as God waiteth. \ 

But " the latter days,'' when are they ? The times ^ 
of the gospel are generally called •' the latter days ; " 
but this, though it refers indeed to the whole time of 
the gospel, yet especially to the latter times of those 
latter days. If you would know what these latter days i 
are, though I will not take upon me to give you the day, / 
or week, or month, or year, yet I will show you that / 
probably these " latter days " are at hand. / 

For understanding this, we are much assisted by what ' 
we have in Daniel concerning the fom- kingdoms, and the 
prophetical chronology ; it comprises the time from the 
captivity of the Jews to that ni which the counsel of 
God shall be fulfilled. You have there a description of 
four several monarchies, the Babylonian, AssjTian, Cire- 
cian, and Koman ; now in the last of these, Daniel saith, 
chap. ii. 44, " .shall the God of heaven .set up a kingdom, 
which shall never be destroyed : and the kingdom shall 
not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces 
and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for 
ever." In tliis last (namely, the Roman) has the king- 
dom of Christ begun to ajjpear already ; but God tells 
Daniel, chap. xii. 13, "Thou shalt stand in thy lot at 
the end of the days." Now observe, the chief prophe- 
cy wc have respecting the time of these latter days is 
contained in that expression of " time and times and 
half a time ; " and compare with this Dan. vii. 25, " And 
they shall be given into his hand until a time and times 
and dividing of time," and Rev. xi. 2, " The holy city 
shall thev tread under foot forty and two months,'' njid 
ver. 3, The " witnesses shall ])rophesy a thousand two 
hundred and sixty days;" now a thousand two huniUed 



THE PROPHECY OF HCSEA. 



201 



find sixty days, are the days of a " time and times and 
lialf a time," or of three years and a luilf, and so are 
the days of forty-two months. Then the -noman in the 
wilderness, Rev. xii. 6, shall be fed there a thousand 
two hundred and sixty days, still the same number; the 
witnesses shall prophesy a thousand two hundi-ed and 
sixty days ; the holy city shall be trodden under foot 
forty-two months ; and the woman in the wilderness 
shall be there a thousand two hundred and sixty days. 
And again, Dan. xii. 11, " From the time the abomin- 
ation that maketh desolate is set up, there shall be 
a thousand two hundred and ninety days ; " a few days 
more, not many. You see then the Scripture prophe- 
sies of some great thing to be done at this time, at the 
end of which are these " latter days." 

But all the tUfficulty consists in understanding when 
the three years and a half, or forty-two months, or one 
thousand two hunibed and sixty days, begun ; having 
discovered it, we may know when these latter days shall 
be. Brightman makes the one thousand two hundi'ed 
and ninety days begin at Julian's time, when he woidd 
have set up the abomination, that is, the Jewish wor- 
ship again, by rebuilding the temple ; and reckoning 
one thousand two huncted and ninety days for one 
thousand two hundred and ninety years, his time by 
computation wUl fall about the year 1650. The other 
passage in the Revelation (and that in Daniel refers 
to the same) denotes the time that the chm'ches shall 
be under the persecution of antichrist; for a thousand 
two hundred and sixty years the beast shall prevail, 
and the witnesses prophesy in sackcloth, and the woman 
abide in the wilderness. 

But when did antichrist begin to reign ? 

For that observe. It must be at the time when the 
Roman empire was broken up, and the cb-agon re- 
signed his power to the beast ; when the power of the 
dragon that persecuted the Christians under the Roman 
empire was given to antichrist, so that they became 
subject to persecution under him : here the one thou- 
sand two hundred and sixty days begin. 

That the Roman empire must be given up first, ap- 
pears, 2 Thess. ii. 7, " For the mystery of iniquity doth 
ab'eady work : only he who now letteth will let, until 
he be taken out of the way ; " that is, as expositors 
generally interpret it, when the power of the Roman 
empu-e is " taken out of the way," then shall that 
wicked one be revealed ; there were many antichrists 
before, but then that wicked one that shall " exalt him- 
self above all that is called God," shall have power to 
persecute the church. Hence it is observable, that the 
custom of the church was to pray for the continuance 
of the Roman empire, because they knew when that was 
broken antichrist would come. Now the dissolution of 
the Roman empu'e was at the raising up of tliose ten dis- 
tinct governments, called in the Revelation, ten kings ; 
and the raising up of those kings was about four hun- 
dred years after Christ ; it is hard to fix on the pre- 
cise year,, so much difference exists in chronologers' 
computations ; and after that period there must be one 
thousand two hundi'ed and sixty days, that is, one thou- 
sand two huncb-ed and sixty years. Make this com- 
putation, and compai'e all these passages together, and 
it would seem that the time cannot be distant, but that 
in the present century these latter days shall come, 
when the people of God and the Jews shall " return 
to Jehovah and David their king, and fear the Lord 
and his goodness." The nearer the time comes the more 
will these things be cleared : Dan. xii. 9, '• Go thy way, 
Daniel : for the words are closed up and sealed till tlie 
time of the end : " none of the wicked shall understand, 
but the wise shall lay it to heart. 

But one point remains, why the Scripture ex- 
presses this rather by so many days, than years ? The 
reason is, because God would have his people think 



the time until his goodness should be revealed but 
short ; if he had said they should be one thousand two 
huncbed and sixty years under antichrist's persecution, 
it would have sounded harsher : No, saith he, it shall 
be but so many days (though flesh and blood may 
think even this time long) ; yet look upon it as days ; 
it is but a short time to me, and it will be a short time 
to you ; within one thousand two huncbed and sixty 
days you shall be delivered from his tjTanny, and then 
you shall have this voice from heaven, " The kingdoms 
of the earth are become the kingdoms of the Lord and 
of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever ; " and then 
shall }e, together with the Jews, seek the Lord and Da- 
vid your king, and fear the Lord and his goodness. 

Now, by God's goodness, we have gone through these 
three chapters. Tertullian saith, Adoro plenitudinem 
Scripturarum, I adore the fulness of the Scriptures. 
By searching thus into the Scriptures, we mav come to 
see rich treasures in them, and so, Uke him, adore their 
fulness. How do we read over texts, as if they con- 
tained nothing ! but certainly God has revealed much 
more of his mind in them than we are aware of: let us 
all then be in love with the study of the Scriptures. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Ver. 1. Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of 
Israel: for the Lord hath a controvemy with the in- 
habitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor 
mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. 

In this chapter we have, 

I. A suit commenced. 

II. The pleading of God. 

III. Judgment pronounced. 

IV. Exhortation to Judah to beware that she come 
not into the same condition. 

V. Execution, God in his wrath giving up Ephraim 
to himself. 

I. A suit commenced. Israel is cited : " Hear ths 
word of the Lord, ye children of Israel." 

Obs. 1 . The knowledge that any truth is the word of 
the Lord, is a special means to prepare the heart to re- 
ceive it with reverence and all due respect, even though 
it be hard and gi-ievous to flesh and blood. It was a 
hard message that Hosea had to bring, to tell them of 
God's controversy ; he therefore makes this preface, 
" Hear- the word of the Lord." Hard truths are hardly 
borne ; but when the authority of the infinite God ap- 
pears in them, be they either for us or against us, our 
hearts must bow to them ; they lay bonds upon the con- 
science, and bind over to eternal death those who re- 
ject them. 2 Chron. xxvi. 12, Zedckiah, a king, is 
charged with not humbling himself before the prophet 
Jeremiah. Though the prophet be never .so poor and 
contemptible in himself, yet if he bring the word of 
the Lord, Zedekiah the king must humble himself be- 
fore him. 

Obs. 2. The nearness of a people to God, exempts 
them not from God's contending with them for sin. 
" Ye children of Israel." In this appellation God puts 
them in mind of the covenant he had made with them 
and they with him : You are not heathens, but the chil- 
di'en of Israel, in covenant with me, a people near to 
me, yet I have a controversy with you. Neither should 
nearness to us exempt any from our contending with 
them. " K thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy 
son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy 
friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly^ 
saying. Let us go and serve other gods ; thine eve shall 



202 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



not pity him, neither shall thou spare, neither shall 
thou conceal him: but thou shall surely kill him; thine 
hand shall be fii-sl upon him to put liim to death," 
Deut. xiii. 6, 8, 9. 

Obs. 3. The nearer the relationship the more grievous 
is the controversy. " Hear the word of the Lord, ye 
children of Israel." It is a sad thing for one nation to 
have a controversy with another j much more for a peo- 
ple to be at controversy with itself; yet more sore and 
grievous is it when the' controversy comes nearer, into 
the family, between husband and wife, between father 
and child, between dearest friends who were before to 
each other as their o\ni souls : Prov. xviii. 19, " A bro- 
ther offended is harder to be won than a strong cit)' : 
and their contentions are like the bars of a castle." 

" Hear ye." O prophet, saith Oicolam- 
J'ro'phrtt'qufuinu padius, whal is it thou hast to say, that 
aSu'iVTbSm"' with so much eai-ncstness thou callest to 
mT'um '^"''^''' have the word of the Lord heard ? Tlio 
solemn message of the jirophet to this 
people is, " The Lord hath a controversy with the m- 
habitants of the land." 

The word 3'-i translated " controversy," signifies a 
debate, or contention, and comes from an contendere 
vel prhatim vel coram judice, to contend privatelv or 
before a judge. As in Exod. xxiii. 3, " Neither shall 
thou countenance a poor man in his cause." The Sep- 
tuagint render it kq'kiiq, judicium. The same word is 
translated by them also ^I'lo;, Job xxix. 16, where the 
word for " cause," is the same as here translated a "con- 
troversy." The Lord hath a cause to plead with tins 
people ; the prophet stands up for God to plead against 
them in his name, he pleads for the King, the King of 
heaven : so should all faithful ministers take heed that 
they be on God's side, pleading his cause, for they are 
God's sergeants at law, his attorneys, liis solicitors. 
The king's lawyers are swoni that they shall never 
plead against him, nor take fee on the other side ; and 
yet how many, even in the exercise of their ministry, 
show that they have taken fee on the other side ! How 
many plead against God, against his sabbaths, against 
his ordinances, yea, plead sometimes against the power 
of godliness, against those things wherein the chief 
dignity and glory of God consists ! Truly, the devil 
has not more cordial solicitors and pleaders for him 
than those who would be accounted the prophets of 
the Lord. 

" The Lord." .\s if the prophet should say. Though 
you think you can make your cause good with me, and 
with Amos, and the other prophets, know you have not 
to deal with us ; God will no longer stand pleading witli 
you by his ministers, he will take the cause into his 
own hands, and will plead by his judgments. So the 
Lord tells the people. Gen. \-i. 3, that his Spirit should 
no longer strive with them. MTiat is that ? That is, 
in the way of Noah's ministry; but that he would come 
and strive himself after another manner, by bringing 
the flood upon them. 

Obs. 1. For God to take the controversy into his 
own hand, and to contend with them in a way of judg- 
ment, is most dreadful for sinners ; " It is a fearful 
thing to fall into the hands of the living God." You 
think ministers are harsh, and preach terrible things ; 
but if you had to deal with Gou immediately, if he did 
not speak to you by man, but come himself and plead 
with you, you would find it much harder, ^^'^len Job's 
fiiends were pleading with him, he could with them 
easily sustain his cause ; but in chaj). xxxviii. 2, 
God himself comes and speaks out of the whirlwind, 
" A\1io is this that darkeneth counsel by words without 
knowledge ? " And Job answereth the Lord and saith. 
"Behold, I am vile," chap. xl. -1. And the Lord still 
pleading with him, he is constrained to exclaim, " I 
nave heard of thee by the hearing of the ear ; but now 



mine eye seeth thee : wherefore I abhor myself, and 
repent in dust and ashes," chap. xlii. 5, 6. In Psal. 
cxxx. 3, David uses similar language, " If thou. Lord, 
shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" 
The sense would have been complete thus. If thou. 
Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, who shall stand ? there 
would have been a mighty emphasis in the word Je- 
hovah ; who shall stand, for it is thou, Jehovah ? but 
the word Lord is repeated, to show that the sight of 
having to deal with God in om- sins, without a Medi- 
ator, is very terrible. If thou, Lord, shovddst mai'k, 
then, O Lord, who shall stand ? 

Obs. 2. Sin causes a most di'cadful controversy be- 
tween God and the soul, between God and a nation. 
For this, God comes to strive, to contend for his glor)-, 
and the sinner strives and contends against God : and 
here we maj' remark, 

1. That God is infinitely above every suiful impeni- 
tent soul, and every sinful impenitent nation ; vainly 
do they stli^ c with their Maker. " Let the potsherd 
strive with the potsherds of the earth," Isa. xlv. 9. 
The Lord is far above them. And to intimate therefore 
the distance between God and us m this controversy, 
our text saith, " The Lord hath a controversy with 
the inhabitants of the land," poor earth-creeping crea- 
tures that have dwellings here below, whose houses 
are houses of clay, and God is the great God of heaven 
and earth. 

2. The controversy that God has with a sinner is a 
just controversv, God has right on his side, and the in- 
jury done to him is great. 

3. It is a controversy which we have begun ; God 
did not begin it with us, but we began it with him, and 
must have the worst of it. 

4. It is an old controversy, a controversy of our fore- 
fathers, a controversy whicli God has had with one 
generation after another, and we, as a wretched gener- 
ation, stand forth to hold up the old controversy. As 
in England in the times of the barons there were wars 
for hundreds of years ; and when one generation wa3 
gone, the generation after stood forth to hold up the 
controversy : so it has been between God and man j 
God has had a controversy with the children of men 
ever since the fall of Adam, and one generation after 
another has stood forth to hold up tlie controversy. 
And thou, wretched sinner, standest up in thy genera- 
tion, in thy place, to sustain the controversy that 
mankind has had with God since his expulsion from 
Paradise. 

5. It is a controversy which stirs up all the power 
and all the wrath of God against a sinner. A man who 
has a controversv with another, employs and exei-ts all 
the strength lie has against his opponent ; and if God 
have any power in him, it shall be ])ut forth in making 
his cause good again.st a sinner : " If ye walk contrary 
unto me, I will walk contrary unto you ; " my power, mj- 
wisdom, all mine attributes are agamst you, Lev. xxvi. 

6. This controversy is a deadly controversy, one which 
strikes at our lives, at our souls, at our eternal state. 

7. This is a controversy with God, who is detennined 
to have satisfaction in some way or other for all the 
wrong we have done to him. 

8. It is a controversy w liich only the Lord Christ, that 
great Mediator, that great Peace-maker, is able to make 
up. None can reconcile God and a smner but Christ, 
God-man. He must stand before God to satisfy for the 
wrong the sin of man hath done unto liim. 

9. A conti'oversy with him who has thee at infinite 
advantage, who has thee under his feet, and the i)oint 
of the sword of his justice at thy heart. 

10. A controversy which, if thou look not to it, is 
likely to ])rove an everlasting controversy. " I will 
not contend for ever, neither will I l)c always wroth : 
for the spiiit should fail before nic,'' Isa. Ivii. 16. This 



Vee. 1. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



203 



is spoken to those who are in covenant ^vith God, in 
regard of the lesser controversies -which after theii' re- 
conciliation may exist between God and them : but 
with thee who art yet in the great controversy that 
God has with sinful man, it may prove an everlasting 
controversy, Lf thou dost not look to it, and become re- 
conciled to God in Christ. The Lord has appointed a 
certain period for thy coming in to make up thy peace 
with him, to " lay hold of his covenant;" it' thou neg- 
leetest that time thou ai't lost, undone for ever. God 
will certainly overcome thee, God will have the day of 
thee, the Lord will overcome when he judgeth. Julian 
strove a great while against the Lord, but at length he 
was forced to acknowledge with his blood cast up into 
the air, Vicisti, Galilcee, vicisti, Thou hast conquered, 
Galilean, thou hast conquered. 

It is a vain thing for thee to stand out sti'iving with 
this great God. job xl. 2, " Shall he that contendeth 
with the Almighty instruct him ? " So it is ta'anslated 
in yom- Bibles, but the original is perhaps better ren- 
dered by Pagnine and others, " Is there any wisdom," 
or any learnhig, " in contending with God ? " any know- 
ledge showed in that ? No, certainly, there is no know- 
ledge, no wisdom, in contending with the Almighty : 
our greatest wisdom is to fall down and be humbled 
before the Lord. 

!My brethren, this is no time to have any controversy 
with God, to stand out against him in ways of enmity. 
^\Tien such blackness of darkness is upon us, even 
storms of blood hanging over om- heads, it surely is time 
to be at peace with Heaven : "Because there is wrath, 
beware lest he take thee away with his stroke," Job 
xssvi. 18. The Lord is come forth from his place, he 
is pleading his cause, and now in the ways of his ad- 
ministration he declares, that he wiU have glory fi'om 
his creatui'e ; he " hath sworn by himself, the word hath 
gone out of his mouth in righteousness, and shall not 
retm-n. That to liim every knee shall bow, every tongue 
shall swear." It is no time, therefore, now for us to 
have controversies with God, to have conti'oversies 
with God and man both, with heaven, and earth, and 
with oiu' own consciences. What shall become of us ? 
" Be not thou a terror, Lord, unto me," saith Jere- 
miah, "for thou art my hope in the day of evil." If 
God be a terror, and the days be evil, what will become 
of us ? 

Consider this, you who are so often in controversies 
with your neighbours, that God has a great controversy 
with you ; and satisfy not yourselves with this, that you 
are able to clear youi'selves before men, for what avails 
that, so long as this controversy continues ? 

It is wisdom to make an end of it betimes : " The be- 
ginning of sti'ife is as when one letteth out water; there- 
fore leave off contention before it be meddled with," 
Prov. xvii. 14. The beginning of strife, especially with 
God, is most di-eadful ; if thou go on but a little 
while, thy heart may be most desperately set against 
God, and for ever left to strive against him, never to 
come in and be humbled before him. This is the rea- 
son (I verily believe) of the horrid wickedness of some 
amongst us ; we wonder that they, one after another, 
should dare to venture on such horrid wickednesses. 
At first, it may be, there was some dreadful breach be- 
tween God and their souls when they were young, and 
they fell (though the world perhaps' knew it not) into 
some foul and abominable sin ; and having departed so 
far from God then, they now go on and fight against 
the God of heaven in such a desperate manner as no 
age but this can afford us any examples of. God has a 
controversy with nations also for their sin. Those who 
are to sue for God may well charge us, that the Lord has 
a controversy with the inhabitants of the land at this 
day. If e\'er he had a controversy with a people he 
has it with us. The Lord has a fearful controversv 



with us, most fearful things to charge tliis land with. 
I might instance some that are more peculiar to this 
nation than to any other on the face of the earth. 

1. The hatred, contempt, and persecution of the power 
of godliness. No natiou on the face of the earth has 
ever had such guilt in this respect as England ; per- 
secuting faithful and godly ministers of the same re- 
ligion, holding with them all fundamental truths, yea, 
all the articles of religion and every pomt of doctrine ; 
I say, never any nation was guilty of such persecution 
as we; silencing many for mere trifles; persecuting 
others for keeping the sabbath. It is true, other coun- 
tries are loose in theii' observation of the sabbath, but 
no country on the face of the earth has ever persecuted 
the keeping of it as England has done ; and that by the 
countenance of those in authority. We are sinners, 
and others are sinners, but the Lord has a controversy 
with us for these things in a more special manner than 
with any people on the face of the earth this day. 

2. This controversy which the Lord has against us, 
is an old controversy too. I may apply that which God 
speaks, Jer. xxxii. 31, concerning the city of Jerusalem, 
unto us, " This city hath been to me as a provocation 
of mine anger and of my fuiy, from the day that they 
built it, even unto this day." So, ever since the Re- 
formation commenced have we been a provocation to 
the Lord. 

3. A general controversy, even with all sorts ; a con- 
troversy with our kings and princes, with om' nobles, 
our gentry, ova cities, countries, imiversities, common 
people ; with wicked people, with godly people, with the 
saints, with all. 

4. It is the most unldnd controversy on our part that 
any nation was ever engaged in ; for God had dealt 
with us in a way of love more than with any nation in 
the world besides, he made us even as " the dearly be- 
loved of his soul," and yet, for all this, we have contend- 
ed against him. This unkindness goes even to tlie 
very heart of God. 

5. The Lord has sent many faithful ambassadors to 
plead his cause with us. He never to any nation on 
the earth sent more faithful ambassadors, that have 
pleaded his cause with more power and evidence of the 
Spu'it, than to us in England ; yet we have stood out. 

6. We have had as many offers of mercy as ever peo- 
ple had. Many a time have we been upon the brink 
of judgment, and the bowels of God have been towards 
us, and he has said, " It shall not be." 

7. The Lord has been as patient, and forborne as 
long as ever he did with any people before he came to 
execution. Where do we read of a people that has had, 
as we, nearly a hundred years' peace ? no where that I 
know of in all the Scripture. 

8. The Lord has had us at advantages as much as 
can be ; we have broken as many treaties as ever peo- 
ple broke. 'When we seemed to yield to God, we have 
but flattered him with our lips and dealt dissemblingly 
with liim. 

9. God has broken the backs of others with whom 
he has had a controversy. He has had a controversy 
with Germany, and how has he dealt with it ? It is re- 
ported that in Germany, when the war was but twenty 
or thirty miles off, they went on in their trading, and 
followed then- businesses, buying and selling, and hoped 
that they should be safe ; but God came in his judg- 
ments, and desolated Germany. Thus is he beginning 
to deal with us. Is not some part of England at this 
day as desolate as Germany itself ? 

10. Those that knew most of God's mind, have been 
so afraid of this controversy, that they have fled for 
fear of the wrath of God; and we have sliglited, jeered 
them for it, ascribed it to theu' foolish timorousness 
and melancholy conceit : the Lord now seems to justify' 
their fear 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



The Lord is now for the present out against us in as 
dreadful a way of wrath as ever he was against any 
people of the earth. I never read in Scripture nor in 
history of a more dreadful wrath of God against a peo- 
ple, all things considered, than is against us at tliis day. 
Amos vii. 4, '• The Lord called to contend by fire :" sure- 
ly the Lord does it at this day, he calls to contend with 
England by fire, in a most dreadful way ; and who knows 
what the end shall be ? That he has a most dreadful 
controversy against England, will appear if we further 
consider, 

1. That a people complaining of bondage heretofore, 
yet, when God offered deliverance, should be so far left 
of him as to prefer making themselves and their pos- 
terity slaves. Surely God has a tbeadful controversy 
against us, it were else impossible that such a thing 
should be in the hearts of men. Men love liberty, and 
groan under bondage : we did groan but a few years 
ago, and the Lord was coming to help us, and yet we 
are now so left of God that wc even turn again to our 
former bondage, and would have our ears bored that 
we might be perpetual slaves, Exod. xxi. 6 ; Psal. xl. 6. 

2. We not only turn again to bondage, but do so 
out of a spirit of enmity against the yoke of Jesus 
Chj'ist. This is the very ground of it ; in a great part 
of the kingdom, whatever yoke they have upon them, 
they are resolved they will not have the yoke of Christ, 
out of a spu'it of enmity against the godly party, who 
desire and endeavour reformation. 

At the beginning of this parliament, when we began 
to hope for some liberty and reformation, what joy was 
there generally in the kingdom ! all men agreed toge- 
ther ; but when the wicked and carnal began to see 
that their- godly neighbours rejoiced and blessed God 
that their desires were being fulfilled, presently they 
turn, out of a spirit of malice against them ; Rather than 
they shall rejoice, rather than they shall lie gratified, 
we will turn back again to the former bondage, and we 
will stand and oppose that which heretofore we rejoiced 
in. They have therefore turned malignants against that 
cause which a man would wonder that ever rational 
men should oppose. But there is also a spirit of malice 
against Chi'ist and his ordinances: men trould enjoy 
their lusts ; they think if reformation come they should 
not have them with their former liberty ; hence arises 
the opposition of the gentry and others in the country. 
Surely God has a controversy with us. 

.3. That men should so vilely desert those whom they 
have chosen and trusted, and who have been faithful, 
those worthies in parliament, who have ventured their 
lives for them ; basely and unworthily now to desert 
them, is one of the greatest judgments of God upon the 
hearts of men. If they complain of them now, they 
■would have complained much more of them if they had 
complied. Suppose the parliament had made up a 
patched reformation and a crazy peace, liable to be 
broken on every occasion, would not the people of the 
land have cried out of their unfaithfulness ? But now, 
when they venture themselves and labour so hard for a 
sound peace, to be deserted! An unworthy genera- 
tion, a generation that we have cause to fear is become 
the generation of God's wrath and the people of his 
curse. People are afl'ectcd according to success : we 
complain of those in parliament because of some diffi- 
culties in the work, yet if they had not done what they 
did they would have been coni])lained of much more. 
So of ministers ; sometimes ministers speak and stir up 

Eeople because their consciences tell them they would 
e unfaithful to their coinitry and to the cause of God 
if they did not ; and forthwith men call them, as they 
did Luther, the trumpets of sedition and rebellion ; 
whereas, on the other side, if they had said nothing, then 
the ciT would have been, that they had betrayed their 
country, and that they were not so faithful in their 



places as they should, and therefore people were so bad 
as they were." Thus hard it is for God or man to please 
people. 

But further, that not only the people, but that so 
many nobles, and some members even of the parlia- 
ment, should desert their brethren, and join with pa- 
pists, French, and Walloons. Not long since, a com- 
pany of vile wretches were gathered together to fight 
against our brethren of Scotland; yet these people, vile 
as they were, could not by any means be induced to fight 
against them. But now, not the vile ones, but nobles, 
knights, and gentry, can be brought to fight against 
the parliament, their own bretlu'en. Is not here a 
mighty hand of God against us ? Could this ever be if 
God had not a di-eadful controversy against England.' 

4. That men should be so blinded as to think the 
protestant religion should be maintained by an army 
of papists, the laws and liberty of the subject, by an 
army of delinquents and strangers ; yea, that the king 
with papists, delinquents, French, and Walloons, should 
better maintain the liberty of the subject and the pro- 
testant religion, than with the parliament ; is not the 
hand of God upon the people of this land when they 
believe this ? Are they not infinitely besotted ? can we 
think that men endued with reason should do this? 
Surely not, if the judgment of God rested not fearfully 
on theu' souls. 

5. God surely contends fearfully with us when ho 
suffers such an ill cause to prosper and attain to such 
a height. Both England and the comitries around us 
stand amazed at this success. Surely the Lord is against 
us, or else it could not have been. 

6. When there exists a design so desperate, so long 
maturing, carried on by such means, and now at such 
a time breaking forth with such violence, and yet men 
cannot see it. The track of the design is as apparent as 
the sun at noon-day, and by comparing one thing with 
another we may clearly see how it has proceeded step 
by step. Would you not think it a besotting thing, if 
there should be a train of gupowder laid along the 
streets from some place to the parliament house to 
blow it up, and yet that men should pass by and say, 
they see no such thing? Certamly the design against 
our religion and state, to bring us under tyranny and 
slavery, is as evident and jilain in its progress, as ever 
was a train of gunpowder laid to a place that men de- 
sired to blow up ; and yet men see it not. Surely 
God's hand is out against us. 

7. That we should have so little fruit of our prayers 
as we have at this day, yea, that God should seem to be 
angry with the prayers of his people. This argues a 
fearful controversy. And in this one particular amongst 
others ; what prayers in England have been sent up to , 
God for the Palsgrave's children ! and tliat now, instead 
of answering our prayers, God should send two arrows, 
as it were, out of those loins to do us mischief, that it 
should come from them for whom England has done 
so much, and sent up so many prayers to God ; that 
they in return for all this should come hither to make 
havoc of the kingdom, surely proves that tlie hand of 
God is out against us. 

S. That our brethren should be so spoiled, and our- 
selves in such danger of drinking the dregs of the cup, 
vet where arc our hearts? The judgment of God is 
upon the hearts of men, that they stir not and act like 
men, but see their brethren s])oiled before them ; and in 
the mean time, all that keeps them quiet is only that 
thev hope they shall be the last. God's hand is upon 
the hearts of men, else this could not be. Could one 
ever have thought that Englishmen could have borne 
this ? If one had told them before that an army of 
papists should rise up with French, '\\'alloons, and 
Irish, to spoil the kingdom, to destroy our brethren, 
would one have ever imagined that Englishmen should 



Ver. 1. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



205 



have borne it, and stiiTed no more than they have clone ? 
You talk indeed of this and that, and of goina; forth 
6very fourth man ; but all such resolutions and such 
great words generally fall to the ground, as if men were 
willing and content to lay down their necks upon the 
block. Surely the guilt of the blood of oiu- brethren 
may justly come upon us, and God may have a contro- 
versy with us for suffering it to be spilled. 

9. That God should put so many opportunities of 
mercy into our hands, and we neglect all, manifests 
the hand of God to be against us, and is a fruit of his 
controversy with us. 

10. That God himself should take away om- opportuni- 
ties, that when we are nigh to deliverance he should drive 
us back, is an argument of a heavy controversy indeed. 
Numb, xiii., when the people were come very near to 
Canaan, and were even ready to take possession, God 
resolved against them, that none but Caleb and Joshua 
should enter, and they were beaten back again : and in 
chap. xiv. 33, it is said, that the people, when they 
heard this, mourned greatly, for they saw the hand of 
God out against them. The truth is, we have been on 
the very borders of Canaan. O ! what an opportunity 
God put into our hands in the west ! I say not we lost 
it, but there God's own hand showed itself agains^ us ; 
Bristol then might have been saved, but God would 
not. And so when we were even near deliverance God 
seemed to chive us back, as if saying to us, I approve 
not, I have somewhat more to say to this generation ; 
it may be I may show mercy afterward to their young 
ones, but against this my -iiTath shall be let out. Sure- 
ly we may be afraid, from the ways of God's present 
administration, lest this should be in God's heart. How- 
ever, let us consider it, and mourn greatly before the 
Lord. God " hath a controversy with the inhabitants 
of the land." 

It is no time now to have controversies one with an- 
other, to be WTangling one with another about matters 
of opinion. It is time for us now to lay down all our 
private controversies, and faU to making up the con- 
troversy with our God. It is no time now for brethren 
to stx-ive with brethren, but to strive and wrestle with 
God in prayer. If we have any strength with us, let it 
not be spent in contending one with another, but let 
all our sti'ength be spent in seeking to make peace with 
our God. It is saicl of the Romans, that they had a 
temple of Concord, and none were to go to offer any 
further sacrifice, tUl they had fu'st offered in that tem- 
ple. The Lord expects the same of us ; we should 
agree one with another, lay dovm all our own contro- 
versies, and then give up ourselves, as one man, to this 
great work of making up our controversy with him. If 
two chickens be fighting and the kite come near, they 
will leave pecking one another and run to the hen 
for shelter. We stand pecking and snarling one at 
another, and many, that say they will do thus and 
thus for the public cause, take exception agamst this 
man and that man, and at this thing and that thing, 
and so let then' private grudges come in and cbaw them 
off. O, let us not be quarrelling now the kite is com- 
ing near, let us run and shelter ourselves under the 
protection of God, by making our peace with him. 

As for the controversy that is this day between the 
king and us, we can in that appeal to God, that there 
is no just cause the king shoidd contend with us, as we 
only desire to deliver ourselves from tp'anny and 
.slavery. Om- privileges and liberties are dear to us, 
they are our right as truly as his honour is his. That 
which he inherits was his forefathers', and that wdiich 
his forefathers, his predecessors, inherited, came at tu'st 
from the people, who set up such a family to rule and 
govern them ; and certainly they never set it up but 
for the public good, not for their misery and ruin. We 
can appeal to God, that we desu-ed nothing else but to 



live peaceably and to serve God in our land, enjoying 
only what God, and nature, and the laws of our land 
had made our owm. We know the relation between 
him and us, and the bond is mutual ; and if there be 
any thing done now that perhaps cannot be justified by 
any positive, explicit law of the land, let men know that 
yet it may be justified by the very light of nature and 
by the law of arms. It cannot be imagined but if those 
that ought to be the protectors of the law, against law 
deal so hardly with us, that we must have recourse then 
to the law and light of nature ; it is impossible this 
should be otherwise, and this God himself approves. 

Whatever, therefore, becomes of this controversy be- 
tween him and us, whether reconciliation or not, yet 
we have peace in this, that what we have done in re- 
sisting a deluge of misery that was coming upon us, if 
we had not done it, our consciences would have up- 
braided us, generations to come would have cursed us, 
the nations around us, yea, our very enemies, would have 
scorned us for our base cowardliness, for our sordid 
sphits ; woidd have derided us as an unworthy genera- 
tion, that could see itself and posterity sinking into 
misei-y and brought under slavery, and out of base fear 
and sluggish litherness, and effeminate softness of spii-it, 
could suffer all to be brought into bondage to the hu- 
mours and lusts of a few men. We can, therefore, with 
comfort and boldness stand at God's tribunal, and plead 
the uprightness of our hearts and justness of our cause 
in this controversy, whatever ensues. But in the con- 
troversy that God has against us, there we fall down at 
his feet, and acknowledge ourselves guilty before him ; 
yea, we come with sackcloth upon our loins, and ashes 
on our heads, with ropes on our necks, and plead mercy 
only for our lives. And this is the work that we have 
to do in all the clays of our humiliation, to seek to 
make an atonement between God and our souls and 
the land, in regard of that ch'eadful controversy he has 
against us. Now, blessed God, because thou tellest 
us in thy word, " Because I will do this, therefore pre- 
pare to meet thy God, O Israel ; " thou threatenest 
hard, great and sore evils, and thou callest now to us. 
Because thou wilt do this, England, O England, pre- 
pare to meet thy God ; we come, (oh that this might 
be our answer,) we come. Lord, and meet thee with our 
souls bowed towards thee, with our hearts bleeding 
that we have provoked thee to cause so much bloodshed 
of our brethi'en amongst us. O Lord, our hearts are open 
to thee, and with trembling spu'its we cry to the Lord, 
'\^'Tiat wilt thou have us do ? If thou proceed against 
us in thy controversy, we are undone, we are undone. 
O Lord, forgive ; Lord, arise and be merciful, we be- 
seech thee ; for by whom shall Jacob rise, for he is small? 
by whom shall the people arise ? by whom shall the 
power of godliness and thine ordinances be maintained ? 

How happy were we (think some) if the controversy 
between the king and us were at an end, that we might 
have peace ! Oh if the people were happy that were in 
such a case, how happy the people that were at peace 
with the King of heaven ! If the controversy between 
God and us were at an end we should be happy indeed. 
The Lord and the land is at a controversy, and this 
makes us ci-y out unto God ; but yet woe unto us ! here is 
the misery, we stiU keep our sins that cause the con- 
troversy. ' Jer. XXXV., " Will the Lord reserve his anger 
for ever ? will he keep it unto the end ? " mark what 
the answer is, " Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil 
things as thou couldest." Thus you have said; but 
what is the fruit of this ? You have done evil as you 
could. We in the dajs of our fasts cry. Lord, wilt thou 
reserve thine anger for ever ? wilt thou keep thine an- 
ger unto the encl ? Behold, thus we speak, but we con- 
tinue to do evil as we can. '• We wait for light," saith 
Isa. Hx. 9, 10, "but behold obscurity ; for brightness, but 
we walk in darkness. AYe grope for the wall like the 



206 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



blind." VCv indeed grope as if we had no eyes, and we 
stumble at noon-day as if it -were night. Men to this 
day are ready to cry out and say, "SATiat shall we do ? as 
if the way were not clear before us what we should do. 
The way is clear enough if we had hearts, but " we 
grope as if we had no eyes, and we stumble at noon- 
day as in the night." In many places of the kingdom 
they " roar all like bears," and they have cause to do 
80 ; for they are miserably spoiled, their- wives ravish- 
ed, theh- houses plundered, themselves imprisoned : and 
for the rest of us, "we mourn sore like doves," night and 
day ; and " we look for judgment, but there is none ; 
for salvation, but it is far oif from us :" mark what fol- 
lows, " For our transgressions are multiplied before 
thee," (there is the ground of that controversy between 
God and us,) " and our sins testify against us, for our 
transgi-essions are with us." Surely, my brethren, God 
is willing to be at peace with England agaui : the con- 
troversy is gi-eat and sore, yet we may confidently de- 
clare that the Lord is yet willing to be at peace with 
England, and the sufferings of England go as near the 
heart of God as ours. Oh that we knew then what it 
is that is the great makebate between God and us. that 
we might get rid of it ! Would you linow it ? Li 2 Sam. 
XX. 21, Joab saith. Deliver us Sheba the son of Bichri, 
and we will depart from the city and go every one un- 
to his tent. If amongst us delinquents were punished 
as they ought, if the hearts of people were prepared to 
liave the remainders of superstition and idolatry cast 
out, if they were willing to receive Jesus Clu:ist as 
King among them, the sound of retreat would soon bo 
heard, the controversy would soon be at an end ; and ex- 
cept this be the foundation of our peace, either there will 
be no peace at aU, or it will not hold long. In our raising 
of forces therefore to help oiu'selves and our brethren, 
(seeing we pretend we will do more than before, 
and it is time we should if we be not a people destin- 
ated to destruction and ruin,) be sui'c we begm here, let 
us do more than ever we did before to make up tHs 
conti-oversy with God. It is reported of Achior, one of 
Holofcrnes' captains, that he counselled Holofemes to 
inquire first, whether the Jews had offended their God, 
before he attempted to make wai' against them ; for if 
they had, he then assured him that that would be their 
ruin, and that he might go up and overcome them ; but 
if lie could not hear that they had sinned against their 
God, it was in vain for him to strive against them. 
Truly, it concerns us nearly to make up om- peace with 
God, that when our adversai-ies come out against us 
they may not indeed be made use of to avenge God's 
quaiTcl upon us, for then they will thus easily improve 
all their advantages, and say, that they, indeed, are not 
come out against us without the Lord. Every victory 
they now get, they ai'c ready to flatter themselves, ancl 
say, that God fights agamst us, and God approves them ; 
and tell us, the reason they prevail is, because God is 
against us ; and so we know Rabshakeh did, though a 
foul railer : " Arc we come up without the Lord ? " said 
he. And the enemies of David spake against him, 
" saying, God hath forsaken him ; persecute and talce 
hira : for tliere is none to deliver him," Psal. Ixxi. 10, 11. 
Thus they will be ready to say upon every occasion. The 
Lord has forsaken them, let us persecute and take 
them. And certainly, if the Lord should suffer them to 
prevail, many of them would think they did God good 
service by slaying and rooting out the generation of God's 
people that is here in England, and would be confident 
that it was the mind of God that they should be rooted 
out. Tlierefore we had need look to it to make up 
our peace witli God, that the controversy between him 
and us may not prove to be their- victorv. 

Obn. 5. Men should be willing that the cause that is 
between them and their inferiors should be pleaded. 
God having to deal with poor earthen creatures, might 



presently have let his wrath xiut against them and de- 
stroyed them. But mai-k, God is willing to have his 
cause pleaded with vile creatures, so that all tlic while 
he is pleading there is time and space for them to come 
in ; as if a conti-oversy be between husband and wife, 
though the one be superior and the other inferior, they 
think it right to debate it between themselves with 
meekness and love. Job, chap. xxxi. 13, professed he did 
not despise the cause of his man-servant, when he con- 
tended with him, but he would have that pleaded and 
made out. Jchovali, the mighty God, condescends to 
put his cause to a suit, he will not pass sentence upon 
poor creatm'es till it come to a trial. Be not then siu-Iy 
and scornful towards your inferiors. 

Obs. 6. "UTiatsoever mercy you have from God, you 
are to look upon it as a fruit of God's faithfulness to 
you, (if you be God's,) and as a ground of your obedi- 
ence to him, and his pleading with you if you walk 
not answerable to it. " The inhabitants of the land." 
The inhabitants of the land ; what land ? Tlie inhabit- 
ants of the land of Canaan, a controversy with them ! 
Mark, God fulfilled his promise in bringing them into 
the land of Canaan, and now he pleads with them for 
the forfeiture of theu- promise. Psal. cv. 44, 45, he 
teUs them, that he had given them the lands of the 
heathen, " that they might observe Ms statutes and 
keep his laws ;" that was their condition. God fulfilled 
Ills part by bringing them into the land, but when they 
were m the land they minded not their part. You 
know, God often charged them -nhen they came into 
the land to do this and that, and they promised they 
would do it, but when they were once brought into the 
land they forgot it, and forsook God. God now comes 
and pleads ^vith the inhabitants of this land ; as if he 
should say, I have done my part in bringing you into 
the land, now I come to plead with you for breaking 
your promise and covenant, 

" The inhabitants of the land." Jerome has another' 
note upon it, but as it is farther off, I will only name it. 
" Rightly," saith he, " ai-e they called to answer and to 
judgment who are the inhabitants of the land, and do 
not look upon themselves as sojourners and strangers 
in the land ; but he that can ti'uly say with the prophet, 
' I am a pilgrim and a stranger here,' such a one can 
never do that which may cause God to have a contro- 
versy against him. The" reason why men do that which 
causes God to have a controversy with them, is because 
they look u])on themselves as ])Ossessors of the land, and 
not as pilgrims and strangers." But this is too far off. 

n. "The pleading of God. A suit fii-st is entered 
against a man ; when the court day comes, there is 
calling for a declaration, the lawyer declai'es : God does 
so. and the prophet is God's lawyer, and hero are three 
articles put in this declaration, " Because there is no 
truth, no mercy, no knowledge of God in the land." 

Obs. 1. God contends not with a people without a 
cause. How many are there that strive and contend 
one with another without any cause at all I they vex 
and rage, contend and sue, and great controversies ex- 
ist, great dust is raised ; but if we sift the matter, we 
can see just nothing, they themselves know no caus^, 
they can give no rational account of all their pleading 
one' against another. As David said to Eliab, his eldest 
brother, 1 Sam. xvii. 29, when he came and wrangled 
with him, " What have I now done? Is there not a 
cause?" Eliab's spirit was up thi'ough his envy; but, 
saith David, Have not I a cause for what I did? Thus 
many have their spuits up, chiding and wrangling, but 
examine the cause, and they can show none at all. 
How many bitter spirits go about like mad dogs, 
snarling at everv one, even at those they know not, 
with whom they liad never any thing to do, yet railing 
upon them every where ! Ask them. Do you know tlie 
man ? can you prove any thing against him ? The truth 



fER. 1. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



^O'^ 



is, they are not able to make good what they say, only 
there is a general report that such and such men do 
thus and thus, and they bite and snarl, and rage against 
them, but after all they know no cause. Such men, 
they say, disturb the kingdom and trouble the people. 
The foundations of the earth ai-e out of order, but what 
have the righteous done ? You would think, when 
you hear such railings against such men, that they 
were the most monsti'ous men upon earth ; but examine 
what it is that they have done, and there is nothing. 
God does not so with you ; God never contends with 
man but for a just cause. 

Obs. 2. God contends not against a people for little 
things. Allien God saith he " hath a controversy with 
the inhabitants of the land," it is not for trifles, for or- 
dinary infirmities, for daily transgressions, but for great, 
notorious sins. Not that little things do not deserve 
a controversy, but it is fi'om the virtue and fruit of the 
covenant that this comes to pass ; in others that are not 
ill covenant, little things make a controversy, but be- 
tween God's childi-en and himself little things make 
not a controversy. But men are of fi'oward spu'its, 
every trifle is enough to make a conti-oversy between 
them. Yea, usually the greatest conti'oversies between 
nearest fi-iends is some trifle or other. Do a man and 
his wife live lovingly and sweetly many years, and yet 
fall out afteiTvards p Is there a bitter controversy ? 
Examine it, it is but about some toy. I could 
give you examples in histories of bitter controversies 
between nearest fi-iends on small and trivial gi'ounds. 
C'amerarius tells a story of two brethren, who walking 
out in a star-light night, one of them said. Would I had 
a pasture as large as this element ; and the other, Would 
I had as many oxen as there be stai-s. Says the other 
again, T^Hiere would you feed these oxen ? In your pas- 
ture, replied he. 'What, whether I will or no ? Yea, said 
he, whether you will or no. What, in spite of me ? Yes, 
said he. And thus it went on from word to word, till at 
length each sheathed his sword in the other's bowels. 
This verifies that saying of James, chap. iii. 5, " Behold 
how great a matter a little fire kindleth ! " So it is in 
many families : sometimes a look is the beginning of a 
great controversy : one thinks such a one does not look 
lo\'ingly upon him, and then he begins to suspect that 
things boil within him ; afterward some words come 
forth that seem to argue discontent, and then that 
word begets another, and so a miserable breach arises 
in a family. It is an argument that these people 
have gunpowder spirits, when a little spark of fire so 
quickly blows them up. Truly, in the controversy here 
in England, the ground of it at the first beginning was 
little enough on our parts ; and had there not been a 
desperate design in our adversaries, it were im.possible 
that such a little beginning should ever have attained to 
such a height. But God does not so, they are great 
things for which he " hath a controversy with the in- 
habitants of the land." 

But what is the declaration ? " No truth, nor mercy, 
nor knowledge of God in the land." These three, but 
especially the first, very nearly concern us. 

Fii-st, " No truth." God is a God of truth, he is 
true in all his waj's. He justly pleads with them that 
have dealt falsely with him. '' No truth ; " no reality 
in their religion ; that is something, but that is not all. 
God comes upon them for the breaches first of the 
second table ; for they are more convincing, and more 
liliely to affect the conscience of a natural man, than 
matters of religion. If you speak to them concerning 
sins in matters of religion, they will say they acknow- 
ledge the true God, and they worship him. Well, 
therefore the prophet here begins fij-st with the second 
table, concerning the want of truth between man and 
man ; as if he should say. Talk what you will concern- 
ing your worshipping the true God, there is " no truth " 



between one another, you deal folsely and cruelly, and 
are mercUess to your brethren ; never therefore talk of 
religion and of acknowledging the true God. 

Obs. 3. That it is in vain for any man to talk of his 
religion, if he make no conscience of the second table 
as well as the fh'st. For a man to talk of praying and 
heai-ing sermons, if he be cruel and hard-heai'ted, and 
false in his dealings, the Lord rejects all such, let him 
talk what he will. 

" No truth " in your dealings one with another. 
First, there is abundance of flattery amongst you. You 
flatter one another in your sin, you do not deal un- 
feignedly one with another. You flatter your princes, 
and your princes have little truth in their courts. It 
was once said. All things were plentiful in the court ex- 
cept truth. And this is the unhappiness of great men, 
that those about them usually deal falsely with them, 
telling them that their bloodshedding and ruining of 
kingdoms is butthe maintaming of their just honour and 
prerogative. I have read of Dionysius's flatterers, that 
when he spat upon the gi-oimd they would lick it up, 
and then tell him, that that spittle was sweeter than 
any ambrosia and nectar they ever tasted, merely to 
please him : and so you have many near great men, 
who, though they see them do things never so abo- 
minable, things that make never so great breaches be- 
tween God and them, between them and the people, 
yet tell them, that they do more bravely than ever any 
of their ancestors did. " There is no truth." 

" Truth " here some take for justice ; and so it is some- 
times taken in Seriptiu'e. Zech. viii. 16, " Speak ye every 
man the truth to his neighbpm' ; execute the judgment of 
truth and peace in your gates." As if he should say. You 
do not execute judgment upon malignants that are in 
youi- power ; you speak of raising arms to fetch in de- 
linquents, but you execute not judgment upon those 
that you have in their hands ; you will have God in a 
solemn manner to be blessed because he has delivered 
you from them, but judgment is not executed in truth 
as it should be. Nor " no mercy," that is, you show 
no mercy to the innocent ; you taUt of indulgence, but 
your indulgence to delinquents is cruelty to innocents. 
Oh how many of our brethren, in Oxford and other 
places, sufier most ch'eadful things because these here 
enjoy so much liberty and favour ! So there is neither 
mercy to the innocent nor justice to the guilty. 

But the special thing here intended is. That yon are 
not true in yoiu' dealings, nor in the trust committed to 
yoiu- charge. There is no equity in your dealings. 
Isa. lix. 14, " And judgment is turned away backward," 
(it is turned upon those that it should be executed 
upon,) " and justice standeth afar oft'." If one be 
greater than another, the meanest shall come under the 
stroke of justice and be executed, and the greater not. 
And " truth is fallen in the street." How comes that 
in ? Thus, as if he should say. It is true, they that are 
in authority will not execute judgment and justice, but 
are not the common people faithful in their deaHngs 
one with another ? No, " truth is fallen in the street." 
This seems to refer to the multitude. " And equity can- 
not enter." The word here translated " equity," comes 
from one which signifies a thing that is just before 
one : as if he should say. Those verj- things that one 
would think the plainest and most evident, that are 
just before us, that have so much equity and reason in 
them ; yet these tlungs cannot enter into their hearts, 
nor be entertained, there is such a general confusion 
and corruption among the people. _ And is not this in 
a great measm-e our condition at this time ? 

There is " no truth," they are false in the trust commit- 
ted to their charge. Oh, here is a controversy indeed 
that God may have against us. Was there ever a time, 
that either England or any other coimtry knew, w-hen 
there was so much falseness in men in the trust com- 



208 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



niittcd to them ? All things in Israel at this time were 
come into such confusion, that, through the falseness of 
men, things of the gi-eatcst consequence were betrayed. 
It is a sign of God's fearful vrrath upon our nation, that 
there is no trutli in men, when people are left to the 
treachery and perKdiousness of others ; that persons of 
whose truth we thought ourselves confident, nay, would 
have ventured our lives on it, yea, such as a long time 
before were faithful to admu-ation, yet at last, when 
they think they may suffer, they will betray all the trust 
that is reposed in them, and ventui'e even their own 
undoing rather than endure further hazard. Such 
cursed selfishness is there in men that have not the 
grace and true fear of God to balance their hearts; 
they will even betray God himself, and a whole king- 
dom, for their own private ends. But what an un- 
worthy thing is this, when so much mischief may ensue ! 
It is as if a man should set a house on fire to roast an 
egg : what are men's own particular ends in compari- 
son of a kingdom ? not so much as an egg in compari- 
.son of a house. This was the complaint in Micah's 
time of Judah, as well as of Israel here : (Micah was con- 
temporary with Hosea :) " Trust ye not in a fi-iend, put 
ye not confidence in a guide ; keep the doors of thy 
mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. A man's ene- 
mies are the men of his own house," !Micah vii. 5, 6. But 
though many of them are thus corrupt, and there is no 
truth in them, are there not some of them better ? 
ISIark tlie 4th verse : "The best of them is as a brier : tlie 
most upright is shaq)er than a thorn hedge." In evil 
times you find those in whom you most confide, so per- 
verse in some of their ways, that if you go to them for 
shelter, they will prick you ; even those men that you 
most esteem, and from whom you ex])cct to receive 
most. And this, indeed, is the day of the perplexity of 
a kingdom ; what shall we do in this case ? Mark the 
7th verse : " Therefore I will look unto the Lord ; I 
will wait for the God of my salvation ; my God will 
hear me." As if he should say. If I look to man I 
have little help or comfort there, the best of them is a 
brier ; if I trust in men, I see what they will do, verily, 
eveiy man is altogether vanity ; therefore our con- 
dition is very sad and miserable ; Lord, what shall we 
do ? " I will look unto the Lord ; I will wait for the 
God of my salvation : my God will hear me." Men can- 
not save me ; God will hear me, though tliey will not. 

God's controversy with covenant-breakers, with those 
that betray their trust, is very ch-eadful. I will cite an 
example or two out of the Scripture and out of history. 

First, when there was a famine in the days of David 
three years together, David would know why it was, 
and God gave him this answer, That it was " for Saul, 
and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeon- 
ites," 2 Sam. xxi. Because Saul would not keep to the 
Gibeonites the trust that was promised them, God 
therefore brings a famine upon tlie whole land for three 
years together. I beseech you, mark the aggravation 
of God's displeasure against any that break triist. First, 
this ])romise was not made by Saul, but by Saul's pro- 
genitors, above three hundred years before this time : 
and to whom was it made ? unto a heathenish people, 
to the Gibeonites ; and this promise was obtained by 
craft, they deceived Joshua. Secondly, it was a ])romis"e 
made them without asking counsel of God, Josh. ix. 14. 
A promise, too, that was against the mind of the con- 
gi-cgation; ver. 18, "All the congi-egation murmured 
against the princes." Thirdly, when Saul slew the Gi- 
beonites, he did it not from a jierfidious si)irit, but with 
a good intent, for so saitli 2 Sam. xxi. 2, " He sought 
to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel," be- 
cause he thouglit that the Gibeonites remaining 
amongst them would, perhaps, prove some hinderance 
to the good of Israel. Fourthly, this work of God 
comes not upon Saul then whcri he broke the trust, 



but upon his posterity afterward, and that shows the 
wrath to be greater. Lastly, it comes so upon them as 
that it will not be appeased till it has their lives : you 
may sec then how determined God is to punish pro- 
mise-breakers. 

Another example as remarkable is in Ezek. xvii. 1 J. 
When Zedekiah the king of Judah had made a cove- 
nant with the king of Babylon, he broke it, and '• re- 
belled against him in sending his ambassadors into 
Egj'])t, that they might give him horses and much peo- 
ple. Shall he prosper?" saith the Lord, " shall he escape 
that doeth such things ? or shall he break the covenant, 
and be delivered ? " This covenant was made with a 
wicked man, with a tjTant, and yet God calls it his oath 
and his covenant, ver. 18 ; and with what an emphasis 
does God speak this ! " He despised the oath by breaking 
the covenant, when, lo, he had given his hand :" yea, ver. 
1 6, God professeth it shall cost him his life : " As I live, 
saith the Lord God, siu-ely in the place where the king 
dwelleth that made him king, whose oath he despised, 
and whose covenant he brake, even with him, in the 
midst of Babylon, he shall die :" yea, further, God swears 
against him, and that by his o'wn life,ver. 19 : "There- 
fore thus saith the Lord God, As I live, surely mine 
oath that he hath despised, and my covenant that he 
hath broken, even it will I recompense upon his own 
head:" further, God tells him, all the strength that he 
had got, and all his policy and cunning dences, should 
not help him : ver. 20, " I will spread my net upon him, 
and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him 
to Babylon, and will plead with him there for his tres- 
pass that he hath trespassed against me :" and lastly, 
the wrath of God shall not only be upon him, but upon 
all those that joined with him and abetted him in the 
breaking of this covenant: ver. 21, "All his fugitives 
with all his bands shall fall by the sword, anil they 
that remain shall be scattered towards all winds." 1 
know not two scriptures more full for God's being set 
to contend with men for breach of ])romise. Oh ! take 
heed, all you that are intrusted with any public charge, 
that you break not covenant. 

And as you have examples of this in the Scripture, 
so there is also an example or two in history exceed- 
ingly to the point. Rodolphus set his hand to a cove- 
nant with Hem-y TV., which he afterward broke : and 
when his right hand was obliged to be amputated, his 
conscience accused him : " Oh," saith he, " this is that 
riglit hand that subscribed the covenant, and now God 
reveflges the breach of it upon this right hand." But 
above all, that part in the history of the Hungarians is 
the most remarkable, concerning Udislaus the king of 
Hungary, and Amurath the Great Turk. In it we are 
told that Udislaus making war with Amurath contrary 
to promise, when the Turks were about to be worsted ; 
Amurath having with him the covenant made between 
the king of Hungary and him, and seeing himself put to 
the worse, plucked the covenant out of his bosom, and 
with his eyes fixed toward heaven, s]iake thus, " This, O 
Jesus Cluist, is the covenant that thy Christians have 
struck with me ; O holy Jesus, they have done it in tliy 
name, and sworn by thy Majesty, and yet they have 
violated it ; they have perfiiliously denied their God. 
Now, O Jesus, if thou art a God, as they say, and as we 
guess thou art, revenge this wrong that is done unto 
me and unto thyself U])on these that have violated their 
faith and promise, and show unto us that know not 
thy name, tliat thou art an avenger of such as betray 
their trust, and then we shall know thee to be a God." 
Now upon this, God ordered it that the Hungarians, 
having the better of the day, broke off the fight, and, 
through covetousness of the prey, fell upon tne laden 
camels, whereupon the Turks totally routed the Him- 
garians, Udislaus their king was slain, and a famous 
victory left to Amurath. 



Vee. 1. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



Thus you see how God •nill be avenged for the breach 
of trust, and how certainly lie will follow those that 
have been guilty of it. If we have to deal with papists, 
how is it possible that we can confide in any thing they 
promise or agree to ? for we know it is their very opi- 
nion, that_^rfe.« non servanda hereticis, faith is not to be 
kept with heretics ; that for the Catholic cause they 
may break all their trust, promises, and covenants. 
Certainly, that people are besotted who shall so depend 
upon and be carried away by papists, as to lay their 
lives, liberties, and outward comforts at their feet and 
their mercy, for certainly there is no truth in them. 
What will be our state, if we lie at the mercy of those 
who have no truth in them, when afterwards we find 
they break asunder all their bonds of agreement, and 
we knew that this was their opinion before, that they 
would enter into league with us merely to serve their 
own turns, and when they obtained power, make our 
estates, lives, and liberties a prey to them ? 

Secondly, " No mercy." The merciful God sets him- 
self against unmerciful men, and has a dreadful con- 
troversy against them ; and when this controversy is 
pleaded, unmerciful men will be confoimdcd before the 
Lord ; for God will lay his plea thus : What ! you that 
stood in so much need of mercy every moment to keep 
you out of hell ; you that lived upon mercy continually 
as you breathed in the air ; you who are begging at my 
gates every day ; you who are undone for ever if you 
had not mercy supplied every hour ; and yet you 
unmerciful to your brethren ? This plea will stop the 
mouths of all unmerciful ones. It was the controversy 
that God had with Sodom itself, because they were un- 
merciful : much more then hath God a controversy 
with the inhabitants of the land of Israel if they be un- 
merciful. In Ezek. xvi. 49, God lays his charge against 
Sodom, That they did not " strengthen the hand of the 
poor and needy." Unmercifulness is a sin against the 
very light of nature. Josephus re])orts 
■""'■■ " of Herod, that wicked and ungodly king 
of whom we read in the Gospel, That when there was a 
great famine in Judea, he melted all his movables of 
gold and silver that were in his palace, he spared no- 
thing of his plate, either for the preciousness of the 
matter, or for the excellency of the fashion of it, no, not 
so much as those vessels wherein he was daily served 
at his table, but he melted them all and made money 
of them, and sent it into Egypt to buy corn, which he 
distributed to the poor. He appointed bakers to pro- 
vide bread for the sick; he provided raiment for the 
naked, because the sheep were llliewise dead and the 
poor had no work ; yea, he sent to his neighbours the 
Syrians corn, that might be seed-corn for them to sow. 
This was that wicked Herod, who yet in time of public 
calamity was thus merciful to the poor. Surely, then, 
God must needs have a controversy with Israel, with 
Christians, that have received so much mercy from the 
Lord, if they shall be unmerciful in times of common 
calamity. And if ever unmercifulness were a vile sin 
and provoked God against a people, it must needs do 
now at such a time as this, when there are so many 
objects of pity and commiseration daily presented be- 
fore us : if this should but prove to be our charge, that 
there is no mercy in the land at this day, God must 
needs have a fearful controversy against us. The whole 
laud cannot be said to be charged now as once it might 
have been. Not long since many were crying out of 
violence and wrong, those which ruled over us ruled 
with rigour and cruelty, according to that complaint, 
Ezck. xxxiv. 4, " With force and cruelty have yc ruled" 
my people. They have turned "judgment to worm- 
wood," Amos V. 7. The coiu'ts of judicature, which 
should have been for right judgment, have been turned 
into bitter wormwood and have been full of cruelty. 
What have many of them cared for the lives or the 



comforts of thousands, or for the extreme misery they 
created, provided their own humom-s and lusts might Le 
satisfied ? as if all other men were but as dogs except 
themselves. The Lord at this day charges this upon 
some of them, and will charge it more. I remember a 
speech of a reverend divine in this city, now with God, 
whom you all honoured when alive ; being brought 
before the high commission court, when he came home 
one day, speaking of what he observed there, I heard, 
said he, much crying out of Grace, and please your 
Grace, and much crying out of Peace, peace, if there 
were any noise ; but I saw no mercy tliere, nothing but 
cruelty. 

In Jer. 1. 17, you see what indignation God shows 
where men, though the greatest upon earth, are cruel 
to his people : " This Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon 
hath broken his bones." Who was this Nebuchadrez- 
zar ? A mighty and great prince, yet God looks upon 
him with indignation when he sees him breaking the 
bones of his people. We have amongst us those who, 
as Psal. xxvii. 12, "breathe out cruelty," and indeed 
act notlung less; "cruel hatred" being in their hearts and 
ways, Psal. xxv. 19. No marvel therefore though here- 
tofore our brethren left the kingdom, because they 
found such cruelty here, no mercy in the land ; they 
did but according to that to which the church calls its 
members. Cant. iv. 8, " Come with me from Lebanon, 
from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leo- 
pards." When they went from us, they went from the 
lions' dens, and from the mountains of leopards. No 
marvel now the Lord is so severe against our land, be- 
cause there has been so little mercy in it. That is the 
second article against Israel, That there was " no 
mercy." 

Thirdly, " Nor no knowledge of God." In the He- 
brew it is, and no knowledge ; but now Vau, rendered 
there and, signifies sometimes quia, as well as et ; 
and so it may indeed be well rendered here, Because 
there is no knowledge of God in the land ; the reason 
why there is no mercy, is because there is no knowledge 
of God. The knowledge of God will make wicked 
men merciful. Cruel men know not God. These two 
are joined together most elegantly, Psal. Ixxiv. 20, 
"The dark places of the earth are full of the habita- 
tions of cruelty." The knowledge of God will make 
men civil and humane at least, but when there is no 
knowledge of him men grow cruel and savage. And 
do we not find this to be true at this very day ? To 
what places are men that now rise up to plunder, to 
shed blood, to cruelly perpetrate the most desperate 
outrages, to what places are these men beholden for 
their assisters and abettors ? Are they not beholden to 
places where they are in ignorance, where they have no 
knowledge of God, where there is no preaching ? In 
the countries round about, observe those parishes, those 
towns, where there has been least or worst preacliing, 
where they have had least knowledge of God, and there 
you see most malignants that are bloody and cruel. 
No marvel, then, that our adversaries are such enemies 
to the faithful preachers of the word of God ; no mar- 
vel, then, they are made the butt of their malice ; for 
indeed if they bring the knowledge of God into the 
land, they will bring humanity, civility, mercy, and love, 
and these will find few or none to aid them in their 
wickedness. Indeed they complain that the parliament 
sets ignorant men in places, but certainly this com- 
plaint is but a pretence, for it were better for their 
turns that all the congregations in England had but 
ignorant men, none to bring the knowledge of God 
amongst people ; but they know well enough, notwith- 
standing what they say, that those that are sent are 
such as do bring the knowledge of God among peojile, 
and that nothing injures them more than this know- 
ledge of God. ' 



210 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



" No knowledge of God." This is a hea\7 charge 
indeed : " Pour out thy fury upon the heatlien that 
know thee not," Jer. x. 25. Though they be lieathens 
and yet know not God, the wrath of God is to be pour- 
ed forth upon them ; surely then God's wrath must 
be upon Israel that know not God. And Isa. xxvii. 11, 
They are "a people of no understanding : therefore he 
that' made them will not have mercy upon them, and 
he that formed them will show them no favour." 2 
Thess. i. 7, 8, '• The Lord Christ shall be revealed from 
heaven -srith his mighty angels, in flaming fii-e, taking 
vengeance on them that know not God." AATiat ! no 
knowledge of God ? what glory then can God have 
from such a people ? God has done great things m the 
world, he has manifested himself an infinite and a glo- 
rious God, and his end in all his manifestations is, that 
angels and men might behold this, might adore, ad- 
mire, worship, fear, and ])raise him ; but where there is 
no knowledge of God, there all God's glorj- passes by 
and there is no notice taken of it. To what pui-j)ose is 
the world made ? sucli a one can never sanctify- the 
name of God in any duty, nor worship in the use of any 
creature. Where tliere is no knowledge of God, there 
all good is kept out, there the unclean spirit, a spirit 
of darkness, dwells. AVhen the crow has picked out 
the eyes of the lamb, then it jireys upon it. As in dark 
vaults there are toads and filthy creatures, so in dark 
souls there are crawling and filthy lusts: as in blind 
alehouses there is abundance of disorder, so in a blind 
heart there are distempers and disorders in abundance. 
" No knowledge of God." The Septua- 
,f?\"'T'*^ gint render the word for knowledge, 
"" ' ""'"""'"■ by a word which signifies recognidon 
or acknowledgment, theve is no acknowledgment of God 
in the land. People should walk so in all their ways 
as to hold forth the glory of the great God whom they 
profess to serve. K they know God to be such as he 
is revealed in all his attributes and works, they should 
in their lives so walk as to hold this forth before the 
children of men. I appeal to you in this : perhaps 
some of you can speak concerning God, and tell us 
what he is, and concerning his atti-ibutes; yet, are your 
lives in your families, in your conversations, sue!'., that 
one, beholding them, may see inscribed the glorious 
attributes of God ? are they such, that in all your ways 
you can-)- with you the glory of the great God, holding 
ibrth your fear of him, your love of him, and giving up 
yourselves to this all-sufficient God, who is worthy of 
all ? There should be this acknowledgment of God, as 
well as knowledge ; and he has a controversy with a 
land, with a family, with a particular soul, when there 
is not an acknowledgment of him in all their ways. 

" In the land." In the latid, here is the emphasis. 
Oh this is a sad thing : AATiat ! in the land of Israel no 
knowledge of God? Psal. Ixxvi. 1, "In Judah is God 
known : his name is great in Israel." God was not 
known to any people in all the world but Judah and 
Israel ; and here ten tribes are charged for not having 
the knowledge of God in their land. Surely they re- 
fused to know the Lord, they shut their eyes against 
the knowledge of God, they say to God, " Depart from 
us, we desire not the knowledge of thy wavs." Men 
may live where there is the means of knowledge, and 
yet be ignoi-ant all their days. How many men of ex- 
cellent parts, in respect of all outward affairs, are there 
both iu the country and city, to whom, if you speak 
about matters of state, they will s])cak intelligently, 
and discover much acquaintance with state affairs ; 
confer with them about merchandise or their trades, 
tlicy will speak understandingly ; but speak to them 
about God, about Christ, about the things of eternal 
life, how poorly, how weakly, how childishly, how sot- 
tishly, .shall you have them speak about these things ! 
Men of parts, and living under much means, may yet 



be verj- ignorant in the knowledge of God. However 
the want of knowledge may seem to be a little matter, 
even in places where there are means, yet let men know, 
that it is a fearful brand of reprobation for people to 
live under the means, and not to have the knowledge 
of God: 2 Cor. iv. 3, " K our gospel is hid, it is liid to 
tliem that are lost." And it is pronounced as a great 
curse for a man to live without knowledge. Job xxxvi. 
12, " They shall perish by the sword, and they shall die 
without knowledge." Oh how many at this day do 
perish by the sword, and die without knowledge ! It 
concerns us now to get the knowledge of God, because 
the sword may be nearer than we are aware of; and 
what win become of us if it fall out to be our portion 
to perish by the sword, and to die without knowledge ? 

But though they had some means of luiowledge, yet 
their means did grow verj' short. And there are two 
special reasons why at tlus time there was no know- 
ledge of God in the land of Israel. 

i. Because that Jeroboam had, in the defection of 
these ten tribes of Israel, set up the lowest of the people 
in the place of the priests' office. Any man that desired 
to 1)6 a priest, though never so base and vile, Jeroboam 
would set him up. In 1 Kings xii. 31, you find "he 
made an house of high places, and made priests of the 
lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of 
Levi ;" no marvel then they had not the knowledge of 
God amongst them. Thus it has been in Ireland, and 
therefore no marvel there is so Kttle knowledge of God 
there : any tradesman that scarce understood right rea- 
son, less divinity, was set up there to be a priest, and 
what hon-ible cruelty has ensued! So in England: 
however some of them complain of ignorant men at 
present in the ministry, the truth is, they have set up 
men of far less understanding in former times : for a 
little money to a bishop's clerk, might not any trades- 
man, any cast butler or serving-man, get into orders, 
read their prayers, and so become a priest ? Tliis has 
been the cause of much ignorance. How many cast 
serving-men have been jilaced to do what they can do, 
whereas learned and godly divines must be cast out of 
the kingdom, and denied to have any liberty to preach 
the knowledge of God unto his own people ! Here is 
the reason of om- ignorance, even that which was Jero- 
boam's sin, the setting of the lowest of the people in 
the ministiy ; and now that there is an examination of 
men, we find what abundance of vile men tliere arc in 
places, and the people in those places are like to them, 
such ])rophet, such people, and the truth is, people love 
to have it so. In 2 Chron. xv. 3, a complamt is made 
that for a long season Israel had been " without the true 
God, and without a teaching priest." (This Israel in- 
cludes both Judah and Israel, as elsewhere in Scrip- 
ture.) " Israel hath been," (saith he,) " without the 
true God and without a teaching priest." This was a 
sad condition indeed, and mark how they are joined, 
" without the true God, and without a teaching priest, 
witliout law." A people are without God that are 
without a teaching priest and without the law. If they 
have not means to instruct them in the luiowledge of 
God, they are a people without God. But now, ob- 
seiTc what follows tliis, vcr. 5, 6, " And in those times 
there was no pence to him that went out, nor to liim 
that came in, but great vexations were upon all the in- 
habitants of the countries. And nation was destroyed 
of nation, and city of citj- : for God did vex them with 
all adversity." 'trvly, oiu- condition is almost like the 
condition of Israel at that time. And here we may 
see what the fruit of this controversy was, they were 
without a teaching priest and wii'iout law, and in those 
times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to 
him that came in, but great vexations, city destroying 
city, and nation destroying nation, for " God did vex 
them with all adversity.^' Oh how doth the Lord 



Ver. 2. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



211 



even vex us at this very day ! aud this as a fruit of 
God's controversy with us, because there is so little 
knowledge of God in the land. 

2. Because the pure worship of God and his ordinances 
were shut out of doors, and men's inventions were in- 
troduced in theii- room. For after the ten tribes' de- 
fection from Judah, they left the right worship of God, 
ceased to worship in the temple at Jerusalem, and set 
up their calves in Dan and Bethel, and so brought in 
their own inventions instead of the true worship of 
God ; and no marvel though there came dismal dark- 
ness upon the land when this took place. Be assured, 
my brethren, whenever the pure ordinances of God and 
the right way of his worship is shut out from a king- 
dom, there will come woeful darkness upon that king- 
dom. The right knowledge of God vanishes, when 
men's inventions in his ordinances come to be hon- 
oured. As painted glass in your windows hinders the 
light, so the more inventions of men there are in God's 
worsliip, the less light comes into the hearts of the peo- 
ple. As some, not contented with ordinary plain letters, 
make such flourishes about them that you can scarce tell 
what they are ; and write their names so that you can- 
not teU what to make of them ; so, many men that will 
not content themselves with plain ordinances, with the 
ordinances of Chi-ist, but must have flourishes of then- 
own inventions, at length darken the right understanding 
of the mind and truths of God, so that you know not what 
to make of them. " To the law and to the testimony," 
(saith the prophet,) " if they speak not according to this 
word, it is because there is no light in them." K they 
will leave tlie law and the testimony, and will go ac- 
cording to their own inventions in ]3ivine wor.ship, it 
is because there is no Ught in them, they are in dark- 
ness, and they will bring darkness upon the people. 
In Col. ii. 22, it is said of the rudiments of the world 
and the ordinances of men, that they " perish with the 
using ;" that is, there is no efficacy at aU in them to do 
any good unto the souls of men. Our adversaries call 
images and pictui'es, books to teach laymen ; but the 
Scripture tells us they teach a lie. And if they be lay- 
men's books, they are full of errata in every page, yea, 
there are more errata than ti-ue lines. The best that 
we can say of any ceremonies brought into the church 
by men ("because people would endeavour to excuse 
tlie fu-st Reformers) is, that they thought at that time 
they were required because of the dulness of men ; for 
so they say in the preface to the Common Prayer Book, 
that it was to stu' u]) the dull minds of men. But 
mark, if it could possibly be imagined that tliei-e could 
be any use of them in the first Reformation (which in- 
deed there was not, but rather they did hurt and made 
men's minds more dull, as I dare appeal to you who have 
lived continually under such inventions of men in God's 
worship) ; but if possibly (I say) there could be ima- 
gined any use of them at> the fii'st, they were at best 
but as honi-books and fescues for the chikUiood and 
infancy of the chui'cli. They say themselves that they 
needed such things, but they could have needed them 
only as childi-en need horn-books and fescues. And 
is it seemly always to learn upon them ? what know- 
ledge wiU be acquii-ed, if, when you set youi- childi'en 
to learn to read, they shall be kept ten, twenty, or thii'- 
ty years to their horn-books ? Now thus would our pre- 
lates have debased people, to keep them continually to 
learn the knowledge of God by these theu' beggarly 
elements. 

Now take these two reasons together, unteachiug 
priests, and man's inventions, they keep out the know- 
ledge of God from a people ; and they ai-e brought on 
purpose to induce blindness, because that is most fit 
and suitable to the design that men have to bring peo- 
ple under skvei-y. So it was here ; Jeroboam, at the 
time when Hosea prophesied, designed to bring the 



people under slavery, to keep them from the house of 
David to be his slaves ; and what course docs he take ? 
He first sets up the basest and lowest of the people to 
be their priests ; and secondly, he introduces false wor- 
ship, and that is attended by blindness and ignorance, 
and so by this means he knew he should soon bring 
them under slavery. And nothing is more clear, than 
that it has been the design of many that would have 
been rulers of the church, and that they have laboured 
with all their might, (in subservience to others,) to 
bring blindness and ignorance into the land, that_ so 
they might reduce the land under slavery ; and nothing 
has vexed them more, than that there is so much 
knowledge in the land. Therefore their- spirits were so 
enraged at people's flocking unto sermons ; itvvas even 
matter enough to silence any minister, to have people 
crowding to hear him preach : and they were enraged, 
too, at people's repeating of sermons in their own pri- 
vate families, liecause it also was a way to bring in 
knowledge. Any thing that tended to that, their hearts 
were enraged against it. Why ? Because they knew 
knowledge would so mould men that they would never 
bear servitude. And truly it is a vei-y strange thing, 
that though in some countries, (as in Wales and other 
places,) where men have not knowledge, they are con- 
tented to become slaves ; but that i:i these parts, where 
there is, though not so much as should be, yet _ some 
degree of the knowledge of God, one wovdd think it 
impossible that men should sufl'er themselves to be 
brought into slavery here ; and that they fear most. 
We read that when the Philistines had taken Samson, 
they put out his eyes, and then made him to grind in 
the mill. So these men would fain make us to gi-ind in 
the mill ; as it is said, some have threatened to make 
the dames of London work for a penny a day in bride- 
well. They would fain make you all slaves, but first 
they would put out your eyes ; they would take away 
knowledge, and then they know they shall soon suc- 
ceed in "then- object. Well, the Lord hath promised, 
Isa. XXV. 7, that " he will destroy in this mountain the 
face of the covering cast over aU people, and the veil 
that is spread over all nations." And mark, ver. 9, " It 
shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God ; we have 
waited for him, and he will save us." O come. Lord 
Jesus, come quickly and destroy the covering, the veil 
that is upon the eyes and hearts of a great part of the 
people of this land. The work would soon be done if 
the Lord would but destroy the veil of darkness that is 
upon the eyes and hearts of people, and we shoidd tri- 
umph in our God and say, Lo, this is our God, we 
have waited for him, and he will save us, yea, he hath 
saved us. 

Ver. 2. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and 
stealing, and committiiig adultery, they break out, and 
blood toucheth blood. 

You see what a catalogue of gi-oss sins are here men- 
tioned. And indeed when idolatry prevails in any 
country, there will be all manner of wickedness. _ We 
found it so here in England, that the more superstition 
prevailed amongst us, the more abominable -wickedness 
was generally spread over the country. 

Fh'st, For " swearing." The word here ti-anslated 
sweai-ing, is of nSs and signifies to cm-se, to swear, and 
to be perjured, and likewise also signifies to howl out : 
as in Joel i. 8, " Lament like a virgin girded with sack- 
cloth :" so that the same word which signifies curs- 
ing, sweai-iug, and forswearing, signifies also to howl 
and cry, for God has a time to make such to howl and 
cry out. An oath is a sacred thuig, a part of God's 
worship, and therefore the abusing of this is a dreadful 
sin ; especially if it be abused to swear to that which is 
false. Paulus Phagius, in his comment on Gen. xlii., 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



,„ i:„p,„ ,i,„i, saith, It is reported of the Eg)-ptiaiis, that 
'urt n^n'S^ ^ ^"y ™''" '"'^ ^"' swear by the life of 
mort*"pi?ci'i"r,nec the king, and did not perform his oath, 
w™S''e'';ium'™ that man was to die, and no gold or any 
iiOiinat. thing in the world could redeem his life : 

so did heathens hate that sin of pcrjuiT. Yea, we have 
found others that have not had much religion in them, 
•who yet have extremely hated the sin of ordinaiT 
swearing. Louis IX. of France, punished that sin 
l)y searing the lips of swearers with a hot iron : which 
law being executed upon a citizen of Paris, some said 
it was too cruel ; which he hearing of, replied, I would 
to God, that by so searing mine own lips, I could ban- 
ish out of my realm all abuse of oaths. He could be 
willing to sear his own lips with hot iron, that he might 
banish the abuse of swearing. Chrj'sostom, in some 
sixteen continued homilies, if not more, whatsoever his 
text was, always concluded against swearing, as being 
such a vile and notorious sin. And because some 
pleaded custom, he urges. If you would 
*a/,r?l'xo"»ri\- but punish it thus, that if there were 
uorivT" '''"''"'''"' sn oath sworn in your house, the servant 
Am"«ii' '"' ^°^' "'" child that swore the oath should not 
dine that day, that would in some mea- 
sure put a stop to it ; yet, saith he, the command of God 
is less efficacious. Divers other expressions I might 
name, but must hasten on. Jer. xxiii. 10, is remark- 
able and appropriate, " For because of swearing the 
land mourneth ; the pleasant places of the wilderness 
are dried up. And their course is evil, and their force 
is not right." 

It is a sin that has more malignancy in it against God 
by how much the less is the temptation to it. I verily 
believe, that if God had never made the third com- 
mandment, there would never have been so many oaths 
in the world ; but it springs from a mere malignancy of 
spirit in men against God because he has forbidden it ; 
for no profit can arise from the practice. 

If men be guilty of this sin merely through a vain 
custom, what high indignity is this against God! what 
slighting and neglect of God is there ! as if sinning 
against God were an argument of so little weight that 
a habit, senseless and unprofitable, could weigh it down. 
Custom, indeed, may prevail in things of no moment, as 
postures of the body, gestures, and the like, because in 
their very nature they are unimportant : but that cus- 
tom should suffice to be set against the high displeasiae 
of the blessed God, or against his solemn profession 
that he will not hold that soul guiltless that taketh his 
name in vain, this argues a most insufferable vilifying 
of his sacred Majesty. 

Secondly, To swear that thereby the words of men 
may be graced, is more horrid impiety : as if the pol- 
lutmg of the holy name of the most holy God were the 
best ornament of thy speech ; as if the dishonour put 
upon God were the best grace to thy language. 

Thirdly, To swear out of a conceit that this argues 
braveness of spirit, as if according to the fulness of 
mouthing of oaths, there were a spirit of valour and 
courage, is still more hideous wickedness ; as if the 
courage and excellency of ovu' spirits consisted in flying 
in the very face of God. AVhencc it is that many men, 
if angered, fall a cursing and swearing, that is, when 
others displease them tliey will Hy in God's face; for 
this is your language, though you will not dare to say 
so ; but this is the language of your practice. Others dis- 
please and anger me, and I to revenge myself will fly in 
the very face of God. A hideous wickedness there is 
in this, that you do not think of. When you jiassionate 
spirits come home, and your wives and children or 
servants anger you, and you fall to cursing and swear- 
ing, know you do no other than this ; this is the lan- 
guage of your practice, They displease me, and to re- 
venge myself I will fly in the very face of God. Many 



gentlemen ai-d noblemen and those that belong to them 
are great swearers, because they imagine that it is an 
argument of some braveness of spirit, and that thereby 
they manifest courage of a higher strain than other men. 
Oh hideous and abominable wickedness ! This is all 
the valour that many men have, that they dare sin 
against the glorious God and never be troubled at it: 
whereas a godly man is described in Scripture, Eccles. 
ix. 2, to be a man " that feareth an oath ;" but for these, 
it is not for them to feai-, it is for timorous, melancho- 
ly, poor spirits, but they are men of brave spirits, and 
they would have men know that they can swear and 
not be troubled at it, they have stronger minds than 
other men have. Thus is the blessed God dishonoured 
by this sin more than we are aware of. 

Fourthly, There is a class more guilty than these, 
those who swear that they may not be accounted puri- 
tans, or of the number of such a faction ; if they go in- 
to company where they think they may be suspected 
to be inclined to that party, what do they ? to give 
evident demonstration to the contrary, they swear lus- 
tilv, and rap out oaths one after another. Oh what 
horrible opposition to God and to the Spirit of Christ 
is this ! Christ saith, " that our light must so shine be- 
fore men, that they, seeing our good works, may glorify 
our heavenly Father." Now, they let their wickedness 
appear before men, that it may be known what they 
are ; and hereby they give testimony that they can be 
brought to yield to any thing, for that is their intent ; 
they do (I say) by that testify to the other party, that 
they can be brought to yield unto any thing and that 
they can serve their turns ; and this is the reason why 
they would willingly entertain no other than such as 
these, for if they hear a man swear lustily, then they 
think, Such a man surely either has no conscience at all, 
and so is fittest for oiu- turn, as he will not be a scru- 
pulous fool, or if he had a conscience he has broken 
it, and now it cannot prevail over him ; therefore let us 
put upon him what we will, if it suit with his own ends 
and with his own profit, this man will do it ; but as for 
your puritans, that are so conscientious we cannot effect 
our objects by means of them, therefore we will have 
none of them. Hence the puritans are so much hated, 
and the others, that they might be entertained by them, 
and give full testimony that they are fit for their turns, 
therefore swear. Oh how black are men's mouths at 
this day by their cursed oaths, new execrations newly 
invented, that the world never before heard of! A\'here- 
fore then, though God might make these men as scor- 
pions for a while to scom-ge us, yet if our spirits were 
up we need not fear them, for certainly they that are 
so full of cm-ses in their mouths, are the people of 
God's curse. 

" And lying." " By swearing and lying." These 
two go together : there is no man that makes not 
conscience of an oath, that will make conscience 
of a lie ; though the world would think to part them, 
and say. Oh you will not swear, but you will lie ; but 
God saith otherwise. Swearing and lying go to- 
gether; those that will swear, certainly will lie. I5ut 
for God's own people, God frees them from this sin of 
lying, though the world would cast it upon them, for 
no sin more offends against godliness. In Isa. Ixiii. 8, 
God saith of his pcojile, " Surely they are my people, 
children that will not lie." God engagetli himself for 
his jieople. These are the people that will not lie. .\re 
you in profession any of God's people ? God doth 
engage himself for you in this, that certainly you will 
not lie. It is said of the devil, that he is a liar, and the 
father of lies. And women that carry false tales u]) 
and down and are slanderers, are in Scripture called 
devils, 1 Tim. iii. 11, "Even so must their wives be 
grave, not slanderers ;" fii) ctaiioXovt, not devils : a 
woman that is a slanderer, that carries false talcs up 



Vt?.. 2. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



2K 



nntl clown to the prejudice of her neighbour, the Scrip- 
fare there calls that woman by the name of a devil. 
And the word that signifies detractor, in Hebrew is 
S'3"i and some think that from it comes oiu- English 
word rakehell, one that makes no conscience to speak 
f;)lsely. 

This sin of lying is the breaking of all society, there 
can be no converse between man and man where it 
prevails. Augustine, writing to his friend that sent to 
him to have his judgment concerning an officious lie, 
(that is, a lie that tends not to the hurt of any but of 
him that tells it,) returns this answer : That a man 
must not tell a lie to save the whole world ; if it were 
to save thy father or thy mother out of hell, if that were 
possible, thou must not tell a lie ; if it were to save 
kingdoms from destruction, thou must not tell a lie. 
Tliat is his opinion ; and certainly it is correct, for God 
will never be beholden to the devil to do good through 
his means. Surely then thou must not tell a lie to gain 
a groat, or a shilling, or to procure a good bargain, or to 
prevent the displeasure of thy master or mistress ; but 
rather willingly confess the truth than attempt to cover 
the fault by a Ue. It is practical atheism that induces 
servants and childi'en, when they have done amiss, to 
seek to cover it by a lie. God is exceedingly displeased 
with this sin, and has a controversy on account of it 
against nations, families, and against particular persons ; 
and therefore, Prov. vi., you shall find if you read from 
ver. 16 — 19, that after the Lord has said, that six 
things he hateth, yea, seven are an abomination unto 
iiim, that amongst these seven he repeats lying twice, 
tliough imder different terms ; and that in Rev. xxi. 
8, it is expressly said, that " aU liars shall have their 
])art in the lake which burnetii with fii'c and brimstone." 
Take that home with you, you servants, and children, 
and tradesmen that will tell lies for gain : God ranks 
and chains up liars together with notorious sinners, that 
shall all have their portion in the lake of fire and brim- 
stone, which is the second death. 

There are none in the world that make such advan- 
tage of lying as the anticliristian party, inventing all 
manner of lies, either to draw a party to themselves or 
to discourage those against them, inventing all manner 
of lies. And because the malignants invent so many 
themselves, if any thing is said against them, you pre- 
sently hear them exclaim. That 's a lie : they think all 
men are liars because they are conscious that they 
themselves are continually so. And no marvel that the 
antichristian party are so full of lies, for the very doc- 
trine of popery, as a whole, is altogether called a lie : 
2 Thess. ii. 10, 11, God gave men over, that did not en- 
tertain the truth in the love of it, " to believe a lie," 
that they might be damned. Do you ask the question, 
why so many learned men and persons of understanding 
turn to the popish party? Mark the reason here, '■be- 
cause they received not the truth in the love of it, God 
gave them over to believe a lie." A lie ; what is that? 
that is the doctrine of popery. So the very quintes- 
sence of it is a lie. That lie of popery being therefore 
the great lie in the world, it must have a company of 
lesser ones, if I may say so, to underprop and uphold 
it. Isa. xxviii. 15, "They make lies their refuge." It 
is a text as suitable to our times as any I know, show- 
ing the practice now, that when men cannot get any 
thing by fair means, then they invent lies and make 
them their refuge. The maxim of the Jesuits is, Ca- 
Ivmniare audacter, aliqiiid hcerebit, Slander and lie 
fearlessly, and something will adhere ; for every one 
that may hear the report, may not hear of the answer 
that may be given to it. And their policy is to spread 
abroad lies as much as they can, ami especially of those 
tliat are most eminent and active in public aflairs ; and 
hence those strange inventions raised of such as are 
most active in parliament, in the city, and in the minis- 



try ; things so hideous, that if they were true, would 
render men altogether unfit to be entertained in a com- 
monw-ealth. But you will say, "What can they get by it 
when it proves to be false ? Yes, because their lies 
spread a gi-eat deal farther than the refutation. And 
those in Jer. xx. 10, do fully set out the condition of 
these men : " I heard the defaming of many," saith the 
prophet. How ? " Report, say they, and we will report 
it." This was their plot ; We must defame Jeremiah ; 
we see that he has got a great deal of credit and pre- 
vails with the people, and we know not how to help 
ourselves ; only if we can but defame him, if we can 
but raise up something that may take away his esteem 
with the people, we may then have our end : therefore 
devise somewhat, report, and we will report it, we will 
spread it abroad. As now, if a company of malignants 
get into a tavern, there they will talk against this mi- 
nister and the other, against this parliamentarian and 
the other, against this citizen and that : What shall we 
do? say they; we see they prevail, let us de^•ise some- 
what that may defame them, report somewhat and we 
will spread it. To this day this has been the way of main- 
taining that antichristian party, that great lie. Jer. ix. 3, 
" They bend their tongues IDie their bow for lies ;" and 
ver. 5, " They have taught their tongue to speak lies." 
They are now become practised in it, and they do it the 
rather because they know it will please some great ones. 
It was so in former times : Prov. xxix. 12, " If a ruler 
hearken to hes, all his servants are wicked." If any 
olficer, or any about him, see that it wiU humour him 
to raise ill reports against God's servants, the servants 
of such a ruler will be wicked and invent lies enow. 
And amongst other places, Hos. vii. 3 is remarkable, 
where the text saith, " They make the king glad with 
their wickedness, and the princes with their lies." It 
is spoken of Jeroboam and the other kings that follow- 
ed him, that set up false worship. Now there were a 
great many in Israel whose consciences would not give 
them leave to follow that way of false worship : where- 
upon the promoters, ajiparitors, bailiffs, and some 
courtiers, would invent lies against those tliat must 
needs go up to Jerusalem to worship, and would not 
content themselves with the calves that the king set up. 
Now these their inventions respecting some of the 
most zealous men amongst the people, they brought to 
the king, and said. Did youi- JIajesty hear such a 
thing ? There are such men in your Majesty's domi- 
nions dwelling in such towns, and they are forsooth so 
scrupulous that they will not be content with the law- 
established religion, but they must go up to Jenisalem 
to worship, yea, and there they privily commit such 
and such wickedness, and live in such and such vile 
practices : and thus they came and told the king tales of 
them, and the text says, " They made the king glad;" 
the king was pleased, and gave them encourage- 
ment. Certainly, amongst us there have not been 
wanting men that have endeavoured this, that would 
have accounted this their happiness, to get a tale, 
though never so false, to tell of a puritan, or of a godly 
minister. 

" And killing." Murder is a provoking sin ; God 
seldom suffers it to go unrevenged in this world. 
^^'hence are all those discoveries of murders ; scarce 
any one but can tell strange stories of them. We have 
a vain distinction of murder and man-slaughter, as it is 
called, that, forsooth, if a man be angiy, and in a passion 
kUls another, this is man-slaughter, and no niiu-der. 
God will not own that distinction ; for if you shall by 
your pai^sion make youi-self a beast, and so kill a man, 
God will require this at your hand ; for. Gen. ix. 5, God 
saith, that he will require the blood of man " at the 
hand of every beast ; " much more at the hand of a 
man that by his passion makes himself a beast. The 
life of a man is precious to God, and God will not suffer 



214 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



CirAP. IV. 



any creature to have absolute power over it, but re- 
serves dominion over men's lives to himself. Mr. 
Ainsworth on Gen. ix. 6, cites the Jewish doctors, af- 
firming that a murderer, though it were possible for him 
to give aO the riches of the world, yet must be put to 
death, because the life of the murdered is the posses- 
sion of the most holy God; this is their argument. 
Certainly it is not in the power of any man upon earth, 
be he what he may, to save a murderer. The greatest 
man upon earth has no liberty, no prerogative, from 
God to save a murderer ; " whoso sheddeth man's blood, 
by man shall his blood be shed." God avenges the 
blood tliat Manasseh shed a long while after his death ; 
2 Kings xxiv. 4, " And also for the innocent blood tliat 
he shed ; which the Lord would not pardon." Though 
Manasseh did repent, (and so we have cause to hope 
■well in regard of his soul and his eternal estate, though 
Calvin seems to be of the contrarj- opinion,) yet the 
Lord came upon the nation after his days, and would 
not pardon liis shedding of innocent blood. How much 
do we find in the law concerning the killing of a man ! 
Deut. xxi. 1 — 9, when a man was found dead in the 
fields nigh unto a city, the elders of that city must come 
to the dead body, wash theii' hands over the heifer to 
be slain, and take a solemn oath that they had no hand 
in the murder, and so clear the city. This shows how 
precious the life of man is in God's esteem, and that 
God hath a controversy with a land for shedding of 
blood. 

And if this be so, what a controversy, thinlt you, has 
God against many in this kingdom at this day ! How 
fearful is God's controversy against some that must feel 
it for the blood that has been shed in Ireland ! There 
is upon record one hundred and forty thousand that 
have been mm'dered there since the beginning of this 
rebellion, and everybody will say, it is plain murder. 
And they, whosoever they are, that have partici- 
pated in and abetted this, and strengthened the 
hands of the mm-derers, what will they be able to 
answer unto God ? Shall the blood of one righteous 
Abel cr\' aloud in the ears of God, and never leave cry- 
ing untd it has had vengeance, and shall not the blood 
of one hundred and forty thousand innocents? (I 
mean innocents in regard of the cause for which they 
were murdered.) AVe now in England begin to be 
somewhat sensible what it is to have the guilt of mur- 
der lie upon a nation. In the last declaration of the 
afiairs of L-eland, the parliament intimates some fear 
they have, that possibly the guilt of the blood of King 
James may in some way lie upon us. God has a con- 
troversy for murder wheresoever it lies, if it be not pun- 
ished accordingly. And for all that blood that has 
been shed here of late, wherever the cause lies, God 
will find it out one day. Oh the blood that will be 
upon the head of some I Jer. H. .35, " The violence 
done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the 
inhabitants of Zion say ; and my blood upon the in- 
habitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say." So let all 
Christians, (they may do it, and they have waiTant from 
God to do it,) let all godly people in this kingdom that 
have had their husbands, their children, their appren- 
tices, their friends butchered in these unhappy wars, let 
them say, The violence done to my flesh be upon the 
Babylonish, the popisli party ; and the blood that has 
been shed of our husbands, of our children, of our serv- 
ants, of our friends, be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, 
the ])opish pai'ty dwelling amongst us, that have ri.sen 
up and shed so much blood. Oh how \i\e and cursed 
arc men's hearts, that arc so set upon theii' designs, 
that to attain them they will go through streams of 
blood that lie in their way, and care not for the lives 
of ihousands of men so their do.sires may be satisfied ! 
How are men vilified in this, that their lives and bodies 
must go to gratify the lusts of a few others ! Certainly 



God never made such a difference, never put such a 
distance between one and another. 

But now, in the execution of justice we mu6t not 
accoimt the shedding of blood to ibe killing. God has 
not a controversy with a land for blooilshed in it ; nay, 
on the contrar}', the Lord has a controversy against a 
people when there is not shedding of blood that way : 
Jer. xlviii. 10, "Cm-sed be he that keepeth back his 
sword from blood :" such a case maybe. And 1 Kings 
XX. 42, when Ahab let Benhadad go, the text saith, that 
a prophet came to liim in the name of the Lord, say- 
ing, " Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man 
whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy 
life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people." 
So when we have men in our hands whom God has 
appointed to destruction, who are guilty of death, who 
have sought not the blood of some few, but the mas- 
sacring of a city, if for private ends of our own we let 
them go, God may require our lives for theirs. And 
this perhaps is one of the reasons, that there is so much 
bloodshed amongst us at present, because there is no 
execution of justice upon ofl'endei's, and God requires 
the blood of many for many. It is true, papists are not 
to be put to death for then- religion, that we acknow- 
ledge ; but the Lord, because he intendelh the ruin of 
tliat part)', will leave them to act so that they shall be 
guilty of death by the law of the land, and by the law 
of arms, and then the putting them to death is the ex- 
ecution of justice, and not the breach of the sixth com- 
mandment. 

But some will say, Oh, killing is a grievous thing, we 
never were acquainted with it as we have been of late : 
were it not better we were all at peace, than that still 
so much blood should be shed ? 

God forbid any of us should be bloody men, or desire 
the shedding of blood. No, let us all labour to have 
peace that there may be no more bloodshed. This 
sjiecch simply considered is good, and we are all I hope 
of the same mind. Cursed be that man, I say, that shall 
not yield to tliis. And certainly peace, though upon 
hard terms, were to be desired, if it would save blood ; 
yea, though half our estates went to procure it : but 
what if it prove that that peace we talk of should be a 
means of more bloodshed? If you should let into your 
city such men as bloody papists, French, Walloons, and 
Irish rebels, and that merely upon their bare word that 
they would do you no hurt, do not you think if they 
were once admitted, that you would every night be in 
danger of being massacred ? and would there not be 
much more bloodshed than has yet been ? Therefore 
say not that those are bloody men that will not jield 
up their throats to men of blood, but will stand up to 
defend their brethren from being massacred ; Ihcy take 
up arms, not to shed, but to prevent tlie shedding of 
blood : and certainly, if the city and countrj' had hi the 
beginning of these wars risen up as one man and gone 
forth, they might have saved much of the blood that 
has been shed. Many thousands that have now lost 
their lives might have been presers'cd, if you had reso- 
lutely taken up arms sooner than you did : but when 
every county looks to itself, and the enemy goes to 
one, and then to another, shedding blood, and you sit 
still and do nothing, God may require the blood of 
your brethren at your hands; and you cannot clear 
yourselves from being guilty of it, when you do not, to 
the uttermost you are able, strive to subdue the power 
of those that shed it. We cannot see any way to pre- 
serve the blood tliat is now in our veins, but by subdu- 
ing the malignant and antichi-istian pai-ty that have 
already tasted so much of the blood of tlie saints. 

And so with those rebels that in Ireland have tasted 
so much blood, and now are come over here to join with 
])ai)i8ts, you cannot possibly conceive any safety but by 
subduing that party. Is that a way to prevent the 



Vek. 2. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA, 



shedding of your blojd, to lay your necks upon the 
block ? for that peace proifered under a specious name, 
may be iu truth no other but a laj-ing your necks upon 
the block, and giving up your wives and children to be 
a sacrifice to their malice. 

The Lord has a controversy for blood. We Idow, 
when we have to deal with papists, what they have been 
of old, and therefore we hope God has a controversy 
with that party, that as they have di-unk the blood of 
the saints, so they shall at last swell and burst them- 
selves in pieces. In the time of the massacre in France, 
when liistory tells us of more than ten tliousand pro- 
testants that were murdered in one night in Paris, they 
were in as fail- a way of peace as possible, and there 
was a marriage solemnized, and a gi-eat deal of rejoicing 
for the union of one party with another, and yet (I say) 
in that night so many were slain ; and you may expect 
no other if the mahgnant party get power. You wiU 
say, They have not done so to other cities which they 
have taken. No, they have not got the day yet, their 
design is but progressing ; but if once they get tliis city, 
then, ha-STng attained their chief object, you may ex- 
pect all manner of cruelty from them. And this mas- 
sacre in France went on to other cities, for within a few 
days after there were forty thousand more computed to 
be murdered. I remember that the history of France 
teUs us of that King Charles IX., by whose commis- 
sion this was done, that afterward God struck him 
with such a disease, that there issued out of his body 
at several places nothing but blood, so that in that 
sickness he would sometimes fall doi\'n and wallow 
himself in his own blood. Be men great or small, 
yet, being guilty of blood, at one time or other the 
Lord wUl manifest that he has a controversy against 
them. 

'• And stealing." God sets bounds, as to men's habit- 
ations, so to men's estates, and he wUl not have one to 
break in upon another ; no, not so much as to covet that 
which is another's. Seeking therefore an increase of 
om- estates in any sinfid way, is, as it were, sajing, 
God's care is not over me to provide needful things for 
me, and seeing I cannot have them fi-om God, I will 
try if I can have them from the devil. This is the lan- 
guage of all kind of gain that we get by any unla'svful 
way ; you do not say so in words indeed, but this is the 
language of yom' actions. Saith a poor person, I am 
in want, I want bread for my family, and clothes, and 
many outward comforts, money to pay my rent, &c. ; I 
see in God's pro'S'idence he does not provide for me ; 
well, I wiU go to the devil then, and will see whether 
he will do more for me than God : I cannot have it by 
God's allowance, for if so, I might get it by lawful 
means, therefore, saith he, I will have it whether God 
will or no. This is the language of all kind of stealing : 
and the curse of God is upon that which is gotten so 
unjustly, and all the repentance in the world is not sufii- 
cient for a man who has gotten his estate unjustly, un- 
less he make restitution of it again to the uttermost of 
his power. 

And this stealing refers not only to open robbery, 
but to aU wrongful gain gotten by way of trade. If I 
were preaching of this argument at large, much might 
be said to those that live by ti-ade. But for the pre- 
sent take that one scripture, Ezek. xxviii. 18, " Thou 
hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine 
iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic." Let mer- 
chants and tradesmen that have gotten any thing un- 
lawfully, take this text home with them, "'Thou" hast 
de.lled thy sanctuaries by the iniquity of thy traffic." 
It may be, by trafficking unjustly you have gotten an 
estate, and you come to God's sanctuaries "as if you 
were very holy, and no one should suspect you for your 
false books and dealings ; to you God saith" in this text, 
that you defile all the ordinances by the iniquity of 



your traffic. Perhaps you think, out of your imrisiit- 
eous gains, to give somewhat to adorn such a place as 
this : it is well enough, but you do defile them. 

So for all kind of oppression, for that too is meant by 
stealing. Latimer, in one of his sermons before King 
Edward, saith, that the gi'eatest man in the kingdom 
cannot so hurt an oppressor, as a poor widow may ; and 
with what arms I pray ? saith he ; can he bring the 
judges to condemn ? The arms are these, the tears 
of the poor, which run down theh- cheeks and go up 
to heaven, and there cry for vengeance. The text 
here speaks not of the meanest, but of the greatest 
thieves. Calvin, on the place, saith, those that had the 
most power by their honour and riches, and were op- 
pressors of the people, are the thieves here spoken of. 
And Isa. i. 23, " Thy princes are rebellious, and com- 
panions of thieves." And Isa. xxxiii. 1, ""\Mien thou 
shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled." This is a 
text for our spoilers at this day : it may be God will let 
them go on till they have done their work, and then 
come upon them ; and when they have done sr '^ling, 
they shall be spoiled. O! that controversy see.. s to be 
upon England, wliich was threatened and was upon the 
people in that place we read of, Isa. xlii. 22, " "Tliis is a 
people robbed and spoiled ; they are all of them snared 
in holes." If they had come into the field, perhaps it 
had been better with them ; but they crept into holes, 
and they are snared and spoiled : " They are for a prey, 
and none delivereth ; for a spoil, and none saith, 
Restore. VTho among you will give ear to this ? " 
!Mark what the text saith, " Wlio will hearken and hear 
for the time to come ? Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and 
Israel to the robbers ? Did not the Lord, he against 
whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his 
ways, neither were they obedient imto his law. There- 
fore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, 
and the strength of battle : and it hath set him on fire 
round about, yet he knew not ; it burned him, yet he 
laid it not to heart." We are a people robbed and 
spoiled ; because we have not walked in the ways of 
God, nor been obedient to his law, therefore the Lord 
hath poured his fury upon England at tliis day, and his 
fire burneth ; and who hath laid it to heart ? " Nobody 
stirs ; because the fire is not kindled in the city, you lay 
it not to heart, and you sufier your brethi'en in one 
county after another to be spoiled. Take heed, if you 
stir not more than you have done, as many of you may 
answer for the blood of your brethren, so for the spoil- 
ing of their goods, because you do not lay to heart this 
heavy judgment that is at present upon the land, the 
execution of this controversy. 

But yet you must know, that the taking away of 
men's goods is, in times of war, no stealing, noi: no 
breach of the eighth commandment ; for it is against 
common sense and reason, that in such times we .should 
be wholly tied to those positive laws of a state that are 
made for seasons of peace : but it accords with the law 
of natm-e, the law of God, and the law of arms, that our 
enemies should be deprived of what may sti'engthen 
them against us. Therefore let none cry out about 
stealing and robbing in these times ; indeed, it is not 
fit that any should be sufl"ered to rob, but yet it is just 
that those that wiU not be on one side should be taken 
as enemies to the other ; and (I say) it is agreeable to 
the laws of nature, of God, and of anus, that in times 
of just war, (and regarding ours, I hope you cannot but 
be' fully satisfied,) that what may sU-engthen the enemy 
may be taken away. Lideed, the!/ plead for law who 
whoUy break it themselves, because they would have 
aU the privilege they can to strengthen themselves by 
om- goods and the goods of others ; but certainly God 
permits us, being in a lawful war, to strengthen our- 
selves bv the estates and goods of those that appear 
our enemies, without breach of peace or of the positive 



2:g 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



Kiinquam ma?eho 



law of tlic land, or of his own commandment. Thus 
much for the fourth charsje. 

" And committing adultery." The jreneration of 
a rational creature wlio must live to all eternity, is 
a work that God challen'^cs a special hand in, to ap- 
))oint it to all at his pleasure ; therefore the breach of 
God's order in this, to satisfy the brutish lust of man 
or woman, is a most cursed evil, against which God 
carries on a most dreadful controversy. It is a breach 
of the blessed covenant of God, and a sin most opposite 
to his nature. And all yon that are guilty of this ; for 
perhaps many that are professor! of religion, and live 
fairly amongst their neighbours, may yet be secretly 
guilty of it ; all of you take this text home with you, 
" The mouth of strange women is a deep pit : he that 
is abhon-ed of the Lord shall fall therein," Prov. xxii. 
] 4. Go thy ways, thou canst know no otherwise by 
thyself, but that thou art the man or the woman that 
art abhoiTcd of God. Thou art beloved of thy whore, 
but the Lord abhors thee. And Tertullian, speaking 
on Ejjh. V. 6, "Let no man deceive you with vain 
words," uses an expression which I confess I would not 
dare to employ ; He that preacheth of re- 
pentance to adulteiy, especially adultery 
lia'messe'pt'raS^ in a forcible way, deceiveth men with 
'■'"• vain words. You see his conception of 

the sin ; we dare not justify what he saith, but it 
serves to show you how tkeadful he apprehended the 
sin to be. And in Heb. vi., speaking of the sin 
that is unpardonable, he saith. We never read, nor 
ever knew, a second repentance promised to an adul-. 
terer or fornicator. He admitted but one repentance 
after baptism : see lib. de Penitentia, et de Pudicitia. 
These were his thoughts of adultery. The Athenians 
made a law, that if any man found his wife in the act 
of adultery, he might presently kill her. And I have 
read of a people among the heathen, that have punish- 
ed this sin for its filthiness, by thrusting the adulterer's 
head into the paunch of a beast and keeping it there, 
and so stiHiiig him. If heathens hated it so much, 
surely God must have a controversy, because of this 
sin, with those that profess themselves Christians ; and 
the gi'eater controversy because it is so little punished 
by men. And though many great ones can escape 
man's punishment, yet they cannot get beyond this 
controversy. I remember ^tr. Cleaver reports of one 
tliat he knew, that had committed the act of unclean- 
ncss, and in the horror of conscience hung himself; 
tliat when he was about to hang himself, he wrote on a 
pa])er to this effect, I indeed acknowledge it to be ut- 
terly unlawful for a man to kill himself, but I am bound 
to act the magistrate's part, because the punishment of 
this sin is death. God would have that sin punished 
with death, but the magistrate did not punish it ac- 
cordingly, therefore he, in horror of conscience, lays 
violent hands upon himself. W'c justify not his act, 
but it shows what a controversy God has with men that 
commit this sin. Thou committest that abominable 
sin, and thou hast some pleasure and delight in it; go 
tliy way, thou art a dead man in God's eyes ; look to 
thyself, one way or other God may bring death upon 
thee, and though man's law take not hold on thee, God's 
may, thou knowest not how soon. I have read of a 
king of NavaiTo, that by adultery had weakened his 
(Vamo very much, and in consequence, his ])hysicians 
caused his body to be wrapped about witli a cerecloth 
dijilicd in aqua vitjr, and the party that sowed tlie cere- 
cloth, having done, went to burn off the thread witli a 
candle, wliich jirescntly took hold of the cloth and con- 
sumed both it and the king. 

And as God has a controversy for this sin, which is 
so little ])unislied by man's law, but by God's law is 
death ; so the rather has God a controversy for it, if it 
be committed by men of knowledge, by learned men. 



by men that are in public places, by men that carry a 
show of holiness, bv men that are in the ministry ; if 
they commit it, God has, in a special manner, a di-eadful 
controversy with them. Jer. xxix. 22, 23, " The Lord 
make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the 
king of Babylon roasted in the fire ; because they com- 
mitted villany in Israel, and have committed adultery 
with their neighbours' wives." It was a proverb, "The 
Lord make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom 
the king of Babylon roasted in the fire." This was not 
King Zedekiah and King Ahab, but two false prophets 
of the name, unclean wretches ; and though it wei-e the 
king of Babylon, a heathen, yet he so hated that sin 
of adultery, that he caused them to be roasted in the 
fire ; for to burn or roast the offenders in the fire, was the 
punishment of that nation for capital offences. There- 
fore those that are ministers, that are learned men, that 
have any show of holiness more than others, if they be 
guilty of this sin God has a most di-eadful controversy 
with them. 

And see how we should have a controversy too 
against this sin of uneleanness, especially when forced. 
In Judg. XX. 17, you read there that there were four 
hundred thousand men, all men of war, that were raised 
up as one man, and they all said, ver. 8, " We will not 
any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn 
into his house." And why did all these men rise ? The 
cause was this : there was a Levite that had a concu- 
bine, which had played the harlot and gone from him, 
and he going to fetch her back, the men of Gibeah, a 
city of Benjamin, came in a violent way and abused 
her until she died : u])on this the Levite took the dead 
body and divided it into twelve several pieces, and sent 
them into all the coasts of Israel. Upon this the hearts 
of all the men of Israel were raised as one man, and 
they covenanted among themselves, that they would 
none of them turn into then- houses until they had 
brought the delinquents, that had committed that hor- 
rible offence, to condign punishment. Mark now, that 
the hearts of people should be so set upon it, and think 
it a sufficient reason to gather an ai'my of four hundi'ed 
thousand. Have we not heard of worse than this 
amongst us wheresoever the soldiers have come ? what 
horrible villanies have been committed in this respect, 
taking not men's concubines and whores, but grave 
matrons, and pui^posely those whom they think to be 
most godly, and defiling them before the eyes of their 
husbands, and then mui'dering them ! and yet we stir 
not for all this to fetch in these delinquents. Now we 
have rapes and ravishments of thousands amongst us, 
and yet our hearts stir not, though no question the 
same thing is intended against us here that is done to 
our brethren in other countries, for you can expect 
little else from such as these. In Judg. v. 20 the mo- 
ther of Sisera saith, " Have they not divided the prey, 
to every man a damsel or two ? " They aim as much to 
satisfy theu' lusts upon you as upon your goods ; you 
must not think your lives will satisfy them, but their 
lusts must be fu-st gratified. If you regard not your 
lives, and estates, and liberties, yet regard such horri- 
ble villany as this, which is committed in the f;ice of 
heaven. These here resolved not to go to their tents 
nor to turn into their houses till this was done. Be con- 
tent to shut up your shops for a while, and to leave 
your trades and to lie in the fields, until you have 
brought these delinquents to their just punishment. 
Be not discouraged with a little ill success ; there were 
forty thousand of the better side slain here before 
Israel got the victory, until they had thoro\ighly hum- 
bled themselves, and tlien they succeeded. Though 
our adversaries meet with success in their ways, let us 
not be discouraged ; they that stood to defend this hor- 
rible wickedness of the men of Gibeah, got the first and 
second days, yet they persevered till they had brought 



Vr,E. 2. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



217 



tl-.e offenders to cmidign punishment. We should re- 
f-olve never to follow our business, nor regard our 
houses and private estates, until we have got this wick- 
edness punished in this land, and wiped off its guilt 
i-om the kingdom." 

" Thev break out." That is, like the eruption of 
waters ; as waters break over the banks when it has 
been kept in a while, so they thus break out and over- 
How all bounds. "When sin is not mortified, though it 
be restrained for a while, it will break out : as many 
young men that have lived in good families and had 
good governors, and so have had their sin restrained, 
afterward, when they come to manage themselves, then 
break out, sin gi-ows to a strength that notliing can re- 
strain ; hke that man that had an unclean spirit and 
lived among the graves ; " no man could bind him, no, 
not with chains," ^lark v. 

Obs. Breaking out is a great aggravation of a man's 
sin. It argiies strength, impudence, and desperateness 
in sin. And this breaking out of sin is not merely as 
the overflowing of water at some times or tides, but 
rather like the bursting out of fire, or, if you will, like 
water gushing forth from some fountain : now you 
know, if water break out of a fountain, not a diminu- 
tion, but rather an increase ensues ; and when a house 
is on fire, it will smoulder a long while, but when it 
bursts out at the roof or elsewhere, then it flames the 
more and increases with more violence. So it is no 
diminution to sin that it breaks out; as many fooKsh 
people that will speak horribly wickedly in their pas- 
sion. I will let it go, as good out as in ; foolishly con- 
cluding there is so much less corru]rtion within, and 
that is a diminution of sin, whereas it is an aggrava- 
tion, and denotes impudence in sin. 

" And blood touclieth blood." That is, as some will 
Iiave it. one gross and abominable sin, accounted abloody 
sin, follows another. But some understand it thus, 
one murder follows another, one oppression succeeds 
to another : " Blood toucheth blood ;" now thy wick- 
edness is broken out there is no end of it, but one mur- 
der follows another. Pareus thinks it refers to the 
same times as 2 Kings xv., where you may read what 
murders there were, and how blood touched blood ; as 
if the prophet here said. They being used to murder, 
there is now nothing else, you hear of murders every 
where. Thus, if the Lord raise not up means to con- 
trol and subdue the rage of ungodly men, if it get head 
and overcome the opposition it meets, blood will then 
touch blood, one messenger shall not have done his re- 
lation of one horrid and cruel murder, before another 
messenger wiU be at his heels to tell you of another, 
stiU more horrid and moi-e vile. So it is in some coun- 
tries, there comes one and saith. In such a place such a 
man and all his family were murdered ; and presently 
another comes and tells you, In such a town such a 
friend of yours was murdered; thus the messengers 
rapidly succeed one another, and relate of blood touch- 
ing blood. So some interpret it. 

But I rather thus. They defile themselves incestuous- 
ly, (so that this is somewhat more than bare adultery,) 
not regarding the nearness of blood, but " blood touch- 
eth blood ;" they that were nearest in blood mingled 
themselves one with another in iilthy and abominable 
lusts. So the Septuagint translate it, liiayovai, they 
mingle : and Jerome, mvguis sanguinem teligit, they 
mingle and touch blood with blood, those that are near 
of kin come near one another in filthy lusts. Now this 
was a sin for which God cast the very heathen out of 
Canaan, tliat good land, and therefore well may he 
have a controversy with the people of tlie land now ; 
as you may find Lev. x\-iii. 6, " iSTone of you shall aj)- 
proach to any that is near of kin to hini, to uncover 
their nakedness : I am the Lord." And so afterward 
goes on to show what degrees of consanguinitv we 



must observe ; and then, ver. 24, 25, " Defile not ye 
yourselves in any of these things : for in all these the 
nations are defiled that I cast out before )ou ; and the 
land is defiled : therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof 
upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants." 
The rather still has God a controversy with a people for 
this sin, because it is so little punished. I ask, what 
punishment is there at this day amongst us for incest, or 
for any uncleanness, except that tlie man must support 
the child ; and as to the ancient punishment of coming 
into the court and being enjoined to wear a white sheet, 
they could dispense with it for a very little money. 
Hence we may fear that God's controversy is so much 
the more against us, and pray to hini that speedily the 
land may deliver itself fi'om this guilt by having severe 
laws for the punishment of this horrible wickedness, lest 
God come and punish it himself, and then woe unto us ! 

Ver. 3. Therefore sliall the land mourn, and every 
one that dwelleth llierein sliall languish, with the beasts 
of tlie field, and uilh the fouis of heaven ; yea, thefishes 
of the sea also shall be taken away. 

You have heard that God in this chapter commences 
a suit against the ten tribes. He puts in his action, 
and he declares, and then judges. The articles of his 
declaration or charge against them we have discussed. 
Hereupon judgment is passed, " Therefore shall the land 
mourn." 

" The land." How can the land be said to mourn ? 
As when the land is fruitful it is said to laugh and sing, 
and meadows that are green to rejoice ; Psal. Ixv. 13, 
" The valleys also are covered over with corn ; they 
shout for joy, they also sing:" so when a land is de- 
solate and God brings famine, then it is said to mom'n. 
Jer. xii. 4, " Hov\' long shall the land mourn, and the 
herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them 
that dwell therein ? the beasts are consumed, and the 
birds ; because they said, He shall not see our last end." 
And lilcewise a place, when left desolate of people that 
were before the beauty of it, is then said to mouni : 
Isa. iii. 26, " Her gates shall lament and mourn." 
Lam. i. 4, " The ways of Zion do mourn, because none 
come to her solemn feasts." As now in time of plague, 
the streets of your city may be said to mourn because 
they are deserted and look desolate, wlien the grass 
grows between the stones ; " Her gates shall lament and 
mourn." The expression here is designed to upbraid 
the hardness of the hearts of the ten tribes. As if God 
should say. Notwithstanding all their di'eadful sins, that 
should break theu' hearts and make them howl and ciy 
out, yet they will not mourn ; therefore their land shall 
mourn. When God will upbraid men for stopping 
their ears and refusing to hear, and to obey, he calls 
to the heavens, Isa. i. 2, " Hear, O heavens, and give 
ear, O earth ;" to upbraid the the deafness of men that 
will not hear : and Jer. ii. 12, "Be astonished, O ye 
heavens :" because men will not fear, therefore, to up- 
braid them, God calls to the heavens to be astonished : 
so, because men's hearts are hard, therefore God calls to 
the land to mourn, yea, saith it " shall mom'u." The 
deformity of your sin, that is the meaning, shall appear 
in the miserable desolation of yom- country. There is 
an ugly face of sin, and it were well if you saw it as it 
is inVour own hearts, the guilt that you have brought 
upon yom- oim spu'its ; but seeing you will not appre- 
hend sin as in your own hearts, you shall see the sad 
effects of it in all things of the land. God will have 
sin appear vile to us one way or other. The Lord this 
day is making our land mourn because we have not 
mourned, because we do not mourn. Many countries 
know what this expression means, their country 
mourns, their land mourns. The veiT sight of the 
dreadful effects of sin upon many parts in England is 



218 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



sufficient to break any man's heart. As in Gennany, 
persons that have travelled tlicre, and seen towns and 
places, formerly of great riches and traffic, now over- 
grown with nettles, it bi'caks their hearts, they see the 
land to mourn ; and it begins to be so amongst us in 
many places of England, in Yorkshire, and in the 
west. Oh that wc all could mourn in the bitterness 
of our spirits, that oui- laud and cities might no further 
mourn ! But wc must not give liberty to ourselves in 
pathetical or affectionate ways, but keep as near as we 
can to an explicatory course. 

" And everj- one shall languish." The word trans- 
lated languish here, signifies the withering of a flower, 
or the withering of herbs and trees : and so in Nah. 
i. 4, " The flower of Lebanon languisheth ; " the same 
word occurs as here, " every one shall languish,'' and 
the signification of it suggests this useful note. 

Obs. 1. All the gloiy and pomp of the men of the 
world, is but as a flower ; and even as soon as a flower 
withereth, so soon do they pass away. 

Obs. 2. Times of affliction take clown the jollity and 
bravery of men's spirits, and make them fade, wither, 
and pine away. 

^- The word here is translated by some, 

and they shall be made weak. 'V\'hen 
wicked men are prosperous, their hearts are stout and 
strong to sin, they can stand out against God and 
against all threats ; but when the hand of God is upon 
them, then their spu'its are poor, they arc weak and 
presently cast down. Oh the difference between the 
brave, stout spirits of wicked men in their prosperity 
against God, and their poor, weak, withered, and de- 
jected spirits in the time of their adversity ! Psal. 
xxxix. 11, "'^\nicn thou with rebukes dost correct man 
for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away 
like a moth : surely every man is vanity. Selah." 

And a notable expression we have of the withering, 
the languishing, of the spirits of wicked men in the time 
of their adversity, that whereas now in theu- prosperity 
their tongues are then- own, and they must and will 
ask, AVho is the Lord ? they are then loud in their 
oaths and blasphemies ; but mark them now in their 
adversity; Isa. xxix. 4, "Thou shalt be brouj;ht down, 
and shait speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall 
be low out of the dust, and thy speech shall whisper 
out of the dust.'' This is the fruit of the languishing 
of their spirits in the time of their trouble. As a riot- 
ous and boisterous gallant, that would so mouth it 
when he was in prosperity, yet let God but lay his hand 
upon him in sickness, and his conscience then accus- 
ing him, he whispers and speaks low out of the dust. 
Then follows, 

" AVith the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of 
heaven ; yea, the fishes of tlie sea also shall be taken 
away." 

Jerome allegorizes this, and would take it to mean 
several sorts of men. But we must not stand to that, 
but rather take the words as they are literally. Only 
as to the reading of them a word or two first. 

" AVith the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of 
heaven." In the Hebrew, 3 which is translated nilh, 
is sometimes equivalent to for, "for the beasts of the 
field ■" as in chap. v. 5, "Israel and Ephraim shall fidl 
in their iniquity, or, for their iniquity. So if here we 
translate if. /or the beasts of the field, and /or the fowls 
of heaven, then we have this note. 

Obs. 3. AVc may here see the poorness of our con- 
dition, that when but the beasts of the field and the 
fowls of the air are destroyed, our comforts are forth- 
witli gone. The comforts of natural men depend upon 
poor things, on the beasts of the field, the fishes of the 
sea, the fowls of the air ; if God's hand be but upon 
them, and the cups be taken from their mouths, and 
the fidl dishes from their tables, presently they lan- 



guish. It is otherwise with a gracious heart : Hab. iii. 
17, 18, "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, nei- 
ther shall fruit be in the ^ines ; the labour of the olive 
shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat : the flock 
shall be cut off fiom the fold, anff there shall be ro 
herd in the stalls : yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I vill 
joy in the God of my salvation." A gracious heart 
does not languish because the beasts of the field and 
the fowls of the air are taken away : let them be taken 
away, yet he can rejoice in God, his spirit will be sus- 
tained. 

" Shall be taken away." The word in the Hebrew 
is ISDN' they shall be gathered, for it is observable both 
in fowls and in fishes, that when they perceive any 
thing noxious unto them, or that they are in any dan- 
ger, they gather themselves together : and that is the 
reason that fishes at some periods of the year are in 
such shoals ; going from one place to another, and find- 
ing them noxious and hurtful, or perceiving some dan- 
ger, they gather together. And so fowls migrate in 
the winter time. I have heard many in Holland say 
of the storks, that they gather themselves in the space 
of a week or thereabouts, and so take their flight toge- 
ther from that country. Thence I take the word here, 
they shall be gathered together, to mean, that there 
shall be such times of danger, and such infection in the 
air, and in the very waters of the sea, that the fishes 
and fowls shall perceive it, and so shall be gathered 
together (as they use to be gathered when they per- 
ceive any such thing) to go away ; and being so gather- 
ed together, they shall be destroyed. It is good for 
men, like these creatures, in times of danger to gather 
together and to join one with another, and not be scat- 
tered one here and another there. This only for the 
reading of the words. 

The scope of the Holy Ghost here, in threatening to 
take away the beasts and the fowls and the fishes, is 
this, To show the severity of God's wiath against the 
ten tribes ; that as a king not only executes a traitor, 
but pidls down his house and burns all that is ui it ; so 
the great wi'ath of God shall so be upon these ten tribes, 
that he shall not only destroy them, but for their sakes 
bring destruction even upon the creatures. And tliis 
seems to be a thi-eatening of greater wrath than God 
let out when he destroyed the world. In that destruc- 
tion, we do not read of any hurt unto the fishes of the 
sea ; but here the beasts of the field, the fowls of the 
air, and the fishes of the sea, shall be taken away. It 
refers to some fearful plague, wherein not only the air, 
but tlie waters are pestilential, and the cattle and the fish 
(he. So it has been in other countries, and even ui Eng- 
land, in the time of Edward the Third, such a ))cstilen- 
tial qualit)' was in the ah- and water, that birds and fishes 
were found with infectious blotches. ,\nd then in one 
chureh-yard, (I think about the Cliarter-house,) in one 
yeai-'s space, fifty thousand were buried of pestilential 
diseases. Such power has God over us, that he can let out 
his wrath by such ways as these, and such ])lague3 are 
very fearful fruits of his wrath upon a countrv'. AAliat 
cause have we to bless God that he has delivered us 
from the infection of the au- ! If God had but brought 
a plague upon London last year, it would have been 
the heaviest calamity brought on any kingdom in the 
world ; if we had had but such a plague as would have 
caused men to have fled and the parliament not have 
sat, its dissolution would have reduced the whole king- 
dom mto a lamentable estate at this day. Let us bless 
God for that. 

I remember upon this text a Jesuit that wrote but 
veiy lately, Cornelius a Lapide, has a most audacious 
lie. Since Scotland and Ireland, saith he, have dcj)art- 
ed from the catholic faith, (that is, from ])opery,) God's 
judgments are out against them j and whereas they 
were wont to be such plentiful countries for fish, God 



V-?.. 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



219 



has cursed theii- very waters, and now theii- h-ade of 
fishing is nothing like to what it was formerly. He 
includes not England in this observation, for he was 
one that wrote lately, and had it seems some hope that 
England was coming to them again. But through 
God's mercv both Ireland, and Scotland, and England, 
have found it otherwise in this respect. 

Hence, 

Obs. 4. The good or evil of the creature depends on 
man ; because it was made for man, man is punished or 
blessed even by the creature, and the creature comes 
to feel good or evil, according as man's behaviour- is to- 
wards God. Let then mercy and pitj' toward the crea- 
ture be an argument to keep us from sin. If you have 
not cruel hearts towards the creature, abstain from sin, 
for you do not only undo yom-selves, but the creation, 
by your sin. And when at any time we see the hand 
of God out against any creature, let us reflect in our 
own hears, My sin is the cause that this creature feels 
that evil which it does : and as Judah said unto Ta- 
mar, " She is more righteous than I ;" so do you say 
of the creatui-e. Indeed God's hand is out against it, 
but the creature is more righteous than I. 

Obs. 0. God, when in a way of wrath, can cause his 
wrath to reach to those things that seem to be most 
remote. As the fishes in the sea seem to be most re- 
mote, therefore they are named here ; "yea, the fishes in 
the sea also :" as if he had said, My wrath shall bum 
fiercely, and shall reach not only to yourselves and 
houses, your cities, and land, and cattle, but to the very 
fish in the sea. God can let out his wrath as far as he 
pleases. 

Obs. 6. No creature can help man in the time of 
God's wrath ; why ? for every creature suffers as well 
as man. How vain then are the hearts of men, who 
solace themselves in hope of comfort from this or that 
creature, in the day of God's wrath ! If you cry unto the 
mountains and hills, and say. Help us ; they will echo 
back, Help us ; for they need help as well as you ; for 
the wrath of God is upon the creature in the day of his 
■oTath, and therefore they are unable to aid. 

Ver. 4. Vet let no man strive, noi- reprove another : 
for thy people are as they that strive with the priest. 

"Yet." The Hebrew word is, ns Vere, as if he 
should say, Truly it is in vain for any one to stand 
striving or reproving his neighbour, or seek to con- 
^^nce or admonish him, it is in vain for one friend to 
meddle with another ; for they are so violent in theii' 
wicked ways, so far from hearkening to private admo- 
nition, that they will contend with the priest, even with 
him that is set by God, and designed by special office, 
to teach and reprove. Some interpret it thus, They 
ai'e so vile, and their w-ickedness so general, that no 
man is fit to reprove his brother for his sin. But I in- 
cline to the former intei-pretation, which imports thus 
much to us in the general. 

Obs. 1. Sin cannot be got ft'om men without striv- 
ing. Such is the perverseness of men's hearts, that 
they take fast hold of deceit, Jer. viii. 5, and you can- 
not get them away without striving ; like men in a 
frenzy, you cannot get them off' from that which will 
injure them without struggling with tliem. Wien you 
admonish and reprove men for sin, you must expect 
beforehand that they wnU contend against you, yet after- 
wards, perhaps, they will bless God for you : at first you 
may be hardly used ; WTiat ! you come to judge us ? as 
they said to Lot, " Who made you a ruler ? " So you 
generally receive very ill language from men at first 
when they are reproved, yet "be not discouraged, they 
may bless God for you afterwards, they may say as 
David unto Abigail, " Blessed be God, and blessed be 
thy advice, and blessed be thou for thy counsel." 



Obs. 2. Even private men, (as implied in the former 
note,) so long as there is any ho])e, should strive with 
their brethren, by way of admonition and reprehension, 
to bring them from theu- sin. "Wo must not say. Are 
we our brother's keepers? that is the language of a 
C'aiji. There is much striving and contending one with 
another for our own ends ; oh that there were more 
striving and contending for God and his glory ! It is a 
sign that the glory of God and the souls of oui- brethren 
are not precious in our eyes, when we can so strive and 
contend to have our own wills, and though God loses 
his glory, and our brother's soul is like to perish, we 
cannot sti-ive and contend there, not even those of us 
that are full of strife otherwise. 

Obs. 3. It is a great aggravation of sin, and a fore- 
rxmner of destruction to a people, not to regard the 
sh-ivings, admonitions, and reprehensions of others. 
" Let no man strive ;" It is in vain to strive now (that 
is the meaning) ; indeed, so long as there was hope there 
might be striving, but now they are past striving. This 
was the height of wickedness that they were grown un- 
to, and the forerunner of that wrath of God which was 
now ready to fall upon them, that they were now past 
all reprehension and admonition. I will cite tn"o or 
tlu-ee notable texts of Scripture to fasten this upon 
your hearts, that it is a most fearful thing for people to 
stand out against admonition and reprehension. In 
1 Sam. ii. 25, the text saith of Eli's sons, that they 
hearkened not unto the voice of their father ; why ? 
•'because the Lord would slay them." O you chil- 
cben, hearken to tliis scripture, turn to it, read it over, 
you that are stout and rebeUious, whose parents are 
reproving you for your sins and admonishing you, but 
you will not hearken to them ; and in the pride of your 
hearts and stoutness of yom' spu-its you refuse admoni- 
tion ; but if you read that scripture, and believe that it 
is the word of God, O tremble at it ; " They hearkened 
not unto the voice of their father, because the Lord 
would slay them." Another text you have in 2 Chron. 
XXV. 16, a speech of the Lord's prophet to Amaziah ; 
when the prophet came to rebuke him for worshipping 
the gods of that people whom he had overcome in bat- 
tle ; (here is the infinite vanity and sottishness of idol- 
aters, Amaziah falls to worship those very gods that 
could not deliver themselves nor their people out of his 
hands :) when the prophet (I say) came to reprove him 
for it, in what a rage was he ! one would have tliought 
that it was reasonable for his spirit to yield to the pro- 
phet's reproof, but saith the lung, " Art thou made of 
the king's counsel ? forbear ; " it may be he has other 
plans and intentions, what have you to do to meddle ? 
The prophet did forbear indeed, but mark what he said, 
" I know that God hath determined to destroy thee, 
because thou hast done this, and hast not hearkened 
unto my counsel." Here was his inference, because 
the king would not regard admonition and reproof, 
certainly God purposed to destroy him. And it is ob- 
servable of this king that he should now^ stand out 
so : for in the chapter before, he seems to be of a 
yielding spirit, though a wicked man : when he had 
hfred a huncfred thousand out of Israel to join with 
him in battle, and had given them all pay ; yet, when 
God did but command him by the prophet to send them 
back with the loss of the hundi-cd talents which he had 
paid the soldiers, on the very word of the prophet he 
sends back a hundi-ed thousand of his soldiers, and 
loses all their pay ; and yet this Amaziah, so yielding 
then, how stubborn was he against the prophet at an- 
other time ! and therefore when he did so yield to God, 
God prospered liim in the battle, and he overcame his 
enemies gloriously; but when, after that \-icton,', he 
fell a worshipping the idols he had overcome, and 
was stout against the prophet, soon after lie was de- 
sti'oved. The last scripture is that in Prov. xxix. 1, 



220 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



"He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, 
shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." 
It is a dangerous thing to stand out against reproof 
and admonition. 

Obs. 4. Sin increases wliere it is let alone. Let no 
man strive, nor reprove another. You may see that 
this people were become worse than they were before, 
for in the second chapter of this i)rophecy, " Say to 
vour brethren, Ammi ,• and to your sisters, Ku-hamah." 
'I'he godly amongst them are there admonished to 
speak to their Iirethren and to their sisters ; but now it 
is come to such a pass, that there must be no more 
striving, no more admonishing. Those that once were 
capable of admonition, going on in sin and hardening 
their hearts, grow quickly past all reproof. 

Obs. 5. There is a time when men may, yea, men 
should give up sti'iving with, admonishing, and reproving 
others, when they should let them alone. Especiallv 
in these two cases; when those they admonish scorn 
their admonition, when they trample their reproofs 
under their feet as swine, or turn again on them and 
rend them as dogs. There are two sorts not to be ad- 
monished or reproved, swine and dogs. A\'lien they 
become such, then you may leave, yea, you ouglit to 
leave admonishing them. For admonitions and repre- 
hensions are precious things, ])earls, that must not be 
cast to swine ; Matt. vii. G, " Give not that which is 
holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before 
s« ine," they are holy and precious things : for I do 
not take that place to be meant of the sacrament only ; 
it may, by an argument a miyiori ad majus, be ap])lied 
to it, but it is ])riniarily meant of admonition and re- 
prehension. So that admonition is to be looked upon 
as a holy thing, as a pearl, you are to prize it, and 
thesefore not to be an^ry when we come to admonish 
you; but you are to look upon the holiness of God in it, 
and so reverence it ; and regard it as a mercy of God, 
and bless him for it. There are many in heaven now 
blessing God for the admonitions which they have re- 
ceived from others, as David blessed God for Abigail 
and her counsel. Many think it a great hajipiness to 
them that they can reject admonition and counsel ; and 
when they are gone from such as have admonished 
them, and are among their companions, they can boast 
and say, Oh, sucli a one came and reprehended me, but 
I said thus and thus to him ; and so they rejoice how 
they have rejected admonition. But if they knew all, 
they have cause to mourn; it is a great misery for them 
when it comes to that, that God shall bid those that 
have to deal with them to strive no more with them : 
when you have so rejected the admonitions of others, 
tliat jou think you have succeeded in stojiping their 
mouths, and that you have fairly rid yourselves of all 
their reproofs, oh, your misery is the greater. For, 

1. You have deprived yourselves of a special ordi- 
nance of God. Admonition and reprehension, even 
Lrotherlv admonition and reprehension, is an ordinance 
of God. ■ 

2. Those who strive thus, who admonish and reprove 
you, must give an account to God wluit is become of 
their admonition and reprehension. You must give 
an account to God one day, and so must they also ; yea, 
they should do it at present, thus: after they have ad- 
monished, they must go to God and tell him how it 
has succeeded, for they have done it in his name if tlicv 
have done it right ; and if their admonition and re- 
proof liave prevailed with you, tliey are to return to 
God with blessing, to bless God tliat he has been 
pleased to bless their admonition. And on the other 
Jiand, if you reject their admonition, they are to tell 
that too, and to lament your condition, and to entreat of 
liim to look upon you, and to say, Lord, I have been 
thus and thus admonishing such a one in thy name, 
but. Lord, he contemns and rejects it. Wlien you are 



laughing that you have rejected such a friend's admo- 
nition, then he that has been faithful to you, he is tell- 
ing God of it : and do you not think there will come 
somewhat of this one day? 

3. You are left to God's striving and rebuking, and 
" it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living 
God." It is better when God strives with you by men, 
than that he should come and strive with you himself. 
As now, if a father send his servant to go and fetch in a 
child, to receive a rebuke, and he return and tell the 
father. He cares not for what I say ; then tlie father 
goes himself, and it is worse for the child : so God 
sends thy brother to rebuke thee, and to fetch thee in, 
and thou carest not for liim, but regardest him as thy 
fellow creature ; and so thy brother goes to God, Lord, 
he regards not what I say. Then, saith God, I will re- 
buke him myself: and God's rebukes in this case will 
be " furious rebukes ;" Ezek. v. 15, " ^^^^en I shall ex- 
ecute judgments in thee in anger, and in fuiy, and in 
furious rebukes." Mark it, " furious rebukes ;" the re- 
bukes of a brother are loving rebukes, but if thou re- 
ject them, God's rebukes may come, and they will prove 
furious rebukes. The rebukes of a brother are out of 
love, but. Amos vii. 4, " The Lord called to contend by 
lire.'' When Job's friends strove with him (liey could 
not ])revail, but, chap, xxxvili. 1,2," The Lord answered 
Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Wio is this that 
darkeneth words without counsel ? " The Lord out 
of the wliirlwind calls to contend with Job, and so over- 
comes him. If thou regardest not friends contending 
with thee, the Lord himself, out of the whirlwind, may 
come and contend with thee. Take heed how thou re- 
jectest the strivings of a brother with thee, for God 
may not only say he shall strive no longer, but, My Spi- 
rit shall no longer strive with thy soul. 

" For thy people are as they that strive with the 
priest." That is the reason why they must not strive 
one with another. Here, oidy tliese two things requii-e 
explanation : 

1. Why it is said " with the priest," rather than with 
the prophet ? 

2. '\\Tiy it is said, " For thy people are as they that 
strive with the priest ? " Did they not strive with the 
priest ? why then is it not said. This people are a people 
that strive with the priest ? 

To answer these two briefly, observe, 

1. It is said that they " strive with the priest," rather 
than with the prophet, though the prophet did rebuke 
and strive with them, for this reason ; because the ])riest 
was a standing office in the churcli of God, whereas 
the prophet was an extraordinary office, and they could 
not be sme whether he were a true prophet or no, but 
according to the event of the ])ropheey ; but the priest 
they acknowledged to be an officer of God, and hence 
he is here named rather than the prophet. 

2. It may be, the priests, being Jeroboam's, scarce 
strove at all, but rather joined with them in their wick- 
edness ; therefore he could not say they actually strove 
with the priest.s, but yet so vile were their hearts, that 
God saw that if there were priests to strive with, they 
would strive with them. Or, it may be, because in- 
deed those priests of Israel at this time were not such 
as were called of God, for in 1 Kings xii. 31, the text 
saith of Jeroboam, that '■ he made priests of the lowest 
of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi ;" and 
chap. xiii. 33, " Whosoever would, he consecrated him, 
and he became one of the priests of the high places." 
But the people received them as priests still, for they 
thought tnat the king's authority was a sufficient rea- 
son for their reception, as if the king liad absolute 
power to make all church officers. So it was then, and 
this may be the reason of the expres.sion, "as they that 
strive with tlie priest." 

Obs. 1. It is tne work of the priest to contend against 



,■::;;. 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



221 



men for their sin. That is the proper work of a priest, 
to strive with men against their sin. They are the salt 
of tlie earth, and so they should have some acrimony 
in them. In 1 Tim. iii. 3, it is said, indeed, of the 
minister of God, that he should be a/inxov, no striver. 
A minister of God should in office look to the souls of 
people, and be no striver ; how will you say then that 
he should strive ? It means, he should never strive with 
men for his own ends, or for his own ways ; he should 
be no brawler, but one of a quiet and gentle spirit, 
willing to pass by wrongs done unto himself: but when 
he stands up for' God he should be a striver. All faith- 
ful ministers should be strivers when they come in 
God's cause. (Ecolarapadius, wTiting to his fellow 
ministers. I remember, has a notable expression ; " Let 
not our zeal and anger burn when we are scorned and 
reproached ourselves; but when the ti'uth and the 
name of God are in danger, then let our heat arise, 
then let us strive." This, indeed, is the character of a 
ti'ue godly minister, that he is in his own cause gentle 
and yielding, but when it comes to the cause of God, 
zealous and fervent, ready to strive and contend with 
men in tlie ways of their sin. 

Obi: 2. When ministers do reprehend and strive with 
people, they must expect to be striven withal by peo- 
j)le. These are " as they that strive with the priest ; " 
they have such vile hearts, that, had they never such 
faithful and godly officers set over them by God, they 
would strive with them. And indeed all faithful mi- 
nisters must expect, that if they strive with men for 
their sins, men will strive with them. K there had 
ever any faithful ones been sent among them by God, 
they would have been ready to have cried out against 
them and told them. You are the cause of our misery, 
for you are so strict and precise that you will not yield 
to Jeroboam : you threaten us that judgments will 
come upon us, but you are the cause of our misery ; 
were it not for you we should have all the people yield 
to what the king has set up, but you stir them up 
against it and so disquiet us. Thus no question but 
they would be ready to strive with the priest at that 
time. And thus they did with Amos, chap. vii. 12, 
'• Go to Judah and prophesy there." They strove with 
Amos, who was contemporary with Hosea, prophesying 
at this time unto this people, and the land say they 
cannot bear Amos's words, let liim go to Judah ; he 
tells us we are a superstitious people, and that we 
do not worship God in the right manner and in the 
right place, let him go thither, we wish he were out of 
the country ; he, and such as he is, raise a fh-e in the 
land. Thus when ministers discharge their consci- 
ences, showing people their sins and the mind of God, 
this is ordinarily their recompenee. Thus it was with 
Jeremiah ; chap. xv. 10, " Woe is me, my mother, that 
thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of con- 
tention to the whole earth ! every one curseth me." 
Jeremiah, a grave and holy prophet, yet a man of con- 
tention to the whole earth, and every man cursed him ! 
A sti-ange thing, that he should meet with such hard 
dealing ; and yet he appealed to God in the matter of 
his sincerity, he desired not the evil day, and he pray- 
ed for the people until God bid him pray no more ; 
when they were railing on him, he was praying for 
them. This was his unhappy situation ; and so it was 
with other prophets besides him. I might name other 
texts in Jeremiah, as chap. sx. 7, 8, " I am in derision 
daily, every one mocketh me. For since I spake, I cried 
out, I cried violence and spoil ; because the word of the 
Lord was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, 
daily." After I threatened that there should come 
some judgment upon the nation, I cried out of the vio- 
lence and spoil that they for the present made in the 
nation, and then they mocked and scorned me. The like 
we have in Isaiah, he had the same dealings from the 



people: chap, xxviii. 13, '• But the word of the Lord was 
to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept ; 
line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a 
little ; that they might go, and fall backward, and be 
broken, and snared, and taken." You will say. How do 
they strive against the prophet in this ? I take it this 
scri])ture is often mistaken, and the intent of these 
words is, to show how the people jeered and mocked 
the prophet in his preaching. But the word of God 
was to them " precept upon precept," that is, they 
scorned at God's word ; \^^hat ! we have nothing but pre- 
cept and precept, one precept after another, and com- 
mandment one after another, and one prophecy after an- 
other, a line upon line, and now you would have a little 
more : it is spoken contemptuously. I take this to be the 
meaning, because the threatening follows after, " that 
they might go, and fiill backward, and be broken, and 
snared, and taken. Wherefore " (saith the text in the 
vei-y next words) " hear the word of the Lord, ye scorn- 
ful men." They manifested a scornfvd spirit in such 
kind of expressions, retorting upon the prophet in such 
a manner ; and God's anger riseth, " "\^Tierefore hear 
the word of the Lord, ye scornful men." It is usual 
with many scornful men, that if they can lay hold of 
any thing that ministers speak, by their manner of pro- 
nouncing it, or otherwise, to express their contem]it : 
so did they with Isaiah, who was one of the most elo- 
quent of the prophets, a man that spake in his time so 
as never man spake, for he spoke in a most high style, 
being himself of the kingly race, and a gi'eat man by 
birth ; yet, when he came to prophesy to this people in 
the name of God, they thus jeered and scorned him. 
And Isa. xxx. 10, " Which say to the seers, and to the 
prophets. Prophesy not unto us right things, speak 
unto us smooth things ; " tell not us of such and such 
things as these are : thus they contemned him. Yea, 
and in Christ's time we find, that when Christ himself 
preached, once, as soon as he had done his sermon, the 
people got him up to the brow of a hiU that was upon 
the side of the city, and would have thrown him down 
and broken his neck ; that was the reward he should 
have had. And of Paul, one of the best of preachers, 
whom Austin wished he could but see in the pulpit, 
when he came to preach, " A\Tiat will this babbler 
say ? " and, " He is a pestilent fellow," one that is of o. 
fui'ious spu-it and an incendiary, and wherever he goes 
he turns the world upside do^vn. Such kind of entei-- 
tainment had the apostles. And Luther, I remember, 
has such an expression, Quitl est pr(Fdicare evavgelium ? 
What is it to preach, unless it be this, to turn all the 
fury of people upon oneself, if one would preach con- 
scientiously ? And in ]\Iatt. v. 12, Christ tells his dis- 
ciples what revilings and persecutions they were likely 
to meet with ; " For so," saith he, " persecuted they the 
prophets which were before you." And Acts vii. 53, 
" Which of the prophets have not your fathers perse- 
cuted ? " Thus those that by their office are sent to 
speak to the people, must expect, if they would be faith- 
ful in theu- administrations, to be striven withal. 

But though wicked men do strive, yet, as Samson 
said to the men of Judah that came to bind him that 
they might deliver him into the hands of the Philis- 
tines, " Do not ye fall upon me yourselves," it were 
well if faithful ministers were not often striven with by 
those that are godly. It is not so much for a faithful 
minister to have wicked and ungodly men to strive 
with him. Though theij bind them, O brethren, do 
not you bind them. After that, in conscience of their 
duty and love to your souls, they have hazai-ded all the 
hatred and malice' of the adversary, even to stand in the 
forefront of the battle ; yet, in requital for all this, even 
many that are godly, if they see them grow ti-oublesome, 
are ready to strive with them ; because wicked men 
are exasperated by the word of God preached, there- 



222 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



fore even such as make profession of godliness could 
wish that such ministers had never come amongst them. 
Is here a requital of the hazard that faithful ministers 
undergo ? I appeal to you, Are there any people in the 
kingdom that stand as a butt against the malice of the 
adversary so much as godly and faithful ministers ? 
Do not think that, from precipitancy or rashness, we do 
not consider wliat danger we stand in, in doing what we 
do. Yes, we consider it beforehand ; but fi'om a con- 
scientious regard for our duty, and in faithfulness to 
your souls, we hazard our lives, we hazard aU the rage 
and malice of the enemy. Now, when we have done all 
this, we expect a far better requital from many people 
than we find. 'WTien Moses and Aaron came to the 
people of Israel, when they were in Egj-pt, to deliver 
them, (for that was their message,) because for the pre- 
sent theu' bondage was increased, and the ■WTath of 
Pharaoh more incensed, therefore they were wear)' of 
Moses and Aaron, and fell to striving with them, as if 
they were the cause of their miseiy : 'Why, it was better 
with us before than since you came.; if you had never 
come amongst us it would have been better vath us : 
so now, because those that are faithftil, out of con- 
science, labom' to declare to you tlie mind of God, and 
to draw you to those duties that God requii'cs ; you are 
ready to think they have brought us into this state, 
they have kindled the fii'e, telling us it is the cause of 
God, and exhorting us to come in with om' estates ; and 
now the king is exasperated against us, and our adver- 
saries are enraged, and we are likely to be in some 
misery : and so all the strivings of even the better sort 
are ready to devolve upon the ministers, and they strive 
with them as the only incendiaries and ti-oublers of the 
places where they come. AVell, however ministers may 
meet with hard dealing from some, even professors, 
yet their way is with the Lord, and their judgment is with 
the Almighty. There is a most admii-able promise to 
help those that have been most forward to rebidie sin, 
and zealous for God, though men are enraged against 
them, in Isa. xlix. 2, " He hath made my mouth like 
a sharp sword ; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid 
me." This text is true of every faithful minister. 
Mark, " He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword :" 
why, if I did speak smooth things, I were not like to 
be in so much danger ; but if I speak sharp things, do 
not I hazard myself much ? I shall incm' the rage and 
anger of all kinds of people. But mark, " He hath made 
my mouth as a shai-ji sword ; " but " in the sliadow of 
his hand hath he hid me." ^linisters whose mouths are 
as shaq) swords, are in a great deal of danger ; yea, but 
let such be comforted, here comes a promise presently ; 
" in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me." So that 
those ministers whose mouths ai'e sharpest in the name 
of God, and who speak but the truth of God, are under 
his protection more than those who have held then- 
peace, they are in more safety, hid in God's hand, " in 
the shadow of his hand." So God comforted Jeremiah, 
chap. XV. 11 ; after he had cried out. Woe is me, I am 
a man of strife ! Well, saith God, " Verily it shall be well 
with thy remnant ; I will cause the enemy to entreat 
thee well in the time of evil and in the time of afflic- 
tion." It may be, many of you think it is a weakness in 
ministers to endanger themselves so much, and that 
they cannot be quiet as others are. Many of more 
moderate spu'its, and who deal more wisely for them- 
selves, keep in and say nothing, and so may escape, 
whatever side prevail ; and may not they escape ? No, 
they are in more danger than the other, for the former 
are under a promise, the latter not ; they arc so stu- 
dious for themselves and for their own safety, that God 
will take no care of them. Our Saviour Christ takes 
care to encourage his disciples against the strivings of 
people with them : we have in Luke vi. many blessings 
I)roiiouuced ; " Blessed are the poor ; Blessed are they 



that hunger and thirst after righteousness ; Blessed are 
they that mourn," &c. But they that understand tlie 
original shall find the word " ye" is not in, only blessed 
are the poor, and blessed are they that mourn, &c. But 
when he comes to his disciples, ver. 22, he addresses 
them more particularly : a hereas people shall speak evil 
of them, and cast out their name as filth, then there is, 
" Blessed are ye," witli an irrre, more than 
there was in all the oth^r blessednesses ; """"P"" '"'^ 
that shows God has a special care of his ministers when 
men speak evil of them and strive with them. But on 
the other side, " Woe to )0u when all men speak well 
of you ! " is true indeed of all Clu-istians ; but I take it, 
that the scope of C'lu-ist in that place concerns minis- 
ters that were to go and preach, and woe to them when 
all men speak well of them ! The word that is translat- 
ed "well," is KaXuij, that speak of you so as to commend 
you as a curious, neat teacher ; there are such and such 
fiery men, but here is a preacher, a quaint, refined man, 
a man that uses fine language, and such they will never 
persecute. The others are pronounced blessed when 
they are revUed and cast out as evU. 

Obi: 3. To strive with those who come in God's 
name to reprove, is a great aggravation of sin and a 
hastening of judgment. God expects when he sends 
his ministers, that you should obey them in the Lord, 
and not strive with them. In 2 Chi-on. xxx-\-i. 12, God 
took it iU tlaat King Zedekiah did not humble himself 
before Jeremiah the prophet; and in ver. 16, of the 
same chapter, it is said. They mocked the prophets, and 
contemned them, until the wrath of God arose against 
his people, and there was no remedy : no remedy when 
once they strove with those that God sent amongst 
them. 'Those that are sent by God, they are the special 
witnesses of God. Rev. xi. it is said of those two wit- 
nesses, that if any do them hurt and contend with 
them,_ fii-e shall go out of their mouths and devour their 
enemies. Those that are sent by God, and come in 
God's name, have the power of Jesus Christ with them : 
Matt, xxviii., " AU power is given to me," &c.; "Go and 
teach," c&c. As if he should say, Know, as I have all 
power given to me, it shall go along with you, to do 
good to those that obey your doctrine, and to execute 
vengeance upon all those that strive with you. The 
apostles were to shake off the dust of their feet in con- 
tempt of those who contemned their doctrine. 

But you win say, May we not in any case strive with 
the minister ? 

I confess, in popeiy they would so exalt their priestly 
office, that aU people must be brought into a blind obe'- 
dience to them, and the people must receive whatso- 
ever doctrine they preach ; the priest's lips only must 
preserve knowledge, the people must not so much as 
examine it, but implicitly obey. It is one of the pope's 
canons concerning himself, that though he should carry 
dovra with him liy heaps souls to heE, f..uu„s „CTtaiium 
yet no mortal man must presume so p™su»>at redar- 
much as to rebuke him or find fault with fi>""i"3Suras f 
him ; for he, bemg spiritual, as they say, ""j'Ds.'^Lix'' 
(f^r so they abuse the Scripture,') judg- '^*"°""- 
eth all men, and no man judgeth him : and in a pro- 
portion, all their priests would fain claim some measure 
of the same power. And tliis certainly has been the 
policy of our priests of late, to bring the people into 
ignorance, so that they might not be able to contend 
with them, let them do what they would. Tliey cry out, 
There was never such a time, when every tailor and 
every shopkeeper had so much knowledge that they 
can contradict their minister as now, and try then- doc- 
trines. They rage at this, that poor men have so much 
knowledge as to be able to try the doctrines they 
preach ; tliey would fain teach, that you must be led, 
like a company of sheep, what way they would lead, 
and believe wliatever they preach. Certainly, so many 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



223 



gross erroi'3 and doting conceits of popery could never 
have prevailed, but by the people rendering blind obe- 
dience. Therefore there may be some sti-lving with 
ministers, and that according to God, though here 
striving is forbidden : as thus ; Christ requires that his 
sheep should know the difference between his voice and 
the voice of a stranger : yea, we know that there is a 
charge, that if any preach any other doctrine he 
should be accursed ; even people should regard those 
that come to them to preach any other doctrine as ac- 
cursed ; therefore they are requh-ed to know ; and they 
are commanded to try eveiy thing, and " not to believe 
every spkit," yea, not to bid them " good speed" who 
bring other doctrines. And they are to '• say to Ai-chip- 
pus, Take heed to thy ministi'y, which thou hast re- 
ceived, that thou fulfil it." So far the people are em- 
powered : yet still it must be done with respect to 
them. If they look upon them as true officers, (whether 
they be or no, yet, if they regard them as such,) the 
rule will apply, " Against an elder receive not an ac- 
cusation, but before two or three witnesses ;" you must 
not be so ready to sti'ive with those that you look upon 
as officers. And " rebuke not an elder, but entreat 
him as a father :" it must not be in a malapert way, 
but with respect and reverence. And when you have 
done that, contended by witnesses, and spoken to them 
with reverence as owning the place wherein they stand, 
you have liberty then, if they bring strange doctrine, or 
their life be bad, to strive and contest with them in the 
name of the Lord, and not to suffer yom-selves to be 
under such bondage as to believe whatever they woidd 
have you, without calling them to any account at all. 
There was wont to be crjing out against people if they 
went from their parish churches, (as they called them,) 
Oh, it coidd not be suffered ; and yet they themselves 
would be away a whole year together ; as if the relation 
were not mutual, and they bound as much to continue 
with their people as the people tied to keep unto them : 
if the minister may have leave to go away, certainly 
the people may enjoy the same freedom ; whereas, in- 
deed, neither ought to go away, so long as the one is 
looked upon as an officer, and the other as under that 
officer. But I speak of that bondage into which they 
would have brought you, whereby in time they M'ould 
so whoUy have freed themselves, that you should have 
had nothing to do with them in church power. And 
then they would be the clergy ; whereas it is an absm'd 
thing that they should be accounted the clergy ; for the 
Scripture, speaking of the people in distinction from 
the ministers, calls the people the clergy, 1 Pet. v. 3 : 
Let them not lord it over God's clergy, tov cXiypuir, 
which in the same verse is called the flock. But they 
would be accounted the church and the clergy, as if the 
people were no part of the chui-ch at all, and all cluu-ch 
power should come into their hands. And then they 
endeavoured to free themselves, as the papists you 
know do, from all civU power too, and were going 
many steps to it; therefore they would send forth 
things in their own names, and in time they would 
have WTOught themselves free from all civil power, and 
have had all chm-ch power in their hands, and so, in- 
deed, you could not strive with them. Bless God for 
the deliverance he has now given you. 

Oba. 4. If public means prevail not, there is little 
hope of private. Why should one man sh-ive with 
another ? these " are as they that strive with the priest." 
Though tlicy had never so good public means, they 
resisted, surely then they will resist private. There- 
fore, public means are to be prefen-ed before private ; 
when a man can speak as an officer to another, that is 
more to be regarded, and will be more efficacious to 
those God has a love unto, than private means. If 
this be so, let parents take heed how they teach their 
children to deride public means : when you have been 



at a sermon, perhaps you will despise what you have 
heard: it is just with God they should despise yom- 
■admonition and reproof, for you have taught them to 
despise public means. 

Obs. 5. To reject those that we look upon in office, 
though their calling be not good, is yet a wickedness 
that God will revenge. I say, though theii- calluig be 
not right, so long as you regard them as true officers, 
and yet despise what they do according to God's will, 
so long God win avenge it. If they come in God's 
name, you must not oppose them, so long as you 
have any apprehensions that they are true officers : 
though, perhaps, if they were examined, they have no 
true calling ; yet, if you cannot see but they have a true 
caUing, you are to have such a reverence and respect 
unto them, that you are to be subject to them. 

Ver. 5. Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the 
prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will 
destroy thy mother. 

Mark, though private men are here bid not to sti'ive 
one with another, or reprove one another, yet Hosea 
goes on in his striving and reproving. " Therefore shalt 
thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with 
thee in the night." Hence, 

Obs. 1. Those in office must go on though they be 
striven against ; as long as they remain in office they 
must stUl go on, though people strive against them. I 
remember, Latimer saith in one of his sermons. Many 
ministers will not preach ; and if they be asked the rea- 
son, it is this, because they can do no good to people. 
Oh, this (saith he) is a bad answer. Certainly, as long 
as you continue in that place, whether you do good, or 
whether you do not, you must go on in yom- work. 

Obs. 2. When a thi'eatening comes to individuals, 
then it works. " Therefore shalt thou fall." He directs 
the judgment to the individual, thou, every one ofj'OU, 
in the singular number. Perhaps some might think, 
Well, though the generahty suffer, I may escape. No, 
look to yourselves, every one of you. 

nSlPSi ti-anslatcd here, " thou shalt fall," is a word 
that signifies the faUing of a man by stumbling in the 
dark ; a punishment suitable to their sin _; they had no 
knowledge, therefore they shall stumble in the dark. 

" In the day." Thou shalt stumble as a man in the 
dark, but it shall be in the day to thee ; and yet thou 
shalt stumble. " In the day ;" that is, fii'st, in thy pros- 
perity, for in the latter times of the second Jeroboam, 
(which was a little before the destruction of the ten 
tribes,) they were in abetter situation than they had been 
in before, yet from thence they began to fall. I say, not 
long before theii- ruin, they w-ere in more prosperity than 
they had been in many years before, therefore it is here 
said, "thou shalt fall in the day, " even when thou art in 
a prosperous condition. Or, secondly, " thou shalt fall 
in the day," that is,' you shall see your misery before 
vou, yet you shall fall, you shall not be able to prevent 
It ; it shall be in the day time, at noon-day, and you 
sliall see plainly where your misery lies, yet shall you, 
as if you were in the night, stumble and fall. 

O "my brethren, this is a scripture that nearly con- 
cerns us here in England. K England fall and perish 
now, it falls and perishes in the day. We see, appa- 
rently, our evil before us ; we see means to prevent it. 
God does not bring night upon us in this sense, that 
is, he does not bring misery so upon us, that we do not 
know how it comes, or by what means, or how we 
shoidd prevent it. No, we are not so in the night, but 
in the day; we have seen the misery that has come 
upon us by a continued design, we know almost the 
very source and origin of that design, how it has gone 
on by degi-ees, step by step ; we see now the reason of 
its breaking out, because the stream is stopped it 



224 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



bui-sts forth violently : we know -who are the causers of 
our evil, what their counsels, intentions, what theii- 
ways are, notwithstanding all their protestations ; we see 
what we are like to be brought into, if we do but yield a 
little, and do not appear to quit ourselves like men ; 
and we see clearly what God would have us to do ; we 
see ways and means to help us if we will, we have 
power to help ourselves, and direction too ; we all of 
us know, or may know, clearly what we should do, and 
what, in an ordinary course of providence, would relieve 
us. Yet, Lord, how do we fall ! notwithstanding this,we 
fall even in apparent day-light. So that if this kingdom 
be brought into slavery, it will be the heaviest wrath 
that ever fell upon a nation. Never any nation fell 
in a clear, open sunshine, as we are like to do if we 
perish now, having such means for oiu' help. 

Again, " Thou shalt fall in the day," liodie, that is, 
soon, presently, your destruction shall not be long. 

" And the prophet also shall fall with thee in the 
night." There seems to be some difficulty in this. How 
comes this in, " thou shall fall in the day, and the pro- 
phet also shall fall with thee in the night ? " 

06s. 3. The falls of the prophets are falls of the night. 
"The prophet also shall fall with thee in the niglit." 
The blind lead the blind, and they both fall into the 
ditch. You gave yourselves up to false prophets to be 
guided by them, and here is all the good you shall have, 
both you and they shall perish together; the prophet 
also shall fall as well as ye. 

Obs. 4. It is a most sad judgment for a people to 
be in affliction, and to have no prophet at all amongst 
them ; no prophet to tell how long it shall continue, 
or to declare to them any part of God's mind. In the 
captivity of the ten tribes, they had no prophets, nor 
have had since. Judah was carried into captivity, yet 
in their misery they had prophets among them, Ezekiel, 
and Zechariah, and Haggai, to direct them. But Israel 
shall be carried into captivity and shall have no prophet 
to help them. Look to yourselves that you regard the 
prophets of God now; otherwise, when brought into 
misery, under the power of your adversaries, you shall 
have no minister among you, none to show you God's 
mind, or to open up to you his will. It was so with 
Israel, they never had any in-ophet since the captivity 
to tell them the mind of God. 

Thus the prophets shall fall, but why " in the night ? " 
Some, because they think hard of the different expres- 
sion, read it thus ; You shall fall in the day with the 
prophet, in the night your mother shall be destroyed : 
and it may fairly be so rendered. But I had rather 
read it as we have it, " thou shalt fall in the day, and 
the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night," for 
these two reasons: 

1. Because God would inflict a greater darkness upon 
the false prophets in his just judgment, than upon the 
people. Those who abuse most light come into the 
grossest darkness, and therefore it is a usual expression 
in Scripture when prophets are threatened, to threaten 
that darkness shall be upon them : Micah iii. 6, "There- 
fore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a 
vision ; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not 
divine ; and the sun shall go down over tlie prophets, 
and the day shall be dark over them : " over the pro- 
phets in a special manner. And Zech. xi. 17, "His 
right eye shall be utterly darkened ;" the chief under- 
standing that he has, his pregnancy of jiarts, shall be 
besotted. Do we not see it even at present, that the 
prophets fall in the night ? There is more darkness 
now on wicked ministers amongst us, than upon ordi- 
nary people. Ordinary people understand more of the 
will' of God than wicked ministers. God besots them 
in their veiT parts and abilities, and they do nothing 
but cry out' still for that which will bring themselves 
and us into slavery. Were it not for them, people 



would see sufficiently well what to do, and the great 
darkness that is upon them comes from the ])rophets ; 
they bring darkness on the people, therefore their own 
darkness is the greater. In divers towns ai-e there not 
many people who know the mind of God, and see need 
of, and desire, a reformation in God's worship ? and yet, 
notwithstanding, their ministers will see no need. 

2. The distress that shall be on the prophets shall 
be gi'eater than on other people, it shall be night to 
them indeed; not only shall there be more darkness on 
their understandings, but more darkness in regard of 
their afflictions ; they shall be in greater horror of con- 
science and distress than any other people, for they 
shall see that they have brought you into all misery. 
And the truth is, that the great present misery on 
England is through false prophets, through wicked 
ministers, and their doctrines. We had never been in 
such a condition as we are, had not they flattered at 
court, and told there that all was at the king's power and 
pleasure, and there ought to be no resistance, and to 
refuse whatsoever he would have was rebelKon. Had 
they not taught such things as these, we never had had 
such times. Now if this Idngdom be destroyed, it may 
be God may bring horror on their consciences, and how- 
ever they may desire to throw the blame on others, yet, 
those that have any light remaining in them, the Lord 
may cause horror and distress in their minds, as the 
cause of all that evil that shall be upon us. They shall 
fall in the night, a black, dismal night .shall be upon 
them when judgments come. Therefore in times of 
public judgment, God's ministers are to look on his 
hand as especially against them, and more horror and 
distress of conscience shall be upon them than upon 
others. 

" And I wiU destroy thy mother." They boasted of 
their mother, as the papists do of their mother the 
church; but "their mother," that is, theii- church state 
and civil state, shall be destroyed ; and so there shall be 
no hope of this people, both childi-en and mother being 
destroyed : it seems to have some allusion to that in the 
the law, where we are forbidden to take the dam with 
the young ones, because of the preservation of succes- 
sion ; but here, saith God, my wrath shall be so hot, 
that I will not only take the young ones, but the dam ; 
they shall be destroyed together with their mother. 

The word T'DTi here translated desti-oyed, signifies, 
shall be brought to be silent, for indeed this word sig- 
nifies silence, as noting thus much, in times of God's 
judgments wicked men shall have nothing to say for 
themselves, but shall be forced to lay their hands on 
their mouths and be silent. 

Ver. G. My people are clentroyed for lack of knoic- 
ledge : because thou hast rejected knoirledge, I uilt also 
reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing 
thou hast forgotten the lazv of thy God, I uill also for- 
get thy children. 

" For lack of knowledge." As if he had said. If they 
had the knowledge of God they might have prevented 
all this, but they were ignorant and sottish people, and 
lliis was the forerunner of then- misery and destruction. 
The heathens were wont to say, if their god Jupiter 
would destroy one, he would first besot him : so these 
jieople were first besotted and then destroyed. Ignor- 
ance is not the mother of devotion, but rather the 
father and mother too of destruction. How diametri- 
cally opposed is the language of the Scripture and the 
doclruie of papists ! Ignorance is the mother of devotion, 
say they : Ignorance is the mother of destruction, saith 
God ; they jjcrish " for lack of knowledge." In the 
beginning of this chajjter we have the sin of ignorance 
set forth, licrc we have its danger. There we had the 
charge, that they had "no knowledge of God in the 



Vke. 6. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



225 



land:" here we liave the judgment, that they " are de- 
stroyed for want of knowledge." 

Ignorance is not only the deformity of the soul as 
blindness is the deformity of the face ; though a man or 
woman have never such a comely visage otlierwisc, yet, 
if the^- be blind, or have but one eye, it mars their 
beauty : so ignorance takes away the beauty of the 
soul ; and not only so, but is dangerous and destructive, 
and that in these respects : 

1. The rational creature is very active of itself, and 
will always be in motion, always working ; and it is 
surrounded by pits and snares ; if then it be blind, how 
dangerous will it be for it ! as a mettled horse that is 
in the midst of deep snares and pits, and will be cur- 
vetting and dancing, and will not stand still, in what 
danger will he be, if blind ! No creature is so full of 
activity as the rational creature is, he will be active 
in the world ; and then, wanting knowledge, how dan- 
gerous is his situation ! 

2. JIan's way is for eternity, and there is but one 
way that leads to an eternity of happiness, and that 
lies in the midst of a hundred cross-ways and by-paths. 
If he have not light, if he want knowledge, what shall 
become of him ? 

But you will say, Though he be dark himself, yet 
he may have some others to guide him, and so he may 
do well enough. 

3. Therefore consider in the third place. That man 
is not only going onward through dangers and by- 
ways, but he must go on with his own light. All the 
light of all the angels in heaven, or of all the minis- 
ters in the world, cannot help a soul in his journey to 
eternity, except this light be conveyed into his own 
eyes. It is true, a man physically blind may have 
hel]), though it be but by a dog ; but the soul that is 
ignorant, no angel in heaven can help, except as an 
instrument of God to bring sight into his eyes. 

4. The work we are to do about our souls and 
eternal estates, is the most curious and most difficult 
piece of work, and we must do it by our own light. 
Surely, if a man were engaged in a work requiring 
ingenuity, as a curious watch or the like, he need have 
light : put such a one in the dark, and what can ho do ? 
The work of grace, God must enable us to do ; but we 
must work together with God. God enables a man to 
make a watch, by giving him skill ; but he must work 
with God : so it is with the work of grace, we must 
have light in our own souls; therefore ignorance is 
dangerous. 

5. Blindness in this world makes men objects of 
pity and compassion, but this ignorance and blindness 
make men to be the objects of the hatred and curse 
of God. ^^lien you see a poor blind man here, is he 
loathsome in your eyes because he is blind, do you hate 
him ? No, you pity him. But now the blindness of 
your souls makes you abominable in the sight of God, 
and God will be avenged on you for it. But you will 
say. How can we help it ? We have put out our own 
eyes ; God gave us light at first, and we brought ignor- 
ance upon ourselves. 

If ignorance then be so dangerous that people perish 
for " lack of knowledge," how vile is it to deny the 
means of knowledge to men, merely to satisfy the 
liumours of others! How many hundred congrega- 
tions are there that have been deprived of their minis- 
ters, for a surplice, or a cross, or some such thing ! 

But you will say, Obedience to a church is an im- 
portant matter. 

Tlie answer is. Therefore it is the fault of a church, 
or governors, to reqiure such things as God never re- 
quired ; and after requiring them, it is a greater fault 
for them to insist so much on them, that manv thou- 
sands must perish rather than their humours" not be 
satisfied. 



If this be the ground of perishing, tiien, though 
divers countries have felt the hand of God most fear- 
fully, yet we hope that England shall not perish, for 
the knowledge of God is begiui to .shine among us, 
and never since the world began has it shone more 
brightly on a kingdom than upon us. We ho]ie, there- 
fore, though God intends to chastise us, we shall not 
pei'ish. 

" Because thou hast rejected knowledge." Only let 
us take heed that we do not reject knowledge, and 
despise it. The word nsN3 signifies to reject with 
despite and contempt ; it is ignorantia non merce nega- 
tionis, sed pravcE dixpnsitionis, affected ignorance. 
" Thou hast rejected knowledge" two ways. First, when 
the means of knowledge are rejected, then knowledge is 
rejected. Secondlj", when the directions of our know- 
ledge are rejected, when we refuse to be guided by 
it, upon this our knowledge decays, and eventually is 
contemned. 

Now this is a great sin in any, but especially in the 
priests. AVhen others think that the knowledge of God 
and his truth is too slight, too mean a thing to engage 
thcu" thoughts, this is vile. When merchants and trades- 
men think they must busy their heads about some 
other matters, but as for this knowledge of the 
Scriptures, it is no great matter, they may be happy 
without that ; let them have their tradings, and bar- 
gainings, and houses, and receipts ; let them have 
tlieir tables spread, and their dishes full ; but for this 
Scripture, and these points of religion, these are things 
too mean for them. These men now despise know- 
ledge, for so the word here signifies, reject it, as under- 
valuing its importance. But, I say, when the priests 
shall reject knowledge, the priests that shoidd have 
laboured to have filled their souls with knowledge, if 
they shall seek to gratify the lusts of the flesh, and 
care not cither to have the knowledge of God in their 
ovm souls, or to bring it to the people, but look upon 
it as notlring worth, this is in a more special manner a 
most grievous sin. How many are there amongst us 
at this day, that study to get preferment, &c., and then 
sell their books, and never after pursue knowledge! 
And others, if they have knowledge and learning, and 
prize it in some respects, yet in this they contemn it, 
they prize knowledge merely as serviceable to their 
lusts. It is not for the beauty and excellency of the 
knowledge of God, nor for the sweetness that they 
find in Christ, that they so laboriously study ; but 
that they may be accounted scholars, men of under- 
standing and learning. When we thus seek know- 
ledge merely to stdjserve our lusts, we may be justly 
charged with despising knowledge. 

But further. These priests, and such as were eminent 
in Israel, rejected knowledge, because they had their 
houses, and goods, and revenues amongst the ten 
tribes. (I beseech you observe it, for this concerns us.) 
I say, the priests that were amongst the ten tribes were 
settled there, and had their houses, incomes, and 
estates there ; but now this was taught, that we must 
worship God at the temple in Jerusalem, and they re- 
jected this knowledge es])ecially, for they saw that if 
they embraced that truth of worshipping God in his 
own way, then. Farewell our incomes, farewell our 
livings, farewell our houses, we must leave our brave 
dwellings, and all our maintenance, and go from Sa- 
maria, and we must go to Judah ; and how shall we 
live there ? Upon this they shut their eyes against the 
knowledge of that very truth that should have brought 
them to the true worship of God ; rather than they 
would lose their estates, they would reject that know- 
ledge. And that I think to be the meaning of the Holy 
Ghost here : they despised, as other knowledge, so that 
knowledge of the true worship of God : so it is ren- 
dered bvsome, .^cientiam illam, that kind of knowledge 



996 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



they rejected. For they knew that those truths were 
suffering truths. Now suffering truths are truths that 
will hardly go down with cither people or ministers, 
they had therefore rather be ignorant of them ; as the 
Holy Ghost in Ezekiel speaks of men that shut their 
eyes against the sabbath, so they sliut their eyes against 
those truths which should have brought them to the true 
■worship of God. And in this case it is not enough for 
a man to say, God knows I go not against my con- 
science ; if my conscience were convinced that such 
and such tilings must be in the worship of God agree- 
ably to his word, I would obey it. But the reason 
they see not this to be the word of God is, because 
they have no mind to know it, they reject that know- 
ledge, it is against their ease and preferment, and it is 
sufiering truth, and therefore they shut their eyes 
against it. This is no excuse. Mark the judgment that 
follows. 

" I will also reject thee." You despise knowledge, I 
will despise you ; so the words may be read, as well as 
reject you. God scorns wicked men as much as they 
scorn him ; " with the fi-oward he will deal frowardly," 
and with the scornful he will deal scornfully, that is, 
he will laugh them to scorn, '\^^lat ! do you look on 
God's ways and worship as a vile thing ? are the truths 
of God vile in your eyes ? You are vile in God's eyes, 
he looks upon you and your spirits with as much con- 
tempt as you can regard his worship, his saints, and his 
ordinances. You despise knowledge, and I will despise 
you, saith God. 

And "I will reject thee." The word ■^^JDN^^5^ here 
translated reject, has a letter in it more than it has in 
any other place in all the Scripture ; and Tremelius from 
thence observes, there is a letter in this word in the He- 
brew that is redundant, and it denotes the extraordinary 
manner of God's rejecting them, ho will cast them out of 
the hearts of his people, as he does apostate ministers, 
whom, above all others, God rejects with contempt, 
pouring shame and contempt upon them more than on 
any in the world. That is his note upon this ; he will 
reject them with contempt ; yea, for ever. You heard 
before, in Luke vi., that Christ pronounced his disci- 
ples, faithful preachers, blessed, when theu- names were 
cast out as evil, when they were vilified by men. But 
now mark, when a minister goes on faithfully in de- 
claring tlie mind of God unto people, and there be 
shame cast upon him, that minister is blessed ; but if 
the minister be wicked, and there be shame cast upon 
him, that shame is a part of the curse, for then he is 
cast out as unsavoury salt, and men tread upon it, 
saith Christ. AVickcd men would cast out the godly, 
but God and God's saints embrace them, and bless God 
for tliem ; but if you be wicked, and men east you out 
as unsavoury salt, then men contemn you, then you are 
trodden upon ; yea, so rejected, as never to be received 
again. In Ezek. xliv. 1.3, the priests that did for- 
sake the Lord, when Israel forsook him, must never 
again come near unto God, no, not so much as near 
unto the priest's office: a notable text, which it concerns 
you to know for your direction about receiving in 
persons wlio have wickedly apostatized in evil times. 
Perhaps now they preach good sermons, but you are to 
inquire what they were when others were superstitious 
and evil ; and although we are not utterly to reject 
them, yet, until there be further evidence of their re- 
pentance, they are not to be received. God threatens 
an utter rejection of those Lcvites that forsook him 
when Israel forsook him. 

Now the observations that I would derive from 
hence, are, 

Obs. 1. Unfaithfulness in service provokes God to 
cast us out of service. I cannot stop to set an edge on 
this. 

Obs. 2. It is a great judgment to be rejected from 



the priest's office, from the office of a minister : " I will 
reject thee, that thou slialt be no priest to me." To be 
rejected from any emploj-ment is a great judgment : 
Neh. V. 13, "So Go4 shake out even," man from his 
house, and from his labour, that performeth not his pro- 
mise." It is a judgment to be shaken out of our labour, 
but to be shaken out of such an office, whereby we draw 
so nigh unto God as to be the mouth of God to the 
people, and the mouth of the people unto God again, is 
a sore evil. 

Again, whereas it may be said, Israel had no tnie 
priests, therefore it was no judgment for them to be 
rejected out of that office : but yet to be cast out of what 
we seem to have, is likewise a judgment of God, Luke 
viii. 18. 

" Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I 
T\'ill also forget thy children." 

" Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God." 
You live so as to show that you never think of the law, 
of its holiness, equity, and authority, and the threats 
annexed unto it, for if you remembered these you could 
not go on so quietly in a com-se of sin ; but you have 
cast off all the remembrance of the law, it is even worn 
out of your memory. The book of the law of God was 
lost for a long time in Judah, surely in Israel much 
more. 

" I will also forget." 'js-Dl £'/('am e^o. Even I. It 
is a sad thing to be forgotten by our friends when we 
are in misery, Oh that sucli a dear friend, such a father 
or such a mother, should forget me ! but how sad a 
thing is it for God to forget you ! 

" Thy childien." That is, there shall be no succes- 
sion in the priestly office. This was threatened against 
Eli's house, 1 Sam. ii. 20. It is a blessing for the 
godly children of godly ministers to succeed them in 
the office, and the contraiy is a judgment. Your chil- 
dren shall not succeed you in tliis office, but they shall 
be forgotten by me. The families of wicked ministers, 
tlu-ough God's judgment, are many times forgotten. 
You have forgotten me, I will also forget you and your 
children. I will not here speak how the child may suf- 
fer for the father's offence, we often meet with it ; only 
now, as it concerns the posterity of wicked ministers, 
they are, through God's judgments, often forgotten- 
But let not the families of godly ministers, especially if 
their children be godly too, oh let them not be for- 
gotten. It is a judgment threatened upon these wick- 
ed priests, that God would forget their cliildien, there- 
fore it is not so evil though men forget them ; but if 
there be any that have been faithful ministers, God 
forbid their children should be forgotten after they arc 
dead. This city has been honoured for its respect to 
godly ministers ; but have you never forgotten their 
children, tlieir families that have been left behind? 
When they were with you, and preached among you, 
you seemed mightily to respect them; but are there not 
many that belong unto their families that live now with 
you, in a hard condition ? yea, theu' childien and fami- 
lies that are godly, their widows too, how are they 
forgotten ! If the godly children of pious ministers 
should go unto God and complain thus, would it not be 
a sad tiling ? Lord, thou didst threaten idolatrous 
priests that forgot thee, that thou wouldst also forget 
tlicir children ; but. Lord, my father was in tlie city a 
faitliful minister, he remembered thee, and was a faith- 
ful remembrancer for thy people, yet we are forgotten ; 
is this according to thy word? .shall the judgment 
threatened on the children of idolatrous priests be the 
judgment upon us that are the children of faithful mi- 
nisters ? arc we to be thus forgotten though our fa- 
thers forgot not thee ? Look, therefore, into the fami- 
lies of godly niinistcis, look after their children, and as 
their fathers did not forget God, do not you forget 
tliem j let not tlic judgment threatened on tlie children 



Ver. 7. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



22: 



of wicked ministers be upon them, but let there be a 
distinction made between the children of faithful and 
godly ministers, and the children of idolatrous priests. 

Ver. 7. As they were increased, so they sinned against 
me : therefore will I change their glory into shame. 

The Lord is here fui'ther charging these ten tribes, 
but especially thek priests, at them he aims most. 
They liad before rejected the knowledge of the Lord, 
and tlie Lord thi-eatened rejection of them. The know- 
ledge, nynn that knowledge, scientiam illam, that 
knowledge of the true worship of God, that lie was to be 
worshipped at Jerusalem alone : that truth was a sufler- 
ing truth, therefore that truth they did especially re- 
ject ; and in this seventh verse there is some ground 
for theii' rejection of the knowledge of God, " As they 
were increased, so they sinned against me." God had 
increased them, they were become a great multitude, 
and as theii' number increased, so their sins increased. 
But that which I especially conceive to be the meaning 
of the Holy Ghost here, is. As their prosperous condi- 
tion increased, so theu- sins increased ; they were grown 
up to a height of prosperity, and that made them sin 
against and reject the knowledge of God. 

The first is not to be rejected, viz. As they increased 
in multitude : so the Seventy, Kara to v\r]9og, accord- 
ing to their fulness. And it may be understood both 
ways, fulness of number, or fulness of their prosperous 
estate. 

06s. "Where there is an increase in number, there 
is usually an increase in sin. The more meat there is 
in the pot, the more scum arises. So in great cities, 
what a great deal of filth is there, filth of sin, moral filth ! 
Where there is any confluence of people, as at fairs and 
markets in the counti-y, or in any corporation, what 
abundance of defilement is there continually ! Li 
churches, at theii'fii"st beginning, a few, calledsaints, can 
agree well together, and go on sweetly in their way ; but, 
ordinarily, as they increase in number they begin to 
corrupt and increase in sin. They should increase so 
much the more in godliness ; but this is the corruption 
of man's heart, every one bringing in some evil, there- 
fore as the number, so the sins, increase. 

But because the second appears the true interpreta- 
tion, to speak to that a little : As they increased in 
then- prosperous estate. At this time the ten tribes 
were in a very prosperous condition, grown rich and 
great, and so increased, especially the priests ; for they 
had the favour of Jeroboam and of the princes ; for 
their main design was to uphold their false worship, 
and the priests served for their turns best, therefore 
they countenanced those priests of Dan and Bethel, the 
priests of the calves, and they flourished at tliis time in 
the court and in the country, and were mucli increased 
in their prosperous estate ; and " as they increased, so 
they sinned." This is man's vile disposition, that in- 
crease of mercies should be the increase of their sin. 
Thus was it with the church ; when in a lower condition, 
then there was more holiness and more sincere love to the 
truth, but when it began to flourish in outward pros- 
perity, it began to decay in true piety. And, therefore, 
ecclesiastical history tells us, that when the church re- 
ceived from Constautine great donations, then there was 
heard a voice in the air, Hodie venenum infanditur, Sfc, 
To-day poison is pouredforth into the church : when great 
livings and great estates were given to the ministers of 
the church, then poison was poured forth into it. And 
so when Boniface, the martjT, was asked whether it were 
lawful to receive the communion in wooden chalices, 
he well answered, Time was, when m the church there 
were wooden chalices and golden priests ; but now, 
there are golden chalices, but wooden priests. And 
on Innocent the Thii-d showing Aquinas a table of gold 



and silver, and saying, AVc liave no need to say as Peter 
once did, " Silver and gold have we none :" Neither, 
replied Aquinas immediately, can ye say, " Arise anct 
walk ;" as you have more money than they had, so you 
have less gifts, and not so much of the Spirit of God. 
It was so in the increase of the prosperity of the diurch, 
and is generally the case. As with tlie spleen, the 
greater it grows, the less the body is ; so, the more 
prosperity, the leaner and weaker are the spirits of men. 
Dent, xxxii. lo, " Thou art waxed fat, thou art groMii 
thick, thou art covered with fatness : then he forsook 
God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock 
of his salvation." How many, when they were low 
and poor in their estates, were more holy and gra- 
cious, and more spiritual, than now ! It is true in par- 
ticular persons, in churches and countries, but most 
true in ministers. It was a complaint once made to 
a prelate here, that he had a kinsman, a very zealous 
preacher in the counti-y : AVell, said he, I will sUence 
him : and his mode of silencing was this, ho gave him 
two livings, and that stopped his mouth : when he 
came once to have fatted livings, then his zeal quickly 
abated. And Jerome, in the life of Ma- 
lachus, saith, "When the church came to ^Sp's'chSJ-""'' 
Christian princes, and there had counte- '>.""* •«"■'' '«'=•■» 
nance, we may well say of it, that indeed "m. '« lirtmibus 
it was fatted with riches, but diminished ' 

in virtue and godliness. 

God threatens here, that seeing they abused their 
prosperity, he therefore would turn theu' glory into 
shame. God loves to stain the pride and haughtiness 
of men. He would turn the glory of tlie people, and 
the glory of the priests, but especially the glory of the 
priests, (for so it is meant, but we must include all,) 
into shame : either, fii-st, he would instead of glory 
bring shame ; or, seconcUy, he would make that wherein 
they most gloried, to be their shame. 

1. That he would bring shame instead of glory. So 
God is wont to do. "Women that glory in their beauty 
and splendour, should mark well Isa. iii. 16 — 2i, 
" Moreover, the Lord saith. Because the daugliters of 
Zion are haughty, and walk -n-ith stretched-forth necks, 
and wanton eyes," &c. ; therefore, " instead of well-set 
hair, there shall be baldness; and instead of a sto- 
macher, a girding of sackcloth ; and burning instead of 
beauty." If any will glory in parts, tlie Lord justly 
brings shame upon them, blasting their gifts. As is 
reported of Albertus Magnus, that great scholar, that 
for five years before his death he lost his faculties so 
completely that he could not read. God can soon blast 
men's parts when gloried in, and turn them to shame. 
If any glory in riches, God can soon turn that into 
shame also. History tells us of an earl of Exeter, 
that married the sister of King Edward the Fourth, 
of whom yet Philip de Commines reports, that he 
was seen barefoot, and begging his bread, in the Low 
Countries. God can soon take away the riches of men, 
and turn that, theii' glory, into then- shame. And then, 
if any glory in honour, God can soon turn that into 
shame, as in the case of Herod, who gloried in the ap- 
jijause of the peojile when tliey cried out, " It is tlie 
voice of a god, and not of a man ;" and presently was 
he consumed by worms. 

And much shame comes to men that glory in these 
things. Mark, according to the glory of men in external 
things, so is their shame when'God takes them away. 
Here is the difference between the saints and the wick- 
ed when they lose these outward things. "Wlien the 
saints lose them, much shame comes not to them, be- 
cause they gloried not in them when they had them ; 
but carnal hearts, because they know no higher things 
than these, when they are taken from them, much shame 
accrues to them, for "they gloried in their possession. 

2. God makes the very things they glory in to turn 



228 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



to their shame. He not onl) takes away their parts, 
and brings ignorance and dotage instead of them, but 
makes their very gifts to be their undoing, and uses 
them to bring them to shame. He makes their very 
riches and honours, and their glorying in tlieir success, 
to turn to their shame. As now, when men glory in 
this, that they had such success and such a victory at 
such a time ; and thence infer, Surely God is with us, 
and blesses and owns us ; in this they glory : well, God 
turns this into their shame, when he appears against 
them, and, blasting their success, makes it manifest to 
all, that though they have all outward means, yet they 
avail nothing : now, where is the argument of God's 
owning their cause, and their reason for glor\ing, if 
success be the test. Thos^e that shall make that the only 
or principal argument that God is with them, how does 
God turn their glory into shame, when he apparently 
denies them success, and that when they have most 
outward means for its attainment ! The saint's shame is 
turned into glory, but the wicked's glory is turned into 
shame. When the saints sutler any shame for God, 
they can glory: the apostles. Acts v. 41, rejoiced that 
they were accounted worthy to suffer ; that they had 

the honour to endure dishono t, so the 
'a^uucfea".'' '"'Oi'ds properly signify- ; they gloiied that 

they bore about them the marks of the 
Lord Jesus. Thus, what the world accounts their 
shame, is their glory ; and that which the world judgeth 
to be their glory, is their shame. 

But it is especially meant of the priests, for the pro- 
phet is speaking of them. God will turn " their glory 
into shame." The priests, though they did reject the 
knowledge of God and their duty, and never regarded 
that wherein the true glory of their office consisted ; 
that blessed knowledge of God, which might have made 
them glorious indeed, was despised by them, and the 
faithful administration of their office" neglected : yet 
they would glory for all this, they would bear it out" as 
if they were llie men : why, they were countenanced at 
court, had good livings, and they could lord it over 
their brethren ; and in that they gloried. It is usual 
with wicked priests, if they can have but countenance 
from them that are in public places, and can have but 
estates and li^ings, though they be never so negligent 
of their office, and never so ignorant, yet to glory. How 
has it been thus amongst us of late ! How have they 
carried their heads on high, and accounted themselves 
the triumphant church, and all must be made to yield 
to them! The land was not able to bear the pride of 

prelates and in-elatical men. Cyprian 
Buayiicrdormmni saitli, Ambitioii and pruic sweetly sleep 
cyJ^d'^juS"' in the bosom of priests. And there are 

none indeed so much puffed up with vain 
pi'idc as tliey arc, especially the more ignorant they are, 
and the more they neglect that in which the true "glory 
of their office consists. On such God delights to pou'r 
shame and contempt, therefore, in Isa. ix. 15, saith, 
" The prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail," the 
very meanest; and Mai. ii. 9, "Therefore have I also 
made you" (speaking of the priests that had been 
jiartial in the law and had not kept the ways of God) 
" contemptible and base before ail the people ; " and 
llev. iii. 16, "I will s^nie thee out of my mouth," as 
loathsome ; and Matt. v. 13, " If the salthave lost his 
savour, wherewith shall it be salted ? it is thenceforth 
good for nothing, but to be east out, and to be trodden 
under foot of men," as a contemptible and vile thing. 
Thus God casts shame upon wicked priests. 

Ver. 8. T/iey eat up the sm of my people, and lliei/ 
set their heart on their iniquity. i 

" They eat up the sin of my people." There is some 
difficulty in these words. To eat up sin, to eat up the 



sin of people, what is that ? There is much in this to 
be learned. 

The word rsan here translated sin, has in Scripture 
tlu-ee acceptations. 

First, It is used for that which is properly sin, the 
transgression of God's law : for that I need not cite any 
scripture. 

Secondly, It is used for the punishment of sin : " He 
shall bear his sin," his punishment of sin. Christ " was 
made sin." And, 

Thirdly, It is used for the sacrifice that was offered 
for sin : Lev. x. 17, " AVherefore have ye not eaten the 
sin " (that is, the sin-offering) " in the holy place ? " 

The observation from hence (by way of allusion, at 
least) is, 

Obs. 1. Ministers should eat the revenues they have by 
their office in a holy place : that is. their houses, in 
which they spend their income, should be holy places ; 
for the offerings of the jjcople were what the priests 
had in return for their services, and they were to eat 
them in a holy place : so ministers now should eat the 
means they have coming in, in holy places, their houses 
should be sanctuaries. Let those priests that spend 
their time in play, in pleasures of the flesh, in taverns, 
and make their houses very sinks of vice, let them 
hearken to this. 

But where lies the charge here, " They eat up the 
sin of my people ? " 

First, in that they flattered them in their sin, and so 
got advantage thereby. So Gregory : 
^Vhy or how are they said to eat up the c'omJi'Se'SSu" 
sin of people, but because they nom-ish EnqSSmr&c'?^ 
the sins of delinquents for their own ad- 
vantage ? So all your court flatterers and others, that 
flatter men in their sin for their own advantage, may 
be said to feed on the sins of the people. 

Secondly, Because they were negligent in their office, 
and took all the jirofits and advantages resulting, but 
neglected their charge, let people go on in their sin, 
and cared not what became of them in that respect, 
provided they received their tithes and revenues ; such 
minister's may be said to live upon, or to eat, the sins of 
the people, and to wear their sins ; their very backs 
may be said to be covered, and their tables spread, with 
the sins of the people. A writer on this place relates a 
story of a prelate in Charles the Fifth's time, that, in- 
viting his frientls to his house, and preparing good 
cheer, they did not eat of it : "What, saith he, will you 
not eat of dainties that arc bought at so dear a rate ? 
this meat which I have prepared for you, and you will 
not eat, is like to cost me the pains of hell. He was 
convinced in his conscience of the neglect of his duty, 
and so regarded the very food on his table as the sins 
of his people, and that which was like to cost him 
eternal misery. 

But further, to open it far more clearly, " They eat 
up the sin of my people ;" that is, the sacrifices which 
were offered for sin. 

But you will say then. How is this so deep a charge, 
that they should eat of the sacrifices that were offered 
for sin ? for God allowed the priests to eat the sin- 
offering, as that place. Lev. x. 17, shows. 

In this, therefore, consisted the evil, that they were 
greedy of the people's sacrifices, not tliat God might 
have honour, but that they themselves might gain ad- 
vantage. It is true, God had honour by the people's 
offering of sacrifice, but they looked not to that so much 
as to their own profit. Hence, they urged people as 
nnich as they could to sacrifice, teaching them to rest 
in tlieir sacrifices, and indeed making light of their sin ; 
Though you sin, come, and I will offer for your sins, and 
they shall be pardoned. Just as the papists at this 
day teach the people, though thev sin, yet by so many 
masses, and Pator-nosters, and indulgences, and dirges, 



Vee. 8. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



229 



tliey shall be delivered ; and by this means tliey get the 
•n-ealth of kingdoms, and eat up the sins of the people. 
The priests in those times were apt emblems of the pa- 
pists now. 

Again, They were glad when people did offend and 
sin against God, because then their sacrifices must_ be 
multiplied, and so their gains increased : and so it is a 
rebuke of the covetousness of priests. It is a most 
abominable thing for those that are to watch over souls, 
to regard their own profit and carnal gratification, more 
than the good of souls : just like your chancellors' and 
commissaries' courts of old, they cared not what offences 
there were, they rejoiced at long presentments, all 
brought gi-ist to their mill. And, it 
ropuii mei peccita secms, there were such priests in Ber- 
^'"itf^ccaCm nard's time; in his 7Tth sermon on the 
Jeccan'tibS'debi: '' Cauticles, hc quotes this place, and saith, 
tamsoiicitadinem Thcv Cat ui) the siu of uiv people ; as if 
lursnm.Qaemdabis he should Say, they cxact the price oi 
"oSoramT"!"on" their sin, but take not due care for the 
fi?um vilSand'i'""' siuncrs. And again. Give me any one of 
marsupiis quam thoSB that arc govcmors in the chmxh, 

vitiis cstirpMidiB, o 

Bern. that does not watch more to empty peo- 

ple's purses than to save their souls. 
Ols. 2. It is a most cursed thing to desire or re- 
joice in the sins of others because of our own advantage. 
How^ many are there that watch for the falls of then- 
enemies, and rejoice in their sin! I appeal to you: had 
you an enemy and you heard of his fall, though it were 
a sin against God, yet, if it tended to his disgrace, would 
you not rejoice and be glad of it? because the more an 
enemy is disgraced, the more you think yourself justi- 
fied and honoured. This is truly horrible ! O, be hum- 
bled before the Lord for it, and seek unto God, that, 
if it be possible, he may pardon the thoughts of thy 
heart in this thing. "What ! to rejoice that the infinite, 
blessed God is dishonoured because tliou thyself hast 
an advantage ! it is most honible arid accursed. How 
many are there, that, looking on the professors of reli- 
gion, whom they tliink to be their adversaries, rejoice 
when they see them fall ! Why ? because they think by 
their disgrace they themselves are justified. Tliis is to 
feed upon the sins of people. You shall have vermin 
and swine rooting in filth and in dung ; so there ai-e 
many that feed upon the defilement of others, on the 
CJth of their sins. It is a vile and cursed wickechiess, 
to be glad, for our own advantage, of the afflictions of 
om: neighbour, much more to rejoice at his sin. '\^lien 
thy neighbour falls into afiliction, thou shouldest not 
rejoice at his affliction, though thou art advantaged by 
it ; but when thy neighbour falls into sin, to be glad of 
it for thine own advantage, is a most cursed thing in- 
deed. Were a surgeon to rejoice at another man's 
wounds, and to prolong the healing of them, because 
he tliereby received some profit, would not eveiy one 
cry out against him ? and truly this were wicked. So 
for soldiers to love war, and willingly to lengthen it 
out, and care not what becomes of the lives of men, and 
the woeful miseries of a kingdom, that they may Iiave 
continued pay, this you will all account a great wicked- 
ness ; but this is not so bad as to be glad of the sins of 
people for our own advantage. Certainly, as surgeons 
may be said in such a case to feed upon the matter and 
stuff of the wound ; and those soldiers may be said 
to cb-ink of the blood of people ; and those cups of wine 
that go down so men-ily, and those dishes of meat that 
they are so jovial with, may be said to be the flesh and 
the blood of people ; yet, all this is not so bad as to 
feed upon the sins of otliers. Thou that feedest upon 
the sin of thy brother, dost thou not know that this 
diet of thine must needs breed diseases ? It is not whole- 
some food, but such as wiU one day breed the worm of 
conscience, and create such remorse as humiliation and 
repentance wiU hardly purge thee of. It was once 



wittily said of a prelate that was very fat, that he be- 
came so by so often eating his own words ; and no mar- 
vel, though men grow to have fat hearts that feed upon 
the sins of people. As this is the ordinaiy diet of many, 
so especially of ministers : and for ministers to feed upon 
the sins of people, so as to keep them alive by their flat- 
teries and connivance, is surely evil; but if by their 
faithful preaching they did first slay the sins of the 
people, and then receive maintenance for their work, 
this is allowed by God, and this they may do._ 'SVhen 
God bade Peter, Arise and eat, he first bid him slay, 
" Ai-ise, Peter, slay and eat :" so ministers, if fii'st they 
would arise and slay the sins of the people by their 
preaching, may eat, that is, may then comfortably re- 
ceive maintenance and allowance for their work ; but, 
if they keep their sins alive, then their diet is evil, for 
they feed upon then- sins. 

What ! is there such wickedness in the hearts of men 
as to rejoice in the sins of others for their own advan- 
tage ? Oh how much more then should the saints re- 
joice, for then" blaster's sake, in the graces of God as 
manifested in others ! In Ezek. viii. 17, you have an 
expression which seems hard to be understood. God 
charges the people there, as with other notorious evils, 
so with this among the rest, that " they put the branch 
to then- nose." I conceive the meaning to be this ; The 
people are there charged with idolati-ous service, ren- 
dered to either the sun, or Vesta, the goddess of th& 
earth, because they believed that by them the sweet 
flowers and branches of trees came forth ; and when 
they worshi])ped either of these, in acknowledgment of 
the'honour due to them they took a branch and put it 
to theu' nose, thereby showing their respect and homage 
unto them, as rejoicing in that good and sweet fruit which 
was caused by this, their god or goddess : so that God 
charges them" here for so rejoicing in these creatures, as 
to worship the sun or the earth as their cause. To apply 
this to our purpose ; As idolaters, because they looked 
upon the sun or the earth as the cause of such flourishing 
plants, and sweetness of branches and flowers, put them 
to their nose and delighted in them, and thereby show- 
ed then' reverence for their idols ; so should we take 
the graces of the Spkit of God in our brethren, that are 
the fruits of the Sun of righteousness, and put them to 
om- nose, smell at them, account them fragrant, and so 
do honom- unto Jesus Christ as then- sole author. Thus 
much for that phi-ase, " They eat up the sin of my people." 

" And they set their heart on then- iniquity." The 
words are lit'2J lNSi'> they lift up every ^^^^^ 

one his heart, not D'CSJ their hearts. 
It may be interpreted either of the heart of the 
priests, or the heart of the people, according to the^ 
scope of the Spirit of God. 

Fii-st, The heart of the priests, they lift up theii' 
hearts to the iniquity of the people. This phrase, lifting 
up of the heart to 'a tiling, intimates in Scripture, the 
earnest desire that there is in the heai-t to attain such 
a thing; as in Deut. xxiv. 15, speaking of poor men, it 
is said, " He is poor, and sets his heart upon his hire." 
A poor man that wants provision for his family, sets his 
heart upon his wages ; and the word u-sed in this text 
is, he lifteth up his heart to liis hire. Oh my hu-e, 
that it might come ! And Jer. xxii. 27, " To the land 
whereunto they desu-e to return, thither shall they not 
retui-n ; " that is, the land w hereunto they lift their 
hearts, for which they have an earnest desire. And 
Ezek. xxiv. 25, "^\^len I take from them then- 
strength, the joy of theii- glory, the desu-e of their eyes, 
and that whereupon they set their minds, their sons 
and daughters :" it is applied to their love unto their 
children, they lift their minds, or their hearts, to their 
sons and their daughters : so that then it signifies the 
earnest desire the priests had unto the sins of the peo- 
ple, that they might liave the greater advantage by 



230 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



tliem : as sonrc who are of poor, senile spirits, and 
whose greatest means aiise from burials, are said to 
be glad and rejoice when they hear the bell ring ; and 
are ready to desire the death of men out of regard to 
their own fees, because the more and the richer that 
die, the more advantage accrues to them. So the 
priests at this time desii-ed the multiplying of the sins 
of the people, that they might thereby have the more 
sacrifices. 

But I rather think, according to other interpreters, 
the passage to refer chiefly to the lifting up of the 
hearts of the people ; that is, that the priests might 
have the more advantage by theii' sacrifices ; they en- 
couraged the people in their sins, lightening and lifting 
up their hearts above theii' guilt, persuading them that 
if they offered up sacrifice all should be well, they should 
be fully cleared, and need not be further troubled; 
whereas, indeed, the priests ought to have convinced 
men's consciences of the evil of their sins, and when they 
came to sacrifice, showed them how they deserved 
death for them, and that the death of the animal, and 
their laying their hands upon the head of it, signified 
that then- sins deserved the death eternal of their souls ; 
and they should have instructed the people how the 
sacrifices tj'pified the blood of C'hi-ist, and have told 
them. You come now to offer sacrifice, and to have the 
blood of beasts shed, this shadows forth the Messiah 
that is to come into the world, the Son of God, that is 
to be made man, and to shed his precious blood to 
pacify the -(viath of God for your sins ; and you are to 
exercise your faith upon this Messiah that is to come. 
They should have told them that no sin could be par- 
doned but by the blood of Christ ; they should have 
bm'dened their consciences with their guilt, and made 
their sins heavy ; but they lightened their minds by 
persuading them, that if they did but offer sacrifice all 
would be well, they might indulge themselves ; and 
though they committed sin again, yet still a sacrifice 
could atone for it. 

This was a most abominable sin of the priests. 
Calvin, on this place, inti'oduces Plato inveighing 
against the absm-dity and ridiculousness of people's 
offering sacrifice, thinking thereby to pacify theu- gods, 
and gain a liberty to sin again : thus even a heathen 
thought it an abuse of a heathen god, for people to 
think it enough to offer sacrifice. And yet, do not many 
amongst us commit sin, and take liberty to themselves 
to satisfy the lusts of the flesh, and then they will pray 
to God to forgive them ? and some go so far that they 
will fast, and then sin, and then pray and fast, and re- 
turn to th.eir sins again, thinking to put off God with 
such kind of sacrifices as these are ; and so making 
repentance, that should be the death of their sins, a 
means to nourish theu- sins. The priests here abused 
the tvjie, the sacrifices, lightening the hearts of people 
by telling them that there remained a sacrifice to ex- 
piate their sin. And have you not at this day many that 
abuse the Antitj'pe as much, that tell the people thus ; 
Sin as fast as you can, there is a sufficient sacrifice for 
sin ; it is but to believe in Christ, who has shed his 
blood for the greatest of all sins; you may then sin as 
fast as you can, the penalty is paid. There may indeed 
be truth in the words, that thei-c is a sacrifice for the 
gi'eatcst sin, but there is a manner in declaring it that 
either encourages or deters people from sin. I appeal 
to you, whether you have not many that do so reveal 
Christ, and open the rich and glorious free grace of 
God in Christ, as an encouragement to people to sin. 
It is true, when examined they deny it: No, (iod for- 
bid ; they encourage not men to sin, they only tell them 
of God's free grace. Yea, but they tell them of it in 
such a manner, without such cautions as prudent, wise, 
conscientious ministers use : and therefore you find that 
all your lewd and looser sort of professors follow them. 



It appears that in Jerome's time there were such 
people, for he saith, 'VMien they saw any to live wick- 
edly they would say thus to them, You sin and offend, 
but God requires of us nothing else but only to abide 
in the ti'uth of the faith ; to believe, and that is enough. 
And again. Which faith, if you do but keep, God re- 
gards not so much what your lives are, only looks that 
you do believe. And by this means (saith he) men 
repent not, neither are they humbled, but walli up and 
down with a stretched-out neck, in proud security, be- 
cause they think they hold the true faith, and so take 
liberty to sin. The church has been continually 
troubled with this generation, and no marvel there be 
such men now amongst us ; for the reformation being 
yet incomplete, some kind of liberty is for the present 
permitted to such, and therefore I say, no marvel that 
we have such among us ; men who abuse the free grace 
of God, and lighten the hearts of sinners continuing 
in their sin, by telling them there is a sufficiency in 
Christ's sacrifice to atone for all transgression. 

Ver. 9. Atid there shall be, like people, like priest : 
and I will punish them for their uai/s, and reward them 
llieir doings. 

The Lord, threatening the ten tribes, especially directs 
his denunciations against the priests, as tne great cause 
both of the sin and punishment of the people ; evil 
ministers in a country being often a chief cause of its 
guilt and miser)'. Divers of God's threats against 
them we saw before, and still there follows, 

" There shall be, Hlie people, like priest." Here is 
a mixed threat both against priest and people. They 
have made themselves like one another in sin ; God 
will make them resemble each other in punishment. 
They join themselves together in sin, and were alike 
there ; God will jom them in judgment, and they shall 
be alike there too. There is a likeness between people 
and priest on two grounds, I mean in evil especially. 

First, They generally are Hke in sin one to another, 
from the just judgment of God. \^Tien people dislike 
the powerful ministry of the word, and their hearts can- 
not beai- its spirituahty and force, God, in just judgment, 
sends unto them ministers according to their very 
lusts, ministers that shall be suitable to harden them 
in that very disposition of then- hearts. ^Vnd this is a 
fearful judgment on a people. They may rejoice, and 
bless themselves in it, and tliink themselves now quiet 
and secure, and say they have got a very honest and 
peaceable man amongst them ; but wliile they are re- 
joicing, the wrath of God is in a most dieadful manner 
let out against them, in sending them a minister ac- 
cording to their lusts. As God threatens in Ezek. xiv. 
4, " If a man set up an idol in his heart, God will an- 
swer him according to his idol ;" so, when people set up 
idols in their hearts, and are bent on such and such 
lusts and wicked ways, God, in his just judgment, will 
answer them according to theii' own hearts lusts, and 
they shall have such ministers sent amongst them as 
Will harden them in their wickedness. 

Secondly, They come to resemble one another in 
evil from the great influence they mutually exercise 
over each other: sometimes from the people to the 
priests ; if the people be malignants, superstitious, loose, 
and vain, tlie priests among them, being carnal, will seek 
to humour them ; loving to be praised by them, tliey will 
preach things agreeable to them. But tliis is very vile, 
and an extreme dishonour to the ministry of the 
word, to subject it to the lusts of men. It is this 
that makes it so contemptible in the eyes of the wicked, 
though tlicy be pleased with it. How is that? you 
will say. Tliey arc iilcascd with it, commend such men, 
and like them well, while they do so; yea, like what 
they say ; yet they contemn the minisliy, because they 



Veb. 9. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



231 



come to see that even it is subservient to and aims 
to please theii' humours: hence they look upon them- 
selves and their lusts as above the ministry, and so 
despise its authority. They are pleased ■n-ith the suiting 
of it to theh' lusts, but they despise it in regard of any 
authority, for they see apparently it is under their hu- 
mour's. In Rev. xix. 10, when John did but fall down 
to worship an angel, the angel came to him and said, 
"See thou do it not;" why? "I am thy fellow servant, 
and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus." 
What ! you a minister that have the testimony of 
Jesus, to fall down to an angel ? An angel ! what is 
an angel ? their glory is to be fellow servants with you, 
and to have the same testimony of Jesus that you have. 
A minister must not in his ministry fall down under the 
lusts of any man living, because he has the testimony 
of Jesus with him. It is true, mmisters, with regard to 
themselves, should be willing to be under all ; servants 
imto all for Chiist : they should, I say, be willing to put 
their persons under every man for Christ, but they 
should keep their mmistry above every man. Their 
ministry, and its authority, are to be kept above the 
greatest, and that for Christ's sake. 

Again, A gi'eat influence, as from people to the nri- 
nister, so from the mmister to the people. Look, how 
ministers are, so usually the people are : " Like priest, 
like people ;" especially in evil, they have a great in- 
fluence. You know that in almost all places where you 
have malignant, superstitious miiristers, you have like- 
wise such kind of people. Jer. xxiii. 10, " The land is 
fuU of adulterers," saith the text ; then in the next verse, 
" For both prophet and priest are profane ;" that is the 
reason. And again, ver. 14, " I have seen also," saith 
God, '• in the prophets of Jerusalem, an horrible thing : 
they commit adultery, and walk in lies : they strengthen 
also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from 
his wickedness." Here we see how they harden others 
in sin ; they walk in lies, they tell people we need not 
be so strict, we may take more Uberty, it is but the 
fancies and humours of such and such men ; they walk 
in lies, and so they strengthen men's hands in wicked- 
ness, and none returns from his wicked ways. And then 
ver. 15, " From the prophets of Jerusalem profaneness is 
gone forth into all the land ;" if they be profane and wicked, 
they have an influence quite through the land to make 
the whole country wicked and profane. And on the other 
side, there is often a gi-eat influence in the ministry of 
the word upon people for good. If ministers continue 
painful, faithful, conscientious, it is very rare but that 
they bring people to some kind of obethence or other. 
Very few such ministers have lived any time in any place, 
but have left some savour of then- spirits discoverable 
afterwards in their people. It was wont to be said. Da 
Ambrosias et Iiabebimus Theodosios, Let us have Am- 
broses, and we shall have Theodosiuses. Let us have god- 
ly ministers at com-t, and we shall have godly princes. 
The reason why the emperor Theodosius was so good, 
•was because he had an Ambrose. So we find it in 2 
Kings xii. 2, that Jehoash, so long as Jehoiada the priest 
lived, did that which was right in the sight of the Lord : 
so long as he had a godly minister witli him that in- 
structed him, he did that which was right in the eves of 
God. No marvel, then, so much evil at court and "other 
places, because we know what kind of ministers they ever 
have had. And because of the influence that a minister 
exerts on the people, the evil and malignant party ever 
desire to cherish such ; and the force of theh- rage and 
malice is du-ected against godly ministers, for like minis- 
ter, like people, they think : and, indeed, supposing 
their principles these, they act prudently to attain their 
ends, for godly ministers discover to people their evil 
and wicked ways, and cause those to whom they preach 
to cleave to the truth, and theii- spirits vex and rage 
when they see the ministry of the word to prevail thus 



with the people. With such policy Xerxes acted ■when 
he was in straits by reason of Agesilaus, who prevailed 
much in his country. He sent men with good store of 
money to gain over the towns in Greece, and they went 
and corrupted Athens and Thebes, and so caused such 
great disturbance in Greece, that Agesilaus was sent for 
home, to look to his own country. They went especially 
to the universities, Athens and Thebes, and there cor- 
rupted the orators. And it has been the policy of our 
men in these days to coiTupt the seats of learning, 
thinking by scholars and others there to prevail most. 
It is fabled, that when the wolves would make a league 
with the sheep, they insisted chiefly on one article, which 
was that then- shepherds should be delivered up to them, 
and then they would be at peace with the sheep, and do 
them no hurt. I make no question but if our adversa- 
ries should come to covenant with us, there is no one 
thing on which greater stress would be laid than the 
delivery up of faithfid shepherds. " Like people, like 
priest." 

They are like in evil, and they shall be like in punish- 
ment ; they shall be involved in the same punishment. 
I will make the priests as contemptible and as miserable 
as the vilest of the people ; their places exalted them 
above others, but then- sin has abased them, and so they 
shall be dealt with accordingly. Y'ou will say, WTiat 
great judgment is here threatened, that, "lUie people, 
like priest ? " Certainly to them the judgment was very 
bitter and grievous, for the priests have at all times 
been pufl'ed up with their callings, so that they looked 
upon themselves as far above the people, whom they 
regarded with scorn and contempt. Thus the Pharisees 
in John vii. 49, " This people w'ho knoweth not the law 
are cursed ; " this same vulgar sort are they that are 
accursed : so these priests here, though the truth is, 
they themselves were of the vilest of the people, (for 
Jeroboam's time is spoken of,) yet, being once raised 
into that place, they were puffed up as if they had been 
of another kind of mould than the people. It is usual 
for wicked ministers, though never so base and vUe, 
either m bu-th or breeding, when they get up a little, 
and are come to preferment, to regard others with great 
contempt. It is a master-design in popery to raise the 
priesthood high above the people; and we know, that of 
late in this kingdom our gentiywere nothingbut slaves 
and vassals to the popish priests, especially the prelates. 
And if we did not look at the hand of God in his dread- 
ful judgment besotting men, we could not conceive why 
the gentry should desu-e to have prelacy come in again, 
knowing how they were contemned and despised by 
them before. There was scai'ce a \'icar in the country, 
but if he y^cre Jilius eccU-siip, (as they called him,) a child 
of the church, but vaunted himself as superior to the 
gentry ; and it was an evident argument of the coming 
in of popery upon us, that wlulst the priestly ofiice was 
too much extolled, that wherein the true honour of the 
office consisted, the faitliful preaching of the word, was 
not regarded. To give you an instance or two of their 
pride and their assumption of authority, as here of 
late, Riconius saith, The priest excelleth the king as 
much as a man a beast ; yea, as much as God is above 
a priest, so is a priest above the king : these are his very 
words. And Pope Innocent H. would have Lotharius 
the emperor painted in his palace as a vassal lying 
down at his feet. And so Becanus calls the pope 
the chief priest, the shepherd; and emperors and 
kings are their dogs and curs, saith he ; and if they 
will be faithfid and ready to obey the call of the shep- 
herd, they must be caressed, but if lazy and trouble- 
some, they must be removed. Is it possible now that 
kings and great ones should ever love popery, and at- 
tempt to introduce it with a view to then- own honour, 
when they thus advance their priesthood far above 
them? No; only for the present they would incite them 



232 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



CUAP. IV. 



to strive for an arbitrary government, with the hopes 
that that government should be under their owti con- 
trol. There is a spii-it of fornication (as follows after- 
ward) upon men, else were it impossible they should 
be so besotted as they are. 

But tliouph they thus lifted up themselves above 
the people, yet, saith God, I will make them in pun- 
ishment like to the people. God is no respecter of 
persons, to spare any above another for their place ; 
so neither should we : we should not say, Oh it would 
be a disgrace to the calling, therefore it must be passed 
over ; but rather. Because he is a priest or magistrate, 
or in some e.xalted situation, yet, proving to be a de- 
linquent and an enemy to the state, he must certainly 
be dealt with, and made an example in judgment. For 
the meaner sort to be punished, and the high to escape 
with impunity, God foi-bid ever such a thing should 
be. He is no accepter of persons, neither should 
men be. 

Yea, but perhaps you will say, " Like people, like 
priest;" one would rather think that God should say, 
I will make theii' judgment gi'eater than the judgment 
of the people, for the sin of the priests is far greater 
than the sin of the people. 

To that I answer, first, It is true the sin of the priests 
is greater than the sin of any of the people, but it is 
not greater than the sin of the whole congregation. 
In Lev. iv., compare ver. 3 with ver. 13, and you shall 
find that the same sacrifice that was offered for the sin 
of the whole congregation, is offered for the sin of the 
priest; so that the sin of the priest is accounted equiva- 
lent to the sin of the whole congregation. So there 
is a parallel here, " like people, like priest," that is, I 
will deal with the priests as with the whole congre- 
gation. 

Yet further, for a second answer. As the condition 
of the person aggi'avates the sin, so the condition of 
the person aggravates the judgment. It is a greater 
punishment for a man of a high condition to suffer 
the same tiling that a man that is of a lower condition 
suffers. 

" And I will punish them for their ways." Titps^ 
may be rendered, I will visit them for their ways ; and 
so it is, I think, translated in some of your books, 
Super vias ejus ; I >\ ill visit them upon their ways, 
or visit their ways upon them. Hence we may 

Obs. 1. God has his days of visitation, wherein he 
will narrowly inquire into the ways of men, and call 
them to an account for sins long before committed. 
E.xod. xxxii. 34, " In the day when I visit, I will visit 
their sin upon them ;" I will spare them for the pre- 
sent, but I have a day to visit, and then I will come 
u|)on them even for this sin. God spares sinners now; 
why ? because the day of his visitation is not yet 
come ; but when that is come, then look to your old 
sins : look that now your repentance be thorough, for 
otherwise you may be sjiared a while, but when the 
day of visitation comes, then all your old sins shall be 
called over. In some late visitations by men, the 
more conscientious and godly persons were, the more 
were they aimed at, and it always went worst with 
them; but 'it shall be otherwise in this visitation of 
CJod's; God will visit the visitors, and visit them for 
their visitations, and then, as Isa. x. 3, " What will ye 
do in the day of visitation?" You knew what to do 
in the day when you yourselves did visit, but what 
will you do in the day of God's visiting of you ? As 
Micah vii. 4, "The day of thy watchmen and thy visit- 
ation Cometh ; now shall be their perplexity." Cer- 
tainly those visitors did begin to be in perplexity, for 
their day was coming, and we hope their day yet 
Cometh. 

Obs. 2. In the day of God's visitation men's own 
■ways will come upon them : " I will visit their ways 



upon them." Men may have shifts to put off God for 
a while, but when God' shall \-isit, then they shall jee 
that all the evil that is come upon them is from their 
own ways ; and that will be the ver)' torment of the 
damned in hell, that they shall clearly see that all the 
evil that is upon them, is but the fi-uit of their own 
ways. As birds are sometimes snared by materials 
which they themselves suiijily, so out of men's sins 
doth God make his lime-twigs to take them withal ; 
that is, the judgment that comes upon them is no 
other than the fruit of their own wa)s, they have pro- 
cured this imto themselves. 

" And reward them for their deeds." ^'SSj,'t:i here 
translated deeds, signifies co^ilaliones, studia, their 
studies, their thoughts, as well as opera, their works : 
from whence there may be these two observations. 

Obs. 1. First, That God will call men to account for 
then' thoughts; the undeanness of your thoughts, their 
vanity, envy, and malice. You must look to your 
thoughts, they are not free before God. 

06*. 2. That studied wickedness, thoughtful wicked- 
ness, is the worst wickedness : when men shall plot evil 
in their thoughts God will especially come to visit it. 

" And reward them." There is a great elegancy in 
these words, which in your English you pass o\er very 
lightly. "Keward them then- doings :" we know that 
God will reward every one according to their doings ; 
but I say the original iS S'C'N signifies properly Uedire 
faciam, I will make to return your doings, I will make 
your doings return back upon you. A\Tience 

Obs. 1. Sin passes away in the act of it with much 
sweetness, but God will make it return back again in 
the guilt of it with much bitterness. As Gideon said, 
in Judges viii. ", to the men of Succoth, " AVhen I 
return I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the 
wilderness, and with briers." How many have passed 
over the act of their sin very pleasantly, but within 
a period of long, it may be, or short duration, God haii 
made then' sin return upon them; and it has returned 
as Gideon did upon the men of Succoth, and torn 
them with briers and thorns, that they have lain roar- 
ing in the anguish of spii-it for the horror that hath 
been upon them for their sins. You sinners, that have 
not returned unto God in the way of repentance, re- 
member that all those pleasant, delightful sins of youi-s 
will one day rctiuii upon you, and that in the way of 
teiTor. 

Obs. 2. The good works of the saints shall return 
upon them with comfort and peace. I will " reward 
them their doings," that is, I will make to return their 
doings, I wUl make their doings return back upon them. 
It may be you have some troublesome afflictions in the 
flesh in some of your works and services, yet know they 
shall return with abundance of peace and joy. Do 
not think that what you do for God shall be altogether 
lost : never in your own, nor in the times of your fore- 
fathers, was there a more full opportunity to glorify 
him than at this day ; I refer to the calling in of our 
brethren the Scots into the nation ; it is such an oppor- 
tuiiity of serving God as you never had, nor probably 
ever will have the like as long as you live ; for it is 
not the bringing in of so many men into the kingdom, 
but the engaging of a kingdom for us ; and not only so, 
but the greatest testimony of the goodness of our cause 
before all the surrounding nations : for though now the 
nations about us know not which part to take, there 
having been such jirotcstations on both sides, yet when 
they shall hear that a kingdom that heretofore carried 
themselves so loyally, that the king himself by pro- 
clamation declared them to be his faithful and good 
subjects, when, I say, they shall hear that these, having 
an army in England for the king, yet went away in 
peace, and that they now espouse our side, certainly 
this will bo a strong testimony to all the surrounding 



Vek. 10. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



233 



nations, aiul undoubtedly gain many amongst ourselves. 
Therefore I say, it is the liighest and fullest opportu- 
nity for the service of God and good of your coTintry, 
that you or your forefathers have ever had ; and though 
you iiave done somewhat, nay, much already, yet jou 
never had such an opportunity as this, which you may 
hless God that he has aftbrded you. And do not think 
now that what you do is quite gone and lost : O no, the 
Lord will make' it return, you shall have a good return 
for it. You that are merchants, are you not willing to 
venture your stock at sea, upon the expectation of a 
good return ? you will rely in this on winds, and 
waves, and seas, and servants that may prove un- 
faithful. You never ventured any thing in all your 
lives in which you could have such assurance of a 
good return, as what you venture in such a case as 
ithis. It is not adventured, for God will certainly 
make your good works to return, as he will make the 
doings of the wicked retiu'n upon them. 

Ver. 10. Fen- they shall eat, and not have enough : 
they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase : 
because they have left off to take heed to the Lord. 

" For they shall eat and not have enough." Some 
would interpret these words. They shall still grow 
■worse and worse in eating the sin of my people ; and 
so would refer to the eating of the sin of the people in 
that sense which you heard before, that is, they shall 
never think they have advantage enough from the sin 
of the people : they desire the sin of the people for 
their own advantage ; well, they shall eat their sin in 
that respect, but they shall never have enough, they 
shall never be satisfied, but still desire that people may 
sin more and more, that they may gain more by their 
sacrifices. 

But I rather take it, and evidently more according 
to the words, thus. Howsoever they think to provide for 
themselves by that which they get in such a base, sin- I 
ful way, yet they shall find no satisfaction to themselves 
in it, they shall be deceived. The truth is, if they 
found satisfaction, it were of little consequence, seeing 
they must answer for it afterwards ; but they shall not 
only be judged for it hereafter, but for the present they 
shall find no satisfaction in that in which they pro- 
mised to themselves satisfaction ; they will get an estate, 
perhaps, acquire money and riches this way, and pros- 
per in the world, but I will curse that which they have 
gained. Even in goods lawfully gotten there is a vanity, 
a vanity in goods gotten even by fair means ; though 
we have them, we cannot enjoy them except God give 
us the power. God is the God of all consolation, and it 
is his mercy and goodness conveyed thi'ough creatures 
that can alone bring comfort in the use of them. If a 
man should think to satisfy himself with wind, it were 
an idle expectation ; but it were worse if he should 
open his mouth wide to fill himself with plague-infected 
air : when thou thinkest to satisfy thyself with goods 
never so well got, it is but opening thy mouth to the 
wind, but when thou thinkest to satisfy thyself with 
goods unlawfully acquired, it is opening thy "mouth to 
draw in pestilential air, there is no satisfaction, but 
ruin in them : " He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied 
with silver," Eccles. v. 10. Howsoever men think with 
themselves, that if they had such an estate they would 
live happily, when they have it they find it otherwise. 
Those that hunger and thirst after righteousness shall 
be satisfied, but they that hunger and thirst after any 
thing in the world shall find it to be an empty thing 
unto them. It is true, there is a kind of satisfaction 
which God gives sometimes to wicked men, but it is 
accursed in its nature, a fearful judgment of God. 
" The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own 
w.-.ys," Prov. xiv. H; that is, they shall have enough 



of them ; as when a man will go on in his own ways, 
although he suffer much in consequence, we say, AVhat ! 
have you not enough of such a course ? So the wicked 
shall be satisfied, he shall have enough of his own ways, 
that is, he shall find such attendant plagues and mise- 
ries that he shall be satisfied, he shall be filled with 
them. It is spoken of an apostate, a backslider in 
heart, one that will apostatize from God, and think to 
provide for himself better in the ways of his apos- 
tacy, he " shall be filled," but it shall be " with his 
own ways." 

" They shall commit whoredom, and shall not in- 
crease." 

If we understand this of bodily whoredom, then the 
sense is, that God will cross them even in that, " they 
shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase." Y'ou 
will say, \\Tiat great judgment is that ? whoremongers 
care not for increasing. It is true, they desne only to 
satisfy their lusts ; and in this respect, as much as in 
any, resemble evil and wicked ministers, who desu'e 
only to please the fancies of then- auditoi-s, and never 
look after begetting children unto God. But when 
the prophet prophesied, increasing in a numerous 
offspring was a special thing that all gloried in; there- 
fore they sought it, not only by marrying many 
wives, but by their concubines and strange women; 
but God threatens to send out a ciu-se upon them, 
that they shall not increase. And hence we may in 
general 

Obs. A^Tiatsoever a man undertakes unlawfully, he 
can never expect to prosper in. This is remarkably 
exemplified in Solomon ; you know he had seven hun- 
dred wives and three huntbed concubines, a thousand 
in all ; yet we read but of one son that he left behind 
him, Rehoboam, whom the Scripture calls a child when 
he was above forty years old, 2 C'lu'on. xiii. 7. When 
Rehoboam was young and tender-hearted, he had a 
childish and foolish, though a rugged and churlish heart. 
Solomon was not blessed with a numerous progeny, 
notwithstanding he indulged himself in so much carnal 
liberty. But on the contrary, wo read that Isaac, 
from whom came the promised seed, that were to be as 
the stars of heaven and as the sand of the sea-shore for 
number, had but one wife ; he took not that course 
which many of the patriarchs did, to marry many wives, 
but contented himself with one, and yet from him came 
the promised seed, so many as the stars and the sand 
for number. From which we may infer, that it is the 
best way for us to keep to God's ordinances; we shall 
prosper more in what we would have, to keep to God's 
ways, than to go out into our own sinful courses. 

" They shall not increase." The words are read 
otherwise by some : Jerome renders it, They have com- 
mitted whoredom, and have not ceased ; and his note 
upon it is this. They have committed fornication and 
whoredom, till they have spent all theii' strength, yet 
have they not ceased, their hearts are still that way : 
just as it is with many long habituated to carnal indul- 
gence, they have committed uneleanness, and spent 
their strength in impurity, yet cease they not, their 
lusts still boil within them notwithstanding. And if you 
read the words so, and then take it for spiritual whore- 
dom. They have committed whoredom, and have not 
ceased, that is, they still go on and on in the ways of 
idolatry, idolaters seldom come in and return. 

Tarnovius reads it otherwise, They shall not break 
forth, for so ixiB' may well signify ; they think to take 
liberty in their whoredom aiid idolatry, they break 
forth from God's laws and punishments, and think stiU 
to escape laws- and punishments, to break forth from 
all bonds whatsoever. No, saith God, they shall not 
break forth; I will lay fetters upon them. This is 
good, but, however, I take the former to be the 
legitimate interpretation, and so we shall leave that 



234 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



expression, •■ they shall commit whoredom, and shall 
not increase." Here follows the reason. 

" Because they have left off to take heed to the Lord." 

There is a great deal of elegance in this expression ; 
They have left the Lord to take heed, so you may 
translate icwS ad custodiendum, to keep themselves 
within any bounds of the commandment of God ; as if 
the prophet should say, They run wild, and have left 
off to take heed of God, or any of his ways. Perhaps 
they have not left the Lord wholly, for they will render 
Go3 some external worship, but he cares not for that, 
they have left the Lord to take heed of him. Though 
we think to follow the Lord in any external duties, if 
we cease to take heed of God in all his ways, he no- 
tices it not: that may be one note. 

But the thing specially meant is, though at first a 
temptation prevail against a professor of religion, yet 
he liaving an enlightened conscience, the truth of God 
will continue working in his conscience and in his 
heart; but now if he still give way to that lust, at 
length it will so far prevail that he will wholly leave 
minding and regarding the truth of God, which op- 
poses his sin, and give himself fully up unto the ways 
of his own heart : and this man's condition is very 
dangerous. Oh take heed of this, take heed of this 
not taking heed ! You that begin to decline, and find 
some secret lust prevailing in your heart ; you yet have 
the truth of God working in your souls, and it will not 
let you go on quietly ; but yet your lusts strive against 
this truth : well, if this lust be not mortified, if you give 
way to it, that it continue a while, you will come to be 
weary of that truth which opposes it, and you will turn 
your eyes from it, and leave off to take heed further to 
think of that which makes against your sin ; and when 
you are come to this pass your condition is truly 
dangerous. Hence we may especially 

Obs. 1. The way to keep the heart and life in order, in 
the paths of obeclience, is " to take heed to the Lord ;" 
to take heed to the infinite, glorious, blessed Majesty of 
the holy and great God ; to mind God in his sovereignty, 
in his authority, in that infinite wortliiness whicli is in 
him of all obedience from all his creatures ; to look upon 
God the only Jehovah, the high and eternal God. 
This is the way to keep our hearts and lives in order, 
to " fake heed to the Lord " thus, to have him in all 
our thoughts and hearts, and to observe diligently him 
and his ways. 

Obs. 2. it is an evil thing for any, in matters that 
concern the worship of God, not' to take heed to 
God's word. That they did leave off to take heed to 
God ill point of worsliip, is the thing that God espe- 
cially charged them with : that kind of worship which 
they lliought most suitable to their own reason and 
politic ends, that worsliip tlioyset up; but now to take 
heed to God, and to look up unto him, that whatsoever 
they liad in his worsliip should be according to the 
rule he prescribes, that they left off to regard, and were 
altogether intent on their own ends. And it is an evil 
thing in any kingdom that men should leave off so to 
take liced, as is now almost come to pass with us. I 
make no question but that at first, for the government 
of the church, the primitive Christians had a special 
eye to the rule, to apostolical institution ; but, I know 
not how, it is now almost a general conclusion amongst 
men, yea, amongst good men, and even good divines, 
that we can scarce have a nile of institution, they think 
we need not directions, and can find no such thing at 
all in the word, and so have altogether ceased even to 
examine it on this point. But though in civil things 
we arc left to prudence and reason, when we come to 
matters of worshi]), in every particular properly eccle- 
siastical, properly churcli work, we must, I say, in 
every such thing take heed to the word of God. On 
this point Luther forcibly remarks, In religion we 



ought not to look so much at what is commanded, as 
who commands it : and he cites Seneca, who gives this 
rule. Observe not who commands, but what is com- 
manded : so in the church, saitli he, and in matters 
of religion, we should adopt this, and regard not so 
much quid, but quis, qualis, and quantus ; but the devil 
changes this into iiuid, quale, quantum, that is, he 
changes tins "Who, and what manner of a person, and 
how great a one, commands, into, '^^^lat, what manner, 
and how great a thing. Many thus desiiisc some 
ord.nances in the church, AVhy, what gi'eat matters are 
there in these things ? they look to the thing, and not 
to the institution ; whereas, did we look to Christ, the 
Institutor, as we should, we would have more regard 
to the institution than to the thing itself. Let the thing 
commanded be never so low and poor, never so mean 
in itself, yet the institution must be honoured. Let 
us take heed to God, especially in the point of worship. 

Ver. 11. Whoredom and wine and netc tcine take au:ay 
the heart. 

The Holy Ghost still especially addresses the priests; 
for their whoredom, their wine and new wine, did take 
away their hearts. " Take away :" the words aS-np' 
may be translated diversely ; either, " take the heart," 
or, " take away the heart." 

"Take the "heart:" so some render it; meaning, 
these lusts do take possession of their hearts. It is 
one thing for a man to be overtaken with a lust, and 
another thing for a lust to take a man. It is said of 
tlie godly, that they are overtaken ; but it is said of 
these, that their lusts take them : and now when it 
comes to this, that you not only yield to a temptation, 
but a temptation takes you captive, then whoredom 
and wine and new wine have taken yom' hearts. 

But I rather understand it thus : these lusts " take 
away the heart." It is true, there is not one lust har- 
boured in tlie heart of a man, but in time will take 
away liis heart, will eat out all the juice, and strength, 
and vigour of any grace in liim. That is the reason 
why many professors grow so sapless, so hea\-y, so 
dull, so dead in the way of religion ; there is some se- 
cret lust or other that they have a desire after, and 
that takes away their hearts, and they become like 
vapid liquor, all theu- spirit and life quite gone, their 
lust has eaten them out: that man is indeed in a sad 
condition, whose vigour and strength ai'e gone and 
eaten out by some heart-lust. 

From the context we remark, that they left off to 
take heed to God in point of his worship, and now it 
seems they are left to the sins of whoredom and diunk- 
enness. Hence, 

06,5. 1. ItisjustwithGod, that they that will not seek 
to satisfy their souls in himself, shall be given over to 
base and filthy delights of tlie flesh, that they shall 
never have any other comforts but those. Let them 
have those comfort.s, saith God, that is all the comfort 
they shall ever find. So we read in Bom. i., that when 
they did not glorify God as God, he gave tliem up unto 
unnatural affections and .sins of unclcanness. 

B»t to sjieak of these two sins as they are here set 
forth to us, whoredom and di-mikenness. I shall not 
discuss their nature, as I have somewhat enlarged on 
that in the beginning of the chapter, but I shall follow 
here the dictates of the Holy Ghost, and endeavour to 
show you briefly liow these " take away the heai't." 

First, Both the sins, in general, are sins of sen- 
suality. Hence, 

Obs. 2. Sensuality is a besotting sin. sensuality either 
in whoredom, or intemperance in drinking. You know 
how it took away the heart of the wise Solomon, as his 
concubines turned him from God, to worship idols. 
And so with Samson, who was so strong, when Delilah 



Vee. 11. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



236 



had first taken his heart then she took it away ; for you 
luiow, in the story, though she sought his destruction 
many times, and he sav,- plainly that she designed to 
give him up into the hands of the Philistines, yet for 
all that his heart could not be taken off from her. The 
Scripture speaks of the sui of lust most fidly in this re- 
spect, Prov. ii. 19, '• None that go unto her return again, 
neither take they hold of the paths of life." None that 
go unto " the strange ■^voman " return ; or, as some would 
read it, interrogatively. Do any return that go unto her ? 
It is a rare thing for any one to return whose heart is 
thus insnared, or ever to enter into the paths of life. 
The Holy Ghost speaks this, make of it what you will. 
And again, 2 Pet. ii. 14, " Having eyes full of adulteiy, 
and that cannot cease fi'om sin : " when eyes come to be 
full of adultery they cannot cease from sin, their hearts 
are so alienated from all good. And Prov. xxiii. 27, " A 
whore is a deep ditch : and a sb'ange woman is a narrow 
pit : ■' it is hard to get out of a deep ditch, especially if the 
mouth be narrow too : those that arc got in there, are like 
to Jeremiah who was put in the dungeon where there 
was no water, but filth and mu'e, so that he sank in the 
mire; and except the Lord send from heaven long cords 
of his mercy, it is improbable they should ever come out, 
but they must die and perish : and how many thousands 
do so die and perish ! Nothmg ever deadened David's 
heart more than that sin of adultery ; Psal. h., he cries 
out, '■ Uphold me with thy free Spirit;" as if he should 
say, Lord, I was wont to have more power over tempta- 
tion, but now I am weak and quickly overcome ; Lord, 
" uphold me." And as the sin of micleanness takes the 
heart away from God and from truth, therefore 1 Pet. 
ii. 18, speaks of professors who were allm'ed '•through 
the lusts of the flesh, tlu'ough much wantonness," 
even such as had escaped, "clean escaped," the pollu- 
tions of the world, and separated " from them who live 
in error." So di'unkenness, that likewise takes away 
the heart ; wine takes away the heart exceedingly. 
AVhen Solomon gave liimself " unto wine," he '• laid hold 
on folly," Eccles. ii. 3 ; though somewhat of his wisdom 
remained, yet wine in a great measm'e took away his 
heart. He gave himself liberty, as appears by that 
scripture, though we read not of drunkenness, j'et he 
gave himself liberty to satisfy himself with wine, and 
then he laid hold on folly. Those that indulge them- 
selves in di-inking wine and strong di'ink are besotted in 
their very intellects, as you know by experience ; they 
are as a snuff of a candle in a socket, ch'O'mied in the 
tallow ; a while since it spread a good light over the 
room, but now there is nothing left but a little smoke 
and snufT, and little or no light : so many men, when 
young, were Uke a candle upon the table, diffusing light 
to aD about them ; but now, ha\-ing given themselves uj) 
to that filthy and vile lust of di'inking, all their parts 
are become extinct, di'owned in the fumes of intoxica- 
tion. Or rather, they are become as a quagmke : if the 
husbandman sow never such precious seed there, what 
fruit will it bring forth ? Austin saith, Just as when the 
ground has too much rain it gi'ows mu-y and dirty, and 
is not fit for seed, so are those that indulge themselves 
in di-ink. Therefore in Ezek. xlvii. 11, it is said, the 
waters of the sanctuai'y did not heal the miry places and 
the marshes : di'unken hearts are seldom healed by the 
waters of the sanctuary. Basil, in a sermon on intem- 
perance, compares di-unkenuess to the idols spoken of 
in the Psalms, that have ears and hear not, and eyes 
arid see not, and feet and walli not; it takes away then- 
standing and their understanding likewise, their very 
intellects are debased, and they are left at liberty to 
indulge in all kinds of wickedness. How many are tliere 
that were excellent when young, yet being taken with 
that lust, how are they grown like Esau, who sold his 
birthright for a mess of pottage ! these will so sell hea- 
ven for a cup of wine ; )-ea, they are more profane than 



Esau, for he was in a strait, he had come out of the 
field and was very hungry, and thought he should die 
if he had not the pottage ; so he might plead that he 
sold his bu'thright for a mess of pottage out of a kind 
of necessity ; but these will sell theu' souls, and heaven 
and all, merely to indulge that humour : for that lust, 
they wUl ventm-e the health of then- bodies, the waste 
of then- estates, the loss of thek friends, the shaming 
of themselves, the ruin of theu' names, and the damna- 
tion of their souls. Oh how does this besot men of 
otherwise excellent parts ! 

A^^ell, but these two are applied here unto the priests, 
and so we must make special use of them : That 
whoredom and wine and new wine did take away their 
hearts, for these priests (as before we have heard) re- 
jected the knowledge of God, and so left ofl' the work 
they were appointed to do, the instruction of the peo- 
ple, therefore the people were brought up in ignorance ; 
now they, leaving their office, their duty that they 
should perform in the place they were set in, gave them- 
selves up to sensuahty, to whoredom and to wine. 
From hence we may 

Obs. 3. Ministers, when they are negligent in preach- 
ing, usually grow sensual. We find it so by ex- 
perience, we need not go about to prove it. Have 
there not been many that in then' younger time have 
been forward preachers, and when they have gotten 
livings and preferment, never minded their- study and 
preaching any longer, but gave themselves to satisfy 
the flesh in uncleanness, filthy lusts, and drunkenness ? 
Do we not know some such ? People are but in an 
evil case when they have such ministers. Isa. Ivi. 9, 
" AH ye beasts of the field, come to devour-, yea, all ye 
beasts in the forest." "^Hiat is the matter? The 12th 
verse shows what kind of priests and prophets they had ; 
" Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill 
ourselves with strong tb-ink ; and to-morrow shall be as 
this day, and much more abundant : " such kind of 
priests they had ; and then, " All ye beasts of the field, 
come to devour," for they lie open to all kind of misei-y. 
Paul would have Timothy, when he was weak, drink a 
little wine for his stomach's sake and often infirmit)' ; 
he, good man, though he were but weak, out of con- 
science it seems would di-inli only water, yea, for fear 
lest it might do hm-t, he would drink but water till he 
had a commission from Paid ; he was fain to exhort him 
to di-ink wine, and yet but a little, di-ink a little wine. 
Those in public places especially should take heed of 
intemperance. I have read of some heathens, who 
made it death for a king or a magistrate to be di-unk. 

Ver. 12. Mi/ people ask counsel at their stocks, and 
their staff deciareth unto them : for the spirit of whore- 
doms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a 
ichoring from under their God. 

There is a little more difficulty in these words than 
in the formex-. Fii'st, however, the connexion affords 
tliis useful note. 

06s. 1. Bodily and spiritual whoredom are wont to 
go together. "WTioredom and wine and new wine 
take away the heai-t ;" and then, they " ask counsel at 
then- stocks, and their staff" deciareth unto them." First 
they ai-e besotted with these lusts, and then they fall 
into the grossest idolati-}-, for the words in this verse 
seem to express idolatry of the gi-ossest and most stupid 
kind. "They ask counsel of then stocks, and their 
staff deciareth unto them ;" when they had given up 
themselves to the lusts of then- hearts, then they grew 
most sottish in their idolatries. Therefore we are not 
to marvel, though men, apjjarently of understanding, 
yet will worship stocks and stones, as your papists; 
why ? they give themselves up to their lusts, and then 
the grossest idolatry in the world will meet with their 



236 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



sanction. I remember to liave read of one, who, seeing 
a person go to mass, and presently after to a house of 
ill fame hard by, exclaimed, A lupanari missam lan- 
tum esse passum; that is, There is but one step from 
the mass to uncleanness. Spiritual -nhoredom and 
bodily go together ; their hearts are taken away by 
their whoredom, and they " ask counsel at their stocks." 
Jewel, in his Apology, relates, on very credible report, 
that search being made, in the year 1565, for harlots 
belonging to the stews in Rome, there were found in 
that city alone twenty-eight thousand. Thus you see 
how bodily and spiritual whoredom go together ; twenty- 
eight thousand such women found in one city, in that 
city which we know is called in regard of spu-itual 
whoredom, idolatiy, " the great whore," Key. xix. 2. 

Now to explain this, '■ My people ask counsel at theii- 
stocks, and their staff doth teach them." 

" Their stocks;" that is, their images, God puts that 
contemptible name upon tliem ; they ask counsel of 
them. And that is to be observed too, " mi/ people," 
there is the emphasis ; mine by profession, not wholly 
cast off yet, yet these " ask counsel at their stocks," their 
images, which, although perhaps beautified with silver 
and gold, yet God calls "stocks." 

" And theu- staff teacheth them." Here is a peculiar 
form of idolatry, to be taught by their staff. Vatablus 
and others interpret it of the false prophet, upon which 
they leaned, as upon a staff; but I rather think it is to 
be understood hterally. There was a kind of idolatry 
which the Jews had, a way to ask counsel by the staff, 
and with this the prophet here charges them. The 
Romans likewise, after this, practised the same, calling 
it paptojiav-tia, or (iiKonavrtia, divinatio ex rir^is, di- 
vination by rods, sticks, arrows, or staves ; and there 
were four ways by which they did divine by these. 
The fii'st was to put arrows or staves into a closed case, 
having the names written upon them of what they 
divined about ; and then di'awing out one or two, they 
determined their business according to what they 
found written ; thus their staff declared to them either 
good or bad ; and thus Nebuchadnezzar seems to have 
done, Ezek. xxi. 22. Interpreters there show, that 
Nebuchadnezzar, being in doubt whether he should 
war against Philadelphia or against Jerusalem, took 
two arrows, and wrote the name of Jerusalem on the 
one, and Philadelphia on the other, and so divined 
which way ho should go. And this is the first mode of 
declaring by the staff. A second was by casting up 
staves or arrows into the air, and according as they 
fell, on the right hand or on the left, before or behind, 
so they divined their good or ill luck, as they called it. 
A third way was this, they used to peel off the bark of 
some part of a stick, and then cast it up, and divined 
according to which part of the pith, cither black or 
white, appeai-ed first. A fourth was, as we find in the 
Roman antiquities, that their augurs or soothsayers 
used to sit upon the top of a tower or castle in clear 
and fair weather, with a crooked staff in their hand, 
which the Latins call Z,(7hh,«, and having quartered out 
the regions of heaven, so far as to answer theii' pur- 
pose, and offered sacrifices and prayers to their gods, 
they stretched it forth u))on the head of the person or 
thing they would divine for, and so foreboded good or 
ill luck, according to what at that time they observed in 
the heavens, the birds flying, &c. This was the custom 
of the Romans, and perhaps derived from the Jews. 

l!y all this we may see what poor ways idolaters 
liave had to know the minds of their gods. When 
men forsake the right way of knowing God's will, 
what poor expedients have they recourse to ! Oh how 
should our hearts be raised up to bless God, that we 
have such a way to know his mind, as the word ; and 
that we have his Son, who came out of his bosom, to 
declare to us the eternal counsel of his Father ! 



Now follows the ground of this miserable condition of 
idolaters ; " For the spirit of whoredoms hath caused 
them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under 
their God." 

"For the spirit of whoredoms." Some would under- 
stand it thus, that as there are particular sins, so there 
are particular devils to attend upon them; one espe- 
cially to attend upon idolatry, another on whoredom, 
anotlicr on drunkenness, another on envy, pride,'and the 
various evil passions : and so " the spirit of whoredom" 
(say they) is the devil that especially attended upon 
this sin. But I think this not to be the scope, but 
rather, that impetus of " the spirit of whoredoms" that 
was in them ; there is an impetus, a strong inclination, 
of their spirits to such a sinful course, which carried 
them on, and caused them to err. The Scripture often 
speaks of different sorts of spirits, as sometimes the 
spirit of perverseness, Isa. xix. 14 ; in your books it is 
translated, " a perverse spirit," but the words are 
cyiy mi a spirit of perversenesses ; there is an im- 
petus of spirit that has caused Egypt to err in every 
work thereof. So the spirit of uncleanness, Zcch. xiii. 
2, translated in your books, " the unclean spirit," but 
the words are riKCttn ni-i-rsi the spirit of defile- 
ments, or uncleanness. So the spirit of h"ing, 1 Kings 
xxii. 22 ; " the spirit of error," 1 John iv. 6 : " AVe are 
of God : he that knoweth God heareth us ; he that is 
not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit 
of truth, and the spirit of error." That is, there is an im- 
petus, a strength of spirit, which carries men on to such 
erroneous ways. And the consideration of that will be 
of marvellous use to us. Let us look to our spirits, my 
brethren, and consider what spirit we are of; especially 
when carried impetuously to any thing we desii'e, let us 
take heed to ourselves : when you find, I say, your 
spirits very eagerly and strongly set upon a tbing, 
examine well that it be not a spu'it of lust, of envy, of 
malice, such as sometimes exists in men's hearts, when 
they are carried to any object with more than ordinary 
strength. ISIany people find themselves hurried on with 
such a fervent impetus, that they cannot endure to be 
crossed, no, they must have it : as in Samuel, they that 
desired a king, when they heard all the reasons that 
could be urged to persuade them against it, would re- 
tmTi none other answer than, " Nay ; but we will have 
a king." So a man that has such a spii-it will rush upon 
a tiling without due examination, and even if there 
appear any truth against it, he presently slights itj 
why ? because he has a spirit which impels him to it, 
and if the truth come even so strongly that he is con- 
vinced by it, yet his s])irit carries him on, and though 
he meet with many difficulties in the way, he will 
break thi'ough them all. Oh, it is a dangerous thing 
when men have a spirit of en-or, or a spuit of bitter- 
ness. You will find some men that have much of an- 
tichristianism remaining in them ; do but speak to them 
of any thing that concerns an orduiance of Christ, of 
Christ's institution, of the will of Christ in the word, 
as soon as it is but mentioned, you hear no answer to 
the argument, but may perceive immediately arising a 
spirit of bitterness and aversion. So you find men, and 
sometimes good men, with whom if you but discourse 
of some things which you know are in accordance with 
the mind of Christ, yet having been brought up other- 
wise, and imbibed other principles, they have a spirit 
of bitterness, anger, and vexation, which ])resently will 
ap])ear in them to reject any truth suggested. 

But let us labour, on the other side, rather to be ac- 
tuated by the Spirit of God ; the children of God are 
" led by the Si)irit of God." And it is true, tliat as 
wicked men have a spirit of uncleanness in them, so 
God's children are carried on with n spirit of holiness ; 
the love of Christ has taken hold of their hearts, and 
perhaps they are weak, and cannot reason out the case 



Vek. 12. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



237 



■nlth some subtle sophists ; yet they have " the Spirit of 
Christ," an impetus of his spirit which carries them on. 
But take heed, the Sphit of Christ is joined with much 
humiUty and holiness : do not say you are impelled by 
the Spirit of Christ, when bitterness and pride are mixed 
with it ; but if there be humility and holiness, then 
perhaps, though you cannot answer every objection of 
every sophist, yet the S])irit of Clirist dwelleth in you. 
As wicked men, then, have a bias on their hearts, in- 
fluencing their judgments, so the godly have a bias on 
their hearts, the truth and love of God, which swaying, 
carries them on with strength in the ways of God : as 
the poor man, the martyr, who said, I cannot dispute 
for the truth, but I can die for it. There was a 
spirit of love in him to Jesus Christ, that impelled 
him onwards, and made him relish and love holy things, 
though he could not dispute for them. 

AVe are to pray to God that he would satisfy us not 
only in body and in soul, but in spirit, that that im- 
petus of spirit may be sanctified, for great things de- 
pend upon it ; almost all things in the world are car- 
ried by the impetus of men's spirits. Hence it is that 
men, although very wicked, will, on their death-beds, 
hearken to your words, and listen to reason ; why ? be- 
cause then their affliction abates the impetus of then- 
spirits, the activity and keen fervour of their minds, 
and you may say any thing unto them. 

" And they are gone a whoring from under their 
God." Drusius renders it, by a periphrasis, thus. 
They have cast off the yoke of God. In 
Koi?f£l5p£?ffiu *'^^ Hebrew, if rendered word for word. 
diro_To5 eiov it is, " from under their God ;" and so the 
'"'™''' Septuagint translate it. And it denotes 

these two things. 

Fii'st, They have gone from under the command of 
God. The pride of their hearts refused to be under 
the command of God. especially in his worship. O 
my brethren, we should look to this, to God above us, 
and be willing to lie under the command and authority 
of God, especially in his worship. Take heed of the 
rising of your thoughts in the matter of God's worship. 

Secondly, They are gone from under the protection 
of their God. From under the command of their God, 
and consequently fi'om under his protection. As wives, 
so long as they keep themselves under their husbands 
ill due subjection, are under their protection also; but 
when they will forsake their husbands, and refuse to obey 
their commands, they at the same time put themselves 
from under their protection. So do my people, saith 
God, they will be from under my commands, and so are 
from under my protection. Hence two observations. 

Obs. 1. All false worship puts a people from under 
the protection of God. No marvel that miseries befall 
a people who corrupt the worship of God. Oh, we 
were in a sad case not long since, even from under the 
protection of God, and things ran on at riot with us ; 
and even now, because the people of this land have not 
yet hearts to entertain the true worship of God, we 
may fear lest we should not enjoy his wished-for pro- 
tection. Would you have the protection of God ? 
then keep close to the rule of his worship. 

06s. 2. So far as we are from being under God's 
command, so far are we from being under his protec- 
tion. Obedience and protection are conjoined. In 
sin, you wander from under God's command, and from 
under his protection too. But he watches over us for 
good when we are in his ways. Keep close, then, to 
God's commands, and although troubles befall you, yet 
.still you are under God's protection. The difference 
between a man that is under the command of God, 
and will closely observe it, and another that will have 
liberty, is as a deer in a park : so long as it is within 
the place, it is under the care of the keeper, who 
watches that no dogs or any thing else injure it, and 



in snowy weather, when there is no grass to be got, 
provides it with sustenance ; but if the deer will wan- 
der forth, it may indeed enjoy more liberty, but then 
every dog pursues it, and it is subject to a thousand 
dangers more than when within the ])ale. So it is 
with a man that is willing to be within the pale of 
God's command, there he enjoys the watchful care of 
God ; but if he will have more liberty, and transgress, 
let him not expect the protection of God in his wan- 
derings. Oh that those that are gone astray from God 
would observe this ! It may be, the consciences, of some 
here tell them that they have wandered from under 
God's commands : there was a time that they trembled 
at his word, and their hearts fell doAvn under the 
dreadful authority of those commands, then was it well 
with them ; but now you have got from under this, 
you do not fear God's word as before, you wiU not 
tremble at his commands, you now go astray in your 
own ways. Poor wanderer, whither art thou gone ? 
thou art gone from under the protection of the Lord. 

Ver. 13. Theij sacri/ice upon the lops of the moun- 
tains, and bicrn incense upon the hills, tender oaks ajid 
poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good : 
therefore t/onr daughters shall commit whoredom, and 
your spouses shall commit adultery. 

In the former verse the prophet, in the nanie of God, 
had charged Israel with having the spirit of fornica- 
tion, and accused them for going a whoring from 
under their God, and now he shows to them wherein 
they had so offended. 

Obs. 1. General accusations, without particular spe- 
cification, will not prevail with stubborn hearts. Above 
all, idolaters must be convinced wherein they have 
committed idolatry. They will stand it out stoutly if 
you charge them only with idolatry in general, of go- 
ing a whoring from God, except you demonstrate 
wherein. It is so with many sinners. Ye have de- 
spised my name, and yet " ye say, Wierein have we 
despised thy name ? Ye offer polluted bread upon mine 
altar ; and ye say. Wherein have we polluted thee ? " 
Mai. i. 6, 7. Stubborn hearts will stand it out with God 
a great while, until the evUs they have committed 
be particularly specified, wherein they have done such 
and such evils. And it is wise, therefore, for all God's 
ministers not to deal in general accusations, if they 
would have their ministry a convincing ministry. In- 
stancing preaching is the most convincing preaching. 

Now the prophet instances that kind of idolatry 
which seems the most specious and fairest of any in 
the world, and in which one would have thought that 
as little evil as possible existed. Why, what great 
matter is it ? they might say. You accuse us for going 
a whoring fi-om under our God ; we only offer sacrifice 
upon mountains, and burn incense under trees ; is that 
so great a matter ? It is sacrifice, and you cannot say 
but we sacrifice to the true God ; we do not sacrifice to 
idols, how then do we go a whoring from God ? This 
is veiy specious, that they should sacrifice thus upon 
mountains, and under trees, and in this they pretend to 
be more devout than Judah was : the people of Judah 
sacrificed only in one temple, and as it were confined 
and hmited God to that place, and they sacrificed only 
upon one altar ; Now, say the)-, we think God worthy 
of a great deal more than this; we think it is fit to 
sacrifice to him everywhere, in every place, and espe- 
ciallv upon mountain's, for it is to the high God that we 
sacrifice. .Just as the papists at this day will have 
theu- images in every place, and their crosses in every 
highway as they travel, that by them they may be re- 
minded' of God'continually. What a specious pretext 
is this! Yet the Lord, by the prophet, charges them 
with going " a whoring from under their God," and 



238 



AA^ EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV 



establishes the accusation by instar.ces taken from 
services which they considered, if not meritorious, at 
least excusable. 

06s. 2. What seems most specious in our eyes, if it 
be not according to the rule, may prove most abomin- 
able in the eyes of God. 

Obs. 'i. Ministers should especially labour to present 
to the peoi)le the foulness of those things in -vvhich 
they thmk there exists the least evil. To exclaim 
against wickedness w'hich they themselves cannot but 
acknowledge to be notorious, will never so con«nce as 
thoroughly to humble : but to close with them, and to 
open the evil of their ways in those things in which 
they most bless themselves, and to show how, even in 
these, they make themselves abominable unto God, 
that is the way to make our ministry a convincing and 
a humbling ministi-y indeed. Thus the prophet. You 
sacrifice upon the mountains and high places, and 
under the shadow of every tree. Jerome upon this 
place remarks, Israel loveth high ])laces, for they have 
iorsaken the high God ; and they love the shadow, for 
they have loft the substance. It is thus with men, 
when they have left the high God, then they have some- 
what or other tliat they set up high in then- hearts ; 
they forsake the shadow of the wings of God, and then 
seek after vain shadows to be their jjrotector. 

But to open this scripture yet more clearly, to show 
wherein their sin lay here, tliat they sacrificed upon 
the mountains, and hills, and under trees. AVe arc to 
know, that in former times, before the ark, and the 
tabernacle, and the temple were built, it was lawful to 
sacrifice in any place, and God approved of sacrificing 
in mountains, directing Abraham to go and sacrifice 
his son on mount Moriah, Gen. xxii. 2; and in Gen. 
xxi. 3.3, we read of Abraham's planting a grove when 
he called iipon the name of God ; so that their fore- 
fathers did sacrifice upon mountains, and planted groves 
and trees by the places where they sacrificed ; there 
was no hurt then in such things. But afterward God 
prohibits this : " Take heed to thyself that thou ofier 
not thy burnt-oflerings in every place that thou seest : 
but in the ])lace which the Lord shall choose in one of 
thy tribes, there thou shalt oflcr thy burnt-offerings," 
Deut. xii. 13, 14. God would limit them the place of 
his worship. When the ark and the tabernacle were 
made, they were bound to come and sacrifice there, 
and no where else ; and so when the temple was built, 
that became the sole appointed place. Yea, then the 
Lord commanded them to pull down the high places, 
and to cut down the gi-oves and trees : " Ye shall 
utterly destroy all the i)laces wherein the nations which 
ye shall jiossess served their gods, upon the high moun- 
tains, and >ipon the hills, and under every green tree," 
Deut. xii. 2. 'W'iien once God had appointed a place of 
worshi]i. then they were to destroy the otherplaces where 
the heathens were wont to senc their gods. Hence, 

Obs. 4. When God chooses a place or thing, lie 
stamps it with peculiar holiness. If God appoint a 
way of worship of his own, this forbids all other. If 
God consecrate a place, this forbids to make any place 
holy but that. So of things, and ceremonies, if once 
God sets upon them the impress of holiness, we must 
confine ourselves to them, and not think to imitate God, 
by dedicating any thing of the same kind. It was now 
a sin in them, and God, we see here, stands much upon 
circumstances in his worship. 5Iany jjlead, AVhy should 
men be so strict and .scrupulous about circumstances? 
what, must we have every ciicumstance commanded in 
the ward of God ? My brethren, that which is natural 
and moral, and but likely to subserve religion, may, 
indeed, be left to prudence ; but where religion is di- 
rectly involved, though it be but a circumstance, God 
insists much upon it, and we must have for it the sanc- 
tion of a Divine rule. Here they are not accused for 



sacrificing things they ought not to sacrifice, doubtless 
they offered what was ccmmandcd, sheep, and beeves, 
and the like ; but only with respect to the circumstance 
of place, they did not sacrifice where God ajjpoint- 
ed, therefore he charged them, that in this they went 
" a whoring from under their God." It is true, we read 
of some godly men's sacrificing elsewhere ; Gideon under 
an oak, judg. vi ; and Samuel on a high place, 1 Sam. 
ii. ; and David in the thresliing-floor of Araunah, 2 
Sam. xxiv. Now, to all these instances the answer 
generally given by divines is, that they could not law- 
fully have done so, but by some special disjiensation 
of God himself; else it could not but have been sin. 
For the kings of Israel and Judah are also charged 
with their sacrificing in the high places ; even of Solo- 
mon himself, when, in 1 Kings iii. 3, he is commended 
for loving the Lord, and walking in the statutes of 
David his father at first, yet the text saith, " Only he 
sacrificed and burnt incense in high places." And 
amongst other high ])laces, we read in 2 Chron. i. 3, 
that Solomon went to Gibcon, which was a great high 
place. And though some excuse him, because it is 
said the tabernacle was there, and therefore he might 
go to sacrifice, yet Austin, in his Questions on Judges, 
thinks Solomon is to be blamed, though the tabernacle 
was there, for it seems ho put a more than ordinary 
respect ujion that high place ; wherefoi'e else is it called 
the great high jjlace ? and he went there, not only for 
the sake of the tabernacle, but because it was that 
great high place : and therefore is to be blamed. So 
that if we go to the ordinances of God where yet there 
are other mixtures, and we do the rather go and esteem 
them because there is some addition of man's inven- 
tions, this is a sin against God. And further, it is ob- 
servable, though Solomon were blamable for going 
thus, yet we find that God revealed himself unto him, 
in a wonderfully gracious manner, even in that place, 
and bade him ask what he would. So certainly many 
of God's people have found, that though sometimes 
they have been in tlie use of ordinances where there 
have been such mixtures that they have been polluted 
to them in consequence, yet the Lord has been so gi-a- 
cious to them, that lie has accepted of the uprightness 
of their hearts, and they have had, even in them, many 
sweet manifestations of his favour : they can remember 
when they have been at sacrament, and they have 
known that they have oflended against God by reason 
of some jiollutions, yet they have, notwithstanding, 
found God shedding abundance of mercy on them, and 
refreshing their souls with comfort and joy in the Holy 
Ghost. This was God's mercy. Do not think, there- 
fore, that there was no evil in it, because God was so 
far gracious unto you. There was evil in Solomon's re- 
specting this high place, yet there God favoured him 
abundantly. Other kings there were, who were exceed- 
ingly blamed that they did not take down their high 
places, which were the same as the mountains here 
spoken of. 

Y'et there were some of them that were very careful 
m this respect. Amongst others Hezekiah and Jeho- 
shaphat. So, in 2 Kings xviii. 22, Hezekiah is charged 
by Ilabshakeh with taking down the high places, 
" Is not that he, whose high places and whose altars 
Hezekiah hath taken awav?" God approves of it, 
though Ilabshakeh thinks \e has done ill ; O, saith 
he, do you trust in Hezekiah? he has taken down the 
high places. He thought that Hezekiah had therefore 
been an enemy to religion, and to the worship of God. 
Thus it is with ignorant (leople at this day, who under- 
stand not the way of God's worship ; because some in 
the parliament seek to take away corruption in the wor- 
ship of God, many cry out that they are enemies to all 
religion. Thus it is rejiorted by your country peoiile 
that dwell far off, as in Wales, and in otlier places, that 



Vee. 13. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



239 



the parliament are a company of vile men, that seek to 
take away all religion out of the kingdom. But this 
is so but in the understanding of a Rabshakch, that 
confounds the taking away of high places with the 
abolition of religion. 

Jehoshaphat, likewise, is commended for taking away 
the high places, and it is noted of him, that his heart 
was much lifted in the ways of God when he did it : 
for this sacrificing on the high places, the people 
were so attached to, and thought it a great thing that 
they should go up to a high place to oifer unto the high 
God ; therefore when Jehoshaphat took them away, the 
text saith, his heart was lifted up in a more than ordi- 
nary manner. So it should be with governors, when 
they see corruptions in God's worship, though the 
people stick close to them, yet they should have their 
hearts lifted up with courage and zeal to go on in the 
work. In 2 Chron. xvii. 6, " His heart was lifted up 
in the ways of the Lord : moreover he took away the 
high places and groves out of Judah." Here are two 
things that Israel is charged with, " the high places, 
and the groves ; " Jehoshaphat took them away, and 
took them away out of Judah. He was of a lifted-uj) 
mind, and his heart took boldness for the ways of God, 
as the 'N'ulgate renders it. But mark, what course did 
Jehoshaphat take to remove " the high places and the 
groves?" In the Tth verse you find this, " He sent 
to his princes, to teach in the cities of Judah." Mark 
here, princes are become preachers; "He sent to his 
princes to teach in the cities of Judah ; and with them 
he sent Levites and priests. And they taught in Judah, 
and had the book of the law of the Lord with them, 
and went about throughout all the cities of Judah, and 
taught the people." This is the course to take them 
away; if he had only by an edict removed them, he 
could not have done so much, but he wisely sent faith- 
ful preachers throughout all the country, especially all 
the great cities. So that it appears it was because of 
the bad preachers they had before, or because they had 
none at all, that it was so difficult to remove the high 
places. How easy would it be in England at this day 
to make a reformation, to take away corruptions from 
the worship of God, if in all cities and towns there were 
faithful preachers ! For we see evidently, that people 
brought up in ignorance adhere most to these things. 
Let a faithful minister come into a congregation, and 
so exert himself, that the people may see and be con- 
vinced that he is pains-taking, and let him expound 
the Scripture to them, and they will soon begin to con- 
fess, AVe get more by this than by all the mere reading of 
prayers ; and this demands more to the minister. They 
would, I say, be convinced of this, if instructed. Je- 
hosiiajjhat acted thus ; and oh how happy were it if we 
took the same course ! But there is something more 
observable ; it is said in this 1th chapter, that Jeho- 
shaphat took away the high places ; but in chap. xx. 33, 
it is said he took "them not away ; but how is it ? It is 
put upon the people ; the text saith, " The high places 
were not taken away: for as yet the people had not jire- 
pared their hearts unto the God of their fathers." The 
people were the cause. Now to reconcile these two 
places : it seems in chap, xvii., Jehoshaphat did his ut- 
most, therefore God accounts it as done with respect to 
him, but because the people were so stubborn, that 
they would not yield to the command of the king, 
therefore in this 20th chapter the blame is all laid 
upon them ; as if God should say, They were not taken 
away, because the people had not prepared their hearts ; 
but as for Jehoshaphat, his heart was right in my sight. 
God will accept the intention of governors ; let them do 
what they can, and if it be not effected the fault will 
rest on the real cause. You may see by this, that 
people may hinder the work of reformation much: 
" their hearts were not prepared," that is, they were 



not fit to receive the instructions sent to them. And 
truly, in England many peo])le are not yet prepared to 
receive the work of reformation. We never read, and 
that is observable, of any difficulty that any of the 
Hcings, either of Judah or Israel, met with, in intro- 
ducing any false worship ; but when good kings sought 
to bring in true worship, and to cast out false, it was too 
difficult a work for them. Thus men's hearts cleave 
more to false than they do to true worship. 

But further, it is observable, with respect to the 
high places, that it is not only said here, that they sa- 
crificed on the mountains, but " upon the tops of the 
mountains." There are two things very observable from 
hence. 

Obs. 5. Idolatry is shameless, and loves publicity. 
They would not do it in a corner, but gat them up to the 
mountains, to the top of the mountains, and were not 
ashamed. Oh why should we not have the true wor- 
ship of God as public ! It is a lamentable case when it 
must get into holes and corners, and dare not appear 
in public ; and even this necessary concealment draws 
down persecution. AVell, my brethren, let us pray, and 
endeavour as far as we can, to bring in the true wor- 
ship in the most public manner; and let us not be 
ashamed of it before the world. In Rev. xiv. 6, there 
is mention of an angel flying in the midst of heaven, 
having the everlasting gospel in his hand, to preach to 
them that dwell on the earth : now it is usual in the 
Revelation to signify the ministry of the gospel by an 
angel, and so it is a prophecy that the ministry of the 
gospel shall fly in heaven, aloft, publicly, and that all 
the world shall see it. And mark what follows upon 
this ; ver. 8, " And there followed another angel, 
saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen." So that we may 
note from thence. That when the ministry of the 
gospel and its ordinances come to be made openly 
public, then is the time for Babylon to fall ; and so 
long as Babylon stands, and antichrist stands, so long 
is the gospel fain to be preached in corners ; but when 
the time of Babylon's fall comes, then shall the minis- 
try of the gospel be publicly manifested in the ej-es of 
all the people. 

Obs. 6. They sacrificed not only upon the moun- 
tains, but " upon the tops of the mountains." Idolaters 
seek to rise to the greatest height, to go the greatest 
lengths in false worship ; they content not themselves 
with hills and mountains, but the very uppermost part 
of hills and mountains ; if there were any higher than 
other, if they could ascend to heaven, they would do it. 
Idolaters do not content themselves with a lower de- 
gree of false worship. How much less should we in 
the way of God's worship ! we should not content our- 
selves with low attainments, but get up to the top of 
godliness, and labour to gain the very height of the 
worship of God; not content ourselves in one ordinance, 
but get all ordinances, and get them as far as possible 
in fuU exercise. Thus, in Eph. v. 15, " Walk" ac- 
curately, " circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise ;" 
the word is ocpi/Swc, as if he said, 'Wa.'ik to the top of 
godliness, to the height ; if there be any degree higher 
than another, labour to attain it ; as idolaters will get 
up to the tops of mountains. Thus for their sacrificing 
upon the mountains. 

" Under oaks and poplars and elms." These trees 
are such whose leaves arc broad, and did abide longest 
upon them. But why did they and the heathen also 
seek to sacrifice under trees, and such trees as these ? 
There seem five or six reasons for it. 

1. The heathens consecrated many trees to their 
idols ; the pojilar to Hercules, the vine j,^^^ ^^^^ ^,^.j^ 
to Bacchus, the mjTtle to Venus, the bay f^JJj^»'7^»;^;'.'» 
to Pha;bus. They consecrated several „"nZ'\Im"^B«a 
trees to their several gods, and sacrificed vilg'^Ed!??!. 
under them. 



240 



AX EXPOSITION 0? 



Chap. IV 



2. Thsy sacrificed tliere in imitation of the pa- 
triarchs, as I showed belbre. Abraliam built a <|^-ove 
by the altar he made, and so did many of tlie pa- 
triarchs ; and in imitation of them these here, and the 
lieathen generally, for the devil strove much to imitate 
the form of the true worship of God ; but now, when 
the ancient practice of the patriarchs was abused, God 
removes it. 

3. They thought that places dark, by the shadiness 
of these trees, might strike some fear and reverence 
into the hearts of the worshijjpers. There does exist 
in woods, where there arc high trees and shady places, 
a kind of solemnity, they are calculated to inspire awe ; 
for even the heathen themselves, when thev wor-^hip- 
pcd their idols, sought to have the hearts of tlic wor- 
shippers filled with reverence. 

4. They thought that the spirits of their heroes fre- 
quented tlie woods and groves. This was the current 
tradition of the heathen, and they were taught it by 
their priests. Virgil, in ^n. 6. "C73, makes one of 
them say, Nul/i certa dcmus, lucis liabilnmus opacis, 
We have no certain habitation, but dwell in darli and 
shady groves. 

5. They were fit places for the commission of im- 
purity. >Iany of the sacrifices of the heathen were 
mixed with filthy and abominable unclcanncss, and 
those places were adapted for them, and therefore the 
devil liked them well. So Philo ; and Sozomcn, in his 
history, mentions this reason. 

6. Many of the heathens thought that it was to the 
dishonour of God to be worshipped in any place cover- 
ed above, or circumscribed within limits. Even some 
of the heathens looked upon God as infinite, and for 
him to be worshipped within any covered place thev 
thought a dishonour, therefore would worship him in 
the open fields and under trees. 

" Because tlie shadow thereof is good." The Holy 
Ghost instances only this one reason ; " the .shadow 
thereof is good," that is, they pleased themselves in 
then- own ways, they thought there was more solem- 
nity in this than in the temple service. The shadow 
was good, oh it was a fine thing to go to the open 
fields, and more solemn to worship there than in the 
city. The shadow was good ; they applauded and blest 
themselves in this way. 

Obs. 8. Usually superstition thinks it has a gi-eat 
deal of reason for what it does ; therefore it is ob- 
servable of the papists, that although their form of 
worship is most ridiculous and absurd, yet they write 
whole volumes to show reason for what thev do, as if 
theirs were a reasonable service. In Col. ii. 23, it is 
said of " will-worship," that it has " a show of wisdom;" 
\6yov (ro^idf, the reason of wisdom, for so it mav be 
rendered; and thus in Kom. iv. IS, " reasonable ser- 
vice," is \oyiict]v Xarpiiav. So idolaters think that it is 
not only ■« isdom, but that they have the very reason, 
the very quintessence of wisdom, in their way of false 
worshi]), and that " the shadow thereof is good ;" espe- 
cially they think their worship is more sumptuous and 
more solemn than the ordinances of God. 

06.5. 9. It is the pride of men's spirits to think that 
God's ordinances are too plain. They think they can 
devise a way to embellish the worshij) of God, they will 
show additional reverence and respect. But certainly, 
if it be not God's own ordinance, whatsoever outward 
respect can be given unto God in it. he regards it with 
abhorrence. 1 have read, that when a lady in Paris 
saw the splendour of a procession to a saint, she crie<l 
out, Oh how fine is our religion compared with that of 
the Huguenots! (that is, such as we in England call 
Puritans ;) they have a poor, mean, and beggarly, but 
we liave a sumjituous religion. So your pajiists, with 
their eniliellislicd churches and altars, their, prostra- 
tions and their bowings, have a fine and showy religion, 



their " shadow is good," there is splendour and so- 
lemnity in it. O, take heed of thinking that anv ad- 
dition of man's renders God's worship more solemn and 
more reverend. It is the worst argument you can use, 
to say, Can we do things in God's worship with too 
great reverence? Have you warrant out of God's word 
for it ? does God enjoin it ? have you not at least some 
rule or ensample for it ? If you think to render it by 
your own addition more reverend, this verv- argument 
spoils it, though it were in other respects lawful. Sup- 
pose some gesture were indifferent, yet if you think 
that by it you put more reverence and respect upon 
God's worship than there is, you thereby spoil it ; upon 
that ground it cannot be justified. Therefore the Lord 
forbade his ])eople, when they were to make an altar to 
him, to lift up a tool upon it, for then, saith he, you 
[loUute it. They might have said, Lord, we would lain 
have thine altar not so plain, we would fain bestow 
carving and some cost ujion it, and so show some re- 
spect to it. No, saith God, if you lift up a tool upon 
it, you pollute it. So if you think to put more re- 
verence and solemnity upon God's worship by any in- 
vention of your own, you certainly defile it. That was 
the sin of Israel at this time, they would sacrifice here ; 
why ? because " the shadow was good." So much for 
their high places, and their worshipping under trees. 
Now follows the judgment threatened : 

" Therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, 
and your spouses shall commit adultery." 

You commit adultery in going a whoring from me, 
you shall be punished in the like kind, your daugh- 
ters and your spouses shall go a whoring from you. 

We may regard this in two points of view : 

I. As a judgment of God upon them. 

II. As tliat of which they themselves were the cause. 
I. As a judgment of God upon them. Hence, 

Obs. 1. God sometimes punishes sin with sin, he 
punishes spiritual adultery with corporal uncleanness. 
Cor])oral pollutions are the fruit of s])iritual filthiness. 
So Kom. i.. They worshipjicd not God as God, but in 
an idolatrous way, after the similitude of an ox that 
eateth grass, therefore God gave them up to unclean- 
ness. If men be not careful to maintain purity in 
God's worship, God cares not for their bodily chastity. 
If you pollute my worship, be then unclean, saith God. 
Not that he doth permit it as lawful, but in just judg- 
ment he gi\es them over to it. What care I for all 
your carnal defilements, if you pollute my worship. 
Bodily and spiritual adultery are usually conjoined. 
The woi'd Ifoma, with the letters reversed, forms amor; 
and there is much impurity in Kome, as I showed be- 
fore. Where there is most idolatry there is most 
adultery. 

06.V. 2. The sin of parents is often punished in the 
children and in the family. Your daughters and your 
spouses, I will leave them, saith God, and my hand 
shall be upon them. When a parent or a husband 
sees the hand of God against his child or against his 
wife, he should consider. How does God meet with me 
in this? is it not a sign of God's displeasure against 
me in this particular ? It is observable of the woman 
of Canaan, Alatt. xv. 22, that when her child was vexed 
with an unclean spirit, she saith, " Have mercy on me, 
O Lord, thou Son of David, my daughter is grievously 
vexed with a devil ;" she did not say. Lord, have mercy 
on mv child, but, Lord, have mercy on me, for my 
child is vexed with an unclean spirit ; as if she should 
say, O Lord, this unclean spirit may be the punish- 
ment of my sin, therefore, Lord, have mercy u])on inc, 
and forgive me my sin, that hath caused such a thing 
as this ; yea. Lord, it may be, I have had an unclean 
spirit, and this my child imitated me in somewhat that 
was evil, and so tliy hand is come ujion it ; I am the 
original, therefore, Lord, have mercy upon me, for my 



Ver. 13 



THE PllOPHECY OF HOSEA. 



2ft. 



child is vexed with an unclean spirit. So should you, 
■when you see the hand of God u))on your children, 
cry out, Lord, pardon my sin. And does God leave 
your children in wickedness ? do you see unclean spirits 
in vour children, the spirit of filthiness ? cry out. Lord, 
have mercy upon me. Perhaps it was by imitating 
of you that they came to have such unclean spirits. 

Obs. 3. It is a great rejn'oach to any family to have 
uncleanness committed in it. Fornication and adultery 
is a great reproach to a family, especially when the 
daughter or the wife is unclean. It is a reproach to a 
family if a servant prove naught, especially to some 
families more than others, as those of ministers, magis- 
trates, or men in public place and esteem : which, by 
the way, should teach governors to be more careful of 
their families than they are, for often, through then- 
carelessness, God sends such a judgment, puts this dis- 
grace upon them. Many of you, for your pleasure and 
delight, can go to your country houses, and while you 
are there your servants are committing evil ; but you 
should have an especial eye over them, lest God, as a 
just judgment upon you for your neglect, bring this re- 
proach upon your families. But especially your chil- 
dren, your daughters, and your spouses; and above all, 
the children of ministers. In Lev. xxi. 9, it is said. If 
the daughter of a priest " profane herself by playing the 
whore, she shall be burnt with fire." Now, though 
adultery was, yet fornication was not, punished with 
death, in any other instance. 

Obs. 4. Our unfaithfulness with God is made more 
sensible when those that are near unto us are unfaith- 
ful to us. Well, saith God here, you go a whoring 
from me, your spouses shall go a whoring from you ; 
you have been unfaithful to me, your children shall be 
unfaithful to you ; they shall go a whoring too, and 
then by that anguish and trouble that you have when 
you see this in your wife, or in your child, you shall be 
made sensible how grievous it is to my spirit, that you 
go a whoring from me. Many parents, if they heard 
that their daughters had dishonoured themselves, oh 
how would they beat their hands ujjon their breasts, and 
tear their hair, and in agony cry out, I am undone, I am 
undone ! and though they had never such great estates, 
they would think they had no comfort in any thing, 
but would even look upon themselves and their family 
as utterly ruined. And if you should hear that your 
wife had played the whore, how would it be as a dagger 
in your hearts ! Are you so sensible of this ? then, by 
the extremity of gi-ief you would experience in such a 
case, know, that God so grieves when a child of his goes 
a whoring from him. If his people depart from him, in 
ways of superstition and idolatry, yea, even in things 
that otherwise seem to be but small, (here but a cir- 
cumstance of place is spoken of,) yet the Spirit of God 
grieves at it, as a husband or father over the dishonour 
of a wife or daughter. Oh that you would consider 
that there is this grief in heaven when God sees his 
people forsaking his true worship ! AVe think, indeed, 
thatmurder and blasphemy are displeasing to God, but 
we little reflect how the corruption of his worship pro- 
vokes him. Lat us know, that the great jn-ovocation of 
the most high God is the corruption of his worship, I 
mean, when his people shall con'upt his worship any 
way. 

And further, Do your children prove stubborn and 
rebellious to you? oh how often does the father or 
mother retu-e into their chamber and bemoan them- 
selves. Oh what a stubborn, rebellious child have we, 
nothing will reform him, admonitions are vain ! Well. 
are you so sensible of the stubbornness of your chil- 
dren ? O consider how sensible God is if you carry 
yourselves so toward him. If a husband have a wife 
froward and troublesome, that grieves his spirit and 
loves him not, he laments his condition, and thinlis 



himself one of the most miserable men on the earth. 
Is this so grievovis to you ? oh how grievous is it to 
Jesus Christ to have his church so to him ! And have 
you any friend that has dealt unfaithfully with you ? 
Such a friend, you say, has dealt unfaithfully with me; 
was ever any served so ? O consider how you have 
dealt unfaithfully with God ; and as your hearts are 
affected by the falseness of a friend, so does your un- 
faithfulness go to the heart of God. And thus much 
for the words under the first consideration, of God's re- 
tributive justice. I will make you sensible, saith God, 
of your dealings with me; if nothing will do it, it shall 
be thus, " your daughters and your spouses shall com- 
mit adultery." 

II. As that of which they themselves are the cause. 
Now the people of Israel were the causes of the un- 
cleanness of their daughters and wives, by this their 
way of false worship, in two respects. 

1. By going abroad from their families to hills and 
moimtains to worship, they afibrded them opportunity 
meanwhile of committing adulter)-. Calvin observes 
on the place. As it is in popery when they go a pil- 
grimage, it is the most opportune time for impure in- 
dulgences ; so here, when they went unto the hills and 
mountains to worship, then the unclean places were most 
frequented. So when husbands and parents go up and 
down without any lawful call, then their wives and 
families do oft miscarry. Therefore it should teach 
them to abide at home until God calls them out : if 
they have a lawful call, they may trust God with their 
families ; if not, some mischief may befall them before 
their return. 

2. By carrying them into mountains, and grove.s, 
and under trees, because (as I said before) those 
places were chosen on purpose, as the fittest for lewd- 
ness. It is dangerous for young women to go into 
such places, and parents and husbands are exceedingly 
to blame, and it is to be charged as a great evil upon 
them, when they venture so to expose their daughters 
or wives to temptation. 

Ver. 14. / icill not punish i/onr daiii;Iiters u-hen the// 
commit ichoredom, nor your spouses ulteii tlieij commit 
adultery : for themselves are separated witli ichores, and 
they sacrifice xrith harlots : therefore the people that 
doth not understand shall fall. 

This is as severe an expression as any that we have 
in Scripture ; They shall commit whoredom and adul- 
tery, yet I will not punish them. Strange ! God has 
tlu'eatcned whoredom and adultery with death, and 
threatened the priests' daughtei's that committed forni- 
cation, -nith fire ; and this here refers to the priests 
especially ; yet, saith he, I will punish none of them 
when they commit whoi'edom or adultery. 

These words are read by some interrogatively, " WiU 
I not punish them?" and then they carry another 
sense ; but I think not according to the intention of 
the Spirit. 

Others read these words comparatively, and, I con- 
fess, with some probability : I will not punish them, 
that is, I will not punish them in comparison with you, 
for jour example makes them what they are, you 
should restrain them ; and though their sin be great, 
yet, in comparison of you, they shall not be punished 
at all. Wicked parents look upon their children, when 
swearers, liars, unclean, as those with whom it will go 
very ill. Well, it shall go ill with them indeed; but if 
you be so too, it shall be worse with you. Many wicked 
parents are loth their chikh-en should be so too ; I have 
known some who have put their children to be edu- 
cated by puritans : they are wicked themselves, yet 
their consciences tell them it is not good for their chil- 
di'en to be so. But the truth is, if vou be wicked and 



242 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



your children also, though they may perish in their 
sins, yet vou shall perish witli a sevenfold destruction. 

But thirdly, it is rtad ])lainly by most thus, I will not 
punish them when they commit adultery, that is, I will 
show my WTath against you in this, that I will even give 
up your children and your wives, let them do what they 
■vnll, I will not restrain them by any punishment. And 
this is often the course of God's judgment against tlie 
wicked, that lie will not restrain them in their evil 
ways. The especial note fi'om these words is : 

Obs. 1. It is one of the most fearful judgments of 
God in the world, not to restrain men irom sinning. 
Jerome, upon those words in Ezek. vii. 4, " I will not 
spare," saith, God does not spare, that he might s])are, 
he has not mercy, that he might have mercy xipon 
people ; that is, when God intends any good, then he 
will not spare ; he will afflict and chastise those that 
he loves, but if you be bastards and not children, he 
cares not for chastising you. As long as a parent re- 
gards a child, and intends he should inherit, he corrects 
him ; but when once he has cast him off, and is fully re- 
solved lie shaU never inherit, he lets him go on and take 
his course. So a physician will give a patient jiotions, 
and bitter potions, while there is hope ; but if the dis- 
ease be grown too strong, and hope depart, he lets 
him alone : thus God often deals with sinners in this 
origm, Horn. 8. in world. Origen, in one of his sermons on 
indign«niu"i>i'itm'- Exodus, quotiiig this scripturc, hath 
biiem Toctm audirp tliis expression. Will vou hear the tcmble 

Ae. Luther, Vie iUi . ^ ll*/-^l,iT -ll ^ 

ad quotum pcccitii voicc of a provoKcd God ! '• I Will not 
coimivrt Dcu,. punish your daughters when they com- 
mit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit 
adulteiy ;" this is the most terrible thing, the greatest 
imaginable WTath and judgment; here is a terrible 
voice of God indeed, I will not punish you. So Lu- 
ther : Woe to those men at whose sins God winketh ! It 
is a fearful judgment to fall into the hands of the liv- 
ing God, but it is a more fearful judgment to fall out of 
the hands of the living God, in this respect. Many 
men bless themselves that they can go on in the world, 
and, although continuing in sin, still prosper and 
thrive : they do not pray in theii- families as others do, 
are not so scrupulous in their consciences as others are, 
not so strict to walk exactly, yet they thrive in their 
trades, they are as rich, licalthful, have as fine persons 
and as handsome children, as others ; and thereby they 
arc hardened in tlicir sin. but know, though thou 
niayst bless tliyself in this thing, yet it is the lieaviest 
curse of God that can bo on thee, unless he should send 
thee quick unto hell. There is no such mark of reproba- 
tion as this, for God to suffer a wicked man to prosper 
in his sin. 

Qonndo »i.ierii pec- Je^ome observes on these words, '\Mien 
oiiocera diriiiij »!■ thou sccst a siuncr flow with wealth, 
porcniiTet".Jmi"e whcn thou seest him boasting of his 
^"ju'i.'riSi'a" power, when thou seest him healthy, and 
SS''!u.lra''c"™"' delighting in his wife, a number of fine 
mmauonem com- children arouud liim, then say, the threat- 
^"'' cning of God by the prophet Hosea is 

fulfilled upon that man. 

Thy judgment is very great in this, that the less 
punishment thou hast now, the more thou art like to 
nave hereafter. The less punishment, the more sin, and 
so the more misery. Know that justice will have some- 
what, and much too, for the forbearance of her act, of 
her stroke ; and certainly, it were better for thee wlio 
art a wicked and ungodly man, that thou shouldst beg 
thy bread from door to door. Pcrliaps now thou liast 
great revenues, thou licst .soft and farcst daintily, while 
others are put to miserable extremities, and yet thou 
art ungodly and wicked; know, that it were belter for 
thee, and thou wilt one day say it, and wish it thyself, 
that tliou hadst been as the poor beggar at thy door ; 
and it is God's wrath upon thee, that thou art liot now 



as miserable as they. Let us therefore stop tlie trou- 
bles of our thoughts with tliLs, when we see the wicked, 
how they prosper in the world, and how vile men are 
exalted, though they undertake causes which we know 
are abominable in the eyes of God, and by their ini- 
quities provoke the God of heaven. They are, indeed, 
ready to take this, their prosperity, as an argument that 
God approves of their ways, and loves them. O let 
us not (I say) be troubled at their prosperity, for it 
is so far from being an ai'gument of God's approbation 
of their ways, that it is one of the gi'eatest judgments 
that can possibly befall them in the world, when God 
shall say, Let them go on and fill up the measure of 
their sins ; they shall have their heart's desu'e for a 
while, and so shall be fattened up to their destruction. 
This few but the spii'itual will understand. Carnal 
hearts are ready to call the proud happy, and to think 
those to be in the best condition that are most prosper- 
ous in the world ; but this text teaches us the contrary. 

" For themselves are separated with whores." Here 
interpreters remark, that God charges the persons by 
way of indignation. As when one man is speaking to an- 
other and his anger rises, he turns from him and speaks 
to some one else ; so God seems here to have his anger 
awakened so against liis people, that he turns, as it were, 
from them, as if he spake to some one else, though in- 
deed he means them ; " themselves are separated," or 
divided themselves. 

Junius reads it, they have separated ; and, not im- 
probably, interprets it, they have se])arated fat and 
plentiful things, the choicest and richest things that 
they had at home, and set them apart under pretence 
of consecration to a religious use, and then, when they 
went to sacrifice, they would eat them among their 
whores, and so deceive their spouses at home. 

Others interpret it thus, they have separated them- 
selves from their God; first in spiritual whoredom, 
and then from their wives in bodily uncleanncss. 

Or else thus : " separated ;" that is, they witlidraw 
themselves into secret, where they might not be known, 
as the filthiness of that sin causes men to dcsu'c con- 
cealment ; and when they have got into a secret place, 
or se])arated tlicmselves from all that know tliem, then 
they commit impurity ; as many men, when they are 
gone abroad fi'om their own houses, in their journeys, 
in their inns, that is a fit opportunity for their filthiness. 

Thus God gives the reason why their daughters and 
their wives commit tliis uncleanncss, because they 
themselves do so. Hence we may remark, 

Obs. 2. When parents are filthy and unclean, what 
can be expected but that their children should be so 
too ? Take it either with respect to bodily or spiritual 
unclcanness. In bodily, David commits adultery, and 
Aninon commits incest : and in spiritual, " The children 
gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women 
knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of 
heaven," Jer. vii. 18. If fathers and mothers be idol- 
aters, children will be so too : so it is at this day, the 
children of those who adhere to the old superstitions, 
are superstitious likewise ; and if the parents be malig- 
nauts, it is sti"ange to hear how the children, though 
young, will speak. AVhich should be a strong caution 
to all parents to make tliem take heed what they do 
before tlieir children : he that sins before a child, sins 
twice, for the child will do as his father does, he thinks 
it enough that his father said so, or his father did so. 
Take heed then how you sin before your children. 

The word translated " whores," has a further signi- 
fication than our English conveys. According to most 
interpreters, it presents to us those women that wor- 
shipped Baal-pcor, or Priapus, that unclean god. In 
1 Kings xv. 13, it is said of Asa, that he took away 
Maachah his motlicr from being queen : now it is in- 
terpreted by some, that he removed her that she might 



THE PROPHECn OF HCSEA. 



243 



not be a special queen in the solemnity of that unclean 
god Baal-peor, -which idol she had set up in a grove. 
So then these people separated themselves, not to 
ordinaiy whores, but to those that were consecrated to 
the service of that impm-e god, and in his worship com- 
mitted with them uncleanness. 

" Sacrifice with harlots." If we were to take this 
merely according to our ti'anslation, " harlots," tlien 
the observation is only this : 

Obs. 3. The iilthy and unclean will yet sometimes 
make some show of reUgion. Harlots, and yet sacrifice ! 
how can these two consist ? One woidd thmk harlots 
should cast off all sacrifice. No ; often will the filthy 
and unclean make a show of religion, thinking to cover 
all then- impurities with some religious action ; as the 
" strange woman," in Proverbs, had peace-offerings, 
and made them but preparations for the commission of 
uncleanness. What horrible wickedness is this! yet 
this is not unusual, for many are very devout in 
some religious duties, and think that thereby they have 
served God well, given him his portion, and so con- 
ceive they may the more indulge the flesh afterward. 
It is ti-ue we are sinners, and cannot serve God always, 
but it is an abominable thing to unite impurity and 
sacrifice. 

But the word translated "liarlots" here, conveys 
much more than our English can well express; nwipn 
" harlots," is meant of the adultery of the priests with 
the consecrated ones. This the rather justifies the in- 
terpretation of the other word "whores," for I told 
you by that was meant those women that worshipped 
Baal-peor, for there the word signifies the consecrated 
ones, the holy ones. You will say, How can it be 
translated harlots then ? Yes, by antiphrasis, for so 
the Scripture expresses things and words, and so other 
languages too, as wood is called so by a name that 
comes from light. So there, " holy ones," that is, as 
devoted to filthiness as others are consecrated to God, 
and therefore called holy ones by antiplu'asis. And 
that, I think, is the meaning of this place; by the 
priests of Baal-peor are here meant those for whom this 
people did sepai'ate themselves. 

Jerome upon this place remarks, that the Romans, 
to disgrace the French, used to separate priests of their 
nation for that idol, and to make them eunuchs ; from 
v,'hence all such priests to that their idol, which resem- 
bled the Baal-peor of the Jews, they used to call Gallos, 
Frenchmen, by way of ignominy upon that nation, for 
some especial revenge they cherished against tliem. 

Take it thus, then, and it will afford us very profit- 
able instruction. These people were grown so corrupt 
that they had forsaken the true priests of God, and the 
prophets of the Lord, and separated themselves from 
the Lord to join in sacrificing with these filthy priests 
of Baal-peor, that unclean idol which is termed in 
Scripture " that shame." 

But how can it be meant of priests, when the word 
in the Hebrew is in the feminine gender ? We answer, 
because of the effeminateness of these priests, some of 
them eunuchs, and so sottish and filthy that they had 
forfeited the very name of men. Tliereforo Aquila 
renders it, with the changed, so he calls 
X " "7™/"''^ the effeminate ; they were changed from 
men into women : and so the Scripture 
speaks of men that have lost their ti-ue character, call- 
ing them women, or men of womanish spirits, Isa. iii. 
„^ . 12. And so the heathen poet Virsjil, in 

qui cnim pliryges. mutatiou ot Homcr, calls the Trojans 
^%mit"'o!>ii (T 'women, not men, because in character 
l*xoio''-, „,. they were rather of the feminine than the 
masculine gender. Therefore the priests 
here of that unclean idol are in like manner designated 
priestesses. 

CjTil, Tlieophylact, and others, however, tliink that 



these priests seemed to be men, but were mdeed wo- 
men. So that by this text is meant persons vilely im- 
pure, that were consecrated to be as priests to the 
service of this unclean idol. Now then we may remark 
from hence, their degradation in forsaking the priests 
of the Lord, separating themselves from them and join- 
ing with such unclean priests as these of Baal-peor. 
Here were separatists indeed. Have we not many 
amongst us at this day as vile and wicked as these, 
whose hearts, being opposed to the faithful ministers 
of God, and the purity of God's ordinances, they se- 
pai'ate themselves to any di'unken, impure, maKgnant 
priest ? It was so here, there were the true priests 
and ordinances of God in Judah, and yet these men, 
rather than join in his true service, will separate them- 
selves to these filthy and unclean priests of Baal-peor, 
and think there is more to be gained by uniting with 
them, than with the true priests of the Most High. 
How has God of late discovered the filthiness and ma- 
lignancy of our superstitious priests, who cared not 
what became of our liberty as men, orour reUgion as 
Christians, so they had their lusts gratified ! yet how 
debased are men still, that though faithful and con- 
scientious ministers are sent amongst them who would 
reveal the mind of Christ and the way of heaven, that 
they may now know more in one month tlian before 
they knew in many years, if they had hearts to hearken 
to them, yet they will separate themselves, and join 
rather with such as are not only malignants, but mani- 
festly ungodly in their lives, and commend and love 
them. Heretofore, when they had but some Sir John, 
that could only read prayers, sent by the bishop, and 
godly ministers were tlu'ust out, if men went frorn their 
parish church to hear a sermon, how did they imme- 
(ijately exclaim that they were sectaries and schisma- 
tics ; but now, when men of vile and malignant spirits 
are by a better authority removed for their wicked 
lives, and godly and holy men inducted, yet these they 
will not hear, though it be in then- own parish church ; 
but if a malignant preacher be in the city, to him they 
will flock. Who is the separatist or schismatic now ? 
They separate themselves now to such men, and think 
they may hear those by whom they can most profit, that 
is, those that preach things suitable to their own spirits 
and inclinations. When the case comes home, how par- 
tial are men in their judgments ! I know notliing so ex- 
pressive of the condition of these men as these words, 
though, as they ai'e read in your books, no such thing 
appears, but the words, according to the_ original, sig- 
nify, separating themselves to unclean priests. 

■'■ Therefore the people that do not understand shall 
fall." Well might he say, that they are a people that 
understand not, indeed. 

Obs. 4. Idolaters are not an understanding people, 
they do not understand, they are ignorant people. You 
will say, Ignorant? many of them are scholars, and 
learned. But they are ignorant of the ways of God, 
even their priests, and for the most part the people ; and 
their very design is to bring ignorance into places, 
that then- idolatrous ways may be the sooner embraced. 

" The people that do not understand shall fall." Un- 
derstand what? what did not these people understand, 
that was the cause of their fall ? They ilid not under- 
stand these things : 

1. The desi^ entertained by Jeroboam and those 
princes that fo'llowed him. Poor simple people, they 
were led by vain pretences. Jeroboam pleaded, that he 
was for the true religion, and the worship of the true 
God, only he would not have the people fatigued by 
going up thrice a year to Jerusalem, that was not_ so 
necessarv. But iii truth, Jeroboam, notwithstanding 
all his pretences of worsliipping the true God, and 
being a friend to the ta-ue reUgion, designed to bring 
them under his own government, and to tyrannize over 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



them. Now this people did not understand this, they 
were cnn-ied away with fair words ; if Jeroboam made 
but a show of religion, and professed that he acted 
merely out of respect and love, and in favour to them ; 
it was" sufficient to blind them, though he designed far 
otherwise. They did not understand the design of 
Jeroboam and his princes. 

2. That the acccptablencss of God's worship did not 
depend upon its outward pomp and splendour, but 
upon the observation of what God required. They 
understood not this. They were led away merely with 
the fair shows and pomp of religion, but understood 
not that all the acccptablcnes? of divine worship de- 
pends on its being a divine ordinance. Jlost people 
at this day understand not this, and hence great evil 
ensues. 

3. That their safety dejiended more upon the true 
worship of God, than upon all the politic wisdom that 
could be. They understood not that their protection 
depended on God's service and worshij), but thought 
to go politicly on, to provide for their own safety, 
and relied on the wisdom of their wise men. 

4. They did not understand, that whatsoever was 
commanded by their governors, or taught by their 
priests, yet, if it was against the mind of God, it would 
not excuse them from judgment and deliver them from 
the wrath of God,' tliough their magisti-ates com- 
manded, and their jiricsts taught it, 

Tliey iniderstood not these four things, and therefore 
they shall fall. This it was tliat brought down and 
ruined this people. 

There arc divers degrees of not understanding. 

1. ■\\'hen people do not understand merely from 
want of the means of knowledge. This excuses not 
vliolly, but they shall even fall though they have no 
means. 

2. A^Tien men have means, yet, through their negli- 
gence in the use of them, they do not understand. 

3. AA'hen they are not only guilty of negligence, but 
wickedly oppose and shut their eyes against the means 
)f knowledge. Then they shaD fall indeed. 

4. AATien, ha^■ing knowledge heretofore, they now 
lose it by their often resisting its injunctions, and so 
become dull in their understandings. 

5. 'When they so provoke God, as that he gives them 
up to a sottisli spirit, so that they shall not understand, 
now these fall deepest. A\'herc all these five are con- 
joined, as thev arc in many ])laces, surely that people 
must needs fall. My brethren, have we not cause to 
fear our not understanding at this day, that in these 
different points of view we inulcrstand not the vain pre- 
tences of our adversaries the Cavaliers, who say, 

1. That they fight for religion, and intend nothing 
but the liberty of the subject. Many ])coplc are led 
away with these pretences, and understand not that 
their design is to bring them under .slavery, and to 
take away their religion : and this blindness is like to 
cause us to fall. 

2. Peojile understand not that the worship of God 
and the government of the chiu'ch must be according 
to the word. They think what most suits with the 
reasons of understanding men is best. 

3. People at this day think tliere is too much to do 
about religion, and desire us rather to act with jiolicy 
and provide for ourselves. As for religion, why should 
Ave injure or trouble ourselves so mucli about it ? we 
have done so too much already. Tliey tliink not their 
safety is in religion, therefore they shall fall. 

4. People think the authority of their ministers 
sufficient sanction. Is it not so w'ith us now ? There- 
fore we liave cause to fear that the Lord intends us a 
grievous fall. 

Yea, as those four objects, so the four degrees of 
vant of understanding. 



In many i)laces they have no means, many towns 
and countries have scarce a sermon iu half a year. 

In many ))laces where there are most means, there 
they are negligent of them, rebel' and shut their eyes 
against them. 

And others that have had knowledge heretofore, 
have resisted their light, and are grown sottish ; yea, it 
is to be feared that God, in his just judgment, has de- 
livered many amongst us over to a sottish spirit, other- 
wLsc it is impossible tliey should remain so ignorant. 
Is it not a stupid insensibility in men, that after ali the 
oppression and misen,' that they have suffered, yet they 
will not understand, but join witli their ojipressors, and 
lay all the blame upon those that venture their lives 
to deliver them? That when men come and spoil them 
of their goods, and ravish theii' wives and children, that 
they yet rather exclaim against those that venture their 
lives to do them good, as if they were the cause of their 
misery? Surely these people do not understand, and 
can it be expected but that they should fall, themselves 
and their posterity, into the depth of the misery of per- 
petual bondage. 

Obs. 5. Idolatrous people shall fall : " They shall 
fall." An angel proclaims this, " Babylon is fallen, is 
fallen." It is fallen aheady, my brethren ; however 
idolaters seem to lift up their heads high, yet they are 
falling, and fall they shall, God has pronounced it, and 
the time is at hand ; they have fallen off from God, 
and fall they shall by the hand of God, and the prouder 
they grow the nearer is their fall; pride goes before a 
fall : while the gospel of Christ and liis pure ordinances, 
that are now so opposed, shall stand, all superstitious 
ways, and persons, shall fall. It is observable in that 
l)!ace before named, Rev. xiv. G, an angel flies in the 
midst of heaven, and preaches the everlasting gospel ; 
and within another verse or two, another angel cries 
out, " Babylon is fallen, is fallen." A\'hen Babylon 
with all their idolatrous ways shall be fallen, then shall 
the everlasting gospel be ])reached : the gosjiel and the 
ordinances of Christ shall be everlasting, shall continue 
for ever ; when all superstitious vanities shall have 
passed away. AVe find it so ; however thev thought to 
give perpetuity to their superstitions by all the means 
that the devil or wicked men could devise, yet have we 
not found that God has blasted them, and many of 
them are fallen ? and though Ciod brings his i)eople 
into affliction, yet they shall rise, the ways of God 
shall rise, Zioii shall rise, Babylon shall fall : the 
people that understand not, they shall fall. 

A word or two about the meaning of isaS here ren- 
dered " shall fall." It comes from BaS which dees not 
occur often in Scripture, and I find divei-s translations 
of it. Some render it. shall be beaten ; others, shall 
be brought into captivity ; and others again, and not 
improi)crly, shall be perplexed. The word signifies, to 
be brought into perplexity and doubt with respect to 
the course one ought to jnirsue ; such is the force of 
the word : I say, by their hesitancy, and being ])erplex- 
ed in their counsels, they come to stimible and fall. 
This people that do not understand shall thus fall. In- 
deed this translation is more proper and suitable to the 
words before ; they do not understand, therefore they 
must needs be perplexed in their ways, and not know 
which way to go, and therefore must fall: as a man in 
the dark stumbles ; so when men have left the true 
light and are in the dark, they .shall fall, and when 
fallen they sliall be perplexed in the misery that ensues. 
From whence, 

Obs. G. It is a fearful judgment of God, and a fore- 
runner of a grievous fall, to leave men to perplexed 
counsels. AA'hen men are perplexed in their counsels, 
utterly uncertain what measures to adopt, it is a sure 
forerunner of falling into grievous misery. In Isa. 
xix. H, the Lord threatens Egj-pt that he will send a 



Vek. 15. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



245 



perverse spirit in the midst thereof, anil they shall en- 
in every work, as a drunken man staggereth in his 
vomit; they shall err in their counsels, and this from a 
perverse spirit. Tlie Lord often sends a spiiit of per- 
plexity and perverseness in judgment upon men; and 
wliat ensues ? they reel and stagger up and do-\vn in 
their counsels, first have recourse to one expedient and 
then another, and so bring on themselves a great deal 
of sorrow and trouble. The Lord grant our enemies 
these perplexed counsels, and deliver us from them. 

Obs. 7. ■\^^len the wicked are fallen, they shall be so 
insnared and perplexed that they shall not know what 
to do. Idolatrous and superstitious men, and those 
whom God leaves to themselves, are in miserable per- 
plexity when fallen, they are as those poor blinded 
men in "2 Kings vi., whom Elisha led to Samaria in- 
stead of Dothan. What miserable perplexity were 
tliey in when they found themselves in Samaria among 
their enemies ! So when men are left to themselves, 
and God has brought them into difficulties, the fruit of 
theu' own perplexed counsels, how grievous will it be ! 
On the contrary, when a man walks according to the 
rule of God's word, and in the uprightness of his heart 
desires to be directed agreealjly thereto, though such a 
one should meet with trouble and fall into affliction, 
he need not be perplexed ; quietness and peace shall 
possess his spirit in the midst of his trials, because he 
has followed God, and walked according to his rule. It 
may be, he knows not God's end, lie understands not 
the depth of his ways, in bringing him into affliction ; 
yet, having endeavoured in the sincerity of his heart to 
walk according to God's will, he understands this 
much, to stay his perplexed soul on God. 

Ver. 15. Though thou, Israel, p'.ay the harlo/, yel let 
tiot Judah offend ; and come not ije unto Giigul, neither 
go ye up to Beth-men, nor su-ear, The Lord liveth. 

The close of this chapter is a warning to Judah to 
take heed that she sin not as Israel sinned, in regard 
of the vileness of their transgressions, the fearfulness 
and suddenness of their judgment. 

"Though thou, IsraeL" Thou wretched, wicked, 
stubborn, stout-hearted Israel, that no means will re- 
claim, though thou " play the harlot, yet let not Judah 
offend." 

The word translated " offend," is from ::rs and sig- 
nifies also to desolate, because sin brings desolation. 
The Hebrews have divers words to express at once sin 
and punishment, because they are so near akin. Israel 
plays the harlot, and so is like to bring desolation on 
herself, but let not Judah likewise offend and bring the 
same on herself. 

The prophet Hosea was sent especially to Israel, to 
the ten tribes, but here we see he turns his speech to 
Judah. 

06*. 1. ^Ministers should especially look to those 
whom they are bound unto by office, but yet so as to 
labour to benefit others when occasion offers. And 
not only ministers, but others likewise. "We should all 
purpose good, especially to those that are under our 
charge, but yet neglect no opportunity to benefit all. 

Oba. 2. ^^'hen we see our labour lost on those we 
desire most to benefit, we should try what we can do 
to others. If these get not good by our ministry, by 
our admonitions, exhortations, and counsels, yet the 
Lord may bless our endeavours upon those ; let us try 
what we can do there. 

_ " Let not Judah offend." Let not Judah do as Israel 
did. There was a great deal of danger that Judah 
should he insnared and polluted with Israel's idolatry, 
which is the ground of this seasonable admonition of 
the prophet. Though Israel do thus and thus, yet let 
not Judah do so ; as if he should say, Judah is indeed in 



great danger of being defiled by Israel, and that in 
many respects. 

1. They lived near to them ; and there is a great 
deal of danger in living near to idolaters or wicked 
persons. All sin, especially idolatry, is as leaven that 
will spread : and you may see the danger that there 
was in living so near them, in Ezek. xvi. 46, where, as 
one special reason of the iniquity of Jerusalem, it is 
said, " Thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daugh- 
ters that dwell at thy left hand : and thy younger sister, 
that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her 
daughters : " that was an especial reason of the iniquity 
of Jerusalem, their elder sister, Samaria, that is, the 
ten tribes, were on the left, and their younger sister, 
Sodom, on the right hand. To be near idolaters and 
wicked ones is very dangerous ; much more to be in 
the same town, in the same family, where superstitious 
and wicked jiersons are, there we had need to take 
heed to ourselves, for there is much danger. 

2. They were brethren, and so the danger of being 
di'awn aside by them was the gi'cater. If you have a 
kinsman, if you have one that is near to you, not only 
in place, but in nature or affection, that is superstitious, 
take heed of being defiled by such. Oh how many have 
by this means suffered shipwreck of their faith, and 
been drawn aside from the ways of God ! Hence arises 
the severity that God would have used against a bro- 
ther or a friend that seeks to entice us to idolatry, be- 
cause the Lord sees there is so much danger in it : Deut. 
xiii. 0, S, 9, " If thy brother, the son of thy mother, 
or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, 
or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee 
secretly, saying. Let us go and serve other gods, which 
thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers ; thou shalt 
not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him ; neither 
shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, 
neither shalt thou conceal him : but thou shalt surely 
kill him ; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him 
to death." Though he be thy brother, or the wife of 
thy bosom, or thy friend that is as thine own soul, thou 
shalt not pity him, but thou shalt seek the very death 
even of such a one, if he seek to di'aw thee into ways 
of idolatry. Because God saw the danger, therefore 
the severity of this admonition. 

3. Israel was the greater number. Israel was ten 
tribes, but Judah and Benjamin only two, little Ben- 
jamin together with Judah were but a few in compa- 
rison of Israel. To di-aw others to then- ways, idolaters 
often plead their number. The whole world admire 
after the beast; the world and the nations do, and 
that is a mighty argument to draw : the greater part 
of people think that this mode of worship is the best, 
there are/but a few, and they inconsiderable, that are 
opposed. No question but it was theii' argument here, 
as if they should say, AMiat ! do not ten tribes know the 
mind of God as well as those two ? Is there any reason 
why we should think that the ten tribes, the greater 
part of the children of Abraham, should not know the 
mind of God ? It is the argument at this day, with 
many that are superstitious and would go on in their 
old idolatry. They that are against such ways are but 
a few, an inconsiderable ]iart)-, but the greatest in 
number and influence of all sorts, you see, favour us. 
"We are to take heed of this. Oh let not Judah, though 
Israel be the gi-eater number, follow a multitude to 
do evil. 

4. Israel was rich and in a flourishing estate, there- 
fore there was danger that Judah might be carried 
away by them. Israel carried things before them in 
outward pomp and glory, and we know that men are 
soon brought to close with these ; and the way of Israel, 
when Hosea prophesied, did much thrive and prosper, 
Israel prevailed mightily in the world, ^Mien Ephraim 
spake there was trembling ; therefore it was a wonder- 



246 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



ful grace of God to keep Judah from following their 
exatui)lc. AVe find by experience, let even a persecuted 
cause be but once countenanced in the world, and men 
will cry it up ; do we not see at this day, that those 
things which before men would not profess, because of 

Sersecution, they now suddenly view in a different 
ght and applaud ? The very things before perse- 
cuted, if once countenanced by the great ones and by 
multitudes, how will men praise them ! Things that 
their hearts opposed, and against which they argued 
and reasoned, yet now because they have more public 
countenance, their judgments are changed; and, agree- 
ably to the deceit of men's hearts, the way that is most 
countenanced in the Avorld, that way they will adopt, 
especially in the worship of God. 

5. 1 rael had many colours and pretences for what 
they did. They did not ])rofess themselves idolatrous 
and su'jierstitious ; no, they professed that they sen'ed 
the Lord, the true Jehovah, and the difference between 
them and Judah was but the circumstances of place ; 
You must worship God at Jerusalem, and we would 
have you worship at Dan and Beth-cl, and those 
images that are set up, are merely intended to remind 
you of the God whom you worship. 

Obs. 3. The nearer "a false worship approaches to a 
true one, the more dangerous it is. Israel came nearer 
to the true worship of God than the heathens : now the 
prophet saith not, Though the heathens be idolaters, 
yet let not Judah be so too ; but, " Though Israel play 
the harlot, yet let not Judah offend." There was more 
danger that Judah should bo di-awn aside by Israel, 
than that they shoidd be drawn aside by any of the 
heathen. And so there is more danger that we, at this 
day, should be di-awn aside by those that join with us 
in many things that are right, than by papists, who are 
hateful to us, and whose waj s we see to be abominable. 
There is not so much danger, especially for those that 
profess godliness, of being drawn aside by those who 
grossly violate the laws of God, as by brethren that 
join with us in many things that are right, and come 
very near to the true worship of God. 

Well, Judah must not do so, though Israel did. As 
there were many things wherein Judah was in great 
danger to be drawn aside by Israel, so there were many 
arguments wliy Judah should not do as Israel did. 

1. God had graciously distinguished Judah from 
Israel by abundance of mercy, and Judah must not 
now make himself like Israel in sin, seeing God had 
made them unlike in mercy. God had in mercy made 
a difference between Judah and Israel, let not then 
the wickedness of their hearts make them similar. 
God had kept Judah to the house of David and to liis 
temple, to be his own people. 

2. Judah had more means than Israel had, therefore 
Judah's sin would be more vile than Israel's was : for 
Judali had the (rue priests of God to teach them, had 
the temple and the riglit ordinances of his worship 
among them ; therefore, for Judah to be di-aT\ni aside 
to the ways of Israel would be a greater sin in them. 
Whatsoever Israel does, that has in it none but super- 
stitious, idolatrous priests, priests made of the lowest 
of tile people, Israel, that has in it but the calves, and 
not the right ordinances of God, w hatsoever they do, yet 
let not Judah, surrounded with privileges, offend. 
Those that enjoy God's ordinances in a true way, should 
take lieed of doing as other people do. 

3 Judah was not compelled by her governors to act 
as Israel, for Israel, you know, by Jeroboam and other 
of the princes, was compelled to adopt these measures, 
and thev might pretend that it was for their own 
safety, for the preservation of their lives and their 
estates ; but no such necessity lay on Judah, for God 
many times sent it godly and gracious princes, and 
there was not such compulsion used, they were not so 



necessitated (if we may speak of a necessity to embrace 
evil) to adopt false worship as Israel was. AATien God 
gives peojjle liberty, that they need not (except they 
wiU) be idolaters, for them to close with ways of . 
idolatry and superstition is more sinful. True, here- 
tofore there might have been some excuse for us, we 
were forced to it, it was as much as our estates were 
worth, we must have been east into prison and perse- 
cuted, and that made us do that we drd. The Lord be 
merciful to us, for that we, rather than endure suffer- 
ings, would join in the prevalent superstitions. But 
now, througli God's mercy, we are delivered from that 
bondage, and therefore our sin would be so much the 
greater, were our hearts to cleave still to those beggarly 
elements. 

4. God had no other people upon the face of the 
earth but Judah and Israel to worship him. Well, Israel 
is gone from him ; and will Judali go too ? what will 
then become of the worship of God ? A mighty ar- 
gument to those that profess godliness, to keep them 
from the ways of false worship and wickedness in any 
kind. If you too depart from God as others do, what 
honour will he have in the world ? what will become 
of his service ? Is not God worthy of all honour and 
of all ser\ ice from all his creatures ? It is a pity there 
.should be any creature in the world that do not honour 
and serve the blessed and infinite God ; but we see the 
most do not, and there are but a few, a handful of 
people, that regard his worship ; and shall this few, 
this handful, forsake God ? Shall Judah go away too ? 
then the Lord will have no church, no worship, no 
service in the world. 

5. God had much mercy in store for Judah, more 
than for Israel, therefore " let not Judah offend ;" for 
Christ was to come fiom that tribe, and the Lord pro- 
mised, when he had said he would reject Israel, to show 
mercy unto Judah. Though Judah was carried into 
ea])tivity as well as Israel, yet God was with Judah, 
and promised them a return : but he never promised a 
like return to Israel. Therefore, since God had the 
more mercy in store for Judah, " let not Judah offend." 

Hence we should 

Obs. 4. We must not do as others do, especially with 
respect to God's worship ; we must not make the ex- 
ample, even of our brethi-en, nor of those that jirofess 
religion, nor of those that prosper in the world, pre- 
cedent or rule in matters coimected with God"s wor- 
ship. Indeed the consideration, how others sin against 
God, should be so far fi-om being an argument to di'aw 
us to sin, that it ought to be the greatest to deter us. 
Every sin against God is a striking at God. It is true, 
if a common enemy come into a city or town, every one 
desu-es to have a "blow at him ; and when men make 
the example of others an argument for their sin, they 
deal with God as with a common enemy. AVhen thou 
pleadest, that such and such sin, therefore I may sin, 
thou dost ill reality say. Such and such strike at God, 
let me too have a blow at him. Oh take heed of 
pleading the example of others in ways of wickedness, 
and remember this one expression, that thou doest in 
effect as if thou shouldst say. Others about me strike 
at God, and I must have my blow at him too as well 
as they. In any sin we must take heed of example, 
but above all in matters of worship. Hence, Deut. xii. 
30, " Take heed to thyself tliat thou be not snared by 
following the nations, after that they be destroyed from 
before thee ; and that tliou inquire not after tlicir gods, 
saying, How did tliese nations serve their gods P even 
so will I do likewise." Take heed, saith God, thou 
dost not so much as inquire how these people serve 
their gods, and say, I will do so likewise. God would 
not have us use tliat argument. Take heed therefore 
of ])teading thus. Other people and nations do so and 
so, why may not we ? It is evil to plead example in 



Vke. 15. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



247 



matters of worship, I mean especially that worship 
wliich here Judah is forewanied of, that is, -n-orsliip by 
institution. In any thing else there may be more plea 
for example than in instituted -worship ; and the rea- 
son is this, because that other things, as the moral law, 
are in some measure -s^Titten in man's heart, by the law 
of nature ; but institutions depend merely upon God's 
revealed will. Therefore, though we might have a plea 
to follow the example of others in point of morality, 
yet, with regard to institutions, we must be sure to 
keep to the rule of God's word; to look above all 
tilings to what is written, and never to plead example 
as a precedent. 

Obs. 5. It goes nearer to the heart of God when his 
people offend, than when others offend. " Yet let not 
Judah offend." Judah was the only people of God, the 
only true church that remained in the world. A\Tien 
God's own people offend, oh that goes nearer to the 
heart of God than when others offend! As Christ said 
to his disciples, " Will ye also go away ? " and as Julius 
Ccesar said to Brutus in the senate, when he came with 
a dagger to stab him, What ! and thou, my son Brutus ? 
so saith God, when those that are professors of religion, 
that are his own peojjle, and near unto him, when they 
sin against the Lord, What ! and you also ? will you also 
come and strike me? There are many reasons for this. 

1. There is more unkindness in then- sins. Others 
provoke the Spirit of God, but God's saints grieve his 
Spirit ; for gi'ief proceeds from love, and the more God 
loves any, the more then- offences grieve him. As the 
more you love any object, the more it goes to yoiu- 
heart if they do any thing to incur your just displeasure. 

2. There is more unfaithfulness in their sins. They 
have dedicated themselves to God in a manner different 
from others, and the heart of God reposes more con- 
fidence in them. What ! thou, my friend, that hast eat 
bread at my table, wilt thou lift up thy heel against 
me ? And tsa. Ixiii. 8, I said, " They are children that 
will not lie." God confideth in them, and for them to 
be unfaithful, for Judah to sm, this goes to the heart 
of God indeed. 

3. God's name is more polluted by them. The 
wicked offend the will, but do not, so much as his own 
people, pollute the name, of God. 

4. The excellency of their graces makes their sins 
worse. As spots of diit on sackcloth is not so great an 
evil, as when on cambric or lawn, and some garments, 
as yom- safeguards, that you make of coarse materials, 
you care not so much though they be soiled and dirty : 
so the wicked are of a coarse thread, their spirits are 
little worth, therefore though they be sullied and defiled 
it matters little ; but the spu-its of the saints are re- 
newed, they have the image of God impressed, there- 
fore a spot on them is much worse. As a spot of dirt 
on an ordinary deal board is of little consequence, but 
if there be a cmious image or picture di'awn on a table, 
to have that besmeared is a great deal worse ; so if 
thou art godly, thou hast the image of God cb-awn on 
thy soul, and a sin, a spot in thee, is worse than in 
others. Therefore, whatever others do, yet let God's 
people take heed to themselves that they do not offend. 

Y'ea, the saints of God, they are the Very salt of the 
earth, the very light of the W'Orld, they are those for 
whose sake God continues the world in that way he 
does, they are the supporters of all ; and if they depart 
from God also, what will become of the world ? 

5. They go nearer to the heart of the saints than the 
sms of others. The sin of one saint aft'ects the heart 
of another saint more than the sin of any other man 
doth. Ofl'ences of brethren amongst brethren are the 
greatest of all. As Samson said to those that T;ame 
to bind him. Do not you bind me ; I care not for the 
Phihstines so much, only do not you bind me : so all 
the railings and persecutions of ungodly men are not 



so much as the unkindness of the saints. Unkindnesses 
from such as we look upon as godl)', go nearer to the 
heart of the godly, than all the railing and persecutions 
of ungodly men. If some godly saints should suffer 
opposition, yea, even persecution, from such as they 
esteem goclly, oh how would that cut their hearts ! 
their complaints to their Father of this would be sore 
complaints indeed. 

Now all this might be thus applied to us at this time : 
Though prelates, and such as were superstitious and cor- 
rupt, were bitter against and did persecute my servants, 
yet let not those who have professed godliness, let not 
those who have been painful and laborious ministers, let 
not those whose consciences have been heretofore in 
many respects tender, let not them offend by any bitter- 
ness, or any harshness against their bretlu'en: this, be- 
yond all, will grieve the Spii'it of God, and distress the 
heartof the saints. AU the persecutions of all the prelates 
and papists, and of all your popish priests, and such 
kind of men, would not be a thousandth part so much 
as any bitterness or harshness toward the saints from 
the spirits of those who are regarded as godly ; espe- 
cially such as heretofore have professed so much ten- 
derness of conscience, and have thereby suffered so 
much, because they could not do what was enjoined; 
if they now, after having got liberty to their own con- 
sciences, should become harsh and bitter against others 
that are godly, oh how sad would this be to God and 
to his people ! Oh, whatever Israel do, " let not Judah 
offend." 

'• And come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to 
Beth-aven." 

There are two things to be inquu-ed here. 

I. "\ATiat this Gilgal and Beth-aven were. 

II. The reason of the prohibition, why they must 
not come to Gilgal, nor go up to Beth-aven. 

The words are ordinarily read and passed over with- 
out any great observation, but they contain much of 
God's mind. 

I. Gilgal was a place in the borders of Israel, famous 
heretofore for many things. I know no place, except 
Jerusalem, that there are more glorious things spoken 
of than of Gilgal. It was famous for these things. 

1. That great circumcision after Israel came out of 
the wilderness, took place there, when God " rolled 
away " their- reproach ; whence the name Gilgal. For 
during the forty years that Israel was in the wilderness, 
none of their childi'en were circumcised, God being so 
indulgent to his people for that time, because they were 
to remove up and do^mi, they knew not how soon, ac- 
cording to his requii-ements, and if their childi-en were 
cux'umcised they could not so readily have been can-ied 
with them. But yet it seems it was an affliction, for 
God saith, " I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt 
from off you;" and therefore commanded that they 
should be circumcised. Now, when they came over 
Jordan, as soon as they were about to set foot on the 
land of Canaan, then God required them to cu-cumcise 
their cliikb-en. And if we observe it, it was a strange 
command, for they were now come into the very mouth 
of their enemies, and aU the people of Canaan, all the 
kings and princes of the country, were gathered together 
to fight against them ; yet now they must circumcise 
all those under forty years, even then- fighting men, 
who had been in the wilderness so long, though they 
were in the veiy mouth of their enemies ; and by reason 
of the soreness attendant on cu-cumcision, they would 
be unable to stir out against them to battle ; notwith- 
standing all this, they must be cu-cumcised. Thus we 
see God, when he pleases, will have his worship, rather 
than our own safety, regarded. And upon this the 
place was called Gilgal : " This day," saith God, " have 
I rolled away the reproach of Eg}-i]t from off you. 
■\Mierefore tlie name of the place is called Gilgal unto 



248 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



this day," Josh. v. 0. The word is from SSj which sig- 
nifies to roll; the Hebrew letter Gimel being doubled 
and intei-posed, it forms Gilgal. That is the first thing 
observable of this place, that there was the great cir- 
cumcision. 

2. The first passovor kept in the land of Canaan was 
observed there, as apjiears from Josh. v. 10. 

3. In Gilgal the manna ceased, and the people were 
fed with the bread of the wheat of the country of Ca- 
naan, Josh. V. 12; God there giving them that first 
possession of Canaan, to " eat of the fruit of the land," 
and intimating that they should not henceforth need 
such extraordinary providence of God to feed them by 
manna. 

4. Joshua pitched there those twelve stones which 
they took out of Jordan, for a memorial and perpetual 
remembrance of that great deliverance given them by 
God, in drying up the waters of Jordan from before 
them until they were jiassed over, as appears, Josh. iv. 20. 

5. Joshua himself, together with the camp, kept 
much in Gilgal, and that after even Jericho and Ai 
were taken and tlie five kings slain. Josh. x. 6. Yea, 
after the whole country was possessed, yet still he kept 
at Gilgal, together with the camp, as appears from 
Josh. xiv. 6. 

6. At Gilgal the angel of God appeared to Joshua, 
Josh. V. 13, and told him he was captain of the host of 
the Lord, and bade him loose his shoes from off his feet, 
for the place whereon li£ stood was holy. 

7. At Gilgal Saul was anointed king, and thither he 
and Samuel often repaired, 1 Sam. xi. 15. 

•S. Gilgal was the ])lace for sacrificing, and the taber- 
nacle was much there, as appears, 1 Sam. x. S ; xv. 
21. And ver. 33 of the same chapter, when Samuel 
hewed Agag in pieces in Gilgal, the text saith, " It was 
before the Lord." 

9. Elijah and Elisha came often to Gilgal and pro- 
jihesied, as 2 Kings ii. 1 ; iv. 38. Thus you see how 
famous Gilgal was, and yet though in these nine par- 
ticulars a ])lace of such renown, God gives his peo])le 
a charge, that of all places they must not come to Gil- 
gal. I will give you the reason of the prohibition 
presently, but I must first tell you what Befh-aven was. 

I5eth-aven was no other than that town which so 
often in Scripture is called Beth-el, that is, " the house 
of God," a name given to it by Jacob, on God's ap- 
pearing to him when he fled because of his brother 
tsau, Gen. xxviii. This place had before been called 
Luz, from the abundance of almond trees which were 
there, the word Luz signifying an almond tree ; but on 
God's appearing to Jacob the name was changed, and 
it was called Beth-el, " the house of God :" and a very 
sweet note we may have from thence, and that is, that 
God's apijcaring to his people in any place puts more 
honour on it than all tlie pleasant fruits that can grow 
in it. A garden or orchard filled with almond trees, 
and the most [ileasant fruits imaginable, yet are not, 
and should not be, so delightful to us, nor would they 
be if our hearts were right, as the house of CJod, 
where God appears. If God appear to us in any place, 
even a wilderness, it should be esteemed more than 
the most pleasant garden in the world, where we have 
not the like manifestation. God's appearing makes 
that ))lace the house of God, and renders it far more 
tlelightful than all the beautiful and pleasant fruits in 
the world possibly can do. Tlius you see what botli 
])Iaccs were; but now they are strictly charged not 
to go thither. The reason of the change of the name 
from Bcth-el to Bcth-aven I shall show you presently, 
in explaining why they must not come to Gilgal nor to 
Beth-aven. 

Now the reason why they must not come thither was 
this, because though they were such famous places be- 
fore for God's true worsHip, yet now they were become 



the chiefest places for idolatry in the whole land, there- 
fore there is a charge here not to come to Gilgal nor 
to Beth-aven. So in Amos v. 5, you have the like 
charge almost in the same words, " Seek not Bcth-cl, 
nor enter into Gilgal ;" there it is called Beth-el : 
Though (saith God) it takes the name from my house, 
aud there was once a glorious manifestation of mine 
there, yet now do not seek to Betli-el, do not so much 
as enter into Gilgal. 

That both these places were now very corrupt by 
idolatr)', I will make apparent. As I have showed you 
how famous these places were before, soj will show 
you how corrupt they afterward became. As to Gil- 
gal, it appears plainly in Hos. ix. 15, " All their ini- 
quity is in Gilgal," above all places there is the great- 
est iniquity committed ; and " there I hated them." It 
was the place where God loved his people and mani- 
fested himself to tliem, but now, " there I hated them," 
I saw so much wickedness therein. And this connip- 
tion was of early date, for in Ehud's time, the third 
judge from Joshua, idols were then begun to be set up 
in Gilgal : thus Judg. iii. 19 saith, that Ehud " turned 
again from the quarries that were by Gilgal ;" now o«?"DS 
translated " quarries," some render idols, " from the 
idols ; " it signifies also to engrave, he came from the 
engravings. There were idols at Gilgal then. And 
the reason of this corruption there was, that Gilgal had 
been an eminent place, and accounted very holv, be- 
cause of the great things that had been done tliere ; 
upon which they set up their images in it, and regard- 
ed the place with much superstitious respect and 
honour. Their respect to the place arose from God's 
often appearing there, and the great things that had 
been done in it, and now they began to think the place 
essentially holy, and so abused it. Hence, 

06.S'. 6. Men are prone to abuse places, esteeming 
them holy, because of some special things done in 
them. We see papists do so at this time, regarding 
the sepulchre of Christ ; oh what a deal of stir was 
there about going to visit it! And the very cross 
whereon Christ was crucified, what a stir was there 
about that ! as if it were more holy than any other 
piece of wood ; one chip of it was counted worth I 
know not how much. And the sepulchres of the mar- 
tyrs and cells of the monks, men have gone many a 
sore journey to visit. This is the same will-worship as 
existed amongst the people of the Jews. "Whereas, 
the truth is, that it is not the place that can sanctify a 
work, except it be appointed thereunto by God's in- 
stitution ; but if there be any sanctity in a place, it is 
sanctified by the work, and not the work by the place ; 
and if the work do sanctify it, it is but for the ])resent, 
during the performance of the holy duties. AVe may 
say this is tlie house of God, where the congregation 
meet for performance of holy duties, but it is so only 
in regard of the work ; ^Yhen the work is done there re- 
mains no impression of holiness on the place, as if 
God's worship in any other ])lace were not as accept- 
able. This was the vain opinion of the Jews, they 
therefore abused Gilgal because such great things had 
been done there, and God so much the more hated it ; 
I charge you, saith he, come not to Gilgal, that super- 
stitious i)iacc. They thought, because it was a place 
eminent for manv manifestations of God, it was there- 
fore the more holy; I do therefore abhor it, saith God. 

The reason why they must not come to Beth-aven 
ajipears from the change of the name; it was once 
Beth-el, and now it is Beth-aven, and the difference be- 
twixt tliese two names, Beth-el and Beth-aven, is wide 
and great ; Beth-cl is the house of God, and Beth-aven 
is the house of iniquity, the house of vanity, the house 
of labour, and the house of affliction, for it signifies all 
these. That which was my house, which I did once 
own, being corrupted, is no other but the house of 



Vee. 15. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



249 



iniquity and vanity, and the house that brings affliction. 
Beth-aven was one of the places where Jeroboam set 
up one of his calves, and in this he took advantage of 
the opinion that the people entertained of the holiness 
of that place, thinking thereby to prevail with tlie 
people so much tire more : now God charges them 
that they should not come thither. There was indeed 
another town, as in Josh, vii., called Beth-aven, but 
generally that by interpreters is understood as different 
from Beth-el ; but this town here is no other than that 
Beth-el of which we have such frequent mention in the 
Scripture. Some, as Aquila and Symmachus, render 
the word Beth-aven, Domus mulilis, an unprofitable 
place, for indeed sin and idolatry make places unpro- 
fitalile. Whence, 

Obs. 1. We must not ajjproach places calculated to 
draw' us into sin, especially to false worship. Places 
dangerous for bodily pollution we must shun. Prov. v. 
8, " Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh 
the door of her house." Do not come so much as nigh 
her door. Say not. Why may not I go such a way ? 
may not I go by her house ? No, you must not go by 
her house, nor by that way that leads to her house. 
This is a strange admonition, you will say. Mark the 
words that precede it, in the Tth verse, "Hear me 
now therefore, O ye childi'en, and depart not from the 
words of my mouth." What are the words of liis mouth ? 
" Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the 
door of her house." Thus wisdom herself counsels us. 
Many, however, think they may allow themselves to 
come near a temptation, near to such a place, and 
many have come so near that they have fallen into the 
pit. As sometimes in your houses, when you light a 
candle, you see moths and flies that will flutter up and 
down the light, and at first they will keep at some dis- 
tance, and then approach nearer, till at length they 
singe theii- wings and perish : so it is with many ; at 
first they think they will not do such a thing, Oh ! God 
forbid they should do so and so ; but they will come 
nigh a temptation, and be tampering with it, till at length 
they are insnared by it and destroyed. It is dangerous 
to indulge our curiosity in visiting places of idolatry, and 
going to see mass, and the fashions of superstitious coim- 
tries. Dinah went thus abroad, but she came home dis- 
honoured : so there are many that will go abroad to see 
the fashions of countries out of mere curiosity, (I speak 
not of going when God calls us to it,) it is just in God 
that they should come home maimed and despoiled. 
In the Lord's prayer we pray that God would not lead 
us into temptation. How do men mock God when they 
pray to God daily, " Lead us not into temptation ;" yet 
will venture on temptations, frequent haunts of impu- 
rity, and go to many places where they know there will 
be wicked company ; yea, even thrust themselves into it 
needlessly, with this pretence alone, they will take heed 
to themselves, and they mean no hurt ! When you are 
tempted to go to places of sin, to theatres, and" scenes 
of vice, satisfy not yourselves with this plea, I mean 
no hurt : have you any call from God for this ? can vou 
apjjrove it before God, and say. Lord, thou hast called 
me hither ? I suppose you have heard of that story that 
Tertullian has of a Christian woman, who being at a 
play became possessed of a devil ; and other Christians 
coming to cast him out, asked the evil spirit how he 
durst possess one that was a Christian ? he answered, 
I found her in my own place : so if we would take 
heed of the devil, let us take heed of wicked places. 

Obs. S. Places corrupted lose their honour. Rome 
formerly was a famous chuixh, as in Rom. i. we find 
that the fiiith of Rome was spread abroad throughout 
the world ; and so they will yet plead for the glory of 
Rome, because once it w-as famous. But it is no mat- 
ter what it has been, what is it now? suppose it has 
been the seat of Peter, what is it now ? If once they 



are corrupt in themselves, they lose the honour of what 
once they had. Oh let us take heed to ourselves also in 
this. True, England has also been a place renow-ned 
for religion, and travellers that have come hither have 
blessed themselves, and blessed God for seeing what 
they have seen, they never saw so much of God as in 
England : but if we shall corrupt our ways and become 
idolatrous and superstitious, we may, by God's just 
judgment, be made as infamous and vile as any people 
on the face of the earth. And so of particular persons, 
that heretofore have had much honour among the 
saints, men of admu-able parts and very useful to the 
church, it may be, temptation prevails so much with 
them, tells them. You have had such a name, you have 
done such and such things, and now may be quiet, you 
cannot but be esteemed for what you have done. But 
let a man in his younger days or afterward act never 
so worthily in the church of God, or commonw-ealth, if 
he decline afterward he loses aU his honour, both with 
God and men, and may be as unsavoury salt, spui-ned 
out and trodden under foot of men ; as Gilgal and Beth- 
aven, though honoured before, yet now the people are 
charged not to come to them. One would have blest 
himself to be in the company and families of some 
men : but now they are grown so sapless in their spirits, 
so carnal, so malignant, superstitious, and vain, that 
it is dangerous now to associate with them ; we may 
even hear a voice from God calling to us. Go not into 
such a man's company, as hero. Go not to Gilgal. Tlius 
you have the mind of God in these words opened to 
vou, " Come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to 
Beth-aven." There follows, 

" Nor swear. The Lord liveth." Swearing in itself is 
lawful, yea, it is a part of the solemn worship of God, 
when God requires it ; and it constitutes such a part of 
God's solemn worship, as that sometimes it is put in 
Scripture for the whole worship of God, Psal. Ixiii. 12; 
Isa. xix. 18. Therefore oaths are to be esteemed so 
much the more sacred : for as God puts such an honour 
on prayer, that sometimes the whole worship of God is 
called prayer, " He that calleth on the name of the Lord 
shall be saved ;" " My house shall be called the house of 
prayer." So God honours oaths, that all his worship has 
sometimes the name of an oath. Therefore the abuse of 
oaths is the more vile ; and when swearing is requisite, 
it should onljr be by the name of the Lord ; we should 
swear by the Lord when it is lawful to swear, and in 
no other way, for by this we acknowledge the Lord to 
be the searcher and judge of all hearts, the all-seeing 
God, fit to witness to all men's ways, and to be an 
avenger of aU their unfaithfulness. And here is the 
reason that we must swear by none but by God, be- 
cause in swearing (I say) we acknowledge him we 
swear by to be the searcher of our hearts, the witness 
of all our secrets, and the supreme judge if we be un-- 
falthful : now this honour, whether secret or o])en, is 
only due to God. God esteems it highly, and will not 
give it to another. And when we do swear by his 
name, the life of God is the greatest title we can give 
him. It is the greatest oath of all ; God himself doth 
often swear by his life ; and the angel, by the living God. 
Ciod loves that his creature should acknowledge him 
to be the living God for ever, that is, living to reward 
that which is good, and to revenge that which is evil. 
And therefore, Jer. iv. 2, there is an injunction, " Thou 
shalt swear. The Lord liveth," but it must be " in truth, 
in righteousness, and in judgment." And indeed it is 
God's mercy to us, that he will grant us the use of his 
name, that "he is willing to be called to witness to our 
affairs. 

But then you will say, Why doth God forbid it ? In 
that place of Jeremiah you see it is, " Thou shalt swear, 
The Lord liveth ; " and here, " nor swear. The Lord 
liveth." How shall we reconcile these ? Thus; that God 



250 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



would not have his name and this his solemn worship 
abused by idolaters. AVhen they were before their idols, 
yet still they would make use of God's name, and would 
seem to honour him ; Oh, Jehovah liveth, we acknow- 
ledge him, and honour him as a living God. This was 
the vain show of those idolaters, who, though they for- 
sook the true worship and commandments of God, yet 
would seem to revere him much ; " The Lord liveth," 
and we desu-e to honour this living God. Now, saith 
God, why do you pursue such idolatry as this, and take 
mv name into your mouths ? what have you to do to 
take my name into your mouths, seeing you hate to be 
reformed ? I will have none of this honour from you, 
saith God, you shall not swear any more, " The Lord 
liveth." Many superstitious ])ersons will make much 
use of the titles of God, and employ many expi-essions 
that carry a great air of devotion ; they will cry out. Our 
blessed Saviour, Our Lord and Saviour, and, The blessed 
God ; but God cares for none of these, while they wor- 
ship him according to the traditions of men, after their 
own inventions : God cares not for all the seeming 
honour they render him, for all their lip service ; let 
them ap])ear to men to be never so devout, God rejects 
those devotions, when they reject his pure and sincere 
worshlj). God loves not to have his worship mixed. 
In Zeph. i. 5, God charges them with swearing by the 
Lord and by Malcham ; what is the meaning of that ? 
Malcham there signifies a king, for such is the mean- 
ing of the Hebrew ; and it seems, that though it is true 
they would sometimes call their idols by the name of 
king, Hojwris gratia, by way of respect, yet that in this 
place more is intended, namely, that they would worship 
God and worship their king too, they would swear 
by God and by Malcham, they made the honour paid 
to their lung come too near the honour rendered to 
God ; this seems here to be specially intended. It is 
true, both are to be honoured, but one is to be 
honoured more than the other, and the true distance 
between them is duly to be observed ; we must not 
swear by God and swear by Malcham, much less pre- 
fer the will of our JIalcham, our king, before the will 
of our God. God cai'es not for any honour given to 
him in common with others. It is true indeed, God 
rejects not the worshii) of his saints because of some 
mixtures of evil, for there are none that worshi]) him 
so as not to mix some sin with it ; but such as choose 
to themselves some way of sin, that set it up in tlieir 
hearts and lives, and then think it sufficient to yield God 
some outward service, and expect to put him off with that, 
while at other times they follow their own lusts, such 
worslii]) God rejects : therefore saith the Lord here to 
these idolaters, " You shall not swear, The Lord liveth." 

Ver. 16. For Israel slideth back as a backsliding 
heifer : now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a 
large place. 

Here, first, Israel, the ten tribes, is compared to a 
heifer, and »o "a backsliding heifer." A heifer, that 
noted the wantonness of Israel. And here is one 
argument why Judah must not offend as Israel doth ; 
Let not Judah offend as Israel doth, for Israel is a 
backsliding heifer : Israel, through his sin, has brouglit 
himself to be a vile, wanton heifer ; but the emblem 
of Judah is to be a lion: Gen. xlix. 9, "Judah is a 
lion's whelp : from the prey, my son, thou art gone 
up : he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an 
old lion ; who shall rouse hira up ? " Judah should not 
refuse the yoke through wantonness aiul perverscness, 
but through a magnanimous spuit, he should not be 
willing to be brought under the yoke of bondage. 
Israel is as a heifer, that through wantonness refuses 
to be brought under the yoke ; but let not Judah do 
thus, for Judah is as a lion : and although Judah be a 



lion, yet he should come under God's command, and be 
subject to him ; but when it comes to be in bondage to 
men, and that in matters of religion, Judah should 
have a magnanimous, lion-like spirit, and cast off the 
yoke : Let not Judah be like Israel ; Judah is as a lion, 
Israel as a heifer. 

And the word fliiD which is translated backsliding, 
Cometh of "no signifving perverscness, as well as back- 
sliding. It is translated in Scripture, stubbornness, 
rebellion, as in Deuteronomy, about the stubborn and 
rebellious child ; and many other scriptures might be 
shown how tliis word is understood otherwise than 
here. Israel is a stubborn, a rebellious, a perverse 
people, therefore let not Judah be so. And I find the 
Seventy translate it thus, ?o/ia\if Trapoi^puiffa, that is, 
Israel, the ten tribes, were a stung bullock, Jutenca 
oeslro percila, as if by a kind of witchery, or by the 
bite of some venomous thing, they had been excited to 
fury or madness : such is the force of the word, accord- 
ing to their ti-anslation. There is a great deal of dif- 
ference between the wantonness of a beast, and a beast 
that runs up and down in a fury and madness, as being 
bit with a mad dog. Thus this jieople was. Ephraim 
goes on madly : as many wicked men go on in ways 
apparently against light and conscience, and against 
the word, though they know it will prove to be their 
eternal ruin and destruction ; conscience tells them so, 
yet they go violently on, in a madness and rage, even 
down to the pit. This was Ephraim's condition here. 

And that which made Ephraim do so, was his pros- 
perity. Ephraim was grown jjrosperous, and had 
plenty of food, was fed lull and large, and that made 
them go on madly m the ways of wickedness and sin. 
That was now fulfilled of Ephraim which was prophe- 
sied of him, Deut. xxxii. 15, "Thou art waxen ti\t, thou 
art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness : tlien he 
forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the 
Hock of his salvation." Oh, when a people is waxen 
fat and grown prosperous, then they kick and spurn, 
and forsake God that made them, and lightly esteem 
the Kock of their salvation ; God and his truth, his 
saints and his ordinances, are nothing to them, they 
lightly esteem them ; why ? because they are waxen 
fat, they are in their prosperity. Many men on theii' 
sick beds highly esteem the ministers of God, and his 
word and worship, and exclaim then. Oh send for such 
and such to come to us : but when they are in pros- 
perity, all these are forgotten. This was the condition 
of Ephraim. Where have you a man almost, but 
grows wanton in prosperity, except God comes in with 
abundance of his grace ? Judah was almost in the 
same state ; though here the Lord would not have 
Judah to be like Ephraim, as a wanton heifer, spuming 
and kicking with the heel, yet it appears in Jer. ii. 24, 
tliat Judah was not much dissimilar : Judah is there 
comjiared to " a wild ass used to the wilderness, that 
snutfeth up the wind at her pleasure ; in her occasion 
who can turn her away ? all they that seek her will not 
weary themselves," to take her when she is full of spu-it 
and strength, and there is no dealing witli licr ; but, 
saith God, " in her month they shall find her," when 
she is more weakened, then "they shall find her :" so 
many men ; take them when swollen with pride and 
prosperity, and there is no dealing with tiiem; but 
when God has tamed them by affliction, then you may 
talk with them, and then they will hear vou. 

But further, the word translated " heifcr " here, is in 
the feminine gender, though s])okcn of the ten tribes, 
because, being stubborn and raging mad in wickedness, 
though they seemed to themselves and others to be 
full of fiery courage, yet the Lord looks upon them as 
])eople base and effeminate, poor and weak. The 
stubborn and ])roud always thiiik themselves to possess 
more tlian ordinarv courage, they ai-e the only brave 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



spirits ; but the Lord regards them as base and weak, 
and therefore speaks of them here in the feminine 
gender. 

" Now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large 
place."- Mercer and Vatablus would thus interpret 
this : Lauti ut asnus paslus, mox maclatur, As a 
lamb when it hath large food, it is soon slain ; so God 
tlu'catens Ephraim here, that he will soon make an end 
of them, only he Tiill let them prosper for a while, and 
feed them largely, but it shall be for the slaughter. 
Many men that are fed largely, and are in prosperity, 
think themselves blessed, but God intends them only 
for the slaughter ; I think, however, that is not the 
meaning of the place, " they shall be fed as a lamb." 
But thus, 

" As a Iamb." They are as a heifer, ragmg mad, but 
I will make them as a lamb, I will bring such affliction 
upon them, that I will tamo the pride of their hearts. 
Have you not seen instances of this kind? did you 
never see a blasphemous, proud, stubborn spirit, when 
the hand of God was upon them, tamed ? 

Fed as a lamb. Parce ac tenuiter, not fed as a heifer, 
that denoted their prosperity ; but fed as a lamb.that 
notes their adversity ; for the food of a lamb differs 
from the food of a heifer, that which will feed a lamb 
will starve a heifer. They have been proud and wan- 
ton, saith God, by their prosperity, but now they shall 
have spare fare, I will bring them down, I will lay them 
low, they shall be but as a lamb that picks up the grass 
in the wilderness. 

" As a lamb in a large place." That is, dispersed 
among the countries, amongst the AssjTians and Medes 
in their capti\-ity, who occupied a very large country. 
They would not be satisfied with Canaan, and with that 
sheep-fold of mine that was there ; they shall have more 
room, saith God, they shall go into a large place, but it 
shall be a place of captivitj'. 

Or rather, which I conceive to be the full scope of 
the passage, " I will feed them as a lamb in a large 
place;" that is, as a lamb that shall be alone: one 
lamb, he speaks of them singly, because they shall be 
scattered. They had society, and might have made 
good use of it, but they cared not to avail themselves 
of it, to edify each other in the fear of God, therefore 
they shall be scatttered, one in one place, and another 
in another, and they shall be as a lamb alone in the 
\vilderness, succourless, helpless, surrounded by dan- 
gers, and with no eye near to pity, no hand to help it. 
What will become, think you, of this lamb ? what an 
unfriended condition is it in ! So, saith God, they have 
been wanton heifers, but I will " feed them as a lamb 
in a large place ; " they shall be carried into captivity, 
and there they shall be lamenting and mourning, and 
in danger of wolves, but there shall be none to regard, 
and none to succour them. It is a great deal safer for 
a lamb to be in the flock, though it be more confined, 
than to be thus alone in a large place. Hence, 

Oii. 1. Liberty may prove to be one's misery. To 
keep within the compass of God's commands is the 
best liberty of all ; as David professes, Psal. cxix.. 
Then shall I have liberty, when I keep all thy com- 
mandments. As for all other liberty, it will certainly 
bring us into straitness ; therefore, Rom. ii. 9, where 
'■ tribulation and anguish" is threatened to be upon the 
head of every one that worketh wickedness, the word 
translated "anguish" signifies straitness of place, they 
shall have sti-aitness of place : You would be at 
large, and would fain get out of God's limits : though 
God may for a time let you have such liberty, yet the 
conclusion will be anguish of spirit. O my brethren, 
there is largeness, there is room enough in Ciod, in him 
our souls may expatiate, we need go no further for 
liberty. If we would have liberty out of God, and out 
of his bounds, our liberty will prove our undoing. 



Let us then value highly the society of the saints while 
we are not yet, through" God's mercy, scattered up and 
down in otlier countries, as some of our brethren have 
been, though, through his mercy, some even there have 
met with and been kept in his oi,ra fold ; but others have 
wandered to and fro, and have had none to help them 
in any strait. Om- condition is not yet such ; but we 
may meet together, we may be in God's fold and have 
our hearts refreshed, we may go into our families and 
pray together, and sing together. Let us then bless 
God that this judgment denounced against Israel, that 
they should be " as a lamb in a large place," bleating 
up and down and none to regard them, has not befallen 
us i let us, I say, bless God for this his forbearance and 
long-suffering. 

Ver. 17. Epltraim is joined to idols: let him alone. 

You have heard before, that God warns Judah to 
take heed of the sins of' the ten tribes of Israel ; and 
many arguments are used; some you have heard, 
others remain. 

This ITth verse contains two principal points. 

I. Ephi-aini engaging himself in false worship, is now 
so in wrapped in "that sin and guilt that he cannot tell 
how to extricate himself; " Ephraim is joined to idols : " 
as it is usual with idolaters, and the effect of the curse 
of God upon them, that when they are once engaged 
in that sin, it is very hard ever to recover them out of I 
it ; so, Judah, take 'heed that you come not into it. 

II. The Lord has given him up to his idols. The 
curse oi God rests onhim, and saith, " Let him alone." 
O Judah, take heed then what you do. These words 
are thus infa-oduced as a twofold argument to persuade 
Judah not to do as Israel has done, and indeed all the 
remainder of this chapter has the same tendency. To 
speak then of these : 

1. " Ephi-aim is joined to idols." TMiy Ephraim ? 
Ephraim was dead long ago. He was the child of a 
patriarch, and the grandchild of Jacob, from whom he 
received a great blessing ; Gen. xlviii. 20, " In thee shall 
Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim ;" in- 
timating that such special blessings would rest on him 
that the tribes should say, " God make thee as 
Ephraim :" and yet now it is said, that " Ephraim is 
joined to idols." "VVhy then Ephraim ? 

L The chief of th e ten tribes that were no w j oined to 
idols, were the chikb-en of Ephi-aim, for Ephraim and 
Manasseh had received Joseph's inheritance in Israel, 
and at this time were the chief of the ten tribes. 
"WTience, 

06s. 1. Wicked children are a gi-eat dishonour to 
their parents. Ephraim, who was dead long before, 
suffers dishonour by his chikb-en that are now joined 
to idols. Let childi-en, out of reverence and respect to 
their parents, take heed what they do. 

2. Jeroboam and the princes were all of the tribe of 
Ephraim, and therefore all is attributed to them. He 
does not say the ten tribes are joined to idols, but 
Ephraim is;' because indeed the idolatry of all the 
other nine tribes sprang from the idolatry of Jeroboam, 
and the princes that were of the tribe of Ephi-aim. 
Whence again, 

Obs. 2. Governors are usually the causes of the evils 
of the people. If governors be superstitious and will 
favoiu- idolatry, all the people, or the generality of them, 
will imitate, but thev contract all the guilt. Ephrami, 
Jeroboam and the princes of that tribe, contract all the 
guilt of the idolatry of all the ten tribes, therefore it is 
said, Ephraim, as if Ephraim only was joined to idols. 
Governors therefore that are superstitious and idola- 
trous, incur woeful guilt, and we have exceeding cause 
to lament their condition. We read in the second of 
Matthew, that the wise men who came to inquu-e after 



.\X EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



the King of the Jews, came from a far country, and 
.said they had seen his star, and desired to know the 
place in which he should be boni. Herod, and all Je- 
rusalem with him, were troubled what this strange 
thing should mean, that such wise men should come 
from so far a countiT, and tell of a star that had ap- 
peared, and of a King of the Jews that should be born ; 
and they called a council of all the chief priests and tlie 
scribes, and such as were expert in the law, to know 
where Christ should be born, and this council pointed 
out Bethlehem as the place ; and upon that, the wise 
men, according to their direction, or according to the 
star, proceeded thither ; but mark, you do not read of 
any one of all the people of Jerusalem that went with 
the wise men ; although they were stin-ed at it, and 
thought it wonderful that a star should thus aiipear, 
and that these wise men should come and inquire for 
the King of the Jews, and that their own teachers should 
tell them that he was to be born at Bethlehem, and 
that thercu])on they should go thither to iind him, yet 
(I say) we do not read that any of the people went 
with tliem ; no, they durst not, because of Herod. He 
was the prince, and it met not with his approbation, 
and therefore not one of the people would accompany 
the wise men to search after Christ. So it usually hap- 
pens, that when governors discountenance the ways of 
God, the}- are followed by the people. And especially 
governors inclined to superstition and idolatry, and 
who, together with these, will indulge people in their 
lusts, they will indeed, as Jeroboam and the rest of the 
princes did, find followers in abundance. As appeared 
partly before, and will further appear in this prophecy, 
this scope and liberty given to their lusts was one spe- 
cial way by which they gained the hearts of the people 
to them in their false worship. Let any princes and go- 
vernors set up and countenance any false way of wor- 
ship, and together with it give liberty to the people for 
the satisfying of their lusts, and they will gain enow unto 
them i there is no cause to wonder that such ])rinces 
should have so many to cleave unto them, seeing the 
people know that by cleaving unto them they shall 
have liberty to enjoy their lusts. AVhence, 

Obs. 3. Idolaters' hearts are strongly attached to their 
idolatrous ways. " Ejihraim is joined to idols." Tlie 
word is iian and signifies in the participle, incanlatus, 
such a kind of joining as that whereby your enchanters 
in their conjurations join their unclean spirits to tliem : 
so Ephraim is joined to his idols, clcaveth to his idols, 
or (as some render it) is glued to his idols, and that 
unclean spirit which carries him on to the ways of idol- 
atry is become incorporated with him. As it is said of 
believers, that they are joined to the Lord Christ, and 
so they are one spirit ; so idolaters are joined to the 
devil, and are become as one sjiirit with him. So Jer. 
viii. 5, " They hold fast deceit ;" they will not easily be 
taken off. And Jer. ii. 10, 11, " Pass over the isles of 
Chittim, and see ; and send unto Kedar, and consider 
diligently, and see if there be such a thing. Hath a 
nation changed their gods, which arc yet no gods?" 
Kedar was one of the vilest places : Woe is me, saith 
David, that I have my habitation in the tents of Kedar ! 
yet, saith God, go thither, and see whether they have 
changed their gods. The most vile idolaters w'ill not 
yet change their gods, their hearts are joined to them ; 
let their hearts be never so base, and tiieir gods never 
so vile : as the Egyptians would worship leaves, and 
garlick, and cats, and would listen to no admonitions 
against their idolatrous ways. I have read, too, of a 
people in India, in the isle Zolon, that worshipped 
an a))e's tooth; and when it was taken from them, ttiey 
offered an inconceivable sum of treasure to regain that 
their idol again : so attached are idolaters to " their 
^ods, which are yet no gods." And especially if they 
have outward prosperity, to be as the glue and cement 



to join their hearts to their false worship, then they are 
joined indeed. If men that are superstitious prosper 
in their ways, this, their prosperity, is the glue and ce- 
ment to join their hearts strongly to those ways, there 
is no alienating them from them. And long conti- 
nuance in false wor.-hip makes them not like it a whit 
the worse. I beseech you, observe this, that antiquity 
will make false worship venerable, and they will plead 
for it on account of its antiquity, and say, it is thus and 
thus ancient, and was the religion of their forefathers. 
Of the true worship of God men are quickly weary, and 
because they have had it a great while they desire some 
change, some novelty. Many people are much affected 
Avith the truth when fu'st revealed to them, and theii- 
hearts are much taken with sermons, but within a while 
they loathe and forsake this manna. Such is the wick- 
edness of the hearts of men. 

But will idolaters thus adhere to their idols ? will 
their hearts be united to them ? are they willing to be 
one spirit with them ? oh how much more should we 
join to the Lord our God, join to Jesus Christ, to be as 
one si)irit with him ! That exhortation of Barnabas, 
Acts xi. 23, that with full "pui-pose of heart they should 
cleave unto the Lord," is seasonable even at all times. 
O let us cleave to God and his worship,, so that what- 
ever arguments are used, yet our hearts may never be 
taken ofi' from the love of the truth ; but let us say as 
once that martyr did. Though vou may pluck my heart 
out of my bowels, yet you shall never ])luck the truth 
out of my heart. And the less thei-e is between God 
and our hearts, the more firmly shall we be joined to 
him. Tiie godly and gracious need not the cement of 
outward prosperity to join their hearts to God, the 
very sweetness that they find in God alone is enouuh 
to unite their hearts to him, even in an everlasting 
covenant. Those who seem to be joined to God and 
his worship, yet if united merely by the cement of out- 
ward respects, they will quickly fall off; but those that 
are immediately joined to God will for ever keep to 
him, when there is nothing but God and their hearts 
together, nothing between God and them. 

" E])hraim is joined to idols." The word D'3sy trans- 
lated idols, is by some rendered, and justly, dolnre 
njficere, pains or ti-oubles. For this latter signification 
there are two reasons. 

1. Because that idolaters were willing to endure 
much ])ain and trouble in the worshipi)ing of their 
idols ; which should teach us not to account the wor- 
shi]) of God tedious, though it be somewhat hard to 
the flesh. 

2. Such worship will bring pain and trouble to them 
in the end. 

This however is not the principal thing intended 
here, but the force of the argument is, " Ephraim is 
joined to idols," therefore meddle not with him, do not 
you do as they do. So that when we see people set up 
false ways of worship in anv place, and they are reso- 
lute for them, we must take heed of communicating 
with them in these their idolatries; but to enter on this 
would occupy too much time. 

II. The Lord has given him up to his idols. 

"Let him alone;" Demille eum. Let him go, saith 
God, he is joined to his idols, let him go. This admits 
of three ex])ositions. 

1. .\s addressed to Judah. Let Ephraim go, saith 
God to Judah. Ephraim, they indeed are the ten tiibes, 
the greater part of the Jews, but yet seeing thev set up 
false worship, let them go, have nothing to do with 
them, do not converse with them. Here, 

Ubs. i. It is a heavy judgment of God upon a peo- 
ple when tho saints withdraw from them. If God had 
any saints in the world they were in Judah, and saith 
God to these saints of his. Let Israel alone and with- 
draw from them, have nothing to do with them, though 



Vku. 17. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



they be your bretliren and countrmen, yet, let them 
alone. !Slany wicked men make nothhig of this, and 
■when the most strict, and holy, and gracious people of 
God withdraw from them, and, as heretofore, forsake 
the land because the)" see it so defiled with superstitious 
vanities, they say. Let them all go, we are well rid of them : 
and who knows but you may be thus spoken of before 
you die ? that you may have many that will be willing 
to be rid of those that are most godly and gracious ? 
■Well, whatever men think and say, let them know it is 
a dreadful curse of God on a nation, for the saints of 
God to withdraw and go from them ; for such is the im- 
port of God's command here, Judah, let them alone, 
have nothing to do with them ; so when God commands 
his saints to withtbaw from others of their brethren, it 
is one of his most di-eadful judgments on a people, 
whatever they think of it. You know that expression, 
conveying the most fearful curse of God on the wicked, 
which you have, 1 Cor. xvi. 22, " If any man love not 
the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema jNIaran- 
atha." " Anathema," let him be accursed ; but the 
meaning of " Maran-atha" is, the Lord cometh: Maran 
signifies the Lord, in the Chaldee and SjTiac ; and is so 
used by Daniel, who lived in Chaldea. Thus Dan. iv. 
19 ; V. 23, " My lord, the di-eam be to them that hate 
thee," and, " Thou hast lifted up thyself against the 
Lord of heaven ; " the word N-ic whence Maran in 
the Syriac, is there translated Lord; and atha signifies 
to come ; as in Deut. xxxiii. 2, The Lord cometli with 
thousands of his saints, the word in the original is nrs 
so that you have in Scripture these two words Maran 
and atha. What then is the meaning of that, " Let him 
be Anathema JIaran-atha ? " This simply ; when men 
shall forsake Christ and the ways of his worship, after 
means have been used with them, then " Anatliema 
Maran-atha," that is, let all the saints of God leave 
them to the coming of Jesus Christ; let them alone, do 
not meddle with them ; when you have used all means 
you can, then withckaw yourselves from them, and 
leave them to the coming of Christ, and Christ will 
deal with them : let them not only be excommunicated, 
but so excommunicated that they be let alone to the 
coming of Christ. So when the godly shall first labour 
by admonition, and persuasion, and counsel, with the 
ungodly and sinners, and they shall be refractory, and 
stout, and stubborn, and be as swine to trample under 
feet those pearls, or as dogs to turn again and rend 
them, they are then to let them alone, that is, to let 
them alone to the coming of Jesus Chi-ist ; and even in 
their' own hearts say, Well, wo see no means can do 
them any good, " YLiran-atha," the Lord cometh, and 
he shall deal with them himself when he cometh. 

2. The Lord speaks here to the prophet, as if he 
should say, Hosea, you can do no good to tliem, it is 
in vain for you to meddle with Ephra'im. Just as Christ 
directed his disciples when he sent them forth to preach 
the gospel, that if any place rejected them, they should 
go away and shake the dust ofi' tlieir feet, as a testi- 
mony against them ; so saith God here to the prophet. 
Let them alone, spend not your strength any more upon 
them. The exhortations which come from the saints, 
but especially from sincere ministers of the gospel, be 
they what they may, are pearls and precious things, 
and God will not have them despised, he will not have 
them s])ent in vain ; therefore there is a time even for 
the ministers of God to let people alone. In Exod. 
xxxiii. 7, we read, that when the people had notoriously 
sinned against God, Moses took the tabernacle of the 
congregation, and pitched it without the camp, and 
went away from the people, and would not come 
amongst them, till they repented : so there is a time 
even for the ministers of God to hold their peace and 
let people alone. Many think they are troubled with 
ministers, and they could wish they would let them 



alone; Why do they trouble us? we were quiet enough 
before they' came ; we would they would let us alone. 
And there are many guilty consciences, that cannot 
come to a powerful ministry but they find that the 
minister has" in every sermon to do with them, and that 
he will not let them' alone in their wickedness, and this 
troubles them, and they had rather be let alone. Had you 
so ? It is one of the most tkcadful judgments in the 
world for God to say. Let such a ministry let a man alone. 
It may be, some of you may be weary of the faithful 
ministers of God ; you may get rid of them perhaps, God 
may take them away, and you may be let alone ; but yet 
know, in this rests on you the brand of God's wrath. 

3. It shows that God himself would let them alone 
too, it is an evidence of his rejection of this people. It 
is as if a father, that had used means to reclaim a re- 
bellious child, would at length, when he disregarded 
all his admonitions, exclaim. Let him alone. What 
do you think would the father mean ? it is as if he 
should say, I have done with him, I will own him no 
more, I will meddle no more with him. If a servant 
should be stubborn and rebellious, and all the many 
means used to reclaim him should fail ; the master 
saith. Let him alone, let him take his own course, I Mill 
have no more to do with him. So here, when God saith, 
Let them alone, it is as if he should say. Let them take 
their own wa^'s, let them have their lusts to the full, 
let them join themselves to their idols, and satisfy them- 
selves with their own devices, let them alone. Hence 
arise two profitable observations. 

06s. 5. God has a time to give men over to them- 
selves, to say that his Spirit shall no longer strive with 
them. Oh, many a man has felt the Spirit of God 
working, struggling, striving with him to draw him 
from such and such wickedness ; he has felt (I say) 
God's Spirit mighty and strong, pleading. Will you still 
go on in this way of wickedness, uncleanness, di'unken- 
ness, oppression, injustice, profanation, hypocrisy, self- 
seeking, and the like ? but he has been striving against, 
and his lusts have even gotten the victory over, the 
Spirit, so that God saith, " My Spirit shall no longer 
strive," I will not struggle in vain, but let him go on 
and be filled with his own devices. Oh, it is dreadful 
when the Lord saith of a drunkard, of an unclean per- 
son, of a hypocrite, I have been struggling so long 
with them, but yet their hearts have Ijeen opposed to 
me ; let them alone, let them go on and satisfy them- 
selves in their iniquhies. Psal. Ixxxi. 11, 12, They 
" would none of me," saith God, they would none of 
my ways, " so I gave them up to their own counsels." 
oh, this is a dreadful gift ! Many men will set theu' 
counsels against God's counsels, and will do it so long, 
that God at length gives them up to their own coun- 
sels : You will set your thoughts against my truth, your 
counsels against mine ; well, take your own counsels, 
satisfy yourselves in your own ways. And you know 
that place in the latter end of the Revelation, " He 
which is fUthv, let Iiim be filthy still." Let him alone, 
saith God : will you be filthy? be filthy then. And 
that in Ezek. xxiv. 13, " Because I have purged thee, 
and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged 
from thy filthiness any more." I will let them alone, 
saith the Lord, I will never seek, either by my word, or 
by my works, to do them any fui-ther good, they shall 
be purged no more. And the reasons are, 

1. Because God has no need of men. God does this 
to show that he has no need of you. Indeed he seeks 
by his word to cbaw you to obedience to his service, 
and you stand oft", and cb-aw from him, and will not 
come in : at length God will manifest that he has no 
need of your service, he can honour himself without 
you, though you perish everlastingly. 

2. He knows how to fetch out glory to his own name 
from their sins. You will continue in your wicked 



254 



^\X EXPOSITION OF 



CiiAr. IV. 



ways, you will be stubborn and stout, saith God; do you 
think so to hinder me of my glory ? well, take your 
fill of your lusts, I know how to glorify myself out oi 
that sin whereby you ofi'end so much against my glory, 
therefore be ye filled with your own devices. 

Ohs. G. It is the most woeful judgment of God upon 
any people, or person, when he saith in his WTath, 
" Let him alone." The words are lS-n:.l and is equiva- 
lent to, Let him be quiet: that quiet will prove a dread- 
ful storm. You know what the wise man saith, " M'oe 
to him that is alone ! " Oh, woe to him, of whom God 
saith, " Let liim alone," that is thus alone ! Many men 
bless themselves when they are let alone, and desire it ; 
Let us alone, say they. Oh, but when God shall say. 
Let them alone, tliis is a most dreadful thing indeed. 
It proved to be a fearful evil to Adam in Paradise, when 
God let him alone : when he left Adam to himself what 
became of him? As far as he could, he undid himself 
and all his posterity, when left to his natural abilities. 
Yea, and when God but leaves his own saints, that have 
grace in them, for a little while to themselves, oh what 
mischief ensues! As in 2 Chron. xxxii. 31, when 
God did but for a little leave Hezekiah to himself, to 
try what was in his heart, what a deal of misery did he 
bring on himself! A\'hat ! do such evil consequences 
attend on Adam left alone in Paradise, and the saints 
left alone here .' oh what a dreadful thing must it be, 
then, when God shall leave a smner alone ! I mean one 
that has nothing else but sin in him, one wholly desti- 
tute of grace. This is a most grievous judgment for 
many reasons. 

l.'lt is a testimony of very great disregard in God 
for his creatures, in this, that he accounts them not 
worthy of any further meddling with, he loves them not 
so well as to interpose any furtlier on their account; 
it is a sign, I say, of great disregard on the part of God 
for them ; it is as if he should say. There are others 
indeed that are wicked, that are very gi'eat sinners ; 
but I have mercy for them, I intend to draw them to 
myself, I intend to show them the evil of their ways, 
and to turn them to mc that they may be saved; but 
as for these, I have nothing to do with them, saith 
God, I have no mercy for them, let them alone. 

2. Because those let alone are going apace to 
misevy. To let a man alone when he is at homo in his 
house and all things convenient about him, matters 
not ; but if you were to sec one madly rushing to 
water, or into fire, to destroy himself, no one then 
would hesitate to interpose ; to let him alone were 
a great judginent. But now the Lord sees sinners 
running headlong into misery, into the bottomless pit, 
and even then God saith. Let them alone. 

3. They were in the midst of abundance of dangers. 
AVhen a man is in safety among his friends, and you 
let him alone, it matters not ; but suppose you knew of 
one environed with adversaries, or around whom were 
wild beasts readv to devour, and this message were 
brought to you, Oli there is such a friend of ours in 
great danger, and you should say. What if he be, let 
him alone, let him shift as well as he can ; it would be 
a grievous judgment : yet all sinners that are going on 
in their evil ways are in woeful danger on every hand, 
and the Lord sees and takes notice that they arc in tlie 
midst of dangers, yet saith God, Let them alone, they 
shall not have my protection and help. And tliis is a 
just punishment of God on sinners that will go on in 
their wickedness. 

4. God intends by this to make way for soijie fearful 
wrath that is to come upon them. Let my mercy and 
goodness let them alone, but it is that they may fall 
into my wrath ; and that will not let them alone, that 
will trouble therfi. They cannot endure to be troubled 
by my word, by my messengers, by my Spirit ; but my 



wrath shall trouble them afterward, that shall not let 
them alone : as in that place of Ezekiel before quoted, 
" Thou shalt not be purged from thy filtliiness any 
more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee," 
chap. sxiv. 13; they shall have no outward means to 
trouble them for a while, but at length my fury shall 
rest upon them. "\Mien the Lord seems to be quiet 
toward men and lets them alone, it is but to make way 
for fearful wrath that is coming upon them. 

5. God wiU not, after the infliction of this judgment, 
vouchsafe to hear them speak unto him any more. K 
once the Lord shall say. They would not hear me, they 
shall never hear me more, let them alone ; God will 
then likewise say, I will not hear them ; let them cry in 
the anguish of their spirits. I will let them alone. It 
seems evident, that when God shall let sinners alone 
with respect to liis mercy, when the greatest wrath 
shall be upon them he will let them alone also. As 
thus ; when they shall come into the greatest afflictions, 
the most dreadi'ul miseries and torments in this world 
and eternally in the world to come, when they shall 
then be crying out in the anguish of their spirits unto 
God, Oh that God would now have mercy upon us ! 
God will let them even then alone : I will bring them 
into the fire, saith God, and then I will leave them 
there. Oh think of this, when you feel that there was a 
time when God was stirring and striving with your 
hearts, and implore of him to recover you out of the 
snares of the denl. 

6. It is a dreadful sign of reprobation : and we shall 
briefly consider what reprobation is, and in what respect 
this is a sign of it. 

1. AATiat is reprobation ? Reprobation certainly means 
not that God decrees to damn men, that is not the 
first act of God upon any man ; but that God decrees, 
whereas there arc some that he has set his heart upon, 
is resolved to do them good, there are others, whom 
he does not presently decree to damn, but he deter- 
mines to leave to themselves, that what they earn they 
may have, and no more; h£ will deal with them accord- 
ing to their works ; he will do them no wrong, will not 
be unjust to them, he will not condemn them but for 
their sin : he never decrees to damn any but for sin ; but 
he decrees this, I will give them what is fit for them to 
have in creation, I will make such a covenant with 
them, and then I will leave them to themselves, and in 
course of justice, what they work for, that they shall 
have. For God to decree to leave a man to himself 
when he had no sin in him, as God did not make man 
with sin at first, were an act of reprobation : suppose 
you were now made according to the image of God, 
without sin, yet if God should decree to leave you fully 
and eternally to yourself, you were but a reprobate : 
but there is a second and more dreadful reprobation, 
when God sees a man in the gall of bitterness and in 
the bond of iniquity, and leaves him to himself. 

2. AVherein the reprobation here consists. That God 
now doth manifest that he intends to fetch his glory 
from this sinner out of his ruin. Certainly God will 
have glory from every creature ; however they may re- 
sist, God will have it. he will fetch it out from you. 
God would have his glory from his creature in the ways 
of obedience and service ; but they deny liim this, they 
will not give him this glory, they will have their own 
will, ami set up themselves in God's throne. Well, 
saith God, I have used such and such means to draw 
their hearts from those ways to myself, but they stand 
out, let them be now : as if he should say, I have 
thought now of another way to fetch out my glor)- from 
them. As he in the Gospel reasoned, when h(? could not 
provide for himself one way, I know what I will do, 
saith he : so saith God, I am denied my glon,- one 
way, I will adopt other means, that is, I will glorify 



Vee. 17 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



25; 



my infinite justice and the po^wer of my infinite -wrath ; 
they have refused to give me glory by obedience and 
submission to me, I will not have my glory that way, 
but now I will rather choose to have my glory from 
them in their everlasting misery ; they shall be specta- 
cles of my wrath and justice, and it shall be known to 
angels and men to all eternity, what my infinite justice 
and power is able to do; therefore let them alone, 
saith God. 

7. It is greater than all earthly judgments. Too 
many of you are afraid of sickness, of being spoiled of 
your goods, afraid that God should let the enemy in 
upon you, and all should be taken from you ; and this 
were a great judgment, but the judgment in the text 
is far greater. If you were stripped of all the comforts 
in the world, and brought into the most miserable con- 
dition with respect to outward circumstances, yet j'ou 
were not under such a dreadful judgment as this, for 
God to say, Let them alone. Better any judgments 
than sphitual judgments. As the spiritual blessings of 
God bestowed on the saints are the greatest blessings, 
" Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings 
in heavenly places in Christ," Eph. i. 3 : so the spiritual 
judgments of God are liis most dreadful judgments on 
the chikben of men. Oh that we could have om- hearts 
possessed with a fear of those sphitual judgments more 
than all the judgments in the world! 

8. It is worse than to be given up to the devil. If 
God should give up any man to the de-*"!!, and say, Take 
him, possess him, (as once he possessed many in Christ's 
time,) it were not such a feai^ful judgment as this, to 
say, Let lusts take him and rule him. let him be given 
up to his own heart's lusts, let him alone to them. And 
this is apparent from that place where the apostle di- 
rects the incestuous person to be given over to Satan, 
for the destruction of the flesh, that his soul might be 
saved : when one is given up to the devil in excommu- 
nication, or any other way, it may prove the salvation 
of his soul ; but this judgment of God, saying. Let a 
man alone, is for the destruction of his soul, not of the 
flesh ; it tends du-ectly to the destruction of the soul, 
though, it may be, in the mean while the flesh may be 
saved. It is so with many ; there are many whom God 
lets alone, and that proves the destruction of the soul, 
but perhaps the saving of the flesh : as thus, perhaps 
many that went on in wickedness, God was chastising 
and afflicting, and this tended to the destruction of the 
flesh, though to the saving of their soul; but they 
would rather live in prosperity and ease, and indulge 
then- sin ; Well, saith God, you shall do so, you shall 
have ease and prosperity, and have your sin ; that is, 
your flesh shall here be saved, but your soul shall eter- 
nally be desti-oyed. Therefore it is worse than to be 
given up to the devil. 

9. It is worse than to be sent down to hell presently ; 
for when one is left alone to himself, he will increase 
his sin most dreadfully thi-oughout his life-time, and as 
his sin increases, so his torment : therefore it is a most 
dreadful thing to be let alone. 

10. Though he be without grace, he must answer 
for it as though he had it ; there Hes the further evil 
of it. '\Mien God leaves a man alone, he must not think 
he is not to answer stUl for the modons of God's Spirit 
though he has them not, and for the means of grace 
though he enjoy them not, for he has deprived himself 
of them ; for look, what means of grace we, through 
sin, have deprived oiu-selves of, we must answer for 
them. And there is none of you but may be convinced 
of this. I will give you a plain instance. Suppose you 
send your servant to market to buy a commodity, and 
give him money wherewith he may do it, but he goes 
into an alehouse or tavern and tbinks it away ; he can- 
not bring you what you sent him for but you may justly 



requu-e it, and punish him for not doing of it : he m&, 
say. Would you have me do that I cannot ? I cannot bring 
it to you without money : yea, but you may reply, I 
gave you money, it is youi' fault you have embezzled 
it. So God may justly require of these men all that 
they might have done by all the means of grace they 
should have had : God gave you that means, you have 
embezzled it by your sin. 

11. Now all the means of grace are made unprofit- 
able to him. yea, ciu'sed to him, and they have quite a 
contrary effect; for the word will work one way or 
other, either to be the savom- of life unto life, or of 
death unto death ; and so the sacrament, either to be 
the seal of salvation, or the seal of damnation. Now 
all those means that do other souls good, are to him 
unprofitable. It may, be the poor child of a wicked 
parent comes to the word, and there finds God reveal- 
ing himself to him, and the Spu-it of CJod drawing his 
heart to himself; but there is his parent, of whom God 
has said, Let him alone, he sits under the means and gets 
no good : so perhaps the master is one on whom this 
judgment is past, Let him alone ; and he sits under the 
means without benefit, whilst his poor servant comes, 
and his soul is enlightened, his heart is enlarged. 

my brethren, upon this (because the point is of 
so great consequence I coidd not pass by it lightly) you 
may learn from hence, 

1. WTiat poor creatures we all are. God need not 
say, Let my power, and wrath, and justice come upon 
them, to make them misei'able; if God but say, Let 
them alone, we are presently miserable, we are lost and 
undone. As in nature, if God should say to any of you 
as soon as born, Let this creature alone, and let none 
help him, how miserable were our condition ! So with 
respect to our souls, take one that has the most excellent 
gifts in all this congregation, yea, take one that has 
the most excellent graces, if God should but say. Let 
him alone, he would quickly bring himself to miseiy. 
It is through the sti-ength of that grace in the covenant 
that God will never say to those that are members of 
his Son, Let them alone for ever. 

2. To fear and tremble at this judgment. Especially 
let them deeply consider this, who have felt the Spirit 
of God stu-ring in their hearts, and the word coming to 
their consciences, yet have gone on, directly against 
God's word and the motions of his Spirit. Oh that this 
day the fear of this great God may fall upon them, lest 
God should say. Let them alone ! Perhaps God has 
not said so yet, but who knows but that upon the next 
wUful rin thou committest, God may say concerning 
thee. Let him alone ? and then thou art undone for 
ever. Oh, fear and tremble. 

Perhaps some of you may say, God has surely said 
this of me already, I should not else be so improfitable 
under the means, I should not hear such powerful ser- 
mons and get so little good, I should not have such and 
such coiTuptions prevailing over me ; I am afraid this is 
pronounced already against me. 

1 am loth when! speak of this di-eadful judgment 
(which is indeed the most dreadful in all the book of 
God) to let any poor soul go that has need of comfort, 
without receiving what is due to him. 

To answer thee, then : 

1. It is a good sign that God has not let thee alone, 
when thou art troubled with such a fear. Commoiily, 
those whom God has left alone go on and are quiet, 
and are never troubled about it, but please themselves 
in their own hearts' lusts. 

2. It is a good means to keep thee from being let 
alone. Those that are afi-aid lest God should leave 
them alone, and upon that can say m the uprightness 
of theh- hearts. Oh I tremble under this judgment, I 
had rather God should give me up to all the Cavaliers, 
to all the devils in hell, than to my own heait's lusts, 



25G 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



it is a sign that this judgment is not upon thee, and it 
is a means to keep it from thee. 

3. If thou hast not a heart to let God alone, God 
has not a heart to let thee alone. So long as thy 
heart keeps close to God that thou wilt not let him 
alone, (you know it is the Scriptui-e phrase, used when 
Moses was so earnestly seeking God in prayer,) and 
though thou fiiidest not him coming to thee as thou dost 
desire, yet thou attcndest him in the word, in reading, 
in meditation, and in all the means thou knowest, and, 
notwithstanding thou dost not find God, thou art not 
weary of his service, but art resolved thou wilt not let him 
alone, and that if thou perish thy last breath will be cry- 
ing to God; peace be to such a one, God has not let 
thee alone so long as this frame of heart abides in thee. 
Those of whom God saith. Let them alone, usually be- 
gin to be more sluggish in prayer than before, to discon- 
tinue it in their families, in their closets, and then per- 
haps to raise objections against it, 'Why, what is there 
to prove such things must be done? and so bydegi'ees 
they will come to have no heart for any holy duty ; but 
if thy heart be kept in quickness, and activity, and life, 
to seek God and to resolve not to let him alone, surely 
God will not let thee alone. Learn hence, 

1. To bless God if thou dost find that he has not in- 
flicted this judgment upon thee. Though perhaps thou 
hast many outward judgments in the world, it may be 
some of you are spoiled of all your goods, and have 
great afflictions on you, yet let this be a means to quiet 
j'our hearts, that though God has taken from you many 
comforts in this world, yet, blessed be his name, he has 
not left me alone ; I yet find his Spirit within me, I 
find his grace within me, and his word working in my 
heart : there are many others who have outward com- 
forts, fair houses, great possessions and lands, but the 
Lord has let them alone ; though I have afflictions 
upon me, yet, blessed be God, he has not inflicted this 
judgment upon me, he has not let me alone. 

2. To bless God that he has not inflicted this judg- 
ment on the kingdom. Surely the ways of God to- 
ward this land are such that we have reason to hope 
that God has not pronounced this judgment u])on it. 
God might have said, England "is joined to idols, let 
him alone." One would have thought that a little more 
than three years ago we were in a condition fit to be 
let alone ; but since, the Lord has so worked for England 
that it may appear evidently that God will not let us 
alone ; and blessed be God that he will not, that he will 
.scotfi'ge and afflict us sorely, rather than not purge out 
our idols. And that people, and that soul, which had 
rather have God purge them soundly than let them go 
on in any sin, surely God does not let that people and 
soul alone. It is true, indeed, great chastisements arc 
upon us, but still they all hitherto tend to our purging, 
not our ruin, and originate in this, that the Lord will 
not let us alone. It may be, many think it would be 
better if it were with us now as it was four years since, 
then we had no such noise and rumours of war, no 
such spoiling and killing, as now. M'hat, I ask, is their 
real meaning ? It was well with us when we were 
going on in superstitious and idolatrous ways, going 
to Home so fast, that God might have said then. Let 
England alone : if God had said, Let them go to Rome, 
let idolatry be set up there, this would have been a greater 
judgment than all the present bloodshed in England : 
but in that tlie Lord is yet striving with us, though we 
be struggling against him, let us bless his name. 

Ver. 18. Their dritik is sour: they have commilled 
tihoredom coulinual/i/ : her rulers uilh shame do lore, 
Give ye. 

" Their drink is sour." I find some interpret this 
word, as if it noted their excess in drunkenness and 
luxury, as if they poured down drink till it soured in 



them, and then vomited it up. Luther translates the 
words, /a'rft crapulanlur, and on the place observes. 
Idolaters love to pamper the flesh, they drink even to 
vomiting again, but for the true worshipping of God, that 
they curtail in outward things, it is hungrj' and cold. We 
find that the false prophets were pampered at Jezebel's 
table, when poor M icaiah was fain to be fed with the bread 
and water of affliction. Thus Luther and many others 
intei-pret the word. But I think there is more in it. 

The word CN2C here translated " drink," refers to 
their festival meetings, and imports that their feasts and 
their meetings were as wine that is sour, and has lost 
its spirit and savour. By " drink," then, we understand 
their drinkings,'that is, the comforts that they have in 
this world ; as your superstitious, idolatrous people 
always seek to pamper their ajipetites, and to secure 
outward comforts : now, saith he, all this is sour. And 
indeed all the comfort of this world when God is for- 
saken, it is but as sour di'ink ; the sweetness, and quick- 
ness, and life of all is taken away, wlien God and liis 
worship are forsaken : so you may take their drink, by 
a synecdoche, for all the comforts of tltis world, even 
all those cai-nal things wherewith they seek to satisfy 
their flesh, it is all som-, for God is gone when his 
worship is gone. Perhaps if you had had superstition 
and idolatry set up amongst you in England, you might 
have had your ckink and wine at your tables more 
jjlcntifully ; but if God and his worsliip had been 
gone, all, notwithstanding, had been sour and ungrate- 
ful. I appeal to those who have apostatized to enjoy 
comforts to the flesh, how sour and unsavoury have 
these ])roved ! whereas let a people keep close to God 
and his worship, and then theu- drink, if it be but 
water, will be sweet to them : as in Acts ii., the saints 
that believed " did eat their meat with gladness and 
singleness of heart." We were wont to say. Brown 
bread and the gospel is good cheer : let us have but 
bread and water with the gospel and the ordinances 
and the worship of God, and it will be sweet to us ; but 
let us have wine and all manner of drink at our tables, 
if we have not the ordinances and worship of God, all 
will prove sour to us. The ten tribes had as good drink 
as Judah, yet all the di'ink of the ten tribes was sour. 
But further, the meaning may be. 

Their society is unsavoury and sour, for so their 
roiivivia, their meetings together for feasting and 
drinking, is taken often for closeness of communion, 
as they were a means to maintain their mutual eon- 
verse and familiarity : so the meaning is, what re- 
lish can any giacious heart take in their converse 
one with another, when they meet together at one 
another's tables and di-iivk together? You may ob- 
serve how unsavoury the superstitious peojile that have 
heretofore lived amongst you, have been in theii' con- 
verse ; perhaps, before they were forward in the ways of 
religion, and if then conversed with, there were some life 
and quickness in them, but when they have once yielded 
to superstitious vanity, all this is gone. It would liavo 
been so Avith you if these times had not come, you might 
perhaps have met and caroused together; but the truth 
is, all your merry meetings would have been sour and 
sapless, there would have been no sweetness in your con- 
verse, and those of your bretlu-en that had been gone 
from you into the howling wilderness, would liave found 
more savour in the water there, than you could have 
had in all the drinks your ingenuity could have devised. 

" Their di-ink is sour." That is, all their worship 
and their sacrifices, for so " their druik " is taken 
by others, for all their (b'ink-offerings : they were 
wont to have feasts in their sacrifices, but now, saith 
God, all their ofl'erings are sour, the savour, and saj), 
and life of them is gone. These are the four interpret- 
ations oflered, which may enable us to understand 
what is meant in these words, " Their drink is sour." 



Vee. 18. 



T]IE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



257 



" They have committed ■whoi'edom continually-" 
They are unwearied in their wickedness, continually 
they go on in their whoredom, both bodily, but now 
especially spiritual ; that is, when they are worshipping 
of their idols they are never weary, " they commit 
whoredom continually." Oh what a shame it is that the 
godly should be weary of the service of God, when 
idolaters are not weary of the service of their idols ! 
AVhat rebuke is this to you who are weary under a 
sermon, if the glass be but run out a little ; but if you 
were to sit up all night in company, in a tavern, you 
would not be weary at all ! " They commit whoredom 
continually ;" at the service of their idols and the satis- 
fying of their lusts they are never weary, but they are 
soon weary of my service. 

But I think there is somewhat further 

i3in . . . jueant : fornicantur in fornica?ido, in 
committing fornication they commit fornication, that 
is the force of the Hebrew ; that which they do they do 
it intensively, in doing they do it. As the apostle saith 
of Elijah's prayer, James v., In praying he prayed, that 
is, he prayed intensively, he prayed powerfully, with his 
whole strength put forth : so the words ai-e here, in 
committing fornication they committed fornication, 
that is, they give up their strength to their idols, they 
are mightily intent on then- idols. And therefore have 
nothing to do with them, (still the argument goes on,) 
Have nothing to do with them, lest that fearful judg- 
ment befall you before spoken of: have nothing to do 
with them, because their society and converse are un- 
savoiu-y : have nothing to do with them, because they 
give up themselves to their lusts. How should we give 
up ourselves to the service of God, pray in praying, 
hear in hearing, &c., seeing idolaters are devoted in 
their service ! 

'■Their rulers." The word translated "rulers" is n'JJO 
their shields, that is, their protectors, so the word in 
the Hebrew signifies. And there is a very special note 
to be learned from hence. 

Obs. 1. Rulers should be shields to the people where 
they live ; and so they are called, Psal. xlvii. 9, " The 
princes of tlie people are gathered together, even the 
people of the God of Abraham, for the shields of the 
earth belong unto God." That is, the governors and 
rulers of the earth, so I find interpreters under- 
stand it, belong unto God ; they are in God's stead, 
and they govern in God's name. Rulers, governors, 
are to be the shields of the people, for they are to be 
willing to put themselves forward to ward off all the 
dangers about to come on the people. Have not our 
worthies in parliament shown themselves to be shields 
in this respect? Have not they put themselves be- 
tween us and our dangers ? And do you not think 
that if the adversary prevail they will first swallow up 
them, I mean those of them that are faithful ? AVhereas 
those that before regarded it as an honour to be par- 
liament men, and when there was no danger made 
such brave speeches, but when they saw things ap- 
proaching a crisis, and that there w'ere darts shot 
against the people, and that they must be the shields 
to keep them off, forsook us ; they were showy in a])- 
]jearance, like fine golden or enameled shields, but fit 
for no service. We are therefore to honour these that 
still stay, and though they are not perhaps so showy 
and gilded as those, yet they are proved to be shields 
of good metal, that will not break, but will keep ofi'the 
darts shot against the people. And indeed rulers and 
governors should be men of good metal, willing to 
bear off much hardship from the people ; and they 
should not think to be honoured only, but should take 
their honour as a burden also. AVe are not therefore 
to regard our rulers as too much honoured, when we 
consider the danger connected with it. So it is true 
the governors in armies have pay more than others, 



but if they be faithful they hazard their lives more, and 
are the shields of the people. It is an evil thing when 
a commonwealth have none but wicked magistrates ; 
in such a case they are as if they had nothing to defend 
them but shields of rotten wood. 

" With shame do love. Give ye ;" so it .^■„^,.., ^,_ 
is in yoiu- hooks: but I find it rendered ' '' 
by some, They love to bring shame, they love not to 
say. Bring ye, but they love to bring shame ; and you 
can translate it thus by merely altering the points in 
the Hebrew ; and the meaning is, they, being of vile 
spirits themselves, do not care what becomes of the 
people, let them perish as dogs, and let them do that 
which shall be a perpetual reproach to them to all 
posterity, so they may have their lusts satisfied. 

Others translate the words thus ; With shame they 
call. Bring ye ; that is, with shame they call for pleasure 
to the flesh : so Arias Montanus, Let us have our pleas ure, 
our tables furnished, our honours, and it matters little 
what becomes of the people. Such rulers and governors 
had the ten tribes when they were such idolaters ; and 
it is just with God, when people forsake the true worship 
of God, that he should send them such governors. 

But I rather understand the passage as a rebuke to 
them for theu' bribery, " They with shame do love, 
Give ye." They will not only indulge this propensity 
in private, but they are grown so impudent that they 
will sell all the good of a kingdom, and the liberty of 
the subject, for their own gain. They say " with shame, 
Give ye." It is a great judgment of God on a people 
when magistrates and governors are given to bribery, 
to regard gifts and the increase of theu' estates more 
than the public good. " A wicked man taketh a gift 
out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment," 
Prov. xvii. 23. It is a sign of a wicked man to take a 
gift, though it be but secretly, out of the bosom ; but if 
he take it openly, it evinces more impudence. A wicked 
man takes a gift out of the bosom, is loth to be seen 
at first, and he does it to pervert judgment ; tliese men, 
that should be as shields to the people, for base ends 
will beti-ay them. "Wliat ! to subject such a glorious 
thing as justice to base ends ? justice, which is the glory 
of God, the glory of a kingdom, and the glory of a man, 
which he should be clothed with as a robe, as a diadem, 
to subject it to base ends, for gain to say. Give ye ; 
this is abominable ! For a justice of peace to be struck 
dumb at the appearance of angels, is surely an evil 
thing: for justices to be bound to the peace by a gift 
in a basket, is surely most abominable. Exod. xxiii. 
8, " A gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words 
of the righteous." Though men are of excellent un- 
derstanding, and eloquent, yea, though they seemed 
heretofore very honest and just in their ways, yet 
when they come to high places, a gift will blind, or, as 
some render it, pluck out their eyes, irradiate their 
eyes, that they cannot see. Auro lo- orepor. xaz. m 
quente, iners omnis oratio, saith an an- chsiiciiis. 
cient. Let gold but speak, and all other speeches are 
to little purpose. Therefore magistrates, of all men, 
should be without covetousness, fearing the Lord. So 
God himself characterizes them, as men "fearing God, 
and hating covetousness." In 2 Chron. xix. 6. 7, 
" Take heed what ye do : for ye judge not for man, 
but for the Lord, who is with you in the judgment. 
Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you ; 
take heed and do it : for there is no iniquity with the 
Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of 
gifts." Justice must run down as a river, not be paled 
in as a pond for private advantages. Magistrates 
must shake their hands from bribeiT, and despise the 
gain of oppressors, Isa. xxxiii. 15. As we read of 
Paul, that when a viper came on his hand, he shook 
his hand and the viper fell into the fire ; so should 
magistrates, when one brings them a gift to pervert 



258 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IV. 



justice, regard it as a viper, and shake their hands of it 
and let it fall even into tlie fire, and say as Peter to 
Simon Magus, " Thy money perish with thee :" They 
should look upon such as bring thera gifts with indig- 
nation, and even say. Thy money perish with thee in 
this wicked enterprise. Even Cicero, a heathen, in 
an epistle to Quintus his brother, a magistrate in Asia, 
saith, Tliat he should not only show himself an enemy 
to them that received gil"t3, but to them that gave them ; 
he should account them his enemies. And Isa. v. 23, 
" 'W'oe to them which justify the wicked for reward, 
and take away the righteousness of the rigliteous from 
him!" Many righteous men come before some of you, 
and their cause is true and good, but you will speak 
bitterly against them to gratify others from whom you 
expect a reward. Deut. xxvii. 25, saith, There shall 
be a curse pronounced against such as take gifts, " and 
all the people shall say, Amen." K any magistrate love 
to take gifts, the curse of the people is upon him, and 
God requires that all the peojjle should say, Amen. 
And I have read, that among the Romans, if it could be 
proved against any magistrate that he had taken bril)es, 
he was to be punished with death, without any deliver- 
ance. And Psalm xv., in answer to that question, 
" AVho shall abide in thy tabernacle ? " it is said, " He 
that taketh not a reward against the innocent." If 
you would ever dwell with God, either here in his 
church, or in heaven hereafter, you must not take bribes 
against the innocent. I have read in the life of that 
saint which you call St. Edmund, that he was wont to 
say. There is little diflerence between tliese two words, 
to take, and to hang, the words are almost alike in 
Latin, preitdere and pendere, signifying thereby, that 
those that would take gifts showed what they deserved. 
Prov. V. 27, " He that is greedy of gain troublcth his 
o-H-n house ; but he that hateth gifts shall live." It is 
not enough for a magistrate not to take gifts, but he 
must hate gifts, for " he that is greedy of gam," though 
he think it not, " troubleth his own hous.'." 

Ver. 19. The icind hath hound her up in her tvmgs, 
and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices. 

The word rfn here translated "wind," signifies also a 
spirit, and so I find Jerome takes the meaning of the 
words to be, that the evil spirit hurries them up and 
down, and carries them on \-iolently in their wickedness. 
As in Deut. xxxii. 11, God is said to carry his people 
on his wings ; so the devil here carries idolaters, who 
are set upon their wicked ways, as it were on his wings, 
witli imjjetuous violence. 

But Ave are rather inclined to understand tlie ex- 
pression metaphorically, to signify the power, the sud- 
denness, the violence, and swiftness of God's judgments, 
carrying them into captivity and into misery. "The 
wind hath bound " the people of Israel, the ten tribes, 
" up in her wings ;" that is, the judgments of the Lord 
shall come upon them with sudden and overwhelming 
violence, and take tliem away from their own countiy, 
and cai-ry them into captivity and misery. The power 
and violence of the judgments of God are often ex- 
pressed in Scri])ture by the wind, by storms and tempest. 
There is a mighty power in the wind : 1 Kings xix. 11, 
" A great and strong wind rent tlie mountains, and 
brake in pieces the rocks." Job xxviii. 9, " That over- 
turneth the mountains by the roots." The winds arc 
the voice of the Lord, that breaks the cedars, even the 
cedars of Lebanon, and shakes the wilderness, Psal. 
xxix. Sabelicus tells us of Cambyses, that his 
soldiers being in a wilderness, in a sandy placC, sud- 
denly a violent wind came and drove the sand with 
such force that thousands of them were bm-ied in it. 
And here, by the way, we may have hinted unto us a 
very profitable meditation. How great is the glory and 



power of the infinite God ! For the wind, what is it but 
a vapour ? and what more weak than a vapom- ? We 
are wont to say. As weak as water : but many drops 
together will make the waters temble, and the seas 
are called the miglity waters ; but vapour is weaker 
than water, and yet the winds are nothing but a num- 
ber of vapours joined together, and then what a mighty 
power have they to rend the rocks and turn up the 
mountains by the roots ! Oh, then, what is^fhe power 
of the mighty God I for in him there is nothing but 
infinity, and to him nothing can be added. If a weak 
vapour being multiplied have such strength, what power 
then is there in the infinite God, to whom, as having 
all fulness dwelling in him, nothing can be added ! 

The wind is of great power, and so are the judgments 
of God. Hence observe, That the judgments of God 
upon w-ieked men who have been spared a long time, 
when they come, they come swiftly, violently, and sud- 
denly : but of this before. 

" And they shall be ashamed because of their sacri- 
fices." As long as they prospered in their course of 
false worship they were not ashamed, but gloried in it ; 
and the ten ti-ibes, Israel, rather despised and sought 
to cast contempt upon Judah, who worshipped God 
aright, as appeareth plainly from Amos vii. 12; " Go," 
(saith Amaziah there to Amos scornfully,) " flee thee 
away unto the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and 
prophesy there." They scorned and contemned Judah, 
and gloried in their oa n false worship. Hence, 

Obs. 1. The superstitious and idolatrous look upon God's 
ordinances as vile, and their o\ni inventions as glori- 
ous ; but God has a time to honour his ordinances and 
to cast shame upon their sacrifices. The tnie worship 
of God is often in such low esteem among men, that its 
servants are exceedingly vilified, and many are deterred 
from embracing it, because they cannot bear the at- 
tendant shame and ridicule : but God has a time to 
honour his ordinances, to manifest the beauty of them 
before all the world, and to cast shame and reproach 
on all ways of superstition and idolatry ; " they shall 
be ashamed because of their sacrifices ;" a time to make 
even those that gloried most in them, to be ashamed 
of tliem. Isa. ii. 20, 21, " In that day a man shall cast 
his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they 
made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and 
to the bats ; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into 
the tops of the ragged rocks." And Isa. xxx. 22, " Ye 
shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of 
silver, and the ornaments of thy molten images of gold: 
thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth ; thou 
shalt say unto it. Get thee hence." They thought 
tliem curious ornaments, but the time shall come wlien 
God shall make idolaters see their impurity, and cause 
them to cast them away with indignation, and say, " Get 
ye hence." That place in Isa. Ixvi. 5, bears on this point, 
" Hear the word of the Lord, ve that tremble at his 
word ; Your brethren that hate(i you, that cast you out 
for my name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified : 
but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be 
ashamed." There are some of you that tremble at my 
word, and dare not do any thing in my worship but 
what my word requires ; others have looser consciences, 
and can venture on things that they have no warrant 
for in my word : but you that tremble at it, and are 
scorned for yoxir scruples, whom your brethren cast out 
because you will not be of tlie like judgment with 
them, and because your -hearts and consciences are 
more tender than theu's; whom they would willingly be 
rid of, and think it would be belter willi the land when 
vou arc gone; and of whom tli -y say, "Let the Lord 
be glorified," pretending that they desire notliing but 
the peace of the cliurch and tlie glory of God ; of 
whom they, even your brethren that cast you out, say, 
" Let the Lord be glorified ; " God shall appear for your 



Vee. 19. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



259 



glory and for theii' shame ; the Lord ■will honour you 
in that his worship which you adopt according to his 
word, though you sufler at present much ignominy 
and contempt for it ; and though they may for a while 
seem to carry all before them, having that which is 
countenanced" more publicly, the Lord will appear at 
length to their shame, tlie Lord will make them 
ashamed of their sacrifices. 

Four things principally cause shame. 

1. Disrespect fi'om those from whom we desu'e hon- 
our-. WHien one comes to a superior, and expects re- 
spect from him, and finds that he is cast out, this is a 
great shame. So they shall be ashamed of their sacri- 
fices ; they think that they shall have honour from me 
by reason of their sacrifices, but I wiU cast shame upon 
them, they shall have nothing from me but proofs of 
disrespect. In 1 Kings ii. 16, when Bathsheba came 
to Solomon to ask a petition of him, " Deny me not," 
she said; the old Latin has it, Ne confundas faciem 
meam, Do not confound my face, do not make me 
ashamed ; and the Hebrew is, JVe averlere faciem me- 
am, Do not cause my face to be turned, that is, do not 
make me ashamed by showing me disrespect, when 
from you I expect honour-. When God casts off the sa- 
crifices of men and shows disrespect to them, that causes 
shame, it confounds, or should confound, their faces. 

2. 'NMien a man takes a great deal of pains and it 
all comes to nothing. So all superstitious ways will 
bring shame at last ; as in Col. ii. it is said of all super- 
stitious ceremonies, that they " perish with the using," 
there comes fi-om them no good result. Idolaters take 
a great deal of pains in their false worship, but all wUl 
come to nothing ; in their utmost need all their modes 
of superstition and idolatry wUl leave them destitute 
and helpless, and so cast shame upon them. 

3. Disappointment of hope. " Let me not be 
ashamed of my hope," saith David, Psal. cxix. 116. 
If I hope for good and be disappointed, this will bring 
shame. Many passages coniu-m tliis. So when those 
that are superstitious and idolatrous shall raise up then- 
hearts with great expectation of good from God in theu- 
ways of false worship, and shall be disappointed of all 
then- hope, in this God wUl cast shame upon them. 

4. 'When God discovers that to be vile which a man 
glorieth in. So idolaters, that glory in their supersti- 
tious forms, the Lord in time will discover them to be 
base, and vUe, and worthless things, for indeed they are 
all but poor beggarly elements, fitter to please childi-en 
than God. God will make this manifest. 

If it be objected, that they seem not to be such poor 
and weak tilings, but more glorious and pompous a 
great deal than the rites observed by the true worship- 
pers of God ; yea, even true worship of God in itself 
seems to be a poor and mean thing ; 

The answer is, the institution stamps a gloi-y on the 
observance : now they never having been instituted, 
must be regarded as mean and beggarly elements. 
Besides, the promise and engagement of God's pre- 
sence in his own ordinances puts an honour on them, 
which attaches not to the ways of superstition. 

It is good for those who have defiled themselves with 
superstitious worship, to prevent God by casting shame 
on themselves ; for if they do not, G'^d will cast shame 
upon them, he will make them to be ashamed. It is 
our best way, to come in and to prevent God, to take 
shame unto oui- own souls and to lie down therein. 
God knows how we have polluted ourselves, even all 
of us, in the ways of superstitious worship ; and the 
truth is, God is casting shame upon them all at this 
day. Happy are those that before these times took 
shame to their own souls for -all these their defilements. 
Howsoever, before God doth yet fiu-ther force it upon 
us, it will be our wisdom to humble om-solves on this 
accoimt. Ezek. xliii. is verv apposite: first in the 10th 



verse, " Show the house to the house of Israel, that they 
may be ashamed;" show them the true form of my wor- 
ship, that they may be ashamed. The truth is, if we did 
but understand the beauty and excellency of God's or- 
dinances, in the purity and simplicity of the gospel, 
that were enough to make us ashamed, if there were 
nothing else ; we would even be verj- vile in our own 
eyes, to think that, while our hearts have been taken 
up about such vain and vile superstitions, such glo- 
rious ordinances of God, and such beauty of holiness, 
have been neglected by us : Show them the way of 
my house, " that they may be ashamed." But further, 
in the 11th verse, " if they be ashamed of all that they 
have done, show them the foi-m of the house, and the 
fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the 
comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all 
the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof," 
(again,) " and all the laws thereof: and write it in theii- 
sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and 
all the ordinances thereof, and do them." First, show 
them my house, let them have some kind of general 
knowledge of my ways and ordinances, perhaps that 
will make them ashamed : and at this day we know, 
though there be but a few rays shed upon us, to show 
us a little more of the ways of God's worship than we 
saw before, that we begin to be ashamed of what 
we have done : but now, if indeed we be thoroughly 
ashamed before God of all our false forms of worship 
of all our sacrifices, then mark what a promise is here ; 
then saith the text, " If they be ashamed of what they 
have done, then show them the form of the house, and 
the fashion of the house," &c. Thus here is one word 
heaped on another to show, that it is a mercy of God 
to people when they not only understand in general 
God's worship, but know " the form, the fashion, all 
the ordinances, all the laws," and cu-cumstances in de- 
tail. For we must regard nothing in the worship of 
God as to be neglected, but must have respect to 
all the forms and ordinances of his house ; and it is 
his great mercy to reveal them to us in all their fvdness. 
True, man stands much on form, and God insists on it 
likewise. Jlany deny the power of godliness, but keep 
the form of it ; they are much set on then- forms, and 
God is much set on his. If you desire forms in God's 
worship, they are already prescribed by his own ap- 
pointment. And mark, when we are ashamed of what 
v.e have done, then shall we understand the laws of 
the house, the right way of God's worship in his own 
temple ; but fii'st we must be ashamed and thoroughly 
humbled for om- former superstitious sacrifices, we 
must not expect it before. Many people cry out, We 
are at a loss, we know not what to do ; we have rejected 
indeed false worship, and in some measure see its vile- 
ness ; but we know not the foi-ms and fashions of God's 
house ; and the hearts of people tremble to think of 
the result, fearing lest the acceptable forms be not 
discovered, and dissensions ensue. Would you under- 
stand the right worship and government of God's 
house ? be ashamed of your sacrifices, be ashamed of 
what you have done, and they shall be shown unto you. 
And those that are intrusted to find out the laws, 
and foi-ms, and fashions, and ordinances of God's 
house, are, above all men, to be ashamed of what they 
have done, to be ashamed first of then- sacrifices. And 
you should pray that God would humble them for all 
their former superstitious observances, that these 
things may be revealed to them ; and being revealed to 
them, they may reveal it to you. There is a necessity 
for this previous repentance, let them be men of never 
such excellent parts and abilities, before they can ex- 
pect to understand the ways of God's house in its 
forms, and fashions, and ordinances. In Ezek. xliv. 
10—1.3, God thi-eatens those priests that departed from 
him in Israel's defection to false worship, that they 



AS EXPOSITION OF 



CiiAr. IV. 



should bear their iniquity, that they should never come 
near to him ; seeing they partook of the general de- 
parture, and did not keep close to the true worship of 
God, they must hear their iniquity, they must not 
come near unto God ; only God would permit them to 
be employed in some meaner out-services : and there- 
fore it may be that he will not use some men amongst 
us of choice parts, in any great work of his, to do him 
any great service ; though they be employed in some 
meaner duties, yet, for their sinful compliances and 
confoiTiiity to superstition, they shall not come near 
him. Except there be extraordinary repentance and 
taking' of shame to themselves, though they may be 
men of excellent parts, the Lord may remember what 
they did when our Israel departed from God, and what 
their compliances were ; and though he may still make 
use of them in some ordinary service, yet he may lift 
up his hand against them, tliat they shall never be 
employed, never made a special blessing, in any choice 
■work. God may justly leave them so that they shall cast 
themselves in a great measure out of the hearts of the 
saints, and tlieir shame shall stick upon them while 
they live ; and the more honour they seek, the more 
shame will God certainly cast upon them. In Jer. iii. 
25, the church saith, "AVe lie down in our shame." 
There is cause indeed that such men should lie down 
in their shame ; those that are of discerning spirits, and 
observe the ways of men and the ways of God, cannot 
but be sensible of this, for so long as \ielding to su- 
perstitious vanities and submission to false power were 
useful to them to save their estates, their liberties and 
livings, they yielded, and submitted, and altered their 
judgments to suit the times, yea, and so altered it as 
presently to grow even bitter against their brethren 
who differed from them. Surely they, and we, and all 
of us, should take shame to ourselves, lie down in our 
shame a while, and act with all humility, and with all 
meekness, in suspicion of ourselves and of our own judg- 
ments, and in love to our brethren, remembering that 
■we oiu'selves not long since held other views and 
other sentiments ; therefore should our hearts, I say, 
be veiy- low, gentle, and full of forbearance. But 
further, 

Ob.i. 2. God has a time to make all idolaters ashamed 
of their sacrifices. AVe will raise our meditations 
somewhat higher on this, " They shall be ashamed of 
their sacrifices." All sacrifices, not only the super- 
stitious and idolatrous, but all other sacrifices that 
come short of the rule, will at length cause shame. 
As carnal men that tender up many services to God, 
and lay such weight u|)on them as on their account to 
claim heaven and an uitcrcst in God, God has a time 
to make them ashamed of all these sacrifices. And 
now, as God shall discover the vanity of their services, 
if he would but show to us all here each other's hearts 
in time of prayer ; when we have been offering u]) that 
sacrifice unto God, and have seemed very devout, yet, 
oh the vanity of our hearts, the vile, impure, foolish, 
and ungodly thoughts that have passed through them ! 
If God should write our prayers before us, and inter- 
line them with all these, and then bid us read them, 
and bid others read our jirayers thus interlined, would 
ve not be ashamed of our sacrifices ? The best sacri- 
fice that ever we rendered up to God in all our life we 
■would be ashamed of. God has a time (except all be 
pardoned in Christ and covered in him) to make men 
that lay such weight upon tlieir prayers, discern such 
native deformity in them, as to make them lie down 
in their shame. 

Ohs. 3. Duties performed with a carnal heart arc 
mixed with base ends. AVe seem to draw near to CJod, 
and Avould honour and worship him : oli, but the hy- 
pocrisy of our hearts! what vile and base ends are 
there, to give content to this and the other, to display 



our parts and abilities in services ! These things have 
been manifest in God's sight, and except we be asham- 
ed of them now, and repent, and get them pardoned in 
Christ, God will set all our base ends before angels and 
men ; and shall we not then be ashamed of our sa- 
crifices ? 

Obs. 4. Our sacrifices are defiled by the foulness of 
our hearts. Not only by actual sin mixed with them, 
by base thoughts and ends, but our services have come 
forth from unclean hearts, and it is impossible that out 
of the unclean there can come any tiling that is clean. 
And when God shall show the infinite holiness of his 
majesty, and the extent of his justice and righteous- 
ness, and how infinitely worthy of sacrifices far other 
than ever we have tendered to him, oh then how shall 
we be ashamed ! 

How will our hearts be overwhelmed with confusion 
and shame, when, apprehending the infiniteness of the 
glory of the great God, we shall see how utterly un- 
worthy all oiu- duties were of that surpassing excellency 
and majesty! Men think highly of the sacrifices that 
they tender up unto God because of the ability they 
display in them, but they know not with what a 
God they have to do. AA'hen the Lord shall show 
unto us the lustre of his glory and the greatness of his 
majesty, (as it will be seen by us one day at the glorious 
apjiearing of the great God,) then we shall see how 
unworthy all our services were of such a God as he is, 
and that will make us ashamed if we have not been 
ashamed heretofore ; nothing will be more grievous 
and more confound the hearts of men, than to be put 
to shame for their sacrifices. 

A'ou will say then, AVhat arc those sacrifices we 
should render 6od that we shall never be ashamed of? 
God will one day make all superstitious and carnal 
people ashamed of their sacrifices, this will be a dread- 
ful thing when it comes to pass, what then are those 
sacrifices which the saints of God shall never be 
ashamed of? If you would offer such sacrifices, 

1. Be sure they be his own, worship God in his own 
way. It is not what you think will please God, and 
will make an excellent appearance, but look to the 
word, be sure it his own. 

2. Let them come from faith ; let your hearts be 
actuated by divine princii)les in whatsoever you ten- 
der up unto God : rest not in the action, but consider 
the source from whence it flows. 

3. Let your ends be high ; O take heed of base and 
low ends in all your sacrifices. It is too much that 
men should have base and low ends in their outward 
affairs, when even in them they should have their 
hearts high upon the gloiyof the great God; but when 
they come to their sacrifices and holy duties, then 
siiisum corda, then lift up your hearts indeed, be sure 
then vour ends be high and holy. 

4. Let your whole strength be engaged in them so 
as to sanctify the name of God ; let the whole soul be 
carried out unto God, for God is worthy of the whole ; 
if you had ten thousand times more strength than you 
have, God is worthy that it should be put forth in the 
services you tender unto him. 

5. Offer up yourselves as a sacrifice to God. Be not 
satisfied to offer up a jiraycr as a sacrifice, or alms, or 
such duties only, but be sure, together with these, to 
offer up yourselves as a living sacrifice to God; as the 
a])ostle saith, Rom. xii. 1, "I beseech you therefore, 
brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your 
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God." 
God cares for none of your sacrifices except you offer 
yourselves. That is a very observable place in the 
latter end of 1 Kings viii., w"licrc you find that Solomon 
offered " two and twenty thousand oxen, and one hun- 
dred and twenty thousand sheep ;" a great sacrifice in- 
deed to be offered at once unto God ! but mark what. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



notwithstanding, God saith to him in chap. ix. 4, 
presently aftei' the sacrifice ivas done, " If thou wilt 
walk before me, as David tliy father walked, in in- 
tegrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to 
all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my 
statutes and my judgments," &c. God puts it to an ijj 
Notwithstanding all these sacrifices, if thou thyself, in 
the constant obedience of thy life, wilt be a constant 
sacrifice, then will I do thus and thus. But ver. 6, " If ye 
shall at all turn from following me," if, notwithstanding 
all these sacrifices, tliou at all turn from following me, 
I will do thus and thus. Many of us think when we 
have spent a whole day in fasting, and our hearts have 
been enlarged and have ofiered up a great sacrifice 
to God, that we may take the more liberty afterward : 
no, though you offer " twenty-two thousand oxen, and 
one hundi-ed and twenty thousand sheep," yet, if after 
this thou shalt at all forsake me, all that thou hast 
done shall be rejected. Therefore those sacrifices that 
are not joined with offering up of ourselves, are such 
as God wiU make us ashamed of; but if together with 
our sacrifices we offer up ourselves, which is our rea- 
sonable service, we shall never be ashamed. There- 
fore, you that are poor and weak in parts, and have but 
little' grace, yet, if that little be true, though your 
hearts are not so enlarged perhaps as others' in prayer, 
and you look upon your sacrifices as mean, and as un- 
worthy to be tendered up unto the great God ; but dost 
thou then offer up thyself to him as a sacrifice ? It is 
true, my parts are weak, and my abilities are poor and 
mean, but, O Lord, what I am, and what 1 can, I ten- 
der unto thee : here. Lord, take soul, body, life, estate, 
liberty, and all I enjoy, I tender them all unto thee as 
a sacrifice : I say then, peace be unto thee, the sacri- 
fices thou lightly esteemest God will not make thee 
ashamed of, but he accepts thy poor services when to- 
gether with them thou offerest up thyself ; whereas if 
thou didst not tender thyself as a sacrifice, though thy 
services were ten thousand times more glorious than 
they are, they would be all cast back as dung in thy 
face. 

6. Be humbled afler all your best services. Take no 
glory to yourselves, but be vile in your own eyes, when 
you perform any duty that seems to have any excel- 
lency in it, and wliich perhaps others regard as having 
much. If your hearts be elated with it, the glory of 
it is gone, and it is that which you must be ashamed 
of, though now you be honom'ed for it, and pride your- 
selves in it. 

Lastly, Tender up aU in Christ, in the worthiness of 
his infinite sacrifice. Christ is that sacrifice which is 
well-pleasing unto God, and all others are pleasing 
unto him only through the merit and worthiness of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, who has tendered up himself unto 
God the Father as a sacrifice to heal all our sacrifices, 
and to take away all their shame. 1 Pet. ii. 5, "Ye 
also, as lively stones, are built up a spu'itual house, an 
holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, accept- 
able to God ; " how ? " by Jesus Christ." Mark, you 
are as "lively stones," and lively stones "built up," 
not merely stones Ij'ing here one and there another, 
but "lively stones built up" in a holy communion, 
that is the meaning, built up " to offer sacrifices," and 
that " spiritual sacrifices." But mark, though our 
sacrifices be never so spiritual, yet they cannot be ac- 
ceptable to God but by Jesus Christ ; that is the sacri- 
fice the saints shall gloi'y in and bless God for to all 
eternity, which shall take away the shame of their 
sacrifices, and by its all-sufficient merit render them 
acceptable unto God. Thus, through the good hand 
of the providence of God, we are come to the end of 
this fourth chapter. 



CHAPTER V. 

Ver. 1. Hear ye this, priests: and hearken, ye 
house of Israel ; and give ye ear, O house of the king ; 
for judgment is toward you, because ye have been a 
snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor. 

This chapter is the beginning of another sermon of 
Hosea, preached, as some think, in the reign of Pekah, 
son of Remaliah, king of Israel, whom you read of 
2 Kings XV., probably toward the end of his reign, 
which was about the same time that Ahaz reigned in 
Judah, when that horrible confusion was brought into 
religion, he having placed the altar that he brought 
the fashion of from Damascus in the house of God; 
therefore the Lord here inveighs by his prophet not 
only against Israel, but also against Judah. The sum 
of the chapter appears to be this : 

I. A summons of all sorts to judgment, ver. 1. 

II. Accusation and condemnation of Israel by them- 
selves, ver. 2 — 5. 

III. Judah brought in as guilty, and sentence passed 
upon her, ver. 5, 6. 

IV. Israel and Judah conjointly arraigned and con- 
demned, ver. 7 — 14. 

V. The good effects resulting from the judgments 
of God, ver. 15. 

I. In the summons remark these three several words. 

" Hear ye. Hearken. Give ear." 

" Hear ye, priests." 

" Hearken, ye house of Israel." 

" Give ear, O house of the king." Hence, 

Obs. 1. When God comes in ways of judgment, 
he expects we should seriously incline our minds to 
what he is doing. We should not only " hear," but 
" hearken," and " give ear : " God then will force 
audience. We are bound to hearken and to give ear 
to God's commanding word ; but if we refuse it, he 
will have us to hear and give ear to his threatening 
word ; and if that be refused, he will force us to hear 
and give ear to his condemning word ; for so it is here, 
" Hear ye, hearken, give ear," for judgment is against 
you all. 

There are three classes named here, " priests, peo- 
ple, house of the king." 

All sorts are cited to judgment, for corruption was 
gone over, and judgment conies against all. Hence, 

Obs. 2. Generality in sins is no means to escape 
God's judgments. 

With men this may be a means to escape punish- 
ment ; One and all is a word of security. AMien sol- 
diers combine in the same offence, and cry, One and all, 
they escape with impunity. But it is not so with God, 
he regards not the number of those involved in the 
off'ence. Men think, I do but as others do, and I shall 
escape as well as they. With men this is somewhat, 
but with God nothing; though all sorts offend, yet 
there is never a whit the more security thereby unto 
any. We have a notable scripture confirming that, 
Nah. i. 12, "Thus saith the Lord; Though they be 
quiet, and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut 
down, when he shall pass through." Though they be 
manv, yet thus shall they be cut down. 

O'bs.'Z. The priests have usually been the causes of 
all the wickedness in, and judgments on, a nation. _ He 
begins w ith them, " Hear, O ye priests," as the princi- 
pal cause of all the evil ; first of the evil of sin, and 
then of the evil of punishment ; calling them priests, 
not that they were true priests, for they were not of 
the tribe of Levi, but merely so reputed. So Jeremiah 
saith, chap, xxiii. 13, " From the prophets of Jerusalem 
is profaneness gone forth into all the land ; " and there 



262 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. V. 



are many passages of Scripture which plainly ath-ibute 
the evil of nations to priests. And has it not been so 
with us ? and is it not so at this day ? There was never 
a more filthy sink of scandalous, superstitious priests in 
a kingdom than of late amongst us, as has begun, 
and will yet further appear to you. There has been 
an accusation against our parliament, that orthodox, 
grave, godly divines have been ejected. I suppose you 
begin now to see what kind those grave, orthodox, 
godly divines were: evident and plain proofs exist, 
but it shall yet be made much more manifest in the 
eyes of all. 

06^. 4. The people will go the way the king and 
priests go. " And hearken, ye house of Israel." By 
the " house of Israel," is meant the common people. 
" Priests " first, the " house of Israel " next, and the 
" house of the king " last. And the house of Israel is 
set between the priests and the house of the king, be- 
cause by these two, the corruption of the priests and 
of the house of the king, all were influenced : the evil 
of the people came from them both, partly from the 
priests, and partly from the house of the king, and be- 
tween them both the people were undone. If but one 
of them be right there is great hope of much good ; 
but woe to a people when both of them are corrupt, 
both priests and the house of the king ! Though the 
house of the king shoidd be corrupt, yet if the priests 
and ministers kept up the truth, and vigour, and life of 
religion, things would go reasonably well in a king- 
dom, and though religion might be persecuted, yet its 
life would not become extinct. AVhatever laws magis- 
trates may enact against the ways of God, except mi- 
nisters )ield compliance, those laws will not be brought 
to prevail with the consciences or practice of the peo- 
ple. Jeroboam and the other princes saw it was in 
vain for them to think to prevail with the people ex- 
cept they could gain the priests, therefore it was the 
great design of Jeroboam to get them over on his side, 
which he easily did, because all preferment came from 
him, he raised whom he would. 

But mark, might not the people excuse themselves 
and say, 'WHiat should we do ? On the one side au- 
thority enjoins us, on the other side our ministers 
teach us to do thus and thus, what shall we do ? might 
they not think to excuse themselves ? 

No, judgment is against you, O " house of Israel;" 
notwithstanding the example of the priests and the 
house of the king, yet you are not to be excused. A 
great many reasons may be given why sinful compliance 
m the people may not be excused. I remember ,;Vrias 
IMontanus, on this scripture, lays down this for a rule, 
That no king can make any law but by the people ; they 
cannot, saith he, make laws by themselves alone, the 
people must consent to tliem some way or other ; 
therefore the people arc involved in all the wicked 
laws in a kingdom. It is not enough therefore for )0u 
to say. Such and such laws are made, and we cannot 
hel]) it ; we are to know, it is not merely the will of a 
king that is a law to a kingdom, but laws enacted im- 
ply the sanction of the people. This answer he gives, 
and quotes a heathen in siqiport ; and although in 
Scriptm'C and elsewhere, there are instances of absolute 
authority, yet many kings arc limited in their power; 
and in these times especially the people are not to be 
excused in their evil. 

Now this shows evidently that God would have every 
one examine what is taught and commanded him by 
his superiors. The people are here*itcd to judgment, 
and placed between the priests and the king's house ; 
though the priests taught, and the king's house en- 
joined, the observance of superstitious rites, yet they 
must be judged. It is then, I say, clear, that God would 
have every one examine what is taught and command- 
ed him by his superiors, and judge himself of the rule 



of his actions, for they must each give an account unto 
God. 

But you may say, Shall it be left to every one to 
judge of the truth of what is taught, and of the law- 
fulness of what is commanded ? If so, what order can 
there be ? 

To answer that, TMiatever inconvenience may re- 
sult, it appears evidently to be a truth, for we must 
answer unto God for our actions, therefore we must 
know the inile of our actions ; therefore, first, let the 
inconvenience be what it will, the truth is good. But, 
secondly, I say this, that every one must judge so far 
as concerns his own act ; he cannot judge as far as re- 
gards the magistrate's act, what is fit for him to com- 
mand, nor with respect to the minister, what is fit for 
him to teach, but he may and ought to judge so far as J 
his own act is concerned As I must answer before God 
for what I do, I must so judge it, but if I be taught 
and commanded by authority one thing, and I judge 
another, I go on mine o^vn peril, that is, if I do not 
judge right, I sin against God, and incur punishment 
from him, and I must run the hazard; but tojud^e 
that which must be the rule of my act, is a certain 
right belonging to ever)' man. 

Obs. 5. Kings and princes must have sin charged 
upon them, and be made to know that they are under 
the threats of God, as well as others. " Give ye ear, 

house of the king." There is here an " O " prefixed, 
" Give ye ear, O house of the king," for though it 
comes in last, yet it is the principal ; for what harm can 
superstitious and idolatrous priests do, except they be 
countenanced by the " house of the king," that is, the 
king himself, and his courtiers ; " Give ear," therefore, 
" O house of the king." 

" For judgment is toward you." Mai'k, he does not 
attribute all this evil to wicked counsellors that got 
into the house of the king, but charges it directly upon 
the house of the king itself. Evil princes may be as 
great a cause why there ai'e evil counsellors, as evil 
counsellors why there are enl princes. Eril counsel- 
lors usually see what the design of a prince is, and 
what is suitable to his disposition, and they cherish 
that with their wicked counsels. But were the de- 
signs and dispositions of princes right, they might have 
counsellors about them to further that which is right 
too. Certainly it is no excuse for princes to coun- 
tenance the evil, and then to say they were advised to 
such and such courses; for if the teaching of the 
pi'iests, and the commands of princes, do not excuse 
people, but they must judge as having to answer for 
themselves, then counsellors about princes cannot ex- 
cuse them. It is the unhappiness of princes to have none 
about them to charge them personally with their guilt, 

1 mean, to show them, in the name of God, the evil and 
the danger of their sins. It was wont to be said, (as 
I have before told you,) Da Jlmbrosios et plures liabe- 
bimiis Theodosioit, Let us have Ambroses and we 
shall have Theodosiuses, because of his freedom of 
spirit with that emperor. And to another emperor, 
Valentinian, he said, A'oli le exIoUere imperalor, si vis 
diutiiis imperare,esto Deosnbditus, Do not lift up thyself, 
O emperor, if you ut'll be emperor longer, if you icill 
reign longer, be willing to be subject unto God, And 
we know with what freedom of spirit the proi)hets in 
former times spoke even to kings' houses. As Samuel 
to Israel, 1 Sam. xii. 25, " If ye shall stiU do wickedly, 
ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king." So 
Elijah to Ahab, Thou art he that troublest Israel. So 
Elisha to Jehoram, 2 Kings iii. 13, 14, " What have I 
to do with thee ? " (and yet Jehoram came to the pro- 
phet in a humble manner ;) " AVhat have I to do with 
tlice ? Get thee to the ])rophets of thy father and the 
pro])hets of thy mother." And, " AV'ere it not that I 
regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, 



Veh. 1. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



26o 



I would not look townrd fliee nor see thee." This he 
said to a great king. Others, in the primitive times, 
have addressed princes with similar boldness ; and a 
great cause of the evil of these latter days has been 
the flatteries of courtiers, therefore, saith the prophet 
here, " Hear ye, O house of the king." Kings are 
great indeed above other men, but what are they be- 
fore the great God ? " He shall cut off the spirit of 
princes ; he is terrible to the kings of the earth," Psal. 
Ixxvi. 12. " "VATien they wei"e but a few men in, num- 
ber ; yea, very few, and strangers in the land. TMien 
they went from one nation to another, from one king- 
dom to another people ; he suffered no man to do them 
wrong : yea, he reproved kings for their sakes," Psal. 
cv. 12. He reproved kings for the sake of his own 
people, when they were but few in number, and went 
wandering fi'om one nation to another, and said, 
" Touch not mine anointed ;" that is, touch not my 
saints. He gave kings warning that they should take 
heed how they did so much as touch his church, touch 
his own people ; God's people are there called his 
anointed, and it is said unto kings, that they should 
not touch his anointed that were so few and wandered 
up and down from one nation to another. Say thus 
even to the house of the king. But observe further, 

Obs. 6. Though kings are to be reproved for sin, 
some due respect ought to be shown to them. The 
house of the king is named last here, is named after 
the house of Israel. 'Wliy so ? Not that the house of 
Israel were more guilty than the house of the king, 
but because the house of the king could least endure 
reproof, could hardly bear reprehension, therefore, in 
wisdom, so far the prophet would go ; he would begin 
vrith the other, and in his censures of it introduce the 
house of the king. 

" Judgment is toward you," saith the prophet. 
tflStt'cn here is taken either actively or passively. Ac- 
tively, joro actu judicii, so Junius, it was theu- part to 
judge out of the law ; and he would read it thus, Judg- 
ment is yours, O house of the king ; you ought to 
judge the people in righteousness. But I rather think 
that it is here to be taken passively ; that is, that God 
calls you to judg-nient, to suffer judgment, judgment is 
toward you, or against you. And observe, I beseech 
you, the difference between the beginning of the 4th 
and 5th chapters. In the 4th, it was but a controversy, 
a strife that God had with them ; " Hear the word of 
the Lord, ye ohQcben of Israel : for the Lord hath a 
controversy with the inhabitants of the land." But 
here it is come to judgment ; that which before was 
but a contending with them, is now'come to a judgment 
of them, to a passing of sentence upon them, judgment 
is against you, sentence is out upon you. The former 
was God's pleading against them, and this now is God's 
judging of them. Hence, 

Ohs. 7. When God pleads against us, let us not 
disregard. K we do so when he begins to plead his 
cause with us, if we neglect it because judgment is not 
upon us, it will proceed to a sentence. God has laid 
Iris plea agamst many a man in his word, and perhaps 
some of you see and know it ; and God lays his plea 
against many a man in his conscience ; but he neglect- 
ing this plea of God laid against him in his word and 
in his conscience, has afterward received the sentence 
of death in his soul, which has sunk his heart into de- 
spair, ^lany a man has had God speaking against him 
in his word and in his conscience, I say, and there has 
been God's controversy: he has been laying his plea 
there, and thou hast gone on in thy sin, and at length, 
it may be, there comes the sentence of death on thy 
soul, that thou dost as it were feel, as some have said 
they have felt, God passing a sentence of death upon 
them in this world which has sunk them into endless 
despair; it has been a day of special judgment to them, 



they have heard, as it were, God delivering from his 
throne this sentence against them, Tliou art a dead 
man, a lost man. Oh take heed of neglecting God's 
pleas, lest they come to judgments. 

" Judgment is against you." Why ? what is the 
cause ? 

" Ye have been a snare on ilizpah, and a net 
spread upon Tabor." 

iSIark, God ])asses not judgment but he gives the 
cause for it. !^Ien are rash, and wiU pass judgment on 
persons and things that they know not. Sometimes 
you hear men railing against some : ask them, Do you 
know them ? No. "UTiat have they done ? Neither do 
they know that, only it is generally reported that such 
men distm-b the peace of the kingdom. But in this 
they deal not righteously. God passes not judgment 
without giving a full and sufficient cause why he does 
it ; " Ye have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread 
upon Tabor." 

There is much of the mind of God in these words. 
Some take " Mizpah " appellatively, pro speculatione, 
you have been a snare upon the watch, for so nsx 
(sjicculor) from whence the word cometh, signifies ; 
and speculatio they take to be those over whom they 
should watch, as congregatio pro congregaiis, circum- 
cisio pro circicmcisis, so apeculatio pro custoditis. As 
if God should charge them thus, You should have been 
watchmen, you priests, and you of the king's house, 
but you have been a net to insnare them ; you should 
have been speculatore, but you have been vencdores et 
aucvpes, you have been fowlers and hunters of my 
people. Theodoret reads it^co speculatoribus, that is, 
you spread a net for the watchmen, you superstitious 
priests, you house of the king, and you people gener- 
ally, you spread a net for your faithful watchmen ; if 
you have any watchmen that are more watchfid than 
others, you seek, if possible, to insnare them. So 
they understand it, and though it does in some mea- 
sure express the meaning of tlie words, yet I think it 
cannot be received here, for as the word Tabor is taken 
properly, not appellatively, so I think ought the word 
Mizpah. Mizjiah and Tabor were the names of two 
mountains in the land of Israel, the first signifying a 
watch, and the other. Tabor, a high place, so caUed 
by way of emineney, because it was a famous and 
high mountain. 

Now both these mountains were very eminent among 
the people of Israel. !Mizpah some think to be the 
mountain where Laban and Jacob met, Gen. xxxi. 49, 
and that it was so called by Laban, " for he said. The 
Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent 
one from another." And in Judg. sx. 1, we find, the 
chikh-en of Israel gathered together as one man, unto 
the Lord in Mizpah. 

So of Tabor, Psal. Ixxxix. 12, where it is joined with 
Hermon, which was fam.ous also, as Cant. iv. 8, " Come 
•nith me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from 
Lebanon : look from the top of Amana, from the top 
of Shenir and Hermon." Hermon is but badly de- 
signated in the versified translation of the Psalms (and 
a great many similar mistakes occur) : " The little hOl 
Hermon," Psal. xlli. 6 ; whereas the truth is, Hermon 
was a hif.h and famous hill. In the Psalms it is, " I 
will remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of 
the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar ;" Mizar, indeed, 
signifies small, but they make it as if it were an ap- 
pellative to Hermon. But the Psalm is rather to be 
interpreted thus, I will remember thee, O Jerusalem, 
wherever I am, in all quarters of the world, from Jor- 
dan, which lay on the cast of Jerusalem, from Hermon, 
a high mountain in the north, and Mizar, that is, the 
south, because the mountains of the south were small; 
as if he should say, Whether I be east, or north, or 
south, from the temple, I will remember Jei-usalem. 



26i 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. V. 



So that the Psalm sliould not be rendered as if Mizar 
Mere a mere a])pellative to Hermon, '• the little hill 
Hermon;" for Hermon was a high and eminent hill, 
and is joined with Tabor, Psal. Ixxxix. 12, which was 
so famous, that it was a proverbial speech anion? them 
to say, As Tabor amongst the mountains. To the 
Ciiristian too it is full of interest, as being the mount 
of transfiguration. Josephus, in 1. iv. cap. 21, of the 
Wars of the Jews, saith it was 30 stadia high, and 
ri;„ lii ■) ™ »i o" '^he top, 20; now a stadium is 12o 

1 lin. lib. 2. cap. 3J. ^ t" f 11 -1 

paces, or 62o teet ; and the summit lay 
as equal as if it had been made by the art of man, and 
was very fertile and full of trees, and altogether a very 
pleasant and delightful place. 

Now God chargeth them, that they had " been a 
snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor." Ac- 
cording to some, these mountains are taken synecdo- 
chically, for all hio;h places, and theSe metonymically, 
for all the superstition and idolatry committed upon 
them : and then the meaning is. Your idolatry upon 
these liigh places has been a net and a snare to the 
people. 

But I rather think the sense to be metaphorical, 
thii,=:. These mountains were places very deKghtful, 
wliich the gentry of the kingdom frequented much in 
hunting, and where they were wont to spread their nets 
and set their snares for fowls and beasts. Now saith 
God, You " have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net 
sju-ead upon Tabor;" that is, You watchmen, and others 
that join with j-ou, have been as huntsmen that have laid 
snares for the souls of my people, as they lay snares on 
Mizpah and Tabor ; God tlius charging them with lay- 
Jig snares for the souls of his people, and hunting them 
and catching them in theii- ways of superstition and 
idolatry. The gospel is called a net in the Scripture, 
and the ministers of the gospel are to spread it, but 
the cords and twists of that net are precious, they are 
the blessed truths, the holy mysteries, of the gosjjel ; 
and happy are they that are caught in that net. Super- 
stitious priests and governors have their nets too, that 
they spread and catch the soids of the people in, but 
their nets are made of other manner of stuff. So Jero- 
boam and the rest of the princes would not at fii-st at- 
tempt to force the jjeople by violence to adopt a false 
religion, but artfully sought'to allure their hearts into 
a love of it, and would spread for the people unawares 
their nets, whose meshes were woven with the threads 
and lines of such cunning devices as, 

1. The plea of authority. I Joes not authority com- 
mand you to do thus andthus? 

2. The sanction of the priestly office. Do not tlie 
priests, the holy fathers, do thus' and thus? and have 
you more understanding than they ; more wit than all 
the statesmen and the king's house, and more than all 
your teacliers too ? 

3. AVe do not alter our religion, we hope we wor- 
ship the same Jehovah that you worship. 

4. The things required of you are not of much im- 
portance, mere circumstances of place : you worship at 
Jerusalem, it is but worshipping at Dan and Bcth-el 
here before these two images ; you shall not worshij) 
the images, but worship in this place. 

5. All we aim at is your own good ; for that was 
Jeroboam's pretence : It is too much for you to go up 
to Jerusalem, to go twice a year so long, and tedious, 
and dangerous a iourney ; lio, saith he, I tender the 
good of my people more, therefore let them worshlj) 
here. 

C. The examjile of the majority. The ten tribes, the 
inultitude, adopt these rites, Judah and Benjamin only 
ditfor from them, why should you desire to imitate 
tlicir fastidious scrupulosity ? 

7. Their long-continuing prosperity. Has not Israel 
prospered as much as Judah? Has not God been 



with us as much as with them? Judah pretends he 
worships God aright, we are sure God is with us. 

S. Reproaches cast on the true worshippers of God ; 
as in the 7th chapter of this prophecy, ver. 3, '■ They 
make the king glad with their- wickedness, and the 
princes with their lies." That is, this was their cunning 
de\'ice, to raise all the reproaches they possibly could 
against the true, forward, and zealous worshippers of 
God, especially against the prophets and ministers; and 
therefore in Amos, who prophesied at the same time, 
you find that Amaziah said, the land could not bear 
his words ; they were even enough to excite sedition 
among the jieople, yea, what are these that oppose the 
king's laws but rebels ? These were the snares which 
they set to catch the people, to make them out of love 
with the true worship of God. Thus they were " a 
snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor." 

Thus it has been with us ; how cunningly have men 
laid their nets amongst us to catch souls ! They say, 
it is but yielding a little to a thing enjoined by author- 
ity,besides, it is really unimportant, and is countenanced 
by the example of many learned and godly men ; yea, 
and why should you hinder yourself of the good you 
may do ? It is afler all a mere matter of circumstance, 
connected with decency and order, and consistent with 
much devotion, and by yielding as far as we can, we 
may gain papists ; none but a company of simple peo- 
ple oppose these ancient customs, which can plead the 
precedent of the fathers of the church, yea, of many 
martyrs who have shed their blood. Thus many 
souls have been caught as a bird in a snare, with these 
lines and twigs thus cunningly twisted together ; and 
so caught that they could not tell how to get out, but 
being once involved in the meshes, were insnared more 
and more : as a bu'd once caught in the net, by its very 
flutterings is the more entangled ; so men when they 
yielded a little, could not tell where to stop, but at last 
have gone so far, and been so completely insnared, 
as to be wholly unable to extricate themselves, but by 
their very efforts have become more deeply involved ; 
and, the truth is, at length even their consciences have 
ceased to disquiet them ; as a bird, that is perhaps at first 
alarmed when the net is but stirred, but after a little 
loses its fear ; so many men of tender consciences have 
at first shrunk from superstitious vanities, but being 
caught by cunning arguments and devices, have, after 
a few faint efforts to disenthral themselves, succeeded 
in quieting their consciences, and calmly acquiesced in 
their captivity. Oh how many have been thus led 
captive ! This was the design of the adversary amongst 
us, if possible to subdue the consciences of men; a de- 
sign worthy of the father of lies, from whom it ema- 
nated. Even in their taverns and feasts, they were 
plotting and studying what it was that would best 
overcome the scruples of such and such men, and en- 
deavoured to suit the temptation to the character and 
circumstances of each. It may be the old ceremonies 
would catch some; others perhaps would break through 
the old, therefore there must be new ones devised ; 
these again might not suit others, but the book of Li- 
berty on the Sabbath, that would be a proper bait ; if 
it failed, then the oath of canonical obedience. Titus 
they laid nets for the consciences of men, knowing 
that if they could but once silence them, they might 
do with them what they would ; certainly they saw 
that there was no way to make them their own, to 
make them filii ecclesier, sons of the church, as they 
called it, but by fu'st giving a sop to their consciences. 
Many men have found this to be true by experience, 
and we have seen it : they have come with all the flat- 
teries they could to some, that have stood out many 
years, and by whoso ministry perhaps God has done 
good ; and having but once induced them to yield a 
little, thougli with fear and trembling, yet have they 



Vee. 1. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



265 



presently concluded that certainly they were secured, 
and then heaped all theu" injunctions upon them in 
rapid succession, until their consciences were altogether 
subdued. And as it is with some birds and beasts, 
that when caught are presently fatted up ; so it was 
with some ministers and others, when once insnared 
in their nets, they presently had livings and prefer- 
ment, bishoprics, chaplaincies, and the like : and as 
some other birds when caught are forthwith nipped in 
the head, or have their limbs broken ; so tliey dealt 
severely, maliciously with others, and ceased not until 
they entirely crushed them. Thus acted those amongst 
us that have been " a snare on our Mizpah and a net 
spread upon our Tabor;" but blessed be God that 
their snare is broken, and our souls are esca])ed as a 
bu'd out of the hands of the fowler, Psal. cxxiv. 7. ^ly 
brethren, do not you think you would have been all 
involved one after another in these their superstitious 
ways, seeing how in a few jears they have prevailed ? 
But God looked from heaven and pitied the souls of 
his people, and heard their groans and sighs. Oh, 
many a poor minister has gone home to his wife, and 
having no other way of maintenance, has, out of fear 
of losing his living, yielded to their superstitious 
injunctions; but think you how he has -WTung his 
hands, and could not sleep that night, but lay tossing 
on his bed with a dismal conscience. Well, the Lord 
has heard these cries and broken our snares, and our 
souls are delivered. God forbid such a judgment 
should ever befall us again, and that God should bring 
these fowlers amongst us to insnare our souls as the)' 
have done. 

But there is another interpretation of this text 
which well consists with this, and I think is agi-eeable 
to the mind of the Spirit. Mizpah and Tabor I take 
in their own proper sense ; " You have been a snare on 
iMizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor," that is, that 
they really did spread snares and nets on those very 
mountains, which stood between the two chief cities of 
Israel and Judah, Samaria that belonged to the ten 
tribes, and Jerusalem that appertained to Judah and 
Benjamin. Now Jeroboam and the other princes, liis 
successors, placed watch-towers on these two moun- 
tains, and there set men to be as spies, to see who went 
from Israel to Judah. There were some conscientious 
persons that would not be contented with that worship 
which was set up by authority, but must now and then 
be stealing to Jerusalem at the times ajipointed : now 
the priests counselled those that were in authority, 
saying, "\Ve shall never have peace till we catch these 
men, who must be going to Jerusalem, therefore let 
there be some device to apprehend them : then otliers 
suggested, that as most of them, when going, passed 
by Mizpah and Tabor, those two places would serve to 
set towers on for watchers, who might surprise every 
one of them. Now this counsel pleased the princes 
very well, and thereupon, (as I find in Arias Montanus, 
who cites it out of the Jewish histories,) there were two 
towers set upon these mountains for this very purpose. 
This God chai'ges them with, and for this, judgment is 
out against them. Oh, this is that which provokes 
God exceedingly, and will bring fearful judgment upon 
a people, when magistrates and ministers will seek to 
catch poor souls that would worship God in his own 
riglit way. 

And has it not been so in our late High-commission 
court? when there was but a mere reader in a country 
town, that could do nothing else, if there were any 
eminent preacher near, and poor souls that Mere hun- 
gering after the bread of life would go to hear him, 
they would set men on purpose to note down the 
names of such, just as Jeroboam did here. The Lord 
has a special eye on poor souls thus oppressed and in- 
snared, to relieve them in due time ; and blessed be 



his name, he has done much for us, in relieving and 
delivering us fro.m these men, against whom the judg- 
ment of God is this day gone forth. AMiat is become 
of their proctors and siimmoners, and of all that rabble 
rout that were catchers and hunters of such poor souls 
as were desirous of worshijiping God in his own way ? 

Ver. 2. And the reroUers are profound to make 
slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all. 

The Lord by his prophet proceeds iu his charge 
against Israel for their idolati-y. 
^ " The revolters." The apostates, those who once ren- 
dered me the worship I requii-ed; but theyare revolt- 
ed. The brand of a revolter is an ignominious brand, 
especially when God himself charges this upon any ; 
Once you were full of zeal in the ways of God, but you 
are revolted, you are apostates. There can be no 
blacker brand on a ])eople or a man than this is, He is 
an apostate, a revolter. AVe must understand this 
their revolting especially in reference to their falling 
off from the true worship of God to then- idolati-y. 

" Ai-e profound;" ip'cy.l they are grown very deep 
in this their way of idolatry. At fu'st they began but 
with a little, but by degrees they reached the very 
depths. When men enter on the ways of idolatry, they 
know not whither they shall go. They think perhaps, 
at first, to go but thus and thus far, but before they 
are aware they are sunk into the very depths. 

Obs. 1. It is a dangerous thing to venture on the 
beginnings of false worship, especially when the tide is 
flowing in. If a man stand on the shore of the sea 
when the tide is coming in, and thinks, The water is 
but shallow now, I may venture to stand here ; still it 
comes insensibly on, and he thinks it is not much 
deeper than before : but if he venture too long he may 
soon be swallowed up and sunk in the very depths of 
the sea. Thus it has been with many ; they have 
been beguiled, have thought they might yield thus and 
thus far, but little thought of the tide that was com- 
ing in. It is true, if it had been going out there had 
not been so much danger. They truly are deceived in 
tlieir opinion of the first Reformers, who say they were 
wont to yield somewhat for peace sake ; but then the 
tide of superstition was on the ebb ; and yet it was not 
without danger that they yielded so far as they did : 
but of late the tide has been coming in, and these 
gradual compliances have drawn many into the very' 
depths of superstition, where they have been u-recover- 
ably lost. 

" Are profound," they are grown pro- ^^^^.^^ .^ ^^^ 
found, that is, their hearts are got very 
deep iu these ways; (so I find some interpret it, and 
not improbably;) they are grown deep; that is, they 
are deeply rooted in these ways, so that there is little 
hope of ever drawing off theirhearts from them ; they 
have continued in them a great while, and now they 
plead antiquity and custom. 

Obs. 2. It is a dangerous thing to be deeply rooted 
in superstitious wavs. '\Miat a great deal of stu- is there 
in dealing with them that are deeply rooted in false 
ways of worship! By custom they become deeply- 
rooted. J „ . 

" Ai-e ])rofound," they are grown " profound, that 
is, thev have revolted from God exceeding much, 
deei)ly 'revolted. It denotes the greatness of theirre- 
voltin'o-. In Isa. xxxi. 6, there is such an expression, 
"They have deeply revolted;" they have not only for- 
saken somewhat of my worship, but they have deeply, 
exceedingly revolted from me. So in chap. ix. of this 
prophecy, ver. 9. '■ They have deeply corrupted them- 
selves;"' they have ver'j- much, exceedingly corrupted 
themselves. 

" Are profound," they are grown deep, that is, (as 



266 



AN EXPOSITION Of 



Chap. V. 



some would have it,) they grow deeper in their ■n-ajs 
of idolatry than God does in the ways of his worship : 
as thus, They will punish more the breaking of any of 
their rules in tlieir invented worship, than God pun- 
ishes the breach of his comman<ls. So I find Mercer, 
that learned interarcter, quoting Rabbi Jarchi as having 
this expression, 0"' "o" ascendit transgreditur ; qui 
offendit occidelur : He who ascends not (to the 
feast) transgresses; he that offendeth (so) shall be 
slain. God only accoimts him a ti-ansgressor that 
comes not up to the feast at the appointed time; but 
they say. whosoever doth not come shall be put to 
death. They will go further in the punishment of the 
breach of their superstitious enactments, than God 
does in punishing of the breach of liis holy law. So 
they are grown deep. Yea, they would seem to go 
further, to be more zealous and earnest for their ways 
of idolatry, than God himself is for his ways of holy 
worship. 

And have we not found this, that revolters, super- 
stitious idolaters, have grown deep thus ? that is, they 
will punish the breach of their superstitious ways more 
deeply than God punishes the breach of liis law; they 
will insist more on time, and will be more eager to 
have their laws fulfilled abundantly, than the true 
worshippers of God are eager to have the law of God 
fulfilled. 

But though I think the Holy Ghost hath a reference 
to these things, the main and principal scope of the 
word I conceive to be this, according as you have it in 
your translations. They are grown " profound ;" that is. 
They are very subtle in their ways of idolatry", they lay 
their snares deep. 

AVe spake before of the snares of idolaters ; now here 
the Holy Ghost charges them with being profound, 
that is, They are subtle, they lay their snares very 
deep : as fowlers and hunters (to follow the metaphor) 
will go into low places and ditches, that so the birds 
may not perceive them ; so the Holy Ghost here saith, 
these are content to go deep, they are deep in their 
plots, they will deny themselves in any thing almost, 
and will he content to lie veiy low, so be it they may 
further their own ends. You find in many gi-eat pro- 
moters of superstition and idolatiy, that they will 
crouch and seem to be very afiable and courteous, and 
in many things even deny themselves, and all to further 
their own ends ; thus they are profound in their sub- 
tilty : accortling to that expression we have in Psal. x. 
9, 10, " He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den : 
he lieth in wait to catch the poor : he doth catch the 
poor, when he draweth him into his net. He crouch- 
eth, and hurablelh himself, that the poor may fall bv 
his strong ones." 

This should teach us to be willing to deny ourselves 
in our own ends that we may promote the true worship 
of God ; for idolaters will crouch, and bow, and deny 
themselves in many things, for the promotion of their 
idolatry. There are many depths, many subtleties in 
their ways ; their powers are strained to the utmost to 
maintain their superstition ; and men that have strong 
parts and good wits, what a gloss are they able to put 
upon the worst things in the world, especially when 
aided by the father of lies! The Scripture tells us' of "the 
depths of Satan," Kcv. ii. 24. Satan in his instruments 
has deep arts, and goes beyond many poor weak and 
simple people. And we have in Scripture the " dences " 
of Satan, 2 Cor. ii. 11, rd roq^am, the reasonings of 
Satan. And then the methods of the devil, Eph. vi. 
11, rdj fuOocdac, the deep. policies of the devil; and in 
nothing more exercised than in the maintenance of 
false worship ; gi-avity and seeming profound learning 
appear to countenance it. This was just the way of 
idolaters at these times, they were grown profound in 
this their way. Hence, 



Obs. 3. The hearts of apostates are the most deeply 
rooted in wickedness. 

No men are so deeply rooted in wickedness as apos- 
tates. The revolters are grown deep, that is, are deeply 
rooted in this their way of wickedness, and amongst 
other wickedness, above all in the ways of superstition 
and idolatrj". Apostates, if they grow supei-stitious and 
idolatrous, are the most deeply rooted in those ways, 
yea, and the most profound and subtle in them. 
Hence you might observe in your own experiences the 
practices of our prelates, they would choose to them- 
selves chaplains of such as had fallen off and aposta- 
tized from that strictness which they seemed as puritans 
to profess in former times ; they thought their choicest 
and best men were such as arose out of the ashes of 
a puritan, as they themselves were wont to express it ; 
knoAving that those that were formerly seemingly strict 
in their practice, were best acquainted wherein the 
consciences of godly men were most tender, and most 
familiar with their habits and places of resort, and 
therefore the most likely to prove the fittest agents. 

Obs. 4. Idolaters, especially apostates, are profound 
and deep. 

AVe had need therefore to beware of those that are 
superstitious when they come with the greatest show 
of arguments : they are deeply rooted, and can hardly 
be got to abandon their superstitions ; we had need 
likewise be deeplv rooted in the truths of God, or they 
will certainly undermine us. The Scripture tells us, 
that " the Spirit of God searcheth the deep things of 
God," 1 Cor. ii. 1 ; revealeth the mysteries of Clirist. 
Those that have that Spirit of God that searcheth 
those deep things of God, are the only persons that are 
likely to stand out against the deep policies of idola- 
ters. And the truth is, ever)" godly man and woman, 
though never so meanly gifted, yet ai-e more profound 
than the gi-eatest scholar in the world that is wicked 
and superstitious ; for they have the Spirit of God, that 
searcheth the deep things of God ; and this it is that 
keeps their hearts from being insnared by all the pro- 
fountlness of false worship. 

Obg. 0. Idolaters are deep in their policies. 

It should teach us then to labour to be wise in the 
worship of God. A\nien we would maintain God in 
his worship, it should teach us to learn to seek to out- 
plot them : they are full of their plots ; why should not 
the Spirit of God teach us wisdom as well as the spirit 
of Satan teaches them ? AVhy should we not exercise 
our parts energetically in the true worship of God, as 
they theirs in the way of superstition and idolatr)' ? 
But we sec it ordinarily otherwise, " The men of the 
world are wiser in tlieir generation than the children 
of light," tliey are deeper in ways of policy, and so de- 
ceive such as are simjile. If you take them on the first 
show of things, thev will seem to come with such colour 
of arguments as will certainly deceive you. Therefore 
you should beg wisdom of God, that you might not be 
deceived tlirough the subtlety of Satan in these men. 

I find divers of the ancients have other interpreta- 
tions of these words; I will not, however, s])end further 
time in discussing them, because I think we have 
already had the meaning of the Holy Ghost in these 
words ; therefore we will jiass on. They " are profound 

"To make slaughter." To make slaughter! what 
does God intend by these words ? He means by their 
making " slaughter," their sacrifices to their idols ; and 
so by the sacrifices, which was the principal part of their 
false worship, he includes all their false worship ; tliey 
were deep in all their false worship, naming the chief 
for the rest. 

But why does he call their sacrifices, making 
"slaughter?" 

In way of reproach. God will not honour llieni by 
saying, "they offered me sacrifice ; no, but it is, " to 



Vee. 2. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



267 



make slaughter." As if God should say, I regard all 
your sacrifices as no better than slaughter, your tem- 
ple no better than shambles, and your priests no other 
than butchers. Thus contemptibly dotli God speak of 
the sacrifices of those that choose their own super- 
stitious ways. Isa. Ixvi. 3, " He that killeth an ox is 
as if he slew a man : he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he 
cut off a dog's neck : he that offereth an oblation, as if 
he offered swine's blood : " and yet there God speaks 
of the sacrifices of Judah, not of Israel. Let the sa- 
crifices be for the matter of them what God requires, 
and offered in the place which God has appointed ; 
yet when men make their sacrifices their own right- 
eousness, and think to put off God by them, I regard 
them no more, saith God, than the cutting off of a dog's 
neck. But these sacrifices of Israel had a twofold 
error in them : Fii-st, they were not offered in the 
place that God woidd have them. Secondly, they 
rested upon them likewise : therefore are they called 
no other than slaughter. Hence observe. 

That whatsoever worship is tendered up to God, if it 
be not his own, or if in that worship (though it be his 
own) we choose our own ways, God accounts it an 
abominable thing, whatsoever show of devotion it may 
have. 

The words " to make slaughter," God uses not merely 
to show the contempt he has of all their sacrifices, but 
by that he secretly insinuates the cruelty of the priests 
and of the princes to those that would not yield to 
their idolatries, their grievous persecution of them, 
even unto blood. They " are profound," saith God, they 
are grown deep in their idolatiT, they are gro'mi to 
the deptli of malice, so that their hearts are enraged 
against those that will not conform, even unto blood : 
No matter what becomes of them, no matter if they were 
all hanged, a company of precise and scrupulous fools, 
that pretend conscience, and do nothing else but trou- 
ble the state. Do not Jeroboam and the council com- 
mand these things ? The kingdom can never be well 
till it be rid of them. 

" Though I have been a rebuker." Though I have 
been an instructor, or corrector ; so the word may be 
rendered, as well as a rebuker. And "have been." or 
am, or will be, you may put it which way you will, is 
not in the text, but simply, " though I 
a rebuker," eruditor, corrector of them 
all. As if God should say, They cannot plead ignorance ; 
indeed, were it that they never had any means, then 
they might have some pretence for what they do, but 
I have been an instructor and rebuker of them all. 

This ])article, " I," hath reference either to the pro- 
phet, or to God himself 

1. The prophet: and then, either actively or pas- 
sively. 

" I have been a rebuker," or I have 
been rebuked ; so some render it. 

1. " I," the prophet, " have been a rebuker." From 
thence the note is, 

Obx. 6. The ministers of God miist rebuke sin. 

2 Tim. iv. 1, 2, "I charge thee before God, and the 
Lord. Jesus Christ," saith Paid to Timothy. And 
among other charges, this was one, that he should re- 
buke the offenders. And Tit. i. 13, " Rebuke them 
sharply," awoToiitoQ, cuttingly, so the word signifies. 
Tit. ii. 15, " Rebuke with all authority." 

This is the work of the ministers of God, to rebuke 
" with all authority," to rebuke " cuttingly," when 
there is cause for it. 

And, indeed, the spkits of sinners are base and vile, 
and a minister of God, coming in his Master's name, is 
above the highest of them. And if tlie rebuke be ad- 
ministered in a gracious manner it will make the 
proudest sinner tremble. Let them seem never so 
scornful outwardly, vet, I sav, let a minister of God 



come in God's name, and speak as the oracle of God, 
he may make the proudest and stoutest sinner to quail 
under his rebukes; for then- spu-its are vile. And 
though it seems grievous for the present to those that 
are rebuked, yet they will bless then- reprovers after- 
ward, if God bless the rebuke ; and others will curse 
them that would not rebidie them in their evil ways. 

2. If we refer this to God himself, " I liave been a 
rebuker ;" that is, not I the prophet only, but I the 
Lord have been a rebuker of them all ; the observa- 
tion is, 1 

Obs. 7. When the ministers of God rebuke accord- 
ing to the oracles of God, God rebukes. And if there 
be any means in the W'Orld to humble the heart of a 
sinner, it is this, to see that God rebukes him in his 
word. You may put these two notes together : 1. God 
rebukes in his word ; and, 2. This is a great means of 
humbling the heart of a sinner. Thou comest to the 
word, and findest thyself rebuked for such and such 
evils that thou art conscious to thyself of; know it was 
God rebuked thee that day, and he will call thee to 
account for those rebukes which he there gave thee. 
Thou earnest, perhaps, to hear what the minister would 
say, but thou foimdest before thou wentest that thou 
■wert rebuked for such and such secret evils thou art 
conscious to thyself of; know, I say, God rebuked thee 
at that time, and look to it, God will call thee to an 
account for his rebukes. 

But God rebukes not only by his word, but some- 
times by his works too ; when he manifests liimself 
against sinners, suiting his works so as to show evi- 
dently that he sets himself against them, then, I say, 
God rebukes them for some special evils, although 
they wiU not see it. Isa. xxvi. 11, "Lord, when 
thy hand is lifted up, they will not see : but they shall 
see." God lifts up his hand to rebuke wicked and 
carnal men, and evidently sets himself against them, 
and they will not see : but they shall see. Hence, 

06*. 8. Idolaters' hearts are stubborn. They were 
profound to make slaughter in then' ways of super- 
stition, though I was a rebuker of them all ; they cared 
not for my rebukes, they regarded not my words, their 
hearts were stubborn and stout against them. J'erbi 
contemptus, idolatrias comes, saith !Mercer upon the 
place. The contempt of God's word is the companion 
of idolatry. Common experience tells us how your 
superstitious, false worshippers slight the word of God ; 
they are above it, they speak jeeringly of the Scrip- 
ture and of warrants from God's word ; and extol the 
fathers and antiquity, and such and such writers, but 
the word of God they usually contemn and scorn. 

Thus it was here, they regarded not what God said 
in his word. Idolaters are very stout against the word 
of God, and contemn it. None of its commands nor 
rebukes but they withstand. Poor vile worms that they 
are ! who are they, that they should dare to resist the 
rebukes of the infinite holy God ? Know, however 
thy spirit rises against his word, it wUl certamly cast 
thee. The psalmist, in Psal. Ixxvi. 6, saith, " At thy 
rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse 
are cast into a dead sleep." And so Psal. Ixxx. 16, 
" They perish at the rebuke of thy countenance." And 
Psal. civ. 7, " At thy rebuke they fled." And Psal. 
xviii. 15, "The foundations of the world were dis- 
covered at thy rebukes." The rebukes of God have a 
gi-eat deal of" power in them, heaven and earth cannot 
stand before them ; how then can that stubborn heart 
of tliine succeed in its opposition ? 

Let us not be troubled, my brethren, nor discouraged, 
at the stoutness of idolaters. They have always re- 
sisted the rebukes of God in his word, and therefore 
let us not think it much though they now withstand 
the evident truth of God, and the works of God, that 
apparently make against them. They were torment- 



268 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. V. 



cd with the wrath of God, but " they repented not to 
give him glorj," Rev. xvi. 9. Many men ai-e ready to 
tliink their cause is good, because their spirits are so 
resolute to slight all that appears against them. Let 
not us have higher thoughts of them because of this, 
for it has alwavs been the course of idolaters to stand 
out stoutly against all the rebukes of God in his -word 
and works, because the Lord has an intent to destroy 
them. Hence, 

Obs. 9. Sin after rebukes is exceeding sinful. It is 
too much to neglect God's commands, but to stand out 
against any intimation of his displeasure is a greater 
evil. God expects that the heart of sinners should in 
such a case melt before him ; and it was the commend- 
ation of Josiah, that when the law was read, his heart 
melted; and indeed an ingenuous spirit is soon re- 
buked. But when the heart of a siimer is got above 
all rebukes, then it hardens exceedingly, and treasures 
up WTath against the day of WTath. AVe ourselves can- 
not bear others to be insensible to our rebukes, wc 
cannot endure them to be disregarded by a child or a 
servant. How shall the infinite God bear oui- slight- 
ing of his rebukes ? 

O let us charge this sin upon our souls. How often 
has God rebuked me in his word and in his works, and 
yet, the Lord knows, this wretched and stubborn heart 
of mine has stood out against it all ! Certainly this 
resisting of the Holy Ghost will lie one day heavy upon 
tliy conscience. Nothing will increase the burden of 
sin more than this, that I have sinned, and that in my 
sin I have stood out against the rebukes of God. As 
in Prov. v. 12, 13, '• And thou mourn at the last, when 
thy flesh and thy body are consumed, and say. How 
have I hated instruction, and my heart despised re- 
proof! " The words are spoken of one gaUant, a brave 
young gallant, that blustereth it out in the world, and 
carries all before him, and cares for nothing that is 
said ; but when the hand of God is upon him, and his 
flesh and body are consumed, then he begins to lament 
his condition. Oh, how have I despised reproof, and 
have not inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! 
This is the aggravation of sin indeed. 

And that we may humble oiu- souls for our standing 
out against God's rebukes, add but this consideration, 
that God has such rebukes in reserve as will force us 
to yield. If we stand out against his rebukes in his 
word and lesser chastisements, against his loving re- 
bukes, let us know that God has " furious rebukes ;" 
so they are called in Ezek. v. 15; xxv. 1 7. A\'lien 
thou comest to the word, or when thy parents, or thy 
governors, or thy friend, rebuke thee for thy sins, God 
rebukes thee in tliera, and these are loving rebukes ; 
but if thou rcjectcst these, know, God has " furious 
rebukes" for thee one day, yea, "rebukes witli flames 
of fire," Isa. Ixvi. 15. 

" Of them all." This (if you apply it to the prophet) 
shows his impartiality. And thence, 

Obs. 10. Prophets' rebukes must be impartial re- 
tukes : not like cobwebs, to take small flies and to let 
the great ones go through; they must be impartial. 
Oh how many prophets have shamened their rebukes 
against those that have been truly conscientious, and 
Tiave saddened their hearts even out of their puljjits ; 
"but have let those that are loose go quiet away ; nay, 
not only quiet, but rejoicing! When the hearts of the 
saints have been saddened, they have sharpened their 
rebukes against these ; but the looser of the parish, or, 
many times, the great ones, have gone away rejoicing. 
Tints, if you take the words, " I have been a rebuker of 
them all," actively. 

Hut if passively, as some do, Thev have rebuked the 
prophet ; as if he should say, They liave been profound 
in their idolatrous ways, and I have been faitliful in 
preaching to them, and what has been my recompence? 



All of them have rebuked me. All of them; not only 
their priests, not only their chief and great men, have 
rebuked me, they indeed might with some show of 
reason bitterly inveigh against me ; but all the people 
have done it too. I have been a rebuke to all the peo- 
ple, they have all been bitter against me, and sharpeiv 
ed their very tongues against me ; Oh, say they, here 
is one that likes not our manner of worship, he must 
have another kind of religion, he tells us that we must 
all go up to Jerusalem and worship there, and nothing 
but that will be accepted. Thus they scorned and re- 
buked him, and even flew in his very face. Hence, 

Obs. 11. It is a hard thing for a few men to stand 
out against a state in matters of rehgion. 

If there be but some few unto whom God hath shown 
another way, and the generality difl"er from them, cer- 
tainly those' few are likely to meet with hard tieatment, 
and to be a rebuke, not only to ministers, but generally 
to all the peo])le ; they must expect to be under the re- 
bukes of all sorts. Thus it was with the prophet, and with 
all that went his way, he was a rebuke wito them all. 

Ver. 3. / know Ephraim, and Israelis nol hid from 
me: for note, O Ephraim, thou commillest whoredom, 
and Israel is dejiled. 

" I know Ephraim." This is A'olitia jxdicialis, nmi 
approbalionis, A knowledge to judge, not a know- 
ledge of approbation. 

" I know Ephraim ;" that is, I know all his shifts, all 
his evasions and his cunning devices, all his plots, pre- 
tences, and base ends. These may be hid from men, 
but I know them all, they are not hid from me. Mark, 
first, " I know Ephraim," and then, I know Israel. 

First, " Ephraim." By " Ephraim," as you have 
heard before, we are to understand the princes, the 
great ones, amongst them, because Jeroboam was of 
the tribe of Ejihraim. " I know Ephraim," that is, I 
know the politic ends of all the great ones amongst 
them : they profess to man that they desire to worship 
me, and say, God forbid that they should change re- 
ligion ; and they cry out against all that would excite 
such suspicions of them amongst their good people. 
But " I know Ephraim," saitli he, I know what his aim 
is, I know what his thoughts are, and what was plotted 
at such a time, and what his chamber counsels with 
certain priests were ; I know what correspondence he 
has with some that coiTupt my worship, and all that 
follow him and favour him, I know them thorouglily, 
all their devices and depths. I know what has been 
working these many years ; how he seems as if he 
would serve me, but I know that what he does is 
merelv to serve his own ends. I know how the poor 
are deluded by his fair and solemn protestations, they 
think he means nothing but well, and that none but a 
company of precise people are jealous of him ; but I 
know what tliey intend, and what their ways are, what- 
soever colour they put upon them. " Epliraim," that 
is, the great ones, the princes, persuade the people that 
Jeroboam and his successors aim at nothing else but 
to reform things for the best, but I know that matters 
are far otherwise ; " I know Ephraim." 

" Israel is not hid from me." That is, the people ; 
they pretend that they do but as they are taught, and that 
they merely submit to authority, and would rejoice in- 
deed if things were otherwise, and matters reformed 
more in accordance with the word of God ; yet some 
things must necessarily be vielded to' for peace sake. 
True indeed, they say, these prophets of the Lord, and 
some others, are good and honest men, and would have 
us to do otherwise ; but things are not yet clear, and 
the course they recommend, though in apparent con- 
formity with the .Scripture*, may bring us a great deal 
of trouble and inconvenience ; for peace sake then we 



Vee. 3. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



269 



must be contented to yield to the judgment cf such and 
such learned and wise men ; and though we yield in 
these matters, yet our hearts are right for God. But 
saith God, " Israel is not hid from me. 

" Israel." That is, the base, temporizing, revolting, 
superstitious spirits of the people, they are not hid 
from me ; their unwillingness to yield themselves to my 
government, their love to their ease and estates, the 
reluctance of their carnal hearts to venture and suffer 
any thing for my truth and ordinances. Israel, in these 
his distempers of heart, is not hid from me ; all these 
things are plain before me ; he may blind men and de- 
ceive his own conscience, but he cannot hide it from mo, 
saith God. From whence the observations are these : 

Obs. 1. God's eye is upon the secrets of men's hearts. 
Certainly, therefore, hypocrites must needs be atheists ; 
they that tliink to put off God with outward shows, 
must needs deny God, as if God did not see the secret 
turnings and windings, plottings, contrivances, and 
aims of theu' hearts. 

And then, oh the patience of the infinite God ! tliat 
notwithstanding he sees what villany there is in the 
world, coloured over with religious protestations and 
professions, yet he bears with it. I know, saith he, I 
know what all their ends and aims are, and what kind 
of success they desire ; although they colour and cover 
them all over with such protestations of religion, and 
a professed for its establishment. Oh the infinite 
patience of God,, that can bear with men who attempt 
to veil theii' iniquities under solemn protestations and 
professions of religion ! At this exhibition of his pa- 
tience we must needs wonder. 

Again, God knows all the hearts and secret aims of 
men ; let us then pray to him to make our own hearts 
known to ourselves. lie knows them, and except we 
be upright in our wisli to know, and unfeignedly 
desire of God that he would show us, our own hearts, 
we possibly may, after many duties performed, perish 
for some secret sin that we were ourselves unconscious 
of. I say, it is possible for persons to go on a long 
time in the profession of religion, and to make con- 
science of all known duties, yet to perish at last for some 
sin that they know not to exist in themselves. 

You will say, This is a hard thing ; what shall be- 
come of us then ? 

To mollify this therefore a little, take this along with 
it : Except thou hast a heart unfeignedly willing to know 
and search itself, and earnest with God that he who 
knows thy heart would make it known to thyself : if 
indeed, thy heart be thus upright, that thou canst appeal 
to God and say. Lord, I know that I have a vile, false, 
and h)i50critical heart, and much evil may lurk secretly 
in it, that I have not known all this while, an evil such as 
I may justly perish in; but, good Lord, make it known to 
me, let me know the worst of myself, let me know the 
evil that is in me, and my purpose is to resist it : if 
thou hast such a heart, thou hast no cause to think 
that thou shalt perish for any evil ways in thee. But 
if thou hast any secret evil in thyself, and dost not in 
the uprightness of thy heart unfeignedly desu'e to know 
it, that so thou mayst forsake it, and get thyself rid of it, 
and canst not appeal to God that thou art willing to have 
it made known unto thee, thy condition may be danger- 
ous, notwithstanding all the duties thou performest. 

Obs. 2. God's eye upon our hearts and ways, is a 
special means to humble us. " I know Ephraira," is 
brought in as a means to humble Ephraim, to humble 
Israel. 

Xo more powerful means in the world to humble the 
heart, than to remember that God looks upon our hearts 
and ways. The discovery of om- evU to others may be 
.some means to humble us. Oh how it would abase men, 
if God should discover to their friends and acquaintance 
all that evil that is in their hearts ! And hereafter, at 



the great day of judgment, when the secrets of all 
hearts shall be disclosed, how will the wicked and un- 
godly be abased before men and angels ! We read of 
the adulterer in Job xxiv. 17, that the morning is to 
them even as the shadow of death ; and if any recog- 
nise them, they are then as in the teiTors of the shadow 
of death. AMcked men (especially adulterers, for it is 
spoken of them) hate the light, and the morning is 
unto them as the shadow of death. Now I argue, if the 
knowledge that men have of om- secret wicked ways 
is so terrible to a guilty conscience, what is it then 
when this guilty conscience shall have real apprehen- 
sions of the infinite God ! He has seen thee when 
thou hast been such a wretch in such an inn, in 
such a tavern, in such a secret place. He has seen 
what thou hast said and plotted ; yea, what thou hast 
thought and plotted. Look upon God thus seeing 
thee, and try if it will not humble thy heart. 
labour to humble thy heart by this, How unwilling 
was I to know such a truth ! how glad when I got a 
thing out of my conscience, that would have forced me 
to measures I was reluctant to adopt ! and whatever I 
pretended, love to myself, to my ease, to my estate, 
made me decline this ti'uth of God ; and God saw all 
this, '\^^len we feel such base workings within, such 
plottings andcontrivings of our hearts for our own selves 
and for our carnal ends and aims, let us consider that 
the eye of God is upon us. Let us conceive we hear 
the voice of God from heaven saying to us, 1 know 
what you are plotting, I know what your aims are, I 
know the base workings of your spirits. Did we but 
apprehend God thus speaking from heaven to us, as 
here he speaks by the prophet, " I know Ephraim, and 
Israel is not hid from me," it would be a special means 
to humble our hearts for evil present, and to prevent 
evil for the future. 

" Now." There is in this word a great emphasis : 
Even still Ephraim goes on in wickedness ; he has 
gone on a great while, and even now when I am com- 
ing against him, he continues still in his wickedness. 
Hence, 

Obs. 3. God will deal with men according to their 
present ways. 

In what he finds them for the present, he will deal 
with them for that especially. Not but that when he 
finds them in evil for the present, he will call them 
to an account for all things that are past too ; but he 
especially suits the punishment to their present ini- 
quities. 

I note this the rather, to show to sinners this useful 
lesson : 'V^'hatsoever thou wast before, though thou 
hast continued a long time in thy wickedness, yet if 
thou hast but now a repenting heart to return unto 
God, there might be hope and help for thee. O con- 
sider this, thou wretched sinner. As if God should 
say here, Eplu-aim has continued wicked a long time, 
but if he had now a heart to return to me, it should be 
well with him ; but even now, to this very moment, 
" Ephraim committeth whoredom : " so say I to the 
vilest sinner in this place, whatsoever thou hast been, 
here is salvation, if now at this instant thou hast a heart 
to turn to God : thou canst not tell whether God will 
ever give thee another now : if thou return 7wtc unto 
him, and repent and believe, thou mayst be saved; 
but if God come upon thee after this exercise, and find 
thee continuing in thy sinful ways, and say, Even 
now, yet for all this, this sinner eontinueth in his sin, 
this will be a heavy thing indeed. So here he comes to 
Ephi-aim, " Now, O Ephrami !" He makes an exclam- 
ation against him ; O Ephi'aim, after all the means that 
have been used to recall thee, yet still, O Ephraim, thou 
continuest in thy idolatry. 

And, " Ephraim, thou committest whoredom," thou 
doest it; thy sin is greater in this, for thou can-iest the 



270 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. V. 



people with thee, and there is little hope of reformation 
till the great ones reform ; if Ephraini commit whore- 
dom, Israel must needs be defiled ; so it foUows : 

" Israel is defiled." There is a twofold defilement of 
the people of Israel. 

1. Defiled morally; that is, by their wicked works : 
as here, by their murders, and thefts, and adulteries. 

2. "Israel is defiled;" that is, they defile my wor- 
ship, and that defiles them. They have defiled my wor- 
ship, and consequently are defiled themselves. And 
that I take to be especially meant here. " Israel is 
defiled;" that is, among other ways of defilement, they 
mingle with heathens, and bring them in to defile my 
worship. In Isa. sivii. 6, God threatens to defile his 
sanctuary, and to pollute his inheritance : that is, when 
he suflfers, by his just judgment, idolaters and heathens to 
come into his sanctuary, to mingle with his inheritance. 

And then, Israel is defiled another way; that is, 
Israel mingles his ovm inventions with my worship ; 
and Israel brings in, or suflers the heathen to come in 
to my worship, and so my worship is defiled, and they 
are defiled in consequence. A\nience, 

Obs. 4. Detiled worship exceedingly defiles the souls 
of people. 

Nothing defiles th« souls of men more ; and, among 
other defilements in worship, the mixing with wicked 
and ungodly men, with such as God would not have 
come into his sanctuary, is especially injiu'ious. 

But you will say, Does the mixture of the wicked 
and ungodly defile the worship of God, or defile others 
in it ? Is the sacrament of the Lord's supper the worse 
if wicked men partake of and unite in that rite ? Am 
I the worse for it, or is the sacrament the worse, is that 
worship defiled ? How may we refer this defilement of 
Israel to our defilement at this time ? Is there any 
chui-ch in the world but has wicked ones in it ? And 
will you say that thev are defiled, and that the worship 
is defiled, because there are wicked amongst them ? 
Then we can go no where in the world but we must be 
defiled, and the worship must be defiled. 

Many think they may from this argue fau'ly, that 
there being a mixture in the best churches, therefore if 
mixtm-es make the communion defiled, then all are 
defiled. It comes fully in my way to speak to this 
point, and I shall do it briefly. 

First, I know none who hold any otherwise but that, 
the best chiu'cli in the world may have wicked men 
creep in and continue amongst them. AAHio knows the 
hearts of men when they come in ? and therefore the 
best churches may have wicked men amongst them. 
This, I say, all men grant ; therefore this objection. 
Will not there be wicked men in the best church ? can 
have no strength in it, for no one denies it; and there- 
fore they that make it, fight with a shadow. 

But, secondly, I lay this for another position, which 
I think all will grant also. That the sacrament is not 
defiled to the receivers merely by the presence of the 
wicked. I verily believe every one will grant this ; for 
ray part I know none who denies this to be a truth, 
namely, that the sacrament is not defiled to the right 
receivers of it, merely because of the [U'esencc of wicked 
men. No one affirms the contrary to tliis, but all that 
I know of, even those that are the strictest in church 
order and discii)line, will grant this to be a truth. 

But then you will say, How shall we distinguish 
mixture of communion, or mixture of worship? 

Not merely because wicked men are there. But, 
first, a congregation is then defiled, if they do not use 
the power that Christ has given to every cluu'ch, of 
easting out all the scandalous persons that are amongst 
them. Now if any church shall (under what ])retence 
soever, as saying they have no power, or that the 
jjower is taken from them, or the like) neglect this duty, 
viz. to cast out tiiose that ai-e unworthy, then the chiu-ch 



is defiled, and their communion is defiled. So that 
their communion is not defiled because the wicked are 
there, but because they neglect the duties of casting 
them out. For let a man be a h}-pocrite, it is not the 
duty of the church to cast him out till he discover him- 
self; but if then the church perform not its duty as it 
ought in his expulsion, then it is defiled. And the ex- 
ample of the incestuous Corinthian, in 1 Cor. v., plainly 
proves this. "A little leaven" (saith the apostle) 
" leavenetli the whole lump." MTiat is that lump 
there ? The church communion ; and the leaven is the 
incestuous person ; and the apostle gives order to cast 
liim out, lest the " whole lump," the whole communion, 
should come to be defiled. So chiurches come to be 
defiled. 

Again further, Not only churches come to be defiled, 
but, secondly, particular persons and communicants 
come to be defiled, if they neglect the duty that belongs 
to them as Christians. That is, Cluist requii-es this. If 
thy brother offend thee, go and tell him his fault be- 
tween thee and him alone ; but if he will not hear thee, 
then take with thee one or two more ; and if he shall 
neglect to hear them, teU it to the church. Now if thou 
hast done this thy duty to all scandalous persons in the 
congregation, then the sin rests on the church, thou 
raayst receive the sacrament with comfort, though 
wicked men be admitted to it: so that though the 
communion be defiled^ that is, defiled to those that are 
guilty, to those that have neglected their duty ; yet, if 
you but do your duty, then, though wicked men may be 
there, you may receive the sacrament with comfort ; 
for though the communion may be defiled in respect of 
others who have neglected their duty, yet to you it 
cannot be defiled. Now then, to conclude this with 
that place in Psal. cxix. 1, Blessed is the man that is 
" undefiled in the way." Blessed are those men that 
in their way, in the course of their lives, keep them- 
selves from defilement, and especially keep themselves 
from defilement in the ways of God's worship. Blessed 
is he whose heart is cleansed from secret tilth, that 
does not defile himself in the vain, carnal plots and 
cunning fetches of wicked men. 

Obs. 6. A defiled nation is near to ruin. 

"Israel is defiled." He speaks of Israel that is 
ready to fall, for so it follows, ver. 5, " Israel and 
Ephi-aim shall fall ;" and here just before he tells us, 
that Israel is defiled. AAlien clothes are so defiled 
that they cannot be purged, we usually cast them out ; 
so when there is defilement and filth amongst a people 
and they will not be purged, the Lord utterly rejects 
them. AAliile God is indeed purging a nation, there 
is hope. As for example, tliough a garment be much 
defiled, yet if you see care taken and cost bestowed to 
cleanse it, that proves that there is an intention to pre- 
serve it. So while the Lord is adopting means to 
purge a nation, there is much hope that tlie Lord in- 
tends to save that nation. And we may comfortably 
hope that this is God's intention toward us. God 
knows, we have been a defiled people, and have defiled 
ourselves; never a one of us but may lay his hand 
upon his heart, and say, I have been defiled, and so 
may descne to be an outcast. But behold, the Lord 
is bestowing cost upon us, and he is cleansing and 
purging us, and therefore we may liope that the Lord 
will not utterly reject us. 

But no marvel that the Lord lets us and our brethren 
lie abroad in frosty nights. Many complain of much 
hardship, many of our brctlu'en are sent from their com- 
fortable houses, and are now fain to lie in the fields in 
the cold. No marvel, I say; this nation has been defiled. 
AVhcn clothes are much defiled, it is not enoiiith to 
wash them and rinse them, but you lay them abroad 
in frosty nights. Yea, there are some defilements that 
cannot \>e taken away but by fire ; and if the Lord will 



Veb. 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



271 



not only wash us and rinse us and lay us abroad, but 
put us into the fire for to cleanse us at last, blessed be 
his name. 

Ver. 4. They will not frame their doings to turn 
unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the 
midst of them, and they have not known the Lord. 

Here lies the evil. Though we be defiled, if God 
be about to cleanse us, there is hope ; but if the words 
that follow in this 4th verse be applied to us, then we 
are a lost people indeed. Israel is defiled indeed, but 
Israel may be brought back again to the true worship 
of God. No, saith God, Israel is not only defiled, but 
he will not frame his doings to turn unto his God. 

" They will not frame theu- doings to turn unto their 
God." The words in the original are very elegant, 
Dn'riSs-Ss aitt'S cri'SSyo urr nS Jerome and Vulg. 
render them, Non dabunt cogitationes, They will not 
give themselves to think of such a thing as turning 
unto the Lord. Mercer and CasteUius, Non dabunt 
operam. They will not do their endeavours to turn unto 
the Lord. TremeUius, JVoii adidbent actiones, They do 
not apply any action of theirs any way to turn to the 
Lord. Drusius and Pagninus, No7i permittunt opera, 
et factu sua, Then- custom in theu- ways of sin will not 
suffer them to turn to the Lord. And the Septuagint 
and Calvin, thus, Ovk tSuicav tu Sia^ovXia avriov, They 
give not their counsels, theii" studies, to turn to the 
Lord. These several translations I find of the words. 
And by all these conjoined, we may arrive at the 
knowledge of the meaning of the Sphit of God here i 
for the words are somewhat strange, therefore we need 
all the light we can get to find out their sense. 

" They will not frame their doings." They will not 
give their mind to turn to the Lord, they will not put 
forth themselves into any postui-e that way. It is true, 
we can do nothing without the Lord, but yet the sin 
lies in oui- wills rather than in oiu- power, therefore 
the will is charged by God. They cannot turn unto 
God of themselves, but yet they may do somewhat, 
they may bend then- thoughts upon it, they may think 
of it, they may attend upon the means. But, saith the 
Holy Ghost, they will do nothing tending that way, 
they will not so much as set themselves into any kind 
of posture of timiing unto me. This is to show what 
little hope of good there was in them for time to come. 
They are far enough from tui'ning unto me, saith God, 
there is no such inclination in them, they are fully 
bent another way : though they cannot do it of them- 
selves, yet they will not so much as give their- minds 
to think of the means. Israel will not frame his do- 
ings to turn unto his God. 

1. He will not so much as set his heart to think of 
any thing that will bring him imto God. Not so much 
as to think, Are my ways right or not right ? What if 
it should prove that my ways are not right, what shall 
become of me then ? This were one step God-ward, 
if a man but thus framed his doings to turn unto God ; 
if he had but such thoughts as these, Lord, what am I 
doing ? What is my way ? Am I right or no ? MTiat 
if_ it should prove that my ways are not right, what 
will become of me ? This were somewhat. But, saith 
God, these are far fe-om any such hesitating thoughts 
in their «inful course, they run on violently and heed- 
lessly, and will not so much as frame then- mhids to 
turn unto me. 

2. Though a man cannot tm-n to God, yet through 
the common work of God's Spirit he may do tliis, 
he may be willing to hear and consider what'is said for 
the ways of God. But, saith he, they are carried on 
with prejudice against the ways of God ; let what will 
be said, they will not frame themselves to consider. 

3. They will not wait upon God in the use of m-.ans. 



It is true, we are poor, weak, and ignorant creatures ; 
but if we would wait upon God to know his mind, if 
we would set our faces that way, it may be God wLU 
reveal himself more clearly unto us. In Jer. 1. 5, 
when God intends good to a people, it is promised, 
that " They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces 
thitherward." True penitents will be inqufring after 
the ways of God with their faces standing thithenvard. 
But, saith God, they will not do this, they wdl not set 
themselves to inquire thus after the mind and ways of 
God. 

4. They will not apply the rule of the word to theii- 
actions. "Wliatsoever they see will make for their own 
ends, that they will follow, but they will not frame 
then- doings so far as to take the rule of the word and 
apply it to their actions. 

5. The light and po^yer they have they will not use. 
They will not break ofl' even gross offences, things that 
they cannot possibly but see to be evil. Though they 
cannot fully and immediately turn to God, yet there 
are some things so gross that they cannot possibly but 
see they are evil : yet, saith God, they will not so 
much as discontinue them, they will not use their 
power to reform them ; and if they thus will not use 
that light which they have, what should they have 
more ? 

6. They will not join in with the work of God. A^^len 
he is in his way toward them, when he himself is about 
to frame them, when he has them in his hand, they will 
oppose his work, they will not join in with it to frame 
themselves to turn unto God. But, Horn. viii. 7, it is 
said, " The carnal mind is not subject to the law of 
God, neither indeed can be." Therefore, in 2 Chron. 
XXX. 8, Hezekiah exhorteth the priests and the peo- 
ple, that they should not be " stiffiiecked," but " j-ield 
themselves unto the Lord;" mark, the yielding of 
themselves unto the Lord is contrary to stifiliecked- 
ness. But now this people are stiffiiecked, they will 
not yield themselves unto the Lord ; though by his gra- 
cious dealings with them he is framing them to tiu'n 
tliem unto himself, they oppose and stand out against 
God's work. Just as when you have a child that you 
would fain frame to such a gestui'e, and you take him 
and put him into such a way ; but now he is so far 
from doing of it, that he wriggles up and down and will 
not suffer you to fi'ame him. ^Mry, saith God, I have 
been framing them myself, I have not only shown 
them what they should do, but my works have been 
so toward them that I have been framing them, but 
they are slifFnecked, they will not be framed, they will 
not join with my work in framing of them, they wiU 
break out in then' wicked ways even at the very time 
when I am fr-aming of them to tm-n them unto myself; 
according unto that expression you have in Hos. vii. 1 , 
"When I would have healed Israel, then the wicked- 
ness of Samaria was discovered ;" that is, when I was 
about to turn them unto me, then, even at that time, 
they break out in their- violence and wickedness. 

7. They will adhere to their old customs, to theii- 
former ways, to what they have received fi'om their 
forefathers, and been trained up in, these they will 
keep to: but to frame themselves to turn unto the 
Lord, that they wiU not. 

8. They will take and improve to the uttermost 
every advantage they can have against the ways of 
God. Those that are against framing of themselves to 
turn unto the Lord when God is about to turn them, 
discover it in this, that if at the time there be any ad- 
vantage that theii- con-u])t hearts can possibly take of 
the ways of God, they will take that and improve it to 
the uttermost : just as a child, if untoward, will take 
any advantage of you ; so it is with those people .who 
have no heart to tiu-n unto the Lord. There is no 
preparation of then- hearts, what then shall I do with 



272 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. V. 



them ? saith God : if their hearts were in any prepara- 
tion it were somewhat, but they are not. AVe read in 
2 Chron. xx., that tlie liigh i)laccs were not taken away, 
because the people liad not prepared their hearts to 
turn unto the Lord. It is similar to this expression in 
the text, the people were not in a teachable, in a con- 
vertible frame of mind. The Lord grant that this 
Scripture may not be true of us at this day ; that the 
reason why there remains so much evil in God's wor- 
ship is, because the people have not prepared their 
hearts, they do not frame their doings to turn unto 
the Lord. It was a charge upon Kehoboam, in 2 
C'l.ron. xii. 14, that " He did evil, because he prepared 
not his heart to seek the Lord." But you will say, 
AVha'. power had he to turn unto the Lord ? he was a 
wicked man. Yea, but this wicked man, though he 
had no saving grace, yet is charged for doing evil in 
that he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord. 
God therefore expects that a people, though not able 
to turn to him thoroughly, yet should have their faces 
Zion-ward ; and as a people in general, so every soul in 
particular. 

Some that are not yet turned to the Lord, yet are in 
a way of turning, in a readiness to receive what God 
shall reveal. This is a happy condition. If God shall 
see a nation, though it be not fully reformed, ready to 
receive what he shall reveal, oh, this is a happy thing. 
As the Scripture saith, John iv. 35, " the fields are 
white already to harvest," that is, there was a prepara- 
tion in the hearts of people to receive the gospel ; they 
are ready to embrace what the mind of God is, when 
it shall be revealed unto them. Oh that this might be 
said of this people, they are willing to hear, consider, 
and observe, what God shall speak. 

God is about to bring us out of superstition, both his 
works and word are tending that way ; but there are 
multitudes of people that will not frame their doings to 
turn unto the Lord, then- spirits are perverse, they arc 
full of prejudice, froward, and reluctant to be con- 
vinced. The apostle Peter bids the saints, in Acts ii. 
40, save themselves from that untoward generation. 
O, let not this charge be upon us, that we arc an un- 
toward generation, that God is framing us for good, 
but we will not frame our doings to turn unto the 
Lord. As we see a workman, wlien he has a piece of 
timber that is knotty and will not work in his hand, he 
casts it into the fire ; or as clay that is not well tempered, 
will not work in the hand of the workman, he many 
times casts it away in anger. It will not work in my 
liand, what shall I do with it ? The Lord is hewing 
of us by his prophets, and seeking to frame this nation 
to his will ; O, let us work in God's hand, let us join in 
his design, and yield ourselves to the work of God, 
that the Lord may not cast us into the fii-e. 

If we will not frame our doings to turn unto the 
Lord, he may break us, break that frame that we raise 
in our own imaginations. Perhaps we are framing to 
ourselves a strange kind of commonwealth, to enjoy 
our ease, and honours, and jirosperity, and so we build 
castles in the air. O, but let us rather frame our 
hearts to turn unto the Lord. If we will not, God may 
])ut us into the fire again. A workman, you know, puts 
the iron into the fire that it may be worked into the 
form he wishes ; and still the iron is hard and it will 
not frame to his hand, then he subjects it to the fire 
and hammer again. So the Lord hath begim to put 
us into the fire that we may frame our doings to turn 
unto him ; and if these we have been in will not bring 
our hearts to a framable disposition, the Lord may re- 
turn us to the fire again and again. And lot not us 
com])lain of the heat of God's fire, but rather let us 
com])lain of the waywardness of our own hearts, that 
we do not frame our doings so as to turn unto the 
Lord. 



But yet, through God's mercy, we cannot say but 
that there are many of every rank, here and thiough- 
out the rest of England, that are framing themselves 
to turn unto the Lord. Let us lake notice of God's 
goodness, therefore, and enlarge a little on the proofs 
of this. 

1. They have abolished what is sinful. It was a 
great plea among us. First let us know what we shall 
have, and then we will cast out this that we have. 
This was a plea fomented by the antichristian party ; 
but, certainly, it was the way of God ; and we have 
cause to bless God for it, that it put into the heart of 
the parliament and of the kingdom, to be willing to 
put down, and to cast out, and that by a solemn oath, 
by lifting up hands unto the most high God, whatso- 
ever was naught. 

2. Their willingness to be directed aright. The par- 
liament has called an assembly, such as I believe never 
yet was in this nation, nor scarce in any other, men of 
gravity, judgment, and holiness, such as they thought 
might best direct them in the ways of God ; and they 
profess that Avhatsoever shall be revealed to be the 
right way, they will walk in it. This is a good frame 
of heart. 

3. Their solemn day of humiliation. The assembly 
has begun with such a day to humble themselves be- 
fore God, that the Lord may guide them to direct 
aright those that had them. There was never such a 
work in England before that was begun with such a 
day of humiliation. Did your convocation ever keep 
such a day unto God, to beg of him directions in the 
work ? 

Let not people be discontented, or cast any slanders 
or calumnies upon them, because of some particular 
failings : for you must know, when God looks upon 
kingdoms and states, he does not so much regard par- 
ticular actions as the general tendency ; now that there 
is so much done in a public way, that there is so much 
framableness, though there be much failing in particu- 
lars, yet we have cause to bless God. It is true, those that 
would fain have a perfect reformation, would have men 
thoroughly frame themselves ])resently, and set up all 
presently without any more ado, and banish all present- 
ly. I suppose this results from a good intention, from 
love to Christ and his ordinances : but we must know it 
is not so easy to refonn a whole nation that has been so 
corrupted and defiled ; therefore, though there be not 
so perfect a reformation at ])rcsent, yet let us bless 
God for what is done, that there is so much framing 
of the doings of the nation to turn unto the Lord, and 
not murmur and repine because all is not done that 
we desire. 

And though perhaps they may never bring the work 
thoroughly to the pitch we desire, yet I make no ques- 
tion but what the parliament and assembly have done, 
will be enough to lay a foundation for another genera- 
tion, if they bring it not to perfection themselves. Oh 
that the Lord would yet further frame our hearts and 
doings to turn unto him ! 

Has God at any time put into your heart a framable 
disposition to turn unto the Lord? Has God begun 
to make you think of yom- ways ? Has he begun to 
excite fear in your hearts concerning your eternal 
estate ? Has he wrought in vou some desires to know 
him, to attend upon him in the use of means ? Make 
much of this framable disposition, for it is very pleasing 
unto God ; God complains where it is not, therefore he 
likes it where it is ; and improve it : oh happy had it 
been with many had they improved that framable ilis- 
position that God had wrought in them ! Cannot you 
remember, when sometimes you came to the word, 
what a melting frame of spirit you had? and in such 
an alHiction you were as iron put into the fire, fit to 
be moulded into any form ? But what is become of 



Vee. 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



this disposition? Is it not worse with you now than 
before ? Have you not lost it ? The time was when 
the word excited in you good desires and dispositions, 
and you have thought, Oh, now I hope God will turn 
me to himself; I hope I shall never be at such a pass 
again as I have been : and thou didst begin to abandon 
such and such a corruption. This was a good frame, 
and if )0u had gone alone and sought God, and ijraycd 
of him" to advance and perfect this work, it had been 
well with you ; but you have fallen upon other busi- 
ness, and gone into company, and, it may be, on the 
next temptation have been overcome, and your hearts 
have been hardened. Iron, you know, when it has 
been once in the fire, and is grown cold, is more un- 
malleable than before : so it is with man}-, after they 
have been in some measure \n-ought upon by the word, 
and broken down by affliction, they have been more 
iinframable than they were before. 

And let us make "much of it likewise in others. Is 
there any friend, or child, or kinsman, or acquaintance 
of yours, brought into this framable dis])osition ? does 
the Lord begin to melt and soften their hearts ? Is 
the Lord, by such a sermon, or by such an affliction, 
beginning to work upon them ? Oh let me advance it 
as much as I can. The devil does so, when he sees us 
in a framable disposition to sin, he sets tempters on 
work to improve it ; and we know it was the way of 
idolaters, when they saw England in a framable dis- 
position to idolatry, what abundance were sent amongst 
us to improve it ! Oh the mercy of God toward 
England, that when we were framing our doings to re- 
turn to idolatry, the Lord comes and puts the frame 
of England more from thence than before it was ! O 
let not us lose this framableness ; though it is not so 
much as we desire, yet let not us lose what it is. 
England would be in a lamentable condition if it 
should lose what it has got from God already. Yet 
further on this, 

06^. 1. Apostates seldom have any inclination to 
turn unto God. 

No meltings of spirit, no yieldings, but their hearts 
are hardened, and they depart further and further from 
God ; for so he speaks of Israel as an apostatizing peo- 
ple. I dare almost challenge you all, when did you 
ever know a notorious apostate turn unto God ? Very 
rarely. I will not say it is impossible, but witli respect 
to apostates that are men of parts, and have gone far 
from God, if they have but proceeded so far as to be 
persecutors or contemners of the truth, as these Israel- 
ites here were, when did you ever know any of them to 
turn unto God ? " They will not frame their doings." 

"Their God." Their God: 1. By profession. 2. 
Their God who has showed much mercy to them, and 
has done them much good. 3. The God who is yet 
willing to be their God. They will not retui-n unto 
him. 

This is the aggravation of their sin, that they will 
not tvu-n to such a God. AVhat ! not turn to him whom 
they profess to be theirs, whom they flatter with their 
mouths, and say that all their good and happiness is in 
him ? not to him who has so blessed them all their 
days ? not to him who is yet willing to be reconciled 
to them ? Oh this is a sore and bitter evil indeed, that 
they will not turn to this God. , 

But jet there is a further thing observable here. 

Obx. 2. True repentance is not only to leave evil 
and to do good, but to turn unto God as our God : 
" 7'lieir God." 

To turn to God as a God in covenant with us ; as a 
God in whom is our portion and happiness ; as a God 
willing to be reconciled. Here indeed is the very for- 
mality of repentance. A man may, by the terrors of the 
law, turn from the practice of a sin ; he may, by the 
strength of natural conscience and self-interest, set upon 



good duties ; but here is no true repentance. True re- 
pentance is this, when we look upon God as tendering 
himself to us as a covenant God in Christ, and so we 
turn unto him. In Jer. iii. 22, " ]{eturn, ye backsliding 
children," (saith the Lord,) " and I will heal your back- 
slidings." Now mark the answer of true penitents ; 
" Behold, we come unto thee : for thou art the Lord 
our God." So when God calls to a sinner. Return, O 
return unto the Lord, for he is willing to be your God 
in an everlasting covenant ; he manifests his grace to- 
ward you in his Son, and ofters you mercy there ; yea, 
he is willing to heal all your backslidings and forgive 
all your sins : and a sinner answers, " Behold, we come 
unto thee; for thou art the Lord our God:" true, in- 
deed, we have sought after vanity, but now our good, 
our happiness, is in thee; " we come unto thee, for thou 
art the Lord our God :" here is true repentance. 

" For the spirit of whoredoms." Here is the reason 
why they turn not unto the Lord, " The spirit of whore- 
doms is in the midst of them." 

1. Many understand by this, that evil unclean spirit 
that possessed them. And then the observation is, 

Obs. 3. It is God's just judgment to give men over 
to the devil to be blinded and hardened, when they 
forsake him and his truth. 

Do not excuse thy sin by saying it is the devil that 
tempts thee, for this may prove its aggravation, that 
by the just judgment of God thou art now given up to 
be under the power of the devil, and to be acted upon 
by him. As in Eph. ii. 2, the Scripture speaks of the 
miserable estate that men are in by nature, dead in 
sin, the children of wrath ; and amongst other aggra- 
vations of their misery, this is not the least, they walk 
according to " the spirit that now worketh in the chil- 
dren of disobedience." The word translated " work- 
eth," ivipyovvTog, implies an effectual, internal activity; 
and this is an aggravation of their misery, and not any 
excuse to them for their sin. Thou hast rejected the 
good Spirit, the holy Spirit of God ; and noM- the spirit 
of whoredom, an unclean, vile spirit, works in thee. 

2. By " the spirit of whoredoms," otiicrs understand 
a violent inclination to uncleanness, both spiritual and 
bodily, confirmed by indulgence. We have had this 
phrase before, in chap. iv. 12. The spirit of fornica- 
tion. So then, saith the prophet, they will not turn 
to the Lord, for there is a violent inclination of spirit, 
an impetus with which they arc carried on in the ways 
of wickedness, that there is little hope of turning them 
to God. " The spirit of whoredoms," that is, the efficacy 
that there is in that wicked disposition of their hearts 
to carry them on so violently. In 2 Thess. ii. 11, the 
Scripture saith, that because men love not the truth, 
the Lord gives them up to the efficacy of error : " Aud 
for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, 
that they should believe a lie ;" so it is in your trans- 
lations, but the words, Ivipyiia 7r\aVi)c> signify the efli- 
cacious inworking of error, to carry them on irresisti- 
bly from error to error. We find sometimes, in meji 
carried on to erroneous ojiinions, such an impetus of 
spirit, such an efficacy of the error in them, which so 
hurries on their hearts, that they cannot calmly or 
quietlv listen to any thing calculated to undeceive 
them." That is a spirit of error; God gives them up to 
the efficacy, the spirit, the activity, the power of error, 
to believe a lie. 

" Is in the midst of them." Tliat is, it is come into 
them, and sitteth as a king and ruleth in their hearts. 
An evil spirit may beset the godly, may compass them 
about, but it gets" not into their midst, they keep it out 
from the throne, it does not reign over them. The 
coming into the midst of them, denotes the full pos- 
session that this unclean spirit, this impetus and strong 
inclination of mind, has over them. And therefore 
vou find, in Prov. viii. 20, that it is said of wisdom, " I 



274 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. V. 



lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the 
paths of judgment." That is, wisdom not only brings 
men to the verge of God's ways, to be a Utile taken 
with their outside, hut brings them into " the midst of 
the paths of judgment ;" that is, they come wholly into 
them, so that they even take full possession of them. 
So in 1 Sam. iv. 3, " Let us fetch tne ark of the cove- 
nant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it 
Cometh among us, it may save us." The force of the 
Hebrew is, that it may come into the 
^^"'i'^ midst of us, and there have full power to 
do- us good and save us. They depended much on 
the ark, and yet it failed them. By the way, we may 
depend too much on a good cause ; the cause may be 
good, and yet, depending on it, and neglecting to re- 
form our own lives, we may fail as they did here. 

!Many men receive an evil spirit quickly into their 
midst, when, God knows, the good Spirit of the Lord 
stands knocking at the door of their hearts, and can- 
not have entertainment even in the outer room. 

" And they have not known the Lord." That is, 
they know not my greatness, my holiness, they know 
not" what a jealous God I am. Idolaters have low 
and mean apprehensions of God. The right know- 
ledge of God will lead the heart to seek after the woi-- 
ship acceptable to him ; but when men know not God, 
and discern not Iiis glory, greatness, and excellency, 
they think to put him off with their own devices and 
will worship, their own fancies and conceits. A soul 
that rightly apprehends what God is, dares not tender 
up to God any worship but his own. 

Now from the connexion of these words, " The spirit 
of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have 
not known the Lord," a specially important observ- 
ation flows. 

Obs. 4. Impetuousness of spirit blinds the mind. 
" The spirit of whoredoms is in them ;" and then fol- 
lows, " they have not known the Lord." AVhatsoever 
is said then against their way cannot convince them. 
Men do not consider how tliey come to be blinded, 
although ordinaiy experience points out the manner : 
when the mind is possessed by passion, love, fear, sor- 
row, or any other strong affection, and carried out 
powerfully to the object which excites them, it will not 
listen to, will not understand, any thing urged against 
it ; the voice of reason is unheeded, charming never 
so wisely. Some have a sjiirit of sluggishness, and they 
love their ease ; a spiiit of covetousness, and they must 
have their estates ; a spirit of ambition, and they must 
have their honom- and respect ; a spu-it of pride and 
self-love, and they must not on any account grant tliat 
they arc ignorant and mistaken ; therefore they cannot 
see' the truths, the ways of God. But now let God 
humble such men, let tlie edge of their spirits be taken 
off, let him come and but mortify these their prevailing 
lusts, and then they with ease begin to sec that which 
they could never see before ; then a mere hint of any 
truth moves their hearts ; whereas before, all the means 
of conviction were unavailing. 

O my brethren, when we come to examine truths, 
let us look to our spirits. " Blessed is the man that 
fearcth the Lord ;" him will the Lord teach in his right 
way. AVhen a man, humbling his soul before the 
Lord, and being jealous of his own spirit, examines a 
truth, and cries to God to subdue w!\at is evil in him, 
and to give him a teachable heart to discover the 
truth ; siippose tliat yet he cannot find it ; let such a 
man walk according to the light whcreunto lie has at- 
tained, and he may rest in hope that God in due time 
will show liim more. But that which is evil in God's 
eyes, and in the eyes of the saints, is, when men arc 
hindered from seei'n" a truth by a spirit of opposition 
to it. No gracious heart can take it ill, if he see one 
-that has a spirit subject to God, a spirit wherein the 



fear of God appears, in an unfeigned desire to know 
what the mind of God is : suppose that for the present 
I cannot make such a man understand what I would, 
yet so long as his spirit is thus submissive to God, I 
have no cause to be provoked against him, but to treat 
him with all love, meekness, and gentleness, and expect 
that God in due time will reveal himself unto him. 
But when one professes to desire to know the truths 
and mind of God ; and yet there appears a spirit of 
opposition, pride, and vain-glory ; oh, this it is which is 
grievous in the eyes of God, and wearisome to his saints. 

Ver. 5. And the pride of Israel doth testify to hii 
face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fallin their 
iniquity : Judah also shall fall iiilfi them. 

Mark, as there is a connexion between a spirit o\ 
whoredom and not knowing God, so there is a con- 
nexion between not knowing God and the pride of 
Israel. They know not the Lord, and the pride ' ; 
Israel doth testify to his face. From whence, 
Obs. 1. Ignorance and pride usually go together. 
There are no men so conceited of their knowledge 
as the ignorant. For where there is knowledge, there 
a man sees that he knows but little, and is able to dis- 
cover his own deficiency ; but an ignorant man is no; 
able to discover his own ignorance, and therefore usu- 
ally he is proud. You shall have many men, and 
women too, that will pretend such abundance of know- 
ledge, and their hearts are puffed up, because they 
have got some expressions more than others have, as ii 
they were somebody, and had some manifestations of 
things to them more than others have ; yet come and 
examine things at the bottom, and the truth is, they are 
ignorant of tlie verj- principles of religion. 1 Tim. vi. 4, 
"He is proud, knowing nothing," saith the text ; and \et 
he sjjcaks of those that are full of vain questions and 
janglings about matters of religion, that will come with 
such objections and curiosities of questions, yet tin 
Holy Ghost saith, he is proud and knows nothing. 
And" certainly, the man that is there spoken of is a man 
as much conceited of his knowledge as you can con- 
ceive a man to be, as appears plainly in the text. 

But now, wisdom and humility, they likewise go to- 
gether too. " With the lowly is wisdom," Prov. xi. 2. 
If the heart be brought under God, put in a gracious, 
humble, lowly frame, with the lowly there is wisdom, 
the Lord dcli'ghteth to reveal himself to the humble. 

" The pride of Israel." The Seventy read the words 
otherwise : The injurv and the -m-ong 
that Israel has done unto God, shall be iji^^,""^i^x. 
lirought down, shall be humbled : for I _ 
suppose their meaning in that translation is, that 
whereas Israel by his wicked ways has T\Tonged and 
been injurious to God, he shall be humbled for it, he 
shall be brought down and made to know what it is for 
him so to wTong God. And indeed, those that corrupt 
God's worship are the greatest wrongers of God in the 
world, thcv do the greatest injury unto God. 

But we' mav safely keep to the translation in your 
books, as more suitable to the original than that of the 
Seventv, and then the observation is, 

Obs.'2. Idolaters are proud men, and idolatry is a 
proud sin. 

Tlic scope of the prophet here is chiefly to rebuke 
them for their false worship; though he speaks d 
other sins, yet that is the main. "The pride of Israel 
doth testify to his face ; " Israel will have their own way 
of worshi]) and forsake God, O proud hearts that they 
have! Idolatry is a proud sin. In all disobediencr 
against God there is much pride : yride of the heart i 
manifested notonlv in clothes and in fine tilings, but in 
disobedience against God; and as in all sin there is pride, 
so in a more peculiar manner in the sin of idolatry. For, 



VeE. 5. 



THE PKOPHECY OF HOSEA. 



275 



1. Idolaters regard the ti-ue worship of God as a 
mean thing, as a thing beneath them. Their way of 
worship is pompous, fine, and splendid ; but t!ie true 
worship of God is poor, low, and mean. All your su- 
perstitious and idolatrous people look thus on the sim- 
plicity of the ways and worship of God. 

2. They presume to put more dignity on a creature 
than God has, to put more honour on places than God 
and nature have imposed. God has made them thus 
and thus, but I will exalt them higher, and put an ex- 
cellency, a spiritual, yea, a divine excellency upon them ; 
for so idolaters take upon themselves to do, and this is 
horriljle pride. 

3. They prescribe the form of God's worship. The 
worship of God is the dearest thing he has in the world ; 
and for any creatui'e to take upon him to prescribe 
which way he shall be worshipped, is the most notori- 
ous pride in the world. 

4. They honour what is a man's own because it is 
his own, rather than what is God's. Do not you see it 
plainly in all superstitious, idolatrous people ? As m that 
one thing of days ? God has set one day apart for the 
honouring of himself, and for the celebration of the 
birth, death, resiu-rection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, 
and of the whole work of our redemption : how is 
that day slighted and neglected ! But what a horrible 
wickedness is it accounted not to keep that which man 
sets apart by himself, that day which is of man's ap- 
pointment ! Jlen will set apart a day for the honour 
of Christ, and insist that Christ is quite forgotten if 
that day be forgotten, and Christ is much dishonoured 
if that day be not regarded. I appeal to you, who sets 
it apart ? whose is it ? Is it God's, or is it yom's ? 
God's ? Certainly, if such a thing were so acceptable 
to God as men conceive it to be, we should have some 
little hint, somewhat in the book of God regarding it. 
We have the story of all the acts of the apostles, 
what they did m several places, and there is not the 
least mention of any such thing of their honom-ing 
Christ, by setting a day apart for the celebration of liis 
nativity : we have the epistles to several chiurches upon 
several occasions, and we find no notice taken of any 
such thing in any church they established. Surely 
therefore it is men's own, there is nothing in God's 
word for it, how highly soever it is honoiu'ed. But we 
have enough in Scriptme for God's own day, the Lord's 
day ; it is appointed by God himself to be a day of 
thanksgiving for the birth, resui'rection, and ascension 
of Chi'ist, and for the whole work of our redemption : 
but man, out of his pride, will have another day, and so 
set his post by God's post ; he thinks it is not honour 
enough to Cln-ist to put the celebration of his bu'th, 
death, resurrection, ascension, all together in one dayr ; 
no, he thinks it conduces more to the honour of Christ 
to have several days, one for his birth, another for liis 
resmTCCtion, and another for his ascension ; whereas 
God hath put all into one, and would have his Son 
honoured by the observation of that one day. 

v:Da n:yi ." P°^^ testify to his face." In the 
original it is, answereth to his face. When 
any thing is retm-ned suitable to the work expended, 
that is said to answer that work : as, when the ground 
brings forth corn for the husbandman, then it answers 
to the seed and labour of the husbandman ; Gen. xsx. 
33, '■ So shall my righteousness answer for me," saith 
Jacob to Laban, I shall have that which is suitable to 
my righteousness. So here. The pride of Israel answer- 
eth to his face, that is, the fruit of their pride shall be, 
in the punishment of it, fully answerable to its sinful- 
fulness : so I find many render it. Micah i. 2, " Let 
the Lord God be witness against you," testify against 

' Or, that his brother does not see what he does. This 
passage must be understood, 1. Of lesser differences. 2. Not 
absolutely nor always, but in things wherein one is not clear ; 



you, ( it is the same in Hebrew,) or answer you ac- 
cording to your sins, in the way of punishment. When 
the Lord brings suitable judgments, full up to the mea- 
sure of men's sins, those judgments • do answer ; yea, 
and witness against them, they witness to the faces of 
those men the guilt of those sms. 

AA'ell, but we will rather take it, and so it is to be 
understood I think, according to what you read in 
your books, " The pride of Israel doth testify to his 
face : " that is, the pride that appears in Israel doth 
fully testify the horrible wickedness and obstinacy that 
is in Israel, it testifies it to his face. It is true, you can- 
not see the heart ; but pride in the heart seldom lies 
there long secret, for it is a sin that must be above- 
board ; pride must vent itself, in that its glory consists. 
You could not see the vileness and wickedness that 
was in a sinner's heart before ; but now this sin " pride " 
that is sent forth, is a loud witness against him of the 
evil that dwells within. 

There is a secret pride, and a witnessing pride. 
Isa. iii. 9, '■ The show of their countenance doth wit- 
ness against them ; and they declare then- sin as Sodom, 
they liide it not," but manifest it outwardly in their 
very countenance : it is taken from harlots ; some that 
are at first departed from their husbands keep things 
very secretly, and you shall perceive them demure in 
their countenance; but at length they come to be bold 
and impudent in then- filthiness, and you may perceive 
adultery in then- very countenance, and they witness 
openly in their words and looks the wickedness of their 
hearts. As that sm of adultery, so almost aU sms are 
witnessed where pride is discovered. No sin disgraces 
men more than pride, and that is the curse of God 
upon it. Pride seeks for the greatest honour to a man, 
and there is nothing that doth more dishonour him. 
■Why ? Because pride doth testify that there is a woeful 
deal of evil in that man's heart : as I will instance a 
little. 

A man that differs in judgment from his brethren in 
divers things, pretends this, he cannot see the truth of 
God, wliich he would fain see ; be cannot do as his 
brother, for his conscience bindeth him otherwise. But, 
you will say, every man pleads conscience ; how shall 
we know whether it be the stoutness of his heart, or 
the tenderness of his conscience ? Thus, if this man 
behaves himself humbly, and the rather humbly in all 
other things, because he cannot see as his brother ui 
some particulars, and so is in danger to be an offence 
to his brother, and therefore his soul is humbled ; * this 
is a good witness that it is conscience, and not mere 
obstinacy, that makes him differ. But now, if his be- 
haviour be high and proud when he differeth from liis 
brother, and he does not consider it as an affliction to 
him that he cannot see as his brother, but censures him, 
and thinks that it is either thi-ough his weakness or his 
wilfulness that he will not see, and so carries himself 
high and proudly before his brother, this witnessetli to 
his face that it is stubbornness and singularity. Tlius 
his pride testifies to his face the inward wickedness of 
his heart. 

And as in a chui-ch, this is a principle, that though 
a man be guilty of many and gi'eat sins, yet he is not 
to be cast out but for obstinacy. You will say, How 
shall we know that obstinacy is in a man's heart ? 1 
know many observe such and such rules for it, as, if 
you do not reform when certain learned men tell you 
what they would do, &c. But we say, if, after an 
offence and admonition, any one in a congregation 
conducts himself proudly, this, liis proud behaviour, wit- 
nesseth to his face, that it is not out of tenderness or 
scruple of conscience that ho yields not to what his 

for if he be, he cannot but think it is at least weakness in 
that particular, (though in others he may judge him stronger 
than himself, > that he does not see the same with him. 



276 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



ClIAP. V. 



brethren -nould have him, but through the stoutness of 
his heart. His " pride testifleth to liis face." 

The pride of men's hearts witnesses much against 
them. I remember I have read in Bede, a story of a 
.svnod or assembly of divines, held in England in the 
time of Austin, then bishop of Canterbury. On convening 
together they went to a holy anchorite, to advise with 
him, whether they should yield to what Austin desired 
to impose on them ? and he replied. If he be a man of 
God, yield to him ; if not, stand out against him. They 
answer, A man of God ! how shall we know that, 
whether he be a man of God or no ? Whereupon he 
said, If he be humble ; for Jesus Christ saith, " Learn 
of me, for I am meek and humble in heart :" if he be a 
humble man, he is a man of God, and then learn of 
him. But how shall we judge of his humility? say 
they : and he replied, You shall perceive it by iiis be- 
haviour : let him arrive at the place of assembly before 
you, and if then you perceive him behave himself im- 
periously, proudly, not so much as to rise to show you 
any respect, then take it for granted that he is a proud 
man, and reject what he imposes ; but if he be meek, 
humble, and lowly in his demeanour to you, then regard 
what he saith. So when they came to the assembly, 
Austin sat in his chair, in a proud, imperious manner, 
and would not stir to any of them : upon that they re- 
jected whatsoever he said, for according to the counsel 
of the holy man, his pride did witness to his face that 
he had a vile and a wicked heart, and did not come to 
them in the name of Clirist. 

That which comes from the humble and lowly is 
much to be regarded. Humility does witness to the 
face of a man, that he knows much of the mind of 
Christ ; and pride witnesses to the face of a man, that 
he i^ not acquainted with the mind of Clu-ist. 

The word iisj here translated " pride," I find that a 
learned interpreter, Livelius, because in itself it signi- 
fies excellency, thinks it refers to God, who swears " by 
the excellency of Jacob," Amos viii. 7 ; and so interprets 
it thus. That God who is the excellency of Israel, in 
whom Israel should glory, is he that doth witness 
against them. And I find some incline to this ; but 
the other I conceive rather to be the scope of the Holy 
Ghost, taking the word as it is translated for " pride," 
and the " testifying to his foce " for an open, apparent 
witnessing, so as to render it manifest. 

" Tlierefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their 
iniquity." Ephraim is the princes of Israel ; they were 
proud because of tlic honour they had. And Israel, 
the people, they were proud because they had great 
men to bear them out, and they could plead authority 
for what they did. But they shall both fall, both 
Ephraim and Israel. Hence, 

Ob-i. 3. Tiie fruit of sin is a casting down. 

It is here said, they shall fall, rather than that they 
shall be punished, in reference to what went before ; 
for there he had spoken of the pride of Israel : and from 
thence further 

Obs. 4. Pride goes before a fall. God will cast 
down the proud ; and certainly, when those that are 
])roud fall, they must needs fall very low, because a 
proud man lifts up himself on high, and you know, ac- 
cording to the height, so is the fall : now a ])roud man 
lifts up himself so high indeed, as even to exalt himself 
above God, therefore his fall must needs be very great. 
And upon this I remember Bernard remarks. Here is 
the reason why a proud man can have no grace from 
God. AVhy ? God is the fountain of grace, and it is a rule 
in nature, tliat tlie stream that comes from a fountain 
ascends no higher than its source. Now God being the 
fountain of all grace, surely grace cannot rise higher 
than God himself; but a proud man lifts himself up 
above God, therefore he is above grace, gi-ace cannot 
reach him. 



1. A proud man goes from God, as if he could live 
without him ; for that is the pride of men's hearts, when 
they have outward i)rosperity they go from God, as if 
they could live without him. 

2. He goes against God, as if he were able to resist 
him. 

3. He goes beyond God, as if he made himself the 
end of all his actions. 

4. He lifts uj) himself above God, as if there were 
more excellency in him than in God. He lifts up his 
will above God, and that two ways : 

(1.) He desires his will to be followed rather than 
God's. 

(2.) AAHiereas God is contented to have his will only 
in just and good things; a ])roud man saith, I will 
have my will, whether it be just or not. Come and 
deal with a proud man and say. Do you well in this ? is 
this fit ? I will have my will, is the reply : this is more 
than God challenges to himself. God will have his will 
in nothing but what is good and just ; thou wilt have 
thy will whether it be just or no : thus thou goest be- 
yond God, and liftest up thyself above him, therefore 
surely thou shalt fall. 

I need not show you any example of the fall of proud 
men ; tliis our age manifests it clearly enough. How 
hath God cast a stain on proud, superstitious men! 
You know what a height they were grown to, two or 
tliree years since ; and now two, if not three, kmgdoms 
have lifted up their hands to the most high God to ex- 
tirjiatc them. Their pride did testify to their faces, 
and no marvel that they are fallen ; and the Lord cast 
them so far down, that they may never be able to rise 
up in their pride again. 

" In their iniquity." The Hebrew 3 ^.,. 
signifies foi', as well as "in ;" fall for their 
iniquity, as well as in their iniquity. But to keep to the 
word, they shall " fall in their iniquity." Surely they 
fall hard who fall in their iniquity, thej- fall so as to break 
their bones, yea, ofttimes to their utter destruction. 

My brethren, these are falling times, and if we fall 
in our iniquities, great and grievous shall be our fall ; 
but if our iniquities be removed by faith and repent- 
ance, though we should fall, yet we shall fall into the 
bosom of om- Father, and into the arms of Jesus 
Christ. How much better is it, seeing that men are 
like to fall, to labour then to remove our iniquities be- 
forehand, and not to fall in them ! And if we fall not 
in our iniquity, but in the cause of God, and on ac- 
count of the grace given unto us, then we may be of 
more use in our fall than we were in our standing. As 
it is with corn, which faUing into the ground fructifies, 
and is more profitable then than when it was in the 
granary ; so many godly men, many young ones, that 
are fallen within these two or three years, not in or for 
their iniquity, but in the cause of God, and in the 
exercise of their graces. They are fallen indeed, but 
fallen into the arms of God, and into the bosom of 
Chi-ist : and they are as fruitful in their fall as they were 
in their standing, for no question but God will cause 
much fruit and a plentiful harvest for England to arise 
in consequence. 

"Judah also shall fall with them." Mark, first 
Ephraim shall fall, and then Judah, for indeed Ejikraim 
was first in sin. The ten tribes first forsook the true 
worship of God, and they brought in Judah together 
with them, and the text saith, that " Judah shall fall 
with them." This is here mentioned to aggravate 
Ephraim's sin, and the judgment attendant, thus; This 
shall lie heavy on Ephraim one day, tliat not only he 
has ruined liimself, but ruined Judah too; brought 
Judah into his sin, and involved him in his plagues. 
Hence, 

Obs. 5. It is a great aggravation for any one to think 
what misery he brings" others into, when God truly 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



277 



enlightens his conscience. It may be God's hand is 
upon thee for thy sin. This is grievous. Oh but, to- 
gether with the sin, have not I by my counsel, by my 
example, by my countenance, brought others into sin ? 
And I have brought them into misery as well as myself: 
it may be there are many in hell at this time whom I 
have holpen thither. It is true, God's hand is upon 
me : I am falling, and whither I shall fall I know not ; 
I see hell open, and I may fall into it ; however, I am 
afraid of this, that there are some fallen into hell already, 
of whose sin I was the cause ; and is it possible that I 
i-hould be preserved out of it ? must I not follow them 
and fall thither too, when they are there already througli 
my wickedness ? You, therefore, that have associated 
wi'th, and led others to wickedness, many of your com- 
panions may be dead and gone, without any manifest- 
ation of repentance ; you had indeed need to be tho- 
roughly humbled. 

Obs. 6. It is no plea, you see, for any one to say, I 
will follow the example of others. If you will follow 
the example of others you must perish with others. 
Judah follows the example of Ephraim, and Judah 
must fall with Ephraim. 

Obs. 7. If God's people comply with W'icked men, 
they must expect to fall with tliem in outward judg- 
ments. Judah was the only people God had on the 
earth, and as Israel is a type of the apostate church 
so is Judah a type of the true church ; yet it seems that 
Judah, though the true church and the only people of 
God, very much complied with Israel ; and complying 
with Israel in false worship, they must fall with them. 
Come out from amongst them, my people, lest, being 
partakers of their sins, you be partakers of their plagues 
too. And this, I make no question, is the reason why 
so many of God's servants fall at this day, they have 
conformed to the times and defiled themselves ; though 
we cannot say so of every one of them that fall in this 
cause, yet it is to be feared it has been the case with 
many. And it may be, though we dare not determine 
of God's ways, for tlie thoughts of God's ways in mercy 
are higher than our thoughts, higher than the Jieavens 
are above the earth, yet we have cause to fear tliat many, 
if not most of this generation, shall fall before God 
brings forth this glorious work of his in saving our 
Zion. 

But here is a difficulty ; in the first chapter you heard 
that God, though he thi'eatened Israel, yet said, " I will 
have mercy upon Judah ;" but here he saith, Ephraim 
shall fall, and Judah shall fall with him. Now for 
the reconciling of tliat, we are to know that though 
Judah fall with Israel, yet there shall be a great deal 
of difference in their fall. Israel, the ten tribes, shall 
be brought into captivity so as never to rsturn again ; 
I mean, never to return from their captivity as Judah 
did ; Judah was to return again after seventy years : 
so Judah fell with them, but'they fell not as they fell. 
Though the saints therefore may be scourged with rods, 
yea, with scorpions, as they are at this day, as well as 
wicked men, yet the Lord does not, will not, take his 
loving-kindness from them. 

There is yet one particular more to be observed, and 
it is from the Hebrew particle EJ, " Judah also shall 
fall with them ; " and I question not but the Spirit of 
God holds forth this note from it. 

Obs. 8. The falling of the saints w-lth wicked men is 
of special consideration. There is much in it; some 
special matter to be considered of in the falling of God's 
people with the wicked. Indeed it is that which, in 
these days, puts us to a stand ; w-e wonder at the ways 
of God, his judgments are past finding out : we must 
adore them in what we do not understand. That the 
hand of God should be stretched out against the wicked. 
against such as have corrupted his worship bv their 
own superstitions, is no marvel ; but that so niany of 



his dear saints, so precious in his eyes, in all tlie sur- 
rounding countries, should suffer such hard things, and 
fall together with the wicked, we are at a stand, and 
know not what tliis means. What ! Judah fall also 
with Israel, wlien God had no other people on the face 
of the earth? surely there is some great matter in it. It 
is, I say, of special consideration : and there are many 
tilings that God would have us seriously to observe in 
the fiill of his people together with wicked men. 

1. How holy a God he is. He spared not his own 
Son, and he spares not his dearest ones. He will give 
the dearly beloved of his soul into the hands of his 
enemies. God had but one Son that never sinned 
against him ; but he has not one son that never was 
afflicted by him. And therefore we have no cause to 
wonder that the godly sometimes suffer, for his own 
Son did. 

2. None must presume on former services. When 
Israel forsook God Judah did cleave to God's true wor- 
ship, and in that God was much honoured. But Judah 
must not rely on that ; Oh, I have done service for 
God, when others forsook him I cleaved to him : and so 
think to take more liberty afterward. No, saith God, 
though Judah has much honoured me, and adhered to 
mv worship, when Israel, the ten tribes, forsook me, yet 
ifjudah shall afterwards comply with Israel, Judah 
shall likewise fall. None must presume upon fonner ser- 
vices. It is customary with men, if they have been useful 
in some things, to begin to take liberty to themselves to 
do what is not convenient, thinking that because they 
have done some service they must not now be contra- 
dicted in any of their desires. Thus we find it often 
among men, and from this many amongst us have fallen. 
How many have there been, that in the beginning of this 
parliament, and at the commencement of these wars, 
have done good service for the commonwealth ; and 
afterwards began to be high and proud, and they must 
have what they will, and none must contradict them, 
but every body must submit unto them ! and so through 
their pride, though they have done good service, yet 
afterward they fall. Let every one take heed of this, 
both in regard of God, and also with respect to man. 
You that have been most forward in the public cause, 
never think to presume because of what you have done ; 
but walk humbly now, and be serviceable still, for other- 
wise you may iall, notwithstanding your services, as 
Judah did. 

.3. God engages himself to no people if they transgress. 
" Judah also shall fall : " by that God declares lliat there 
are no men, though never so useful, but he can do with- 
out. Perhaps you may think, if you desert the cause, 
where will there be any to stand up in your room ? 
Take heed, though you may think you are the most 
useful man, either in the ministry, or in the city, know- 
that God can do without you, and you may fall as well 
as other men. 

4. If his own people fall with the wicked, what then 
may wicked men expect ? If such things be done to the 
green trees, what shall be done to the dry? If judg- 
ment begin at the house of God, where shall the wick- 
ed and ungodly appear ? 

Ver. 6. Theij shall go uith their flocks and ui'lh their 
herds to seek the Lord ; bid theij shall notjiiid him ; he 
hath withdrawn himself from them. 

Shall they fall ? No, they have a way to prevent it ; 
they will pacify God with ihe multitude of their sacri- 
fices, their flocks and their herds, they are content to 
spend those all in sacrifices unto God ; and shall this 
people fall? There is much to be observed from every 
word here ; the interpretation is not difficult, and the 
observations I shall pass briefly. 

" Thev shall go.'' '•z^' I bunt hue et ilhic, modo ad 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. V. 



hunc, modo ad ilium monlem, as interpreters render it ; 
They shall run up and down, from one place to another, 
from one sacrifice to anotlier, in a kind of huriy of 
spirit. And from that word there may be this ob- 
served : 

06*. 1. Those who depend on duties ai-e in a dis- 
traction of spirit when their duties prevail not. They 
often change their duties, but they change not their 
hearts. Many think, Well, I have done thus ; yea, but 
if I shall add this to what I have done, then I shall 
prevail : whereas those that do their duties in obedience 
to God, and go out of themselves and depend for their 
acceptance on a higher sacrifice, on Jesus Christ ; those 
go on witli much sweetness and quietness of spu-it, 
though for the present they see not the thing perform- 
ed whicli they aim at in thcu- duties : their spirits are 
not in a hurry and in a chstraction as the spirits of others 
that de])cnd upon their duties. 

04*. -. God contemns the services of hypocrites, of 
superstitious and idolatrous apostates. " With their 
flocks and herds." He means, with their sacrifices, but 
he gives them not the name of sacrifices, but only " their 
flocks and herds," for they are not worthy of that name. 

Obs. 3. It is a sad thing when God will not own as 
his what we tender up to him. " Their flocks and their 
herds." Mark, they make use of their own, according 
to their own mind, in their own ways, to worship me as 
they Hst ; and therefore God doth not call them his, 
doth not own them as Jiis, but he terms them " Iheir 
flocks and their herds ;" Wliat they do, saith God, what 
thev offer, is then' own, theu' flocks and their herds, I 
will not own them : so in our sacrifices of prayer and 
praise, ti,-pified by those legal sacrifices, in which we 
seem to tender up ourselves wholly unto God ; for God 
to say, All that you have presented all this while in 
your prayers, I own not, these are none of mine, they 
arc all your own ; this were indeed a sad thing. 

There is no such way to put an excellency upon any 
thing we have, upon our parts, abilities, or estates, as 
this, to tender them upfu-st unto God; and if God shall 
please to own them, then to receive them again out of 
his hands ; we shall then receive them with abundance 
of sweetness and excellency. But here he calls them, 
" Iheir flocks and Iheir herds ; " though they were ten- 
dered unto God in saci'ifice, yet he will not say they 
are his, but theu' own. Thus it is with all hj'pocrites, 
and formal and superstitious persons, in their services. 
Self is the princijile of what you do, and therefore all 
your servicesremainyoui- own, you serve yourself rather 
than God in them. 

Herein lies tlie sweetness and true comfort of a 
man's estate, or of whatsoever he possesses, when he 
shall consecrate and devote them all to God so that 
they remain no longer liis own. Tliis is a sacrifice that 
God is well pleased with. These are my talents, saith 
God, this is my estate, here I return to you again : and 
when a man shall take what he has as having first con- 
secrated and devoted it to God, and receiving it out of 
God's hand again, (), this adds a sweetness and a 
blessing to it. All we have is God's, as he is the first 
cause of all; but mark, God rejoices as much, if not 
more, in a second right that lie lias to our possessions, 
namely, by our tendering up all to him in a gracious 
manner, as he does in the first right of being the cause 
of all. I beseech you observe this, God has a twofold 
right to the estates, [larts, and abilities of his jieople. 
First, he has a right to them as lie is the cause of 
them; I gave them to you, therefore they are mine. 
But secondly, when his servants by an exercise of 
grace shall offer them up again to him. Now, saith 
God, they are mine by a second right ; and this second 
right to them, they being tendered up to me in a lioly 
manner, is the right that I rejoice in ; and this will be 
most comfortable to vou. O my brethren, let us not 



deprive God of this second right to all we have, or are, 
or can do, for this will not at all weaken our right, but 
strengthen, sweeten, and bless oui- possessions abund- 
antly. 

06*. 4. Superstitious and idolati'ous people are 
abundant in their services. " They shall go with their 
flocks and with theii- herds." 

They are content to go with all theu- flocks and their 
herds to seek after God ; thousands of rams and ten 
thousand rivers of oil, any thing to offer up unto God ; 
but mark, it is in their own form, and on their own 
ordinances, men will expend in abundance ; on God's, 
as little as possible, as might be again instanced in in 
regard of setting of days apart for God. 

Natural conscience tells us, that when we have to 
do with God in our serWces, gi-eat things are suitable 
to a great God. Your papists, in times of straits, 
have a kind of praying which continues for forty hours 
together; but it is in then- own way, they will be 
abundant enough in that. Many of you tlnnk much 
to spend a quarter of an hour in a morning or in aii 
evening in seeking God in your famiUes ; when super- 
stitious and idolatrous people are abundant in those 
services, in seeking God in theu' own way. 

But observe, though superstitious and idolatrous 
people be abundant in their services to then- idols, yet 
they are not infinite m them. But the saints of God, 
if theu- sjjirits be right, are enlarged to a kind of in- 
finiteness in God's service. As thus, they would still 
know more of God's mind, do more, and are never 
satisfied with what they do. There is no idolatrous 
and superstitious person, but confines himself within 
some limits, and thinks that when that task is over, 
when the forty hours are elapsed, the work is done : 
but now here is the difference between a natui-al work 
and a spiritual; a natural work is always a limited 
work, but a spiritual work has always an infinlteness 
in it ; thus, though I am not able to do what is actu- 
ally infinite, yet my heart is infinite in this, that it is 
ne\er satisfied, but it would fain liave more, and if I 
were able to do ten thousand times more than I do, 
yet my heart would be as eager to do more as it was at 
first : i should not think I am any nearer to the end of 
my joiu-ney than I was at the first day ; for I am to 
deal with an infinite God, therefore let my sen-ices be 
never so great and many, yet still my ardent desires' 
are to rise higher and to do more. Here is the super- 
natural work of grace, which goes beyond all the idol- 
atry in the world. 

06*. 5. Superstitious and idolatrous people will 
spare no cost in their worship. 

They will go with their flocks and with their herds, 
bestow all tlieir estates on the service of their idols. 
How shameful is it for us to be so niggardly in the true 
service of God ! Never men had larger opportunities 
to lionour God M'itli their estates than at this present 
time. And certainly men should rather rejoice that 
they have an opportunity to serve God with their 
estates, than murmur tliat his service requii-es the sa- 
crifice. 

" They shall go with their flocks and with their 
herds, to seek the Lord." 

Obs. 6. There is a time when vile and wicked men 
sliall see a need of God. " Thev shall go with their 
flocks and with their herds to seelc tlie Lord." 

Though wicked men, when they have all about them 
suitable to their carnal desires, slight and neglect God, 
yet there is a time when they shall be brought into such 
a condition that tliey shall see their need of him. O, let 
us remember this in the midst of our prosperity ! We find 
by ex]K'ricnce that God does bring men to times where- 
in they see need of him ; oh, therefore, now the love 
and mercy of God, tlie pardon of our sins, and peace 
with Got!, how precious should they be in our eyes ! 



Vek. 6 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



279 



It is good to make God our friend, whom we are sure 
we shall one day have need of. We all conclude that 
it is a point of wisdom to make such a man our friend, 
of whom we can certainly say, we shall one day have 
need of him. O, let us be sure to make God our friend, 
for certainly one day we shall have need of him. Bless- 
ed are those souls who have an interest in that God 
whose friendship all the world shall one day require. 

Obs. 7. All pretend to seek God. " They shall go 
with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord." 

A^Tiatsoever they do, they do it for the honour of 
God, and for the service of God, and out of respect to 
him ; and why should not we do this and tlris ? we have 
good aims and good intentions, do we not seek to hon- 
ora- God in what we do ? When those idolaters of 
Israel set up the calf, they proclaimed a day to Jeho- 
vah, a day for the honouring of God, and pretended that 
what they did was out of respect to God, and to hon- 
our him. The worst men and the most superstitious 
will yet profess to honour God. So it is again in re- 
gard of those days that men have set apart for God, 
and it is that which has settled men in the supersti- 
tious observation of them, that it is for the honour of 
Christ ; What! (say they,) shall we not honour the birth 
of our blessed Saviour ? what profaneness, what a dis- 
respect is this to the Lord Christ ! Well, let others do 
what they will, for our parts we will observe it, for 
hereby we shall do honour to our blessed Saviour. So 
the papists, for the adoration of images, say, '^^Hiat ! not 
regard nor reverence the image, the picture of our 
blessed Saviour, and of the holy saints? And the truth 
is, if it be duly weighed, there is the same reason for 
images of Christ and his saints, as for days set apart 
to the honoiu' of Chiist by man's invention; and there 
is as fair a pretence for honouring Christ by setting 
up his unage before me to remind me of him, as by 
keeping a day of mine own appointment for the same 
puqjose. There is (I say) the same reason for both, 
and whatsoever argument any man shall bring me 
against the one, I dare undertake to pi'ove it good 
against the other. 

We are, my brethi'en, to take heed of men that pre- 
tend to honour God. These here will seek the Lord, 
though in a false and superstitious way. But those 
that pretend to honour God, prevail much with weak 
and scrupulous minds. As the greatest heretics that 
have ever been in the church have been gi'eat pretend- 
ers to godliness, many there are at this day that, out of 
pretence to honour Christ, have leavened the hearts of 
jjeople with dangerous en-ors, and especially corrupted 
the young converts ; for as soon as ever God is pleased 
to work upon any, to convert them unto himself, they 
love Christ, their hearts are taken with him, and they 
honoirr free grace that has pardoned the sins of their 
youth, of which they have such a fresh sense. Now, false 
teachers take advantage of this, and, therefore, if they 
bring any thing to them that hath the name of Christ, 
and the gospel, and free grace, they know they will 
greedily imbibe it ; and many dangerous en-ors sweet- 
ened with such pretences are strongly maintained. By 
this means then- leaders attain their own ends, and 
they see it not. 

Obs. 8. Superstitious and idolatrous men are most 
abundant in their services in the time of affliction. 

" They wiD go with their flocks and their herds :" 
when in extremity, then God shall have any thing 
from Ihem. Self-love drives men far and enlarges 
them much. Men in a storm are content to cast out 
much of that which is precious to them ; " They pour- 
ed out a prayer when thy chastening was ujwn them," 
Isa. xx\-i. 16. They are sti'aitened in prayer, it comes 
out by di-ops, before, but when thy chastening is upon 
them, then they pour it out. And this is the baseness 
of our hearts, that we can find enlargement for God 



only when it is suitable to our own ends. Those whose 
hearts are more enlarged in adversity than in the en- 
joyment of mercies, had need of self-examination. 

Obs. 9. Carnal professors think to make God amends 
for former and present evils of then- hearts and lives 
by outward performances. 

' If they bring their flocks and their herds, much sa- 
crifice, they think that will suffice. But let us learn to 
take Iieed of this vanity, of thinking to make God amends 
for former or present sins by any sacrifice we can per- 
form to him thus. Some of you, perhaps, that are negU- 
gent in your relative duties ; servants, children, stubborn 
and perverse against parents and governors ; wives and 
husbands mutually neglecting their duties; and you 
think, though you indulge yourselves in those things, 
yet, if you pray much, and hear muiiJi, and speak of 
good things, and be forward in the profession of re- 
ligion, that will make amends for the neglect of your 
duties. O take heed of this, you that are forward in 
your profession, and abundant in the performance of 
holy duties; take heed of this deceit of your hearts, to 
think to put off God with these things, and thereby to 
compensate for the neglect of your duties. Some are 
accused of injustice, uncleanness, and gi'eat wicked- 
ness, and yet they think to put ofi' all this, by going 
with their flocks and their herds. Herein consists 
their sinfulness, they rest in the bare duties. But the 
saints have a further sacrifice to offer to God, to be a 
sweet savour before him. They have fu'st the sacrifice 
of Jesus Christ, which these sacrifices typified; and 
then they have their souls and bodies, which they ten- 
der up to God as a reasonable sacrifice. 

" But they shall not find him." From hence, 

Obs. 10. If God be to be found any where, he is to 
be found in his ordinances. " They shall go with their 
flocks and with their herds, but they shall not find 
him." 

These sacrifices were materially good, but yet they 
should not §nd God in them. When the Lord ap- 
pointed the tabernacle to be erected, (a type of the 
ordinances we now enjoy,) he said, " MTiere I will meet 
you ;" and again the second time, " There I will 
meet with thee," Exod. xxix. 42, 43. If God be tobe 
found any where, it is in the performance of holy duties. 

Ohs. 11. To find God in them should be the end of 
all holy duties. 

It should be so, and they pretended that end here. 
WheTi either God is coming unto us in mercy, or when 
we are drawing near to God in duty, we must be rest- 
less till we find him, especially in the latter. Many, I 
beseech you observe this, many perform duties, but do 
not look' at finding God in them. They do not ex- 
amine after the duties are done. Have I met with God 
in this or that duty ? Have I met with God this day 
in the word ? I have been in my closet, and there I 
have prayed ; have I found God in prayer ? Found 
God! what is that? You should never be quiet in 
the performance of holy duties till you meet with God 
one of these two ways ; 1. Either by finding God 
coming to you in the communication of himself, and 
the sweetness of his love and mercy ; or, 2. Your own 
hearts drawing nearer unto him. And in either of 
these ways we find God. 

Obs. 12. God will not be always found when sought. 

" They shall go with their flocks and with their herds, 
but shall not find me." Thus men are never like to 
meet with God : 

1. "^Vhen they seek him in any superstitious way. 
These kind of formal, superstitious worshippers of God, 
did much, spent much time in God's worship; I appeal 
to theii- own consciences, and to all that knew theii' 
lives, did any thing of God appear in them ? It might 
be manifested from their frothy, vain, and carnal con- 
versations, that thev never met with God in those ser- 



280 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. V. 



vices. Wien God is sought, but not in his own way, he 
•will not be found. 

2. When we seek ourselves rather than God, then he 
will not be found. 

3. AVhen we do not seek God as a God ; that is, 
■when we tender him only external, and not soid ser- 
vices ; when we seek him not with uprightness and in 
the integrity of our hearts ; when we seek him not with 
those high and reverent a])prehensions of him, with 
that fear of his name suitable to such an infinite God 
as the Lord is ; then God will not be found. 

4. 'When we seek him too late. There may be a 
seeking of God too late. Seek him while he may be 
found. Oh then, we had need lose no oiiportunity of 
seeking God, for he will not be always found. And 
this is just with God; for God often seeks us when wc 
will not be found, and therefore it is just that he should 
not be found when we seek him. 

" He hath withdrawn himself from them." AVhen 
the saints of God seek him in a holy way, he is pre- 
sently found. " Then shall thou call, and the Lord shall 
answer ; thou shall cry, and he shall say, Here I am," 
Isa. Iviii. 9. Perha])s they do not take notice of God ; 
he is many times with us and stands by us, he is pre- 
sent, and we know not that he is there. Bui now, that 
we may know that he is there, he makes that promise, 
that when we seek liim as we ought to seek him, he will 
say, •' Here I am." 

The word ySn here translated " withdrawn himself,' 
may be as well rendered, diiiiit se, or eripuit se ; he 
lias divided, yea, snatched himself from them ; that is 
its force : they go to seek him, and cry after him ; God 
snatches him-ielf from them, as one that refuses theii- 
friendship. Hence, 

Obs. 13. God delights not in the services of super- 
stitious and formal professors ; but with the humble and 
contrite heart is his delight. The flocks and the herds 
of the wicked are rejected, and God withdraws himself 
from them, but small things from the saints are ac- 
ce])tcd. As in 1 Sam. vii. 9, when holy Samuel there 
ofl'ered but a sucking lamb for a burnt-offering to the 
Lord, presently '■ the Lord thundered with a great thun- 
der on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited 
them; and they were smitten before Isi'ael." Here are 
herds and flocks, and yet God withdraws himself; but 
Samuel there offers but a poor sucking lamb, and pre- 
sently the Lord thunders with a great thunder upon 
their adversaries. So in llev. viii. 4, t5, after the incense, 
with the prayers of the saints, were offered up, there 
followed " voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and 
an earthquake." Great things are effected by small 
services of the saints when offered in uprightness, but 
the greatest services of hypocrites and formal pro- 
fessors God regards not, but withdraws himself from 
them. 

Obs. 14. It is a sad thing when God withdraws from 
the creature, when he seeks him in distress. As in 
1 Sam. xxviii. lo, when Saul was seeking God, and God 
was departed from him, mark what Saul saith, " I am 
sore distressed ; for God is departed from me." And 
in chap. is. 12, of this pro])liecy, "Yea, woe also to 
them when I depart from them ! " saith God. Oh, that 
is a sad condition ! It is a sign that, 

1. God ])uts dishonour on a people, as I showed you 
more largely when I spake of the rejecting of their 
sacrifices. What greater dishonour can it be to a peo- 
])le, than for God to take more pleasure in their liowl- 
ings under his wrath, than in their cryings to him for 
mercy ? And yet to such a condition may a jieoiilc, 
nay, your own soul, be broujjht. I say that God may 
take more pleasure in your howlings under his wrath, 
than in your cryings to him for mercy, and that in your 
temples, if you do not reform ns well as cry to him ; 
and this is confirmed by Amos viii. 3, " And the songs 



of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the 
Lord God." As if he should say. The songs of the 
temple were loud, but I will take more pleasure in their 
howlings than in then- songs. And Isa. xxix. 1, ""Woe 
to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt !" &c. ; and 
ver. 2, " Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be 
heaviness and sorrow : and it shall be unto me as Ariel." 
The text seems to be obscure at the first reading, but 
the meaning is this : By Aiuel is meant Jerusalem, 
the city where David dwelt, the place where the sacri- 
fices were offered unto God ; Ariel signifying an altar 
of God, God's altar that did devour the sacrifices like a 
lion. Now, sailh God, thou shall be to me as Ariel; 
thou Jerusalem, where my famous altar was, where so 
many famous sacrifices were offered, thou shall be to 
me as Ariel ; thai is, you indeed offer many sacrifices 
unto me, but yet continue in your hypocrisy, and in 
your wickedness ; know, saith God, I will make that 
city as an altar on which your blood shall be offered, 
and I will take as much pleasiure in the sacrifice of 
your blood offered on this altar, as in all the sacrifices 
that were offered on the altar from whence the city had 
its name ; your name shall be Aiiel, that is, your city 
shall be stained with your blood as the altar was with 
the blood of the sacrifices. God rejects and casts out 
the services of such as are superstitious and ungodly. 

2. No creature can help us ; they will say. How can 
we help when God will not ? he has withdrawn himself. 

3. Some great judgment must then be expected; as 
when a poor petitioner goes to the prince with a peti- 
tion, and the prince tiu-ns his back upon him ; Surely, 
thinks he, now some evil is nigh me. 

4. No protection from any e\il can then be expect- 
ed ; God has withdi'awn himself. 

5. Then conscience flies in one's face : Oh, the blessed 
God is gone, and mercy is gone, and Christ is gone, 
and that for those sins of mine, those lusts of mine, that 
lay so near my heart. Oh how terrible will it be to 
conscience, when God shall appear to withdraw himself! 

G. It is a forerunner of God's eternal withdrawing 
himself from the soul, and from the body too. 

The saints had rathej have God's presence, though 
angry, than God withdrawing himself from them. 
When God withdraws himself but a little, they can 
never rest till he has returned again : " O cast me not 
from thy presence," sailh David. 

My brethren, when we perceive God withdrawing 
himself in any degree from us, let us stir up ourselves, 
and cry mightily, as the church, when a])prehensive that 
God was leaving her, Jer. xiv. 9, " Leave us not." 
God goes by degrees from a people ; fu'st, it may be, to 
the threshold; and Jeremiah, a holy prophet, saw him 
withdrawing from them. Carnal hearts do not perceive 
how God withdi'aws himself from a ])eople by degrees, 
but those that are acquainted with the mind of God, 
and search into the word, are able to discern this, and 
they cry, Lord, leave us not, if thou be gone, all is 
gone. 

Yea, but does not God withdraw himself from his 
saints ? how then is this a judgment peculiar to idola- 
ters, and wicked, superstitious persons ? 

The answer is this, God indeed withdraws himself 
sometimes from his saints, but not in the same maimer 
as from the wicked. For in his withdiawings from the 
saints, 

1. T'hey yet retain good thoughts of him in his ab- 
sence, whereas the wicked pine, and vex, and fret 
against him. As, in the absence of her husband, a 
faithful wife still retains good thoughts ofliim as of her 
husband, and continues to love him, whereas with the 
adulteress it is far otherwise : so wicked men do, ui)on 
God's withdrawing of himself in judgments and afflic- 
tions, begin to have hard thoughts of God, and to say. 
If this is to serve God and to walk in his ways, what 



Vee. 7. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



281 



good have we got by all that we have done ? But now 
you shall observe in the Canticles, when Christ had 
withdrawn himself from the church, she still calls him 
her King, and her Beloved, still gives him honourable 
titles. 

2. He di-aws their hearts to cry more earnestly after 
him. As a mother will playfully withdraw and hide 
herself from her child, loving to hear its cries after her, 
and to witness its anxiety to come into her arms ; so 
the Lord loves to hear his chikb-en cry after him, to 
come to him. The Lord shall hear none of our cries 
in heaven, for there we shall always be with him ; but 
here he sometimes withdi-aws from us, that he may 
hear us ciy after him. 

3. He leaves some light behind him, that they may 
see which way he is gone. As when a torch or candle 
is taken out of a room, yet you may see some glimmer- 
ing light which way they went ; so when God with- 
draws himself he is wont to leave some glimmering 
light, that his people may see which way to follow him. 

4. His bowels yearn toward them. Jer. xxxi. 20, 
" Is Ephraim my dear son ? " (S:c. I thought of him and 
my bowels yearned, saith God, or " my bowels were 
troubled." He has an eye towards them for much good 
in all his withdrawings. 

5. Nothing then will satisfy them till God retura. 
"When God withdraws himself from others, they will 
seek after vanities to make up the want of his presence, 
as an adulteress in her husband's absence will seek 
other lovers. But the language of the saints is. If God 
be gone, I will enjoy nothmg else, at least I will be 
satisfied in nothing else, till I have his presence again. 

6. He yet does not utterly forsake them ; as David 
prays, Psal. cxix. 8, " I will keep thy statutes: O forsake 
me not utterly." It seems that then God had somewhat 
withdrawn himself from David, yet mark, his heart was 
toward God, " I will keep thy statutes ;" thou hast for- 
saken me in some degree, yet I will keep thy statutes 
still, " O forsake me not utterly." If thou canst say thus, 
Indeed God has withtbawn himself from my soul, yet, 
though I have not that comfort in him that my soul 
desires, I will keep his precepts as long as I live, I will 
do what I can to honour him ; thou mayst pray with 
comfort. Lord, " forsake me not utterly." 

As those that are godly may depart from God, but 
yet, as in Psal. xviii. 21, "I have not wickedly depart- 
ed from my God," they do not depart from God as 
other men do ; so God may depart from the godly, 
but yet not so as he departs i'rom the wicked. 

Let us take heed of withdr-awing from God, of with- 
drawing our souls from any way of truth. If in pros- 
perity we withdi'aw from God, and think we can hve 
without him, he will make us know in adversity that 
he too can be blessed without us. It is usual for men 
in prosperity to get on without God well enough ; but 
when thou comest into adversity, the Lord will make 
thee know, though thou perishest as cboss and dung 
from the earth, yet he will remain a blessed God with- 
out thee to all eternity. God has no need of us. If 
thou dost think thou canst do well enough without 
him, he will show that he can do well enough without 
thee. 

Ver. 7. They have dealt treacherously against the 
Lord : for they have begotten strange children : now 
shall a month devour them icith their portions. 

In the words before, the Lord threatened to with- 
di-aw himself from Israel. "When they shall seek him 
with theii- flocks and herds, they shall not find him. A 
dreadful sentence ! but what is the cause ? AVhy will 
Ciod in a time of mercy withdi-aw himself from his 
creatures, though they seek him with their flocks and 
with their herds .•" 



There is reason enough for it, and it is given here, 
" They have dealt treacherously against the Lord." 

The" word 1"ij3 here translated, dealing treacherously, 
signifies perfide agere, to deal perfidiously, they have 
been perfidious ; and likewise decipere, to deceive, 
they deal deceitfxilly ; but it especially means that 
fraudulent dealing that takes place in breaking of co- 
venants, and is often applied to men violating the 
marriage bond, as in Mai. ii. 14, 15. 

I find Luther translates it, they have contemned the 
Lord ; and so, according to some, it is often rendered ; 
and thence takes occasion to ask, "What ! do they seek, 
the Lord with their flocks and herds, and yet despise 
God ? how can these consist ? They seem as if they 
would greatly honour God, yet here they are charged 
with contemning and despising him. To this he an- 
swers. Whatsoever pretences men make of honouring 
God, yet, if they do not obey and keep to his w'ord, and 
that especially with respect to his worship, they are 
guUty of contemning and despising God. "We may 
abound in outward services, and yet, in the mean time, 
our hearts despise God, contemn his authority and 
majesty. 

But the word ordinarily is used according to our 
translation of it here, " They have dealt treacherously," 
they have been false with me. 

And mark the connexion : they come to seek me 
with their flocks and then- herds, but I have with- 
di-awn myself from them, for " they have dealt treach- 
erously." Hence we would briefly 

Obs. 1. When the ungodly come to seek God, God 
looks on the wickedness of their hearts. 

" They have dealt U'eacherously." As If God should 
say. Here comes a company of base, false-hearted hypo- 
crites, ungodly wretches, to seek me, with their flocks- 
and herds. Are they like to be heard ? are they like 
to be regarded in all their services ? no, they are base 
and perfidious, they have vile, wicked, and cursed 
hearts. 

O consider this, you that have not yet washed away 
your sins in the blood of Christ, and made your peace 
with God : the guilt of yom' sin is yet upon you, and 
its fUthiness yet adheres to you : you come to God in 
prayer, and seek him, and ciy unto him for mercy: 
know, that all the wickedness that ever you committed 
in the whole course of your lives, is fresh in the pre- 
sence of God ; God looks upon all as if it were now 
present. O, learn therefore to cleanse thy heart in 
the blood of Christ, by faith in him, and by repentance; 
and then, though thou hast been vile heretofore, when 
thou comest to seek the face of God, thy sins shall not 
be remembered before him. So much for the connexion. 

But for the words themselves, and first, in their 
proper signification, "They have dealt treacherously;" 
the meaning is, they make a great show of religion,, 
but it is only for their o^ti ends, and under that show 
they do that which dishonoureth me, they betray my 
glory. Here is treacherous dealing indeed, treachery 
against the God of heaven ; these are treacherous 
spii-its, to make professions and protestations of religion, 
to make any use they can of religion, so far as it will 
suit their own turns, but when it proves unprofitable, 
to cast it off; yea, if it prove contrary to them, to per- 
secute it. This is treachery against God in a high 
degree. 

Again, "treacherously," in that they break their 
covenant with God ; that is the special treachery here 
intended, they have broken that covenant in which 
they were engaged. They gave up themselves to be 
the" Lord's, but they have basely forsaken and dealt 
treacherously ^^uth liim. So that this treachery relates 
either to the oath of allegiance to God as our King, or 
to the covenant that we make with him as our Hus- 
band. And thence, 



282 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. V. 



Obs. 2. The sins of such as are in covenant with 
God are sins of treacheiy. They are sins of a deeper 
dye than other men's suis. Other men's sins are trans- 
gressions against, and disobedience to, tlie will of God ; 
but they arc not so properly treacheiy : but the sins of 
those that arc engaged to God in covenant have an- 
other impress upon them than the sins of other men, 
their sins are treaclieiy against God. And we know 
there is nothing accounted more vile amongst men than 
tieacherv'; it is tiie highest possible expression of oiu' 
indignation against a man to say, Such a man take heed 
of, he is a treacherous man. Certainly the sins of 
those that have engaged themselves unto God, go 
nearer to the heart of God than other men's .sins do ; 
they aie more dishonourable to liim, they provoke the 
eyes of his gloiy more. 

O let us then look back to what we have done ever 
since we fiist entered into covenant with God, ever 
since we first gave up our names to him ; and let us 
charge our soids with this aggravation of our sins : O 
my soul, what liast thou done ? Thou hast not only 
trespassed and disobeved as otliers, but thou hast been 
treacherous against tlie Lord. Let us keep ourselves 
from sin, and awe our hearts and strike fear into our 
spirits with tliis meditation, Wliat ! shall I, tiiat have so 
deeply engaged myself to God, now forsake and deal 
treacherously with liim ? 

Let us take heed of this evil of dealing treacherously 
with God, not only in regard of the particular covenants 
between God and our own souls ; but, in a more special 
manner, let us take heed of breaking our pubhc cove- 
nants. England has been guilty of great sins against 
God, but England never entered into such solemn 
covenants with God as of late ; therefore, if we keep 
not our covenants with God now, England's sins will 
prove to be greater than they were before, they will 
l)rove to be treacherous sins. Do not account your 
entering into covenant with God at any time to be a 
slight matter ; do not trifle with liim : when you come 
to the sacrament, there you renew your covenants ; per- 
haps in your closets in the day of your affliction you 
renew your covenants ; but especially when you come 
in a solemn way to join with the people of God, to 
bind youiselves in a covenant with God to amend your 
lives, and inquire after the true worship of God, and to 
conform yourseh es according to his word ; O now take 
heed what you do ; to walk now as you formerly 
have done, this is a treachery against the God of hea- 
ven. Certainly God cxjiccts much from us after s\ich 
a covenant as we have lately entered into, one of the 
most solemn covenants that" ever was made ; and a na- 
tional covenant too, and therefore more to be regarded 
than a private; yea, a uniting covenant, that unites 
two nations, if not three, together ; and a covenant tliat 
is more for tlie kingdom, of Christ, and more directly 
against the kingdom of antichrist, and the antichristiaii 
Jiarty, than ever yet was made since the world began. 
Antichrist quickly arose, and made much opposition ; 
but for two nations so solemnly to lift up then- hands 
to the most high God to ojipose all antichristian go- 
veniment, is that which, if it be kept as carefully as 
it is made solemnly, is the greatest honour that Christ 
ever yet had in regard of his government here upon 
earth. And we had need look to it, because it is such 
a mighty work that it should engage our hearts, and 
make us thankful that we ever lived to sec God bring 
about such a strange thing in our generation. I appeal 
to you, was it ])ossible four years ago for any man in 
the world, yea, for an angel, to conjecture such a tiling 
as tills, that two nations should join together, that the 
representative body of the kingdom, and the assembly 
of divines, in one day should be lifting up their hands 
to the nio.->t high God, to do their utmost to extirpate 
prelacy, that is, government by archbishops, bishops, 



archdeacons, deans, <Sjc. Now the more miraculous 
the work of God is in bruiging this strange thing about, 
the more bonds he ujjon us to kcej) that covenant with 
God. O, therefore, let us not now add treacherv- to 
all our former apostacy, for our sins now will prove 
sins of treacliery. 

But if it be such an aggravation of our sins, to be 
covenanters with God, if we neglect our engagement, 
then it were better (perhaps some will say) never to 
enter into covenant ; for it seems, if we had not taken 
the covenant there, our guilt would not have been so 
aggravated. 

The answer to that is this, A carnal heart alone is 
sorry for its engagement to God, either because of 
afflictions that are in the ways of God, or because the 
obligations of obedience to God are stronger, or be- 
cause the danger of breaking them is greater. Perhaps, 
when thou art engaged to God and liis ways, thou 
meetest with many afflictions in those ways ; take heed 
of repenting of thy engagement because of them. Per- 
haps thou seest thyself so strongly bound that thy 
conscience will now fly in thy face on the slightest 
transgression ; O, take heed o{ receding from thy en- 
gagement notwithstanding. For one whose heart is 
gracious, certainly w ill never repent of his engagement, 
though there be more danger attendant on his sin now 
than before ; why ? because he hates his sin. Now let 
there be never so much danger to keep me from that 
which I hate, I will never be sorrj' for that : as for 
uistance, suppose there be a deeii gulf, that if 1 fall into 
will destroy me, I tremble to come near it ; but there 
is a fence to kec]) me off' full of sharp iron spikes, 
which, if I should but tiy to get over it, will gore and 
prick me; shall I be soriy that such a fence exists, 
when it Ls but set there to keep me from destroying 
myself ? So a gracious licart w ill never be sonT that 
it is engaged in the ways of God, and tliat if it sliould 
break the engagement there would be an aggravation 
of its sin ; ibr why ? the verv' engagement is but as a 
strong fence to keep me fi'om that which I would be 
loth to come to. which would destroy me. And those 
that begin to think their engagement to God and his 
ways to be a hard thing, and could wish for more hber- 
ty, will certainly deal treacherously with God, yea, tlieir 
hearts are even already departing from God. Take 
lieed of this, it is a step to apostacy, (remember it, my 
brethren, it is an important caution,) it is, I say, the first 
degree of a])ostacy. for any man to begin to be sorjT 
that he is so deeply engaged to God and his ways. All 
the true saints of God, when they are engaged, bless 
God that ever they were engaged. 

'■ Against the Lord." Against Jehovah. This is the 
vileness of man's heart. Though God be never so gra- 
cious, so merciful, so faithful ; though he be never so 
blessed, so glorious hi himsell" and worthy of all honour ; 
yet so vile is man's heart that it will deal treacherously 
with even God liimself. To deal treacherously with a 
friend, with a fellow creature, is an evil ; but to deal 
treacherously with the infinite and blessed God is a far 
greater evil. When vexed yourselves with the trea- 
chery of otliers, O, consider how treacherously God is 
dealt with in the world. Thou dost think none was 
ever so dealt with, ever so wronged, as thou art; God 
is more wronged, more contradicted, more treacherous- 
ly dealt withal, than any ever were. And how many 
are there that think it a dishonour to them even to be 
suspected of treacherous dealing, and will often say. 
What I deal treacherously with my friend ? 1 were not 
wortliy to live if 1 should ! yet these men deal trea- 
cherously with God every day. 

Thus much for this cJiarge, For " they have dealt 
treacherously against tlie Lord. Next he shows 
wherein. 

" For they have begotten strange children." That is 



Vek. 7. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



283 



a further aggravation, that they have not only sinned 
themselves, but have sought to propagate their sin and 
their wickedness : for it might otherwise be said, True, 
Israel has sinned very grievously against the Lord, but 
may there not be hope of the generation succeeding? 
No, for they bring up their children in the same super- 
stition, idolatry, and wickedness, that they themselves 
walk in. That is the meaning, " They have begotten 
strange cliildren:" they should beget children to God, 
but they beget them to idols, and so this wickedness, 
this treachery against God, is propagated from one 
generation to another, there is a succession of it : as 
are the old, so are the young. 

When any chvTH- others to evil ways, they are said in 
Scripture to make them children of the de\-0, to beget 
them as chilcken of the devil. Matt, xxiii. 15, "Ye 
compass sea and land to make one proselyte ; and when 
he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of liell 
than yourselves : " you begot him to the devil. So pa- 
rents, first, by way of natural generation, beget childi'en 
to themselves, and then, by educating their children in 
ways of wickedness, beget them the second time to the 
devil. And they are called " sti'ange childi-en," because 
God will not own them : They are none of mine, saith 
God, they are strangers from me, I will have nothing to 
do with them. The words being thus opened, the ob- 
servations are these : 

Obs. 3. Parents have the charge of their children 
committed to them by God. 

It is implied here, that it is their duty to look to be- 
get their children to God, and to take heed that they 
be not begotten to the devil. For Ephraim, tlie ton 
tribes, are here charged, that whereas they should have 
brought forth their children for God, and so they 
should belong to God's inheritance, and God should 
have owned them ; now they beget them to their idols, 
and they are strange children. God certainly does ncrt 
give you children to beget them for the devil and for 
hell. It should be a sad thing to parents to thmk. Here 
is a child coming from my loins, conceived in my womb, 
an enemy unto God ; what ! shall such come forth out 
of my loins ? shall a firebrand of hell be conceived in 
my womb ? Certainly it should go to the heart of a 
parent to see his child estranged from God, though he 
were not the cause of it ; but much more when a parent 
shall come to be convinced, this child is thus wicked 
and ungodly, and as he has received the seeds of his 
corruption from me at the first, so those seeds were 
nourished up by my example and encouragement, I 
have led him to such wickechiess. Woe to such pa- 
rents ! and such, cliildren may even curse the time that 
they were born of such parents, and rather wish they 
had been of the generation of dragons and offspring of 
vipers. When God gives you children, he expects that 
you should labour that there may be a succession of 
godliness in the world, that not only you should be 
godly, but that you should bring up your children to 
be so too. " He established a testimony in Jacob, and 
appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our 
fatliers, that they should make them known to their 
chilfh'en : that the generation to come might know 
them, even the childi'en which should be born ; who 
should arise and declare them to their children," Psal. 
Ixxviii. 5, 6. This is the way of God, he commands 
you to make known his statutes and laws to your chil- 
dren, that the generation to come might know them, 
and not that you should bring thorn up in wickedness 
and superstition. I have read that the Romans wei'e 
wont to sue such parents as were not careful of the 
education of their cliildren. Therefore Cicero, inveigh- 
ing against Verres, saith. Quod /ilium tuum, A'r., You 
have not only done thus and thus yourself, but you 
have educatsd your son among the intemperate, in 
riotousness, in fcastino-. in drinking, amongst wantons 



and unclean persons, and by this means you have not 
only wronged your child, but the commonwealth. 
Thus he laid his action against him. Now how might 
heathens shame us in this, who account those to de- 
serve punishment not only from God, but from men, 
that are not careful of the education of their children ! 
There is a great deal of reason for it, and it were very 
good now that there were a law of a similar nature 
enacted on this ground, because the commonwealth lias 
a part in the chilcben as well as the parent ; and the 
parent not being careful to bring up the child in the 
fear of God, wrongs the commonwealth as well as the 
child, and therefore ought to be punished by the com- 
monwealth. 

Obs. 4. Chilch-en are usuaOy as then- parents and 
education are. The parents were idolaters, they were 
ungodly and strangers fi'om God : then- children are so 
too. In many families we see that the father is an 
enemy to God", and the son an enemy to God, and the 
grandson the same, and so there goes on a line and a 
succession of wickedness, profanity, and enmity against 
God. It is usually so. 

Therefore let those children that are born of and 
brought up under godly parents, bless God for such a 
mercy. It may be, if thou hadst been bom and brought 
up of papists, thou wouldst have been a papist thyself. 
If thou hadst been born of a malignant, of one that is 
a stranger to and a contemner of God, thou wouldst 
have been so too. 

And seeing it is thus usual for childi'en to be as their 
parents, oh, then, what a mercy is it for God to work 
by his grace in any child born of wicked parents ! This 
is not an ordinary mercy. Some born of godly parents 
bless God that by that means they are kept from wick- 
edness ; but there are some bom of and brought up by 
wicked parents, to wliom God is so gi'acious, that, in a 
more than ordinary way, he goes furtlicr in mercy to 
them, and works gi-ace in then' hearts notwithstanding. 
This is his extraordinary mercy, a mercy that thou art 
to admire at throughout all eternity, that notwithstand- 
ing thy birth and education, yet God should reveal 
himself unto thee. 

But how vile are they that, being born of good pa- 
rents, are yet wicked! It is customary for such as are 
born of wicked parents and have wicked education, to 
be wicked, to be sti'ange childi-en ; but for those that 
have gocUy parents and godly education, for them to 
be wicked and strange children, this denotes wicked- 
ness in the extreme. 

Obs. 5. It is a dangerous thing for chilch-en to follow 
the example of theii' parents in wickedness. It is from 
hence that they are called " strange children," they are 
sti-angers to God. It is not enough for them to jilead, 
I did as my father or as my mother taught me. No, if 
thy parents be wicked and superstitious, and they bring 
thee up accordingly, and so thou art wicked and super- 
stitious thyself, know that, notwithstanding this excuse, 
God looks upon thee as a strange child, thou hast no 
part nor portion in him, thou art an alien, thou art 
estranged from God. 

Childi-en therefore had need to examine their pa- 
rents' ways and actions ; and above all, the chilch-en of 
superstitious people, for nothing is more naturally- 
handed down in succession, than idolatry and supersti- 
tion. Never plead then, 'We do but as our forefathers 
have done. That jilace in Peter one would think 
should for ever stop the mouth of that plea, 1 Pet. i. 
IS, 19, " Ye w-ere not redeemed with corruptible things, 
as silver and gold, from your vain conversation re- 
ceived by ti-adition from your fathers ; but with the pre- 
cious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish 
and without spot." Mark the text, that the being re- 
deemed from our vain conversation, received by tra- 
dition from our fathers, is so gi-eat a mercy that it cost 



284 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. V. 



the blood of Jesus Christ. If God accounts it such a 
mercy, that he is willing to lay down the blood of his 
Son to purchase it for a poor creature, shall not this 
creature prize this mercy ? And yet you think it 
rather to be a mercy to go on in the ways that you have 
received by tradition from your fathers, and you con- 
ceive their example a strong plea. Mark what you do ; 
you do in effect say. We look on the blood of Jesus 
L'hrist as a common, as a worthless thing. He shed 
his blood to redeem thee from tliat wliich thou think- 
est is worth nothing to be redeemed from. Tliou 
thinkest it a good thing to go the way of the traditions 
of thy fathers ; and Clu'ist saitli, I account it so great 
an c\il, that rather than any tliat belong to me shall 
go on in that way, I will lay down my blood, my life, 
to deliver him from it. 

Obs. 6. When succeeding generations are wicked, 
there is little hope of a ])eople. I have with(b-awn 
myself, saith God, I liave done with them ; and after- 
ward he tells us, that they shall be desolate, " for they 
have begotten strange children :" the chikken, the 
generation that is rising up, are idolaters too, they go 
as their fathers did ; and what liope is there of them ? 
When in a vineyard, or orchard, not only the old trees 
are rotten, but the young are likewise corrupted and 
blasted, then there is little to justify the bestowing of 
any great cost on it. 

Much care is to be had therefore of the succeeding 
generation. And there is no belter criterion, whereby 
we may divine (as they say) what God intends to do 
with a nation, than this, the state of the children : look 
at the young that are rising up in that nation, and liy 
that you may come to divine what God intends to do 
with the next generation. Here we have much cause 
to bless God for his mercy toward us, in that with re- 
gard to this particular, he has in a great measure (we 
hope) taken away tlie sign of his dreadful wrath. I 
say, in a great measure ; for we still have a great many 
of the young generation prepared and ready to make 
riots and tumults to maintain their fathers' or their 
masters' old superstitions ; and if ever there be any stirs 
in a kingdom about such things, (as superstition and 
idolatry can seldom be banished from a kingdom witli- 
out them,) they are usually begun by the young ; what, 
if you take away their holidays from them, you take 
away their lives. I make no question, but, so far as is 
fit, times of recreation will be allowed them ; and there 
is good reason for it, though such superstitious days 
be taken from them. But because many of their mas- 
ters and parents who adhere to the old superstition, 
still countenance tlieir observance, and they obtain 
consequent liberty in them, therefore they had almost 
rather lose their lives than lose them, and being heady 
and naught, are easily induced to raise tumidts and 
make seditions for them. Rut though there are many 
that are veiy vile in this respect, and, such as they are, 
are the saddest omen of God's dis])lcasure against a 
nation ; yet, on the contrary, wo should wrong the grace 
of God, if we should not observe his goodness towards 
us in the workings of his .Spirit on the young amongst 
us. Yea, many whose parents and masters have Ijucn 
superstitious, wicked, and ungodly, have, we find, been 
delivered by the Lord, and are now not willing to 
sully tliemselves with the " vain conversation received 
by tradition;" they begin to know the Lord, and to in- 
quire after God. And blessed are you of the Lord ; you 
are our hope, that God intends us good, and that lie 
will not let out the wild beasts to devour us, but will 
rebuke them for your sakes. And although, perhaps, 
many of these gracious young ones may perish, yea, 
many have been slain already in tliis cause, yet let not 
others that remain behind be discouraged ; for it is an 
argument that God intends for us some great and spe- 
cial mercy, in that he is willing to venture such precious 



ones for the procuring of t AVe may well reason 
thus, that if so much precious young blood, that might 
have lived to serve God, be shed in this cause, when 
God comes to grant to England mercy, he will grant 
such mercy as will be worth all their blood ; and 
that mercy must needs be great, that shall be worth 
all the blood of those that are so precious, who 
might have lived so many years to serve God in this 
world. 

They who have defiled themselves with superstitious 
vanities, are not likely to share in this mercy, nor to 
be employed by God to prepare it for the succeeding 
generation. Hut because God has a love to the young 
generation that are godly, therefore he has reserved 
much mercy for many of them to see and enjoy ; and 
others of tliem that are not likely to see it, yet he will 
be so gracious to them, that he will employ them in 
ushering in that mercy : and whether it is better to be 
made instrumental for the glory of God and the good 
of another generation, or to live to see the fruit of this 
is hard to determine. Certainly, those that in one 
generation are made so instrumental, as to lay the 
groundwork of mercy for another generation, are as 
hajipy as that other generation that comes to reap the 
fruit "of their labours and suft'erings ; and those that do 
come to reap the fruit of their labours shall bless God 
for them, and when they enjoy the good and liberty of 
the gospel, they will bless you to all generations. There- 
fore, let there be no discouragement to godly young 
ones, though it picaseth God to cut off many by death 
in this cause, for God hath some excellent end in it be- 
yond all our reaches. 

Obs. 7. God takes it exceeding ill at men's hands, 
that they should corrupt the young. This note is as 
full in the words as any other. God takes it exceeding 
ill, it is a part of treachery against God, for any to be a 
means to corrupt the young. Take heed what you do 
in this matter ; those young people that are rising up, 
and beginning to inquire after godliness, take heed 
that you hinder them not, especially parents and go- 
vernors : O let your consciences fly in your faces, when 
you begin to curb them for their forwardness. Many 
times your minds cannot but misgive you, when you 
tliink, I have been wicked and evil most part of my 
days, I spent, God knows, many of my years in vanity 
and profaneness ; here are young ones tliat begin be- 
times to inquire after God, and yet, wretch that I am, 
my licart rises against them. 

And as those that hinder the young are to be 
rebuked, so such as seek to corrupt them by false 
opinions. Certainly it is that by which God is much 
pro\ oked at this day ; and as, on the one side, there is 
hope of mercy liccause so many of the young begin to 
inquire after God, so I know no such di'cadful proof of 
God's displeasure against this nation as this, tliat as 
soon as the young begin to know Jesus Christ, there 
are presently corrupt errors infused into them, and that 
under the notion of honouring Clirist, and free grace, 
and tlie gosjiel, so much the more ; whereas indeed they 
arc none other than principles of libertinism and loose- 
ness, and such as will even eat out the heart of godli- 
ness. Certainly, the Lord has a quarrel against such as 
corrupt the young by their false princijiles : for there 
are none so ready to imbibe errors as they, es])ecially 
young converts, who begin to inquire after the ways of 
(jod : and these their corrupters have tliis advantage, 
tlicy come not to them to pei-suadc them to profaneness, 
but they come with seeming pretences of giving honour 
to Christ, and of magnifying free grace, and in the 
mean time sow amongst them seeds destructive of tlie 
power of godliness. To corrujit the voung, and, when 
they begin to inquire after and to know God, to do 
that which may estrange them from him, excites the 
wrath of God j and it is a greater proof than any 



Vee. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEa. 



2S5 



other of God's displeasure against us, that it is so com- 
mon and frequent at this day. 

" Now shall a month devour them with their por- 
tions." 

'■ A month." I find interpreters much perplexed 
about this expression. Many think that God aims at 
one special month, and they "tell us, that in one month 
in the year, which answers to our July, there were many 
gi-ievous things to befall the Jews, both in fonner and 
in latter times, as if that were a more ominous month 
than any other. I will not spend time to speak further 
of that. 

But there is certainly somewhat else in this expres- 
sion. I finil a parallel passage to this in Zech. xi. 8, 
where the Holy Ghost speaks of three shejjherds that 
God will cut ofi" in one month ; " Three shepherds also 
I cut off in one month ; and my soul lothed them, and 
their soul also abhorred me." This is the most exact 
description of your superstitious idol shepherds, even 
such as we have at this day amongst us in many places. 
" My soul lothed them," saith God, " and their soul 
also abhorred me." Who moi'e hate the power of god- 
liness than such men ? and whom does the soul of God 
more abhor ? "I cut them off in one month," saith 
God. By " month" I conceive two things meant. 

1. The Jews in those times were wont to have theu- 
days of reckoning with their workmen and with their 
debtors usually at the beginning or ending of every 
month, and this expression seems to allude to that cus- 
tom of tlieirs ; " now shall a month devour them," that 
is, the time of their month shall come when I will reckon 
with them, and when that fixed time shall come of my 
reckoning, they shall be undone, they shall be devour- 
ed and destroyed. Hence, 

Obi: 8. God has set a time to reckon with sinners. 
Though he be patient for a long time, yet he has a 
month, a set time appointed, and he wUl not go beyond 
that time. 

Obs. 9. The time of reckoning with sinners, is the 
time of their destruction. The time of their reckoning 
■will be the time of theu' destruction. 

2. JMany interpret it thus, a little short time shall 
devour them ; it shall not be long, it shall not be a 
huntbed and twenty years, as it was when he threat- 
ened the old world, but it shall be very speedy ; as if 
God should say, "When once I begin with them, a month 
shall make an end of the work. And indeed what will 
a month do when God lets the sword (for that was tlie 
judgment here thi'eatened) come upon a nation ! "What 
a great deal of havoc have the enemy made in a montli, 
in man)' parts of England ! Into what a miserable 
condition have many that were rich, and had great 
estates, been brought within that time ! so that God 
seems to refer to the Assyrians that were let out upon 
them ; Let them but once come, saith he, and they will 
not be long about the work, a month's time shall de- 
vour them. 

Lutlicr, and some agi'ee with him, thinks that by the 
" month " is here meant their solemnities and new moons, 
and that so it has reference to their superstition and 
idolatry. But that I think to be too far from the 
meaning ; I rather conceive that by " a month " is meant 
the short time of then- destruction, when once the ad- 
versary comes in upon them. 

" "With their portions." I find the Seventy translate 
DITpSn Tovc /cXj)j)oi'j avTuv, their lots. And it may be 
so rendered, because in the division of the land of 
Canaan, that which they had for their estates was 
given to the ten tribes at first by lot. Well, saith 
God, I gave you your estates by such a special provi- 
dence of mine, by lot ; but though I did thus measure 
them out, otherwise than the estates of any men on the 
earth, yet a month shall devour your lot, all that you 
had in that appointment of my special providence shall 



now be devoured. From thence an observation arises 
of exceeding use to us : 

Obs. 10. The more special the providence of God is 
toward us in mercy, the more grievous are his judg- 
ments if subsequently provoked. 

That mercy I had by such a special hand of God's 
providence, that I can relate from point to point, how 
strangely the Lord wrought to bestow it upon me. 
M'ell, thou canst speak of God's providence and bless 
his name, and thou dost well in so doing; but then, 
take heed thou dost not abuse that mercy that thou 
enjoyest by the special hand of God's providence ; take 
heed of provoking God to come and devour that mercy. 
So it is threatened here, " a month shall devour their 
portion," their estates that they had by special lot shall 
now be destroyed because of their sins. 

But further, if we take it according to the translation 
in your books, which is likewise suitable to the original, 
" a month shall devour their portion," that is, all their 
outward estates, all theu- riches, all their outward com- 
forts, all that they have, and account as their portion, 
a month, a little time, shall destroy. And from thence 
there are these two observations : 

Obs. 11. A carnal heart has his portion in this world 
only. Here is his portion, he has his portion in this 
world. 

Obs. 12. The poor condition of the gi'eatest in the 
world ; his portion is no other, but a month may de- 
vour it. If thou hadst the whole kingdom, and many 
kingdoms, for thy portion, and this were all, thou hadst 
a poor pittance for one who has an immortal soul, for 
one made for eternity, a month may devour it. Tliat 
man is but a poor man who has no other portion but 
that wliich a month may devour. But now, the saints 
have God himself for their portion, a portion which nei- 
ther month can devour nor time destroy, but which 
they shall enjoy fresh and green, lively and full, and 
that to all eternity ; a portion which lives for ever, and 
secures then- everlasting life too. 

Ver. 8. Blmc ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trum- 
pet in Rmnuh : cry aloud at Betli-aven, after thee, 
Benjamin. 

The prophet, seeing how little impression his denun- 
ciations made on the hearts of this people, therefore, 
in the name of the Lord, assumes another character, 
and speaks in this verse as a general commanding an 
immediate alarm, as if the enemy were already at the 
gates ; " Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trum- 
pet in Ramah." As if he should say. You have often 
heard that the Lord would bring the sword upon you, 
now it is come, it is come ; the enemy is even ready to 
break into your cities, to rifle your houses, to ravish 
your wives, to murder your children : " Blow ye the 
cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Eamah: cry 
aloud at Beth-aven, after thee, O Benjamin." It is a 
summoning of them, as if one should come to the city 
and cry. The enemy, the enemy is at the gates, arm, 
arm ! so the prophet here, that he might rouse the 
hearts of those that are stupid and senseless, saith, 1 
have often in the name of God tlu-eatcned that he 
would bring the sword upon you, but you continued 
insensible ; know, that the Lord is now ujjon you in 
wrath, the enemy is come, now is the time for your de- 
struction ; blow ye the trumpet, set yourselves in battle- 
array, make what resistance you can, for now wrath 
and "misery are upon you. That generally is the scope 
of the w-oi-ds, but the're are yet three things to be con- 
sidered for their further explication. 

I. A^'hy Ramah and Gibeah are particularized. 

II. A^'hy " cry aloud at Beth-aven." 

III. The meaning of the words, " after thee, O Ben- 
jamin." 



286 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. V. 



I. Rnmah and Gibeah. I find many take these words 
not as proper names for cities, but to signify the hills 
and high places of the country. And the Seventy in- 
deed translate them, im roiif (iovt'ovc, ini tUv i<ljt]\wi', 
upon the hills, and upon the high places ; for Ramah 
signifies a high place, and Gibeah, by way of excel- 
lency, a hill. And they would interpret it as if the 
Lord should say to the prophet. Go to the highest 
places in the country, the highest hills, and there let 
the comet and the trumpet be blo\^, as an alarm to 
awaken the whole land. And then the observation 
would be, 

06s. 1. '\ATien a people is in danger of God's wrath, 
it is high time for them to be awakened. 

It is then fit that it should be made known to them. 
Not only that they should go to the governors, and 
those that are in high places of authority, l)ut go w-here 
they may make known the danger to all the people of 
the land. It is true, it is fit the governors should be 
awakened in the first place, but if they be awakened 
and not the people, ifwill prove to little purpose. 
Many men of late of vile si)irits could not endure that 
ministers should warn peojile of dangers, or tell them of 
the forerunners of God's displeasure against a nation ; 
at such things being preached in public auditories, 
their spirits were mightily incensed : but it is the way 
of God, in times of public dangers, to have the people 
made acquainted. 

But further, Ramah and Gibeah were two eminent 
cities, and belonged both to the kingdom of Judah. 
They were indeed in the tribe of Benjamin, but Benja- 
min and Judah were joined in one kingdom under the 
house of David, and the other ten tribes separated 
under Jeroboam. Now these two cities were of some 
eminence in the kingdom of Judah, and it is likely 
were sti-ongly fortified. Now God is here threatening 
judgment against Judah, as he did before, when he 
said, " Judah also shall foil with them ;" therefore saith 
he, " Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet 
in Ramah," in the most eminent places of Judah, in 
the most fortified, and let us see how they are able to 
resist the misery that is coming upon them. 

But further, I find the Chaidee paraphrast explains 
it as if the meaning were, because that Gibeah was the 
city of Saul, and Ramah the city of Samuel, therefore 
God threatened judgment for their making of a king 
against his will, and for their disobedience to the words 
of Samuel. But I think this is somewhat too far- 
fetched. 

II. " Cry aloud at Beth-aven." Bcth-avcn I believe 
to be the same city as that Betli-el where was one of 
the calves, and which belonged to the ten tribes; and 
the majority of interpreters confirm this opinion. 

Now this Beth-el, which signifies the house of God, 
is called here Beth-aven, the house of vanity, because 
of the idol that was set up there. Tlierefore mark 
the emphasis, when he speaks of Ramah and Gibeah, 
he saith, Blow the cornet and the trumpet : but when 
of Beth-aven, lynn " Cry aloud," howl out, O Beth- 
aven, for that was the great place of superstition. He 
nameth this city rather than Dan, (where the other of 
the two calves was ])laccd,) because it was so near to 
the kingdom of Judah. 

III. " .(Vllter thee, Benjamin." That is, Benjamin 
was close to this Beth-aven, and adjoining the king- 
dom of Israel. Now, saith God by the i)rophet, the 
wrath of God shall come out against Israel, Kplnaim 
shall be left desolate, and Beth-aven shall howl and 
cry out, and you, Benjamin, that are so near them, take 
you heed to yourselves, " after thee, O Benjamin," thy 
turn will be next. You have reason to look to yo\n'- 
selves when your neighbour's house is on fire ; so saith 
God here. Howl, Beth-aven, " after thee, O Benjamin:" 
Benjamin lay near Beth-aven, and when Benjamin saw 



the wrath of God against the ten tribes, and in that 
city of Beth-aven, Benjamin should look to itself. 
That is the meaning of the Holy Ghost in these words. 
Now for the notes of observation. 

Obx. 2. M'hen danger is apprehended as present 
and real it aflects the heart most. 

The Lord had threatened the sword many times by 
the prophet, and their hearts were secure and insens- 
ible ; but now he comes and presents it as present and 
real to them, " Blow ye the trumpet," the danger is 
now at hand, it is here, saith the prophet. There is a 
great deal of difference between men's hearing of wars 
and rumours of wars, and the very reality of the evil 
itself when it comes before their eyes. This judgment 
of war, of the sword, has been threatened against this 
nation long ago. I dare appeal to you, who for twenty 
years remember the common strain of almost all the 
godly ministers in the kingdom, was not their usual 
theme this, to show what were the forerunners of God's 
judgments against a nation ? Ever since I was a 
youth, and took any notice of sermons, I know nothing 
that sounded in mine ears more frequently than that. 
In almost all places in the kingdom, it was the usual 
custom of all youi- eminent ministers to search into 
God's word to see what were the sins that brought 
public judgments upon a nation, and to apply them to 
England. But this was ordinarily slighted. Some in- 
deed of our brctlu'cn that feared the Lord and his 
judgments, and thought that they foresaw a storm, 
withdrew themselves, and were scorned and contemned 
for their labours. But now we sec the thing that was 
feared and threatened is come, it is upon many coun- 
tries, and do we not now form far different conceptions 
of it than when we only heard of it ? In those coun- 
tries where the sword has been raging, do not they 
apprehend the evil of war in another manner than 
they ever did when they heard it merely threatened in 
sermons ? Oh when it indeed comes in its real form, 
it affects men far otherwise than the rumotu- of it. 
Those men that continually have their ears filled with 
the noise of the drum and trumpet, with the neighing 
of horses, and roaring of the cannon, will tell you that 
war is a dreadful thing indeed. So it is in all other 
afflictions that are threatened: how little is the threat 
regarded ! but when they come indeed, oh then how 
do the hearts of men sink within them 1 Now God is 
coming against me, now wrath is upon me, saith the 
guilty soul, how far it may go I know not ; I heard 
often of such things, now it is come, it is come ! Oh 
the dreadful apprehensions that are in men's hearts of 
the wrath of God when it is come ! whereas before, 
when threatened, it is never feared. 

And this is a rule, an everlasting rule. That the less 
a judgment is feared when threatened, the more dread- 
ful apprehensions there are of it in the heart when pnce 
it Cometh to be executed. 

Obs. 3. Ministers of God must realize the things 
thcj- preach to the people. 

"They should study all ways and means they can to 
make what they preach to the people appear real to 
them, and not mere notions. So the prophet here, 
he had preached often of the judgments of God, of the 
sword, but this would not do, therefore now he strives to 
make what he had delivered appear in the most vivid 
manner possible to the eyes and hearts of the people, 
as the only way to benefit them. It is not therefore 
enough for a minister barely to tell the people truths, 
to state to them what danger they arc in, but by all 
conceivable means to make this stand out in bold re- 
lief before them. "We know how Ezckiel acted when 
he threatened the captivity, he went and made before 
them a kind of siege to render it real to them. So 
Jeremiah and other jirophets. Now though ministers 
cannot do as they did, yet they are to study all manner 



Ver. 8. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



287 



of expi-essions in their power to invest things with the 
greatest possible reality. And indeed this is a great 
part of the skill of a good minister. The art of preach- 
ing, I say, lies especially in this, to make things appear 
real to the souls of the hearers. As, when we come to 
tell you of the danger of sin and of the wrath of God 
due to it, we tell you this, and we quote Scripture for it, 
perhaps it stirs not the heart ; but if we can so present 
God's wrath to you, hold it up so vivid and real before 
your eyes as to induce you to bethink yourselves in 
what a situation you would be if now all creatures were 
taking their leaves of you, if now you were standing 
before the great God to receive the sentence of con- 
demnation, if God were now at this instant coming 
upon you ; if, I say, we coidd so preach as that you 
should apprehend these things as real, more good 
might be so done in one quarter of an hour than per- 
haps in divers years before. The power of a ministry 
consists much in this. And I suppose some of you 
know by experience what it is that I mean by the 
ministers making things real to your hearts. Have 
not you sometimes found some truths made so real out 
of the word, brought so home to your consciences, that 
you have thought that you have even stood before the 
throne of God, and that God was even then pro- 
nouncing sentence against you ? Some have expressed 
it thus, Such a time I went to hear the word, and me- 
thought that I were summoned before the great 
God to judgment, I saw the Lord God himself speak- 
ing to me, I had represented before mine eyes the 
wickedness of my life, my danger, the iHTath of God, 
and I felt even the very flashes of hell-fire on my con- 
science. Now God was in the word indeed when the 
reality of things was thus presented to my soul. And 
certainly it is the aim and endeavour of godly minis- 
ters in their studies, not only to wear out an hour or 
two in speaking on a text, but, with the blessing of 
God, to present such and such truths in the gi'eatest 
possible reality to the souls of their audience. Such 
was the prophet's method, who not only tells them of 
their danger, but speaks as if it were at hand, and 
makes it thus real before them. 

Obs. 4. Ministex's, if then- embassy of peace be slight- 
ed, must denounce war. 

For they know that God must have honour one way 
or other, either by people subjecting themselves to 
him, or by God's avenging himself upon them. Hon- 
our God must have ; although you may think his word 
will pass unfulfilled, yet faithful ministers know God 
must have honour one way or other ; either willingly 
you must come in and give it to Mm, or he \^'ill force it 
out from you. If the joyful sound of mercy be not re- 
ceived, the di-eadful sound of war must fill your ears. 

Obs. 5. God's displeasm-e against sin is the principal 
cause of war in a land. 

So it is here, " They have dealt treacherously against 
the Lord : for they have begotten strange children : 
now shall a month devour them with their portions. 
Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ea- 
mah," &c. ; upon this ground, because of their treaclier- 
ous dealing with God, and bringing iip of their chil- 
dren in idolatry. When indeed danger comes on a 
nation, the people of the land are ready to lay it upon 
those that are most free from it. To whom do men at 
this day attribute the troubles of this nation, but to 
those that have throughout stood in the gap to prevent 
danger, and that have with more prayers and tears be- 
sought God than those their ready accusers ? But in 
all ages the saints have been made the troublers of a 
nation : But is it not thou and thy father's house ? saith 
the prophet, speaking even to Ahab himself The 
troublers of our Israel lie not in the prophets, lie not 
in the ministers, of whom men say, they preach se- 
dition. 



And indeed, in a singular manner, Luther, that great 
instrument of God, was called the trumpet of rebellion : 
no new thing therefore is it, for the ministers of God, 
that first preach the word of reconciliation, and then 
seek to show people their danger, to be accounted by 
them the causers of their troubles, because they will 
not let them go on quietly in then- ways, but in the 
name of God oppose and reprove them. But we know 
where our trouble lies, it lies in those that are most su- 
perstitious and idolatrous, they bring the sword : attri- 
bute it not to any other cause, it is the provocation of the 
most high God that brought these wars upon us. If 
therefore we be weaiy of war, let us be weary of our 
sins. I remember Polanus on this text has this note, 
and indeed he hinted it to me ; In Hungary, a place 
which is near the Turks, and infested by their frequent 
incursions, the Jesuits attribute all the evils to the gos- 
pel preached and received there. But the Lord knows 
where to lay the bm-den right. 

Obs. 6. Superstitious places and persons are in the 
greatest distress in the time of God's judgments. 

" Ciy aloud at Beth-aven." According to the inter- 
pretation I gave you, it was, being the place where one 
of the idols M'as set, full of superstition and idolatry. 
Now mark the difference, it is only. Blow the cornet 
and tnimpet in Ramah and in Gibeah ; but, " Cry 
aloud," or shriek out, and howl, O Beth-aven. 

When God's hand comes out against a nation, it 
will fall heaviest upon those that are idolatrous and 
superstitious. It is true, God's hand has hitherto 
fallen heavy, and very heavy, upon many of our bre- 
thren, his own dear saints ; but has it not also fallen 
heavily on the idolatrous and superstitious ? How- 
ever, mark the end, stay till God has done, and you 
will find that the hand of God will be heaviest on 
them ; Howl, O Beth-aven. Those places that have 
been the nests of superstition and idolatiy, are the 
places that his wrath will be most against. And in- 
deed they do begin to howl and cry out already : for 
though some of God's people have endured much, yet, 
have two nations lifted up their hands to the most high 
God to extirpate God's people ? No ! but they have 
lifted up then- hands to endeavour to extirpate the su- 
perstitious amongst us ; therefore God's hand is heavi- 
est against Beth-aven. 

06s. 7. In times of trouble the tmgodly and super- 
stitious ai'e in the greatest perplexity. 

Instead of repairing to God by faith and repentance, 
all that they have to do is to cry out and to howl. 
Howl, O Beth-aven : they were far enough from coming 
to humble their souls before the Lord, and graciously 
to accept of the punishment of their iniquity, and to 
bear the affliction laid upon them : oh no, their spirits 
were vexed and enraged, they could howl and cry out, 
and that alone. Is not this the way of many, ap- 
parently most diligent in their prayers and services, 
when they come into affliction ? what do they then but 
vex and rage, howl and crv- out? but are far from gi^^ng 
glory to God as he requires : They howled upon theu- 
beds, saith God. but they did not seek unto me. And 
God threatens this in Amos viii. 3, (who was contem- 
porary with Hosea,) " The songs of the temple shall 
be bowlings in that day." They had their singing 
service before, saith God, I will turn these into bowl- 
ings; for then- cries under affliction and trouble are no 
other before God. The Lord regards othei-wise the 
cries of his people under oppression ; they cry to God 
and send up their prayers of faith, and the incense of 
a broken heart, and "God accepts them, and returns 
them answers of peace. But for the crying out of 
wicked and ungodly men under his hand, God regards 
it no more than howling. Thus it is here. Howl, O 
Beth-aven ; much like tliose in Isa. li. 20, that, in the 
time of disti-ess, are described to lie in the head of all 



288 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. V. 



the streets, as a wild bull in a not, filled with the fury 
of the Lord. 

04$. 8, It is an ill thing to have ill neighbours. 
" After thee, O Benjamin." Benjamin was near Beth- 
aven, thei'efore he must fare the worse for Beth- 
aven. 

To dwell amongst ill neighboui-s is a dangerous thing, 
and we should take heed of it. I remember a com- 
mentator on this place gravely exhorts men, when 
they hire houses and farms, to inquire what neigh- 
bom-s were to be near them, and to take heed of dwell- 
ing nigh wicked men, for, saith he, when God's judg- 
ments come out against them you may smart, you 
being so near them they may singe you at least. I 
have often read of Themistocles, a heathen, that, having 
a farm to let, he pablished it, according to custom, at 
the market-place, and added, and there ai'e good neigh- 
bours ; thinking it were more comfortable for men to 
live iiear the good than the wicked. 

Obs. 9. 'NMien the wrath of God is out against our 
neighbours, we had need look to it. 

Though we have been in security before, yet if God's 
wrath come near to us we had need to stir. It is high 
time to look to om'selves when our neighbour's house 
is on fire. The truth is, we in England have been a 
long time in deep security, though Germany, though 
France, though the Low Countries, the Palatinate, 
Italy, and almost all the countries about us have been 
on tii-e, and the sword has raged amongst them, and it 
was threatened that it was likely we would be the next ; 
and we were told that the sword takes its circuit, and 
that the Lord, going about to judge the nations of 
the earth, had already judged the surrounding ones ; 
yet, because we felt nothing, though it was near us, we 
had no hearts to prevent it; therefore God is now- 
come amongst us, even into our very midst. The truth 
is, we in England lay a great while as it were like a 
faggot on the fire : you know, when many faggots are 
on the fire the under ones become inflamed, and the 
faggots a little above begin to catch the fire, and the 
next above these grow black ; now, if so be you would 
not have the uppermost faggot burnt, will you let it lie 
there, and say, Tliough the faggots below be burat, yet 
this is not touched? is not that faggot, think you, 
in danger ? Sol compare several nations to faggots 
in the fire : it is true Germany was the under faggot, 
and was in the flame, and other faggots have been 
burning, and we in England lay as it were on the top 
of all, and it was a good while ere the flame reached us ; 
and though we were warned to pluck ourselves as a 
fire-brand out of the fire, yet we through security lay 
still, and now the flame has caught us : yea, though we 
be now burning in many (ilaces in the kingdom, yet, 
because we find that the actual seat of the war is, it 
may be, twenty, thirtv, or forty miles from us, how se- 
cure arc we, as if God did not intend us at all, as if we 
had nothing to do to take notice of his band upon our 
brethren ! AVrath is ])ursuing, but because it is not 
npon us, oh the security and dcsjierate folly that is 
amongst us ! Just so it was in Germany, as travellers 
observed, if the wars were but a few miles from them 
tliey went on in their trading as quietly and securclv 
as ever, till at length it came upon them and devoured 
them. Has it not been so in many places in England ? 
May it not be said of many places amongst us, as here 
in the text, Ramah, and Gibeah, and Beth-aven, after 
thee, O Benjamin ? So may we not name several 
towns, Banbury and Worcester, after thee, O Exeter, 
O Bristol ? It may be, when the wars were in Shrop- 
shire, and Coventry, and other parts, those in Bristol 
and in Exeter thought they were free, and safe enough. 
And truly, though God lias delivered us all this while, 
yet, if we be secure, it may be as well said of us, Exeter 
and Bristol, and after thee, London. 



But you will say, AMiat shall we do when the hand 
of God is stretched out thus near us ? 

\. Humble our souls before God, go forth to meet 
this mighty God with repentance, cry mightily to him, 
that, if it be possible, his wrath may be a])peascd before 
it fasten upon us. As in Luke xiv. 32, it is said of 
those that are wise, when a great king came out 
against them with twenty thousand, they sent ambas- 
sadors to desire conditions of peace, when he was yet a 
gi-eat way off'. Mark, when he was a great way oflf. 
bo, we must not stay till God is come to our gates, till 
he be just upon us; but while this great King, the 
Lord God, is a great way ofl", at a distance, we must 
send to him, and meet him by rejientance, by hum- 
bling our souls, and making our peace with him. Let 
not us think. It is true, the hand of God was against 
our brethren of Scotland, but they were quickly de- 
livered ; but I may say. After thee, O England. "We 
have not done what our brethren did; for it is ob- 
served, that though the generality of that people were 
notoriously vile, wicked, and rude before these times, 
yet, partly through the covenant they have entered into, 
and otherwise, there is no question that, though much 
evil still exists there, and perhaps not the power of god- 
liness so thoroughly as in many of God's people here, 
yet certainly a more general reformation has taken 
place among the common people than amongst us; 
which sjieaks hard things against us. O let us go 
forth and meet our God by repentance. 

2. AVe should rise as one man, and help our bre- 
thren. For this has been our evil, that we have suf- 
fered the kingdom to moulder away, our brethren to 
be destroyed : Oh, saith one place, why need we trouble 
ourselves? and so the land is destroyed piecemeal. 
Certainly, it is the duty of the kingdom, and of those 
that remain, when they see their brethren, though at a 
distance, suffer so much wrong, to rise all as one man, 
to venture themselves for the relief of then- brethi-en, 
and not think themselves secure because evil has not 
yet reached them, y^'c see our brethren of Scotland 
were willing to come in with their help, and though 
the sword is far from them, yet, doubtless, some of 
them think of this very text ; Now the ti'umpet is blown 
in England, in the northern parts, after thee, O Scot- 
land : they think, after our turn is over, theii-s is next, 
therefore they are willing, to prevent it, though it be 
in such a hard season as this, to hel]) their brethren. 

3. AVe should meet our danger before it comes. It is 
easier to keep an adversary at a distance than to repel 
him when he is closed with us. This has ever been 
the policy of wise men, rather to go out to meet an ad- 
versary than to think to have strength enough to repel 
him when he comes. Thus in general. 

4. As kingdoms, so particular persons, should lay 
to heart God's impending judgments; as thus. Dost 
thou see God's hand upon thy neighbour ? after thee, O 
sinner, thy turn may be next: is God's hand stretched 
out on' your fellow servant, on your brother, on your 
dear friend? after thee, O sinner, thou art guilty of 
the same sin, thy turn may be next : is God's hand out 
upon thy companion? after thee, O sinner. O lay this 
to heart, think with thyself. It may soon come to be 
my turn. The veiT thought of this, when God has 
struck some with sudden death in a fearful manner. 
God has sanctified to some ; AVhat (thought they) if God 
strike me next ? such a one is sent down, for aught I 
know, to his place. I may be the next ! the thought, I 
say, of this lias been so settled upon the heart of 
some, that it has been a means of their conversion. 
The Lord make it so to every sinner that sees his fel- 
low, his neighbour sinner, struck before him. 



VEn. 9. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



289 



Ver. 9. Ephraim shall he desolate in the day of re- 
buke : among the tribes of Israel have I made knoicn 
that u-hicli shall sureli/ be. 

In the words before, you heard that the Lord, by 
the prophet, did not only threaten war, but summon 
the cities of Israel, Judah, and Benjamin, as if war 
were at the gates. But what if troubles do come, said 
they, we shall do well enough, they will have an end, 
and blow over again, wo shall wear them out ; we have 
been delivered out of great troubles, and so we may be 
out of these. No, it is otherwise now, Ephraim shall 
now be desolate, Ephraim, that is, the ten tribes, shall 
be desolate ncrS This word signiiies something stu- 
pendous, the hand of God shall be upon them even to 
amazement, they shall come into desolation, in the time 
of his rebuke, in the day of his trouble. The words 
are plain ; the observations from them are these : 

Obs. 1. That the day of the afflictions of God's 
people is the day of tlieir rebuke. See this proved in 
Numb. xii. 14. where ]\Ioscs saitli, "If her father had 
but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven 
days." When God afflicts his people lie, as it were, 
spits in their faces ; and ought not they much more to 
be ashamed ? Whatever that wanton generation think 
or say, that God never chastises his people for sin, 
there is no doctrine more evidently contained in Scrip- 
ture. But they tell us it was in the Old Testament ; 
and herein they show their weakness and disposition 
to cavil ; but they add, which seems to have some show 
of strength. 

That it derogates from the satisfaction of Christ. 

But the force of this is nothing, for Christ satisfied 
for them under the law, as well as for us ; they were 
saved by the same satisfaction that we are, therefore if 
it now derogates fi'om Christ's satisfaction under the 
gospel, it did then also under the law. 

Obs. 2. God hath his set times for rebuke. As they 
have their days of sinning, so God will have his days 
of correcting : you have your days of prosperity now, 
riches, honour, and plenty in abundance, but remember, 
it may be the day of rebuke is coming. It is good to 
put tills very case to ourselves. I have mercy now both 
for soul and body, and oh how comfortable is it, and 
how happy is my condition ! but is there not a day of 
rebuke coming, when all these mercies will be taken 
from thee, and then what wilt thou do, O my soul ? 
" And what will ye do in the dav of visitation ? " Isa, 
X. 3. 

Obs. 3. When wicked men stand out against lesser 
judgments, they have cause to fear greater. Ephraim 
liad days of lesser chastisements, but slighting them, 
God would try him no more : there are times in which 
God will utterly pursue sinners to destroy them, not 
for instruction, but destruction. The Lord has his 
houses of instruction, correction, and execution ; when 
the fu'st cannot effect God's end, the third shall, and 
yet the Lord be just and righteous ; for the Lord has 
no need of us ; what is it to him if we should perish 
everlastingly ? he can have his glory from us in our 
damnation. 

Obs. i. It is a dreadful time ^Yhen God so rebukes 
a people that he destroys them. AVhen the hand of 
God shall be so upon them that he is resolved never 
to take it off again, even as it was upon Ephraim at 
this time, I intend not to reform, but to ruin him ; this 
now is a most dreadful time : for, 

1. All that wrath which they have treasured up 
breaks in then upofi them. As wicked men treasure up 
wrath, so doth God, Rom. ii. 5. Now God lets out the 
flood-gates of his wrath against such a people. 

2. All then' sins come together into God's remem- 
brance. " In the day when I visit I will visit their 



sin upon them," Exod. xxxii. 34. It may be you are 
for the present spared, but the time is coming that 
God will visit, and then look to it. 

3. The cries of justice then prevail against such men. 
I speak of wicked men mingled and intermixed with 
the godly. In this day God will not call back his 
anger. T'here are times'in which God docs not stir up 
all his wrath, as in Psal. Ixxviii. 38. Many times God's 
anger is coming against a nation, family, or person, 
but he calls it back again ; but in this day of rebuke, 
God will not restrain his wrath, but let it forth to the 
uttermost. 

4. Mercy leaves such a people. " An evil, an only 
evil, behold, is come," Ezek. vii. 5. But the place 
most remarkable for this is Ezek. xxii. 20, I will bring 
you into the furnace, and there I will leave you. God 
ijrings his people into great trouble sometimes, but 
never leaves them there. But there are some whom 
mercy leaves and forsakes in their troubles ; and this 
is a most sad condition, for by this God shows that he 
will no more honour himself by their services, but by 
their sufferings. God saith thus, Seeing they would 
not give me my glory in a way of duty, I will extract 
and force it from them in a way of suffering. 

5. The Lord then intends hurt to such a people. The 
Lord perhaps brings you out of an affliction, but in 
that deliverance he intends your hurt and not your 
good, Jer. xxiv. 9. I intend nothing but hurt to such 
a people in all my dealings. 

6. All creatures desert such and dare not own them. 
God being against thee, the creatures cannot help in 
the least. 

7. All their services are rejected. God will be no 
more entreated for them ; now conscience smites and 
torments the spirits, and all the miseries that come 
upon them are but the beginnings of eternal sorrows ; 
and this is a most sad case : therefore let us pray with 
David, Psal. vi. 1 , " Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger ;" 
and as the prophet in Jer. xvii. 17, " Be not a terror 
unto me." But now, because tender consciences are 
ready to think when God rebukes them, or lays any 
affliction upon them, that it is to ruin and destroy 
them; as the Israelites said, in Dent. i. 27, " Because 
the Lord hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the 
land of Egypt." In every difficulty they encountered 
they conceited God hated them in it, though he had 
so many times done them good. And has not this been 
the reasonings of our unbelieving hearts, and the mur- 
muring of our spirits in our afflictions ? O take heed 
of such, they are very displeasing unto God. There is 
a great difference between the rebukes of God upon 
the godly and the wicked, though perhaps rebuked 
both in one and the same affliction. As the apothe- 
cary breaks Bezar stones to powder, but is very careful 
not to lose the least grain of them ; so the Lord's peo- 
ple, even in the furnace, are dear to him, and have 
then the greatest experience of God's love. When 
Jacob lay upon the ground, and had the stone for his 
pillow, even then he had that heavenly vision from God. 

• But now the question is. How shall we know whether 
those rebukes that are upon us are intended for our 
good or our hurt, our desolation or our restoration ? 

It may be known thus: if God's displeasures be 
such, that we find him more set against our sins than 
our persons, it is an argument that he intends our 
good, not our hurt, in his rebukes. 

But vou will say. This is as difficult as the other ; 
how shall we know God aims at our sins, and not our 
persons ? Thus : 

If his rebukes work us to a humiliation for our sins, 
to a resignation of ourselves up to God's disposal, and 
to an acquiescence in the punishment of our iniquities ; 
this is an argument that God aims at our sins, and not 
at our persons, in his rebukes, and so in them intends 



290 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. V 



our good and not our hurt. But you will say, It is usual 
for wicked men in tlieii' afflictions to cry out, it was 
theii- sins that brought this upon them. But hereby 
■we may discern the difl'crence. 

1. They ciy out of thcii- sins but per accidence, but 
of tlie judgment per se, the judgment troubles them 
more than thek sins, tlie cause of the judgment : but the 
godly cry out of their sins per se, and ol' the judgment 
per accidence, thcii' sin troubles them. 

2. A child of God more desires the sanctification of 
an affliction than its removal; but the wicked care 
not for removing the cause of judgment, even sin, so 
the rod of correction be taken off. 

" Among the tribes of Israel have I made known that 
which .'.hall surely bo." Some conceive that these words 
are spoken as the aggravation of tliis people's misery ; 
and if so, the observations from them are, 

Obs. 5. God smites not a people with judgment be- 
fore he \varns them. " Among the tribes of Israel have 
I made known." 

Obs. 6. When God threatens he is real in his thi-eat- 
enings. " That which shall surely be." Ephraim 
thinks that God intends not him. Sinners think that 
when God warns them he is not in earnest, it shall not 
be ; but God saith. It shall be. God esteems his word 
more than heaven and earth ; nay, heaven and earth 
shall pass away, before the lea.st jot or tittle of it shall 
fail ; and cursed be that peace that has no other ground 
or foundation than this hope, that those things are not 
true which the ministers of the word from the word 
threaten against sinners. And yet this is the condition 
of many people, and it mightily provokes God, as you 
may see in Deut. xxix. 19 — 21, If notwithstanding what 
is written in this book " he bless himself in his heart, 
saj-ing, I shall have peace ; the auger of the Lord shall 
smoke against such a man." Oh the bitter, aggravating 
cu-cumstances recorded in this scripture against such a 
sinner ! Now if God will be so' punctual in fulfilling 
his threatening word, how much more his word of pro- 
mise ! for God lias not done so much to realize to you 
his threatcnings as his promises. For, 

1. God has not called such witnesses to confirm 
them. Sometimes, in the general, he calls the heavens 
to witness ; " Hear, O heavens, and hearken, O earth, 
I have nourished up a people and they rebel against 
me ; " but tliere are Three in heaven and' three on earth 
who are witnesses, but not to the threatening word, 
1 John V. 7, 8. 

2. To the verifying of a promise there is not only 
God's faitlifulness, but his faitlifulness in Christ, all the 
promises are in him, yea and Amen : there is in God's 
promising word, not only his faitlifulness, but his faith- 
fulness in Christ, all the" promises are made in Christ ; 
so are not the threatcnings, judgments have not such 
immediate relation to Christ. 

3. Promises are not only God's covenant with his 
people, but his testament, and so more sure than a 
covenant ; for a covenant may be broken by the one 
party, but a testament cannot, it being conmmed by 
the death of the testator: the promise on our part may 
be broken, but when we look upon them as confirmed 
by the death of the great testator Jesus Christ, we have 
strong consolation : as it Ls a great evil not to believe 
the threats of God, so it is also a great evil not to credit 
the promises of God. Christians, you wonder when 
wicked men believe not God's threatenings and his 
judgments to tremble at them. Know, O Christian, 
that not only men, but angels stand and wonder when 
thou dost not believe the promises of God, when they 
are so confirmed that we might believe and walk in 
comfort. 

Oils. ". The revealing of sin before judgment aggra- 
vates both the sin and tlie judgment. If a father should 
desire his child not to do a certain thing, nay, not only 



desire but tbrbid him, yea, thi-eaten him with punish- 
ment if he did it ; if he shall after all tliis gainsay his 
father's will, he puts a greater contempt upon his 
father, for he breaks thiough hedges and fences which 
should have restrained him : so when God shall forbid, 
yea, tlireaten if we break out, it puts a great contempt 
upon God. 

1. The goodness of God is not honoured by us : when 
the Lord for our good shall warn us of our sins, that 
so we may prevent judgment, the desert of our sins, and 
we, notwithstanding, sm, it dishonours God's goodness. 

2. The truth of God is not honoured : when we dis- 
obey, we do no other than trv' whether the word be 
true or no, whether God's words are yea and nay. O 
sinner, dost thou know what thou dost .■' thou temptest 
God, saying, Lord, there are such and such tiiieaten- 
ings against sin, but I do not believe them, Lord, I will 
venture it, I will put it to tlie trial whether it be so 
or no. 

3. It aggravates the sin : the judgment cannot but be 
the greater, thou canst expect but little pity from the 
goodness of God which tliou hast slighted, when it 
warned thee of those judgments which are now upon 
thee, his mercy to remove them cannot be expected. 
God, by his ministers, warned me in such a sermon, but 
I went on and would not reform, and now there is mat- 
ter for the worm of conscience to gnaw upon ; that thou 
mayst say as Job, " Wiat I feared is now come upon 
me ; " and this is that which aggravates our miser)-. 
Have not the ministers of God now for these twenty 
years, especially in these latter seven yeais, made this 
the subject of their preaching, to warn us of judgments? 
and now the judgments of God are come upon us, God 
has vindicated the word of his servants. 

But these words, though they may be thus under- 
stood, yet I conceive they beai' a fiu-ther signification, 
which is this : I have declared among the ti-ibes what 
shall be finally uTevocable, without any change or 
alteration ; I Iiave formerly repented, and have been 
entreated, but now I will repent no more. Tliey seem 
to contain God's unchangeable purpose for the desolat- 
ing of this people ; and being thus understood, the ob- 
servation from them will be this : 

Obs. 8. There is a time when there shall be no help 
to deliver from judgment. Though they should call, 
cry, mourn, weep, fast, and entreat, yet the judgment 
shall not be removed. As is said of Esau, " he found 
no place of repentance," Heb. xii. 17. There is a 
great mistake in the interpretation of that place 
made by many, who gather from it that there may be 
many tears shed, much sorrow found, and yet no true 
repentance ; but the meaning of the words is tliis, he 
found no place for liis father Isaac's repentance, though 
he cried and shed tears for the blessing, yet his father 
repented not that he had bestowed it upon Jacob : 
so that people may crv and humble their souls before 
God, yet shall find in God no place of repentance ; nay, 
if the saints of God should all join together and pray 
for such a people they would not prevail ; Ezek. xiv. 
20, '■ Though Noah, Daniel, and Jot) " should pray for 
them, they should not prevail. sinner, take need 
this be not thy condition ; thou hast perhaps godly pa- 
rents and kindred, and they set themselves to seek 
God for thee, but God will deny them, their prayers 
shall not prevail for thee. This may be the case with 
nations and kingdoms, there may be true repentance 
found and turning to God, and yet no deliverance from 
outward atlliction. I deny not but that true repent- 
ance shall deliver a soul from eternal wrath, from 
perishing in hell; but this I affiri: , that there may be 
true repentance found, and turning to God, and vet no 
deliverance from a temjioral affliction. And this 1 shall 
make good by two remarkable texts of Scripture. The 
first is in Deut. iii. 26. Moses had sinned, and God 



Ver. 10. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



291 



saith he should not go into the laud of Canaan, nvhich 
was a sore affliction to him : upon this, Moses, who we 
may be certain had repented him of that sin, prayed ; 
yet see what he saith, " The Lord was vnrath with me 
ibr youi' sakes, and would not hear me : and the Lord 
said unto me, Let it suffice thee ; speak no more unto 
me of this matter." All his prayers and repentance 
could not deliver him from that outward affliction, and 
bring him into Canaan. The second text is in 2 Kings 
xxiii. 25, 26. In chap. xxii. we find the heart of the 
king melting when he heard the law read, and perceived 
■ the anger of the Lord against his people was provoked ; 
he humbled himself, and the Lord told him that he 
should die in peace. And in chap, xxiii. the king sets 
upon reforming the people, enters into a solemn cove- 
nant with God, causes the people to join with him, puUs 
down the groves, destroys idolatry ; and although it be 
said in ver. 25, that " like unto 'him was there no king 
before him," yet, in ver. 26, there is added. " Notwith- 
standing the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his 
great wrath, whergwith his <inger was kindled against 
Judah." So that sometimes God is so set upon his 
tlrreats, that they shall come to pass ; God will make 
them good whatever ensues : this I conceive to be the 
meaning of these words ; and so ]Mr. Cah-in reads 
them. God may be so resolved against a man's eternal 
estate, that he will never show such a man or such a 
people mercy more ; as we may see in those which were 
bid to the gospel supper : therefore we had need to 
gather ourselves together " before the decree bring 
forth," Zeph. ii. 1,2. O let us in tlus kingdom take 
heed ; through God's grace we are not yet left deso- 
late, but have much mercy, even in this day of our re- 
buke ; but what God will do one cannot determine ; 
therefore it concerns us to prepare to meet our God, 
lest the wrath of God meet us, overcome and destroy 
us, tiU there be no remedy : though, through present 
mercy, we may say there is remedy, let us the rather 
tremble and be awakened, because God sometimes 
comes against, and is more quick with, a people that 
are not so openly and notoriously vile as others are, 
than with the most profane. 

Ver. 10. The princes of Jndah were tike them that 
remove the hound : therefore I will pour out my wrath 
upon them like water. 

But why is God so wrath with Israel ? Have not 
the princes of Judah provoked him also ? 

Yea, God here speaks to them principally. It seems 
the people were not so bad, so sinful, as they, for in 
the next words he saith, that " Ephraim is oppressed 
and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked 
after the commandment." 

Obs. 1. Princes must answer to God for all theu' 
doings : " The princes of Judah." Though they are 
above all men in power, and so are not so liable to give 
an account to man as others are, yet to God they must : 
those actions which are least obnoxious to men, are 
much to God. 

" Were like." That is, not so much figiu-atively as 
really; it is usual in Scripture to put the word " like," 
for the thing itself, as thus, " The glory as of the only 
begotten of the Father." The princes of Judah were 
those that removed the bound ; by the light of natiu-e, 
and the law of God, it was a wicked thing to do so ; 
you may see it forbidden by the law of God, Deut. 
xsvii. 17. 

It was a custom among the heathens and the Ro- 
mans, if any man removed the bound, the ancient land- 
mark, to adjudge them, if poor, to slaven,', to dig in 
dee]) pits ; if rich, to banishment, and a forfeiture of 
tlie third part of their estates. I 



The princes of Judah broke down the bounds in a 
fourfold manner. 

1. They took away other men's estates. God ap- 
points men their bounds and estates, therefore it is not 
in the power of princes to take them at then' pleasure. 
It was not in tlie power of Ahab to seize Naboth's vine- 
yard; nay, not. to force him to sell it: though a king, 
he thought it too much to take it by violence ; and 
Jezebel, though a cruel woman, yet would not advise 
him to possess himself of it without some colour of law. 
Therefore princes have no right to the subjects' estates, 
nor liberty to seize them at their pleasure ; though 
such principles of late have been infused into them by 
some, for which we this day suffer so heavily. In Isa. 
i. 23, then- princes are said to be " rebellious, and com- 
panions of thieves." Now if all were their own they 
could not be thus classed. We woidd think that they 
of all men should not break bounds, for what is it they 
may not have if they would ? Plutarch records an ex- 
cellent conversation between Cineas and PjTrhus, who 
was mightily bent on war with Italy, much to the pur- 
pose. Cineas thus addressed him : What shall we get 
if we overcome the Romans ? We shall subdue, saith 
Pyrrhus, om- great enemy, and be made possessors of 
a brave country. Cineas asked what he would do 
then ? Then we wiU subdue Africa, Carthage, and 
Sicily. And what then ? Then, saith PjTrhus, we will 
feast, cbink, and be men-y. Cineas replied. Why may 
you not do so now, ■ndthout shedding so much blood, 
putting yourself to so much trouble, and endangering 
your person. If princes would keep within their bounds, 
what hinders but that they may enjoy themselves and 
their comforts in peace and quiet, without the shedding 
of blood ? 

2. They broke all bounds. That is, they break all 
laws and liberties ; they wiU not be bound by laws, say- 
ing thus. Laws were made for subjects, not for princes. 
And thus these princes broke the bounds. Hence we 
may see what corruption there is naturally in the hearts 
of men ; and this is furthered by evil counsellors. When 
Cambyses desired to marry his sister, but questioned 
whether he might do it or no, he called his judges to- 
gether to give him theu advice, and they told him, 
there was indeed a law against it ; but, added they, ye 
princes of Persia may do what you will. They were so 
far fi'om dissuading him from that wicked act, that they 
encouraged him in it. And has not our time afforded 
such counsellors to our princes ? 

3. They broke the bonds of religion. Therefore m- 
tei'preters conceive that our prophet Hosea prophesied 
in Ahaz's time, when he provoked God so by idolatrj", 
setting up the abomination of desolation. And this is 
the great breach of bonds, when people provoke God. 
God has set bounds to his word, for his worship and 
ser^^ce. Now, take heed that you go not beyond those 
bounds, for any pretence of decency or comeliness, suit- 
able to the state and circumstances in which you live. 
God has permitted men to use great liberty in civil 
things, but none in his worship and ways. Oh what 
evil have popish princes done in this respect, in remov- 
ing these bounds ! And this is the main reason which 
makes papists so labour for the upholding and setting 
up of an arbitrary government, having thereby full 
liberty to break all bounds in religion. 

4. They broke the bonds of their own covenants, and 
regarded them not. Such were the corruptions of those 
princes, they broke all sorts of bonds, civil, spiritual, 
covenanting bonds ; nothing restrained them. 

But has God left no means to keep in bounds princes 
as well as subjects ? 

To this I answer. Yea, certainly. Those who at fii'st 
gave power for families and persons to keep these, 
never sanctioned their being broken by the great. The 
law of nature never gives power to destroy itself, espe- 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. V 



cially in a kingdom where there are resources defensive 
and offensive, against any means that the gi-eatest in 
power may raise to infringe the laws and Liberties of 
men ; for no subject of a prince but is also a subject 
of the state, and the state may deal with the instru- 
ments that it employs cither defensively or offensively. 
Trajan, after he was made emperor, put a sword into 
his officer's hand to defend him while he defended the 
laws ; but if he failed in his duty, bade the officer deal 
w ith him as a delinquent. It will be worth our pains 
and cost if, after all our troubles, we can but get the 
kingdom settled in its true rights and liberties ; though 
our workmen, who are making up our breaches, through 
some negligence or miscarriage, suffer the wild beasts 
to break in, yet let not us murmur and repine, but be 
content, and bless God that we have means to help 
ourselves. A few years ago we thought our breaches so 
wide, that none could help or deliver us; now, then, 
that God has raised up for us helpers contrary to our 
expectation, let us bless God for them, and be content, 
and stir up ourselves to aid them. If the sea should 
break in upon a country, would you sit still, or let any 
by you rest that would not stir to make up the breach ? 
a' farmer is contented to see cattle run up and down in 
his ground, while his workmen are making up his hedges 
and fences to keep them out : so our workmen are mak- 
ing up the hedges, let us be contented to suffer awhile 
])aticntly. The truth is, those most complain of con- 
fusions and disturbances who have been most instru- 
mental to make our breaches and distractions. 

Thus the princes of Judah were like them that break 
tlie bound, and for thus doing the Lord threatens, in 
tlie following words, to " pour out his wrath upon them 
like water." They have passed their bounds in sinning, 
and my wrath shall pass its bounds upon them ; they 
kept no bounds in sinning, and my wrath shall keep 
no bounds in punishing. The Hebrews were wont to 
express anger by "isy a word which signifies, going 
beyond bounds ; intimating, that ordinarily in our 
anger we are apt to go beyond bounds. The sense 
then is, " I will pour my wrath upon them " in great 
abundance, " like waters." The judgments of God in 
Scripture are often set forth to us by this similitude of 
water, as in Isa. xxviii. 17 ; Nah. i. 8. Look, as their 
anger ran like water, so my wrath shall run upon them 
until they are consumed. 

God's wrath is very hot against wicked governors, 
such as break the bounds of religion, laws, and cove- 
nants : the Lord is much displeased against the gi'eat 
when wicked. Numb. xxv. 4, the people of Israel com- 
mitted a great evil in provoking God by their idolatry, 
joining themselves to Baal-penr, and the Lord said, 
" Take the heads of the ])cople." The people offended 
by the encouragement of the governors, therefore their 
heads must off ; the people sin, and the governors must 
.suffer because they reproved not nor restrained, but 
countenanced them. Hence we may 

Obs. 1. A\'ehad need pray much for princes. Fear- 
ful are the examples which historians report concerning 
the judgments of God u])on wicked princes. 

Leander, in the description of Italy, tells of a cruel 
tyrant, who persuaded himself that he must give an 
account to no man for what he did; at last God gave 
him into the hands of the people, who stripped him 
naked, bound him upon a ])lank, and drew him through 
the streets in the sight of all the people ; then made a 
great fire, in which they heated tongs red hot; and, 
when they had done thus, proclamation was made in 
the market-place, that seeing he had wTongcd so many 
tliat it was impossible he could atone for the injuries 
lie had committed, therefore all that had suffered by 
liim should come and lacerate his flesh with these im- 
])lemcnts of torture. 

Another fearful example we have of later date, in the 



massacre in France. Charles the Ninth, pretending 
much love and kindness to the Protestant party, invited 
them to a great marriage-feast ; and, at the same time, 
issued a commission, whereby he called in those bloody 
miscreants, who cruelly murdered them : there he broke 
bounds ; but see how God met with him in a most 
grievous disease, through the violence of which there 
spurted out blood from several parts of his body, so 
that, before he died, he wallowed in his own gore. God 
poured out his wrath upon them in blood who in their 
lifetime thirsted after blood. 

04s. 2. The bounds of religion and laws, as they 
keep in obedience, so they keep out judgments. Pure 
religion and good laws, as they are bounds to keep us in 
duty, so they keep judgments and wrath from us. And 
we ought to look on laws in both these points of view, 
not only as means to keep us in order and duty, but 
also to keep out w-rath : if wo break our bounds, wc 
must look that wrath should break in upon us ; there- 
fore we had need do as men that live near the sea, 
when the sea breaks in upon them, they presently leave 
all other businesses, to make up the breaches. Our 
bounds are broken, and who is the occasion of it the 
Lord knows, and wrath is broken in upon us at our 
breaches; therefore let us now, as one man, endeavour 
to stay " the overflow'ing scourge." 

06.!. 3. God punishes according to men's sins. Tliey 
break the bounds, God breaks in with wrath upon them. 
Ai'e they resolute in sinning ? God will be as resolute 
in his judgments upon them : see Jer. xliv. 25 ; You 
have sworn and vowed to your superstitions, and I liave 
sworn to bring judgment upon you, and it shall come 
to pass. Therefore when judgments are upon us, if we 
would have them removed, we should diligently observe 
what sins we are guilty of correspondent to the judg- 
ment; for many times we may trace the cause of a 
judgment by the sin that we are guilty of; and if we 
ever expect to have troubles removed, we must fii'st 
remove their cause, sin. 

Ver. 11. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judg- 
ment, because he u-iUingtij milked after the commaml- 
ment. 

"Wrath, in the former verse, was threatened against 
the princes of Judah, who removed the bounds ; and 
here the Lord returns again to Ephraim, in this 11th 
verse; and in the 12th verse, to Judah and Ephraim 
both together ; they being both a provocation to God, 
are plagued both together. 

The word " oppressed," in the original is pvcy trans- 
lated by Jerome, " calumniate," and by the Seventy 
usually understood in a like sense. \Ve may inter- 
]5ret the words thus, Ephraim, by sycophants, suffers a 
great deal of wrong. 'When there are false reports 
raised against men, they suffer wrong by it: false re- 
ports are as a false medium, which represent things 
otherwise tlian they are. As a staff put into tlic water 
seems crooked, although in reality not so; so the 
actions of men in the reports of others may seem 
crooked, when in themselves they are straight and 
good. And thus was Ephraim broken in judgment ; 
though his cause was good, yet was it wrested in 
judgment, and that without redress. Good causes 
are many times pervert.ed by bad men ; but the saints 
may support themselves with Paul's comfort, who 
cared not for man's judgment. In this signification 
the Scptuagint usually take the word ; but here they 
express it actively, thus, Ephraim has overpowered 
his adversaries, and so has trodden 
down judgment. But the words are •f^°"u7i"y°!i'^!i" 
well rendered in your books in the "o" oiTor..,«ai<ja- 
passivc sense, " Ephraim is broken in """ ' 
judgment." Concussus jiidicio : concussio is a law 



Vi;e. 11. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



293 



term, signifying such a kind of breaking and oppression 
as threatens the utter ruin and undoing of a man by 
law; as many rich men threaten to ruin theu- poor 
neighbours -vvhen they do them any wrong. Or, as 
corrupt and wicked magistrates, when they cannot bring 
the poor to say or do what they desire, will threaten to 
i-ecompense it on them, if ever it lie in their power : of 
this Samuel clears himself, 1 Sam. xit. 3, " "\^'hom have 
,,..„.. I defi-auded ? or whom have I oppress- 
"' ' ed?" (the word is the same as here ;) that 
is. Have I used my power to threaten men to yield up 
their liberties, their rights, their enjoyments ? This was 
the sin charged here on the great princes of the ten 
tribes. 

" Broken in judgment." That is, not in God's judg- 
ment upon them, but in the judgment of their own 
cause, they were crushed in their estates, liberties, and 
laws, and that not only by then- o-mi magistrates and 
governors, but also by the Assyrian : by their own ma- 
gistrates they were broken and oppressed, good men 
were discovmtenanced, just causes betrayed, the whole 
coiu-t corrupted, and the laws of the land, which should 
have maintained the bounds, were broken ; they were 
so broken as a thing which is broken but not quite 
spoiled with the fall, some shreds of it may be made 
use of; so the generality of them were so broken that 
there was little right to be had for any wrong commit- 
ted. And as they were thus oppressed in the prophet 
Hosca's time, so also in the time of the prophet Amos, 
who prophesied about the same period : Amos ii. 7, 
" They ])ant after the dust of the earth on the head of 
the poor." They did not only seek to bring poor men 
under them, but even utterly to destroy them, they 
sought to ruin them, and that by perverting of judg- 
ment. So Amos V. 11, their oppression grew to such a 
height that they took the wheat of the poor from them ; 
if the poor had but gleaned a little wheat in the fields, 
as they brought it home they robbed them of it : this 
was the oppression which at this time prevailed among 
the ten tribes, from their own governors. But they 
were also oppressed by the Ass\Tian, who calumniated 
and reproaclied them, saying, Wliere is now your God, 
in whom you so much trusted ? Thus much for the 
explication of these words. The reason follows : 

" Because he willingly followed after the command- 
ment." But some here may say, "NMiy this? is there so 
much in this to provoke God ? 

Yes, this was a great sin ; for the opening whereof, 
take notice of these three things. 

1. Whose commandment they followed. The com- 
mandment of Jeroboam and his princes, men that had 
authority and power in their hands, yet it provoked 
God thus highly against them, that they followed the 
commandments of men who had authority over them. 
It may seem strange that this charge should be against 
Eplii-aim for this, no question but they pleaded'thus, 
AMiat ! am I wiser than my governors ? must not I do 
as they bid me ? 

2. "\Miat commandment it was that they followed. 
It was to worship the calves at Dan and Beth-el. Ho 
worshijjpcd God, but in a false manner, and this pro- 
voked God so against him. ' 

3. " He u-iUingli/ followed after the commandment ;" 
as soon as ever he was commanded he yielded, without 
any deliberation, or consultation with himself; whereas 
he sh-ould have stood it out, and have rather endured 
tlie loss of all, than yield to their commands : as the 
three children, who rather suffered the fiery furnace, 
than they would fall down before the image.' Though 
the generality of them followed after the command- 
ment, yet there were some found among Ephraim who 
would go to Jerusalem to worship in the place of God's 
appointment : so 2 Chron. xi. 16, those which set their 
heai-ts to seek God would go up to Jerusalem, and not 



follow Jeroboam to Dan and Beth-el : some knew that 
God would be worshipped in his own way and in his 
own place, but the generality of the people liked the 
commandment, because it was will-worship, which 
pleases man's nature best ; and then it was most for 
their ease : and this was Jeroboam's plea, I love my 
people's ease, I would not be so harsh to them, there- 
fore come, we will worship the true God still, it is but 
the ch'cumstance of place, and that is of little import- 
ance. They then willingly followed after the com- 
mandment, and thereby encouraged Jeroboam in his 
wicked design. The Vulgate expresses 
it thus, they willingly followed after '*JJ''"f.T^ '- 
dregs; and the Hebrew seems to eon- ™'' ""•'""''■ - 
fh-m this, signifying filthy dregs ; and is rendered vani- 
ties, or vain thmgs, by the Septuagint. If this be the 
meaning two things may be remarked : 

1. That Jeroboam was willing to have the people 
enjoy their lusts, so he might compass his ends ; ho was 
content to give the people the full indulgment of their 
lusts, and therefore the baser sort clave to him. Jero- 
boam reasoned thus : I must rend the kingdom from 
David, but how shall I accomplish it ? I must have 
the people to assist me in it, but how shall I gain 
them ? I will let them have their pleasures in sin, 
they shall have their lusts without contradiction, and 
then the most will follow me, I shall be sure of the 
rude multitude, the profane in the kingdom. 

2. After their filthy vanities ; that is, after their idols, 
the calves which he had set up ; for the Scripture sets 
forth the filthiness of idolatry by the basest things in 
the world. 

Thus much of the words in that sense : but they are 
more full as read in your books, and more agreeable to 
the original, and afford many observations. 

Obs. 1. It is a great judgment for a people to be 
under oppression. It is a very sad affliction for a na- 
tion, family, or person to be under oppression, and 
broken in judgment, when good men and good causes 
are crushed and slighted, and wicked men and bad 
causes prevail and prosper, when a man's innocency 
avails him nothing. Solomon, in Eccles. iii. 16, saitli 
it is a great evil, when wickedness is got into the jilace 
of judgment. God has promised to deliver his ])eople 
from this, " In righteousness shalt thou be established; 
thou shalt be far from oppression," Isa. liv. 14 ; but 
these times are not yet come, the greater part of the 
world is at this day under oppression. It is sad to 
have our estates and oiu' liberties broken for conscience ; 
conscience-oppression is the worst oppression : and this 
was our condition not long since, nay, and is the condi- 
tion of many of our dear bretteen in many places of this 
kingdom ; has it not come to such a pass that the mean- 
est, yea, the basest, persons in a city or country have 
had power enough in their hands to undo the best mi- 
nisters in the kingdom, and that he who departed from 
iniquity made himself a prey ? Oh with what an iron 
rod has the kingdom been ruled, parliaments broken, 
the edge of the law turned against the godly party ! 
witness the banishing of men, ministers oppressed in 
their estates, in then' liberties, but especially in their 
consciences, if they would not, like the fiddler's boy, be 
ready to dance after every pipe ; insomuch that when the 
Lord gave us a little reviving, we were even as men in 
a dream. '\\'hen, under all this, we were ready to say, 
^^'e shall never be delivered, how is it possible that we 
should be rescued from the oppressors ? how was hea- 
ven filled with our cries and earth with our moans ! 
Thus it has been ; and worse now it is in many places 
of the kingdom with many of our brethren ; but let 
them and us be comforted in this, it was thus with 
Israel, when God delivered them out of captivity. To 
our adversaries that text may be applied, Isa. xxx. 12 ; 
they " trust in oppression;" what is their language but 



294 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. V. 



this ? AVe will raise a great aimy anJ muster together 
strong forces, and then we will be masters of the field, 
and reduce the rebels. They trust in o])pression, and 
make cioielty their arm of j)ower ; take away that, and 
their cause ialls to the ground : but God's people are 
commanded the contrary in Psal. Ixii. 10, " Trust not 
in oppression;" and for those that do oppress, they 
shall be like those in Isa. xxx. 13, " whose breaking 
Cometh suddenly in an instant;" and you that have 
friends in oppression, send them for their comfort such 
scriptures as Psal. xii. 5, " For the oppression of the 
poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith 
the Lord ; I will set him in safety from him that puff- 
eth at him." 

But you will say, Tnie, God will arise, but not yet : 
these are good words, but we may suffer exti'emely in 
the mean time. 

But mark what the Lord saith in the 6th and 7th 
verses of the same Psalm : " The words of the Lord are 
pure words ;" and this word among the rest, that God 
will arise, and set his people m safety, from this gener- 
ation to the end. And if any of your friends be in dan- 
ger, send them Isa. li. 12, 13, " Where is the fuiy of 
the oppressor?" God wUl assuredly so work out 
things in his own time, that we shall be able to say. 
Where is now the fury of the oppressor ? Now, if God 
has made us to know the smart of this sore and heavy 
burden, he looks that we should have very tender car- 
riages and loving dispositions towards our brethren, 
especially towards then- consciences ; mark his charge 
concerning this, Exod. sxiii. 9, " Thou shalt not op- 
press a stranger:" why so? Oh, saith God, "for ye 
know the heart of a stranger." Perhaps there are some 
that walk close with God, who have tender consciences, 
which cannot yield to what may be im))0scd upon them 
by authority, Oh take you heed of oppressing these, 
God expects that you should use them with all loving- 
kindness. 

Obs. 2. Idolaters are great oppressors. AATien was 
it that Ephraim was oppressed? WTien he walked 
after the commandment of Jeroboam. Clianges in re- 
ligion bring people to oppression. Therefore the 
Scripture sets forth antichrist by Egypt, because the 
people of God were there most gi-ievously oppressed, 
and the woman in the Revelation is said to sit upon 
the waters. That story of a bishop who would op- 
press the people, is well known, who, when one stand- 
ing up told him he could not do it by law, answered, 
that if there were anv law against him he would caiTy 
it in his sleeves. Likewise that oppression of the 
Waldenses was very great, who, desiring that they 
might but enjoy the liberty of worshipping God in 
woods and groves, were refused. And was not this 
our condition some few years since, when the saints 
durst not appear for God in public, but only in private 
rooms and chambers ? 

Obs. 3. God has a righteous liand in delive'ring of 
men into the hands of unrighteous oppressors. "He 
willingly walked after the commandment," saith God. 
It may be your enemies, into whose hands I have de- 
livered you, may deal unjustly and oppress you out of 
measure ; yet am I just. 

We are oftentimes ready to complain of instruments 
which oppress us, and never look at the hand of God 
that smites us by them. We should look within our- 
selves, and find the cause there which provokes God, 
what sins wc are guilty of, and make our peace with 
God: and so likewise in the kingdom, this is the way 
to be delivered from our oppressors. I remember a 
story in Cedrenus concerning Phocas, \yho, having 
murdered his master the emperor Mamicius with his 
wife and children, usuqied the empire, and'opened a 
floodgate to all impiety : an honest poor man at that 
time was wonderfully importunate at the throne of grace 



to know a reason why that wicked man so prospered in 
liis design ; and was thus answered by a voice, That a 
worse man could not be found, but that the .sins of 
Christians, and the city of Constantinople, required it. 
Sins unrepented of give strength to an enemy's side. 

06s. 4. A special cause of oppression is, people's fol- 
lowing of false worship. We never read of Israel's great 
oppressions, but when they "walked after the com- 
mand;" and it is very observable, after they once 
began to follow the commands of Jeroboam, the ten 
tribes never had any good kings, whereas Judah in- 
deed sometimes had, because they kept something of 
God amongst them, the temple and some of its ser\ices. 
If we submit to wicked men in our consciences, no 
wonder if they are quickly usurpers over our estates. 

06s. 5. Our giving too much to men, God often 
punishes by maliing them the greatest insti-uments of 
our misery. If you wQl make governors gods, it is just 
with God to make them devils to you ; for men made idols 
become devils. We should labour ti-uly to inform our- 
selves of that obedience which we owe to governors, and 
yield them that and no more. K people will give that 
to men which is God's due, it is just with God to make 
them the greatest plagues to us. 

06s. 6. We may see here the evil natme of wicked 
men. Jeroboam and his princes are vei-y fair and 
specious, give good words to the people, and all to 
gain their own ends : and when they had attained them, 
then they broke them in judgment, and oppressed 
them exceedingly : the more they ai'c yielded to, the 
more tliey oppress. It is a sign of a base spirit, for 
men thus to abuse poor people. " The wicked boasteth 
of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom 
the Lord abhorreth," Psal. x. 3. 

Obs. 7. It is Satan's course to get false worship 
backed by authority. Satan's chief design is to get his 
worship into the throne, and to effect this he labours 
to coiTupt the pure worship of God, and presses his own 
upon the people, backed with the command of au- 
thority ; the devil knows that there is no way so likely 
to prevail with the people as this, that if authority 
commands, that overpowers all reason brought to the 
contrary. And this is the aspersion cast upon the godly 
at this very day, that they rebel against authority ; an 
old subterfuge, which in all ages the devil has used to get 
advantages against the ^ints. This was Haman's argu- 
ment, that it was not for tlie king's honour to suffer 
the Jews to live in his provinces. Sanballat and To- 
biah would not suffer the people of God to build the 
temple ; why ? because they were factious people, dis- 
obedient to authority-. So Paul himself was accused of 
sedition : and the false prophets tell the king that Amos 
wa'< such a turbulent fellow that the land could not 
bear the words which he uttered. 

06.S. 8. Man's authority is not a sufficient warrant. 
No evil may be committed under pretence of the com- 
mands of authority. Tlicrefore the papists' blind obe- 
dience is too great a burden and bondage for man as 
man to bear ; then much more as Clu'istians. If God 
command any thing we must look more at the guis 
tlian at the qiiid ; but in the commands of men we must 
look at the quid, what it is that is commanded, more 
than the quis, who commands ; the commands of men 
may be sudi that the best obedience is to disobey. The 
pope, writing to Bernard, required a thing of him 
which was unlawful. Bernard returned this answer, I as 
a child do not obey, and I obey in disobeying. God's 
authority is that which we must look at in all our ac- 
tions. Authority at tlie first was set up for the good 
of commonwealths, and not for their hurt, tlierefore it 
was no wonder that so many in former times did deny 
obedience to the unlawful commands of magistrates, 
when the edge of justice was turned against them; but 
now, since authority is good, harmonizing with the will 



Vee. 11. 



THE I'llOPHECY OF HOSEA. 



of God, punishing sir. and wickedness, who obeys more 
than those who formerly were accounted disobedient ? 
Therefore it is a false reproach which is cast upon the 
professors of the gospel, that they are disobedient to 
governors, and contemn authority. Who are they that, 
in their estates, liberties, and lives, venture most in this 
cause ? is it not the people of God ? Nay, is not this 
used as an argument to godly soldiers to be content 
with the want of pay, because they are owners of this 
war ? It is for religion and liberty they stand, it is con- 
science incites them to show themselves active for God, 
and venture largely for his sake, though they verily 
believe they shall never see a return of their cost : let 
but law and authority go on God's side, and then they 
win obey willingly. 

It is true, authority against God must not be obej-- 
ed ; but suppose the command be in indifferent things ? 

I answer, that absolutely indifferent things are not 
within the reach of the magistrate, he is to command 
that which in his conscience, and according to law, he 
conceives to be for the good of the commonwealth. 

But in this case who must be judge ? 

The magistrate is to judge whether the thing be in- 
different or no, and accordingly we are to yield obe- 
dience, if the oontrarj' do not appear to be manifest. 

But may not a man judge of his own actions ? True, 
he may ; but with a twofold peril, that if the com-se be 
right and sincere, he must adopt it : and if it prove light 
and false, then submit it to the magistrate's censure. 
Now if the magistrate should command any thing which 
you in conscience think is not right, according to the 
rale, you must disobey them, observing however these 
cautions : 

1. With much suspicion and self-jealousy, thinking 
that they may understand better than we. 

2. Pray and beg earnestly of God, with much hu- 
mility, that he would discover the truth to you ; and 
disobey them not presently, but upon serious delibSra- 
tion. 

3. Account it your affliction and trouble that you 
cannot agree with them, and make it not a matter of 
joy. 

4. If in some things you cannot obey them, do it as 
secretly as you can, make not a public business of it ; 
to prevent scandal, boast not of that which should be 
thy trouble and affliction. 

5. You must be very modest in yoiu' refusal to com- 
ply, not proud and self-conceited, thinking yourselves 
above them, or better than they. 

6. You must have a high and reverent esteem and 
respect to them, for their place' sake, although they re- 
quire that from you which you cannot yield. 

"7. You must be careful to be so much the more obe- 
dient in other things ; if in some things you cannot 
yield to them, in other things that you can you should 
be the more obedient, that so your masters and go- 
vernors may see that it arises not from obstinacy, but 
conscience ; and this will mightily convince masters and 
governors. 

8. You must be so much the more conscientious in 
your walking with God in all things ; if in some things 
you plead conscience, and be remiss in other things, 
your governors may justly say, that it is fi'om caprice 
and fancy, not for conscience' sake. 

9. If, after all this, the magistrate shall in a legal 
way inflict punishment upon you, you are to submit to 
it, and patiently to bear it, or else avoid the place. 

Thus, observing these cautions, you may disobey 
magistrates or governors, in things which vour con- 
science tells you are not according*to truth. 

Obs, 9. The more willing men are to sin, the greater 
is the sin. 

The more of the wiU there is in any thing, if it be 
e\i\, the worse it is ; if it be good, the better. Many 



men make this for their excuse in their evil actions, 
it was against their wills ; this does not excuse, but 
wiicre the will goes along with any thing, if evD, it is 
very evil indeed. 

1. Now the will may be said to be in sin, when a 
man does those things which produce sin, or on which 
sin follows, or omits that which would keep him from 
sin : a drunkard, perhaps, does not will to swear, strike, 
and abuse men, yet, doing such things, although un- 
consciously, his will may be said to be in those sins,, 
because he did not shun the things which led to them. 

2. The will may be said to be in a sin, when a man 
shall, in difficulties, in which he must either sin or 
suffer, choose rather to sin than to suffer. This people 
here were commanded by Jeroboam to worship at Dan 
and Beth-el : but God commanded them to -norship at 
Jerusalem : now for them to disobey God's command, 
and choose rather to obey Jeroboam's command than 
suffer Jeroboam's punishment, was a sin of willingness 
in them. ^Yhen a man omits a duty commanded, for 
some attendant hardships, he sins willingly in that his 
omission. 

Obs. 10. Willing obedience in evil brings much guilt 
upon a people. 

This people should not presently have complied with 
the king's command, but petitioned against, yea, suf- 
fered punishment rather yielded ; had they done so, 
they had done something ; but no sooner w'as the com- 
mand issued, but they willingly obeyed. Governors, 
perhaps unconsciously, command that which is not 
good, but if they see their people stand out against it, 
then they will begin to bethink themselves. There is 
much evil in this obedience, for by this you mightily 
enrage them against those that, by reason of the ten- 
derness of their consciences, cannot obey. It is re- 
corded of Louis XI., that being about to confu-m un- 
lawful edicts, many of the nobility came to him in their 
scarlet goAvns to petition him not to do it, and if he 
would proceed, that he would take their lives away ; 
for they told him they would rather die than live to see 
the confirmation of such unlawful commands ; where- 
upon the liing, struck with their coming in such an 
unusual manner, stayed his hand, and refused to sign. 
Oh how happy are princes and people in such nobility ! 
Had Ephraim done thus, they had done well in it, and 
might have had comfort from it. 

Obs. 11. Commands for false worship easily prevail. 
Witness in this kingdom ; when King Edward woidd 
have reformed the mass, what rebellion arose in Corn- 
wall ! but when Queen Mary set it up, how did peo- 
ple please themselves in such abominations ! So in our 
days, what command issued by bishops met not with 
present obedience ? 

Obs. 12. It is the duty of Christians willingly to obey 
God. 'Sniat a shame is it that we shoidd not willingly 
obey the commands of God, when devils and wicked 
men have some that will obey them willingly ! How do 
you think to follow after God, and put off all thoughts 
of him till you come to lie on yoiu- death-beds ? Our 
hangings-off fi'om God mightily hinder our comforts. 

But you will say. Were we but assured that they 
were the commands of God, we would obey them. 

But if we would examine, we should find that it is 
oftener our own unwillingness to obey, than any un- 
certainty about the commands of God, that hinder us. 
There are many things in which the Scriptures are 
dark, yet if things can be fairly infeiTcd from Scrip- 
ture, we are to obey ; otherwise, how can we be said to 
obey with the obccUence of faith, as we are command- 
ed ? Now, how can we be said to obey with the obe- 
dience of faith, if we must have reasons for every thing ? 

But how shall we know God's mind in matter of 
worship ? 

In this case we are to compare things together and 



206 



AX EXPOSITIOX OF 



Chap. V. 



weigh them seriously, and so get out the result and 
mind of God, and follow that, although for the pre- 
sent there want demonstrative reason to make it out 
clear. And thus much for the words so understood. 

Now from the other reading of the words, after the 
'\'ulgatc latin, post norde.s, we may 

Obs. \.i. It is the way of bad princes to give liberty 
to men's lusts. 

Now surely that way which has .so much of sin in 
it, cannot be the safe wav for men to walk in. 

Obs. 14. Idolatry is filthy stuff. 

'f lierefore you that are so pleased with them, and 
take such delight in superstitious vanities, much good 
may you do with them ; for our parts tliat truly fear 
God, we desire the pui'c ordinances of Jesus Christ. 

Ver. 12. Therefore will I he unto Ephraim as a 
moth ; and to the house of Judah as rollenness. 

Goa made a great difference between Judah and Is- 
rael ; but they joined in the same sins, and God couples 
tliem in the same wrath : " Therefore will I be unto 
Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rot- 
tenness." 

" Therefore." Why ? wherefore ? It has reference to 
the words we spake of the last day, they " willingly walk- 
ed after the commandment." Because they followed 
the unlawful commands of Jeroboam and his princes, 
" therefore will I be unto Ephi'aim as a molh : " that 
for Eplrraim. 

And it is likely the same cause might exist for God 
being " to the house of Judah as rottenness." Had 
they resisted the unlawful commands of those in power 
all might have been well ; but they thought that per- 
haps some disturbance would arise in the state, Oh, it is 
better for us to obey, that we may be at peace ; but 
while they, to free themselves from apprehended dis- 
turbance and to enjoy their own quiet, would obey un- 
lawful commands, the secret curse of God rested on 
tlieir estates : " Therefore" (saith the Lord) " I will be 
unto Epliraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as 
rottenness." A secret ciu'se there was on peace so 
procured. 

In the opening of these words, and presenting the 
mind of God to you in them, there are these live or si.\ 
tilings to be considered. 

1. The reading of the words. 

2. Their scope, what it is that God intends by them. 
'.'). The reason of the difference of tlie expression, 

A moth to Ephraim, and rottenness to Judah. 

4. Wiiat time tliis refers to; when was God a molh 
to Israel and rottenness unto Judah? 

o. How and in what respects God may be said to be 
a moth and rottenness to a people. 

6. The several observations to be drawn from it. 

All this is necessary for the opening of this twelfth 
verse. 

^ „ I. The reading of the words. The 

. , . "'"^ Seventy read the words a little different 
$;"' Vp'-F.Vpaw, f''0'" °"'' English version, rapax'] kcu kiV- 
T'mK "■^."Y"" Tpov, conlurbalio ac stimulus, I will be a 
trouble unto Ephraim and a prick unto 
Judah ; I will trouble, prick, goad, and vex them. 
The blessed God, who is a rest to his people, is a 
trouble, a ]n-ick. and goad, to vex his enemies, the 
ungodly. The Vulgate and Jerome read it thus, Ego 
laiif/uum tinea Ephraim, 1 will bo as a moth unto 
Epliraim; the first word as in our books; but the 
second, quasi el putredo dumui Juda: Others, as Mun- 
ster, I/co, Juda, Drusius, render it ^wfl.vi el teredo. 
Teredo is a worm that eats out the heart of the strongest 
wood. Minutissimus vermiculus, saitli Luther on the 
])laec ; and I'liny saith it is the worm that breeds in 
shios at sea, and eats out the heart of the strongest 



oak planks : but yet often translated rottenness, be- 
cause the worm causes that wood to be rotten. Prov. 
xii. 4, " A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband ; 
but she tliat maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his 
bones :" there the same word occurs; a woman whose be- 
haviour is such in company as makes ashamed, is rotten- 
ness to a man's bones, be they never so strong. That 
for the reading. 

II. The scojie of these words, what it is that God 
intends by them ; which is, that judgment should come, 

1. Secretly, 2. Gradually, 3. Insensibly. 
That wrath which I intend to let out upon Ephraim 
and Judah shall come, 

1. Secretly; as the moth doth eat the garment 
secretly, so my wrath shall be, there shall be no noise 
of it for a while. 

2. Gradually ; I will go on by degrees : a moth and 
rottenness do not consume the garment or the wood 
all at once, but step Ijy step. 

3. Insensibly ; they shall not so much as perceive it, 
they shall not see for a long time how my wi'ath is out 
against them, and yet it shall consume them. That is 
the scope. 

III. The reason of the difference of the expression, 
A moth to Ephraim, and rottenness to Judah. If God 
intended only to show his secret, gradual, insensible 
jiidgnient, then one expression might have sufficed. 
But the reason of the different terms used is, Israel 
was to be destroyed sooner than Judah : Judah should 
liold out longer than Israel, though both of them were 
to be destroyed at length. As strong wood holds 
out longer though there be a worm in it, than a gar- 
ment attacked by moths ; so Judah held out above a 
hundred years after this threat, after this rottenness 
began in them, longer than Israel did ; for the time 
that this moth was in Israel (of which we shall speak 
presently) to Israel's captivity, was but two or three 
and forty years ; but from the time of God's being a 
rottenness to Judah to his desolation, one hundred and 
threescore years elapsed. 

IV. To what time dotli this refer ? when was God a 
moth unto Ephraim and rottenness to Judah? To 
show that fully would require some time ; I will refer 
you to the scriptures which contain the account, botli 
when the moth and when the rottenness began. From 

1 Kings XV. 8, to the end of the 17th chapter of 2 
icings, you may find the time when God was a moth to 
Ephraim : and for Judah, in 2 Kings xvi., when God 
was rottenness unto Judah, even from Ahaz's time to 
the time of then' being carried away captive into Baby- 
lon, which was about a hundred and sixty years. 
And besides the Scriptin-es, Josephus, in lib. ix. cap. 12, 
and lib. xv. towards the latter end, and lib. x. cap. 10, 
likewise sets forth the condition both of Ephraim and 
of Judah, when the Lord was a moth to the one and 
rottenness unto the other. 

V. How and in what respects God may be said to 
be a moth and rottenness to a people. Indeed the same 
thing is signified in both these expressions, only (as I 
have told you) the first implies a quicker despatch of 
Israel, and the second a more slow judgment on Judah, 
but both issuing in the same results. Now God is a 
moth and rottenness to a jieople many ways. 

1. In the very spirits of people. Tiiere is a secret 
way of God's wrath ujion a people in their spirits, wlrich 
is not perceived in the world. As, 1. AVhen the spirits 
of men in a nation grow weak and cowardly ; that 
shows a judgment of God U])on them that is as a moth 
to them. And so it was in Israel, as you may find in 

2 Kings xv., \c., where their governors did what they 
I)leased, and the people laid down quietly and dared 
not to ajipcar in the least to find fault with their actions. 
2. M'hen a base sloth of spirit seizes on the hearts of a 
people, a didl sordidness, a minding of low things, and 



Vee. 12. 



THE PKOPHECY OF HOSEA. 



297 



disregard of worthy and lionourable achievements ; 
Avheii men are thus, then God is as a moth and rottenness 
to them. 3. When tliere are jealousies and divisions. 
As a moth in a garment, and rottenness in wood, se- 
cretly dissever and waste the threads and fibres, so 
secret jealousies and secret divisions in the minds of 
men, by the disunion they create, consume and destroy 
them. ' 4. Base compliance for their own ends. 5. 
Falseness of spirit in the trust committed to them. 
When you see this jirevail, especially in those that are 
put in "public trust, then is God a moth and rotten- 
ness to that people. And that is the fii'st, A moth and 
rottenness in the spirits of men. 

2. In men's counsels. As, 1. In blindness : that 
they shall not be able to see the plots of their enemies ; 
they shall not know theii' own advantages, nor how to 
improve what they have ; they shall not hit upon the 
right means to relieve themselves. There shall be a 
perplexity and contradiction in their counsels, and they 
shall be insuared in their own foUj-. 2. In blasting 
their projects : God may not appear outwardly in a 
hostile and terrible manner, but his secret curse rests 
upon their counsels, and so is a moth and rottenness to 
them. 

3. In their tradings. Trade shall decay amongst them, 
and they shall grow poorer and poorer, no man knows 
how. There shall be a secret curse upon their tradings 
and estates, that no man can give a cause of. 

4. In the chief instruments they make use of for their 
good ; taking away their chief ones secretly, when no- 
body takes notice of them. As with rotten wood, one 
little piece ch-ops down after another ; so in a state and 
kingdom, chief instruments shall be taken away, and no 
one notice it ; sometimes one, and then another, and 
then another after him ; so they shall moulder away by 
degrees, and those that remain shall be blasted in then' 
esteem among the people. Those that God gives ability 
to do them good, and might be very useful and ser- 
viceable unto them, yet, though they live amongst them, 
they shall be so blasted by reports one way or other, 
that they shall not be able to do them much good. 
And when you see this prevailing in a kingdom, then 
God is a moth and rottenness to them. 

5. In their enterprises : when in their actions and 
enterprises there is division amongst them; not only 
division in their spirits, but in their actions, one goes 
one way and another another way, they scarce can 
agree in any thing, and so all their enterprises are 
brought unto nothing. 

6. In their warlike power and strength. There shall 
be a great charge upon the people and much shall be 
gathered together, but no man shall know how it is 
spent ; it shall moulder away, so that every one shall 
complain of the charge and of what goeth from him, 
but nobody almost can see what it comes to. 

7. In their religion. A secret curse of God on them, 
that their religion should bo corrupted, that their wine 
should be mixed with water, their silver with di'oss ; 
that when they desire to purify their religion, there 
shall be such mixed and contradictory opinions, as to 
manifest that there a secret moth and rottenness, even 
a secret curse of God, rests. These seven ways God 
may be said to be a moth and rottenness to a people. 

Now, from all these, arise these observations, which 
we should take special notice of as nearly concerning us. 

06s. 1. God may be in a way of wrath against a 
nation or individual, and yet meanwhile be very jjatient 
and long-sufi'ering toward them. 

Therefore no ])eople must think themselves secure 
because that God ajjpears not in the height of his dis- 
pleasure. Neither let any think themselves safe be- 
cause God is patient towards them. As in the greatest 
afflictions of the saints there are glimpses of God's 
goodness, so in the greatest prosperity of the wicked. 



when God is most patient towards them, there are some 
footsteps of his wrath. No child of God is ever in such 
a dark night, but he has some beams of God's good- 
ness ; and no wicked man is ever in such a height of 
prosperitv, but he has some worldngs of God's wrath 
against him. 

Obs. 2. God many times lets out his wrath against a 
people in little things. 

" I will be a moth and rottenness." They are both 
little things. MTiat is a moth ? And that which is 
translated rottenness, is one of the least of worms, a 
worm that eats into the heart of the wood, and so pro- 
duces rottenness. As there may be much poison in 
small drops, so there may be much wrath in little things. 
You know the wrath of God was shown much on the 
Egyptians in the ])lagues of lice and flies ; and so it 
may be let out against thee in very small and contempt- 
ible things ; things thou little thinkest of, and passest 
by imheeded, may be means of great wrath in the hands 
of God. 

Obs. 3. When God lets out his wrath in small things, 
it is contemptible to carnal heai-ts. 

The carnal in Israel and Judah little thought of the 
extent of the impending evil, but slighted and con- 
temned all that the prophet could threaten, for it was 
but " a moth and rottenness." It has been so amongst 
us. With what contempt did many hear the threaten- 
ings of God's ministers against England ! And why ? 
Because some cb-eadful judgment did not rest visibly 
on the nation ; though meanwhile the wrath of God 
and the fruits of his displeasure were amongst us. •Men 
are seldom sensible of little things. As they little con- 
sider God's mercies in small things, so in the same they 
little regard God's wrath. As it is an argument of a 
gracious" heart to bless God for his mercies in small 
things, so likewise it proves that the heart is right when 
in small things it is observant of God's displeasure. If 
God but hold up his finger, presently to take notice 
and to be sensible of it, is an argument of a gracious 
heart. As it is an argument that that flesh is full of 
life which is sensible of the least touch, so that heart is 
full of grace when it is impressed by the least token of 
God's displeasure. But when we are in such a frame 
of mind that, except God strilces us in some terrible 
manner, we are not sensible of his displeasure, this is 
a sign of the callosity and hardness of our hearts. 

Obs. 4. Though carnal hearts slight and contemn 
God's wTath in small things, yet it will eat them out at 
last. It will bring them down, it will destroy them, if 
it be neglected. You know, in Exoch viii. 25, the 
plague of flies brought down the spirit of Pharaoh more 
than all the previous judgments ; he said before that 
he would let the people go, but he never bade them go 
till then. God is able to bring down the stoutest and 
proudest spirit by little things. He can eat out the 
heart of the strongest wood by this little wonn ; and 
so by the least of his judgments can abase the stoutest 
and proudest. 

Obs. 5. God is slow in punishing. He punishes bj- 
degrees at first : yea, his punishing is as a moth, and 
as a little worm in the wood, it is a long time before 
they do any hurt. This is to show that God's wrath 
is at first but slow. And by this we are taught to do 
even as God himself doth, to be " slow to w-rath ;" in 
our wrath and displeasm-e against our brethren, to be 
slow as God is slow^ ; not presently to fly in the faces of 
our servants or of our chikb-en when they displease us. 
God deals not so with us, but is a long time before he 
bring on us any sensible evil. The Ilomans used to 
have the rod and the axe carried before their magis- 
trates, to show that they began by lower punishments 
at first, and proceeded gradually to the infliction of the 
extreme penalty. 

Obs. 6. God "has secret judgments to bring upon a 



298 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. V. 



people. In 2 Kings iii. IT, ■■ ThiK saith the Lord, Ye 
shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain ; yet that 
valley shall be filled with water." There shall be a 
filling with water tliough you see neither wind nor 
rain; you shall not know whence it comes, yet the 
valleys shall be filled with water. So, often the judg- 
ment of God is out against a people, against a fomily, 
or an individual, and no one can teU whence it comes. 
As God has many secret blessings for his people, so he 
has secret curses against the ungodly. Let us take 
heed of secret sins, for God lias secret wi'atli in store 
to avenge secret sins. Many of you that find the hand 
of God out against you, and know not wherefore, ex- 
amine your own hearts, whetlier there be not in you 
many secret sins against the Lord. It was so at this 
time when God came to be as a moth unto Ephraini, 
for in 2 Kings xrii. 9, speaking of the very period this 
prophecy relates to, the text saith, that the chilcben of 
Israel did secretly that which was not right in the eyes 
of the Lord : therefore just was God in this, to be as a 
moth, to pour forth his displeasure secretly. Take you 
heed of secret sins, lest God consume you by secret 
judgments. 

Obs. 7. Our corruptions within breed our trouble 
and our undoing. Whence comes the moth but from 
the verv cloth itself that it corrodes ? it is bred there : 
and tills worm is bred in the wood that it consumes. 
" A moth shall eat them," seems to have been a pro- 
verbial speech amongst the Hebrews, when they would 
express the perishing of any by their own counsels and 
ways ; as the Latins, Fabrum constringi compedibus 
rjuas ipse cuderal, The workman is fettered with those 
fetters he makes himself: and so that proverb of ours, 
To nourish a snake in a man's own bosom, is something 
of the same import ; that is, the evil which befalls us is 
bred within us ; the wrath which consumes us is en- 
gendered by our internal corruptions. As the bird 
nirnishes out of its own plumage the feather to wing 
the shaft for its o\\ni destruction, so fi-om our own sins 
results our o\vn misery. From the uncleanness of a 
nation or a particular soul comes its evil ; therefore if 
we should read the words according to the Vulgate, tliey 
followed ;jos< sordes, after the filth of Jeroboam, then the 
elegance of the ex])ression would be increased ; it was 
those filthy ways of Jeroboam that caused these moths 
to be bred. From our uncleanness comes our con- 
sumption : as from the impuj-ity of the body many evils 
arc bred, so from the want of purity in the spirit. 
Therefore we should be willing to take pains in the 
work of repentance, yea, though it be somewhat 
troublesome to the flesh, yet better wear out clothes a 
little by washing them than let them rot in their dii't. 
True, washing of clothes wears them a little, but filth 
soon engenders con-uption and decay : so the work of 
repentance may put you to pain and wear out yoiu' 
bodies a little, but if you let your heai-ts alone in the 
filth of sin, misery must ensue. Take heed of suifer- 
ing any sin to remain undisturbed in your hearts, it 
will breed a woi-m, (for so this word rottenness signi- 
fies,) it will breed a worm, the worm of conscience, that 
may prove the woi-m tliat never tlicth. 

06.5. 8. God's ^^Tath, though secret, many times eat.s 
out men's spirits and makes them unuseful. There- 
fore it is compared to a moth, and to rottenness, to a 
worm in the wood : as the moth eats out tlie strength 
of the garment, and renders it unserviceable for any 
thing ; and as tlie womi in like manner eats out the 
strengtli of the wood ; so the secret wrath of God many 
times eats put men's spirit.s, and makes them very 
unuseful in the places where they are set. How many 
have had excellent parts when young, and have been 
very useful ; yet the uncleanness of their spirits has 
bred a worm that has eaten out the excellency of those 
parts, and before they have died they have been as a 



moth-eaten garment and rotten wood! indeed there 
has been the same bulk and as goodly an appearance 
as before, yet, if you come to make use of them, they as 
much difier from their former selves as a moth-eaten 
garment from itself, or rotten wood from the same ma- 
terial unaft'ectcd by decay. 

Obs. 9. Though others go before them, yet they shall 
follow not long after. This note is drawn from the 
diversity of the expression, a moth to Ejibraim, and 
rottenness to Judah. God indeed will deal more quick- 
ly with Ephraim, and consume them sooner in liis 
wrath, but Judah shall follow not long after. A matter 
of serious reflection for any people, that, though others 
are consumed before them, yet it will not be long be- 
fore they shall follow. Germany and other countries 
have gone before us : we cannot prophesy as here the 
prophet did, but yet, except God prevent by an extra- 
ordinary hand, we may follow not many years after ; 
and who knows how soon ? And, to apply it indivi- 
dually, it may be such a fi'iend of thine is gone, the 
hand of God has consumed him and eaten out his very 
heart, and he is perished as filth and dung from the face 
of the earth ; and thou art yet alive : and is there not 
rottenness in thee ? is not the secret \\Tath of God eat- 
ing out thy heart ? He is gone a little before, but thou 
art like to follow within a little while after. A^Tiat 
gi-eat matter is it though thy companion be struck 
dead and gone to heU, and thou left alive, when thou 
shalt foUow not long after ? It is in this case as with 
persons who travel together : perhaps one outi-ides an- 
other, and so comes to his inn a little sooner than the 
i-est of his company, but before he is lighted off' his 
horse, or gone to his chamber, the others have amvcd 
also : so perhaps God's band strikes one dead and sends 
him to hell, yet within a while the rest will follow after. 
Therefore consider, when God's hand is upon any to 
strike them dead, I may follow not long after. A moth 
to Ephraim and rottenness to Judah. 

Obs. 10. AVhat a poor creature is man. God, in ex- 
pressing himself thus to be a moth and rottenness, 
speaks with a kind of contempt against the pride of 
Ephraim and Judah : they were haughty and proud, 
but, saith God, a worm shall consume them. In Job iv. 
19, it is said of men, that they '■ dwell in houses of clay, 
whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed be- 
fore the moth." It is a strange expression, I know not 
any such in Scripture to show the weakness and vanity 
of man. Indeed to be crushed before a lion is not so 
much ; but that he should be crushed before a moth, 
that a moth should be able to crush a man, marks 
strongly the weakness that is in man. "SMierein is he to 
be desired ? he is but vain, vca, vanity itself, when he 
can be crushed before a niotli. And so, what are the 
great kingdoms of the world ? let them be never so 
proud and haughty, yet they are but as rottenness, and 
a worm may consume them. 

06s. 11. How low God condescends that he may ex- 
press his meaning to men. It is a very strange expres- 
sion, for the high and glorious and dreadful God, ■nliom 
the angels themselves adore, to say of himself, that he 
will be as a moth, and for this infinite and blessed Deity 
to say of himself, that he will be as rottenness. Dare 
any creature have used such a low and mean compari- 
son respecting God, if we had it not in his own word ? 
Yet this high and glorious God condescends thus low 
only that he might the more easily reach, and the more 
surely aflcct, our understandings. Surely we should 
be willing to appear very low, to do any service for 
God, seeing God is pleased thus to humble himself to 
our apprehensions. 

06.5. 12. It is a sad thing for divers neighbouring 
countries, professing the same religion, and living in 
the midst of a common enemy, to have Cod's hand 
against them at the same time. A moth to Ephraim, 



Vee. 13. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



230 



and rottenness to Jutlah. These ten tiibes, and Judah 
together with Benjamin, were the only professing peo- 
ple that God had, and they lived in the midst of the 
heathen, their common enemy ; now this is the di'ead- 
ful threatening, that the hand of God should be out 
against them both together. And of this we have 
special occasion to take notice at this day. In many 
■ways God's WTath has been out against us in England, 
not only as a moth and rottenness, but so long, and 
to such an extent, that the ruin and decay it has occa- 
sioned have become manifest. But, blessed be God, 
that he has been gracious to our brethren near us, (I 
mean our brethren of Scotland.) and that the same 
judgments that have been upon us, have not been upon 
them at the same time ; that though God's hand be out 
against lis, yet that the same hand was not stretched 
out at the same time against them. For so we may 
compare England and Scotland to Ephraim and Judah, 
bretliren living near together, and living in the midst 
of common enemies. Had the Lord, at the same 
time, been moth and rottenness there, as he was here, 
what had become of us ? That is, had there been the 
same divisions in Scotland that there were, that there 
are stdl, in England, what had become of us at this day? 
Oh ! it is a mercy of God which we must notice and 
bless his name for, that though he were a moth to us, 
by exciting divisions, dissensions, jealousies amongst 
us, whereby we were weakened and unable to help om-- 
selves, and became a prey to the common enemy ; yet, 
though at the same tiine nothing was more aimed at 
than to create the like divisions in Scotland, that he 
has delivered them from that judgment, that he has 
not been in that respect a moth and rottenness unto 
them. How had the common enemy rejoiced and 
boasted had this object been attained ! This was God's 
great mercy unto us, whereas it was threatened against 
Israel and Judah that his wrath should be against them 
both at the same time. 

Ver. 13. TVhe7i Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah 
saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and 
sent to king Jareb : yet coidd he not heal you, nor cure 
you of your ivound, 

" When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw 

j,Vf, yi^ his wound." The word ti'anslated " liis 

.sget fuit. sickness," is from one implying grief 

Ti nra and sickness. And the word translated 

no5i|are!°'° *'''°° " wound," from a word that signifies col- 

ligarit, he hath bound up ; either because 

of the corruption of the body that is gathered together, 

or because of the binding up of it with cloths. 

" '^'hen Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his 
wound :" that is, God at length made them to see what 
a crazy condition both their civil and church state were 
in, how wounded they were, how like to perish, and 
ready to die. In Isa. vii. 1, and succeeding passages, 
you may fuid the sickness of Judah, and how Judah 
saw it. 'When Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, son of 
Reraaliah, came against Judah, the heart of the king 
and the heart of his people were moved, as the ti'ees of 
the wood are moved with the wind ; then Judah became 
sensible of his sickness and dangerous condition. How 
Ephraim saw his wound, we shall see further ]M'esently, 
Avhen we examine what remedy for it they sought to 
obtain. 

Wrath was out against Ephraim and Judah some 
time, and had almost consumed them before they would 
take notice of it. Hence, 

Obs. 1. The pride of man's heart will not easily be 
brought to see and acknowledge the hand of God. 
" Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see,"' 
Isa. XX vi. 11. They will not acknowledge the hand of 
God against them, but would rather make it appear to 



the world that all is well with them. So it was for 
a long time witH Ephraim and Judah, but at length 
they saw their sickness and their wound. 

Obs. 2. God will force men to be sensible of his hand 
out against them ; he will make them to see their 
sickness and their wound. Micah vi. 13, " Therefore 
also will I make thee sick in smiting thee," saith God; 
I will smite thee, and I will make thee sensible of my 
stroke : so in that forecited place of Isa. xxvi. 11, " Lord, 
when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see ; but they 
shall see, and be ashamed," saith God : I will make them 
to know and to be sensible of my stroke ; the sickness 
shall so grow upon them, the anguish of the wound 
shall be so great, that they shall be sensible. 

Obs. 3. Men more readily see then' wound than their 
sin. They see their sickness and their wound, but 
here is nothing of theu' sin. This is usual with car- 
nal hearts in their afflictions, to look at nothing but 
their wound and their sickness ; they regard nothing 
but to get that healed ; seldom will you hear them cry 
out of their sin. Thus it was with Israel and Judah ; 
and is the way of carnal heai-ts. 

Obs. 4. Men will not seek for help till they be made 
sensible of their misery. " Then went Ephraim to the 
AssjTian, and sent to king Jareb." And tliis is true 
spiritually; till God wounds the soul, and it is made 
sensible of its sickness, it seldom, yea, never, sends out 
for help : but when he strilves, it cries for aid. And many 
times it is with soul-affliction as it is here with outward 
affliction, they seek for help, but seek it in a false way. 
They " went to the AssjTian, and sent to king Jareb." 

You will say, "W'hen did they do so ? 

To explain this, we must refer to the Kings, for 
though you have this prophecy of Hosea placed in your 
Bibles at a great distance fi'om the book of Kings, j-et 
this prophet and others prophesied in the time of the 
kings, and therefore their history will much help to a 
right understanding of the predictions delivered. First, 
then, Ephi-aim begins to send to the Assp-ian and to 
king Jareb. In 2 Kings xv. 19, there you read that 
Menahem, who was king of the ten tribes, gave Pul 
the king of Assyria a thousand talents of silver, that 
his hand might be with him to confu'm unto him the 
liingdom. Mark, that his hand might be with him 
to confu-m the kingdom. It seems, this king of Israel 
saw his kingdom to be in a crazy condition, saw his 
sickness and his wound ; therefore he sends to the king 
of AssjTia, and gave him a thousand talents of silver, 
that he might confirm the kingdom in his hand ; and 
in the 20th verse, you shall find that his subjects were 
obliged to pay it, "IMenahem exacted the money" (saith 
the text) " of all the mighty men of wealth" in Israel. 
Oh what do subjects often suffer to satisfy the humours 
of theu- rulers ! And in 2 Kings xvii. 4, you fhid that 
Hoshea, another king of Israel, sent messengers, for 
help, to So, king of Egypt. And as to that Jareb, which 
is named here, some say that it was a principal city in 
As.S5Tia ; others, that it was a special name of the kings 
of Assyi-ia ; but others, and very likely with ti-uth, do 
not make it the proper name of a man, but a word of 
appellation, according to its signification ; for Jareb 
means defensorem, the defender, or avenger. Therefore, 
when Gideon's father spake to the people concerning 
his son's casting down the altar of Baal, and cutting 
down the grove that was by it, he saith, " Will ye 
plead for Baal ? will ye save him ? if he be a god, let 
him plead for himself:" thereupon they called Gideon's 
name Jerub-baal, he that defended them fi-om, or took 
vengeance on, Baal. So here they sent to the king of 
AssjTia, as to one that should be theii' defender or 
avenger : they do not seek to God, but they sent to king 
Jareb, the prophet saith, as their defender. As often 
in scorn we call men by the name of that which they 
undertake to be ; so, because they trusted in the king 



300 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. V. 



of AssjTia as their defender or avenger, therefore God, 
in contemptuous irony, calls him Jareb ; They sent to 
theu' defeiuler, but they little thought of rae. So much 
•with respect to Ephraira. 

And then as to Judah, though he be not particularly 
named, because Epliraim was tlie most forward and the 
Urst tliat sent for help, yet doubtless the prophet here 
rebukes Judah as well as Eplu'aim; for in 2 Kings xvi. 
7, Ahaz king of Judah sent to Tiglath-pileser king of 
Assyria to come up and save him out of the hand 
of Kezin and Pekah, kings of Syria and Israel, that did 
rise up against him : and in 2 C'lu'on. xxviii. 16, you 
find Judah again sending for strange helps, unto the 
kings of Assyria. The words being thus opened, the 
observations are these : 

Obs. 5. C'anial hearts seek to the creature for help 
in lime of difficulty. 

They saw their sickness, they saw their wound ; what 
did they then ? They '• went to the Assn'ian, and sent to 
king Jareb." They look to no iiigher causes of their 
trouble than second causes, therefore thev seek to no 
higher means for then- relief than second causes. They 
regard their troubles as such as befall other men as well 
as tliem, and so look not up unto God. They are led 
by sense, and the second causes are before them and 
near to them, but God is above them and beyond them, 
and his ways are often contrary to sense ; they know 
little of God, and have less interest in him; therefore 
it is that they little mind God in their straits, but 
send for lielp unto the creature. 

This is tlic way of carnal liearts at this very day. 
What helps do they send for but creature helps ? There- 
foi-c, my brethren, let us not fear our adversaries much, 
for their strength is in the arm of flesh ; and we know 
tliey take no other course but to strengtlien themselves 
•in the creature ; they know no other help ; they little 
regard God in all their ways ; let them have what they 
will, yet pray they cannot, they have little heart to go 
unto God ; they cm'se and swear, yea, and tell us that 
it was never worse with them than when they prayed 
most : all their help, then, is on this side heaven, and 
therefore not much to be feared ; they have that carnal- 
ity of heart in them which was here in Ephraim and 
Judah, when they were a people to be destroyed, and 
•were given over by God to seek for help only in the 
creature, to go to the Assyrian and to send to king 
Jareb. 

As it is in temporal, so it is sometimes in spiritual dis- 
tress. AVTien God strikes the soul of men with sicknesses, 
and wounds their consciences, what course do they 
take ? they seek not to the Lord that smote them, but 
to the creature, for help ; tliey go to their companions, to 
their trading, to then- shops, to their pleasures. Sec, and 
strive in them to find relief for their souls. This is the 
•way of carnal hearts, to seek to the creature for help, 
both temporal and spiritual, when they are smitten. 

Ob.i. G. There is mucli guilt contracted by resting 
on creature helps. Thus it was with Israel and Judah ; 
they contracted much guilt in that manner. And wc 
find that God is greatly incensed witli such as do so. 
In 2 Chron. xxv. 6 — 9, when Amaziah king of Judah, in 
a time of danger, hired a hundred thousand men out 
of Israel, which were idolaters, the Lord would not 
suffer him to make use of them, but bids him send 
them away ; " Let not the army of Israel go witli thee, 
for the Lord is not with Israel." Yea, " but what shall we 
■do" (sailh the king) " for the hundred talents wliich I 
have given to the army of Israel ? " Be content, the pro- 
phet replied, rather to lose the hundred talents, than to 
make use of such wicked men as they that have for- 
saken the true worship of God. 

It is a great question among many, whether it be 
lawful to make use of wicked men in any cases, espe- 
•cially in public affairs of kingdoms; to send for their 



help in time of public danger, to think to strengthen 
oursehes by the ungodly. Peter Martyr, in his Com- 
ment on Judges, chap. iv. 17, handles this question. 
How far leagues may be made with idolaters and wicked 
men ? and gives two reasons wliy their aid should 
never be sought in any of our straits. First, then, 
there will be by this means danger of their infecting 
us with their idolatrous si)irit and superstitious usages. 
But, secondly, and especially, if you send for their help, 
how can they unite witli you in prayer to God to bless 
you ? and when you have gotten the victory, how can 
you join together in praising God ? And indeed this 
is as strong an argument as possible, not to make use 
of the help of wicked men in the public affairs of a king- 
dom. They truly are unfit to join together in fighting, 
that cannot join together in prayer and in praising of 
God. And yet this is very natural to most men, yea, 
good men are sometimes guilty of tliis, of seeking too 
much to the wicked for help in times of difficulty. 
Asa, though otherwise a godly king, in 1 Kings xv. 
18, is blamed in that he sent to Benhadad the kmg of 
Syria to help him; and in 2 Chron. xvi. 9, Ilanani the 
seer told him that he had done foolishly m so doing, 
for, saith he, you require not such aid ; " For the eyes of 
the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to 
show himself strong in the belialf of those whose heart 
is perfect toward him." So that it ]n'oved that in this 
thing Asa's heart was not perfect with God, because he 
sought for help from the wicked, and relied not upon 
the Lord. And it is very observable of this king, that 
though a good man, and, it seems, a soldier, yet he was 
very angry with the seer : " Then Asa was wrath with 
the seer, and put him in a prison house:" what! shall 
a prophet contradict him in his warlike affairs ? I must 
have soldiers, old soldiers, about me ; talk as you will 
of good men, and that God wUl be with those that can 
pray, I must have those that can fight, those that are 
soldiers. I would it were not so at this day. Isa. xxx. 
1,2," Woe to the rebellious chikhen, saith the Lord, 
that take counsel, but not of me ; and that cover with 
a covering, but not of my spirit ! " wherefore do they 
this ? " that they may add sin to sin." This is a 
strange charge, " Woe to the rebellious children," that 
go on in their own ways, and " take counsel, but not of 
me," and that cover things over with vain pretences, 
" but not by my spirit;" yea, and all is, " that they may 
add sin to sin ! " And what is this sin ? It follows pre- 
sently, " That walk to go down into Egypt, and have 
not asked at my mouth ; to strengthen themselves in 
the strength of Pharaoli, and to trust in the sliadow of 
Egypt!" "And have not asked counsel at my mouth," 
saith God. They think to strengthen themselves by 
Pharaoh, and never ask counsel of me. It is rebellion, 
it is a following of their own counsels, a covering over 
things, but not by God's Spirit, an adding sin to sin, to 
seek for help from wicked and ungodly men. 

Kevetus on this text treats at large about this very 
question, of forming leagues with idolatrous and wicked 
men ; and saith. That for whole kingdoms, on any pre- 
text whatever, to call in the help of ungodly men against 
those tliat are of the same reUgion, is unlawful and sin- 
ful. Still ho thinks it may possibly in some cases be 
allowed, but it would require a great deal of time to 
discuss fully every ease, and to give all the requisite 
cautions. But certainly it would appear, that some 
amongst us, and their cause, have little to do with God 
when they seek for such helps as they do, and rely so 
much upon them ; when they send for papists, for Irish 
rebels, ibr atheists, and care not who they have, so be 
it they may further theii' own designs, and deliver 
themselves from the hand of God that is out against 
them. They cannot but be sensible that his hand is 
out against them, yet they vainly look for creature 
help, and for aid from some arm of flesh. And on the 



Vee. 13. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA, 



contrary, this is an argument of the faithfulness of 
others, who though a party low and ready to be trodden 
down, yet have been so far from seeking helj) fi-om, or 
protection of, wicked men, that though fair profl'ers have 
been made them, yet have they resolved to venture the 
loss of all in a good cause; let success attend it or no, 
whether they attain the liberty they desire or not, yet 
are they content to venture theh- estates, their lives, 
and all in that cause, and not to provide for themselves 
by the help of such as they see to be evil, and whose 
ways and designs they see are not conformable to the 
will of God. 

And if to seek to wicked men for help and protection 
be so sinful, what is it then for men, in times of straits, 
to seek to the devil for help ? Surely that must be much 
more sinful, to use those ways that are in themselves 
dii'ectly evil, as lying, swearing, cheating, cozening, 
and the like. For you to think to help yourself liy 
those means in times of difficulty, is as if you should 
say, I see God does not help me, I will try what the 
devil will do. Certainly, by iniquity shall no man be 
established, Prov. xii. 3. Ait thou in a sti-ait under 
any affliction ? never think of seeking to help thyself 
by unlawful means, for they cannot avail thee. And 
that wiU appear more evident from the words that 
follow. 

'• Yet could he not heal j'ou, nor cure you of your 
w'ound." The Assyrian could not help, Jareb could do 
no good ; yea, indeed they were so far from helping 
Israel and Judah, that they made the wound greater : 
for Israel was afterwards carried away captive by the 
Assp'ian to whom he sent for help ; and as to Judah, 
Ave read in 2 C'hron. xxviii. 20, that when Ahaz sent 
for helj) to Tilgath-pilneser, king of Assyria, he came 
to him indeed, but he distressed him, and strengthened 
him not. Whence we may 

Obs. 7. Creature comforts avail little in the day of 
God's wrath. God's wrath was out against Ephraim 
and Judah, and they would fain seek to the creature 
for help, but unavailingly. Creatures can afford little 
aid in the day of God's wTath, they are all as a broken 
reed, that rather pierces than sup])orts a man's hand. 
So the Scripture saith of riches, that they also avail 
not in the day of wrath. All the creatures will say to 
you, If God help you not, how can we aid you ? They 
are but as a tree in a storm ; you may run under it, 
and perhaps for a time it may afford you some shelter, 
but if the storm rage on, what protection can the leaves 
yield ? The creature may refi'esh you a little, but if 
God's wrath continue, what effectual benefit can you 
receive ? 

But the words, " yet could ho not heal 
"i^l' e^ i'xJl'tiv",i. you,"theSeventytranslate, heshaUnotso 
much as ease, or even in a small degree 
mitigate, your grief. Sometimes by seeking to crea- 
ture comforts a man may think he gets some relief, but 
the truth is, it ends in trouble and sorrow. A man 
that thus seeks for help to the creature when God has 
wounded him, is as a stricken deer ; the deer runs up 
and downi from one bush to another to seek for ease, 
but still the blood falls fast. AVhat relief can bushes 
yield to a poor deer while the arrow remains fast in his 
body ? God often strikes his arrows into the sides of 
people, and they run up and down to the creature, to 
this bush and to the other, for help, but little or none 
can they obtain. Some little, and of brief duration, I 
confess they may occasionally get, as in the case of 
Ahaz, when Ptezin and Pekah"came against him. Ahaz 
received some present aid from Tilgath-pilneser, king 
of Assyria ; but afterwards (as we shall show you when 
we come to another point) it did him little good, for 
God's hand was out against Judah so much the more 
dreadfully. 

Obs. 8. Of all things men rest on for help, wicked 



men are like to prove most helpless. They leave you 
in the hour of your need, as the scribes and Pharisees 
did Judas, when he was brought into straits by his sin, 
and in the anguish of his spu'it came and said, " I have 
sinned, in that I have beti-ayed the innocent blood." 
"What is that to us?" say they, "see thou to that." 
There was all the comfort he could get from them. 
They w-ere ready to draw him into the sin, but when 
he had committed it, then, " What is that to us ? see 
thou to that." Such comfort you are like to have from 
your wicked companions in times of difficulty ; they wiU 
"draw you into that which is evil, but afterwards, when 
they come to visit you suffering under the rod of the 
Almighty for the very sins they have tempted you to 
commit, what miserable comforters will they prove! 
So true is it, you can obtain no help from the wicked 
in the hour of your need. 

Obs. 9. The best men are not to be depended on in 
times of difficulty. God has given us experience at 
this day, that every man is vanity. So the Scripture- 
saith. Verily every man is vanity. Cease from man, 
for wherein is he to be esteemed ? Had we no other 
stay but man, what should become of us ? Therefore, 
neither to the AssjTian, no, nor to any living, are we to 
send for help, otherwise than as instruments in the hand 
of God. He pronounces a curse upon him " that trust- 
eth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart 
departeth from the Lord ;" and saith, " he shall be like 
the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good 
Cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the 
wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited," Jer. 
xvii. 5, 6. 

Ver. 14. For I u-ill be unto Ephraim as a lion, and 
as a youm; lion to the house of Judah : I, even I, will 
tear and fro away ; I will take away, and none shall 
rescue him. 

That which is here translated in your books, " a lion," 
the Seventy render, a panthei-, which is one of the swift- 
est and fiercest creatures in the world. God's wrath 
for strength is compared to a lion, and for swiftness to 
a panther. To a lion, because though most strong and 
terrible, yet, as naturalists say. If you fall down and 
submit he will show mercy. Thus God is a lion, strong 
and fierce in his wrath, yet merciful to those that sub- 
mit unto hinij 

The word Sntf here translated " lion," differs from 
'-IK the term generally employed, in that it signifies a 
fierce lion. And so you have it in Job iv. 10, " The 
roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion," 
Snii' so that God threatens here to be a fierce lion. Of 
this creature, Gesner, in his History of Animals, saith, 
that nature has so ordered it, that because the lion is 
so fierce of himself, he has always a lund of a quartan 
fever, or ague, upon him, to mitigate or calm his fierce- 
ness. And it were well with many if it were so with 
them ; many that are fierce and of hon-like spiiits in 
the service of their lusts, and for the gratification of 
their passions, but sheepish enough in the cause of 
God. 

But mark, God was before a moth and a woi-m, but 
now he is become a lion. I will be a moth unto 
Ephraim, and a worm unto Judah ; for so you may 
translate it. And now, " I will be unto Ephraim as a 
lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah." Why 
a Uon? that is, he will appear in the fierceness of his 
wrath against Ephraim. 

But what is the reason of the difference of the ex- 
pressions here ? As he said before, he would be a 
moth to Ephraim and rottenness to Judah ; so here, 
he will be a lion to Ephraim, and a young lion unto 
Judah. The reason is the same as before. As there 
it was designed to show, that though God intended the 



30::: 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. V. 



Qostnictioii both of Ejiliraiiu and of Judah, yet Epiiraim 
sooner, and Judah later ; so here, though God would 
be terrible in his \\Tatli to Judah, yet he would be 
more ro to the ten tribes : and so we find, that though 
Judah was carried into captivity, yet that captivity 
lasted but for seventy years, and Judah returned 
again ; but Israel was torn in pieces so that he never 
revived. Thev were both sinners, but Judah retained 
somewhat of Ood's true worship, therefore God would 
show them a little mercy. Though wicked men will 
the less spare the saints because of their godliness, 
and will take the more advantage of their fraQties be- 
cause they are professors, yet God will pity them. The 
observations from hence are these : 

04s. 1. 'WTicn God's lesser afHiclions work not, God 
will be most temble. You heard of the moth and 
worm before; they are the lesser afflictions, and it 
seems they did not move their hearts to repentance, nor 
bring them unto God ; therefore does God turn to be a 
fierce lion unto Ephraim.and a joung lion unto Judah. 
God's wrath is as Elijah's cloud, that at first appeared 
but as a hand-breadth, but witliin a while overspread 
the whole heavens. It is as the thunder, which al a 
distance sounds low and indistinct, but stay a while, 
and the peals are loud and terrible. It is as the fiie, at 
first struggling for life, but which, when fanned by the 
wind, bursts forth in irresistible fiu-y. As in that 
known place. Lev. xxvi. 18, " And if ye will not yet for 
all this," saith the Lord, " hearken unto me, then I 
will punish you seven times more for yoiur sins;" and 
again, ver. 21, "seven times more ;" and ver. 24, " yet 
seven times." God will increase in his wrath, from 
being as a moth and as a little worm, to be like a lion. 
Such den-ees there are in his anger. You had need 
look to It when the hand of God is stretched out even 
but a little against you ; though it be but as a moth and 
as a worm, yet, if you disregard it, it may increase : for 
as great a difference as exists between a moth and a 
fierce lion, such a difierence may there be between 

Present wi-ath and that which awaits you. Thus the 
lOrd often deals with men's sjiirits ; causes secretly the 
worm of conscience to gnaw them, and some disquiet 
and trouble ensue ; but, notwithstanding, they go on 
still in their sins, and at length God comes upon them 
as a lion, tearing their souls. Did you never see a 
sinner hing on liis death-bed in anguish of mind, God's 
wrath, like the paws of a lion, preying on the very caul 
of his heart, whilst he lies roaring out he is damned, 
he is damned ! and now he sees, yea feels, the heat of 
the wrath of God against him. Thus God comes as a 
lion to prey upon those that will not regard the gnaw- 
ings of the worm : when the worm was but little and 
small, they slighted it, and that caused God to bring 
the greater judgment. So it is with families ; God 
comes upon families sometimes in a little sickness, in 
a child or in a servant, and that is not regarded ; after- 
wards God comes with plague of pestilence, or some 
other dreadful judgment. 

So in kingdoms, the Lord comes first with light 
judgments, and then with heavier. As in Ireland, for 
many years together, the Lord was as a moth and rot- 
tenness ; but of late how like a lion has he there ap- 
peared ! how has he torn and rent that kingdom in a 
most dreadful manner ! 

Yea, the truth is, the Lord had been to England as 
a moth and rottenness ; and tliis very text I question 
not but some of you have heard many years ago applied 
to it, when those that preached from it little thought 
that ever God's hand should be so stretched out 
against many parts of England as it is at this day. In 
many parts of this kingdom the Lord is now as a lion. 
"The lion hath roared, who will not fear ?" Amos iii. 
8. Oh it is time for us all to fall down to the ground 
before the Lord. It is true, God has not yet come to 



this city as a lion to tear und rend it as other places in 
the country; but vet we have heard the roaring of the 
lion abroad, and God calls us to fall dowii before him 
tiiat he may not come and tear us likewise. Certainly, 
the Lord will have glory of his creature; God has 
sworn by himself, and the word has proceeded out of 
his mouth in righteousness, that every knee must bow 
to him, and evei-y tongue confess his name : every 
creature must submit to him, and if lesser judgments 
will not do it, God will lay every sinner upon his back, 
he will come as a lion to tear him in pieces. 

But further, mark what is between these two, being 
a moth and a lion ; between these two it is said, 
" Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound ; 
then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king 
Jareb :" and now saith God, " I will be unto Ephraim 
as a lion." Hence, 

Ob.i. 2. Our seeking out for ourselves in times of 
affliction refuges of lies provokes God. The Lord 
looks upon this with inilignation : 'N^liat ! when I appear 
in my displeasure, do they seek to escape it by sending 
to the Assyrian and to king Jareb ? upon this the in- 
dignation of God rises high, and ho becomes a fierce 
lion to them. Josephus reports, that in Antiq. lib. li 
the factions in Jerusalem, Antiochus be- '=*p ^. '• 
ing called in by one party proved the ruin of both. 
This is the honour God expects, that in our affliction 
we should not fly from, but humble ourselves before 
him; if we do not, his anger, his jealousy, arises to a 
fearful height, he will pursue in the fierceness of his 
wrath. The way is not to fly from God, but to fall 
down before him, to lie at his feet. No one can abide 
the slighting of his anger. If a parent or a master be 
slighted by the cliild or the senant, it incenses him 
more : so when men make light of the anger of God, 
and think that there is power enough in any creature 
to pacify him, this causes the wrath of God to burn 
more fiercely against them. You have as notable an 
example as any in the book of God, in Isa. vii., com- 
pared with 2 Kings xni., where you find that Ahaz in 
the time of his distress sought to the king of Assyria, 
though God ofiercd him a sign by the prophet that he 
himself would deliver him. But mark, on this the Lord 
threatens that he would bring upon him and upon his 
people days, the like whereof had not come since the 
day that Ephraim departed from Judah ; such days 
God would bring upon them, more dreadful than ever 
yet came upon Judah, and that because when they 
were in straits they sought for help from the Assyrian. 
And as in outward dangers, so in spuitual, a man shall 
seek for help from God. Does God wound thy spirit, 
does he make it sick, and dost thou seek to unlawful 
means for help ? dost thou go to thy company, to 
music, to good cheer, to relieve thee ? Oh this pro- 
vokes God against thee ! This is just as if a man m a 
fever should take a draught of cold water : true, for a 
while he may have a little ease ; but the disease returns 
w ith gi-eater violence : so those that in trouble of con- 
science seek for carnal helps, by theu' vain tampering 
only render their condition worse. 

" I, even I, will tear." The main thing wherein God 
expresses the dreadfidness of his wrath here in this 
place, is the tearing of them as a lion. We may take in 
])ieces that which we purpose to mend for future 
ser\-ice, but when we tear a thing we intend to use it 
no more. This expression marks tne greatness of God's 
wrath, as in Psal. 1. 22, " Consider this, ye that forget 
God, lest I fear you in pieces." Now this tearing here 
refers to the letting in the AssyTian upon Israel, and 
the Babylonian upon Judah. And the main observ- 
ation from it, and which is indeed seasonable for these 
times of ours, is, 

Obs. 3. When God in WTath causes war in a king- 
dom, then God teareth. 



VliK. 14. 



THE PKOPHECY Of HOSEA. 



303 



1 will send the sword amongst you, I will send the 
AssjTian against yovi, and then I will tear you. The 
judgment of war is a tearing judgment. God's wratli 
never appears more di-eadful than in letting out the 
wrath and rage of provoked enemies upon a people. 
The teeth and claws of this lion are no other than 
spears, and swords, and poleaxes ; the mouth of tliis 
lion is no other than the roaring cannon, from whose 
mouth proceed fire and smoke, and sudden deatli. 
Here you may see stout and strong ones struck down 
by thousands in a moment ; here one man's arm is torn 
from his shoulders, there another man's leg is rent from 
his body ; h^-e one dnng lies wallowing in his own 
blood, there another weltering in his gore, aU mangled 
and wounded. " Every battle of the warrior is with 
confused noise, and with garments roUed in blood;" 
death reigns in the field, and triumphs, which side so 
ever falls. And as in 1 Sam. iv. 17, when there was a 
great slaughter among the people, and one told Phine- 
has's wife that her husband and her brother-in-law" were 
dead, she bowed herself and travailed, for her pains 
came upon her :" so when news comes home to the 
poor fatherless chilcben and widows. Your husband is 
dead, and your father is dead ; oh what tearing of hair, 
wringing of hands, rending of clotlies, lifting up the 
voice and crying, until the noise thereof reaches to 
heaven ! My brethren, war- is a tearing judgment, it is 
malum complexum, a compound sorrow. The cup that 
is now in tlie hand of tlie Lord '' is full of mixtiu'e," 
Psal. Ixxv. 8 ; full of bloody ingredients, of fire, famine, 
pestilences, murders, rapes, cruelties, and all miseries ; 
tlie Lord tears now indeed. Oh how is the husband rent 
from his wife, and haled to prison by cruel and bloody 
soldiers ! How are men's estates and possessions torn 
from them in tumultuous outi'ages ! then' pleadings 
and cries rejected with scorn and contempt, and the 
bodies of their wives and childi'en, and their own too, 
abused in the rage and malice of the insulting adver- 
sary ! And of all wars, civil wars are the most di'ead- 
ful ; tliere God tears indeed ; there the brotlier con- 
tends with the brother, and the fatlier bathes liis hand 
in the blood of his own son. Tlius the Lord lias been 
a lion in many parts of this kingdom. Alas, oui' bre- 
thieu abroad cannot say as they m Jer. iv. 5, '• Assem- 
ble yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities ;" 
they stand afar oft', and are afi'aid to come out of the 
land of then- captivity, because of the oppressing sword. 
Yea, and in this heavy judgment that is upon us, never 
was God's name so torn as it is now by bloody oaths 
and hideous and unheard-of blasphemies. And what 
more do our adversaries desire, but to tear the saints 
and to trample them under their feet ? 

Sly bretliren, time it is for us all to rend our hearts, 
even to tear and rend our very hearts within us, be- 
cause the Lord is come out against us as a tearing lion, 
devourmg on every side. The Jews were wont when 
they heard the name of God blasphemed to rend then- 
garments. We hear of the dreadful blasphemies of 
oiu' adversaries, their rending and tearing of the name 
of God ; oh how should we rend our hearts rather than 
oiU' garments, and mourn with more than ordmary 
sorrow at this desecration of the name of the Most 
High! And the rather because we have escaped for 
the present, and our estates and bodies are yet unin- 
jured. Our sins have passed into the cups of our bre- 
thren, have increased their miseries, and have been 
those claws and teeth that have torn them. Thus the 
Lord is raised from a moth and worm even to a tearing 
lion. 

Obs. 4. God has a righteous hand in the worst ac- 
tions of men. Though the Assyrians and Babylonians 
did this, yet, saith God, I will be as a Hon to tear them. 
A\'e cry out that men are so vile and wicked, but you 
must look up to God who directs all. The most horrid 



wickedness ever committed, the betraying of Christ, 
and the crucifying of the Lord of life, the Scripture 
saith, was done" by the fore-determined counsel of God, 
Acts ii. Therefore let those that have had theii- estates, 
their husbands, and then children torn from them by 
wicked men, let them know^ that the Lord has had a 
hand in it. Though men be wicked, yet the Lord is 
righteous : let them justify God in all. This is God's 
glory, that he can have a hand in the most hideous 
wickedness in the world, and yet remain righteous not- 
withstanding : therefore he saith here, " I, even I, will 
tear." He not only owns it, but would have people to 
take special notice that he du'ects all. Oh the use that 
we might make of this to ourselves, if in all those 
dreadful judgments that are upon us, and the yet 
heavier ones that have befallen some of our brethren, 
we could but believe that the hand of God has done it ! 
I, even I, have done it : and in this one verse, I is re- 
peated four times : let the thing be never so hideous 
to you, yet know that I am the great orderer and dis- 
poser of all, and I have some great tiling to bring to 
pass by all this that is come upon you. And certainly, 
thougl'i the misery be great that some parts of the 
kingdom endure, yet because God's hand is so much 
in it, therefore we must know that he has some great 
thing to bring to pass by these his dispensations to- 
ward us. 

Obs. 5. God has a righteous hand in the worst ac- 
tions. What the wicked AssjTians and cursed Baby- 
lonians did, that God is said here to do ; and in the 
sin of Judas, the most hon'ible that ever was, God not 
only permitted, but ordered all. Acts ii. 23. This is 
God's glory, and yet to be free from the evil of sin. 
jNIany knots there are about this, that men exercise 
then- wits to untie ; but Cum veniet Elias, (as the He- 
brews use to say when gravelled. When Elias cometh 
we shall understand,) there is a time when all diSicul- 
ties shall be easily reconciled. Y''ou whose estates have 
been torn from you, and it may be many of your dear- 
est friends, consider that it is God that is the lion 
tearing. 

Obs. 6. The hand of God is more immediate in some 
judgments than in others ; " I, even I;" and the more 
immediate the more remarkable : There shall not only 
come judgments upon you, but I will bring them, they 
shall be such that you shall see that I am in them. Li 
some judgments, God makes so much use of the crea- 
ture, that sinners can see little of his hand in them ; but 
in some others, they can easily discern it. Belshazzar 
ti-embled at the hand-writing, and his thoughts were 
troubled within him ; why so ? the hand struck him not 
at all, but he saw it to be the hand of God, the hand 
of the Deity was in it, Dan. v. 5, 6, and this made him 
to tremble. Gen. vi. 17, " Behold, I, even I, do bring 
a flood." And that wrath which is out against us at 
this time, is the hand of God in a special manner ; God 
may well say to us, " I, even I, will tear" ye, O England. 
Oh' how has God manifested himself to us in these latter 
years since the wars began ! As we ought to take 
notice of God's judgments on kingdoms, so also on 
families and particular persons : as a godly heart is ob- 
servant of God's hand in mercies, and as coming fi'om 
him they are most sweet ; so, on the contrary, he takes 
notice of God's hand in every judgment to be humbled 
under it : "I will establish mv covenant with you," 
Gen. ix. 11 ; and Isa. xliii. 19, ■25, " I, even I, am he 
which blotteth out thine iniquities." As mercies are 
then most sweet when we see them come fi-om God's 
immediate hand in tlie way of special providence, so 
God's hand remarkable in judgments must be regarded. 
For, 

1. Hereby the heart becomes humbled, when it con- 
siders that it is God which appears against him : Not 
devils, nor men, but God, that God in whom I live, and 



304 



-■^^ EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. V. 



from whom I receive every blessing that I enjoy. This 
it was that troubled Christ, more than all the wrong 
which the scribes and Pharisees did to him, when he 
considered that it was his God ; " My God, my God, 
why hast thou forsaken me ? " A\Tien the saints see 
God's hand against them in any thing, this ti-oubles 
them and humbles them more than any thing else. 

2. It is a special means to render the heart patient. 
Psal. xxxix. 9, " I was dumb, I opened not my mouth ; 
because thou, Lord, didst it." See it in Eli, " It is the 
Lord, let him do what seemoth him good : " and in 
Christ himself, Shall not I drink of the cup which my 
Father shall give me ? Is God my God, and doth this 
come from my Father ? I will take it, I am sure it will 
do me no harm, but much good. 

3. By this means the soul is put upon the inquiry, 
why this affliction has come, what may be the cause of 
this trouble. AVhen we see nothing but man the instru- 
ment used in an affliction, we regard it not so much, it 
never leads us to soul-search and trial of ourselves ; but 
when God is seen in a cross, the soul begins to con- 
sider, AVhat have I done ? what aileth thee, O my 
soul? Thus did the church, Micah vi. 9, "Hear ye 
the rod, and who hath appointed it." There are letters 
written upon God's rods, which the man of wisdom 
can read. 

4. It causes the soul to receive content and satisfac- 
tion in nothing but God alone, and in peace with him. 
AVhen we look upon judgments only in ^he second cause, 
we are apt to think that second means will make up 
the breach again, wliich sin has made ; as they in Isa. 
ix. 10, 12, " The bricks are fallen down, but we will build 
with hewn stone : " " for all this his anger is not turned 
away : " why so ? In the 13th verse we have the reason ; 
'■■ For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth 
them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts:" they 
would not see the hand of God, nor give glory to him, 
for if they did, they w'ould say as this people, in the 
next chapter, " Come, and let us return unto the Lord : 
for he hath torn, and he will heal us ; he hath smitten, 
and he will bind us up." Thus much for the doubling 
the expression. 

Obs. 7. When God intends ruin and desolation to a 
people, it is impossible for any to deliver them out of 
his hands. " I, even I, will tear and go away." "\Mien 
lions tear their prey, they are not afraid of what they 
have done, but walk majestically before the dead car- 
cass, as it were bidding defiance to all other creatures ; 
they run not away as the fox, but walk as it were in 
-v^ state, for so the words in the original im- 

I ply: "I, even I will tear." As if God 

challenged all the creatures in heaven or earth to 
grajjple with him, " I, even I, will tear." It implies 
how God wiU deal with Judah, he will not be afraid of 
them, he will not come against them in secret, but 
publicly. 

The judgment at this time u])on our enemies is not 
a secret, but an open one, the Lord deals not subtlely 
and by craft with them, as they do with his people ; 
but though the Lord deal as a lion, tearing and rend- 
ing them, yet they will not see him, neither are they 
able to resist him, nor can any rescue themselves out 
of his hands : let the means in God's hands be never so 
weak, yet when he is in a way of wrath there shall be 
no delivery from him. Isa. xxvi. G, " The foot sliall 
tread it down : " tread down what ? " the lofty city : " 
what feet ? " even the feet of the poor, and the steps of 
the needy." In Jer. xxxvii. 10, the Lord tells them, 
that though they " had smitten the whole army of the 
Chaldeans, and there remained but wounded men 
among them, yet should they rise up every man in his 
tent, and burn their city with fire." 

06s. 8. When God comes against a people, he defies 
the strongest, and greatest in power, and most con- 



fident in an arm of flesh, to deliver themselves out 
of his hands. Isa. xxiv. 21, "And it shall come to 
pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host 
of the high ones that are on high," in their greatest 
pride, in the midst of their greatest victories and con- 
quests. .\nd it is very observable, that since our ene- 
mies gained their greatest advantages they have lost 
the most ; God then pulled them down when they were 
most proud, and God will go on in his work though 
men are never so proud and strong : therefore it is our 
wisdom to resign ourselves into his hands, yea, though 
they be hands of chastisement ; for although no power 
can rescue out of his hand, yet by humbling our- 
selves, falling down before him, willingly submitting 
to him, we may change the operations of his will. God 
had ratlier that men voluntarily gave him his glory 
than compelled him to extort it from them. 

Vcr. 15. / u-itl gn and return to my place, till theij 
acknoivleJge their nffencc, and seek my face: in their 
ajfliclion they icill seek me early. 

"I will go." God repeats it again, which notes, 1. 
The glory of the work, that he is not ashamed of what 
he has done : and God's' people ought to resemble God 
in this ; let their actions be waiTantable, such as they 
may with comfort own and stand to, yea, suSer for. if 
requisite. 2. The irresistibility of God's work, as il'he 
should say. Let any tiT whether they can oppose me. 
3. And chiefly it implies, I wQl bring them into cap- 
tivity, and there I will leave them. Whence, 

06s. 1. It is a hea\-y judgment for God to tear and 
wound, and then to leave a people. God saith. If they 
return not, I will rend and tear them, make them very 
miserable, and in that condition will I leave them, I 
will be a stranger to them, and will not own them. 
Ezek. xxii. 20, " As they gather silver, and brass, and 
u-on, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, 
to blow the fire upon it, to melt it ; so will I gather 
you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you 
there, and melt you." God in another ]ilace promises 
to be with his people in the fire and in the water: but 
there is a time that God's people may so provoke him, 
that he will bring them into the fire and there leave 
them. AVhen the Philistines fell upon Saul, it was a sad 
time for him, because God had left him. Oh how ter- 
rible was it when God left Christ upon the cross but 
for a little while! This we all deserve, and this is the 
portion of the damned in hell. AMiile the judge is pre- 
sent upon the bench the malefactor has hope, but when 
he dcjjarts, hope departs. Therefore the church prays, 
" Lord, leave us not : " " Thou art my hope in the day 
of evil," Jer. xiv. 9; xvii. 17. God is said to be the 
" strength '' of his people, in Psal. xxxvii. 39. Now, 
if their strength be gone, they must needs be weak, 
Christ rebukes his disciples for fearing when he was in 
the ship with them : but when God leaves a people, oh 
what cause of fear is there then ! The church implies 
as much, Jer. xiv. 9, " Thou art in the midst of us ; 
leave us not ; " we are in a sad condition akcady, yet, 
O Lord, do not thou leave us. 

Now, if we would not have God leave us, let us take 
heed we do not leave God. A^'ould you have God for 
you in adversity, then be you for God in prosperity, 
iior forsake him" when he is aflilicted, that is, when his 
people and cause sufl'cr. Many will be for the saints 
and own the cause of God when all things go well, 
and their side prospers; but in trouble they forsake 
them, as if they knew them not. Know that in thus 
doing thou leavest God, and God may justly leave thee 
in thy affliction. Rut now, it is God's promise to his 
peo|)le, that he will not leave them, Psal. xxxi. 7, 8 ; 
xxxiv. 17, 18. God may bring thee info the power and 
jurisdiction of the evil, but wait thou on the Lord and 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



305 



he sliall deliver thee. We are ■wont to say 'n'hen we 
are in any trouble, to our dear friends, What ! will you 
also leave me ? ■will you not now own me, and stand 
by me ? As Christ himself said to his disciples, " Will 
ye also go away?'' God will never leave his people in 
this manner. The shepherd may allow' his dog to hunt 
the sheep and to bark at them, in order to bring them 
together, but never suffers him to worry and kill them : 
so God may permit the wicked to hunt the saints, and 
perhaps sometimes to fasten upon them, but then God 
will call them off again, for his promise is, as in Heb. 
siii. 5, '• I will never leave thee nor forsake thee ;" in 
which words we have in the Greek five 
oW'fmi^ii'ae 61- negatives to atfir-m the truth of this con- 
«aTa\.i,o. elusion, that God will never forsake his 

people. I will not, not leave you. Yea, but the people 
of God might say. But, Lord, we seem to the eye of 
the world to be forsaken. No, saith the Lord, I will 
not, not, not forsake you. There are two negatives to 
leaving, and three to forsaking ; from whence we may 
see how sU'ongly God has engaged himself for his peo- 
ple's security. 

" And return to my place." These words are some- 
Deus est habitjca- thing difficult. What is God's place ? Is 
m"n3u""i?ai„"a?u- God contained in any place ? God is rather 
lum ejus. the place of the world, than the world his 

place. " I will return to my place ;" that is, I will go 
to heaven again : not that God is there only contained, 
but that is the place from which he reveals himself most, 
there his holiness shines forth most gloriously. There is 
but little manifestation of God in this world, compared 
with what there is in heaven ; the glory of all the world 
is but as a dungeon to that place of God's special prasence ; 
and we are like childi'en born in a dungeon, who think 
there is no better place because they never saw better ; 
but heaven is our Father's place, and Christ, who is our 
elder Brother, is gone thither before us, to provide man- 
sions for us ; let us therefore have conversations in heaven 
answerable to the holiness of that place. This world 
is like the out-housing, stables, or kennels, belonging to 
some palace or stately building ; and even as these are 
very inferior to the rooms in the house, so is the pomp 
and state of this world to heaven. God has given the 
world to worldly men for their portion, but the saints 
have a better inheritance reserved for them, even in 
heaven. 

" And return to my place." 'WTien was God from 
his place ? when did he come from thence ? Thus : when 
he did rend and tear them, appearing against them as 
a lion, and as a young lion ; then it was as if God should 
come down to rectify and set in order things which were 
amiss, as we may see in the case of Sodom, Gen. xviii. 
21 , " I will go down now, and see whether they have done 
altogether according to the cry of it which is come unto 
me :" the sin of Sodom brought God from his throne. 
So in Isa. xxvi. 21, " Behold, the Lord cometh out of his 
place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their ini- 
quity : the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall 
no more cover her slain." God compares himself to a 
prince on his throne, who goes from his place of state 
into countries to quiet mutinies and rebellions among 
his people. Hence, 

Obs. 2. Sin disturbs heaven and earth. God cannot 
be quiet in heaven for sinners ; just then is it for God 
to trouble sinners on earth. 

06s. 3. In times of public judgment God leaves his 
majesty in heaven, to set things in order on earth. And 
surely it will be to their cost when God thus comes ; do 
but view the tcrribleness of his approach, in Psal. xviii. 
9, 12, " He bowed the heavens also, and came down : 
and darkness was under his feet. At the brightness 
that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones 
and coals of fire" were under his feet. God seems to 
speak as a father to his children ; What ! must I come to 



you, will you force me to come among you ? if I do, it 
shall be to your cost. 

Obs. 4. God's administrations to his people may some- 
times be such as if he regarded them not. " I will return 
to my place." When I have afflicted Revertjir ad iiabiia- 
them I will go to heaven, and there will ,^;S°" ciSd! ri,- 
I sit, and my administrations shall be such p>^""^- 
towards them as if I regarded them not ; as a prince 
that goes from the tribunal to his seat of dignity, and 
regards not the poor prisoner. God's people may be so 
let\ in the hands of the wicked, that they may think God 
has forsaken them, and given them over into their power, 
and conclude that God is gone and has now hid himself 
for ever. As a poor child in misery in one country, and 
his father in another, thinks thus, I am in trouble and 
sorrow, and I have a father, but he is in another coim- 
try, and I know not when he will return ; so God may 
return to his place, and the soul may seek him, but he 
be gone. Yet the saints should be encouraged, notwith- 
standing, to look up to God, and know, though God be 
gone, yet there is a way to bring him down again. In 
Psal. xviii. 6, God was in his heavenly temple, and his 
people cried to him in their distress ; then the Lord 
" bowed the heavens, and came down." Let me make 
haste, saith God, I must go to the hel]) of my people ; 
therefore, that I may make speed, let the heavens bow 
before me. So in Isa. Ixiv. 1, 2, the church cries out, 
"Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou 
wouldest come down!" True, Lord, thou art in heaven, 
and there dwell thy majesty and glory ; but oh that 
thou wouldest come down and help us ! Prayer, as it 
will rend the heavens to get up to God, so it wiU rend 
the heavens for God to come down to man. Lord, if 
thou wilt go to thy ])lace, then what will become of thy 
glory ? In the world thou hadst service and honour 
done to thee by the creature, thy saints offered sacrifice 
to thee ; though sometimes thou, God, didst seem to an- 
swer, I care not for this, I can and will have honour to 
myself in some other way. 

06s. 5. When the wicked are in perplexity, then God 
enjoys himself in his perfection, EzeK. x. 4. When 
they are in wrath and sorrow, and God receives not that 
external service from them which he has had, " I will 
return to my place," saith he, and enjoy myself in my 
glory. And this aggravates the misery of the damned in 
hell : We are here in eternal torments and horror, but 
what does God lose by this ? he is reposing in blessed 
beatitude in the midst of his own perfections. 

06s. 6. God sometimes turns his back upon sinners, 
until they acknowledge their sin : " Till they acknow- 
ledge their offence." This is the best way for God to 
deal with some kind of men ; let them but feel a little 
of the smart of trouble, and then they will consider. 
Many who are wilful will do so and so, their wills shall 
be their law ; now the best way to tame such is to let 
them see and feel the evil of their ways. So saith God, 
My prophets and my messengers can do them no good, 
therefore let them alone : 1 Kings viii. 47, " If they shall 
bethink themselves and repent." 

06s. 7. God humbles himself to behold what is done 
upon earth. It is a kind of self-denial in God to regard 
man at all. As it is a mighty condescension in a prince 
to come from his throne to visit and comfort poor men 
in dungeons and prisons : surely such prisoners have 
occasion to honour' such a prince, for he comes fi-om his 
throne to visit them ; how much more then have we need 
to honour God for his love towards us ! 

But to examine more closely the words in the 
original ; they are, till they become guilty in their own 
hearts, and acknowledge themselves to be so. lo»N» 
signifies to offend, to be guilty, to be desolate, and to 
sacrifice for sin ; all these significations the root ntt'N 
will bear. 

Until they become guilty. Were they not guilty 



306 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. V. 



before ? Would God have them more guilty ? No ; 
but God would have them convinced of their sin, accuse 
themselves for it, justify him in all, and lastly, with 
soiTow and sliame, acknowledge themselves to be sin- 
ners before God and men. It is true, as soon as ever 
the sin is committed, the sinning person incurs guilt ; 
but then he is especially said to be guilty, when his 
ovra acknowledgment confirms the sentence of the law. 

But when was this disposition wrought in them ? has 
it ever yet been ? or is it still to be fulfilled and ac- 
complished ? 

I answer, that it was in part made good at their 
coming out of captivity : hence Daniel, chap.«ix. 5, in 
the name of the whole chiu-ch, speaks after this man- 
ner, " Vi'e have sinned, and done v, ickcdly, and have re- 
belled, even by departing from thy ))recepts," &c. How 
many terms are used to express theii' departure from 
God ! Also in Ezra ix. 13, 15, and in Xeh. ix. 16 : all 
these tlu-ee lived after Hosea, though in oiu- Bibles 
placed before liim. This text is fulfilled again in Jer. 
xxxi. 18 ; Ephraim was then guilty when he was found 
bemoaning himself. Again, it was fulfilled when Christ 
was preached. Acts ii. 37, " 'When they heard this, they 
were jiricked in their heart." And certain it is, this 
prophecy had reference to Chi-ist. But this scripture 
shall principally be fulfilled at the calling of the Jews, 
then they shall become guilty : Zcch. xii. 10, " They shall 
look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall 
mourn for Mm." 

Obs. 8. So long as men prosper in their sins, tliey 
will contest even with God himself. Mai. iii. 7, " But 
ye said. Wherein shall ■we return?" Is not this the 
sjieech of many proud spii'its ? being taxed about any 
crime, they presently answer, 'S^^lereul have we olfend- 
cd.' Tiiis is remarkable in Saul, 1 Sam. xv. 13, when 
he told tlie prophet he had perfonued the command- 
ment of the Lord. Samuel labours to convince him of 
his sin, saj ing, " AATiat meaneth then the bleating of 
the sheep in mine ears, and the lowmg of the oxen 
which I hear ? " yet, after continued expostulations, in 
the 20th verse Saul replies, " Yea, I have obeyed the 
voice of tlic Lord." It was otherwise with David when 
the prophet came to him ; " I have sinned against the 
Lord," was the ready answer, 2 Sam. xii. 13. It is a 
good sign of a soul truly humbled, when it joins issue 
at once v ith the word. 

Obs. 9. jVliliction sanctified brings men to see and 
acknowledge their sins. God in afflictions marks men 
out, and then conscience will prey upon them, as Simeon 
and Levi fell on the men of Shechem, for then they are 
sore and unable to resist. In time of affliction thou 
.shalt find conscience hard enough for thee: what pangs 
liave men in tlieir sickness ! saving, as he in Prov. v. 
12, " How have I hated instruction, and my heart de- 
spised reproof ! " Oh what a deal r,f guilt is opened 
and discovered in aflliction ! Afflictions are to the soul 
as earthquakes to the ground, which opens the graves 
and discovers abundance of filth. 

Obs. 10. It is a sign of a hai-d heart not to confess 
when God's hand is upon us. Even Pharaoh did this : 
and it is that which God requires : Joshua bids Achan, 
" My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of 
Israel, and make confession unto him." Confession 
gives glory to God, and when thou standest out in tliis 
thing, thou opposest God in his glory. Latimer reports 
of a man in his time, who was to be executed at Ox- 
ford for some villany, that many means were used to 
induce him to confess the act, but none could prevail : 
being cut down, after hanging the apjjointed time, they 
perceived he was not rjuite dead, and by the use of 
means brought him to himself, when he confessed all 
circumstances. This example may show us thus much, 
not always to conclude men are not guilty when they 
confess notlung; there is that stoutness in the hearts of 



men, that they will rather venture damnation than 
yield to men. 

Obs. 11. God will have glory from us. If we do not 
acknowledge our guilt by lesser judgments, he will 
continue, yea, even increase them, tiU we confess and 
give glory to him. Our unwillingness to do this, is 
often the reason that we are so long under trouble : 
sLu in the conscience lies as purulent matter in a sore, 
requh-ing to be let out before ease can be obtained. 
God calls for confession, and no true j)eace otherwise 
can be enjoyed; O therefore, sinner, confess and give 
gloiy to God. How many are there who have lain a 
long time under anguish of spirit, till they have freely 
and fully confessed the sins which lay hea^y and bur- 
densome on their conscience ! Neglect not this duty 
when you are called to it, it is an ordinance appointed 
by God for the easing of troubled souls ; and when you 
cannot get peace any other way, having used other 
means, and yet God withholds the light of his counte- 
nance, then ai'e you called to confess to others. See 
what course David took, and how he sped, Psal. xxxix. 
2 — 4, " I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even 
from good;" I roared and was vexed, but I said, I vould 
confess my sin, and shame myself for them, and then 
thou forgavest the sin of thy servant. Mark here, 
there was some sin which lay upon David's conscience, 
and he could not get peace in again ; what coui'se takes 
he ? I (said he) did but say, I would confess ; and 
then thou forgavest my sin, thou didst then seal a ]iar- 
don to me. O take this com-se, and tliou shalt have 
the like success. God comes to thee in a sickness, and 
saith. Sinner, guilty, or not guUty ? give God then the 
gloiT of a humble confession. It is true, to confess 
ofiences against men to men, there may be danger in 
it, making us liable to trouble ; but confession of 
ofiences against God never causes tiouble. 

" And seek my face ;" that is, my favour, my Son, 
and my ordinances, for, in general, God's face is 
nothuig else but God's manifestation of himself in his 
love, in his Son, or in his ordinances ; and it is a most 
blessed thing thus to behold God's face. Rev. xxii. 4 : 
this is what David so earnestly prayed for, " Lord, lift 
up the light of thy countenance upon me :" one sight 
of God is better tlian all the world. To see God any 
way is sweet, but to see him in Christ is suqjassing ex- 
cellent : in the world, we have notliing of God but his 
mere footsteps, but in Christ is the great manifestation 
of the wisdom, mercy, and love of God to poor, lost 
man. And in the ordinances, too, God communicates 
himself in an especial manner. In these three things are 
shown to us the meaning of those words, " and seek 
my face." The observations from them are these : 

06s'. 12. It is not enough to acknowledge our sins, 
but we must seek God's face. The heart, in the work 
of humiliation, must be active : the soul which is truly 
himibled before God, must be lively and active after 
God, else our humihation is worth nothing in his sight. 
AVhen the heart is sullen and dcsjtonding in its humili- 
ation, God looks not at it. Thus in Ezek. xxsiii. 10, we 
read of some who ai-e said to " pine away" in their sin. 
Many, when God begins to afflict them with their sins, 
and to excite some trouble in their minds, pine away 
in their iniquity, are deterred from duty, and lie do\Mi 
under their trouble discontented and melancholy ; and 
tliis is a very bad sign : therefore here is the test 
whether our trouble of conscience be genuine or not ; 
if it arises from melancholy, it dulls the heart, banishes 
all spirit and activity, anil renders it wholly unfit for 
service ; but if time, it enlivens the soul, animates the 
mind, though naturally dull and inactive, and makes 
the whole man energetically zealous, it puts the soul 
in ways of activity for God. when in the service of Ciod. 
The melting of lead consumes the lead, but the melting 
of silver refines and purifies it : so the trouble of a car- 



Vee. Ij. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



307 



nal heart melts and consumes it, but a gracious spuit 
will abide the fii"e, and come out purer and better; 
therefore repentance is expressed by a -word implying 
activity, Isa. Iv. 1, " Come ye, buy, and eat ; yea, 
come, buy wine and milk." Matt. xi. 28, " Come unto 
me." A ti'ue penitent heart is in an active, coming 
posture, fitted for any service. 

04.?. 13. When God leaves his people, he leaves 
something behind him, which causes the heart to 
seek after him ; the soul has her eyes upon God, look- 
ing after laim. Therefore, much are they to be re- 
proved, who are so full of their sad conclusions and 
desperate forebodings, I am undone and lost for ever, 
there is no hope, to hell I must go : but a gracious 
heart, in the darkest night of sorrow and trouble can 
see some glimpses of light and comfort, sajing as that 
good man, Ezra x. 2, " Yet there is hope in Israel con- 
cerning this thing ;" and as the church in Isa. xlii. 24, 
'• Wlio gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the rob- 
bers ? did not the Lord, he against whom we have 
sinned?" What follows? "Thus saith the Lord that 
created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O 
Israel, Fear not," Isa. xliii. 1. 

Let us lay up this to support our spuits with in sad 
times ; we know not what days await us, yet sm-ely we 
cannot be in a sadder condition than Ephr-aim was in 
here, to have God to be to us as a moth and as a lion 
to tear and devour us. Many make their conditions 
worse by then- desperate conclusions. Austin observes, 
that David prayed earnestly that he might not be cast 
out from that face which he had offended. Is God 
angry with us or the kingdom ? let us not run away 
from him, but earaestly seek him. 

Obs. 14. True repentance is not so much to seek our 
own ease, as God's face. The face of God is more in 
the heart and thoughts of a true penitent, than its own 
ease : 2 Chron. vii. 14, " If my people, which are called 
by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and 
seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways ; then 
will I hear fi'om heaven, and will forgive their sin, and 
win heal their land." AVe may seek our own good, 
but we must go beyond it ; it is God, and not ourselves 
only, which we must seek after in our seekings after 
God. Tliis has been the practice of the saints : Psal. 
Ixiii. 1, " O God. thou art my God; early will I seek 
thee : my soul thii-steth for thee, my flesh longeth for 
thee in a dry and thii'sty land, where no water is ; " not 
for water " in a dry and thirsty land," but for thy face. 
So Isa. xxvi. 8, " Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O 
Lord, have we waited for thee ; the desire of our soul 
is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee." We 
seek God in our days of humiliation, and that earnestly ; 
but what are our ends ? Is it that we may have our 
peace, our ease, oiu' estates, and our lives ? We may 
indeed desire and seek for these, but do we seek the 
face of God more even than these ? if so, we may hope 
that our requests will be granted. 

But what is God's face ? Ut amplecterentur verbitm 
et cultus in verba propositos, hoc proprie est fades Dei, 
quo se recelat, et nobis conspiciendum offert : It is the 
word, and God's worship propounded in the word, &c., 
saith Calvin, as upon this place, so on that, " Seek 
ye my face." Whence, 

06s. 15. God's ordinances and worship are his face. 
The soul never knows God or has close communion 
with him, as in these ; in other things darkly, in these 
with open face. The creatures are but his footsteps ; 
these his countenance, whereby we know him better 
than by the other. 

Obs. 16. Repenting hearts are solicitous about God's 
ordinances. As soon as they begin to know God and 
themselves, they begin to disrelish those ways of wor- 
ship which satisfied them before. 

Obs. 17. The worship of God, his name, and his 



ordinances, should be the objects of our great concern 
in times of public calamity. Though our sufferings are 
great, yet we should pray. Lord, take care of thy great 
name, ordinances, and worship, which are dearer to us 
than any thing in the world ; therefore, O Lord, whether 
we have peace and liberty or not, our estates or not, 
take care of these and it suffices; let England enjoy 
but thy name, tliine ordinances, and the government of 
thy Son, and we have enough. Lord, thou knowest 
our peace, oiu- lives, and estates are dear to us, and 
we desire them all ; but thy gospel, thy presence, and 
the manifestation of thy face are dearer than they all, 
and other things are sought by us in subservience to 
these. Oh that this frame of spkit were found in us ! 
then how soon would the Lord return and heal all our 
breaches, and destroy our enemies, and settle us in a 
sure peace ! 1 Kings viii. 44 — 53. 

" In their affliction they will seek me early." Heze- 
kiah sends to the prophet, Isa. xxxvii. 3, and tells him 
that it was " a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of 
blasphemy," as it is with us at this day ; " wherefore," 
saith he, " lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left : " 
and saith my text, " In their afflictions they wiU seek me 
early." Now when men's minds are dejected and cast 
down with every rumom- of fear. Providence seems to have 
presented them here a very seasonable subject of medi- 
tation, especially if you connect these words with the be- 
ginning of the following chapter, as is done by the Sep- 
tuagint and Jerome, who read them thus : " In their 
affliction they wiU seek me early : come, and let us return 
unto the Lord : for he hath torn, and he will heal us ; he 
hath smitten, and he will bind us up." The fii'st words 
are a prophecy of what the Lord will work in his people 
Judah, "In their affliction they will seek me early," 
and then follows the ready response of the church, 
" Come, and let us return unto the Lord ;" this was God's 
design in tearing them. And now from the connexion of 
these two, God's wounding, and theu' returning unto 
him again, 

Obs. 18. ThatwhichGodaimsatinhis administrations 
to his elect he v^tII accomplish. In my tearing them I 
aim at their good, and I will effect it. God useth many 
means, his word, his works, and his encouragements, 
and all these are of veiy great force and power to ac- 
complish his gracious pm-poses ; and though in the 
ungodly they do not, yet in the elect they are effica- 
cious ; God leaves not them to the means, but he will 
see that the means effect that good which they require. 
"\\Tien God sends the gospel to any place, it meets with 
two sorts of people, reprobates and elect; now God 
does to them aU that is fit for him to do, and if they do 
not or will not receive it, he goes his way and leaves 
the reprobates to themselves, but the elect he follows 
after with the means, and accomplisheth the good he 
aims at. Some express it thus, A man has his servant 
and his child sick of the stone ; he provides a remedy 
for both ; brings the surgeon to his servant, tells him 
that he is wiUing to be at the cost, but the servant re- 
fuseth, choosing rather to sufi'er the misery and pain 
than undergo the operation : the master seeing this 
goes away, and comes to liis child, who refuses like- 
wise ; but'from Mm the father goes not away, but com- 
mands his child to be bound, and will see the surgeon 
perform his office. So God offers the means to aU ; the 
reprobates refuse it, God lets them alone; the saints 
refuse it also, but God will not permit this, but sets 
the means home upon them by his almighty power. 

But touching the words themselves, y,^ j.^^ „„^. 
" They will seek me early," the Hebrew |j| ^^^^^ iig"j.o; 
has but one word 'jsnntt" to express all i^^'^^'lll'jie^^i^'jj- 
these by, as if he should say. They shall manequa:rcre.Sept 
morning me, they shall come in the "p^p'S""- 
morning of their time and seek me. For the further 
opening these words. 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. V. 



"What time does this seeking of God refer to ? when 
did tlie Jews thus seek God ? It refers to these three 
periods : 

1. A\'hen the seventy years were at an end. And this 
was fulfilled in Dan. ix., Ezra ix., and Xch. ix. ; then 
they sought God early, when their sorrows and op- 
jjressions were greater than in Egj-pt, as Jeremiah in 
the Lamentations expresses it. 

2. Under their captivity and oppression by the Ro- 
mans. A\'hen Christ came into the world, three tliou- 
.sandwere converted at one sermon whicli Peter preached 
to them, Acts ii., and multitudes came in dailv, Acts 
xxi. 20. 

3. At the calling of the Jews, who are now in a 
most sad and deplorable condition ; then shall this be 
principally fulfilled. 

How did they seek God in any of these times early ? 
for in Daniel's time, he saith, " All this e^il is come 
upon us ; yet made we not our prayer before the Lord 
our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and 
understand thy truth," chap. ix. 13: they never prayed 
to God in all the time of their captivity with any seri- 
ousness till the end of it came. Then for the second 
time, how did they seek God cai'ly at Christ's coming, 
when the Scripture tells us, John i. 11, that " lie came 
unto his own, and his own received him not?" they 
crucified him, and were very bitter enemies to him, even 
to the death. And for the third time, the calling of 
the Jews, how did they seek him early ? for it is two 
thousand three hundred years since this prophecy was 
spoken, and yet they liave not sought God ; how then is 
this fulfilled, that they sought God early ? To tliis in- 
terpreters answer, 

1. This is to be understood not in respect of the time, 
but as soon as they came to be illuminated, to have 
their eyes open, to see any thing of the truth, in the 
morning of theii- day of grace : as in Cyrus's time, and 
suddenly at Peter's sermon, and hereafter, when the 
coming of the Son of man shall be as the lightning : 
this time seems to be called the day-star arising in their 
hearts, 2 Pet. i. 19. The calling of the Jews shall be sud- 
denly, therefore, in Rev. ii. 28, they are promised "the 
morning-star," that is, some beginnings of a day of 
grace ; those which overcome shall partake of the good 
of that day, and then shall be the time in which the 
people shall seek God early. 

2. " Seek me early," may mean, seek me diligently ; 
as Prov. vii. 15, " Therefore came I forth to meet thee, 
diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee." I 
came forth to seek thee early in the morning ; the word 
is the same with this in the text. And thus this was ful- 
filled in the time of their captivity; Neh. iv. 17 — 20, 
tliey built the walls diligently, or earnestly, having their 
weapons in one hand, and their tools in the other. So 
the spouse sought Christ diligently ; and in the apos- 
tles' time. Acts li. 37, they cry out, " Men and brethren, 
what shall we do ? " And when tlie Jews are called, it is 
lirophesicd of them, that thev shall be as doves Hying 
to the windows, Isa. Ix. 8. Ilence, 

Obi: 19. In the sorest and greatest afflictions which 
befall tlie people of God, God intends their good. I 
Avijl return unto my place, that they may seek me early : 
in all this that is come upon them, I mtend them no 
hurt, but every way much good. Isa. xxvii. 9, " By ibis 
therefore shall tlie iniquity of Jacob be purged ; and 
this is all the fruit to take away his sin." The 14tli 
verse of Isa. xxvi., compared with the 19th verse of the 
same, shows God's different dealing in afHicting the 
wicked and the godly. In the Hth verse we have God's 
dealing with the wicked, " They are dead, they shall 
not live ; they arc deceased, they shall not rise ; " the 
wicked are dead, and being dead, shall never rise : but 
in tlie 19th verse, when he speaks of the saints, he 
Baith, " Thy dead men shall live, together with my 



dead body shall they arise." The Scrijitures make a 
marked distinction between the anger of God and the 
anger of men : men in their anger seek the destruction 
sometimes of those against whom they are incensed ; 
but God loves in his anger ; the spring of his anger to 
his people is love. The outward administrations of God 
both to the wicked and the godly may be one and the 
same, yet the root from whence they come very differ- 
ent, they may be love and kindness to the one, but 
wrath and hatred to the other. 

06.V. 20. God has little honour in this world. God 
licre speaks of his own people, they seek him, but it is 
but seldom, except wlien in afflictions ; and if the service 
they ])crform be small, what has he from other men ? 
If men make use of you for their necessities and in 
their extremities only, you take it unkindly, and think 
they serve themselves more than respect you. Oh how 
ill may God take it then from us, when he seldom or 
never hears from us but in our extremities ! m 

Obs. 21. Times of afflictions aie times for seeking I 
God. This is the apostle's advice, •' Is any among you i 

afflicted? let him pray," James v. 13. And Isa. xxvi. 
1(), "Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they 
poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon 
them :" " they poured out a prayer,'' to thee, not by 
drops now and then, but a strong, unbroken stream ; 
" a prayer," in the singular number, denoting that they 
made then- prayers but as one continued act : the word 
U'nS rendered there " prayer " signifies incantation, as 
in words used for such a pui-pose there is supposed to 
be much efficacy ; so here, their prayers were very 
powerful to prevail with God. The voice of prayer is 
well-pleasing to God when fervent. 

In the time of affliction the soul sees that it has to 
deal with God ; the false medium, the delusive glosses 
wherewith sin was wont to be disguised, are then re- 
moved, they see sin as sin. Luther saith, that many of 
Paul's Epistles could not be understood but by the cross. 
Men in prosperity can dispute against the truth, and 
grow wanton witH it ; but let God but lay his hand upon 
them, how easily will they j-ield ! Afflictions awaken 
the conscience, so that the tniths of God come with J 
more power : " He openeth also tlieir eai' to discipline, m 
and commandeth that they return from iniquity," Job I 
xxxiii. 16; xxx\i. 10. Did not God command them 
before ? Yes, but not with the same power and efficacy. 

Obs. 22. When the Lord is pleased to work grace 
in the heart, that heart is taken off from all creature 
helps. They dare not go with Epliraim to king Jareb ; 
they dare liot go to councils or to armies for relief, j 
but' to God ; how are they then to be blamed who seek ■ 
to the devil for lielp in distress ! To rest on men is 1 
evil, much more upon the devil. Do any of you go to 
enchanters or wizards to fuid God? you may seek him, 
but shall not find him. 

Obs. 23. "We are not to be discouraged in seeking 
God, though afllictions drive us to it. This people sought 
God, but their afflictions constrained ihetn to do so, yet 
God accepted them. 

Sit not down despauing in your afflictions, saying, 
God will never be gracious, our seeking him is to no 
purpose. It is true, as Jephthah said to the people, " Do 
you now come to me in yoiu: distress?" so God may 
justly say. Do you now come to me in your sorrows and 
miseries", when you cast me off in your prosperity ? I 
confess it is verv dangerous to put off seeking God till 
then, but if then God be pleased to work upon your 
heaits, be not discouraged, but seek liim still. So Joel 
saith, that in his affliction he sought tlie Lord: but 
did the Lord answer him? Yea, his requests were 
granted. 

Obs. 24. An acceptable seeking of God must be an 
early seeking. Now, men are said to seek God early, 

1.' In the morning of their years. Allien the young 



Ver. 15. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



309 



make this text true in the letter of it, it is well-pleasing 
to God. It may be God laid his hand on thee in thy 
youth, and then revealed the knowledge of himself to 
thee, thy misery by sin, thy remedy in his Son, so that 
the church's prayer was thine, PsaL xc. 14, " O satisfy 
us early with thy mercy." How many sins are by 
this prevented ! Your father or master, if godly, would 
give a world (if they had it) that they had begun 
sooner to serve the liOrd, and to seek him early ; there- 
fore bless God who has put it into your hearts to seek 
him. John was tlie young disciple, and he in his youth 
began to know Christ; and of all the disciples none 
had such respect showed them as John, for it is said 
that he lay in Christ's bosom, and Christ loved him. 

2. In the morning of God's revealing himself. As 
soon as ever God begins to discover himself, we should 
then seek him early ; the soul should say, as Paul, " I 
was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision;" " nei- 
ther conferred I with flesh and blood," Acts xxvi. 19 ; 
Gal. i. 16. Has God set up a light in your consciences ? 
and has it discovered to you your misery ? and have 
you hearkened to its voice ? AYhat have you done since ? 
Is sin reformed ? Are you changed in the inner man ? 
Is Christ formed in you, and exalted upon his throne 
in your hearts ? Is your will subjected to the will of God, 
and yoiu' whole man delivered up to the government 
of God? Blessed of the Lord art thou if it be so. But 
contrariwise, is sin let in, and liked as well as ever, 
after these stu'rings and convictions of conscience ? 
Then are you far from the number of those who are 
early seekers of God. 

■i. AVhen we seek him with fervency and diligence. 
AA'hen God's hand is out against us, he then looks that 
we should seek him with intentiveness of s]nrit. See 
)iow the church seeks God, Isa. xxvi. 9, " AVith my soul 
liave I desii-ed thee in the night ; yea, with my spirit 
within me ^yill I seek thee early." When was this ? 
In a grievous night of affliction, when they were in 
great troubles ; then to seek God earl)', with their spirits 
within them, is most emphatical. So Acts xii. 5, prayer 
was made by the church for Peter " without ceasing ;" 
it was continued prayer, prayer stretched out : even so 
ought our prajers to be lifted up with fervency. True 
prayer is active and working ; the fervent prayer of the 
righteous prevails much with God, James v. 16. Lively, 
working prayers are prevailing prayers. 

But what is it to seek God diligently? AVhen we 
seek him, 

1. AVitli all other things under our feet, when all 
other things are contemned in comparison. AVhen the 
soul is carried out after God with a panting, longing 
desire, as the hart after the water-brooks. 

2. AVith our whole heart. The heart is not divided 
in the work, every part is employed; as Jehoshaphat, 
2 Cliron. xx. 3, '• feared, and set himself to seek the 
Lord," gave himself wholly to the work. 

3. AA'hen the soul bears down all difficulties in seek- 
ing God, when nothing shall keep him oft' his work ; 
as Jacob wrestled with God, and would not let him go 
till he blessed him, Gen. xxxii. 24 — 26. So the woman 
of Canaan, how earnestly did she seek to Christ for her 
daughter, and would not be discouraged by difficul- 
ties ! Matt. XV. 22 — 2 j. 

4. AATien no means are neglected to be used whereby 
that which we seek may be obtained. The soul trie's 
every means, and follows God in all his ways, that it 
may find him ; as the poor woman who followed Christ 
from place to place to touch the hem of his garment; 
Christ could not be hid from her. 

5. AA'hen we resolve even to die in the pursuit ; when 
it is our constant practice living, and our resolutions 
dying ; as Jacob, the nearer the dawning of the day ap- 
proached, the more earnest was he. How contrary are 
tlie practices of too many, who at the first seek 'God 



early, and earnestly too, yet after a while leave off and 
grow cold ! Oh that it were not thus with us at this day ! 
The Lord has brought us low at this time, yea, our con- 
dition is sad. True, there is a sphit of seeking abroad 
in the land, but now God calls for a quickening of this. 
" Be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord ;"' in the original 
it is, ZhnTSQ, boiling in spirit ; let us so seek him now, 
that hereafter we may praise him. " They shall praise the 
Lord that seek him : your heart shall live for ever," Psal. 
xxii. 26. How sweet are those mercies which are won 
by prayer, and worn with praises ! Therefore now stir 
up the gift that is within you : you that never prayed 
before, pray now ; and you that have prayed before, 
cjuicken your diligence and double your care. How 
much better is it to seek God than men ! to cry to God 
for mercy than to cursed men ! God might have made 
your condition as the condition of your brethren. How 
many are this day fleeing for their lives, and begging 
mercy at the hands of barbarous, bloodthirsty, merciless 
monsters! and j'ou are yet in peace, seeking your God, 
for yourselves and them. 

But it may be asked, AATiy should we seek God ? Can 
we do any thing to move God ? AViU God be the sooner 
entreated by us ? 

I answer. No, the words mean not that we can alter 
or change God's mind ; but such exhortations as these 
are to fit and prepare us for mercy, to raise our spuits 
to a suitable frame and disposition for mercies expected 
and desked. And thus we leave this rich mine of the 
fifth chapter, which has been so fruitful in affording 
many choice truths ; and come to the sixth, a rich mine 
also of heavenly and most seasonable directions, no less 
useful than the former. 



CHAPTER VL 



In this chapter we have, 

I. Israel's true repentance, ver. 1 — 3. 

II. A sad complaint of the feigned repentance of 
many in Israel, ver. 4. 

III. A further upbraiding of Israel for its unkind 
dealing with God, ver. 5 — 11. 

I. Israel's true repentance, manifested in their reso- 
lution to return to him who had smitten them, their 
confidence in his mercy, and their blessing themselves 
in their happy condition now they were returned. 

Ver. 1. Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he 
hath torn, and he uilt heal us ; he hath smitten, and he 
will bind us up. 

These words are an excitation of the mind, not the 
body, to return to God; they also show the mighty 
spirit which came on this people at this time, as if they 
had said, AA'ell, our princes have deceived us, and our 
prophets have deluded us and led us aside ; we have 
been false in our worship, wrong in our practices, and 
have incurred the displeasure of God : but now, " come, 
and let us return," we are resolved to fall down and 
humble ourselves before him : " he hath smitten us, 
and he will bind us up." The Septuagint, and also 
Jerome, understand these words to refer to the practice 
of surgeons, who are wont to put deep and long tents 
into sores which they desire not merely to skin, but 
thoroughly to heal. So that here are marked Israel's 
dangerous disease, and their great corruptions, and that 
in their afflictions ; and God's design not to let them 
die of the disease, or perish under his hand in the 
curing, but to heal them, and that thoroughly. A wo- 
man whose breasts are sore mtist have them thorough- 



310 



AX EXPOSITIOX OF 



Chap. XJ. 



ly tented before they be healed, and she bids the 
surgeon to make her cure complete, though it be long 
and painful. So saith God, This people are verj- sorely 
wounded, and their cure will be very long and tedious, 
sore and painful, yet I will heal them. And the people 
saith, seeing it is thus, " Come, and let us return;" it 
matters not, though our healing cost us dear and be 
painful, it is enough that God will heal us. Let our 
disease be never so grievous, " come, and let us return." 
A man that has a mortal wound about him, what pain 
would he not be willing to endure were he certain of 
being cured ! This people conceived themselves so 
wounded, that if God had not undertaken to relieve 
them they must have perished ; but in that God had 
undertaken the cure, they were confident they should 
be healed. 

Obs. 1. AMicn God's time of -mercy is come, he puts 
a mighty spirit of seeking into men. God's time was 
come for Israel's deliverance, and now Godputs an active, 
stirring spirit into them ; therefore they say, " Come, let 
us return : " before, their spirits were heavy and dull, like 
men in a lethargy ; but now, their minds are quickened 
for God, and they say, like those in Isa. ii. 3, " Come, 
and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the 
house of the God of Jacob ; " and, as in Isa. xliv. 5, 
they wilhngly and cheerfully call themselves by the 
name of Jacob, and subscribe with their hand unto 
the Lord, and surname themselves by the name of Is- 
rael. As a ship whose sails arc filled with a full and 
strong wind, they go on gallantly against all opposition : 
there is a spirit infused into them, such as Epaphras de- 
sires with fervent prayers for the Colossians, chap. iv. 
12, "that ye may stand perfect and complete in all 
the will of God." Now w'ill effectual and thorough re- 
formation take place. At the time of antichrist's de- 
struction, God has promised to put such a spirit into 
the hearts of the people, that all his tjTanny shall not 
be able to stand before them : God will breathe upon 
the spirits of men, and they shall rise up powerful in 
his might. 

Now, considering God's power, let not us despair 
concerning the great works which are doing in our 
times. Let men be never so base and perfidious, when 
God's time is come he wiD speak the word for deliver- 
ance. What a miserable, senseless condition was the 
world in a little before Luther's time ! But when he 
came, what a spirit was raised in the people ! And 
what a spirit has there been excited amongst us, and 
that suddenly, when we were in such bondage, and, al- 
though born free, likely to be slaves and vassals sub- 
jected to the wills of some twenty or thirty men ! And 
what a spirit did God raise in our brethren of Scot- 
land, when he was about to do them good, and to 
break the neck of the yoke of their tjTanny ! Oh then 
what a cursed thing it is for any to quench, keep 
under, or resist such a spirit as this when it arises within 
them! 

06.9. 2. A joint turning to God is very honourable 
to God. " Come, and let us return." It is much hon- 
our t ) God when but one soul is turned to him, but 
when many are converted there is much glory, a mul- 
titude of praises then offered up to God ; as in Kev. v. 
11, "And the number of them which stood round 
about the throne was ten thousand times ton thou- 
sand, and thousands of thousands." And so Kev. xix. 
6, " The voice of a multitude, sajing. Alleluia, for the 
Lord God omnipotent reigncth." 

06s. .3. Times of mercy are times of union. Oh it is 
very sad when men will go every one their own way ; but 
when men join together, saying. Come, and let us set 
about the Lord's work, eery one encouraging each 
other, then there is hope the times of mercy arc nigh 
that ])coplc. But our misery is the divisions and tlie 
rendings asunder that are amongst us. God is much 



displeased at this, and it certainly is one great hinder- 
ance to the entrance of mercy, that, notwithstanding 
God has us in the fire and threatens even our consum- 
ing, yet we will not join and unite together. 

06i-. 4. True penitent hearts seek to get others to 
join with them. Oh how glad are they to see any 
coming on with them to seek the Lord ! and how care- 
ful are they to give encouraging examples, to persuade 
them with all gentleness, saying, Come, let us go up to 
the house of the Lord, we have found the Lord very 
gracious to us ; O come, he is good still, yea, and good 
to you, if you will come to him ! If the husband have 
found God good to him, he will persuade the wife, the 
child, the servant, to come to Christ. Thus much of 
their resolution to return : the reason follows : 

" For he hath torn, and he will heal us." Hence, 

Obs. 5. In times of the gieatest sufferings a truly 
penitent heart retains good thoughts of God. God has 
torn, and wounded, and smitten us ; what then ? sh.-Ul 
we run away from God, and think hardly of him ? No, 
think well of him and bless his name, even when you 
receive the hardest measure from God. This the peo- 
ple of God in former times have done : in all their 
miseries how careful were Nehemiah, Ezra, and Daniel 
to acquit and justify God! yea, the chmch in the time 
of her desertion retains Christ as a King, and calls him 
so, Psal. xliv. And as they dare not entertain hard 
thoughts of God, so neither of his cause nor his people. 
Many are like bad servants, who while they have eveiy 
thing fitting, can give their master's family a good re- 
port ; but let them be crossed, and go away in discon- 
tent, hbw vilely do they speak of it ! or as stm-dy beg- 
gars, who whilst they find relief and succour, can give 
good words ; but let them be sent away empty, and then 
what terms are sufficiently abusive ? so when things go 
well with the cause of God and his people, they will be 
on God's side. Oh take heed of being sorry that you 
have been so far engaged in it ; this is a base and vile 
spirit. See how low the church was in affliction, Psal. 
xliv. 12 — 16, " by reason of the enemy and avenger : " 
yet in ver. 17, although "All this is come upon us," 
what then ? is not God good, and his cause good that 
we maintain ? No, God forbid such a thought should 
enter into us : Although " all this " evil " be come up- 
on us, yet," she saith, " have we not forgotten thee, 
neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant." Oh 
let us lay up this truth as a mighty comfort and stay to 
us in these times, and a good incitement to prayer; 
for mark, in the 23rd verse, " Awake, why slcepest 
thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever." Those 
can pray to purpose, who in the sorest afflictions can 
manifest tlie most fear of God, and exercise notwith- 
standing the most love toward him and his ways. 

06.?. 6. A penitent heart is not a discouraged heart. 
It is a heart that sinks not down in discouragements, 
saying, (as some do,) We arc a lost people and undone, 
there is no hope, we had been better never have ven- 
tured as f;»r as we have. It dares not draw conclusions 
from what has been, to what is, and what will be ; this 
It regards as too presumptuous. David in the cave can 
trust in God, and hide himself under God's wing, Psal. 
Ivii. 1. So long as there is a God in heaven, such a 
soul will expect help from him, will expect mercy not- 
withstanding his severity and justice ; the severity of 
justice in God cannot keep him from waiting for and 
expecting what God has promised : if the soul can but 
get over this difficulty, the deep gulf of God's justice, 
it will easily surmount all the dreadfulncss of man's 
displeasure. A repenting heart is a purified, and there- 
fore not a discomaged, but a sustained heart ; while 
men of unclean and unholy minds are always jealous 
of God, and of his dealings toward them : oh let it ap- 
pear that we are not thus, by the cleanness of our lives 
and the purity of our conversations. Carnal hearts are 



Vek. 1. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



311 



not discouraged when they have carnal helps to under- 
prop them, and shall we be afraid of any difficulty who 
have God for our help ? Remarkable is 1 Sam. iv. 9, 
■nith regard to the speech made by the Philistines. On 
the coming of the ark into the camp of Israel, they 
were put into great fear ; yet how do they encourage 
themselves ! " Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, 
O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants to the Hebrews, 
as they have been to you : quit yourselves like men, 
and fight." So say I, Let us be courageous in these 
times, and fight for our liberties, our laws, and our re- 
ligion : did we but spend that strength in returning to 
God which we do in discouraging thoughts, oh how 
soon would help come for us out of the sanctuary ! 
Now though we must not be discouraged when helps 
and means foU, yet, like the prophet, our confidence must 
be mingled with deep humilitj' for oiu' sins which 
cause these breaches, Hab. iii. 15 — 18. "We should 
improve our humiliation as they did, Judg. xx., who, 
though in a good cause, a cause which God approved 
of, yet lost forty thousand men in the prosecution of 
it. TSTiat did they then ? leave it off, and run away ? 
No, but summoned fresh com'age and resolution, fasted 
and prayed, and humbled themselves before the God 
of their fathers, and then prospered. Oh let us be 
humbled, that we may not be discouraged ! 

And as we must not be discouraged, so must we not 
falsely encom-age oiu'selves : as they said, " The bricks 
are fallen down, but we can build with hewn stone;" 
so say not, This army is lost, but we can raise another 
quickly. Let us only encourage om'selves in the Lord 
our God, but take heed of resting too much in the 
goodness of our cause. 1 Sam. iv. 3, the people said, 
'• Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out 
of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it 
may save us out of the hand of our enemies : " they 
thought the bare having of that among them would 
deliver them. Know that it is not the goodness of our 
cause that can bear us up, and carry us through diffi- 
culties, if we do not turn to the Lord. 

Now, that your spirits may not sink under these 
troubles, let me give you a few props to lean upon. 

1. If we have been faithful in our work, we may have 
this testimony, that what is our duty as creatures, is 
performed by us ; and Icnow, though there were man}' 
weaknesses in our performances, yet we have to deal 
with a God who loves sincerity in infii'mities. 

2. If we sufier, God suffers more. This should mighti- 
ly encourage us in sufferings, when God is contented to 
be our partner. 

3. God sees further than we, and knows what is best 
for us. A^Hicn the wars ih-st began we promised ourselves 
a present end of them, and we thought it would be 
best ; but God saw otherwise ; and now we are sensible 
that if we had obtained peace at the fii'st we should not 
have known what to have done with it, it would even 
have undone us by this time. 

4. Tilings are not more difficult now to God than 
they were at the first ; God knows as well how to de- 
liver in the greatest straits, as if none at all existed. 

0. God usually w'orks by contraries, bringing light 
out of darkness ; saving Israel in the Red Sea, when in 
the greatest danger of drowning. 

6. God will be seen in the mount. God has his time, 
his set time, to appear for his people, and before that 
time come he will not show himself. The soul is very 
prone in miseiy to run into a double extreme, either of 
presumption or despair ; presumption, that puts the 
evil day far off; and unbelief, that puts the good day far 
off: therefore take heed of both these. 

But could we have the encouragement of this peo- 
ple, coiJd we say that we have retm-ned, it were some- 
thing. 

Now for this, know, that if the consideration of God's 



healing mercy is more prevailing with us to turn than 
any misery whatsoever, if we ai-e willing and desii'ous 
to turn, the other may be made good, that God is will- 
ing to heal and bind us up. Can we but make out the 
first part of our turning, I dare affirm the second, of 
God's healing ; though the means employed may be very 
painful, the Lord may put a deep tent into us to eat out 
our putrified flesh, yet we ought more earnestly to desire 
a thorough and sound healing, than an easy and perhaps 
transient cure. 

Obs. 7. AVhen God intends good to a people, he 
gives them intimations of his love. How did this peo- 
ple luiow that God would heal them, and that he would 
bind them up ? Thus they argued it, from God's good- 
ness, from his name, and from his covenant. Oh would 
God but put into our thoughts to consider the mercy 
of God to us in the covenant. 

But I fear this would be presumption in me, may 
some say. 

I answer, No, if thy believing and resting upon the 
promise sanctifies the heart, and does not make it 
secure ; if thy laying hold upon the promise more 
breaks the heart, renders it more humble and submis- 
sive, it is a right supporting the heart upon the pro- 
mise, and not presumption. 

06s. 8. Apprehension of mercy causes the heart to 
turn. iSIany say, God will not be gracious, mercy is 
past, there is no hope, therefore we wiU give over wait- 
ing. No, but let us seek him stM, and wait longer for 
mercy to come. 

Obs. 9. The saints make their healings not a fruit of 
their retm-ning, but of God's mercy. JIany poor souls 
think that they must not believe till they are so far 
Immbled, and so much broken. This is an eiTor; we 
should exercise our faith more upon God's healing 
than our returning, and this will cause us to be hum- 
bled ; humiliation will soon follow. Good works are a 
good nurse to faith ; but if we make works the mother 
of faith, that faith is not right, it rests not on Scriptural 
grounds. 

Ver. 2. After tico days icill he revive us : in the third 
day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. 

God's works are comments on his word ; and I have 
often had occasion to notice this in explaining this 
prophecy : as Christ said of that scripture, Luke iv. 
21, " This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears;" 
so may I now say of this scripture, how literally has 
God fulfilled it in us! In the last discourse you heard 
of God's wounding and of his healing; how has he 
graciously healed us, and literally fulfilled these words 
towards us ! '• After two days he will revive us." But 
two days after our humiliation he revived us, and the 
third day we lived in his sight ; and if we follow on to 
know the Lord we shall know more of bis counsel, and 
though the darkness of the night be not yet over, yet 
the morning is prepared. 

But may we conclude, as this people, that God will 
revive us, and that we shall live in his sight ? If we can 
prove om- turning unto God, and our returning from 
sin, the other may be made good, that he will revive 
us in our sorrows. 

The scope of these two verses is to express afiu-ther 
confidence of repenting, believing Israel in God's good- 
ness : before he smote them, and now he would revive 
them. But before this reviving comes perhaps we may 
be as dead men, yea, lie a day, that is, a certain time, as 
dead men, forsaken and forgotten of God; yea, we may 
lie the second day also, that is, a second time wherein 
we expected help the enemy may triumph over us ; yet 
" we shall live in his sight," that is, all shall see, that 
the eve of God was on us for good : he will revive us, 
and God shall be in our sight as we shall be in Iiis; 



312 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. VI. 



glorious things is he about to make known to us ; 
though it be night now, yet know his mercy is coming, 
even as the morning follows the dark night. This is 
the sum of these words. 

Yet, for the further opening of them, know that in- 
terpreters arc greatly perplexed to discover what is 
meant by " two davs';" some think it spoken of the 
Jewish captivity ; othei's, of the second coming of Christ, 
the Messias. 

The meaning of the words " after two days," appears 
to be, that althougli God do not come presently, yet, 
" after two days," he will come ; mercy, though it stays 
long, yet will come. Two days in Scripture signifies a 
sliort time ; as Numb. ix. 22, " Wiether it were two days, 
or a month, or a year, that the cloud staid upon the 
tabernacle." Mercer quotes 11. Abrah. Ezia; Fil. as 
saying, that wounds and gashes in a man's body pain 
and smart more at two days' end than at first ; so God 
may let us lie in the smartof pain and sorrow two days, 
but in the third day mercy shall follow. 

Interpreters generally conceive tliese words to have 
reference also to the two days that Christ lay in the 
grave; and Luther saitli that this is the scripture 
which Paul refers to in 1 Cor. xv. 4, that Christ " rose 
again the third day according to the Scriptures:" what 
scripture ? why this, " the third day he wdl raise us 
up, and we shall live in his sight;" and though the 
text notes the confidence which repenting Israel had 
in God's mercy towards them, yet it refers also to 
Christ, as if they should say. Our straits and miseries 
may be great, and we may lie in them a while, as did 
Christ, but he was raised the third day, and so shall we. 
Calvin saith, that God gave a famous and memorable 
example of Israel's mercy after their captivity by 
Chj-ist's rising from the grave ; and this may well be 
meant of Christ, as that scripture shows, Hos. xi. 1, 
" Wien Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called 
my son out of Egypt : " who would have thouglit tliat 
this had reference to Christ, had not the Scriptures ap- 
plied it to him, in Matt. ii. 11, 15, " And departed into 
Egypt : and was there until the death of Herod : that 
it might be fulfilled which was sjjoken of the Lord by 
the ])rophet, saying. Out of Egypt have I called my 
son?" How darkly was Clirist shadowed out in the Old 
Testament ! as by Jonas in tlie whale's belly thiee days. 
Oh what cause have we who live in gospel-times, when 
Clirist is manifested so clearly, to bless God! what 
dark and mystical intimations had they of Christ in 
those days, when this, and that of Jonas'in the whale's 
belly, were some of the clearest ! 

When at any time God would comfort his people in 
distress, what docs he do ? he reveals a prophecy of the 
Messiah to come; as in Isa. vii. 14; ix. 6; and Zcch. 
ix. 9 : and so Iiere, God having smitten, wounded, and 
torn them, comes and heals them, promising them that 
they shall revive and live in his sight. 

liut here now Luther makes an objection, If tliese 
words had reference to Christ they should run thus, IJr 
shall live in his sight, not ue; and he answers it himself, 
that it denotes the efficacy of his resurrection, not only 
for himself, but for many others. 

1. " We shall live in his sight ;" VJsS before his face, 
that is, his favour shall be towards us for mercy. As the 
turning the face away shows anger, so the turning of 
God's face towards us signifies favour. 

2. AVe shall see his face with comfort, and rejoice in 
the sight of it. 

3. We shall eve his face in acts of obedience, and he 
will eye our duties with acceptance. 

4. It implies security in iiis presence. As in tlie pre- 
sence of a king his very presence is our security and 
safety ; so, " we shall live in his sight," that is, we shall be 
safe in his presence. Tlie observations from hence are, 

Uba. 1. God's own people may not only be smitten 



and wounded by God, but may lie for dead in their own 
eyes, and in the eyes of all about them, for a time : see 
it in the case of Heman, Psal. Ixxxviii. 10, 14, "Wilt 
thou show wonders to tlie dead ? shall the dead arise 
and praise thee ? Lord, why castest thou ofi" my soul ? 
why nidest thou thy face from me ? " And in Ezek. 
xxxvii. 3, we read of dry bones which should be made 
to live ; and Itev. xi., the witnesses shall be slain and 
lie dead in the streets, the beast shall overcome them ; 
the generality of those that stand for Christ shall be 
slain by the beast, and overcome by his power. 

The reason of this may be, because God can work 
about his glory by contrary means. When God fetches 
out his glory from the afflictions of his people, it costs 
him not so much nor so dear as when he brings it out 
of sin : now if God's glory be so dear to him, that he 
will suffer sin to be in the world, thereby to fetch his 
glory out of it, why should we be unwilUng that God 
should suffer afflictions to be upon us, seeing by them he 
procures glory to himself? "In the greatness of thine 
excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up 
against thee," E.xod. xv. 7. How should God manifest 
his glorious power in raising them u]), were they never 
brought low ? In heaven God will so manifest his glory 
to us that we shall not need such dark shadows to give 
it prominence. 

If this be so, take heed of chawing darker conclusions 
from God's dealings than they will bear, as to say. The 
Lord has forsaken us, and God will have mercy no more 
upon us ; he has forgotten to be gracious, he has left his 
cause and tmTied his back upon his inheritance. We 
should labour to be well informed in the grounds upon 
which his cause stands and is maintained, and wliich 
may uphold us in the maintenance of it; for know that 
God may put thee to the trial, and if thou art not 
thoroughly grounded thou wilt apostatize. 

Obs. 2. God leaves his people in that dead condition 
for a time ; the first day they may look for help, and it 
may not come ; and the second day he may let them 
lie, and that after then- seeking of him. This jieople 
said, " Come, and let us return unto the Lord ;" yet what 
do they add ? " After two days he will revive us ;" it 
must be some time first. God is a great God, and his 
creature must wait. There is much grace exercised in 
an afflicted condition, when the soul quietly submits to 
God, and patiently tarries the Lord's leisure, let his 
dealing be never so hard towards it. God sometimes 
answers his people's prayers presently when they seek 
him, so that it may not only be said, in the evening, 
but, in the morning hast thou heard me ; not only this 
day, but the next also. See 1 Kings xviii. 38, 44, 
where Ehjah prays, and the Lord heard him presently ; 
but he prays again, and then the Lord defei-s : in vcr. 
38, he prays for fire to come down to consume the 
sacrifice, and it did so ; but in ver. 44, of the same chap- 
ter, he prays again for rain, and sec in what a posture 
he prays ; yet he obtained his petition with much dif- 
ficulty, he sent his senant seven times, and at the 
seventh it was but a little cloud ; at first God heard him 
jiresently, but he prays again, and then mercy comes 
slowly and with difficulty ; yet God wa.s not angry with 
Elijah. So Daniel prays, and was heard presently ; but 
the people jiray, ancl pray earnestly, yet they were not 
answered. 

Oh, therefore, let us take heed of an impatient and 
froward spirit in trouble, of being wcaiy of well-doing, 
and of growing careless in holy services, because an 
immediate answer comes not ; this as much as any 
thing shows the rottenness of our spirits, and is as 
evident a sign of a hypocrite as any we have in 
Scrijiture. 

Obs. 3. The time of God's reviving his people is 
neither long in God's nor in the saints account. It is 
but " two days ;" " the tliird day he will raise us up, and 



Ver. 2. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



313 



we shall live." "As birds flying, so will the Lord 
of hosts defend Jerusalem," Isa. xxxi. 5. He has pro- 
mised not to contend for ever : and in 1 Pet. i. 6, 
" Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heavi- 
ness through manifold temptations ;" in the original it 
is. If now, if need be ; so that there is great need of 
aftlictions before God sends them. So 2 Cor. iv. IT, 
afflictions are " for a moment," for a very little time. 
Faith lifts up the soul on Pisgah, and enabling it to 
realize the valley of Achor, the door of hope, as lying 
between it and mount Zion, creates patience in midst 
of the greatest sufferings. It is a sign of a distempered 
spu'it to complain of the length of an affliction ; a graci- 
ous heart desires more its sanctification than its re- 
moval ; we might have been swallowed up in the gulf 
of eternal misery. " Yet once, it is a little while, and I 
will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and 
the di-y land; and I will shake all nations, and the 
Desire of all nations shall come," Hag. ii. 6, 7 ; but 
Christ came not until five or six huncb-ed years after- 
wards. Our impatience makes affliction seem long. 

06s. 4. Faith realizes God"s reviving mercies in the 
saddest condition. AMien their help is gone, in the 
mount of man's extremity will God be seen. AVe should 
reason thus. Because God's people are in great extremity, 
it is a sign that God will arise and help them ; and not 
despair. As before the morning light is the thickest 
darkness, so let us never be discouraged at the increase 
of afflictions, for they show the time then hastens on 
for deliverance. And this faith makes present and shows 
to the soul life in death, favour in frowns, love in 
strokes. Faith discerns a great difference between the 
strokes of God on the saints and upon the wicked ; as 
Isa. xxvi. 14, compared with ver. 19, "They are dead, 
they shall not live ; they are deceased, they shall not 
rise." "V\lien God strikes wicked men, theii' wounds 
forei-un death here, and eternal death hereafter ; when 
he smites them in their cause, in their names, or estates, 
it is to undo them. But now, mark the 19th verse, 
" Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body 
shall they arise." Some think that these words denote 
the glorious security of the church, that though men 
and means fail, yet faith can see deli\erance in the 
womb of an infinite wisdom, power, and faithfulness : 
faith revives other graces when seeming dead, and puts 
life into them, much more into our dead conditions. It 
,.. . ... , ... is reported of the crystal, that it possesses 

bus preiiosis n- such virtuc, that Its very touch quickens 
if.sc.i~it(.°Guiii-i.'' other stones, and imparts to them lustre 
'""■ and beauty. It is true of faith, that it 

removes present evils, and approximates distant good. 
Psal. xci. 7, " A thousand shall fall at thy side, and 
ten thousand at thy right hand ; but it shall not come 
nigh thee :" this is a very strange speech, that a man 
may be in a place where a thousand shall fall by him, 
and ten thousand at his right hand, and y et he not be 
touched by the disease. By faith the soul enjoys this 
security. Psal. Ix. 6, " God hath spoken in his holi- 
ness ; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechcm, and mete 
out the valley of Succoth :" the thing was not yet done, 
yet they rejoiced in it as present. Faitli enables a dead 
and barren womb to conceive and bring forth, it raises 
up a dead son out of the ashes; Abraham bids his serv- 
ants to stay at the bottom of the hill, and expect his 
coming ; oh strong was his faith in this thing ! 

How unbeseeming are our spirits, and how is our 
faith manifested to be weak and poor, when a mercy 
promised is within sight, ready to be fulfilled, and yet 
we are impatient and froward if it come not just as we 
desire ; when we are full of such despairing conclusions 
against ourselves or the cause of God. saying, Alas, all 
is now gone, we are left desperate, God has forsaken 
his cause ! O let us take heed of pleasing ourselves 



with such carnal arguments and objections, for they 
mightily provoke and dishonour God, and hinder much 
good which else we might enjoy. 

But were I worthy, I could think that then I might 
entertain some hopes. 

In this case, exercise faith upon Christ even in thine 
unworthiness ; and though thou mayst die and not see 
the harvest, nor reap the fruit of thy prayers, yet know, 
the generations to come shall, and this may comfort 
thee. So Jacob's speech when he lay a dying, " Behold, 
I die ; but God shall do much more for you." The cause 
may be trodden down for a while, and God may hide 
himself, but know, that he will keep with thee his cove- 
nant which he never yet broke ; so long as Christ is 
thine and thou art his, God's covenanted faithfulness 
is also thine. What if those that stand for Christ and 
his cause be sometimes beaten, must they therefore 
give over ? No, but venture still : and, if our sins hin- 
der not, though we may lie dead to-day, and to-morrow, 
yet the third day we may live in his sight. 

Obs. 5. Mercies after two days' death, are reviving 
mercies. " After two days will he revive us." Pro- 
mises in times of afflictions are sweet indeed; oh, then, 
how much more deliverance! Such mercies are resur- 
rection mercies, which God sends after killing afflic- 
tions. And such mercies has the Lord given us at this 
very day ; the Lord has revived us when almost dead, 
therefore would we give God the glory, and render to 
him due and seasonable praise for such seasonable 
mercies. Let us observe these ndes. 

1. Look back to the former base unbelief of your 
hearts, and chide them, upbraid them with this now, O 
vile heart of mine ! did not I begin to say, Alas, I am 
undone, all is lost, my hopes are now abortive ? was 
not I sorry that ever I was so engaged as I am, were 
it to do again I would be better advised ? did not I 
think the neutrals, those who " came not to the help of 
the Lord against the mighty," far better off than I, and 
wish myself in their condition ? How lias the Lord been 
dishonoured by me ! what secret repinings and grudg- 
ing thoughts have I had even against God himself, be- 
cause of the various dispensations of his providence ! 
Say now, O base, vile, unbelieving heart, how has the 
Lord confuted thee, and made thee to see thy shame 
and ignorance, in believing sense rather than faith ! 

2. Has God bestowed reviving mercies on you ? then 
be willing to give God the glory of them, and resign 
them up to him on this ground, because they have been 
forfeited by your unbelief. An unbelieving heart for- 
feits all mercies before it has them : true, God gives 
many precious ones to sad, froward, discontented spi- 
rits ; but you cannot receive them with the same com- 
fort as others, because they are forfeited, and though 
God through hirs bounty suffers you to enjoy them, yet 
you are in fear continually lest God should exact his 
forfeiture. O believe your mercies in the promise 
through all the difflcidties. 

3. Kemember the covenants which you made to God 
in the times of your trouble, and keep them. It is a 
provoking sin to break covenant with God, God com- 
jilains of it against Israel : " "When he slew them, then 
they sought him: and they returned and inquired early 
after God. Nevertheless they did flatter him with 
their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues: 
for their heart was not right with him, neither were 
they stedfast in his covenant," Psal. Ixxviii. 34, 36, 37. 
Oh how usual is it with men in any misery to covenant 
largely with God, and presently to forget what they 
have done ! this is a sign of a false heart, therefore take 
heed of it. Lay more weight upon the covenants which 
you make, if ever you mean to give God real praise for 
any mercy. 

4. Consider how mucli better it is to give God the 



AN EXPOSITIOX OF 



Chap. TI. 



glorj- of a mercy willingly, than force him to extort it and happy are they wlio by faith can discern it afar oft", 



from 3'ou in \rrath : God is better pleased with active 
praise, than passive, for his mercies. Consider, glory he 
will have. O oblige hira not then to force what is so 
due to him from you. If you give not God tlie glorj- 
of the mercies you possess, he in wTath may take them 
from you : and had not God given us this reviving 
mercy, it miglit have been our case to have been forced 
to give God his glory in a passive manner. 

5. AVhatever God calls for now from you, be willing 
to give up to him freely. AVhatsoever we would have 



and are thereby stirred up to turn to God. AAHien 
God sends such thoughts as these into the soul end 
settles tbem. on the mind, I am now in a veiy good 
condition, well, and in health for the present, but 
where may I be within two days ? I enjoy peace, and 
have ever)' thing that heart can desire, both for ne- 
cessity and delight, but within a short time where may 
I and these be ? these are thoughts calculated to strike 
awe into the soul of the sinner. But, on the contrary, 
to believers verv comfortable and full of sweetness : I 



gladly given for such a mercy in our misery, had God I am in great and extreme miseiy, but after tno days it 



indented with us for it, let us be ready and willing 
give him now the mercy is come ; had we known our 
danger, and the miseries which would have flowed in 
upon us had not mercy prevented, and God said. What 
are )0U content to do, to suffer, to part with, that you 
may be delivered out of this danger, and possess the 
contrary mercy? Seeing then God has given us such 
a mercy without this indenting, make this an ai'gument 
to give freely unto God that which he now requires. 
You have been, perhaps, in bodily fears, and danger of 
death by some sickness ; now, if God had called for your 
estates, would you not have given them to him ? Do 
that now which you would then have done. 

6. Lay up against unbelief for time to come. Has 
God remembered us in our low estate ? let us say with 
David, " "We will trust in him so long as we live ;" we 
will never determine, as formerly, either against our- 
selves or the cause of God ; we will never more entertain 
hard thoughts of him, but are resolved to do what be- 
longs to us as creatures, and leave the success of the 
business to God. Ajijily this any way, and it will be 
verj' useful. Has God helped thee in any soul-trouble ? 
revived thee in the depths of sorrow, when he had hid 
himself from thee ? lay up such passages of God toward 
thee against all the risings of unbelief; resolve upon 
this, that thy soul shall rely on him for help whatso- 
ever becomes of thee : this is to give God the glory of 
reviving mercies. Thus, in Psal. xviii. 1, 2, David 
appropriates God to himself, and gathers from that 
strength and support. He was at tliis time in such 
great straits by reason of Saul's persecution, that he 
gave up all for lost; "I shall one day perish by the 
hands of Saul." " AH men are liars," he exclaimed ; 
the prophets of God, Gad and Nathan, are liars ; they 
tell me that I shall be king, that I shall sway the scep- 
tre in Israel, but I am more like to be killed and be- 
trayed, sunounded as I am by deceitful and bloodthirsty 
men. Soon, however, he recalls his words, and con- 
fesses that he spake unadvisedly with his lips : " In my 
haste I said. All men are liars." And here in this 18th 
Psalm, where he praises God for that mercy which 
formerly he would not believe, he addresses him by 
eight titles, all of them calculated to strengthen his 
faith : " My rock, my fortress, my deliverer; my God, 
my strength in whom I will trust ; my buckler, the horn 
of my salvation, my high tower:" from all these titles 
of God, as his God, he derives encouragement and 
support. In all the Scripture I know not so short a 
text so full of matter for the strengthening of faith as 
this is ; and it is faith's special work to realize God as 
ours in all these relations. Oh how beautiful would our 
praises for revi%ing mercies show, could we but exer- 
cise our faith thus upon all these titles of God as our 
God! 

Obs. 6. The real sight of deliverance strongly in- 
clines the soul to turn to God. Tlie people made this 
use of approaching mercy : What ! will God after two 
days dehver and revive us ? Come then, and let us re- 
turn unto him; let us not any longer stand out, but 
come in, that he may revive us and raise us up. AVlien 
the soul sees mercy coming, it beholds God outbidding 
all other temptations, and overpowering all difticulties ; 



will pass away, then, oh where shall I be? in heaven, 
in joy and blessedness, for evermore at rest with my 
Saviour ! This made Paid overlook all his afflictions ; 
2 Cor. iv. 17, It is true 1 am under great afflictions, but 
they are but light, and but for a moment ; and v.-hat 
shall I have then ? An eternal weight of glory. There- 
fore Christians shoidd not be always poring over their 
afflictions, but look up to mercy, and review their com- 
forts as well as their discouragements ; consider, that 
within two days God wiU raise us up again, and this 
will mightily raise our spirits and quell the tumults in 
our hearts. As we should be sensible of God's hand to 
be humbled for our sins which have caused him to 
afflict us, yet should we take care that we do not de- 
stroy ourselves by our fears. 

dbs. 7. The apprehension of the death and resun-ection 
of Christ is a special help to faith in affliction. Many 
things may aid, but the consideration of Christ's resur- 
rection most of all : when the soul shall exercise faith 
thus ; I am thus and thus aftlicted and in miser)-, so 
was Clirist, and much more : though he were the Son of 
God, the first begotten of the Father, and so blessed 
for ever; yet he was delivered up into his enemies' 
hands, scorned, persecuted, spat upon, nay, crucified, 
and put to a shameful death. My condition for the 
present is not so, but if it should be so it is no more 
than Christ's was ; in this his great soiTOW all his friends 
forsook him, a thing which much aggravates their 
miser)- who are in straits; and doubts and fears op- 
pressed his followers, insomuch that the two disciples 
which went to Emmaus said, " But we trusted that it 
had been he which should have redeemed Israel." To 
what a low condition did God thus bring Christ ! and 
yet this was the greatest work that ever was done, and 
the most glorious to God. Was the church ever in a 
lower condition than Christ himself was? yet Christ 
was raised and delivered out of all ; yea, this was a 
special end of his deep abasement, to be a comfort and 
a pattei-n to his churches in like trials: and seeing 
this is held forth to us in a clearer way than it was to 
the Jews under the law, we should make more use of 
it than they did. A\'as Christ so low that the wrath of 
God was upon him for satisfaction even to death ? this 
surely was a deep and hon'iblc pit. And is there any hope 
that ever he should be raised from it ? Yea, then was 
God's time to show his power, and to declare him to be 
his Son. And now God thus speaks to his people in all 
their straits : Did my power raise my Son in such a low 
estate ? it is able also to raise you. As the apostle 
argues in 1 Cor. xv.. If Christ be not risen, the dead 
are not raised, &c. ; so from thence I also infer, that the 
church must rise because Christ is risen. If the church 
does not rise, Christ is not risen ; and if so, " then is 
our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain :" there- 
fore raise up your saddened spirits on this ground, 
Christ is risen, and I also shall rise with him. It was 
wont to be the salutation of the Christians in ancient 
times, Chrislus resiirrexit, Christ is risen : so the saint', 
though brought very low, may conclude that yet that 
power which raised the Head, will, in his time, rai^e 
the bodv and make it "lorious with himself. 

" And we shall live m his sight." As Israel was re- 



Vek. 2. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



315 



penting, so it was believing Israel also ; and as theii- 
believing furthered theii- repentance, so their repent- 
ance furthered their faith ; they were confident that 
they should live in his sight. Hence, 

Ohs. 8. AVhen God grants mercies, he would have 
his people to be of lively spirits. The meaning of the 
Spu'it in this text is, that however the saints may seem 
as dead when the -ndcked prevail over them, yet, when 
God gives rest and life, they shall be lively and full of 
spirit : God loves not to see his people sad and dejected, 
when, in reality, they have cause for the greatest joy. 

Obs. 9. When God is reconciled to a people, his face 
is towards them. He looks then upon them and loves 
them : Rev. xxii. 4, "And they shall see his face." God 
deals not with us as David did with his son, 2 Sam. xiv. 
2i, " And the king said. Let him turn to his own house, 
and let him not see my face." But if God be once re- 
conciled, aU the frowns in his face are turned into 
smiles, he is all lovely towards his saints. 

Now how incongruous a thing is it, that when God 
smiles we should lower ! And as God smiles when we 
humble ourselves, so should we look cheerfully on our 
childi'en and servants on their submission. 

Obs. 10. God's people account their life to be in 
God's favour-. Hj'pocrites desire only the enjojinent of 
mercies, and if they obtain that they are contented, 
though they enjoy not the presence of God at all in 
them: but with the saints it is otherwise; although 
they have precious mercies, and yet God not present in 
them, they content not them ; if they have health and 
not God's presence in it, if they have peace and not 
theu- peace with God, it satisfies not them ; this is their 
cry. Lord, "let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy 
voice ; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is 
comely," Cant. ii. 14. 

Obs. 11. The Lord's mercies to his people are settled 
mercies. He not only gives them the prospect, but the 
real possession, of mercy. We are revived and raised. 
Yea, but we may die again. No, " we shall live in his 
sight," we shall live before him. Mercies to the saints 
are not the fi'uit of God's patience, for then they would 
not be settled mercies ; but they come from the cove- 
nant of grace, and so are called, " the sure mercies of 
David," Isa. Iv. 3. 

Obs. 12. Faith raises the soul high. " He will revive 
us," and "he will raise us up." Is that all? No, but "we 
shall live in his sight." It is a proof of a very carnal 
heart, to be contented with low mercies, to be put off 
with any thing : it pleases God well, when his people 
will not be put off with small mercies. Though it is 
trxie, we must be thanWul for the least mercy, and 
content with it in opposition to murmuring, yet we 
must not rest therewithal satisfied ; but if thy faith be 
true, it will expect more ; and if it hath got a promise 
from God, it will improve it to the utmost extent that 
the promise will bear ; and when it hath one promise 
fulfilled, it will look out for the answering of another. 
We do not approve of such a craving disposition in a 
beggar, but God is much delighted with it in his 
people. 

06s. 13. The eye of God on his people is their com- 
fort. The saints have much comfort from God's eye ; 
whereas it is the greatest terror to the hypocrites, that 
God sees them, that they are continually in his sight ; 
"If one know them, theyare in the terrors of the shadow 
of death," Job xxiv. 17. It is no wonder that they 
would fain hide themselves ft-om his presence, " for the 
eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears 
are open unto their prayers : but the face of the Lord 
is against them that do'evil," 1 Pet. iii. 12. The saints 
account it theu- privilege that God sees them ; and it 
is a very good sign of sincerity, when the soul can look 
up to the clear beams of the Sun of righteousness with- 
out fear or apprehension ; as the eagle, when she would 



prove her young, holds them up in the sight of the sun, 
to try if they can endure with steady, undazzled gaze 
its effulgent brightness. 

Obs. 14. It is the great care of the saints to walk 
as in God's sight. Psal. xvi. 8, 9, " I have set the Lord 
always before me : because he is at my right hand, I 
shall not be moved :" I will not fear, I have set him be- 
fore me ; " therefore my heart is glad, my glory rejoic- 
eth : my flesh also shall rest in hope." This text is 
spoken chiefly of Christ ; and if Christ must be kept irom 
falling by setting the Lord always before him, much 
more must we. Not that he was in danger of falling as 
we are, but this is to be understood as Heb. v. 8, which 
speaks of obedience learned by sufferings ; looking at 
God helped him to obey, and to stand in obeying ; as 
the apostle saith, 2 Cor. ii. 1", What we speak, it is as 
in the sight of God in Christ ; that is, AMiat we say, it 
is in the power and efficacy of Christ. But how comes 
this to pass, that they thus preach ? why as in the sight 
of God ? AVe thus preach, his power enables. 

Obs. 15. The eye of God upon his people is their 
safety and security. " The eyes of the Lord are over 
the righteous," 1 Pet. iii. 12. As a child thinks itself 
safe if it be in the parent's presence, so the saints should 
look upon themselves as very secure in the sight of 
God. A philosopher in danger of ship'm-eck in a staiTy 
night, could say, Surely I shall not perish, there are so 
many eyes of Providence over me. Could a philosopher 
speak thus, and may not a Christian say much more, 
that he shall not perish, seeing God's providential eye 
is over him ? 

Ver. 3. Tlien shall we know, if we follozo on lo know 
the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning ; 
and he shall come im'to us as the rain, as the latter and 
former rain unto the earth. 

This scripture is very full, and pregnant with sweet- 
ness, and the interpretation unattended with difficulty. 

" Then shall we know, if we follow on to know." 
" If" is not in the original, which runs thus, nsmj nytJI 
njrnS And we shall know, and we shall follow on to 
know. The word signifies to follow one as eagerly as 
a man which persecutes another, and persecutes him 
as Paul did the saints, with full purpose of mind : when 
men thus follow on to know, God wUl reveal himself 
more. Luther applies these words to Chi'ist. and the 
gospel revelation of him, setting men's minds on fire 
by the truth so clearly tbscovered, and inflaming them 
with such love to it that they follow on to know it. 
But although these words have reference to Christ, yet, 
primarily, they are to be understood of God's delivering 
his people out of captivity. Then they shall know. 
"What shall they know? 'I'hat they shall live in his 
sight. WTien God delivers them, then they shall know, 

1. God's faitlifulness in his covenant made to our 
fathers : we know very little of it now, but the time is 
coming when we shall know it clearly. 

2. The works of God's wisdom, all working for his 
people's good in their lustre and beauty. 

3. The excellency of God's power, how it overrules 
all tilings, and how it is exerted for the saints' good. 

4. The mercy of God acting every way for their best 
advantage : we are now in great misery, and our 
troubles increase, and we cannot see how mercy is 
working for good ; but then we shall know. 

5. The mind of God : we are now in much darkness, 
not only with respect to outward troubles, but to soul- 
trials ; we know very little of God now at the best, but 
then we shall know him clearly. 

6. The vanity of all worldly pomp and glory, and 
the folly of all carnal confidence : men are now ready- 
to call the proud happy, and bless the workers of 
iniquitj-, and run to king Jareb ; but then we shall 



316 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XI. 



know that God is able to deliver his people out of all 
straits. 

7. That it is not in vain for the iioople of God to 
seek him, even then, when all liuman helj)s and liopes 
fail ; then they shall know that there is a power and 
efficacy in prayer, as God's ordinance, to help them in 
difficulties. 

8. The meaning of many prophecies which are now 
very dark and obscure, and yet contain much sweetness 
for the churches of God : and whether this will be worth 
knowing, let discerning men judge. 

9. The glorious purposes and decrees which God has 
had from all eternity for our good : God has glorious 
purposes, although we for the present know them not, 
but we sliall know them; there is a time that all these 
things, and much more than these, shall be revealed. 

" We shall know, if we follow on to know the Lord." 
"If" is not in the original, but put in to fill up the 
sense ; but if we take tlie words literally, " we shall know, 
if we follow on," then the sense runs thus. Does God 
reveal liimself to his jieople ? and do his jieople lay hold 
of the ojiportunity ? if so, they shall know more. But 
if you take the words without the " if," thus. You know, 
and follow on to know ; the meaning is. That when God 
begins to show mercy he will go on to show mercy ; so 
that these words are a motive to turn to God, or an ex- 
pression of their confidence in God. God was now in 
the dark, his presence clouded towards them, and the 
enemies scoffed and mocked at them, saying, " Where 
is now your God ? " The people answer, \Ve shall know 
our God again, and he ^^ ill discover himself to our com- 
fort, but to your shame. The observations are, 

Obs. 1. True penitents tuni to God that they may 
know God. As there must be some knowledge before 
tiu-ning to God, so we turn to God that we may know 
him more ; and the desire of knowing him should not 
be so much to deliver from hell, as to be fitted thereby 
to do him more and better service. If the hypocrite have 
but so much service and knowledge as to manage thereby 
to attain his own ends, he is satisfied ; but a gracious 
heart dares not rest in such content. 

Obs. 2. Xo man can turn to God, but as God's fiice 
is towards him. AVe cannot turn to God except God 
turn first to us : " When he giveth quietness, who then 
can make trouble?" Job xxxiv. 29. 

Obs. ;5. 'When God comes to his people in mercy, he 
reveals to them much of himself; and according to the 
<legrecs of his coming to them, arc the manifestations of 
himself unto them, either more or less; he gives them 
something in this life, an earnest at the beginning, and 
at death the full ])ayment, the perfect enjoyment of all 
promised good. Faith can see a glory in God, even in 
the darkest seasons ; but in the times' of light, then it 
can see abundance of mercy. 

Therefore it is Christian wisdom to take notice of the 
mercies we enjoy, else we cannot glorify God's name. 
Oh how much of the faithfulness, power, wisdom, good- 
ness, and mercy of God in turning the counsels, plots, 
and devices of the wicked to our good, we might have 
known, had we but been diligent observers of his ])ro- 
yidence ! Those who see not the glory of God now 
shining brightly in the world, have very little light in 
themselves, but must needs be very dark, or strangely 
negligent in the observation of the good things they en- 
joy from God. Of John, who saw the future blessed 
estate of the church, the temple of God, the ark of tlic 
testament was kept in tlie holy of holies, Uev. xi. 10, 
when none of the peo])le could see it, it is said that he 
should prophesy again, Kev. x. 1 1 ; not that he should 
arise again and iirophesy, but the time is coming that 
the Revelation shall be as clearly understood as if John 
had written a new revelation. Just so in Isa. xxx. 26, a 
scripture i)arallel to the text, the Lord promises, when 
he binds the breach of the people, and heals the stroke 



of their wound, " the light of the moon shall be as the 
light of the sun ;" knowledge shall wonderfully increase, 
there shall be very glorious manife-stations of God to 
liis people. And that jjassage in Isaiah shows plainly that 
our present text refers to that time in which God will 
exalt his church, and make it glorious in the eyes of all 
beholders. 

Obs. 4. The knowledge of God is a very comfortable 
thing to the saints. I'hey speak here triumi)hantly, 
" Then shall we know, if we follow on to know ;" any 
thing of God makes gracious hearts to spring with joy 
and gladness. It is the happiness of the saints in 
heaven to know God, and to have the sight of God : 
and so it is here ; " This is eternal life, to know thee, 
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent ;" not only to 
know him, but to know him as he ap])ears for his 
church's deliverance. How many are now in heaven 
blessing God that ever their eyes beheld these days ! 
Xay, certainly, should God but let our forefathers out 
of then- graves to see what a tuin things here have 
taken, and how their prayers have been answered, they 
would be as men astonished. If it be so comfortable 
to see and know God in this life, what will it be in 
heaven, wliere nothing shall intervene to darken this 
siglit of God ! 

Obn. 5. The more men turn to God, the more they 
sliall know of him ; yea, tliis we may be sure of, what- 
ever else we here enjoy. " All this evil is come upon 
us ; yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our 
God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and un- 
derstand thy truth," Dan. ix. 13: if we understand 
thy truth and turn from our iniquities, we shall know- 
more of the truth. " The pure in heart shall see God," 
Matt. y. 8. Oh the sweet light which pui'Lfied minds 
enjoy ! to these God reveals his secrets, and acquaints 
them with the mystery of his covenant, Psal. xxv. H. 
The great rabbles of the world are ignorant of these 
tilings, they are mysteries unto them ; and this is tlie 
reason of it, because they turn not unto God, neither 
labour to know God. 

Obs. 6. Those that know something of God desire 
to know more. He that is learned covets after more 
knowledge. Xone, truly, but the ignorant, are enemies 
to learning ; those that never knew the worth of it, are 
they that cry it down ; therefore those who are con- 
tented with little, nay, and think their little sometimes 
too much, are of poor, mean, and base spirits, far from 
following on to know the Lord. 

Ob.'!. 7. A gracious heart puts forth strong endeavours 
in the use of means to increase in the knowledge of 
God. He will let no time escape, neglect no oppor- 
tunity, in which knowledge may be increased, Dan. ix. 
13. This was Solomon's prayer, 1 Kings iii. 9, " Give, 
therefore, thy servant an understanding heart ;" in the 
Hebrew it is, yizv aS Give thy servant a hearing heart. 
Though God had discovered himself wonderfully, yet 
he desires that God would further manifest himself to 
him. Therefore they are very foolish that think they 
know enough of God, and are contented with what they 
know ; it is a great blessing of God to have a hearing 
car and an understanding heart. Therefore what a 
fond opinion is it, and what a sluggish spirit does it 
manifest, to be satisfied with tlie knowledge of former 
times ! 'W'liat ! say they, shall we be v\iser than our 
forefathers ? We are, indeed, to bless God for the know- 
ledge of our forefathers, and say, as Master Grcenham 
did, " I bless God for what our forefathers knew ;" but 
also add with him, " I bless God also that he has kept 
back some of his counsels to communicate to this 
generation." It is an argument of a poor spirit to rest 
satisfied with small measures of knowledge ; tlie light 
three or four hundi'ed years ago was dim, and in these 
days our light is poor and weak to that which shall be 
revealed, especiaUy ■with respect to the worship and 



Ver. 3. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSE-\. 



317 



order of God's house. Therefore had not we need 
to '■ follow on to know the Lord ?" Therefore God for- 
bid that any should scorn at the new lights which God 
discovers, but rather let us be humbled for our ignor- 
ance, and now begin to follow on earnestly and per- 
severingly to know the Lord. No new truth indeed 
in respect of the word is revealed, but with regard to 
the manifestation of them to us they may be said to 
be new. 

Obs. 8. It is a blessed thing to take notice of GodV 
revealing himself Oh how happy a thing had it been 
for many of us, if, when God first began to stir our 
hearts, we had followed on to know the Lord ! How 
sad it is for many to look back to former days ! what 
glorious and sweet manifestations had they then of 
God's love ! but, through worldly cares and sluggish- 
ness of spirit, all is lost : they are now in the dark, and 
cannot speak of God to edification : whereas many who 
are younger, and have kept their communion with God, 
know more of God, and are able to speak more sweetly 
of his goodness, than they. And you who thus know 
God in your youth, bless him that he has brought you 
to this light, and make much of it; for as Christ said 
to Nathanael, John i. 50, "Because I said unto thee, I 
saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou ? thou shalt 
see greater things than these ;" so do you bless God 
for what you do know, and God will reveal more. 

Obi: 9. Those who " follow on to know the Lord," 
shall know more of him. " The diligent hand maketh 
rich." It matters not though thy parts be weak, thy 
abilities mean, thy failings many, if Christ be thy 
Teacher it matters not, thy weaknesses shall not liindcr 
his instructions ; Christ teaches the weak as well as the 
strong, nay, accounts it his glory to teach such ; nay, 
the Father himself is not ashamed to instruct them. 
Christ gives thanks to his Father, that he has revealed 
these things to babes and sucklings. Christ is a meek, 
gentle, lowly Teacher, very mild and lo\ing, he will 
neither upbraid his followers with their weakness, nor 
discourage them in their dulness. Clirist speaks to 
poor, weak, bui'dened sinners ; " Come unto me, all ye 
that are weary and hea'V)- laden ;" who then will he 
discouraged? No, to thy soul he will give wisdom 
liberally, and infuse into thee the principles of saving 
knowledge. Col. i. 10, " That ye might walk worthy of 
the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good 
work, and increasing in the knowledge of God." Great 
are the treasures of knowledge which a diligent Chris- 
tian may obtain. " Continue," or draw out, " thy loving- 
kindness unto them that know thee," Psal. xxxvi. 10. 
Thou hast some glimmering knowledge of God, some 
spark of Divine light ; bless God for it, and follow on 
perseveringly to know the Lord, and then thou shalt 
know more. It is a heavy curse that is denounced on 
those women in Timothy, that are " ever learning, and 
never able to come to the knowledge of the truth," 2 
Tim. iii. 7. 

But many a poor soul may here object, If this be so, 
I fear it is my condition, that the means aggravate the 
sins that I commit, and leave me inexcusable. 

To answer thee. If thou art not one who follows divers 
lusts, and make them thy practice, thou art not among 
those who are " ever learning, but never able to come 
to the knowledge of the truth." If thou foUowest on to 
know God, God will follow thee on with mercy. 

06s. 10. One mercy makes way for another; a less 
prepares for a greater! God beholds all things at once 
with one view of his providential eye, and it is his hap- 
piness so to do; but the saints cannot do this, they 
must know a little now, and more at another time. And 
do not our times make good this text ? The Lord will 
grant one deliverance now, and another reviving the 
next day, and all to usher in a greater. The Lord first 
smote us, and within two days did he revive us, and 



the third day we lived in his siglit ; and since tliat de- 
liverance we have followed on to know the Lord, and 
God has revealed himself more in his power, wisdom, 
and faitlifulness ; and, if it be not our fault, we may 
know more of his workings. Oh that we had hearts to 
follow on the Lord in repenting, believing, and turning 
to him ! he would follow us with mercies, and all the 
good that we can wish for, one after another. God 
makes wicked men to know more wrath, and the di'ops 
of his anger here are but the beginning of the deluge 
of miseries which are their portion ; they sink, and siiik, 
and their sinking must be to all eternity. Oh the dif- 
ference which there is between God's dealing with the 
saints and with the wicked ! though the saints may be 
under a cloud for the present, )et tliey shall know the 
Lord, the sun will appear again ; the Lord will follow 
on his ■pork, though we neglect ours, and glorious shall 
be the issue, ^^'ere it not a glorious thing, if a man had 
lived from the beginning to this day, and might live to 
the end of the world, to see what God did in former 
times, what God doth now, and what he will do to the 
end of the world for his poor churches ? The saints 
shall live to all eternity to see these glorious things. 
God did glorious things in the first six thousand years, 
and surely the next six thousand shall be still more 
glorious, but in eternity God will do most of all : then 
the saints of God, those which " foUow on to know the 
Lord," shall be put into the real possession of all those 
glorious things which God has been doing from all 
eternity. 

" His going forth is prepared as the morning." Je- 
rome conceived these words to be meant of Christ ; he 
shall come as the morning, being called the " Sun of 
righteousness," and " the Morning-star ;" and he con- 
ceives that it may have reference to the title of the 
22nd Psalm, " A Psalm of David, to the chief JIusician 
upon Aijeleth Shahar ;" that is, the morning hind ; to 
wit, Christ, who was sent forth as the morning hind, 
and hunted in his infancy and m his life, as the hind 
is pursued by the hounds. 

But if we take the words simply as they lie before 
us, they appear an expression of Israel's confidence in 
God after a night of trouble. The word psj " prepared," 
signifies also decreed, it is decreed upon as the morning 
and the evening, as the day follows the night by a de- 
cree. Children, when they see the sun going down, will 
often cry, because they think he will never rise again ; 
so the wicked in their straits cry out, We are undone, 
this darkness will never be over; yea, and such is tlie 
baseness of our unbelieving hearts, we think when the 
clouds of sorrow begin to arise, and blackness to cover the 
sun of our prosperity, mercy will never break through, 
light will no more appear. But more particularly, 

Obs. 11. Times of afflictions are night times. This 
is implied here : we may have a long time of sorrow 
and misery, a dark tempest may overtake us, yet know, 
that a morning will come. They are called night times 
for three reasons. 

1. Because of their uncomfortableness. Darkness 
is very terrible. Drexelius tells us of a young man, 
very fearful of darkness, who, on God striking him with 
a dangerous sickness, insomuch that he could not sleep, 
tumbling up and down in his bed, uttered these words, 
If this darkness be so terrible, what is eternal darkness! 
and this proved the means of his conversion. Well, 
therefore, may affliction times be called night times, 
times of darkness. 

2. They are times that often put an end both to pub- 
lic and private service. The night is the time in which 
the brute creatures, which in the day time keep close, 
come forth for their prey. Therefore the apostle's ex- 
hortation is seasonable, Let us work while it is called 
to-day, before the night cometh, when no man can work. 

3. Night times ai'e times of danger. Many of our 



318 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



ClIAP. VI. 



brethren can testify to this in these times. When is the 
time that wicked men prey upon the saints, and the 
wild beasts go out to devour, but in the dark ? so, 
when do men meditate upon terror and create fears to 
themselves, but in the night of their afflictions and 
sorrows ? 

Obs. 12. The time of deliverance is the morninp, the 
morning after the sad and dark night. As light is 
comfortable in the morning after a sad, dark, and 
stormy night; so is deliverance after trouble. The 
morning is very desirable, as appears, Psal. cxxx. 6, 
" My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that 
watch for the morning : I say, more than they that 
watch for the morning." God's mercies after afflic- 
tions arc veiy sweet, as the light approaching in the 
morning is to the labouring man going forth to his 
work. AVhen God has work for men to do, he ex])ects 
that they should go forth to it, and show themselves in 
it. As the sun when it rises begins to show itself in its 
brightness and glorj-, so ought every Christian to shine 
in the work and service of God after deliverance. In 
a sickness, or when some strait is upon thee, thou 
art hindered in God's service, and in tliy work ; well, 
then, when God bestows on thee the morning of a de- 
liverance, go forth and manifest thy zeal for him, be 
not ashamed of his cause in the bright noon-day of 
mercy. 

Oli-i. 13. The church has no afflictions unfollowedby 
a morning. The morning will come, either to churches 
in special, or persons in particular ; and we hope this 
time is coming to us ; therefore let dominion be given 
to the Lord in the morning ; yea, and let dominion be 
given to the righteous in the morning, and this seems 
to be the meaning of Rev. ii. 26, 28, " To him that over- 
cometh, will I give the morning-star." There may be 
great contentions, grievous miseries, in this night of 
afflictions ; but be encouraged, to him that overcoraeth 
will I give this morning-star of comfort and deliver- 
ance. 

Obs. 14. It is God's presence which constitutes the 
saint.s' morning. As the stars may impart some light, 
and yet the biightness of all combined cannot form the 
light of day, but when the sun appears there is day 
forthwith ; so God may make some comfort arise to a 
soul from secondary and inferior means, but it is ho 
himself alone who, by the shining of his face, and the 
smiles of his countenance, causes morning. 

Obs. 15. God's mercies to his people arc prepared 
and decreed. They are set and detennined, " Thy go- 
ing forth is prepared as the morning:" the word I' 
showed you in the original signifies decreed. Jcr. 
xxxiii. 20, " Thus saith the Lord ; If ye can break my 
covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, ancl 
that there should not be day and night in their season ; 
then may also my covenant be broken with David my 
servant." Here wc have both the text and the note 
from it ; as is the covenant of God's decree with day 
and night, moming and evening, called a covenant be- 
cause It is sure and certain, so also is the covenant 
which God has made to Christ and to his church firm 
and sure ; and it is a ground of strong consolation to the 
saints to consider, that mercies which they want arc 
set and decreed mercies, and therefore they may wait 
for them with patience. 

Obs. IG. The saints in the night of their affliction 
can comfort themselves in this, that the morning is 
coming. It is night yet, but the morning will come, it is 
ai)])roaching : the assurance that the morning is dawn- 
ing upholds the saints' spirits in the night of their sor- 
rows. The tempest-tossed mariner in the gloom of night, 
the weary traveller in his dark and lonesome journey, 
comfort themselves with this, that the morning light is 
coming. It is far better to be in darkness, and expect 
the dawn, than to be in the li?ht. and to know or fear 



that darkness Is coming, and light will never return 
more. 

Obs. 17. The saints' night is darkest a little before 
their deliverance ; as a little before the dawning of 
the day the darkness is most dense and terrible. So it 
was in Egypt a little before Israel's deliverance, and 
their return out of captivity. And this should mightily 
encourage us, in these times, not to be disheartened 
though our miseries should increase, for the darker 
and the bigger the cloud is, it will the sooner break ; 
therefore wait with ])atience. 

Obs. 18. God's mode of deliverance is gradual. As 
the day breaks by degrees, so the saints shine gradually 
in their lives, answerable to the light which God im- 
parts. We would have instantaneous deliverance ; 
light, and perfect noon-day forthwith ; but this is not 
God's mode of dealing with his people. A child knows 
not tliat it Ls day till it be verj- light indeed ; but the 
wise can discern the first streaks in the horizon. Oh 
that we were so wise to discern God's dealings in the 
workings of providence towards us ! 

" And he shall come unto us as the rain." God so 
glories in this part of his creation, that he wonders 
when men do not fear him who is the giver of rain : 
" Neither say they in their heart. Let us fear the Lord 
our God, that giveth rain," Jer. v. 24 ; there is so 
much of my glory in this very one creatm-e, that men's 
hearts must be verj' hard that will not praise me for it. 
And God is elsewhere styled, "the Father of rain." 
The mention of it here refers to that countrj- in which 
the projjhet .spake; to Canaan, where they had rain, 
not so frequently as we have, but twice a year espe- 
cially, viz. at seed-time, to soften the ground, and a 
little before harvest, to fill up the com in the ear. The 
apostle James seems to allude to this, chap. v. 7, " The 
husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the eaith, 
and hath long patience for it, until he receive tlie early 
and latter rain :" so should we, for God's time of de- 
livering his people, his interpositions shall be as season- 
able as the former and latter rain. The observations 
from these words arc, 

Obs. 19. AMiat the rain is to the com, God's blessing 
is to his people. AVe dejiend as much upon God for 
blessing and mercy, as the seed upon the rain for 
growth and increase ; without the rain the com will be 
but as " the parched i)laces in the wilderness," which is 
the curse branded upon the wicked, Jer. xvii. 5, 6. 
Hence we may see what poor creatures we are, depend- 
ing upon such a thing as the rain is in itself, and learn 
from that to consider how entirely we depend on the 
infinite God for all the blessings we enjoy. 

Obs. 20. The church should increase under the rain 
of God's blessing. As the earth is not unthankful for 
the rain, but sends forth corn, grass, and flowers ; so 
should we always, after the receiving of mercies, return 
unto God in duties. AVe would tliink it strange if the 
earth, after all the cost man has bestowed upon it, and 
after the sweet and seasonable showers of rain, should 
be barren and fruitless. O man, condemn thyself: the 
word is comjiared to rain ; and how many times have 
the sweet showers and ih-oppings of the word lighted 
upon thee, and yet thou hast remained barren and un- 
fruitful! Deut. xxxii. 2. 

Obs. 21. God's mercies to his people are both season- 
able and suitable : " as the latter and former rain vinto 
the earth." The Lord comes to wicked men in a way 
of general providence ; but to the saints as rain in seed- 
time and harvest, with much fulness. How should 
this teach us our duty to wait with patience upon God, 
as the husbandman for the appointed weeks of harvest ! 
James v. 7. If mercies always came when wc would 
have them, tliev would prove judgments to usj that 
wliich in itself is a mercy, coming untimely, proves an 
affliction ; God sent his 'jjcople Israel a ting, but he 



Vee. 3. 



THE PKOPHECY OF HOSEA. 



319 



proved a heavy judgment to them. It is God's mercy 
unto you to defer his gifts till the full time. We ex- 
claim,' Our troubles are great, and continue long ; we 
had thought to have seen a period to these times, our 
■wars at an end, and peace settled in our kingdom ; and 
now we see, if they had indeed ended wlien we desired, 
what a misfortune it would have been to us. How 
many that observe God"s dealings can say, that if such 
a mercv had come when they wished for it, it had 
ruined them ! therefore God's time is tlie best time. 
Hence we find that the saints have often blessed God 
when he has crossed them in their desires, and has de- 
nied them the tiling which they so importunately 
asked. The Lord has sent us the former rain season- 
ably, at the beginning of the summer, to prepare the 
earth for fruit ; but now there are scorcliing heats in 
the kingdom, heats of displeasure in the countr)-, in 
the city, nay, abiost in every family. Let us then 
now with patience wait, and the latter rain in its season 
will assm'edly come. 

Is God so seasonable in his mercies towards us ? Let 
us be seasonable and suitable in our duty ; let us bring 
forth fruit unto God in due season, as the godly man 
in the 1st Psalm is said to do ; for in this consists the 
excellency of service. Therefore it is no other but a 
temptation of Satan, that, when men are called to pm-sue 
their necessary avocations, then stii-s them up to jn-ayer 
or hearing : these are not the motions of the Spirit, 
for they are seasonable ; for God never puts the soul 
upon extremes, the performing of two conti'ary duties 
at one and the same time. It is an excellent sign of a 
gracious heart, to account a season for service, a mercy ; 
and the lack of opportunity, a miser)-. Certainly it is 
a great judgment of God upon a man, to be unservice- 
able in a season of service. Jude, ver. 12, describing 
the corruptions of the gospel by life and docti-ine, in 
his time, saith, they were " trees whose fi-uit withereth, 
without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots ; " trees 
corrupt even m the time of autumn, when then- fruit 
should come in abundantly. Thus it is with many men, 
when God expects the most fi'uit from them, they show 
themselves most con-upt and vile. These mightily pro- 
voke God. And how many such have we amongst us 
at this day, who, when God calls them to ser\'ice, mani- 
fest the rottenness which is in their spuits ! Many when 
they are in a poor condition think, Oh had I such a 
man's estate, what a deal of good woidd I do with it ! 
had I such parts and abOities as some have, and as 
much time, and as many opportunities afforded me, 
how would I lay them out for God ! O foolish hearts, 
who, when they can do nothing, would do most, and 
when they may do most, do nothing at all. 

Obs. 22. God's mercies to his people are varied ac- 
cording to their necessities. " The latter and the former 
rain." Toward the seed-time they wanted rain, and 
God sends it them. Now, as God may call us to a variety 
of services, according to the variety of mercies, let not 
us content oui'selves in that we have done something, 
employed our heads, or hands, or purses ; but w illin gly 
devote eveiy power and adopt eveiy expedient to sub- 
serve his cause. God has employed thee this day in 
one service, he has another for thee to do the next : be 
willing and ready to be set on work, and bless God 
that he deigns to employ thee in his service. 

Obs. 23. "^Tien God has begun in metcy with his 
people, he will go on. If God should give only the 
former rain, the seed would not fructify and increase 
'without the latter rain : faith will believe that God 
will not lose the glorj- of former mercies, for want of 
succeeding ones : faith believes that God will never be- 
gin a work, and leave it incomplete. Let not us then 
begin to obey God, and then leave off and lose all that 
we have done ; let us consider that the vows of God are 
upon us, the many prayers we have put up, and let us 



not now lose the return of them. How many in the 
days of their youth followed on to know God, and 
found the sweetness of the word to be as the fonner 
and the latter ram unto them ! Do not now lose all 
which you got in your youth, by denjing him service 
in yom- age. 

Obs. 24. God's mercies to his people procure much 
good. They are not empty shells, there is in them all 
they profess to contain, all God promises to give. 

06s. 25. The deliverances of God's people come from 
heaven. They spring not out of the earth ; if ever God's 
people are delivered, there must be a Divine, Almighty 
power put forth, else it will never be a deliverance iii 
mercy. 

Obs. 26. God's people's deliverances cannot be hin- 
dered. ^Tiy ? Because they come fi-bm above. They 
are as the light of the sun, and as the rain that comes 
upon the earth : who can hinder the sun from shining, 
the rain from faDing? who can interrupt night and 
day ? so, who can liinder the rain of mercy fi'om falling 
on a people prepared for it ? 

Obs. 27. We should make a spiritual use of God's 
works in his creatm-es. "We see after the coldest winter 
there comes a summer, after a drought gi'eat rain : let 
not us, in the times of cold and dark afflictions sent bv 
God, conclude that mercy is quite gone, that God has 
shut up his loving-kindness in forgetfulness ; no, but 
let us rest assured that there will be a return of mercy 
which shaE revive us. 

Ver. 4. O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee ? 
Judah, what shall I do mito thee ? for your goodness is 
as a morning cloud, and as the earbj dew it goelh away. 

Luther interprets these words as a further expression 
of mercy to this people Lsrael, and not in the light of a 
reproof; as if the Lord had said to them, O Israel, 
my people, I have been very good and gracious to you 
in the land of Egypt, delivered you from the tp-anny 
and oppression you were under there, and I have been 
with you in the wilderness, and I have brought you 
into the land of Canaan ; but what are these ? all tem- 
poral mercies ; I have gi'eater than these to bestow upon 
you in gospel times. But to this interjn-etation this 
objection will arise : 

V\Tiat shall we understand by the nest words, 
"}-our goodness is as a morning cloud?" how can this 
be said ? Luther to this answers thus, " Your good- 
ness ;" that is, the goodness of God, which is yours by 
covenant, and by purchase procured for you ; this 
mercy of God shall refresh your parched souls, as the 
morning cloud does the earth after a long drought. 

But the words " goeth away," and their goodness 
being but " as a morning cloud," taken together, the 
sense leads us to interpret it as a breaking off from the 
discourse about the promise of mercy, to a convincing 
of Ephraim and Judah of formality in their attempts at 
reformation ; they all passed off, as the morning cloud 
which vanishes away, and as the early dew that comes 
to nothing. 

Jerome thinks that it is God's mercies towards them 
which thus pass away ; he would not leave them quite 
without hope, they should have some mercy, but it 
should not abide nor stay with them. But the genuine 
sense of the words. I conceive to be, an upbraiding of 
the formality that generally prevailed in their pursuit 
of reformation : therefore, '" O Ephi-aim, what shall I 
do unto thee?" As if the Lord should say, You put 
me to a stand, you even nonplus me in this thing; what, 
therefore, shall I do unto thee ? 

Here in general we may observe the change of the 
prophet's voice : in the beginning of the chapter it is 
all mercy, and then' repentance sweetly join in with the 
mercy promised them ; but now he begins to upbraid 



320 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. VI. 



them for their h)-pccrisy, incorriglblcness, and incon- 
stancy in the ways of uod : a very good pattern for 
ministers who have to deal with varieties of people. 

" O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee ? O 
Judah, what shall I do mito thee ? " To ojjcn these 
words more particularly : tlie expression '•' what shall 
I do unto thee?" implies either compassion or expos- 
tulation. 

I. Compassion ; as if he should say, O Ephraim, it is 
in my heart to do thee good, but nothing will work 
upon thee, therefore, " O Ephi"aim, what shall I do unto 
thee ? '■ Like that expression in Isa. v. 4, " Wiat could 
have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not 
done in it ? " were there any other further course to be 
taken, any thing else to do, I would do it ? Now from 
this sense of God's compassionating them, we may, 

06*. 1. That God grieves not willingly the children 
of men : he is even forced to it : at the very time they 
are grieved by afflictions, God is troubled for their 
miseries. Can any tell me, men or angels, nay, I ap- 
peal to yourselves, can you tell me what I should do 
more to you than I have done ? If you can, I would do 
it. God expostulates with them ; he comes not suddenly 
upon them, punishment is the last measure he adopts 
with his people. 

And so it should be with us to those under us, as 
our children or servants; all means of prevailing must 
be tried before correction ; exhort, advise, reprove, and 
pray for them : have you first taken this course ? else 
you can have little comfort in correcting them. This is 
God's way, though you perhaps see it not. He here 
meets an "objection which repining Israel might seem 
to make : AVe are believers, to us the promises belong ; 
why might not the Lord bring mercy to us without using 
such means as smiting, wounding, killing, and parching? 
No, saith God, I could not otherwise bring about mine 
own ends. Oh, therefore, let us check such thoughts. 
God brings us low by afflictions; he could do it by mer- 
cies, but then the end which he aims at would not be 
so fuUy accomplished. 

Obs'. 2. AVe should not think much to lose our pains 
with others. God has taken pains and been at cost 
with this people, and he has lost all ; and God seems 
here to mourn over it : I have used this admonition, 
and that counsel, yet still you continue h)-poeritical ; 
" O what shall I do imto thee?" yet God does not 
leave them or gi'ow weary of his pains, he persists still 
in the means likely to do them good. In this should 
the saints imitate God : if this course prevail not, try a 
second ; if it succeed not, adopt a third, perhaps that 
may, and success will amply repay all the pains. And 
thus much for the words in the sense of compassion : 
but now, 

II. Expostulation, to humble them, or to convince 
them of their sin. Hence, 

Obs. 3. It is a special means to humble men, to lead 
them to consider what measures have been adopted 
for their good. AVould we be seriously affected with 
sin, and humbled for sin ? then let us go alone and 
call our souls to account, whether means have not been 
used sufficient to do us good : consider what means 
they have been, judgments, national, domestic, and 
I personal ; mercies, reproofs out of the w ord, admoni- 
\ tions from friends, terrors and checks of conscience : 
I ■when they have thus passed in review before you, 
I charge conscience to speak to thee the truth, and wlien 
I it doth, give it leave to upbraid thee thus ; What I so 
unprofitable, so stout and stubboni, so froward and 
impatient, so unthankful and so unbelieving, notwith- 
standing all this ? This would be a means singularly 
calculated to show the soul its real condition. But, alas ! 
most men put off and shun such a course as this ; the 
devil knows its efficacy, and he strives mightily to lead 
the soul off from it to such excuses as these, Had I the 



irts, \ 
)do \ 
was 



means others have, I shoidd be more fruitful : I was 
reproved, but it was done too openly ; had it been in 
private and with more love, by such a one and in such 
a place, it would have done more good. Infinite are 
the false pretences of an ungodly heart, and the cun- 
ning devices of Satan's subtlety in the soul ; but w hen 
the Lord comes truly to humble the soul, that soul will 
charge itself home throughly for its sins, in all their 
cucumstances and all their aggravations. 

Obs. 4. Such is the perverseness of men's hearts, 
that God many times seems to be in a strait what to 
with them. " AMiat .shall I do unto thee?" God was 
here even at a stand, he was fain to consult with him- 
self about them. See in other scriptures how God ex- 
presses this ; Exod. xxxiii. 5, " Therefore now put off 
thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do 
unto thee : " and Deut. xxxii. 5, " They have corrupted 
themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children : they 
arc a perverse and a crooked generation." The words 
in the original refer to the manner of -.^^..^j. _ .^.^ 
wrestlers, who wave up and down, that if " " " " 
the one thinks to have the other here, he is winded the 
other way : so this people eluded God's dealings. 
Therefore, Acts ii. 40, we are commanded to " save 
ourselves from this untoward generation," aKoXiag, 
crooked or per\-erse, so that none can do them good. 
God"s ministers are often put to a stand with such, like 
those in Christ's time, whom neither John nor Christ 
himself could please ; when John came, they exclaimed 
against his rigour and harshness ; and when Christ 
came, mild and gentle, of him they said, he was " a 
wine-bibber, and a friend of publicans and sinners." 

But it may be objected, God knew not what to do ; 
how is this ? could not God have put forth his almighty 
power and turned their hearts, and that immediately ? 
how then is it said, God knew not what to do? 

To this I answer, that God was not bound to do this, 
for God had used all means to prevail with Ephraim 
and Judah, which the most loving and compassion- 
ate friend could have employed. Suppose a man were 
in such a condition, that, for his cure, all the doctors 
of physic in the countrj- where he lived were gathered 
together, and consulted, but theii- prescriptions availed 
nothing ; would not this set forth in aggravated colours 
the danger of the disease, and the difficulty of the cure? 
.\11 this is in God, and much more, and it is put forth 
for the good of souls ; I have put forth more power, 
wisdom, love, and mercy than man can do. Now shall 
this be an aggravation in respect of the creature, and 
not of the Creator ? All means to do you good have 
been put forth excepting my almighty power, and yet 
the work is not done. 

Obs. 5. The condition of people is sad, when no 
means will do them good. Then that fearful judgment 
may be pronounced upon them, Jer. \i. 30, " Kcpro- 
bate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath 
rejected them." Ezek. xxiv. 13, " Because I have 
purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not 
be ])urged from thy filthiness any more, till I have 
caused my fury to rest upon thee." 

Obs. 6.' It goes very near the heart of God, to see 
those that are nigh unto him perverse in their ways. 
AVhat '. for Judah to forsake me ? It is sad to find crosses 
and untowardness in Ephraim ; but to meet with them 
in Judah, where my ordinances arc in a special manner, 
and they so near unto me, and I so tender of them ! It 
is strange to behold of what knotty, crabbed spirits 
God's own people sometimes are ! A piece of wood may 
be sound, yet full of knots and very tough. AVhat goes 
nearer a man than to find crossness in his wife, his chil- 
dren, or friend ? from a stranger it matters not so much. 
Even so God is more affected by the unkindness of his 
l)co))le than the wickednesses of the ungodly. 

Obs. 7. It is not enough to worship God better than 



Vee. 4. 



THE PROPHF.CY OF IIOSEA. 



321 



otliers, if we be of perverse spirits. This was the sin of 
Judah, because they had the ordinances in a purer 
way, and worshipped God better than Epliraim, they 
thought they might continue in this their sin. Oh that 
this were not England's sin at this day ! let us be hum- 
bled for it, that we may escape their judgment. 

""Your goodness." The word asneni properly sig- 
nifies piety and godliness, but in a more extended sense, 
kindness, mercy, and goodness. But why jjour good- 
ness ? Yours, because either of God's goodness toward 
them, or the goodness, the holiness, which was in them, 
1. God's goodness towards them, which is sometimes by 
imputation called ours, as in Kom. xi. 31, " That through 
your mercy they also may obtain mercy ;" by that mercy 
which God bestowed on you, you may encourage the 
Gentiles to come in. 2. Their goodness; either to 
their bretlu'cn, or their piety and holiness, both these 
were " as a morning cloud, and as the early dew that 
goeth away." If the first signification of them be taken, 
then the sense runs thus : 

God's goodness to them was as the morning cloud; 
that is, they, by their sin, had driven away God's mercy 
and goodness from them, even as the wind carries 
the dust before it : God W'as apparently about to be- 
stow mercies, and they, by their sins, put them all away 
from them. Bernard saith, that the wind of their un- 
thankfulness drove away the floods, much more the 
dews, of mercy fi-om them. Now God forbid that this 
should be our condition : the clouds of mercy are over 
us, and the dews of mercy are upon us ; now should 
we, by our sins, diuve these away from us, how woeful 
will be om- case ! Therefore let us not only pray to have 
the dews, but also the clouds to shower down rivers of 
mercy. Though I do not think this to be the principal 
scope of the words, yet it may afi'ord us useful medita- 
tion; but the words seem properly to signify their own 
goodness, which may be taken for, 

I. IVIercy and compassion towards one another ; be- 
cause, in the 6th verse, God calls upon them so oernestly 
for mercy, notwithstanding all their shows and promises 
of reformation; these were all but hypocritical, like 
those in Jer. xxxiv. 15, 16, of whom God saith, " And 
ye were now turned, and had done right in my sight, in 
proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour;" but 
they had polluted his name again, by causing those serv- 
ants formerly set at liberty to return, and bringing 
them into subjection : so people who are for a time 
pitiful and very merciful, afterwards often grow cruel 
and hard-hearted. 

Let us take heed of so evil a disposition. MTien to- 
gether we sometimes can join in love and unity, pitying 
each other, and bearing with each other's infirmities, 
bearing Christian admonition patiently ; but these good 
words and fair shoM's often vanish and come to nothing. 
Where are those refreshing showers of love and friend- 
ship which you were wont to water each other with in 
your Christian societies ? In the room of these there 
now grow nothing amongst us but the lusts of pride, 
passions, and sad dissensions, which parch and dry up 
all those good seeds of love and gentleness. 

I desire to press this the more, because the Scripture 
is pleased to make use of this expression of the dew to 
ex]n'ess the sweetness of a Christian spirit, Psal. cxxxiii. 
1, 3, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for 
brethren to dwell together in unity ! " How pleasant is 
it ? It is " as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that 
descended upon the mountain of Zion :" as that refreshed 
the grass, so this affection of mercy and love the saints. 
He compares it not to a dew that dried up presently, 
but to a dew which descended down ; and " there the 
Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.'' 
There. "Where ? Even in the communion of his saints. 
This is spoken particularly of church fellowship. Oh, 
then, take heed that your mercy and bounty in relieving 



your brethren and persecuted saints, be not as the dew 
" that goeth away." The Lord has not made his mercy, 
no, not his mercy in dewing the earth, " as a morning 
cloud " that vanishes away and comes to nothing. Oh 
let not our mercy and love be mere shows and proffers, 
devoid of truth and reality ! they should truly come like 
showers upon those who have been parched with the 
burning rage and malice of the adversary. The Lord ex- 
pects more from us now with regard to this duty than 
at other times ; we must not only pity and give good 
words, saying, Alas, my brother ; and alas, my sister, I 
would I could help )'ou, the Lord pity and relieve you ; 
you must not only do thus, but relieve them with your 
money and provisions. Is it not with too many of us 
as it was with those in James ii. 15, who say to a bro- 
ther, " Depart in peace, be ye \\armcd and filled," but 
give them not wherewithal to do it ? what good does 
this passing cloud do them ? But perhaps you will say, 
that yoiir sympathies have not been thus evanescent; 
you have bedewed the saints in their need, you have 
given something ; bvit still it may have been but a poor 
pittance, and that out of your abundance : know, that 
this is not suflicient, your dew must be constant, and 
proceed on in degrees of mercy ; yea, we should re- 
joice that God gives us an opportunity, and do what 
we do, not forcedly or repiningly, but with a willing 
mind. Thus much of the words in this signification of 
mercy. 

II. General goodness and piety; and in this sense 
there is much of the mind of God in the words, they 
are as full of marrow and sweetness as can be desired. 
Now in that God should express godliness and piety by 
such a word as mercy, 

Obs. 8. The necessity of this grace of love and bro- 
therly kindness. Though by nature men are passionate 
and rugged, grace will mollify them ; of covetous men 
it will make li,xral and ft-ce-hearted, for grace is part 
of the Divine nature. Nothing is so communicative as 
God, the highest good ; and according to the height of 
any creature is its communicativeness. As the sim, 
being sublime and excellent, is most communicative; 
so a gracious man : has he parts ? they are not for him- 
self, but for the church. Has he an estate ? he distri- 
butes and communicates of it to the saints ; and accord- 
ing as grace arises in the soul, will communicativeness 
arise. A true Christian is not close-handed. 

Obs. 9. The excellency of this grace of mercy. AATien 
we wish to express the whole of any thing by a part, 
we do not select an inferior part, but some of its great 
characteristics ; as by prayer many times is expressed 
the whole worship of God, " Whosoever shall call 
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved," Kom. 
X. 13. 

" As a morning cloud, and as the early dew." In 
these words God charges this people with three things 
whereby their notorious hypocrisy was expressed. 

1. Their vacuity and emptiness; their words were 
empty sounds, they W'ere " clouds without water," as 
Jude expresses it, ver. 12. It is the high commendation 
of Christians to be full of God, of Christ, and full of grace 
and knowledge ; of which Ephraim had a show, but it 
was but a show. 

2. Their falseness and dissembling ; they had a heart 
and a heart, that is, they were double-minded toward 
God, they dealt treacherously with him. 

3. Their inconstancy and "fickleness. As often the 
clouds, all black and lowering, portend rain, but in a 
short time are dispersed by the wind, and the sky be- 
comes again perfectly clear ; even thus it was in their 
goochiess, though they made glorious shows in their 
reformation, yet were they all empty, false, and incon- 
stant. Thus it was in the general in the reformation of 
the land, things were reformed but by halves, and in 
their particidar turnings it was but as the morning 



322 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. VI. 



cloud; many times there were great appearances of 
reformation, but they were like the early dew which 
presently goeth away. The ten tribes and Judah made 
such beginnings in reformation, and setting up the 
worship of God, that if God were truly worshipped by 
any people in the world it would be by these ; they 
would set God up high in their thoughts, high in their 
practices ; and this was ver)- burdensome to tlic Spirit 
of God ; therefore he saith, '• What shall I do unto tliec, 
O Epliraim ? What shall I do unto thee, O Judah ?" 

AVe find glorious sliows of reformation come to 
nothing, as ajjpears in many instances. 2 Kings ix., x., 
Jeliu made great shows : when Joram asked him, " Is 
it peace, Jehu?" he answered, " AVhat peace, so long 
as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witch- 
crafts are so many?" And, in the 10th chapter, what 
a slaughter doth he make of the priests of Baal ! "WeU, 
what was the result of all tliis ? read but on in the chap- 
ter, ver. 29, 31, and it is said, " Howbeit from the sins 
of Jeroboam the son of Xebat, who made Israel to sin, 
Jehu departed not." What a cloud of liopes was there 
in Ahab's time ! 1 Kings xviii. 39, all the people cried, 
" Tlie Lord, he is the God ; the Lord, he is the God ;" 
upon the miracle which waswTOught by Elijah's prayer, 
■wnen the fire came down and consumed the saci-itice : 
but this all vanished in tlie people, and respecting Ahab 
himself the text saith, he " (lid sell himself to work 
wickedness in the sight of the Lord," and " did verj' 
abominably in following idols," so that " tliere was none 
like unto him," 1 Kings xxi. 25, 26. Wlicn the pro- 
phet comes to him after he had killed Xal)al, and tells 
Iiim of his sin, he falls down and humbles liiraself, inso- 
much that God himself takes notice of it, and, upon it, 
pronounces a transmission of his punisliment, that he 
would not " bring the evil in his days, but ui his son's 
days." God bids the prophet see how he humbled 
himself, and that not in a show, as if liis heart were 
not touched and affected, but he did truly humble him- 
self in his kind. But now, did no reformation follow 
upon this ? No, none at all. It is very hard to bring 
great men to reform themselves ; where have we such 
an example since Theodosius'the emperor, who al- 
though guilty of rash effusion of blood, yet, coming on 
a sabbath to the place of public worship, would have 
received the sacrament : Ambrose, seeing him approach- 
ing, goes and meet him at the door, and tlms addresses 
him. How dare those bloody hands of yoius, which 
have shed so much innocent blood, lay hold of the body 
and blood of Christ ? AMiich speecli so startled him 
that he went away, and was humbled for his sin, and 
afterwards came and made his public confession, and 
then was admitted to communion. Whence we may 
see, that kings, yea, emperors, have been kept back from 
the sacrament. But did this humiliation of Ahab come 
to nothing ? If we look but into tlie 22nd chapter, we 
shall find him of a proud, liaugbt)- spirit, resolved upon 
his own will, contraiy to the will of God; he would go 
up to Ramoth-gilcad, and when Jehoshaphat asked 
him, " Is there not here a projihet of the Lord besides, 
that we might inquire of him ?'' lie said, " There is yet 
one man ; but I hate him ;" and this was after his 
humiliation. And is it not thus with us ? Many times, 
when Judgments are upon us, how penitent and hum- 
bled are we ! but if the rod be removed we grow proud 
and stubborn forthwith. So in Judah, how did that 
young king Joash begin ! 2 Chron. xxiv. 4, he " was 
minded to repair the house of the Lord," and gave com- 
mandment to the priests and the Levites to gather 
money for the purpose witli haste, and, altliough a very 
yoiing prince, was so zealous, that he blamed the high 
priest for his inactivity ; and, ver. 10, it is said, " all the 
princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and 
cast into the chest." Wliat did this produce ? surely 
some glorious effect. Mark now the 1 7th verse : " After 



the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and 
made obeisance to the king." And what then ? •' Then 
the king hearkened unto them ;" thev then began to 
get him on their side, verj- likely by sinful compliances 
and flattering speeches, for tlie text saith, that he 
" hearkened unto them. And they left the house of the 
Lord God of their fathers, and served groves and idols ;" 
they forsook llieir religion, and then " wrath came upon 
them :" while they kc])t the truth, it preser^■ed them ; 
but turning from the rule, what outrages do they com- 
mit, and what did they suffer! Ver. 21, 22, they con- 
spu-e against Zcchariah and stone him ; the blood of a 
prophet's son is now nothing to them, and the king for- 
gets the faitliful services of Jehoiada the father, and 
consents to his death: oh to what a height of sin is this 
young zealous prince come ! How many sad examples 
have we in these our days like this of Joash ! now 
many are tliere who in their youth promised well, but 
the fair hopes prove to be but " as a morning cloud," 
their timely beginnings end in apostacy ! Another ex- 
ample we have in Amaziah, 2 Chron. xxv. 2. Amaziah, 
in the Gth verse, had hired a hundred thousand of Israel 
to go with him to the war, and for their hire had given 
them a hundred talents of silver. But there came a man 
of God to him, saying, that he must not use them. " And 
Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do 
for the hundred talents which I have given to tlie army 
of Israel ? And the man of God answered. The Lord is 
able to give thee much more than this." He had no 
security for it, but only God's word, and that from the 
mouth of a man ; what then ? Amaziah obeyed pre- 
sently, and separated the allies out of Israel ; but yet, 
ver. H, '• it came to pass, after that Amaziah was come 
from tlie slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought 
the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be 
his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and 
burnt incense unto them." Thereupon, ver. 15, God 
sends him another prophet ; and now see how the spirit 
of the man is changed. In the former verses the man 
of God comes to him and crosses his design, and yet he 
hearkens unto him, and obeys the command of God in 
that which entailed present and certain loss ; but here, 
when the prophet reasons with as much mildness and 
love as possible, " WHiy hast thou sought after the gods 
of the people, which could not deliver their own people 
out of thine hand?" they could not rescue or save 
their people from thee, and wilt thou serve them ? yet 
in the IGtli verse mark the answer : " The king said unto 
him. Art thou made of tlie king's counsel ? forbear ; 
why shouldest thou be smitten?" Dost thou know 
what is our design in this ? The prophet forbeai-s, but 
what follows? ''I know that God hath detennincd to 
destroy thee, because thou hast done tliis, and hast not 
hearkened unto my counsel." The truth is, when we 
see men unruly, stubborn, and wilfully rejecting coun- 
sel, especiallv after some good workings and stuTing=, 
it is a fearful sign that God purposes to destroy them. 
As that wicked king at one time could call the prophet 
his father, yet afterward be enraged against him ; so 
some may be friends to the saints at one time, and at 
another their bitter enemies. 

And as the Scripture is full of such examples, so also 
are ecclesiastical histories. AVhen Domitian, a most 
cruel persecutor of the Christians, came to the crown, 
he could not endure blood to be shed, no, not even in 
sacrifices. Of Nero also it is reported, that for five 
yeai-s he was so ])iliful and full of mercy, that when 
they came to him to sign the sentence for the execution 
of a malefactor, he exclaimed, Oh tliat I had never 
learned to write ! And vet where had the 
commonwealth of llonie, or the church °'i"^SlIi^r"' 
of God, a more desperate enemy or cruel 
persecutor ? God grant this may never be our case. 
What had we at the first, in the beginning of the par- 



Vek. 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



323 



liament, how did thej' show themselves, and what great 
things did they perform ! stood against arbitrary go- 
vernnaent, impeached great ones, executed justice on 
some peers ! What a mighty spirit was raised in the 
countries to second and stand by the parliament ! Now 
where is the man that ever thought such a party of 
lords and commons would be found to join with a com- 
pany of papists, atheists, malignants, and Irish rebels, 
against the cause of God and the gospel, and every 
thing that is truly good ? Oh most horrid apostacy, 
that this morning cloud, which in the beginning shone 
so gloriously, should thus vanish and come to nothing ! 
And private men, though perhaps not so bad as some 
in public stations, yet how cold and flat-spuited are 
they ! private interest and their own selfish ends ruling 
in them more than the prosperity of the public ; nay, 
so we can gain our own ends, though with loss to tlie 
public, we care not. Oh what shall God do with us, 
who are such an untoward people ? Change but the 
. name, and this scripture is oiu's ; O Eng- 
. u a o oominc. j^j^^j^ a -^-hat sliall I do unto thee ? " 
Your spii'its for reformation are down, you care not for 
a deliverance, but are willing to crouch under your 
burdens ; but let me tell yon, should these beginnings 
of reformation prove to be as the '• morning cloud and 
early dew," we will be the most miserable people in the 
world, and procm-e to ourselves and posterity the 
gi'eatest curse that ever befell a nation ; yea, the gener- 
ations that are yet unborn may, if we neglect this great 
opportunity, ciu'se our times. Therefore, be encouraged 
to venture in this work, and still own the cause, for 
God will own it ; and never leave it, that so the work 
may be finished, and we may say witli the saints, " Lo, 
this is our God; we have waited for him," and he hath 
heard us. "O'e should consider that it is a mercy the 
Lord has made use of such false-spirited men to benefit 
his people ; and seeing the Lord is gone so far in the 
work, let us entreat him that he would follow it on, 
and not only bedew us, but even wet us to the root. 
There is a very remarkable promise in chap. xiv. 5 of 
this prophecy, " I will be as the dew unto Israel : he 
shall grow as the lily : " they shall have the dew, and 
be like the lily : but the lily is a poor, weak, fading 
thing ; but, saith God, he shall " cast forth his roots as 
Lebanon," my mercy shall be perfected towards them. 
The Lord grant this promise may be made good to us. 
And thus much of their reformation in the general, as 
it concerned the public state and church. 

Now touching the partieidar reformation of them- 
selves, and their hv-pocrisy in it : the observation from 
thence is, 

Obs. 10. For any to make good beginnings, and let 
them fall again, is grievous to God, and dangerous to 
themselves. Psal. Ixxviii. 36, 37, " Nevertheless they did 
flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him 
with their tongues. For then- heart was not right with 
him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant." "What 
then? Ver. 58, 59, "They provoked him to anger with 
then- high places, and moved him to jealousy with their 
graven images." God then " greatly abhorred Israel ;" 
they were as " a deceitful bow," hyjiocritical in all their 
ways, which the Spirit of God cannot endui-e, for these 
reasons : 

1. The Spirit of God is a holy Spirit; but this is a 
slight, fickle, vain, and imsound spirit. 

2. The Spirit of God is imchangeable, and constant 
in all its motions ; but this spirit is altogether change- 
able. It is 'said of God, that there is no shadow of 
change in him; and in such a heart as this is there is 
no shadow of constancy. 

3. Such men as these stifle the very conceptions of 
the Spirit of God in them. It is accounted murder in a 
woman to stifle the conception in her womb, or in any 
v.ay to hinder it ; now if this be such a vile thing, is it 



not much more to stifle the conception and fii'st breath- 
ings of the Spu'it in the soul ? Oh take heed of this ! 

4. There can be no trust reposed in such men as 
these ; they are fit for no employment, neither God nor 
man can confide in them, or use them for any service, 
yea, we ourselves cannot endure to have to deal with 
such, they are so fickle and wavering. 

5. They manifest by this, that there is no fear of God 
before their eyes ; for were the fear of the great God in 
them, it would overawe them so that they durst not 
act thus. 

6. This is a great pollution of the name of God. Jer. 
xxxiv. 16, when they had professed to set their serv- 
ants fi-ee, they called them to servitude again, and in 
this, God saith, they polluted his great name. 

v. This is an argument that the things of God and 
matters of religion are looked upon by you as things 
indifi'erent ; when thou hast a mind to them thou canst 
use them, or thou canst lot them alone ; and this greatly 
dishonours the Spii'it of God. 

8. This shows that sucli people never, even at the 
first, had any sound principles in them ; far from the 
life of Christ, which is said to be a stedfast life, and 
the life of every saint should be like unto his, " their 
heart was not right with him, neither were they sted- 
fast in his covenant." 

Now, as it is grievous to God and to his Spirit, so it 
is very dangerous to ourselves. For, 

1. \Ve lose many an opportunity, many a soul-stir- 
ring, which at om- first awaking we have had. TVTien 
the soul is fii'st convinced, oh the many stu-rings and 
good motions which are in it! any thing would then 
take impression upon the heart ; but when we go back, 
a callous insensibility begins to overspread the heart. 

2. The inconstant can ne\cr grow to any eminency 
of grace and godliness, even though there be ti'uth at 
the bottom. It is said of Reuben, Gen. xlix. 4, " Un- 
stable as water, thou shalt not excel." Men that do 
but very little, yet that still progress in godliness, 
though their parts be weak, and their performances 
mean and imperfect, may attain to something; but 
those who at the first do a great deal, run very fast in 
their youth, and afterward grow cold again, are very 
bad : the cooling after heating is very dangerous, as to 
the body, so more to the soul. 

3. This hardens the heart very much. ^Vhen the 
spirit is cooled after a heating, it is like water which, 
being hot and cold again, is more cold than it was be- 
foi-e ; or like iron heated and quenched, is harder than 
before. 

4. This aggravates all other sinning. What ! wilt 
thou sin thus, after God has appeared thus ? 

5. This spoils the acceptableness of all our other 
services, be they never so specious. As a man that has 
a child lunatic, in his fits and moods he is very sense- 
less and sottish, but in his lucida iiitenaUa he comes to 
himself and speaks sensibly and well ; now if a man 
should see him at this time he would think he ailed 
nothing : so there are many who seem to be eminent 
Christians for the present, but let a temptation present 
itself, or lust within stir, and they are overcome. 

6. There is nothing will more damp the heart when 
it comes before God in duty. God may say to thee, 
O soul, how darest thou come before me in such a duty 
as this, when thou knowest thou art guilty of breach 
of promise, and falsifying covenant with me ? This will 
be an eating corrosive on thy spii'it. God may say to 
thee, How canst thou expect that I should be constant 
in my mercies toward thee, when thou art so inconstant 
in thy duty to me ? This inconstancy toward God, 
brings wavering in faith, and unsettledness in our con- 
fidence God-ward ; the one makes way for the other ; 
inconstancy in duty, and wavering in believing. 

How should this stir us up to look to our own hearts. 



324 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. VI. 



seeing they are so fickle and deceitful ! Let us watch 
over and daily suspect them. John ii. 23, 24, it is said 
of the people, that many believed in Christ, because of 
the miracles which he wrought ; yet Christ would not 
commit himself unto them. So Deut. v. 29, there is a 
people that made large promises to God, that they 
would walk in all the statutes and ordinances of their 
God. Now, saith God, this people say well, they are 
good words, but " Oil that there were sueli an heart in 
them !" God regards no work you do, except he find 
it rooted in you. " If ye continue in my w ord, then are 
ye my disciples indeed," John viii. 31 : no true disciple 
of Christ without abiding in Christ. "All flesh is grass," 
Jsa. si. G; that is, whatsoever is done by fleshly prinei- 
j)lc3, every duty, though never so fair in outward ap- 
])earanee, if it come from a principle of flesh, is but as 
the grass; and as the grass withereth and its flower 
fadeth, so wLU these specious outside duties vanish 
away. Therefore look to your heart, and above all 
keepings, keep it vei-j- diligently; for if the root be 
sound, the branches will be so too, and the fruit thereof 
good and profitable. 

Obs. 11. It is a very dangerous thing to let begin- 
nings die. Therefore, would you be preserved from such 
an evil as this, of fickleness and inconstancy, take my 
counsel in these particulars. 

1. Rest not in sudden flashes and stin-ings of spirit. 
Perhaps at a sermon some truth or other that nearly 
concerns thee, is pressed home upon thy conscience, 
and it begins to stir the heart and warm the affections ; 
r.ow, do not think the work is now over, or that the 
hazard of miscarrj'ing to all eternity is jiassed; no, 
thou must rise higher and go further than this, or else 
thou art undone for ever. This is that rock upon which 
many poor souls split to theu- everlasting destniction, 
therefore look to your hearts in time. 

2. Labour to get your hearts off from all earthly en- 
gagements. That man can never stand constant to- 
ward God who is entangled with the snares and cares 
of this world. He whose heart is constantly fixed 
upon God, though he docs but little in the way of 
duty, in comparison of many a mere professor, yet 
shall hold out, when the most glorious hypocrite in the 
world shall fill to the ground. 

3. Take heed of secret sins. They will undo thee if 
loved and maintained : one moth mav spoil the gar- 
ment ; one leak drown the ship ; a penknife stab and 
kill a man as well as a sword ; so one sin may damn 
the soul: nay, there is more danger of a secret sin 
causing the miscarrying of the soul, than open profane- 
ness, because not so obvious to the reproofs of the word ; 
therefore take heed that secret sinnings eat not out 
good beginnings. 

4. Often examine how things stand with your hearts. 
Say, O my soul, how is it with thee ? how'stand mat- 
ters between God and thee ? Come, my soul, there was 
a time that there was such and such good motions 
in thee, what is now become of them? at the first 
thou wert very forward and active for God, such a 
chamber, such a closet, can witness the intercourse God 
and thou hadst; thou didst then walk close with God 
and his fear was in thee. This, if observed, would be a 
special help to keep the heart ui)riglit : but I fear many 
a minister may say of his pco])le, as Paul did to the 
Galatians, AVhere is now tnc blessedness which you 
spake of? Gal. iv. 1-5. 

5. Never trust your hearts after spiritual comforts 
and revivings. When in any ordinances thou hast met 
with God's ijrcsence, and he has shone u])on thee in 
love, and thou hast got a smile from Jesus Christ, have 
a care of your hearts, and ex])ect and prepare for tempt- 
ations. Many, when they have Mithin good desires 
and hopeful beginnings, think that the work is past 
and the danger is over ; and then comes a temptation 



of Satan, and encounters with them, and they are 
basely foiled, and lose their peace. Great consolations 
usually ])recede great temptations. In Matt. iii. 17, 
God testifies that Jesus Christ is his beloved Son, 
" This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well ])leased ; " 
and in the verv next chapter tells us how he was led 
"into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." 
Often, too, after the greatest mercies follow the great- 
est miseries : see how well Christ knows tliis ; John 
xii. 12, he comes riding in pomp to Jerusalem, and the 
people magnified him, crying out, " Hosanna to the 
Son of David ;" yet, ver. 27, he cries out, " Father, save 
me from this hour." 

C. After good desires and motions of the Spirit 
humble yourselves. Make yourselves base and vile in 
your own eyes, that so you may grow downward in the 
root : it is very dangerous when beginnings run U])- 
wards presently, but when they show us our sins and 
unworthiness then they work kindly. If there be no 
moisture at the root of the tree, though tliere be never 
so many blossoms, they will die, vanish, and come to 
nothing ; so if your joys and secret raptures of soul 
are not moistened in the tears of soiTow and humi- 
liation, they will blow off and be shaken down by the 
next temptation ; but when the inward workings of 
joy in the heart operate as well to humiliation as con- 
solation, when they work both ways, then will not your 
goodness be as the early dew that goeth away, and as 
the morning cloud which soon vanisheth. In Psal. 
ex. 3, it is projihesied that in the times of the gospel 
Clirist's people shall be wiUing in the day of his power; 
Christ's power shall be put forth upon his people to 
subdue their wills to the will of God ; so that if we 
find this effect of Christ's power in us, then may we be 
sure that our goodness shall not be evanescent. 

7. Rest not in stirrings and beginnings, except you 
find that they tend to unite you to Christ. As soon 
as your hearts begin to work, you should stop a little 
and ask yourselves what of Jesus Christ is there in 
these motions ; Have I more of his righteousness, wis- 
dom, and love than I had before? Only such stin-ings of 
heart as bring Christ into the soul will hold and stand 
fast. That is very observable which we read concerning 
the manna, Exod. xvi. 14, that the dew which was upon 
the ground passed away, but the manna abode still : so 
the good affections and desires which are in many are 
even like the dew, which, as soon as the sun is up, is 
gone presently : now if you would not have the efficacy 
of them gone, try what manna there is left behincl, 
what of Christ is sti'engthened. Is your faith propjjed, 
your love inflamed, your humility increased ? then it is 
something. The Israelites could not feed on the dew, 
but the manna was their nourishment. So, how is it 
with you when the fervour of your spirits has abated ? 
can you then feed upon Christ, this spmtual manna ? 
Look what word of promise then takes up its abode in 
your hearts, and how youi- hearts are affected with it : 
such as find tlic promise remaining when the dew is 
gone, and that these promises are a-s sweet now as they 
were when first the affections were excited, such a soul 
will hold out, and his righteousness shall not be as the 
morning cloud or early dew that passcth away. 

Ver. 5. Therefore hare I hetced them hy the pro- 
phets ; I have n/ain them bu the words of vvj mouth : 
and thij judgments are as the light that goeth forth, 

"Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets." 
We would think there were little connexion in these 
words, yet there is a verj- fit one. " Therefore," that 
is, because they are so fickle and inconstant, therefore 
have I caused my prophets to deal sharply with t"liem 
to cut them to the neart. I would not have dealt thus 
with them, but that I have no other means left, seeing 



Vek. 5. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSE.l. 



325 



they are so vain, so slight in their spirits : and tliis re- 
source I try, that, if possible, they might be brought to 
see with what a God they have to deal. The apostle, 
in Titus i. 13, gives command to " rebuke them sharp- 
ly, that they may be sound in the faith ;" sharply, that 
is, cuttingly, rebuke them cuttingly. My prophets 
have been as an axe. as an axe that cuts hard, knotty 
■wood, or as the instruments of carvers in stone, which 
cut hard, rough things. " I have slain them by the words 
of my mouth." The Sept. refer these words to the 
prophets, and render them, .iid rovro dirtdipiaa tovq trpo- 
^i)rae i'/iwi/' aTrhriii'a avToig iv pfjiiari oro/ia-og nov' 
Therefore have I hewed your prophets ; I have slain 
them by the word of my mouth. And Jerome saith, 
they relate to the time of Elijah, 1 Kings xviii. 40, 
who slew many of Baal's prophets ; and to Jehu's time, 
who did the same, 2 Kings x. 25. Thus they interpret 
it ; and in this you have an objection of the people an- 
swered, who might plead thus : True, we have been led 
aside and have not worshipped God as we should do, 
but it is our priests and our prophets who have se- 
duced us ; we did but as we were taught, and if we 
have gone astray, our prophets and our priests have 
misled us. Nay, saith God, you cannot plead so, for 
you have seen my hand out against the prophets suffi- 
ciently, I have cut them off. Though I conceive not 
this to be the meaning of these words, yet from this 
sense this useful observation may be drawn : 

Obs. 1. "When God comes against false prophets, he 
looks especially that people should not do as they have 
been taught by them. In Ezek. xiii. 9, a woeful judg- 
ment is denounced against the false prophets, for 
prophesying peace when God's purposes were set 
against Jerusalem for destruction. Their judgment 
was, that they should not come into the assemblies of 
his people ; and, my hand shall be against them ; and 
mark, "ye shall know that I am the Lord." They shall 
then know more particularly that I am the Lord God, 
when my hand is thus out against them. It is a pow- 
erful means to convince a people, when they see the 
hand of God out against their false teachers ; and if so, 
how should the people of England be convinced of the 
evil of that way they so admu-e and extol, when the hand 
of God is so heavy upon its superstitious time-servers 
and maintainers ! 

But there are some, as Parens and others, who refer 
the word to the good prophets ; and so in a twofold 
sense they are said to be slain. 

1. Li then- charge. I have sent them, saith God, to 
deliver my message to this people, and they have flown 
in their faces and killed them, and I account it as if I 
had done it, because I set to the work : and this 
was spoken at the time when the prophets were grossly 
abused, when Zechariah the prophet delivered his 
message to king Joash, and was slain for it, 2 Chron. 
xxiv. 21 ; as saith Acts vii. 52, " Which of the prophets 
have not your fathers persecuted?" But now here is 
their encouragement against all the ill usage and the 
hardships which they meet with in their work ; I look 
upon it, saith God, as if I did it myself: therefore cer- 
tainly God will not let them go unrewarded. 1 Sam. 
xxii. 23, David saith to Abiathar, " Abide thou with me, 
fear not : for he that seeketh my. life seeketh thy life : 
but with me thou shall be in safeguard." David was 
the occasion of the death of Abiathar's father, and there- 
fore especially cared for him ; and shall not God much 
more ? So that, have you a friend, a brother, or a father, 
slain for, or in, the cause of God, shall not God take 
his part ? yea, he will. Ahimelech was slain accident- 
ally for the cause of David, and yet would David deal 
well with Abiathar : but, saith God, thy friend was slain, 
standing for me, and owning my cause ; he shall lose 
nothing by it, for I will deal well w ith thee, and pre- 
serve thee alive for his sake. 



2. In their ministry. It has been so heavy that it has 
even killed them, I have so burdened them with work 
that I have even slain them ; so that this people cannot 
say, they have not been warned, or that they have had 
no prophets among them, or that their prophets have 
been idle, that they have had no work to do : and cer- 
tainly it is a good death for a minister to die preach- 
ing. Parens makes much use of this, 
and saith. How much more honourable cirdonStemKi. 
to die in doing God's work, than by com- 
mitting sinful acts of intemperance, uncleanness. Sec. ! 
Men cannot spend then- strength better than in God's 
service. Oh let that people who have such ministers 
look to it, that they bring forth fruit answerable in 
some proportion to the cost bestowed on them. And if 
you understand the passage thus, then God seems to 
speak grievingly. Oh what shall I do with this people ? 
What means have been used, what losses have I sus- 
tained by them ! I have spent many choice servants 
among them, the lives and strengths of such spirits 
have been spent upon them of whom the world was 
not worthy. Oh what shall I do unto such a people ? 
Surely a people enjoying such a ministry had need 
look to their profession. May not this be said of many 
congregations in London ? Has not God sent many 
choice spirits among you to do you good ? and have 
they effected the end for which they were sent ? If not, 
woe to you ! A^'hen God spends the lives of his choicest 
and most precious servants, if he have not a consider- 
able value and return in people's fruitfulness, it will 
mightily provoke and incense him against them : God 
highly esteems the lives and strengths of his ministers, 
they are valued more than to be spent and wasted 
upon unfruitful people, who neither care for them nor 
their ministry. 

But to come more particularly, and according to the 
genuine sense of the words, tliis slaying refers itself to 
the people. Now the word slays in these two respects : 

1. In its denouncing of judgment upon men; for 
what the word threatens it is said to do : Jer. xviii. 7, 9, 
"At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, 
and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull 
down, and to destroy it;" "And at what instant I shall 
speak concerning a nation, and concerning a Idngdom, 
to build and to plant it;" we should look upon both as 
performed. 

2. In its operation, it has a mighty efficacy to lead 
impenitent sinners to ruin ; it is as a two-edged sword, 
which does execution every way : Isa. xi. 3, it makes 
men " of quick understanding in the fear of God:" and 
God is said to consume antichrist by the breath of his 
nostrils, and by the word of his mouth ; yea, the word 
is of such a force, that sometimes it brings death in a 
literal sense to those who withstand and oppose it. Ezek. 
xi. 2, Pelatiah gives wicked counsel in the city, and the 
prophet is commanded to prophesy against him ; and in 
the 13th verse we read, that when the prophet prophe- 
sied Pelatiah died : thus God often makes the word so 
powerful in the mouths of his servants that it presently 
strikes men dead. Gualter observes from hence, that 
the power of the word appears in this, that it awakens, 
convinces, and terrifies the consciences of men, so that 
they go home and become self-murderers ; and the truth 
is, ft is often nothing else but the word working power- 
fully to their ruin and destruction. 

Or the words may be taken hyperbolically. As men 
that are oppressed and in misery exclaim. Ye kUl me, I 
am not able to endure it, you will be the death of me! 
the prophets came so close to them, that they cried out, 
Oh they will kill us, we are not able to suffer them ! 
Luther saith, that by these words, " I have slain them 
by the words of my mouth," is meant the law; by the 
law thou hast slain them ; and by the word " prophets " he 
'-aith is meant, that part of doctrine which is necessary 



AS EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. VI. 



to be preached, to prevent the abuse of the doctrine of 
the gospel, which otliei-wise men would be ready to 
pervert : and he further adds, that those who deny the 
use of the law were not fit even to he suffered to exist. 
I mention this of Luth.er tlie rather, because those who 
deny the obligation of the law, urge so strongly his au- 
thoritv to countenance their error. 

"Thy judgments are as the light." That is, pas- 
sively : Thv thrcatcnings upon them, or the execution of 
those thrcatenings ujjon them, shall break out as the 
light ; though they have slain my prophets, and think 
therebv to free themselves from tliose judgments which 
they threatened against them. Xo, saith God, for all 
this I will make known my thrcatenings which they 
have denounced against them. When the prophet Jere- 
miah liad delivered the message of God to the princes 
and the priests, they laid hold on him, and said, He 
should surely die, jer. xxvi. 8. Now see what the 
prophc t saith in the 14th and 15th verses, " As for me, 
behold, I am in your hand : do with me as seemeth 
good and meet unto you. But know ye for certain, that 
u ye ])ut me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent 
blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon 
the inhabitant.s thereof : for ot a truth the Lord hath 
sent me unto you to sjieak all these words in your ears." 
You think, perhaps, tliat when the minister is gone his 
words are no more : no, they shall lie upon you, and 
shall break out so manifestly that they shall clearly 
convince you. Though formerly they pleaded for them- 
selves, as they in Isa. Iviii., yet let them entertain 
never so good a conceit of themselves, I will discover 
them to be but base hj-pocrites ; I will show you such 
clear demonstrations ot the ways of righteousness in 
which you should have walked, that all shall discern 
what you are, and it shall appear as clear as the light 
wherein you have strayed from the rule. 

Again, the words may he taken actively ; and then 
the sense is, My power shall so appear upon them, that 
their righteousness and holiness shall appear as the 
light. And then, though my judgments were smart 
and tedious at the first, yet you shall not repent it ; you 
shall see so much good resulting, as will make you 
amends for all. Or thus, I have sent my prophets 
among this people for this very end and pui-pose, to 
make this people a righteous people, and that they may 
manifest this as clearly as the light. Thus you have 
the meaning of the words ; the observations follow. 

Obx. 2. Inconstancy in religion provokes God's an- 
ger. The wavercrs and unstable in religion requu-e to 
have cutting truths preached to them ; " Therefore 
have I hewed them," saith God, " by the prophct-s :" 
and as God's ministers must deal thus with their peo- 
ple, so must every man in particidar who loves his own 
soul ; and if so be thy soul be precious in thy eves, thou 
wilt willingly deal sharply with thyself, and say, O 
wretched heart that I have, to let such stirrings die, 
such motions of the Spirit come to nothing I Dost thou 
know whom thou hast to deal withal, the great and in- 
finite God ? and for what thou hast to deal with him, 
for nothing less than eternity ? and hast thou stirrings 
of heart about this ? and dost thou let them die ? this 
provokes God. 

Obi. 3. Many men's hearts are like knotty timber 
and rough stones. " I have hewed them." The longer 
men continue in their sins, the knottier they are. As 
timber which has lain long soaking in the water is 
tough and hardened ; so men's spirits that are soaked 
in their evil ways, oh how untoward are they, and how 
hard a thing is it to fasten any thing that is good upon 
them ! So that when we see men's spirits tough, stub- 
born, and hard to be wTought ujion, let us think of this 
text, " I have hewed them by the prophets." 

That this is s])oken of a people, wliose goodness was as 
a morning cloud, and the early dew which passeth away: 



Ob.i. 4. Although the goodness of many be but as 
the dew, yet is their evil bard and settled The good- 
ness of many is like the softness of a plum, soon crush- 
ed ; but their wickedness is like the stone in the plum, 
hard and inflexible : so that you may here see, grace 
and truth consist not in good motions, stimngs, and 
desires, lor these may be where the heart is not melt- 
ing, soft, nor tender ; the heart is not changed, for were 
the heart kindly wrought upon, it would kindly yield 
to the power of the word, and, when it comes against 
their sins, would take ]iart with it. 

Obs. 5. God's ministers are hewers. " I have hewed 
them by the ])ro))hcts." Elsewhere they are called God's 
workmen, and here hewers, and that in these two re- 
spects ; cither to prepare them for God's building, or 
to cast them into the file ; these are God's ends in send- 
ing his ministers, his hewers : now they hew all, good 
and bad, to take them off from their own rootings, and 
make them as beams in God's building, or to be as an 
axe laid to the root of then- souls. It is recorded of 
Solomon's temple, that, " when it was in building, 
there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of 
iron heard in the house ;" the materials being prepared, 
fitted, and squared beforehand : so those which will be 
members of God's temple hereafter, must be hewed and 
fitted for it here ; therefore John is said to be one sent 
to make rough things plain, to level great mountains, 
mountains of sins, crabbed and rugged spirits. By this 
you may see what a hard task the minister's labour is, 
and why Jeremiah resolved that he would speak no 
more in the name of the Lord to the people. The work 
of a minister is more laborious than the work of a car- 
jjcnter, as C'hrysostom expresses it ; for, saith he, when 
th3 car])enter has wrought hard all day, he goes home, 
and on his return in the morning finds matters as he 
left them ; but we hew and take pains, and leave our 
people, but on our return find them worse than before. 

Obs. 6. "\Mien the ministers of the gospel meet with 
such rough, cross, and untoward spirits, they must deal 
with them accordingly. 

" I have hewed them by the prophets;" my prophets 
have done their work upon them. God seems to speak 
to the prophets, to bid them sharjien their tools, make 
their instruments keen, preach suitably unto them, 
saving some with fear, as the apostle Jude speaks, ver. 
23. I wonder what they can say to this scripture, who 
cry out against ministers for preacliing the law, when 
the text saith plainly, " and others save with fear." 
Therefore let those that are tlie ministei-s of the word 
have a care that they sharpen their tools by the word, 
putting an edge upon them, that so they may encounter 
successfully the greatest oppositions. 

04.«. 7. \Mien the ministers hew, God hews. " I 
have hewed them," saith God, whereas it was the pro- 
phets that did it. Is the word shai-p, and does it come 
close at any time ? then look to God as the cause. Is 
the tool shai-p, and does it cut ? then look to the hand 
that directed the stroke, and know that if God hew 
thee, he will have his will upon thee, he will accomplish 
the end he aims at. AAlien God hews thee, if thou dost 
not work under his hand to make something of for use, 
he will throw tliee into the fire : as a workman in an- 
ger throws away the piece he is at work upon into the 
fire ; so saith God, This man or this woman are good 
for nothing, I will throw them into the fire. Take heed, 
you who have stu-rings and motions unto good, and yet 
have your secret lusts, beloved bosom corruptions, 
know that God may cut you down for the fire; and 
thou mayst already in his pur])ose be thus cut down, 
though thou livest under the ordinances in the bosom 
of the church. As the fig tree was cut down, yet had 
leaves for a while, green and flourishing ; so know, it is 
])ossiblc for a man to make a glorious profession, and 
perform mai\y duties, and yet to be but a vessel of 



Vee. 5. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



327 



wrath, one cut down in wrath by the stroke of the 
word. This cutting down is lilie to that which we find 
in Lulve xiv. 24, " For I say unto you, That none of 
those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper ;" 
and vet these men had their stirrings and motions. 
Oh ! the consideration of this should make sinners to 
tremble, that it is possible for men, yea, for men pro- 
fessing godliness, to be cut down by the word of -vn-ath, 
and that, while they are living and well. Now God may 
be said to cut a man down for vengeance, when he in 
judgment determines and secretly resolves against liim, 
that no means nor mercies shall do him good ;_and now, 
woe indeed to that man against whom God is thus re- 
solved and determined ! But that none may be dis- 
couraged and disheartened by this, but the rather 
awakened, know, that so long as God still strives with 
thee, and is yet working upon thee by his word and 
Spirit, he has not yet determined against thee, thou art 
not past hope of cure; therefore improve the seasons, 
and do not abuse this that hath been said ; let it support 
you against despair, but not encourage you to presume. 
Obs. 8. God's ministers are God's tools ; and as tools 
by working are worn out, so are God's ministers. But 
when the work goes on, the labourer thinks not much 
though the tools are worn : so God, when he sees 
people come in and accept of mercy, is content to bear 
the loss of the wearing of his tools. And as men reckon 
not only for the work done, but also for the wearing of 
the tools, and the more precious the tool is, the more ac- 
count is made of it ; so will God, also, not only reckon for 
the lives of his servants, but also for their strength, and 
the weakening of their- bodies by their manifold labours. 
Tlierefore people had need to look to it, that their fruit 
correspond with what God expends on them ; for 
know, that God sets a high price upon the lives of his 
choice servants, and he will have a valuable consider- 
ation for them, either in you or upon you ; and v.oe be 
to you if God forces the price of such blood as theirs 
is in your ruin ! 

Oils. 9. God's ministers are God's mouth to his peo- 
ple. " I have slain them by the words of my mouth." 
'• If thou take forth the precious from the vUe, thou 
shall be as my mouth," Jer. xv. 19. And look, what 
is tlu'eatened by them, is threatened by God ; and the 
promises which they open and press upon a soul in 
distress, is done by God liimself, and it is to be looked 
upon as God speaking to thee in particular. 

Obs. 10. The word of God is of great power, and 
full of efficacy. " I have slain them by the words of 
mv mouth." The word is hke a two-edged sword, 
■n'hich smites every way and doth execution : every time 
men hear the word, it is for life or for death. Deut. 
xxxii. 46, 47, " Set yom* hearts unto all the words 
which I testify among you this day; for it is not a 
vain thing for you ; because it is your life : " it is your 
life which lies upon it, therefore look ye to it. So in 
Rev. xi. 5, '• And if any man will hurt them, fire pro- 
ceedeth out of theu' mouth, and devoureth their ene- 
mies : though the witnesses be as olive branches, yet 
if any wrong them they must be killed by devouring fire. 

But if the word be of such efficacy, of a slaying na- 
ture, why should we hear it ? 

We are bound to hear the wcwd as our duty : and 
when we come, we should present our lusts before the 
edge of the word : were sin thus presented before it, it 
woidd only slay the sin, and not the person. When the 
word comes, it wUl slay the one, either your sins, or 
your souls ; therefore, if you would have your souls 
saved, put your sins to death. The upright need not 
fear coming to the word ; but such as are resolved to 
keep their sins, the word will slay both them and their 
sins. 

Obs. 11. God's judgments lie concealed while men 
go on prosperously in sin. They see them not ; they 



sin, and judgment appears not ; and, therefore, they 
take liberty and imbolden themselves in their sins. 

Obs. 12. When judgments do come, they break out. 
" Thy judgments shall break forth." Judgments were 
working their ruin before, they did not sleep : when 
judgments come, they break out upon sinners : as 
mighty waters, being stopped in their course, when they 
work over the interruption, run the faster. 

Obs. 13. God has his time to punish sins openly ; as 
they sin secretly in the dark, God will punish openly in 
the light, to make them ashamed. 

Obs. 14. God will have his time to con^■ince men by 
his judgments ; then their fllthiness shall be punished. 

Now God's judgments may be said to break forth as 
the light, to convince men, in three ways : 

1. AVhen the thing threatened in the word comes to 
pass. 

2. "WTxen the judgment inflicted is suitable to the sin 
committed. 

3. "WTien it is executed by a remarkable hand upon 
the sinner, then that judgment breaks forth upon a man 
as the light. 

06s. 15. God's judgments are gradual. They break 
forth as the light, not all at once, there is the morning 
light and the mid-day ; as mercies to the saints are 
gradual, so are judgments upon the wicked. There is 
much to be learned by this breaking out of judgment 
as the light. Isa. xxvi. 9, " AVhen thy judgments are 
in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn 
righteousness." Micah vi. 9, " The man of wisdom shall 
see thy name : hear ye the rod, and who hath appoint- 
ed it." Prov. xxviii. 5, "EvU men understand not 
judgment: but they that seek the Lord understand aU 
things ;" they shall learn much. Examine your hearts 
by tiiis, and see what you have learned by these judg- 
ments that are broken out upon us so manifestly, that 
the greatest atheist in the world may learn, that " the 
Lord, he is the God," as the people cried out in 1 Kings 
xviii. 39. 

Obs. 16. When God sends a ministry to a people, it 
is to discover his way and worship. The Lord makes 
their righteousness to appear and break forth as the 
light; he will have his way and worship appear as 
clearly as the light, his way shall not be hidden from 
them. 

Obs. 17. The more powerful the ministry is, the 
more terrible shall judgments be, if despised. Your 
consciences shall echo upon this ground in your ears, 
" The Lord is righteous in aU his ways," justly am I 
punished. Oh the sad cries of many in their sick- 
nesses and on their death-beds ! How many times 
have I been warned by the word ! but I sHghted warn- 
ings, I regarded them not, warnings have been no 
warnings to me, therefore justly am tin misery. 

Oh that the consideration of this might be more 
prevalent and work more upon us, than ever God's 
quickness in his judgments has wrought towards those 
that stand out against a quick, searching ministry. 

Ver. 6. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice ; and 
the knowledge of God more than burnt offeriiigs. 

This scripture having much of the mind of God in 
it, and much difficidty in the understanding of it, I 
read no further at this time. Here we have a reason 
of God's severe expression in the former verse, where 
it was said that God had hewed them by the prophets, 
and slain them by the words of his mouth. Why was 
God so severe against them ? Because he would not be 
put off with their sacrifices. They bolstered up them- 
selves with these, objecting against the prophet when 
he pressed them to mercy and to the knowledge of 
God, Why, are not we abundant in serving of God ? 
burnt-offerings are not neglected by us, and why should 



328 



AN EXPOSITION Oi 



Cu.vr. VI. 



not we he accepted? No, saith God, "I desired mercy, 
and not sacrifice ;" never tell me of" your sacrifices and 
burnt-offerings, so long as there is no mercy' among 
you. "Therefore have I hewed them by the ])ro])hets, 
and slain them by the words of my mouth ; " you are 
so attached to these outward things, that I must hew 
you off from them. This sentence is quoted twice by 
Christ himself in the New Testament, Matt. i.\. 13'; 
xii. 7, which, as it does not occur in any other place, 
notes its great importance. 

" For I desired mercy." •iiisn signifies to desire or 
to will a thing with great complacency or delight ; as 
if God should say, Mercy is a tiling so pleasing to me, 
that I desire it at my heart. God's great mercy in re- 
conciling the world unto himself by Jesus Cfirist, is 
more worth than all the sacrifices in the world ; but 
this is not the mercy meant in the text. Ileb. x. 5, 6, 
" Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body 
hast thou prepared me : in burnt-offerings and sacri- 
fices for sin thou hast had no jileasure." There is no 
mercy like this, the mercy of God in his Son Jesus 
^__, Christ. But the mercy here spoken of 

is the mercy of man, and the word for 
mercy here, is, in the original, the same as is used for 
goodness in the 4th verse. The meaning then is, I de- 
sire mercy ; that is, not the mercy of God, but mercy 
to man, mercy to ourselves ; and so Christ interprets it. 
Matt. xii. 7, " If ye had known what this mcancfh, I 
■will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have 
condemned the guiltless." As if Christ should say, God 
in some cases would have men provide for themselves, 
though they thereby neglect the sti'iet observance of 
the sabbath : " I w ill have mercy," as to ourselves, so to 
others, mercy to men, cither to their bodies, or to their 
souls ; mercy to the body eveiT one will grant, but it 
ought to be es])ecially to the soul, as we may gather 
from Christ's other quotation of these words. Matt. ix. 
13, " Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have 
mercy, and not sacrifice : for I am not come to call the 
righteous, but sinners to repentance." This word 
" mercy " is a synecdoche comprehending all the duties 
of the second table under one. " I will have mercy, 
and not sacrifice:" by "sacrifice" is meant, sjTiecdo- 
chically, all instituted ordinances and worship, all the 
affirmative precepts of the second and fourth command- 
ments, all ordinances then commanded them, or that 
ever should be enjoined ; and this a])pears from Christ's 
applying the text, in Matt. xii. 7, to the sanctification of 
the sabbath: and in Matt. ix. 13, Christ quotes it in 
reference to an ordinance, (whether true or not, human 
or Divine, matters not,) the separation of the Jews 
from publicans and .sinners ; and tells them, that in a 
ca.se of mercy they might cat with them, thereby gain- 
ing an opportunity to do good to their souls : so that 
from those two you see a clear wan-ant for the in- 
terpretation of this text. 

Now, in the further clearing of it, I siiall answer some 
questions, satisfy some objections, and raise certain ob- 
servations. 

I. I shall answer some questions. And, 

1. What is an instituted ordinance? There are natu- 
ral onlinanccs, and instituted duties. Now what is the 
difference between them ? 

For the unfolding of this, know, that by natural duties 
we understand such duties as we owe to God as God, to 
men as men, which, if there had been no law to bind us 
to the performance of, yet would they have been fulfilled 
by us, being engraven on the heart Sy the finger of God 
himself. Such duties, for instance, as the first command- 
ment binds us to, to have no other gods but the Lord, 
to fear this God and him alone, to love him before all 
and above all, to trust in him for help at all times : these 
arc duties to be done as unto a God ; nature itself 
dictates the performance of them. 



Then there are duties to be ))crformed unto men, as 
honouring of parents, speaking the truth, not deceiving 
one another ; these duties are radicated in the heart, 
that were there no law of God to bind men, yet it were 
in men's hearts to do them. Now these duties must not 
yield to mercy. But by instituted duties, I mean those 
which, if God had not revealed, had not been duties, 
neither woidd men have been bound to their perform- 
ance : as, for instance, the sacrifices under the law. by 
bullocks and goats ; sacrifices of such a kind, were they 
not revealed by some jirophet to be in accordance witft 
the mind of God, had not been obligatory. So our 
church ordinances of sacramenjs, Christian admonition, 
and the like, are such as flow from God's prerogative, 
and not necessarily from his nature. Natural duties, 
then, refer to attributes in God's nature and character; 
instituted, to the expression of his will. 

2. But how did God say here, " Mercy, and not sa- 
crifice ? " Did not God require sacrifice as well as mercy ? 

Yea, God did require sacrifice as well as mercy ; but 
we must understand this with these limitations : 

1. I will have sacrifice, but not without the spirit. 
Sacrifices without the spirit joined with them are nothing 
worth. A\Tien spiritual worship is joined with their out- 
ward sacrifices, then they are acce|)ted. Instituted wor- 
shi]) separated from natural worship is not regarded. 

2. Not sacrifices to make atonement for their sins. 
The people thought by their sacrifices to make atone- 
ment for their lives, though never so vile and base ; but, 
saith God, I will not have it thus, I will have it only 
typical, in relation to Christ. But they left out Christ 
in them : therefore, saith God in this sense, " I will have 
mercy, and not sacrifice." 

3. Not sacrifice; that is, of your own. They had 
many sacrifices of their own, whicK God neither required, 
nor would accept of from them. " I will have mercy, 
and not sacrifice." 

4. Not sacrifices ; that is, such as are injuriously got- 
ten. The Jews were a very oppressing, grinding people ; 
they would be much in sacrifices, but it was out of the 
rights of the poor ; they would oppress and grind the 
poor, and then think to atone for all by their sacrifices : 
in this case, " I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." 

5. Not sacrifices ; that is, com))aratively, mercy rather 
than sacrifice. This negative, in Scripture, is often used 
to mark inferiority, as in Prov. viii. 10, " Receive in- 
struction, and not silver ; and knowledge rather than 
fine gold." " Receive instruction, not silver ;" tliat is, 
rather than silver. God's requiring of knowledge does 
not forbid men seeking estates, but it shows us rather, 
that knowledge is to be chosen in preference. So Paul 
is sent to ])reach the gospel, and not to baptize ; that 
is, rather than to baptize, for Paul did baptize in some 
places. So saith God here, " I will have mercy, and not 
sacrifice ;" that is. Let me have both ; but if both cannot 
be had, let me have mercy of the two, I do so much de- 
light in it, that if I cannot have mercy and sacrifice to- 
gether, I prefer mercy. 

3. Why should God require mercy rather than sacri- 
fice? 

Because mercy is good in itself, but sacrifice is good 
only in reference to something else ; the good of sacri- 
fices consists only in their reference to Jesus Christ. 

Mercy is good in itself, but sacrifice is only good be- 
cause commanded by God's prerogative, God's command 
constitutes its goodness. 

Mercy is jiarl of God's image in man, but sacrifice is 
not ; and by how much God's image in man surpasses 
any other excellency, by so much does mercy excel sa- 
crifice. 

.'Ml instituted worship was made for man, not man 
for it ; but for natural worship man was made, and not 
it for man, therefore must it needs be more excellent. 
Christ's reasoning warrants this, "The sabbath was made 



ViK. 6. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



329 



for man, not man for the sabbath." Xow this cannot 
be said of natural -norship, of the duties of fearing God, 
loving of God, trusting in God. 

There is more self-denial in a duty of mercy than in 
any sacrifice. To do good to the poor, and that in 
obedience to God's command, argues more self-denial 
than the offering up to God of sacrifices. 

Mercy is asterniE vcritalis, an eternal, everlasting 
dutv; it was always, and shall be so, and the habit of 
it shall continue to all eternity. Though in heaven 
there be no objects to be delivered out of misery, yet 
this disjjosition of mercy remains even there. 

Sacrifice is a tvpical duty for tlie obtaining of the 
pardon of sin, but mercy is a moral duty. Now, that 
which is a moral duty, is better than that which is but 
to further us in the obtaining of pardon for a moral 
offence, committed against the gi-eat God. 

Because sacrifices are but to further us in natural 
duties. To what end servo sacraments, and why do I 
partake of them, but to strengthen my faith, increase 
my love, and to further my appetite in hearing God's 
mind ? Why do I hear the word of God, but that it 
may turn me unto God ? Now the end is better than 
the means for the attaining of the end ; therefore upon 
these grounds God may be said to desire mercy rather 
thati sacrifice. 

4. What are these cases in which God will have 
mercy, and not sacrifices ? 

The principal are these ten. 

1. If a beast should be in danger of losing its life 
by any casualty upon the Lord's day, God allows us to 
forbear all church ordinances at that time, rather than 
let the beast perish ; but because this liberty is allowed 
by God to men in this case, yet you must not think 
that a beast is better than all God's ordinances. 

2. In the case of the poor ; and that I conceive to be 
the principal scope of the words in the text. These 
people wronged, oppressed, and tyrannized over the 
poor, and then thought to make amends to God by 
their sacrifices and ofi'erings. Men must not lay out so 
much of their estates either in superfluities, or for the 
maintenance of God's true worship, as to hinder them 
in their benevolence and charity to the poor ; no ordi- 
nance of God should hinder us in showing mercy to the 
least member of Jesus Christ. Although those which 
arc next us ought to be first relieved, yet know, it is a 
shame that others should be neglected and forgotten ; 
yea, it is a reproach to the ways of God, that profane 
men should be more liberal to the poor, that more 
hungry bellies shoidd be fed and naked backs clothed 
by them, than by those who profess religion, and would 
seem to honour God most. Do not think this will be 
sufficient to excuse you before God, when the cry of 
the poor shall come up before him, that you have been 
at such and such charges for the ordinances and wor- 
ship of God : no, in this case God will have mercy. 

3. Mercyto parents, to relieve parents in their neces- 
sity, is a case in which God will have mercy, and not 
sacrifice. If Providence so order that our parents should 
stand in need of our help, and we are able to aid them, 
it is our duty to do it, though by this means we are 
deprived of God's ordinances. You oughtratherto regard 
the relief of parents than the observation of the sabbath, 
if the case requu'e it. You may be ready to think thus, 
Had not I better let my parents alone ? I must obey the 
command of Christ, who saitli, ^latt. x. 37, " He tliat 
loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of 
me." But there is in this matter a mistake. " Is not 
worthy of me," only means, if ycvu- parents should 
counsel, advise, persuade, entice, or command you to 
the practice of evil, or to the omission of any good, or 
the breach of any command ; and upon your refusal 
they should be angiy with you, that you will not obey 
them, but follow the command of God, and not go out of 



God's way ; in this case father and mother are to be for- 
saken for" Christ and the gospel, but in no case if they 
stand in need of your help ; as is enjoined in Mark vii. 
11, " But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or 
mother. It "is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatso- 
ever thou mightest be profited b"y me ; he shall be 
free." Now Corban signifies a gift consecrated to God ; 
and the Jews thought that if they could apply the word 
Corban of any thing, they were exempted ii-om all duty 
to their parents in that respect : It is ti-ue, I had an 
estate, but 1 have consecrated it to God, and church 
services ; and though I owe duty and respect to you, as 
my parents, yet more to God, as my Creator. This is 
most vile and abominable, and reproved by Christ him- 
self. Possidonus, in the Life of Austin, reports, that he 
condemned parents who gave their estates away to 
monasteries, and pious uses, as they thought, and neg- 
lected theu' eliildren : so for children to neglect and shght 
parents in the time of their necessity, and think to ex- 
cuse it with the plea of having given it to the church, 
and being now unable to do any thing more, this will 
not suffice. This was the old way of papists, to get 
people to give to their mother the church. I find a 
tratlition cited by some of the Jews, as used by them ; 
when they fell out and were thoroughly angry one with 
another, they would tell him he should never have any 
benefit in any thing which they had, and this they 
called Corban. In ^Iatt. xv. 5, it is called " a gift," the 
gift of the altar. Therefore some of the heathens for- 
bade this oath Corban ; and yet this was the oatli that 
these did swear by. And by some it is used in a similar 
manner even at this day, as thus ; when any that we 
are related to have thoroughly angered us, we are wont 
to say. Well, you shall never be a penny the better for 
me : this is no other than this oath Corban which they 
used to swear by in this place. 

4. Where the good of souls is concerned. And this is 
Christ's case, !Matt. ix. 13, " Go ye and learn what that 
meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice : for I am 
not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repent- 
ance." Though men ought to prize ordinances, and to 
highly esteem God's worship, yet if it should so happen 
that instituted worship and mercy to souls come toge- 
ther, and interfere with each other, and both cannot be 
done, the former may be reverently omitted, and the work 
of mercy to the soul attended to before it. Vi'e are ready 
to think that nothing must give way to instituted wor- 
ship, but certainly immortal souls are of more worth 
than ordinances. Paul was of such a disposition, that 
he could wish himself out of heaven and become an 
anathema for his brethren, that souls might be saved. 

5. In case of human societies, and for the quiet state 
of kingdoms, and yet this without prejudice to God's 
ordinances. God has allowed to men the art of naviga- 
tion : we read, Solomon sent ships to Tarshish to fctcil 
gold ; and were it not for this text, I could not see any 
waiTant for the estrangement from ordinances attend- 
ant on it : when men shall be three or four years out, 
perhaps, and never hear sermons nor receive sacra- 
ments : and yet it is lawful upon this gi'ound, that Gocl 
will have the peace of states and quiet of kingdoms 
preserved and maintained, he will rather dispense with 
men in the use of his own ordinances, for the prospe- 
rity of civil states : therefore Solomon is not reproved 
for sending ships to Ophir for gold. 

6. In the case of church societies, when the people of 
God are scattered and cannot meet together, God is 
content in such cases his people should be without or- 
dinances, and yet incur no sin : as is clear in the ease 
of the children of Israel aU the time the chm-ch was in 
the wilderness, even for forty years together they want- 
ed cu'cumcision ; but when they came to the borders of 
Canaan, and were about to enjoy any settlement, then 
they were circumcised again, and had the passover. 



330 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. \I. 



which before they could not partake of. So that in 
some cases, and upon some grounds, the people of God 
may be without ordinances, and that for a long time, 
and yet incur no sin ; and upon this ground in the text, 
" I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." Therefore tliis 
may be the rea-son' of those words which Clirist spake 
to ills disciples, " I have yet many things to say unto 
you, but ye cannot bear them now :" so'may we .say, 
Christ has many truths to reveal which people are not 
yet able to beai', therefore he withholds tlie revelation 
of them at present. 

7. In respect to our bodies : and this is Christ's case 
in Matt. xii. 7, " If ye had known what this meaneth, 
I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have 
condemned the guiltless." God's cai-e of the bodies of 
men is such, that he will rather have men do the one 
than the other, he will ratlier have mercy than the duty. 
Chiist pleads not here for the disciples, that this was 
not a breach of tlie sabbath ; but the case was such that 
tlieir bodies required it, it was a case of mercy, and now 
God would rather liave the mercy than the duty. A 
servant perhaps thinks much to stay at home, to tend 
a child or look to tlie liouse, upon the Lord's day ; he 
objects, Wliy should I not go to the chui-ch ? Is not 
my soul of greater worth and price than this chUd, or 
this house ? Now these ])eople go upon a good principle, 
yet err in their application of it : as, for instance, a fa- 
ther commands his child to do two services for him, the 
one to wait on him at table, the other to clean his 
shoes. To wait upon his father at table he is willing to 
do, because it is creditable ; but the other he grumbles at, 
and is discontented. Now in which does he show most 
obedience ? Surely in fulfillmg the meanest command. 
So God requu-es of us two sorts of duties, one the more 
honourable, the other more mean, yet perhaps the 
meaner, a work of mercy. God is wonderfully careful 
of our bodies, and would have us also careful of the 
bodies of others. JSIen ought not to macerate their 
bodies. God does not require weak, sickly bodies to 
spend whole nights in fasting and prayer; God in this 
case will have mercy, and not sacrifice. 

8. With regard to our own estates. But here some 
may say, AVhat ! may we regard our own particular 
estates Ijefore the service of God ? Yea, in some cases 
we may, as thus : Suppose we were in the assembly at 
public ordinances, and there should be a fire in the 
town, or thieves breaking into a house, we might law- 
fully leave the ordinances to quench the fire, or to ap- 
prehend the thieves and save our goods. Numb. ix. 10, 
if a man were in a journey, and in the mean time the 
passover were to be delivered, he might go on in his 
journey, and do his business, and yet incur no sin. 
So may we, if in a journey or on special business, if 
not undertaken in slight or contempt of the ordinance, 
we may go on without sin ; God will have mercy. 

9. In the times of persecution, God allows his peo- 
ple to discontinue some ordinances ; as is clear in 
Acts viii. 1. There was at that time a great persecution 
against the church which was at Jerusalem, so that the 
church was scattered and could not assemble to enjoy 
church-fellowsliip, and yet it was no sin to them : it 
had been an unjust charge if any had come and said, 
What ! do you prize your lives so highly, and fear the 
loss of them more than the ordinances of God ? AVill 
you not unite in church-fellowship and constant assem- 
bling of yourselves together, because you think you 
shall suffer by it ? No ; in such a case, God will have 
mercy, and not sacrifice. 

10. In the case of some eminent service for God. 
As in the cxse of Nehemiah ; he being the king's cup- 
bearer must attend to it; and when he was to go up to 
Jerusalem, a,sked the king's leave ; and when he had 
finished his work he returns to the king again to serve 
in his place : though he wanted the ordinances in the 



king's court, which he might have enjoyed at Jerusa- 
lem, yet, that he might be more serviceable in the 
church's cause, he is contented to deny liimsclf in his 
own comforts. These are the cases, with others of the 
like nature, in wliich God will have mercy, and not 
sacrifice. 

II. I shall satisfy some objections that may be made 
against this. 

1. But men's hearts are deceitful, and they may pre- 
tend cases of mercy when there is no such thing in 
hand. 

Know, though in such a case thou couldst not do it, 
yet do not thou judge another man that may or can 
do it. The rule is dafiicult, it is true, yet do not thou 
en\y another man's grace, to whom God lias given 
power to manage his business with Christian wisdom. 
Thou thinkcst that if thou wert in such places and 
hadst such terajitations as others have, thou shouldst 
miscarry, and aim at self in them ; yet do not thou 
judge another man that may do it in sincerity, do not 
thou judge another man's duty through thy weakness. 
God's servants in this world are as his stewards : now we 
know that a steward has not every jiarticular enjoined 
him by liis lord, but only general rules given to order 
particulars according to prudence, faithfulness, and 
zeal ; for the exercise of these three graces are required 
in a steward, prudence and wisdom, faithfulness and 
trust, care and zeal. So does God give general rides 
for the ordering of a Christian life ; and these general 
rules being observed, particular cases are to be ordered 
in prudence, faithfulness, and zeal ; wisdom to judge, 
faithfulness in doing, zeal to keep up life and spu-it in 
action ; and where there is a miscariying through fiailty, 
God win have mercy. 

2. But it may be asked. Can any duty of the se- 
cond be more excellent than the duties of the first 
table ; of the one, God being the object ; of the other, 
man ? 

The duties of the fii-st table are to be imderstood, 
either for the substantial and internal duties of the 
heart, or some superadded duties materially connected 
with them ; then there are duties of the second table, 
some more substantial, some superadded : now if we 
compare the infernal and substantial duties with the 
superadded duties, there the substantial are above them, 
and to bo jircferred before them, they having God for 
their immediate object ; yet in some cases God is pleased 
to indulge with men so far, that he will let the duties 
of the second table, duties of mercy towards men, take 
precedence even of the more substantial duties of the 
fii-st table ; so in the duties of the second table to 
men, some, which are but circumstantial and not so 
necessary, God allows should be done, when others more 
fundamental shall lie still omitted, yet without sin. 

3. But if God's ordinances are duties, can they be 
omitted at any time, and that without sin ? Ai-e they 
duties or not duties ? 

For answer. Take notice, there are two sorts of pre- 
cepts, negative and affirmative ; a negative binds sem- 
per, el ad semper, always and at all times ; but an af- 
fiimativc binds only semper, but not ad semper, always, 
but not at all seasons; at one time we may omit a 
thousand actions which are to be done, but we cannot 
do many actions at one and the same time : therefore, 
for affii-mative duties, if they be done in theii- season, 
God accepts of them as done continually ; as for that 
command. Pray continually, if it be done in its season, 
God looks upon it as done continually, and always 
done. If Providence should so order it, that another 
duty require to be done at this instant, the duty which 
I was going to perform ceases then to be a dutv to me 
at this time. If two good things come together, but one 
can be done at a time, so that the other is not a duty 
at that time to you, which othenvise is a duty ; else if 



Vei;. 6. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



.■3:31 



this were not, man would be necessitated to sin, and all 
the gi'ace, and mercy, and assistance of God could not 
help, if two affii'mative precepts were thus obligatory 
at the same time ; therefore this must be remembered 
for a truth, that when two affirmative precepts come 
together, the one- is a duty to be performed, the other 
not. 

But what say j-ou to the case t)f Daniel ? when he 
knew that the "writing was signed, he went into his 
house and prayed more earnestly, Dan. vi. 1 0. IMight 
not he have saved his life according to this rule, "I 
will have mercy, and not sacrifice ? " yet his was a sacri- 
fice that he tendered up to God, it was more than a 
prayer. 

Daniel was then called to manifest Jehovah to be 
the true God, for he was forbid at the time, by a de- 
cree, to pray to any God, or ask a petition of any man 
save of the king, dm-ing thirty days. Now, had he 
done this, he had denied the true God, and acknow- 
ledged Darius to be God. The thing he had to 
profess was higher than the sacrifice, it was a duty 
of the first commandment, a manifestation of God to 
be the true God ; and the case standing thus, who is 
the God that must be prayed unto ? Daniel resolves it, 
saying, I will pray to no God but the trae God. And 
surely, in such a case, profession is to be made what- 
ever becomes of mercy ; yea, in a lesser case of sacrifice 
than this, if profession of faith is involved, it is turned 
from a duty of the second table to a duty of the first, 
and must be done as a duty of the first : as thus, Sup- 
pose a man be forbid to do a duty Mhich formei'ly he 
has constantly performed, and esteemed lawful, and his 
forbearing of it shall be to them a testimony of his 
denial of that truth which he formerly held ; in such a 
case he is called to suifer the hardest things imagin- 
able, )'ea, to sacrifice life itself, if necessary, rather 
than to omit that duty, or to do the least thing which, 
to the enemies of the truth, may interpretatively be a 
sign of denial. The doing of such a duty against such 
a command is a witnessing to the truth, and not offer- 
ing up of sacrifice. It is not always that a man is call- 
ed to this ; but if it ever come to this case, interpreta- 
tively to deny a truth of God, then must we suffer 
rather than obey in such a thing, though never so 
small. And this was the case of the primitive times, 
they W'Ould rather suflfer the loss of life, estates, and all, 
than do that which interpretatively should be a pro- 
fession of the denial of any of the least truths of 
God. TertuUian reports of a soldier, who, when all the 
rest of his fellows carried bays on theii' hats, in testi- 
mony of their worship of a false god, can'ied a sprig in 
his hand, and on being asked the reason, answered, I 
am a Christian ; this manifested him to be so, and he 
at the last suffered death rather than yield. How 
many among us would think this a small matter, and 
had it been their case would have done it ! yet this 
man, regarding it as a note of distinction, chose rather 
to lose his life than comply ; and this act of his was 
approved of, as lawful, by learned and godly men. If 
we lived in the times of our forefathers, when the ques- 
tion was. Who is a Christian, or who is not ? and this 
by way of distinction, the case would then be different, 
changed from a sacrifice to a precept and duty of the 
first commandment. There was a time that the saints 
would not assemble together because of the persecu- 
tion. Acts -vdii. 1 ; but at another time they would not 
forsake joining together, whatever became of them : 
■when their assembling was made a note of distinction, 
who was a saint, who not ; who held for such a truth, 
who would not ; in this case, for them not to have as- 
-sembled together had been a great sin in them, and in- 
terpretatively a denial of the truth. 

4. But if God will have mercy in case of outward 
things, saving our estates and preservation of our per- 



sons rather than his own ordinances, is not this tc 
prefer tlie body to the soul ? &c. 

The preservation of a man's outward estate and con- 
dition is to be considered in a threefold respect. 

1. As it is in itself: and when a man shall love his 
estate only in reference to itself, certainly it is sin to 
regard it before sacrifice. 

2. As it enables us to do service for God and om- 
brethren : and this is in a higher respect than the other, 
of loving our estates for ourselves. 

3. As a duty in such and such cases, that so I may be 
made more serviceable for God, and for his people. 
Now in this case it is an act of religion ; the saving of 
our estates, as well as praying or hearing of a sermon, 
in this case is an act of sacrifice, for I do it in obedience 
to God, for religious ends ; though the thing itself be 
an outward act, yet thus done it is an act of religion, 
for by this I manifest both my love to God and religion. 

5. But is not a man bound to part with much of his 
estate, yea, and to suffer much, for the enjojTiient of the 
ordinances ? 

Yea, certainly, very much : we ought both to give and 
to suffer much for the enjojTnent of ordinances ; yea, we 
should choose rather to live in a poor condition, so we 
may enjoy the ordinances in their purity, than to be in 
a rich condition and want the ordinances; we are to 
be liberal ourselves, and careful in exciting others to 
be so, even tiU it come to the case of unmercifulness, 
and then God will have mercy, and not sacrifice. But 
when may it be said to come to a case of unmerciful- 
ness, in which God will have mercy, and not sacrifice ? 

1. "Wlien a subsistence is so denied, that the subject 
would be destroyed ; in this case God will rather have 
mercy than instituted worship performed to him. 

2. When a greater opportunity is denied to do good 
to om- own souls and brethren, than this is of enjojTUent 
of the ordinances ; then surely God will have mercy, and 
not sacrifice. It is impossible to give particular rules 
in every thing ; this is left to the sanctified prudence of 
the saints. 

6. But is not this the justifying of, and consenting 
with, those that took up innovations, and read the ser- 
vice book ? 

I answer. No ; this Scripture gives no warrant for 
any such, for there is a great diflerence between the 
yielding to that which may pollute and defile the ordi- 
nances, and to forbear an ordinance: wo must not do 
any tiling to pollute an ordinance, though it were to 
save our lives ; but the forbearing of an ordinance, and 
that for a long time, may be done, and yet without sin. 

7. But is it not a greater mercy to enjoy ordinances 
than estates ? we think it a great mercy, yea, and we 
have many mercies in the enjoyment of them, and 
though we suffer many hard things, meanwhile we en- 
jov communion with God and Jesus Christ in them. 

Certainly the mercy is very great, and much commu- 
nion is to be had with God m his own ordinances rightly 
administered, and happy are those souls which find this 
effect by the ordinances and communion with God : 

But yet know, that the maintenance of the subject is 
to be more regarded than the comfort of it, though it 
be spiritual. But now have a care of turning what I 
have said into poison ; do not ye say that you may now 
do any thing for the preservation of the subject; we 
must not do the least thing by which an ordinance may 
be polluted and defiled. 

To be serviceable in public use is more than to en- 
joy ordinances ; as for a minister to preach Jesus Christ 
to a people, is a greater mercy than his particular good 
can be ; and this has been" the judgment of all the 
churches, yea, it has been the practice of the chui-ches 
to send forth men to preach the gospel, and to open 
the things of the kingdom to them, when they could 
not enjoy the ordinance of the sacrament : Paul would 



332 



AX EXPOSITIOX OF 



Chap. VI. 



have been content to have been anathema for his bre- 
thren ; the being of public use to tlio churches was a 
greater good to him, and more in his esteem, than his 
own private gain. Thus far of tlie objections ; ten ob- 
servations follow answerable to these. 

Obs. 1. Carnal hearts which make little conscience 
of their duties, and are very cruel in their dealings to- 
wards men, yet may be contented to submit to insti- 
tuted worship. This very scripture, " I will have mercy, 
and not sacrifice," is a secret rebuke to such people. 
Such were those in Jer. vii. 4, who cried, " The temple 
of the Lord, The temple of the Lord ;" and yet were 
very wicked in their dealings. Those hypocrites in Isa. 
Iviii. could be content to submit to instituted worship, 
frequent in solemn duties of fasting and prayer, yet 
were such as did smite with the fist, oppress, and grind 
the poor. In Ezek. xxiv. 21, the sanctuary was ac- 
counted their strength, the excellency of their strength, 
and that which their eyes did pity, and yet were tliey 
very wicked ; and, in the 25th verse, their minds were 
on it, their hearts did love it, yet they themselves were 
carnal. 

Because men may be exercised in instituted worship 
without any power of godliness, the outward act of per- 
formance is a very easy work to flesh and blood, there 
is little difficulty in it. 

Because it has the most show of the power of god- 
liness ; they seem to be as sincere as any in their wor- 
ship, there is a great show in the flesh, in the outward 
man ; whereas God's worship is inward, soul worship, 
which carnal hearts cannot endure, nor do they desire 
it, it is outside woi'ship which they prize. Now God for- 
bid that any should have low conceits of ordinances, 
because wicked men join in them. 

Obs. 2. C'anial men thhik to satisfy their consciences 
by joining in outward ordinances. Thus did they in 
this place think to put ofl' God and their o«'n con- 
sciences, by living in the external acts of worship, while 
they continued in the love of known sin. '\Miat a deal 
of stir had the prophet to convince these hypocrites of 
this their wickedness ! 

06s. 3. God and men's consciences will not be put 
ofl'. God will despise both it and them. The heathen 
gods would not bo put off with such outsides, in the 
judgment even of the heathen themselves. Plato saith. 
What a vile thing is it to think, that the gods will be 
put off with gifts ! Xo, these are despised by them, 
they look that the soul should be just. And Seneca, 
It is not fat sacrifices, but inward performances, that 
God regards. 

Obs. i. The Lord has a high esteem of mercy; and 
it appears in this, that he will have it preferred before 
.sacrifice, and this is called, a " sacrifice acceptable," and 
a sweet savour in God's nostrils, Phil. iv. 18. Chry- 
sostom saith, that he had rather work a work of mercy 
than a miracle : and surely that must needs be high in 
God's eyes and esteem, which he pays so dear for. 

O Christians ! imitate God in this, let your esteems 
of mercy be raised higher tlian ever before, from this 
that you have heard concerning its excellency. The 
works of mercy are glorious \\orks, there is more in 
such than in those acts of religion wliich men think 
are more sjjiritual. I s)ieak the more of this, because it 
is a scandal which is laid upon godly men by the men 
of the world, that they are miserable and close-handed ; 
now in this we should labour to convince the world by 
the practice of mercy. 

Obs. 5. It is the Christian's skill, when two duties 
come together, which to choose. This is a snare in 
which many Christians are cauglit and foiled; they 
think both must be done at the same time, whereas 
the one is the duty, the other not. 

06«. 6. Though the object of an action be spiritual, 
yet it is not a sufficient ground to prefer it before an- 



other action, whose object may be but natural. The 
ordinances of God have God for their object, and the 
enjoying of communion with him; yet in the jierforra- 
ance of other actions which may be only natural, I may 
show more obedience to God than in oflering up of 
sacrifice. 

06s. 7. If God's own worship may be forborne in case 
of mercy, how much more men's institutions and inven- 
tions ! Oh what a vile spirit is there in those men who 
will not suffer their superstitious vanities to give place 
to mercy ! men must be undone in their bodies and 
estates, rather than their wills be disobeyed I The pre- 
latical faction have themselves confessed, that the cross, 
the surplice, and the rest of that trash, were their own 
institutions ; yet ministers must be silenced, bodies im- 
prisoned, families starved, and thousands of souls de- 
stroyed, rather than their wills should not be fulfilled. 
Oh "the intolerable pride of these men ! had they been 
God's institutions, yet might they have been forborne. 
AVhat did these men's actions say but this. Let Christ 
never be revealed to thousands and millions of souls, 
rather than these ceremonies shall be omitted or neg- 
lected ? 

06,?. 8. God will have mercy rather than disputing 
about sacrifice. Suppose there be a truth in that which 
is disputed about, yet God in this case will have mercy 
rather than sacrifice, rather than mercy shall be neg- 
lected he will have sacrifice omitted. AVe have ordi- 
nances and plenty of preaching, but the Lord knows 
how soon we may be depi'ived of them ; let us not then 
dispute and wrangle away our mercy. 

But must we not inquire after truth, and at this time 
also? 

God forbid we should deny or speak against any 
which shall search into, or inquire after, truth, yea, at 
this time, when a case of mercy requires it ; but, when 
young converts are taken off from fundamental truths, 
and led into eiTors, and souls hindered from coming 
in to Christ, in this case we should abstain from con- 
tending. 

But young converts must abstain from all appearance 
of evil, and labour to come to the knowledge of Christ's 
will in every point. 

True, they must, but this must be done orderly, they 
must first be establisRed and grounded in fundamentals, 
and then they have liberty to do this ; that rule is per- 
petual and holds in this case, Rom. xiv. 1, " Him that 
is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful dis- 
putations." Xow let no man say, the point was a case 
of indifferency : some would eat herbs out of conscience, 
others would forbear ; now certainly it is a sin to do 
that out of conscience which God neither regards nor 
commands : the thing itself here was indifferent, yet in 
this ease they must not receive them to doubtful dis- 
putations ; now, if not to doubtful disputations, then 
surely not to disputation to hold up error, and to in- 
snare and betray young beginners in godliness. In 
Acts XV. 24, " certain " are spoken of, " which went 
out " from the apostles, and " troubled " the disciples 
" with words subverting their souls." The 
words in the original signify, as if a man I'us'ttxul^wJt. 
had been ))acking up wares to send be- 
yond the seas, and one should come and scatter and 
undo all again which was jiackcd up ; or as soldiers, 
who having packed up their artillery, their bag and 
baggage, are forced to undo it all suddenly again : so 
did these false teachers unvesscl, scatter, and bring 
them all into confusion, labouring to subvert them from 
the faith. 

06.S'. 9. Mercy must be preferred before our own 
wills and lusts. ' God is contented, that wc may per- 
form our duties to our brethren, to forbear his own or- 
dinances ; and shall we stand upon our wills and hu- 
mours? () proud spirit, that cxaltelh thyself against 



Vet.. 6. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



333 



the Lord ; we must be content to deny ourselves very 
far for the public good, and for our brethren's sake, 
since God is pleased to liear with men so far, as for a 
time to bo without that honour, which he should have 
from men in their acknowledgment of him in public 
service. 

Obs. 10. Men must be contented to forbear their in- 
stitutions with those who cannot yield in their con- 
sciences to them. But let there be peace and quiet 
maintained by us ; we should indulge and bear each 
with other in such cases, of mercy especially ; there 
should not be the urging of lesser things upon tender 
consciences with such severity as to undo them, though 
they be God's ordinances. 

But if this be so, then what hinders but men may do 
what they list ? 

No. What has been said has been limited only to 
instituted worship, and so, punish them they may, but 
not to their ruin ; nay, in these controversies in which 
men are so divided, some thinking this course, others 
thinking another, to be agreeable to Christ's ordinance, 
things ought not so to be urged, as to undo the other 
party that opposes ; certainly such a practice as this is 
contrary to the rule of mercy in this text. Is it not 
cruelty to insist, that men must unsatisfy themselves 
presently, and lay down their opinions upon such a day 
as shall be appointed them. 

But you will say. It is sufficient that learned and 
godly men hold this opinion, they find sufficient to sa- 
tisfy them, and we may mistake. 

To this I answer, that those who are ignorant in 
any respect, must understand the grounds on which men 
hold their opinions. If their reasons satisfy you, then it 
is something ; but to say, I must hold such and such 
things because others do, and I ignorant of their 
grounds, this is folly ; for as we must not have an im- 
plicit faith, so we must not have an implicit judgment, 
to hold an opinion because others hold it; And thus 
I have given you the mind of God in this sci'ipture, so 
far as God has revealed it to me for the present. 

It follows, 

"And the knowledge of God more than burnt-of- 
ferings." For the understanding of these words, I 
thall fu'st answer some questions, and then give you the 
observations. 

1. AMiat knowledge of God is here meant? 
Certainly not a knowledge barely notional, but such 

as is joined with faith and obedience, a practical know- 
ledge, which brings the heart to love and embrace the 
truth: Isa. liii. 11, "By his knowledge shall my right- 
eous senant justify many." 

2. AVhy is the knowledge of God joined to mercy 
here ? was it not full enough before, " mercy, and not 
sacrifice ? " 

Because as God accepts not mercy without sacrifice, 
neither does he regard knowledge without mercy. Tilen 
are here in the extremes on both sides : some are very 
merciful, as the papists, but withal very ignorant of the 
knowledge of God and his ways ; that, as the apostle 
saith of love. If I should give all my goods to the poor, 
and my body to be burnt, it were nothing ; so, if we be 
never so merciful, and ignorant, it availeth nothing. 
Others have much knowledge, yet ate very rugged and 
hard-hearted. Now when mercy and knowledge are 
thus separated, God regards them not ; but when they 
meet together, then are they well-pleasing in his sight. 

3. Why is knowledge only named here, whereas 
there are many duties of the first table, as well as this ? 

Because both of the excellency and necessity of the 
knowledge of God ; the knowledge of God has an in- 
fluence on all the duties of God's worship. 

Because many are very much exercised in instituted 
worship, yet very ignorant in the knowledge of God. 
It was so then, and is so now in our davs : manv who 



contend for ordinances and Christ's government in his 
church, are yet very ignorant of Christ's redeeming tlie 
world, the way of (3od in reconciling himself and sin- 
ners together ; ignorant of the attributes of God, and 
theu- working for his people's good : therefore he re- 
quires the knowledge of himself to be in men prin- 
cipally. 

4. Whj- is the knowledge of God put after mercy, it 
being better than mercy ? 

The knowledge of God is not set after mercy be- 
cause mercy is to be preferred before knowledge, but 
because mercy is more apparent, most convincing to 
men: now when people are convinced of one duty, they 
are the sooner convinced of another ; conscience will 
easily convince them of what is God's mind. 

5. But why is it said burnt-oiferings, rather than 
peace-off'erings and sin-offerings, which we read of? 

Because these have more respect unto God than 
other offerings, as has been shown to you at other 
times, with the differences between burnt-ofi'erings 
and other offerings : as if the Holy Ghost should say, I 
require mercy and not sacrifice, and the inward worship 
of God, faith and knowledge, rather than any natural 
worship. The notes from hence are these : 

Obs. 11. The duties of the first and second table are 
to be joined together. IMcrcy and sacrifice, know- 
ledge of God and burnt-offerings, when in their place, 
are acceptable, therefore let us take heed of separating 
that which God has joined. 

06s. 12. The knowledge of God is a most excellent 
thing. This is that which sanctifies God's name, and 
manifests him to be very glorious in the world. Paul 
accounted all things but loss and dung in comparison 
of the excellency of this knowdedge of Christ. Instruct 
then yom- children and servants in this knowledge, else 
how can God have his glory from them ? How few- 
are there which glorify God as God ! and the reason is, 
because of the ignorance which is in their minds, Eph. 
iv. 18. 

Obs. 13. Men may be very diligent in instituted 
worship, and yet very ignorant. Noiie so acted in their 
instituted worship as these people, yet none so ignorant 
as they. 

That you are forward in instituted worship is your 
commendation, but take heed this be not your sin, to 
be ignorant of fundamental things. It is the great 
design of the devil to set up the man of sin, to keep 
men in darkness and ignorance. jNIany who think 
themselves, and would be thought to be, opposers of 
antichrist, even by their very questioning of funda- 
mentals of religion, and disputings about their new- 
opinions, raise him up ; the devil is wont to darken the 
truth of Clirist and religion, by casting a veil over it : 
therefore, you that are guilty of this distemper, take 
heed, though you have light in some things, that a 
veil be not drawn over those things w-hich do more 
nearly concern you, and are of greater consequence. 

Obs. H. Soul-worship must be jn-eferred before all 
other worship. We must not give God a carrion 
sei'vice, a carcass without a soul. Strong are the ex- 
pressions in Scripture which are used against such out- 
side, formal worship. Isa. i. 11—13, God professes of 
them, that he regards them not, he is full of them, his 
soul loathes them, they are iniquity, and a trouble to 
him, they are looked upon as a burden to him, such 
as God will hide his eyes from, and when they make 
many prayers he w-ill not hear them. In this one 
scripture we have fourteen expressions against outside, 
formal duties, beside the four which we find in Isa. 
Ixvi. 3. Thus you have the mind of God in this short 
but full sentence. 

Now God forbid that what hath been said out of 
this scripture should be sinfully abused to carnal in- 
dulgence. 



334 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



CllAP. VI. 



Ver. 7. But they like men have transgressed the 
covenant : there have they dealt treacherously against me. 

Here is an argument, that mercy in tlie former verse 
is to be understood in a large sense ; \vhy ? because it 
is the very substance of the covenant ; they have been 
hard-hearted, cruel, and unmerciful, and thereby have 
transgressed the covenant. I am merciful in the cove- 
nant, and my grace is free and full to sinners there ; 
but they have transgressed the covenant by being 
cruel and unmerciful : " But they like men have trans- 
gressed the covenant." 

" Like men ;" that is, like Adam ; these men have 
sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. 
Rom. V. 14, speaks of those who " had not sinned after 
the similitude of Adam's transgression :" but these, as 
they have old Adam in them, so they have dealt with 
me as he did; and as he for his sin was cast out of 
Paradise, so these men have deserved to be cast out of 
the good land. But Vatablus, and Tremelius, and 
others, read the words thus, They have broken my 
covenant as a man, they thought that I had been as 
their fellow creature ; as they made it their practice to 
break covenants with men, so they thought to do with 
God: so they have transgressed my covenant. This 
sense may be admitted ; and hence it would be season- 
able to observe, that the cause of breach of covenant 
with God is, because we consider not that it is with 
God that we make our covenants. 

But' the words are more usually read, as in ouj 
books, " But they like men have transgressed the cove- 
nant;" that is, not as I, who, like a God, have kept 
covenant ; but they, like such men as themsehes, i. e. 
weak, inconstant, frail, inifaithful creatures, have trans- 
gressed. Job xxxi. 33. 

But may not this seem to be an excusing or diminu- 
tion of their sin to say, " They like men," implying 
the common frailty of human nature, " have trans- 
gressed ? " 

No ; it is rather an aggi-avation of their sin. There- 

fore the word here translated " men," is 

used for man in his corrupt estate, for 

weak, frail men ; and so distinct from that which sig- 

nifies generous and strenuous men : and 

^ so the comparison is not only between 

God and man, but between the several degrees of men. 

Or thus. They have transgressed my covenant like 
men ; that is, not like my people. Saints that are of 
my church, they have not transgressed my covenant 
so. Theii- ways have been the ways of ordinary men, 
and as such they have transgi-essed my covenant. The 
two last senses are principally meant here. 

" My covenant." The covenant of God we usually 
divide into two parts ; but the Scripture, to me, seems 
to hold fortli a threefold covenant : the one of works, 
that which was made with Adam in Paradise. The 
second, that which was made with Abraham, the cove- 
nant of grace; the tenor of which is this, I will be thy 
God, and the God of thy seed after thee. Then the 
covenant made with them on Blount Sinai. Now the 
covenant here cannot be meant immediately of the 
covenant of works, nor of the covenant of grace, for 
this covenant here referred to is one especially made 
with them, and therefore must be understood of that 
at Mount Sinai, made many hundred years after the 
others; yet mediately it has reference to that of works, 
and of gi'ace. 

And were this knot rightly understood and untied, 
the Antinomians and we might easily be reconciled.; 
for we grant that believers are delivered from tlie law 
in respect of the power of it, as condemning ; from its 
rigour, but not from its duties; for the things com- 
manded in the law were duties before the law was 



given, the law was written in the hearts of the saints 
from the begimiing. But the opening of this point 
would require a whole exercise, and I shall reserve it 
to some other time. 

Now, then, the covenant which they transgressed was 
the covenant at large, but especially that covenant 
which God made with them when they came into the 
land of Canaan. 

" They transgressed ;" the word is may they went 
over ; the covenant was betwixt them and their sins, 
and they went over it to their sins, the bank was not 
high enough to keep them and their sins asunder. 

" There ;" they transgressed the covenant ce" there, 
in that good land of Canaan into which God had 
brought them, and given them possession : so the 
Chaldee. 

Again, " There " they transgressed the covenant, 
there where God had hewed them by his prophets, and 
thought to work them to good. 

Lastly, " There," that is, in the covenant itself, and 
that in those things wherein they thought they kept 
the covenant, and thought they honoured me most ; in 
those things they broke the covenant. 

" Have tliey dealt treacherously." The Sept. renders 
it KarK^fov)i<!i fiov, they have despised me ; they have 
forsaken me, and chosen other lovers ; even as a woman 
leaves her own husband to whom she was engaged, and 
goes to other men. It denotes the heart's joining to 
some other rather than God, so as to be willing to leave 
the Lord, and, either out of affection to some other, or 
for private advantage, to forsake God and his cause, 
nay, to promote and further that which is against God. 
The notes from the words are these : 

Obs. 1. It is God's goodness that he enters into cove- 
nant with such poor creatures as we are. It is made 
an aggravation of their sin here, that they falsified the 
covenant. The love of God in entering into covenant 
with such mean, worthless creatm-cs, should constrain 
dut)' from us in the most difficult precepts, and that 
with willingness. 

04s. 2. God is constant in his covenant with men. 
This is in opjjosition to their unfaithfulness ; they deal 
falsely with God in the covenant, but God is constant 
in his covenant, he confirms it with the strength of a 
giant. Dan. ix. 27, " And he shall confirm the covenant 
with many for one week." The word there -f^m 
signifies, he confirms the covenant like 
a giant, or a mighty strong man : they, as weak men, 
break covenant with me, but I with sti-ength confirm 
my covenant : therefore David saith, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5, 
" Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, 
ordered in all things, and sure." 

Obs. 3. Man's nature is veiy weak and unsettled. 
" They like men have transgi-esscd the covenant." AVe 
must not lay too much upon men, for when most un- 
faithful they act but like men. Oh what folly is it in 
men to forsake the eternal God and run to the crea- 
ture ! Vt'e trust our servants in our businesses, and 
shall we not trust God much more? The word saith, 
'■ All men are liars ;" nay, " every man at his best state is 
vanity." Psal. Ixii. 9, " Surely men of low degree are 
vanity, and men of high degree are a lie : to ^'^ 'a'd in 
the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity." 

Obs. 4. The apprehension of our obligations should 
keep us within covenant. Oh never let be said, that 
our sins are so strong that they break covenant to at- 
tain their desires. It is a sign of a most vile, wTetched 
sjjirit, so to desire sin, as to break over this bond of the 
covenant. Think of this, all you that are so easily over- 
taken with sin ; when a temptation to any sin comes, 
say thus, Such a sin I would have, and my desires are 
afier it, but did I never covenant against it ? and 
what ! shall 1 be so wicked as to break mv covenant 
for it? 



Veb. 8. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



33o 



Obs. 5. Breach of covenant is a most grievous ag- 
gravation of sin ; it provokes God highly against that 
people or person. " There have they dealt treacherously 
against me." Deut. xxix. 24, 2.5, " Even all nations 
shall say, Wierefore hath the Lord done thus unto this 
land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger? 
Then men shall say. Because they have forsaken the 
covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which he 
made with them when he brought them forth out of 
the land of Egypt." '\Miat cause have we to bless 
God that he hath not destroyed us for breach of cove- 
nant with him ! Why should not our condition be the 
condition of this people here in Deuteronomy ? . Had 
God turned his hand and let our enemies prevail, this 
might have been oiu' case. 

Obs. 6. God expects that of his people which every 
one cannot do. They must not plead they are flesh 
and blood as other men, God would have you more than 
men : you must remember that you are saints and mem- 
bers of Clu'ist, and therefore must live as the redeemed 
of the Lord. In 1 Cor. iii. 3, ''Are ye not carnal, and 
walk as men ? " the apostle rebukes the Corinthians for 
this ; God looked that they should walk beyond other 
men, and that which the apostle makes the ground of 
his reproof, they make theu' excuse. Jesus Christ de- 
scended from on high, to this end, to purchase a pe- 
culiar people to himself, that might yield him honour 
in the world, beyond that wliich he has from other 
men. We should live as those which have the Divine 
nature in them ; we should beware of passion and 
anger, even as God is slow to anger. How far are those 
f;om doing any eminent thing for God, who cannot 
deny themselves in their wills and passions, and have 
not even common humanity ! 

Obi. 7. Our keeping covenant with God is the effect 
of his grace ; we have not that power of ourselves ; 
therefore let us bless God for this mercy. 

Obs. 8. ;\Ien may do many services and yet be cove- 
nant-breakers. It is possible for a man to have com- 
mitted the sin against the Holy Ghost, and yet be a 
professor of Ciuist and the gospel : therefore we had 
need look to our hearts. 

Obs. 9. AVe may be covenant-breakers even in those 
things in which we seem to be most religious. But 
may this be in the duties of God's worship ? Yea, it may 
be, thus ; when men shall think to cover any sin they 
live in, by their performing of duties, this is treacher- 
ous dealing^and playing false in the covenant. 

Obs. 10. The sins of saints which break covenant 
are sins of a double dye ; other men's sins are rebellions 
against God, but theirs are treacheries. 

Obs. 11. The want of the right knowledge of God is 
the main cause of breach of covenant. Dan. xi. 32, 
"And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he 
corrupt by flatteries : but the people that do know 
then' God shall be strong, and do exploits." Vilio 
shall be corrupted by flatteries ; those that know God ? 
No, they shall be strong, and do great exploits ; such 
shall be employed by him in his work. 

Obs. 12. There can be no keeping covenant with 
God, where there is unmercifulness to men : let there 
be never such professions and expressions of religion in 
woi-ds, if there be cruelty and unmercifulness, there can 
be no keeping of covenant with God, Heb. iii. 10. 

Obs. 13. The consideration that it is with God that 
we break covenant, is a humbling consideration. Against 
me who am their God, who have protected them from 
dangers, delivered them in straits, against me have 
they thus sinned. As, if a man shoidd carefully bring 
up a poor child, and this child, when he came to years, 
should abuse and wrong him, woidd not this be in- 
gratitude and unkindness indeed? so the consider- 
ation of what a God it is that we break covenant with, 
wonderfully aggravates our unkindness. 



Ver. 8. Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, 
and is polluted ivith blood. 

We read in Numb, xxxii. 1, of the land of Gilead, 
which Keuben and the half tribe of Manasseh possessed, 
on the other side of the river ; in it were divers cities 
of refuge, which were the cities of the Levites ; one of 
them, the most famous, which gave name to the whole 
country, was Gilead : which thing is usual among us at 
this day ; whole counties receiving their names from 
some eminent place in them, as Northampton, North- 
amptonshire; Leicester, Leicestershire. This city of 
Gilead, in which were the priests, should have been 
holier than the rest, but it was polluted, and from thence 
the rest of the places of the kingdom. 

" That work iniquity." The words are ps 'Sjrs and 
signify, " that work iniquity," or vain things, with 
energy and effectually, as Pagnine saith SyS means, 
agere cum energia et eff'eclu. 

•' And is polluted with blood," one nspy supplanted 
or overturned with blood ; the Levites who dwelt there 
have undone the city. How many cities arc supplanted 
and overturned by the priests which live in them, by 
their cruelties, by their subterfuges, and subtle excuses 
for sin and wickedness ! They supplanted these cities 
of refuge, wliich were for those who had shed blood at 
unawares, they flying to them being secure ; and that 
they did in these four ways : 

1. By taking those in which were wilful murderers, 
whereas the city was for the shelter of those who had 
killed any unawares ; now these men would judge wil- 
ful murder to be but manslaughter, as we call it. And 
I wish our lungdom be not deeply guilty of this sin, 
even by this very distinction, when men in then- pas- 
sions shall make nothing of killing a man, and it is but 
accounted manslaughter ; certainly God will never ac- 
count it so, but even wilful miu:der. 

2. By refusing to take in those whom of right 
they should, except they had good store of money to 
give them. When some that were poor appUed for ad- 
mittance, they would refuse or delay them, and by that 
means they were often taken by the pursuer of blood ; 
for these priests were to judge of it. 

3. By casting those out which were in, and could not 
be a source of gain to them : often they delivered such 
to the avenger of blood, when they should have pro- 
tected them. 

4. By their cruelty to those that would not join with 
them in their false worship. Perhaps they might some 
of them be men of tender consciences, and could not 
join witli them in their superstitious worship ; now 
these priests, perhaps, would complain of them to the 
magistrate, that they were troublesome persons and bred 
divisions, and by this means they got them out of the 
cities of refuge. And has not this been our case of late ? 
Thus they supplanted these cities of refuge. The ob- 
servations are, 

Obs. 1. That through man's wickedness the best 
ordinances of God are corrupted. These cities of re- 
fuge were for special use, ordinances of God set apart 
for the saving, and they made them a means and instru- 
ment for the shedding, of blood. The sacrament is an 
ordinance set apart by God for union and communion ; 
and what more prevents this than its abuse ? men's 
coming unprepared separates tender consciences from 
joining with them. So likewise in civil ordinances for 
men's outward good, how have they been perverted ! 
where have they tp'annized more, and used more 
cruelty and injustice, than in the very courts for the 
administration of justice ? and such as should have 
seen equity performed, were the greatest instniments of 
oppression and mischief. 

Obs. 2. We must not always judge of places from 



336 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Cha:'. \ I. 



former circumstances. Gilead was a city famous for 
God's worship, yet now how defiled n ith blood ! So 
Home, how famous was it for the worship of God ! yet 
now it is become the very filth of abomination. 

Obs. 3. Places set apart for God's worship, if cor- 
rupted, become the worst of all. Gilead a city of 
refuge, yet where was there ever such a defiled, and 
con-upted place ? So in our universities and colleges, 
what superstitions and vanities have abounded ! even 
like Augeys' stable, a place of filthiness and vileness. 
And this is no new thing, for Gregory Xazianzen reports 
of Athens, that it was the most full of superstitions, 
and acknowledges it a great mercy that God preserved 
liira and Basil from those infections. 

06s. 4. To be a worker of iniquity is most abomin- 
able. " Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity." 
God's people sometimes are overtaken by sin, but they 
are never workers of iniquity ; for the Scrij)ture tells us, 
that he which works iniquity is of the devil. 

Obs. 5. The clergy, if wicked, are the worst of all. 
No men can work out or bring to jjass their own ends 
as they can. The priests were in Gilead, and they were 
the men who wrought the mischief. And have not our 
times sealed to this truth ? 'Who have been so vile and 
wicked as our corrupted clergy? but how has God 
broken the plots, and crossed the designs, of these 
vermin ! 

Obs. 6. A wicked clergy overwhelms whole nations. 
These were they which overturned this city of Gilead : 
and thus would they have done to us, had not God, in his 
infinite wisdom and mercy, prevented their hellish ])lots. 

Obs. 7. False worship and tyranny are joined to- 
gether. AATierever you see tyranny there conclude 
there is false worship : therefore we had need to pray 
hard for the ordinances in theii' purity, that we may 
not have false religion, and consequent tyranny. Luther 
tells us, that the devil is a liar and a murderer ; so that 
where there is a lie in God's religion, there is murdering. 

Obs. 8. There are none so cruel as wicked clergy- 
men ; SO they may have their wills and lusts satisfied, 
though it cost the blood of thousands of souls, they care 
not. 

Obs. 9. Cruelty in the clergy is the worst of all ; for 
it is required of them to be men of peace : but who are 
the great incendiaries of our times, and fomenters of 
these wars, but the vile, wicked clergy ? 

Ver. 9. y/nrf as troops of robbers wait for a man, so 
the company of priests murder in the way by consent : 
for they commit letcd/sess. 

This verse has much of the former in it. 

" Troops of robbers." The kingdom of Israel had 
their troopers robbing and spoiling up and down ; and 
who were these robbers, but their jiriests? their priests 
were turned robbing troopers. And have not we this 
text literally fulfilled at this day in our kingdom? The 
gown is east off and the armour put on, and now they 
are turned troopers. They were before murderers of 
Kouls, and now they are turned murderers of men's souls 
and bodies both ; so that we might send their gowns 
after them, and say. as Joseph's brethren said to tlieir 
father Jacob, Do not you know this ? is not this your 
son Joseph's coat ? 

" Murder in the way." They stood in the way to rob ; 
how was this? in what way did they rob ? Jerome i)ut- 
ting this question to a Jew, his answer was. That at 
the time of the passover, and the pcntecost, the people 
used to come to Jerusalem, and as they were going 
in their journey, these priests would stand in the 
way and slay them : they were the least suspected of 
any ; Gilead was a city which should have defended 
them from robbers, and they were turned robbers 
themselves. The notes are these : 



Obs. 1. Wickedministers arc most outrageous again<: 
those that leave them, and cannot join with them in their 
suj)crslitious and false worship. The priests were so. 

Obs. 2. A\'ieked men, especially wicked ])riests, wait 
to do mischief; how much more should God's ])eo])!c 
wait for ojjportunities to do service for God, and for 
hLs people ! 

04s. 3. Many people are nearest undoing when the\ 
think themselves most secure. It was the ease of thc-si; 
poor travellers here ; they thought themselves most safe 
and secure, and then were they slain and murdered by 
these wicked, robbing priests. 

Obs. 4. A\'icked men abuse the esteem which others 
have of them. These priests were the least suspected, 
and reputed harmless, innocent men. as at tlii> dav; 
and in other things, as in theft, many servants who are 
trusted by their masters, abuse their masters' confidence, 
and so are the more false. 

06s. 5. Judges are least called to an account for 
their wrongs, and therefore are the more bold to sin. 
These priests were to judge of murder done by others ; 
now instead of judging others' murders, they murdered 
themselves; now who should judge of theii- murders? 
There follows, 

" By consent :" the word is nc2tf taken by Luther and 
others for the city Shechem, which stood near Jericho ; 
and he saith, that Christ, in the parable of the man which 
fell among thieves between Jericho and Jerusalem, had 
respect to this place of Hosea. But I shall interpret it 
as in our translation, because I find it in another scrip- 
ture signif)-ing " consent :" " Then will I turn to the 
people a pure language, that they may all call u])on the 
name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent," Zeph. 
iii. 9. The word is re:™ with one shoulder, and is a 
metaphor taken from oxen yoked together. 

^Vhen God's people join together in a work, it should 
be a shame for any to withdraw from them. Thus these 
priests murdered by consent, they set to their shoulder 
in this wicked work, the one was not ignorant of what 
the other did. The note hence is, 

06s. 6. Wicked men can join together in wickedness, 
how much more should the saints join together for 
God ! AVhat shall we say to those differences which 
are made amongst us ? It is not long since we were 
under antichrist's yoke ; and were we not galled and 
pinched ? Then why will you not take Christ's yoke 
on you, which is easy and light ? 

"They commit lewdness." icy ntil They studied 
wickedness, they plotted for it. 

Obs. 1. None so jilot wickedness as clergymen. 
Gilead is that wicked city of robbers ; there the priests 
consulted together and plotted their wickednesses. 

Obs. 8. Plotted wickedness is the most vile. Exod. 
xxviii. 6, the ephod was to be made of" cunning work," 
of a work which had much tliought in it ; 
so it is in the original. That work is oprf!n«S'ii"So. 
very good which has much thought and 
consideration in it ; and that sin is wicked, with an 
aggi-avation, which is thought of and meditated upon ; 
then it is lewdness. Think of this, all you that do plot 
and think of your sins before you do commit them : 
in those sins there is lewdness. 

Luther renders the original here, " they do whatsoever 
they think," which may also be the force of the word 
" lewdness ;" he saith that they had a proverb in Ger- 
many, that the monks were so wicked that there was 
nothing so bad which they could think of, but they would 
dare to do it. None so bold in sin, or dare to venture 
themselves so far, as wicked clergmen. Many men are 
vile and wicked enough, but they want capacity and 
confidence to vend and utter it ; but these wicked priests 
could do it, calumniate and reproach without fear, these 
have impudent, bold faces ; and concerning such I say 
no more but this, " The Lord rebuke them.'' 



Vek. 10, 11. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



337 



Ver. 10. / have seen an horrible thing in the house 
of Israel: there is the whoredom of Epliruim, Israel is 
llejiled. 

The Lord proceeds further in his complaint against 
Israel. 

" I have seen an horrible thing." n'inyr a thing 
that may make the hairs of our head to stand on end ; 
the Seventy translate it by ^pn-wf i/, a vord of something 
similar import, signifying, a storm in the sea._ This word 
sometimes signifies the devil, as in Lev. xvii. 7, " Tliey 
shall no more offer their sacrifices dtj?cS unto devils, 
after v.hom they have gone a whoring." 

Tremelius, in" his comment, observes, that the letters 
are more than ordinary in this word here, to increase 
its signification ; as if he had said, It is a horrible thing, 
a very horrible thing ! What is this horrible thing ? 
It was this, Ephraim had defiled liimself. AVlience, 

Obs. 1. Idolatry is a very horrible sin. To worship 
a false god, and that for politic ends, as they did here, 
is a mo'st horrible thing ; to preserve their estates and 
their liberties, they feU from the true worship of God 
to worship at Dan and Beth-el. Jer. ii. 11, 12, " Hath 
a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods ? 
but my people have changed their glory for that which 
doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at 
tins, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith 
the Lord :" and chap, xviii. 13, " The virgin of Israel 
hath done a very horrible thing :" and chap. xHv. 4, 
" Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate." God 
does not put an aggravation upon this sin beyond 
what is in it. It is usual with men, if any thing be 
done against them, to make it very horrible w-ith cir- 
cumstances and aggravations ; but God never docs so. 
A notable example we have of man's aggravating an 
offence, Dan. iii. 14, "Nebuchadnezzar spake and said 
unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, ^Meshach, and Abed- 
nego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden 
image which I have set up ? " " Is it true ?" 
rn:!n of Ocsouiio, the words in the original are, VCXisX de- 
irphJoSiari. solations have these made, not to obey 
me ! This is the manner of proud hearts, 
but not God's, he never speaks more against a sin, or 
punishes men more for sin, than it deserves. We can 
look upon God's judgments as horrible, but where is the 
man that looks upon sin as horrible ? It may be you 
tremble at gross sins, but where is the man that trem- 
bles at false worship ? The apparitions of the devil 
are very horrible to us ; and sin is here expressed by 
the same words as the devil. 

Obs. 2. Though we may seem to colour sin over, yet 
God sees it. " I have seen an horrible thing in the house 
of Israel." 

Obs. 3. Idolatry is a provoking sin, but especially in 
the house of Israel. " I have seen an horrible thing in 
the house of Israel." 

" There is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled." 
Ephraim was the tribe of Jeroboam, and by Ephraim 
is to be understood the court and the nobles ; there, 
saith God, did I see this abominable thing. AVhcre the 
common people are generally wicked in a nation, it is 
a sign of much evU ; if the gentry are profane, it is 
much worse ; but if the nobility and those at the court 
are idolaters, it is night indeed. If Ephraim be vile, it 
is no marvel if Israel be defiled. 

Ver. 11. Also, Judah, he hath set an harvest for 
thee, ichen I returned the captivity of my people. 

These words are something difficult; I shall show the 
meaning of them, thus : Judah has wrapped up herself 
in the same off'ence, in the same transgression received 
from Ephraim, the ten tribes, and it has grown up to a 
harvest of judgment, which has its set, appointed time. 



But when ? " "When I returned the captivity of my 
people." This refers to the time mentioned in 2 Chron. 
xxvJii. G, where you find these three things : 1. The 
harvest set for Jiidah. 2. The captivity of Judah. 3. 
The return of their captivity. The harvest was set when 
"Pekah, the son of Remaliah, slew in Judah an hun- 
dred and twenty thousand in one day ; because they 
had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers." What 
a harvest was here set ! and the text saith, they " were 
all valiant men." 

But what was it that provoked the Lord thus against 
them ? Because they had forsaken the Lord, the God 
of their fathers. God's judgments in Scripture, cut- 
ting down a people, are compared to a harvest ; Joel 
iii. 13, " Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe." 
But where was this captivity ? In 2 Chron. sxviii. 8, 
" And the children of Israel carried away captive of 
their brethi-en two hundred thousand, women, sons, 
and daughters." But when was their return ? In the 
9th verse, the prophet comes to them, and in the 11th 
tells them, they must deliver up their captives which 
they had taken from their brethren : these were bre- 
thren, as is clear, yet behold their rage ! yet, in the loth 
verse, see how tliis affected them ; they clothed, fed, 
and restored all their captives again presently. See 
the mighty power of the word to still the rage of the 
stoutest spirits. Oh that it might do so with us at this 
time, as it did here with this people ! this would be a 
kindly work indeed. So that by this you may see what 
the harvest in the text is. 

The notes from hence are, 

Obs. 1. The sins of a people are seeds for a harvest 
of judgment, as their good actions are for a harvest of 
mercy. 

Obs. 2. God has a fixed time for judgment ; and 
though you have a time, yet know it is fixed ; therefore 
sow as fast as you can, there will come a harvest ere long. 

Obs. 3. In the time of God's judgments, he remem- 
bers mercy for his people. He has set a time for the 
return of their captivity. 

Thus you have, I conceive, the genuine sense of these 
words. There are some that read them thus : Judah, 
since you are guilty also, you shall not enjoy your peace 
nor your lands in quiet, till God retiu-n your captivity; 
Israel shall not enjoy their harvest, but Judah shall. 

Now that which makes me think this is not the 
meaning, is this, because the Lord still goes on to 
threaten Judah ; I have " set an harvest for thee." 

Some others interpret it thus : When God was about 
to turn away then- captivity, Judah did so harden Israel 
in their way, that it was the cause of my hardening my 
heart against them, and not retiu-ning their captivity. 
Israel might think thus. Though we are bad, and in 
many things amiss, yet Judah, who are a people nearer 
to God than we, is also defiled. 

Obs. 4. Many are ripened for judgment by the ex- 
ample of others, especially of great professors, and 
chiefly of professing and reforming churches, that have 
the name of pure worship in them. Let such be very 
wary what they practise, especially in a time of reform- 
ation, lest they harden others in their corruption. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Ver. 1. When I would have healed Israel, then the 
iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the trickedness 
of Samaria : for they commit falsehood ; and the thief 
Cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth icithout. 

This chapter is filled with complaints wholly against 
Israel. The two former chapters brought in Judah 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. VII. 



•B-ith them, but this chapter is sjjent wholly against Is- 
rael. Luther saith, that by the reading of this chapter, 
we may sec that the church has always evils of cue 
and the same kind, even at this day such as in those 
times. We have had a clear and lively pattern of 
this held forth to us in our times concerning our 
evils. 

" When I would have healed Israel." Before, God 
took upon him the person of a husband, that would 
have recalled his adulterous wife : but in this chapter, 
he compares himself to a surgeon, who would have 
cured a wounded person ; and his people he compares 
to such ; but coming to cure them, he found theu- 
wound worse than he expected. As sometimes when a 
surgeon first comes to a wound, he thinks it not so bad 
and dangerous as indeed it is found on probing it, and 
all this while perhaps the patient remains very quiet 
and still ; but when put to pain by searching of their 
wound, then they are froward, and struggle : So, saith 
God, many ways and means have I used to do them 
good, judgments, reproofs, and exhortations, but they 
grow worse and worse, the sins of Ephraim bi'eak forth, 
the sins of the court work out, and the sins of Samaria 
(which was the chief city) show themselves. In Isa. 
yii. 9, " The head of Ephraim is Samaria : " as if the 
wickedness of the court were complained of by some in 
the country. 

" Then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and 
the wickedness of Samaria'' did appear. The prophet 
looks upon Ephraim, the wicked court, and Samaria, the 
profane city, and sees death in the face of both ; the sin 
of Ephraim and Samaria is in the head, which speaks 
them in a dangerous condition. Lev. xiii.4-1. They add 
iniquity to iniquity, wliich shows their perverseness ; 
and " he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised," 
Prov. xii. 8. 

" The wickedness," niy-iUhcir wickednesses : "'UTicn 
I would have healed Israel, then the sin of Ephraim 
was discovered, and the wickednesses of Samaria." 

Obs. 1. In great cities there is all manner of evils. 

But now, when was God about to heal these ten 
tribes ? to what period does this refer ? Some intei-pret 
it to be, when God went about to cure the evils and 
the abominations that were in Rehoboam's reign, which 
was a very sad time : had lie hearkened to the counsel 
of his wise, gi-ave counsellors, it had been well for him 
and his people ; but giving credit to the counsel of his 
young, inexperienced men, he endangered the very life 
of his kingdom by it ; and when, through the pride of 
his heart, ne would not hearken, God rent the gi-eatest 
part of the kingdom from him, and gave it to Jero- 
boam ; and now, when there were such hopes of deli- 
vering them from these their oppressions, then did the 
iniquity of Ephraim appear, then did they oppress and 
crush those which would not yield to tlicir superstitious 
idols and false worship. But this cannot be the mean- 
ing of this passage, for at this time the ten tribes were 
not divided, nor broken off, neither was Samaria built, 
a.s we see in 2 Kings xvi. If tliis be not the time, then 
to what time does this refer ? Surely to the period of 
Jehu's reign, who was made the surgeon of those times, 
who was anointed in Gilead, the city of surgeons : for 
God saith, " Is there no balm in Gilead, no physician 
there?" God used Jehu for the doin" of a great deal 
of work for their cure, he destroyed and dissipated 
Jezebel and the priests of Baal ; and when this was 
doing, the great courtiers of Ephraim and the citizens 
of Samaria came and gave him their counsel: Jehu, 
take heed what you do ; be wise, consider wliat you do 
in such cases as these, take heed you do not overdo : 
you have done enough in destroj-ing Baal's priests and 
putting down idolatry ; but if, moreover, you pull Aovra 
Uan and Beth-el, and suffer the people to go up to Je- 
rusalem, you win lose all. Then farewell all obedience, 



your kingdom is lost. Then the citizens of Samaria 
come and tell him, that if he go on thus, they shall be 
undone and lose all their ti-ading, and shall be sepa- 
rated : And why should this be, seeing there is no need 
of it ? we may worsliip at Dan and Beth-el as well, and 
it will be more for our ease. This might be the lan- 
guage of the people ; and in this the iniquitj- of Ephraim 
and the sin of Samaria appeared ; and this was wicked- 
ness with a high hand. The observations are these : 

Obs. 1. The sins of a kingdom are the sores of a 
kingdom. Isa. i. 6, " From the sole of the foot even 
unto the head there is no soundness in it ; but wounds, 
and bruises, and putrifSing sores." First in regard of 
their sins, then in regard of their miseries. 

By this we may see that wicked men are the sores 
and wounds of a nation, parish, and family; therefore 
one having three wicked daughters calls them the im- 
posthumes, or cankers, of his family ; even so, wicked 
men defile wherever they come. Oh that people would 
think of this their condition ! Thou that art a wicked 
man runnest up and down with filthy stuff, more odious 
in God's eyes tlian a lazar in our eyes. 

As sin, so afflictions and miseries are the wounds of 
a kingdom, family, or person ; and if we will not be 
sensible of the one wound made by sin, God will make 
us sensible of the other by suffering them. Our king- 
dom is like the man which fell among thieves as he 
went from Jericho to Jerusalem. Does not the nation 
lie now a bleeding? and where is the man that pities it? 
nay, are not men so far from pitying these wounds, that 
multitudes flock together to take advantage of our sores, 
even like the flies which suck out content and sweet- 
ness from the sores of poor creatures ; I mean those who 
sti-ive to suck out the blood of the kingdom in tlicir 
offices and places, men that are altogether for them- 
selves, and how they may make themselves and theirs 
great in the world, though the nation lie a bleeding. 
Ai'istotle tells us of a man, whose sores the flies using 
constantly to suck and lie upon, his friend coming by 
him, and seeing them upon him, beat them off; the 
man was discontented at it, saj-ing, Alas ! what have 
you done ? I thought, replied his friend, I had done 
you a good turn. O no, for when these are off fresh 
ones will come, that will suck me worse than the others 
did before. Had we not those that did suck us before ? 
have we forgotten those oppressions? shall we have 
worse now ? It follows, 

" When I would have healed Israel." Hence, 

06*. 2. The Lord is the healer of a people. It is 
he alone that can do it, and none but he ; we may use 
many means to be healed, but all in vain, except the 
Lord heal us with pardoning and sanctifying mercies : 
Jcr. xvii. 14, " Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be heal- 
ed ; save me, and I shall be saved : for thou art my 
praise." So Psal. Ix. 2, " Heal the breaches thereof: 
for it shaketh." How many are there that would go 
about to heal our wounds sUghtly! Jer. viii. 11. y\'e 
are like many silly persons, who, feeling a little pain of 
their wounds, will needs have them skinned up and 
licaled presently, and then they putrify and are worse 
than ever. But the Lord is the healer of his people, 
and when he heals he does it effectually. Many en- 
couragements we have in Scripture to seek to God 
for healing, as the promise of God, 2 Chron. .vii. 14, 
" If my people, which are called by my name, shall 
humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and 
turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from 
lieaven, and forgive their sin, and will heal their 
land." Mark the connexion of these words ; first 
seek to be forgiven, and then healed ; if we should be 
healed before pardoned, woe be to us, we should then 
bo undone! Isa. Ivii. 16—18, "I will not contend for 
ever, neither will 1 be always wroth : for the spirit 
should fail before me, and the souls which I liave 



I 



Vek. 1. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



339 



made. For the iniquity of his covetousness was I 
Tvroth, and smote liim : 1 hid me, and was wroth, and 
he went on frowardly iu the way of his heart." Nqw 
what may we think will become of him ? Surely, now, 
nothing but desolation and destruction. No, saith God, 
" I have seen his ways, and wUl heal him : I will lead 
him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his 
mourners." Jer. iii. 22, " Return, ye backsliding chil- 
di-eu, and I will heal your backslidings." Oh that the 
answer of this people might be om-s : " Behold, we come 
unto thee, for thou art the Lord oui- God." 

Now the Lord cures accui-ately : as surgeons cure by 
purgation and allaying the misery ; so the Lord heals 
iiii people by taking away the cause and the malig- 
nancy of that ti'ouble which is upon them. So, thou 
that art under any particular trouble or affliction, if 
God sanctify that trouble by removing its cause, God 
may be said to heal, though the affliction be not quite 
taken away. 

Then God may be said to heal by fomentation, as 
surgeons use to do, when the part is able to resist and 
oppose that which would feed the humour : so when 
the Lord puts strength into the soul to oppose dis- 
quieting and vexing thoughts, that sinks into the soul 
from its afflictions : now, where this work is accom- 
plished, the soul is healed. 

Obs. 3. God does not always wiU things according 
to liis omnipotent power. "I would have healed 
Israel ; " that is, I would and I did use all the means 
calculated to heal them. 

But it may be objected. If God see that we are un- 
able of ourselves to be healed, how can we be healed, 
when we have not the power ? 
t Now, for answer to this, we must know, that men 

i are not healed proceeds not so much from the want of 

ability as want of will ; men do not do what they can, 
therefore they do not u-iU to be healed. God does not 
make men unwilling, but speaks to us after the manner 
of men ; though there be also an inability, yet because 
men think not of that in not turning, or because the 
inabQity is chiefly in the perverseness of the will, it is 
not a metaphysical inability, as I may so speak, but a 
formal wilfidness ; and though men think that God is 
altogether to blame that they are not healed, God 
will make this one of his works at the day of judg- 
ment, to clear himself from those aspersions. Now men 
are so proud, that they think themselves too good and 
too lofty for God ; but God will clear up all, and show 
himself to be righteous in their destruction. 

Oo.y. 4. Much wickedness often lies hid in a kingdom, 
or person, tUl the means of cure appear. It was thus 
with Paul, Rom. vii. 9, " I was alive without the law 
once ; but when the commandment came sin revived, 
and I died ;" yet, notwithstanding, God, by his almighty 
power, helped him over aU difficulties. As, when a man 
begins to repau- an old house which is rotten and de- 
cayed, he does not conceive the trouble of it, till he 
comes to remove the rubbish ; who would imagine the 
v.ickedness that is in many men's hearts, which disco- 
vers itself when the means comes ? Had not God set 
many servants in good families, the vileness and the 
vanity of theu' spirits had not discovered itself. Cer- 
tainly this is our condition. Some few years since there 
apjjeared much wickedness in England, but how much 
more since God has sent the means to cure it ! as 
appears, 

1. By a bitter spirit of malignancy against the power 
of godliness. No people so wicked" as we were before, 
but now our wickedness is gro'mi to a spirit of malice 
and opposition against the word and the saints. At 
the first, men cried out for a reformation, and cried 
do\ini bishops ; but when God's people began to rejoice, 
of a sudden what a desperate spu-it of pride and ma- 
lignancy was there raised to oppose strenuously the re- 



fonnation so much desired ! and this aggravated by a 
malice which, 1. Blinds men's eyes, so that they can- 
not see their misery by reason of the falsities, and 
flatteries, and treacheries used against Scotland, L'eland, 
and England. And, 2. Makes them, rather than they 
^n\\ be subject to the yoke of Clirist, willing to be 
slaves to the worst of men, yea, to theii' vilest lusts : 
and doth not this' show a desperate spu-it against 
God? 

2. A base, sordid spirit, that will rather endiu'e per- 
petual slavery by vile men, than incur any risk. 

3. A treacherous spu-it. "WTien men betray king- 
doms, overthrow states, and deceive the trust and con- 
fidence reposed in them, undermine and destroy pai-lia- 
ments, does not this manifest a most vile spu'it in the 
people of this kingdom ? Heretofore the commonalty 
could not be brought to fight against the Scots, yet 
now there can be found a gentry to fight against the 
parHament. 

4. A blasphemous spu-it. This sin abounded before, 
but how much is it now increased ! nay, are there not 
now new oaths invented and pressed ? 

5. A cruel, bloody spirit. Some few years since who 
could have imagined the cruelties that have been used 
by Englishmen ? 

6. A spirit of division. We should have thought 
that iu a time of public calamity we should have 
sodered together ; when there was private persecution 
more love was expressed ; and that which makes the 
rents now the more sad is, that they are between the 
best people. 

7. An oppressing spirit. Men formerly oppressed 
are now turned oppressors themselves. What doth 
this but presage what these woidd have done had they 
had the power in their hands ? This iniquity is now 
discovered. 

8. A spii-it of envy. How are active men in public 
places enned and spited ! and how many now stand neu- 
tral, and upon this very ground, because they see others 
not so rich as they employed ! therefore they sit still 
and fret themselves, and seek to hinder them that are 
active in public service, and so the work is liiiidered. 

9. A spu-it of superstition. Would ever any man 
have thought that the parliament should ever have 
had such a party to oppose them in their reformations ? 
"We might rather have thought that there would have 
been a general spirit rising against these superstitious 
vanities, to have banished them for ever. Oh what 
misery do these rotten teeth put this kingdom to at 
this very day ! This iniquity is also discovered. 

10. A wanton sphit. Such opinions as were never 
kno'mi before, doubting of the immortality of the soul, 
that there is no visible church upon the face of the 
earth ; and all this under the name of Chi-ist and free 
grace. Now what does all this but show, that when 
God would have healed us, then did our iniquities ap- 
pear? What sad presages are these of approaching 
miseries ! 

11. An unmerciful spu-it. Every one seeking his 
own, and how he may make liim and his great in the 
world, and neglecting the poor and those that are in 
distress. We have cause to say, O Lord, what shall 
become of us ? Know this, that I may not altogether 
discourage you ; though our times are miserable, yet 
are they not altogether like unto Israel. It cannot be 
denied "but that our com-t has imitated Eplrraim. which 
was their court ; yet though the city of Samaria did 
join with Ephraini, the city witli us has not sided with 
the court, but the bulk of it has kept faitMul with their 
God; for which mercy the childi'en yet unborn will 
have cause to bless God. 

Obs. 5. AVhen a people grow worse upon the means 
of healing, it is a sign that then- condition is desperate. 
Isa. i. 5, " Why should ye be stricken any more ? ye 



3J0 



.\X EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. VII. 



•n ill revolt more and more." Jer. li. 0, " We would have 
healed Babylon, but she is not healed." Ezek. xxiv. 13, 
" In thv filthincss is lewdness : Ijecausc I have purged 
tlicc, aiid thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged 
from thv filthincss any more, till I have caused my 
fury to rest upon thee." Now, certainly, had not God 
found a party in this kingdom which closed with him 
when he would have healed us, we might have had oc- 
casion to make use of this scripture. How just were it 
with God to leave such a people as we are in our heal- 
ing, because we are so impatient under the rod ! Arias 
Montanus quotes out of Hippocrates, that the physi- 
cians in his time were bound by an oath to leave 
under their wounds to perish, such as were incon-igible, 
and would not endure the surgeons to cure them. 
When a man is engaged in a bad cause, and means are 
used to convince him, yet ofttimes he will becDme 
worse. Oh the vileness of men's spirits ! We had need 
take heed that the cause wo engage in be good, for 
how many men are there who defile their consciences, 
i-iiher than yield to take shame to themselves for their 
sin ! Oh what cause have we to fall down and be hum- 
bled for our iniquity, and to say as they in Jer. xiv. 
18 — 20. So for particular towns and places where 
God sends the gospel, the means of grace, and that 
people is the worse for it, they have cause to tremble, 
and not to cr)^ out against the preaching of the word 
as if that were the cause of it : this were most wicked 
and abominable. It was thus in Christ's time. AVe 
never read of any possessed with devils before Christ 
came; now shall we say it had been better that Christ 
had not come ? O blame not the ministry, but your 
own hearts ; and consider of this, you that God is 
working upon, the Lord comes close by the ministrj- of 
his word to heal you, and then you discover yoiu- wick- 
edness and rotten hearts. The Lord stirs such a con- 
science, and begins to heal such a soul. Now it is_ the 
devil's policy to spoil such beginnings. Now, thinks 
the devil, if I can make such a soul commit a sin 
against conscience, or live in the omission of any 
known duty, the word then will never more work to 
benefit such a man. I have heard of one who, being 
troubled in conscience for committing that gi'cat sin of 
uncleanness, the devil tempting him to commit it again, 
told him if he would he should never be troubled more 
for it : the poor man yielding, and venturing upon it 
again, after he had done it was indeed never tempted 
again, nor troubled more, but lay afterward in a lan- 
guishing, senseless condition, and so died. O take 
heed of this, you that are convinced in your consciences 
of the evil of such and such courses, for it is the great 
policy of the devil to make thee, who art convinced 
in conscience, to sin against conscience, and then he 
thinks the work is lost ; the devil does not much fear 
the word's working upon him whom he has prevailed 
upon to live in secret known sins, and to venture u))on 
the commission of sins against conscience. You who 
are under God's healing liand, be silent, and submit 
quietly : be not froward, you that are in troubles of con- 
science, hearken for a word from God ; as the men of 
Ben-hadad did from that king, in 1 Kings xx. 33, they 
hearkened diligently whether any words of comfort fell 
from him, and caught at them iiastily. Know that it 
•were just with God to make you as the peoiile spoken 
of in Isa. vi. 10. This concerns all, but especially 
those that arc in trouble of conscience. Those that God 
begins to stir and work u])on, take heed, I say; does 
Christ himself begin to work upon you ? docs he desire 
to heal you ? is he willing to offer his blood to cure 
you by applying it to your wounded consciences ? Let 
not the corruptions of your hearts now break forth, 
take heed now of sins against conscience, lest he let 
you perish in vour lusts. Be willing to let God alone to 
ilo his work in you, lie quiet and still, take heed of 



murmuring and repining speeches, but follow on the 
work begun, and beseech him not to leave you till it 
be completed in vou. and the great hazai'd of your mis- 
carrying over. Little do you imagine those sins will 
weigh down and burden conscience which now you 
commit against its light. AMiat a torment wiU it be to 
thy conscience to think, that at such a time I felt Jesus 
Christ coming to heal my soul in the ministry of his 
word ; oh happy had it been for me, if I had lain under 
his hand, and kept his salve upon my sore ! but be- 
cause it was for tlie present troublesome, I cast it off, 
and went into such company, and hstencd to such 
temptations, and by this means have wounded my soul 
anew most desjierately ; and now what can I expect, 
but that the Lord should for ever forsake me, and leave 
me to die in my sins and wallow in my blood, and his 
eye not pity me, and make me to inherit the curse of 
that people, whose ears should be deaf that they shoidd 
not hear, whose eyes should be blind that they should 
not see, and be converted, and I should heal them ? 

"They commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, 
and the troop of robbers spoileth without." Further- 
more, in these words the ]n'ophet shows in what par- 
ticulars their iniquity did appear : they committed 
falsehood, they wrought a lie in regard of their false- 
hood, their false worship ; and then in regard of their 
o])pression, wronging one another, but especially in 
falsifying their trust one to another, and in their re- 
lations, not perfomiing the duties which their relations 
called for, and bound them unto ; so the word in the 
original npc properly signifies. " They commit false- 
hood ;" that is, they commit such a sin as the breaking 
of that duty which the law of thek relation calls for 
from them. The notes hence are, 

Obs. 6. It is the description of a wicked man, to com- 
mit falsehood. As the godly man is said to be for the 
truth, and to do the truth; so wicked men are again't 
the truth, and go conti'ary to the truth : as the devil is 
said not to abide in the truth, even such are these who 
commit falsehood, and work a lie. 

Obs. 7. It is a forerunner of gi'eat mischief, when 
people are false in their relations. In Micah vii. 5, 6, 
it was an ill time wlien all sorts of people were so un- 
faithful in their relations. 

Obs. 8. There is much secret wickedness committed 
bv men of false religions. " And the thief cometh in. and 
the ti'oop of robbers spoileth without." Such as these 
are secret and cunning workers of mischief in church 
and state. Gal. ii. 4, " Because of false brethren un- 
awares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our 
liberty w liich we have in Clu-ist Jesus, that they might 
bring" us into bondage." It is a great evil in a com- 
monwealth to have secret oppressors, but far worse to 
have public spoiling. We have had much of the first 
formerly, and the Lord knows how much more of tlie 
second we may further taste of : I verily believe, there 
is none that ever thought the enemy would have spoil- 
ed in such a manner as he has done, and that ever 
iMiglishmen would have endured it ; and we are the 
first people that ever endured such oppressions, that 
were not slaves before ; and what the counsels and 
thoughts of God ai-e in this thing concerning us we 
cannot tell. '• Violence and spoil is heard in her ; be- 
fore me continually is grief and wounds." Wiiat then ? 
" Be thou insti-ucted, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart 
from thee," Jer. vi. 7, 8. The first part of this scri])- 
ture is ours at this day, grief and wounds are conti- 
nually before us : but " he thou instructed," O England. 
In what? In this, that dreadful breach which sm has 
made between the king and parliament; be instructed 
in this. Jer. xv. 13, "Thy substance and thy treasures 
will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all 
thv sins, even in all thy borders." So Isa. xlii. 22. 21, 
•• But this is a people robbed and spoiled ; they are all 



Vee. 2. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



341 



of them snared in holes : they are for a prey, and none 
deUvereth ; for a spoil, and none saith. Restore. " Who 
gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers ? did 
not the Lord, he against -whom we have sinned ? " Who 
among vou 'will give ear and hearken to this ? ^Icn 
are wicked and tyrannical ; but who is he that has 
given this our land to the plunderers ? Is it not the 
Lord ? Therefore we should look beyond the troubles, 
the hand that strikes, to God, who gave them then- 
commission, and delivered us up into their hands. 
When God gives up a people to the robbers and spoil- 
ers in such a kind, his wrath is said to come upon 
them ; as in the 25th verse, " Therefore he hath poured 
upon him the fiiry of his anger, and the strength of 
battle." 

Ver. 2. And theij comider not in their liearln that I 
remember all their toickedness : now their oun doings 
have beset them about ; they are before my face. 

" They consider not in their hearts." D33SS niiS'-Sii 
They say not to their hearts. This phrase in other 
Gcriptures is used for saying in their hearts. Jer. v. 
24, " Neither say they in their heart. Let us fear God, 
that giveth rain." And in Eccles. i. 16, considering, 
is communing with our own hearts ; I spoke, or con- 
sulted, with my heart. From this phrase of speaking 
thus to our hearts, we may, 

Obs. 1. It is a good thing to be often speaking with 
one's own heart, thus : O my soul, how is it with thee ? 
how stand things between God and thee? what terms 
standest thou in for eternity ? canst thou look upon 
God's face with comfort and not be afraid ? what guilt 
is tliere in thy conscience ? canst thou behold eternity 
and rejoice in the thoughts of it ? Such meditations 
and questionings as these would be very profitable for 
the soul. Jlany people can talk abroad in company 
of these things, but where is the man that sets apart 
time to question with his soul about these ? Psal. iv. 
4, " Stand in awe, and sin not : commune with your 
own heart upon your bed, and be still." There are in 
the soul many times boisterous distempers, but then we 
should cause a sDence and a calm in our hearts, bid 
them be still. There are great distempers in that family 
where the husband and the wife go two or three days 
together, and s])eak not one to another ; so there is no 
less distemper in that soul, which can go two or three 
days without questioning itself, and examining its con- 
dition. But what is it they should speak ? This, 

" That I remember all their wickedness." The Vul- 
gate renders it thus. Lest they should consider. Do not 
you think that God remembers the sins of your fore- 
fathers only, that they were vile and wicked ; no, but I 
also remember the sins that are present before me. But 
the reading of the words in your books is most agree- 
able to the origmal ; therefore Luther saith, that these 
words are a reproof of their security : the princes, they 
feel not the judgment, although the principal actors in 
the wickedness ; and although the common people suf- 
fer much, yet they attribute their sufferings to any 
thing rather than to their sins. Hence, 

Obs. 2. God remembers the wickedness of people, 
though long since committed. As we may see in the 
case of Amalek, God remembers this their wickedness 
many h\uicb-ed years after ; 1 Sam. xv. 2, " Thus saith 
the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did 
to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when 
he came up from Eg)-])!." Amos viii. "i, " The Lord 
hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will 
never forget any of their works." Nay, they are not onlv 
remembered, but recorded : " The sin of judah is writ- 
ten with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond," 
Jer. xvii. 1. Every oath, every lie, yea, and every vain 



thought, which thou hast committed, andcontinucst in 
under an impenitent conchtion, know, that thy sins are 
remembered ; and that thou mayst be sure of it, see 
what is said, Job xiv. IT, " My transgi-ession is sealed 
up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity." They 
are sealed in a bag : as the clerk of assize seals up the 
indictments, and at the assizes brings his bag and takes 
them out ; even so will God : as God has his time to 
seal up men's transgressions in his bag, so he wdl have 
his time to take them out, to reckon with sinners for 
them, and then woe to them ! Deut. xxxii. 34, " Is not 
this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my 
treasures ? " It is sealed up to be remembered, though 
perhaps committed forty or fifty years ago ; and it is thy 
sin if thou dost not remember them, when and where 
they were committed ; and if thou wilt not, know, that 
God has his time to make thee know them. 

Obs. 3. AVicked men consider not that God remem- 
bers their sins. In Psal. xciv. 5 — 7, they commit horrible 
wickednesses, daring sins, yet they force themselves not 
to believe that God takes notice of them and remem- 
bers them ; " they say. The Lord shall not sec, neither 
shall the God of Jacob regard it." The Jews tell us, 
that when Jeroboam's hand was dried up, the false pro- 
phets told him that this was but by chance, and so 
kept him fi-om thinking of God that had smitten him. 
Did men consider that it is God that remembers them, 
it would work humiliation in them, and stop them in 
their sins. Were the danger that sin brings men into 
always in their eye, they would think it both a great 
madness and foUy to sin against God. Joshua thought 
it so ; Is the iniquity of Peor a small thing in your 
eyes, that you should add more to it ? Didst thou 
know that God remembers the sins of thy youth and 
thy maturer age, thou wouldst fear that, on the next 
sin thou committest, God might bring upon thee all thy 
previous transgressions. As a man that has used his 
body to drink poison, for a time may do well, but at 
last he is overcome, and destroys himself; so the next 
sin which thou committest, though it be less than for- 
mer transgressions, it may set all the rest on working : 
as, suppose there be many barrels of gunpowder in a 
room, and a few gi-ains lie scattered about, and a spark 
falls into that, and so fires all the rest ; so thy former sins 
are as the barrels of gunpowder, the next sin thou com- 
mittest, especially if a sin against knowledge, may be 
the grains whieh"set all the rest on work to pull doM-n 
judgment upon thee. There is no argument so powerful v 
to keep men from their sins, as the consideration that ^ 
God sees and knows them all, and will remember 
them. 

Obs. 4. '\ATien God punishes for sin, he manifests 
that he remembers sin. 1 Kings xvii. 18, the woraau 
of Zarephath questions the prophet, saying, "Wha; 
have I to do with thee, O thou man of God ? art thoo 
come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and 
to slay my son ? " God's hand being upon her, brought 
her sin to remembrance. How do the consciences of 
men dictate this to them in their afflietions. This cross 
is for such a sin, this misery for such a base lust that 
thou wouldst have fulfilled "at such a time ; God now 
puts thee in mind of such an act of uncleanness, such a 
time thou wert cruel and hard-hearted. This is clear in 
Joseph's brethren, whose sin was committed twenty- 
two years before trouble came upon them. You that 
have 'committed many sins a long time ago, and think 
thev are forgotten, it is not so ; even if the guUt of 
them be taken away by Christ, know that there will 
come a time in which thou shalt be put in mind of them : 
as' a man that in liis youth gets many a bruise and rub, 
which then he undergoes well enough, and never com- 
plains of; but wlien he grows old, or has an infirm 
body, then every rain and change of weather will re- 
mind him of the previous injuries : but this is the saints' 



342 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. \TI. 



privilege, that God never so remembers their sins, as 
to condemn them for their sins. It follows, 

" All their -wickccbiess : now their own doings have 
beset them about ; they are before my face." Luther 
saith, their studied wickedness, their contrived iniqui- 
ties, have beset them round about, or their doings have 
compassed them round. These words have reference to 
maleliictors, who shift up and down, but at the last are 
beset and seized : just so their sins had beset them, 
that they could no way escape. Or, as soldiers beleaguer 
a town, and will not let any in or out ; so men by 
their sins are besieged, and brought into such a con- 
dition tliat there is no way for comfort to come at them, 
or for them to avoid the judgments which are coming 
upon tlicni : men's sins are like the six men in Ezek. ix. 2, 
"And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher 
gate," to beset the gates of the city. And know, O thou 
bold sinner, that God has his time to beset thee with 
thy sins and his judgments, to awaken thy conscience 
by setting thy sins in order before thee ; and this is 
the great reason why men cry out in the horror of their 
consciences, because they are beset with their sins. 
What a sad condition were this city in, if beleaguered 
with a hundi-ed thousand men ! Every man's sins are 
worse, and endanger a man more, than millions of 
enemies can do ; man shall need no other enemy than 
his own iniquity: thine own iniquity shall find thee 
out, it shall find thee as in a snare. Prov. v. 21, "For 
the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and 
he pondcreth all his goings : " that is, I so remember 
their sins, as if they were all present before me, com- 
mitted at this very instant; so that thou art to consider 
that God does not only remember thy sins, but they 
are before God's face, so that God never can look about 
him, but they meet his view. Thou hast committed a 
sin, and perhaps art troubled for it, but after a wliile 
thou forgettest it, and the trouble is blown over ; but 
God looks upon it as now presently committed : for as 
there is no beginning of eternity, so there is no succes- 
sion. If thou wert to go to the Lord's table, thou 
•wouldst not go in a drunken fit, or immediately after an 
act of uncleanness ; but God at that very instant looks 
upon thee as drunken, unclean, and filthy, though the 
act may bo past many years before. 

Ver. 3. They make the king glad with their wicked- 
ness, and the princes with their lies. 

" They make the king glad." First, By their ready 
compliance with his commands regarding false wor- 
ship. The king and the princes were glad to see their 
edicts willingly yielded to and obeyed: at first, when 
the commands came from Jeroboam to change the way 
of God's worship, they had cause to fear that it might 
not take with the people, there would be some difficul- 
ty to make them change the way of God's worship ; 
but when they saw it go on currently without contra- 
diction, they rejoiced. 

Secondly, By their flattering of him in his wicked 
ways. They not only yielded to his unlawful edicts, but 
commended them, and applauded him for his care and 
tender respect for them, in shortening theu- journey, 
that they should not go so far as Jerusalem to wor- 
ship; and they flattered him in this extremely, telling 
him that this was the way to cstablisli his kingdom. 

Thirdly, By their own wickedness and profaneness. 
At this the king was glad ; and why ? because he then 
knew his design was accomplished ; he had made them 
■wicked in their lives, by letting them have tlieir will in 
evil, and now he no longer feared their scrupling to 
worshi]) the calves at Dan and Beth-el. Thus they made 
the king glad. Hence, 

Obs. 1. Wicked people are easily led asidebythe 
examples of their governors. Which way superiors go. 



the multitude will go : if they obseiTe external de- 
corum, they will do the same ; if they do wickedly, they 
will do so likewise; though they do not love their 
prince, yet, that they may have their prince's favour, 
they will sin against God. 

Obs. 2. It is wickedness for any people to obey the 
unlawful commands of their governors. This people 
might think this was no sin in them; What! must we 
not obey our governors, and be subject to authority ? 
yet we see the Holy Ghost calls it wickedness. So how 
many are there, who for their worship have no other 
authority but their superiors, their governors ! this will 
never pa-ss current in God's account. 

Obs. 3. It is a vile wickedness to flatter princes. 
Yet, how has this been the constant course of courts ! 
It is reported of IJionysius, that when he spit, his flat- 
terers would lick it up, and say, it was sweeter than 
honey. It is vile in the people to flatter, and more vile 
in princes to love to be flattered. Cyril on this text 
saith. Had the fear and love of God been in this peo- 
ple, it would have kept both them and their princes ; 
it would have balanced their spirits, and enabled them 
to have withstood such wicked commands. 

Obx. 4. It is a most vile thing to make any glad with, 
or to be made glad by, wickedness. Yet how many are 
guilty of this sin ! Some are so hardened in their wick- 
edness, that they will make others drunk, and then 
laugh at them when they have done so : how far are 
these from David's temper, whose eyes ran down witK 
tears because men kept not the law ; and horror took 
hold upon him ! There is no gi-cater sign of a desperate 
heart hardened in sui, than to laugh at sin in others, 
and make a sport of it in themselves ; and the higher 
men are in place and dignity, the greater is the aggra- 
vation of then- sins : for princes, who are set to be pun- 
ishers of sin and a teiTor to evil-doers, to rejoice at ini- 
quity is most horrible! Prov. x.\ix. 12, "If a ruler 
hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked." 

" With their wickedness." Note, 

Obs. 5. The king is in a sad condition, when his 
ends must be accomplished by the wickedness of the 
people. Such are the dispositions of these men, that 
they will do any thing rather than suffer the least pun- 
ishment ; as amongst us some men have no conscience 
left in them to check them ; but these precise puritans, 
as they term them, will suffer and die rather than sin 
against God and wrong their consciences. Now these 
priests and tlicir officers, whom the prophet here speaks 
of, they would reason thus : If I should cross the king's 
mind I would lose my place, be put out of my office, 
and suffer a great dealof trouble : and rather than they 
will run such risks, they will join any design to ruin 
that which crosses them, yea, though it be the worship 
of God. fficolampadius saith, that bad princes ai-e al- 
ways enemies to the strict ways of religion ; and such 
as are the strictest in those ways, and walk most agree- 
able to the word, and are tender in their conscience, 
fearful to sin against it, these are disregai-ded and dis- 
countenanced, but those that are most wicked are ac- 
counted the best subjects, and these they will trust ; 
therefore, where there is no religion, slavery soon fol- 
lows : that people may be brought to any thing, who 
have lost their religion ; but where profession is main- 
tained, it will teach men to stand for their liberties, and 
not to yield against the truth. But what I does religion 
teach men rebellion ? does it deny obedience to go- 
vernors ? No, by no means ; religion teaches obedience 
to governors, and the more religious any man is, the 
more obedient he will be to lawful authority : the gos- 
pel commands obedience to governors, but not to ty- 
ranny, not to the mere wills and humours of others, 
God never made such a difference between men; reli- 
gion never teaches disobsdience to lawful authority, to 
such as rule in the Lord. 



Vee. 3. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



343 



" And the princes with their lies." Luther refers 
this to the lie of ihi'ijc false worship, their idolatry, 
■which the Scripture calls a lie, Rom. i. 25, " Who 
changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped 
and, served the creature more than the Creator." This is 
not, liowever, the full meaning and scope of the words ; 
but thus : 

They put their false glosses upon their false worship, 
to make it to take with the people and with the princes. 
The priests did not only submit and yield to them 
themselves, but encouraged the people, telling them it 
was decent and comely in the worship of Ciod. 

Or thus : By denyuig whatsoever may hinder them 
in their false worship. If the prince should by any 
means hear that his commands were not likely to take 
with the people, and so his ends be defeated, they would 
boldly come and affirm the contrary ; or if they had an 
ill success, they would deny it, and say they had none, 
it was but a slander which was put upon them by these 
factious puritans ; they would make the princes be- 
lieve they had good success, when theu- designs were 
crossed and hindered. 

But chiefly, they made "the princes glad with their 
lies," by raising slanders and evil reports upon the 
names and persons of those who might stand in the 
way to cross and hinder them, they blasted such men 
as were in credit in the eyes of the people ; and those 
in authority loved this at the heart, this was mighty 
pleasing in the eyes of the princes : and this certainly 
was the plot of the priests who, at that time, were ene- 
mies to the true worship of God. 

The notes are, 

Obs. 6. AU idolatry is but a lie in God's esteem, he 
looks upon it as a deceitful thing. 

Obs. 7. Idolaters are wont to further then- false wor- 
ship by lies ; to tell of their good success when they 
have none ; and when matters turn out ill, to say theii" 
success is as good as heart could desire ; but this in 
special was their trick, to slander and disgrace those 
that stood in theu' way. The text in Jer. xx. 10, saith 
that they waited for the prophet's halting, and said, 
" Report, and we will report ;" do you say the thing, 
and we wiU affirm it, we will spread it abroad ; report, 
and let us aloiie with it then, we will never stand ex- 
amining the truth of it, we heard it reported, and that 
is sufficient. In later times, what calumnies and re- 
proaches were by the papists raised against Luther ! 
men set on work on purpose to do it. You may per- 
ceive my strait at this time, how loth I am to rake in 
these filthy puddles, and yet led by this scripture so 
fully to it, that I must either baUi the mind of God, 
or else touch upon these jarring strings; but I shall, 
for peace' sake, for the present wave it, and reserve it 
to its more convenient place ; howbeit, this will stick 
to some whose course it has been : but how vile and 
wicked is this course ! for what reeompence can such 
possibly make for the wrong done ? The evils of slan- 
der are many. 

First, It cannot be expected that an answer should 
suddenly come to clear away the reproaches. Secondly, 
When an answer is come, it will be but one's yea and 
another's nay. Thirdly, If it should be satisfactory, all 
the amends that can be made is a recantation,! am soriy, 
I was misinformed, I had letters of it; and this is a poor 
requital. Fourthly, It is a question w'hether ever the 
answer shall spread as generally as the calumny. 

Obs. 8. It is an evil thing to make men glad with 
lies. This was their sin here, they had made the 
princes glad with their lies. 

You had need look to yourselves when you hear re- 
proaches and slanders against instruments of public 
good. Do you secretly love and cherish them ? If you 
do, it is a sign there is rottenness in yom- hearts. It is 
eyil to sow reports and slanders, but to harrow them 



in is worse : he that reports, is he that sows slanders ; 
and he that carries the report and spreads it, is he tliat 
harrows it in. 

Ver. 4. Thei/ are all adulterers, as an oven heated by 
the baker, tcho eeasethfrom raising after he hath knead- 
ed the dough, xmtil it be leavened. 

This verse needs but little opening, and the rather, 
because the 6th verse has much to the same effect. 

" They are all adidterers, as an oven heated by the 
baker :" either spmtual or corporeal adulterers. Is the 
heat of either like to an oven ? Therefoi'e let every 
one take heed of that which may kindle this fire, either 
of corporeal or spiritual adultery: 1. An inward heat. 
2. Violent, that turns every thing to its own increase. 3. 
A heat abiding, collected, and resting ; not of a hearth, 
which scatters the heat, but as the heat in an oven. 

Now if wicked, sinful heat be so kept in and compact- 
ed, how much more should our heat be kept in and 
compacted for God, in the duties of his worship ! A^^len 
we come to prayer, perhaps we have a little heat, but 
it is scattered and confused : if a man were to heat a 
pot upon the fire, he would take it ill if another should 
scatter the fire abroad. The devil comes and scatters 
our heat, and spoils us in our aff'eetions : now, we 
should oppose the devil in this. It follow^s, 

" Who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded 
the dough, until it be leavened." Jerome and others 
greatly aid in understanding these words, by a tra- 
dition of the Jews, which was this : They say, the in- 
tent of Jeroboam for altering of religion was very hot, 
but not knowing how it would take, they sent abroad 
spies to see how the people stood affected, and gradually 
to leaven them ; they thought if this theu- design were 
urged upon tliem of a sudden, it would not take, but if 
by degrees, it might gain upon men's minds. Thus 
Jerome and Cyril. As, when the baker ceases from 
kneading, he does not presently put it into the oven, 
but lets'it lie, that the leaven may run through it; so 
Jeroboam and his princes were like this baker, they 
were set upon then- design, and it they would have, 
but they would have the people first leavened previous 
to their- putting it into execution : and Cyril adds, that 
those who went to persuade the people, artfully told 
them it would be for their ease and profit not to go up 
to Jerusalem, but to petition the king, that he, out of 
his princely love and wisdom, would permit them to 
worship at Dan and Beth-el. And here lay the top of 
the plot ; the king's design, so much desired by him and 
his princes, must yet be brought about bj' the people, 
they must petition to the king that he would grant this 
liberty to them, to worship at Dan and Beth-el, and that 
they might not go up to Jerusalem. By this you may see, 
how W'icked and wise idolaters are for the accomplish- 
ment of their purposes ; by this means princes obtain 
their ends, and their plots remain undivulged. 

Behold the cunning plots of the devil, to delude poor 
souls in matters of worship ; therefore, we had need to 
look to our ways, we have to deal with cunning princes 
and subtle men. 

This means was of late used among ourselves ; our 
bakers have been kneading their dough, but they had 
heated their oven too hot, and so their cake proved 
over-baked, abortive, and came to nothing; and we 
have cause to bless God, who gave them up to this 
violence of rage. These in Jeroboam's time were wise 
enough to carry on their designs with moderation, 
policy, and secrecy, and so succeeded; our enemies 
were not. 

And as wicked men do stay and are contented to 
wait, till the fittest time comes for the accomplishment 
of theu- wicked plots, so the devil is contented to wait ; 
he fii-st tempts the soul to sin, and when the temptation 



314 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. VII. 



has pi'evailed, he stays and lets the sin work a while, 
therefore take heed of letting a temptation prevail ; do 
not roll it up and down in your thoughts, saying, 
What if I should do such a thing ? what if I should not ? 
now know, that the devil is a leavening your liearts, 
and when your hearts are thus leavened, he will come 
in with such strength of temptation that you sliall not 
be able to resist him ; tlierefore, as Christ bade liis dis- 
ciples beware of the leaven of the scribes and Pharisees, 
so take heed of this leaven of Satan. In this the devil 
deals as God does with a sinner in the gospel. The gos- 

})el is compared to leaven in Matt. xiii. 33. God 
eavens the heart with some truth or other, and there 
lets it lie and soak a while in the soul ; he casts into 
the soul some ti'uth, and does not presently urge it 
on the soul with violence, putting it forthwith upon 
difficult duties, which it is not capable to perform 
at the fh'st, but lets these truths lie, soak, and spread 
in the heart, till sucli time as the disposition and savour 
of the heart be moulded and changed into the truth ; 
and then the Lord comes in with other truths, and 
works them u])ou tlie heart, which it was neither fit nor 
capable of before. And it were wisdom in the minis- 
ters of the gospel to take this course, not violently to 
urge strict and liard duties upon new converts; but 
press tlic gospel to them, and there let it lie and soak 
a wliilc upon the spirit : and blessed is that soul wiucli 
is thus leavened ; the Lord will carry on tliis work 
to ])erfection ; these beginnings, the Lord, in his time, 
will finish. 

Vcr. 5. In the day of our hing the princes hare made 
him nick with bottles of icine ; he stretched out his hand 
ivith scorners. 

There is no ]5reposition " in " in the Hebrew, it is 
only, ijsSc CI' The day of our king. Tlie people being 
leavened with Jeroboam's idolatiy, now make their ac- 
clamations in honour of their king, and rejoice in the 
forms of worship which he and his princes liad set up, 
and would not regard the requests and petitions of 
some few who desu'ed it might not be establislied ; and 
ihougli they were bound in conscience to go up to Je- 
rusalem, yet, notwithstanding, the king would send forth 
his edicts, to tell the peoj>!e there should be no more 
going up to Jeiasalem, but to Dan and Beth-el ; now at 
this they rejoice, and cry out, Oh the day of our gxjod 
king, which has set his good people at liberty, and 
cased us of our great journey to Jerusalem, to the 
danger of tlie kingdom, and is an enemy to those pre- 
cise ])eopIe ! 

This day of their king, was either the day of his 
birth, or liis coronation-day, or the day in which he set 
up the calves at Dan and lieth-el. Now it cannot 
be imagined but that there were some murmurings 
amongst some of the ])eople, they were not all inclined 
to consent to the setting up of the calves ; therefore 
they did it by a stratagem, taking advantage of the 
mirth and triumph in the day of their king. Or thus : 
If the people were not thoroughly leavened by tliis 
means, they would take this course ; Come, we will go 
set up our king, and magnify our kin", and this will 
prepare the people to receive any thing he enjoins. Let 
the citizens be in their gowns, and tlie gentry in their 
array, and let the king be amongst them, and show 
himself courteous and loving to the people, and now 
let us cry out, Oh our good king ! This is the day of 
our king ! 

Tliosc who refer this day to the day of his birth, 

Obs. 1. Tliat we never read in Scri])ture of any 
godly king that celebrated liis biith-day, but of three 
wicked kings, Pharaoh, Gen. xl. 20 ; Jeroboam, in this 
text; and llerod, in Mark vi. 21 : not that it is alto- 
gether unlawful to celebrate or observe a birth-day. 



or a coronation-day, if it be obseiTcd with two cau- 
tions : 

1. That it be not made as a holy-day, a holiness put 
upon it ; for God never gave that power to man, to set 
a day apart as holy for his use. 

Obj. AVTiat ! may not man set days apart for humili- 
ation or thanksgiving ? Yea, he may. Then what is 
the difference between God's setting of days apai't for 
holy uses, and man's doing the same ? 

jlnsu: The difl'erence lies in this : time and things 
set apart by God for holy em]ilo)-ments and services, 
besides tliat they make the duties more holy, and the 
ordinances more solemn and spiritual, than they are 
upon a day which man appoints, (for man's appoint- 
ment puts no holiness upon the duties which are done 
upon those days,) tliere is a continued holiness in them, 
as in ministers, &c. ; but there is no more holiness in 
days and times set apart by man for God, than there 
is holiness ])ut upon the paper on which the Bible is 
printed : the printer takes out so many reams of paper 
from his lieap, and sets them apart to print the Bible ; 
now will any man think this paper is more holy than 
the rest ? 

2. Provided that God do not at that time call for 
some otlier duty or service from us. Man must not so 
tie himself, by any institution of his own, as to cross 
God's providence : as suppose I have set a day apart for 
thanksgiving, providence may so order, tliat God that 
very day may call for a day of humiliation ; now if I 
should keep a thanksgiving day, and so cross provi- 
dence, being called to humiliation, I should sin. These 
two things being observed, I know nothing to the con- 
trary but that it may be lawful to observe a day. A man 
may remember his birth-day with this view, to be hum- 
bled for not doing the work we are called unto; somen 
man'ied may, at the revolution of the year, bless God 
for the mercies they have enjoyed in that ordinance 
entered into on that day : but how many are there who 
have little cause to remember either that, or their birth- 
day I nay, may they not rather, with Job, curse the day 
of "their birth ? Sujipose you should hear a voice from 
heaven this day, that you must die and not live, that 
this must be the last day you sliould live, tell nie then, 
could you bless God for the day of your birth ? would i 
the thoughts of it be delightful to you ? Philip the 
Third, king of Spain, who lived so strictly that he never 
committed any gross crime, or knomi sin willingly; 
yet, when he came to die, is reported to have cried out, 
Oh that I had never reigned ! that I had lived a pri- 
vate life in the wilderness, that I might not have to 
answer for not doing the good, or hindering the evil, 
which I might have done ! It is a sad thing, when men 
come to die, not to be able to look back with comfort 
to their past lives, to a faithfid discharge of their duties ; 
had Jeroboam kept his birth-day in this manner, there 
had been no evil in it ; but his keeping of it was only 
to satisfy the flesh, till he himself was sick with vrine : 
in such days, Bacchus and Venus have the greatest 
portions. 

06s. 2. Festival days are usually made distempering 
days, days of provocation. " Made sick with bottles of 
wine." This wine is like that in Deut. xxxii. 33, 
" Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel 
venom of asps:" this wine of asps makes the spirits 
warm, and the body sick. Job Knew the danger of 
feasting; therefore, when his children were feasting, he 
was sacrificing. They made the king drunk with wine. 
This was the way which they took to gain the king. 
And is not this the course which is taken now in our 
days, to betray the young gentry into base filthiness? 
Tliis was the plot of these priests,' first to make the king 
drunk, and then tliey could do any thing with liim, 
could get any edict from him to serve their own base 
ends, to suppress the precise and godly among them. 



Ver. 5. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



Ofi.s. 3. Drunkenness is an old court sin. See how 
the prophet, Isa. xxviii. 1, fills his mouth with wrfes 
and tlu-eatenlngs against the drunkenness of Ephraini ; 
" Woe to the crown of pride, to tlie drunkards of 
Ephraim!" The court, the crown of Ephraim, was at 
Samaria. A miserable thing it is, that those who have 
the most opportunity for God, should spend theii- time 
in such beastly vanities, and do to their bodies and 
souls as Richard the Third to his brother, cbown them 
in a butt of sack. 

Obs. 4. Drunkenness brings diseases. " Be not 
among ^Yine-bibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh ; 
for the di'unkard and the glutton shall come to poverty." 
How many are there which carry about with them the 
marks of their lusts, as Paul carried about him tlie 
marks of the Lord Jesus ! Men will venture much for 
theii' lusts, but if Chi'ist call them to suffer any thing 
for him, then they are tender and sickly ; but let their 
estates, healths, and credits stand in the way to hinder 
them in the pursuit of sinful desires, they will break 
through them all : now, a shame is it for a Christian 
not to do more for God, than these men will do for 
their lusts. Timothy is commanded to drink but a 
little wine, and that for his refreshment, to help na- 
ture ; but when men drink and make sots of themselves 
by it, what diseases does this bring on them ! The 
Scripture tells us, that the saints' bodies are the temples 
of the Holy Ghost ; do you think that such a body as 
this is like to be a temjile ? no, but rather like matter 
for the very sink of hell, where all filth shall be fuel 
for everlasting burning. How canst thou answer the 
weakening of thy strength by this lust, when God de- 
mands all thine energies ? It may be thou wilt say, 
tliou wert never dead drunk ; but wert thou never so 
distempered as to weaken thy powers, and make thee 
unfit for service ? How sinful then is the practice of 
those that drink others' healths, till themselves are sick 
through excess ! 

Obs. 0. Drunkenness is most of all vile in governors, 
men of place and power. Prov. xxxi. 4, " It is not for 
kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to di-ink wine : nor 
for princes strong drink." It is not for them ; and why ? 
because they are above us, and how can any man en- 
dure to be under drunken beasts ? they are gods, and 
how vile and abominable is it to have drunken gods ! 
Therefore the Carthaginians made a law, that none of 
their magistrates in the time of their magistracy should 
drink any wine. 

Obs. 6. It is much more vile to make others drunk, 
than to be di-unk cm-selves. Therefore in Esth. i. 8, 
" the drinking was according to the law ; none did com- 
pel : for so the lung had appointed to all the officers of 
the house, that they shoidd do according to everj' man's 
pleasure :" none were compelled to drink more than they 
were willing. You may think they express a great deal 
of love to you, in diinking to you, and pressing you to 
di'ink ; but when they have overcome you, then will 
they laugh at you, and make you a scorn ; especially if 
they can get you who are professors of religion to be 
overtaken. Therefore you had need above all men to 
take heed of this sin, for if you fall, religion suffers, and 
the name of God is evil spoken of by your means ; 
therefore Christ himself warns his disciples to take 
heed of surfeiting and di'unkeimess. Therefore you 
that are professors had the more need to take heed of 
this sin, and mind this exhortation of Christ. 

Obi: 7. Drunkenness is especially vile when we pre- 
tend to praise God. "^\^lcn God shows thee mercy, and 
thou pretendest to praise him for it, then to take liberty 
to exceed in creature indulgence, this is most abomin- 
able. We have had many days of thanksgiving to praise 
God for his mercies : if we have been excessive in the 
use of the creatures, be humbled, it is an ill requital of 
God for his mercy. 



" He stretched out his hand with scorners." D'i'xS 
here translated 'i scorners," is variously rendered by 
the Sept. by Xoinuiv, pestilent persons, Psal. i. 1, and 
Prov. xxii. 10 ; by c'lKoXaaroc, untamed, or wanton, 
Prov. xxi. 11 ; and elsewhere, by iTrcpi]i}avetQ, proud, 
and dcpnovis, without understanding. 

Lutlier translates the word by KaKovg, . ^ ^^^^ 
evil workers, and interprets it of false signifying evu men, 
teachers, that delude the people and de- fuunfaiitindsor "■ 
prave the Scriptures ; and this Idnd of "'''' 
scorning, by perverting the Scripture, is the worst of all 
others, it is most abominable. Job xx. 14, " His meat 
in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within 
liim ;" the word in such men's spirits is turned into bit- 
terness. These scorners, who were they ? The nobles 
and the princes, the officers in the com't, these were 
the men who scorned at the people for going up to 
Jerusalem to worship, and thereby forfeiting the king's 
favour, their places at com't, then- honours and prefer- 
ments, and all for a mere circumstance, and a trifle, as 
they thought ; and this was at the time of their feasts 
and jovialities, when they might both harden the hearts 
of tlie king and people. Now " he stretched out his 
hand" to them, that is, 1. He encouraged them, and 
gave tlicm his hand to kiss. How unlike is this to God, 
of whom Job saith, that he will not give his hand to 
the wicked, to malignants ! Job viii. 20. 2. To stretch 
forth his hand is to put forward any work, or further 
designs on foot: as Herod furthered the wicked designs 
of the high priests and scribes in persecuting Chi'ist, 
lie " stretched forth his hands," Acts xii. 1. " He stretch- 
ed out his hand with scorners." Scorners are the basest 
of peo])le, and, as if he were a common companion for 
them, this king put off all princely dignities, and made 
himself their associate, if they could but in any way 
further his designs. Hence, 

Oi.j. 8. Sensual courtiers are for the most part great 
scorners. Experience proves this. 

Obs. 9. Times of feasting are usually times of con- 
temning all religion. Then they think none live such 
brave lives as they do ; when they are thoroughly heated 
with wine, then they have a flout and a scorn for every 
one ; then God himself is reproached by them, and his 
saints had in disgrace. Psal. xxxv. 16, " Vt'hh hypo- 
critical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with 
their teeth." There are many who carry things very 
fair in the eyes of the world, who seem to be Christians, 
yet, wiien they come among scorners, have their scoff 
and private jeer ; these are odious in God's sight. AVhere 
is there more scorning and scoffing, than in princes' 
courts, and great men's tables? If a court chaplain 
had but heard any thing of a puritan, or of a private 
meeting, was it not their music ? Thus they informed 
the king, that they were none but a company of precise 
fools, giddy-headed people, and the king received this 
news with joy, it made him merry, and he gave them 
thanks for then' pains. Oh how far is this below a true 
princely spirit ! 

Oi.s.lO. The right way of worship is by carnal hearts 
accounted a very slight thing ; and God's people, who 
stand for God's ordinances in then' purity, are regarded 
as foolishly precise. 

Obi: 11. The devil has ever been wont to hinder re- 
formation, by raising up men of pestilent wits to scorn 
at religion: and tliis way the devil prevails very much; 
when he cannot prevail by persecution, he gains much 
this way. Men that are 'of any spirit cannot endure 
scorning ; therefore we read of mocking to be a cruel 
persecution in Heb. xi. 36, " And others had trial of 
cruel mockings." And Ishmael's mocking is said to be 
persecution. In the primitive times, tbey would set up 
an ass's head and a book by it, to show that they 
professed to learn, and yet were as simple as an ass. I 
have heard of a scholar in Queen's college, who pro- 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. VII. 



fessed he had rather suffer the tomients of hell, than 
endure the contempt and scorn of the puritans. And 
this is the devil's old way : but men will not be jeered 
out of their inheritance, and God will scorn such scorn- 
ers, ProT. iii. 34. That place is famous in Lam. iii. 62, 
63, " The lips of those that rose up against me. Behold 
their sitting down, and their rising up; I am theii- 
music." '\Aniat then ? " Render them a recompencc, 
O Lord, according to the work of their hands. Give 
them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them." 

04*. 12. "When kings' hearts are against religion, 
they shall never want wits to further their designs. 
History confij-ms this. 

Obs. 13. Unhappy is that kingdom where princes 
give their hands to scomcrs, and deny it to the people 
of God. It was a happy and blessed time with that 
people in 2 C'hron. xxxv. 1 — 3, when the prophets of 
God were encouraged by the king himself. 

Ver. 6. For (hey have made ready their heart like an 
oven, ichiles they lie in wait : their baker sleepeth all 
the night ; in the morning it burneth as a flaming Jire. 

These words set forth the strength of Jeroboam's and 
his princes' desires to set up false worship, and their 
subtlety in taking opportunity and lying in wait to 
leaven the people. The notes are from the similitude. 

Obs. 1. The heat of their hearts was so violent, that 
it did devoiu- aU that opposed it. As fire devours all 
combustible things, so they devoured all kinds of rea- 
son brought against them and their way; what was 
advanced in contradiction to their worship, was like 
straw or wood in an oven, they were so strongly set 
upon it, they devoured all presently. Therefoi'e at any 
time, when we come to men, and see them wilfully bent 
upon their wav, it is to no purpose to speak to them ; 
but let them alone, and let God but humble them upon 
their sick-beds, and then they will hearken. No deal- 
ing with bees in a hot day, but at night there is. 

Obs. 2. God win be hot in judgment as men are hot 
in sin. God will make as little of them as they do of 
God's people. "For, behold, the day cometh, that 
shall burn as an oven ; and all the proud, yea, and all 
that do wickedly, shall be stubble : and the day that 
cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that 
it shall leave them neither root nor branch," Mai. iv. 1. 

" 'WTiiles they lie in wait." Though they are as hot 
as an oven, yet they do not run headlong, imprudently, 
but wait theur opportunity. And should not this be our 
wisdom in the ways of God, not to " make haste?" Isa. 
xxwii. 16. Let not our desires be so eagerly set after 
any thing, but that we can be willing to be without it, 
or patiently to wait God's time for it. They are as hot 
as an oven, and yet not cooled because they have not 
their desires presently fulfilled. So must we take heed 
of having our hearts cooled, when we have opportunities 
to further any design we have on foot for God and his 
cause. Though they had not opportunities to further their 
plots, yet they waited still, and were not discom-aged. 
llow many times do people, when God sends but a little 
famine of the word amongst them, grow cold, and lose 
all their heat ! 

" Their baker sleepeth all the night." It is as if men, 
who have a common oven, were to put fuel into it, and 
let it burn till they called tlieir customers together, and 
when this was done, then .slept. So the pcoi)le were 
leavened. These pco])le, by their bakers, were pre- 
pared ; they had heated their oven, and now they thouglit 
they might go to sleep, they might be quiet. And did 
not our bakers do thus ? they had lieated their oven, 
but blessed be God, who disappointed them in their way. 
When these bakers slept, their oven heated notwith- 
standing, but ours grew cold. 

Oba. ^Vhen we think subtle adversaries to be most 



secure, they are still driving on their designs. Thus it 
was in Ireland, and here amongst us, even in their great- 
est shows of peace in their treaties. The truth is, if ever 
we will have the fire quenched, which now bums so 
violently, we must take away the incendiaries, and stir- 
rers up of these unnatural wars. Though opportunities 
for work may cease, let not the fire of our good cause 
go out, let the oven be hot still. At the first their oven 
did but begin to heat, now it is all in a flame : at the 
first they would use fau- means with tlie people, and 
persuade them with good words, and answer their ar- 
guments ; but when their oven was hot, when they had 
brought their designs to matiu-itj', and got power into 
their hands, then it is now no longer, Will ye worship at 
Dan and Beth-el ? and, That is your best course ; no more 
attempt to satisfy the consciences ; but. To prison with 
tliem ; such a prison for such, and the other strong hold 
for the rest. This has ever been the course of those 
who would set up any false worship. 

Ver. 7. They are all hot as an oven, and have de- 
voured their judges ; all their kings are fallen : there is 
none among Ihem that calleth xinlo me. 

Not only Jeroboam and his successors, but also princes 
and people, at length grew hot in the pursuit of that 
great design of altering religion, insomuch that no man 
might dare to show himself against them. Many of 
the people, at first, scrupled to yield to their new way ; 
but having overcome then- consciences, now nothing 
troubles them ; they not only yield themselves, but 
violently constrain the consciences of recusants. But 
this similitude we met with in the 4th verse of this 
chapter, and then opened it, and therefore pass it over 
here. It foDows, 

" And have devoured their judges." Jerome observes 
on this, tliat it is not probable but some of their judges 
had some light in them, to see that the altering of re- 
ligion could not but be against their laws ; yet, seeing 
both the princes and the people were set violently upon 
it, they also yielded. 

Such are the vile, base, and low spiiits of men in hon- 
our, and this honour depending upon the favoui- of kings, 
that, rather than hazard their places, and lose their 
gains, they will yield to any thing ; and, to please the 
king, will tell him the law is for him, the bonds of 
the kingdom cannot control him. Micah iii. 10, 11, 
" They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with 
ini(|ui'ty. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the 
pricsts'thereof teach for hu-e, and the prophets thcreo!' 
divine for money." The princes and the prophets ask 
for a reward. The princes desire to infringe on some 
rights of their subjects; but to cover the vileness and 
injustice of the action, would ask the judges whether it 
were legal or no ; now the judges, for their own profit, 
encouraged him, and told him it was lawful, he miglit 
do it. How have our judges imitated these ! Though 
men had some integrity at the first, yet, the heat arising 
so high in the princes and nobles, yea, and in many of 
the high court of judicature, they could not endure it. 
Thus we sec how one time answers to another in 
wickedness. The princes' designs increase in strength 
when they have got the judges to countenance and 
sup])ort them. 

tjlhers interpret it thus. They have mischicved and 
ruined their judges that did oppose them,: and Mer- 
cer, that learned interpreter, in support oT this sense 
quotes a tradition of tlie Jews, That the ]n-inces ami 
rulers had so wrought upon the peojile, that tli' \ 
should come to the king with a humble petition, i:i 
wliicli they should desire and entreat him to give them 
leave to set up an idol, which they did. 'When tli' y 
came, the king put them off, telling them it was late in 
the evening now, and bade tliem return in the morning. 



Veb. 8. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



347 



In the morning they came exclaiming, Arise, and set 
us up an idol. No, saitli he, your sanhedrim will not 
give consent to nor sutler it. AVe have taken a course 
with them, replied they, we have killed them : which is 
the usual means persecutors adopt with those who seem 
likely to oppose them in their plots. 

Or thus. They had devoured their judges and then- 
princes hy ti'eachery. And this story refers to that in 
2 Chi-on. xiii., a chapter of as much treachery as we read 
of. " All their kings are fiillen ;" that is, into that false 
worship into which Jeroboam was fallen. And it is very 
observable, that all the kings of the ten tribes were 
wicked. From Jeroboam the first, to the captivity, there 
were eighteen kmgs, and all of them wicked and naught ; 
and the reason of this was, that the modes of false wor- 
ship suited with their politic ends ; so that 'the observ- 
ation from it may be, 

Obs. 1. It is a hard thing to take men off from their 
strong engagements. It was a work so difficult, that 
all the prophets could not do it. It is very hard, espe- 
cially when their engagements are in matters of import- 
ance. They were wise, politic men, and therefore could 
not choose, in all probability, but see, how point blank 
their ways went against God's mind ; even Jehu him- 
self, who was raised up so high by God, on purpose to 
root out idolatry, and did root out idols and Baal's 
priests, yet followed the calves, as well as his prede- 
cessors. 

Therefore never wonder to see men obstinate, and not 
be convinced of the evil of their ways ; this text shows 
clearly that many are willing to deny themselves in small 
things, but when it comes to gi-eat things they flinch 
and hang off; therefore we see what snares places of 
honom' are to most men. Many ministers see the e\il of 
ceremonies, and are convuiced that they sin if they yield 
to them, and rather than sin they will leave their liv- 
ings ; but when did you ever see a bishop deny himself? 
when was it ever known that a prelate so far submitted 
to lay down his great dignities and fat livings for his 
conscience ? It follows, 

" There is none among them that calleth unto me." 

1. They were presumptuous and confident in their way, 
and none of them would ask counsel of me ; notwith- 
standing theu' judges were devoured, they sought to 
other helps, or rested in their outward prosperity : or, 

2. They are sottish and stupid, and call not unto me, 
though all be in a confusion in the state, their judges 
devoured, &c. 

Obs. 2. 'WTien governors set up false worship, it 
should quicken our prayers. Micah vii. 7, " I will look 
unto the Lord ; I will wait for the God of my salvation : 
my God will hear me." So in Acts iv. 29, " And now. 
Lord," hear us. The Christians there got into a corner, 
and made their complaints and moans to God of the 
evil of the times ; and do but observe the rise and 
ground of their prayers, " And now, Lord," hear us. They 
do as men that would leap a great way, take theu- rise 
upon a hill to further them : so these people make the 
miseries of the times then- encouragements, not their 
discom'agements. It is a desperate sign to see men sink 
under their discouragements, and murmur against God. 
Oh let us go to God and make our moan to him, and 
let us die calling upon his name ; let David's resolution 
be ours, Psal. cxvi. 2, " I will call on the Lord as long 
as I live." And this is a very good argument that the 
cause of God will stand : if our spirit of prayer hold, 
the cause of God will hold ; but if that go dow^r, fear 
the sinking of the cause. 

Ver. 8. Ephraini, he hath mixed himself among the 
people ; Ephraiin is a cake not turned. 

" Ephi'aim, he hath mixed himself." There is a great 
evil charged upon Ephraim, and that is observable, he 



hath mingled himself among the people ; the people did 
not so much seek to him, as he to them. Some here 
understand by " Ephraim" the com-t, because Jeroboam 
was of the tribe of Ephraim ; and Cyi'il hath this note 
from thence, that it is a great dishonour for them that 
are in place of honour-, to suit themselves and their 
minds to those that are of base, low spirits among their 
people ; men of place and power should be men of 
lionour and worth. But we take '•Eplu'aim" here for 
the people of the ten tribes, for so it is more often 
taken in Scripture. They were guilty of this sin, in mix- 
ing themselves with the people, that is, the Gentiles, 
in these five regards : 

1. In then' marriages. The seed of the Israelites 
was too precious to mingle with the Gentiles ; this was 
forbidden in Deut. vii. 3 : and the good man Ezra, 
chap, ix., in the day of humiliation, confessed this sin 
unto God against them : and it was tj'pified of the 
Chi'istians under the gospel, that they should not mix 
themselves with the wicked and ungodly of the world ; 
they must marry in the Lord : it is a sad affliction to be 
unequally j'oked. It is reported of Maxentius, a cruel 
t}Tant, that it was his custom to judge some malefactors 
to death after this manner, viz. To have a dead man 
chained to the living man, till the living man was killed 
by the dead man. How many living men have dead 
wives, and Kvmg wives dead husbands ! Oh how 
comely a thing it is to see the delight of our eyes the 
delight of God's eyes ! 

2. They mingled God's worship with their supersti- 
tions and idolatries. They had not wholly defiled the 
worship of God, yet they had mixed themselves. Jero- 
boam had been in Egj'pt, where he had seen their idol- 
atrous heifer, and he was much taken with it, therefore 
he woidd imitate them in his calves. 2 Kings xvii. 33, 
3-1, m one verse it is said they feared the Lord, and in 
the next verse it is said they did not ; " They feared the 
Lord, and served theii- own gods. — Unto this day they 
do after the former manners; they fear not the Lord." 
Never let us satisfy ourselves in mixtm'es of worship : 
though we have never so much true worship among us, 
God wUl never be put ofl' with such excuses. 

3. They mixed themselves in their persons, and suf- 
fered others to join with them. Neither must Christians 
sufi'er the wicked to join with them in matters of wor- 
ship ; and surely if fornicators, adulterers, and profane 
men are crept in, they must (when discerned) be cast 
out speedily. Now if such as these must be cast out 
when crept in unawares, then surely such must not be 
received in when known beforehand. And certainly a 
bare confession of faith is not sufficient to admit a man 
to the ordinances, for those that are vile and wicked in 
their lives, may make a verbal and outward confession ; 
men may confess with their mouths, and yet deny all 
in their lives ; as if a man should confess liis faith in 
English, and deny it again in Latin : yet if any should 
creep into a chm'ch in which thou art bodied, if thou 
dost thy duty in admonishing them, and if they will 
not be warned to profess against them, thou mayst 
certainly, yea, and with good conscience, partake of the 
ordinance notwithstanding. 

4. In their leagues and covenants they mixed them- 
selves. They made covenants and leagues with other 
people, which was forbidden them in Exod. xxxiv. 12, 
■' Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with 
the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it 
be for a snare in the midst of thee." iJeut. vii. 2, 
" And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them be- 
fore thee ; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy 
them ; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor 
show mercy unto them." Isa. xxx. 2, 3, " That walk to 
go down into Egj-pt, and have not asked at my mouth ; 
to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, 
and to trust in the shadow of Egj-pt ! Therefore shall 



318 



AX EXrOSITION 0? 



Chap. VU. 



the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust 
ill the shadow of Egypt your confusion." 

5. They were mixed in their societies with other 
people. Vsal. cvi. 3.3, " They were mingled among the 
heathen, and learned their works;" they ser^-ed their 
idols, wliich were a snare unto them. It is a very dan- 
gerous thing to he mixed with a wicked society. " And 
the mixt multit\ide that was among them" (people that 
came out of Egypt) "fell a lusting," Numb. xi. 4. The 
niixt multitude fell a miu-muring; this is an affliction 
in any society, but especially in church societies. But 
suppose Providence cast me into a family where there 
are such as these ? In such a family thou mayst be as 
oil in water unmixt; put never so much water amongst 
oil, the oil will be above it, swimming upon tlie top. 
Psal. xxvi. 9. " Gather not my soul with sinners, nor 
my life with bloody men :" if you would not be gather- 
ed with them in the day of judgment, do not you gather 
to them now in communion in ordinances, nor in inti- 
mate society. The Lacedemonians would not suffer a 
stranger to be with them above three days ; and shall 
we associate ourselves with such as are strangers to 
God ? God had made a great ditference betwixt Israel 
and other people, they were a people separated from 
all the people of the earth, Exod. xxxiii. 16; in the 
original it is, marvellously separated, or set apart, for 
God ; they were a people whom God did own in a 
more peculiar manner, and his eye was upon them for 
good, therefore it did not become them to mix with 
other people. 

" Ephraim is a cake not turned." We read this ex- 
pression and make little of it, but there is very much 
concerning us in it. Mark well the expression ; the 
repetition of the word Ephi'aim, " Ephraim is a cake 
not turned." The prophet here speaks in a con- 
doling manner, O Ephraim, what ! my dear son, and 
do thus ? Ephraim was a cake not turned in these four 
respects : 

1. In their plots and counsels. They did not turn 
their designs and proceedings up and down ; they 
thought of one way of false worship, but not of an- 
other; to wit, at the time which might have carried on 
their plots, they did not weigh cu-cutnstances. 

2. In their indifTercnce. You could not tell what to 
make of him ; he was so indifferent that it mattered 
not much to him whether God were God or Baal, 1 
Kings xviii. 21. How many men arc of this garb 
among us, both in their opinions and ])racticcs ! 

3. Their ])erverseness. Although heavy afflictions 
were ujion them, that they lay as it were burning upon 
the coals, and took no means for their help and cure, 
they cried out, and lay howling upon their beds, yet 
they turned not to the Lord ; they could not devise a 
way to escape, they were good for nothing, as a cake 
not baked ; like those in Jer. iii. 5, '■ AVill he reserve 
his anger for ever? will lie keep it to the end? Be- 
hold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou 
couldest." Just thus it is with souls in their s])iritual 
estates ; in terrors of conscience and sorrow for sin, 
they lie pining awav in their iniquities, and take no 
course to deliver and help themselves. AVhen thou art 
in this condition thou shouldst be acting ujion God, 
and looking after him ; thou shouldst not lie scorch- 
ing and burning ui)on the coals of thy transgressions, 
but shouldst make out after the mercy of God in Jesus 
Christ. 

4. I,uther and Vatablus make the sense of the words 
to note the greediness of Ephraim's adversaries ; they 
were like a man pinched with hunger, who, coming to 
food, fulls upon It presently, and eats the cake forth- 
viith, and will not stay till it be baked ; thus Ephraim's 
adversaries fell upon him. But this I conceive not 
to be the meaning of the words, but the second and 
the tliird. 



Yer. 9. Strangers have devoured liis strength, and 
he knowelli it not : yea, gray hairs are here and there 
upon him, yet he knoivetli it not, 

" Strangers have devoured his strength." By 
"strength" we must understand Ephraim's rich and 
warlike power ; and here we may see the ])oor shifts 
and strength of carnal hearts : "the Almighty is the 
strength of the saints; such a strength is God, that all 
the devils in hell, nor men on earth, cannot take 
away from them. Strangers devoured the strength of 
Ephraim. Such as were not in covenant with God ma\ 
rob the saints of their outward supports and comforts ; 
a good cause may miscarry when the manager's of it 
are rested upon, and too much confidence placed in 
them. We see how just it is with God to cross and 
turn the designs of men against themselves when they 
forsake him ; and this is a great curse, w hen wicked 
men are suffered to take away what we have and do 
enjoy in our estates and liberties : and metaphorically 
this may be applied to our spiritual strength; we should 
take sjiecial care that strong lusts do not devour our 
strength for God : and this is the reason of our flatness 
in duties. You often complain of deaihiess in prayer ; 
examine whether there be not some secret lust wliich 
takes away your strength. And is it a misery for stran- 
gers to devour tlie strength of our bodies and estates ? 
much more of oiu' spirits. 

" And he knoweth it not." The note from hence is 
this. 

The hearts of the wicked strongly work after their 
lusts. Although they meet with never so many diffi- 
culties in their way, yet they know them not. JBut in 
good they know every little difficulty they meet with, 
and have repenting thoughts in them that ever they 
were so engaged in a good cause ; but their own 
ways, the ways of their lusts, trouble them not. It 
follows, 

" Yea, gi-ay hairs are here and there upon him." 
That is, such miseries as make them gray. 1 here were 
at this time many troubles upon the ten tribes, often 
afllicted by the Assyrians plundering and spoiling of 
them. And it is no strange tiling to see men gray with 
very grief and sorrow. Scaligcr tells us of a young 
man, whose hair, through the extreme trouble of his 
spirit, was turned all gray in one night. How much 
more should our spirits be affected with the miseries of 
our times ! 

Or, their miseries were so long upon them, that 
they made them gray. They were lasting sorrows; they 
were old in sin, and God made them old in miseries 
and punishments for their sins. Thus Germany has 
been gi-ay-headed for many years togetlier, in respect 
of the length of their miseries. 

Or, they have been a long time, and might have 
gained more knowledge of me, and got large expe- 
riences of the goodness of my ways, yet they know 
me not, nor my ways. The whiter men's heads arc, tl\e 
blacker often are their sins : it is a most dreadful siglit 
to see a white head and an old sinner. 1 have read of 
one Eleazar, who would not do any thing which might 
seem to be evil, because he would not spot his white 
head. Gray hairs should be a strong argument to move 
men to walk blamelessly in their lives. 

Or, they had many symptoms of their ruin and de- 
struction upon them ; as gray hairs show that men's 
ends are near. Men that are gray, and would not be 
thought to be old, will pluck out their white hairs ; 
but if there be gray hairs upon us, let us know they 
are admonitions to us, and warnings of our ruin, lUb. 
viii. 13. There are many symjitoms of a kingdom's 
gi'ay hairs : I shall instance some of them ; as, 

1. Oppression in courts of justice. 



Vek. 10—12. 



THE PKOPHECY OF HOSEA. 



349 



2. Idolatry and superstition in God's -n'orship and 
ordinances. 

3. The secret curse of God upon men and tlieir 
estates. 

4. The taking away of the valiant and righteous 
men out of the kingdom, is a sad gray hair in that 
kingdom. A kingdom where these gray hairs are is 
in a dying condition ; and happy were it for us if these 
gray hairs were not to be found amongst us : we have 
lain a long time at the grave's mouth, and yet many 
gray hairs continue still, and what God will do with us 
we know not. How covetous and self-seeking are men 
in these days, notwithstanding God's wi'ath burns so 
hot, threatening an utter desolation of all ! We had 
need therefore to prepare for a dying kingdom. 

" And he knoweth it not." Does not this speak our 
condition likewise? Gray hairs are here and there 
and we know it not. How have the ministers of God 
forewarned us long since of these times ! but we would 
not regard them, both they and their message were 
slighted. This people was so stupitied they knew not 
who it was that smote them, nor for what it was they 
were smitten. 

Ver. 10. Atid the pride of Israel tesiijielh to his 
face: and they do not return to the Lord their God, nor 
seek him for all this. 

In the fifth chapter we opened words similar to 
these, only the scope of the place is different. They 
would not take notice of God's hand, but proudly 
braved it out, and would not learn his meaning in the 
rod. Let us, on the contrary, learn humility, to accept 
of the punishment of our iniquities, submitting, and ac- 
knowledging that our Father hath smitten us and spit 
in our face. Whence, 

Ubs. 1. God expects we should turn upon afflictions. 
He " sealeth their instruction ;" " he openeth also the 
ear to discipline, and commandeth men" thereby "that 
they return from iniquity," Job xxxvi. 10. 

Obs. 2. Afflictions, if not sanctified, will never turn 
the heart. 

Obs. 3. It is a great aggravation of men's sins not to 
turn under afflictions. 

Obs. 4. Though afflictions may work repentance, yet 
such repentance is seldom true ; it will not often sustain 
the trial ; yet people should try and see what it will 
do. Ilepentance coming from afflictions has a promise : 
Lev. xxvi. 41, 42, " If then their uncircumcised hearts 
be humbled," if then, even when my hand is upon 
them, '• they accept of the punishment of their iniquity :" 
" then will I remember my covenant with Jacob," " and 
I will remember the land." 

Obs. 5. True repentance is rather a seeking of God's 
face, than our own ease from afflictions. 

Ver. 11. Ephraim also is like a silly dove unthout 
heart : they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria. 

The word nniB translated " silly," signifies easily se- 
duced, persuaded to any thing. \Ve are wont to say 
that children and fools are easily persuaded to any 
thing. Men that are hardly persuaded to believe in 
God, and wliat God saith, are yet often easily induced 
to believe errors. These thought themselves very wise 
in going to Egypt, but they did very foolishly, 2 Kings 
xvii. 4 ; tiie leaving of God's ways and following our 
own is very foolishness. How many, when it has been 
too late, have cried out of this their folly! From 
whence this may be observed : 

Obs. 1. Though men may be misled by others, yet 
are they not excused. This will not excuse them before 
God at the great day, to say. Others did thus, and I 
followed them, thinking them to be in the right. 



" Without heart ;" that is, without understanding. 
Prov. vi. 32, " But whoso committeth adultery with a 
woman lacketh understanding." Chap. x. 21, "The 
lips of the righteous feed many : but fools die for want 
of wisdom," or for lack of wisdom. Now of all creatures 
the dove is the most silly : as appears, 

1. The dove defends not her young ones as other 
creatures do ; the hen and other flying creatures will 
preserve their young ones, but the sUly dove lets them 
go quietly. So was Ephraim, in this respect, like unto 
the dove, they were destroyed and made a prey of by 
others, yet never laid it to heart. The Lord in mercy 
look upon us. Is not this our case ? We suffer our 
brethren to be destroyed and made a prey of, and 
never lay it to heart, because we for the present are 
quiet. 

2. The dove will keep by the place of her nest 
although you take it away. Yea, Pliny reports of 
some doves which will fly many miles to their nests. 
Even in this also is Ephraim like unto a silly dove ; 
where he was many years ago there he is still. And so 
it is with many men ; they know and are convinced 
that such company, which they have frequented, has 
done them mischief, and yet they cannot leave them : 
here is a silly dove without understanding indeed. 

3. Doves, though swift in their flying, yet being dull 
in preventing of danger, are easily caught with the net. 
So was Ephraim easily insnared and preyed upon by 
his enemies. 

4. The dove is delighted in the beauty of her feathers, 
and prides herself in the clapping of her wings, and 
cutting of the air, as it were. Ephraim was priding 
herself in her ornaments. We are very ready and 
prone to imitate the creatures in tliat which is evil, but 
not in that which is good. There are some good pro- 
perties in doves which they would not follow, as their 
innocency and simplicity, their unity and chastity, 
meekness without gall, cleanliness, and purity. Prii- 
dentia absque bonitate malitia est, et simplicitas absque 
ratione stultilia est. From whence we may 

Obs. 2. Godliness does not sanction men in their 
folly. When men will not go from the rule, but ad- 
here to that as the guide in all cases of their lives, this 
is godly simplicity. It is matter of wonder to see how 
subtle men are to damn themselves. Those are only 
wise men who are truly godly ; they then begin to be 
wise when they begin to be godly. Our simplicity may 
aggravate our misery, but it can never bear us out in 
it, nor excuse it. True godliness will undermine all 
sinful simplicity ; therefore take heed of putting that 
upon the Spirit of God which is nothing Ijut the sim- 
plicity of our own hearts. " Be ye therefore wise as 
serpents, and harmless as doves." 

Ver. 12. IVhen. they shall go, I will spread my net 
upon them ; I will bring them down as the fouls of 
the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation 
hath heard. 

In the former verse the Lord, by the prophet, charges 
Israel for their silliness as the dove ; but, as silly as 
they were, they thought to provide for themselves well 
enough by their going to Egypt ; but, it being out of 
God's way, it proved but silliness, for God was resolved 
to meet with them. " 'NMien they shall go, I will spread 
my net upon them ;'' my providence shall so begirt and 
straiten them, that although they may seem to escape, 
yet they shall be insnared. This place has reference 
to 2 Kings xvii. 4, the Assp-ian was God's net to take 
them in. The emphasis of the word lies here, 

" My net," in the pronoun " my." 'Men by their cun- 
ning and policy may bring men into great trouble and 
straits ; but wlien God sets himself, by his attributes of 
wisdom, power, and justice, to bring a people down to 



350 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. VII. 



ruin, they shall be taken, they shall not escape. Tlie 
notes are : 

Obs. 1. It is just that those who go out of God's way 
should be insnared. Job xviii. 7, " The steps of his 
sti-enrth shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall 
cast him down." Chap. x.\ii. 10, "Therefore snares 
are round about thcc, and sudden fear troubleth thee." 
How many can from experience testify to this, who, go- 
ing out of God's ways, have met with snares ! It is 
God's curse upon the wicked, that their table shall be- 
come a snare to them : and in Isa. viii. 14, he thieatens 
that he would be " for a stone of stumbling and for a 
rock of ofience to both the houses of Israel, for a gin 
and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." And 
therefore in straits it is good to think thus, AATiere 
am 1 ? what am I doiiig ? am I in my way or no ? 
have I not followed my own counsel and left God's ? 
If we have, mark what God saith, " I will bring them 
down as tlie fowls of the heaven." You think to escape 
by flying, but when you imagine you are the most se- 
cure, then I will meet with you. 

Obs. 2. God may for a time let wicked men prosper 
in their ways, insomucli that they may think all danger 
is past ; but when they are high, then is God's time to 
pull them down ; at the highest God can reach them ; 
yea, even then it is God's delight to pull them down. 
A remarkable text wc hare to tliis purjiose in 2 Sam. 
xxii. 28, " But thine eyes are upon the haughty, that 
thou mayest bring them down." Thine eyes are upon 
them ; that is, as a fowler sets his eyes upon a bird that 
sits on high, which he would take in his snare or net. 
Tlie proud and haughty spirits fly on high, and think 
themselves very secui-e, and bless themselves in their 
way ; but God's eyes are upon them, waiting for a fit 
time to pidl them down. A philosopher, on being 
asked what Jupiter did in tlie highest heaven, replied. 
He ))ulls down the haughty, and exalts the humble. 
Obafl. 3, 4, " The pride of thine heart hath deceiv- 
ed thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, 
whose liabitation is high ; that saith in his heart, Who 
shall bring me down to the gi-ound? Though thou exalt 
thyself as the eagle, and thougli thou set thy nest among 
the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord." 
Thus also of that proud king of Babylon in Isa. xxiv. 
21, "A\nd it shall come to pass in that day, that the 
Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on 
high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth." This 
cannot be understood of the devil, but of the king of 
Babvlon, whom God threatens to pull down. 

" 1 will chastise them." The word translated " I will 
chastise," signifies both to bind, and to chastise, or in- 
struct. 

First, I will bind them : sinners shall be bound 
with the cords of their lusts. 

Secondly, I will cliastise and instruct them ; noting 
that chastisements should be with instructions. " I will 
chastise them." 

" As tlieir congregation hath heard." Moses and 
the ])rophets have instructed tlicm, but they disregard- 
ed them ; but I i\'ill make good what they said of them. 

Obs. .3. Sinnei-s had need to regard what they hear out 
of the word of God, for it will fake hold on them some way 
or other. Zcch. i. 6, " But my words and my statutes, 
which I commanded my servants the prophets, did tlicy 
not take hold of your fathers ? " O thou impenitent 
sinner! take heed how thou goest on in thy wicked 
ways, for know, that all the power in God is engaged 
to make good his word against thee. Tlierefore when 
Christ sends fortli his disciples to preach the gosjiel, he 
engages all his power to make good what they, in liis 
name and according to his mind, deliver. " And Jesus 
came and spake unto them, saying. All power is given 
unto me in iieaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and 
teach all nations. And, lo, I am with you alway, even 



unto the end of the world," Matt, xxviii. 18 — 20. Oh 
how should we, from this consideration, be stirred up 
to hear the word with trembling ! 

Obs. 4. When judgments come upon impenitent sin- 
ners, it is a humbling consideration for them to reflect, 
that that word which they heard in the congregation 
was true. How do multitudes on their sick beds 
prove this to be true ! Now God makes them believe 
the truth of that word which before they had slighted. 
It is the office of the Spirit of God to bring the for- 
gotten word into the minds of the saints : John xiv. 
26, " But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, 
whom the Father wOl send in my name, he shall teach 
you all things, and bring all things to your remem- 
brance, whatsoever I have said unto you." But God 
is wont by another manner to bring the word into 
wicked men's minds, even by his strokes, and that not 
for their comfort, but for their horror and destruction. 

Ver. 13. fVoe tinto them! for they hate fled from 
me : destruction unto them ! because they have trans- 
gressed against me : though I have redeemed them, yet 
they have spoken lies against me. 

" Woe," in Scripture, sometimes signifies pity, some- 
times misery ; here it is be understood of miserj-. 

" For they have fled from me." The word here in- 
terpreted " fled fi'om," signifies to wander. It is a 
woeful thing to depart from God, much more to wander 
from God. Woe be to you, when I depart from you ! 
but if you depart from me, what will you do? In wan- 
dering from God, thou wanderest from the only infinite 
good ; and then, where wilt thou rest the sole of thy 
foot ? what shall comfort thee in the time of thy dis- 
tress ? It is evil to wander from God, but much more 
to make haste from God. It is the de\il's plot and 
custom, to hmTy backsliding sinners from God, that 
tliey should not consider what they do, and whither 
they are going ; he postetli them on in their evil ways, 
" as a bird liasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that 
it is for his life," Prov. vii. 23. Oh how earnest should 
the saints be after God ! not to be kejit off with impedi- 
ments, but, with David, in Psal. Ixiii. 8, follow hard 
after God; and Psal. cxix. 60, "I made haste, and 
delayed not to keep thy commandments." It follows, 

" Destniction unto them!" This is always the end of 
such as dcpai't from God : and happy were it if thou 
couldst see it beforehand. Oh how many, when they 
have come to see the end of their ways upon their 
death-beds, have given a most dreadful shiiek, as seeing 
themselves past recover)'! 

" Because they have transgressed against me." They 
have not only sinned against me, but have broken 
covenant also ; they have dealt perfidiously with the 
Lord. Before. God said he would chastise them ; but 
now, he would desti'oy them, make an end of them. 
Utter ruin is the portion of those that break covenant 
with me. 

" Tltough I have redeemed them." Some read it in 
the future : Though I would, and was ready to do it ; 
yet, they say that the way of worship I prescribed is 
not so successful, and no such blessing follows it ; they 
say my prophets threaten nothing but judgment and 
utter desolation : now, saitli God, all these are lies, it 
is no such matter, I was ready to do them good. But 
the future is often used for the preter-tense in the He- 
brew, and so here : the sense is, I have not only re- 
deemed them out of Egj^pt, but \CTy often since out of 
the hands of their enemies. And the story which this 
scrijiture refers unto, is in 2 Kings iv. 27. The Lord 
wonderfully prospered them in their wars ; " And the 
Lord said not tliat he would blot out the name of 
Israel from under heaven : but he saved them by the 
hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash." It follows. 



Vee. 14. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



351 



" Yet they have spoken lies." That is, they atti-i- 
buted theii- redemption to those helps -which they had, 
or to their idols, saying in this manner : Other people 
that served not God were delivered as well as we ; we 
see not so much of God's hand in our deliverance as 
you speak of. Or else. They fathered their errors upon 
me because I delivered. Now, saith God, in this you 
lie against me. They made false interpretations of 
God's mercies ; as, that God was no such enemy to this 
way of worship, because he had redeemed them. The 
notes are : 

Obs. 1. God's redeeming mercies, are great aggrava- 
tions of our sin. ^ATieu God delivers, and we attribute 
it to any thing in us, or that we have done, it is mighty 
provoking to God, because it takes away his glory in 
delivering. 

Obs. 2. Such as take occasion to sin more fi-eely 
against God after dehverance, give God the lie. As 
they in Jer. ^'ii. 10, said, they were " deKvered to do 
all 'these abominations." Or, as Phdip, that wicked 
king of Spain, being delivered in a storm, said it was 
to this end, that he might root out all the Lutherans. 
So, are there not many so vile, who, being delivered in 
a sickness, or from any great danger, think it is that 
they might sin more freely ? which is a most horrible 
wickedness, and lying against the Lord. 

Obi. 3. For a man to urge any false doctrine upon 
another, is a lying against God. Therefore take heed 
how you bring scriptures to prove any error which 
you or others hold, for God will look upon it but as a 
Ijang against him. It is a dangerous thing to counter- 
■ feit the king's stamp ; and is it not much more to coun- 
terfeit the truths of God, by errors seemingly main- 
tained by Scripture ? 

But to apply this spiritually : many whom God has 
redeemed from sin, hell, and wrath to come, the hazard 
of their miscarr}'ing being over, yet dare not, will not 
say, that God has showed mercy unto them ; they are 
ever complaining, that they are still in then- sins, that 
there is no work of God's Spirit upon them ; or if they 
do gi-ant there is some change, that God has done some- 
thing for them, yet are they full of fears that it will 
pass away, that God will leave them at the last. Now 
take heed of this kind of speaking, beware what you 
say, lest yon be found liars against the truth of God in 
3"our hearts. 

" Against me." Luther, upon these words, takes much 
notice of God's speaking so in his own person : They 
have departed from me, they have ti-ansgressed against 
me, done wickedly against me, spoken lies against me, 
called not upon me, &c. Hence, 

Obs. 4. The great evil of sin lies in this, that it is 
against God. 'This consideration laid David very low ; 
" Against thee, thee only, have I sinned." And this it 
is which humbles a gracious heart, that it should sin 
so unkindly against God. 

04s. 5. The more directly a sin is against God, the 
greater is the sin. For now God suffers more imme- 
diately in his glory, and that aggravates the siu. 

Ver. 14. And they have not cried unto me with their 
heart, when they howled upon their beds : they as.scmble 
themselves for com and wine, and they rebel against me. 

" And they have not cried unto me." The Seventy 
render it, Kai ouk if3ori<rnv irfoq juJ n'i KapSiai airuiv, 
Their hearts have not cried to me. Where we may see, 
that it is not enough to cry with the mouth, except the 
heart cry as well as the mouth. We read of Moses, 
that though he spake not a word that is expressed in 
the text, yet he prayed : it is the working of the heart 
that is the^ heart of prayer. Therefore, when Elijah 
prayed, it is said, he prayed in praying, James v. 17. 
And by this we see the great difference there is in 



prajing. Heart-prayer pleases God. A o^,j^ ^, ^,^ ^^^^ 
workman who wants words to express " ""fji'lj?"'' "' 
himself, yet may be able to perfoi-m his r&aiU^Si'!" 
business very well in God's account ; so ^""'"■ 
he that is able to express himself in fine language, elo- 
quent sentences, and multitudes of words, may yet not 
pray at all : therefore, when you pray, look that your 
hearts go along vnXh. the dut)-, otherwise, your cries will 
be but as the prayers in the text, which are called 
bowlings, and that in these four respects : 

1. The hidcousness of then- cry; crj-ing unto God as 
the heathens used to their idols ; and so the Hebrew 
seems to imply, intimating something re- 
markable, by setting a letter more than I'J'''!'' 
ordinary to this word, howling. Thus the 

heathen Indians at this day howl to their gods. 

2. Their distempered and unquiet spuits : they were in 
their spirits very turbulent, in their lives unquiet, and 
froward in their carriage in prayer. Even thus it is with 
many in trouble of conscience, they are very boisterous, 
make much noise. The shallowest waters make the 
greatest noise, but the deepest rivers run the stillest 
so those that have the deepest sense of sin, and are 
Idndly troubled for it, are quiet, still, and submissive, 
under God's hand. And certainly such a boisterousness 
of spirit under the sense of sin, is not from the Spirit : 
although there may be some legal terrors when God 
has subdued the heart to himself, the heart will seek 
earnestly for mercy, and yet in a quiet, humble way. 

3. Theu- pain. The brute beasts in then- pain and 
trouble will cry out and roar : even thus did these 
men here, the extremity of the misery they were in 
forced howling from them. No men complain more of 
judgments when they are executed, than those that 
were least sensible of them when they were threatened. 
Carnal heai'ts cry out altogether of the misery of the 
times; the judgment it is that troubles them, more than 
its cause, sin. See this between Pharaoh and David, 
Saul and David. Saul cries, he cries to Samuel, saj-ing, 
I have sinned, and done foolishly, yet honoiu- me, I 
pray thee, before the people. David, he confesseth 
his sin, and accepts of the punishment of his iniquity ; 
Lord, it is I that have sinned ; as for these sheep, what 
have they done ? Pharaoh, he cries to Moses, that he 
would pray to God to deliver him from the plagues that 
were upon him. Da\-id, he cries to God, " Lord, take 
away the iniquity of thy servant." If iniquity be done 
away, judgment will soon be removed, sin being the 
cause of all misery. 

4. Because God regarded then- cries no more than 
the bowlings of beasts : Amos viii. 3, "The songs of the 
temple shall be howlingr; in that day." As the prayers, 
60 the sacrifices ; in Isa. Ixvi. 3, they are but as the cut- 
ting off a dog's neck ; and their cries were but as the 
cries of that dog whose neck was cut off. In their 
pride they were wont to speak contemptuously of God, 
his ways, and servants ; and so God contemns and 
scorns them, their prayers, and their sacrifices : Prov. 
i. 26 is verified here ; he wUl laugh at then' destruc- 
tion, and mock when their fear coraeth. Oh how vile 
are wicked men in God's eyes when they are in trou- 
ble and misery ! None so vile but we pity and relieve 
them ; but for the infinite, meroifid, pitiful God, who is 
full of goodness, and has bowels of tender love and 
compassion, for him to have in derision the cries of his 
creatui'c, oh the consideration of this is most sad ! oh 
vile is the sin which makes man thus odious ! 

And here we see what little use there is of wicked 
men's spirits; they are of no use, there is for them in 
tlie places where they live nothing that they can do. 
Thou canst easily sin, and bring down judgments by thy 
sins; but when they are come upon thee, what wilt 
thou do ? Pei-haps thou wilt pray and cry to God : God 
abhors thy prayers, thy cries are abomination uuto 



352 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. MI. 



him : it is the saints' prayers that are so acceptable unto 
him ; " The prayer ot the upright is his delight," Prov. 
XV. 8. The least sigh which comes from a godly heart, 
is such a strong cry that it fills heaven and earth, so 
that (as I may speak with reverence) God can hear 
nothing else but that, because he both prepares their 
liearts to pray, and prepares his ear to hear ; there- 
fore we find in Scrii)tiu'e such expressions as these, 
Psal. X. 17; and Xeh. i. 6, the good man prays that 
God's ear would be attentive, and his eyes open, that 
he might hear the prayers of his servant. Psal. Ixxxvi. 
1, " Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me : for I am 
poor." 1 Pet. iii. 12, "His ears ai-e open to their 
jnayers." And Psal. Ixxxvi. 6, God gives his ear to 
their prayers and attends to the voice of their supplica- 
tion. What does all this hold forth to us but this, that 
the prayers of saints are very delightful to him, they 
are pleasant music in his ears? Were there no other 
difference between the godly and the wicked than their 
prayers, it were sufficient to make men out of love with 
the ways of sin, and join with the saints in the ways of 
holiness. The saints send up sweet breathings, and God 
takes pleasure in them : the wicked howl and cry out, 
and God rejects them. 

'• Upon their beds." Men in their prosperity go up 
and do^vn uncontrolled in their wicked ways, but when 
God confines them to their chambers and theu- sick 
beds, then they howl. 

" They assemble themselves for corn and wine." The 
Vulgate renders it ruminabant, not comedebant, like 
beasts they feed* the Seventy, KaTt-kfivovro, they cut 
themselves, as Baal's priests ; but it rather signifies to 
assemble. 1. They flock together that they might get 
corn and wine ; so they had it, they did not care what 
became of God and his ordinances. 2. Assemble to 
feed themselves with the wheat; so they might be 
pampered, they looked at nothing else. 3. Or, more 
probably, were assembled at their temples to cry for 
wheat. The notes are these : 

OLs. 1. The vilest men in times of common calamity 
will assemble themselves to pray to God. Now, cer- 
tainly, if they will pray to have trouble taken away 
when upon them, it is our duty to pray to prevent dan- 
ger ere it comes. 

Obs. 2. "When hypocrites assemble, it is for them- 
selves, not for God ; for corn and wine, and outward 
mercies. Were it not that they wanted some outwai-d 
good, God would seldom or never hear from them. 

Obs. 3. Hii-pocritcs seek God more for sensual things 
than for others. We assemble together in our fasts to 
seek God, but what is it for? if only or principally for 
outward things, it is but carnal and not spiritual seeking. 
"And they rebel against me." 1. Pr<p frumenio, 
when they are fed like unto the ox when it is fed fat, they 
kick against theu- master. Or, 2. They rebel after they 
have assembled themselves; when once the duty is 
over, they go to their old courses again, and undo all 
their prayers : as Jer. v. 3, " Thou hast stricken them, 
but they have not grieved ; thou hast consumed them, 
but they have refused to receive coiTection." We 
should from hence, 

Obs. 4. Duties shoidd mightily engage us against 
gin. Hast thou in prayer cither confessed sin, or ask- 
ed mercy of God to pardon tliy sins ? Know, tliere lies 
a gi-eat engagement upon our hearts now to be hum- 
bled for our sms, and to walk according to our prayers. 
Dost thou in prayer beg power against thy sins ? and 
in thy life dost thou rebel against God? Xic there 
not many who will be long and very earnest in prayer, 
and judge themselves for their sins, yea, and in words 
justily God, if he should for ever condemn them for 
their sins, and yet afterwards rebel anew against God ? 
Oh, may it not be said. Is this the man that even now 
was in heaven in prayer, and is now, as it were, in hell in 



his conversation ? methinks the very next time thou 
goest to pray to God, thy mouth should be stopped, 
and thou shouldst not be able to speak unto him : as 
we read Origen was, when he had apostatized ; coming 
to preach again, and reading that text in Psal. 1. Iti, 
IT, "A^'hat hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or 
that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth ? 
seeing thou hatest instruction, and easiest my words 
beliind thee ;" his mouth was presently stopped, and he 
was not able to speak a word more. So thou prayest 
to God, and after thou hast prayed, thou goest and 
sinnest freely again : O thou v^Tetch, tremble at this ; 
go and humble thy soul before God for thy sins, and 
tremble at coming thus into God's presence. I put 
this dilemma to you : either you pray against your sms, 
or you do not ; if not, O consider how thou art depart- 
ed from God ; if thou dost pray against them, then 
how darest thou live in those suis which thou hast 
prayed against ? TertuUian has an excellent observa- 
tion to the purpose : Prayer must always be with remem- 
brance of God's precepts, lest we are as far from God's 
ear as his precepts are from our hearts. But further, 

" They rebel against me ;" that is, when their own 
turns are served, and their own ends satisfied, then they 
rebel against me ; as if now they had no more need of 
God, nor never should want help from him. Oh how 
many are there, who upon their sick beds cry out to 
God, that he would pardon their sins, and show them 
mercy, maldng large promises to God of future service 
that they would do! God has taken them at their 
words, and raised them up again and restored them to 
strength. And what have they done ? Nothing, but 
rebelled against him more than formerly, and are like 
the wild ass that snuffeth up the wind. 

Ver. 13. Though I have bound and strengtheited 
their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me. 

God in this verse compares himself to a skilful sur- 
geon, who binds up broken arms and wounds: so God 
liad often bound up their arms when broken by the 
enemies. In 2 Kings xiv., there we find God bound 
up their broken ai'ms. 

Obs. 1. God alone can bind up broken arms. 

Obs. 2. To be sinful after great mercies is a great 
aggravation of sin. God finds us, as surgeons do their 
jiatients, all out of joint, and crying out trom pain. Oh 
that I had ease ! I would give my estate that I might 
be cured ! and when the surgeon has used his skill, and 
cured you of your pain, and given you some ease, if 
then you should stand disputing with him for a shilling 
matter, would it not be an unworthy act ? and would 
not the man think his time and skill ill bestowed ? Oh 
how many people arc there who deal thus with God ; 
haggle and shuffle it with God in their disti'ess ! Oh 
if God will deliver them, what promises do they make, 
but when they have peace and quiet forget agam ! 

06.?. 3. It were an argument of an excellent spirit 
indeed, if, when after our strength is restored and any 
mercy anew given to us. Me would study how we might 
glorily God with the same. Have our anus been brok- 
en, and has God bound them up for us ? O let us now 
use them for God. But this people were far from such 
a disposition, they imagined enl against God. As if a 
patient, cured ol some desperate wound or disease, 
should seek to stab his surgeon or physician. 

" They imagine mischief." The word yn signifies all 
kinds of evil; and to imagine mischief is in some re- 
spects woi-sc than to practise it ; it was not a weakness 
or sin of infirmity in them, for it was an imagined mis- 
chief, it was a most vile, provoking sin, for it did aim 
at the dishonouring of God himself: they who live in 
sin, live as if they were born for nothing but to do mis- 
chief to God. 



Vee. 16. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



353 



VPTiat was this mischief they imagined against God ? 

Why thus, When the arm was broken, they were 
more remiss in urging and pressing their false worship : 
as if God should say, Now they are low and in trouble 
they want opportunities, and have not that power to 
set up and press forward their designs against my true 
worship and servants; but now that their arms are 
bound up, and they have a little more ease and liberty, 
now they set their wits to work to invent mischief 
against my people and worship. And it may be, this 
is the cause why the Lord keeps our arms still broken, 
that we might learn to submit ; for when at any time 
God has begun to bind up our arms, how have many 
improved all opportunities to set up themselves and 
their ways ! 

Ver. 16. They return, hut not to the most High : they 
are like a deceitful bo'v : their princes shall fall by the 
sword for the rage of their tongue : this shall he their 
derision in the land of Egypt. 

" They retm-n, but not to the most High." They 
make shows, yea, do something. This verse refers to 
the story of Jehu, who did very much ; there were very 
great beginnings in his time to cast out idolatry, but 
neither did he nor the people come up to the full height 
tiiat God required of them, but would have some mix- 
tures of their own. And thus it is in many people's 
reformation, they are very hot in the beginning ; and 
even among us, how high did the hearts of people rise ! 
but what a damp is there since that time! though, 
blessed be God, great things are done amongst us. But, 
saith God, that is not yet done amongst them which I 
would have done ; it is true, they honour me indeed, but 
it is as the nations round about them honour their 
gods, they do not honour me as the infinite, eternal, 
First Cause of all things. People should so labour to re- 
form themselves, that they may hold forth the honour 
of God as he is infinite, glorious, eternal, and having 
all power in his hands. The observations from the 
words are these : 

Ohs. 1. God is the most high God, the Supreme 
Majesty of heaven and earth. He is so high, that he 
humbles himself to behold things done in heaven ; it is a 
stooping in him that he takes notice of things in heaven, 
surely, then, much more for things done on the earth. 
Surely, then, he is a high God, and whenever we come 
before him in prayer, we should come before him as to 
a God who is so glorious, and high above all things, that 
betwLxt him and us there is an infinite distance. 

Ohs. 2. A true penitent should have this high God 
always in his eye. And great would be the efficacy of 
such a sight as this upon the spirit, it would be very 
profitable for the soul. For, 

1. It would make the soul to be very serious with 
God, not daring to dally with him who is infinitely 
above it. 

2. It would make the soul abhor itself in dust and 
ashes, Job xlii. 6 : there is nothing humbles the soul 
more than this sight of God's majesty. 

3. It shows the soul the infinite evil which there is 
in sin. 

4. That there is no standing out against this high 
God: I must crouch before Mm, for he will prevail 
against me. 

5. That he is infinitely worthy of all that I am or 
have, and all that I can do : and this very thing would 
answer all temptations against God. 

6. It would inform us that it is not every sorrow and 
slight mourning for sin that will serve, but it must be 
such a sorrow as is becoming such a God. 

7. In this sight of God I behold that which has power 
in it to raise my soul above all things here below : self, 
the world, and all creatiu'e-comforts. all things must be 

2 A 



looked upon as under our feet, else we cannot close 
with God. 

8. I see, by this sight, enough in God to make me 
blessed, and that I may bless myself in him, in the loss 
of all the world ; there is enough in him to make me 
amends for aU the troubles I have met withal for him. 
These are the thoughts of a true penitent heart, con- 
cerning God. Now the soul can say. The Lord is God, 
and there is no such God as the Lord. And by this, 
your thoughts of God, you may put your repentance to 
the trial, whether it be of the right kind or no. Have 
you soiTOwed for sin, as before such a glorious, high 
God as the Lord is, that those that see your humili- 
ations, may see glory, and honour, and praise, written 
upon them to the Lord ? The want of this these peo- 
ple here were charged with : and this has often been 
our case. The Lord help our reformers to cany on the 
work of reformation begun, as before the high God. 
If we lose this opportunity, we lose such an oppor- 
tunity as yet was scarce ever granted to any nation 
upon the face of the earth. Now proud, wicked men 
may lift themselves high in the world, and be thought 
to be somebody for it ; but it is the low, broken, peni- 
tent soul, which is the high man, because he returns to 
the high God. 

They return, but it is not to the yoke, as some ren- 
der the words, they will not come under obedience to 
God's commands ; for there is no difference, but in the 
points, between hy jugum and Sy altissimus: and if we 
understand the word thus, then it notes, that they pro- 
mised much, and made many fair shows of doing much, 
but would not come under the yoke ; they will still be 
sons of Belial, without yoke. So many people, upon 
exhortation and entreaties, will promise fair, they will 
return, and they will do much; but when it comes to 
see the yoke, they flinch back and hold oft', Oh, it is too 
hard for them. 

"They are like a deceitful bow." Thus did their 
progenitors ; they trod in the same steps : Psal. Ixxviii. 
57, they "kept not his testimonies; but turned back, 
and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers : they were 
turned aside like a deceitful bow." Now a bow is 
deceitful two ways. 

1. When it causes the arrow to turn from them 
against whom it was levelled, and recoil upon him 
that shoots it. These people were God's bow; Zech. 
ix. 13, God saith, I have bent Israel as my bow to 
shoot at evil-doers. How vile and wicked is it for 
those, iuto whose hands God has committed power to 
execute justice and judgment against evil-doers, to turn 
all theu' power against the saints, and those who work 
righteousness. 

2. 'WTien it carries away the arrow quite contrary to 
the aim of the archer. Many of these acted thus, they 
had good aims, and intentions, and purposes, but yet 
they cari'ied the matter quite contrary ; these words re- 
fer to Jehu's time, he was notoriously " a deceitful bow :" 
" Come, see my zeal for the Lord ; " yet, a hypocrite. 
O let us look to our hearts, there may be secret warp- 
ings in them, which may cause us to miscarry for ever, 
if we take not heed ; many who have good intentions, 
good purposes, aims, and desires, may yet, almost un- 
consciously, have some secret warpings which may make 
them miscarry to all eternity. A man may with a de- 
ceitful bow aim at a beast, and yet kiU a man ; so many- 
may think they strike at sin, and yet, with that very- 
goad, may at the same time wound the saints. 

" Their princes shall fall by the sword." These were 
they who had the chief hand' in the setting up of false 
worship, and in oppressing those that would not join 
with them : now God would reach these great ones. 
In times of battle, princes stand at a distance, secured 
by their life guards ; they put on others and think to be 
safe themselves ; they will bring others into straits and 



354 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



CilAP. VIII. 



miseries, nd care not though thousands be slain in a 
battle, th y shall do well enough : but, saith God, They 
shall not so escape, " their princes shall fall by tlie 
sword," it shall not distinguish them from others. 

"For the rage of their tongue." Ai' iTraidtvuiav, so 
the Sept. render the words. They raged against God, 
his people, and ordinances, and thought themselves too 
big to be contradicted. We may note here, 

Ob-i. 3. When men grow very wicked, they grow 
outrageous ; like m:id-men, there is no ruling of them, 
there is such a world of wickedness in them they take 
a Uberty to say what they please. We find many strong 
expressions about the tongue in Scripture : as, 

1. Job V. 21, it is called a "scourge;" therefore the 
saints are promised to be delivered from it. 

2. Psal. Ivii. 4, " a sharp sword." Prov. xii. 18, " the 
piercings of a sword ;" and in chap. xxv. 18, " A man 
that beareth false witness against his neighbour is a 
maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow." 

3. It is compared to " fire ;" yea, said to be " set on fire 
of bell," James iii. 6 ; to the " coals of juniper," Psal. 
cxx. 4, which are quickly kindled, but abide long. AH 
these expressions, with others, we find about the tongue 
of the wicked. But now, see what is said of the tongues 
of the saints: Cant. iv. 11, "Thy lips, O my spouse, 
drop as the honeycomb : honey and milk are under thy 
tongue." And Prov. x. 20, " The tongue of the just is 
as choice silver." 

4. An outrageous tongue is such a poison as poisons 
itself, which no other poison doth : other poisons hurt 
no further than they are applied, they cannot poison at 
a distance ; but this is such a strange working thing that 
it will both hurt, and so destroy men, that they shall 
never recover themselves, and this it will do at a distance. 
These men have such dispositions, that they will let none 
pass without a lash of their tongue. Now, the Lord, 
he will not let such escajje, he will scorn the scorners. 
When these men are in their rage, none are spared, no, 
not God himself; but Christ will convince them of their 
hard words. Consider, how, in your families, or in some 
companies, you have been guilty of the rage of the tongue 
in these respects. It follows in the last words, 

" Tliis shall be their derision in the land of Eg)-pt." 
'When they come to Eg^■pt they think to find that tliey 
will help and befriend them; No, saith God, instead of 
helping, they shall scorn them. One part of the rage 
of their tongue, was in speaking basely of the worship 
of God and of his people ; and now the Egvptians shall 
speak basely to them : AMiy do you come to us for 
help ? Wljere is your God, that you so boasted of ? 
Therefore just is it with God, that those who forsake 
him and his help, and go to men for succour, should by 
them be made a scorn. Oh it is a most grievous judg- 
ment for God's people to be made a scorn by such, the 
Eg^'ptians ! And it .should be our care and duty, not 
to put our brethren into such straits, that the poor saints 
of God should be forced to go to the wicked for help, lest 
they should reproach them, saving. Why do vou come 
to us? What! cannot your holy brethren relieve you? 
Do you expect help from us ? But, in special, this is 
their derision in the land of Egy))t, the rage of their 
tongue and mutual contentions. When the Egii']itians 
shall see this, they shall deride them, and regard them 
as the greatest possible objects of scorn. 

The Lord deliver us from this judgment! When 
were there such divisions amongst us as at this day ? Oh 
the rage of the tongue, wliich abounds in every place ! 
The devil himself has a chief stroke in this rage, and, 
as well as our adversaries, laughs to see it prosper and 
increase ; and what should move us more to agree one 
with another than this, the consideration of the woeful 
scorn and derision we should be to them, if God should 
deliver us up into their hands ? Now, as this, their rage, 
M'as a gymptom to them of their ruin, so the Lord grant 



that we may betimes repent of it, lest it prove also unto 
us a sign of utter ruin and desolation. Thus, through 
the Lord's help and assistance, we have gone through 
this seventh chapter, and showed you the meaning of 
the Holy Ghost in it 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Ver. 1. Set the trumpet to ihy mouth. He shall come 
as an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they 
have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against 
my law. 

The prophet still continues the denunciation of 
judgmcntagainst Israel, with the declaration and aggra- 
vation of their sins. 

" Set the trumpet to thy mouth." Let there be a 
full, free, and open manifestation of the sin and the 
danger of Israel. The same commandment here given 
to the prophet, we have in Isa. h-iii. 1, " Cry aloud, 
sjjare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show 
my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob 
their sins." 

Ois. 1. Ministers must not only be trumpeters of the 
gospel, trumpeters of mercy and peace, but trumpeters 
of judgment and of war. They are set to warn peo- 
ple of danger, and woe to them if they do not ! God 
will require their blood at their hands. However the 
spirits of people may be against the free and bold work 
of tlie ministry in denouncing judgments, yet the 
spirits of God's ministers must go on in their way. 
Luther, for the freedom and boldness of his sjiirit, in 
inveighing against the sins of the times, and threaten- 
ing God's judgments, was called tlie trumpet of re- 
bellion. If a town be besieged by the enemy, the cry- 
ing of children or women must not hinder the beating 
up of the drums, nor the roaring of the cannon. God 
takes it exceeding ill at his ministers' hands, to be mealy- 
mouthed when his wrath is incensed ; and therefore 
he calls the watchmen that did not give wai'ning by an 
ignominious name, " dumb dogs, that cannot bark," 
Isa. Ivi. 10. PUny relates, that, when the . 

Gauls scaled the capitol of Home, the ""' *'' 
dogs which were set to keep it, being fed too full, lay 
sleeping, and did not give warning ; they therefore not 
only hanged them up, but everj- year the Romans, in 
memorial, on that day hung certain dogs upon an elder 
tree in the city, ci-ucii'ying them alive, by way of pun- 
ishment, as it were ; and upon this ground it is thought 
that the Romans so hated that kind of death. And 
therefore the death that Christ died was the more 
cursed. God is exceedingly provoked against liis watch- 
men if they give not warning. 

Obs. 2. God's ministers must not be weary of their 
work, though they see little good result. Hosea had 
proclaimed war before this, in the name of the Lord, but 
he must do it again ; so far from being wearj% or dis- 
couraged, his spirits must rise in intenseness, strength, 
and fervency. Before, Hosea's voice was the voice of 
a man ; but now, it is the sound of a trumpet Let 
wickedness stop her mouth, but let the mouths of God's 
servants be ojjcned ; yea, let a trumpet be set against 
their mouths, in declaiming against the wickedness of 
the times in which they live. 

Obs. 3. The denunciation of threatening in the name 
of God, is a terrible sound. If men be not afraid of this 
trumpet and awakened by it, there is a time that shall 
awaken them, when the archangel shall blow his trumpet. 
Those who are most awakened, and fear the sound of 
lliis trumpet, shall have the most comfort when the 
trumpet of the archangel shall blow. 



Vee. 1. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



" He shall come as an eagle." Luther thinks this pro- 
phecy meant against Judah, because of the subsequent 
mention of " the house of tlie Lord." And then this 
eagle must be understood of Nebuchadnezzar, who is 
called an eagle, Ezek. xvii. 3 ; Jer. xlviii. 40. But ra- 
ther I think it refers to the Assyrian, for the prophet 
here is prophesying against the ten tribes, and seems 
to take away the two great confidences on which they 
leaned, which were these : 

First, That they had made a league with Egypt, 
■which was nigh ; as for the Assp-ian, he was a great 
way off, and there was not so much danger to be ap- 
prehended from the Assyrians. 

Secondly, They imagined they had "the house of 
the Lord " with them, and worshipped the true God. 
Now the prophet takes away these two. " He shall 
come as an eagle against the house of the Lord ;" that 
is, the AssjTian ; Shalmaneser is called an eagle, be- 
cause he w'as to come with an army. It may be his 
ensign was an eagle, or, as some parts of armies are 
called wings, so here an amiy is compared to an eagle. 
To show to them that their danger is not so far off as 
they imagined, " He shall come as an eagle," that is, 
swiftly, with mighty force and vehemency. He shall 
have an eagle's spirit, an eagle's eye : the eagle is 
quick-sighted, and the spirit of an eagle is not easily 
daunted. Yet it is observable, that in the law the eagle 
was an unclean bird, though the king' of fowls, and of 
a brave spirit ; God would not have the eagle offered 
in sacrifice, but rather the dove. God often regards 
not eagles' spirits, those that soar aloft and fly on high, 
but receives dove-like spirits, such as are of a meek and 
quiet temper. But " he shall come as an eagle," swiftly, 
that is upon the prey before it is aware. 

Obs. 4. Men flatter themselves when danger is at a 
distance from them. If it be not just upon them, they 
think themselves safe ; but God can bring evil suddenly 
and irresistibly upon them. " He will lift up an en- 
sign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them 
from the end of the eartli : and, behold, they sliall 
come with speed swiftly," Isa. v. 26. Gaulter applies 
this place to the Turks coming suddenly from the ut- 
termost part of Europe, yea, from Asia, into Germany, 
and so into Spain, Sicily, and Italy. God, to punish 
the contempt of the gospel, brought them suddenly 
upon them. However, the Lord has delivered us 
hitherto from foreign nations ; we think ourselves se- 
cure because God has put work enough into their 
hands for the present, with the Danes, French, and 
Spaniards ; but how easy is it for the Lord in an in- 
stant, even when there is no fear of them at aU, to 
bring them swiftly ! 

06s. 5. All the swiftness, fierceness, quick-sighted- 
ness, md spirit of an enemy is fi'om the Lord. If an 
enemy be swift in his course, quick-sighted and fierce, 
and has a strong spirit, we are to attribute it to the 
Lord. 

Obs. 6. Wicked men, in satisfying their rage and 
malice, are as eagles ; much more should we be in our 
service for God. If they, to satisfy then- rage, are as 
eagles, we should imitate them in this, and even be 
much more so, in the service of God. 

" He shall come as an eagle against the house of the 
Lord." Interpreters differ much about this phrase, 
"against the house of the Lord." Because Hosea 
prophesied against the ten tribes, Luther and others 
think that this clause must be meant against Judah. as 
if God, threatening Israel, should say. Do not you think 
to escape, for the enemy shall come as an eagle, even 
" against the house of the Lord." But we need not 
strain it so, for it may be meant against the ten tribes 
notwithstanding this expression, and for this reason : 
because they called the eminent place, where one of 
their calves was set up, Beth-el, the house of God ; and 



so ironically here the houses of their idols may be called 
" the house of the Lord," because they chose those 
houses and places instead of the house of the Lord. 
" He will come against the house of the Lord ;" that is, 
against that which you account so : but I think that is 
not satisfactory, but rather this ; the church of Israel, 
though very corrupt, yet, before their actual divorce, is 
called " the house of the Lord:" so that from thence 
the note is, 

06s. 7. God does not presently cast away a church 
so as to unchurch it, though it be guilty of many hein- 
ous sins. Great sins do not ipso facto unchurch a 
church, therefore there should be much patience be- 
fore any decline from a church by way of renouncing it. 

06s. 8. It is a high expression of the privilege of a 
ti'ue church, yea, though it be very corrupt, that it is 
the house of the Lord. But you will say. What do you 
mean by a true church ? I take it for the present no- 
thing but this ; Any united company of saints who set 
up what ordinances of God they know, is a church, 
wherever it is ; and here God dwells, here God keeps 
house ; and it is good keeping house with God. He 
is worse than an infidel that provides not for his own 
house ; certainly God will provide for his own house. 
Sloses was faithful in all the house of God, that is, in 
all the chm-ch of God. What, then, though thou dwell- 
est in a poor cottage, if thou art a member of the church 
of God, if God give thee this blessing, to dwell in his 
own house, you are well enough. In Psal. xxvi. 8, 
" Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and 
the place where thine honour dfl-elleth." The church 
is not only God's house, but the house wherein the 
honour of God dwells. Princes may have some houses 
where they retire for a time, but they have some prin- 
cipal houses to show their magnificence and glory; and 
such a house is the church of God to the Lord. All, 
then, who are in the church, especially officers, must 
behave themselves and be faithful in it as in the 
house of God : " He shall come against the house of 
the Lord." 

Obs. 9. Though we are God's house, yet the ene- 
mies may be suffered to come upon us. It will not 
profit us, if we transgress the covenant. Joab was 
plucked from the horns of the altar ; and so may we be 
plucked even out of the house of God. God's own 
house is no security to sin and wickedness. 
' " Because they have transgressed my covenant." God 
loves to clear his justice, and to show the cause of the 
evil that comes upon us : he would have it clearly 
charged upon ourselves, that they may not put it off 
to God's decree, that they were predestinated to such 
and such evils. The Lord has his time to charge all the 
evils that come upon sinners upon themselves ; Thy 
destruction is of thyself. The bond between God and 
his church is his covenant, and all the good or evil of 
a church depends upon the covenant ; and therefore it 
was the way always of the people of God, when they 
were far declined from God, to return to him by way 
of renewing covenant. " All the paths of the Lord are 
mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant," Psal. 
XXV. 10; especially now all our good depends upon the 
covenant, more than formerly the good people of the 
Jews did, because the Lord has sealed the covenant 
with the blood of Jesus Christ actually, which was not 
so then. But we had this expression formerly, when 
we opened the covenant of the Jews, and showed what 
kind of covenant it was. 

" And trespassed against my law." ij;u'3 »rnin-Sjf1 
Calvin saith, that, further to convince them, and show 
that it was not through ignorance they transgressed, 
they could not say, Lord, what is thy covenant ? For, 
saith God, I made it known clearly in my law, they 
had it plainly set out in ray law. The heathen can 
know the mind of God only by looking into the book 



356 



AN' EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. VIII. 



of tlie creature, where it is written but very darkly, 
and they can see but little of it there. Yes. saith God, 
but my people have my law, where my mind is %\Titten 
plainly; thev may see it, and know what my covenant 
is with them, and therefore their sin is so much the 
greater, thev have transgressed against my law. The 
Seventy translate these words, koI Kara tov vojiov fiov 
^aijiii'jav, and against my law they have dealt ungod- 
hly : the words seem especially to refer to the worship 
of God commanded in the law, they have not wor- 
shipped me according to my instituted worship; for 
though God looks at every part of his law, yet more 
especially at that which relates immediately to his wor- 
ship. lycB properly signifies, they have prevaricated 
against my law, they have made a show that they 
Avould do what my law requires, but they do quite 
contrary. "What people is there in the world l)ut will 
make some show that they would obey God's law ? no 
people but say it is fit that they should be obedient to 
God's law ; still what variety of opinions and practices 
are there among men, and yet all will father their opi- 
nions and practices upon God's law; and mark, but 
they prevaricate in this ; they pretend one thing, but 
go quite the contrary way : and this is that which God 
charges upon his people, on account of which he would 
send his enemies, even an eagle, upon them. 

Ver. 2. Israel shall cry unto me, My God, ue know 
thee. 

In the Hebrew the words somewhat differ from our 
translation, there Israel is placed first, but in the He- 
brew last, Ss'nw T^V' '^^i* VV' ''^ '^'" "''^ *'^^5' ^'^^" 
cry. My God, we know thee, Israel. The words thus 
read have more elegance in them, and hint some ob- 
servations that would hardly arise from our version. 

If you read it as it is in our Bible, then it is only a 
speech of God to them. 

But if you read it according to the Hebrew, To me 
tliey shall cry. My God, we know thee, Israel, they 
seem to put God in mind who they were ; as if they 
said. We are Israel, who know thee, remember we are 
not strangers to thee ; They shall cry unto me, My 
God, we know thee, Israel. It is Israel that cries to 
thee, O my God ! 

Or, as if they put God in mind of their father Is- 
rael, in whom they placed confidence ; They shall cry 
to me, My God, we know tlice, Israel ; O remember 
our father Israel, and deal graciously with us for his 
sake. Just like tliose who cried, " AVe have Abraham 
to our father ; " so this people, in the time of their 
affliction, would cry to God that they had Israel to 
their father, who prevailed as a prince with God ; 
and therefore they nope they shall fare the better for 
Israel. 

Or thus, They shall cry to me. My God, we know 
thee, Israel ; that is, ,we know thee to be the God of 
Israel, we have known thy ways in former times for the 
good of thine Israel. Remember, Lord, how thou hast 
wrought for them, and work now for us in the same 
manner. Thus there is more in this word, Israel, if you 
set it in the last place in the verse, than if you set it in 
the beginning. 

Obs. 1. In affliction men see their need of God. So 
the Chaldee paraphrase upon this place, When I bring 
straits upon them, they always pray before me, and 
say, Now we see plainly that we have no other God 
besides thee ; O, redeem us, because we are thy people 
Israel. 

Obs. 2. Even hjniocrites and the vilest wTCtclies, in 
the time of their distress, will claim interest in God, 
and cry to liim. Tliose who have departed most from 
him, will be ready to claim an interest in him in their 
distress. M'hat impudence was it for this people, who 



had so grossly departed from God, and so contrary to 
their light, to come boldly and claim their interest in 
him in the time of their affliction ! Truly, we see the 
same spirit in men at this very day, the most wicked 
and ungodly man or woman will be ready in afflictions 
to claim interest in God. I appeal to you, if one should 
take the circuit of the congregation, and speak particu- 
larly to every one. Do you hope that God is your God? 
every one would be ready to say, Yes, we hope he is. 
This is the impudence of men's hearts, who wiU take 
liberty to go on rclielHng and fighting against God all 
their lives, and yet in the time of their distress claim 
an interest in him. 

06s. .3. Know ledge and acknowledgment of God in an 
outward and formal way hj-pocrites think will commend 
them much to God in time of affliction. They expect 
favour from him because they have made some profession 
of God. " We know thee ; " as if they said. Lord, we were 
not as others who forsook thee ; we continued Israel 
still ; we did not turn to be heathens. It is very difficult 
to take away men's spirits from trusting in formality, in 
outward worship; We are all Christians, say they, we are 
not turned heathens. Oh how sweet and comfortable is 
it then to have a true interest in God ! in the time of 
affliction, to be able to say, in truth. Lord, we know 
thee ; and blessed be thy name. Lord, we have known 
thee ; we have had experience of thy goodness, faith- 
fulness, mercy, love, and tender compassion towards 
us ; we have known thee an infinite, all-sufficient good; 
thou hast satisfied our souls with thy love ; the light of 
thv countenance has been the joy of our hearts. O 
blessed be the time that ever the Lord made himself 
known to us ; we can say, Lord, we have known thee, 
and, therefore, now, Lord, have mercy upon us. Let 
us all learn to make more of our interest in God, and 
to labour to know him more and more, that we may 
have this comfort in our afflictions, and be able to 
say in truth, O Lord, thou art our God, we have known 
thee. If hypocrites think it so great a comfort that 
they are Israel, what is it then to be a true Israelite, in 
whose heart is no guile ! 

Obs. 4. Degenerate children think to have favour for 
the sake of their godly parents. We have known thee, 
Israel. Children should imitate the virtues of their 
godly parents, and then they may draw comfort from 
the godliness of their parents. 

Obs. 5. H^■pocrites, though degenerate, will not only 
think to fare'better for their godly parents, but to have 
the same mercy as their godly parents had. They little 
think of the difference there is between Israel hereto- 
fore, and that Israel now so basely degenerated. 

Ver. .3. Israel hath cast off the thing that is good : 
the enemy shall purstie him. 

They cry, A\'e have known thee; but they " cast off' the 
thing that is good ; " they profess to know God in words, 
but in works they deny him. What is it to say, We 
know God, and yet to " cast off the thing that is good ? " 

rjt here translated " cast off'," signifies, hath put off 
a great way, yea, hath abominated the thing that is 
good ; not only forsaken the thing that is good, but 
cast it off with a kind of abomination. 

" Israel hath cast off' the thing that is good." That 
is, first, cast off God himself, who is, as 
Anselm sjieaks, that good in which there J^;™i° ''a,°^E;. 
is all good : God, the highest and chief 
good, they have cast him off. Secondly, "the thing that 
is good," indefinitely ; that is, they will not be ordered 
by any rule, they care not for the good of any one, but 
only to have their own lusts satisfied. 

But that which I think is most properly aimed at by 
this phrase, " the thing that is good," is, the worship 
of God, my worship : they say, We know thee, but in 



Vee. 3. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



337 



the mean time they cast off that good thing, that which 
I hold indeed to be the thing that is good. Hence, 

Obs. 1. The true worship of God is the good thing, 
by way of excellence. We account our estates are 
goods, we speak of the goods of such a man. Are our 
estates such good things ? Oh what then is the wor- 
ship of God ! The worship of God is good by way of 
excellence above all oui- goods, the good thing that a 
spiritual heart can prize, that which God delights in, 
and wherein his people enjoy so much communion with 
himself; the thing by which God lets out so much 
good to his people; it is the safety, protection, and 
blessing of a kingdom. "V^Tiere the purity of God's wor- 
ship is, all other good things will follow ; that is the 
good thing ; and it is a sign of a gracious heart, to prize 
the worship of God in its pui'ity, above all good things 
that a kingdom can enjoy. 

Ois. 2. God's own worship, though such a good, is 
repelled, and cast off as evil, if it suit not the carnal 
hearts of men. The spirits of men rise against it, they 
will not so much as examine things in a peaceable and 
quiet way, but by prejudice ; because they see it not 
suitable to their own ways, their spu'its rise, abomin- 
ating that which God himself prizes. 

Obs. 3. Though at first men only leave God, forsake 
the thing that is good, yet at length they grow to such 
ripeness in sin, that they cast it off with abomination. 
Merely to neglect that which is good is an evil ; but to 
cast off that which is good as an abomination, shows 
the sin of a people is grown to a great height, that they 
are near to judgment indeed. Men who have been 
very forward in the profession of religion, and who 
seemed to love the thing that is good, by degrees have 
their hearts di'awn from the ways of God ; and now 
they cannot bear the sight or the hearing of those 
things in which they delighted. Their hearts rise 
against any who practise them ; they shut their eyes, 
and stop their ears, and with violence repel the truth ; 
as those in Jer. xliv. 16, As for the word of the Lord 
that thou hast spoken to us, we will not hear thee. Oh, 
are there not some present, who thought they had re- 
ceived much sweetness in the ways of God, and now 
have not only left them, but their hearts rise against 
them ; and if any thing be spoken for them, cast it off, 
and even abominate it ? Let such take heed that God 
cast not them off. " K thou seek him, he wUl be found 
of thee ; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off 
for ever," 1 Chi-on. xxviii. 9. O my brethren, let us 
take heed of casting off the thing that is good ; we may 
pass over many truths of which God has convinced us, 
but let us take heed of casting off any truth, for then 
we are ripe to judgment, then the Lord may justly cast 
us off for ever. 

Obs. 4. If the hearts of wicked men be so vile as to 
cast off God and his worship, how much more should 
we cast off with abomination, that which is abomination 
itself! How much more should we east off' false wor- 
ship with abomination, and say. Get thee hence ! and, 
in the same manner, all kind of e^•il and sin that would 
stick so fast upon us ! " Abhor that which is evil,"' 
Rom. xii. 9; abhor it as you would abhor hell itself; 
such is the force of the original, 'ArroaTvyoiiVTii to 
jroviipbv. Thus we should learn from wicked men casting 
off what is good, to cast off that which is evil and wicked. 

Obs. 5. Whatever knowledge we have of God, or 
profession we make of worshipping him, yet if we cast 
off the thing that is good, it deprives us of any interest 
we have in God, and of any comfort in crying to God in 
our afflictions. I beseech you, take notice of this ; They 
" cry to me. My God, we know thee ;" but, saith God, 
they have " cast off the thing that is good." Though it 
be meant of the worship of God principally, vet it is 
spoken indefinitely ; and to cast off violently, and that 
against light, any thing that is good, any truth of God, 



deprives the soul of comfort and interest in God, or 
crying to God in the time of distress. O sinner, how 
dearly dost thou pay for thy beloved sin ! at what a 
costly rate dost thou buy every beloved lust of thine, 
when it deprives thee of all comfort and interest in 
God, that otherwise thou mightest have in crying to 
God in the day of disU'ess ! 

Obs. C. When the good of duty is cast off, evil of 
punishment will come in. '• The enemy shall pursue 
him." By casting off that which is good, we cast off 
mercy and protection ; we open a door to all kind of 
misery : if we retain that which is good, we retam God ; 
but when that which is good is cast off, we lie exposed 
and naked to all kind of misery, for God owns us not. 

Ver. 4. Tliey have set up /ci/igs, but not by me : they 
have made princes, and I knew it not : of their silver 
and their gold have they made them idols, that they may 
be cut off. 

Here we have then- civil apostacy, the other was a 
moral apostacy. " They have set up kings, but not by 
me." 'Though all government is dependent on God, 
yet we are to know that God had an especial hand in 
the government of the people of the Jews. It was not 
merely civil, but a sphitual, and a kind of divine king- 
dom and tj'pical government that God set over them, 
to tj-pLfy the government of Chi'ist. And hence we are 
to take this caution ; we may easily be led into many 
errors, if we argue. That because the kings of Israel 
and Judah did so, therefore it is in the power of any 
king to do the same now ; for certainly there was much 
difference between government in that state, and go- 
vernment now. State and church were mixed together, 
and the government was typical, to set forth the king- 
dom of Jesus Clu-ist. Therefore, though God now 
leaves states at liberty to set up what government may 
best suit them, yet that was not permitted to the Jews ; 
they were to have only that government which God 
revealed from heaven, for their civU state. "RTien, 
therefore, they woidd change the form of their govern- 
ment from judges to kings, God said, they had re- 
jected him in casting it off. 

" They have set up kings, but not by me." Some 
think that this has reference to the choosing of a king 
at first, because they cM it without God's warrant ; and 
so they have set up kings, but not by me. But I 
rather think it refers to Jeroboam and his successors ; 
they set up Jeroboam and his successors, but not 
by God. This, you will say, is a strange opinion, 
for Scripture clearly states that it was from God that 
Jeroboam should be king, and that the ten tribes 
should be rent from Solomon's posterity for the pun- 
ishment of Solomon's sin. So 1 Kings xi. 29 — 31. The 
prophet Ahijah the Shilonite comes to Jeroboam, 
rends the garment of Jeroboam in twelve pieces, and 
saith to him, " Take thee ten pieces : for thus saith 
the Lord, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the 
kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten 
tribes to thee." The Lord sent his prophet to tell him 
expressly, that he would rend ten tribes fi'om the 
house of Solomon, to give them to him ; and yet here 
it is said, " They have set up kings, but not by me." 
Again, in chap. xii. 15, Rehoboam " hearkened not 
unto the people ; for the cause was from the Lord, that 
he might perform his saying, which the Lord spake by 
Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat."' 
It was from the Lord that Rehoboam gave such a churl- 
ish answer, it was from the Lord that he was left to such 
a tyrannical, cruel spirit, that the Lord might fulfil the 
word that he had spoken by Ahijah the Shilonite. 

Abulensis thinks that the ten tiibes 
for the matter of the thing did no more "^ij.'Qu'iti's.'T"?" 
than was right, and he gives this reason. 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. VDI. 



These tribes were free tribes, but Eehoboam would 
bring them into slaver)-, and reign over them as a 
tjTant ; therefore they miglit lawfully depart from him 
and make to themselves a new king. And then he 
puts the cause, viz. a people, or commonwealth, first 
gave the power to kings and princes, but upon certain 
conditions ; therefore, as they first gave power to them, 
so they may diminish it if they abuse it, and tyrannize 
over them. AVhcn a people choose a chief governor, 
they do not give themselves to him as a man gives to 
his friend a piece of money, or a horse, that is, give all 
out of tlieir T)vm possession, and that he may do with 
them what he will, but upon certain conditions. 

Now, though 1 do not altogether approve of what he 
has said, because at least the case between people and 
princes now is dliTcrent from what it was ; then God 
challenged a peculiar prerogative over them for order- 
ing their government ; yet thus far in divinity is true : 
There is more reason that peo])le should now have more 
power to cast off tyrynny tlian there was, because now 
none arrives at government over others, orderly and 
ordinarily, but by agreement ; therefore if the agree- 
ment and law of the counti-y be elective and not hcredi- 
tarv, or that males shall only inherit, or that they may 
deliver themselves from tyranny, so far certainly God 
allows in liis word. 

But now, to answer the case more clearly, "They have 
set up kings, but not by me ; " though God had fore- 
told that the ten tribes "should be rent away from the 
house of David, and that Jeroboam sliould be set uj), 
yet they did not this thing in a lawful manner, for they 
should have consulted with God about the manner of 
it, and when God would have it done. It was not 
enough that God foretold it sliould be done, but when 
they did it they ought to have consulted God, and 
have been directed by God. They did not aim at ful- 
filling the prophecy, for the people generaUy merely 
minded their own passions and lusts, and looked no 
further. Though God oveiTuled it to fulfil his ovm 
counsels, yet they aimed at no such thing. 

Obs. 1. Vic may do the thing which God would have 
done, and yet sin highly against God. God would have 
Jeroboam set up, but as tliey only looked at the matter, 
and did not observe God's way, God rejected them. 

Ob.s. 2. In doing that which God would have done, 
yet if we do not know that it is God's mind, we sin 
against God. Though we do the thing that God would 
have done in his secret will, yet we sin against God if 
■we know it not to be his revealed will. Kow no ac- 
tion can be good, not only materially good, but formally 
also, but that is which is done in obedience to God ; 
and that shows the dangerous condition of ignorant 
people, all their actions are sin, because they know not 
in them God's mind. 

Obs. 3. To go about gi-eat businesses without con- 
sulting with God, is sin. Even the heathens were con- 
scious of this, therefore Publius Scipio would never 
enter upon any great business without first going to 
the capitol to pray to the gods. 

Obs. 4. Alteration in civil government is a great 
business. God had need be much consulted, especially 
if there be any church work mingled with it. Never 
was there a time when England required sucli consult- 
ing with God a.s this. Now England is about the 
greatest and weightiest business that ever it had since 
it was a nation. The very alteration but of an officer 
is a great matter, and requires much consulting witli 
God, and especially if it be in the church. t)ur Sa- 
viour's conduct in sending out his twelve apostles as 
officers for the cluircli is very observable : he was in 
prayer all night before, then in the morning lie calls his 
disciples, ami so sends forth twelve of them, and gives 
them liis commission ; but he makes preparation in 
praying- to God all night long, Luke vi. 12, 13. Surely 



those that are about choosing church officers, ministers 
of God to be their pastors and teachers, had need 
spend days and nights in prayer. Here they did not 
consult God in setting Jeroboam over them, and 
therefore, saith God, they have made them kings, but 
not by me. 

Obs. 5. WTien we are about great businesses, we must 
look at God's designs. We must take heed of our pas- 
sionate wills, and our own self-ends, else we do it not 
by God. In civil affairs, a magistrate may do that which 
is just, but if he is urged by his passion, this is not by 
God: and so in church affairs, if the elders excom- 
municate, the party may deserve it, but if they be guided 
by passion and self-ends, this is not done by God. " They 
have set up kings, but not by me." 

And then, further, as the people sinned, and God would 
not own that which they set up, so Jeroboam sinned too. 
Jeroboam might say. Lord, didst not thou send thy 
prophet to tell me that I should have the ten tribes, and 
yet wilt thou not own me ? No, God would not own 
him ; because, 

1. Jeroboam did not seek God. 

2. Jeroboam did not stay God's time. David was 
anointed by God, and though he had many opportunities 
to take away Saul's life, and to gain thereby the king- 
dom, yet he would not, but waited till he saw the time 
was come that he should be brought to the kingdom. 
But Jeroboam would not do so. 

3. Jeroboam's ends in taking tlie kingdom were not 
right. 

4. Jeroboam did not administer the kingdom for God, 
and therefore God would not own him. And so some 
read the words. They have not administered the king- 
dom by me ; but administering the kingdom by their 
own lusts, therefore I will not own them. 

Ub.i. 6. AVe can have no comfort of God's mercies if 
we stay not God's time. 

O Ai. 7. When we have a mercy promised, we must take 
it by lawful means. " He that believeth shall not make 
haste," saith the Scriptme. Many there are so greedy 
of ))laces, preferments, and otlicr tilings they desire, 
that thc\ make as much haste to obtain tlicm as if they 
feared that if they stay for the orderly coming into the 
place they desire, they must go without it. TATiat bless- 
ing, then, can there be in tliat which we would seek 
to get in om- haste, without God ? 

Obs. 8. When we have a mercy, if we improve it not 
for God, we thereby deny that we are indebted to him 
for it. God has given mee an estate, or honours, or 
preferment. What doest thou ? Dost thou now abuse this 
for thine own lusts ? If so, thou hereby deniest that thou 
hast had it from God. " They have set up kings, but 
not by me." I will not own that. AVhy ? Because in 
the form of their administi-ation they nave renounced 
any right I have to their government. And so the 
Seventy translate the words, 'Eauroie ifiaaikivaav, They 
have reigned to themselves. 

Yea, but it may be said. How were the people that 
were living now guilty of this ? It was long since the 
people did thus set up Jeroboam, and rend themselves 
from the house of David ; how came these to be guilty 
of this? 

The answer is. That they, continuing and retaining 
the government of Jeroboam upon the same pound 
their ])iogenitors first raised it, are guilty of thexr sins. 
Children, imitating theii' parents' sins, contract theu- 
parents' guilt. 

And Mercer, on this place, quotes a Hebrew, David 
Kinuhi, as saying, that now, when the people saw what 
Jeroboam ami his successors did, that they would keep 
them from going to Jerusalem before tlie Lord, and 
make them to serve idols, and forsake God's true wor- 
shi]), they should have djiven him from the kingdom. 
Such was'his opinion : but it is scarcely correct ; we can- 



Vee. 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



359 



not do so merely for religion, except the law of the coun- 
try will bearusout in it. AVar is not to be undertaken 
merely for maintaining religion immediately, but for 
maintaining those laws by which religion is established, 
and the civil right that men have to tlie practice of their 
religion confirmed. So wars may be undertaken ; but 
in a place where the laws of the kingdom were utterly 
opposed to religion, to take up arms were unjustifiable, 
except those laws were previously annulled by compe- 
tent authority. 

But now our taking up arms is justified in this, be- 
cause we do it to maintain the civil right that we have 
to the practice of our own religion : so that our case is 
not the case of the Christians among the heathen. There 
is a law of nature (I confess) beyond the right of any 
law. and the right in that cannot be given away by any 
predecessors. But because the mischief would be infi- 
nitely great, if it were left to every man to judge when 
by this law of nature he might resist ; therefore there 
is a necessity that men should, for theh- particular, suf- 
fer, rather than so resist ; it is necessary for us to stay 
till we be helped in some orderly, legal manner._ I say, 
the God of order never leaves people to such miserable 
inconveniences and mischiefs ; and therefore, in the case 
of individuals, they are rather to suifer, though they 
should be tjTanniz'ed over against the law of nature. 

But certainly, a state, or country, may judge when 
the law of nature, and the right of a kingdom that the 
law of nature gives, besides that which is given by 
positive laws, are to be maintained. The right of the 
law of natiu-e is never taken away by positive enact- 
ments. 

" They have made princes, and I knew it not." They 
made some in a very sinful manner, and God might 
well say, I knew not them. But God s])eaks of them 
all, not only of those, but even of Jeroboam himself, 
and Jehu, who though in part set up by God, yet he 
saith of them, " I knew it not ;" that is, I approve it 
not, I approved it not as they did it ; I let them alone 
in their way, and let them go on : as if God should 
say, I neither did, nor will, take cognizance of what 
thev do to bless them in it. When we seek not God 
for a mercy, when we enjoy it God will not even own 
it to be his. 

The Seventy translate the words, Koi oi/K iyvwpiaav not, 
and they have not made it known to me. When we 
ask not God's mind, and seek not a mercy from God, 
we act as if we would get it without his knowledge. 
We must teU God what we would have, before we pre- 
sume to take it ; and by this means we may go to God 
with more comfort for help and direction, it' we meet 
with straits. Whereas, otherwise, whatsoever diffi- 
culties occur, if we should seek to God to help us in 
them, God would say, I knew nothing of the matter, 
you undertook it without me, and you must shift for 
yourself in it ; look to it now as you can, sink or swim, 
i wiU have nothing to do with it. We are wont to put 
off men in this manner, if they will go and undertake 
a business of their own heads, and then in their diffi- 
culties apply to us for aid ; Nay, as you undertook it 
without me, so go on without me. However, I make 
no question but now many thousands of the servants of 
God in this great business of the state, where they meet 
with so many difficulties, can go to God and say. Lord, 
we did advise with thee, and we undertook this in 
obedience to thee, and now. Lord, help us in our 
straits. Oh ! it is a comfortable thing to have pre- 
viously advised with God, for then we can apply to him 
witli confidence in all our difficulties. 

Further, there are these two notes from this : 
Obs. 9. God knows how to make use of men's sins. 
They sinned, and yet God brought about his own ends 
by it. 

O'js. 10. God often sufiVrs sinners to prosper for a 



long time. Even this kingdom of Israel, that was thus 
set up without God, did prosper outwardly for two hun- 
dred years together ; therefore this is no argument to 
God's owning a business ; it is but as a cipher ; add a 
figiu-e to it indeed, then it will make somewhat ; if you 
can warrant it is God's work, then you may, when it 
prospers, have comfort. 

" Of their silver and their gold have they made them 
idols." See the iU success of their actions, and all be- 
cause God was not sought. Whatsoever we do to satisfy 
our passions and lusts for our own ends, without seek- 
ing God, must be attended with bad results. Though 
God suffered this kingdom to prosper outwardly, yet 
woeful, mischievous fruit ensued upon the alteration of 
their government without God ; it fell into, and continued 
in, idolatry for two hundred years. We had need take 
heed to our hearts that we be upright, and seek God, in 
setting up any new form of government, lest, though it be 
so very specious to our eye, that we may think that we 
are delivered from many yokes and burdens, yet such 
efl'ects may result that we may thereby be brought 
under a bondage still more grievous. They cast off 
the house of David because of the burdens that were 
upon them, but yet have they brought greater upon 
themselves ; for now Jeroboam and his successors lay 
a very heavy yoke upon then' very consciences, the 
yoke "of idolatry : the burden before was upon their 
backs and shoulders, but now it comes to be a burden 
upon their consciences, and that is worse to bear. 

" Of their silver and their gold have they made them 
idols." God here instances their zeal in then- idola- 
tries ; they were content to contribute their silver and 
gold for their idols, they had rather be without them 
than without their idols. Covetous spirits had rather 
be without God, and Christ, and his ordinances, than 
without their silver and gold; let them have their 
silver and gold, and let God, and Christ, and his ordi- 
nances go. Yet these idolaters say. Let us have our 
idols, and let our silver and gold go. Y'ea, they parted 
with their gold and silver to make them gods; but 
many of you keep your gold and silver and make them 
gods' too." The sun (saith Austin) is a ^ t,, ■ ii„ 
more beautiful thing than thy money, ^"^' ShrSt.''' 
but it is not thy God. That which brings 
in silver and gold, drossy, carnal minds love ; but if it 
brings not this in, they care not for it whatsoever it be. 
C'hrysostom has another expression : A 
covetous man is not delighted with the ^^^Hom'. m. 
beauty of heaven, nor with the motion 
of the" sun. Why ? Because the sun does not send forth 
golden beams into his house. 

"That they may be cut off." The word D'3Xy 
ti-anslated " idols," "signifies things that cause much la- 
bour; and then follows, "that they maybe cut off;" as 
if he should say, They are at a great deal of charge to 
undo themselves. Many men make their own damna- 
tion chargeable to them. " Of their silver and their gold 
have they made them idols," saith God, "that they 
may be cut off." My end was that they might be cut 
off', whatsoever their end was. When we are busied in 
compassing our own ends, God may be workmg our 
ruin even by those vei'y things we bless om-selves m, 
and from which we expect great advantage. O con- 
sider this, while I am plotting for myself, and blessmg 
myself in hope of gain, God's thoughts, and counsels, 
an'd workings, and ends may be cross to mme, even in- 
tending my ruin, my eternal ruin ! 

Obs. 11. "\ATiatsoever we do, from which evil neces- 
sarily follows, is accounted by God as if we brought 
the evil designedly on ourselves. Surely they set not up 
silver and gold with an intention to destroy themselves ; 
but because destruction necessarily follows, therefore 
God accounts it done on purpose. Thus in Prov. viii. 
36, " All they that hate me love death." Surely no 



360 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. VIU. 



man loves death ; but when you do cast off the instruc- 
tion of wisdom you, as it were, say you love death : 
as here, " that tliey may be cut off." 

Ver. 5. Thy calf, Samaria, hath cant thee off; 
rnine avger is kindled against them: how long wilt it 
be ere they attain to innocency .* 

" Thy calf, Samai'ia." He calls the idol a calf by way 
of contempt. But why is it called the calf of Samaria ? 
We read only of two, and neither was set up in Samaria ; 
yet here it is called, " Thy calf, O Samaria." The reason 
IS this, that Samaria was the chief city ; and because 
the calf was maintained by the jjower, and riches, and 
countenance of the chief city of the land, therefore it is 
called the calf of Samaria. Where the chief city is 
corrupted, the whole land will quickly become corrupt ; 
and where that stands right, it goes well with the whole 
land. That is the reason why the adversaries seek to 
corrupt and overthrow our chief city. As all depended 
on what Samai-ia did, therefore the corruption of false 
worship is attributed to Samaria, it is " thy calf, O Sa- 
maria." So if God had not moved the hearts of the 
people of this city, but we had brought popery in, it 
might have been said, it was the poperj- of London. 
Whereas, on the other side, if God please to work 
their- sphits to go on to the end aright, children yet 
unborn may have cause to bless this city, and say. This 
is the reformation for whicli we may bless London. 

" Hath cast thee off." Hath cast thee off fiom me ; 
so some have it. But rather as you have it in your 
books, " Thy calf hath cast thee off." 

Obs. \. Though idolaters promise themselves safety 
and protection by their idols, yet they will fail them at 
last. All you that go on in sin, know that its ways 
will fail you at last ; as they say, the devil leaves the 
witches when imprisoned. When Judas went to the 
scribes and Pharisees in the anguish of his spirit, and 
cast down the money, and said, " I have sinned in that 
I have betrayed the innocent blood ;" " '\\"hat is that to 
us ?" say they, " see thou to that." Therefore the best 
way is to cast off our sin and wickedness first. But God 
will not do thus, he wUl not cast off his people in the time 
of trouble ; and w hen our unbelieving hearts fear that 
God will cast us off in the time of trouble, we make 
God an idol, as if God would do as the idols did. AVe 
may, in God's cause, be brought into straits, but God 
will never cast us off in them : when in difficulties we 
are ready to think ourselves utterly forsaken, but then 
God may be working the greatest good for us. We 
have a most notable scripture for that in Isa. xlix. 13, 
14, " Sing, O heavens ; and be joyful, O earth ; and 
break forth into singing, O mountains : for the Lord 
hath comforted his ])eoplc, and will have mercy upon 
his afflicted." But mark, " Zion said. The Lord hath 
forsaken me." All around were in a singing condi- 
tion ; and God calls the heavens to sing, and the earth 
to be joyful, and the mountains to break forth into 
singing, because of the great work that God was ac- 
complishing for his peo)ile : " But Zion said, Tlie Lord 
hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me." 
And so it is with particular souls, they are ready to 
say. The Lord hath forsaken me; but God will' not 
do so. 

" Mine anger is kindled against them." Wicn 
wicked men are brought into the gi-oatest straits, then 
God's wrath is hottest, and then also conscience up- 
braids most. As men's countenances sometimes change 
red and pale with anger ; so here, mcta])horically, God's 
anger is said to be " kindled against them." Though 
tlie superstitious may think that outward, pompous 
worship ])leases God most, yet we see here that it stirs 
Dp his anger and kindles his wrath. 

" JIow long will it be ? '' Men's hearts are stubborn 



in their own ways, they will not be drawn off from them ; 
wicked men will be true to their own principles. 

Obs. 2. There is a stubborn constancy in evil, as well 
as a gracious constancy in good. " How long will it be ? " 

obs. 3. God is very patient : " the riches of his good- 
ness, and forbearance, and long-suffering." 

Obs. 4. Continuance in sin is no excuse, but an ag- 
gravation of sin, it makes it grievous to God. When 
God chastises us, we are ready to cry, " How long, 
Lord?" " Will he retain his anger for ever?" Know, 
that our continuance in sin is as great a burden to God's 
Spirit ; he cries out, When will they be made clean ? 
when shall it once be ? " O Jerusalem, wash thine 
heart fiom wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. 
How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee ?" 
Jer. iv. 14. 

" Ere they attain to innocency." The words are nV 
ypi ^S3V they cannot innocency, that is, they are so 
deeply engaged that they cannot attain to innocency : 
when men are engaged in evil ways they cannot deliver 
themselves. The obsenations are, 

Obs. 5. We should take heed of engagements in 
that which is evil. 

Obs. 6. K, by custom in evil, we have no power to ' 
get out, this Avill not excuse us. In 2 Pet. ii. 14, 
" Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease 
from sin ;" this is the aggravation of sin, not its excuse. 
A learned man of late renders this, they 
cannot bear innocency: and indeed, ac- ^"mliMc'l'i'.am."' 
cording to the Hebrew, this may as well 
as any thing else be added for explication ; for, as we have 
observed, the original is, they cannot innocency, the 
word attain not being in the Hebrew ; and to this he 
gives the following interpretation, suiting very well 
with the time wherein Hosea prophesied ; They cannot 
bear with those who will not join with them, but will 
go to Jerusalem to worship, and who seek to fi-ee 
themselves from defilements in the service of God. 
There is nothing in the world wherein men can less 
bear one with another, than in dissensions about the 
worship of God, and commonly the nocent party is the 
most bitter ; as the Lutherans were worse in their ways 
than the Calvinists, especially in respect of supersti- 
tion, but were a great deal more bitter against the 
Calvinists than the Calvinists against them ; it was a 
saying of Calvin, Though Luther should call me devil, 
yet I would honour him as a servant of Jesus Christ. 

The word ]'p3 here translated " innocency," signifies 
purity, or cleanness : whatsoever holiness may seem to 
be in false worship, yet is it not clean ; but God's wor- 
ship is clean, " the fear of the Lord is clean : " such 
wickedness attends it, as if God should say. You are 
never like to wash off the guilt of it as long as you live. 
It is not so easy as men think, to get off the guilt of 
superstitious worship. We cannot but acknowledge, 
to our own shame, that we have formerly sullied our- 
selves with superstition : we had need wash and rinse 
o\n- hearts again and again, and be willing to lay abroad 
a frosting whole nights, that we may be cleansed from 
the filth that we have contracted ; yea, we should not 
think it much, nor marvel, thougli the fire of God's 
wrath come out against us and burn hot and long ; if 
it be but to purge, and not to destroy us, it is well : for 
it is not easy to be cleansed from superstition ; it is only 
the blood of the immaculate Lamb that is able to wash 
away its stains ; its filth sticks very fast. 

Ver. 6. For from Israel vas it also: the trorkman 
made it ; therefore it is not God : but the culf of Sama- 
ria shall he broken in pieces. 

The prophet proceeds in his conviction of Israel's 
sin, with the threats of God against it. 

" l''or from Israel was it." That is, their idolatry 



Ver. 6. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



was from themselves ; it was hard to get them off from 
their idolatrous worship, for it was from themselves. 
Others worshipped idolatrous images, as being deceived, 
being made to believe that they came from their gods ; 
as that wise town clerk of Ephesus, in his grave, sage 
speech, Acts xix. 35, said, their image " fell down from 
Jupiter;" or else they were such as were brought from 
the temples of other people, whose original they knew 
not. But, saith God, My people are more sottish than 
any, for from Israel themselves come these their images 
that they worship, they have set them up themselves ; they 
know that the other day they were but pieces of wood, 
overlaid with gold and silver; for their calves were 
idols that Israel invented tliemselves, not the same 
(as some think) with the Egyptian Apis, for that idol 
was a live bullock with several spots and divers things 
wherein it differed from the calves that Israel worship- 
ped, so that the calves of Israel's worship were their 
own invention. Hence there are these notes : 

06.?. 1. None are so sottish in wickedness as apos- 
tates. Israel was more sottish than any people. 

Obs. 2. To be devisers and inventors of evil, and 
especially of any thing false in the worship of God, is 
a great aggravation of sin. Those that are the first 
inventors and de^•isers of wickedness, and especially of 
any false worship, are most wicked and abominable 
before God. It was from themselves. 

Obs. 3. 'Men hold fast by their own inventions in the 
worship of God. This is given as a reason why they 
could not be brought off from that false worship: it 
was from themselves. And hereby men show that 
they honour their own fancies and wills above the will 
and the mind of God : we will a great deal more easily 
part with the worship of God that comes from God, 
than with worship that comes from ourselves. 

" Also." " For from Israel was it also." There is 
somewhat in that "also;" and it is this. As formerly 
in the wilderness they set up a calf, so here again, 
" from Israel was it also." Former examples of God's 
wrath against their progenitors will not deter them, 
they still follow the guise of their ancestors in false 
worship. 

Obs. 4. No sin is more hereditary than idolatry. 
" From Israel also." Hence, the second commandment 
alone threatens to visit the sins of the fathers upon 
the children. 

" The workman made it ; therefore it is not God : 
but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces." 
There are two arguments, why their calf was " not God." 

I. " The workman made it." 

II. It " shall be broken in pieces." 

I. " The workman made it." It is the greatest folly to 
look upon that which derives its excellency from oiu'- 
selves, as superior to us, and that in the highest de- 
gree ; to forsake the God that made us, and to make 
that to be a god unto us which we have made ourselves. 
The father looks upon his child as inferior to him, be- 
cause he was the instrument of his being, and so lie 
well may ; and if one be maintained or raised by an- 
other, he is expected to be serviceable to him. In both 
these relations we stand to God, but idolatry makes 
men go against the very principles of reason. Tliey 
fashion the idol, and yet account it their god : they 
are made and sustained by God, and yet forget him. 
Hence, especially, 

Obs. 5. Man cannot by any act of his own deify a 
creature. They " made it, therefore it is not God." !^ian 
cannot so much as impart holiness to a creature, much 
less divinity ; all the workmanship of man, by his con- 
secration, or any thing that he can do, cannot make 
stones and mortar holy, so that, in case of need, it 
should be a sin to put them to a common use. Man 
takes too much upon him to think to raise the creature 
so near to divinity ; he cannot, by any work of his, so 



put religious respect on a place, or on any thing else, 
that God there shall be nearer to him, or he nearer to 
God. Whatsoever is of man's work, in God's worship, 
perishes in the using of it ; surely then man's creation 
cannot be God. " The workman made it; therefore it 
is not God." 

Indeed there is a creation of man which the Scrip 
ture speaks of, that is called god, not truly, not God 
really, but metaphorically; thus in 1 Pet. ii. 13, kings 
and governors are called man's creation, man made 
them ; and you know the Scripture calls governors 
gods. "I havesaid, Yearegods,"Psal. Ixxxii. 6; but it is 
added, " ye shall die like men : " this text shows, if man 
made them, they cannot be truly gods ; and the former 
scripture tells us, that kings and governors are man's 
creation ; in your books it is translated man's " ordi- 
nance," but it is in the original xriaie av^puTrivtj, 
man's creation. Man made them, and therefore they 
are not gods ; therefore we must not give them the 
honour of a God, to subject our consciences unto them ; 
no, neither are we bound to subject our outward estates, 
and liberties, and lives to their humours and lusts, iot 
to the mere will of God alone are we all subject. 

If all the art and skill, power and riches, of all the 
men in the world were put together, and all the wis- 
dom and power of angels, and all the created excel- 
lency in all things and In all creatures, joined to it, yet 
this surely could not be a God to us ; I say, if we con- 
ceive all art, skill, power, and riches, of all the world, 
brought together into one man, yea, all the skill and 
power of angels put into him too, and if he were able 
to extract all the excellencies out of all creatures, and 
combine them in himself, yet could he not be a God 
unto us ; because he was made. And shall we say fur- 
ther, God himself, by his infinite power, cannot make 
any thing to be a God to us ; nay, if God himself were 
made, he could not be God : therefore, surely that 
which the workman hath made cannot be a God. 

How vile then are our hearts, and how do we de- 
base ourselves, to subject ourselves to every vanity, as 
if it were a God, whereas all the power in God himself 
cannot so exalt a created excellency, as to be a God to 
us ! How vain is the heart of men that makes pleasure 
their god, as the voluptuous, his belly; that makes 
money their god, as the covetous ; that makes honour 
and the applause of men their god, as the ambitious ! 
Bernice and Agrippa came with great pomp, with much 
fantasy, fitra jroXXi/c (pavraalae, Acts XXV. 23; all the 
excellency of their pomp was but a show, a mere 
fantasy. 

In this God shows the excellency of an immortal 
soul, that it is such, that only an infinite, eternal being, 
like himself, can be a God to us. 

But further. This is an argument against the idol of 
the mass : a common priest, vile ])erhaps in himself, 
makes it a god : what kind of a divinity must it be ? 
Can there be a greater stumbling-block to Jews, Turks, 
or heathens, to keep them from embracing the Chi'is^ 
tian religion, than this, that Christians should make 
their god, and then eat him ? That is the first argument : 
" The workman made it ; therefore it is not God." 

II. It " shall be broken in pieces." " But the calf of 
Samaria shall be broken in pieces," " therefore it is not 
God." No God, surely ! He speaks here with indigna- 
tion. It is not God, it is a calf; as doth the psalmist, 
Psal. cvi. 20, " They changed their glory into the simi- 
litude of an ox that eateth grass." It " shall be broken 
in pieces," it sliall not be able to help itself, much less 
help them ; it shall be as Dagon before the ark, brokea 
all to pieces. 

Jerome on the place saith, that he learned from a 
Hebrew, that this word (which is not a verb, but a 
noun, signifying, breaking in pieces) carries with it the 
idea of a web, such as you see at some times of the year 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. VIII. 



in the fields, upon the grass, thin webs, like spiders' 
webs, that presently di.^solve into atoms ; so that tlieir 
calf shall, like them, dissolve and come to nothing. All 
the confidence and hopes in any thing we set up in the 
place of God, are such to us. What difference is there 
between such a tiling and " a strong rock," and " an 
high tower," such as God is to his people. 

And again. The word signifies saw-dust, that comes 
from timber that is sawn, and so it " shall be broken in 
pieces:" look, as the calf in the wilderness was ground 
even to dust, to powder, and Moses made the peo])le 
drink of it in water ; so God will serve this calf Hence, 

Obs. 6. Idols arc to be broken in pieces. So God 
commanded, E.xod. xxxiv. 13 ; Deut. vii. 5 ; Ezck. xx. 
7 i with many other scriptures ; and thus godly magis- 
trates have ever done, broken idols in pieces. And 
blessed be God for what has been done of late among 
us, tliat so many idols, and especially that great idol 
which was in the most eminent place of the city, God 
put a spirit into those in authority to break in pieces. 
This must be done by the magistiate, as those in au- 
thority alone possess power over public places. 

I remember Austin in his sixth discourse on Christ's 
sermon, speaking of Deut. xii. 1 — 3, sailh, First you 
must possess the land, and then you shall overthiow 
then- altars ; and thence notes, That it is for those 
alone who liave the ])ossession of the land to break 
tlie idols in pieces. In the city of Basil, we read, that 
every Ash \A'edne3day (as they call it) is observed 
a festival, instead of the popish fast on that day, be- 
cause of the burning of popish images. And though 
we have no warrant to observe such a day as a holy 
day, yet certainly as a day of outward, civil rejoicing, 
we have cause to observe those times wherein notorious 
and abominable idols have been broken in pieces. 

Obs. 1. Whatsoever may be broken in pieces, we 
ai"c not to make our god. Now, all creatures in the 
world are subject to breaking : your estates are in dan- 
ger to be broken in pieces, therefore they are not god.s ; 
Qiat is the argument of the Holy Ghost here : yea, it may 
be many of your estates are broken in pieces already ; 
oh what poor gods were they then to you ! and so with 
any other creature whatsoever : therefore let us " trust 
in the Lord for ever : for in the Lord Jehovah is ever- 
lasting strength," Isa. xxvi. 4. 

06s. 8. Deifying a creatui-e makes way for the de- 
struction of that creature. " The calf of Samaria shall 
be broken in pieces," because it was made an idol. If 
you would use your estates to fit you for God's ser- 
vice, you might keep tliem; but if you set them up 
in God's place, it is just witli God that they should " be 
broken in jiieces." Yea, if you set your husband, your 
wife, your child, your friend, in the place of God, tliey 
must be broken to pieces ; broken to jiiecos, at least 
with respect to you. Many great instruments of God, 
God lias been fain to break to pieces, because that men 
have set them up in Uie place of God, and made even 
gods of them. 

Ver. 7. For they have soicn the wind, and they shall 
reap the whirlwind : it hath no stalk : the bud shall 
yield no meal; if so be it yield, the strangers shall 
sitallow it up. 

" For they have sown." Sowing is a laborious work, 
and this idolatrous people were very laborious, took a 
great deal of jiains, about their false woisliip. Hence, 

Obs. 1. Idolaters are laborious ; they are willing to 
take pains and go through many diificulties for the 
furtherance of their false worship. Tliose that sow 
must be abroad in the wind and the cold. Let not us 
be sluggish then in the true worship of our God, let 
us be willing to pass through many difficulties to pro- 
mote liis cause. 



Obs. 2. Idolaters sow in hope. Sowing is a labour 
without any present profit coming in by it, the benefit 
of the labour lies in the future expectation. We are 
forthwith weary of a little labour, except we receive 
some present return ; we cannot wait for the blessing 
of " the former and the latter rain " upon our endea- 
vours ; we must be always reaping, or else we are 
wearied and discouraged. Idolaters would work hard 
though they get nothing for the present ; how much 
more should we labour for God in expectation of the 
harvest that God lias provided ! 

06s, 3. Idolaters labour to maintain their false wor- 
ship for the sake of posterity. " For they have sown." 
Sowing is a work for the maintenance of the succession 
of provision from one generation to anotlier : so idol- 
aters are not content to enjoy their idolatries during 
their own times, but adojit means to continue the en- 
joyment to future generations. Thus we should do, 
and with great reason, in the true worship of God ; not 
think it enough to enjoy it ourselves, but use all means 
in our power, that we may leave it to our posterity ; 
that we may sow for posterity as well as ourselves, that 
we may leave a stock of provision for our children af- 
terwards. Through God's mercy our forefathers did 
so, and we have reaped the harvest of their seed ; and 
as through their endeavours we have enjoyed much of 
the worship and of the truths of God, let us likewise 
sow for those that will succeed us. 

Obs. 4. Idolaters observe their seasons. "For they 
have sown." Sowing is a work that must be done in 
its season, or it is done in vain : so idolaters mark the 
times fit for the furtherance of their false worship ; 
much more should we for the worship of God. We 
have had a fair season, and have seemed to be very 
busy ; the Lord grant we do not sow the wind, as fol- 
lows in the next words. 

" The wind." " They have sown the wind." This is 
a proverbial speech, signifying the taking a great deal 
of pains to little purpose ; as if a man should go abroad 
in the fields, and spread his hands about witli effort, 
and yet grasp nothing but air. The wind is an empty 
creature in respect of things solid, therefore the Scrip- 
ture often makes use of it to signify' the vanity of the 
hopes and laborious endeavours of wicked men : you 
find several exjiressioiis in Scripture illustrative of this ; 
as, "Labouring for the wind," Eccles. v. 16; "feeding 
upon the wind," Hos. xii. 1 ; " bringing forth the wind," 
Isa. xxvi. 18; " inheriting the wind," Prov. xi. 29 ; and 
here, in the text, " sowing to the wind." 

06s. 5. Many do nothing all their lifetime, but sow 
the wind ; they labour and toil, but what comes of it ? 
It is no good account to give to God of our time, to say 
that we have takeu a gi-eat deal of pains ; we may take 
pains, and yet " sow the wind." 

'\\'ho are those that sow the wind? 

1. Some students; men that spend their thoughts and 
strength about things no way profitable to themselves 
or others, such sow the wind ; with a great deal of 
earnestness they do just nothing, for what they do is 
but a trifle, ^fany scholars study night and day, tire 
themselves with reailing, and musing, and writing, and 
vet arc no way useful ; cither their studies have been 
m useless things, raking among rubbish and lumber, 
or else they know not liow to turn to advantage their 
reading and learning. And indeed it is a pitiful object 
to behold one who has been all his days a great stu- 
dent, has risen early and gone to bed late, grudged the 
very time of his meals, yet a useless man in tlie place 
where he is, and of no service, after all, to church or 
common-weal : such a man has all his days " sown tlie 
wind." 

2. Idolaters; all those who take pains and ai-e at 
great cost in superstitious worship, all tlielr intentions 
Uiat they have to honour God, come to nothing, it is 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



363 



but a sowing the -wmi : and this is that which is here 
especially meant, they sow the wuid. All idolatrous 
worshippers but sow the wind : how many papists are 
there, that dare not for their lives but rise at the hours 
that they have vowed, and spend them at their beads, 
wear out their bodies by their fastings and watchings, 
deny themselves the use of the creatures, wear sackcloth, 
lie very hard, tire theu- bodies by pilgi-image, forsake the 
revenues that their progenitors have left them, vow 
perpetual virginity, shut themselves up in cloisters ! 
What a deal of labour and toil is all this to the flesh ! 
and it is for conscience' sake, with a desire to honour 
God, and to afflict themselves for their sins. And yet 
this, not having warrant from God, being but " will-wor- 
ship," is but sowing the wind ; they lose all their la- 
bour, cost, and charge, all their thoughts, and devotions. 

3. Formalists ; such as content themselves in the 
outward part of God's worshij), having no power nor 
life of godliness in the services they perform. You have 
many that do things out of custom, content themselves 
in the outward act, dare not for their lives neglect 
prayer, not one morning nor evening, nor at other 
times, and are often with God's. people in fasting, or 
coming to hear the word ; but yet all this while, not 
having the life and power of godliness in these their 
duties, tliey do but sow the wind, they lose all their 
labour : and when they come to die, and desire comfort 
from what they have done, they shall find nothing but 
the wind to feed upon, they will have no solid comfort 
to satisfy their souls in the day of their distress. 

4. The vain-glorious ; they who do all that they do 
out of vain-glory, who, to set up themselves among 
others, spend a long time in ])rayer, and an ostenta- 
tiously scrupulous observance of all rites and ceremo- 
nies, a prmciple of vain-glory actuating them through- 
out ; these have been but sowing the wind. Men of 
public gifts, who do abundance of good in the church 
of God and in the commonwealth, but are moved 
thereto by a principle of self and vain-glory, lose all, 
they sow but the wind. 

5. Carnal poUticians ; these leave the rule of the 
word, and carry on their actions altogether by the rules 
of carnal policy, thinking to effect great things by theii' 
devices. These, despising the word and worship of 
God as things beneath them, sow but the wind while 
they profess to be engaged in weighty matters. The 
peo])le here were moved by carnal policy, and God calls 
it all but sowing the wind : they thought they had 
framed to themselves a notable piece of work, but, saith 
God, it is but sowing the wind. 

6. Such as serve themselves of sin ; such as seek to 
shift for themselves by sinful means when they are in 
any straits, and forsake lawful courses to help them- 
selves out of trouble ; these are they that sow the wind 
to themselves, nothing wiU come of all the labour they 
take. Now to apply this : 

1. The church of God may have much comfort in 
this, that all their enemies, in all they do, but sow the 
wind i they can never prevail, be not afi'aid of them. 

2. Life is the seed-time for eternity ; it is an evil and 
dangerous thing therefore now to sow the wind, to lose 
this seed-time, and to have nothing for our souls to 
feed upon to all eternity. Oh ! how sad will it be when 
we are entering on eternity, to see then that we have 
all our lifetime but " sown the wind !" Bid men con- 
sider that then- actions were seeds for eternity, certainly 
they would take more heed what they do. ' Jlen are 
very careful of their seed ; what husbandman that is to 
sow his ground would go into a market to buy chaff, 
to buy blasted stuff to be his seed ? no, he would buy 
the largest and plimipest corn he could get for seed. 
So should we be careful of all our actions, for they are 
such seed as must bring forth a harvest of eternal 
happiness, or else eternal sorrow ; and especially we 



had need look to our seed when God gives us a fair op- 
portunity of sowing. All hypocrites, formalists, and 
false worshippers, sow the wmd, then- actions are but 
as the wind ; but the servants of God, whose works 
come from faith, and are indeed godly, they sow to 
immortality and glory, their seed wUl bring forth a 
glorious harvest. I remember that Luther, though a 
man that seemed to beat down works very much, yet 
has this passage concerning works : Take works out of 
the cause of justification, and no man can too magni- 
ficently commend good works that come from faith. 
And speaking of a good work that comes from faith, 
he saith. Any one good work is a more precious thing 
than heaven and earth. Y'ea, he himself, though no 
merit-monger, yet extols good works that come from 
faith, and saith. The whole world is not sufficient re- 
ward for one good work resulting from faith. Indeed 
the works of the saints have a great deal of excellency 
in them, one gi-aeious work has more of the glory of 
God in it than all the creation of heaven and earth be- 
sides : I say, the whole frame of heaven and earth has 
not so much of the glory of God in it, as one good 
work that comes from the grace of God in the hearts 
of the saints ; and my reason is this, because a good 
work that comes from the grace of God in the hearts 
of the saints, is a reflection of spiritual life, that is, of 
the very life of God, as the Scripture calls it, the life of 
God, and the Divine nature. iS'ow an action of spi- 
ritual life more sets forth the glory of God than any 
glory that God has passively ; the glory that he has in 
the frame of the heavens and earth is but a passive 
glory, but here the very glory of God is reflected upon 
his own face, it is a glory of spmtual Ufe. A man does 
not account one so much honoured in an image that is 
cb'awn of him, as when he sees his child act as he him- 
self acts, his own character impressed on the ofi'spring. 
Now all the fi-ame of heaven and earth is not so 
much as a jjicture, it is but as the footsteps of God, 
the sku'ts of his glory ; but in one gracious action of 
the saints God sees his child act as he himself doth, he 
sees the workings of his own holiness and his own vir- 
tues ; we show forth the vu'tues of him that " hath called 
us out of darkness into his marvellous light," 1 Pet. ii. 9. 

3. Ministers must most of all men take heed that 
they sow not the wind. God has made them seeds-men 
of that eternal seed, his word, and they fail to sow it 
truly, when, 1. They are loth to take pains, or to be at the 
charge for good seed, they sow husks and chaff, and 
bring merely empty words to their people. 2. When 
they do take sufiicient pains, but bring their own 
fancies and counsels instead of the precious immortal 
seed of the word : in both these cases they do but sow 
the wind. The Seventy translate the ,„.,,, ^^^ ,^ 
words which we render " for they have "on iveuifUopa 
sown the wind," thus, for they have l^'reipau. 
sow-n things corrupted by the wind. Those actions that 
pride corrupts, will never bring forth good fruit. 

" And they shall reap the whirlwind." As we sow, 
so shall we reap. The word in the Hebrew (Tremelius 
upon this place observes) has a syllable 
more than usual added ; and that, saith '^^'n.^Eir 
he, to increase its signification ; to note, 
that this is not only a whu'lwind, but a most terrible 
whirlwind. And mark, he does not say they sow the 
wind, and they shall reap the wind ; no, there is more 
in the harvest than in the seed ; if men will "^ sow the 
wind," they must expect to " reap the whirlwind." If 
thou hast but a little pleasm-e in thy sinful ways, thou 
must expect a great deal of misery as thek fruit. 
Theur labour shall not only be in vain, but much_ evil 
shall come, sudden and violent destruction. All sinful 
actions are like the sowing of the wind in the earth : 
now we know, if windy vapours get into the earth, they 
break forth into whirlwinds, they cause eartliquakes j 



364 



A\ EXTOSmOX OF 



Chap. VIII. 



so wicked actions break forth into violence and irresist- 
ible evils, and will cause heart-quakes at last. Great 
is the power of the whirlwind, the Scripture describes 
it as very great; so, in 1 Kings xix. 11, it "rent the 
mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks." Sabclicos 
reports, that Cambjses' soldiers bein" at dinner in a 
sandy place, there arose a whii-hvind and drove the 
sand upon them so that it covered them all. And yet, 
what is the wind, but many vapours conjoined ? and 
yet what mighty strength is in them ! By the way, 
this meditation may be raised here : Wiat ! shall the 
conjunction of many such weak things as vapours pre- 
vail so mightily ? what then must be the strength of 
the infinite God, to whicli nothing can be added ! Add 
many vapours together, and they form strong winds, 
which rend up the mountains by the roots. If many 
weak things put together (I say) prove thus powerful, 
what must be the strength of an infinite God, to which 
no strength can be added ! But out of the words, 

Obs. 6. It is just with God, that those who sow the 
wind should reap the whirlwind; should be brought 
into trouble and vexation, into miserable and irremedi- 
able distresses. You that spend your time about trifles, 
whereas God sets you in the world on work of great 
importance, it is just with God that you should have 
horror on your sjiii-its hereafter, when he shall make 
you see how you have spent that time upon which eter- 
nity depended : and you that spend your time in false 
worship, and so think to put off God with your own 
inventions, it is just with God that you should reap the 
whirlwind. Ye formalists, wlio spend your strength 
and time in the observance of mere external rites, and 
never sanctify the name of God, it were just with God 
that horror, and distress, and trouble should fill your 
souls. And you, ye hypocrites, who aim at your own 
vain-glorious ends, whereas you should desire to bring 
glory to the name of God, it is just with God that fear- 
ftilness and trembling should possess you. How many 
have lain upon their death-beds, and cried out. Oh I 
have done all in hyjjocrisy ! and so horror of conscience 
has been as a whirlwind to their souls. Carnal ])oli- 
ticians, too, that have left God, and sought to provide 
deliverance for themselves and others out of difficulties 
by sinful courses, the Lord often brings into most 
dreadful straits, and, the worm of conscience gnawing 
upon them, they find by sad experience that they have 
reaped the whirlwind. And indeed we begun of late 
to corrupt the worship of God, and were carried on by 
canial policy, and did sow the wind ; and how has the 
Lord now made us in great measure to reap the whirl- 
wind ! Job saith the whirlwind comes from the south ; 
but indeed the truth is, we have had whirlwinds coming 
from the north and west, and may yet have whirlwinds 
coming from all parts of the kingdom ; for what has 
the land done of late, but " sown the wind ?" Let us 
not wonder, though God at tliis day speak unto us out 
of the whirlwind, as once he did to Job. 

Yea, but many may say. That which we have sown 
has some substance in it, it is not only the wind, for we 
see that it comes to a blade, it comes forth. 

Yea, but, I beseech you, observe the words that 
follow, 

" It hath no stalk : the bud shall yield no meal : if so 
be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up." It may 
be a stalk may come forth ; but, saith God, it shall be 
cnished before it comes to the bud. But what if it does 
bud? It shall be blasted, it shall " yield no meal." But 
what if so be it yield meal? Tlien " strangers shall 
swallow it up," saith God. This serves most elegantly 
to show God's watching over an apostatizing ])C(>pU' for 
evil, and that howsoever they may seem to prosper fur 
a wliile, yet at the last the curse of God will be their 
ruin. 

Obs. "i. Sometimes wicked actions may seem to pros- 



per, though God's cmse is upon them. God may let 
them come to a stalk, or to the bud, or to the meal ; 
this notes the possibility. It may come to the stalk, 
possibly to the bud, possibly to the meal, but then all 
shall come to nothing. 

My brethren, we have found it so by experience ; as 
it was here with this people, in their wicked idolatry 
and their carnal poUcy, has it not been so with our ad- 
versaries ? some of tlieir actions God has crushed pre- 
sently ; others have giown up to a blade, and have 
seemed to have meal in them, but then the ciu'se of 
God has come upon them. Oh the uncertainty and the 
vanity of the comforts of ungodly men ! A\'hen can 
they bless themselves in any one project ? AVhen it 
comes up to the blade ? No, saith God, it shall not 
come to a stalk : God watches so that it seldom comes so 
far. Well, but then may tliey bless themselves if it has 
risen up to a stalk ? No, not then either, God's curse 
is on them. But if it bud, may they not then bless 
themselves ? Our projects, say they, begin to bud, and 
tlirive bravely, may we not bless ourselves now ? No, 
God still watches over you for evil. But what if it 
come to a full issue, " yield meal," and they be ready 
even to feed upon the fmit of their projects, may they 
not then think all is sure ? No, the curse of God pur- 
sues them, " strangers shall swallow it up." Blessed 
be that God who has thus followed our adversaries : how 
often have they blessed themselves, and when some de- 
signs have succeeded according to their deshes, thought 
all was well, anel then God's cwse came upon them ! 
We are, my brethren, too unbelieving, too ready to fear 
if we heal- of any thriving in any measure of our ad- 
versaries ; if any stalk appear, and especially if they be- 
gin to bud, O, then we tliink they ripen ; and we do not 
look up to the great God, who delights in blasting the 
projects of the adversaries. As the blessing of God is 
upon the good actions of his people, so the curse of 
God is upon the wicked projects of his enemies. God 
may seem often to leave many a good action, but he 
carries it through at length, tiiough many things con- 
spire to crush it in the very bud. God cai'ries good 
projects through many difficulties, and crushes wicked 
projects through much prosperity. 

Obs. S. To have our desires satisfied for a while, and 
tlien destroyed, is a great judgment. But that it should 
be so is just in God; for ordinarily we are thus in our 
obedience, which usually withers before it comes to 
any ripeness ; if it get up to the stalk, it may be, it 
comes not to a bud ; if to meal, some strange lust or 
other comes in and devours it. Oh how often do our 
strange lusts devour our good actions, when ready to 
be ])erfoniied ! Of how many in their youth have we 
thought that very gracious seed began to sprout forth, 
and that the seed gi'cw to a stalk, and when they came 
to act for themselves, that it budded in gracious ac- 
tions ; in their middle age we thought it yielded meal ; 
but in iheu- old age strange lusts came and devoured 
all. It is a great judgment for strangers to devour our 
estates which wo have acquired by a great deal of la- 
bour; but ti-uly, for strange lusts to come to devour 
thy liopeful beginnings, is a far greater judgment. 
Many have laboured diligently all their lives, and that 
which they have done has seemed to come to something ; 
and the truth is, in tlie conclusion the devil has had the 
advantage of all. 

And God seems to be out against us in some degree, 
even in the ways of his judgments, at this day. Thus as 
many of the adversaries' projects, so many of ours, the 
Lord has blasted before they come to a stalk ; and 
when they have biulded the iord has l)lightcd them, 
by the unfaithfulness of some or others; in the midst 
of oui' greatest expectations, the Lord has seemed to 
blast us, and what God will do with us we know not; 
only let us make sure tliat our seed be good, and though 



Ver. 8. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



365 



this does not prosper, or that does not succeed, yet at 
last Gv\d will bring the greater harvest upon us. 

Ver. 8. Israel is swallowed up : now shall they be 
among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure. 

" Israel is swallowed up." Israel had made leagues 
among other people, till they were even swallowed up 
by them. And truly, my brethren, if great care be not 
had, there is much danger in making leagues with 
other nations, lest in time of our need they should en- 
croach upon us, and at length even impose upon us 
laws. It was so with Israel ; by their league with other 
people they at length became subject to their laws, and 
■were swallowed up by them. And thus many of the 
people of God, yea, of the churches of God, by mingling 
themselves with the world, are even swallowed up, so 
that they lose their beauty, and at length no difference 
appears between them and those who surround them. 
None certainly can expect that any chui-ch in the world 
can continue without a mixture of wicked men and 
hypocrites, but it is one thing when they creep in un- 
awares, and another when the fence is broken down, 
so that it is very hard to discern the appearance of a 
church amongst them : thus it was with Israel. 

" Now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel 
wherein is no pleasure." By these words, vessel of no 
pleasure, is meant, a vessel that is for the carrying up 
and down of excrements ; only the Scripture, when it 
mentions such vile things, speaks euphemistically ; but 
that is the force of the word : as if he should say. My 
people shall be in a vile, contemptible condition among 
the Gentiles, as a vessel that is fit for notliing but ex- 
crements. Thus Jehoiachin is threatened, Jer. xxii. 28, 
though a great man, to be as " a vessel wherein is no 
pleasure." They had wasted their substance in seeking 
help from the Egv'ptians and Assyrians, and these 
made a prey of them : so long as any thing of value 
remained, they made much of them, but their estates 
being once wasted by them, they regarded them as vile 
and contemptible. And this is the way of wicked men, 
while they arc serving their own turns upon any, they 
will flatter and caress them, but when their end is gained, 
then they treat them with scorn and contempt. None, 
when their estates are consumed, are more scorned 
and contemned than professors of religion who have 
basely crouched to wicked men, and sought to shelter 
themselves under them : therefore let us learn wisdom, 
and venture with caution to make use of men, and not 
please ourselves in their commendations, if they have 
ends of their own to serve ; when they have attained 
them, they will scorn you, and look upon you as base 
and contemptible. 

Again, " A vessel wherein is no pleasure." The 
Seventy translate it, axevoQ dxpTjarov, an unprofitable 
vessel. But there is certainly more intended in this 
expression ; a vessel employed in base and contempt- 
ible uses ; Israel shall be so employed ; and thereby 
they shall find a difierence between my service, and the 
service of their enemies. Oh it is a sad expression, 
What ! Israel a vessel employed and received to empty 
out excrements! Israel were a people "precious" and 
"honourable" in the eyes of God, Isa. xliii. 4. "An 
holy people unto the Lord," God's " peculiar people," 
" above all the nations that are upon the earth," Deut. 
siv. 2. " The Lord's portion," Deut. xxxii. 9. God's 
" inheritance," Isa. xix. 25. God's " peculiar treasure," 
Exod. xix. 5. God's " gloi-y," Isa. xlvi. 13. God's 
" delight," Isa. Ixii. 4. Israel were " the dearly be- 
loved of my " (God's) " soul," Jer. xii. 7 ; and yet now 
Israel is become a vessel fit only for excrements ! Oh 
what a change does sin make ! They were holy vessels, 
employed in holy sei-vices, in attending upon God and 
his worship, so as no people were ; but now, see the 



ruin and degradation brought upon them by sin ! How 
doth sin vilify men, employ them in base services, most 
degrading to an ingenuous mind ! A young Spartan 
being taken by Antigonus, and sold for a slave, whilst 
employed by his master in any thing creditable, he did 
it ; but when he bid him go and empty a vessel wherein 
is no pleasure, No, saith he, I will not serve you in such 
matters ; and his master being angrj- with him, he went 
to the top of the house and cast himself oif, i-ather 
than be forced to obey. And certainly there is nothing 
so beneath the excellency of an immortal soul as sin, 
for by means of it, though high in tliine own thoughts, 
thou comest to be a vessel for the vei-y devil to empty 
his excrements into : and that is lower than to be a 
scavenger employed in collecting the filth of the street ; 
yea, as low as if thou wert condemned to go from 
morning to night, to carry away the filth in thy very 
hands and mouth. Some men are vessels of mercy, 
chosen vessels, vessels of honoiu- fitted for the Master's 
use : and it is an infinite mercy of God to us, when 
we have deserved to be cast out as vessels wherein 
there is no pleasure, that God should take us out of 
the common lump, and should employ us to be vessels 
of his sanctuary ; whereas others are vessels of wrath, 
used only in base services that are beneath the excel- 
lency of an immortal soul. 

Yea, some there are who have been eminent in the 
church heretofore, who have been vessels filled with 
the gifts, I do not say graces, of the Holy Ghost, but 
now they are vessels in which there is no pleasure. 
Many of the saints, heretofore, have been refreshed by 
those gifts of the Holy Ghost that have been in them, 
but now their gifts are gone, they are fit for nothing 
but the meanest services ; yea, some of them filled with 
poison, vessels wherein neither God nor man can take 
pleasure : yea, and some very forward professors of re- 
ligion, that once were as the polished sapphires, are 
now turned apostates, are become more black than the 
coal ; they were as golden vessels in the house of God, 
and are now become " vessels wherein is no pleasure." 
Demosthenes once desired the Athenians not to make 
a urinal of a wine pot ; to employ men, that had been 
eminent, in base services. But now men whom God 
himself heretofore made use of for gi'eat services in 
church and state, the Lord has left to be " vessels of 
no pleasure." O remember, all you, from whence you 
are fallen ! Thy heart is now exercised upon low things, 
thy work, it may be, now is only to further the wicked 
designs and desperate malice of other men ; and dost 
thou think to be a vessel of glorj-, to stand before the 
presence of the holy God, and join with saints and an- 
gels in the eternal i)raises of his name ? . O remember 
from whence thou art fallen, and rest not till the Lord 
has been pleased to purge thee, and make thee fit for 
thy Master's use, and to become a vessel of honour in 
thy Master's house. 

Ver. 9. For I hey are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass 
alone by himself : Ephraim hath hired lovers. 

The Lord, by the prophet, proceeds on in his charge 
against the ten tribes. 

" For they are gone up to Assyria." They look not 
up to the high God for help, but " are gone up to As- 
sjTia ;" Assyria is higher in their eyes than the God of 
heaven. How vile a thing is it to forsake confidence 
in God out of suspicious thoughts of him ! for so it was 
here, they retained suspicious thoughts of God, as if he 
would leave them in their extremity, and therefore 
forsook they him, and sought for help elsewhere ; they 
expect more good, more faithfulness, more love, not 
only from the creature than from God, but from the 
very enemies of God than from God himself; yea, that 
people that professed interest in God, that would seem 



366 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. VIII. 



to bless themselves in this, that God was their God, 
even they looked to have more good and to find more 
faithfulness in the vei-y enemies of God than in God 
himself. Let the heavens be astonished at this wicked- 
ness : and yet this evil abides deep-rooted in the hearts 
of the children of men. 

" A wild ass." This the Scripture mentions in divers 
places, as one of the most unruly, untamable, and fierce 
of all creatures ; such as cannot be brought to be ser- 
viceable, nor to live with, no, nor even to keep com- 
pany with, their owti kind, but they run up and down 
in the wilderness alone. In Job xi. 12, mention is 
made of this creature : " For vain man would be wise, 
though man be bom like a wild ass's colt." And in 
Job xxxix. 5, " Who hath sent out the wild ass free ? 
or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass ? " And, 
to name no more, in Jcr. ii. 24, " A wild ass used to the 
wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure ; 
in her occasion who can turn her away ? all they that 
seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they 
piinv LB cap 40 ^^^'^ ^^'^ her." Those that desire to 
know more of the nature of this beast, 
may find divers things in Pliny and other naturalists. 
But now we are only to speak of it as the Scripture 



Why does God compare Ephraim and the ten tribes 
to the wild ass ? 

For two reasons. 1. To show the extreme stubborn- 
ness and fierceness of this people. Wicked men that 
have forsaken God and are left to themselves, not 
only become like to savage creatures, but to savage 
creatures of the worst kind, they run up and down sa- 
tisfying the lusts of their own hearts irresistibly, and 
bear down all before them ; they stamp, and rage, and 
are mad when at any time they are opposed in their 
wicked ways : this is the scope of the Holy Ghost here ; 
thus Ephraim was when he was opposed. Do you not 
find many such, many that are so resolved on ungodli- 
ness and sin, that they will hear nothing, they snuff 
at the wind and all that is said against them, and 
madly pursue their own ruin ? Jeremiah saith, " in 
their month you shall find them;" that refers to the 
very last month which the wild ass goes when with 
young, then, when great with young, and not till then, 
can it be dealt with. Some historians say that the 
wild asses are so fierce, that they will tear asunder 
armour of proof; but " in their month" they are so big 
that they cannot wield themselves, and then " you 
shall find them." So, though sinners be never so stub- 
bom, yet God has his month, and ])erhaps then " you 
shall find them." When at any time you find your 
children, or servants, or others, stubborn and stout 
against whatsoever is said to them, and even raging in 
their madness, for the satisfying of their wicked wills, 
you may remember this text and creature ; they are as 
wild asses that are alone by themselves. And of all 
wicked men, idolaters are the most stubborn and stout 
in their impieties ; their hearts are set upon their idols ; 
yea, as tlie phrase of Scripture is, in Jer. 1. 38, " they 
are mad upon their idols. Nothing can be said to 
those whose hearts arc taken with false worship ; no- 
thing will prevail with them without an exertion of 
the infinite ])owcr of God ; no sinners arc more bold, 
more untamable and fierce in their ways ; and there- 
fore is it, that if they be opposed in their superstitions 
such tumults arise, stones flung against windows 
where God is truly worshipped, any thing in the world, 
they care not what. Because they think themselves 
condemned in their sinful ways, therefore they run like 
wild beasts in a furious manner, even against those 
that worship God better than themselves. 

2. By way of contempt. As in Job xi. 12, "Vain 
man would be wise, though man be bom like a wild 
ass's colt : ' he would fain tliink himself somebody, yet 



he is a most base and vile creature. And if any oi' 
you be not so fierce in your wicked ways as some others 
are, if God has tamed your spirits by his word and 
Spirit, bless him for it : for all men are " bom like a wUd 
ass's colt," they are mad upon their wickedness even to 
their own ruin. But because stoutness and stubborn- 
ness evermore proceed from pride, and none think it 
such a dishonour as the stubborn for their wills to be 
crossed in any thing, therefore the Scripture castt 
the more contempt upon them, and calls such " wild 
ass's colts ; " and indeed there are none more con- 
teraptihle in the eyes of God than stout sinners. 

" Alone by himself" This expression tends to show 
that Ephraim and the ten tribes would have their own 
wills " alone." There are these two things implied in it : 

1. That they would be under no government, but 
alone by themselves, and have liberty to do what they 
list, acknowledging no commander; and so the Chaldee 
l)araphrase, Because that Uiey would walk in the evil of 
their own lusts, and acknowledge no commander. .(Vnd 
thus many at this day love to be alone, that is, to live 
at their own hand, to be from under government. 

2. That they were unfit for society, they were so furi- 
ous and tierce in their ways. '■ Alone by himself." 
Some are of such imtoward and pcr\erse dj.spositions, 
that they can agree with no one, so that they are only 
fit to live in solitude. I suppose you have met, in your 
families, with those that are so extremely perverse in 
their ways, and of such untoward and crooked disposi- 
tions, that they are fit to live in no society : to them 
this reproof of Ephraim is applicable. 

" Ephraim hath hired lovers." n'3n» loves. Before, 
they put their confidence in the AssjTians, Egyptians, 
and others, and now they make them their loves. Otir 
observations ai'e these : 

Obs. 1. Where we place our confidence, there our love 
should be ])laced. If God be the confidence of our 
hearts, let our love be placed there ; yea, let God be our 
loves, in the plural number, for so it is here, they " hired 
lovers." She would fain have the AssjTians to love her. 
■WTien God is forsaken, and we have lost our interest 
in God's love, no mar\el though there be such a seek- 
ing after the creature's love. Men that forsake God, 
seek to make up what they have not in God, in the 
creature ; as a dog. w hen he has lost his master, is ready 
to follow every one he meets with. 

Ob . 2. The unlovely will use unworthy means to pur- 
chase love. " Ephraim hath hired lovers." Because 
they had nothing lovely in themselves, therefore they 
seek even to hire love ; though the truth is. love cannot 
be hued nor purchased ; although men may fawn, and 
flatter, and crouch, that they may gain the love of others, 
yet if they be unlovely in themselves, although those 
whom they fawn on and flatter may use them for their 
own turn, yet tlie truth is, they will despise them in 
tlieir hearts, and often discover to their intimate friends 
how they scorn and contemn them. Therefore, if others 
would secure love, they themselves must have some ex- 
cellency and loveliness, for love cannot be hired. 

Obs. 3. Idolaters will not stand upon temis if they 
may have their idols. " Ephraim hath hired lovers. 
Tills shows the shamelessness of the ten tribes in seeking 
after their false worship. Other harlots are hired to 
commit uncleanncss. but Ephraim, in its spiritual whore- 
doms, will be at charge for their idols. So in Ezek. xvi. 
33, 34, " They give gifts to all whores : but thou givest 
thy gifts to all thy lovers, and huest them, that they may 
come unto thee on everj- side for thy whoredom. And 
the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whore- 
doms, whereas none foUoweth thee to commit whore- 
doms : and in that thou givest a reward, and no reward 
is given unto thee, therefore thou art contraiT." As if 
God sluudd sav, You are more vile and base in your 
uncleanuesscs than any in the world besides ; for others 



Veh. 10. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



367 



receive rewards, but you are so set upon your filthy lusts 
that you will give rewards that you may commit your 
abominations. They care not how they debase them- 
selves, they will not stand upon honour and respect, but 
let them have their false worship, they will submit to 
any thing. Oh ! why then should we stand hesitating 
thus in matters wherein the honour of our God and the 
public good lie at stake? Why should we not be 
willing to sufier shame and disgrace, any thing, rather 
than the public good should not go on, than the service 
of God should be hindered ? If others will not seek to us, 
yet, if good may be done, if God may have glory, let us 
seek to them. Though others be never so vile in their 
carriage towards us, yet let us do what we can to win 
and convince them, let us be willing to lie under their 
feet that God may be glorified. If others will not join 
in a good work, except they may have the honour of it, 
let them have it, provided the work go on. Let the 
work go on, and if they will stand for the glory, let them 
have it ; so God may be lifted up, let us be willing not 
to be seen. This is that which oiten hinders the success 
of God's cause. Men stand upon terms, and will not go 
on in a good cause, but break off' if others be preferred 
before them. If two called to carry a long piece of 
timber through a narrow passage, should stand striving 
who should go foremost, one saying, I will go fii'st, the 
other. Nay, but I will go first, they could never can-y 
the timber ; if one have one end, and the other the other 
end, and they cannot agree which should go first, and 
he that goes after thinks himself dishonoured because 
his fellow goes before him, they can never carry it 
thi'ough, but must lay it down. So it is many times with 
a good cause, it is like a piece of timber upon two men's 
shoulders, which must go through a narrow passage, 
and one saith, Why should not I have the glory of it ? 
and the other saith, 'Wliy should not I have the glory 
of it? and whilst men stand wrangling who should 
have the greatest glory, in the mean time the public 
cause is exceedingly hindered. Let us be willing to sub- 
mit, and debase ourselves any way, so be it the true 
worship of God prosper. 

06s. 4. It is an evil thing to be di'awn to false wor- 
ship, or bodily uncleanness, upon any terms. " Ephraim 
hath hired lovers." Hope of the greatest gain, or de- 
liverance from the greatest affliction, should not pre- 
vail. But for a man or woman to seek after the ways 
of sin, to be at cost that they may have their lusts 
gratified, is more base and abominable. Certainly un- 
cleanness should be cast off with indignation, though 
we be tempted to it with never so much 

.losephusj^ liK snn. g^^jj^ . ^^j j-^^. ^^^ j^ ^g ^pj UpOU UUcleaU- 

ness, so as to seek after it, and to spend 
their husbands' estates that they may have free course 
for the indulgence of then- lusts, is a most abominable 
thing indeed ; and yet many are thus guilty, both in 
regard of bodily and spiritual adultery. 

Ver. 10. Vea, thotigh they hare hired among the na- 
tions, now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a 
little for the burden of the king of princes. 

These words at fii-st seem to be dark, and yet we 
have miich of the mind of God in them, and much 
concerning ourselves. 

" Yea, though they have hired among the nations." 
This God still takes ill, that they should go to the na- 
tions for help when God had made their condition so 
much above the nations; for in their going to them 
they did, as it were, say, that all the love, and mercy, 
and protection from the great God toward them, was 
no more than the nations had ; they did, as it were, 
hold forth to the world that the nations were rather in 
a better c'-ndition than themselves, in that they would 
go to th'*i for their help : and this went very near to 



the heart of God; for God had expended the very 
strength of his love and the riches of his mercy upon 
this people, and after he had done so much for them, 
that they, under the pressure of some slight afflictions, 
should go to the nations that did, for the present, pros- 
per somewhat outwardly better than themselves, oh, 
this was exceeding grievous to the heart of God ! And 
thence the observations are, 

Obs. 1. It is a very great evil for the people of God 
to conclude, when wicked men prosper a little more 
than they, that therefore they are in a better condition 
than themselves. This is an evil that aff'ects very much 
the heart of God ; and yet this ordinarily prevails, in 
some degree or other, among the people of God. I appeal 
to your consciences in this very thing ; though some- 
times your souls have had sweet refreshing from the 
Lord in the enjojnnent of communion with him, yet, 
when God's hand has been out against you, when you 
have seen others prospering, though you knew them 
to be wicked and ungodly, their ships coming home 
safe and richly laden, and their trading in a flourish- 
ing condition, do you not then sometimes find such 
thoughts rising within you, as if these men were in a 
better condition than yourselves ? Oh ! know that the 
least thoughts of such a kind exceedingly grieve the 
Spirit of God by which you ai-e sealed, that because 
they have a few loaves more than you, though you have 
all the riches of God and Christ, though you have the 
inheritance of saints, yet that you should think them 
in a better condition than yourselves. How ordinaiy 
is it, upon tins ground, for those that have professed 
themselves to be godly, rather to withdraw from the 
afflicted saints, and seek correspondence with the 
wicked in their prosperity ! God would have his peo- 
ple see such an all-sufficiency in himself in their saddest 
condition, that they need not go out from him for help, 
but still wait upon him and keep his way. The Lord, by 
his prophet, rebukes Jehoshaphat, in 2 Chron. xix. 2, 
for helping the ungodly, and loving them that hate the 
Lord. And is it not as great an evil to seek the love 
of the wicked and ungodly, and ask help from them 
that hate the Lord? Certainly the evil is very great, it 
argues the very little love that we have to God, it 
charges God with unfaithfulness, as if, though he has 
engaged himself to his people, he would leave them in 
their need ; this encourages the wicked in their wick- 
edness, and it charges God with that which is account- 
ed one of the vilest things among men, the abandon- 
ment in the time of trouble of those employed in our 
work. We look upon such men as employ others in 
any service, and then leave them to shift for them- 
selves in their straits, we look upon them as vile men, 
unworthy to be dealt withal. Now will we charge God 
with this which degrades even men ? And besides, it 
is a most desperate folly so to do ; for when thou art 
thinking to provide for thyself by correspondence with 
ungodly men, it may be thou wert at that time just at 
the very point of deliverance. It is God's usual way to 
come to help his people when they are in the greatest 
straits ; and therefore it is the greatest folly when we 
are in straits to think of shifting courses, so that then 
we must forsake our own mercy in thinking of shifting 
courses. In straits, above all "times, Christians should 
take heed of thinking of shifting courses, because then, 
above all times, those are the times for God to show 
his mercy, and just then. Wilt thou then be forsaking 
him ? Oh ! it is that which should lie near to your , 
hearts. If any of you have been guilty of this, let but 
the word of God bring this upon your spirits this day ; 
Oh ! how do I know but at that very time when I took 
such a shifting course, that was the very time that God 
was about to do my soul good, and of doing good for 
my body ? and yet then I deprived myself of good, that 
goodness and mercy of God ! It follows yet, 



368 



AX EXrOSITIOX OF 



Chap. VIII. 



"Now will I gather them." This gathering is re- 
ferred by interpreters, either to the nations whom they 
sought unto, or to themselves. " I will gather them ;" 
that is, that nation ; or, I will gather you. If to the 
nation, then the meaning is, 

Notwithstanding you hire the nations, yet I will 
gather them against you ; they shall be strengthened 
against you with the same money that you hire them 
withal, I will turn it against you : and now you have 
provided fair for yourselves, have you not ? 

06s. 2. Many times when we think to provide best 
for our peace, we make the greatest provision for our 
ruin. God often makes people work their own woe 
and ruin themselves, and nothing tends more fully and 
directly to undo them than what they do themselves ; 
thus God overrules the counsels and thoughts of 
men. 

What a vain thing is it to plot against God, when 
God can turn men's aiTows against themselves ! N'one 
often are greater instruments of God's wrath against 
us than we are ourselves ; yea, and those with whom 
we seek most to correspond; and it is just with God it 
should be so, that if we will leave him, to seek corre- 
spondence with wicked men, it is just with God, that, of 
all men in the world, those should be the men that wOl 
be made the executioners of God's wrath upon us. 

But now, if to Israel ; I will gather 
osip« • yip them among the nations. The word here 
eoiugtie. j-Qj. gat),gr(,(j^ jg sometimes used in an 
army for gathering dead bodies slain in battle. You 
think to have the nations to aid, but you shall be as a 
company of dead bodies in an anny, and so lie in heaps. 
But I find that Calvin takes it as having reference to 
the former verse. This people are wUd, and run up 
rdu »m eoi r. ''"'^ down, tlus Way and that way, to shift 
linffKj w«. caiTin for themselves ; but I will gather them, 
"" °°' . that is, I will keep them in : so the words 

likewise may signify, I will keep them in, I will gather 
in their spirits, there shall be some dispensation of pro- 
vidence to restrain them, I wUl keep them from those 
ways wherein they would presently have ruined them- 
selves. 

06s. 3. People many times run headily on in evil 
ways that will certainly ruin them; but when God's 
time for the execution of his wrath is not yet come, 
the Lord restrains them and keeps them in from such 
ways ; though their hearts be set upon them to their 
own undoing, yet they shall not go on in them ; I will 
pity them who cannot pity themselves. But then fol- 
lows the greatest difficulty in this verse, 

" And they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the 
king of princes." This has more darkness in it, and 
yet, upon the searching into it, we shall see it clear, and 
pregnant with many excellent truths. There are these 
five things to be inquired into for the opening of these 
words : 

I. Who is here meant by " the king of princes." 

II. 'WTiat was this the burden of " the king of ])rinccs." 

III. When was this fulfilled, that they should " sorrow 
for the burden of the king of princes." 

IV. ^^^ly called, " the burden of the king of princes." 

V. What is meant by sorrowing " a little." 

These five considerations will clear the text. Indeed 
we cannot sec the full meaning of the Holy Ghost, 
without in some measure understanding them. 

I. AVho is meant by " the king of princes ?" We are 
here to understand the king of Assyria, because he was 
a great king, whose nobles were princes; and we find 
this both in sacred and profane histor)'. 2 Kings xviii. 
24, " How then wilt thou turn away the face of one 
captain of the least of my master's servants ? " And in 
Isa. xxxvi. 13, "Hear yc the words of the great king, 
tJic king of Assyria." And so Josephus, Book I. chap. 
10, saith, That before Sodom's destruction, the As- 



syrians were lords of all Asia : so that the AssjTian 
was a great king, and here called " the king of princes." 

Thus God suffers his enemies to grow great in the 
world ; an Assyrian, a dog, a wicked wretch, under the 
cui-se of God, and vet a great king, even " the king of 
princes." Luther lias such an expression concerning 
the em])ire of Turkey ; It is, saith he, but a crumb that 
the great Master of the family doth cast to dogs. What 
are your estates then ? Certainly, though never so 
great in the world, what are any of your estates to the 
whole Turkish eni])ire ? And if that be but a crumb 
that the great Master of the family casts to a dog, vou 
should never then bless yourselves in the enjovment of 
a little of the world. But though the AssjTian may 
be called "the king of princes," in regard of his power 
over some great men, yet our Lord Jesus Christ is pe- 
culiarly the "King of kings, and Lord of Lords." In 
Rev. xix. IG, " He hath on his vesture and on his thigh 
a name written. King of kings, and Lord of lords." 

'WTiy was it written "upon his vesture," and why 
"upon his thigh?" "Upon his vesture ;" that is, he 
will appear openly to be the King of kings : there was 
a time when Christ seemed to be, as it were, a servant 
under the dominion of antichrist, but now his name 
shall be " upon his vesture," openly. And then, " upon 
his thigh;" that is, upon his lower parts, his church 
militant, it shaU have the kingly power among them for 
its good, so that they shall he above the nations, ac- 
cording to the prophecy in Isa. Ix. 13, "I will make 
the place of my feet glorious;" that is, the church in 
their low condition. He saith not, he will have the 
name upon his crown, but " upon his thigh," that is, 
upon his lower parts, upon his people that were in a 
low condition ; he will make the very place of his feet 
to be glorious, even there shall be written, " King of 
kings, and Lord of lords." 

II. AVhat was this his burden ? " The burden of 
the king of princes." This burden was the taxes im- 
posed upon the people, whereby they maintained their 
correspondence with this king of Assyria. Correspond- 
ence with wicked men is burdensome, for the more 
they are sought and yielded to, ordinarily, the more 
exacting, generally, they are ; and whatsoever they 
for a while do for you, is indeed to serve their owii 
ends : this Israel brought upon themselves ; for thev 
would go to Assyria, and they found the AssjTians 
burdensome to them. 

ANTicn men will follow their own ways, and think to 
have more ease in them than in God's, it is just they 
should find those ways burdensome. I am persuaded 
there is not one in this congregation but has exjie- 
rienced this ; when you think your ways will brnig 
more ease to you than God's ways, have you not found 
your ways burdensome ? 

III. When was this fulfilled ? " They shall sorrow a 
little for the burden of the king of princes." For the 
mourning of the prophet we must refer to the history 
of the kings, and in 2 Kings xv. 19, 20, you find the time 
when this prophecy was fulfilled. " Pul the king of 
Assyria came against the land : and Menahem gave 
Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might 
be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand. And 
Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of all the 
mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty .shekels of 
silver, to give to the king of Assyria." 'fhis was one 
burden. And then, in ver. 29, " In the days of Pekah 
king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of Assp-ia, and 
took Ijon, and Abcl-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and 
Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the 
land of Naphtali, and carried them cai)tive to AssjTia." 
This was a further burden. At these two times was 
this scripture fulfilled. 

IV. AVliy called "the burden of the king of princes ? " 
In speaking of the biu-den that was upon the jieoplc, 



Vek. 10. 



THE PnorliECY OF HOSEA. 



369 



■nhy does he apply to tlic Assyrian such an epithet ? It 
seems to be a climinution of their burden rather than 
any aggravation ; for he speaks of soiTowing but a little, 
as if it should not be so great a burden as would after- 
■Hards be upon them ; noting thus, that they were bur- 
dened awhile with taxations from a great king, but 
they should afterwards come under the power, and be 
subject to the wills and lusts, of all kind of base people, 
of the very cb-egs of the nations : and it is not so great 
an evil to be under the power of men of rank and 
quality, no, not under their oppression, as to be under 
the o])pression of people that are of mean origin and 
condition, the very refuse of a nation ; to come to bo 
under their power is a great deal worse. 

And by the way, this should teach those that are of 
mean breeding, ar.d of mean condition, if they be put 
into any place of power and authority, to take heed 
how they behave themselves, for their oppression will 
be the most grievous to an ingenuous spirit. And there 
is a great deal of danger of their growing more oppres- 
sive than such as were born to greatness, and their op- 
pression becoming so intolerable as to bring the great- 
est confusion, if not well looked to. Therefore, here, 
when he would lessen the burden, he saith. You " shall 
sorrow a little for the burden of the lung of princes." 

V. Wliat is meant by sorrowing a little ? " They 
shall sorrow a little." They complained ; but, saith God, 
Why complain of this ? tliis is but a small burden to 
that which you are like to have ; there is a bui'den of 
another kind coming on you : and hence the notes are, 

Obs. 4. When sinnei'S have brought trouble upon 
themselves, they complain much ; but when they com- 
plain, they are to consider, that what they feel is but 
little to what is coming after. There are burdens upon 
you, and you are complaining of them, as if they were 
the gi'eatest that ever were upon people. O sinner ! 
when you are complaining of your burdens, know, that 
these burdens that are upon you may prove to be but 
very trifles in comparison of what is likely to come 
upon you afterwards ; for that is the scope of the Holy 
Ghost here, " They shall sorrow a little for the burden ;" 
as if he should say, There is another manner of sorrow- 
in store : and so it occurred, for afterwards the Assy- 
rians carried them all away captives, and the basest of 
all the people came to set their feet upon them ; there- 
fore saith the Holy Ghost, " They shall sorrow a little 
for the burden." As the mercies of God to his saints, 
which now they have, are but a little, they may be said 
to rejoice but a little for present mercies ; so the bur- 
dens upon the ungodly are but a little, but if they re- 
turn not to God upon what they now feel, God has 
greater bm'deus than those under which they are so 
impatient. 

Obs. 5. Taxes upon men's estates ai'C but a little 
burden in comparison of being brought under the power 
of the enemy. Though there be sore taxes upon you, 
as here there were fifty shekels of silver laid upon every 
man that was able, yet those taxes are but small bur- 
dens in comparison of being given up to the power of 
the enemy ; they would lay burdens indeed upon us, 
burdens upon our consciences, our estates, om- lives, 
our liberties, whatsoever we are or have must be under 
theii- mercy : now we are troubled, but then their- little 
finger will be more heavy than the loins that now are 
upon us ; although we dare not say but some may find 
present burdens very burdensome. 

Obs. 6. Taxes are but little burden in comparison to 
the carrying of our brethren into captivity. Though 
■we enjoy our estates ourselves, yet if God lay his 
hand upon any of oiu- brethren, though in remote parts 
of the kingdom, we should account" this to be a bur- 
den. Not only their taxations were a burden, but the 
can-jing away of their brethren that were beyond the 
river. 

2 B 



If there were no other sin among us, it were just 
with God to bring the enemy ujjon us, and then we 
should find that there were other manner of burdens. 

But there is another burden that we are not sensible 
enough of, and that is, the captivity of our brethren in 
the remote parts of tliis land. Oh how little sensible 
ai-e we of it, because we feel it not ourselves ! 

Obs. 7. It is God's mercy to bring lesser evils upon 
us, thereby to prevent greater. You shall sorrow a 
little, I will not undo you presently ; but return to me, 
or else you are utterly undone. But this is my mercy, I 
will bring afilictions upon you by piecemeal, and if you 
do not return to me, then you shall be utterly lost : for 
so this people were, they were carried away captive, 
and have never returned, even to this day. O, does 
God come to you in your family, or person, or estate ? 
O let us consider of this. 

Obs. 8. The consideration of little burdens upon us, 
should move us to turn to God. It should break our 
hearts, and cause us to seek the face of God, that we 
may prevent greater evils, that otherwise will certainly 
come. The Lord, in his dealing towards us, seems as if 
he were loth to lose us, and that this nation should 
perish : oh that this might work kindly upon our hearts, 
to prevent greater evils, that we might not be made a 
spectacle of the wrath of God to all surrounding 
nations. 

But further, the words translated, " they shall sor- 
row a little," are by some rendered, they have begun 
a little for the burden of the king of princes : and 
so, in Deut. ii. 25, a word that comes from the sanio 
root is translated. Then the sense would run thus : 
That which they have felt is but the beginning of 
what is Uke to come ; my wrath is let out upon them 
in some degree ah-eady, and do you not see how it is 
begun to burn upon them ? and by that which was 
lately before your eyes you may believe my threaten- 
in gs. Hence, 

Obs. 9. God's judgments against wicked men are 
the beginnings of further judgments. In Deut. xxxii. 
42, '• I will make mine arrows ckunk with blood, 
and my sword shall devour flesh ; and that with the 
blood of the slain and of the captives, from the begin- 
ning of revenges upon the enemy." All this is but 
'■ from the beginning of revenges ;" when I come so 
terribly upon them it is but " the beginning of re- 
venges." ^Ve are ready to think, if there be miserable 
slaughters, surely God has been revenged enough upon 
this people. No, all this may prove but " the begin- 
ning of revenges." I may say so concerning ourselves, 
though the Lord many times has made the sword tbunk 
with lilood, yet it may prove to be but " the beginning 
of revenges." Truly we cannot say that, from the time 
that these judgments have been upon us, we have 
begun to turn to God ; yea, the estate of the kingdom 
is far worse than it was at the beginning of this present 
heavy stroke. In Matt. xxiv. 6—8, " Ye shall hear of 
wars and rumours of wars : see that ye be not troubled : 
for all these things must come to pass, but the end is 
not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and 
kingiom against kingdom : and there shall be famines, 
and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. All 
these are the beginning of soitows." 

Obs. 10. God expects from men, that though they 
be not sensible of his threats, yet, when he begins to 
execute his wrath upon them," they should begin to 
turn a little to him. O, it were well with us if we did 
prevent God's heavy wi'ath by our repentance. Numb. 
xvi. 46, " Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and 
put fire therein from ofi' the altar, and put on incense, 
and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an 
atonement for them : for there is wrath gone out from 
the Lord ; the plague is begun." Oh how should we 
all make haste ! We cannot only say the plague is be- 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. MIL 



gun, the plague of civil war, which is the greatest of 
all plagues, but it has gone on to a great lengtli. 

Ver. 11. Because Ephraim hath made many altarn 
to sin, altars shall be utilo him to sin. 

It was the charge of God in Scripture, that there 
should be but one altar for sacrifice; and there was 
another which was made afterwards for ijicense, and 
no more. In Deut. xii. 3, we have the charge of God 
that there should be none other made ; " Ye shall over- 
throw their altars, and break their pillars, and burn 
their groves with fire ; and ye shall hew down the 
graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of 
them out of that place." And then, ver. 13, 14, '• Take 
heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt-offerings 
in every place that thou seest, but in the place which 
the Lord shall choose in one of thy tribes." And iu 
chap, xxvii. 5, " Thou shall build an altar unto the 
Lord thy God, an altar of stones : thou shalt not lift 
up any iron tool upon them." And according to this 
Joshua acted. Josh. viii. 30; and hence the circum- 
stances nanated in chap. xxii. 11 — 34. Now, for the 
altar of God, I shall first show you a little the meaning 
of its form and structiu-e, and then the reason why God 
would have but this one altar. In Exod. xx. 24, there 
is an injunction of God for the altar of sacrifice ; " An 
altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt 
sacrifice thereon thy burnt-offerings," &c. Here ob- 
serve that. That when God would have an altar made 
for sacrifice it must be but an altar of earth ; but if it 
should be of stone, thou shalt not lift up any tool upon 
it. Why, one would think that to car\e and paint the 
stones, and to do any thing to embellish them, would 
be better than to have the stones rough. No, saith 
God, whatsoever you may think of adorning my altar 
by canning and painting it, " if thou lift up thy tool upon 
it thou hast polluted it :" all man's devices in the wor- 
ship of God, though never so pompous, do but pollute. 
And, quite contrary to our high altars, they must not 
go up upon steps, that their nakedness be not dis- 
covered thereon ; noting, that when we come into the 
presence of God we should take heed of spiritual 
nakedness, and the pride and vanity of our spuits in 
prayer. God would have them make an altar so as not 
to go up upon steps, lest their nakedness should be 
discovered. But now, in Exod. xxvii. 1, 2, you find 
an altar of shittim wood overlaid with brass : you will 
say, ■\\'hy was the first of earth, and the other overlaid 
with brass ? The reason was, because that the one 
was to be made when they were in an unsettled condi- 
tion, and the other afterwards when they were in a 
more stated condition than formerly, and that it might 
endure a long time. But mark, it must be according 
to God's direction, except God reveal that it should be 
of shittim wood and overlaid with brass, they were not 
so to make it. 

And then, the second altar was the altar of burnt 
incense, and that you have in Exod. xxx. 1 — 3, and 
that was to be overlaid with pure gold. That of brass 
it was, because there were sm-offcrings to be offered 
upon it; but now the altar of incense was the altar just 
before the veil against the mercy-seat, wliere there was 
only incense offered, which was to signify the interces- 
sion of Jesus Christ, presenting his merits, and the 
prayers of all his people, to the Father. The i)raycrs 
of the saints are compared to incense ; and ther« arc 
many things observable about the altar ; it Ls said that 
there should be four horns, and in Rev. ix. 13, " I 
heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar 
which is before God." Now St John speaks of times 
that should be ; lie heard a voice from the four horns 
of the altar; that is, from all the prayers of the saints 
in the four corners of the earth, a voice came forth and 



did great things in the world. Certainly, my brethren, 
the prayers of God's saints in all the comers of the 
world is that which makes the world ring. A learned 
man has said. If there be but one sigh from a gracious 
lieart, it fills the ears of God so that he hears nothing 
else. Nay, what is in Kev. viii. 3, about this altar of 
incense, is observable : '■ And another angel came and 
stood at the altar, ha'S'ing a golden censer, and there 
was given unto him much incense, that he should offer 
it with the prayers of all saints upon tlie golden altar 
which was before the throne." Thus we see, that in 
our time we are to make use of this golden altar that 
is before the throne, all our prayers aae to be offered 
up upon that, which was a type of Jesus Christ ; and our 
prayers, except they be mingled with the incense which 
Christ offered himself upon the golden altar, cannot be 
accepted. And likewise what we read in Exod. xxx. 3, 
deserves to be noted, " and thou shalt make unto it a 
crown of gold round about;" to typifv the interces- 
sion of Christ, and the prayers of the samts. You may 
see by this that Christ's intercession, and the prayers 
of the saints, coming fi-om faithful hearts, ai'e accounted 
the very glorj' of Jesus Christ ; he regards it as his 
dignity and glory to make intercession for his people, 
and to take the poor prayers of liis ])eople and present 
them to his Father : iie considers that his crown is set 
upon his head, when you exercise your faith on him, 
tliat he may present your prayers with his intercession 
to the Father ; but when you think to be heard your- 
selves, and do not exercise your faith upon Christ, you 
do, as it were, take off the crown from off his head. 
The points of difference between the altar here en- 
I joined to be made by Moses, and afterwards really so 
made, and tlie altar appointed in the times of the gos- 
pel, are \cry remarkable. 

1. Christ is our altar in the gospel. So Heb. xiii. 10, 
" We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat 
which serve the tabernacle ;" that is, such as shall still 
pertinaciously adliere to the ceremonies of the law 
liave no right to partake of Jesus Christ. 

2. The gospel-altar was larger, more comprehensiye. 
There is a prophecy of the altar that the church shall 
have, in Ezek. xli. 22 : the altar under the law, the text 
saith, was to be a cubit long, and a cubit broad ; but 
that which was to be in the tmie of the gospel, must be 
three cubits high, and two cubits long: and this im- 
ports, that there shall be a larger extent of the service 
of God under the gospel than under the law. Mai. i. 
11 much confirms this : " For from the rising of the sun 
even unto the going down of the same my name shaU be 
great among the Gentiles ; and in every place incense 
shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering : for 
my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the 
Lord of hosts." 

3. It was set before the veil by the ark of the testi- 
mony, before the mercy-seat It was to stand in the 
holy' of holies, but just before the veil, right against the 
mercy-seat. And by this you are helped to understand 
Ilcb. ix. 4, which, as some take it seems to differ from 
this. It is said there, that the holiest of ^^ 

all had the golden censer ; by which they 
understand the golden altar, in which the censer was. 
But we .shall find that the golden altar did not stand in 
the holy of holies, for we read, in Exod. xxx. 6, " And 
thou shalt put it before the veil that is by the ark of 
tlic testimony, before the mercy-seat that is over the 
testimony." "interpreters reconcile it thus : it is not said 
here that the golden censer, or altar, if we so take it 
was in it, but it had it. That is, i. was for the use of 
the holy of holies, and it stood just before it and just 
against the mercy-seat ; so that the high priest when 
about to go into the holy of holies, was to take a 
censer and incense from Uiis altar, and so enter the 
hoUest of all. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



3T1 



But note, in thai tlie »ltar of incense stands just 
against the mercy-seat, and yet there is a veil between 
the mercy-seat and it : so, when we offer up our incense 
upon the merits of Clu-ist and his intercession, though 
we cannot, by the eye of our bodies, see the mercy-seat, 
yet we must act our faith upon it. And further, it is 
observable, that the incense must be burnt upon this 
altar at the very time when the lamps were to be 
trimmed and lighted : so Esod. xxs. 7 : and that was to 
note this to us, that we are to join the word with our 
prayers, and not to come ignorantly to God, but labour 
to enlighten our souls with the lamp of liis word, when 
we come to offer up to him our incense. 

4. There is a command, that no strange incense shall 
be offered upon it. This is to teach us, that we must 
take heed of bringing any thing to God, to offer him in 
prayer, but what comes from the Spirit of God; only 
God's own incense. Take heed (I say) of bringing 
unsanctified parts, or any thing but that which is from 
the Spirit of God. 

5. Once a year an atonement was made upon the 
horns of the altar writh the blood of the sin-offering ; 
though the sin-offering was not offered upon it, yet once 
a year an atonement was made upon it with its blood. 
This is to note, that even by our incense we, for oiu" 
part, defile the altar. And thus I have a little digress- 
ed, yet still to open up Scripture to you, to show to you 
the meaning of God's altars. 

But why did God account it so heinous a crime to 
make any other altars besides these ? 
The reasons are these : 
First, Because these altars tj'pified these two things : 

1. The altar of bm'nt-offerings tj-pified this. That 
Christ was to be the only sacrifice. There should be 
no other sacrifice to pacify God's 'wrath but only Jesus 
Christ, who was both the sacrifice and the altar also, 
for his human natm'e was offered to God upon the 
merits, as it were, upon the worthiness of his Divine 
nature : Heb. ix. 14, " How much more shall the blood 
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered him- 
self without spot to God, purge your conscience from 
dead works to serve the living God?" This altar did 
signify the offering of Jesus Chi-ist. As if God should 
say. Know, that what endeavours you do or can use to 
satisfy' my justice and my wi'ath, it is to no purpose. 
there is nothing but only my Son, and that ofl'ering, 
that shall satisfy my WTath. And now for them to make 
more altars, it was to deny that great point of religion, 
that there was only the sacrifice of Christ to satisfy God. 

2. The incense altar t}-pified this, That in Christ only 
all our services, which are om- spiritual sacrifices, are 
accepted of God. There must be no altar but this for 
the sacrifice, and the other for incense ; God would have 
this doctrine kept pure from that time and for ever, 
that none of our spu'itual sacrifices can be accepted any 
other way but only as they have refei'enoe to Jesus 
Christ, that altar which the Lord has appointed. 

Secondly, That they might be the bond of the church. 
Because the people of the Jews were a national church, 
therefore there was to be a national worship, all the na- 
tion was to join, not only apparently, but really, in the 
very same individual worship; and this was the bond 
of their national church. Now. for my part, I know 
none_ living that hold a national church in these days 
in this sense, that is, as of Divine institution, and joined 
in one, by God's commanding any common national 
worship. Where there are in nations a great many of 
the saints of God, that they may be called a national 
church we dispute not ; but when people talk of a na- 
tional church in the strict sense of the word, they un- 
derstand not its meaning. It is not enough to "have 
the same kind of worship, as now, we all pray and read 
the word in all congregations, we have all the same sa- 
craments : but to constitute us a national church we must 



have a common altar, and unite together in a common 
worship. If the nation of the Jews had worshipped the 
same God, after the same manner, in divers temples and 
upon divers altars, this had not been a national bond 
to them ; but by coming up to the same temple, and 
ofi'ering upon the same altars, and when the sacrifice 
and incense were offered they were offered for them all 
conjointly, this was the thing that united them into 
achiu'ch union, difl'erent from any possible church union 
amongst us, till we have similar institutions. Om- wor- 
ship implies nothing but a personal union, but for thou- 
sands of congregations to be bound by institution to 
join in the very same bond of worship, in the very same 
individual act, such a union we have not in these days. 
Unless we understand this aright, we understand not 
the reason why they had but one altar for burnt-offer- 
ings and one altar for incense. 

But now it may be said. That it does not seem to be 
such a sin to erect altars, (for that is the sin charged 
here upon Eplu'aim, that they " made many altars,") for 
the Scripture speaks of many altars that were God's 
altars ; thus Elijah complains, 1 Kings xix., that they 
had cast down God's altars, They " have thrown down 
thine altars ;" now this was spoken after the time of the 
law, when there were but only two altars appointed by 
God, the altar for burnt-offerings and the incense altar, 
and the prophet did not mean them. 

Divines answer tliis thus. That this is spoken of those 
altars that the patriarchs and others had built to sacri- 
fice upon to God, before the time that the law was given 
by Moses for that one only altar of sacrifice. For it was 
lawful, before the command, to buUd divers altars, but 
afterwards it was not. 

Yea, but still the objection wUl be. How could it be 
a sin to cast down those altars, when they were of no 
further religious use ? for after the command of God for 
that one altar, then the others were to be demolished. 
Was it not commended in the godly kings, that they 
cait down high places, and cut down groves ? though 
some of them formerly were for the true worship of God, 
yet, after God had appointed a peculiar place for his 
worship, and those other places were abused to super- 
stition, then they were to be cast down : and so there 
is no question but all other altars built for i-eligious uses 
were to be cast down, after God's own altars were made. 
To this I would answer thus. 

That the evil that Elijah complains of, was the pro- 
faneness of the people, their casting off all fear and 
reverence of God ; because they ilid not cast down 
those altars out of love to God and his worship, and 
tlirough a holy determination that they would not 
suffer any thing that might lead to superstition, that 
was not the principle whereby they were actuated in 
casting them down, but they were led thereto by malice 
and rage against religion, and to satisfy their lusts. 
And thus, if men oppose that which is indeed supersti- 
tious, yet not out of a true love to God and his honour, 
nor a sincere desire to set up and to maintain his true 
worship, but in bitterness and rage, merely to gratify 
then- own selfish purposes ; though, I say, the thing be 
evil that these men oppose, yet God will not own then' 
actions as any service to him, it is a sin in them to cast 
down that which should be cast down, if they do not 
cast it down out of a right and gracious principle : 
then what evil is it for men in bitterness of spirit to 
oppose that which is in itself good, if God account it a 
sin to oppose that which should be opposed, if it be 
through bitterness of spirit, and not through gracious 
principles ! 

Obn. 1. Man's inventions in God's worship are re- 
jected of God. "Ephraim hath made many altars." 
"flliatsoever is made by man in religious worship, is 
rejected of God; the very spirit and life of the second 
commandment consist in this. " Thoti shalt not make 



372 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. \7II. 



unto thee any graven image;" that instances but one 
thing, but by that we are to understand every thing 
pertaining to Divine worship ; the very life and the 
very spirit of the second commandment, I say, lies in 
this, the making to ourselves. If God will appoint 
ceremonies significant of heavenly things, to raise oiu' 
hearts on high, we are to use them with reverence and 
respect ; but we must not presume in this to imitate 
God : that is the ground of all superstitious ceremonies, 
because they find God makes some, they think that 
they may presume to make others ; now it is a sin 
against the second commandment for us to presume to 
make any thing in matters of Divine worship. 

Obs. 2. There is no stop in superstitious worship. 
" Ephraim hath made many." If men leave the rule 
they know not where to stay : hence the multiplying 
of things thus among the papists, five hundred altars 
in some one temple. And Austin, in his 
?™ump"ionfbuL* 19th Epistle, complains of the multitude 
yw Aug. Epist. pf ceremonies that were in the church in 
his time. What complaints would he 
have now ! All things in the church were full of pre- 
sumptions, they did multiply one thing after another ; 
and indeed, let the right way once be left, and there are 
no limits. O, let us take heed how we multiply in 
God's worship. There is much controversy between the 
papists and us about multiplying in the worship of God. 

We would have but one >Iediator, they would have 
many ; we would have but one rule of faith, but they 
will give power to pope and church to make articles 
of faith ; we would have but one object of worship, 
they would have many ; we would have but one sacri- 
fice, they would have many oblations for the quick and 
dead ; we would have but one satisfaction, they would 
have many ; we would have but one merit, they would 
have many : and thus, by multiplying, the unity of the 
church is divided : but we must keep to the unity that 
we find in the Scripture. 

Obs. 3. AVe are ready to imitate our forefathers in 
evil, but not in good. " Ephraim hath made many 
altars." Their forefathers were mightily incensed 
against the supposed addition.of but one altar to God's 
altars, but they will not imitate thek forefathers in this 
good thing, in standing up for that one true worship 
of God, Josh. xxii. 11. If you ask the reason why 
their progenitors were so zealous for God's own altar, 
and yet now their children after them make many 
altars, the reason may be this, which will afford a note 
of very great use to us ; AMicn their progenitors came 
first into the land of Canaan, and Joshua, according to 
the commandment of God by Moses, set up an altar, 
they, seeing the goodness of God towards them, were 
much afi'ected with it ; but after they had enjoyed the 
land a while, after they begun to be settled, to lie warm 
in their nests, and to prosper in the land, then they 
ventured upon this way of corrupting of God's worship 
by multiplying altars ; and when they had once ven- 
tured and escaped impunishod, then they thought they 
were sure, might go on with impunity : and so by 
degrees they come to this excess in superstitious wor- 
ship. The note is, 

Obs. 4. AA'e must take heed lest any distance of time 
maliC us not to fear the threatening denounced on the 
breach of tlie commandment. They were afraid of the 
breach of the commandment soon after it was given ; 
but when some time had elajjscd, and they were settled 
in prosperity, then tlicy ventured to transgress : hence 
I say, our note is, That we must take heed that the 
distance of time, or our settling in a prosperous condi- 
tion, do not make us to fear the commandment less 
tlian we did at first. And for this you have a most 
excellent scripture in Deut. iv. 25, " AATicn thou shalt 
beget children, and children's children, and ye shall 
have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt your- 



selves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any 
thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy 
God, to provoke him to anger." " AMien thou shalt 
beget childi-en, and children's children, and ye shall 
have remained long in the land," then thoii shalt make 
graven images. There was not so much fear that when 
they came Jirst into the land they should make graven 
images ; they were then but just delivered out of their 
bondage, God had made known his glorious word unto 
them, their hearts were warm with love and gratitude ; 
Ijut after they had lived long in the land, they began 
to forget God and make graven images. Just so it is 
with us I when we aie newly come out of afHictions, 
then our hearts are a little warm, and we would serve 
God according to his own way; but after we have con- 
tinued long in the land, and been a while in a prosper- 
ous condition, and find all things around us pretty well, 
oh ! then we begin to be cool, and forget the Lord and 
his ways. It has been always so, and it is so now, not 
only in particular persons and nations, but churches 
too. Ordinarily when people are delivered from super- 
stitious vanities, and come to worship God in his own 
way, at first they enjoy the ordinances of God in their 
purity, oh how glad are they ! and tliey bless God, 
and their hearts are warmed and enlarged, and their 
hearts do close one with another, and there is a sweet 
union between them : but after they have lived a whUe 
in the land, after they have lived a whUe m the ways of 
God, and enjoyed him a little, they begin to gi'ow more 
cool and dead, and fall to wi'angling and contending, 
and so all that spirituality and heavenly ardour that 
they had before vanish and come to nothing. I be- 
seech you remember Deut. iv. 25 ; take heed, after you 
have abode a while in such a condition, that you forget 
not God. 

06s. 5. Eveiy age adds something to idolatry and 
false worship. '• Ephraim hath made many altars :" 
hath multiplied altars, so Jerome ; and 
the Seventy, hath gone on in way of "'jcrom?!'"' 
multiplication. They had some altars at '^"s^jtl''"''' 
first, which then- forefathers made, and 
they afterwards made moi-e, and so every succeeding 
generation added to them. O my brethren, let the 
true worsliip of God, then, not only continue, but mul- 
tiply. Idolaters will not argue thus, Why should we 
be wiser than our forefathers ? no, they will go beyond 
their forefathers in false worship ; and yet, how many 
among us will thus plead against reformation, Wliy 
should not we content oiu'selves with what our fore- 
fathers did ? our forefathers knew not of such new- 
ways of worship as you tell us of. But now, my bre- 
thren, if our forefathers reformed a little, let us bless 
God for what they did : but let us add more, to raise 
up the worship of God yet higher and higher, as in 
Psal. Ixxi. 14, " But I will hope continually, and will 
yet praise thee more and more ; " the words may be 
read thus, I will add unto thy praise, O Lord. 'Thou 
hast had praise, indeed formerly thou hadst praise from 
others ; but I will do somctliing to add to thy praise, I 
will praise thee more and more. So every generation 
should strive to ])raisc God more and more, to add to 
God's jiraise, to find out more of God's traths, to add 
to the purity of God's worship, and to cast out super- 
stition more than their forefathers have done : our 
forefathers are to be 'mucli commended for having- 
done what they did, and (I say) we arc to bless God for 
them, that tlie Lord put such a spirit into them ; but 
know, that that which was accepted from our forefa- 
thers will not be accepted from us, God expects that 
we should add to his praises. Men desii-e to add more 
and more to the estates of their progenitors, and so 
vour children will add a little to the estates that you 
leave them ; and so men account it their ambition to 
raise their families. My brethren, we should liave a 



Ver. 12. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



373 



holy ambition to exalt ourselves more and more in 
ever}" age, by the practice of religion : as Jehu said in 
2 Kings X. 18, " Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu 
shall serve him much." As he said, though feignedly, 
of false worship, we should say, with sincerity, of the 
true worship of God, Our fathers have served the Lord 
a little, but we will serve him more ; we have more 
mercies than they had, more light than they had ; if they 
served God a little, we will serve him much. 

Obs. 6. God stiU remembers the first and chief actors 
in sin. " Ephraim hath made many altars to sin." 
He speaks to the ten tribes, and yet only names 
Ephraim, because the governors were of that tribe. 
The chief in a family, by whom the whole family is 
corrupted, and the chief in a town or country, God has 
an eye upon, and though others escape they shall not. 
Ephraim hath multiplied altars to sin ; they intended 
not to sin, it was not their intention when they made 
altars that they might sin, they thought they pleased 
God, but God accounts it sin, and a provocation to him. 
Hence observe further, 

Obs. 7. Whatsoever names we give to things, it may 
bo, God will give them other names and titles. We 
may say that it is devotion, God will say it is super- 
stition ; we may say it is good intention, but God may 
say it is presumption ; we may say it is prudence and 
wisdom, but God may give it another name, and say 
it is temporizing, time-serving; God is wont to give 
other names to things than we do. In the Scripture 
they call their images their " delectable things," Isa. 
xliv. 9 ; God calls them " detestable things," Ezek. 
xxxvii. 23. No question, if you would ask them why 
they built altars, they would say, to the honour of 
God i but saith God, " Ephraim hath made many altars 
to sin." 

Obs. 8. When men's hearts are set upon false ways 
of worship, it is just with God to let them have their 
desires to the full. " Altars shall be unto him to sin." 
That is, thus ; seeing they will have them, they s/iall 
have them ; they shall have enough of them, let them 
go on in their way, let them multiply their sin. They 
keep a great deal of stir for it, and have it they must, 
they refuse to see the light, they are prejudiced against 
the way of God's worship ; let them have their desires, 
let them have, saith God, governors to establish by 
their authority, and teachers to defend by subtle ar- 
guments, what they wish for : they multiply altars to 
sin, and they shall be to sin, even to harden them ; 
their hearts are set upon them, and they will have 
them, and love them, and they shall be hardened in 
them. This is the heavy judgment of God, to give men 
their hearts' desires in what is evil. And as it shall be 
to them for sin, so it shall be to them for misery, the 
fruit of sin ; for so sin is taken very frequently in Scrip- 
ture for the fruit of sin ; they will have them to sin, and 
they shall find in them the fruit of sin, misery. 

Ver. 12. / have written to him the great things of m>j 
law, but they were counted as a strange thing. 

There appears a greatness in the very sound of this 
verse, and there is as much in it as the sound doth im- 
port; and therefore, though we pass over other things 
more briefly, yet because there is veiy much of God's 
mind in this, we should wTong the Scripture if we 
should pass over this too slightly. 

" I have written to him the great things of my law." 
This is made an aggravation of their sin. They multiply 
altars to sin, and yet, saith God, " I have written to 
him the great things of my law ; " they find no such 
things in my written law : and what that written word 
of God, against those many altars, was, you had the 
last day ; but in that these are made sins because thev 
were against the written word of God, thence, 



Obs. 1. '\^liatsoever is urged or practised in mat- 
ters of worship, must have warrant out of the written 
word of God. It was sin. Why? Because I have 
written to tliem (saith God) the great things of my law, 
and they counted it a strange thing; though that 
which they did had a great deal of seeming devotion 
in it, yet it was otherwise than they found written in 
my law. 

This question should be put to any that tender to us 
any form of worship, or doctrine of religion, under any 
specious show whatsoever. Where is it written ? "To the 
law and to the testimony," saith Isaiah, chap. viii. 20 : 
" if they speak not according to this word, it is because 
there is no light in them : " they may seem very judi- 
cious and wise, but if they speak not according to this 
word, they have no light in them; not only to the law 
and testimonies, but to the written law and testi- 
monies ; this must be the standard at which all doc- 
trines and modes of worship must be tried. Many may 
put fail- colours on their proceedings, that they tend to 
the common peace, and a great deal of good may re- 
sult from them, and the like ; but is it written ? Did I 
ever command it ? saith God. Policy may say it is fit, 
reason may say it is comely, and experience may say 
it is useful, but doth the written law say it should be ? 
Nay, it is not enough to say, that we cannot say it is 
forbidden, but where is it written ? In matters of wor- 
ship this is a certain rule. TertuUian, about the crown- 
ing of the soldier with bays, saith. If it bo affirmed. It is 
lawful, because the Scriptures do not forbid it ; it may 
equally be retorted. It is therefore not lawful, because 
the Scriptures do not command it. No matter what 
the thing be, saith Luther, in matters of religion, we 
must look who it is that bids it, who it is that com- 
mands it ; never, I beseech you, in any point of reli- 
gion argue thus, "\^'hy, what hurt is there in it, is it 
not very comely ? I cannot think but it may do a great 
deal of good. These arguments are weak arguments in 
matters of worship ; to them all we must answer. Is it 
written ? As Christ replied to the devil and his tempt- 
ations, "It is written;" so, if you can, bring a written 
word against what they would have you to do, or^ let 
them show where what they enjoin is written. In 
Exod. xxxix. we find it said, at least ten times, they 
did according to what the Lord had commanded Moses ; 
and in the conclusion of the chapter, Moses blessed the 
people : the people are blessed when in the matters of 
worship they keep to what is commanded. 

And again. As we must not make our own con- 
ceptions the rule for worship, so neither the opinions of 
learned men, nor custom, nor antiquity, must bo the 
rule, but what is written : " I have written to them the 
great things of my law ; " they must keep to that. What- 
soever use we may make now of the opinions of an- 
cients and the like, yet, if the ancients themselves were 
alive, they would abhor the use that many make of 
their quotations. Cyqnian, in one of his epistles, 
sjjcaking of his predecessors, saith. We must not look 
what this man or that man before us did or taught, 
but what he that was before all, namely, Christ, who 
alone is " the way, the truth, and the life." _ And_ so 
Augustine has a passage to the same efiect, in which, 
s])eaking of the ancients, he saith, Even granting them 
all due respect, yet for us to think that we may not 
reject from their writings some things, because they 
were learned men, is inadmissible : for such, he adds, I 
will be in respect of the writings of other men, and 
such would I have those that understand my writings 
be to me, I will not so esteem the wTitings of any be- 
fore me as to think that nothing should be cast out 
nor mended, neither would I have any think so of my 
v^i-itings. And so Ambrose, '\^^lere the Scripture is 
silent we must not speak. Thus we see, that though 
men at present, for the maiirtaining of that which is 



374 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. Xlll. 



evil, ■ml] make use of quotations and antiquities, yet 
that those very ancients whom they cite as authorities 
abhorred this ; and Christ and his apostles quoted none 
of the learned men before them, but only Moses and 
the prophets. 

But you will say, Though we must not take other 
men's writings as the rule, yet they may help us to un- 
derstand the Scripture aright. 

Luther, I remember, saith, that the Scriptures should 
rather help us to understand men's writings, than men's 
writings to understand the Scripture ; that many will 
make men's writings a judge and rule for understanding 
the Scriptures, not the judge of truth, but the ride for 
understanding aright the Scriptures, whereas (saith 
he) the Scripture should rather be the rule for under- 
standing them. 

And so Hilary saith. He is the best interpreter of 
Scripture, that takes the sense rather out of the Scrip- 
tiu'es themselves, by comparing one passage with an- 
other, than brings to it any new meaning : therefore 
the understanding of Sci'ipture is more by Scriptuie 
than by the writings of any man living. Ajid yet still 
we may, doubtless, make use of the gifts of God in others, 
but so as to keep us close to the written word for the 
rule ; yea, and for the meaning of the rule, they may 
help us to see whether the Scripture will justify this 
truth, or this sense : for there lies the mistake ; most 
people think, that whatsoever any man writes, if it be 
contrary to the word, we may not receive it, but we 
must understand the word in the sense in which they 
take it : now we must not go so far ; for the Scripture 
is written, not only that we might know what the rule 
is, but that we might understand the meaning of the 
rule, by comparing Scripture with Scripture ; now so 
far as the writings of men will help us to discover the 
meaning of Scripture by Scripture, so far wc may make 
use of them ; but we cannot say, this is the meaning, 
because it is the opinion of such and such learned 
men ; they should compare one Scripture with another, 
show you the history of the time, and give you the rea- 
sons for then- intei-pretation : and this is the use of 
writers for understanding tlie Scriptures. Then you 
will say, AVhy do we make use of writers so much ? 
^liy, because they show how one scripture has refer- 
ence to another, and relate the history connected with 
the passage. 

The sense of things is to be resolved in the Scrip- 
ture itself, and therefore we must keep ourselves very 
close to what is WTittci. 

" Written." It was not so at first, but delivered from 
hand to liar.i; but afterwards, when the churcli began 
to multiply, then the word was written. And this is a 
mighty blessing of God, that we may have the mind of 
God written, so as to look into it, and search to know 
it, by reading it over and over again, and taking it 
into our hands. When we are lying upon our beds, if 
■we light a candle in the night, we may be reading and 
looking into tlie mind of God. If we should only hear 
that there were such a book in the world, in China, in 
the uttermost part.s of the habitable globe, a book that 
God had ■written, or that God had employed men to 
write by an inspiration of his own Spirit, and wherein 
he had revealed the great counsels of his will concern- 
ing man's eternal estate ; if we should hear that sucli a 
book had come down even from heaven, and that in 
the uttermost parts of the earth, oh wliat a longing 
desire sliould we have to see it ! Wbo but would give 
their whole estate to have a week's or a fortniglit's time 
to see and read in such a book ? if one could, he would 
be Avilling to travel to the end of tlie world to enjoy 
such a privilege. No man need say. Shall I go to tlio 
uttermost parts of the earth ? for it is in your hands, 
it is in your houses ; the book wherein the great God 
has written his mind, has written all things unto you 



which concerns your eternal salvation, is that same 
which you have in your hands. However we prize it 
now, heretofore it has been prized at a high rate ; how 
many of the martjTS would venture their lives to keep 
but a few leaves of Scripture in their houses ! And 
how vile is it then for us to neglect the reading of this 
written word ! One Theodorus, a physician at Constan- 
tinople, sent to Gregory the Great a great sura of 
money for the redeeming of captives: in his reply 
Gregory much commends his liberality, yet takes oc- 
casion to blame him for not reading the Scriptures ; 
and uses this expression. The Emperor of heaven, the 
Lord of the angels and men, has sent to you that 
which concerns your life, and will you neglect to read 
it with a fervent, with a zealous spirit? He would not 
but blame him even when he sent such gifts to him, it 
grieved him so to think that one so bountiful to the 
distressed should neglect the reading of the Scriptures. 
Many have excellent parts, and yet find but little rclisli 
fpr the Scriptures. No books that are written should 
take us off from this written word ; although we have 
cause to bless God abundantly for what is wTitten. for 
those excellent helps which we have, yet we must take 
heed that no written book in the world take us off from 
this written word of God. Luther therefore saith, I 
even hate mine o\ni books, and I oftentimes even wish 
that they were burnt, that they might perish. AVHiy ? 
Mark his reason. Because I fear lest they should be any 
kind of hiuderance to men, or withdraw them from 
reading the Scriptures ; and he forthwith proceeds to 
commend the Scriptures : They are the only fountain of 
all wisdom ; and further, I am even terrified, I tremble, 
at the example of the former age in this respect, be- 
cause many divines spent so much time in reading 
Aristotle, and Averres, and other ■writers, and spent so 
little time in reading Scripture. And the truth is, it 
was that which brought so much ignorance into the 
world in the time of the school-men, which was a time 
of great learning, and yet the time of the greatest 
ignorance in the mysteries of godliness, because they 
minded Scripture very little, but only turned things 
into questions and disputes that tended not according 
to Scripture. Though we may make use of the labours 
and gifts of other men, yet look we especially to the 
written word, and let not other writings take us off 
from that. Hence we say, the Scripture, by way of ex- 
cellency. We must keep ourselves to the written word, 
and take heed of being led aside by any traditions of 
men ; that is a most detestable derogation from the 
written word. Yet we find the council of Trent, speaking 
of the Scriptures, saith in one of its canons. We do 
receive Scripture, and reverence Scrip- 
ture ; but moreover we receive and re- '^tdeirlLpiim'' 
vcrenco traditions with the same affec- 
tion of piety and reverence as we do the Scripture. 
These are the verj' words that all papists are bom to 
hold, and for them to deny any council were death unto 
them. It argues men to be in the dark, so to regard 
written verities. The Jews are vain in their imagina- 
tions, and understand the Scripture so little, because 
they mind traditions as much as Scripture, and more ; 
for they say. Divide a man's life into tliree parts, one 
part must be spent in reading Scripture, and two parts 
more in the two several parts of the Talmud, which is 
their traditions ; and some of them say that this is one 
tradition among them, that Moses studied the Scrip- 
ture in the day-time, and those Talmudical traditions 
during the night. It is indeed night work, and a sign 
that the ■world is so much ■ in darkness, because they 
have so much respect to traditions, and neglect the 
written word of God, which we must regard more than 
if one eame from the dead, or if an angel from heaven 
came and preached to us. 

But you will say, We must not look to it more than 



Veh. 12. 



THE PROPHFX'Y OF HOSEA. 



if God should reveal any thing to us, suppose by a 
voice from heaven. 

'\^''e have ivarrant to regard more the written word of 
God than the voice of God from heaven. In 2 Pet. i. 
19, the voice that came down at the transliguration in 
the mount is referred to, but saith the apostle, " We 
have also a more sure word of prophecy," more even 
than that was ; that is, we are not so 

Be/Smirepov Hkelv to be deceived by resting upon 
the written word, as u we look tor re- 
velations from God. "We have a more sure word of pro- 
phecv," therefore it is not so much after revelations that 
we ai-e to look, (especially in such times as these,) but to 
the written word of God. There is a generation of 
men rising now, if not risen, that begin to have low 
thoughts of the Scriptures of God, and thmk to under- 
stand the mind of God otherwise ; finding his written 
word keeps their hearts too close and lays too strong 
bonds upon them, because they would fain be loose, 
they would fain imagine to themselves other ways for 
the discovery of God's mind ; but when they are dead, 
when their souls, it may be, are perished eternally in 
hell, the ■mitten word of God shall stand and be hon- 
ourable in the eyes of his saints. 

"I have written." The prophet saith not Ae hath 
written ; but he brings in God, saying, " I have written." 
And that for these two reasons : 

1. To put the greater emphasis upon it, for it is more 
for God himself to come and say, " I have written ;" as 
if a father or master say to his child or servant, I com- 
mand you to do such a thing, it is more than if a bro- 
ther or fellow servant should say. My father or my 
master has bidden you to do such a thing. 

2. Whosoever were the penmen of the word, it is I 
that write it, I take it upon myself. The word is so 
much his, that God claims not only the truths that are 
in the word, but the very inditing; and in 2 Pet. i. 21, 
it is said of holy men, they " spake as they were moved 
by the Holy Ghost," tiTro Uviv/inTog ayiov (jxpofin'oi ; 
they were not only moved, but carried on with a kind 
of violence, to write what they did. Both in their 
speaking and in their writing, " I have written." 

" To him." From this form of expression, 
Obs. 2. We should look upon the Scriptiu-e as concern- 
ing ourselves. Here is a letter written to every one of 
you incbvidually, therefore it is in the singular, " I have 
wi'itten to him." Each must regard the Scripture as 
written to him or her particularly. God has wi-itten a 
letter to thee that thou shouldst not commit adultery, 
nor swear, nor steal, and that thou shouldst keep the sab- 
bath, and that thou shouldst not lie, and that thou 
shouldst reverence him, and love him, and fear him ; all 
such kind of rules has God from heaven written to thee, 
and it is a marvellous help to obedience, and to awaken 
men's consciences, when they apprehend them as writ- 
ten to them. Psal. cxix. 105, " Thy word is a lamp un- 
to my feet, and a light unto my jjath." It is not a light 
that I see at a distance, a great way off: but as a light 
held to my feet, that I make use of for the ordering of 
mine own steps. 

Many there are that seem to rejoice in the word of 
God, as a light to reveal truths unto them for matter 
of discourse, but they use it not as a lamp to their own 
feet, and a light to their own paths ; and therefore fol- 
lows, ver. 106, "I have sworn, and I will perform it, 
that I will keep thy righteous judgments :" I have 
looked upon thy word as a lamp to my own feet, as a 
thing nearly concerning myself, and then I have sworn 
and I will perform, I have sworn that I will keep thy 
righteous judgments. It is a mighty means to stir up 
a man's spirit, and quicken him to obedience, to look 
upon the word as written to himself: as thus, when 
you come to hear- out of God's word, and God directs 
the minister so that you apprehend it as spoken to 



you, it will stir and awaken j-ou; Oh, methought this 
day every word the minister spoke Avas directed to me ! 
And so every word in the Scripture that concerns thee, 
God writes to thee ; and conceive it so, and it will be a 
mighty means to stir thee up to obedience. As, if a 
man be asleep, a great noise will not awaken him so 
soon, as if you call him by his own name ; so when the 
word of God comes as to ourselves in particular, it is a 
mighty means to stir the heart. 

Obs. 3. Though the word concerns all men, yet it is 
■nTitten to the church in a more especial manner. " I 
have written to him." As you find in the Revelation 
all the epistles were written to the churches, and in- 
deed all the word of God is in a more especial manner 
addressed to the church : there are some things con- 
cerning all mankind, but that which God aims at more 
especially, is the church. First, the chm-ch of the 
Jews ; they had that great privilege, that the oracles of 
God were committed to them : therefore, in Rom. ili. 1, 
2, when the apostle had taken them off from resting ia 
many of their outward privileges, he brings an objec- 
tion : But then may some say, "What advantage then' 
hath the Jew?" he answers, " Much everyway; chiefly, 
because that unto them were committed the oracles of 
God." In this thing they had much advantage over all 
the people in the woTld. that to them were committed 
the oracles of God : God gave Jacob his law, it was the 
inheritance of his people ; it was written to them, and 
through them transmitted to his church. This is a 
great honour which God puts upon his saints ; God 
makes his church to be the keeper of his records, the 
court of rolls, as it were ; therefore they should look to 
it that they be kept faithfully, that they be not corrupt- 
ed, for then they do falsify their trust. The church 
has the keeping of Scripture, but gives no authority to 
Scripture. In John v. 46, 4", Christ saith, " Had ye be- 
lieved Moses, ye would have believed me : for he wrote 
of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye 
believe my words ? " Mark, Christ would have the au- 
thority of his words to be much strengthened by the 
■writings that were before in Scripture, " If ye believe not 
his ■m-itings, how shall ye believe my words ? " But now, 
on the contrary, the papists will say. If ye believe not 
our words, how can ye believe their writings ? they will 
take upon them more than Christ : Christ saith, " If ye 
believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my 
words ? " they say. If ye believe not our words, how can 
ve believe then- writings ? for they take the authority 
of Scripture to depend upon theu- vrords. It is wTitten 
to the church, and committed to the church, but the 
authority comes not from the church. 

" The "great things of my law." By " law" here we are 
to understand the whole word of God, and not the la^w 
as distinguished from the gospel ; and 
so the word means, being derived from '^' docuii' '^' 
one signifying to teach, the law is a doc- 
trine that is taught ; and so, though sometimes it may 
be distinguished from some other parts of Scriptm-e, 
yet now we are to understand the whole mind of God 
in his word ; when you read in Psal. cxix., how David 
loved God's law, it is not the ten comraandmente, 
but the mind of God revealed in his word. 

'• The great things of my law." The 
Vulgate renders it, mullip/ices leges, the '^"' ,''j^^,ij!['-** 
manifold laws, the midtiplicity of my 
laws : and the words in the Hebrew seem a little to 
favour it. Thence these two tilings might be argued : 

1. That the word is full and perfect: that in it we_ 
have rules for every thing that concerns the ordination 
of our lives God-ward : in his word there is a multipli- 
city of laws and rules for all our ways. 

2. That there are manifold excellences in God's law ; 
as the manifold wisdom of God is in Christ, so the ma- 
nifold excellences of God are kept up together in tlie 



376 



AN EXPOSITIOX OF 



Chap. VIII. 



•word of God. The Seventy translate it by 5rX>;9oc, the 
fuhioss, or multitude, and according to that, TertuUian 
has an expression, I adore the fulness of 
scr.ptut.'iruj.i. Tcr- the bcripture. Oh tile multituae oi ex- 
'"'• cellent things there arc there ! and the 

fulness that is in them ! I find this word translated by 
many of excellent signification, and indeed the Hebrew 
will bear to be differently rendered. Some translate it, 
the precious thing, the magnificent thing, the excellent 
thing, the honourable things of my law ; as in Acts ii. 
11, they spake "the wonderful things of God;" to. 
fiiyiiXi'ia Tov Qtou, it is more than the great things, the 
magnificent great things of God. Now the things of 
the word are glorious and honourable, and very great, 
thev are to be looked upon as great things, the things 
of God's word : that is the first and most im])ortant. 

And thou, The things that concern God's worship 
are to be looked upon as great things, for it has refer- 
ence to them also; but the expression aims at that 
which is more general ; " the great things of my law," 
the honourable, magnificent, and glorious things. Now 
the things of the law were great things, because, 

1. They are from the great God, and they have on 
them the stamp of his authority. In every truth, in 
every thing that is written in God's law, there is the 
awful authority of the great God, that binds kings and 
princes m chains, that lays bonds upon the conscience, 
.such as no created power can : when we come to hear 
the word, we come to it either as to a sovereign, to recei^■e 
laws from it, or as to a judge, to receive from it the sen- 
tence of death; it has the cb-eadful authorit)' of the great 
God in it, and therefore every thing that is in the word 
is to be looked upon as a great thing. A piece of parch- 
ment, and a little wax, and a few lines, what are they ? 
but having the authority of the great seal of England, 
they are to be looked upon as important. The things 
of God's law are great things, for great authority 
attends them. 

2. The lustre of the great God shines in them. Take 
all the creatm-es that ever God made in heaven and 
earth, and there is not so much glory of God in sun, 
moon, stars, sea, plants, and all things in the world, as 
there is in some few sentences of Holy Scripture, there- 
fore they are great things. Psal. cx.xxviii. 2, " Thou 
hast magnified thy word above all thy name." The 
name of God appears in his great work of creation and 
of providence ; we are to look upon God's name as 
very great ; yet " Thou hast magnified thy word above all 
thy name," it is more than all God's names besides. It 
may be, when there are some extraordinary works of 
God in the world, as thundermg, lightning, and the 
like, we arc ready to fear, and say, Oh how great God 
appeai-s in these great works ! Vt'cie our hearts as they 
ought to be when \.e read the word, we would tremble 
at that more than at any manifestation of God in all his 
woi'ks since the world began ; and if so be, thou dost 
not see more glory of God in his word than in his 
works, it is because thou hast little light in thee ; let 
the world think of the things of God's law that arc 
written, as they will, yet they arc the gi-eat things of 
his law. 

3. They arc the great mysteries of God's will. The 
great counsels of God about the souls of men, about 
liis way to honour himself, to bring mankind to himself 
and to eternal life, are contained in the word ; counsels 
and mysteries so great that the angels themselves de- 
sire to look into them. As in Prov. viii. 6, it is said of 
wisdom, " Hear, for I will speak of excellent things ;" 
so the word of God speaks of excellent things, right 
excellent things, such great mysteries of God's v isdom 
as should engage our thoughts, yea, and do engage tlie 
thoughts of angels, and shall yield admiring emjiloy- 
ment to angels and saints to all eternity. Psal. cxix. 
27, " Make me to understand the way of thy precepts : 



so shall I talk of thy wondi-ous works." Mark liow 
these are joined together : " Make me to understand 
the way of thy precepts : so shall I talk of tliy wondrous 
works." Why, David, couldst not thou see the ^von- 
cb'ous works of God in the book of the creature, in 
heaven and earth ? O no ; " Make me to understand 
the way of thy precepts : so shall I talk of thy wondrous 
works." AVe often talk about vain and slight things, 
because we have nothing else to talk of; but did we 
understand the way of God's precepts, we should be 
furnished with discourse of the wondi'ous works of God. 

4. They are of great concernment. The things of 
God's law are of great concernment, for all our present 
good or evil depends upon them. Prov. iii. 22, They 
are •' life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck." So 
saith Moses in Deut. xxxii. 46, " Set your hearts unto 
all the words which I testify among you this day, which 
ye shall command your children to observe to do, all 
the words of this law ; for it is not a vain thing for 
you, because it is your life." There is, too, a curse 
annexed to the breach of every thing in God's law ; 
'• C'ursed be every one that abldeth not in eveiT thing 
that is written in the book of the law." Is it not a 
great matter then ? Certainly nothing in the law can 
be looked upon as unimportant, when the curse of God 
is annexed to the breach of every thing written in it. 
M'e have there the casting of our souls for eternity ; and 
is not that a great matter ? Did we come to hear the 
word, or did we read the word, as the word by which 
our eternal condition must be decided, we would look 
upon it as a great word. 

5. They have great power and efficacy upon the 
hearts and consciences of men. '\A'Tien God sets home 
the things of his law, they will bring down the proud- 
est and the stoutest, they will enlighten the blindest 
mind, and convert the hardest heart in the world ; the 
law lias a mighty power upon the soul, and therefore it 
is great. 

6. They make all that receive them great : they make 
them great, even because they have but the keeping of 
them, much more then if the)' receive them. In Deut. 
iv. S, " What nation is there so great, that hath statutes 
and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set 
before you this day':"' What nation so great as you 
are ? AAliy, wherein are we gieater.than other people ? 
Wherein ? In this : " '\\Tiat nation is so great, that 
hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this 
law, which I set before you this day ? " This was that 
which made the people of Israel a great nation, beyond 
all the nations in the world ; they were not great in 
multitude, but in that they had the law of God, and 
tlie great things of his law, revealed to them. The 
Lord honours a nation highly when he reveals the 
tliuigs of his law to them ; how great then docs a soul 
become that embraces those things, that has all those 
great and good things revealed in the law made over 
to it as its own ! Siu'ely that soul is in a high and 
honourable condition. 

7. They are great in God's esteem ; they are great, 
because the great God thinks them so. That is to be 
accounted great, which the most judicious and wise 
men in the world judge to be so. Indeed that which a 
child thinks great may not be so ; a cliild may think a 
bauble a great thing : so we may think things great in- 
deed ; we think the things of the world are great, 
estates, riches, and honours, these we deem great 
things ; but what are these in God's eyes ? God de- 
sjiises all these things. But that which the great God 
will think to be a great tiling, certanily that is indeed 
great. Now mark what a high esteem God has for his 
word in that place, where Christ saith, " Till lieaven 
and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise 
pass from the law, till all be fulfilled," Matt. v. 18. As 
if Christ should say. The Lord will rather withdraw his 



Veb. 12. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



power from upholding heaven and earth, than from 
making good any one jot or tittle of his law. You may 
think it a little matter to break God's law, but God 
thinks it a great matter, and God would have us to 
make a great matter of every thing that is written in 
God's law. I am the more willing to enlarge on this, 
because I know it is the ground of all the wickedness 
in men's hearts and lives, that they look upon the law 
as a little matter : weU, though they dare sin against 
God's law for the attainment of very trifles, yet God 
saith, I will rather lose heaven and earth, than one jot 
or one tittle of my law shall fail ; and he will make it 
appear one day, that the things of his law are great 
things. " He will magnify the law, and make it hon- 
ourable," Isa. xlii. 21. Some amongst us, consideruig 
neither what they say nor what they do, running awaj- 
with the very word law, tliink to vilify it, saying. What 
have we to do with the law ? Let them do what they 
will, yet God " will magnify his law ;" and as it is great 
in the thoughts of God, so it is, and shall be for ever, 
great in the thoughts of the saints. The Lord will have 
his people, to the end of the world, entertain high 
thoughts of his law. The saints look upon the law of 
God as so great, that they had rather sufler all devisable 
niisei-ies and torments, than willingly break it in any 
one particular ; surely he accounts it great, who is will- 
ing rather to lose estates, liberty, yea, and life itself, in 
the midst of tortures and torments, rather than offend 
the law of God in any one thing, though he might 
escape all if he would ; Nay, saith a gracious heart, let 
all go rather than I will venture to break one jot or 
tittle of the law of God. Men of the world think such 
to be fools. Why, they say, will you be content to suffer 
so much, lose all your friends ? what ! venture your fair 
estates, run the risk of being immured in a prison, or 
even losing your life ? The world lightly esteems God's 
commandments, and deems men who are observant of 
them more precise than wise ; but if God would but 
show to you how great a thing his law is, and all the 
thi'eatenings which are revealed therein, you would ac- 
count your estates, and lives, and all your comforts, as 
little and poor in comparison. Hence, in Piev. vi. 9, " I 
saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain 
for the word of God, and for the testimony which they 
held." Wherefore were they slain ? Surely it was for 
some great matter that they wovdd ventm'e their lives. 
It was for " the word of God, and for the testimony 
which they held." And thus the saints of God have 
ever accounted the law of God a great thing. " I have 
written to him the great things of my law." 
From what has been advanced, we may further 
Obs. 4. The word contains matter to exercise the 
greatest minds. Many men cannot endure to spend 
their thoughts and time about trivial matters ; where- 
as others think it happiness enough, if they can, by 
the meanest emploj-ments, procure subsistence. Oh, 
let all those of high aspirations exercise themselves 
much in the law of God ; here are objects fit for great 
minds, yea, objects that will elevate the greatest : and 
indeed none in the world are truly great but the saints, 
for they exercise themselves in the great counsels of 
God. We account those men the greatest that are era- 
ployed in state affairs : now the saints are lifted up 
above all things in the world, and regard them all as 
little and mean, and are exercised in the great aff;m-s 
of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Hence the Lord would 
have the kings and the judges to have the book of the 
law wTitten, Deut. xvii. 18, 19 ; and it is reported of 
Alphonsus, king of An-agon, that in the midst of all his 
great manifold occupations, he read over the Scriptures 
fourteen times with commentaries. How many have 
we, men of great estates, and claiming to be of gi-eat 
minds, that scarce regard the law of God! they look 
upon his law as beneath them. Books of history and 



war they will peruse with diligence, but for the Scrip- 
ture, it is a thing that has little in it. 

Obs. 5. It is a special means to obedience to have 
high thoughts of God's law. That is the reason why the 
prophet here speaks thus, " I have written to him the 
great things of my law, but they were counted as a 
strange thing." As if he should say, If they had had the 
things of my law in their thoughts, they would never so 
have acted. Psal. cxix. 129, " Thy testimonies are won- 
derful ; therefore doth my soul keep them : " I have 
high thoughts of thy testimonies, I look upon them as 
glorious things, I see in them much of thyself, and 
" therefore doth my sold keep them." He saith not, 
therefore do I keep them; but, therefore doth 7ni/ soul 
keep them ; my very soul is in this, in keeping thy tes- 
timonies, for I look upon them as wonderful things. It 
is a good sign that the Spii-it of the great God is in a 
man, when it raises him above other things, to look 
upon the things of his word as the only great things 
in the world. " All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness 
thereof as the flower of the field : the grass withereth, 
the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand 
for ever," Isa. xl. 6, 8. There is a vanity in all things of 
the world, but in that which the word reveals, in that 
there is an eternity: we should therefore admire at 
nothing so as at the word, and we should greatly 
delight in God's commandments ; an ordinary degree 
of admiration or delight is not suflBcient, but great ad- 
miration and great delight there should be in the law of 
God. And all arguments ch-awn from God's law should 
powerfully prevail with you. Temptations to such and 
such evils may assail you, and you may say they are 
strong temptations, but that which is in God's law 
should be stronger than they all : there is more in 
God's law than there can be in any temptation what- 
soever. Know, it is dangerous for us to regard any 
thing in God's law as inconsiderable, so as to think it 
no great matter, though in that particular we depart a 
little from the rule of the word : Prov. xiii. 13, " 'Who- 
so despiseth the word shall be destroyed ;" that is, looks 
upon any thing, in God's word as a light thing. One, 
when convinced that things undertaken were evil, was 
wont to say, that he must make bold with God Almighty 
sometimes. Do not you make bold with God's word, 
and secretly jeer at those who are so scrupulous that 
they cannot ventm'e a little? Remember Prov. xiii. 13, 
" ^Vhoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed : " take 
the least thing that you think so despicable in God's 
law, and venture on the breach of it, God will make it 
a great matter ; for when you have broken the law in 
the least thing, all the angels in heaven, and men in 
the world, cannot satisfy God for that wrong. If they 
should come and say. Lord, here is a ])oor creature 
who has broken thj- law but in this one thing, which he 
thought to be a little matter, we are content to be ten 
thousand years in torments to satisfy its requirements : 
Nay, saith God, that will not satisfy the broken law. 
Therefore take heed of despising God's law, or despis- 
ing any thing that is revealed by him, for certainly it 
will jjrove a great matter; and when the law has been 
broken, let us not deem the transgression slight, and 
think it is to be atoned for at the last by a " Lord have 
mercy upon me." 

Obs. 6. The worship of God is a great matter. Every 
thing in God's worship is to be looked at as a great 
matter : they may think it a matter of indifferency whe- 
ther they do it or no, at least in some things ; my bre- 
thren, let us learn to know that eveiy thing in the 
worship of God is important; God regards it much; 
God saith not that he is jealous for any thing, but for 
his worship. Uzzah thought it a little matter to go and 
catch the ark, and especially with a good intention : 
True, the law of God is, that it should be carried upon 
men's shoulders, but may it not as well be carried in a 



378 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. VIII. 



cart? he thought it but a little matter, yet was it in its 
consequences gicat. So, that which we think little in 
God's worship, may prove of moment. So Uzziah, in 
2 Chron. xxvi., doubtless, thought it no great matter to 
go into the temple and offer sacrifices. Is it not as fit for 
a king to offer it as a priest ? It was in the temple, and 
agreeable to the true form, and Uzziah, because he 
was a great man, thought he might venture, (for there 
you find that he had an army of three hundred thou- 
sand and seven thousand and five hundred soldiers,) 
yet, notwithstanding, God smote him. And Xadab and 
Abihu, too, thought it no great matter to go and offer 
strange fire : It is not expressly forbidden in God's word, 
they said : but it was a great matter before God, for 
God came with fire from heaven to destroy them. 
Hence it is that God in his word would set out the 
glory of his worship, and make them to think every 
thing connected with it great, that so they might not 
have their hearts taken with any false worship. Ezek. 
vii. 20, " As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in 
majesty;" (and hereby God aggravates their sin of idol- 
atry. My worship and service, I made it as beautiful 
and glorious as possible ;) "but they made the images of 
their abominations and of their detestable things there- 
in." So in Jer. xvii. 12, " A glorious high throne from 
the beginning is the place of our sanctuary." Mark 
what follows, ver. 13, "O Lord, the hope of Israel, all 
that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that de- 
part from me shall be -(vi-itten in the earth, because 
they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living 
waters." As if God should say. Oh the insensate hearts 
of men, when I present unto them such a glorious wor- 
ship of mine, yet they turn to their own vile inventions, 
and regard it not ! I beseech you, brethren, labour to 
look upon God's worship as a glorious thing. But now 
the reprehension follows : 

" But they were counted as a strange thing." Here- 
in consists the wickedness of people, that though God 
shows forth his glory in his word, yet they look upon 
it as " a strange thing," as a thing that they shall get 
little good by if they obey, or little hurt by if they 
disobey. We might now show wherein this people 
did account God's worship a strange thing, and what 
particulars of his law they accounted strange things ; 
but this especially deserves to be noticed, they account- 
ed it a strange thing, that God should so stand upon 
it, that he must needs be worshipped in Jerusalem, at 
the temple, and at no other altar, whatsoever came of 
it. Now, because they thought that if the people went 
to Jerusalem to worship, it would be very prejudicial to 
the state, this was "a strange thing," and that which 
they could sec no reason for. So people are ready to 
think, if any thing be jiropoundcd for the worship of 
God out of the word, Yea, but is it consistent with peace ? 
it may cause contention to insist now upon such things. 
First, men will frame troubles in their own thoughts, 
and put them upon God's worship ; wherea.s indeed 
they do not bring such trouble, but if they be examined 
they may consist well enough with tlie ])eace of states. 
I make no question but this is one especial thing aimed 
at by the Holy Ghost here, that they accounted God's 
law, that verj'law of his which required them to worship 
at Jerusalem, " as a strange thing ; " they could not see 
Avhy they might not venture to woi-ship him elsewhere, 
especially when in their eyes it seemed to favoiu: the 
peace of the civil state. 

Now they accounted this, and the other particulars 
of God's law, " as a strange thing" in four respects. 

1. As a thing that did not much concern them. 
They took not to heai-t the breaches of God's law, 
neither did they much regard the keeping of it, it was 
no great matter to them ; they made account that what 
they did in that respect was ad libitum, tliat much did 
not depend upon it, either good or evil : as a stranger 



accounts it not to concern him what the master com- 
mands ; or as we account it no great matter what 
strangers do, what clothes they wear, or what course 
they take, we let them pass by without concern. 

2. In their apprehensions : they could not discern their 
reason. As we term a thing strange that we do not 
understand, and for which we can see no reason ; so 
they in the text, that God should say thus and thus, 
when we cannot see that any account can be given for 
it, they are " strange things : " strange things tliat 
they did not apprehend the reason of. And especially, 
among other things of God's law, (as was said before,) 
the form of God's worship was a very strange thing to 
them ; that God should so insist that he must be wor- 
shipped no where in the way of public worship but at 
Jerusalem, at the temple, no sacrifices must be offered 
but there ; yea, that though people dwelt a great 
way oft', though, as they thought, it would bring a 
great deal of disturbance into the kingdom of Israel, 
yet that God should so insist upon it, and that the pro- 
phets should urge with such fervency, their going to 
Jerusalem at all risks, they accounted this a strange 
thing. And indeed it is very strange to people to 
think, that we must look to the exact way of God's 
worship, whatsoever trouble or disturbance results from 
it, we must not in the least go against the mode that 
he has established : this is a strange thuig to carnal 
hearts. And Luther, on the place, seems to interpret 
it, as if this text had especial reference to this note 
that I am now speaking of: They did condemn, saith he, 
and contemn the prophet's sermons, as a doctrine dan- 
gerous to the commonwealth ; especially the doctrine 
about going up to Jerusalem to worship, they thought it 
was hurtful to the commonwealth, and therefore con- 
demned it. "What strange thoughts have carnal hearts 
of many parts of God's law ! they think them foolish- 
ness, even those very things wherein the wisdom of 
God is revealed to the children of men, those things 
wherein are the deep coimsels of God concerning man's 
eternal estate. 

3. There was no suitableness between their hearts 
and the doctrine ; they did not make the law of God 
familiar to them as that which suited their minds. As 
a man turns almost instinctively fi'om company alto- 
gether unsuitable to him in language, customs, and 
pursuits; so when the law of God suits not the dis- 
positions of our hearts, our ends, our ways, our very 
hearts turn from it as from a strange thing : whereas 
indeed our hearts should be familiar with the word of 
God; his word and the things contained therein should 
not be as strange things to our souls, but, as the Holy 
Ghost saith, it should be as our kinswoman, and as our 
delight continually. Prov. vi. 21, 22, " Bind them con- 
tinually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. 
"\Mien thou goest, it shall lead thee ; when thou sleep- 
est, it shall keep thee ; and when thou awakest, it shall 
talk with thee," There should be a familiarity between 
our hearts and the commandments of God ; when go- 
ing to bed, when we rise up, when we walk in the way, 
we should be conferring about the things of God's law, 
to make them familiar to us, that we may not be 
estranged from them. God sees that men's hearts would 
quickly be estranged fi-om his law, therefore he com- 
manded that by all such means and ways they .should 
endeavour to make it familiar to them. 

4. They used the word as a stranger ; that is, for 
their own ends only. As usually when strangers come 
into a country, and all travellers know it, the natives 
either treat tiiem slightly, or if they do seem to show 
any respect, it is merely for their own advantage: fn 
they accounted the law a strange thing, that is, they 
made use of the law merely to ser\*e their own end« ; 
so far as obedience to the law suited them, so far they 
yielded to it, and no fui-ther. Now it is very observable, 



Vee. 12 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



379 



that those who were so zealous in theii- false worship, 
that, as the text saith, they did multiply, and had special 
regard to, then- altars; yet the law, they accounted 
that " as a strange thing." 

Obs. 7. Superstitious people, although very zealous 
in their own observances, are yet very negligent in 
God's mode of worship : they little regard that. In- 
deed then- own altars were accounted great things, on 
their own ordinances they did not care what they ex- 
pended ; but as for God's institutions, they are as " a 
strange thing " unto them. We have seen veiy evi- 
dently, and do see it in great part to this day, how 
those' that are very zealous in their own superstitions 
are the most negligent in God's ordained worship : to 
instance; you know, in late times, what a deal of stir 
men made with the ceremonies and modes of worship 
which they themselves had appointed ; how zealous and 
devout were they in them ! when they came in public 
congregations to bow and cringe, and perform other 
ceremonies, which they said the decency of God's wor- 
ship required, how resolute were they for them, even 
so that the mouths of the most godly ministers must 
be stopped if they refused to conform .' Yet these very 
men would scorn and jeer at sti'ictness in God's ways, 
and slight any man that would be conscientious in 
them, and accounted all rebels who would not, in obe- 
dience to authority, adopt then- ceremonies. For men 
to be conscientious about little things (as they termed 
them) in God's law, seemed strange ; whereas they 
would urge men to obey to the uttermost every par- 
ticular of their own ; and so, in another respect, they 
would persecute to the uttermost men that worked but 
to get bread for their families on their holy-days, and 
yet could publish Books of Sports for the profanation of 
the Lord's day. And thus the great things of God's 
law were " as strange things," but their own things 
were great matters. Surely, if it were such a gi-eat 
matter to observe, for instance, the festival of Christ's 
nativity, we would have some hint of it from the begin- 
ning of Matthew to the end of the Revelation, but 
God no where mentions it. And mark, those people that 
stand most upon such festivals, stand least upon God's 
sabbaths. !Many think it a strange thing for men not 
to pay regard to such festivals ; Why may not we keep 
the birth of our Saviour ? Now, that you may not think 
it so, do but consider this, that when God has set apart 
any thing for a holy use, it is no strange thing ; but it 
would be strange in man to venture to imitate God in 
the things of his worship, to do that in God's worship 
which God himself has done before. Thus God has set 
apart a holy time, viz. the sabbath ; it is set apart to 
solemnize the whole work of redemption, the nativity 
of Christ, his life, death, resurrection, ascension, and 
the coming of the Holy Ghost ; God, I say, has set the 
sabbath apart that we might have a holy-day to keep 
the remembrance of them all. Now, when God has 
appointed one day, for man to dare to venture to set 
another apart, this is presumption. So, because Christ 
has set outward elements and sacraments to be a re- 
membrance for his body and blood, for man to say, 
Christ has named bread and wine, why may not I also 
appoint something? this you would all say were a 
great presumption. Certainly the presumption is the 
same in the former. 

Ol/s. 8. It is a dangerous thing for men to have their 

•arts estranged from God's law, and from the other spi- 

■ fual truths that are in God's word; from the knowledge 

■ that law in which they have been educated, and of 

' ; ich heretofore they have made profession. Thus it was 

vvith this people, they had been educated in God's law, 

and professed that, whatsoever God should reveal, they 

would obey: butnow, notwithstanding, their hearts were 

estranged. Oh ! let men take heed of this for ever. 

You that have had good education, have been brought 



up in the knowledge of God's law, and have had its graci- 
ous principles infused into you in your youth, take heed 
now of being esti'anged from those truths which heretofore 
have been famihar to you, and of which you have made 
profession ; take heed, I beseech you, of the several de- 
grees of the estrangement of the heart from the law of 
God. I will but name them, to show how the hearts of 
men do become estranged. 

1. They are less frequent in intercourse with God. 
A man that has a familiar Mend does not estrange him- 
self suddenly, but by degrees ; it may be they visit one 
another less than they were wont to do, and yet there 
is no contention between them, but by degrees they 
grow to be strange, and then at length become very ene- 
mies. And thus it is ^^■ith men's hearts ; when men grow 
strange from the word, that they were acquainted withal 
before, they begin to call things in question, whether 
they be so or no, and especially those things which most 
concern the mortifying of sin, and the strictness of holi- 
ness. 

2. Theii- delight in the truths of God abates. They 
were wont to take abundance of delight in meditating 
on the word; oh how sweet was it in the night sea- 
son ! and to confer about God's word with others was 
their great joy; but now tins is abated, and many things, 
of which before they were very confident, they now begin 
to doubt. 

3. They begin to have some hard thoughts of God's 
word. So some that heretofore prized the word, and 
regarded its truths as the joy of then- hearts, yet now 
begin to entertain hard thoughts of the word. 

4. They begin to wish that many things in the word 
were otherwise than they are ; they cannot see enough 
to persuade them of then* falsity, but, growing estranged 
from the word, they wish they were not true. 

5. They begin to listen to things which are against 
the word. There was a time when they never would 
regard any thing advanced against tlie strictest require- 
ments of holiness, but now are they ready to listen to 
objections. As a man, when intimate with his friend, 
cannot endure to hear any thing said against him, but 
being estranged fi-om him, he can di'ink in any scandal 
greedily. 

6. They become reluctant to search tlu-oughly into 
truths ; they put off serious thoughts, and will not examine 
candidly into things as they were wont to do, but wiU 
rather search into any thing that may make against the 
truth than that which will work for it. I beseech you, 
observe such workings of your hearts. 

7. There will be an engagement in some practice not 
allowed by the word. Then a man grows further 
estranged fi-om his ft-iend, when he not only refrains 
from coming into his company, but wiU engage himself 
with others that are against him. 

8. Former weighty arguments are now weak. There 
was a time when certain things were thought to have 
very great weight in them, but now they are nothing, 
they are " accounted as a strange thing." Just as when 
a man is estranged from his friend ; he thought before 
he had a great deal of excellency in him, but now he 
esteems him not ; tliis argues the esti-angement of his 
heart from him. 

9. They at length violently reject the ti-uths of the 
word, they grow to be open enemies to the truth. Some 
that have been familiar with God's word and truth, and 
made profession of them, and seemed to love them, have 
by these several degrees grown to be sti-angers from 
them, and at length'enemies to them. Apostates have 
ever proved to be the most des])erate enemies to the 
truths of God. Take heed, therefore, of the estranging 
of your hearts from the truths of God, lest you after- 
wards prove enemies to God : it is an evil thing to ac- 
count his law " a strange thing ;" how much more to 
account it an enemy to us, and our hearts to be ene- 



380 



AN EXPOSITIOX OF 



Chap. VIII. 



mies to it ! Isa. v. 24, " Therefore as the fire devoureth 
the stubble, and the flame consumeth the ehaft', so their 
root sliall be as rottenness, and theii- blossom shall go 
up as dust." AMiy ? " Because they have cast away 
the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of 
the Holy One of Israel." O, let us ever take heed of 
this ; and therefore let our prayer be that of the prophet 
David, in Psal. exix. 18, 19, " Open thou mine eyes, that 
I may behold wonckous things out of thy law." And 
then follows, " I am a stranger in the earth ; hide not 
thy commandments from me." Lord, I account myself 
a stranger here in the world ; O, let not thy word be 
a stranger to me. I beseech you, observe this ; those 
•who account themselves " strangers in the earth," will 
never account the law of God " a strange thing " to 
them ; but such as account themselves to be the inha- 
bitants of the world, they will have God's law to be a 
stranger to them. Observe it, and you will find this 
to be true. When your hearts begin to close with the 
things of the world, you do not meditate in God's word 
so much as you did before, nor dcUght to read it ; but 
if you can keep your heart ft-om the things of the world, 
using them as if you used them not, then this will bo 
your prayer. Lord, " hide not thy commandments from 
me." " Thy word is sweet unto me as honey and the 
honey-comb." 

Obs. 9. That which men's corrupt hearts will not close 
with as a rule of holiness, they put upon Christ, as if 
Christ had delivered them fi'om it. Many will estrange 
themselves from the law of God by too much familiarity 
with the world ; but for people to conclude, because they 
now know more of Christ, that therefore they should 
be greater strangers to the law than they were before, 
this is indeed a strange way of estranging our hearts 
from God's law. The Holy Ghost, foreseeing such a 
generation would arise in the times of the gospel, who 
ivould boldly assert, that whatsoever the people of God 
were bound to under the Old Testament, yet under the 
New they had nothing to do with the law- of Moses, very 
remarkably, at the very close of the Old Testament, 
annexes to a prophecy of Christ the words, " Remember 
ye the law of Moses my serv-ant." " Unto you that fear 
my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with heal- 
ing in his wings," Mai. iv. 2. To you that fear my name 
shall Christ arise. MTiat then does it add ? then you 
shaU have nothing to do with the law when Christ arises ? 
No ; mark the 4th verse, " Remember ye the law of 
Moses;" almost the last words thus carrying the re- 
quirements of the Old Testament into the New ; as if 
the Holy Ghost should say. Now I have done revealing 
all my mind about the Old Testament, and you must 
never expect any more prophets, nor any further reve- 
lations, till the time of the New ; when, instead of the 
prophets, you shall have the " Sun of righteousness 
arise." Well, then, we shall never have any thing to 
do with the law of Moses more ? Nay, but, saith the 
Holy Ghost, then " Remember ye the law of Moses 
my servant." 

Ver. 13. T/ieij sacrijice flesh far llie sacnflces of 
mine offerings, and eat it ; but the Lord acceptelh them 
}iot ; now wHl he remember Iheir iniquity, and visit 
their siiis : they shall return to Egypt. 

" They sacrifice." The Jews might object, MTiy, 
how do we account the law of God " a strange thing ? " 
do not we continue to ofier our sacrifices to God ? 
■\Miy do you say we account the law a strange tiling ? 
From the connexion, therefore, 

06*. 1. Men may continue in the outward jirofcssion 
and performance of duties of religion, and yet the great 
things of God's law may be a strange thing to them. 
They do offer sacrifices still, and yet they accounted 
<5od's law " as a strange thing " to them. l)o not think 



it sufficient that you continue in the outward pro- 
fession of religion ; nay, shall I say more ? I question 
not, but a man may continue in outward duties and 
yet apostatize from God, so far as to commit the sin 
against the Holy Ghost ; and that is evident from the 
example of the scribes and Phai-isees, whom Christ 
charges with committing the sin against the Holy 
Ghost, although they continued to observe a great deal 
of outward strictness in religion : therefore you may 
apostatize far from God, though you do not forsake 
the public ordinances of God. 

" Flesh." God calls all their sacrifices " flesh ;" that 
is, in contempt ; as if he should say. You sacrifice, in- 
deed, I have a little flesh from you, but do you think 
that this is the thing which I look for in my offering ? I 
expect faith and obedience, I expect the work of faith 
relying on him who is typified by all your sacrifices; 
but as you want that inward spiritual worship in your 
souls, I account your sacrifices but flesh. 

Obs. 2. Most people ofier nothing to God in all their 
sacrifices but " flesh." Their ofl'erings are flesh ; that 
is, even in yoiu- prayers, in your hearing, in your re- 
ceiving, you offer sacrifice, but all is but '• flesh ;" God 
has the outward man, and it may be you have fleshly 
ends in what you do, and fleshly, carnal hearts. !Many 
a man has excellent gifts in prayer, and seems to oflier 
up an excellent sacrifice to God ; but it is nothing 
but flesh, there is little of the Spu-it of God, of the 
sanctifying Spu-it, it may be, nothing. A man may 
jireach excellently, yet in fleshly wisdom, nothing but 
fleshly excellency. O my brethren, what are our 
sacrifices if they be nothing but '■ flesh ? " You know 
what the Scripture saith, " All flesh is grass, and all 
the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field : the 
grass withereth, the flow-er fadeth : but the word of our 
God shaU stand for ever," Isa. xl. 6, 8. All a man's 
parts, all tilings are but flesh that come not from the 
sanctifj-ing work of the Spu-it of God by the w ord, and 
w ill pass away ; but the w-ord of God, that is, the im- 
pression of the word of God upon the soul by the 
sanctifying w-ork of God's Spirit, abides for ever. You 
may have got a great deal of fleshly excellency, so that 
others may admire your gifts and parts ; but this flesh 
is as grass, it will come to nothing, and all your esteem 
will pass away " as the flower of the field." Let us take 
heed, my brethren, that our sacrifices be not flesh, for 
though they may glitter a while in the world, within a 
few- years all will be as gi-ass and will come to nothing. 

" For the sacrifices of mine ofl'erings." God com- 
manded them to sacrifice flesh. Yet here seems to be 
an accusation ; not, how-ever, that they sacrificed, nor 
that they sacrificed nothing but the outward part, 
flesh, but rather thus: In the burnt-offering all the 
whole sacrifice was tendered up to God ; but in the peace- 
offering some part of it belonged to the offerer, so 
that when they came to offer that, they came with their 
friends, because they were to partake of it. Now-, saith 
God, " They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine 
offerings ;" that is, they change mine ordinance : where- 
as I looked for burnt-oflcrings, tlie whole offerings, 
from them, they will rather offer peace-offerings, where- 
in they shall have part of the flesh for themselves, that 
they may take content therein. Thus I find interpret- 
ers carry it, and I verily think it to be the meaning of 
the Holy Ghost. So that from hence the note is, 

Obs. S. To aim at self in serving God eats out all 
true devotion, ^^■hen there is a duty to be done, part 
of which God requires, and we show respect to Goa in 
it, and in the other part we enjoy ourselves, such duties 
men can be content well enougli to perform ; but the 
truth is, that ])art which concerns themselves generally 
eats out all the Uue devotion to God ; although the 
worship be pretended, yet self-respects the heart is most 
u]>on : as for instance, the keeping of festivals they 



Vee. 13. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



381 



liked well enough, and we do not read so much about 
theu' non-observance, becavise in them there was some- 
tliing agreeable to the flesh : but now for the day of 
their fasts, God saith, " AVhosoever aftlicts not his soul, 
that soul shall be cut oflV They had not so much mind 
to that in the tenth day of the seventh month, there- 
fore God threatens, that whosoever did not afllict his 
soul that day, it should be cut off. And so you shall 
find it. That is the reason indeed why men are so 
much set upon their festivals ; they pretend God's wor- 
ship, and honoiu- to their blessed Saviour, and the like ; 
but the truth is, it is their appetite, their sports, and 
the licence to the flesh, that they aim at. I warrant 
you, let the time (as now it falls out) be the time of a 
jast, it will not be so much regarded ; and for any man 
to keep a festival, when God by his providence calls to 
fast, certainly that man regards his own carnal lusts 
rather than God. And that by which all these festivals 
are upheld is, because that, together with a show of re- 
ligion, the flesh gets so much gratification ; but the 
performance of duties wherein God is served, and na- 
ture denied, is a great testimony that the Spirit of God 
is in our hearts : when we can offer up our burnt-offer- 
ings wholly to God, and ourselves denied, they are 
testimonies that the Spirit of God is in us. As in 1 Kings 
xiii., you read of the lion which slew the prophet that 
went contrary to God's commandment. Now the lion 
was specially sent by God to do this ; and that there 
might be a testimony to that effect, therefore the 
text observes, that the lion stood by the carcass and did 
not meddle with it after it was once slain. It was the 
nature of the lion to have fed upon the carcass, but 
here was an argument, that what the lion did was from 
God. So, when any man shall perform a duty merely 
for God, and in that duty shall deny himself, shall be 
content to part with honours or preferment, that is a 
sign God is in it. And so in this public service : Oh, who 
would not venture himself for the public cause ? But 
there is a public pay too as well as the public cause ! 
But now, if a man, though he has not that which he 
expects, yet is content to venture himself as much as 
he did before, God is in this man, certainly, when he 
can thus do a work and deny himself in that work. 
And truly we should be willing so to do ; why ? be- 
cause God requires not of us any self-denial that can do 
us any hurt. God would never have us deny ourselves 
in things that immediately concern our communion 
with himself and our eternal good. God expects self- 
denial, but it is only in those tilings that concern this 
present life. Now when God is so propitious to us 
that he will let us sometimes enjoy ourselves in the re- 
quired duties, surely when he requires self-denial, and 
that in things of inferior moment, we should not hesi- 
tate to deny ourselves in them. 

"But the Lord accepteth them not." As if he said, 
I would not have them, I was not pleased with them. 
Here, 

06^. 4. A¥hatsoever our services be, if self be re- 
garded, all is rejected. Not only if sin be regarded, " If 
I regard iniquity in my heart, "the Lord will not hear 
my prayer ; " but if self be regarded, our services may 
please ourselves, but cannot please God. And for this 
you have a remarkable scripture in Amos v. 22, 
" Neither will I regard the peace-offerings of youi- fat 
beasts." Amos was contemporary with Hosea, and 
seems specially to refer to the very same thing as 
Hosea here, so that his words may help us to under- 
stand the passage before us. " Neither will I regard the 
peace-offerings of your fat beasts : " observe, they are 
then- "peace-offerings;" he saith not, I will not accept 
the burnt-offerings of your fat beasts ; but " the peace- 
offerings," because of their peace-offerings they ate 
part themselves ; and saith God, Let your offerings be 
never such fat beasts, yet I will not accept them : so. 



let your duties be never so zealous and abundant, yet, if 
performed with a regard to self, God accepts them not. 

" Now will he remember their iniquity." They offer- 
ed their sacrifices that their sins might be done away, 
and had they exercised faith upon Christ the true 
sacrifice, their sins would have been blotted out ; but 
they offering with a regard to themselves, it is said of 
them, " Now," for all this, " will he remember their 
iniquity." 

Obs. 5. Men may perform great services, exercise 
themselves much in holy duties, and yet their sins re- 
main unexpunged on God's file. It is Indeed a sad 
thing for a man to kneel down and pray with woeful 
guiltiness upon his spirit, and rise up with the same 
sense of guilt that he knelt do'mi with ; and perhaps he 
has gone on and prayed and received the sacrament 
for these many years together, and every sin that was 
upon him when he first began is upon him now ; where- 
as those that in holy duties exercise their faith upon 
Christ their Mediator, and with the act of faith tender 
up him to the Father, whatsoever sins were upon them 
before are now done away. 

Obs. 6. However God may for a while forbear to 
come upon wicked men for their sins, yet he has his 
time to remember them all ; to remember, that is, by 
his judgments to make it appear to them that he does 
remember them, when they think that he has forgotten 
them. 1 Sam. xv. 2, " Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I 
remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid 
wait for him in the way, when he came up from 
EgTiiit." I remember what he did ; why, this w-as four 
hundred years ago that he spoke of. We may commit 
a sin when in our youth, and feel nothing of it till we 
come to be old, and then God may remember it against 
us : as many when young, their bones full of mai-rov/ 
and their veins of blood, feel not their present excesses ; 
but in old age, then it aches in their flesh and bones, 
and then they remember their licentiousness and care- 
lessness in their youth. And so many young people 
commit sin, and conscience never troubles them for it, 
and they think all is forgotten ; but many years aftei- 
the sin is committed, God remembers it, and makes 
them remember it too. Joseph's brethren had commit- 
ted that sin against their brother two and twenty years 
before they were compelled by God's dispensations to 
say, " We are verily guilty concerning our brother," 
Gen. xlii. 21. Many things might be said to this 
point wliich I cannot now insist upon, only this take 
with you ; Let all you that are young, yea, and others 
to(5, take heed what you do in sinning against God, for 
that wliich you do now may be remembered against 
you many years after; perhaps twenty, thu-ty, forty 
years hence, God may come upon you for your present 
actions. Methinks this should be to young men a 
constraining motive to take heed of wicked lives. 
Youth's sins may prove to be age's ten'ors. 

Oh ! is it not a great deal better that God should 
remember " the kindness of thy youth" than the sins 
of thy youth ? Jer. ii. 2. You that are young, begin, I 
beseech you, to be godly betimes, that God may re- 
member " the kindness of your youth." How blessed 
is the condition of the saints 'in comparison of the 
wicked ! " God wQl remember their sins no more ; " he 
will " bury in the depths of the sea" the transgressions 
of his people. Numerous expressions of similar im- 
port occur in the word of God. 

But further, " A'oic will he remember their iniquity ;" 
that is, in the time of their holy duties. Now this is a 
sad thing, that God should not only remember a inan's 
sin, but even then when he is about to offer sacrifices 
to God ; as in Heb. x. 3, it is said, " In those sacrifices 
there is a remembrance made of sins every year ; " that 
is, it was a note of their guiltiness every time they 
came to offer sacrifice, and their sacrifices did not do 



U82 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. VUI. 



away their sins fully, now will he remember them. But 
wheu they offered in a careless and ungodly manner, 
surely such sacrifices would bring tlieir sins into re- 
membrance indeed. 

Obs. 7. God remembers the sins of the wicked espe- 
cially in the i)erlbrmance of holy duties ; and that upon 
these two grounds : 

1. Because then we come into God's presence. AVe 
then come before his eyes in a more especial manner. 
We are in God's eyes always, but holy duties the Scrip- 
ture speaks of as a more especial di-awing nigh to God. 
If a malefactor that has committed an offence a long 
time since, and thinking it forgotten, should presume 
to come into the presence of the king or judges, this 
presumption, were he discovered, would be deemed an 
aggravation of his guLt: so when the wicked are bold to 
draw nigh to God, although their consciences tell tliem 
that they have not sought to do away their sins by faith 
and repentance, this puts God into remembrance (to 
speak of God after the manner of men). 

2. Their holy duties are aggravations of their sin, 
therefore God will remember them then rather than at 
any other time. As thus : the Jews in the text come to 
sacrifice for their sins, the language of which rite cer- 
tainly was, Lord, I acknowledge I do deserve death 
myself for the sins which I have committed, and I can 
only have peace with thee tlu'ough the sacrifice of thy 
Son that I believe is to come : now for them to come 
and vii'tually to say so, and yet continue still in then- 
sin, this aggravated their guilt ; it was a sin of infirmi- 
ty before, it is a sin of presumption now. So, when 
men presume to come before God in prayer who have 
heretofore lived wickedly, and thus testify the resptet 
which they profess they owe to him, while yet their 
consciences tell them that they do wickedly depart 
from God in their lives ; when, I say, in prayer they 
confess and name their sins before God, and tell him 
what sinners they are, and yet still their hearts do close 
with these their sins, what an aggravation is this ! yea, 
they come to judge themselves for their sins, and yet 
still to continue in them. O my brethren, if you did 
but think how such prayer aggravates om- sins, it would 
make your hearts quake and tremble. But I speak 
only to those that, being hypocrites, live still in their 
sins ; their holy duties being but aggravations, no mar- 
vel though God then remember their sins in a more 
special manner. AVe have cause to wonder that God 
does not come upon some of us in liis wrath, while we 
are in the midst of our holy duties : as Pilate came 
upon the Galileans and mingled their blood with tlieu- 
sacrifices ; so, while we compare the lives of men with 
then- i)rayers, it is indeed a marvel that God does not 
mingle their blood with their sacrifice. O take heed, 
any of you that are conscious to yourselves of your 
hearts closin^^ with any known sin, take heed the next 
time you go into God's presence in prayer, and confess 
your sins, and judge yourselves, that" God does not 
then reniembcr your sins. " Now will he remember 
their iniquity," even in the time of their holy duties : 
you think that is the time in which you most please 
God, but it may prove to be the lime of God's remem- 
bering your iniquities against you. 

" And visit their sins." God visits either in mercies 
or judgments ; and in the godly visiting, it is to be 
understood concerning those things that seemed before 
to be neglected, as, in Gen. xxi., God visited Sarah after 
apparent neglect: and so, in Exod. iv., he visited the 
chddren of Israel ; that is, when he seemed wholly to 
have neglected them : and so, I will " visit their sins ;" 
though they may tliink I have neglected them, yet I 
will " visit their sins." AVhence, 

Obs. 8. God visit-s men's sins when they think he 
neglects them most. God has his time to make dili- 
gent inquirj' for all their sins. In Exod. xxxii. 34, 



" In the day w hen I visit, I will visit their sin upon 
them ;" then all their sins shall come up together. And 
that is the reason that God is content to bear with 
wicked men, and wink at their sins for the present ; 
why ? because God has a day to visit them : Tliis sin 
which they commit now, they shall not hear of it till a 
great while hence, but I have a day to visit, and then 
this and the other sins sliall appear. Days of visitation 
heretofore were wont to be called days of vexation, but 
the day of God's visitation w ill be a day of vexation in- 
deed to ungodly men. Jlicah vii. 4, " The best of them 
is as a brier ; the most upright is sharper than a thorn 
hedge : the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation 
Cometh ; now shall be their perplexity." In Isa. x. 3, 
" And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in 
the desolation which shall come from far ? to whom 
will ye flee for help ? and where will you leave your 
glory?" So I may say to many guilty consciences, 
" What will ye do in the day of visitation ? " Poor sin- 
ner ! thou canst tell now, thou canst go home and be 
merry, and do what thou list ; but what wilt thou do 
" in the day of visitation ? " 

They will return, or, as we translate it, " they shall 
return to Eg)pt." And so it denotes, 

1. The course they would take when God was about 
to visit them. " They will return to Egj-pt." Whither 
will ye flee " in the day of visitation ? "" We w ill flee 
into Eg)^t, say they ; if the Assyrian power grow too 
great, we will go into Egypt for help. And this may 
seem to refer to 2 Kings xvii. 4, where " the king of 
AssjTia found conspn-acy in Hoshea ; for he had sent 
messengers to So king of Eg}-pt." 

Obs. 9. Carnal hearts, when God is visiting them for 
their sins, are plotting how to shift for themselves. 
Vain deluded soul ! thy thoughts should be. How may 
I make my peace with Cod ? how may I seek the face 
of God ? thou art thinking of various shifts, whereas 
thou shouldst only be tliinking of reconcilement with 
God. And thus it is with kingdoms; when God is 
visiting kingdoms, you find many that sit at the stern, 
exercise all their thoughts about carnal helps, whereas 
their great thoughts should be, how they might fall 
downi before God, and make peace between God and 
the kingdom : thus it was here, I will visit them, and 
they think to return to Egj-pt. 

2. Tlieir judgment. " Tliey shall retm^ to Egypt." 
It is threatened that they should return to Egypt at 
the latter end of Deut. xxviii. ; there it is as a close to 
all the former judgments, " And the Lord shall bring 
tlice into Egv-pt again." 

Obs. 10. It is one of the most di'cadful judgments 
upon a nation, after God lias delivered them from a 
bondage, to retm'n them into the same again. And as 
it was grievous to bring them back into the bondage 
of Eg\-pt, so more to return us into a spii-itual Egj-pt. 
If we should again come fully under the power of those 
lliat have persecuted us and opjiressed us, our bondage 
would indeed be seven-fold more than it is : and yet 
what cause have our hearts to tremble, when we think 
how we abused the beginning of the deliverance we 
have had! But of all judgments, let us pray to be de- 
livered from that judgment, that we may never be re- 
turned again to our prisons. 

Obs. 11. It is just with God, that those who inherit 
their progenitors' sins, should inherit their progenitors' 
judgments. You continue in theii- sins, you shall liave 
tlieir judgments also. 

Quest. But were they ever carried into Eg^"i)t ? was 
this threat ever fulfilled ? 

yi7is. No, they were not carried captive into Epvpt, 
but tliey fled into Egypt for refuge, and there lived and 
died miserablv, Jer. xliv. Hence, 

Obs. 12. All places are places of misery when (iod 
forsakes a people, as all places are comfortable when 



Vek. 14. 



THE PKOPHECY OF HOSEA. 



383 



God is with a people. Many seek to help themselves, 
and perhaps they in part obtain what they would have ; 
but the very answering of their desires ofttimes proves 
to be the execution of the wrath of God upon them. 
You liave a mind to go to Egypt, you " shall return to 
Egypt," saith God. 

Ver. 14. For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and 
buildeth temples ; and Judah hath multiplied fenced 
cities : but I will send afire upon his cities, and it shall 
devour the palaces thereof. 

" For Israel hath forgotten his Maker." They have 
forgotten their Maker, but I will remember them, saith 
God. 

Ohs. 1. God punishes for sins when men are most 
secure : whereas if you would remember your sins, God 
might forget them ; or if you would remember God, 
your sins should not be remembered. It is an abomin- 
able thing for us to forget God, from whom we received 
our memory, and by whom we are remembered ; we 
should never have been thought of if God had not 
given us what we have, and therefore for us not to 
think of God is a vile sin. Now, God is forgotten when 
he is not honom-ed, when he is not regarded as our 
confidence, help, refuge, our only good, when he is not 
obeyed ; if we do but remember sin, we cannot but 
honour him. How many forget what manifestations 
once they had of God ! they are passed by from them, 
and other things occupy their thoughts. Oh what 
manifestations of God have many of your soiils enjoyed, 
and what communion with yom- heavenly Father ! how 
has God's Spirit shone upon you! and you thought 
you should never forget those things ; but now other 
things are in your hearts : such have cause to fear that 
they are under much wrath, that they should so forget 
their Maker. God challenges remembrance under this 
title : " Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy 
youth," Eccl. xii. 1. There is no creature but the 
rational, that can reflect upon the cause of their being, 
the first cause, and therefore God would not lose the 
honour from this creature. " The ox indeed knoweth 
his owner, and the ass his master's crib ;*' the beasts 
can take notice of those that bring them good things ; 
but to reflect upon the cause of their first being, I say, 
that is proper to the rational creatm'e, and therefore it 
is an honour that God expects from you, and wiU not 
relinquish. 

The words " his Maker," imply not here God's 
giving them their being, but God's advancing and 
blessing them, so as to bring them to that happy con- 
dition which now they were in : " Israel hath forgotten 
his Maker," they have forgotten the God who has 
thus advanced them. So I find the word rendered, 1 
Sam. xii. 6, " The Lord that advauced Moses and 
Aaron ;" in the original, jins-riNI nWD-ns? nwy-itt'S" nw 
the Lord that made Moses and Aaron ; that is, when 
God called them to the pviblic work, God, as it were, 
then made them. Indeed for a man to be called to 
public service is a great honour from God, God then 
makes a man : we often use that phrase ourselves, if a 
man be raised to any preferment, such a man is made 
for ever. He whom God casts his favour upon, and 
delights to use in pubHc service, is indeed a made man. 

Obs. 2. God's favour makes a man. You have an 
excellent scripture for this in Isa. xliii. V, " I have 
created him for my glory, I have formed him ; yea, I 
have made him." Here are these three words together. 
God doth not satisfy himself with saying, I have given 
him his being, or all that he has, but he makes use of 
these three different words to signify how all om- good 
comes from himself: I do not know a similar expres- 
sion in Scripture. I have brought him out of nothing ; 
then, secondly, I have formed him, I have put beauty 



and gloi-y upon him ; yea, and tnirdly, I have made 
him, I have raised him to the height of all. God has 
created us all ; but has he formed us ? We are to 
look at God's forming as well as at his creation, how 
God forms and fashions us unto his own will. 

Obs. 3. The greater height of excellency God raises 
any man to, the more vile is his sin in forgetting God. 
Many men will remember God when they are low, but 
when God has advanced them, then they forget him, 
and that is worse. But there follows, 

" And buildeth temples." How is God forgotten, and 
they building temples to the honour of God i* You 
accuse us of forgetting God our Maker ; what people 
in the world remember God as we do, when we are at 
such charges about his worship ? 

The word niSs'n translated " temples," signifies also 
palaces. The church is indeed God's palace. But note 
from hence, 

Obs. 4. When God is worshipped in any way but 
his own, then God is forgotten. Papists set up images, 
and say it is to remind them of God ; but the truth is, 
they forget God in them. 

Obs. 5. When men's hearts depart furthest from 
God, then are they many times most forwai'd in super- 
stitious worship. We know that in the primitive times 
the hearts of men did close most with the power of 
godhness, and were more sincere in their worship ; but 
afterwards, when they came to have peace, and temples, 
in and after Constantine's time, then they forgot God 
most, and grew superstitious. When the Christians 
worshipped God in dens and caves of the earth, they 
remembered God more than when they had glorious 
temples built for them. Men that have departed from 
God must have something to satisfy their consciences. 
Of late, how desperately was our kingdom departing 
from God, and setting itself against all the power of 
godliness ; yea, and for the building of temples too, 
that is, for a more pompous and glorious external wor- 
ship ! but they forsook the temples of God, and per- 
secuted them ; the saints of God, the true temples of the 
Holy Ghost, were neglected. 

But you will say. Why is it a sin to build temples ? 
I answer. It was in them, 

I. A sin of hypocrisy. 

II. A sin of superstition. 

I. A sin of hypocrisy : they would persecute those 
tliat would go to worship at the true temple, and yet 
bestow so much cost in building temples of their own. 
And many of the ancients have many large invectives 
against all such as shall bestow a great deal on out- 
ward buildings, and yet let the poor saints want. 

II. A sin of supcrstiticn : they would not go to Je- 
rusalem, to the temple that God had appointed, yet 
they would set up temples of their own. There are 
many that hate the true temple, and the true church, 
that is, the communion of saints ; yet magnify the out- 
ward buildings, as if they were the only church. So 
the Jews, when God would have them build his own 
temple, were slack enough : in Hag. ii. 2, 4, 9, what 
a deal of trouble had God by his prophet to get them 
to build his temple ! but their own temples they would 
build. 

But wherein was the superstition manifested in theii- 
building temples ? 

Thus : it is a sign of superstition for any men to put 
holiness on any buildings of their own. There were 
three things that made the temjile at Jerusalem a holy 
temple ; and none of them can be attributed to any 
other place in the world. 

First, It was set apart by God, so that it was a sin to 
use it for any other than a holy purpose. 

Secondly, It sanctified the ver)' duties that were per- 
formed. 

Thirdly, It was a type of Jesus Christ. There were 



381 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. VIII. 



these tliice things peculiar to the temple at Jenisalcm. 
And therefore you must learn for ever from hence, that 
no argument can he cbawn from tlie temple at Jeru- 
salem for the holiness of temples now. Hence mark, 

1. It is a sign of superstition to set apart a ])lace, 
so that it should be a sin to use it for any common 
purpose. 

2. It is still worse to set apart a place so as to think 
that the veiy place should sanctify the duty, because 
the temple of Jerusalem did so. Now, for a man to 
think that his prayers are sanctified because they are 
witliin such a building, is superstitious : hence a com- 
pany of poor ignorant people must go behind a pillar 
and pray, as if they were accepted the more because of 
the place. True, indeed, when we come and join with 
the church, our prayers are accepted, because it is in a 

■way of ordinance. Chrysostom exclaims 
'^''aa°poi?ij™."' against this superstition, saying, Jere- 
miah when in the mud could pray, Job 
on the dunghOl, and Jonah in the belly of the whale ; 
and therefore, why should we confine God's hearing of 
prayer to such and such places? Besides dedication, 
the heathens had enchantments : Ab augiiriban hiaiigu- 
rabavtur, suia aiiguriis sancliora reddebanlur ; hoc 7ii.si 
fieret, lempla esse iion poteranl {lesle Van-one) sed tpdes 
sacras dicebanlur. ^len have been very profuse in 
this, both heathens and Christians, and yet I find that 
some of the heathens thought God too great to be 
worshipped within any building. Zeno, the philoso- 
pher, thought that temples must not be b\iilt ; and the 
Persians, who worshijiped the sun, thought that the 
whole world was its temple, and would have none other. 
Tlie Magi, too, persuaded Xerxes to burn all the tem- 
]>Ic's of Greece, because they shut up God within walls. 
Some of the heathens had such thoughts of God, 
though ordinarily they were very abundant in building 
, , ,. ,. of temples to their idols. Josephus re- 
counts Herod s desu-e to seem to honour 
God by building a glorious temple, even that same 
temple which was standing in Christ's time. He would 
make it as large and glorious as Solomon's was, and so 
he laid out a great sum of money upon it, in building 
it with blocks of white marble, twenty-five cubits long, 
eight cubits high, and about some twelve cubits broad : 
thus superstitious he was, and yet he was ungodly. 
And so many, to gratify inclinations of their own, care 
not what they expend ; but in those things which God 
requires they are slack enough. 

" And Judah hath multiplied fenced cities." Judah, 
seeing God's judgments upon Israel, does not use the 
judgments of God upon their brethren, so as to consi- 
der their own sins, and fall down before the Lord, and 
he humbled in his sight ; but when they saw that God's 
hand was against the ten tribes, all tlieir care was to 
fortify themselves ; Let us build strong cities, that we 
may be delivered from the miseries that are come upon 
our brethren. This is the course carnal hearts pursue ; 
when God expects that they will be put upon humilia- 
tion and repentance, and look to it and consider whe- 
ther they have not the same sins among them that were 
among tlieir brethren, they regard nothing but carnal 
means. It is lawful to build strong cities, to fence 
ourselves against enemies; yea, but we had need lay 
the foundation of them in humiliation and reformation ; 
and when they are built, they may not be rested in, 
for, saith God, " I will send a fire upon his cities, and 
it shall devour the palaces thereof.'' We must not 
bless ourselves in any strong places as if they could 
deliver us from the wrath of God. I have read of a 
city, that, fearing their enemies, sent to a neighbouring 
jirince to come and help them, and charged their am- 
bassadors to tell him what sb-ength they had. But, 
saith the jirince, have you got a cover to defend you 
from heaven ? if not, I will not meddle with you : you 



must have something to ward God's wrath from you, 
you are so wicked ; and except you have something to 
deliver you from that, I will not assist you. So, though 
we have strong walls, yet we must look for a cover 
from heaven, which is our peace with God through 
Jesus Christ. 

Obs. G. Men are more desirous to secure themselves 
from outward calamities than from God's wrath. "Ju- 
dah hath multiplied fenced cities." Of outward safety 
men think they have never enough, to secure them- 
selves from jioverty and from their enemies, but security 
from God's wrath they little regard. In spiritual things 
we are content with a little, but when it comes to tem- 
poral security, we think we can never be too safe ; and 
indeed, this will show you what your hearts are most 
set upon, that which you endeavour to secure your- 
selves most in, that is your chiefest good. A gracious 
heart will never say, ilay I not go to heaven though I 
do no more ? but. Can there any thing more be done ? 
does God require any thing more of his creature ? God 
that knows all things, knows my heart is ready to do all 
things that he has revealed to me ; and if there were 
any thing more to do, oh that I knew it, that I might 
fulfil even all righteousness ! 

" But I will send a fire upon his cities." They 
" multiplied cities," saith the text, " but I will send a 
fii-e." Hence, 

Obs. 7. MTien we bless ourselves most in our own 
thoughts we should consider, But what are God's 
thoughts ? We think we will do thus and thus, and 
save oui'selves by this or the other means. I'oor wretch ! 
thou sayest thou wilt do thus and thus ; yea, but think, 
what if God's thoughts, at the same time, be other- 
wise ? Thou art plotting to save thyself, but God is 
plotting to destroy thee : what if there prove to be a 
disjunction between God's thoughts and thy thoughts? 
AVicked men liave plots and devices for themselves, but 
God comes with his disjunctions, I will do thus and 
thus. Our enemies have had their plots, but God has 
been pleased to come in with his disjunctions, his 
thoughts have not been as their thoughts, blessed be 
his name. 

Some interjiret these words, " But I will send a fire," 
It may be that they think tlieir forts are so strong that 
they cannot be beaten down, " but I will send a fire" 
to bm-n them down. 

But I rather think this fire is meant metaphorically, 
I will send their enemies, which shall be as a fire ; and 
so enemies are often called " a fire" in Scripture. 

Obs. 8. By whatsoever means fire comes, God's hand 
is to be looked to in it. "But I will send a fire." If 
there has been a fire in your streets or houses, you will 
inquue by what means it came : but look up to God ; 
whatsoever the means were, it is God that sends the 
fire. 

Obs. 9. Brave things are subject to God's devouring 
fire. " And it shall devour the palaces thereof." As 
when the cbsciples looked upon the fair buildings of 
the temple and wejit, and Christ said, " There shall 
not be left here one stone ujion another ; " so when we 
look upon our brave palaces, let us consider how 
quickly the fire of God's wrath may come, and not leave 
a stone upon a stone. And let us sti'ive continually to 
look up to tliat place where Christ is gone to prepare 
mansions for us, and to that building that is eternal in 
the heavens, made without hands. 



Veb. I. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



385 



CHAPTER IX. 

Ver. 1 . Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as ol/ier peo- 
ple : for lltou hast gone a icliori/ig from tlii/ God, thou 
hast loved a reward upon every comjloor. 

Heee begins another of the prophet's sermons. Gual- 
ter thinks this the sixth that Hosea preached to these 
ten tribes, wherein he still pursues the course he had 
commenced, convincing of sin, and tlu-eatening of wrath 
against Israel. This seimon was preached in a time 
when Israel seemed most prosperous and joyous. 

" Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy." These words, ac- 
cording to interpreters, refer to one of these two 
periods : 

I. When Israel, the ten tribes, obtained some special 
victory over their enemies. Or, 

II. ^Mien Menahem made a league with the Assy- 
rians. 

I. A^^len Israel, the ten tribes, had obtained some 
s])ecial victory over their enemies. This may refer, 
either to the time mentioned, 2 Kings xiii. 25, when 
Jehoash beat Benhadad three times, and recovered the 
cities of Israel ; 

Or, the time spoken of in 2 Kings xiv. 13, 14, " And 
Jehoash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, 
and came to Jerusalem, and brake down the wall of 
Jerusalem. And he took all the gold and silver, and 
all the vessels that were found in the house of the 
Lord, and in the treasures of the king's house, and 
hostages, and returned to Samaria." This certainly 
was a time of great jollity and mirth among the ten 
tribes, as was also in the time of Jeroboam, 2 Kings 
xiv. 28, and in the time of Pekah, 2 C'hron. xxviii., 
where the text saith, ver. 6, 8, They " slew in Judah 
an hundred and twenty thousand in one day, which 
were all valiant men. And the children of Israel car- 
ried away captive of their brethren two hundred thou- 
sand, women, sons, and daughters, and took also away 
much spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Sama- 
ria." Now in this time their hearts were much elated, 
for, in ver. 9, 10, the prophet Oded came to them and 
said, " Behold, because the Lord God of your fathers 
was wroth with Judah, he hath delivered them into 
your hand, and ye have slain them in a rage that reach- 
eth up unto heaven. And now ye purpose to keep 
under the childi-en of Judah and Jerusalem for bond- 
men and bondwomen unto you : but are there not with 
you, even with you, sins against the Lord your God ? " 
It seems almost the same expression as we have here 
in the text ; as if he should say. Now you purpose to 
keep the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bond- 
men and bondwomen, and you insult and rejoice, and 
you think you have gotten the day and have prevailed ; 
" but are there not with you, even with you, sins 
against the Lord your God ? " just as here, " Rejoice 
not, O Israel, for joy, as other people ; for thou hast 
gone a whoring from thy God : " as if he should have 
said. Though God has given you a victory, and you 
think you have matter for much joy, yet, ' • 

" Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people." 
Why? Because your conquest is over your brethren, 
therefore rejoice not as " other people," as the nations 
around you would rejoice in slaying them. 

Obs. 1. That is a sad war in which the conqueror has 
cause to be sad at the very conquest. If other people 
had gotten the victory, they might triumph; why not? 
but though you have prevailed, yet these are wars in 
which you should not triumph in, for by this means the 
nation of the Jews is becoming weaker, and in more 
danger to be made a prey to the common enemies ; do 
not, therefore, you rejoice as other people might rejoice 
in such a conquest. And indeed such are our wars and 
2 c 



victories at this day ; we must not rejoice in our con- 
quests as other people, not so as the French or Spaniards 
would if they prevailed against us, or as we might over 
foreigners ; for our conquests weaken om' own nation, 
they involve the destruction of our brethren, and there- 
fore ^e are not to rejoice for joy as other people. 

II. When Menahem made a league with the Assy- 
rians. We read, 2 Kings xv. 19, that Menahem, king 
of the ten tribes of Israel, made a league with the Assy- 
rian, that great king, " that his hand might be with 
him to confirm the kingdom in his hand." 

Now when leagues of pacification and association 
are confirmed, nations are wont to triumph and rejoice, 
and by outward expressions to manifest their great satis- 
faction at them : Oh ! now there is a peace_made, now 
we shall grow stronger than ever we were, and be de- 
livered from many troubles that heretofore oppressed 
us. So Israel blessed themselves in the Assyrian, in 
that they had got such a rich and mighty prince on 
their side ; now that they had made their peace with 
him, they thought themselves secure, and contemned 
all threats, and derided all that the prophets said against 
them ; now did the malignants among them lift up their 
heads and insult over them that would say, God's judg- 
ments would follow them if they did not join with God's 
people in his true worship ; they sung away care, and 
none thought of any danger on account of their sin ; 
they could not endure to hear of any apprehensions 
that might disturb their jollity and conceited happi- 
ness, whereof they promised to themselves the con- 
tinuance. But now saith the Lord, by the prophet, 
" Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people ;" be not 
too confident with whom you have made such a sure 
league, for they may prove to bo your undoing, may 
prove to be the instrument of greater VTath from God 
than you have ever yet experienced : and indeed so it 
was, the Ass}Tians with whom they made this peace, 
and in whom they rejoiced much, proved to be the 
greatest instrument of wrath to the ten tribes. You have 
made your peace with him, and now you rejoice ; but 
you have not made jour peace with God, saith the pro- 
phet ; and what good can your pacifications, can peace 
struck with them, do, so long as still ye go a whoring 
from your God, and break your peace and covenant 
with him daily. "Rejoice not, O Israel." 

Obs. 2. Leagues wherein we much rejoice, may prove 
occasions of sorrow. They ai'e called peace and union, 
but suddenly they may change their names, and be 
called a massacre ; they may bring ruin and destruction 
on a nation, especially if the foundation of the peace 
be not laid in reformation. As long as a nation is de- 
parting from God, they have no reason to rejoice in any 
peace. 

A\'hen people have been worn out with wars, they 
are greedy of peace of any kind, they care not with 
whom they make it ; Oh nothing but peace, let us have 
that ! and if there be but a peace concluded once, upon 
never such unsafe terms. Oh, the bells must ring, and 
bonfii-es must be made. This seemed to be the condi- 
tion of the people at this time, but saith God, You are 
deceived, this peace will prove your undoing ; " Rejoice 
not, O Israel, for joy, as other people : for thou hast 
gone a whoring from thy God." 

But the observations which we may draw from the 
two periods referred to, that in which _ they_ gained 
advantages over their enemies, and that in which they 
made their peace, viewed conjointly, are such as these : 

Obs. 3. Carnal hearts bless themselves in outward 
prosperity, inhealth, strength, friends, as if aU were well 
with them, although they be under much guiltiness, 
though there be fearful breaches between God and 
theirsouls. How things are between God and them they 
care not, so be it outward things prosper ; if there be no 
punishment for sin upon them, the giult and pollution 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IX. 



of sin never trouble them. Augustine, in 
fmp'S'nK'n'j,"',.. his TrQct. upon John, saith, The joy of 
Aus.mjoho,Traci. {he World is nothing else but their wick- 
edness unpunished ; if God do not punish 
them presently, then they have a great deal of joy. 
And in Amos vi. 4 — 6, you have the description of the 
people of Israel more at large (for Amos prophesied 
in the same time that Hosca did) : '• That lie upon beds 
of ivory, and stretch themselves u])on their couches, 
and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out 
of the midst of the stall ; that chant to the sound of 
the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of mu- 
sic, like David ; that drink wine in bow Is, and anoint 
themselves w ith the chief ointments ; but they are not 
grieved for the affliction of Joseph." Well; have not 
you more reason, you afflicted and distressed saint.s, to 
rejoice in God witliout the world, than they have to re- 
joice in the world without God ? Shall not all the wrath 
of God that hangs over the heads of wicked men, and 
ail the guilt which is upon them, damp their joy when 
they have but meat, and drink, and clothes, and a little 
outward prosperity ; and shall the loss of a few creature 
comforts, such as many reprobates have to the full, 
damp vour joy, when you have an interest in all there 
is in God, in "Christ, in the world, in heaven, in eter- 
nity P AVlien in all this you may rejoice, how unreason- 
able is your dejection ! 

Obs. 4. When men rejoice, they should consider 
whether God apjjroves of their joy. These rejoiced, 
but the prophet comes in the name of God and saith, 
" Rejoice not.'' When therefore we find ourselves in- 
clined to rejoice, we should consider whether God 
ajjproves of it. The rejoicing of many is so little in 
accordance with the mind of God, that they dare not so 
much as consult about the matter with God, or their 
own consciences : the more some can prevail with their 
own consciences to be silent, the more joy they have ; 
yea, some there arc that have so much guilt on their 
spirits, that they can have no joy, but when they can 
contrive, by some means or other, to lull their con- 
.scienccs to sleep ; when their consciences are asleep 
they are fain to snatch a little joy : now, cursed be the 
joy that cannot stand with the free working of a true 
enlightened conscience. 

Obs. 5. Men may prosper, and yet have little cause 
to rejoice. All outward prosperity may consist with the 
heavy wrath of God hanging over the sinner's head ; 
he may be upon the veiT brink of destruction, and yet 
prosper outwardly. Outward prosperity may come in 
wrath ; the poison of God's curse may be in the wine as 
well as in the water : the ungodly poor have their water 
poisoned, and wicked men, that are rich and prosper- 
ous, have their wine poisoned ; and what difference is 
there between drinking poisoned water and poisoned 
wine ? The swelling of carnal hearts in their prosperity, 
is a sign that it is poisoned to them. Outward pros- 
])erity, as it may come in wrath, and consist with wrath, 
so it may make way to wrath, by it the vessels of wrath 
may be fitted to destruction : God often has a further 
aim in suff"ering wicked men to prosper than they are 
aware of. As Haman, when invited by Esther to a 
banquet, inferred that he was honoured above all the 
nobles in the land, and went away rejoicing, and told 
his friends of the great honour that was put upon him ; 
but Esther had a design in it far other than Haman 
thought of, she designed not to honour, but to destroy 
bim : so manv, whose estates God raises, draw infer- 
ences from his dealings with them far other than 
ever he intended ; they think God lias blessed them, 
whereas, in truth, God' is working their ruin and de- 
struction. As a painted face is no argument of a good 
complexion, so a prosperous estate is no argument of a 
good condition. 

06s. 6. Carnal hearts in their joy are immoderate, 



their spirits are elated, and they think not of setting 
bounds to their joy ; so the words import, '■ Rejoice not 
for joy ;" it' you will rejoice, let there not be mere joy, 
but some kind of mixture in it There should be a mix- 
ture of reverence and fear in our rejoicing ; we should, 
in this world, " rejoice with trembling." 

Whatsoever blessings we have from God, yet should 
we, in our present state, " rejoice with trembling," re- 
membering, 

1. Our unworthiness of any good we receive, a deep 
sense of whicli should mingle with our joy. 

2. The afflictions of our brethren. 

3. The uncertain and vanishing nature of all those 
things in which we rejoice. 

Put these three things always into the cup of your 
joy ; else it will be too sweet, and clog the stomach. 

"Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people.' 
That is, 

1. lie not taken with the world's jollity. The appa- 
rent liap]iincss of others that are in a different way from 
us, is many times a great temptation to draw the heart 
to them. 

2. Imitate them not in their modes of rejoicing. 
Dancing, and many other ways of rejoicing, they had 
in their idolatrous feasts : we must not imitate idolaters 
in their triumphs. This was the sin of many in the 
primitive times ; because they had newly come out of 
heathenism, they would turn the heathenish feasts 
into Christian feasts, and heathenish customs, whereby 
they were wont before to honour their idol gods, 
into Christian rites : and they thought this was very 
good, that whereas before they thus honoured idol 
gods, thoy now thouglit, if they did but turn these to 
honour Jesus Christ, they would be accepted. No, this 
was a great sin, and brought a great deal of evil into 
the Christian world, and we do to this day feel its 
effects : indeed, herein is the original of the observation 
of this time, both of your Christmas and New-year's 
day ; they are but transferred from heathenish observ- 
ances to the honour of Christ and of the .saints. I re- 
member this time * two years, through mere providence 
that Scripture came in our way, " I will take away 
their solemn feasts;" and there I showed how these 
came, instead of the heathenish rites. Now, saith the 
Holy Ghost here, " Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as 
other people," do not you imitate them ; they have their 
idolatrous feasts, but do not you as they. We must not 
take liberty to imitate heathens and idolaters in their 
wor.'-liip, though we think thereby to tender our respects 
to God. 

3. " Rejoice not as a people," for the word oilier is 
not in the original. Do not you rejoice as if you were 
to continue a people still, for you are to be carried cap- 
tive, and not to continue as a people ; you have brought 
yomselvcs into such a condition that you are not to 
look upon yourselves as a jieople : do not rejoice, no, 
not as a people. It is a miserable spectacle to see those 
who are ready to be destroyed, jolly and merry, as if 
no such thing impended. It is said of the dolphin, that 
it sports most at the approach of a storm. So, when 
the storm of God's wrath is arising upon a people, then 
they are most jolly and merry. 

4. Rejoice not profanely. Others rejoice, and scorn at 
the threats of God : so Ephraim had mixed himself 
amongst the nations, and treated with scorn what was 
said by the prophet. Do not rejoice profanely, do not 
rejoice presumptuously, promising to yourselves con- 
tinuance in your ))rosperity. 

5. You have not such cause to rejoice as others. " Re- 
joice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people." Why ? 
Israel ! though you be Israel, yet there is not so much 
cause for you to rejoice, as for other nations. Israel, the 

• Preached in Christmas. 



Ver. 1. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



387 



ten tribes, prided themselves in their privileges above 
other people, and despised all in comparison of them- 
selves : but now God tells them, that their sins had 
brought them into a worse condition than other people 
were in, and they must not rejoice so much as they. 
From thence this profitable note may be raised : 

Obs. 7. Many who look with scorn upon others as 
mean and low, may yet be in a worse state than they. 
For instance, you may be a man of parts and in 
esteem, and engaged in high employments for church 
and commonwealth ; another is in a mean, low con- 
dition, of weak parts and of little use ; and )et such 
guilt may rest upon you, that you may not have such 
cause to rejoice as this poor man has whom you so con- 
temn. It may be 3'ou have excellent gifts in prayer, 
and are an eminent professor ; others may be vile in 
your eyes, they are no professors at all : if all were 
known, you have not such cause to rejoice as they 
whom you contemn. 

Ol/s. 8. Although we enjoy the same blessings that 
others do, yet we may not have always the same cause 
to rejoice. I say, it may be others have more cause to 
rejoice in a little than we in abundance. Do not say in 
your hearts, Others are merry and cheerful, why should 
not I be so too ? I have as good an estate as such a 
one, and as fair a dwelling, and as comely children, 
and why should not I be merry ? But it may be there 
is not such a breach between God and him as between 
God and thee, it may be there is not so much guilt upon 
his spirit as upon thine, therefore thou must not re- 
joice as he does ; though thou bast the same outward 
blessings, yet it follows not that thy joy should be 
similar. You have cause rather to reflect, Such and such 
men are cheerful indeed, yea, they may, for they have 
not provoked God as I have done, I am conscious of 
sins which I believe they are free from. A man afflicted 
with a sore disease, wlien he sees others merry thinks 
with himself. Yea, indeed you may be merry, but if you 
felt what I do you would have little cause to rejoice. 

Obs. 9. It is a great aggravation of men's misery, 
to see others rejoice when they cannot. It is not for 
them to rejoice as others do ; that which is the cause of 
rejoicing to others you have had and abused, you have 
abused like mercies of God, and now you must not 
rejoice as other ])eople. Luke xiii. 28, is very notable 
for this, " There shall be weeping and gnashing of 
teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and 
Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, 
and you yom-selves thrust out." This is the aggra- 
vation of )Our misery, to see others in a happy and re- 
joicing condition, and " you yourselves thrust out." 
As, if a man lay confined in a prison near the street, on 
a day of triumph and festivitj', and should licar in his 
dark dungeon the mirthful voices of the rejoicing mul- 
titude as they pass to and fro, this would be a great 
aggravation of his misery; Y'es, would he think, they 
who have tlieir liberty may rejoice, but I must not re- 
joice as they do. And this will be the aggravation of the 
misery of the damned hereafter, when they shall see 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the 
kingdom of God, and themselves cast out : it may be 
the father shall see his child in the kingdom of God, 
and himself in hell, being cast out : they shall rejoice 
eternal!) when I must be in everlasting torments. ' The 
reason follows, 

" For thou hast gone a whoring fi-om thy God." Tlie 
ground of joy or sorrow is, the terms that are between 
God and us. Sin has an evil in it to damp all our joy. 
If we would ha\e joy in any thing, let us take heed of 
defiling it by sin. Of all sins, the sin of forsaking God, 
or corrupting his worship, is such an evil as is suflficieut 
to take away all the joy of a nation. If we have for- 
saken the true worship of God, we have little cause for 
joy, though peace and outward prosperity may attend 



us J whereas a people retaining it, whatever be their 
conditiou, have indeed cause to rejoice. Yea, and as a 
whole nation, so individuals in it, if their consciences 
tell them that they have not complied with the times, 
and gone a whoring from God in ways of false worship 
as others have done, they have cause to rejoice, what- 
soever befalls their nation ; whereas the others, that 
have complied, though the nation should prosper never 
so much, yet have little cause to rejoice in that joy. 
Let us therefore be solicitous about nothing so much as 
about the true woi-ship of God. 

Yea, but this peojjle might say. Suppose we have 
some corruptions in the worship of God, yet do we re- 
tain more than other nations. Nay, saith God, " thou 
hast gone a whoring," and so you are more guilty than 
other nations. 

06s. 10. That which we deem a trifling deviation in 
God's worship, God may call a gross corruption. True, 
might they say, we may fail in some circumstances, we 
go not up to Jerusalem to worship ; but still we wor- 
ship the true God, and we observe the law of Jloses. 
No, saith the Lord, " thou hast gone a whoring from 
thy God." 

But still. Why may not we rejoice as other people ? 
surely we are not worse idolaters than they, therefore, 
though we may not rejoice more than others, yet why 
not an others ? They make idols to be their gods ; there 
is nothing so vile among us as among the surround- 
ing nations. From God's charging them more than 
others, 

Obs. 11. A nation may be free from the gross evils 
that there are in another nation, and even have many 
good things that the otlier has not, and yet be in a worse 
condition. Y'ou will say, How can this be ? 

Thus : some of their sins may have greater aggrava- 
tions, which may make their condition (aU things con- 
sidered) worse. We, in this land, have heretofore much 
rejoiced in this, that we have had tlie doctrine of religion 
purer among us than almost any people ; and certainly, 
except for some few that of late days have sought to 
corrupt it, it must be confessed that the doctrine hath 
been kept very pure in the main points ; and in some 
things we have even gone far beyond other reformed 
churches, as in our observance of the sabbath, and wor- 
ship paid to God in our families. Never had God more 
honour from any people in the world than he has had 
from us in these and many other respects : but yet, 
notwithstanding, it seems by God's present dealings with 
us, that he is more provoked with us than with other 
people : and the truth is, take these one or two things, 
the bitterness of our hatred agahist the power of god- 
liness, and our persecution of it, and I tliink never was 
any people so guilty as we have been. In other re- 
formed churches men may be as forward and zealous as 
they will, and yet meet not with persecution as here ; 
others may have kept the sabbath more loosely, yet 
they never persecuted the strict observers of it, nor, as 
here generally, attempted to stop the mouth of the faith- 
ful ministry. So it may well be said to us at this day, 
" Rejoice not, for joy, as other people." 

Yea. but still, If we be idolaters, (would the ten tribes 
say,) they are so too. 

There was one particular aggravation in the case of 
Israel that was not among other people, and that was 
this, No other people would forsake their gods as Israel 
had forsaken theirs, Jer. 11. 10, 11 ; there was never such 
a thing as for a nation to change their gods ; even Kedar, 
one of the basest of nations, would not do so : Go to 
Kedar, and see, and search diligently whether any na- 
tion hath ever forsaken their gods ; but you have for- 
saken me. From thence we may 

Obs. 12. To be constant to ill principles is not so great 
an evil as to be false in good principles. God, I say, 
aecoimts it not to be so great an evil for men to be con- 



388 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



CnAP. IX. 



slant to their principles, though they be evil, as to for- 
sake the good. As now. if a man has been brought up 
all his (lays in superstition, and thinks verily that is the 
right, certainly this man is not so guilty before God as 
another who lias been educated in the true worship of 
God, and has made profession of it, and yet afterward 
doth apostatize and backslide. God had rather that 
men should keep to their principles, though evil, than 
entertain good principles and forsake them. There 
are none so vile in God's eyes as apostates : there is not 
so much sordidness and baseness of spirit in those men 
that adhere constantly to their principles, though evil, 
as in those who betray their principles, although good. 
Oi.5. 13. The sins of God's people are the greatest 
sins of all. The sins of the saints are the greatest sins 
of all, and they are to mouni more than any. In Amos 
i'i. 2, '• You only have I known of all tlie families of the 
earth ; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities ;" 
your sins are greater. And that in Rom. ii. 9, " Tribula- 
tion and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, 
of the Jew fii'st, and also of the Gentile." And we have 
these two exceUent texts in Jeremiah : chap, xviii. 13, 
" Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such 
things : the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible 
thing;" that is the aggravation, that it is the virgin of 
Israel that has done such a horrible thing. But espe- 
cially chap, xxxii. 30, " For the children of Israel and 
the children of Judali have only done evil before me from 
their youth." Now Jerome raises a question upon this : 
AVhat! the children of Israel and Judah only done evil 
from their youth? Have none done evil but they? And to 
this he answers. He that has the knowledge of God and 
goes from it, he alone sins in the eyes of God ; as for 
unbelievers, they sin too, but it is as if God saw it not, 
and as if God minded it not ; as he saith in Acts xvii., 
He winks at the days of their ignorance. AVe read of 
the Philistines, that they ventured to carry the ark upon 
carts, 1 Sam. vi. 7. God did not show himself provoked 
against their doing so : but when the Levites presumed 
to carry it upon carts, 2 Sam. vi. 3, the Lord makes 
a breach upon them, and strikes Uzzah with death. He 
bore with it in the Philistines a little before, and it may 
be they presumed, and thought. The Philistines carried 
the ark upon a cart, why may not we ? That which God 
will bear from others he will not bear from his own ; 
their sins are against covenant, and that mightily ag- 
gravates the sins of God's people. 

() remember this, you that do often covenant with 
God in prayer. How often do you renew your covenant 
with God ! What promises do you then make, and yet 
afterwards prove false and vile ! Such as you must not 
rejoice as other people. You view with disgust a drunk- 
ard reeling in the streets, and with abhorrence hear a 
swearer blaspheming the name of God ; yea, but their 
sins may not be so great as the vanity of thy spirit, 
the looseness of thy heart, and those secret sins of which 
thou art guilty. And why ? Because thou hast so 
covenanted and bound thyself to God. The drunkard 
was never made sensible of his sin, nor felt the wratli 
of God upon liis conscience ; but it has visited thy con- 
science, and thou hast engaged thyself to God, if he 
would show mercy, tliou wouldst walk holily and strictly 
before him. Now, dost thou think that thy sins are as 
the sins of other people ? They never had such soul- 
quickening ordinances, but go up and down to taverns 
and alehouses, and their hearts never know what a 
powerful sermon means : had they enjoyed such blessings 
as tliou hast, then likely it would be with them far better 
than now. And the name of God is not so much pol- 
luted by them as by thee. Thou professor of religion, the 
eyes of all men are upon thee, and in thy sin tliou dost 
not only disobey God, but thou dost pollute his holy 
name ; thou art a stumbling-block unto others, and the 
cause of the hardening of many hundieds in their sins, 



and therefore thy sin certainly is worse than others'. It 
would be a great point to show how the sins of the pro- 
fessors of religion are worse than others. It is not enough 
for them to say, We are all sinners. No, we must 
not excuse ourselves thus, that others are guilty as well 
as we, when we consider what aggravations there are 
in our sins more than in the sins of others. It is a sign 
of a very carnal heart to think to excuse itself thus : 
True, I sin, but others sin as well as I do. Yea, but a 
true penitent heart will not only consider itself a sinner, 
but what aggravations are there upon his sin more than 
upon the sins of others ; and so will charge itself: True, 
such and such sin, but had they experienced what I have, 
it would not be so with them ; my sin, that has broken 
through so many terrors of conscience, and that God 
has sought by such means to keep me from, is a sign of 
the violence of my spirit indeed. It is, therefore, an 
abominable thing to make our profession in holy duties 
a medium to make our sins less. Dost thou think that 
this is a means to make thee escape that wrath ? Cer- 
tainly not, but a great aggravation of thy sins. 

'\Vc have a generation of men among us, that, because 
thev are believers, therefore say, they need no sorrow 
for "their sin, they must have only joy. Now, certainly, 
thy being a believer may aggravate thy sin, may make 
it so much the more vile, and may pierce thy heart so 
much the more ; for if thou art a believer thou knowest 
what the pardon of thy sins cost ; therefore, certainly, 
God's mercies towards thee are the aggravations of thy 
sins. The truth is, suppose our sins were not so great 
as the sins of some other people are, yet it is not always 
an argument that we may rejoice as other people. 

Why so ? you will say. 

Thus : suppose our sins be but equal, or less than the 
sins of other people, yet it is more than we know, whe- 
ther God will pass by our sins as he does the sins of 
others. What if God, out of his prerogative, damn thee 
for a little sin, and save others who have committed 
great sins ? We have such examples in Scripture ; the 
thing that God cast away Saul for, in itself was not so 
much as that which Dadd afterwards was guilty of; 
Saul might have said. This is an offence, but is this like 
miu-der and adulter)- ? yet God pardons David, and casts 
away Saul. Do not you, then, think to rejoice as other 
people ; why, may not God do with his mercy as he 
pleases, it is his own ? God may pardon one, and damn 
thee eternally. 

" Thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor." 
Israel saw the nations round about her have a great 
deal of plenty upon their cornfloors, which they attri- 
buted to the serving of their idol gods, therefore Israel 
thought to complv with them out of love to their abund- 
ance ; and since then she prospered more, she thought ; 
and this she loved, by this she was exceedingly hard- 
ened in her ways of idolatrv', and blessed herself in 
them. This is the scope. God made many promises 
to provide for Israel in his service, but they thought to 
get more in following the ways of the Gentiles than in 
following God's ways : like some, who, though they 
have liberal provision from their husbands, yet, hoping 
to get more from others, to gratify their vanity and 
love of pleasure, leave their husbands, and " forget the 
covenant of their God," Prov. ii. 17. Just thus it was 
with Israel ; though she might have God's care over her, 
and provision for her in the ways of his worship, yet, 
beholding the Gentiles living more bravely, she would 
follow after them. At first (as you heard) she hired 
lovers herself, but now she loves " a reward \ipon every 
cornfloor," now she expects greater advantage; this 
indeed was what urged her on. She might have many 
])retenccs, she might plead that she did not see why 
she might not do such and such things, they were not 
directly contrary to God's word ; but whatsoever jirc- 
tences she made in the altering of God's worship, yet 



Ver. 2. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



389 



the great matter that prevailed with her heart was tliis, 
slie " loved a reward upon every cornfloor.'' And thus 
it is with very many that are superstitious ; speak to tliem 
of their ways, they wUl have very many fair pretences, 
they think that they have this and that warrant out of 
the Scripture for it ; but all the while they have a secret 
regard to their living, ti-ading, estates, and friends, and 
this biases their hearts and minds. But divers things 
before to the same pm-port have been spoken of, and 
we shall here only 

Obs. 14. Idolaters love outward prosperity, because 
it is a reward of their service to their idols. So the 
sweetness of our comforts should consist in_ this, that 
they conie from God as a reward of our faithfulness. 
When idolaters look upon their plenty and attribute it 
to their idol gods, shall it be so much the sweeter to 
them ? let all our comforts be so much the sweeter to 
us, when we look upon them as coming from God as a 
rewai'd of our faithfulness. In Psal. cxix. 56, David 
saith, " This I had, because I kept thy precepts." You 
will say. Can we look upon any thing as a reward of 
our righteousness ? Free gi-ace and the gospel reward 
may stand together ; God may reward according to our 
works, though not for our works, and God is pleased to 
call it so for the encouragement of his people. Outward 
prosperity, if it follow our keeping close with God, is 
vei-y sweet, as the cipher when it follows the figure 
doth add to the number, though it be notliing in itself. 

Ver. 2. The floor and the winepress shall not feed 
them, and the new wine shall fail in her. 

As a father, when he sees his admonitions not re- 
garded by a stubborn child, withtb-aws his allowance 
from him ; so God deals here. You have had many ad- 
monitions, now I will withdraw your allowance. 

" The floor and the winepress." He doth not say 
the field, but " the floor," I will let them bring their 
corn to the floor; and he does not say the vine, but 
" the winepress." 

Obs. 1. God often lets wicked men come near the 
enjoyment of a mercy, and then cuts it oflf: as many 
times the saints come near afflictions, and when they 
are at the very brink, then deliverance arrives. 

Obs. 2. God is wont to strike wicked men in those 
things on which their hearts are most set. They would 
have their floor and winepress to aflbrd them plenty, m 
that thing God strikes them. Now observe whether, 
in God's ways that" are against you, he does not strike 
you especially in that on which your hearts are most 
set; if he does, know there is the finger of God, and 
God would have you take special notice of it. 

" And the new wine shall fail in her." rn3» tt'll'n^ 
ns the new wine shall lie to them. So in Hab. iii. 17, 
" The labour of the olive shall fail," tt'ns shall lie ; that 
is, it shall not perform what it seems to promise to 
you. 

Obs. 3. All creature promises we shall find but a lie ; 
but the promises of the word shall never fail. What- 
soever you promise to yourselves, I say, let it be 
grounded upon the word ; but if you promise to your- 
selves gi'eat matters from any creature, you will find a 
lie m the conclusion. We often lie to God in not an- 
swering our good beginnings, and it is just with God 
that the creature should even lie to us, and not accom- 
plish what they seem to promise to us. 

Obs. 4. Men will be disappointed at last in that 
which they think to get in a way of sin. The way of 
the wicked shall deceive them, they shall not find what 
they expected therein. The saints shall find more than 
ever they expected from God, but the wicked shall find 
less than that which they expected from the creature. 
But there is not much difficulty in this verse, therefore 
we pass it over briefly. 



Ver. 3. They shall not dwell in the Lord's land ; but 
Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat un- 
clean things in Assyria. 

" They shall not dwell in the Lord's land.'' Before, 
God was to them as a father taking maintenance away 
from them, leaving them to suffer want ; but here his 
anger increases, and he puts them out of his house : as 
a father first withdi-aws allowance from his perverse 
son, and when that will not do, then he thrusts him out 
of his house ; so doth God here : " The floor and the 
winepress shall not feed them ; " and not only so, but, 
saith God, " They shall not dwell in the Lord's land." 
I will cast them out of my house, cast them out of my 
land ; I will not suff'er Ephraim to dwell any longer 
there. 

God would make them to know that it was his land, 
that they were but tenants at will, and enjoyed the land 
upon conditions of obedience, as appears in Lev. xviii. 
26 ; and in Lev. xxv. 23, we read of an ordinance of 
God, that no land in Canaan should be sold for ever, 
but only to the year of jubilee ; the richest, that bought 
never so much land, could not buy it for ever, he could 
not have such a tenure as runs amongst us, " to have 
and to hold for ever." But you will ask why. The reason 
is given in the same verse : " The land shall not be sold 
for ever :" why ? " for the land is mine ; for ye are 
strangers and sojourners with me;" I have brought 
you to the land, and ye are but sojourners with me in 
my land. God may dispose of all as he pleases. It is 
a good meditation for us to dwell upon, that we are 
God's stewards ; the Lord is the great landlord of all 
the world. When you go abroad into the fields, you 
that are godly may see more land than is yoiu' own, 
but you cannot see more than is your Father's. 

" The Lord's land." This may be said of all the land 
in the world, he that is thy Father is the great landlord 
of the world. Jlen respect their landlords and are afraid 
to displease them, but how little respect is given to this 
great landlord! " The earth is the Lord's, and the 
fulness thereof;" but, though all the world be " the 
Lord's land," yet this land of Canaan was " the Lord's 
land" more peculiarly in many respects : 

1. It was a land that God " had espied" as a special 
place for his people, Ezek. xx. 6. God was overlooking 
all the world ; Where should I have a good land (or 
country) to set my people ? and the text saith, God had 
espied this for them. 

2. It was the land of promise. In Heb. xi. 9, " By 
faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange 
country." No land in Scriptm-e is called the land of 
promise but only this. 

3. It was a land given by oath, Gen. xxiv. 7. 

4. It was a land which the Lord brought his people 
into, by "a mighty hand and with an outstretched 
arm." 

5. It was a land divided by lot ; not only all the land, 
but every piece in it, and the possession that any man 
had, was ordered by God himself, by lot. 

6. It was a land wherein God dwelt himself, a land 
that God called his own rest ; " This is my rest for 
ever," Psal. cxxxii. 14; and God sware unto them that 
hardened their hearts in the wilderness, that they 
should not enter into his rest ; that is, that they should 
not enter into the land of Canaan. It was the land 
wherein were the ordinances and the worship of God, 
and his honour dwelt there, and so it had a peculiar 
blessing upon it above every land on the face of the 
whole earth. 

7. It was a land over which God's eye was in a more 
special manner : there is a most excellent scripture for 
that in Deut. xi. 12, "A land which the Lord thy God 
careth for ; the eyes of the Lord thy God are always 



390 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IX. 



>ipon it, from the beginning of the year even to the end 
ot' the year." 

8. This land was typical of the rest of the church in 
heaven, for so the apostle, in Ileb. iii. 11, seems to apply 
Psal. xcv. 11, " Unto whom I sware in my WTath that 
they should not enter into my rest." And so in 1 Chron. 
xvi. 15 — 18, it is said, '• Be ye mindful always of his 
covenant ; the word which he commanded to a thousand 
generations ; even of the covenant which he made with 
Abraham, and of his oath unto Isaac ; and hath con- 
firmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for 
an everlasting covenant, saying, Unto thee will I give 
the land of Canaan, the lot of your inlicritanee." 
Mark, tliat he would give imto them the land of Ca- 
naan ; tliis must be remembered to a thousand gener- 
ations, and it must be a law to Israel afterwards. Cer- 
tainly this notes that God aimed at more by the land 
of Canaan than merely to possess them of so much 
ground. 

9. Various titles arc given to this land : a " lioly 
land," Zech. ii. 12 ; " an exceeding good land," Numb, 
xiv. 7 ; " a pleasant land, a goodly heritage," Jer. iii. 
19 ; " as the garden of Eden," Joel ii. 3; " the glorious 
land," Dan. xi. 16, 41 ; " the glory of all lands." Ezck. 
XX. 15 ; and here in my text, " the Lord's lanJ." Now 
from all these titles we are not only to take notice of 
this, that it would be a great judgment of God to di"ive 
them out of such a good land ; but, 

04s. 1. It is a great judgment of God to drive men 
out of a land for sin. Truly, sometimes, when you 
travel abroad where there are fair prospects, you cannot 
but meditate thus : Oh how vile would be onr sins, if 
they should provoke God to cast us out of such a good 
land as this is ! And most of the titles, though not all, 
given to the land of Canaan, may be applied to our 
land ; and certainly, if God should proceed in his wrath 
to cast us out, it would be a heavy judgment to con- 
sider of, " They laid the pleasant land desolate." How- 
soever wicked men may cry out of God's servants, that 
they are the cause of the trouble of the land, yet cer- 
tainly it is tlie wicked and ungodly, they that are false 
in the worship of God, who lay " the pleasant land de- 
solate." Also, we might here observe, that to be cast 
out of those mercies that God by an extraordinary 
providence has brought to us, is a sore and a grievous 
evil. 

06s. 2. The excellency of the state of tlie church of 
God. The rest of Canaan was a type of the rest that 
God has in his clmrch, and all those that are members 
of the true church of God partake of it. To enjoy God 
in his ordinances, is to enjov that which is tvpified by 
all this. 

O believer, thou hast a good land, there is an 
abundance of excellent privileges belonging to tlie 
church of God ; and as it is a judgment to be cast out 
of such a land as this was, so it implies what a great 
judgment it is to be cast out from tlic cliurch of God, 
or for God to deny to give to us the blessing of his 
church. You know what a great affliction it was to 
Moses, to think that he should not come into that good 
land ; and how earnestly did lie pray to God to be ad- 
mitted into Canaan! Certainly it is that which we 
should ])ray for, that we might live to come into that 
Canaan into which God is bringing his peojile : now- 
let us not murmur as they did in the wilderness, " and 
were destioyed of the destroyer," 1 Cor. x. 10; but let 
us go on, and be as Caleb and Joshua, of another spirit, 
and not fear our adversaries, but go on in God's way, 
and the Lord will bring us into the good land. True, 
we have deserved to be cut off in the wilderness ; but 
certainly God has a Canaan yet to come for his people, 
the Lord lias great things to do for his church ; and 
there arc many expressions upon which some think 
tliat God even will make use of^ this Canaan yet, to be 



the place of tlic manifestation of his chief majesty and 
gloiy in this world : but, however that be, yet the Lord 
has a sure Canaan for his jieople. 

" But Ephraim .shall return to Egypt, and thev shall 
eat unclean things in AssjTia." The returning to Egvpt 
we have had before. But besides that, they shall be 
brought to such poverty and misery as to eat unclean, 
polluted bread, whereas before they had abundance. 
Peter would cat nothing that was unclean till God warn- 
ed him ; but the Assyrians would bring them unclean 
meat and bid them cat. They would say, We cannot, 
this is against our religion, and against our consciences. 
Your consciences ! what do we care for them ? eat it or 
starve : so they were forced to eat. 

06s. 3. It is a great misery to be brought under those 
who have no regai'd to the consciences of men. 

But that which is especially aimed at here is, God 
would take away all notes of distinction between them 
and the heathen. This proliibition of meats was a means 
to keep them from mixing with the heathen, but now 
saith God, All is gone, let them go and eat unclean 
things; as for the covenant with me, it is wholly abolLsh- 
cd, I will own them no more than the very impure hea- 
then : they would make leagues with the Assyrians ; 
well, they shall partake with them, and be filthy and 
unclean as they. As they defiled God's worship by 
mixing heathenish pollutions with it, now God gives 
them up to all heathenish uncleanness ; as they were 
like the heathens in inward impurity, so let tliem be, 
saith God, in outward abominations. 

Obs. 4. It is just with God, that those who will make 
leagues with wicked men, shoidd eventually be enthral- 
led in their abominations. They were indeed at a distance 
from them before, but when once the peace is made, 
they come now to be all one with them. 

06s. 5. When men are inwardly unclean, God cares 
not for their outward cleanness, 'fhus many professors 
of religion defiling their consciences, and becoming Uke 
the wicked in inward sins, God at length gives them 
up to themselves, that there should be no difference be- 
tween them and the wicked in their outward abomin- 
ations. Have you not known some examples of this ? 

06s. 6. It is a fearful sin for the saints to join with 
the ungodly in impure worship. There might be as 
much excuse for eating things unclean as one could 
imagine ; A\Tiy, Lord, they might say, shall we starve ? 
True, they might doubtless eat that which was unclean 
rather than starve, but yet their misery was great misery, 
that they could have nothing to eat but that which was 
unclean ; but now this is not only an affliction, but sin, 
and indeed the moral of it is to show the great evil that 
there is in joining with any mode of false worship ; to 
unite in false worship is a great evil, and an argument 
that God is about to disclaim us. Cyprian from this 
])lace dehorts Christians from communicating with 
M icked ministers, Ne sibi plebs in hoc blavdialur, &c. 
But I do not speak of not joining in worship if there 
be unclean ones there, ministers or people ; and I am 
persuaded, if it be thoroughly weighed, no one will be 
found to be of that opinion ; for it is impossible but 
in time some that are ungodly will creep unawares in- 
to every church : but this is not that which causes many 
to forbear communion, but some things being actually 
done that their consciences tell them to be sin. But 
if these matters of offence be removed, and the worship 
kept pure, and liberty given to every one to deliver 
their own souls by faitiifully rebuking and admonishing, 
and a power exist in exercise in the church to cast out 
the unclean, no doubt, though some be admitted, men 
may communicate. 

Ver. 4. Thei/ shall not offer trine offerings to the 
Lord, neither shaft they be pleading unto him : their 
sucrfjfices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners : 



Vee. 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



391 



all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for 
their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord. 

The prophet, in the name of God, proceeds to de- 
nounce further thrcatcnings on Israel, and this in the 
4th verse is a very dreadful one. 

" They shall not offer wine-offerings to the Lord." 
In their offerings there was wont to be wine and oil, 
to note cheei;fulness in God's service : thus in Numb. 
XV. 5, 6, " The fourth part of an bin of wine for a di-ink- 
offering shalt thou prepare," and " thou shalt prepare 
for a meat-offering two tenth deals of flour mingled 
with the third part of an bin of oil." But now all joy 
shall be taken away, there shall be nothing but sadness 
and sinking of spirit under their misery, no wine-offer- 
ing. Hence, 

Obs. 1. It is just with God to take joy from those 
who abuse it to their lusts. 

Obs. 2. This makes an affliction grievous indeed, 
when the joy in God's service is gone. " They shall 
not offer wine-offerings;" all their joy and comfort in 
the service of God shall be gone ; they shall not only 
have sorrow in their outward afflictions, but every time 
they engage in any service of God, their hearts shall 
be dejected. There was a time when some of you were 
wont to offer " wine-offerings to the Lord," that is, to 
have much joy and comfort in the service of God ; but 
is it not all gone ? where are your " wine-offerings to 
the Lord?" You can now go through duties, but your 
hearts are heavy and dull in the performance of them ; 
there is no sweetness, no enlargement of spirit, all the 
worship of God is now a burden unto you. Surely, no 
afflictiou is so great as God's duties becoming burden- 
some. So long as the saints have a wine-offering for 
the Lord in holy duties, so long as their spirits in the 
discharge of them can be free and joyful, their afflic- 
tions are not very burdensome, they are well enough : 
this is more delightful to them than aU the wine in the 
world, for as they can say of God's love, "Thy love is 
better than wine," so can they say of their love to God, 
Our love to him is more comfortable to us than any 
wine of earth. Now, though they be in afflictions, and 
their estates are gone, so that they have no wine to 
diink themselves, yet if they have their " wine-ofl'er- 
ings" to offer to the Lord, this makes glad the hearts 
of the saints, more than the hearts of aU the men in 
the world can be gladdened, when their corn, and their 
wine, and their oil increase. 

" Neither shall they be pleasing unto him." What- 
soever their offerings be, they shall not be grateful 
unto him ; God will take no delight in them, they will 
be but sour things to his palate ; whereas the offerings 
of the saints in his own way, do cheer the very heart 
of God. "Neither shall they be pleasing unto him ;" 
nothing that is tendered to God from them shall be 
])leasing to him : No, saith God, now I will have other 
ways than your offerings in which to glorify myself 
upon you, I will rather glorify myself by your miseries, 
they shall be sweet and delightful to me. 

" Their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread 
of mom-ners ; all that eat thereof shall be polluted." 
, j^i, The Hebrew may be taken substantively 
or adjectively, as thus, the bread of 
mourning, or the bread of mourners ; now, by " the 
bread of mourners," is here meant unclean bread, for 
so it is interpreted afterwards. It shall be unclean. 

But why is the bread of mourners unclean ? This 
text has reference to Numb. xix. 11 — 14, where you 
read, that the dead body of a man defiled whatsoever 
touched it ; yea, whatsoever came near it, even all those 
that came to the place where the dead body was, to 
mourn with the friends for the dead, became unclean. 
And it is observable, that the dead body of a beast did 
not make men so unclean (by legal uncleanness) as did 



the dead body of a man. The dead body of a beast 
made one unclean only till the evening. Lev. xi. 27, 
whereas the dead body of a man made one unclean 
seven days. And this was to note that there were 
more remarkable expressions of the anger of God on 
the sin of man in the dead body of a man, than in the 
dead body of a beast ; one made unclean but " till 
evening," the other " seven days." But the reason 
why there was this uncleanness from the dead body, 
was to note, 

1. The uncleanness that there is in sin, in dead 
works, that those that did meddle with them were pol- 
luted ; yea, the uncleanness incurred in coming near 
to sinners, all that was in the tent was polluted. 

2. How little pleasing to God funeral rites are, they 
were made unclean by them ; for this " bread of 
mourners" is the bread that they eat at their funerals. 
The Gentiles mourned for their dead inordinately ; and 
God would have a difference between his people's mourn- 
ing for the dead and their mourning, because that ho 
would sustain his people's faith, and the hope of resur- 
rection from the dead ; whereas had they had liberty ' 
to mourn so excessively as the heathens did, the very 
faith and hope of resurrection from the dead might in 
time have been almost extinguished ; therefore God 
would have them take heed of that, and consequently 
ordained in the ceremonial law, that all the mourners 
for the dead should be unclean for a certain length of 
time. As for any that indulge their natural affections 
without restraint in their mourning for the dead, I 
would apply to them the words of Jer. xxxi. 13, 16. 
" Thus saith the Lord ; A voice was heard in Kamali, 
lamentation, and bitter weeping; Eahel weeping for 
her cbildi-en refused to be comforted for her children, 
because they were not." But now, " Thus saith the 
Lord ; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes 
from tears : for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the 
Lord ; and they shall come again from the land of the 
enemy." Let us not then weep as others, let us not 
mourn as others that have no hope ; i-emember that the 
mourners for the dead under the law were to be un- 
clean for seven days. 

3. That God would have cheerfulness in his service, 
and therefore "the bread of mourners" is accounted 
polluted. So in Lev. x. 19, when Aaron had an occa- 
sion for mourning as great almost as any man ever had, 
(his children, that were so eminent in office, having 
been destroyed by such a visible hand of God,) and 
Moses was angry that the priests had " not eaten the 
sin-offering," Aaron said to him, " If I had eaten the 
sin-offering to-day, should it have been accepted in tlie 
sight of the Lord ?" It would have been but as " the 
bread of mourners." I that have been struck this day, 
and am in such a dreadful condition, would God have 
regarded the sin-offering ? God required joy in his 
services, Deut. xii. 7, 18 ; and hence that profession in 
Deut. xxvi. 13 was required, " Then thou shalt say be- 
fore the Lord thy God, I have brought away the hal- 
lowed things out of mine house, and also have given 
them unto the Levite, and unto the stranger, to the 
fatherless, and to the widow, according to all thy com- 
mandments which thou hast commanded me: I hpve 
not transgressed thy commandments, neither have I 
forgotten them." And then, ver. 14, there follows, " I 
have not eaten thereof in my mourning." They were 
to profess this to God, that they had not eaten thereof 
in their mourning ; this was to show, that sacrifice 
offered with a sinking heart, in sorrow, is not pleasing 
to God : " God loveth a cheerful giver." 'O'e must not 
pine away in our iniquities, sullen dejection of mind, 
even in sorrow for sin, sours our spirits and services, 
and makes them unacceptable to God. There is a 
groaning and a sighing one to another, or rather, 
against one another, that is condemned in Scripture 



392 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IX. 



in James V. 9 : the words in your Bibles are, " Grudge 
not one against another," but in tlie original. Mi) arivd- 
Ztre Kar' aXXrjXwv; Sigh not, or groan not, one against 
another. Many in company are of a dull, pensive spirit, 
sighing and groaning, and making their society bur- 
densome : saith the Holy Ghost, Do not sigh and groan 
one to another. There is a sullen dejection of soul that 
is as unpleasing to God as it is to men, it pollutes the 
heart, and pollutes duty. 

But (you will say) is all mourning forbidden, that 
here the Holy Ghost should say, " Their sacrifices shall 
be unto them as the bread of mourners ? " Christ saith, 
" Blessed are they that mourn ;" and the sacrifice of God 
is " a contrite heart." 

True, an evangelical sorrow is accepted, but that has 
sweetness in it ; it is not bitter, it is not a mourning 
that causes dejection or suUenness, or straitncss of 
spirit, but it enlarges the heart and makes it active 
for God. Hence, in Ezra ix., although we read before 
that Ezra was astonished at the sin of the people, yet 
saith he, at ver. 5, " And at the evening sacrifice I 
arose up from my heaviness ;" when the time came 
that I should sacrifice unto God, my heaviness did not 
hinder me in the performance of my holy duties. But 
how many are there that sink down in their heaviness, 
and when God calls u])on them to any duty, they can- 
not arise, they are so dejected ! Shall God accept such 
service as theii's ? You may please yourselves in it, 
and think it is humiliation, but there may be much 
pride in dejection ; there is no spirit so proud as the 
devil, and yet no s))irit so dejected. Lead, we know, 
melts soonest, but it consumes in the melting ; and 
many times the spirit may be ready to sorrow and melt 
upon every occasion, but the melting is such as con- 
sumes its strength and unfits it for the service that 
God calls for ; now those services which you in such a 
mourning way tender up to God, are not accepted of 
him. Remember this text, " Their sacrifices shall be 
unto them as the bread of mourners." 

Gualter observes on this, God would not accept of 
the offering of mourners, they were unclean, yet many 
seek to get their greatest gain from funeral mournings : 
and he proceeds to inveigh against such ; the priests 
and officers that use to tend upon funerals for gain, he 
calls vultures and crows, as such flock to dead bodies ; 
and those who support themselves by funerals, sepul- 
chral dogs. 

Theophylact also, on these words, "the bread of 
mourners," observes, That it means the things offered 
to God gotten by oppression, as thus ; Suppose any get 
an estate by oppression, it may be they are at home 
and merry, while the poor children or widow is mourn- 
ing for those morsels that thou art rejoicing in. But 
the first note most accords with the mind of the Holy 
Ghost, the mourning that has respect to the funerals, 
and so especially to the dejection of spirit in holy 
duties. 

" For their bread for their soul shall not come into 
the house of the Lord." We may understand by the 
words " their bread for their soul," First, Tlieir obla- 
tions generally, not only bread ; but their oblations : as 
Mai. i. 7, " Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar;" 
bread is there taken generally for all kinds of offerings 
upon God's altar. So, " their bread for their soul," that 
is, those ofierings which they offered for the very life of 
their souls. 

Obs. 3. It is a sad thing when God rejects a creature 
who would seek to him for his very life. These peoi)lc 
had rejected the voice of the Lord at the temple, and 
kept otliers from going thither; they thought sacrifices 
elsewhere would serve the turn as well ; but now they 
shall be unable to bring any acceptable sacrifices to 
the house of the Lord, thougli they .should desire to do 
it for their very souls. Thus many, who in the time of 



their prosperity neglect and slight the worship of God, 
and think it of little moment, afterwards, when they 
sec their very lives, theii- souls, lie at Ids mercy, then 
would they fain seek to God, they see they are imdone 
if God be not merciful to them ; yet then God rejects 
them, their ofierings then, " their bread for their soul, 
shall not come into the house of the Lord," that is, 
will not be accepted of God. AMien a man is crying 
for an alms, to be rejected is something ; but when a 
man is crying for his soul, then to be rejected, and by 
God himself, this is more grievous. 

Secondly, The bread that they have to maintain 
their lives, for so we find the Scripture calls the soul, 
the life of a man, in Matt. vi. 25 : " Is not the life more 
than meat?" Ovxi »} ^vxr) ttXiIov irrri TrjQ rpotpij^; "Is 
not the soul more than meat ? " It is here the bread 
for the soul, that is, the very bread necessary to main- 
tain their lives ; although they should be willing to 
offer that to the Lord, it shall not come unto him. 
Now this is as if the prophet should say to them. You 
cannot now be brought to offer your supei-fluity to God, 
but your condition shall be such, that if you would 
offer the very bread you have to preserve your lives, 
God will not accept it. As if a man were so poor that 
he were ready to starve, and yet for all that would say, 
Well, though I starve, yet I will offer this I ha^e to 
live on to God, rather than use it myself; now you 
would think this a proof of a great deal of devotion ; 
but the case shall now be, that though you should seek 
God with such earnestness, yet the heart of God shall 
be so hardened against you that your offerings will 
not be accepted. 

Obs. 4. Those who in time of prosperity are loth to 
deny their ease, or to lay out any thing of their super- 
fluity for God, may yet be willing to pluck out their 
very eyes, and tear their very flesh, in indignation for 
their sin, and God not vouchsafe to rrgai'd tliem. 
Therefore, by this, learn to seek God while he may be 
found, and not to stand upon your own terms with God 
in the day of your prosperity, and to say, I cannot 
spare this and that for him. If we deny God now 
what is his due, though we would give to him hereafter 
that on which our lives depend, yet it shall not be ac- 
cepted. 

Thirdly, That they shall have no more bread than 
will serve for their present exigences. They shall have 
nothing to bring to the house of the Lord ; they shall 
be so put to it when thev are in captivity, and .shall be 
kept so strictly, as to liave nothing but bread and 
water, nothing but supplies for present need, they shall 
be far enough from having any thing to offer to the 
Lord, to be accepted of him ; if they should think of 
bringing any thing to the house of the Lord, alas ! 
w hat have they ? nothing but a little bread to sustain 
life. 

Obs. 5. To have no estate to offer to the service of 
God, in the ways of his public worship, is a great af- 
fliction. 

Ver. 5. IVhat icitl ye do in the solemn day, and ni 
llie day nf the feast of the Lord ? 

There was a time, saith God by the prophet, that 
you would not suffer any to go up to the feasts ; but 
now you shall be far enough from Jerusalem, or any 
other place of worship, and the very remembrance of 
those solemn days, which were days of rejoicing. Numb. 
X. 10, shall be grievous to you : " What will ye do in 
the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the 
Lord ? " Thus some interpret it, they make those feasts 
to be the feasts in which they should have gone up to 
Jerusalem ; but I take not tliis to be scone of the Holy 
Ghost here, but rather thus: by "the solemn day, and 
feast of the Lord," is meant, the solemn day of Goii's 



Vek. - 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



393 



wrath and vengeance upon them. Now, to confirm 
this, I shall show, that in Scripture the day of God's 
Avrath is called, fii-st, "The solemn day;" and, secondly, 
" The day of the feast of the Lord." 

First, " The solemn day," is the day of God's ^wath. 
" Thou hast called as in a solemn day my teiTors round 
about, so that in the day of the Lord's anger none 
escaped nor remained," Lam. ii. 22. " The solemn day" 
is there " the day of the Lord's angei'." 

Secondly, The day of God's feast. That time when 
God doth execute his wrath upon wicked men is the day 
of a feast to God. Besides other texts, in PlCV. xix. 17, 
18, it is said, " And I saw an angel standing in the sun ; 
and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls 
that fly in the midst of heaven. Come and gather your- 
selves together unto the supper of the great God ; that 
ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, 
and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, 
and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, 
both free and bond, both small and great." It is a 
solemn day, a day of the execution of God's wrath, 
wherein God executes wrath publicly, and brings much 
wrath together. And yet it is termed " the su]iper,'' 
the feast, " of the great God." " Thou hast called as in 
a solemn day my terrors round about." You know that 
in the day of a petty sessions there may be some jus- 
tice administered, but more privately ; but in a day of 
solemn assize, when there is a full gaol delivery, then 
judgment is done publicly. So God executes justice 
sometimes on particular men, but yet has he his solemn 
day to execute his judgments publicly before all, and 
then the Lord feasts. 

The day of execution of God's wrath upon wicl; ed 
men is a day of feast, for these reasons : 

1. Because their feast days were days of slaying sa- 
crifices; so they should now be slain, and God would 
account their bodies even as sacrifices slain for this 
great feast of his. In Isa. xxxiv. 6, " The Lord hath a 
sacrifice in Bozrali, and a great slaughter in the land 
of Idumea.'' And in Zeph. i. 7, 8, " Hold thy peace at 
the presence of the Lord God : for the day of the Lord 
is at hand : for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, he 
hath bid his guests. And it shall come to pass in 
the day of the Lord's sacrifice, that I will punish the 
princes, and the king's chikken, and all such as are 
clothed with strange apparel." " He hath bid his 
guests." Here is the feast of God, and the slaughter of 
great men, the dishes as it were of sacrifice that God 
would have at this his feast ; the executioners of God's 
wrath are now his priests, to kill his sacrifices. Sol- 
diers and executioners are turned the priests of God, 
to kill his sacrifices for this his feast. Hence, in Jer. 
vi. 4, " Prepare ye war against her," is in the original, 
."icnSn ri'Sy wip sanctify the war against her; and in 
another scriptm-e, the executioners of God's WTath are 
called God's " sanctified ones." 

2. A day of feasting is a day of rejoicing; this day 
of the execution of God's wTath upon sinners, especially 
gi-eat sinners that escape men's hands, is a day of re- 
joicing to God, as in a day of feast. The word jn here 
translated "feast," signifies also dancing, it is a day 
wherein the Lord's heart doth, as it were, leap within 
him because of joy ; God rejoices in the execution of his 
righteous judgments upon them : therefore God's wrath 
in Scripture is called "wine;" and the wicked are said 
to WTing out and di-ink the dregs of his cup, Psal. Ixxv. 
8. When sinners continue impenitent, the Lord is as 
much delighted in the execution of his justice, as men 
can be in drinking of wine. So Deut. xxviii. 63, " And 
it shall come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over 
you to do you good, and to multiply you ; so the Lord 
will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you 
to nought." And Ezek. v. 13, "Thus shall mine anger 
be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon 



them, and I will be comforted.'' This is a strangely 
fearful expression. Let us, then, my brethren, take 
heed how we rejoice in sin ; God may rejoice in the ex- 
ecution of his judgment upon us due to our sin. Men 
have their- days of joy and mirth in sin ; and God has 
his days of rejoicing in the execution of his wrath. Oh 
how sad is the condition of a creature when the in- 
finitely merciful God shall rejoice in his ruin ! Surely 
then, if God so rejoice in the execution of his wrath 
upon wicked men, the saints also may rejoice. " The 
righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance : 
he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked," 
Psal. Iviii. 10: an allusion to the custom of those 
countries, where they were wont after their travels to 
wash their feet with cold water, to refresh them : so the 
blood of the wicked should be refreshment to the right- 
eous. Now this is not an insulting joy over them, but 
a rejoicing in the honour that God has, and in the 
good that results to the church by the execution of his 
vengeance upon such men. So there follows in ver. 
11 of the same Psalm, " So that a man shall say. Verily 
there is a reward for the righteous : verily he is a God 
that judgeth in the earth." The saints may look upon 
wicked men when they see them executed, and pity 
them as men ; but still they may rejoice in this, that 
they see a spectacle before them verifying such scrip- 
tures, " Verily there is a reward for the righteous ; 
verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth." And in 
Psal. lii. 6, " The righteous also shall see, and fear, and 
shall laugh at him." !Mark, though he may rejoice, 
yet he must have fear mixed with it, " he shall see," 
and " fear," and " shall laugh." And note, that scrip- 
ture is spoken of Doeg, a most desperate enemy to 
God's people, and one who watched every opportunity 
to do them mischief, and especially to do mischief to 
David. He it was who came and stirred up Saul 
against David, and this 52nd Psalm contains a prophecy 
of his destruction, yet, saith the Spirit of God, " The 
righteous also shall see, and fear, and laugh ;" though 
they rejoice, yet must they have fear mixed with their 
joy. If a man can keep his heart spiritual, sanctifying 
God's name in the beholding of such an object, as that 
of men eminent in wickedness being brought to execu- 
tion, he may lawfully, according to the mind of God, 
feast his eyes on the sight. Such a day is called " the 
feast of the Lord ; " and the Lord is not wont to feast 
himself, but he calls his saints to feast with him. In 
Prov. xi. 10, "When it goeth well with the righteous, 
the city rejoiceth : and when the wicked perish, there 
is shouting." And that it should be so, accords with 
God's mind. And therefore, although Christians espe- 
cially should be far from proudly insulting, even over 
such men, yet, when God lays an object before them 
wherein they see the answer of many prayers, and the 
fruit of the cries of many thousands that were oppressed, 
yea, of many thousand conscience-oppressed ones ; if, 
I say, at the stroke of God, they, with hearts lifted 
up to him, give a shout that ascends to tlie heavens, 
this pleases God, and the holy angels ; it is music fit 
for " the day of the feast of the Lord." 

" Ye." Yea, but saith the Holy Ghost here by the 
prophet, " What will ye do ? " When God makes this 
his feast in the execution of such as were eminently 
wicked, the saints may rejoice and bless his name ; 
he bids them then, as it were, to look and see. Is it not 
good to wait upon me ? The saints may do so and bless 
God ; but, " What will ye do in the solemn day, and irk 
the day of the feast of the Lord ?" Y'e wicked, " what 
■ndll ye do" in that day ? what \^-ill become of all your 
jollity? what will become of all your stoutness and 
wilfulness, of all your pride, of all your scorning, of all 
vour vain hopes, when this " solemn day " draws nigh, 
when " the feast of the Lord " comes. In Isa. x. 3, we 
have a scripture parallel to this, " 'WTiat will ye do 



394 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IX. 



in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which 
shall come from far? to whom will ye tiec for help? 
and where will ye leave your Rlory ? " You can tell 
what to do now, you have your lusts and pride to serve, 
and stand it out stoutly now ; but what will you do in 
the day of visitation, when God's " solemn day," and 
" the day of the feast of the Lord," shall come. Oh ! 
what can they do but, as the great and mighty men in 
Kev. vi. 16, 17, call "to the mountains and rocks. Fall 
on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on 
the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb : for the 
great day of his wrath is come ; and who shall be able 
to stand ? " Those who are now .the most bold and 
presumjjtuous in their sins, when this " day of the 
Lord " conies, shall be in the most miserable perple.xitv, 
not knowing what to do ; unwilling to bear that which 
is upon them, and unable to avoid it, they will not know 
what course to take. •' What will ye do in the solerfin 
day, and in the day of the feast of the Lord ? " For then, 

1. All your comforts will be gone, all those things 
with which your hearts closed, and made as gods. 

2. Now God himself will fight against you : " Howl 
ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come 
as a destruction from the Almighty," Isa. xiii. 6. It 
may be you look only upon the agents employed, and 
flatter yourselves with ho]3es of escape : your hopes are 
rain, it is " a destruction from the Almighty," and 
therefore what can you do ? 

3. Conscience in that day will terrify you. 

4. You shall not know whither to go for help. To 
the creature? it cannot help you ; your vain hopes in 
the creature have their very heartstrings broken; you 
thought that you might obtain aid there, but now you 
see they cannot help. 

5. Then the very thoughts of God must needs be 
terrible to you; and then what will you do ? 

6. These miseries are but the beginning of sorrows, 
this "day of the Lord" is but a preparation for another 
still more solemn. Oh ! what will ) e do in the day of 
the Lord ? My brethren, though you can discern no 
blenching in their countenances, yet did you but see 
the black bosom, and the woeful guilty spirit by sin 
within, you would know that the soul could not tell 
what in the world to do in the day of the Lord. It is 
strange what a man may do even before death, in the 
presence of men, although his own conscience testifies 
against him ; and thougli men are ready to be taken 
with dying men's expressions, yet there is often much 
deceit in them. 

Hut you will say. What a man professes when he is 
ready to die, certainly must needs be a truth. 

Bishop Latimer has a remarkable story concerning 
this in one of his sermons. As he was riding he came 
where an execution was about to take place ; when the 
people saw him they made way, and he went up to 
speak \vith the man ; but neither he, nor any that were 
aoout him, could get him to give glory to God by con- 
fessing the crime for which he was to be executed : he 
persisted that he was not guilty. At length they turned 
the ladder, and when they thought life extinct, they cut 
the rope and took him down ; but after a little,'tluy 
saw some motion, and by nibbing and chafing him re- 
stored animation, so that he was able to speak, and 
then he confessed all ; that he was guilty of those very 
things, which, when about to die, he had strenuously 
denied. Thus it is possible for men in the stoutness 
of their hearts, even at the last, rather to venture their 
souls than confess their guilt ; and well may they who 
have ventured their souls so much before upon other 
things, think that they may make bold with God even 
at such a time. 

But, however, in this "day of the Lord," this day of 
public calamity, there will be much dejection of .spirit 
in the wicked, tliey will not know what to do ; but the 



servants of God, who have walked conscientiously be- 
fore him, will know what to do in such a day. p'or, 

1. They can bless God that ever they knew him, that 
ever they knew his ways, that ever he put it into their 
hearts to fear his name. 

2. They can exercise their faith upon that word in 
which the Lord has caused them to trust, they can 
make it to be the support of their souls and the joy of 
their hearts, even in such a day. 

3. They can sanctify God's name in his righteous 
judgments, they can see mercy and the love of a Father 
in the sorest and heaviest afflictions that befall them. 

4. They can ease their souls by pouring them forth 
into the bosom of a gi'aeious and reconciled Father. 

5. They can see beyond all these present evils im- 
mortality and glory; they can see on the other side, 
a little beyond these troubles and afflictions, an ever- 
lasting joy and day of peace in store for them. A Job 
can tell what to do, he can profess that though God 
slay him, yet will he trust in him. Job xiii. 15; xix. 25. 
A David can tell what to do; "I remembered thy judg- 
ments of old, O Lord ; and have comforted myself," 
Psal. cxix. 52. An Habakkuk can tell what to do ; 
" Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall 
fruit be in the vines : the labour of the olive shall fail, 
and the fields hall yield no meat; the flock shall be 
cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the 
stalls : yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the 
God of my salvation," Hab. iii. 17, 18. Thus you see 
the saints know what to do in s\ich a day ; and this is 
the excellency of grace, that it can never be put so to 
it in any strait, but it can tell what to do: as David 
said to Achish, in 1 Sam. xxviii. 2, " Sui-ely thou shalt 
know what thy servant can do ; " so the saints, in times 
of public calamity, .should set their graces so on work 
that all may see what their faith, and humility, and 
patience, can efl'ect ; their actions should say. Surely 
you shall see now what the servant of the Lord can do. 
If one should say to any who have made profession of 
godliness. You spake much of the excellency of grace, 
but what can you do with it ? The answer that such a 
one may well give is this, "When you ai'e utterly at a 
loss what to do, or which way to turn yourselves, yet, 
through God's mercy, my way is clear. Grace is able 
to carry a man through fire and water ; this faith of 
mine, and the grace that I have gotten by the word at 
which you can scorn, do, through God's mercy, enable 
my soul to rejoice, yea, to triumph, in tribulations. Can 
you do that ? You can rejoice now when you are in a 
tavern ; but in the day of tribulation, when a dismal day 
shall come to the world, what will you do ? I thank 
God, I have that which can rejoice my heart even in 
such a day ; and the inwrought operation of the word, 
and jiraycr, and the ordinances, can enable me to do 
that which you cannot do; and surely it is something 
when a man, in times of tribulation, can so carr)' him- 
self above all, that men or devils eire unable to con- 
found him. 

Vcr. 6. For, lo, they are gone because of destruction : 
Hfiii}'! ill all gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: 
the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess 
Ihem: thorns shall be in their tabernacles. 

But do you say to us. What will we do in such a day ? 
A\'hy, we know well enough what to do, we have a 
way to help us ; if all your threatenings should befall 
us, yet we can have help. It is not likely that all this 
misery and desolation which you ])rophesy of will come 
suddenly; then surely we know what to do. we will 
go to Egypt, which is not far oti'; and if we cannot live 
here in our own country, we will go to Memphis, which 
is a brave city, and there we may live well enough. 
Many of us are merchants, and Memphis ia as great a 



Vek. 6. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



395 



place for merchandise as wnere we live, and we wUl go 
tliither. 

06s. 1. Carnal hearts haye always some devices to 
provide for themselves. Indeed it is this that takes ofl' 
the hearts of men from humbling themselves before 
the Lord, and making their peace with him ; they think 
they may in some manner escai>e God's strokes, there- 
fore they do not fall down with trembling hearts before 
the Lord, and ciy unto him, " Lord, what wilt thou 
have us to do?" Were it not for this vain conceit, 
what humiliation would there be before the Lord, what 
submission to him, what seeking of him ! " Thou art 
wearied in the greatness of thy way; yet saidst thou 
not, There is no hope : thou hast found the life of thine 
hand ; therefore thou wast not grieved," Isa. Ivii. 10. 
Thou thoughtest thou couldst tell what to do. there- 
fore thou wcrt not grieved. When God intends mercy 
to men, he takes them off from their vain hopes, and 
fi-om all their carnal reasonings. When the hearts of 
men are brought to this, to cry, " Men and brethren, 
what shall we do ? " and as Jehoshaphat, " We know 
not what to do ; but our eyes are up unto thee ;" I say, 
when men's hearts, taken off from all their shifts, come 
to this, As for any thing in ourselves, we know not what 
to do, but only our eyes are up unto thee ; then is mercy 
at liand, and never till then. And therefore all the 
time tliat you are reasoning in your own imaginations, 
you are far from mercy. 

" For, lo, they are gone because of destruction : Egi|-pt 
shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them." The 
prophet here speaks as if the tiling were done already. 
Although they were in Samaria, and in the cities of 
Israel, yet, saith the prophet, " Lo, they are gone." 
The wrath of God was too hot for them in their own 
countrj', and away they are gone, and betaken them- 
selves to Egypt for refuge. Hence, 

Obs. 2. Carnal hearts will rather make any thing their 
refuge in difficulties, than God. i\Iy brethren, just these, 
for all the world, have been, I fear, and it may be yet 
are, the t^ioughts of many among us. Ministers of God, 
say they, denounce judgments, affirming that God has 
a controversy against us, and we already see some 
tokens of God's wrath upon us. Well, let the worst 
come that can, v,-e hope to shift some way or other ; we 
may escape to Holland, or Germany, or France, or 
New England, and there make shift to live. And these 
hack doors that their eyes are upon, have made them 
less solicitous about, and less helpful in, the great things 
that God calls aloud on all to unite in with all their 
strength, that they may deliver their own land from the 
heavy wrath that bangs over it. Well, notwithstand- 
ing men's thoughts are bent on various expedients, all 
will prove vain. You think, saith God, to Hee some 
where ; you will be disappointed, for " Egj-pt shall 
gather you," and " Memphis shall bury you ;" my wrath 
and sore displeasure shall so pursue you. It is a vain 
thing for men to seek to flee from the presence of God. 
But certainly, in some cases a man may Hee from dan- 
ger ; as when they see that their work is done in one 
place, and God in his providence opens them a door to 
another : but if, out of distrust and slavish fear, when 
God calls for further work in a place, and there is no 
other door opened by providence, they attempt to break 
a way for themselves, to make provision for the Hesh, 
they may expect wrath to pursue them wheresoever 
they go, their safest places may prove to be their graves ; 
" Egyjrt shall gather them lip," as they gather dead 
bodies; "Memphis shall bury them." Memphis was a 
principal city in Egypt, now well knov,-n to your mer- 
chants and mariners by the name of Grand Cairo. It 
was then called Memphis, as some think, from the name 
of one of the king of Egj'pi's daughters. It was very 
famous for the pp-amids and sepulchres of the lungs, 
and stood very commodious for traffic, being situated 



on the river Nile. It contained a multitude of streets ; 
I am loth to name the number, for indeed it appears 
incredible ; only this is remarkable, that generally all 
the streets had at each end of them two gates, so that 
they might be locked up as separate towers, and the 
inhabitants immured from all communication with the 
rest of the city. The Holy Ghost may allude to that 
in saying " Memphis shall bury you." Now, say they, 
We will go to ilemphis, a brave place for traffic, and 
a very commodious city, a safe city, that has all the 
streets shut up like so many towei-s ; we will go and find 
safety there. Yea, but " Memphis shall bury you," 
saith God. 

Obs. 3. It is a great affliction to be forced to leave 
one's ov,n country, and die in a strange land. The Lord 
has sent many of his servants into other countries to 
live among strangers ; some there are that have gone 
of their own accord, yet, through God"s mercy, they have 
not so gone but God has given them liberty to return 
again ; and though their going has been (as you know) 
much aspersed of late, yet, when more weighty work 
permits, I make no question but you will be so fully 
satisfied as to acknowledge a special hand of God even 
in their going. But the Jews especially accounted it 
a great misery to die out of their own land. Buxtorf, 
in his book called The Jewish .Synagogue, relates a tra- 
dition of the Jews to this effect : they believe that the 
resurrection of the Jews at the great day shall be at 
Jerusalem, that wheresoever any of the Jews have died, 
yet they shall arise at Jerusalem; therefore many of 
them who hved a great way off, when they began to 
grow old, would leave their stations, and go as near to 
Jerusalem as they could : for their tradition adds, that 
the bodies of those who are interred at a distance shall 
come through passages of the earth all along to Jeru- 
salem, and that they may prevent the trouble of coming 
so far under the ground, therefore in old age they go 
to dwell near Jerusalem. This is the vanity of spirit 
to which they are left. But though that be a vanity, 
yet certainly it is an affliction to any to live and die out 
of their own country : but if it be a great evil to tlee from 
one's own country for fear of destruction, and to have 
the place they flee to made as their grave, what a far 
greater evil is it for men, merely out of love of gain, to 
leave places where before they did, or might, enjoy 
communion with the saints ; to leave the ordinances of 
God to go to dwell among papists, or heathens, where 
they cannot have the freedom of God's worship ! Now 
it is just with God, that such as these are should find 
those places to be labyrinths of miserable perplexity to 
them, seeing they, out of love to gain, thus venture 
themselves. Therefore let men take heed how they go, 
for any private ends, from places where God's worship 
may be had. to places where they cannot enjoy it. 

"The pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall 
possess them ; thorns shall be in their tabernacles." 
The words DSDsS idhd translated " the pleasant places 
for their silver," mean also the desire of their silver. 
This may refer, 

1. To' their furniture of silver, that nettles shall 
grow where are now their " pleasant places for their 
silver" and household stufi', that they took so much de- 
light in ; as in Lam. i. 7, " Jerusalem remembered in 
the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her 
pleasant things that she had in the days of old." Mark 
but these two things from this text, " Jerusalem in the 
days of her affliction and of her miseries." My bre- 
thren, there may be days of affliction, and yet no days 
of misery ; the saints may meet with days of affliction, 
but yet they may not be days of misery. But when 
the wicked meet "with days of affliction, they meet like- 
wise with days of misery. But the thing for which 
especially I quote this text is this, Jerusalem then, " in 
the days'of her affliction and of her miseries, remem- 



396 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IX. 



hered all her pleasant things that she naa' in the days 
of old." So here it is tlireatened that nettles shall 
grow in " the pleasant places for their silver ;" then 
shall they too rememher the delights they had there, 
when aU shall be so utterly destroyed. 

2. The places where they hid then- silver. As you 
know in times of war men will hide theii' sUver, hoping 
they may return for it again. But, saith God, you shall 
go far off from it. I make no question hut another 
generation may find treasures of silver in those coun- 
tries in the midst of " nettles " and " thorns." 

3. To their delightful houses adorned with silver, 
that were so glorious in their eyes. All now is gone, 
saith God, and nettles and thorns shall grow up and 
shall inlierit them ; so the word D\t'i" translated •' shall 
possess them '' means. You hope to leave these brave 
houses to your children to inherit ; but now, saitli 
God, 1 have other heii's for your houses, thorns and 
nettles shall inherit them. It is a lamentable spectacle 
to see places, where fair buildings have been, over- 
grown with nettles and thorns ; as probably will hap- 
l)en if these wars in divers places of this kingdom con- 
tinue. Of Troy it has been said. Corn grows where 

Troy stood : it was made a ploughed 
Sf6ese.t,ui,iTmja ggj^^^ But to havc ncttlcs gTOW is worse ; 

for where the plough goes there are in- 
habitants, but nettles and thorns speak of desola- 
tion. Travellers tell us, that in many places of Ger- 
many there are nothing now but bushes and nettles 
where splendid buildings once stood. The Lord de- 
liver us from such a heavy stroke ! It is threatened also 
in Isa. xxxii. 13, " Upon the land of my people shall 
come u]) thorns and briers ; yea, upon all the houses 
of joy in the joyous city." Would it not be a sad 
spectacle to see, in such a city as this, the buildings 
overthrown, and nettles and thorns growing rank in 
our fairest streets ? Yet sin is thus ruinous. And then 
in Isa. xxxiv. 13, " Thorns shall come up in her palaces, 
nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it 
shall be an habitation of di'agons, and a court for 
owls ;" the owls shall keep court there. In our courts 
we know what abundance of sin there was ; now the 
owls shall keep coiu't there instead of those who lived 
so delicately in them. Sin, my brethren, is a leprosy 
that infects the vei-y doors of our houses. There is a 
notable passage in 2 Kings xxv. 9, where it is said of 
X'ebuchadnezzar, that " he burnt the house of the 
Lord, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jeru- 
salem, and every great man's house burnt he with fii-e." 
There is a great deal of sin usually committed in gi-eat 
men's houses ; and at this day how have the great men 
of the land, almost in all places, showed a spu-it of 
malignity against the work of reformation ! Oh how 
just with God is it that their houses should suffer ! as 
is here threatened in my text. Many of them have 
been spoiled already, and if God give them not hearts 
speedily to see the evil of their ways, it is very pro- 
bable that within a few years this text of mine shall be 
fulfilled upon them all. 

It may be Israel thought, though the war did keep 
them from their houses for a while, nay, though they 
should be broken down, yet their lands would remain, 
tliey could not be alienated. Nay, saith God, flatter 
not yourselves with thinking to return again to them, 
for you never shall, for nettles and thorns shall possess 
them. 

Vcr. 7. The days of visitation are come, the days of 
recompence are come ; Israel shall knoic it : the prophet 
is a fool, the spiritual man is mad. for the multitude of 
thine iniquity, and the i^reat hatred. 

"The days of visitation are come, the days of lecom- 
pencc." 



Obs. 1. God has his set time for the execution of his 
judgments. " The days of visitation." What good is 
it to a malefactor that he is let alone a while in the 
prison, when he knows that such a day of the month 
must be the day of his execution ? 

Ohs. 2. Our judgments aie none other but rccom- 
pences. " The days of recompence." Y'ou may have 
vain jileas and reasons to justify yourselves ; but when 
God comes to visit you, he will deal with you in a way 
of recompence proportionable to your deeds. If you 
would fall down and acknowledge your sins and your 
need of mercy, then it may be you may find mercy ; 
but if you will stand to justify yourselves, then expect 
that God, when he comes, will come iu a way of recom- 
pence. 

And now, my brethren, what a desperate venture is 
this, that men will venture to deal with God in a way 
of recompence, whereas you may be dealt witli in a 
way of mercy ! 

You will say, WIio are those whom God will deal 
with in a way of recompence ? 

Ceilainly those who will attempt to justify them- 
selves, and say, God knows I do what I can, and this is 
not so much my fault as others'. Let them expect that 
God, when he comes to deal with you, will have your 
pleas fuUy examined ; and if it prove that your pleas 
will hold, you shall have accordingly ; and if your 
pleas shall be found false, then you shall be dealt 
withal in a way of justice. Will you venture ? dare 
any of you venture to stand it out on your pleas ? If 
you say you do what you can, you will be ti'ied bv it, 
and you shall be recompensed accordingly; and if it 
be found indeed that you do what you can, you shall 
be saved; but if it be found you have not done what 
you could, you shall perish eternally. Will you ven- 
ture ? Certainly, whatsoever you stand pleading to 
justify yourselves by, you may expect that God will 
deal with you accordingly. 

" Are come." Twice " are come ;" as it is said, 
" Babylon is fallen, is fallen." Israel was about to be 
recompensed for her transgressions, and would there- 
fore hardly be moved with any apprehension of 
danger, accordingly you have the "come" twice re- 
peated. 

Obs. 3. The apprehension of present evil tenifics 
the soul. You have a remarkable text for this in Ezek. 
vii. G, " An end is come, the end is come ;" and then 
the next words, " it watcheth for thee ; behold, it is 
come." In one little verse three times, "An end is 
come, the end is come ; behold, it is come." And in 
the verse before, it " is come," and in the verse after, 
it " is come ;" five times God tells them that it " is 
come." Then saith my text, 

" Israel shall know it." Here our observations are, 

Obs. 1. AVicked men will not know till they feel; 
when they are struck, then they will know. The best 
knowledge of God's displeasure comes from the causes, 
but if men will not know from thence, they shall know 
from the effects. In their prosperity they had many 
false prophets who soothed them with flatteries, so 
that they were kept from knowledge ; but now when 
they had felt God's stroke, then they should know : but 
he does not tell you what they should know. They 
should know these things : 

1. What a great God they had to deal with. 

2. How vile a thing sin is. 

3. The vanity of all their shiftings. 

4. The drcadfulness of Divine wrath. 

5. The faithfulness of God's prophets. 

C. The wisdom of those who dared not do as tlicy did. 

7. The folly and vanity of all the false prophets that 
did before seduce them ; they should know that " the 
prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad." The 
knowledge we gain of these things in the season of 



Vek. 7. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



397 



affliction, is knowledge of a different kind to that 
which we have in the hour of oui- prosperity. A Ger- 
man di\ine in an affliction said, In this disease I know 
what sin is, and how great is God. And yet he was a 
divine, why did he not know before ? No, truly, he 
never before so knew what sin and God were. 

Obs, 5. The knowledge men gain of God in the time 
of affliction, is a working knowledge. " Israel shall 
know it." I appeal to yourselves ; how many of you, 
in the time of your sickness and afflictions, have known 
things after another manner than ever you knew them 
before ? 

" The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad." 

Obs. 6. In the time of affliction men cry out, that 
those who seduced them are fools. One who died not 
long since, near the Exchange, lamented bitterly his 
haying kept company with lewd ministers, who en- 
couraged him in his ways, and hardened him against 
religion and the saints of God. 

We know how men have closed with wicked minis- 
ters, and how they have hardened themselves in scorn- 
ing at religion and puritans, and yet have had cause on 
their death-beds to cry out against those who deceived 
them, telling them that they need not be so strict and 
so pure : take heed now how you be deceived by ae- 
counted-spii'itual men. In that text of Isaiah they found 
by experience, that the prophet was but " a fool," and 
tbat those who had such glorious spiritual titles were 
but "mad;" and if you take not heed, some of you 
hereafter may have abundant reason on your death- 
beds to cry out against certain ministers amongst us, 
who persuade you after the same example. 

Obs. 7. It is no excuse for men to be led aside by 
their ministers. The reason that they were given up 
to such prophets follows : 

" For the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great 
hatred." Thou hadst a wicked and vile heart, which 
hated God's people and the ways of godliness, and 
therefore it was just with God to give thee up to those 
whom now thou seest to be fools and mad. O, it is 
just with God, when men's spirits are against his true 
prophets, to leave them to ministers that undo their souls 
everlastingly ! But if you understand this of the true 
prophets, the sense will run thus : You shall know in 
the time of your visitation, whether they were mad- 
men and fools or no : it was from the multitude of your 
iniquities, and great hatred against the ways and people 
of God, that you accounted them so ; you made many 
exceptions against them, but the truth is, you saw no- 
thing ; but the malignity of yoiu' hearts lay at the bot- 
tom, you accounted them fools and madmen because 
of the multitude of your iniquities. Men who are not 
so able to judge of matters sometimes controverted, 
jet may have this rule to help them to judge of minis- 
ters and their cause : 

"V^Hiat is the side men incline most to, as they grow- 
most in godliness ? and what side do men incline most 
to, as they grow more loose and formal in their ways ? 

If there be parties, and you are not able to judge 
which is in the truth, some good men being on one 
side, and some on the other, take, I say, this rule as a 
help : ^V^lat is the side men most incline to, as they 
grow in godliness ? and what side is that which men 
most cleave to, as they gi-ow most loose and most for- 
mal? '\^Tien men whose multitude of iniquities in- 
creases, and according to their increase so they incline 
to a party, I cannot but suspect its goodness ; more 
especially if, besides, I see that the more conscientious 
men are, and the more the fear of God prevails in 
them, and the more strict they grow in their ways, they 
do the more incline to the other side ; I cannot but 
think that there may be much of God there. And yet 
it is true, it must be granted, that the gi'eatest heretics 
that ever were have pretended gi-eat holiness. But 



still, if this opinion were not of God, those that did in- 
deed grow up in true holiness, the more holy they were, 
the less would they savour that way, though it had 
never such a pretence of holiness. And if it be but a pre- 
tence of holiness, and not true, then certainly the more 
loose and formal professors grow, the more will they 
close with that way (if it be but a pretence). So it is 
here, tlieii- hearts were taken off from the true prophets 
of God, through the multitude of their iniquities ; the 
more loose they became, the more were their hearts 
taken off from the true prophets of God. 

Ver. 8. The iiatchman of Ephraiin was with my 
God : but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his 
ways, and hatred in the house of his God. 

In the former verse God charged, as the cause of 
much evil in Israel, the false prophets, but yet through 
the people's sin ; for it was through the multitude of 
their wickedness that they were so guided by those 
false prophets, whom they followed in the time of 
theh- prosperity : but he would have a time wherein 
they should know their "prophets" were but "fools," 
and " the spiritual man " but " mad." In this 8th verse 
the same is continued, " The watchman of Ephraim was 
with my God : but the prophet is a snare of a fowler 
in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God." 

" The watchman." Those who profess themselves 
watchmen, take upon themselves glorious titles. , Pro- 
phets and ministers of God are called "watchmen:" 
and these made great profession that they would be as 
careful to foresee, and labour as much to prevent, dan- 
ger to the people as any others could ; they professed to 
be very useful to the people, and to be full of zeal for 
Godjbut they were "a snare; "and this title of theirs, and 
this their profession, proved to be a snare to the people. 

Obs. 1. Many vile things are hidden under fair and 
glorious titles, as many excellent things are disgraced 
by base and ignominious ones. You know what a deal 
of evil was lately covered over amongst us, by names 
and titles, as the clergy and the church ; and likewise 
what abundance of good was defamed by epithets such 
as conventicles, puritans, and the like ; and now the 
titles of things may be changed, but yet remain as dan- 
gerous as before. Let people ever take heed and ex- 
amine what lies under them, and let them not be led 
away, one way or other, either by fair and specious, or 
by ignominious, titles ; ordinarily, people that do not 
examine things thoroughly are "taken with names and 
titles. But somewhat of these heretofore. 

"Of Ephraim." The people of Israel, the ten tribes, had 
no mind to the true watchmen, because they threaten- 
ed hard things against them ; they were willing to close 
with those who preached things more pleasing, so that 
they might set one against another, and obtain quiet ; 
although the truth was, that these watchmen of their 
choice were a most grievous snare to them. 

Thus many who have carnal hearts, and are not able 
to bear the evincing and threatening power of the word 
in the mouths of true, faithful watchmen, seek to help 
themselves by the opinions and judgments of other 
ministers, concluding they are safe when they have the 
countenance of some that are learned, especially if also 
they have a repute for godliness, for so certainly the 
watchmen here spoken of had ; and then they can set 
the opinions and judgments of one against those of the 
other ; they think they are safe now and may be quiet ; 
yet this proves a dangerous snare. 

06s. 2. AVhen there is clear conviction of a truth, it is 
a dangerous thing, out of an unwillingness to yield to it, 
to seek the opinions of others. I confess, when a man out 
of love to the truth, that he may be confirmed therein, 
or that he might know fully what the truth is, for him 
to seek help from others is a good thing ; but if out of 



398 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IX. 



distaste to a ti-uth, if because the lieart is weary of it, 
and would fain not have it to be true, because it may 
bring some trouble, if upon that ground he goes to 
seek the opinions of others, hoping to find them con- 
trary, that so he may have something to quiet his mind; 
this is a gi-eat snare to the souls of those who have 
been guilty of it. 

'• Of Ephraim." Ephraim had watchmen as well as 
Judah. Ilence, 

06s. 3. No cause so ill but will have some that have 
the rejjute of being wise, learned, and judicious men to 
maintain it. 

'• Was with my God." They professed more than 
ordinary judgment in the knowledge of God's mind, 
and acquaintance with his ways, and yet they were 
snares to the peo])le. Whence, 

Obs. 4. Every man in his erroneous opinion ))retends 
to be with God, and for God ; without this indeed he 
could never be a snare to those who profess themselves 
to be the people of God. 

06s. 5. It is a great grief to those who have the true 
knowledge of God, and interest in him, to see others 
who maintain that which is evil, yet pretend that they 
know God, and are zealous for his glory. " With my 
God." The prophet seems to speak in grief and trou- 
ble ; These watchmen of Ephraim, those among the ten 
tribes, they will pretend to be for God, to be for "my 
God." 

Vatablus further observes on this, Ephraim made 
to himself a watchman, and would hear him together 
with his God; like madmen, would attend to man as 
to God, and so would worship idols and God too, they 
would seem to rcsiject the true as well as the false pro- 
phet, which is mere madness. 

06s. 6. They would not wholly depart from God, 
and vet they would maintain false worsliip, they would 
mingle both together. " The watchman of Epliraim 
was with my God."' 

" But the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his 
ways." That is, he catches poor sim])le, deluded souls, 
as a fowler catches the bird, laying baits ])leasing to it, 
and hiding the snare that presently comes upon it: so, 
saith he. the watchmen of Ephraim do. They come to 
the peojile with very fair and si)ecious pretences, which 
they lai)our to instil into them, and do not discover 
what inferences they intend afterwards to make, or 
what their designs are ; for the present they come to 
tliem, and desire them to yield to things that seem 
to be as fair as any thing in the world, and with much 
pi'etencu that it is only for their own advantage, and 
that they intend them nothing but good : now, wlien 
they have brought them to yield to such things, they 
know that some inferences may be drawn from them, 
that will make them to yield to other things, which, 
had they been presented to them at first, they would 
never have agreed to ; but the inferences lay hidden as 
the snare does, and they, not foreseeing the conse- 
quences, are brought to yield to such things, that after- 
ward they cannot tell how in the world to avoid further 
compliance. Thus "the prophet is a snare of a fowler," 
who lays things which seem at first very plausible, in- 
tending however afterwards to bring the peo])le to yield 
to other things, that would be abhorred if presented to 
them at the first. 

My brethren, as long as you live take heed of such 
snares of watchmen. God would not liave you submit 
to any thing, nor do any thing, but out of faith. 

06s. 7. You must have ground from Scripture, and 
especially in tlie matters of God's worsliip, before you 
yield or submit to any thing; for otherwise, though 
things niav ijcem to be very fair at first, yet they may 
pr(i\e to be but snares before you are aware. 

" .Vnd hatred in the house of his God." Some un- 
derstand this of the false prophets, thus : 



1. The watchman was an olyect of God's hatred, in 
God's house. Wicked officers in the church, bringing in 
their superstitions, and importuning and urging the 
delusions of their own hearts, seeking to comply with 
the times to preserve themselves in credit and esteem, 
and in the enjoj-ment of their livings, these are an ob- 
ject of God's hatred ; there are none whom (jod hates 
more than such kind of watchmen in his hous^e. And 
at this day we see how God has cast shame and rebuke 
into the faces of such. They are hatred by way of ex- 
clamation: l) rem odiaavi el abonnnandam dumo Dei! 
Oh hideous and abominable thing, that such watchmen 
should hr pertaining fo the sanctuary ! 

2. Watchmen are hatred, by way of efficiency; that 
is, they cause hatred, they cause my people to hate the 
true ])rophets, and the servants of God that would wor- 
ship God in his own way. And. indeed, no men in the 
world are such causes of the hatred of the faithful 
ministers and saints of God. as wicked watchmen. 
Wlio were the men that stirred up hatred and ])crse- 
cution against the saints and ))cople of God in former 
times, but evil and wicked ministers ? 

"And hatred in the house of his God." 

I find some who vinderstand this, and not without 

some probability, of the true prophets, and then the 

sense would be : 

1. You accovinted the prophets of the Lord, who de- 
clared the mind of the Lord faithfully to you, to be no 
other than fools and madmen ; but you shall know that 
they were no fools, that they were no madmen. So 1 
find in 2 Kings ix. 11, " \\Tiercfore came this mad 
fellow to thee?" saith the captain of Jehu; and in 
2 Chron. xxxvi. 16. "They mocked the messengers of 
God." So Ezekiel's friends and acquaintance are 
tliought to have bound him, a.s thinking him mad, 
chap. iii. 25. And .so we read in the Gospel of Christ's 
kinsfolk, that they laid hands u])on him ; and Paul, in 
2 Cor. V. 13. saith, " AVhtlher we be beside ourselves, 
it is to God." The true pro])hels were scorned and con- 
temned as spiritual madmen : but, saith the Lord, They 
shall know in the time of their visitation whether they 
were .so or no : you shall find by your woeful experi- 
ence, that these were no such madmen as you thought 
them to be. In affliction men have more honourable 
esteem of the true prophets of God than at other 
times ; those that were jeered at before, as so wise, so 
])recise and holy, and of such tender consciences, are 
often, when the hand of God is upon men, sent for by 
then- very mockers, in ])rcfcrcnce to any other men, to 
]n'av for them. So we read of the people 

of Antioch, though many of them voted 'n'"^';^''^!''- »• 
for the banishment of Chrysostom, yet, 
being terrified by an earthquake, they immediately 
sent for him again. 

2. Still, take it as concerning the true prophets, and 
it means, even Ephraim wanted not watchmen to show 
them their danger in departing from God; though the 
ten tribes did decline from God, yet such was God's 
goodness to them, that they had watchmen that were 
faithful even among them. 

" Was with my God." That is, they had watchmen 
who acted as having to deal with God and not with 
men, as sent from God, as pleading for God ; and hence 
they could not be taken oft from their object, cither by 
threats or flattery : they might have had ])referment as 
well as others, and needed not have been the butt of 
the hatred and malice of men no more than others, if 
they would have done as others did. No, but they were 
" with my God," the fear of the great God was unon 
their spirits, and they dared not do as others did; they 
resolved to ap])rove themselves faithful to God; come 
of it what would, they went on in their way. they left 
their means and estates, their liberties, and their lives, 
all to God ; it was for God to provide for llicm, it was 



Vee. 8. 



THE rilOPHECY OF liOSEA. 



399 



for them to look to it, that they continued foithful to 
God. And thus the sense runs, If these were true pro- 
phets that were among the ten tribes, then it is as an ag- 
gravation of Ephraim's sins, that though they had 
many false prophets, yet they had watchmen who did 
continue faithful with God. 

06s. 8. The people of God rejoice when they see 
faithful ministers keep close to God. " Was with my 
God." When they see them, not set upon their own 
designs, not temporizing, but making it their bent and 
aim to magnify God, and to bring men to the know- 
ledge of him, oh ! they rejoice in this. So the prophet 
speaks with a joy, (if it be spoken of the true watch- 
men.) Oh ! blessed be God that, notwithstanding all the 
defection of the times and consequent corruptions, yet 
there were watchmen among Ephraim that were faith- 
ful with God, men who had no other designs but to set 
up God, and were willing to deny themselves in any 
thing, so be it they might bring souls to their Master. 

And -certainly it greatly rejoices the saints to see 
ministers of God pure and upright in this respect, to 
have no designs of their own, but to set up the honour 
of God among the people. But even these ]n-ophets, 
faithful as they were, yet were accounted no other than 
" a snare of a fowler," and even '• hatred in the house 
of their God ;" they are accused of being politic, subtle 
men, who have cunning plots and devices to set up 
their own way, they are as bad as Jesuits : such asper- 
sions as these the devil casts upon them, and gets many 
good people to drink in these calumnies, and those who 
otherwise were accounted godly, and of great use in 
the house of their God, are now become even " hatred 
in the house of tireir God ;" the devil has so prevailed 
to bespatter and asperse thera with stories and reports, 
that even though most faithful with their God, yet are 
they now looked upon as the troublers of the times, as 
snares to people ; yea, as " hatred in the house of their 
God," and that even by many who otherwise have good 
affections : by no way does the devil ch-ive on his own 
designs more efficaciously than by thus making the 
most painful, faithful, zealous ministers of God become 
even " hatred in the house of then- God," even among 
good people that are professors of godliness. Thus 
Jer. xviii. 22, " They have digged a pit to take me, and 
hid snares for my feet." And Isa. xxix. 21, They " lay 
a snare for him that reproveth in the gate." 

'• Hatred in the house of his God." 

Understanding this still of the true prophets, the 
sense proceeds thus : Yet he continues in the house of 
his God, he makes this his encouragement, that he is in 
the house of his God, in God's work, though he be hated 
for it. God's ministers should not be offended though 
they find the like dealings among the professors of re- 
ligion now, but should still continue witli all faithfulness 
in the work and employment which God sets them 
about, and then all aspersions will wipe off in time, 
they will vanish and come to nothing. 

Calvin interprets this somewhat differently from what 
has been said, in a middle way between both, and if 
not according to the full scope, jet ii comes very near ; 
he takes the former part of the verse to relate to the 
true, tlie latter part to the false prophets, as if Ilosea 
would speak thus : There was a time that Epliraim 
had watchmen with my God, and with his people, they 
had Elisha, and Elijah, but now the prophet is "a 
snare of a fowler," and "hatred," "in thehoiise of" "my 
God." This is a woeful change in places where people 
have had watchmen that were godly, wise, zealous, 
faithful with God, but now these are gone, many of 
them banished, and many of them with God in heaven, 
and they have now others among them, as a just judg- 
ment of God, who are a snare to them, and hatred in 
the house of God; these who have succeeded those 
blessed servants of God, are like the storms and tem- 



pests, which often succeed fair and sunshiny weather. 
If v,e understand it thus, for the true prophets in the 
former part of the verse, and the false prophets in the 
latter, then there is a special emjjhasis in the change 
of the phrase "my God" and "his God," "the watchman 
with my God, "and " hatred in the house of his God ;" the 
God of the true watchmen and the God of the false 
prophets are not the same ; those who pretend to wor- 
ship God, and yet worshi]) him in a false way, worship 
in reality another, and not the same God : no marvel 
then though there is hatred between true and false 
prophets ; they must needs have hatred one against 
another who have divers gods. " My God," and " his 
God," and yet both pretended to be for the same 
God. 

Yea, but, saith the prophet here, whatsoever their 
pretences are, they teach not people the worship of 
God in a right way, God is not their God. Who they 
are that have most interest in God, let God himself 
judge ; not by giving the one more of the favour of 
the times than the other, for the false propliets bad 
more of this now ; but, 1. By the clearer manifestation 
of the Spirit of God in men. 2. By the witness of men's 
consciences when they are going to appear before God. 
And. 3. By what Christ shall own at his appearing. 
Oh that I could tell how to sweeten these times ! 
God, by providence, has cast me upon this scripture, 
and I know not how to give you the mind of God re- 
garding it but by being thus plain. 

I shall only add one observation made by Arias 
Montanus on the words, " hatred in the house of his 
God." He saith the phrase is taken from such men as 
live in great families, and who have a great deal of 
power with their lords, (being continually at their tables 
and bed-siile.) and abuse it to cause hatred, and at 
length to undo others and themselves. So were these 
prophets in the house of God ; they seemed to have 
much intimacy with God in his house ; but tlie truth 
is, they abuse this their intimacy to the injury of others, 
and their own eventual ruin. 

Ver. 9. Tliey have deephj corrupted themselves, as in 
the days of Gilieah : therefore he icill remember their 
iniquity, he will visit their sins. 

" They have deeply corrupted themselves." 'ip^Z'jn 
innr Their wickedness has deeply rooted itself, so the 
word signifies ; there is little hope to prevail with 
them, labour as you may, their superstitious and idola- 
trous ways have gotten such deep root in their hearts. 
Sin, and especially that sin of superstition, so deeply 
roots itself in the hearts of men, if it be let alone but a 
little time, that there is no getting of it out. 

And indeed there is little hope of our ever seeing 
the reformation now in hand attain its full beauty and 
perfection, until even God himself either by some ex- 
traordinary manifestation overthrow the prevalent su- 
jjerstitions, or at least by his own hand remove tliose from 
amongst us that have such superstitious and idolatrous 
principles rooted in them. AVe wonder that men can- 
not be weaned from such ways. Oh, they are deeply 
rooted, and it is not an easy matter to eradicate them. 
It is a blessed thing to take sin betimes ; and you that 
are young, who have not other wickedness, and espe- 
cially superstition, rooted in you, it is likely God will 
make use of you to bring this reformation to perfection ; 
it may be, when others are dead and gone, you shall 
see what God intended in all these stirs that have been 
among us. By experience we have found superstition 
is deep rooted indeed, and that the love of it still 
abides in the heart ; tliat though men be content not 
to practise the superstitions they did before, because 
now the times do not favour them, yet they cannot be 
brought to leave them off as sinful, but as inconvenient. 



400 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IX. 



You have but few men, I had almost said but few mi- 
nisters, especially of those who were at all forward 
in superstitions, and did not before account them a bur- 
den, who, though they do leave them off at this time, 
can be brought to acknowledge them to be sinful, 
and so to charge themselves with sinning against God 
in them. They are content to relinquish them as things 
inconvenient, and perhaps burdensome to other men ; 
but the leaving them off thus shows, if the times should 
favour them again, there is a principle retained in their 
hearts, so that they would be in readiness to submit to 
them again, and to practise them as formerly; this bitter 
root of superstition abides in their hearts: that is the 
meaning of this phrase, they are deeply rooted, that is, 
their superstition and false worship are deeply rooted 
in their hearts. AVell, let their superstition be rooted 
as deep as it will, yet, as Christ saith in Matt. xv. 13, 
" Every plant -which my heavenly Father hath not 
planted shall be rooted out," God will either root thee 
out, or the superstition of thy heart out of thee. .'\nd 
seeing the false worshippers have superstition so rooted 
in their hearts, oh how should the true worshi])pcrs 
of God have the truth rooted in their hearts, never 
to be eradicated ! So St. Paul in Col. ii. 7, " Hooted 
and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as 
ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanks- 
giving."_ 

" As in the days of Gibeah." 

Tills must cost us a little further time to open fidly. 
Rooted in theh- evil ways, " as in the days of Gibeah." 
AA'hat has this reference to ? The Scripture speaks of 
the city Gibeah as notable for two things : First, As 
being the city of Saul, and consequently some apply 
this thus : that as heretofore they cast off my govern- 
ment when they chose Saul to be king over them, so 
now they reject me again. 

Secondly, As the scene of the circumstances nar- 
rated in the 19th and 20th chapters of Judges. You 
find there the storj' of a Levite, whose concubine 
went from him and played the harlot. He went 
to fetch her again, and as he was returning home 
would not be persuaded by his servant to go to Jebus, 
because its inhabitants were " not of the children of 
Israel," but he would " pass over to Gibeah" of Ben- 
jamin, there expecting certain protection ; yet he 
found it quite otherw'ise, the people of that city were 
abominably wicked, and they came in the night, and 
" beset the house round about, and beat at the door," 
and desired the person who had received him into his 
house to bring him forth, that they might " know him ;" 
but they obtaining him not, get his concubine, and 
" abuse her all the night until the morning," when she i.s 
found dead at the door of the house. Upon which 
horrid thing, being committed in a city belonging to 
the people of God, this Levite takes a knife and cuts his 
concubine (being dead) " into twelve pieces, and sent 
her into all the coast of Israel," and bade them think 
upon it, and consider what should be done. " And it 
was so, that all that saw it said. There was no such 
<leed done, nor seen, from the day that the children of 
Israel came up out of the land of Egypt." Wherefore 
all the people, " from Dan even to Beersheba," assem- 
bled to consult what should be done, and they resolve 
to go against the city of Gibeah. In the 11th ver.se of 
the L'Oth chapter the text saith, " All the men of Israel 
were gathered against the city, knit together as one 
man;" and in the 13th verse they require the delin- 
quents to be delivered up to them. " But the children 
of Benjamin would not ncarken to the voice of their 
bretlircn the children of Israel;" but gathered tlieni- 
selvos together, even " twenty and six thousand men 
tliat drew sword," to side with " the inhabitants of 
(iibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen 
men." Who would have thought that among th.e people 



of God there could have been raised an army to defend 
such "children of Belial?" But the people of Israel were 
resolved such notorious wickedness should not go un- 
punished ; and they " arose, and asked counsel of God, 
and said. Which of us shall go up first to the battle 
against the children of Benjamin ? " And the Lord di- 
rects Judah to go up first; but the Benjamites the first 
day got the victorj-, and slew two and twenty thousand 
men. Upon that the chOdren of Israel went up to 
God again, and wept before the Lord, and God gave 
them leave to go again, and they went, and the Benja- 
mites came out again and slew eighteen thou.sand more. 
These wicked malignants got the victory two days, and 
slew forty thousand of the children of Isi-ael, that went 
not only by God's leave, but by his desire ; for two 
days together they fell before those wicked and vile 
wretches, but they knew that their cause could not but 
be good, and they were resolved they would go to God 
again, and humble their souls before him, and fast, and 
pray ; and then they overthrew those wicked Benjamites, 
and men of Gibeah. And whereas twenty-six thousand 
came out against Israel, twenty and five thousand and 
an hundred men were slain bv the sword, and the city 
of Gibeah burnt with fire : so 6od executed wrath upon 
them at length. This is the stor)- to which the propnet 
refers, and many things might be observed from it in 
reference to the purposes for which the prophet quotes 
it : in his time they stood out to defend wicked ones, 
as the children of Benjamin had done. And it concerns 
us fully now, our wars are undertaken on almost the 
very same grounds ; for what is the main cause of them 
but to fetch delinquents to the execution of justice ? 
And who would have thought that delinquents, under 
whose burdens we groaned in former times, and whom 
we accounted the great scourge of the nation, should 
find an army to defend them ? Perhaps sometimes we 
may be overcome by them, and they may for a while 
prevail ; but let us fast before God, and humble ourselves 
more thoroughly, and certainly God will ako in our 
times own his own cause. 

Obs. 1. When men to whom we seek for protection 
deal falsely with us, their wickedness is great in the 
eyes of God. This Levite passed over from Jebus to 
Ciibeah, thinking to have had protection there, and yet 
these deal vilely towards him. Does any man put him- 
self under any of you for protection, and do you abuse 
the confidence reposed in you ? This surely is an 
abominable thing in the eyes of God. 

Obs. 2. AVe mav meet with worse usage fi-om those 
who profess religion, than from those who profess it 
not. It may be, if they had gone to Jebus they would 
not have met with such ill usage as they did at Gibeah. 
Sometimes thev who make profession of religion are 
guilty of more ill usage to the servants of God than 
otliers that are profane and ungodly, vca, or of another 
religion. Oh ! let men take heed how they behave 
themselves toward their brethren, that they may not 
have cause to say, Lord, were wc among the Indians, 
or among some moderate papists, or under some of the 
prelates again, we should not find such hard usage as 
we do from some of our brethren who profess thy name ' 
and seek reformation : it were, indeed, a sad thing (I 
say) if ever there should be cause for the servant-s of 
God to make such moans to Heaven, and send up such 
cries to God. 

Obs. 3. God may regard those as unholy and unclean 
who make a fair show of religion. AVhcreas Israel 
thought themselves holy and devout for God in the 
multitude of the sacrifices and devout services which 
thev performed, yet God looks u])on them as filthy and 
w icked, even as the Sodomites of Gibeah. '• They have 
dec|)ly corrupted tliemselves," saith God, " as in the 
days of Gibeah :" notwithstanding your fair shows and 
your sacrifices, yet you are looked upon as thus vile and 



Ver. 9. 



THE rROrilECY OF HOSEA. 



101 



abominable before God. God will not be put off with 
words of reformation and outward service, ibr men may 
have such ba-se ends in it, and may mix so much of 
themselves to con-upt the right way of God and to keep 
out his right service, under pretext of serving liim more 
truly, that this may make them and their performances 
most odious to God. Such is the clear and plain note 
from thence. "We do not read' of sucli abominable 
filthiness of body as was in the days of Gibeah, but be- 
cause of the corru])tion3 of his worship, the Lord consi- 
dered that they had deeply corrupted themselves, as " in 
the days of Gibeah." 

06s. 4. For men to stand up impudently and boldly 
in the defence of wickedness committed is abominable 
ill the eyes of God. Thus they did " in the days of 
Gibeah." And thus you are ready to do ; not only to 
commit horrible wickedness and sins, but to stand in 
'ts defence. There is this desperate stoutness of spirit 
and nardness of heart in many men, that when they 
are once entered into the ways of sin, ratlier than they 
would yield and submit, they will venture the undoing 
of themselves : the men of Gibeah did so, and they were 
undone accordingly. 

Ohs. 5. To join with others in defence of evil is worse 
than to stand out ourselves in evil. Yet how many 
have we of the gentry and nobility of the kingdom, that 
do not only seek to defend themselves, but join with 
the greatest maUgnants amongst us, with those that are 
the greatest causes of evil, and Mere like to have been 
the utter undoing of us all ! To defend them from jus- 
tice they will venture the ruin of their own families ; 
whereas, had the malignants been given up, they might 
have saved their estates, families, and all. Oh that ever 
God should leave men in such horrible wickedness as 
this ! This is just as it was " in the days of Gibeah." 

Obs. 6. Those who defend wickedness may for a 
while prosper ; even the men of Gibeah and the Benja- 
mites prospered. 

Obs. "i. The defenders of wickedness must at last 
perish. Twenty-five thousand and a hundred of these 
twenty-six thousand perished, wit h all the men of G ibeah , 
and the city was burnt. So, let men stand out as stub- 
bornly and stoutly as they will, and say. What care we ? 
we will lose our lives and estates rather than submit 
and yield : well, you may lose all at lengtli : )'ou may 
perhaps prevail for a time ; but let not men's hearts be 
hardened by that, nor let any of the other side be dis- 
couraged, for certainly those that stand desperately out 
in defending wickechiess shall perish at last : so did the 
Gibeonites. 

Obs. 8. The sins of the forefathers are an aggravation 
of the chilch-en's sins. Yea, but what is this to us ? 
might the prophet's auditors say. Certainly, it is much 
to you, for these sins of your forefathers " in the days 
of Gibeah" aggravate your present sins. And yet, such 
is the delusion of many poor people, that they excuse 
the present sins by the sins of fonner times. As thus ; 
suppose ministers or others should complain of the sin- 
fulness of the times, and declaim against it, you will 
hear some say, Why do they keep such a stir about the 
wickedness of the times ? were they not as bad hereto- 
fore as they are now ? Oh wretched delusion ! The 
great aggravation of thy guilt is, that thou livest in the 
sins of thy forefathers :' thou art, it seems, the child of 
wicked parents, and how just had it been with God to 
have cut thee off presently for their sins! and dost 
thou say, that thy wickedness is no other than the 
wickedness of thy forefathers ? Certainly, if the times 
he as evil as they were heretofore, they are thereby 
worse, for the evil of our forefathers is an aggravation 
of our present evils, if we continue in them. As the 
treachery of a parent would be no excuse for the 
treachery of a child, no excuse for him to say, ^My father 
was a traitor : so for me to excuse the sins' of the pre- 
2 D 



sent times by the sins of former times, and say-, tliey 
were as bad formerly as now, is reasoning of just a 
similar kind ; but this is not the reasoning of the Spirit 
of God, he aggravates the sins of Israel in Hosea's time 
with the sins that were in the days of Gibeah. God 
may let men alone in their wickedness for a long time, 
until they grow to the full height of their iniquities, 
and then he visits them. "NAHien the sins of the Amor- 
ites were full, then he visited them. 

" Therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will 
visit their sins." This phrase, of God's remembering 
iniquity and visiting sin, we had before, therefore we 
pass it over, and proceed to the 10th verse. 

Ver. 10. I found Israel like grapes in /he wilderness ; 
I saif ijour fathers as thefirstripe in the Jig tree at her 
first time : bat they went to Baal-peor, and separated 
themselves unto that shame ; and their abominations 
uere according as they loved. 

The scope of the Holy Ghost in this, is to upbraid 
the ten tribes for theu' wretched, ungrateful dealing 
with God ; their sin is aggravated by God's love towards 
them and their forefathers. 

" I foimd Israel like grapes in the wilderness ; I saw 
your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig tree at her first 
time." That is, as when a traveller in the parched 
wilderness, dry, weary, and faint, comes to a place in 
which unexpectedly he finds clusters of grapes, from 
whence he has abundance of cooling refi'eshment ; oh 
how grateful must this be to such a man ! Such de- 
light, saitli God, had I in your forefathers. He names 
grapes and figs here, because they are the most delight- 
ful of all kinds of fruit to weary travellers. Now if it 
be so, that God has sucli delight in his people in this 
their wilderness state, how sliould God be their delight 
when they are in the wilderness ! Oh ! let God in his 
ordinances be to us in our troubles and afflictions, as 
grapes to the weary traveller, and " as the first-ripe in 
the fig tree at her first time." Surely, if God will ac- 
count us so delightful to himself, there is great reason 
that we should in return delight in him. Some of 
God's servants have been forced to flee into the wilder- 
ness, and though they have not had such outward I'e- 
freshments as we have had who have sat here under 
our own vines and fig trees, yet God has made them to 
find grapes in the wilderness; they have sat under God's 
protection and ordinances, as a man in the wilderness 
would sit under a vine of grapes, and refresh himself 
with them. 

Obs. 1. AVe should lay to heart God's love to our 
fathers, and seek to continue it to ourselves. " I saw 
your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig tree at her first 
lime." It is a sad thing to look upon degenerate chil- 
dren, who have had fathers in whom God took delight. 
Y'our fathers were as clusters of grapes, that did re- 
fresh the very soul of God ; as it is said of wine, tliat 
it doth cheer both God and man ; so the grace and 
holiness of your forefathers, oh how refreshing were 
they to the "heart of God! But what are you,_what 
delight can God take in your sour and bitter fruits, in 
your corrupt and degenerate spirits ? Oh ! it is a com- 
fortable thing when a child is able to say, as Exod. xv. 
2, " My God," and " my father's God." God was my 
father's God, and delighted in my father, and, blessed 
be his name, he is my God, and I hope he has some 
delight in me. Y'ou who are the children of fathers in 
whom God delighted like as in " grapes in the wilder- 
ness," it is a mighty engagement for you to look to 
yourselves, that your hearts and lives be not con-upt, 
but that, follo\ving the steps of your fathers, God may 
delight likewise in you. But further, 

" As the first-ripe in the fig tree at her first time." 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IX. 



There is a great deal of elegance in these expressions. 
Tlie fig tree bears twice in the year, and here it is, 
" the first-ripe at the first time." Tlielr fathers were 
as delightful as grapes in the wilderness, and as tlie 
figs, " the first-ripe in the fig tree at her first time." 

Now we know that we prize the first-ripe fruits, 
many wiU give almost any price for them. We say, 
when they at first appear, "that they are ladies' meat, or 
longing meat : now the Lord is j)leased to condescend 
to express his love to his people, and to s])eak of it, as 
the love of a longing woman to fruits when they first 
come into season ; as a woman has a longing desire 
after such things, so, saith God, my soul has longed 
after you to do you good, I have taken as much pleasure 
in you as ever woman could take when her longing 
desires were being most delicately gratified. This is the 
meaning of iLe Holy Ghost here, and many expressions 
of similar import occur in Scripture ; as m Jer. xii. 7, 
God's saints are called " the dearly beloved of God's 
soul;" and in the lOlh verse, " my jilcasant portion ;" in 
Exod. xix. 5, the " peculiar treasure" of God ; and here, 
" grapes in the wilderness," and " the first-ripe in the 
fig tree at her first time." 'lliis is God"s exceeding 
goodness to us, though we be sa])lcss in ourselves, and 
nave nothing in us to afford delight, yet, out of his own 
free grace, God is willing to exjness himself thus to his 
people. Oh what delight should we have in God, who 
takes such delight in liis servants ! These expressions 
may well lead us to meditate also on the delight which 
God has in the young, who begin to give themselves up 
betimes to him ; the Lord loves " the fii-st-fruits," and 
" the first-ripe" of things : so Micah vii. 1, " Woe is me ! 
for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, 
as the grape-gleanings of the vintage : there is no clus- 
ter to eat : my soul desired the first-ripe fruit." So, 
by way of allusion at least, wo may apply it to God. 
God is a longer ; for what ? for the first-ripe fruits, the 
first of your years : graciousness, when it first buds out 
in youth, oh how pleasing is it to God ! In Exod. xxiii. 
19,' God would have " the first of the first-fruits," he 
would not only have the first-fruits, but " the first of 
the first." God insists much on the fii'st still. And in 
Lev. ii. 14, YOU read, that the Lord is so eager to have 
the first-fruits, that he will not stay till they be ripe, he 
will have the "green ears of corn dried by the fire." As 
many women will not stay until the tiling be ripe in 
the course of nature, but if they can have it ripened by 
any art, they w ill have it so ; so, saith God, my longing 
after the first of things is so, that I will not stay till 
they be fully ripe, but the corn, though it be gi-een 
ears, if they may be dried by the fire, I will have them. 
So in Cant. ii. 12, 13, "'ihe flowers appear on the 
earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the 
voice of the turtle is heard in our land ; the fig tree 
putteth forth her green figs." And in cliap. vi. 11, "I 
^went down into the garden of imts to see the fruits of 
ihe valley, and to see whether the vine tiourished, and 
the iiomegranates budded." Oh, the Lord looks up and 
down in congregations, that are as the gardens of God, 
to see such. And so in cliap. vii. 12, "Let us get up 
early to the vineyards ; let us see if the vine flourisl), 
whether the tender grape a])pear, and the pomegranates 
bud forth : there will 1 give thee my loves." O let us 
go and see whether the fender grape appear, or the 
pomegranate bud. " There will I give thee mv loves." 
Where God sees grace beginning and budding in 
young ones, there God manifests himself; "there will 
I give thee my loves." O, begin to be godly betimes ; 
you satisfy the heart of your longing God, as the fii'st- 
fruits satisfy the longing woman. 

" But," saith God, " they went to Baal-peor, and se- 
parated themselves unto that shame." What! a but 
come after all this? God is manifesting his delight 
in tlicm aa in " grapes in the wilderness," and " the first- 



ripe in the fig tree at her first time;" and yet, behold, 
a but follows. 

Ubs. 2. The greatness of God's love is not enough to 
engage carnal hearts. This is an evil and a sore thing 
to see. There was a time that God accepted of this 
people and delighted much in them, but now they are 
departed. Oh how wont are people to degenerate ! a 
few years since, how forward and zealous were many 
for God, and for reformation ; but within a while they 
grew cold, and dead, and formal, and began to leave off 
all their good beginnings, and decline fiom God and 
from his truth. 

" They went to Baal-peor, aild separated themselves 
unto that shame." God complains of this people as a 
husband of an adulteress : Though I delighted in her 
and loved her, though she had all the content she could 
desire, yet she forsakes me, and gives up herself to 
impurity and uncleanness. I beseech you observe, 
nothing afiects an ingenuous heart more than the w aste 
of love ; such had rather ill bestow money than love. 
So, certainlv, it goes to the heart of God that his love 
should be ill bestowed upon people. Notwithstanding, 
s-.ii'.l' Cod licre, all my love to their forefathers, where- 
by ihey might have di'awn an argument that they 
would have blessings on themselves, if they continued 
in the ways of theu' forefathers, yet they forsook me ; 
" they went to Baal-peor, and separated themselves un- 
to that shame." 

06*. 3. The more shameful any thing is, the more 
abominable is it to forsake God on its account. It 
were an abominable thing to forsake God for the gain- 
ing of heaven and earth, tf they could so be gained j 
but to forsake God for a Baal-peor, God takes this ill 
indeed. 

Obs. 4. Tliere is no evil so base or shameful to which 
a carnal heart is not ready to cleave, to the forsaking 
of the blessed and glorious God. Many, indeed, are 
so set on base things, that they are content to part 
with all the good that there is in God and Jesus Christ, 
if they may but obtain them, yea, content for their 
sake to undo themselves to all eternity. 

04s. 5. So to leave God, as to give up ourselves to 
baseness and wickedness, is most abominable. To be 
overtaken with sin is vile, but to give up ourselves to 
wickedness is truly abominable : and yet of this many 
are guilty. At first, perhaps, sin is fair-mannered, 
and saith, Do but dally with me at first ; but after a 
while the soul insensibly abandons itself to the most 
wretclied sinful courses : this is the case of many an 
apostate, they had .some comfort before in God and in 
Christ, but having tampered with sin until they have 
become habituated to it, they have lost all their spi- 
ritual comforts ; and now saith this desperate soul, I 
cannot have comfort in God and Christ, and therefore 
I will have it in the satisfying of my lusts. O my 
brethren, what a shame is this, to be guilty, so far 
as thou art able, of shammg even God himself and 
.Icsus Christ! So in Heb. vi. 6, apostates are said to 
put Jesus Christ "to an open shame:" an apostate, 
that leaves the ways of God and separates himself to 
his lusts, puts the Lord Jesus Christ to an open shame. 
Oh how shoidd God's people separate themselves for 
the Lord, and be whollv his, seeing idolaters separate 
themselves to their idols ! Let them look upon them- 
selves as a iieojile separated for the Lord. 

"And their abominations were according as they 
loved." This may be understood, 

1. As they loved, so they were guided; they were 
not guided by the word, nor by a)iy Divine rule, nor 
by right reason, but "according as they loved," they 
followed what they had a mind to, never regarding 
wlial the mind of (jod was. 

04.!. G. The judgment is soon gone when the heart 
is taken. Ordinarily people love not that way to which 



I 



Ver. 10. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



403 



the rule guides them, but that to which their affections 
tend. It is very sinful for men to be carried on 
merely by the violence of their affections, and espe- 
cially this is evil in the matters of God's worship ; in it 
ve may not do things as we like, that is, because we 
think such things are very fair, and there appears to 
us no hurt in them. AVe must examine whether we 
have warrant out of the word for them ; we must not 
follow our inclinations, but bend them to that rule. 

2. They were abominable as they loved ; they were 
turned into the very likeness of that which they loved. 
And indeed our aflections render us in some measure 
like that on which they are fixed. The understanding 
turns the object into a likeness to it, but the heart is 
turned into the likeness of its object. 

Austin, Ep. 52, ad placed., expresses himself in a 
remarkable manner respecting this. Such is every 
man as his love is. Does a man love the earth ? he is 
earth. Does a man love God ? what shall I say, he 
shall be even God too. And indeed the Scripture 
saith we are partakers of the Divine nature. Oh what 
care then had we need exercise about the object on 
which we set our affections ! Dost tliou love a thing 
base and filthy ? then thy soul is base and filthy too. 
Dost thou love tlie glorious and blessed God ? then thy 
soul is made like to God. Choose, therefore, good ob- 
jects for thy love ; love the Lord, and love his holy 
ways ; love things that are excellent and glorious, and 
by the loving of these thy heart will have an excellence 
and glory put upon it; but if thou lovest that which 
is drossy and filthy, thy heart will become degenerate 
and base likewise. Man's soul is like 
. cap. . ^j^^ chameleon, changed into the colour of 
the object it looks upon. 

3. That which is here translated in the concrete 
sense, I find may be as well rendered in the abstract. 
They were abominable as their love ; and so it is un- 
derstood by some : that is, they were abominable as the 
idols were which they loved, and their idols were call- 
ed love, in the abstract ; as a man calls his wife his 
love, so they called their idols their love ; and they 
were abominable as their love, that is, as abominable 
as Baal-peor was, so abominable were they. So the 
psalmist, " They that make idols are like unto them." 

4. I think the especial scope of the Holy Ghost in 
these words has reference to what you read in Numb. 
XXV. 1. You find there the people of Israel, by the 
wicked counsel of Balaam, were enticed to commit un- 
cleanness with the daughters of Moab, and by them 
drawn to the worship of their- idols. So their love to 
the daughters of Moab drew them to serve Moab's 
idols. 

"Their abominations were according as they loved ;" 
that is, setting their love upon these wicked women, 
they were enticed by them first to uncleanness, and then 
to idolatry. Solomon's wi\es also drew him to idolatry. 

Obs. 8. It is usual for people to adopt the religion of 
those whom they love : if their hearts be taken with 
any, it is usual for them to adopt their religion ; accord- 
ing to their kindred, according to their friends, accord- 
ing to the stock that they marry into, so is their reli- 
gion. You will find many that have been forward in 
the cause of religion, grow cold because they have 
married into families without the savour of religion, and 
now they conform to their wives' dis])Ositions ; accord- 
ing to what they love, so their religion either burns 
hotter or grows cooler: it was thus usually said of 
Ahab for his wickedness, Such a one was his wife ; and 
so of another king, The daughter of Ahab was his wife : 
their religion was according as they loved. And, my 
brethren, if those who are in a false way can draw 
whom they love to it, then certainly those in the 
truth should also labour to draw those whom they love 
to embrace the truth. Wicked wives will draw their 



husbands to that which they love, to idolatry, to false 
worship; popish wives have. drawn more husbands to 
their popery, than godly wives (I fear) have drawn 
husbands to the truth : why should not gracious wives 
labour to win their husbands to good by love, as well 
as wicked wives to entice them to wickedness by then- 
love ? And, indeed, those who would gain others to 
good must first gain their love. The women of Moab 
gained the love of the people of Israel, and then pre- 
vailed on them to serve their gods. So, if you would 
benefit any, first labour to gain their love : let godly 
wives act so towards their ungodly husbands. How 
would you gain them ? Not, surely, by reproachful 
speeches, but (though they be never so evil) walk lov- 
ingly towards them, that they may be convinced that 
your souls truly love them, and so by your loving car- 
riage gain their love ; that is the way to win them to 
your God. So we are told of many of the women in the 
primitive times that had heatlienish husbands, that by 
their gracious, loving carriage they won them over to 
the truth. And so ministers, if they would win people 
to God, must walk before them in such a gracious, holy, 
loving manner, that they may gain their love, and tlien 
they will win their souls : if there be wrangling between 
minister and people, there is little hope of any good. 
And so with your neighbours and friends, if you would 
win them to God, gain first their love yourselves, for it 
is a mighty motive in matters of religion for people to 
do as they love. 

Ver. 11. As for Ephraim, their glory shall Jly airoi/ 
like a bird, from the birth, and from the uomb, and front 
the conception. 

" As for Ephraim." A pathetical expression ; he 
makes a stop at Ephraim ; O Ephraim ! how sad, how 
much to be lamented, is thy condition ! 

" Their glory." By it is meant, all their pomp, riches, 
strength, pros])erity, but especially their numerous pro- 
geny, in which they did so much glory. Ephraim, the 
ten tribes, prospered very much, and were far more 
numerous than Judah. This scripture refers to their 
state especially in the time of Jeroboam IL, of which 
you read, 2 Kings xiv. Eplu-aim then prospered very 
much. 

06s. 1. A numerous progeny is accounted a glory. 
" Their glory." So in Prov. xvii. 6, " Children's childa-en 
are the crown of old men ;" the Seventy render it kuv- 
XW"' ^^^ g'o'T of o'd men. Parents are wont to glory 
and pride themselves much in their children ; for, 

1. Bv their children they themselves are midtiplied. 

2. What excellency soever there is in the child, they 
look upon it as their own, and on themselves as the 
cause of it : men and women love themselves much, and 
because children are, as it were, portions of themselves, 
therefore they glory in them. 

3. They have thereby hope of continuation from ge- 
neration to generation ; and in this hope they glory. 

But let parents learn to give God the glory of their 
children, and to bring them up for him, and then they 
may rejoice in them indeed, as a great mercy of God. 
In Prov. X. 1, " A wise son maketh a glad father; but 
a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother." Why is 
a wise son said to be the gladness of the father ? docs 
not a mother rejoice in a wise son too ? And why is a 
foolish son said to be the sorrow of the mother P does 
not the father sorrow and mourn for a foolish son ? The 
Holy Ghost, not without reason, expresses himself thus, 
" A wise son maketh a glad father, " and that for two 
reasons. 

1. The father usually has a more strict hand over 
his sony to educate him to wisdom, than the mother. 
Mothers, too often, by weak indulgence, spoil their 
cliildren ; they cannot endure that they should sufl'er 



404 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IX. 



any hardship, and hence their chikkcn prove foolish 
and fit for nothing, and great sorrows to tliem. 

2. A wise son is fit for emploj-ment abroad in the 
world, and therefore rejoices the heart of liis father ; 
but a foolish son is fit for nothing but to remain at 
home with his mother, and as lie grows u]i, to grow 
stout and stubl)orn against her. If, then, children be a 
gloiT to their parents, they should labour to bo such, 
that they may indeed be a glory and not a shame to 
them. Many, instead of being a glory to their ])arents, 
are a great shame to them, as Augustus 
Sremomiw'' \u" CVsar, wlio had three daughters tliat were 
wicked, used to call them his three im- 
posthumes, and his three cankers upon his bod)-. And 
so children, that should be the glory of their jiarents, 
and the glory of a family, too often shame and disgrace 
botli. And if you expect that your children should be 
a glory to you, you must not be a shame to them : 
sometimes children are a shame to their parents, and 
sometimes parents are a shame to theu' childi-en. 

" Shall fly away like bird." This admits of two ex- 
positions. 

I. Men glory in their outward pomp and prosperity, 
and their children, but all these " shall fly away like a 
bird." That is, 1. Suddenly. 2. Swiftly. 3. Irre- 
coverably. 

A bird, encaged perhaps many months, on some op- 
portunity gets out, and is gone in a moment, suddenly, 
so swiftly too that you cannot follow her, and irreco- 
verably, that you can never take her. All outward 
glory is uncertain : in Prov. xxiii. 5, it is asked, " Wilt 
thou set tliinc eyes upon that which is not ? for riches 
certainly make themsehcs wings : they fly away as an 
eagle toward heaven;" fty away like a bird, and that 
bird t!ie eagle, that flies so swiftly that there is no get- 
ting her again. IIow many lately in Ireland, and in our 
own land, have had estates in the evening, and all has 
been gone away swiftly like a bird before the morning ! 
they have been rich in the morning, and have been even 
beggars in the evening. Let us take our hearts off from 
glorying in all outward excellencies, and seek that gloiy 
which is abiding, constant, and everlasting. AVe should 
look upon all outward comforts now as upon the wing ; 
if ever we had cause to do so, at this day we have 
especial cause. We cannot now reason thus, We have 
enjoyed such prosperity thus long, and therefore we 
shall have a continuance of it. No, all outward com- 
forts fly away like the bird : that comes in one moment 
■which before came not in many years. In Jer. ix. 23, 
24, " Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory 
in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man gloiT in his 
might, let not the rich man glory in his riches : but let 
him that glorielli glory in this, that he undersf andeth and 
knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving- 
kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth : 
for in these things I delight, saith the Lord." Your 
delights arc in other vain things, in estates, in bravery ; 
but in these things I delight, saith tlie Lord God, and 
if you will glor)', do you glory in those things in which 
I myself delight : your glorv' in the midst of your pros- 
perity flies from you like a bird ; but the Lord, the glory 
of his own people, in the midst of tlieir adversities 
flies to them like a bird. I say, the glorj- of the wicked 
in the midst of their prosperity flics from them, but 
the Lord God, who is the glory of the saints, flies to 
them in their afflictions. Thus in Isa. xxxi. 6, " As 
birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusa- 
lem ; defending also he will deliver it ; and pa.ssing 
over he will preserve it." " As birds flying ;" it is a me- 
taphor taken from the bird when she sees the young 
ones in any danger of the kite, she flies with speed to 
save them : As birds flying, so will I defend Jerusalem. 
Your glory departs in the midst of your iirospcrity, but 
the glojy of the saints flies to them in their adversity. 



II. The glory of their posterity " shall fly away like 
a bird;" that is, the Lord will ciit off then- numerous 
jjosterity, their young men, in whose number they glo- 
ried, so that there shall be few left among them. 

Obs. 2. Godliness brings blessings swiftly, and wick- 
edness causes them to depart as swiftly. Tlic bless- 
ing of God upon Abraham's seed came very swiftly 
after it began to come ; and now God threatens it shall 
go away as swiftly. As you may find it if you observe 
the story of the increase of the seed of Abraham, from 
the time of their going into Egypt. But threescore 
and ten souls went down into Egyjit ; but when they 
came out of Egv-pt, but two hundi'cd and fifteen years 
afterwards, (for the four hundred and thirty years are 
to be reckoned from the promise to Abraham until 
their coming out of Egv-jJt, and it is clear that there 
were two hundred and fifteen years fi-om the promise 
to their going down into Eg\-pt,) there came up, from 
twentj' years old and upwards, men of war, six hundred 
thousand, three thousand, five hundred and fifty ; be- 
sides the Levites, who, with the males from a month 
old and upwards, were twenty and two thousand, be- 
sides the w omen and all the other children : and this was 
in the time of their bondage. Thus the glorj" of Abra- 
ham's seed came very swiftly. And now it shall fly 
away like a bird, they shall decrease more than they 
did increase. 

" From the birth, and from the womb, and from the 
conception." God's curse follows the wicked close ; 
sometimes in their buth ; sometimes in the womb ; 
sometimes hindering the conception. You see how 
God has us at advantage, how he has us in his hand at 
every turn; he might, if he had pleased, have smitten us 
in our conception ; if he had spared us there, stifled us in 
the womb; if spared there, made us stick in the birth. 

Wherefore learn we to acknowledge God's mercy in 
the general, that he is patient, and long-sufiering, and 
gracious unto us : let us consider the several passages 
of his mercy, to bless God not only for our general pre- 
servation, but tliat he preserved us in the veiT concep- 
tion, preserved us in om- mother's womb, and then in 
the birth ; and then in the cradle, in our childhood, in 
our youth, in our middle age, and in our old age; for 
we lie at his mercy at every point of time. 

" Their glory sliall fly away like a bird, from the 
birth, and from the womb, and from the conception :" 
of some I will hinder the conception, some others in 
the womb shall die, others shall perish in then- birth, 
and so at every time my curse shall follow them ; " from 
the birth, and from the womb, and from the concep- 
tion." 

' Vcr. 12. Though they bring up their children, yet 
uill I bereave them, that there shall not be a man lift : 
yea, uoe aUo to them when I depart from them .' 

'• Though they bring up their children, yet wiU I be- 
reave them." It is here threatened that a fearful judg- 
ment from God will pursue and overtake them, though 
thev escape that curse under which others suflcr. 

Obs. 1. Miiny think all is well when they have escajwd 
jvidgments that have come on others ; but know, thy pre- 
servation from such may be thy reservation to greater 
judgments that God intends for thee afterwards. 

Obs. 2. The loss of children in hopcfid maturity is a 
loss indeed. It is a judgment to be deprived of children 
in the womb, in the birth ; but when you have endured 
much pain in bearing and bringing forth your children, 
much labour and trouble in bringing them up, when 
many a thoughtful care has been expended on tlieir 
education, and they now begin hopefully to anive al- 
most at men's and women's estate, and you think to 
have comfort in them, for God then to take them away, 
is indeed very sad to parents, such a bereavement bow» 






VnK. 12. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



405 



down their hearts exceedingly: yet such things as these 
have befallen many heretofore ; and parents, though 
the condition must be acknowledged very sad, yet must 
they in such a case submit to God's hand. Perhaps 
some of you have in the breeding of your chikben en- 
dured much, and through many difficulties they have 
been brought till they have grown up almost to men's 
and women's estates ; and perhaps they have been obe- 
dient and hopeful, and you trusted to have had them 
as the staff of your age ; and yet God suddenly has 
made them fly away like a bird ; perhaps by drowning, 
or some other untimely end, the Lord has suddenly 
torn them from you. You will say, >Iy condition is 
more than ordinarily sad. Therefore God calls you to 
sanctify his name in a more than ordinary degree, to 
exercise grace more than ordinary : and the exercise of 
grace in such an extraordinary stroke of God upon you 
may be as great a comfort and blessing to you as the 
enjoyment of joiu' child would have been. If a tender 
mother, after breeding and bringing up a child with 
care, and pain, and labour, should have him taken away 
by some untimely death, (as you call it,) she would 
tliink her condition the saddest of any living. Perhaps 
some such may be here, or know some of their friends 
who have had such a hand of God upon them ; be but 
convinced of this one thing, which 1 know you cannot 
deny, that the exercise of grace suitable to this work 
of God that is now upon thee, or against thee, take it 
as thou wilt, I say, the exercise of thy grace suitable to 
this work of Goil, is a greater good to thee than the 
life of thy child could have been ; it could never have 
done thee that good which the exercise of grace may do 
thee in this condition, when it is suitable to this stroke 
of God upon thee. And this indeed is the only way to 
make up any losses, be it a child, be it a husband, or 
the dearest friend, a wife, or thy estate, yet the exer- 
cise of thy grace is better than the enjo)Tneat of 
them all. 

" Y'et will I bereave them, that there shall not be a 
man left." msi: DTi'^du'I yet will I bereave them, that 
they be not men. Sometimes God lets chikfren live, 
and yet they never come to be men ; he strikes them in 
theu' understandings, that they are bereaved of them so 
far that they never attain the stature of men's minds. 
I remember it is reported of Sii" Thomas More, that 
his wife was mightily desirous of a boy, (that was her 
■word,) and she had one that proved a fool ; whereupon 
her husband said to her, Y'ou were never quiet till you 
had a boy, and now you have one that will be all his 
life a boy. 

" I will bereave them, that there shall not be a man 
left." I rather think the meaning of these words is, I 
will take them away, that they shall not live to be men, 
strong men of war. You boasted yourselves that you 
had so many of your children that were such valiant 
men of war before, but I will bereave you of them, 
saith the Lord. 

" Yea, woe also to them when I dcjmrt from them !" 
" Y''ea, woe also to them ! " there is added the " yea," or 
surely, " also," as if the Holy Ghost should say, AMiy 
do I threaten this or the other evil ? the great evil of 
all, the rise of all evils, is God's forsaking them. " Yea, 
■vroe also to them when I depart from them I " 

God departs from a people, or a particular soul, 
when he withcbaws his goodness and mercy from them ; 
and the reason why wicked men for a time enjoy good 
things is, because God's time is not yet come to depart 
from them ; but when God's time is come to deiiart 
from them, then all vanishes suddenly : as the light 
continues so long as the sun is in the firmament, but 
as soon as ever it is gone, the darkness of the night be- 
gins to approach. 

Obs. 3. It is God in the creatiu-e that upholds it. 
The general presence of God with his creature main- 



tains its strength, and health, and comforts ; and upon 
God's departing, all vanishes and comes to nothing. 
Thou hast thy prosperity now, and thou thinkest thou 
mayst enjoy it still; but how canst thou tell but God 
may suddenly depart? and then all is gone. The alter- 
ation of man's condition is not only from natural causes, 
but has reference to a higher source, God's departing. 
Carnal hearts think themselves safe if they do not see 
how natural causes shall work their ruin ; yea, but know 
that thy prosperity, or thy adversity, depends not upon 
natural causes, but upon a higher cause ; though thou 
hast the confluence of all natural causes working for 
thee, yet, if God pleases to withdraw himself, thou art 
a lost creature. 

And so it is with a kingdom. When God is pleased 
to depart from a kingdom, he takes away wisdom from 
the wise, gives them up to their own perverse counsels, 
blinds them that they cannot foresee their danger nor 
discern means of help, so that they adopt measures as 
if they intended to destroy themselves. If God do but 
leave them, whatsoever their wisdom was before, all 
theii- endeavours shall be blasted and come to nothing. 
And in this especially we should sanctify and acknow- 
ledge God's name, acknowledge our immecUate dejjend- 
ence upon him for all the outward good we enjoy, what- 
soever second causes may concur to aid us. 

Wicked men will not observe his hand in their- dis- 
comforts ; they cry out of this and the other as the 
cause of their evil, but it is God's departing from them 
that is the great thing they should lay to heart. Par- 
ticular evils must not be compai-ed with this of God's 
departing. Whatsoever our condition be, yet, if God 
be not departing, we are well enough ; Though in the 
fire, though in the water, I will be with thee, saith the 
Lord. Mark the ground of the confidence of the saints 
in the time of affliction : in Psal. xlvi., (Luther's Psalm 
it is called, that is, a Psalm that Luther was wont to 
call to his friends to sing, when he heard of any danger, 
or of any sad occmTence,) •' Therefore will not we fear, 
though the earth be removed, and though the moun- 
tains be carried into the midst of the sea ; though the 
waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the moun- 
tains shake with the swelling thereof. The heathen 
may rage, and the kingdoms be removed : " yet all 
shall not trouble us. '\^'hy, what is the ground ? '• The 
Lord of hosts is with us ; "the God of Jacob is our re- 
fuge." These same words are repeated twice in the 
Psalm, "The Lord of hosts is with us." he is not 
departed ; " the God of Jacob is our refuge :" therefore 
no great matter what men can do unto us. But if one 
be in misery and God departed, oh how dreadful is 
his condition ! It was a dreadful speech of Saul, " I am 
sore distressed ; for the Philistines make war against 
me, and God is departed from me," 1 Sam. xxviii. 15. 
Oh, when the Philistines make war upon a people, 
when there are enemies at our gates, and our consci- 
ences tell us that God is departed from us, this is a sad 
condition. It was a woeful speech of Saul, God is now 
departed when I have most need of him. Woe to men 
then ! For, 

1. The root of all om' evils is very deep when God 
is departed. They lie not in this or that particular, we 
might make shift to get over them, the spirit of a 
man might sustain his infirmity; but the root of the 
evil lies in the departing of God ; and what can the 
creature do when God is departed? As the king of 
Israel, when the woman said, " Help, my lord, O king," 
rc])lied, " If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I 
help thee ? " And as all creatures say, If God I)e de- 
parted, we cannot help, nay, the verydevil cannot help 
if God be gone : so in 1 Sam. xxviii. 16, when Saul 
was sore distressed and would raise up Samuel, the 
devil, who came in the likeness of the prophet, said, 
" ^Vherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord 



406 



^VN KXl'OSiTlON OF 



Chap. IX. 



is departed from thee ? " No creatures in the world, nor 
devils, can do good when God is departed ; then evil is 
indeed altogether evil. An evil may have much good 
in it, and God may sanctify it for abundance of bless- 
ings to his people, so long as he continues with them ; 
but if he be gone, then the evil is only evil : and if God 
be gone all pi-otection is gone, and therefore thou art 
liable to evils of every kind. And however for the pre- 
sent the things that remain seem to be good, yet the 
blessing is gone if God be not with thee. And this 
evil that is upon thee is no other but the forerunner of 
eternal evil ; and the creature certainly then must needs 
sink when God is thus departed. Oh ! if it be so woeful 
a tiling for God to depart from a peo])le here in this 
■world, in regard of the withdrawing of outward things 
and mercies from them, what is it then for the Lord to 
depart for ever from the soul ! What an alteration does 
t!ie departing of the sun make! Take a delightful sun- 
shine summer's day, and how beautiful is it ! Now com- 
pare that w'ith a winter's dark, dismal night ; what 
makes the difference between these two ? The presence 
of the .sun in the one, and its absence from the other. 
This is but the presence, or the departing, of one of 
God's creatures. Oli ! if that makes such a difference in 
the world, what must the presence or the departing of 
the infinite God do to the soul ! Let the saints who 
enjoy God's presence prize it, and pray as the prophet 
did, " Lord, leave us not." 

How vain is the heart of man, that will depart from 
God ! If thou depart from him, he departs from thee 
too ; and woe to thee, whatsoever thou hast, when the 
Lord is departed from thee ! 

The Lord departs from individuals, as well as from 
kingdoms and nations, and woe to them also ! When 
God departs from particular persons, he withdraws his 
common gifts and graces, and the comforts that they 
were wont to have ; he curses all means for their- good ; 
and gives them up to temptations : those are the three 
special things that God does in departing from a soul. 
L He withdraws the common gifts and graces which it 
had, and the consequent comforts. 2. He curses the 
means that would do them good. And, 3. He gives 
them up to the strength and power of temptation. 

You will perhaps say. Many a soul that desires fur- 
ther jircscnce of God, may from these observations fear- 
that God is departed. 

Now though God may, doubtless, in some degree 
withdraw himself even from his saints, so that they may 
fear that he is departed from them ; yet one endence 
remains to thee, let thy condition be never so sad, if 
thou art a saint; God does not so depart from his 
saints, but he leaves behind some lustre, some little 
glimmering of himself, which serves to show the soul 
which way God is gone, and to draw the heart of a 
poor sinner after him, and make it restless and unquiet 
till it come into his presence again. When God de- 
parts from hy])ocrites, he departs so that he leaves 
nothing behind him, not so much as to make them 
follow on after him, and so they turn away and seek to 
make up the loss of God in something else ; but a saint 
of God, that has God beginning to depart in any degree, 
will not turn aside to seek to make up the loss of God 
in any thing else, but he still has so much of God as 
strongly to carry out his heart after him, so that he 
looks, and sighs, and groans, and cries after tlie Lord. 
David, in Psal. cxix. 8, shows us that God was in some 
degree departed from him, in his own view at least ; 
but mark this expression, " I will keep thy statutes : 
O forsake me not utterly." O Lord, melhinks I feel 
that thou art going, I feel that I have not those com- 
forts and those stirrings of thy Spirit which I was wont 
to have, but, O Lord, yet for all this, " I will keep thy 
statutes;" I am resolved, though I should never have 
further comforts from thee, yet, Lord, " I will keep thy 



statutes ;" do with me what thou wilt, I will do what I 
can to honour thee ; •' O forsake me not utterly." So long 
as thy heart can close with this text, and sav, as David, 
Lord, " I will keep thy statutes ;" though I feel not thy 
presence with me as I was wont to do, yet. Lord, I will 
do what I can to honour thee ; though I be in a sad 
condition, and thou seemest to leave me, yet, Lord, " I 
will keep thy statutes; O forsake me not utterly ;" so 
long, I say, as thou canst adopt David's words as thine 
own, it is an evidence God is not so departed as he is 
wont to depart from hj-pocrites, and wicked and ungod- 
ly men. And if it he so woeful a thing when God de- 
parts, truly then when God is about departing we had 
need cry mightily to him, botli for kingdoms and ])ar- 
ticular souls. When a malefactor stands before the 
judge, and is cning for mercy, if the judge prepare to 
leave the bench, he lifts up his voice, and shrieks out 
indeed. Good my lord, have mercy ! for he sees, if the 
judge once quit the bench, he is a lost man : so when 
we see God going, we should indeed be earnest in our 
pleadings. Many footsteps of God's departing from 
us there have been, and are, and yet still God leaves a 
light behind ; yea, blessed be God, he is not so depart- 
ed, but that he has left so much of himself as that we 
may know where to find him. 

Ver. 13. Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a 
pleasant place : but Ephraim shall bring forth his chil- 
dren to the murderer. 

" Ephraim, as I saw Tjtus, is planted in a pleasant 
place." WHiat ! God departed ? Woe to us when God 
departs from us! Why, but Ephraim might bless 
himself in his ])rosperous condition, Ephi-aim might 
say. Why do you speak of God's departing ? \^'e arc 
in a good condition, it is but your melancholy fears 
that make you speak so ; we were never sti'onger, 
never had better fortifications, were never more pros- 
))erous, than at present. This, as I have told you, has 
reference to the time of Jeroboam II., 2 Kings xiv. The 
prophet grants it, that they were in a prosperous ■ 
estate ; Ephraim was like Tyrus, " planted in a pleasant 
place." Tyrus was a ricli city, and of exceeding 
strength, situated much Hke (as it is reported) to that 
famous city in Italy, Venice, on a rock in the sea, 
about seven hundred paces from the land. T)Te was 
a place of exceeding strength. Quintus Curtius, lib. 4. 
de Reb. gestis Alexandri., saith, that Alexander in his 
conquest had more to do to conquer Tyrus than all 
Asia besides, it was such a mighty and strong place. 
Pliny, lib. 5. cap. 19, saith, the compass of it was 
nineteen miles. It was the general mart of almost all 
the world, and was consequently very full of people : 
to this especially the prophet refers, when he saith, 
Ejihraim was like Tyrus ; because Ephraim did so 
glory in his numerous progeny, and Tyrus was a mighty 
po])ulous place. Pliny saith, three other ancient cities 
came out of it, as Lepti's LJtica, and that great Cartilage, 
which was but a spring out of this root ; that Carthage, 
which was so famous a city, that it contended for a long 
time with Rome for the monarchy and dominion of 
the whole world. Yea, and Gades, divided, as it was, 
from the rest of the earth, was peopled by a Tyrian 
colony. But we need not so much recur to these 
authors, for in Ezck. xxvii. 3, 4, you have the city 
Tjtus described as a most brave, rich, and glorious 
city: "O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, 
which art a merchant of the people for many isles. 
Thus saith the Lord God ; O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am 
of perfect beauty. Thy borders are in the midst of the 
seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty." And 
then, ver. 33, " When thy wares went forth out of the 
the .seas, thou filledst many people; thou didst enrich 
the kings of the earth witli the multitude of tliy riches 



J 



Ver. 13. 



Tlii; PltOPHECY OF HOSEA. 



•107 



and of thy merchandise." Now saith the Lord here, 
Epln-aim is thus ; she said to herself, that she was so 
prosperous, and strong, and ricli every way, she was 
like to Tyrus ; I grant it, saith the prophet, and I have 
seen it so, Ephraim is thus, even when God is departing 
from her. Hence, 

Ohs. 1. God may depart from a Ivingdom, or an in- 
dividual, in the time of their greatest prosperity. When 
thou art nearest eternal misery, thou mayst be at the 
very summit of outward prosperity. Physicians say 
that the uttermost degree of health in the body, is the 
next step to sickness : it is indeed true, that the highest 
degree of outward prosperity is often but the forerun- 
ner of ruin. Oh ! let us learn never to tru,5t in our 
prosperity, but always to walk with fear and trembling 
before the Lord : never let us think that we are safe and 
well because we have outward things as we desire ; we 
may have them so, and yet that very night the word 
may come, "This night shall thy soul be required of 
thee," as you know was the case with the rich man in 
the Gospel ; when he had his barns full, and was de- 
liberating what to do, the Lord said, " Thou fool, this 
night shall thy soul be required of thee." And Nebu- 
chadnezzar, at the very time when he was glorying in 
the magnificent palace he had made, the word came 
forth against him. But further, it should especially 
teach us that, 

Obs. 2. As we should trust in no outward prosperity, 
so, not in any fortifications, however strong. Tjtus 
was an invincible place, as it seems, jet God could 
pull it down. Nor are we to trust in the multitude of 
soldiers. This example is as pointed as any to teach 
men to trust in no external advantages whatsoever. 

Calvin renders this somewhat differently, and ti'uly 
not without some probability : I saw Ephraim, that 
thou wert planted in a pleasant place, as in Tyrus ; 
and interprets it thus. Thou art a plant like to the 
])lants that were in Tyrus. Indeed the word nU3 
translated " pleasant place," signifies also a building, 
because they are wont to build in the most delightful 
places ; it likewise signifies a secure place of habitation. 
Now (saith he) Tyrus was upon a rock, and therefore 
they had little ground for orchards, or gardens, or 
plants, but only such as were made by art, and with a 
gi'eat deal of cost : and as men, when they are striving 
with nature, if they mean to do any thing at all, will 
do it to purpose, and fetch out the most curious plants, 
and bestow a great deal of cost to cover them from the 
coldness of the winter ; so Ephraim was compared to 
such a plant, that is, God was at a great deal of charge 
for it, and very careful he was to preserve it. As before 
God compared his love to his people to a longing 
woman, that longed for the first-ripe fruits ; so here 
God compares his respect to his people to the care ex- 
])eiided on a tender plant in a garden made on un- 
likely ground, at abundant cost and charge; look, what 
care would be taken to preserve such ])lant in covering 
and keeping it from the frost, such was my care 
towards Ephraim, howsoever they have served me. 
Thus, saith Calvin, to aggravate their sins, God shows 
his care of them. But, adds the text, for all this, 
though my care hath been thus over them, yet they 
" shall bring forth their children to the murderer." 

Obs. 3. God never shows so much respect to any, 
but that upon their forsaking him wrath follows. Yet, 
after all this, "Ephraim shall bring forth his children 
to the murderer ;" as if their cliildrcn had been born 
for no other end but to satisfy the mouth of the sword, 
to be objects of the fury of the murderer. 

" But Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the 
murderer." Sometimes indeed in war men are led 
forth even by the treachery, or the spite at least, of 
their commanders, only that they might be a prey to 
the murderers. If any wicked officers in an army 



have a spite against a man, or any particular company 
of men, ordinarily this is most against the godly men 
in the army, they will set them upon the most desperate 
service on purpose that they might be cut off. or at 
least fall into the hand of the murderer. As David, 
for his own ends in another way, would set Uriah in the 
forefront, and would have others ■withdraw from him, 
on purpose that he might fall by the enemy. Many 
children have been brought forth to the murderers 
even in this way. 

06s. 4. The curse of God goes forward from the 
parents to the children. It is for the sin of the parents 
that the children are to be brought forth to the mur- 
derers. And especially the curse rests not upon idolaters, 
but g-oes on to their children. There are tM'o branches 
in this observation : 

\. The curse of God stays not upon the parents, but 
goes towards the children ; Deut. xxviii. 18, " Cursed 
shall be the fruit of thy body ;" and especially to the 
children of idolaters. So Psal. cxxx^•ii. 8, 9, " O daugh- 
ter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed ; happy shall 
he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. 
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little 
ones against the stones." And Isa. xiii. 18, " Their 
bows also shall dash the young men to pieces ; and 
they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb ; their 
eye shall not spare children." So in the second com- 
mandment, the Lord there threatens to visit the sins 
of the fathers upon the chikken, of them that hate him, 
to the third and fourth generation. 

You will say. Why should children suffer for their 
parents" sins ? 

You will kill young vipers and snakes though they 
never have stung ; so, God sees guilt enough in the chil- 
cben of wicked men and of idolaters, so that in justice 
he may destroy them ; but he the rather destroys them 
because they be the childi'en of such. "Wlien a man 
commits treason he deserves death for his own crime, 
but if the king hear that his father and grandfather 
were traitors, he shall die the rather because of them. 
So it is true, the childi'en of the godly have sin and 
guilt in them, as well as the children of wicked men; • 
but the children of wicked men, having guilt of their 
own, and so liable to God's justice, God will take the 
advantage the rather to do justice on them because of 
then- parents' wickedness and ungodliness ; and this is 
righteous enough with God. 

And the children of idolaters, above all, shall not be 
s])ared, especially those that live to many years, be- 
cause no sin is so much strengthened by appealing to 
the example of forefathers as superstition and idolatry. 
Why should we be wiser than our forefathers ? WTiat 
is the argument for our superstitious vanities, but our 
forefathers did thus ? And therefore is it observable, 
that in none of the commandments does God threaten 
judgments upon the children but in the second com- 
mandment, and that because no commandment is so 
broken from the example and plea of forefathers as 
the second ; and therefore let the children of idolaters 
and false worshippers look» to it that they repent from 
the sins of their forefathers. Instead of pleading for 
the sins of your forefathers, you should fall down and 
humble your souls on account of them ; or otherwise 
that is the very reason that God will punish the sins of 
the forefathers upon the children, because their fathers 
did worship God in a false way, and they will do 
so too. 

2. This is a special fruit of God's curse upon chil- 
dren, that they shall be brought forth to the mur- 
derer. In times of war, if you make not your peace 
with God, it is just with God that things should be or- 
dered so that your children should be brought forth to 
the murderers. O you tender-hearted mothers, who 
are loth that the wind should blow upon your children, 



AX EXrOSITIOX OF 



Cii.u'. IX. 



look upon tliem and pity them; liow can you endure 
to see their blood gush out ? how can you endiu-e to 
see your little ones dashed in the streets, or upon the 
pikes of the soldiers ? If your hearts cannot endure 
this, seek to make your peace with God, to deliver 
yourselves and your children from a curse which has 
befallen manv. We know not what these wars may 
bring forth : what they have done in Ireland we have 
heard much of, how the jjarents have seen their chil- 
dren brought forth to the murderers ; and though it is 
true, in many cities and places where the enemy has 
come, they have not generally, at least, broken forth 
into such abominable cruelties as this ; but who knows 
what a summer or two may bring forth ? for, certainly, 
where war continues it drives on with more and more 
rage. 

You will say then, Oh ! let us make peace upon any 
terms. 

No, let it rather be your care to make your peace 
with God ; that is your way to deliver your children 
from being brought forth to the murderers ; for if it be 
a false peace, it may but ha.sten the evils you appre- 
hend. The curse of God is especially severe in this, 
■when it shall come to pass before theii- veiy parents' 
eyes, for so the prophet speaks, as if they should be 
brought forth even before them. Many of the heathens 
have very pathetical expressions about the sad condi- 
tion of parents, when their children are slain before 
their eyes : as that of Priam over his son 
c<riopi3r.*,'qu« Polites, slain by Pynhus, May the gods, 
reJiS«ilt"ci>f"p" if there be any divinity in heaven which 
luuu^^v'ill;'"""' '■pg'"''!* such things, retribute you for 
this ! Thou hast even sjirinkled the blood 
of the child upon the father's face. He was not able to 
refrain, though he saw himself ready to die next, but 
cries to the very heavens to revenge it. And how sad 
is the story of the emperor Mauritius, whose sons, and 
■wife, and daughters, were brought and slain before his 
very eyes ! If your children did but understand this 
text that I am now opening, they would even look 
upon you and cry with tears in their eyes, O father ! 
motlier ! repent, repent, and seek God for youi-selves 
and for us ; repent and make up your peace with God, 
that we may not be brought forth to the murderers. 

Ijut if this be so great an evil, for parents to have 
their children to be brought forth to the murderers 
here, how great an evil then is it for jjarcnts to bring 
forth children to be fuel for God's wrath for all eter- 
nity, to be lii'ebrands for the everlasting burnings. You 
then that are parents, look upon your children and 
soften your hearts by such thoughts as these : Oh ! what 
a sad thing would it be that such a babe that came out 
of my womb should be a firebrand for God's wrath to 
burn upon to all eternity ! Oh ! how had I need jiray, 
and bring up my children in the fear of God, lest I 
should be such an unhappy father, as out of my loins 
not only to bring forl'i a child to the murderei"s, but 
for the devils in hell ! Uut let not this discourage you 
that are godly to venture your children in lawful wars ; 
in such a cause if you be willing to sacrifice your chil- 
dren to God, and they be brought forth even to death, 
yet are they brought forth to martyrdom, rather than 
to the murderer. Tlioti shouldst rather rejoice that 
thou hast a child to bring forth in such a cause, than 
be overpresscd with sorrow that the life of thy child 
has been taken away by the murderer; and some of 
vour children, though with the loss of their own lives, 
have been a means to keep you and us all from the 
hand of the murderer, to keep the city and the king- 
dom from being overrun with tyranny, idolatrj', and all 
kinds of profaneness ; and the good which has been tlius 
ellccted, may compensate the lives of your children. 
Kev. xii. 11, 12, "And they overcame him by the blood 
of the Lamb, and bv the word of their testimony ; and 



they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore 
rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them." When 
parents shall be willing to give up their- children in the 
cause of God, even children, having made up their peace 
with God, shall be ■nilHng to sacrifice themselves in his 
cause; and then ■when they " love not their lives unto 
the death," there shall be joy in heaven, and they shall 
overcome in dying, even as Jesus Christ overcame in 
his death. I remember I have read of Xenophon, that 
when sacrificing to some idol god, he wore a crown 
upon his head, and there came news to him, that his 
child was dead, and he presently j)ulled his crown from 
ofl' his head in token of sorrow ; but then asking how 
he died, answer was made, that he died in the wars ; 
whereupon he called for his crown again. So per- 
haps some of you have lost your children, nature can- 
not but work ; yea, but then ask how they lost their 
lives ; they lost them valiantly, in a work that did as 
much concern the glory of God as ever any war did, 
and seeing they died so, rather bless God than be so 
sorrowful that they fell into the baud of murderers. 

Ver. 14. Give them, Lord: trhat trilt thou give'/ 
giie them a miscanyitig tiomb and dry breaits. 

Upon the declaration that they shall be brought 
forth to the murderer's hand, then follows, " Give 
them, O Lord : what wilt thou give ? give them a mis- 
carrying womb and dry breasts." 

Some think this was an imprecation by a spirit of 
prophecy, as if the holy prophet had his heart filled 
with the wrath of God : " Give them, O Lord : what 
wilt thou give ? give them a miscarrying womb and 
dry breasts." 

Uut rather, according to most interpreters, I think 
this expression is one of commiseration ; that is, fore- 
seeing the lamentable condition that the ten tribes 
should be in ere long, the prophet pities their condition, 
and \\ ould fain come in and pray for them, and begins, 
"Give them, O Lord:" and then he stops, as if he 
should say, but, O Lord, what shall I say for them ? "Give 
them;" but. Lord, I know not what to ask for them, I 
am at a stand when I consider what they are, and their 
many previous mercies, what waniings they have had, 
how hardened they are in their sin, and how thy word 
is gone forth ; but yet, " Give them, O Lord :" shall I say, 
Lord, give them deliverance, give them j)eace, give them 
prosperity still? Lord, I d<ue not, that 1 cannot ask ; all 
means have been used to bring them unto thee, and 
yet they stand out against thee : thou knowest they 
are dear to me, they are of my flesh, and I should be 
glad that they might be saved ; but thy gloiy is dearer 
to me than they are, and therefore for that I cannot 
pray : but yet, " Give them, O Lord ; what wilt thou 
give ? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts." 
What ! shall the enemies be let out upon them ? shall 
they and then- children be made a prey to the murderer ? 
Lord, rather let no more be born of tliem, rather let 
those children that otherwise should have been bom, 
and miglit have Uved in their own land, Lord God, let 
them not be born rather than come to so great miser)-. 
So he doth not pray for " a miscarrjing womb and 
dry breasts " absolutely, but comparatively. 

Obs. 1. Men's sins often make God's ministers and 
saints at a loss what to say in ))rayer. Truly, though 
there has been a mighty spirit of prayer through God's 
mercy in the kingdom, yet, considering that since God 
has shown himself willing to deliver us, and Christ has 
been coming even upon his white horse, in peace, to take 
the kingdom to himself, as gi-eat a spirit of malignity 
lias appeared against Christ and his saints as ever was 
in the kingdom, it puts many of the ministers and 
saints of God to a nonplus in their prayers, and strait- 
ens their verj- hearts in the day of their fasting ; when 



Vek. U. 



THE PROPHECY OF ROSEA. 



40'J 



they are to seek God, that the Lord would give forth 
merc\', they know not what to say. The Lord knoMs 
that our present condition is more unfit for mercy than 
at the very first day. Tlius a nation, thus jjartieular 
people, may put the servants of God to a stand in their 
prayers, and straiten their hearts. Oh ! had people 
gone on in the embracing of reformation as they seemed 
to do at the first, how enlarged would the hearts of the 
saints have been in prayer ! O Lord 1 give England 
mercy, give England deliverance ! 

Obs. 2. The fruitfulness and barrenness of the womb 
are from God. " Give them ; give them a misear- 
rjing womb and dry breasts." This is from God. In 
Gen. XXX. 1, 2, when Rachel cried for children. "Give 
me children, or else I die," the text saith, that '■ Jacob's 
anger was kindled against Rachel ; and he said. Am I 
in God's stead ? " The learned Paulus Phagius saith 
that the Hebrews have this tradition, that there are four 
keys in God's hand, which he gives not into the hand 
of any angel ; 

1. The key of the rain. " The Lord shall open unto 
thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain 
irato thy land in his season," Dent, xxviii. 12. 

2. The key of food. "The ej'es of all wait upon thee ; 
and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou 
openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desu'e of every 
living thing," Psal. cxlv. 15, 16. 

3. The key of the grave. " Behold, O my people, I 
will open your graves, and cause you to come up out 
of yoiu' graves," Ezek. xxxvii. 12. 

4. The key of the womb. Gen. xxx. 1, 2. 

These four keys God keeps in his own hand, and there- 
fore God's providence is to be observed in this, and 
there ought to be a submission to his hand in it. 

Obs. Z. Sin may bring such evil times upon a people 
that those who live in them had better not been born, 
or died before such times arrived. '■ Give them a mis- 
carrying womb and di'y breasts." Children that should 
live to endure all the miseries of those times that are 
coming, had been better not have been born, or have 
died long before such times, saith the projjhet. We must 
take heed of wishing this upon every little affliction 
that befalls us. Some, if their chUdi'en do but anger 
tliem, wish they had never been born, or that they had 
died many years ago ; but this is wicked frowai'dness 
against God himself; those that are so ready to wish 
their children had not been born, are the least sensible 
of the sin that causes the affliction upon which they 
wish such things. 

'■ Give them a miscarrying womb and diy breasts." 
There may be many reasons for this prayer of the pro- 
phet ; as, 

1. Such miserable havoc might be made that parents 
might even wish that they never had any chilth-eu. 

2. Cruel t)Tanny might be exercised on their souls 
and bodies. 

3. They might be drawn from God by false religion, 
and so be in a condition worse than if they had not 
been born. 

Hence parents to whom God denies children, or from 
whom he takes them away, should quiet themselves in 
God's arrangement, especially in such times as these. 
It may be God has taken away your chikken to deliver 
them from greater evils ; as in the house of Jeroboam 
there was but one child that had any good in it, and 
saith God, " That child shall die ; because in him there 
is found some good thing toward the Lord God of 
Israel," 1 Kings xiv. 12, 13. So that God takes away 
many that he loves, and lets others live for whom he has 
not so much regard. 

Yes, some may say, if I were sure that their souls 
were safe, I would be content, though God took them 
away. 

That is true indeed; if your children were saved, what 



loss were it for them to be taken away and received to 
heaven, and there to live for ever with Chi'ist, not to sin 
or sorrow more ? But, however, you may satisfy your- 
selves by these reflections ; 

1. That they are under an indefinite promise, though 
not a universal. 

2. Suppose they should not be saved, yet it were 
better they should be taken away than live to sin more 
against God. They might have lived to have done a 
great deal of mischief in the world, if they were such 
as God did not intend to save ; therefore quiet thyself. 
God sees further than thou dost, when he either denies 
thee children, or takes them away, in such times as 
these. 

3. Times when pubHc evils are threatened are good 
times to die in. If it be better not to be born in evil 
times, then certainly it is no great evil to die in evil 
times. Good men are taken away from the evil to 
come. As, if a woman's breast were to be lanced, or 
cut oflF, would not the tender father take the children 
out of the room in the mean time ? AVlio knows but 
God may have the breast of his church, our mother, to 
be even cut off for a time, and now oblige her to suffer 
heavier things than ever she has done. If God then 
take away his tender children, that will not be able to 
bear such a sight as that, what great evil is it ? So we 
read, when God's glory was to pass by, he puts Moses 
into the hole of a rock ; and truly the graves of the 
saints are but as the holes of the rock till the glory of 
God's justice passes by a people. 

4. If the sins of parents may be the cause of such 
things to children, that they had better never been bom, 
let parents take heed that they lay not up such WTath 
for an inheritance for their children ; their children 
afterwards may even wish they never had been born of 
such parents. If parents be careless in the education 
of their chUdi'en, and bring them not up in the fear of 
the Lord, hereafter their children may curse the time 
that ever they were born of them, and say. Oh that I 
rather had been of the offs]n-ing of vipers, or the 
generation of tbagons, than that I had come of such 
parents ! Oh that my mother had had a miscarrying 
womb, or that she never had had breasts to give me 
suck ! Certainly, this will one day be the voice of many 
children against their parents. Look to it, that there 
be not a father nor mother in this place that may give 
cause to their children thus to wish they had never 
been born of such parents. And, certainly, if the en- 
dm-ing of sorrows and misery in this world may put 
them into such a condition, what then will sin, and being 
the authors of miseries to others, do ? Those children 
that are abominable and wicked in their lives, and are 
causes of mischief to others, with how much cause may 
it be said, that it had been better their mother's womb 
had miscarried : as it was said of Judas, that it had 
been better that he had never been born. And so it 
may be said of many at this day. What abundance of 
evil are they the cause of to others ! What woeful dis- 
turbances, distractions, and calamities do some men 
bring upon a nation ! Had it not been better that their 
mothers' wombs had miscarried, and their breasts had 
not given them suck ? 

And again. What hon-ible wickedness are some 
guilty of! How many mothers this day have cause to 
say, Oh that my womb had miscarried of such a child ! 
that my breasts had ne\er given such a child suck ! 
that ever one shoidd have come out of my womb to do 
so much mischief, to take up arms to fight against his 
country, and against the saints, for the establishment 
of slavery and t)Tanny ! Oh that these breasts of 
mine had never nourished such, for it may be thev will 
prove very murderers ! Certainly, if ever there were a 
time to wish their wombs had misean-ied, and their 
breasts had never given suck, these are the times many 



410 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IX. 



may do so. Christ saith, in Luke xxiii. 29, " Blessed 
are tlie barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the 
jjaps which never gave suck." I say, concerning; many 
in this kingdom at present might this be said. If any 
prophet could have foreseen that thou shouldst have 
been an actor in so much mischief as has been done in 
this kingdom of late, thou wouldst have said Amen to 
his prayer when he cried against thy mother. Lord, give 
this woman " a miscarrying womb and dry breasts." 

Ver. 15. jlll their wickedness is in Gilgal : for there 
I hated tliem : for the tvickedness of their doings I iiill 
drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more : 
all their princes are revotters. 

" All their wickedness is in Gilgal : for there I hated 
them." What this Gilgal was, I opened in chap. iv. 
ver. 15. It was a place very famous for many remark- 
able things : stones were set up in remembrance of the 
great mercy in crossing the Jordan, there was the first 
passover after their deliverance, and there, too, they 
were circumcised : " And the Lord said unto Joshua, This 
day have I rolled away the reproach of Egj-pt from off 
you. Wherefore the name of the ])lace is called Gilgal 
unto this day," Josh. v. 9. They were not circumcised 
during all that time in the wilderness, from whence it 
was called Gilgal, because the reproach was there rolled 
away. There, too, they first ate the fruit of the land. 
But now they liave rendered this place of many mer- 
cies, the most abominable in the country ; for because 
there were such great things done in Gilgal, they 
thourfit that it was a holy place, and therefore might 
justify their superstitious rites : God afterwards chose 
another place for his worship, yet they thought to sa- 
crifice and worship in Gilgal; they thought it might be 
justified, because it was a place where such gi-eat things 
had been done. Now, saith God, I never intended 
that ; " all their wickedness is in Gilgal." 

Obs. 1. The superstitious are proud to put holiness 
upon places in which remarkable occurrences connected 
with religion have taken place. This we have had oc- 
casion to speak of before, and therefore I pass it. 

" All their wickedness." That is, theii' chief wicked- 
ness ; as if God should say, There is a great deal of 
wickedness among them, there are murders, and thefts, 
and abundance of other evils, breaches of the second 
table ; but yet, above all, their wickedness is at Gilgal ; 
they think to make use of that place where I showed 
so mucli mercy to them, they think to justify their su- 

Serstitious worship by performing it there, but I will 
ave them know that I hate this : " there I hated 
them," saith God, I abhor this whereby they think to 
justify themselves. 

Obs. 2. Above all sins, the sin of idolatry makes a 
people hated of God. Because in that sin men think, 
by their own forms of worship, to atone to God for their 
wickedness ; they present their own ways of worship, to 
justify themselves in all other kind of wiokcdness. 

Obs. :i. To take occasion to sin from God's mercy, is 
that w'hich God especially hates. They had met with 
much mercy at Gilgal. and they made it an occasion to 
their wickedness. To make that which should engage 
us to God to be an occasion of wickedness against God, 
is abominable in God's eyes. As you read in the law, 
you m»ist not seethe a kid in its mother's milk, Exod. 
xxiii. 19; that which is the milk to preserve the kid, 
must not be a means for a second death ; to seethe or 
boil it in its mother's milk, saith God, is unnatural 
cruelty: so for us to turn those things which should be 
a means to engage our hearts further to God into an 
occasion of further sinning against God, is abominable; 
" there," saith God, " I hated them." 

But further concerning (illgal. Their idolatrous 
priests told them, as is probable, that that place was a 



holy place, and that surely God. who had appeared so 
to them there, would accejjt of their services in that 
place rather than in any other ; and so, though God 
afterwai-ds chose another place, yet still tliey doted 
upon this Gilgal, and that which was so famous for 
God's worship, became as infamous for superstition and 
wickedness. 

Polanus on the text compares Wittenberg in Ger- 
many to this Gilgal. Those places where the Lord has 
been peculiarly gracious to people, the devil seeks 
especially to corrupt. AVittenberg was the beginning 
of the Reformation by Luther: now, .saith he, the devil 
has made it the theatre of divers heresies : so here, 
that place which had been the scene of the greatest 
mercy, is the place of the greatest wickedness; the 
devil envies it so much the more, and all their wicked- 
ness is here. 

" All their wickedness." That Ls, their chief wicked- 
ness : their superstition and idolatry is the chief and the 
great wickedness that provokes God against a people ; 
not only because of the presumption in it, but because 
it is an inlet to all other kind of wickedness. 

Obs. 4. Where there is false worship in any place, 
all manner of wickedness follows. People stick to 
their superstitions more than to any thing, and there- 
fore that is the chief wickedness ; yea, and thev think 
by them to satisfy God for their other sins ; all their 
wickedness is there. 

Obs. 5. To sin where there are the testimonies of 
God's abundant mercies, is very abominable. That is 
a great aggravation of sin, to sin in the face of the tes- 
timonies of the mercies of God. What ! where so much 
mercy, yet there to be wicked and abominable ? Does 
God fill thy family, thy chamber, thy closet, thy bed, 
thy shop, with the testimonies of his mercy ? Take 
heed how thou sinncst there where there are abundant 
testimonies of God's mercy to witness against thee, to 
the aggravation of thy sin. 

" All their wickedness is in Gilgal : for there I hated 
them." I find some interpreters, and 
that not one or two, but many, (and that il'bre^'lnurJrSS^ 
makes me speak of this interpretation,) 
that refer this wickedness to the casting off the govern- 
ment that God had appointed, and introducing a new 
form : Gilgal was the place where they would have 
Saul to be their king, and east off the government by 
judges that God had appointed among them; now this 
was the ground of all their other obstinate wickedness, 
and God remembers this a long time after, and saith, 
" .\ll their wickedness is in Gilgal ; for there I hated 
them." 

Ob.':. 6. It is hateful to God to cast off the govern- 
ment to which God would have us subject. The Jews 
IkuI both their civil and ecclesiastical government by 
Divine institution, they were both mixed in one there. 
And tliough now we have not our civil government by 
Divine institution, but it is left to the creation of man, 
according as in prudence men in several countries shall 
think best : but ecclesiastical government certainly is 
as much by Divine institution now, as ever it was; and 
it must be so. because it is spiritual, and nothing can 
work in a spiritual way upon the inward man, but that 
which is by Divine institution : therefore whatever the 
government be, (I will not meddle with the particulars,) 
yet we must take heed how we cast off that which is 
appointed by God, for that is hateful in his sight: 
" there I hated them." We had need therefore search 
and examine to find what that is. and if we think it be 
not so clear as their government was to them, we must 
take so much the more ])ains to examine, and not think 
it long that there is so much time spent in seeking to 
find out what the government should be, for it is nn 
light matter. Many think it but a circumstance, aiid 
that we need not trouble ourselves so murh about it, 



VeR. 16. 



iiiE PKOPHECY OF HUSEA. 



4U 



nor spend so much time in searching it out. Leavn 
henceforth to look upon it as a great matter, as a mat- 
ter upon which the welfare or the evil of a kingdom 
much depends, for so it was here : Because they cast off, 
saith God, the governnient that I would have, " there I 
hated them." 

06.S. 7. Some sins provoke God to anger, and some 
to grief, but some to hatred : " there I hated them." 
It is dreadful when our sins provoke hatred. This is 
the great difference between the sins of tiie .saints and 
others; the sins of the saints may anger God, may 
grieve God, but the sins of others provoke God to ha- 
tred. " There I hated them." 

06s. 8. Sometimes God manifests his hatred in the 
very places where men sin against him : " ihere I hated 
them." As a man's spirit will rise if he come to a place 
where he has been wronged by any ; so saith God, every 
time he looks upon Gilgal, Oh, there was this wicked- 
ness committed, " there I hated them." 

"For the wickedness of their doings I will drive 
them out of mine house." They shall remain no longer 
in a church state, they shall remain no longer in my 
house. 

Those who, under the colour of being under the 
church of God, yet live in the ways of wickedness, God 
will unchurch them even in regard of the outward ap- 
pearance of a church estate ; " 1 will drive them out of 
mine house." This is a di-eadful expression : for a father 
to take his child or servant, and drive them out of his 
house, denotes great indignation : to be di'iven out of 
God's house is a sore evil, that makes all other evils in- 
deed to be evil, as abiding in God's house is a great 
blessing, and recompenses the want of many outward 
blessings. If any of you that have been servants to 
great men, have been driven out of their houses for 
conscience' sake, yet if God take you into his house 
jou are well enough ; and for that you have a famous 
scriptm-e in Psal. lii. 8, " But I am like a green olive 
tree in the house of God : 1 trust in the mercy of God 
for ever and ever." Upon what occasion was this Psalm 
jjenned ? When David was driven out of tlie house of 
Saul by means of Doeg, who so exasperated Saul against 
him, that David was driven from his house, so that he 
dared not come into it. What comfort had David then ? 
•' But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God ; " 
though I cannot be in Saul's house, and enjoy its pri- 
vileges, yet, blessed be God, that I may be in his house, 
and there thrive and prosper as a green olive tree. 

Obs. 9. God cannot endure wickedness in his house, 
" For the wickedness of their doings I will drive them 
out of my house," neither should we. As God accounts 
it his dishonour to have wickednesss and wicked men 
in his house, so should we in the chm-ch regard the un- 
godly. We must not make God's house an unclean 
place for all ; the prof; ne should be driven out, as Christ 
drove out the buyers and sellers out of the temple ; yea, 
and so should all Christians drive out of their families 
wicked and ungodly servants : " He that worketh deceit 
shall not dwell within my house : he that telleth lies 
shall not tarry in my sight," saith David, Psal. ci. 1. It 
is a dishonour for any who make profession of religion, 
that though they be not themselves scandalous in their 
own lives, yet there are those in their house that live 
scandalously, their servants are as wicked as any ; this 
is a dishonour to religion : God drives out wickedness 
out of his house, and do you expel it from yours. 

"I wUl love them no more." By "love" here is 
meant, the communication of outward good things, for 
that carnal hearts account to be the only love of God : 
indeed, if they may have outward prosperity here in this 
world, they make that an argument of God's love to 
them. Well, saith God, though you have had many 
such fruits of my love, yet I will lov.e you no more, 
I ■will take away aU those privileges and good things 



which you have enjoyed. There are privileges and good 
things that come from no other love but that which 
may be taken away; oh, let not us be satisfied with 
such, let us be satisfied with nothing else but that 
which comes from everlasting love ! You may have 
your outward estates, you may have comely bodies, 
health, strength, success in your labours, yea, you may 
have church privileges, and yet all this not come from 
the everlasting love of God, that can never be taken 
away : these fruits of God's love may be taken from 
\ou, and God may say as concerning all these, I will 
love you no more ; but there are fruits of love, the 
sanctifying graces of God's Spirit, the fruits of electing 
love, and God can never say of these, I will love you no 
more. 

" No more." After the many deliverances this people 
had in a way of love, God resolves with himself that he 
will have done with them, he " will love them no more," 
he will deliver them no more. God may withdraw the 
sense of his love from his people for a while, but yet 
manifest it again ; the afflictions of the saints are but 
a little cloud that soon passes over, the sun soon breaks 
in again upon them, and love shines ; but the sun of 
the wicked and ungodly sets, and never rises again. 
This is di'cadful, when a man's ruin, or a people's ruin, 
is thus sealed by God ; whatever mercies you have had 
heretofore, yet now there is an end of all ; adieu, mercy, 
adieu, love; I had gracious manifestations of them once 
to my soul, but they are now gone ; I must never enjoy 
them more, God has now changed his administration 
toward me, I must expect nothing but wrath, nothing 
but ruin, from the hand of his sore displeasure, and to be 
sunk everlastingly. Oh, let not thy provocations of God 
be continued, do not add to them. I have dealt falsely 
with God, dallied and trifled with tlie Lord, many times 
promising fair, but when I was delivered then have I dealt 
wickedly with thee, O Lord : but now. Lord, no more. 
Oh, take heed, if thou addest any more to thy wickedness, 
lest that this dreadful sentence be pronounced in heaven 
against thee, I will love thee no more. The words in the 
original are. oranN t^DVS' nS I will add no more love : I 
have done enough already, I will do good to this wretch- 
ed creature no more ; my goodness and mercy have had 
their turn ; now, Spirit, strive with them no more ; or- 
dinances, no more do them any good ; mercy, meddle 
no more with them : " I will love them no more." 

" All their princes are revolters." This is a very 
strange expression. "VATiat " all ? " Yes, even from Jero- 
boam to Hosea's time, all the princes of Israel were 
wicked men, for two hundred and fifty years, in all suc- 
cessions eveiT one was naught, false, and ungodly, all 
were revolters. The paranomasia in the original is 
elegant, D'Ti'iO dnnw princes revolters, its force cannot 
well be expressed in our version. The Seventy render 
the latter word by dnHBovvreg, men that could not be 
persuaded ; all their princes were men that could not be 
persuaded ; they were set upon theh own way, their 
own ends, and would have their own politic fetches ; 
and let propiiets, let any of the godly, attempt to show 
them the mind of God, they were resolved on their own 
way, they would follow this course at all risks, for it 
they would venture even their lives, and the loss of 
their estates. 

Obs. 10. Men great in power and authority think it 
a dishonour to alter their minds ; such men will go on 
desperately, to the ruin of themselves and of their king- 
doms, rather that hearken to counsel. Luther on the 
place has this expression; Being elated j.,..,,, p„„„,;^ „,j_ 
by their power, they would be above the wm s..piTiotes esse 
word itself; they thought it much that 
their hearts should submit to the authority even of 
God's word. This is the wickedness of men's hearts, when 
they grow great they swell above the word of God. 

" All tlieir princes are revolters." Some of them 



41J 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Cii.u'. IX. 



made some kind of show when tliey came first to the 
crown, and raised great hopes that their times would be 
l)etter than before, and that things that were evil in 
former princes" reigns would now be reformed, but 
within a while they went all the same way : thus Jehu, 
and so some others, promised fair at first, but they all 
turned to be revolters. From whence, 

Obs. 11. The nature of creature engagements. See 
what they will work in the hearts of men when in the 
l)ursuit of their honours, their preferments, their great 
places of dignity, and i)Ower, and profit, and gain ; see 
what they will do. Evil princes being engaged, and 
afraid of losing their power, if any should go to Jeru- 
salem to worship, all went in one stream, not one of 
them was taken off from their great engagements; 
indeed many in smaller matters may be di-awn ofi' to 
God, but if it come to a gi-eat matter, then none. Thus 
it has happened with us. Perhaps some poor ministers, 
with small livings, would discern the truths of God, 
and the sinfulness of ceremonies ; but where did your 
deans and bishops ? where did any of the prelates that 
had great engagements ? they would never see the 
truth that now almost every body sees, their great en- 
gagements hindered them. And so the great engage- 
ments of princes hindered them, though the truth was 
clear enough. 

Obs. 12. According to people's interests so they are ; 
as they see those above them go that have pov.er 
over them, that way people will go. Ephraim is 
wicked, because " all their princes arc revolters." Those 
that are in places of ])ower drive the people along be- 
fore them. God has little honour in the world but as 
it suits men's interests. 

Obs. 13. Princes, though they should be used with 
reverence, yet must not be flattered ; their sins must 
be showed plainly unto them, though they can hardly 
bear it. "All theu' princes are revolters."' "Touch 
the mountains and they will smoke ;" touch the great 
men, reprove but them, and presently the heat of their 
wrath rises, and they smoke even with indignation. 
But yet those that are faithful about them should trust 
God with their places, and estates, and with their 
lives. Oh had we but those about princes that would 
deal faithfully, and show them how far the guilt and 
the evil of blood may be ujion them ! certainly it would 
be otherwise with us than it is at this day, had we but 
Latimers and Deerings. Of Latimer it is said, that 
sending a book to King Henry the Eighth, he wTote 
in the first page of it, " Whoremongers and adulterers 
God will judge." And Deering, in his sermons even 
before the queen, speaking of disorders of the times, 
said, " These and these things are thus and thus, and 
you sit still and do nothing. May we not then well 
say with the prophet. It is the mercy of the Lord that 
we are not consumed, seeing there is so much disobe- 
dience both in subjects and m prince." Certainly much 
good might come had we now men of such spirits as 
heretofore lived. 

Obs. 14. When princes successively are wicked, 
there is little hope of good to a people. The saints 
under the persecution of one groan and cry to God, 
but another comes and oppresses them more. We had 
need therefore pray for those in high places, for i)rinces, 
for it concerns much the people, as we shall presently 
see more at large. 

Ver. IG. Ephraim is smillen, their rnot is dried up. 
they shall bear no fruit : yea, though they bring forth, 
yet will I slay even the beloved /mil of their ivomb. 

" Ephriym is smitten." a'^BK Tiin God had threat- 
ened l';])hraim long before, but now " lilphraim is 
smitten ;" not threatened onlv, but smitten. The 
phrase imports as if he were smitten from heaven by a 



thunderbolt, as if in a dreadful manner God himself 
smote him. 

Ob.i. 1. God will not always forbear sinners. " E- 
phraim is smitten." He threatens a long time, but he 
smites at last. God may be a long time bending his 
bow, and making his arrows ready, and preparing the 
instruments of death, but at length he smites, and 
when he smites he smites terribly. How sad is the 
condition of a wicked man, who has had many warn- 
ings, and toward whom God has showed much patience, 
but of whom at length this is the news that one neigh- 
bour tells another. Oh, such a man is smitten of God, 
the wrath of God has pursued and has overtaken him, 
the fearful stroke of God b upon him ! This certainly 
will be said of all wicked, impenitent, secure sinners. 
What sad reports are there at this day in all countries 
about us, even throughout the world ! MHiat is the news 
throughout the Christian world almost but this, Eng- 
land is smitten, the Lord has smitten her ? The Lord 
has indeed smitten us with a dreadful stroke, and he 
still continues to smite us. Isa. v. 25 is made good 
upon us this day, " The anger of the Lord is kindled 
against his people, and he hath stretched forth his 
hand against them, and hath smitten them :"' mark 
what follows, "the hills did tremble," (oh that our 
hearts did,) " and their carcasses were torn in the midst 
of the streets :" (and so it has been with us :) yet " for 
all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is 
stretched out still." And thus it is with us. And the 
principal cause that is there given of such woeful 
smiting is, as you may observe in the 20th and 23rd 
verses, the perverscness of men's spirits in turning 
things quite contraiy to the mind of God. As thus, 
" They call evil good, and good evil ; they put dark- 
ness for light, and light for darkness ; put bitter for 
sweet, and sweet for bitter : they justify the wicked 
for reward, and take away the righteousness of the 
righteous from him." This is the cause of this smiting : 
and never was there such perverscness in the hearts of 
men to turn things quite contraiy, to cry truth for 
falsehood, the ways of sedition for the ways of Christ, 
to cry out against the saints that are for peace, as the 
great troublers of the kingdom, and in many places 
to "justify the wicked for reward." A^Hiat favour have 
many malignants ! and those that have most appeared 
in the cause of God, how are they discountenanced ! 
This is the cause why God should smite us, and why 
our carcasses should t)e torn in the very streets. The 
Lord has smitten us this day, as he did the people in 
1 Kings xiy. 15, "The Lord shall smite Israel, as a 
reed is .shaken in the water," (and then there follows,) 
" he shall root up Israel out of this good land." So it 
is here, " Ephraim is smitten, their- root is dried up." 
The Lord this day has smitten us '■ as a reed is shaken 
in the water." 'f'hat which men cried up at first, they 
cry down again presently after; wavering and incon- 
stant in all their ways, they know not indeed what 
they would have. The Lord has smitten us so that he 
has fetched blood, yea, the Lord has smitten us by 
those that should have protected us ; and that is a sore 
smiting, to smite us by tlic hand of such as should pro- 
tect us. Such a threatening is denounced in Zcch. xi. 
() ; oh how is it made good upon us this day ! the text 
there saith, " I will no more pity the inhabitants of the 
land, saith the I<ord ; but lo, I will deliver the men 
eveiT one into his neighbour's hand, and into tlie hand 
of his king, and they shall smite the land; and out 
of their hand I will not deliver them." It is a ven' 
strange scri|)ture, I know not the like in all the boot 
of God. God threatens to smite this people, and 
how ? " 1 will deliver the men every one into his neigh- 
bour's hand, and into the hand of his king, and thej 
shall smite the land."' Why is it so great an evil to 
be delivered into the hand of our neighbour, and into 



Ver. 16. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



the hand of our king ? Truly at this time it seems it 
was. The Lord tlius smites us this day, he smites us 
sorely by giving us up to smite one another. We smite 
one another with the tongue. In Jer. xviii. 18, " Come, 
let us smite him with the tongue," say they. When 
was there ever such smiting with the tongue as there 
is now ? yea, even good men smite one another. There 
was a time when the prophet desired to be smitten by 
the righteous ; in Psal. cxli. 5, " Let the righteous smite 
me ; it shall be a kindness : and let him reprove me ; 
•it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my 
head." But now we may justly cry out to God, Lord, 
let not the righteous smite me : the very smiting of the 
righteous is a sorer smiting this day than the smiting 
of enemies ; yea, and worse too. In Isa. Iviii. 4, they 
" fast to smite with the fist of wickedness ;" that may 
imply too with the pen ; and to smite with the pen is a 
sorer smiting sometimes than smiting with the sword. 
And they smite with the sword too, for brother is 
against brother, and father is against child, and child 
against father ; and this is a forerunner of God's smiting 
the earth with a curse. In Mai. iv. 5, 6, the very close 
of the Old Testament, Elijah is prophesied to come, 
and to " turn the heart of the fathers to the children, 
and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest" 
(adds the text) the Lord " come and smite the earth 
with a curse." Oh that Elijah might come amongst 
us ! otherwise, what can be expected but the Lord's 
smiting the land with a most dreadful curse ? When 
were fathers against children, and children against fa- 
thers, as now, and that in matters of controversy ? It 
was wont to be a proverbial speech among the Jews, 
when they had any knotty controversy that they could 
not untie. When Ellas shall come, then we shall know 
the meaning of this. We may say at present, Well, be- 
cause we see what controversies and what differences 
in judgment exist, the Lord Christ (whose forerunner 
Elias was to be) will come ere long, and open all things 
to us : the Messias will come again and tell us all, and 
satisfy us in all our difficulties, and put an end to all 
our disputes. But for the present the Lord smites us, 
not onlj' by the sword, but he smites us as he smote the 
men of Sodom, "with blindness," Gen. xix. 11. The 
curse threatened in Deut. xxviii. 28, 29, is even now upon 
us, " The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blind- 
ness, and astonishment of heart : and thou shalt gi'ope 
at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou 
shalt not prosper in thy ways : and thou shalt be only 
oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save 
thee." O my brethren, how is this fulfilled at this 
day ! with what blindness, and madness, and astonish- 
ment are the people of this land smitten ! If God 
smote not men now with blindness, it is impossible but 
they should see what should be done in such a time as 
this. Indeed now almost every man in the kingdom 
cries of being oppressed and spoiled evermore. 

A\^e thought that when the spoilers and oppressors 
who were amongst us had passed away, that w'e were 
safe and well. Oh ! but it is renewed again, and now 
come the spoilers the second time, and the thu-d time, 
spoiling evei-more ; and this is the fruit of God's smiting 
men with blindness and madness. And yet who is it 
that returns to him that smites him ? But, Lord, see- 
ing thou art smiting, oh that thou wouldst smite once 
more, smite these rocky hearts of ours ; if thou wilt but 
smite there, that might free us from other strokes ; then 
might gush out tears of repentance, then might we 
smite every man upon his own heart, and turn unto thee. 
From the connexion of this and the preceding verse, 
Obs. 2. MTren God suffers rulers to revolt, the people 
are smitten. " All their princes are revolters ;" and, 
" Ephraim is smitten." Pray then much for your 
rulers ; and let not them that have the chief govern- 
ment in their hand think it sti-ange that people inquire 



into their actions, and that they use all means in their 
power to keep them upright ; for if they revolt they 
not only undo themselves, but undo us. It concerns 
us to inquii-e how it is with them, and to be solicitous 
about them ; and they must not bid us that are beneath 
them to let them alone and meddle with our own busi- 
ness, and follow that which concerns us, as certainly 
what they do does indeed much concern us : were it 
indeed that if they miscarried they only should be 
smitten, then we had less to do to look after them _; but 
if they revolt we are smitten. If a child should, in all 
humility and reverence, beseech his father to leave oft' 
certain sinful courses, or to take heed that he be not 
misled by certain counsels, and his father should say. 
Concern yourself about your own business ; the child 
might well answer, O father, I hear in the word of 
God, that God doth visit the sins of the fathers upon 
the children, and I may suffer for these sins of yours 
when you are dead and gone, therefore I beseech you, 
consider what you do : so I say, if we should petition 
and labour with our governors in all humility to take 
heed of any evil counsel, and they should bid us look 
to our own concerns, we may well answer. We have 
heard in the word, that when the " princes are revolt- 
ers," " Ephraim is smitten ;" that if governors revolt 
from any former protestations, the people are likely to 
suffer. It is, we know, from the revolting of many of 
our lords and members of the high court that we have 
been smitten as we have been. How many of them have 
now revolted to the enemy ! their revolting has been 
the cause of our being thus sorely smitten. 

Obs. 3. The compulsion of authority does not excuse 
sin. It cannot free Ephraim from being smitten be- 
cause their governors are evil; they cannot excuse 
their sin by that. Perhaps the people would plead thus t 
Wiat could we do ? we could not help it, those that 
were in power enjoined such things, and if we did not 
obey them they would undo us ; we were not able to 
bear their smiting of us, therefore we were forced to 
yield. Oh ! better endure the smiting of man than the 
smiting of God ; " It is a feai-ful tiling to fall into the 
hands of the living God." 

Obs. 4. The apprehension of God's hand in smiting 
should humble the hearts of sinners. Thus in 2 Chron. 
xxvi. 20, it is told of Uzziah, that when he saw that he 
was smitten, though he were stout and proud before, 
yet then "he hasted to go out" of the temple. 'There 
IS no longer standing out, for the Lord has smitten. 
So when we apprehend God smiting, there is no stand- 
ing out against the great God, we had need make haste 
to reform. 

" Their root is dried up." But though we be smitten 
we hope we may grow ; we may lose our leaves and 
some of our boughs, but we hope that we shall spring 
again. Perhaps these are the vain apprehensions of some 
men, who never look to making their peace with God. 
No, saith God, I will not only smite to take off your 
leaves and branches, but I will smite the very root ; 
" their root is dr-ied up." There is difference between 
the pruning and lopping of a tree, and the cb-ying up 
of its root ; there may be help so long as the root re- 
mains alive. I will never trouble myself any further 
(saith God) with them ; I have already smitten off their 
boughs, and that has done no good, I will dry up the 
very root now. It is a great aggravation of God]s 
smiting when he smites at the root. Every smiting is 
not a cb-ying up of the root. It is the base unbelief of 
our hearts, the discontentedness, frowardness, sullen- 
ness of our vile spirits, that makes us thus conclude 
almost upon every stroke of God, that he intends our 
undoing ; if he but smite us so that a few leaves or 
branches are removed, we are presently ready to con- 
clude that God intends to blast us, and to dry up the 
very root, and ruin us utterly. How often in our un- 



414 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



CUAP. IX. 



belief, when tried by temptations, and the leaves of our 
eomforts, our enlargements, and the like, have been 
shaken otf, liow often do we conclude. Oh ! the Lord is 
coming against me, and he will certainly blast all, all 
that I seem to have, the very root of all my liopes and 
comforts, will ])resently be blasted ! This is the evil of 
our hearts, and springs from our sullen, froward unbe- 
lief. It may be God intends only to prune thee and to 
take away superfluities, that so the sap may go down 
more to the root, tliat thou mayst more exercise the 
root-graces, humility, patience, faith, self-denial; God 
perha])s smites only to make the sap go down more to 
nourish these root-graces, though thou concludest that 
he will dry up the root presently. In this smiting 
wherewithal the Lord has smitten us we hope that he 
intends not to dry up the root, but we may say of it as 
in Isa. xxvii. 7, "Hath he smitten liim, as he smote 
those that smote him ? or is he slain according to the 
slaughter of them that are slain by him ?" The godly 
party may suffer much, but I make no question but the 
ungodly ])arty has suffered as much ; and " by this shall 
the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the 
fruit to take away his sin." And in the Ith verse God 
tells us, that " fury is not in him :" God is fain to make 
an apology to his people when he is smiting ; Though I 
smite you, yet not so as I smote those that smote you, 
but " I stay my rough wind in the day of the east 
wind," and " fui-y is not in me :" " by this shall the ini- 
quity of Jacob be purged," the end of all is " to take 
away his sin." 

Obs. 5. God has his time to dry u]) the roots of sin- 
ners, and the roots of nations. 1. God dried up the 
rools of many that have made fair profession in former 
times ; they had no other root but only parts, and com- 
mon gifts, and morality, and this root God di-ied up. 
Many fair and glorious professors, how arc they this day 
blasted ! sapless, dry spirits, and useless in the world, 
even at this time when there is so much service re- 
quired of them ! And by being dried up, what are they 
but prepared for the fire ? Old, withered, sapless pro- 
fessors, I say. whose " root is dried up," are fitted for 
nothing but the fire ; they ai-c like those spoken of Jude 
12, corriqit trees, livlpn (pOivoirupiiA, trees that are cor- 
rupt in the autumn. Thus it is with many professors, 
at the time when God expects fi-uit, they are sapless, 
corrupt, dried up by the root; and what then are they 
fitted for but for the fire ? 

2. God has his time to dry up the root of nations, as 
in Isa. v. 24. Now we might seek to understand what 
the root of a nation is, but I think we need not in this 
place, because it is sufficient by way of metaphor, to 
.show that God does not only afflict a nation, but de- 
signs its utter ruin and destruction. 

Yet a wor(^or two on this point. 

AV'hat was the root of Ephraim ? 

1. The covenant that God made with them. And 
when God intends to break his covenant with them, 
because they broke theirs, then he dries up the root; 
and therefore in the next chapter you find that God 
charges them with dealing " falsely in making a cove- 
nant," Hos. X. 4. 

2. The godly in Ephraim. So Isa. vi. 13, "But yet 
in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be 
eaten : as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is 
in them, when they cast theu- leaves : so the holy seed 
shall be the substance thereof." So here, " the holy 
seed shall be the substance thereof." The holy seed iii 
a kingd.im is as the root and substance of it; and yet 
such is the ])erverse wretchedness of men, that, in stir- 
ing against them, they would root out the very root of 
the nation. 

.'<. The vigour and power of the fundamental laws in 
a kingdom are as the root of it, from whence springs all 
its outward pence and comfort. 



4. Tlie blessing of God upon the wisdom and faith- 
fulness of those in place, that is as the root of the good 
of a nation ; in these things especially consist the roots 
of a nation. 

We hcjje that God will not wholly dry up our root, 
only let us take heed of this : though there be indeed a 
ditference between the covenant of God with the nation 
of the Jews, and any covenant that God makes with 
any nation at this day, yet if we be false in the cove- 
nant that we make with God, this may root us out ; let 
us look to it that the vigour and power of the funda- 
mental laws of the kingdom be maintained, and that 
the godly be not discountenanced ; let us not set our- 
selves to root out them, for in so doing we do but seek 
to root out ourselves ; and let us pray that the blessing 
of God may abide upon those that are in place of 
power; and while these things continue we may hope 
that the Lord intends, though he may scatter and break 
us in pieces, yet to suffer a root to abide, and, notwith- 
standing all our misdeeds, to preserve it to his own 
glory. There will be a root of the saints that shall 
flourish till Jesus Christ comes again : " The root of the 
righteous shall not be moved," Prov. xii. 3 ; though the 
righteous may be lopped from all their outward com- 
forts, yet their root must not be moved, that lies deeper 
than any creature power is able to reach. But there is 
a root, oh that God would dry it up! a root that the 
Scripture speaks of, Deut. xxix. 18, a root of bitter- 
ness, " that beareth gall and wormwood." Oh what 
bitter fruit does that root bear amongst us ! Oh that 
God would indeed dry it up! 

" They shall bear no fruit." They would bring forth 
fniit to themselves, and seeing they woidd bring forth 
no other fruit but to themselves, they shall bring forth 
no fruit, saith God. How happy were we if God would 
say to the root of bitterness that we speak of, as he 
said to the fig tree, "Let no fruit grow on thee hence- 
fonvard for ever ! " Matt. xxi. 19. Oh that such a curse 
from God woidd fall upon the root of bitterness which 
is in the hearts of so many, that we might never hear 
the evil language, the evil speeches of pcoi)Ie, and the 
bitter expressions which we have heard heretofore ! 

" Yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even 
the beloved fruit of their womb." ncre translated 
here " beloved," signifies also desirable, the desires of 
their womb. Children arc the desires of the womb, that 
is, women are very strong in their desires after them, 
" Give me children, or else I die," said Rachel. Indeed 
harlots care only for their lust, and would have no fruit 
of their womb ; an excellent emblem are they of the 
vanity of many preachers, who, if they can satisfy their 
lusts, and show their wit and parts, care not for any 
fruit at all, care not for begetting any children to God. 
The same word here used for desires, and translated 
"beloved," is likewise in other scriptures similarly ren- 
dered : Han. ix. 23, O man " greatly beloved :" O man 
of desires. So in Ban. x. 11, where Daniel is called, 
" a man greatly beloved." it is, a man of desires. And 
so in Prov. xxxi. 2, ""What, my son? and what, the 
son of my womb ? and what, the son of my vows ? " 
You see with what a great deal of affection Solomon's 
mother speaks, " my .son," " the son of my womb," and 
" the son of my vows," or desires. But indeed the 
word is there projierly rendered, " the son of my roirs." 
I made vows to God, if God would give thee me, I 
would given thee up to God, and by vows dedicated 
thee to his service : " what, the son of mv vows ! " Wo- 
men therefore should look upon their c)iildren as the 
children of their vows, and show forth their love to 
them in the way that God would have them. We have 
a strange scripture in Tit. ii. 4 ; " the aged women "are 
there commanded to " teach the young women to love 
their husbands, to love their children :" it is a strange 
thing that a mother must be taught to love her chil- 



Vek. 17. 



THE PKOPHECY OF HOSEA. 



41d 



di'en. Tliy child is " the beloved fruit " of thy womb, 
but yet thou must be taught by God, taught by his 
people, and by his word, to love thy children in a right 
and holy ■way ; take heed of loving them so as to pro- 
voke God to take them from you, take heed that they 
be not slain for your sakes. JIany mothers have slain 
the fruit of their womb by loving them too much. Do 
not honour your cliildren above God, as Eli did : when 
you look upon their natural comeliness, consider they 
have that in them, and that too by your means, which, 
except they have another birth, will make them objects 
of God's eternal hatred. They are the beloved fruit, 
of your wombs, and' you look upon them and see that 
they are sweet and comely babes ; yea, but think withal 
that tiirough you they are so conceived and brought 
forth, that if they have not another birth, though they 
be objects of your joy by being lorn to you, yut they 
■will be objects of God's hatred by being born in sin by 
you, Psal. li. 5 : you may look upon them as objects 
of your delight, but God may look upon them as those 
■whom he has appointed to death. Alas, those poor, 
sweet babes, what hurt have they done ? God sees 
enough in them that in his justice he may slay them. 
But in this that he saith, he will " slay even the belov- 
ed fruit of their ■womb," or the desirable fruit, 

Obs. 6. If what is dear to God be not dear to you, 
even the very fruit of your womb shall not be regarded 
by hini. That is the scope of the threatening. Here, 
saith God, is a people to whom my honour, my ordi- 
nances, my saints are not dear ; therefore even the de- 
sirable things of their womb, the very "beloved fruit 
of their womb," that which goes more to their- hearts 
than any thing in the world, that which is the dearest 
to them, I will slay in mine anger. If you would have 
what is dear to you dear unto God, let tliat which is 
dear to God be dear unto you. 

Ver. 17. My God will cast them au-ay, because thetj 
did not hearken unto him : and they shall be wanderers 
among the nations. 

" My God will cast them away." Not theu' God, 
but nil/ God. There is much to be observed from 
hence. 

06s. 1. Let all the world forsake God, a faithful soul 
will not. Hosea lived in wicked times, all the ten tribes 
generally had departed from God; but still "my God," 
my soul shall keep close to God ; I have chosen the 
Lord to be mine, and I have found such soul-satis- 
fying good in him, that he shall be mine for ever; 
here will I rest for ever; I have chosen th 3 way of 
God's true worship, I will not conform myself to the 
common mode of worship where I live, but 1 will choose 
God to be " my God," whatsoever the world doth. Such 
was the prophet's constancy and such should be ours. 

06s. 2. In evil times, when others forsake God, yet 
a gracious soul can claim God as its God : yea, and 
especially when times of trouble come, ■n-hen sore evils 
are ready to fall upon the people generally, yet here is 
the comfort of a gracious heart, "mi/ God." Blessed 
be God for the interest ■n-hich I havein him; they may 
take away my house, my estate, my means, but they can- 
not take away "my God;" in him I have interest still, 
■which they cannot take from me. This was the com- 
fort of Micah, in chap. vii. : he describes the evil of his 
times, '' The good man is perished out of the earth : and 
there is none upright among men : they all lie in ■n-ait 
for blood ; they hunt every man his brother ■with a 
net," ver. 2. " The best of them is a brier : the most 
upright is sharper than a thorn hedge," ver. 4. " Trust 
ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide : 
keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy 
bosom," ver. 5. But after all, in the 7th verse, he ex- 
claims, " Therefore I will look unto the Lord j I will 



I ■wait for the God of my salvation : my God will hear 
me." O my brethren, there may come times ere long 
that the knowledge of God, and interest in him, may 
be worth to us ten thousand thousand worlds. 

06s. 3. It is no presumption for individuals to chal- 
lenge a special interest in God, in way of distinction 
from the multitude. "My God." How singular was 
Hosea at this time ! This people might think him very 
presumptuous: What, as if nobody had interest in God 
but he ! Is not God our God as well as his ? He is bold 
to speak this in ■way of distinction : You may forsake 
God and his worship, but I have cleaved to God, he is 
" nil/ God." So in 1 John v. 19, you may see how 
singular John was: "We know that we are of God, 
and the whole world lieth in wickedness." How could 
the world take such an expression ? What are you ? A 
few poor people; and yet "we know," saith he, "that 
we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wicked- 
ness." AMiat are you more than others ? Yes, John 
knew, and would not be discouraged to affirm, that the 
woi-ld did lie in wickedness ; and yet, " we know that 
we are of God." 

Let not men then be offended at the fewness of those 
who keep the truth, and the multitude of those who 
forsake it. In the life of Phocion the Athenian, Plu- 
tarch relates, that there was once an oracle of AjjoUo 
Delphias read before the people, which said. That al- 
though all the people agreed, yet there was one man 
amongst them who dissented from them. Now the peo- 
ple ■were startled at this ; but Phocion stepping forth 
before them all, bid them never seek further for the 
man, for it was he, who liked none of all their doings; 
and yet Phocion at length gained as much rc.pcct 
from them as ever any man did, and they chose him 
forty limes to be their pra>tor. And so, let never so 
many go on in a way for which thou canst not see light 
in thy conscience, keep to thy principles, only examine 
them thoroughly. The respect we owe to ourselves and 
to others, calls us to make a narrow scrutiny. AVe should 
think we may possibly be rather in an error than they, 
and we ought to give all due reverence to the judg- 
ments of men more in number, more learned, perhaps, 
and more wise, than oiu'selves ; praying to God above 
all to show us his mind, and searching our own hearts 
to see that there be nothing particular to bias or pre- 
judice them. After all such endeavours to find out the 
truth, if God still persuade our consciences, w-e should 
not be discouraged because the greater part go the 
other way, but keep to that which our consciences tell 
us is the' right. Thus it was with Hosea, though they 
went generally another ■way, yet he could exclaim in 
truth, " My God." 

06s. 4. It is a dreadful thing for wicked men to be 
declared against by the godly. " Jly God will cast 
them away." Those who have interest in God, who 
know God's mind, know that such a God as he is can- 
not have communion with such people. Thus Isaiah 
speaks at the latter end of the 5Tth chapter. " There is 
no peace, saith my God, to the ■wicked." He puts the 
emjihasis there : he saith not, " There is no peace to the 
wicked," saith God. but "saith my God." Oh! when 
those that have an interest in God, and keep close com- 
musion with him, and thereby come to be much ac- 
quainted with his mind, when they shall declare con- 
cerning you, "There is no peace." do not slight it. If 
any of them should say. If I know any thing of the 
mind of,God, if I have any interest in God, certainly 
there can be no peace to thee in such a way as thou art 
in ; take heed of slighting such warnings from men that 
are godly and humble. True, many that make very 
great profession of rehgion, may be bold to suspect 
and to censure othei-s, who, may be, are better than 
themselves ; but if I see one that walks humbly, strict 
in his way, holy, and heavenly, and self-denying in 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. IX. 



other things, if such a man should but have any 
suspicion of my condition, I had need look to it, it 
should daunt my heart to have such a Christian look 
upon me but with a suspicious eye. 

04s. 5. When men are violent in wickedness God 
will be violent in his judgments. "My God will cast 
them away," with violence and with anger, as a man 
takes his stubborn child or servant, and thrusts them 
out of his house. So Lam. ii. 6, " He hath violently 
taken away his tabernacle." They abused that ordi- 
nance of G'od, abused his tabernacle, and he has taken 
it violently away. O unworthy, wretched people, that 
should enjoy mine ordinances so, and abuse them! " He 
hath V iolently taken away," as in anger and indigna- 
tion against them. 

Take heed of being violent in the ways of .sin. You 
will cast the cords away, and cast away the truths, 
Psal. ii. ; Isa. v. ; take heed thou becomest not a cast- 
away thyself: those that are so ready to cast away 
God's truths, it is just with God that he should cast 
them away, as a man casts away a loathsome thing. 
They cast away their idols " as a menstruous cloth, and 
say "unto theiii. Get thee hence," Isa. xxx. 22. You 
perhaps cast away the truths of God as loathsome now, 
but the Lord will one day cast thee away as a filthy 
and loathsome thing. 

" Because they did not hearken unto him." " My 

God will cast them away." But why ? " Because they 

did not hearken unto him." This is a notable sentence, 

,, , i,,,,. ,., saith Luther, and worthy to be written 

! •' ■I'ina upon all our walls. Indeed there is much 

' / ,cr!tacur. in it; they would hearken to such and 
' ' such, and to the rules of their policy, and 

to their own ends, but not to God. Hence the special 
point to be observed here is, 

Obs. 6. In what concerns God's worship we must 
hearken to God. The not hearkening to God is that 
which provokes God to cast away a people with indig- 
nation. " My God will cast them away, because they 
did not hearken unto him!" Perhaps other duties wc 
may know by the light of nature ; but when we come to 
matters of worship, there God must be hearkened to, 
and none else. God expects that his creature should 
hearken to him in what he saith ; we should be all as 
the servant was with his ear bored, Exod. xxi. C. Christ 
himself liad his ear bored, he would hearken to what 
his Father said ; therefore Psal. xl. G saith, " !Mine ears 
liast thou opened," or bored : Christ was as a servant 
• with his ear bored, to note that he would have his ear 
at the command of his Father. And who or what are 
you, that you should have your ears free? In Isa. 
xxviii. 23, mark what several expressions wc have 
about callin" to hearken ; " Give ye ear, and hear my 
voice ; hearken, and hear my speech." In one little 
verse there are these four ; " give ye ear," " hear," 
"heai'ken," "hear." Oh, God expects that we should 
have a hearing ear ; and that is the way for wisdom. 
In 1 Kings iii. 9, Solomon i)rays, " Give therefore thy 
servant an understanding lieart;" but in the Hebrew it 
is, a hearing heart ; that I may have a hearing heart, 
.so as to be able to judge thy people. They that have 
not a hearing heart, have not an understanding heart. 
The not hearkening to God comes from the ])ride of 
heart. In Jer. xiii. 15, " Hear ye, and give ear ; be not 
proud : for the Lord hath spoken." There is no such 
pride as the turning away our ears from hearkening to 
God. And turning away our ear- from the law of God is 
that which makes God turn away his ear from hearing 
our prayers ; it is an evident sign of coming destruc- 
tion. In 2 Chron. xxv. 16, mark what tlie ])rophet 
saith to Amaziah, " I know that God hath detcrmnied 
to destroy thee, because thou hast done this, and hast 
not liearkened unto mv counsel." Bost thou come to 
Uie word, and not hearken to the counsel of God in his 



word? It is an evident sign that God intends to 
destroy thee. Oh hear ! " hear, and your souls shall 
live," "your souls shall live." Indeed here lies tlic 
ground of almost all the evil in professors of religion, 
the not hearkening to the truth. I suppose those that 
make profession of religion, if tliey have enlightened 
consciences, dare not sin against a known truth ; but 
now here is the evil of thy heart, and look well to it. 
Thou dost say, If I knew it were a truth I would not 
go against it. Y'ca, but the corruption of thy heart 
makes thee miwilling to hearken to it, you would fain 
have such a thing not to be a truth. I appeal to you, 
have you never felt some corruptions thus stirring 
within you, that when you see that if you should be 
taken off from the side you have espoused, a great 
deal of ease and liberty and outward comforts would 
be gone, your liearts are very loth that that shoidd be 
true, and therefore you are not willing to hearken with 
a clear lieart, so as to entertain the truth, when proved ? 
It is the sign of a gracious heart, to be willing to retain 
every truth, to be willing to let the truth prevail, what- 
ever it be ; but the lusts of men's hearts hinder them 
from hearkening, and render them loth to receive those 
truths that most affect them. But when any sliall tje 
able, in the presence of God, upon an examination of 
their hearts, to say, O Lord, let thy truth prevail, thou 
knowcst that I am willing to hearken to every truth of 
thine; though it should pluck away all my outward 
comforts, I would fain know thy truth, thy very strictest 
truths, those which most concera thy glory, and thy 
true worship. AVhatever becomes of my credit or 
estate. Lord, let thy truth jjrevail in my heart. It is, 
I sav, a gracious heart that will thus heafken to God 
andliis truth. But, as Jeremiah saith, men have " uncir- 
cumcised ears, that cannot hear ;" through the corrup- 
tion that is in their spirits, they cannot hearken to those 
things which seem to make against them. 

" They shall be wanderers among the nations." These 
last words contain the threatening. 

Obs. 7. It is a judgment to have an unsettled spirit. 
A spirit wandering up and down, unable to settle to 
any thing, sometimes in this place, sometimes in that ; 
sometimes in this way, and sometimes in another; this 
is a judgment of God. Solomon saith, " Better is the 
sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire," 
Eccles. vi. 9. The wandering of men's appetites and 
desires work them a great deal of vexation. 

Obs. R. Those who are cast away out of God's house 
can have no rest ; they go about like the unclean spirit, 
seeking rest, but can find none. The chmxh of God 
and his ordinances are God's rest, " This is my rest 
for ever," Psal. cxxxii. 14, and should be the rest of the 
hearts of his people ; and they are indeed the rest of 
the hearts of those that are gracious. But alas, poor 
soul ! who art wandering from God, whither goest 
thou ? where indeed will be thy rest ? It was tlie curse 
of God ujion Cain, to be a wanderer up and down upon 
the face of the earth. 

But you will say. May not men be wanderers ; that 
is, may not they be cast out of their habitations and 
countries, and wander up and down, and yet not be 
cast off from God ? 

True, wc read in Ileb. xi. 3'7, that tlie Cliristians 
" wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins ; of 
whom the world was not worthy." But that was in a 
way of persecution for God, and for his truth : it was 
not because they would not hearken, but because they 
tcotthl hearken. And though thou shouldst be forced to 
to wander from thy brethren, and the sweet habitation 
that thou hadst, and thy friends, and art perhaps fain 
wander up and down even for thy life, yea, but canst 
thou say. Yet I hope I am not one of God's cast-aways? 
It is one of God's epithets in which he glories, that 
he " will gather the outcasts of Israel." Man has cast 



Vee. 1 . 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



417 



me out, yea, but I bless God, I carry a good conscience 
with me. Such need not be troubled at their wander- 
ing state, as can caiTy a good conscience with them. 
You are cast out from your friends : yea, but still thou 
hast the bird that sings in thy bosom. Canst thou say, 
I have not cast away thy commandments. Lord ? In- 
deed, if a man's conscience tell him that he has cast 
away God's commandments, then, if he wanders, it is 
dreadful to him. What though thou art wandering from 
thy house, from thy outward comforts, yet not from 
God's commandments ; " Cast me not away from thy 
presence," saith David ; though thou art cast out from 
thy friends, yet not fi'om God's presence. Here it is, 
" They shall be wanderers among the nations ;" and 
Psal. xliv. 11, " Thou hast scattered us among the 
heathen." It was a great judgment of God to be scat- 
tered among the nations, for they were a people that 
were separated from the nations, and not to be reckoned 
among the nations, they were God's " peculiar trea- 
sure." This curse is upon the Jews to this very day ; 
how are they wanderers among the nations ! 

Obs. 9. We should prize the communion of saints. 
Let us learn what a blessing it is to live among our own 
people, especially among the saints, in the enjoyment 
of God's ordinances ; let us make use of it now, lest God 
teach us what it is by casting us away and making us 
to wander among the wicked and ungodly : then your 
consciences will fly in your faces, and tell you. Oh what 
blessed times, what sweet communion, we once had ! 
but we began to neglect the prize that God put into 
our hand. Oh if we were where once we were, we would 
meet often, and pray, and confer, and would laboiu' to 
edify one another in our most holy faith, and warm one 
another's spirits, not spending all our time in w'rangling 
and jangling; but now those times are gone, and we 
are cast away, and are wandering up and down among 
wicked and ungodly people. Truly there has not been 
a time for many years when the communion of the 
saints has been so little improved as at this day ; we 
now wander, as it were, among ourselves, and little 
converse one with another, what we should do living 
together. Just were it with God to bring this judg- 
ment upon us, that we should wander among wicked 
people here and there, and that we should not be pri- 
vileged to see the face of saints, to have converse or 
communion with them. 



CHAPTER X. 

Ver. 1. Israel is an empty vine, he bringeih forth 
fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his 
fruit he hath increased the altars ; according to the 
goodness of his land they have made goodly images. 

GUALTEE makes this the beginning of Hosea's seventh 
sermon. The argument is like that of the former, up- 
braiding and threatening. Hosea had to deal with 
tough and stout spirits, and therefore he still strikes 
with sharp rebukes and severe threats. 

" Israel is an empty vine." The church is often in 
Scripture compared to a vine, as in Psal. Ixxx. 8, " Thou 
hast brought a vine out of Eg)i)t : thou hast cast out 
the heathen, and planted it." And in that known place, 
Isa. V. 1, " Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song 
of my beloved, touching his vineyard." 

The chui-ch is here compared to a vine, and that for 
many reasons : 

1. No plant has a more unpromising outside than 
the vine ; how mean is its appearance ! it looks so wea- 
ther-beaten, rugged, grizzled, and weak with its hollow 
2 E 



stalk : and such is the church ; the outside of it is very 
unpromising, little beauty and comeliness ; as Christ him- 
self had little beauty and excellency in his outward form. 

2. The vine is the most fi-uitful plant that grows out 
of the earth. That gi-eat naturalist, Pliny, tells of very 
sti'ange fruitfulness of some kind of vines ; in lib. 14, 
c. 4, he tells of ten culei, about eighteen hundred gal- 
lons, that an acre of vines brought forth in a year ; nay, 
in the fh'st chapter of the same book, he tells of one 
stock, one single vine, planted by Livia the empress, 
which yielded a hundred and eight gallons of good 
wine yearly. The vine is a very fruitful thing, though 
unpromising in the outside. And what fruit indeed is 
there brought forth to God in the world but by his 
churches ? and God expects much fruitfulness among 
his people ; however, as you shall hear, they are charged 
with being empty. 

3. No plant requires so great care as the vine ; what 
a deal of pains are bestowed in dressing, underprop- 
ping, and pruning it, what constant looking to it re- 
quires ! And the Lord has the greatest care of his peo- 
ple, of his church : he accounts it no dishonour to be 
the husbandman himself, as he is said to be in John 
XV. : and in Isa. xxvii. 3, you have a most admirable 
expression of God's taking care of his church, as his 
vine ; " I the Lord do keep i-t ; I will water it every 
moment : lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day." 
I will keep it, and I will water it, and that " every mo- 
ment ;" and again, " lest any hurt it, I will keep it night 
and day." And this is the vineyard that he speaks of 
in the beginning of this chapter, and it was the vine- 
yard that brought out red wine, the best sort of wine. 
Those that bring forth the best sort of wine, shall have 
the best of God's care, and charge, and protection over 
them. 

4. The vine is the most depending plant in the world ; 
unable to underprop itself, it must have props more 
than other plants, and therefore nature has given it 
tendrils by which it catches hold upon any thing near 
it. And so the church, weak in itself, the most depend- 
ing thing in the world, depends upon the ])rops that 
God affords it. You have an excellent place illustrative 
of this in Isa. xxvii. 2, 3, where the Holy Ghost, speak- 
ing of " a vineyard of red wine," saith in the 4th verse, 
" Fury is not in me ;" which shows that there should 
come a kind of great storm and tempest, but he would 
not have his people to be discouraged. " Fury is not 
in me." And then in the 5th verse, " Let liim take 
hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me, 
and he shall make peace with me." " Let him take 
hold of my strength ;" that is, speaking to his church as 
a vine. In the time when my fury is abroad, yet do you, 
like the vine, which catches hold upon a pole, and 
there undeqirops itself, so take hold of my power, act 
but faith upon it in time of storms and tempests, and 
you shall have peace ; thus, though never so much 
troubled abroad in the world with others, yet in me 
the church may, nay shall, have peace. It is the 
natm'e of the vine to catch hold upon that which is 
next it, especially in time of storms ; and so when the 
strongest oaks are rent in pieces, yet the vine, clinging 
to its supports, abides unhanued. 

5. If it be not fruitful, it is the most unprofitable 
thing in the world. I suppose you are familiar with 
Ezek. XV. 2 — 4, " 'NATiat is the vine tree more than any 
tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the 
forest ? Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work ? 
or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon ? 
Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel :" it is not meet 
for any work ; the vine is meet for nothing, not to make 
a pin, if it be not fruitful. And no people in the world 
are so unprofitable as professors of religion, if they 
bring not forth the fruit of godliness. The world may 
be rid of such people better than of any else. 



418 



.\N EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. X. 



6. A vine is the most spreading of plants, it spreads 
larger than other plants, and fills a great deal of room 
■with its branches ; and so is intimated by the promise of 
the church in Isa. xxvii. 6, " Israel shall blossom and 
bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit." 

7. The vine is the softest and most tender of plants, 
the emblem of peace ; the sitting under our vines is 
used to set forth peace. And so the people of God 
should be of tender, soft spirits, not like the bramble, 
nor the tlioni ; if we sit under thorns and brambles wo 
may be jjricked with them, but sitting under the vine, 
there is nothing but sweetness and delight. 

" Israel is a vine," yea, but he is an " empty vine." 
The word in the original is p|5l3 Israel is an emptying 
vine ; the sense is much the same, an empty vine, or an 
emptjang vine : that is, though there be much cost be- 
stowed upon Ephraim, so that he might be fruitful, yet 
he makes himself empty. This shows how he comes to 
be an em])ty vine ; not because God's mercy is scant to 
him, but lie makes himself so by his sin ; what sap and 
moisture he has, he pours it forth into other things, and 
so is empty himself. 

Israel was a vine full of clusters, refreshing God him- 
self; as you heard in chap, ix., he w-as to the Lord as 
grapes in the wilderness, as a vine that did bring forth 
grapes in the wilderness, sweet to a weary and thirsty 
traveller. Israel was once such ; yea, but now he is 
come to be " an empty vine," though he grows in the 
vineyard of God, and not in the wilderness. 

" An empty vine," and no marvel, for, as you have heard 
in the latter end of the former chapter, he would not 
hearken to the Lord, he would not hear the word of the 
Lord, and so the Lord threatened to cast him away. 
verbum tanquam Whence Luthcr observcs, The word is liUe 
fa)cunjapiuria,sine a fruitful rain, there can no true fruit be 
Ttrifroctus. Lu- without the word. Those tliat will not 
hearken to the word, no man-el though 
they be empty ; it is the word that makes fruitful, it is 
that which is as the fruitful rain : those that leave and 
forsake the word, observe how fruitless they become, 
what empty spirits they have. When heretofore they 
were forward in hearing the word, and loved it, and 
delighted in it, then they were fruitful; but since they 
liavc been taken off from the word, you find their spirits 
empty, and their lives empty. No men in the world so 
enijity as those who would worship God in another way 
than the word appoints ; men that would think to worship 
God after their own fancies and ways, oh how empty 
are they in all the duties their will-worship dictates ! 

Obs. 1. Eni])tiness in tliose who profess themselves to 
be God's people, is a very great evil. Oh, it is a grievous 
charge to be brought against those who grow in God's 
vineyard, who profess themselves to be God's, that they 
are empty, " an empty vine." A^Tien we would speak 
of a man contemptuously', as having no natural or 
acquired excellency in him, we say such a one is an 
empty or light fellow ; and that is the meaning of the 
word which you have in Matt. v. 22, " Whosoever shall 
say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the coun- 
cil ; " the word Kaca signifies empty, and imports as much 
as if he should call his brother an empty, worthless fel- 
low. So in James ii. 30, " But wilt thou know. O vain 
man, tliat faith without works is dead ?" The words are, '■> 
dvOpmnt Kivi, O empty man ; Knowest thou not, O empty 
man, " that foith without works is dead ?" Manv keep 
a great deal of noise about faith, and God's free grace, 
and yet are extremely empty men, and understand little 
of the true excellency of the covenant of grace : Know- 
est thou not, O empty man, " that faith without works is 
dead?" Speak as much as thou wilt of faitli and God's 
grace, yet if there be no works thou art an empty man. 
Nature will not endure emptiness; some of the philoso- 
phers have said, that the world would rather be dissolv- 
ed than that there should be any vacuity ; creatures will 



move contrary to their nature rather than they wiU 
suffer a vacuity. Certainly a vacuum in the souls of 
God's people is the worst possible vacuum : for, 

1. It is unnatural. 

2. It is a dishonour to their Root. Christ has all the 
fulness of the Godhead in him, and of his fulness are 
we to receive grace for grace : to grow upon him, upon 
such a Root, and yet to be empty, oh what a dishonour 
is this to Jesus Christ ! 

3. It fi-ustrates the Lord of all the care, and cost, and 
charge he expends. If thou wert another plant, that grew 
in the wilderness, it were not much ; but a vine, and one in 
God's vineyard, and yet fruitless, oh this is a sore evil! 

4. There is no blessing upon thy soul if thou art 
" an empty vine ; " as in Isa. Ixv. 8, " As the new wine 
is found in the cluster, and one saith. Destroy it not ; 
for a blessing is in it." If there be wine in the cluster, 
then a blessing is found in it, but otherwise destroy it. 
No blessing is found in those that are of empty spirits. 

5. If there be grace, it cannot but bear fruit. It is an 
evil in a vine to have but a little sap, to shoot forth in 
leaves and bear no fruit : yea, but what is that to grace, 
which is the Divine nature itself, the most glorious thing 
in the world ? Therefore for Christians to be witliout 
fruit is an exceeding great evil. Dost thou know what 
fruit is ? One gracious action that comes from the sap 
of the root that is in Christ, is more worth than heaven 
and earth ; one single gracious act, I say, is more worth 
than heaven and earth. Oh, the fruit of the saints is 
fruit to eternity, and to be without this fruit must needs 
be a great evil. Those that are empty and without fruit 
are said, in John xv. 6, to be but iig kX^jio, " an a branch," 
and then such a branch as must be cut off. God will 
cut off those branches ; he will cut them off from theii- 
profession, and suffer them to fall so that they shcdl not 
continue to the end. 

6. Common gifts shall be taken away. Oh, how many 
that heretofore seemed to flourish, yet, bearing no fruit, 
but leaves only, now their leaves are gone, their com- 
mon gifts are taken away from them ; they are not only 
withered, but cast away, cast away from God, and out of 
the hearts of the saints ; and men shall gather them, the 
men of the world shall catch them, and shall make use 
of them, and they shall be cast into the fire and burned ; 
cast into the fire, not for a fiery trial, but that they may 
be burned : these are the thrcatenings against those that 
bear no fruit. It is the glory of God's people, to be filled 
with " the fruits of righteousness," Phil. i. 11 ; to " be 
filled with the Spirit," Eph. v. 18 _; yea, to " be filled 
with all the fulness of God," Eph. iii. 19. Oh how con- 
trary is this to emptying ! And filled indeed the saints 
should be with fruit, because they are the veiy fulness 
of Christ, " the fulness of him that filleth all in all." 
In Eph. i. 23, the church is said to be the fulness of 
Jesus Christ himself; and shall the church be an empty 
vine, when it is the very " fulness of him that filletn 
all in all ? " 

7. An empty spirit is a fit dwelling-place for the 
devil. In Matt. xii. 44, he findeth the house empty, and 
then comes in : where the devil sees an empty spirit, 
there is a fit place for him to enter. It is an evil thing 
for you to grow upon God's ground and to cumber it, 
to cumber any part of God's ground : it may be, if tliou 
wert gone, there might be another in thy family, or 
place, that might bring forth fruit to God ; God might 
have more rent, but thou hinderest : for all his posses- 
sions in the world the great rent is, the fruit that the 
church brings forth. As in Cant. viii. 11, it is said, that 
Solomon let out his vineyard, and it brought him in a 
thousand pieces of silver for the fruit of it ; so God, he 
lets out his vineyard, and his rent is, the fruit that the 
saints bring forth to him. What glory has God in the 
world, if those that profess themselves to be his people 
should be empty ? 



Ver. 1. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



419 



8. God does not let us sit ixnder empty vines ; om- 
vines have been fruitful vines, shall we then be empty 
vines ourselves ? 

9. The Lord has justly made this our vine bleed for 
its emptiness ; it bleeds, and is in danger to bleed to 
death ; it lias brought forth little fruit, and therefore it 
is just with God that he should let tliis vine now bleed 
even to death. 

10. The evil of emptiness is great according to the 
greatness of opportunities. To be empty when God puts 
great opportunities of great service into our hands, and 
expects an energetical fulfilment of them, is surely most 
vile. Oh, my brethren, that we were but sensible of this ! 

But if It be an evQ thing to be empty, what then is 
it to bring forth " the grapes of Sodom," and " the 
clusters of Gomorrah ? " to bring forth the wine of the 
gall of asps, wild grapes ? And yet a great deal of such 
fruit has been brought forth ; and truly the fruit that 
most men bear now, is wild grapes at the best. If men 
do any thing, yet they do so mingle the vanity of pride, 
the sourness of their own spirits, the rigidness of their 
own nature, with what they do, that all is but ungrate- 
ful to God. 

Well, to conclude this, about the emptiness of the 
vine ; O let us prize fruitfulness more, and say, as the 
vine that is brought in in Judg. ix., " Should I leave 
my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be 
promoted over the trees ? " Oh ! so, shall we leave our 
fruitfulness for any earthly advantage in the world? 
Let us account it a gi'eater advantage to bring forth 
much fruit to the glory of God, than to glory in any 
earthly good. No matter what becomes of ns, so we 
may be but fruitful : though God dung us, though he 
cast all the filth and reproaches in the world upon us, 
yet if God will make this but cause us to be fruitful, it 
is no great matter. 

But further, from the manner of the phi'ase : Israel 
is a vine emptying itself. 

That is an aggravation of emptiness, when we empty 
ourselves ; when God is not wanting to us in means, 
but we are in their use. And what is the cause of 
emptiness, but the pouring out our strength and spirits 
on our lusts and the world ? No marvel though we 
have no fruit for God, and strength in his ser\'ice, 
when we let out all to other things. 

The Vulgate renders it, vilis frondosa, a leafy vine. 
The Sept. ivKKrjfiarovaa, a vine that brings forth goodly 
branches. And our version, " an empty vine." '• Empty :" 
that is, all the strength and juice of it is let out in the 
goodliness of the branches and leaves. So, many pro- 
fessors in these days empty out aU the strength that 
they have, and all their parts, merely into leaves ; and 
have goodly branches, make goodly outward profes- 
sion, and give goodly words, and 'will speak much of 
religion ; but nothing but leaves, nothing but words, all 
this while. 

Pliny, lib. 17. cap. 22, saith of vines, that it is fit (at 
least for two years together after their planting) to cut 
them down to the very gi'ound, that they may not 
sprout out in leaves, and so lose then- juice and strength 
at the root. And ti-uly this is that which has man-ed 
the hopeful beginnings of many young people in these 
times, they have presently sprouted out into leaves ; 
for never was there a more hopeful time of young 
people than at the beginning of this parliament, and 
no greater encom-agement was there than from them 
at that time ; I will not say it is wholly lost, but oh 
how many of them that began to understand the ways 
of God have let out all their strength in leaves, and 
contests, and disputes, and wranglings, and strange 
kind of opinions, and little fruit is come of any thing ! 
nay, there is little savour at all in their spirits. Oli 
how happy had it been if God had kept them down in 
humiliation to the very ground for a year or two to- 



gether ! Now any work of humihation is a thing that 
is altogether laid aside, all presently sprout out into 
leaves. My brethren, whatsoever may be said, or 
whatsoever heretofore has seemed to be preaclied. to 
the contrary, yet certainly, if rightly understood, they 
have been but doctrines that must of necessity be ac- 
knowledged. We do not press humiliation as the con- 
dition of the covenant of grace, we look not at it so, 
but humiliation keeps the spuits of men low, and 
empties them of themselves ; keeps them doM'n, (I 
say,) and renders them a gi'eat deal more fruitful, so 
that they cannot run up as mere leaves, and spend their 
strength in vain, outward shoM'. How many of those 
amongst us are fallen oflT again, not only to be slight 
and vain, but even to be wicked and ungodly, because 
they were not kept down low for a while ; but God or- 
dering things so that they should live in times of 
liberty, oh how luxuriant have the leaves of their 
profession been ! When God lets a people grow 
rank, and prunes them not, they quickly grow ban-en. 
We had never so many rank Christians growing out 
in luxurious branches as at present ; they think they 
have overtopped all, because they can talk more than 
others do ; whereas there are some poor Christians 
that grow low to the ground, and when they get a 
little comfort it is gone away from them presently, 
who yet walk humbly before God, and nobody takes 
notice of them, they are despised and contemned; 
but these will grow and be delightful to the palate of 
God, when such rank professors as those shall wither * 
and be cast out. The pruned vines bring forth the 
best fruit : compare Isa. v., with chap, xxvii. In the 
5th chapter God complains of his vineyard, that when 
he looked for grapes it brought fortli wild grapes. 
There the prophet speaks of the time before the cap- 
tivity ; but in the 27th chapter there is a scripture that 
seems to refer to the times after the captivity, and 
there the vineyard of God is said to be " a vineyard of 
red wine ;" and God speaks much unto it what it should 
be after the time of the captivity, it should bring forth 
the best kind of wine, for then God pruned it. They 
thought that God would come in a furious manner 
upon thera ; no, saith he, " Fury is not in me," my in- 
tent hereby is " to purge away the iniquity of Jacob." 
The vines" that are primed bring forth the best and 
the most fruit. 

But I find other interpreters render this text thus, 
Israel is a spoiled vine. And Luther refers it to the 
emptying of the abundance of her riches and pros- 
perity. Indeed these two go together, emptiness of 
fruit, and being emptied of our comforts and pros- 
perity, being spoiled. Israel has spoiled herself, and I 
have for her sins let the spoilers come among her, 
and so have emptied her of all her good : even while 
she enjoyed her outward prosperity, she was emptied 
.of the blessing of God upon her ; but afterward the 
Lord emptied her of all her outward good also. 

Obs. 2. Sin will empty a land of all the blessings 
God has bestowed. Sin is an emptying thing, sin 
empties lands, and families, and persons of all their 
outward comforts. In Isa. xxxiv. 11, God threatens 
" the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness," 
for sin. And oh how has it emptied many parts of 
our land ! how has sin emptied us ! what empty 
houses are there in many places ! Houses that were 
wont in ever}- room of them to be filled with costly 
fm-niture, now the owners look upon tlie walls and see 
them bare and destitute : chests, too, that were filled 
with such brave clothes heretofore, now are broken to 
pieces : and those places which were filled with diet and 
plenty are now empty : barns empty, purses empty, 
and bellies empty; yea, the veins of men emptied even 
of their very blood. Oh how are we a spoiled vine 
now at this day ! The vine that a while since was so 



420 



AN EXPOSITIOX OF 



Chap. X. 



delightful to God and man, and so glorious even in 
the esteem of all round about us, yet now, how has the 
Lord sent his cniptiers to empty us ! as in Nah. ii. 
2, "The Lord hatli turned away the excellency of 
Jacob, as the excellency of Israel : for the emptiers have 
emptied them out, and marred their vine branches." 
This text is fulfilled towards many pai-ts of this king- 
dom at this day. 

" He bringeth forth fruit unto himself." This is very 
strange, "empty," and yet bring forth fruit; if he 
brings forth fi-uit, how emi)ty ? Yes, it may verj' well 
consist: "he bringeth forth fruit to himself;" he is 
empty with respect to any fruit he brings forth to me, 
but yet has juice and sap enough to bring forth fruit 
to himself. Oh how many that are bari'en towards 
God, and have no abilities to do any thing for him, 
yet, when they come to do any thing for themselves, 
how active and stii'ring are they ! when you put 
them upon any duty for God, then they are weak, and 
imable, and the like ; but in a matter that concerns 
themselves, there they have spirit enough, and too much 
a great deal. If parents have children that sin against 
God, they scarcely notice it; but if they oSend against 
themselves, oh how do their spirits rise, and what 
rage is there in the familj- ! The truth is, were our 
hearts as they should be, if we have no strength for 
God we should have none for ourselves ; and whereas 
■we excuse ourselves, saying that we are weak in our 
memories, and unable to resist tcmjitation, and can do 
nothing for God, we should take a holy revenge upon 
ourselves, and say. Certainly, if I can do nothing for God 
I will do nothing for myself; if I cannot rejoice in God 
I will not rejoice in myself; and if I cannot take care 
for God I will not take care for myself. To be ban'en to 
God and fruitful to ourselves, this is a gi-eat dispro- 
portion. 

" Unto himself." The Vulgate renders \t,fructtisadfs- 
ijuatus est ei, his fruit is like to himself; "he bringeth 
forth fi'uit like to himself. 

Obs. 4. Men of base principles will do base things, 
corrupt hearts will have corrupt ways. An ingenuous 
spirit sometimes wonders to see the ways of many so 
base and vile as they are ; men in public employment 
■who have opportunity to do God a great deal of serdce, 
and when it comes to it, how soruitUy and basely do 
they carry themselves, not caring what becomes of the 
public good, of God, and kingdoms, and churches, so 
be it they may scrape but a little to themselves ! Yea, 
but do not wonder, it is fruit suitable to themselves ; 
they are men of base S])irits, of base, corrupt principles, 
and therefore they bring forth fruit like themselves, 
fruit like the stock. So many times children are like 
their parents ; theii' parents are wicked, and they wicked 
accordingly. Like an imp or branch of such a stock, 
such are the fruits of many. 

" He bringeth forth fruit unto himself." That is, in 
nil that he docs he aims at himself, he has regard to 
his own ends, to fetch about his own designs, to bring 
his own plots to an issue, and all must be subservient 
to them. Ephraim liad manv designs and plots to 
make themselves rich, and all tlieir strength and abihty 
were made to subserve their own designs. It was saiil 
of Judah in their captivity, in Zech. vii. 5, 6, They did 
fast, and eat, and drink to tliemselves ; all that was done 
was with a view to themselves ; whereas the fi-uit that 
they should have brought forth, should have been to God, 
and not to themselves. There is a ver)- sweet place for 
that in Cant. vii. 13, " At our gates are all manner of 
pleasant fruits, new and oId,^which I have laid up for thee, 
O my beloved." Thus should overj' gracious heart say, 
and especially then when God makes your hearts most 
fruitful with jdeasant fruit, new and old. Have ye at 
any time found your hearts enlarged and melt towards 
God, and felt full libertv in his service? Take heed now 



that this pleasant and sweet fruit new from God, and the 
old experiences which you have had heretofore of his 
goodness, be not but as fruit brought forth to your- 
seves ; let not corruption reap that which God has 
sown. You know it is a curse that one should sow and 
another reap : it is God that sows, and shall the flesh 
reap now ? and shall the devil reap ? Oh ! let not 
these sweet fruits, especially the fruit of enlargement in 
prayer, and the fruit of abilities to do God service in 
any pidjlic work, let them not be as fruit for yourselves, 
do not take the glory of them to yourselves, but let this 
fruit be for your Beloved. "NMien at any time you find 
your hearts most fruitful, gi-aces most fully exercised, 
O think thus, I will lay up this for my Beloved, I will 
lay the experiences of the goodness of God unto me, 
that may tit me to glorify God more than heretofore. 
Oh that is sweet indeed, when God comes in with fruit, 
and we lay it up for our Beloved ! God is to have all 
our fruit. You observe in Cant, viii., that Solomon let 
out his vineyard ; but mark, in letting it out he must 
have a thousand pieces of silver, and the husbandmen 
must have two hundred : if God afford us some wages 
for what we do, let not us attempt to take the gi-eater 
part to ourselves : let Solomon have the thousand, and let 
us be contented if we may have two hundred; but ordi- 
narily ■we take the greater sum, and return the less to 
God in any fruit. But observe further the 12th verse, 
the difference between Solomon's vineyard and Christ's 
vineyard ; Solomon let out his vineyard, but Christ 
saith, " My vineyard, which is mine, is before me : " 
there is noted this difference, that Jesus Christ takes 
the care of his own vineyard, he does not let it out, " it 
is before him." And therefore if we have any thing, 
we must not have it so much for om' wages as free gift ; 
for Christ does not let out his vineyard as Solomon did, 
but he keeps it and dresses it himself, and therefore it 
is fit that he should have all the fruit. In Isa. Ixi. 3, 
" That they might be called ti-ees of righteousness, the 
planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified." Such 
should the saints be, they should bring forth fruits unto 
God. And in Phil. i. 11, " Being filled with the fruits 
of righteousness, which are by Jesus Clirist, unto the 
glory and praise of God." So should the saints be, and 
all the fi-uits they bear. 

But carnal hearts aim at themselves ; all that they do, 
they act from a principle witliin themselves, and no 
fui-ther, and therefore they cannot go beyond themselves. 
It is an argument that all thou doest has a principle 
not higher than self, when thou actest for thyself; 
whereas the principle that the saints act by, is the prin- 
cijile of grace derived from heaven, and therefore car- 
ried to heaven, as the ■water is carried as high as the 
fountain from whence it comes, Eccles. i. 7. A selfish 
heart is a narrow heart ; but a gi-acious heart is a heart 
enlarged, it enlarges itself to infiniteness ; such is the 
property of grace, though it cannot be infinite, yet it is 
enlarged to infiniteness. Those that work for them- 
selves, the truth is, lose themselves in their working, 
and lose all their fruit ; it is thy worst self that thou 
aimest at. There is a kind of selfishness which we may 
aim at ; that is, if we can make God to be our own end, 
our happiness, as the saints do. In such a case no men 
in the world may do more for themselves than the 
saints : yea, but how ? because they make more of their 
own good to be in God than themselves, and they make 
themselves to be more in God than in themselves, and 
therefore they have themselves more than any, but they 
liave themselves in God. And no men lose themselves 
more than those that seek themselves most. " He that 
will lose his life, shall save it." Those that will aim at 
themselves, what is that but a little money, and credit, 
and esteem of men ? O poor, base, vile heart, hast thou 
nothing else but this? whereas all the glory that is in 
God himself may be thy portion, and thyself may be in 



Vee. 1. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



421 



it ; so that if God himself be happy, tliou mayst be 
happy, because God himself may come to be thy por- 
tion ; and is not that a better self to be emptied into 
God ? but therein thou darest not trust God, nor thy- 
self to empty thyself into God, but certainly that is the 
way to enjoy thyself. " For all seek their own," (saith 
the apostle,) " not the things which are Jesus Christ's," 
Phil. ii. 21. Oh ! this selfishness, it is vile at all times, 
but never so vile as at this time ; for men now to look and 
aim at themselves, especially those in public places, is 
the most abominable and the most foolish thing in the 
world. Mariners in the time of a calm may look to theu' 
several cabins, but during a storm, then to be painting 
and making fine then- cabins, were worse than foolish ; 
how would they deserve to he pulled out by the ears, 
and to be cast into the sea, that should then be looking 
to their own interests! What is your joy more than 
the joy of others ? and what are you that you must 
have ease and content more than others ? If ever God 
calls us to be emptied of ourselves, certainly it is in 
such times as these are. But we should chiefly, 

06s. 5. It is all one to be an empty Christian, and 
to bring forth fruit to oneself. Men think that which they 
bring forth to themselves is clear gain ; but this is an 
infinite mistake, for that which is for thyself is lost, and 
that which is for God is gained. Professors that are 
selfish are empty. ^lany of you complain of emptiness 
and unfi'uitfulness, here is the reason, You are so selfish. 
That prayer is an empty prayer, though never so full of 
words and excellent expressions, whose end is self: 
many of the saints, in joining with persons, find their 
prayers to be such, though there be excellent words, 
because they see selfishness. Men that aim at self, had 
need be cunning to keep it from being seen. Let self 
be seen in a duty, though it be never so glorious out- 
wai'dly, yet it is loathsome in the eyes of the very saints. 
Let but a man appear to be afi'ected with himself in what 
he does, with the tone of his voice, or carriage, or ges- 
ture, or any thing else, we know how abominable it is 
in the eyes of all. And so for sermons, where they are 
selfish, certainly they are empty things ; and so I might 
instance in every other thing that men do. The fulness 
of the spirit in a prayer or sermon, or any other duty, 
is the seeking to lift up the name of the blessed God in 
the duty, in that consists its fulness. Jlany of weak 
parts and vei-y poor abilities, yet having their hearts 
upon God in a duty, there is a fulness in their service ; 
there is more in that weak expression, in those sighs 
and groans, than in all the eloquence of your empty 
hypocrites, they not being filled with all the will of God ; 
so Col. iv. 12 should be rendered: it is in your Bibles, 
" That ye may stand complete in all the will of God;" 
but the original is TrtirXripuncvoi iv vavTl StXr/fiari tuv 
BfoS, being filled with all the will of God. If thou 
wouldst have a fulness in what thou doest, a fulness 
in a prayer, a fulness in thy service, in any thing thou 
doest, be filled with the will of God, and not with thy 
self-ends. You know empty vessels will break when 
you set them at the fire, and so will selfish spirits ; those 
that are selfish, quickly gi'ow empty. You that are 
merchants know, that if your factors abroad trade for 
themselves, they seldom do any great- matters for you. 
I have known merchants that have therefore been chary 
to pemiit then- men to trade for themselves. And God 
loves not to see us ti'ading for ourselves, but only as we 
trade for him, and so account that to be for ourselves. 
And here is an evident demonstration that your self- 
ishness will make you empty for God. How many are 
there that complain of emptiness ! Oh ! they cannot 
do this, and they cannot do that ! AVhy ? because except 
they find comfort, and that coming in which they aim 
at, they have no mind to any duty. They go to prayer, 
and strive to pray, and they come away and say, Oh 
the empty prayers that we make ! But what is the reason 



that you cannot pray as you would ? You have no heart 
to pray. If you would have enlargement in prayer, and 
present answer of your prayer to get what you would 
have, O, then your hearts would be much let out in 
prayer, and then you would have a mind to pray ; but 
now, though it be your duty to pray, because you there- 
by tender up the worship that a creature owes to God, 
that is no argument to put you upon prayer : so self 
appears in your very prayers. But now try this way, try 
this way but to get above yourselves once, and be 
emptied of yourselves ; look with a more single eye to 
God when you go to prayer, let this be the great motive, 

Lord, this is that worship which I as a creature owe 
to thee, the strength of my body and soul are due to 
thee ; and thougli I have not enlargements and comforts, 
though I feel not that I get by duty to myself, yet, in 
obeclience to thee, and that I might lift up thy name, 
and that I might worship thee, I am resolved to go on 
in such duties as thou requirest of me : try but this way, 
and see whether you will not grow more fruitful in 
prayer than you did before. 

But to pass that, I find that Parens and others ren- 
der the words thus, An empty vine he is, although he 
treasure up fruit mito himself: and so we may under- 
stand emptiness by that word which I have opened to 
you, a spoiled vine ; he is a spoiled vine, and he is 
emptied of all his prosperity, and riches, and glory that 
he had, although he seeks to ti'easure up unto himself. 
They seek to ti'easure and enrich themselves, to lay up 
and provide for themselves now, that they may have 
store by them come what will come ; but this will not 
do, saith God, Israel must be a spoiled, empty vine for 
all this. And here we may profitably 

OI)s. 6. ^\Tien God is spoiling a nation, it is vain for' 
men to think to provide for themselves. Certainly it 
is not the time, when God is spoiling and emptying a 
nation, or other parts of the kingdom, for men to have 
their thoughts intent on scraping together an estate to 
themselves even out of the evils of the times, by places 
and by offices to enrich themselves ; certainly there can 
be little honour or little comfort in such an estate. It 
surely is the very frame and guise of a vile spirit to 
think of enriching itself in such times as the present. 
AVhat God may cast men into by extraordinary provi- 
dence at any time, or on account of some eminent ser- 
vices, we speak not of; but certainly, if God in his 
mercy shall put an end to such times as these are, and 
men shall prove to be rich after this storm is over, who 
had not some eminent providence of God to cast it 
upon them, I say, whosoever shall so appear rich after 
these times, it will be little honour to him or his pos- 
terity, but rather be the most dishonourable riches 
ever gained in the world. In Jer. xlv. 4, 5, the Lord 
saith to Baruch, who was a good man and yet in this^ 
much misguided, " Behold, that which I have buUt will 

1 break down, and that which I have planted I will 
pluck up, even this whole land. And seekest thou 
great things for thyself? seek them not." I am break- 
ing down that which I have built, and plucking up 
what I have planted, and doest thou seek great things 
for thyself? seek them not. In Acts viii. 20, saith 
Peter to Simon Magus, " Thy money perish with thee." 
So may I say to many. Is this a time for men to trea- 
sure to themselves, for men to have their chief care 
now to gain riches P Oh ! it is just with God to say to 
thee. Thy riches perish with thee. Whosoever now will 
make it his chief care, and think now it is a time of 
trouble, and now I may gain thus and thus, and it will 
not appear; I say, those that shall make this to be 
their care now, to take advantage of these times to 
treasure up to themselves, just were it with God to say 
of them and their riches. Thy money and thy riches 
perish with thee. There follows, 

" According to tlie multitude of his fruit he hath in- 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. X. 



creased the altars ; according to the goodness of his 
land thev have made goodly images." Here you have 
the unthankfulness of Epliraim ; you have had his bar- 
renness, and selfishness, in the two former expressions, 
and now here his unthankfulness. The devil loves su- 
perstitious and idolatrous people to have good lands 
and good possessions, that he may be sei-ved accord- 
ingly ; idolaters serve their idols according to the lands 
and'possessions that they have ; " according to the mul- 
titude of his fruit" were the multitude of liis altars. And 
certainly it is great reason why all the papists are so 
desirous to get England, and contribute so much that 
they might but get into England, and get possession 
here, for in no place could they have more goodly 
images, and more brave things, than here in England : 
the fruitfulness of this land is that which makes it such 
an object to the antichristian pai'ty, and to the devil; he 
thinks that, might the popish party get here, oh the 
brave tilings that I .should have here ! I begin to have 
fine altars, but if they had possession of all the riches 
in the land, then what golden monuments should I 
hav« ! AVe began to have great charges laid out upon 
temples, (as they called them,) but certainly if they 
should prevail now, you should have them build them 
up to the very skies, such pinnacles and glorious tilings 
there would be ; for the land is a great deal more fruit- 
ful and goodly than it was heretofore, it is improved 
mightily now. "NMiat brave buildings were there in our 
forefathers' time ! witness these that we have near us, 
Westminster, and Paul's, and the like. I remember 
Latimer, in one of his sermons before the king, tells of 
his father, a man of good hospitality, and that kept a 
horse for the king, that the ))ortion he gave with his 
daughter was some five pounds. So I say, if that men 
were so poor and mean in former times, and yet from 
superstition raised such edifices, certainly, if the su- 
perstitious party had the possession of the land now, 
there would be brave things done ; and therefore the 
devil, seeing that, strives to bring it into theu power. 

Obs. 7. To make God's blessings the means to in- 
crease our wickedness, is an abominable thing ; to in- 
crease our sins according to the increase of God's 
blessings. How many may be charged with this. That 
•when they were of low and mean estates, then God had 
more service from them than he has now they are of 
higher estates ! the higher they are raised in their 
estates, the lower they are in the work of God : as it 
is observed of men that grow very fat, they have so 
much the less blood. And so the fatter men are in 
their estates, many times the less blood and life, and 
less spirits, they have for God. There are many rea- 
sons against this. 

1. Certainly this is against the ingenuity of a Chris- 
tian, to be less for God when he has most from him ; 
when his own turn is served, then to tuni his back 
from the Author of all his good. 

2. This is a main Christian principle, that tlie good 
of an estate consists in this. That' it gives a propor- 
tionably large opportunity for the service of God. 'this 
is a great Christian principle about estates ; an estate 
affords either a less or greater opportunity for God's 
Bcn'ice ; upon this principle does a Christian go in the 
enjoyment of his estate. Now for a man to be less for 
God, or more for that which is evil, the better his estate 
is, he thereby goes against that great Christian maxim. 

3. Yea, and it is against t)iy prayers for a sanctified 
use of thy estate. Does God give thee an estate ? I hoiie 
thou dost seek that this may be sanctified. Now for 
thee to do less for God, and more for that which is evil, 
by the increase of thy estate, thou dost go against a 
sanctifying prayer. 

But yet the chief point of all I take to be this : 
Mark here. They do "according" (for there lies the 
very strength of these words) : " according to the mul- 



titude of his fruit," and " according to the goodness of 

liis land they have made goodly images." There is a 

great deal of elegancy in the Hebrew, so 

that from these two expressions, " ac- "^'^ijvo^'" 

cording," and "according," here is the 

note : That the love that idolaters bear to their idols, 

it is proportionable to what abiUties they have to show 

their love ; " according to the multitude of his fruit," 

and "according to the goodness of his land." When 

idolaters are low tliey will yet do what they can, and as 

thev grow up they will do more. 

Virgil has a very fine expression of NunctrmnnnoiY-um 
tlie idolater toward his idol there : We '"°,'f"''*'*,'Si„„ 
now make thee but of marble, but if so grtttm luppicrmt. 
be our Hock does increase, and we have "^'"'"°- 
as many lambs as we have sheep, we will make thee of 
gold. 

And thus the true worshippers of God should do in 
their service to God that which is proportionable ; if 
they be able to bestow but marble for the ))resent, if 
God raises their estates then- marble is to be turned 
into gold : and not only in regard of their estates, but 
of the gifts and means they have, their abilities ; know 
that that which God will accept of when thou art low 
in thy gifts, and means, and parts, will not serve turn 
when God increa.scs thee in them all. Have you more 
than others ? Account it your shame that it should be 
said of any in the world. That there is such a one 
that has less mercies than I, and yet God has more 
service from him than he has from me. There is no 
proportion between many of your increases for God, 
and your increases from God. Now you must look to 
the proportion, to make it as exact as can be, my in- 
crease from God, and my increase for God. O, be often 
paralleling these two together, and see whether one 
do not by far exceed the other; and be not at rest, O 
Christian, except thou canst make a meet return : 
those who are rich, must be rich in good works. In 
1 Tim. vi. 17, 18, God "giveth us richly;" therefore 
" be rich in good works." It is not enough for a rich 
man to give sixpence or twelvepence for some great 
service, but he is to be rich in good works, and for re- 
lieving distressed ones, and the maintenance of the 
gospel ; he is to be rich in good works, and to account 
his riches to be as well in his good works as in his 
estates. Thou hast so much comings-in more than 
others, thou art rich in that ; yea, but what works go 
from thee more than others ? art thou rich in that ? 
If wc should judge the riches of men and women by 
their good works, how many rich men would there 
be accounted very poor! Every man must be ser- 
viceable as God has blessed them, 1 Cor. xvi. 2. O, 
this meditation would be of very great use to those 
whose estates are blessed by God : think thus. Is there 
such a distance between what serWce I do for God 
and the service others do, as there is between what 
I receive from God and what others receive from 
God? This meditation (I say) would be very use- 
ful. Cast up your accounts thus : Consider, what ser- 
vice do others for God, and what do I ? I do as well 
as others. TVue, but is there as much distance be- 
tween the service that I do and the service my poor 
neighbour renders, as between my estate and his 
estate ? You jierhaps can look upoii poor ^leople car- 
rying tankards, earning dearly tenpence or twelve- 
pence a day, and you have many hundreds a year 
coming in ; now is there as much difierence ? You 
would be loth to be in such a condition as those are 
in : oh, but is there as much difference between the 
glory that God has from you, and the glory that God 
has from them ? It mav be, some of them, after having 
been hard at work all t!ay, when they return home, and 
get alone with their wives and children, fall a praying, 
and with tears bless God for their bread and drink. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



423 



And perhaps you, in your many hundreds a year, and 
many dishes at your table, are but discontented and 
froward. O consider, that though God has raised you 
above others in estates, yet you are lower than many 
others in good works. If a man's estate has increased 
you shall quicldy see it in his clothes ; his house and 
his furniture shall be finer than before, the increase 
will manifest itself that way ; but can you see it in his 
good works more than before ? does such a man more 
for the service of God than before, more for the reliev- 
ing of the woeful necessities of his poor brethren ? If 
men come finer to the Exchange than their wont, per- 
sons are ready to think, What, is this man grown richer 
than he was before ? You should (if God does raise 
your estates) make it appear in being forward with 
good works, in good works that are chargeable, so that 
men may take notice of jour riches by your rich works, 
rather than your rich clothes. Except there be a pro- 
portion between our plenty and our prosperity, there is 
no evidence that our prosperity comes in mercy ; but if 
a proportion, then not only an evidence that our pros- 
perity comes in mercy, but a good addition to the good 
of our prosperity. If a merchant's ship come home, 
and he has gotten a thousand pounds by the voyage, 
now if God raises bis heart proportionably to the fur- 
therance of the gospel, that is more than ten thousand 
pounds : a man would account it well if he had gotten 
so much and he could employ it to get ten times as 
much more. Think but thus : By being proportionable 
in service for God, thou dost increase the blessing thou 
hast received in thine estate ten-fold. Thou often think- 
est of the blessing of God in giving thee an estate more 
than before, and others think of it, Oh what a blessing 
such a man has ! yea, but think of the blessing that 
should follow ; has God given him or her a heart to do 
a great deal of service ? The second blessing is the 
great blessing indeed. "When David had rest, he pre- 
sently thinks of building God a house, and that in a man- 
ner proportionable to what God had blessed him with. 
And that is very observable in the difference between 
Moses's altar and Solomon's altar : you know Moses 
was in times of affliction, and his altar was five cubits 
long and three cubits broad ; and Solomon's was 
twenty cubits long and ten broad : Moses was low 
for outwards, Solomon was high ; therefore Moses's 
was five cubits high and three broad, and Solomon's 
was twenty cubits long and ten broad. God does pro- 
portion his goodness to what we do for him ; why should 
not we also proportion our service to what he does for 
us ? Therefore when God blesses any of you in yom- 
outward estate, it is very good to do somewhat pre- 
sently, as thus. A man perhaps heretofore had but a 
little stock, and lived in a parish where he had but 
poor and mean preaching ; now God raises his estate, 
and his house is better, his clothes better, why then 
should not I have better preaching for my soul ? And 
so, many other ways, if God has blessed you with good 
preaching, then help your poor neighbours some way 
or other, that the gospel may be furthered by God's 
blessing, and that as he has prospered you. 

"They have made goodly images." ixns'S aitsa 
niavn iS'ts.l an elegant paranomasia, according to their 
good lands, so " goodly images." Now this word 
that is translated " goodly," signifies also beauty : they 
that were good benefactors to their images, made 
their images beautiful. The same word is used in the 
story of Jezebel, where she is said to tu-e her head, she 
made herself a " goodly " head. Oh how great a shame 
is it to do so much for linages, dead images, and to do 
so little for the images of God ! Shall idolaters not care 
what cost they bestow upon their dead images, and 
shalt thou see one bearing the lively impress of the 
image of God, naked, and hungry, and miserable, and 
wilt thou deny them ? Every man has the image of 



God in some measure, even wicked men ; but especially 
in those that are godly there is a renewed image, there 
the very life of God, the Divine nature, appears : and 
what a charge will this be, when God shall bring idola- 
ters at the day of judgment against thee, that shall 
have bestowed so much upon their dead images, whilst 
thou hast let these images of God suffer want ! Cer- 
tainly, so long as there are any bearing God's image 
upon them that want, and want miserably too, for 
thee to think of increasing thy estate now, and to be 
richer than in former times, argues great and vile in- 
sensibility. 

" Goodly images." Men are taken with outward shows, 
but to a spiritual heart the ordinances of God, though 
they be never so plain, are goodly things. A spiritual 
heart sees a goodliness in all God's ordinances ; carnal 
hearts see goodliness only in their outward bravery, 
and outward pomp and glory. Pareus observes on 
this. Here we see the vain distinction that papists make 
between their images and idols ; we see here they are 
charged for making goodly images. 

Ver. 2. Their heart is divided; now shall they be 
found faulty ? he shall break down their altars, he shall 
spoil their images. 

" Their heart is divided ; now shall they be found 
faulty." My brethren, I know that you would be willing 
enough that I should, in such a point as this is, go be- 
yond an expository way, seeing God has cast me upon 
it ; but as this point has been fully handled in a trea- 
tise of mine ab'eady printed,* (to which I shall refer 
you,) I shall pass it, and proceed to the following words. 

" He shall break down their altars, he shall spoil 
then' images." The divisions of this people were much 
about the rites of worship, most of them contending 
for false modes against the true : they would have 
their images and their altars honoured ; but God saith 
he wUl break them down, and spoil them ; Ye keep a 
stir for them, but you shall not have them. But he 
will "break down their altars ;" rfeco/ZaJiV, 
the word comes from a root that signifies bto' <> ^'^'^ 
a neck ; and so that which you have in "" '"' ^^'*'''- 
your books translated " break down," is, break their 
necks ; he will break the necks of their altars. Ter- 
novius, a learned interpreter, observes upon the place, 
that it has an allusion to that whicli they were wont 
to have upon their altars, ornamenta quasi capitella, 
ornaments which were as heads or ci'owns upon their 
altars ; yea, but saith the Lord, I wLU break the necks 
of them all. " He shall break down their altars, he 
shall spoil theu' images." The notes from thence are 
brieily these : 

Obs. 1. Though men strive never so much to main- 
tain that which is evil, God will break it; they may by 
then' contending and seeking have it a while, but God 
will break the neck of it at last, it shall come to nothing. 

Obs. 2. Though men be convinced of an evil, yet if 
the temptation abide they will recm- to it again. " He 
shall break down their altars." Why ? they were con- 
vinced before of the evU of them, for so in the former 
■words, " now shall they be found faulty," they shall ac- 
knowledge themselves gudty in contending so much 
for them. Well, but, saith God, though you are con- 
vinced of your guiltiness, yet that is not enough, I will 
break them down ; for otherwise, if they remain, they 
may be snares unto you : to prevent that evil, the 
evil temptations are to be taken away as far as possible. 
You acknowledge yoiu'selves guilty when my hand is 
upon you, but you will turn to it again if the tempta- 
tion be not removed, therefore will I break down your 
altars, and spoil your images. 

* Irenicum: Heart-divisions opened, &c. 



424 



.\N EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. X. 



Obs. 3. Superstitious altars and images are to be 
taken away. It is the magistrate's work to take away 
those that are in public places ; but I have spoken of 
that before, and shall not recur to it now ; only if you 
meet with any superstitious pictures and images, you 
must not keep them, and say, ^^■hat hurt will these do ? 
though they do not hurt now, yet they may afterwards : 
you are not to sell and make gain of them, but do as 
God does, break them down and spoil them, that they 
raav not hereafter be snares to others. 

Obs. 4. Those things to which we give that respect 
which is God's due, are liable to the stroke of God. 
They gave to their altars and images the respect due 
to God ; God's Spirit rises against that ; " he shall break 
down their altars, he shall spoil their images," saith 
God. So, whatsoever it be to which you give that 
respect which God challenges to himself, you may 
expect that God will spoU it and break it down, ii 
you give to your estates the respect due to God, you 
make an idol of them, and may expect that God will 
break them; yea, to your children, your names, your 
bodies, parts, whatsoever you have, if you rob God of 
that respect which is due to him, and give it unto 
them, expect that God will break such things. 

Obs. 0. If it be God's will to break down that which 
is evil in his worship, let us take heed that we have no 
hand to set it up ; tnat we do not endeavour to set up 
false worship, for it is in God's heart to break it down : 
let us not set up idols, either in our hearts, or else- 
where. 

04s. 6. We must not break down superstitious and 
idolatrous things to make up our own broken estates. 
AVe should labour to abolish those things, and not seek 
our own benefit by them ; as certainly many do in 
breaking down things that are naught and supersti- 
tious, they endeavour to make up their broken estates, 
and that is all they truly aim at. But, saith God, 
I will break them do«Ti and utterly spoil them : so 
should we, and look not to our own advantage. 

" He shall break down." I find some interpreters 
render the words thus, it shall break them down, and 
so apply it to their divided hearts. The pronoun 
translated " he " is relative, and the antecedent, accord- 
ing to the fomier exposition, is in that last verse of the 
former chapter where he had spoken of God; but ac- 
cording to this interpretation the antecedent is, " Theii' 
heart is divided ;" their hearts, their very dissensions, 
their divisions, shall break down their altars, and spoil 
their images. From such an interpretation we might 
profitably 

Obs. 7. Men's divisions and contentions break the 
neck of that which they contend for ; especially when 
men in their contentions are violent, furious, out- 
rageous, and heady, they do usually by their rage and 
passion break down and spoil the verj- thing that they 
would fain maintain ; and their party is very little be- 
holden to such as tlms act in a sjurit of contention. 
You know those furious, violent prelates, did not they 
break the neck of their prelacy merely by their furj- 
and oulrageousness ? And in any j)arty it always ha])- 
pens, that those who are the most furious and out- 
rageous do the least service to their party, and many 
times arc the very break-neck of their party, and of 
their cause : it shall break them down. 

Ver. 3. For now they shall say, We hare no king, 
because tie feared not the Lord ; uhat (hen should a 
king do to us ? 

What ! break down our altars, and spoil our images ? 
No, the king will maintain them agamst you all : let 
the ])roi)heUi say what they can, and a company of jire- 
cise fools oppose them as they will, we have the king 
on our side, he w ill rather lose his crown than he w ill 



3^. 



lose these things, he will stand for them to )iis very 
life, and therefore we do not fear that they shall be 
broken down. No, that will not serve your turns, 
(saith the prophet,) your king shall not be able to help 
himself, much loss to help you in those superstitious 
ways that you would have. 

" For now they shall say. We have no king." They 
rejoiced and gloried much in their king, they relied 
altogether ujjon their king ; no matter for the prophets, 
they have the king's commandment, for what they 
have done they can show the king's broad seal, and 
they were sure that they had the king's heart with 
them, their king would bear them out in all. They 
cared not therefore what they did, so be it thev had 
the countenance of their king, that he would defend 
them ; and not only defend, but, by being zealous and 
forward for his ways, they hoped to have promotion by 
him ; they did not fear to be questioned for any thing, 
no matter whether they went against law or not, they 
could shelter themselves under the power and favour 
of the king : the pomp and glory of the court were a 
great thing in theu' eyes, and made tliem bold in their 
idolatry and oppression ; because of the power and 
greatness of the king, who should control them in any 
tiling that they did ? But now, (saith the prophet,) you 
have had your day ; you have had your time that you 
could thus shelter yourselves under the power of the 
king, and do what you list, and oppress, and rage, and 
nobody durst meddle with you because of the power of 
the king, but now the case is altered. 

" For now they shall say. We have no king." Had 
they no king ? Yes, Hoshea was their king ; but the 
meaning is, it is all one as if we had no king, his power 
is so broken that, the truth is, he cannot help us. 
Drusius, upon the place, saith. He cannot 
protect us, which is the duty of the king, cfm m 
and therefore it is as if we had none. L'S'iJroirg.ri, quod 
" Now they shall say. We have no king ;" gjjj*"'^ ''*'*■ 
alas, he is not able to save himself, he 
can do nothing for us, his ])omp, his power, and glory 
are in the dust ; he is distressed himself, and we are 
miserably disajipointed of our hopes, we are undone. 
AVho can help us now ? whither shall we go ? what 
shall we do ? Our consciences upbraid us now for our 
bold, presumptuous wickedness. Oh how far were our 
hearts from the fear of the Lord ! we dared the God of 
heaven and all his prophets, we boldly ventured upon 
those ways which we were told, yea, which we knew in 
our very consciences, were a provocation to the Lord ; 
we set up our own worship, we pleased oui-selves, we 
made our wills to be the rules of all our actions, we 
took liberty to satisfy our lusts, we mingled our own 
ways with God's ordinances, we subjected religion to 
public ends, we were rigid and cruel towards those who 
differed from us, we upheld the authority of the king 
against God and his jicople ; and now God has justly 
brought this disticssed estate upon us, that the king's 
power, in which we so trusted, is broken, and in a man- 
ner gone. Oh, now we see we feared not the Lord ; we 
have none now to heli) us, we now know what it is not 
to fear the great God ; God is above us, and therefore 
now what can a king do to us ? ■\\'hat could he do for 
us, suppose We had him again ? alas, our misery is 
beyond his help ; seeing God is provoked with us, and 
has forsaken us, what should a king do for us ? And 
thus, in this short paraphrase, you have the scope of 
the words, as if the people should have spoken in this 
manner. 

But now the question is, what times does this refer 
to ? " Now they shall sav. We have no king," &c. 

When did they say so ? 

The times that this refers to seem to be those whicli 
we read of, 2 Kings xvii. In that chapter you find the 
times that this has reference to ; then they might well 



Veb. 2. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



425 



say, "We have no king." The observations from it 
are, 

Obs. 1. It is a great evil for a people not to have the 
protection and the blessing that might be enjoyed in 
the right government of a king over them. It is a 
great evil, and they complain of it as such, and so far 
their complaint is right, that they are now deprived of 
the protection and good that otherwise tliey might 
have had from the right government of a king over 
them. 

And, my brethren, our condition is even such in re- 
gard of the personal presence and protection of a king ; 
in those respects v,-e may almost use the same words as 
here, and say, We have no king among us. And 
whether is it better for a people to have no king, or to 
have no protection from their king ? But that which 
is contrary to protection is a question fitter to be dis- 
cussed and determined in a parliament than in a pul- 
pit ; and to them I shall leave it. 

But the church of God shall never have cause to make 
this complaint, that they have no king : in Psal. xxix. 
10, 11, "The Lord sitteth King for ever. The Lord 
■will give strength unto his people ; the Lord will bless 
his people with peace." In Psal. xlv. 6, " Thy throne, 
O God, is for ever and ever : the sceptre of thy king- 
dom is a right sceptre." Psal. cxlv. 13, " Thy kingdom 
is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endui'eth 
throughout all generations." Psal. cxlix. 2, " Let the 
children of Zion be joyful in their King." 

'• Because we feared not the Lord." Here 

06s. 2. It is a great evil not to fear the Lord. " Fear 
ye not me, saith the Lord, which have placed the sand 
for the bound of the sea ? " It is an evil and a bitter 
thing, that the fear of the Lord is not in men. For 
God is a great God, infinitely above us, clothed with 
majesty and honour ; trembling frames of heart become 
his presence. None like unto the Lord : great and 
marvellous are his works ; oh ! who w'ould not fear him ? 
God has infinite authority over us, to save, or to destroy ; 
he has us all at an infinite advantage, by the least word 
of his mouth to undo us. His wrath is insupportable : 
" Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire ? 
■who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings ? " 
Isa. xxxiii. 14. Barest thou, a vile ■wretch, presume to 
rebel against any word of the Lord, ■vvhen the next word 
may sink soul and body into the bottomless gulf of 
eternal horror and despair ? 'Who art thou that dost 
not fear the Lord? Dost thou not fear the command- 
ing word of the Lord, when the next ■word that pro- 
ceeds out of his mouth may be a destroying word, to 
nndo body and soul for ever ? 

Obs. 3. In times of prosperity, when men have the 
favoiu' and countenance of great ones, there is little 
fear of God among them. " We feared not the Lord." 
Oh ! those times when we had the favour and counte- 
nance of gi-eat men, there was little fear of God among 
us. So long as men have any confidence in the creature, 
so long they see no need of God, then' hearts are swollen 
with pride, God is not in all their thoughts ; they say 
to God, Depart from us, we do not desire the knowledge 
of thy ways. They set their heaa-ts and tongues against 
the God of heaven, they can venture upon any thing 
then ; to tell them it is sin agamst God, nothing at all 
affects them. How vile and foolish are the hearts of 
■nicked men, that the enjoyment of such poor things 
as they have in the creature, should imbolden their 
hearts against the great God of heaven and earth! 
Yet thus it is, men little consider that even those things 
which their hearts do so much rest upon, are abso- 
lutely at the disposal of this God ■n'hom their hearts do 
not fear. 

But let the saints of God take this note ■with them. 
Shall creature confidence take men's hearts off from 
God's fear? then let God's fear take your hearts off 



from creature confidence. Certainly this is far more 
reasonable. Oh ! it is infinitely irrational that creature 
confidence should take the heart from God's fear ; but 
it is infinitely rational that God's fear should take our 
hearts off from creature confidence. 

Obs. 4. The taking from a people the protection and 
benefit they might have by kingly power, is a punish- 
ment for their want of the fear of God. " We have no 
king," we ai-e deprived of the benefit and the protection 
we might have by kingly power ; it is " because we feared 
not the Lord." What evil we feel in this, let us atti'ibute 
it to the want of the fear of God in ourselves, and in 
the people of the land. We complain of those that arc 
aljout the king, and of her that lies in the bosom of 
the king, and of the evil of his own heart in part ; but 
whence is it that God has left him, either to them, or 
to any evil in his own spirit ? The Lord in this 
punishes the sins of the people. It is usual for God 
to punish the sins of the people by leaving governors 
to evil courses; in 2 Sam. xxiv. 1, you have a remark- 
able scripture for this, " And again the anger of the 
Lord ■was kindled against Israel." And what then ? 
" And he moved David against them to say. Go, num- 
ber Israel and Judah." " The anger of the Lord was 
kindled against Israel, and he moved David against 
them." To what ? God lets temptations be before Da- 
vid, to lead him into a sin that might bring evil upon 
the people. It was because the anger of the Lord was 
kindled against Israel. It is because that a people fear 
not God, that the Lord leaves kings, leaves theu- go- 
vernors, to those evil ways to which they are attached ; 
and therefore learn we, when we hear of any evil done 
by the countenance of kings, or of any in power, learn 
we to lay our hands upon our own hearts, and say. 
Even this is because we feared not the Lord. How 
easy had it been with the Lord to have wrought upon 
his heart! oh what prayers have been sent up unto 
the Lord for the heart of one man ! never since the 
world began have more prayers been proffered for the 
heart of one man. But the Lord has seemed even to 
shut his ears against the prayers of his jieople ; now 
let us lay our hands upon om- hearts, God has denied 
our prayers, it is because we have not feared him. No^w 
certainly there has been but little fear of God amongst 
us, and little fear of the great God is still to this day 
amongst us. 

Obs. 5. The times of God's ■wi-ath and judgments 
force acknowledgment from men that they did not fear 
God. Amnion God comes against them in ■ways of wrath, 
now they can acknowledge that they feared not God. 
Had the prophet come to them before and told them, 
Oh ! you are a wretched, vile people, there is no fear 
of God among you. A\Tiy, wherein do not we fear God ? 
As in Mai. i., they would not be convinced ; but no^w. 
when the wrath of God is upon men, now they shall 
say. We see now apparently we feared not the Lord. 
As Cardinal Wolsey, when in distress, is reported to 
have said. Had I but served God as well as I served 
the king, it would have been otherwise witli me than 
it is ; but I sought to please the king rather than God, 
and now I am left in this distressed estate. He would 
have scorned that any should have told him before that 
he pleased the king more than God ; but afflictions ■will 
draw forth acknowledgment : for in afflictions God ap- 
pears dreadful to the soul, it is no dallying, and trifling, 
and putting oS' then ; we see we have to deal with an 
infinite, glorious, and cb-eadful God. And in times of 
affliction conscience will assert its rule over men, it will 
not be quieted and stdled as in the season of prosperity ; 
but it will speak, as Zebul, in Judg. ix. 38, " Where 
is now thy mouth, wherewith thou saidst, Who is 
Abimelech ?" So saith conscience in times of affliction 
to ■wretched creatures, TMiere now is that bold and pre- 
sumptuous heart of thine ? Thou didst scorn at fearing 



426 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. X. 



and trembling before God, and slightedst his word ; but 
where now is that proud, wretched heart of thine ? In 
times of affliction men's hearts are abased and hum- 
bled, and therefore are ready to say. It is because we 
feared not the Lord. Mark here. 

They do not when in affliction and trouble say, There 
were a company of factious people who would not yield 
to any thinjr, and we may thank them for all this ; you 
hear no such words, O no, but it is, " Because we fear- 
ed not the Lord." 

Obs. 6. Vhen the heart is humbled, it will not put 
off the cause of evils to other men or other things, but 
will charge itself as the cause of the evils that are upon 
it. Oh how much better, my brethren, were it for us 
to see the want of the fear of God by his word to us, 
and his Spirit in us, than by his wrath against us, or 
his stroke upon us. Let us every day examine our 
hearts, How has the fear of God been in me this day ? 
has the fear of God actuated and guided nie in all my 
thoughts, counsels, and actions this day ? How hajjpy 
were it whenever we lie down to rest to have such a 
short meditation. Has the fear of God been the thing 
that has acted, and governed, and guided me in my 
course this day ? But there follows, 

" What then .should a king do to us ? " Suppose we 
had him ; now he is gone, but if we had him, what good 
would he bring to us ? As if they should say, We speak 
much concerning our king, but now we have not the 
king with us as he was ; yet if he were with us again, 
what should he do for us ? what would our condition 
be better than it is ? And indeed, what good had their 
kings done for them ? The people of Israel were very 
desirous of a king, they must needs have a king, God 
yielded to their desires in giving them Saul ; then after- 
wards they must have a king again, so they had Jero- 
boam, and he must be the king of the ten tribes. Their 
first king was given in God's wrath, and almost eveiy 
one of the kings of Israel was a plague to them ; what 
had tliey done for them ? All the time they had judges 
they were in a better case ; Israel was in a far better 
case when they were ruled by the government of God. 
And Peter Martyr, in his preface to the Book of Judges, 
observes three things wherein Israel was better when 
they were under judges, than kings. 

First, All the time they had judges, they were not led 
captive out of their own country as afterwards. 

Secondly, 'WTienever they were ojipressed, and God 
raised them up a judge, he did always prevail so as to 
deliver them from their oppression, before he had done 
he delivered them from their oppression ; that is to be ob- 
served in the story of the judges, but their kings did not so. 

Thirdly, We find not any one of their judges charged 
or condemned by God as evil, and executing unright- 
eous judgments among them, as the kings are; Such a 
one did evil in the sight of the Lord, and such a one 
did evil ; almost every one of the kings of Israel did so. 
God does not charge the judges so ; it was othenvise 
therefore with them after they had kings. And the 
truth is, that Christ has been but little beholden to, I 
may say, the most of our kings ; yea, little beholden to 
most of the kings that have lived upon the earth : and 
he has taken as little care of the greater ])art of them : 
as they have taken little care of his honour, so he has 
taken little care of the greater part of them. Of all the 
sixty-three Roman emperors elected by the senate, his- 
torians agree that but six had such j)rotection from 
God as to die a natural death, but six of threescore and 
three : there were twenty-nine of the emperors that did 
not reign above twent)'-five years and some months ; 
yea, there were twelve of them that reigned but three 
years and some months : see what havoc was made of 
them : they regarded not the honour of Jesus Christ, 
but were enemies unto him, and he regarded as little 
their .safetv. From hence the notes are these: 



Obt. 7. When God forsakes a people, nothing can 
do them good. " Except the Lord build the house, 
they labour in vain that build it," Psal. cxxvii. 1. 
" AMiat then should a king do to us?" 

04s. 8. It is just with God to make those things un- 
useful to men which they sinfully dote upon, and put 
their confidence in. They sinfully doted upon kings, 
and put their confidence in them, and God does now 
justly make the power of kings unuseful to them. 
•' AVhat then should a king do to us?" If we dote 
upon them, it is just with God to make them unuseful 
to us. Or if we dote upon our credit and name«, and 
so upon kings and princes : if men expect preferment 
from them, it is just with God to blast all their hopes, 
that they should be forced to say. Now I see God tights 
against him, as well as against me. Thus the people 
spake in respect of their kings. 

This scripture may well be a comment upon that 
text in Psal. cxlvi. .3, " Put not vour trust in princes, 
nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help." Do 
not put your trust in princes, have no confidence in 
them ; if you put your trust in them, they will be un- 
useful to you. And C'hrysostom upon that very psalm 
has this note : AVhereas they would say. Oh, he is a 
prince ! Saith Chrysostom, £et me tell you that which 
\o\i perhaps will wonder at ; because he is a prince, 
therefore put not your trust in him. And he gives this 
reason. Because who is in a more unsafe condition than 
they ? Are not they fain to have their guards go about 
them to protect them ? In times of peace, even in a 
city that is ruled by good laws, yet are they fain to have 
the instruments of war round about them to protect 
them ; and therefore put not your confidence in them, 
because they are princes. But then, in the Psalm, they 
are called to put their confidence " in the Lord, which 
made heaven and earth, tlie sea, and all that therein is; 
which keepeth truth for ever." Alas, vou may put con- 
fidence in princes, but they will not keep truth ; they 
will make fair promises to you, that you shall have 
some great matters by them, but tliey use you but to 
serve their own turns ; but put your trust in the Lord. 
" The Lord shall reign for ever;" kings do not reign 
for ever, they are the children of men, the breath is in 
their nostrils ; but " the Lord shall reign for ever, even 
thy God. O Zion, unto all generations. 

Obs. 9. How great an evil is it to a people then, 
whose complaints are. What doth a king not do against 
us ? Musculus, upon the forenamed Psalm, (those that 
read his comment shall find that note in it,) saith. 
You are not to put your trust in princes that are the 
children of men, they are but men ; yea, but what shall 
we say to those that are cruel oppressors, that are 
rather like tigers and such kind of wild beasts among 
men, that seem not to be children of men, how shall 
we put our trust in them ? Oh ! it is a sad condition 
indeed that a people is in, when they have this cause 
to complain, when they shall have cause to cry out and 
couiplaui. Oh how, how doth he run from place to 
place, plundering, spoiling, breaking, tearing, destroy- 
mg wheresoever he comes ! That people is in a sad 
condition. 'NMiat shall he do for us ? nay, what doth 
he not do against us continually ? and all this, because 
we have not feared the Lord. 

See here the alteration of the spirits of these men 
towards their king. King ; not long ago they put their 
confidence in their king, and gloried in their king, and 
now, " A\'hat shall a king do to us ?" Hence the note is, 

Ohs. 10. God can soon make a great change in the 
hearts of people in reference to their kings ; that even 
those that did dote and admire him, and own no other 
God but their king, shall even turn their hearts and 
say. What can a king do for us ? The least turn of God 
u])on the hearts of people will make such a change as 
this is. 



Ver. 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



427 



Obs. 11. The difference between the blessed estate 
of God's people, and the wretched estate of wicked 
men. Those who fear God can say, What shall a king, 
•what shall men, what shall devils do against us ? but 
other men in their straits, Wiat shall they do for us ? 
We are in a distressed condition, and what shall they 
do for us ? But the people of God are never in such a 
distressed condition but they are able to say. What 
shall men or devils be able to do against us ? for God 
is our protectoi-. 

06s. 12. The more stoutness and sinfid creatm-e 
confidence there is in any, the more do their hearts 
sink in desperation when they come to be crossed in 
their hopes. They were very stout and full of creatm-e 
confidence before they were brought into misery, and 
now what low, sordid spirits have they ! now they sink 
in desperation. None have theii- hearts sink in des- 
peration more than those who in the ruft' of then- pride 
are the most bold and presumptuous against God and 
his servants. 

Obs. 13. A carnal heart is not led by experience of 
the vanity of creatm-e confidence to seek after God. 
"What then should a king do to us?" Theii- hearts 
sink in regard of any hopes that they have from their 
king. But yet you read nothing of their hearts being 
set upon God, and mourning, and working towards 
God; when they are taken from the creature they say 
not thus, Now we see our vain confidence in our king, 
and what hopes we had of preferment in him God has 
crossed ; well, we will go and seek to make the King of 
heaven our portion. No, no such thing conies from 
them as this. Their heart lies sullen and sinking, it 
has no interest in God, and cannot go to him to make 
up what it wants in the creature. But it is otherwise 
with a gracious heart; The hand of God has taken off 
my confidence in the creature, yea, but I hope it is in 
mercy to my soul, that I might have the more con- 
fidence in God, and that God might have the more 
glory from me ; and therefore I hope that this taking 
ofi' my heart from the creature, will for ever unite my 
heart more to the Lord than ever heretofore it has been. 
Yea, this is a gracious work indeed, when the heart is 
taken off from creatiu'e confidence and brought nearer 
unto the Lord. 

Ver. 4. They have spoken words, swearing falsely in 
making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as 
hemlock in the furrows of thejield. 

They are convinced of their sin, that they have not 
feared God, they cry out of theu- misery, " What then 
should a king do to us?" But mark what follows; 
they were not gained to God ever a whit the more, but 
when taken ofi' from their hopes one way, see how they 
set upon another. 

"They have spoken words." Luther here saith, this 
is a Hebraism, for, they have anxiously consulted ; that 
the Hebrews are wont so to express an anxious consult- 
ation ; and for that he quotes Isa. viii. 10, " Take coun- 
sel together, and it shall come to nought ; speak the 
word, and it shall not stand." So then the words here 
would signify, the)- get together and contrive one with 
another what they shall do in such a case as this, how 
they may any way help themselves. As we read of the 
people of God in Mai. iii. 16, "They that feared the 
Lord " met one with another and spake together ; so 
these wicked -wretches, that were thus disappointed of 
their hopes, met together, and spake one to another, 
some such words as these : 

Our case is very sad, oh ! who should have thought 
such things should have befallen us ? We are as much 
crossed of om- hopes as ever any men were ; we made 
account we should have overrun them, and they w-ould 
have been but as bread unto us, we should have made a 



prey of them, and all their estates would have been 
ours long before this time. Those prophets who told 
us that God was against us, those ministers that en- 
couraged people in the name of God, and those people 
that differed from us, now we see that their words are 
fidfilled, and what they thought w-ould come, is now- 
come upon us ; now is come to pass what such precise 
ones among us, -whose consciences would not submit to 
our w-ays and the way of our king, said. Surely they 
cannot "but look upon us as a most wretched, miserable, 
forsaken people, now -we are like to lose our houses, 
estates, honours, and all those delightful things which 
w-e hoped might have made our lives prosperous and 
jocund. Oh ! what shall we do in such a distressed state 
as this ? We had almost as good die as endure such a 
miserable life as -n-e are like to live, at the mercy of 
men who w-e know scorn and hate us. Is there no way 
to help oiu-selves ? cannot w-e get some to join with us ? 
can w-e call in no help from any strangers ? no matter 
what compliances in return they demand. Thus they 
toss up and down, not knowing what in the world to do 
in their conference. 

Or thus ; May we not yet possibly make up some 
peace though we be in this distressed condition ? What- 
soever propositions they shall proffer to us, we -will, 
rather than fail, yield to them all ; w-e may perhaps get 
some advantage hereafter, or be in some means in a 
better case to revenge ourselves than now we are. If 
they -»-ill have us take the covenant, and nothing else 
wUl satisfy them, we will do it; and when we have 
taken it, perhaps they may put some of us in places of 
trust, and so we may privately w-ork about oiu- own 
ends, and drive on cair own designs that way better 
than in any openly hostile manner. And if together with 
theii- covenant they will have oaths, we w-ill take them 
too ; and if we cannot agree to their oaths or covenant 
hereafter, we will say. We were forced to it, and there- 
fore they do not bind'us. Some such kind of communica- 
tion it is like they had. And could you hear the com- 
munication of our adversaries w-hen they get together 
in those straits that God has brought them into, you 
would likely hear some such kind of stuff as this is, 
they spake such words one to another. 

"'They have spoken w-ords, swearing falsely in mak- 
ing a covenant." n'ls ms NIC nlSs nn3"t 1-13-1 Others 
refer this to the times of the prophet's threatening, or 
w-hen they saw- then- danger imminent. The C'haldee 
paraplii-ase has it thus. They spake violent words ; that 
is, they rage and fret, they speak proud, swelling words, 
they swear and curse : What ! shall our images be brok- 
en down, shall we be brought under and made to serve 
our enemies ? We scorn it, we defy all that shall at- 
tem])t it. We -will do this and that, we will have om- 
minds, w-e -will die for it else ; we wUl enter into leagues, 
we will get such and such to conjure together with us, 
and surely make our party good. Thus they speak of the 
great things that they will do : thus they speak words, 
in making a covenant w-ith oaths of vanity, for so you 
may render the original. And indeed, if men could 
prevail with great words, and daring expressions, and 
bold resolutions, and desperate oaths, and wicked 
curses, then may some hope to prevail against the God 
of heaven and his saints ; but saith he. These things 
shall do them no good. And indeed these things 
should never move us, though we hear om- adversaries 
speak proud, swelling words, and say what they will do, 
thi-eaten monstrous things, let us not be troubled at 
it, for they do but hasten the wTath of God against 
themselves. In the mean time, while they are swearing, 
and cursing, and making brags, and boast what they 
will do, the counsels of the Lord work their ruin, and 
bring about surely the good of his people. But further, 
" They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making 
a covenant." What has this reference to ? ""\Miat cove- 



428 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



CUAP. X. 



nant did they make ? and wherein did they swear 
falsely ? Some think it refers to the covenant which 
the people made with Jeroboam at the first, and so 
with his successors ; that is tlius, The people came to 
him and took their oaths, and entered into solemn 
league, that they would supi)ort him in the breach 
winch he made from the house of David, and stand by 
him in opposing those who would not yield to him in 
the alteration of worship: for their princes would not 
probably have been so strongly set u])on the alteration 
of the ways of worship, had not the people joined them- 
selves freely to them by oaths and covenant : now when 
they saw that the people came in flocking and willing 
to yield to the oatli wnich the king would give tlieni, 
upon this they the rather confirmed Jeroboam in his 
l)urpose. I find that Arias Montanus and Vatablus 
thus inteq)rct the words. 

But now others, and that more probably, understand 
this covenant and swearing to be the covenant they 
made with the AssjTians and with the Eg)"ptians, the 
stor)- of which you have in 2 Kings xvii. Hoshca " sent 
messengers to So king of Eg)pt, and brought no pre- 
sent to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by 
year." First, he had covenanted with the king of Assy- 
ria, and that was broke ; and then they would covenant 
with So king of Egj-pt ; and so they sware falsely in 
making a covenant with the Assyrians and the Egyp- 
tians. Xow the observations are, 

Obs. 1. Carnal hearts, in their straits, take shifting 
courses. They have no God to go to. and so, as a dog 
that has lost his master, they will follow after any for 
relief. 

Obs. 2. It is an evil thing for professors, in straits, to 
combine with wicked men. God professes he will not 
take the wicked by the hand, neither should we. It is 
a sign the cause is evil, when men can have no other 
help but by combining with the wicked and ungodly. 
Just thus it is at this day with the adversaries to the 
parliament ; all men generally that make any profes- 
sion of godliness, see they cannot have help fiom God, 
therefore tlicy combine, and bring into covenant Irish 
rebels, papists, Turks, or Jews, any in the world, to 
help themselves withal : this is the wickedness of men's 
hearts. 

Ohs. 3. No tnist is to be reposed in the oaths or 
covenants of the wicked. Let their protestations be 
never so solemn, their oaths, their covenants, it is but 
only to gain time to work about some advantage, that 
they cannot effect for the present, while they have any 
opposition. If they have not things under their power 
as they desire, they will promise you any thing m the 
world J but when once they come to get power in their 
hands, then who shall require the fulfilling of their 
promises, their oaths, their covenants ? And therefore, 
certainly, when we have to deal with those whom we 
have experienced to be false, we must ever retain this 
conclusion, except we see an apparent change in their 
hearts; for it is not enough that they are willing to 
take covenants, that is no new thing ; but till we see 
that God has wrought some mighty work upon their 
hearts we must carry this conclusion, Certainly, if they 
can, they will ruin us, therefore our condition cannot be 
safe till it is such that they can do us no hurt. 

Obs. 4. Breaking covenant, though with wicked men, 
is a wickedness whicli God will punish. I have here- 
tofore spoken of falseness, and falseness in covenant 
and promises, and shown you the exam])le of Saul and 
Zedckiah, therefore I shall not look back to those 
things. God loves human societies, which cannot be 
F.df., commune l>reserved but by faitlifulncss ; Faithful- 
clJIrS." '"*"''''"°' "^^ ('' '^ ''^"^ speech of n heathen) is the 
common safety of all men. 1 remember 
1 have read of the Romans, that, by the light of nature, 
they did so esteem of faithfulness in covenants, that 



they built and dedicated a temple to it, as to a goddess ; 
and in that temple all their leagues, truces, covenants, 
and bargains were made, which were so religiously ob- 
served, that whosoever broke them was to be held as 
accursed, and unworthy to live in human society. The 
Egyptians too would punish perjurj- with death. Among 
the Indians the fingers and toes of perjured persons 
were cut ofi". And I have likewise read, when Tissa- 
jjhemes the Persian warred against the Grecians, he 
broke covenant with the Grecians, and thereupon Age- 
silaus rejoiced greatly, saying. By this means he has 
made the gods his enemy and our friend ; wherefore 
let us boldly give him battle, ^^"e know how our ene- 
mies have broken their covenants from time to time, 
and the verj- conditions which they have made them- 
selves, yea, even lately in that town which we hear such 
good of now ; in that we hope the Lord is even reveng- 
ing himself upon them for breaking covenant in that 
very place. Now, my brethren, as even the very hea- 
then are convinced that this is so great and dreadful an 
evil, what cause have we to lay our hands upon our 
hearts this day in respect of that part of our covenant 
which concerns one another, for certainly since the time 
of our solemn covenant there was never more treachery 
than there has been in England, and in Scotland too ; 
there has been as much treacherj- since that time as 
ever yet wa-s since either of them were a nation : we 
have been false one to another so far as relates to our- 
selves. But further, 

" They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making 
a covenant." Calvin, in his notes on this scripture, 
understands this oatli and covenant not to be a cove- 
nant to men, but their covenant with God, in promising 
repentance and new obedience ; and so they spake only 
words, " swearing falsely," they did but deceive him in 
swearing and malung a covenant. And this indeed is a 
sore and dreadful evil, to swear to the high God, and 
to covenant with him, to draw so nigh to him, and yet 
to be false. God threatens in Lev. xxvi. 25, that he 
will send a sword to avenge the quarrel of his cove- 
nant i and when we see the sword rage so as it doth, 
we may have cause to fear that the Lord has a quarrel 
against us, in avenging our falseness in the late cove- 
nant that has been made. And tliat we may see fur- 
ther our guiltiness and evil in swearing lalsely in 
making a covenant, we must know that many ways 
our hearts may be false in our covenants with God. It 
is a dreadful evil to be false any way in covenant with 
God : any of you that upon your sick-beds have been 
solemnly promising to God reformation if God restored 
you, if you be false, O know, that the Lord has a 
quarrel against you, and he has a dreadful evil to 
charge upon your souls. How many of you have been 
false in your private covenants! But to be false in 
public covenants, that is most dreadful. But our 
liearts may be false divers ways : as, 

1. If we make our covenant merely upon politic 
grounds. If we make the solemn worship of God, where- 
in we express our fidelity for reformation of religion, to 
be merely subservient to politic groinids, here is a false- 
ness of heart, we are false in swearing thus, and mak- 
ing a covenant ; we do not sanctify the name of God as 
we ought. 

2. If we put on it false intcqiretations we are false ; 
when we shall make our covenant a mere snare to our 
brethren. Let us consider how far any of us are guilty 
of tills, and let the Lord judge between us. I say, 
when we seek to make it a snare even to our brethren. 
How have those been accused for the breach of this 
oath, in things which have not accorded with the points 
tliat are in controversy with our brethren ! as if this 
oath were put upon all men to determine most abstruse 
and difficult points of conlroversv, to bring men to 
submit to such things as are very abstruse and difficult 



Vke. 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



429 



to understand : this were to make an oath a snare, and 
to take the name of God in vain in a fearful manner. 
Certainly the Lord never would have oaths put to men 
to this end, that men that are of different ways and 
opinions in controversial things, should be forced by 
means of an oath to be of the same judgment, and to 
do the same things : this is a great abuse of this oath, 
wheresoever it is urged so far. Certainly no man is 
guilty of the breach of this oath and covenant, that 
shall but endeavolu- as far as he can to understand 
what the mind of God is, and then to practise accord- 
ing as he understands, though he should mistake; as in 
that part of the covenant regarding the point of schism, 
the thing Itself being a sin, we may as well swear 
against it, as David did to keep God's commandments, 
Psal. cxix. 106 ; but now, if David did labour to un- 
derstand God's commandments, and practised as far as 
he did understand, suppose he did not understand all 
things aright, it might be his weakness, but not liis per- 
jury. So let us be in point of schism, or any other 
point of the covenant ; if men do endeavour to under- 
stand what is schism by the Scripture, and accordingly 
do, in their- several places, by what means their consci- 
ences tell them is lawful, endeavour to oppose it, though 
they should not think that to be schism which tlieir 
brethren account schism, or perhaps is so, yet they are 
not forsworn. This is evil, to make a covenant to be a 
snare unto us, and our hearts so far are false in it. 

3. Then is the heart false m making a covenant, when 
it does not fulfil it according to the nature of it, when 
it goes quite opposite to its tenor. As, since oiu' cove- 
nant has been made, when were there ever greater di- 
visions ? our covenant is for unit)-. 'NA'hen more pro- 
fane ungodliness ? oui- covenant is against it. When 
more injustice ? om- covenant is against all such things ; 
and yet, since England was a nation, never did stronger 
cries ascend to heaven for these sins, than since our 
covenant. Therefore certainly there is a great breach 
between God and us in this respect. 

4. "WTien men make their covenant to be a cloak for 
malignity ; that is, though they have malignant and 
vile, wicked spirits, yet they can but take the covenant, 
and then all is well. Here they swear falsely in making 
a covenant. After this theii' covenant there is a great 
deal of injustice among them. 

"Thus judgment springeth up as hemlock." By 
"judgment "some understand the judgments of God, and 
then the sense is. Those wicked ways of yours are the 
seeds that bring up God's judgments, as hemlock, bitter 
and deadly. "There is a truth in this interpretation, 
though I think it is not the full .scope of the words 
here ; but it may be, the Holy Ghost would hint some 
such thing unto us in it, that our actions are as seeds, 
and sown here, they wiU bring forth according to their 
nature. Wicked actions, when sown, will bring forth 
bitter fruit, will bring forth hemlock. It may be, saith 
he, you look for peace and prosperity; but, contrary to 
your expectation, behold hemlock and bitterness. I 
beseech you, take heed of preparing to yourselves a 
potion of hemlock against you lie sick and are cast 
upon your death-bed : a man has sown his field, lie 
thinks to have a good crop of corn, but judgment, the 
judgment of God, comes up, and there is hemlock in- 
stead of it. 

But because I think this not to be the scope of the 
place, therefore I pass it by, and rather think that by 
"judgment" is here meant, righteousness, equity, and 
justice. 

That whereas there should be righteousness, equity, 
and justice ; behold, instead, there springs up a crop of 
oppression, unrighteousness, and injustice, that is bitter 
as hemlock. I rather think that this must be the mean- 
ing, because I find that in divers scriptures injustice is 
compared to bitter things, yea, to hemlock itself: in 



Amos V. 7, " Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and 
leave off righteousness in the earth." And in Amos vi. 
12, " Y'e have turned judgment into gaU, and the fruit 
of righteousness into hemlock." I will not stand to open 
the former text, but you see the Scripture charges the 
people, by this expression, of sinning against judgment 
and righteousness, that they turned it to hemlock. 

Now I find tlii'ee things especially recorded of this 
herb. 

First, It is a very venomous herb ; therefore I find 
Pliny records of it, in the 25th Book, 1.3th chapter of 
his Natural Historv', that the Athenians were wont to 
give it to malefactors that were condemned to die. 
And Socrates, that was so wise a man among them, be- 
cause he did not j-ield to theu- gods, but spake against 
them, maintaining there was but one God, therefore 
they adjudged him to die by chinking hemlock. 

Secondly, I find the same author saith of it, that the 
leaves are somewhat like to coriander, but more ten- 
der, and with a strong, stinking smell, and the seeds like 
to aniseed. So justice seems to have a very fair pre- 
tence sometimes, and to do things that are very good ; 
under very fair pretences men are very unjust : the 
leaves when they come up one would think there should 
be such a fuie fruit, one would think to have corian- 
der or anise, but the truth is, it comes to hemlock at 
last. _ 

Thirdly, That which Jerome reports of it in his com- 
ment on my text, where he saith, that hemlock grows 
up very stiff and full of joints, and that at the joints it 
])uts forth stalks, which not only sprout upwards and 
bear fruit, but downwards to form roots ; and he saith 
that every branch, if it has but a joint in it, will serve 
instead of a seed ; yea, he saith, if any pieces fall on the 
ground, they will grow up so as that it will be very 
hard to extirpate them. And tnily thus it resembles 
injustice, which, if let alone but a little, oh how quick- 
ly it multiplies and spreads itself thi-ough the whole 
knd_! 

Pliny too observes. That the root of it is hollow, and 
so unfit for any use at all. And so are the hearts of the 
unjust, hollow hearts and unfit for any thing. 

That the leaves are beneficial for swelhngs, and sore 
eyes. And God tm-ns even the injustice that is many 
times among a people to be medicines to his people 
against then- swellings, and to open their sore eyes. 

That if hemlock be drank in wine, it will certainly 
kill a man, and that without remedy. So if men be 
unjust, and take delight in theii- injustice, and scorn 
and contemn those that they can oppress, such men are 
in a desperate condition indeed. 

And lastly. That this herb kills by cold ; that if the 
leaves or seeds get the mastery of any, they feel them- 
selves begin to wax cold in theu' inward parts, and so 
die inwardly. Oh ! how many who have been very hot 
and zealous, yet, having gotten power into their hands 
and imrighteously used it, have growTi cold in that 
in which they were formerly zealous, and still grow 
colder and colder; and thus theu- unrighteousness is 
like to prove theu- death ! 

" In the furrows of the field." Calvin „ , . _ 

, . . ,Tr, 111 ^ CalTin. Expos. Cur 

puts this question, \V hy doth he not say, potms supra suicos 
It springs up in the field, but "in the «?". i"»'= "■ »ero J 
furrows of the field?" And he gives this answer to it, 
Where there are furrows in the field, there has the 
plough come that has broken up the field ; and it is to 
prepare for good seed when the field is laid in fun-ows, 
and therefore less tolerable for hemlock to spring up 
there than in the field that is not ])loughed, or in other 
unprepared ground. AMien a field is ploughed and 
prepared for seed, and one would hope to have much 
advantage by his field, to have much justice and 
righteousness in a country ; where we see there have 
been great works of God to cast out those that were 



430 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. X. 



unjust before, and the expectation of all the people is, 
that certainly now there will be nothing but righteous- 
ness and judgment ; when, instead of that, comes up 
injustice and oppression ; as hemlock, when it springeth 
up in such a field that is so prepared for justice ; this 
is a sore evil ; the Lord is much provoked against, and 
so complains of it, " that judgment springeth up as 
hemlock in the furrows of the field." 

Obs. 1. That people is in a sad condition, and it is a 
sign the Lord has forsaken them, that they are near 
ruin, when in those places where there is most likeli- 
hood of justice and equity, there exist injustice and 
oppression. Oppression and injustice in places where 
God expects righteousness and equity, is a sad omen, 
a forerunner of great evil to places. It is God's com- 
plaint, in Isa. r. ; just before he threatened the utter 
spoiling of his vineyard, he gives this reason, " I looked 
that it should bring forth grapes, and behold, it brought 
forth wild grapes." And he mentions, among the wild 
grapes, injustice: there it is called "wild grapes," as 
" hemlock " here, for both are veiT sour, and bitter before 
the Lord. Injustice in places from whence justice may 
be expected, is by the Lord accounted a most fearful, a 
ruining, sin. In Amos v. 12, " I know" (saith the Lord) 
" your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins." 
Now the word translated " mighty sins," in the Hebrew 
signifies your bony sins, because the strengtli of a man 
is in his bones ; and therefore he calls the strength of 
that sin bony : it is a verj- strong sin, it cannot easily 
be resisted. Your sins have great bones in them, saith 
he ; and what are they ? You afflict the just, you take 
a bribe, that you may turn away the poor in the gale 
from their right : tho.se are their great and their mighty 
sins. In Jer. xxii. 15 — 17, " Did not thy father eat and 
drink, and do judgment and justice? and then it was 
well with him ? " Again, " He judged the cause of the 
poor and needy : then it was well with him :" and, 
" Was not this to know me ? saith the Lord." Let men 
talk never so much of reformation, and of setting up 
the worship of God, and of casting out false worship, 
yet if they rejoice in injustice and oppression instead of 
that, God will not take liimself as known. " But," saith 
he, " thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy 
covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for 
oppression, and for violence, to do it." And in Amos 
V. 21, is a remarkable place for this, " I hate," .saith he, 
" I des])isc your feast days, and I will not smell in your 
solemn assemblies." You have many feast days, and 
days of thanksgiving : you bless me for what I do for 
vou, but I will not care for your days of thanksgiving. 
Why ? In the 24th verse, " But let judgment run down 
as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." As 
if he should say. Keep as many days of thanksgiving 
as you will, I care for none of them, except "judgment 
run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty 
stream." Mark here the expression of the Holy Ghost ; 
judgment and righteousness is compared to a river; 
that is, it should be common for all, that the poorest 
might come and take of it as well as the ricliest : it 
must not be like a pond, or well, enclosed for a man's 
private use, " But," saith he, " let judgment run down 
as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream," as a 
river ; it must be as a river. Now, you know, from the 
Thames everv' poor person may come and fetch water 
for their relief. So justice should be like the water in 
the Thames, that the poorest of all may have it for the 
very fetching of it. But till then, saith he, I regard 
none of your days of thanksgiving. And so in Isa. 
Iviii., there is one special reason why the days of fasting 
were not regarded, it was because of their oppression 
of the poor, and their uncharitableness, and tlieir in- 
juriousness in the courts of justice. We have now- 
many days of fasting and thanksgiving, more than ever 
yet Ivig'land knew, and we may think that God will 



smell a sweet savour ; but oh ! this hemlock coming up 
"in the furrows of the field" will imbitter all, for if 
ever God did look for righteousness and judgment from 
a people, then certainly he looks for righteousness and 
judgment from us at this day. Oh ! for us now, that 
stand in need of so much mercy, that cry for mercy, 
that we should be oppressing at such a time as this, it 
is a most dreadful tiling. What ! is all the cost that 
God has bestowed upon us come to this, that there 
should be no other fruit but hemlock come up in the 
furrows of the field ? all the cost of God and man, all 
the works of God towards us, do they come but to this 
issue, only to bring forth hemlock? Were there ever 
more cries, were there ever more bitter moans and 
complaints, because of injustice, than of late have been 
in this land ? Never were people so frustrated in their 
expectations. When indeed such as were notoriously 
wicked were in place, then we expected nothing but 
hemlock ; but now they are cast out, and others come 
in, we hoped that there had been such a preparation 
that nothing but fruits of righteousness would have 
come up. But now, to be oppressed by them that are 
in the places of former oppressors, this is grievous. 
Lord, what is man ? In Isa. lix. 9, it is said, " There- 
fore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice over- 
take us : we wait for light, but behold obscurity ; for 
brightness, but we walk in darkness." This light is 
especially spoken of the light of justice ; as if they 
should say, The land once indeed was dark, all the 
courts of judicature, and all the men that had places to 
judge in, were darkness, we had notliing but darkness; 
yea, but now we waited for light, we hoped now there 
would be reformation; it is spoken after their many 
days of fasting and prayer : but yet, behold darkness, 
behold oppression still. Oh ! many who are come 
empty into places of power suck harder than some 
former oppressors did. And what will be the end of 
tliese things ? How many poor men travel many times 
far, expecting fruits of justice, but they meet with hem- 
lock ! they sigh and lift up their eyes and hearts to 
heaven, sending up their moans to God, Lord, is this 
the fruit of our labour ? do our hopes come to this ? 
what ! must we go home with sad hearts, and be made 
a scorn and prey to those that are wicked round about 
us ? Oh ! these are sad moans at such times as the 
present. 

My brethren, it were easy to name many stalks of 
hemlock that there are come up amongst us instead of 
righteousness and judgment. I wUl name one or two. 

First, That such as have been notoriously malignant, 
yea, such as have been upon actual war, should yet, 
upon any slight acknowledgment, or from having for 
their own ends taken covenant, get into committees, 
and have power there over the well-afiectcd party who 
have been most forward from the first ; that now those 
who hate them, and have spirits full of bitterness against 
them, should have power over them to tax them as they 
please ; power over their estates, their liberty ; power to 
order the aflairs of the countrj- round about them, and 
to revenge themselves upon them because they were so 
forward in the beginning ; what grows in the furrows 
here but bitter and venomous hemlock ? 'OTiere the 
fault lies, that we cannot determine ; but such men, 
doing such things, in such places, it is nothing but 
" hemlock in the furrows of the field." 

Secondly, Here is another stalk of hemlock, Tliat poor 
men, taken from their families, who were the only means 
of support to their wives and cliildren. yet should be 
so left without pay themselves, that their wives and 
children are destitute of bread and clothing; and 
officers in an army, who were but mean men heretofore, 
and knew scarce how to live, should now live bravely, 
ghster in their gold and silver lace ; what is this but 
hemlock ? Is not here injustice and oppression ? that 



Vek. i. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



thousands should -want food, that widows and chil- 
dren should cry out for bread, who lived pretty well 
heretofore ; and others who before knew not how to 
live, yet now shall be brave in a far higher way 
than ever formerly; is not here hemlock that gi'ows 
up " in the furrows of the field ? " I know not nei- 
ther where to charge this, but yet we see hemlock doth 
come up. 

But now, though we might name many other stalks 
of hemlock, yet certainly take this caution along with 
you. 

Every man in times of distraction, such as those 
wherein we live, must account to suffer something, 
things cannot be carried on with that equity as if aU 
things were settled among us ; therefore, though we 
may in a humble and peaceable way make our moans 
one to another, and seek to inform those that are in 
power, and petition, yet it ought to be our care, what- 
ever we suffer in our particular, to preserve as far as 
we can the honour of our supreme court ; better many 
suffer iniUvidually hard things, than the honour of that 
should not be kept up, for by not maintaining that we 
make way to suffer worse things tlian ever yet we have 
done. For how would we have help when we meet with 
wrong and injustice? Under God there are but three 
wa}s, two extremes, and one middle, for men to have 
right in case of injustice. 

1. The king's arbitrary power, acted by those that 
are about him. We have tasted enough of this liem- 
loek heretofore ; would we think to have oui- help that 
way ? "We know what that hemlock means. 

2. The appeal to the people. That were a remedy 
worse than the disease, for then all would seem to 
come to be in a confusion that way ; if the people, the 
generality of the people, should take up the matter, we 
should then have nothing but murders and robberies. 
Then the meanest man in the kingdom, if he has but 
as strong arms and legs as the richest of all, he is pre- 
sently equal with them, when things come to be re- 
di'cssed by the tumultuous people. 

3. Therefore the third means of help in case of in- 
justice is, the mean, that is, our parliament, which, as 
things are now, is the only regular help that we can 
have. If therefore we see or feel some things amiss, 
we may be sensible and seek help too, but in a peace- 
able and humble way of petitioning, being more tender 
of their honour than of oiu' own private right. And 
an appeal to Heaven there may be likewise; but by an 
appeal to either of the two extremes, certainly in that 
we make our remedy worse than the disea.se. Pray 
much for them therefore, that there may not one stalk 
of hemlock rise up among them, or any seed fall down 
fi'om them, but that they may be as the field wliich the 
Lord has blessed, full of the fruits of justice and right- 
eousness ; that themselves, and this city, and the king- 
dom, may be the habitation of justice; that mercy and 
truth may meet together, that righteousness and peace 
may kiss each other ; that truth may spring out of the 
earth, and righteousness look down from heaven, Psal. 
ixxxv. 10, 11. 

Now there is one note more, that I find in Tremelius, 
Parens, and many others, on the words, " the furrows 
of the field." In the latter end of the word translated 
" field," there is, say they, ajod, which by some is con- 
sidered paragogical, or a formal addition only, but by 
others as an affix for the plural number; and so they 
translate it thus, hemlock in the furrows of my field. 
And that is a great aggravation. Hemlock in the fur- 
rows of any field is an evil : but what ! my people, men 
that profess godliness ? what ! those that profess to set 
up reformation, yet hemlock there in the forrows of 
my field ? Oh this is sad and evil indeed ! In Jer. xxxi. 
23, " Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel ; 
As yet they shall use tliis speech in the land of Judah 



and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again 
their captivity ; The Lord bless thee, habitation of 
justice, and mountain of holiness." 'WTieu I bring 
theu' captivity again, and o'mi them to be mine, then 
there shall be such eminent justice and holiness that 
this speech shall be used, " The Lord bless thee, O 
habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness." So if 
we would have any evidence to our souls that God 
does own us, and that we are his, and God indeed has 
delivered us from our captivity, we should labour tliat 
justice and holiness may be so eminent that all the 
people about us may say. The Lord bless this land, the 
" habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness." 
Both must go together ; we must not think to raise up 
the ordinances of God, and cast out superstition, but 
we must be "the habitation of justice," as well as "the 
mountain of holiness," if we be the land that the Lord 
has blessed. 

Ver. 5. The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear be- 
cause of the calves of Beth-ate?! : for the people thereof 
shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced 
on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed 
from it. 

" The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear." You heard 
before that they were convinced in their consciences 
that they did not fear God : " For now they shall say, 
We have no king, because we feared not the Lord." 
They feared not God, but now they shall fear : " The 
inhabitants of Samaria shall fear." 

Obs. 1. That those that fear God least, are most 
afraid of every thing else. AMiere the fear of God is 
not, other base fears will be ; and so much the more, 
the less we fear God. Oh how much better were it 
that our fear were set upon God, than upon other 
things ! Y'ou must love something ; were it not better 
that your love were placed upon God than on any 
thing else? And you must fear something; were it 
not better that your fear were upon God, than any 
thing else ? And you must rejoice in something, and 
sorrow, and the like. Fear is a very troublesome 
affection if misplaced. O, learn to place your affec- 
tions right, place them upon God. By the fear of God 
you shall come to fear nothing else ; oh how excellent 
is God's fear ! This one thing sets out the excellency 
of the fear of God; that where the fear of God is 
settled in the heart, all other base fears are rooted out. 
WoiJd not you be glad to be deli\ered from creature 
fears, especially you that have lived in many dangers a 
few months since ? Oh, if you might be delivered from 
the fears of the creatui-e, how glad would you be! 
Here is the only way ; let the fear of God be strong in 
your hearts, and the fear of the creature will not pre- 
vail with you. Y'ou see it clearly in the example of 
Habaklvuk, Hab. iii. 16, "AVhen I heard, my belly 
trembled ; my lips quivered at the voice : rottenness 
entered uito my bones, and I trembled in myself." 
But now, Habalikuk, why trouble yourself with so 
much fear ? Mark, a great good came to him by it ; 
"that I might rest in the day of trouble, when he 
Cometh up unto the people." When there shall be a 
coming up unto the people, and the enemy shall jire- 
vail, and when "' the fig tree shall not blossom, neither 
shall fruit be in the vines ; the labour of the olive shall 
fail, and the fields shall yield no meat ; the flock shall 
be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in 
the stalls ;" when things shall be brought into the very 
saddest condition, so that men shall be at their wit's end, 
and know not what in the world to do ; then, saith he, 
" I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my 
salvation." When God spake, then " my belly trem- 
bled, and my lips quivered at the voice." Y^ea, but 
when men came in the greatest rage, and when all 



432 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. X. 



things were dark, and dismal, and black abroad, yet 
then did I " rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of 
my salvation ; " all fear was gone. >ien can rejoioe in 
the time of their prosperity, but in times of affliction 
then they fear ; whereas those that fear the Lord in 
their prosperity, in the season of their affliction may 
most rejoice. Nazianzcn, in his 12th Oration, saith 
well, Tliis is our care, that we are afraid of nothing 
more than that we should fear any thing more than 
God. That is his expression. Here is an excellent 
fear, a fear rightly set. Would you fear ? fear to fear 
any thing more than God, and then your fear is set 
right : but if you do not, &c. Though men that have 
no fear of God may seem to have bold spii-its, and it 
seems to result from the greatness of their spirits that 
they will not fear God, yet these men in the time of 
danger are the most base, cowardly men in the world. 
I will give you a notable instance for this : Manasses 
was a proud and insolent man, that seemed to be fear- 
less of any tlireatening of God, and scorned his pro- 
phets ; but mark, when he came into danger, 2 Cliron. 
xxxiii. 11, where did they find Manasses? He was 
run into the bushes ; this brave, bold-spirited man, that 
dared God and his prophets, and cared not for what 
was said, yet in danger what a base, low sjiirit had 
he ! he runs and hides himself in the midst of bushes 
and briers. 

This is the temper and guise of the spirits of men 
that will not fear God. 

" Because of the calves of Beth-aven." You know 
what they were, those that Jeroboam set up in Dan and 
Beth-el, the golden calves. 

Luther, upon the place, moves a question ; AAliat a 
wonderful thing is it (saith he) that Jeroboam should 
be so bold as to set up calves to worship, when there 
is that eminent story of God's revenging himself for 
the people's worshipping a calf that Aaron set up, that 
at one time cost the lives of twenty-three thousand 
men, and yet that Jeroboam should i)resume to set up 
calves again to worship ! It was a strange, bold at- 
tempt, saith Luther, it was a wonderful thing that he 
should be so bold, and that he should prevail with the 
people. Luther thus answers this question : The 
truth is, there is nothing so horrible and vile but peo- 
ple in a little time will be brought to yield to ; if great 
ones, bj- their example and by their endeavours, labour 
to set It up, it will be set up ; and, be it never so vile, 
never so abominable, the people will be brought to re- 
ceive it. That is his answer. 

And truly we find it so, that let i)cople seem to ab- 
hor things never so much, yet if they find it be the 
wish of gicat ones, and if it be once set up in a way of 
power, they yield to it. One would think it an impos- 
sible thing, God having now cast so much odium ujjon 
our prelates, for the pcoi)lc of England ever to be 
brought to yield to them, and I make no question but 
many of you say so when you meet together ; but do 
not deceive yourselves, if so be that those had pre- 
vailed that sought to prevail against us, we should 
quickly have the sjjirits of peo|)le turned, and as much 
for prelates, and ceremonies, and altars, (the generality 
of the people I mean,) as here they were for these calves 
again, though they had that sad story in their ears 
continually, of so many thousands that were slain for 
calves before. 

" Because of the calves of Belh-nven." AMiy, were 
there many calves at Beth-avcn ? Indeed there were 
calves at l)an and Beth-cl, but there was but one at 
each of them. This Beth-aven and Beth-el were the 
same. Jeroboam was so subtle to set up the calf at 
Beth-el, because the place took its name from God ; but 
here the Holy Ghost calls it Beth-aven, a house of 
vanity, or iniquity. We may call things by names that 
may hold up some honour and respect, but God will 



give another name to these things on which we would 
fain put honour. 

He calls it '• Beth-aven," and " the calves of Beth- 
aven." A\'hy, were there many calves at ]5eth-aven ? 

Now the answer that some give is this: There was 
but one at Beth-el indeed ; but both Beth-el and Dan 
may have the name Beth-aven, (for they are both houses 
of vanity.) and so " calves " mentioned here m respect 
of them both. 

Others thus : " The calves of Beth-aven." As if the 
prophet should say. Set up as many calves as you will, 
they shall not help you if you had a thousand of them. 

But rather, as I find Arias Montanus, with othei-s, 
say, they are called the calves of Beth-aven, because, 
according to the example of the calf that was set up at 
Beth-aven, their workmen made other little ones for 
their houses. Like as Demetrius the silversmith made 
shrines for Diana's temple, and it was his trade also to 
make little temples in silver, cither to hang about their 
necks, or to be set up in their houses as ornaments ; so 
probably the calf set up at Beth-aven had so much 
honour put upon it, that they had little things like to 
it made of wood, or silver, or gold, according to their 
estates ; and so had them in their families ; and there- 
fore they are called "calves," in the plural number. 
And if this were so we might have a good note : 

06.5. 1. That the true worshippers of God should la- 
bour to bring his true worship into their families. 
They would bring the calf into their families, or houses ; 
so should we bring the ordinances and worship of God 
into our families, and not content ourselves with pub- 
lic worship, but have private worship too : they did not 
content themselves with a calf abroad, but had them at 
home in their houses or families. 

But further, some remark. They are called the calves in 
the feminine gender, the she-calves, by way of contempt. 

" The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear, because of 
the calves of Beth-aven." Viliy " the inhabitants of 
Samaria ? " The calves were not there. Samaria was 
their chief city ; as London is to England, so Samaria 
was the chief city to the ten tribes. " Tlie inhabitants 
of Samaria shall fear." Samaria was a verj' stiong city ; 
and when the AssvTians came and carried away trie ten 
tribes captive, they took all the country- round about 
before they took Samaria. It was with Samaria as with 
London in these sad times ; when there have been 
wars round about in England, London has been safe 
for these thi-ee years together. And so when there 
were wars in all Israel, yet Samaria continued safe ; 
yea, not only when some towns, but when everj' town 
was taken, Samaria was so strong as to be able to en- 
dure a siege for three years togetlier : thus you find in 
2 Kings xvii. 5, that the king of Assj-ria came and be- 
sieged Samaria three years : yet, this being so, the text 
saith, " The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear, because 
of the calves of Beth-aven." That is, though they were 
a strong city, yet when they heard that their gods were 
taken away, yea, when they did but hear that Beth-el 
and Dan were in danger of having their gods taken 
away, they felt this ; and though they themselves were 
safe in their outward condition for the present, and had 
strength enough to resist the enemies, yet they were 
afraid ; that is, there was a solicitous fear in them about 
the calves of Beth-aven before they were taken, and 
when they were taken their hearts were daunted, and 
they knew not what in the world to do. Thus you see 
the meaning of the words. MTiencc, 

Obs. 2. In times of danger our hearts should be 
most solicitous about the worship of God. It was so 
in the season of their danger, their hcarU were espe- 
cially solicitous about Bcth-el, where thev had the wor- 
shi]) of their gods. So arc idolaters solicitous in time 
of danger, not so much because of their outward peace, 
(it is not said that they were afraid because the cne- 



Veb. 5. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



433 



mies would come and take their corn, or their estates.) 
but for Beth-aven, where tlie cahes were, they feared. 
When there is any danger, the honour of God, his 
church, his ordinances, should lie nearest to our hearts : 
thus it was with old Eli ; " Eli sat upon a seat by the 
wayside watching : for his heart trembled for the ark 
of God," 1 Sam. iv. 13. He had his sons in the army, 
yet his heart did not tremble for them, nor that if the 
enemies should prevail he was likely to lose his estate, 
and there would come woeful miseiy upon the land ; 
no, his heart trembled not for these, but for " the ark 
of God." I appeal to you, what was that which your 
hearts trembled most for in the time of our greatest 
danger ? Was it for " the ark of God?" was it because 
of his ordinances ? Oh ! if they prevail they will tram- 
ple the ordinances of the Lord and the saints of God 
under feet. The true worship of God, and the power of 
godliness, did your hearts tremble because of tliis ? 
Certainly if your hearts were right they would do so. 
What ! shall idolaters tremble because of their calves, 
and shall not our hearts tremble because of our God ? 
1 Kings viii. 44, 45, " If thy people go out to battle 
against their- enemy, whithersoever thou shalt send 
them," what should they do ? " and shall pray unto the 
Lord toward the city which thou hast chosen, and to- 
ward the house that 1 have built for thy name : then 
hear thou in heaven." In prayer they must look to- 
wards the city and the temple ; for the temple was a 
type of Christ, so the city was a type of God's ordi- 
nances, where the people went up to worship. Oh ! 
that should be in our eyes. The city where the ordi- 
nances of God are, when we go to war let that be in 
our eyes, and let that make us fight valiantly; and 
when we are prajing to God, let us not pray so much 
that we may be delivered from our adversaries, as that 
the temple and the city of our God may be preserved. 

Obs. 3. Cities that are sh-ong and safe themselves, 
should be sensible of the miseries of others. " The 
inhabitants of Samaria shall fear." God knows how 
far we have been wanting in this very thing ; if a 
stranger had come out of another country into London, 
and walked about the streets, could he have imagined 
that there were such civil wai's in this land as there 
are, such wonderful desolations as have been made in 
other parts ? Oh how little did we lay the afflictions 
of others to heart, because they were at some flistancc 
from us ! Oh the mercy of our God, that has not 
brought us into the same evils and miseries ! this one 
sin had been enough to have provoked God against us, 
because we were so little sensible of the miseries of the 
suiTOunding countries and cities. This Samaria was 
full of wickedness, yet when they heard what dangers 
Beth-el and Dan, and their other cities, were in, 
oh, they were mightily affected with it. Learn we 
from hence to be humbled for our shortcomings in this 
respect, and if ever the Lord should yet try us further, 
let us learn to be sensible of the miseries of others that 
are about us. 

Obs. 3. There is no staidness of heart in resting upon 
any thing but the living God. They that stay them- 
selves U}K)n any thing else, if any afflictions or dangers 
happen, then- hearts are filled with fear presently. They 
are afraid " because of the calves." ^^'hen their calves 
are gone, all their confidence is gone, and then their 
hearts are overwhelmed with fear. When men have 
nothmg to rest upon but their own inventions, then- 
own ways, no marvel though they fear in times of dan- 
ger ; they begin to bethink now that all that they rest- 
ed upon is vanity : yea, the service of God, that men 
in times of prosperity can rest upon and can satisfy 
their consciences withal, yet in time of danger it will 
not do ; no inventions of men, no external duties of re- 
ligion, especially such as are mixed with superstition, 
will then uphold the heart from being overwhelmed ; it 



is only the confidoice in the living Ciod, the union of 
our souls with Jesus Christ, and enjoyment of commu- 
nion with him in his own ordinances, that can comfort 
our souls in time of danger. So it is said of the godly 
in Psal. cxii. 7, 8, " He shall not be afraid of evil tidmgs : 
his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. His heart is 
established, he shall not be afraid." It is again re- 
peated ; let evil tidings, come what will, his heart is 
fixed, because he trusts in the Lord. 

" For the people thereof." Here he speaks of the 
calf of Beth-aven in the singular number, for the peo- 
ple of it, that is, of the calf; for so I find the word 
"thereof" referred by most interpreters, to the calf, not 
to Samaria. From thence the note would be, 

Obs. 4. Idolaters dedicated themselves to their idols, 
they were the people of the idol. Those that were 
the very peculiar treasure of God and his own people, 
now are called the people of the calf, for they have 
none to go to for help, but only to that idol of theirs ; 
they had forsaken God. 

" Shall mourn over it." Though certainly at first 
the setting up of the calf could not but be a very strange 
thing to the people of Israel, yet after a little they were 
useci to it, and paid it worship ; and it took their very 
consciences, so that they loved it, and when it was 
taken away they mourned, and were in extreme distress 
and trouble. 

Obs. 5. Idolaters do mourn when their false worship 
is taken from them. At this day, my brethren, how 
do many mourn after the superstitious vanities and 
customs that they were wont to have ! Now prelates, 
and service-book, and altars, and such kind of things 
are taken away, and when they meet together they ex- 
claim. Oh ! now all religion is gone ! So they persuade 
poor people in remote parts, that the parliament has 
taken away all religion ; and there is a great mourning 
in their spirits, they think they know not how in the 
world to serve God if then- book be taken away from 
them: and I make no question it has been a cause 
that many have taken up arms, merely to defend such 
their superstitious vanities and customs. They mourn 
for their- wonted burials for the dead, and would almost 
as lieve lose their lives as such kind of things. I re- 
member I have read of some Indians that were wont to 
worship an ape's tooth, a religious rehc among them ; 
and that when it was taken from them, they so mourn- 
ed its loss that they came and ofi'ered a very great 
price, even many thousands, to redeem this their ape's 
tooth, because it was a religious relic. And so we have 
men this day who, though their superstitious vanities 
and customs be no better than a very ape's tooth, yet 
mourn over them, and would be willing to part with a 
great proportion of their estate to redeem them again, 
they mourn after their calves. 

Oh ! how then should we moiu^n after the true wor- 
ship of God, how dear should that be to om- souls ! For 
if calves, superstitious relics and customs, apes' teeth, 
and such things be so dear to idolaters ; oh ! those or- 
dinances of God in which our souls have met with so 
much soul-refreshings and commimion with God, in 
which so much of the Spii-it of God and such enlight- 
enings have been imparted to our souls, oh ! how 
should we mourn after them ! You that have gotten 
any thing by the word or by his ordinances, that have 
ever known what it has been to have communion with 
Ciod in them, you should think with yourselves, If these 
should be taken from me, then I should have cause to 
mourn indeed. I have lost much of my estate, and my 
friends, many of them are gone, and these are a cause 
of mourning ; oh ! but if I should lose the ordinances 
and worship of God, what cause would there be then 
of mourning ! 

" And the priests thereof that rejoiced on it." The 
priests especially moiu'n. The word here translated 



434 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. X. 



" priests," is in the Hebrew D'hcs and I find the word 
from whence it comes signifies three things. 

1. To sound aloud : and so some t}>ink tliat therefore 
they are called Chemarim.s, because of the clamorous 
sounds they were wont to make in their superstitious 
worship : just as we were wont to have bellowing in 
the cathedrals, so they were wont to have, and there- 
fore were called Chemarims, because of their mighty 
noises and sounds that they were wont to have. 

2. To burn, or to be hot: and so Luther understands 
the word, and saith, that they were called Chemarims 
from their burning desires after their ways of false wor- 
ship. 

3. To be black from burning; because those things 
that are burnt are made black. Wieii the flame first 
takes hold upon a thing it makes it black : and so Che- 
marims are as much as black ones, or indeed black 
coats,* in allusion to the black garmenls that they 
were wont to use. And I find in 2 Kings xxiii. 5, that 
this word here rendered " priests," is there used for " idol- 
atrous priests." Those black coats that were then, ac- 
counted it a kind of religion to go in black, and from 
tlience they derived the name. And though certainly 
it is fit for the ministers of the gospel to go gravely and 
decently, and not to express lightness and vanity in 
their garments, yet so to regard black, as if necessarily 
they must wear black coats, and no other garments will 
serve the turn, savours of superstitious vanity. Though 
gravity be required in their very garments, yet to stand 
so much upon the very colour may be dangerous ; and 
for those that are looked upon as religious men, that 
they should be tied and bound to it, is, I say, evil. They 
were wont to do so here : aud so almost all your hea- 
thens and superstitious people have had always a spe- 
cial colour for the garments of their priests; so the 
Twks have green, others diflerent colours. Thus much 
for the name Chemarims. 

" The priests that rejoiced on it;" that is, they that 
did exalt over the calves. The priests got the king on 
their side, and made the calves brave, and had a splen- 
did kind of worship, and many pompous ceremonies ; 
the priests gloried in this, for they had a special hand 
in all, and because they had the countenance of author- 
ity for their calves, they were able to crush any that 
spake against them, they " rejoiced on it," saith th.e 
text. 

But now it is threatened, that they .shall mourn ; those 
priests that did so glory in their calves, (as who were 
they that did glory so much in pompous altars and 
other outward adornings, as your priests ?) they exulted 
and had all under them, and would quickly crush a 
man reluctant to yield to them ; they did even brave it 
over all, and call themselves sometimes the triumphant 
clergy, just like your Chemarims; but now here they 
were like to lose all, and they mourned. 

Polanus, on this very place, refers it to the fat liv- 
ings, parsonages, prebendaries, deaneries, and bishop- 
ries, and such kind of preferments. Oh how do our 
prelates and their satellites mourn this day for the loss 
of these things ! Thus they that did so rejoice to ex- 
pect preferment, are gone now, the world is at an end 
w ith them, and they mourn one to another because of 
the loss of such things as these are : and long may they 
mourn upon this ground. In Kev. xviii. such people 
are well set forth : unon the fall of Babylon, the text 
saith, that " the merchants of the earth shall weep and 
mourn over her ; for no man buyeth their merchandise 
any more :" then in vcr. 14, " The fruits that thy soul 
lusted after are departed from thee :" and in ver. 15, 
" The merchants of these things, which were made rich 
by her, stood afar ofl", weeping and wailing." Those 

• This is the rabbins' interpretation of the word, (and they 
apply it tu the popish monks and nims,) which Calvin rejects, 
and expounds it to signify, either their clamorous noise in wor- 



that were made rich by the whore of Babylon stand 
afar off, weeping and wailing. And so weep and wail 
those made rich by the prelates, and by supei-stitious 
vanities ; and blessed be God that we see them mourn 
that did so triumph and rejoice over the people of God ; 
blessed be God that he has so changed things, that now 
thev hang down their heads and mourn, even because 
of tlieir calves that are taken from them. 

" For the glory thereof." They sought to make them 
as glorious as they could, and they accounted them very 
glorious. Now shall wicked men, idolaters, account their 
idol worship glorious ? Oh how glorious should tlie wor- 
.ship of God be in our eyes, the true spiritual worship 
of God I Let the true ministers of God learn not to 
glory in the flesh, but desire to "know nothing but 
Jesus Christ, and him crucified." 

" Is departed." For divers years together the worship 
of the calves had a great deal of glory put upon it, 
but it went away. And so you know what glory was 
upon our prelates, and such kind of worship as they 
of late set up, but " the glory thereof is departed." 
And look to it, whatever the inventions of men are, if 
unsanctioned by God, the glory will depart from them. 

Ver. 6. /t shall be also carried unto Assyria for a 
present to king Jareb : Ephraim shall receive shame, 
and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel. 

" It shall be carried unto Assjn-ia for a present to king 
Jareb." What king Jareb was you heard in the fifth 
chapter : his name signifies a helper : as now the king 
of trance is designated The most Christian king; our 
king. The defender of the faith ; so king Jareb was 
called The helper. Now the calves ai'e to be sent to 
king Jareb, that was their help. Some think that they 
sent it for a present, but the test will not bear that ; 
but his soldiers, taking Dan and Bcth-el, send the calves 
to king Jareb as a trophy, as that which they knew he 
would much rejoice in : they rested much upon king 
Jareb as a help to them, and now their form of wor- 
ship, their very religion, is at Jareb's disposal, for he 
has now the calves in his hand, to do with them what 
he will. 

Ohs. 1. Our dependence on men for help is dearly 
bought, if it comes to that, that they shall have the 
disposal of our religion. Jareb was their helper, and 
they would have him to help them ; but now their 
calves are sent to him for a present, and Jareb has 
the disposal of them for their religion. 

06s. 2. Idolaters are wont to rejoice much when 
they get one anotlier's gods. As when the Philistines 
pot the ark, they rejoiced much, they carried it to 
Dagon's temple. Also the enemies of the church will 
rejoice much if they can get the power to trample upon 
our religion ; they will rejoice much if they can get 
your estates, but they wiU rejoice more if they can do 
what they will with you in regard to your religion. Oh ! 
this would be that which would make them glad at the 
very heart, if they could control us in our worship. Oh ! 
let us know this beforehand, that we may cry to God 
the more earnestly, that whatever the Lord gives them 
power over, he would not give them power over our 
religion ; for at that they most aim. 

" Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be 
ashamed of his own counsel." Jerome upon the place 
refers to this tradition of the Jews : That the priests of 
the calves had taken away the golden ones and set up 
calves of brass instead, onlv gilt over , , . . ^ j. ».., 
with gold; and now the Jung of Israel, dmmu.. orhi. b^o 
when he was in straits, sent these calves "''"* """^ 
to king Jareb for a present to pacify his anger, and the 

shipping, as I Kings xviii. 27, or to be a common name 
whereby those idolatrous priests were known, as 2 Kings x.xiji. 
on which place see Munster's Annotations. 



Vee. 6. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



435 



king of AssjTia, supposing that the calves were of gold, 
rejoiced, but afterwards, when he found that they were 
of brass, he sent messengers to the king of Israel to 
tell him how he had cozened him, and thereupon the 
king and all the people were ashamed. But this is but 
a tradition of theirs, and not very probable. But I ra- 
ther take the following to be the true interpretation : 

'■ Ephraira shall receive shame, and Israel shall be 
ashamed ;" that is, their hopes shall fail them, and 
they shall see tlieir counsels come to nothing, and this 
shall cause them shame and confusion of face. The 
ten tribes " shall receive shame." Failing in our hopes 
makes us to be ashamed. They had good hopes they 
should prevail because of their calves, but now then- 
calves are taken from them, and now they are ashamed. 
So Job vi. 20, " They were confounded because they had 
hoped ; they came tliither, and were ashamed :" they 
hoped to have relief, but had not, and therefore they 
were ashamed; the disappointment of hopes causes 
great shame. Oh, then, what shame and confusion 
will there be at the great day, when we shall be disap- 
pointed of our last hopes ! If we had been disap- 
pointed of our hopes now in respect of our adversaries, 
oh what shame would have been upon the people of 
God ! our adversaries would have cast shame upon us, 
and said, IVlaat is become of your fastings and prayers ? 
As it is likely the Assyrians did when they took the 
calves ; Oh, now we have gotten your gods, said they ; 
and upon this the people were ashamed : and so if our 
adversaries had prevailed they would have reviled us 
in like manner. !My brethren, we liave cause to bless 
the Lord from our souls that he has delivered us from 
such a temptation, as to be ashamed of our hopes ; 
though tlie truth is, if we considered aright we shoidd 
not have been ashamed, for our hopes were not so 
much in the saving of our estates, as in this, that God 
would acknowledge his own cause in the end ; and so 
our hopes would not have failed : yea, but if they had 
but apparently failed, if the enemy had but seemed to 
have prevailed, I say, it would have been a mighty 
temptation for us to have been ashamed of om- hopes. 
Oh ! blessed be God for preventing this, that the Lord 
has not even for a season made his people ashamed of 
their hopes and prayers! The ministers of God can 
stand up and look comfortably on their congregations, 
because they incited people, and encouraged their hearts 
in this cause ; and they have comfort 'to their souls in 
this, that when things were at the lowest, yet still they 
could place their hopes on God, and believe yet in God 
that he would go on in such a cause as this is ; and the 
Lord has not caused the expectation of his poor people 
to fail. But if it be shame (I say) now to be disap- 
pointed in some present hopes, O remember, in the 
midst of earthly disappointments, what shame would 
it be before men and angels if it should prove that any 
soul in this place should be disappointed of their last 
hopes ! Thou hast hopes of salvation, and of eternal 
life, and if it should prove, when aU secrets are to be 
made public before the Lord Jesus and his angels, that 
all thy hopes are but delusions, wliat would become of 
thee ? David prays, " O Lord, let me not be disap- 
pointed of my hope." Let that be thy prayer, espe- 
cially in regard of thy last hopes. In 1 John ii. 28, 
we are counselled to " abide in him ; that, when he 
shall appear, we may have confidence, and Jiot be 
ashamed before him at his coming." Oh, that is the 
comfort of the saints, that they shall not be ashamed 
at the coming of Jesus Christ ; and many that are not 
ashamed now, yet at the coming of Jesus Christ, oh 
the shame that shall be cast upon them ! But the main 
emphasis lies in the words that follow. 

" Of his own counsel." Now what was that counsel ? 
What ? why it was this. The counsel that was be- 
tween Jeroboam and his princes and the priests, to- 



gether with some eminent men of the people, first, for 
3ie setting up of false worship ; secondly, for the forcing 
of all men that belonged to the ten tribes to forbear 
going to Jerusalem. This was thought a notable plot, 
a notable counsel, they considered it to be the only 
means to keep things in peace among them. AVhy, 
(say they,) if we shall suffer every one that has a fancy 
in his head, to go to Jerusalem to worship, we shall 
have nothing but confusion ; and therefore let us take 
such a course that people shall have a place to worship 
in, and a form to worship by : it is but only a few that 
are so strict that they must need^ worship in Jerusalem, 
and therefore let us determine this, that we will have 
a constant form obligatory on every one, and we will 
have no more going to this Jerusalem to worship, but 
they shall be content to wor.ship at Dan and Beth-el, 
and this will keep things in peace. Now this counsel 
seemed to be a fine plot to keep things in order. But, 
saitli the Lord, " Israel shall be ashamed of his own 
counsel;" though they think those men who advise 
thus sage and wise, yea, even good men, and earnest 
for peace, and so cry up mightily the counsel, yet the 
Lord " sitteth in the heavens," and " laughs," and saith, 
" Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel." Perhaps 
now, whilst they are permitted to carry all before them, 
they bless themselves in their counsel, and tliink it 
very excellent, and approved of by God ; but when 
my time shall come, when they shall see what evil it 
brings upon them, then they shall be ashamed of their 
counsel. 

Obs. 3. Men's own counsels bring shame to them, 
especially in religion. Men naturally are very blind 
in the things of God, they do not see far in them ; 
their hearts are fuU of corruptions, which strongly bias 
them : we may inst-ance some. 

1. There is much self-love in men: any thing that is 
men's own is much regarded, a great deal more than 
truth that is another man's : if it be their own they 
mind that, but let another man speak that which has 
truth, it is little regarded. There is in men's hearts 
much violence to maintain their own counsels, and 
therefore it is veiy like that then' counsels wiU bring 
them to shame. There is nothing that men can bear 
to be contradicted in, less than in their counsels. And 
the more men are set upon their own counsels, the more 
likely are they to bring them shame in the conclusion. 

2. A judgment from God comes upon men's spirits, if 
they u'ili follow out then- own counsels ; I say, there is 
ordinarily a judgment of God upon them to leave them 
to folly when they rest upon their own counsels. So it 
is threatened in Psal. Ixxxi. 11, 12, as a great judgment 
of God upon men, to give them up to their counsels : 
" My peo]5le would not hearken to my voice ; and Israel 
would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own 
hearts' lust : and they walked in their own counsels." 
Oh ! it is a ten-ible place ; I beseech you consider it 
well : these are times wherein every one is plotting ; oh ! 
tremble at these words, '.' I gave them up unto their 
own hearts' lust ; and they walked in then' owti coun- 
sels." Men's own counsels bring them to shame ; oft- 
times they come to nothing after they have made a 
great deal of stu-, so tliat they are fain to sit down, and 
there is an end of all their labour ; perhaps they have 
laboured to advance then- counsels by much evil, much 
sin, much heart-burning, and when it comes to all, 
there it lies, there is an end of it ; thus they are ashamed 
of their counsels. Yea, many times the counsels of 
men work quite conti-ary; God much glories in this, in 
making use of men's own counsels to bring them into 
snares. TMjat has brought our adversaries into snares 
but their own counsels ? Wliat brought the prelates 
down but their own counsels? so that they would 
bite their very fingers for what they did in their pro- 
testation. God has been pleased to deal thus graciously 



436 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. X. 



for us, to bring our encniies into snares by llieir own 
counsels. So in Job xviii. 7, it is said of the wicked, 
'• his own counsel shall cast him down." And Psal. ix. 
10, ''The wicked is snared in the work of his own 
hands. Hifrf;aion. Selali." You have not those two 
words conjoined elsewhere in the whole book of God. 
It seems to im])ly that it is a thing to be meditated on 
ver)' much, that "the wicked is snared in the work of 
liis ow n hands." O consider this work of God, in bring- 
ing men down by their own counsels ! 

It is just that it should be so ; for men provoke God 
by tlieir counsels, Ps.il. cvi. 43. Oh ! the Lord looks 
upon the counsels of men, and is much i)rovoked by 
tlicm, and therefore just it is with him to make their 
counsels so to be a snare to them, that they should be 
ashamed of them at the last. It concems us therefore, 
my brethren, to look to our counsels, what they are. I 
will give you a few rules about them, that they may 
not bring you shame. 

First, Keep out from your counsels those things that 
would hinder you. As, 

1. False principles; be not actuated in your coun- 
sels by false princij)les. 

2. '\\'icked men ; take heed that they do not join with 
you in your coimsels ; as in Job xxi. 16, " Lo, their good 
is not in tlicir hand : the counsel of the wicked is far 
from me :" and so in Job xxii. 18. O keep out wicked 
men from your counsels. 

3. Your own ends; take heed how they come in: if 
any of a man's own ends come into his counsels, they 
will warp them. 

4. C'onccitedness, and pride ; when you come to coun- 
sel, O take heed of a conceited spu-it, in leaning to 
your own understanding ; God is wont to blast sucli. 

5. Flesh and blood. " I confeiTed not with flesh 
and blood," saith Paul, Gal. i. 16 : I did not look to 
carnal excellency, but laid all such aside ; they would 
have advised me to this and that, and I should never 
have done as I did if I had consulted with flesh and 
blood. 

6. Passion and frowardness. " He taketh the wise 
in their own craftiness : and the counsel of the froward 
is carried headlong," Job v. 13. If once you find in 
your counsels your hearts begin to be hot, rather break 
off; take heed of resolutions formed at such a time. It 
is a safe way for you, if you would consult about busi- 
ness of moment, as soon as heat appears to fall to 
prayer; we had need of cool and quiet spirits when 
we are consulting: as, if you would weigh a thing ex- 
actly with gold scales, (as in counsels we should weigh 
things veiy exactly,) you would not weigh in the midst 
of a wind : when men's passions begin to be u]) thej- 
weigh things ns a man would weigh gold abroad in the 
wind ; they cannot weigh exactly. Take heed then 
of passion in your counsels. 

Divers other things there are that spoil our counsels, 
that we should be aware of. And if we would have 
our counsels right, then observe these further rules. 

1. Look up first to Jesus Christ, that great Counsellor. 
He is called in Isa. ix. 6, the "Counsellor;" it is he 
that is " wonderful in counsel." God has entitled his 
Son the " Counsellor ;" he is to be the counsellor of thy 
soul for thine eternal estate, yea, and to be thy coun- 
sellor for all matters of religion, and the worship of 
God ; look up then to him. 

2. Pray much. If you would not have your counsels 
miscarry, pray much. In Prov. viii. 14, "Counsel is 
mine," saith wisdom, representing Cliri-st. That which 
some note respecting the counsel of Ahithophel and 
tlie counsel of Hushai, is very remarkable. The coun- 
sel of Ahithophel, the truth is, if we examine it, was the 
wiser counsel of the two ; and .\bsalom loved Ahitho- 
phel exceedingly, and his counsel was ordinarily ac- 
counted as the oracle of God ; yet then, because God had 



an intent to bring down his counsel, it was rejected, 
and the counsel of Hushai embraced ; God thus heard 
the prayer of David when he prayed, " Lord, turn the 
counsel of Ahithophel into folly." And let us pray 
much that God would be with our counsellors, that 
there may be none among them like those s])oken of in 
Ezek. xi. 2, "These are the men that devise mischief, and 
give wicked counsel in this city;" and that likewise the 
Lord would sway counsels, and that men would yield 
to that which is the safest and the best counsel, to that 
which is the best in the eyes of God. Many times, when 
a comi)any meet together, there are some things cur- 
sorily mentioned that arc neglected by the company, 
whereas if God were with them to guide them, that 
very thing perhajis would sway all their counsels : let 
us then pray much. " Guide me with thy counsel, and 
afterward receive me to glory," Psal. Ixxiii. 24. Oh, 
especially in matters that concern our souls and religion, 
we should pray much that God would guide us by his 
counsel, and so bring us to glorj'. 

3. Let the fear of God be strong in your hearts when 
you come to a,sk counsel. Oh, it is a good thing when 
any are going to counsel about matters of consequence, 
for them to possess their hearts beforehand with the 
fear of the great God, and then they will counsel well : 
you have a notable scrii)ture for this in Ezra x. 3, 
Come, let us go to do " according to the counsel of my 
lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment 
of our God." It may be there are some with greater 
dejith of understanding ; yea, but have they the fear of 
God in them ? is there ho]ic that they are guided by 
the Lord? let us take heed to do "according to the 
counsel of those that tiemble at the commandment of 
our God." Do you see a man whose heart is ])ossesscd 
with the fear of God and his word ? if his parts be but 
ordinary, you mav expect that God will be with him 
rather than with those that are bold and presumptuous, 
and slight the word of God. 

4. Be sure to look at the word, es])ecially in matters 
of religion ; and think not thus, I nreason and prudence 
such a wav were better, and would more conduce to 
peace. Luther saith. Reason is a most deadly enemy 
even to faith, it is dangerous to reason in matters of 
faith ; and so in matters that regard the worship cf 
God. Keep to the word therefore in all your coun- 
sels, and in them all labour for sincerity of heart : what 
makes men niiscaiT)' in their counsels is this, that their 
hearts are biased with some lust or other, and there- 
fore when any thing is spoken to them suitable to their 
inclinations, that they embrace ; and if any thing be 
spoken to them that is otherwise, they reject it. Oh, it 
is just with God to answer thee according to the idol 
that is set up in thine o\Mi heart. 

.1. Take heed of being put off with any fair shows. 
■\Vhcn the Lord is leaving any, yet he will suffer those 
that give evil counsel to mix a great many good things 
\\itli tliat which is evil. As some that will put a few 
brass shillings into a great bag of money ; the rest is all 
good current monev, yea, but here are some brass shil- 
lings amongst it. So sometimes in the midst of a great 
deal of good counsel, there is a little mixture that may 
turn all : therefore those that would counsel, especially 
in public affairs, had need have their eyes about them, 
and poise every' word and line, and examine every par- 
ticular, or otherwise they may quickly come to be 
ashamed of their own counsel. 

0. God has promised to direct the humble, therefore 
come with humility in your counsels, and be sure in 
what is evidently right to follow ; and then you may 
with the more confidence expect God to help you in 
other things. 

7. Consult with indifferent judgment 

8. If the thing affect others, think what we would 
desire if we were in their case. 



Veu. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



437 



9. Consider whether the attaining of your object, 
though good, may not occasion more evil tlian the 
thing is worth : if it be not of present necessity, fiioii 
deliberandum de necessariis,) the rubs attending it may 
show it is not good at this time, or not thus, or not 
for me. 

06s. 4. Times- of affliction make men asliamed of 
that which they would not be ashamed of before. 
"Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be 
ashamed of his own counsel:" and so also Jer. ii. 26; 
Zeph. iii. 11. Sir Walter Kaleigh well saith, "When 
death comes, which hates men and destroys men, it is 
believed ; but God, that makes and loves men, is not 
regarded. O eloquent, O mighty death ! whom none 
could advise, thou art able to ])ersuade." That is, men 
that would never be persuaded by any thing else to be- 
lieve that they were not right, yet when death a])pears 
it can persuade them. Now afflictions are an evil ; but 
how eloquent are afflictions ! what power have they 
to persuade men that they were WTong, who would not 
be persuaded by all the arguments in the world before ! 
In afflictions '■ Israel shall be asliamed of his own 
counsel." O, I beseech you, let us take heed of this, 
let us not go on headily in our own counsels till God 
bring us mto misery, and we be forced to cry out of 
our own counsels, and be ashamed of them. 

Ver. 7. As for Samaria, her king w cut off as the 
foam upon the water. 

" As for Samaria, her king is cut off." Before, God 
threatened that they shoidd be ashamed of their coun- 
sels, and what that counsel was I told you. Ashamed 
of our counsel ! we hope not, we shall maintain it ; our 
king is for us, he will venture his life, his kingdom, that 
he may maintain us in our way. 

Your king, saith the prophet, he shall be "as the 
foam upon the water," even the king of Samaria. 

Y'ea, but our king is in a strong town, in Samaria, 
a great city, and so strong as to be able to sustain 
a siege for "thi-ee years together. And yet the king of 
Samaria, though he had gotten the chief city in the 
kingdom to be fully for him, and so much victuals and 
strength as he could hold out for three years, yet (saith 
the Lord) he shall be " as the foam upon the water." 

" As the foam upon the water." The word e^'ip 
translated " foam," sometimes signifies the foam that is 
in a man who is extremely angry, as in Zech. i. 2. 
Youi' king that doth foam in anger when he is crossed 
" shall be as the foam upon the water," saith God. 
Now hence, 

Obs. 1. Ungodly men in their greatest power and 
rage, are, if God comes upon them, nothing but " foam," 
jjoor weak creatures that vanish and come to nothing. 
The foam when the waters rage makes a great show 
above them, but stay a while, and it vanishes and comes 
to nothing. Your king that rages and is above others, 
and thinks he has a great deal of power, in a while 
comes to nothing. The Scripture compares men in 
'theii' greatest power to things of the greatest vanity; 
there are, in scriptures that I will mention to you, 
nineteen or twenty different particulars, wherein men 
in their greatest power are compared to that which 
has nothing but vanity ; yea, there are such expressions 
in Scripture, to set out the meanness, vileness, and 
baseness of men in the greatest power, that it would 
make Christians that understand Scripture, and that 
are of the same judgment with their Father, with God, 
as he has revealed himself in his word, never to be 
afraid of the power of men. I will name them distinct- 
ly to you thus : 

The Scripture sometimes calls even kings and great 
ones a mere noise, nothing more ; so in Jer. xlvi. 17, 
" Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise." 



They are but as small dust : " The multitude of thy 
strangers shall be like small dust," Isa. xxix. 5. 

They are but as chaff: "The terrible ones shall be 
as chaff that passeth away," Isa. xxix. 5. WTio would 
be afraid of a noise, small dust, and chaff? 

They are as nothing : " Behold, all they that were 
incensed against thee shall be as nothing," Isa. xli. 11. 

They are " as tow," Isa. i. 31 j put a little fu'e to tow, 
and it quickly comes to nothing. 

They are as dung : '■ As dung for the earth," Psal. 
Ixxxiii. 10. 

They are as straw that is trodden for dung : " As 
sti-aw is trodden down for the dunghill," Isa. xxv. 10. 

They are compared sometimes to a beast that has a 
hook in his nostrils ; so Isa. xxxvii. 29, God will put a 
hook in his nose : now who would be afraid of a beast 
that has a hook put into his nostrils ? 

They are as stubble, and as " stubble fully di'y," 
ready for the fu-e, Nah. i. 10. 

They are as rottenness, and " their root shall be as 
rottenness," Isa. v. 24. 

They are as scum : " Her scum shall be in the fire," 
Ezek. xxiv. 12. 

They are as smoke : " As smoke is driven away, so 
drive them away," Psal. Ixviii. 2. 

They are as grass : " As the grass on the housetops, 
and as corn blasted before it be grown up : " all these 
you have together in Isa. xxxvii. 27. 

They are " as wax that melteth before the fii'e," 
Psal. Ixviii. 2. 

They are " as the fat of lambs," Psal. xxxvii. 20. 

They are as " a worm," Job xxv. 6. 

They are vanity, lighter than vanity, theu' " best 
state is altogether vanity," Psal. xxxix. 5. 

Thev are as snow melting before the sun. Job 
xxiv. 19. 

They are as the light of a candle : " The candle of 
the wicked shall be put out," Prov. xxiv. 20. 

And lastly. They are a lie; even great men and 
princes ; for so saith Psal. Ixii. 9, " Men of high degree 
are a lie." 

Thus, my brethren, we see how the Scripture heaps 
up expression upon expression. It might have been 
very profitable to have insisted upon all these particu- 
lars, and to have opened them, to show you how con- 
temptibly the Holy Ghost speaks of men in their great 
power. 

Now if we could gather these sci'iptm'es together, 
and put them all into one, and so present the power of 
great men to us, and by these things have the same 
judgment of them that God has, it would tend mightily 
to deliver us fi'om the fear of man. " As for Samaria, 
her king is cut off as the foam upon the water." 

Ver. 8. The high places also of Aven, the sin of 
Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall 
come up on their altars; and they shall say to the moun- 
tains. Cover us ; and to the hills, Fall on us. 

I confess, from these words to the end of the 11th 
verse there appears, at the first reading, much obscur- 
ity ; yet they are like to a mine, the outside barren, 
but within much and precious treasure. 

Israel, the ten tribes, confided in two things, and so 
strengthened themselves against all that the prophet 
could say against them. 

First, In the power of their king. Now that is gone. 
That is as foam, saith God : confide not m the power of 
the king, think not that will bear you out, for he shall 
be " as the foam upon the water." 

Secondly, In their sacrifices. They were a religious 
people, and very costly in their devotions, and they 
confided much in that. Well, for this second confi- 
dence, thus saith the Lord ; " The high places also of 



438 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Cn.vp. X. 



Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed : the thorn 
and the thistle sliall come up on their altars." Thougli 
never so pompous in their eyes, vet they are " the high 
places of Aven :" they were called before Beth-aven, 
the house of vanity, now Aven, vanity itself. That 
place was no other than Beth-el, whose name signified 
the house of God, where one of the calves was set up. 
Now the name of thus place did a great deal of liurt 
among the people ; Oh ! to go up to Beth-el, the house 
of God ! therefore God would take away that name, 
and calls it Beth-aven first, and then Aven, that is, in- 
stead of calling it the house of God, I will have it call- 
ed the house of vanity. pK signifies vanity, vea, iniquity 
itself. 

06s. 1. God stands much upon taking people off 
from specious names put upon any things made use of 
in false worship ; he stands much upon it, for whereas 
before he had changed it from Beth-el to Betli-aven, 
he changes it now from Beth-aven to Aven : God would 
obliterate the name of Beth-el, and make it to be ac- 
counted by the people to be nothing but iniquity and 
vanity. 

06s. 2. The more of the nature of sin any thing has, 
the more vile and abominable it is. Therefore God 
speaks of it by an expression that conveys somewhat of 
its aggravated nature — " the sin of Israel," sin in the 
abstract; more than if he had said, the sinful things of 
Israel. " The sin of Israel," that is, their idolatrous 
worship. 

06s. 3. Their false worship is the gieat sin; and it 
was the greater sin in Israel, because that their holi- 
ness was typical, and did especially consist in instituted 
worship. It is true, God would have true holiness if ever 
thev came to heaven, but that holiness upon which they 
were called a holy people, was in then- nistituted wor- 
ship ; and it was twical, to set forth the true holiness 
that should be in all the members of the church now ; 
therefore God was much provoked with their pollutions 
in instituted worship, their holiness consisting so much 
in it. 

Obs. 4. We may so abuse the creatures of God, as not 
only to make them sinful to us, but even to turn them 
into sin, as it were. Thus their idols, and the creatures 
that they abused to sin, are here called their sin, " the 
sin of Israel ;" and many men abuse their bodies so 
that they may be called sm itself. 

Well," that which they accounted holy, you see God 
accounts not only sinful, but " sin," and saith, it " shall 
be destroyed." 

06s. 5. ^VTlcn any ordinances of God's appointment 
are abused, they are but to be purged; but if they be 
inventions of men, they arc to be destroyed. " The 
high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be de- 
stroyed." We must learn for ever to take heed of 
meddling with, or putting any thing of our own in the 
place of, God's worship. We may think in reason this may 
be good as well as that, we see no evil in it ; why may 
not this form then be as good as that ? Yea, but God 
looks upon things according as he himself requires 
them : and therefore Calvin, I remember, on this place 
saith, God often pronounces those things that may 
please us, sin and sacrilege, and would have them de- 
stroyed. Let us therefore rest in his judgment ; it is not 
our part to dispute about matters of worship : we must 
not dispute and say. Why may not this be ? this may 
be for a good use, and a great deal of good may be the 
result ; we must not stand disputing with God, and de- 
bating the matter with him ; for though it may be very 
specious in our eyes, yet it may be very odious and 
abominable to the eyes of God. 

06s-. 6. Even all those things that evil men make 
use of for sin shall one day be taken from them. " The 
high ])laces also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be de- 
stroyed." You shall not always have the creatures of 



God to abuse to sin ; there will be a time when God will 
deliver his creatures from this vanity to which they are 
now subject. 

Obs. 7. Man's sin brings destruction upon the crea- 
tures. " The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, 
shall be destroyed." Sin is as poison in a glass, that 
causes the glass to be broken and cast upon the dung- 
hill. 

" The thorn and the thistle shall come up on their 
altars." This expression denotes, 

First, The great devastation that shall be made in 
tliose places where they had altars, which took ])lace 
especially in Samaria, which was besieged for three 
years together. The enemies had Beth-el in their own 
hands, and they manifested their rage forthwith upon 
their altars, and upon all their religious things ; they 
])ulled them down and made them ue in heaps of rub- 
l)ish, so that in the space of three years the very tliis- 
tles and thorns gi-ew up in their place. It is usual to 
express the devastation of a place by saying, that the 
grass shall grow where the houses were, where the 
city was there shall com grow : so here, " the thorn and 
the thistle shall come up on their altars." 

Secondly, It is an expression of indignation, as if God 
sliould have said, I will take more delight to see the 
thorns and thistles grow out of the very rubbish of the 
altars, than in all their images and brave pictures and 
gildings. Just as if it had been said about seven or 
eight years ago of the Service-book, Oh, now you hon- 
our it much, and it must be bound and gilt bravely, 
and strung curiously ; but this that you so idolize now, 
within a while shall be but waste paper, it shall be 
thrown to the mice and rats to eat ! tnis would have 
been an expression of like indignation against it, as is 
here uttered against the altars. 

06s. 8. If it be sad that places of false worship should 
not be frequented as formerly they were wont to be, 
how much more sad is it that places of true worship 
should be neglected ! As thus, "They were wont to go to 
Beth-el to worship at their altars : yea, but, saith God, 
they shall go no more thither, but those places shall be 
filled with nettles, thorns, and thistles : they accounted 
that sad. Yea, but we should account it sad that the 
paths to the true worship of God should not be beaten 
as in former times : where there was an altar, as it were, 
for the worship of God, those places then were fre- 
quented much ; but had our adversaries had their wills, 
we should liave had "the thorn and tlie thistle" grown 
up in them. 

06s. 0. If it be so sad to have such an ill succession here 
in false worship, sad to false worshipjjcrs, what sadness 
is tlicrc for the true worshi|)pors of God to have an ill 
succession in the church ! Truly much like, mcthinks, 
it is, when there has been in a place a godly and a power- 
ful ministry, and afterwards, for the sins of the people, 
God takes' it away, and instead thereof comes up a 
pricking thorn, a brier, a thistle, a nettle, an unworthy 
ipan, of no gifts or graces, who can only gall and prick, 
and do hurt and mischief; this is a succession like to 
that which God here tlireatened, that tliistles and 
thorns should succeed their altars. Jerome on the 
place .seems to hint some such kind of meditation, when 
lie saitli. Instead of true doctrine, there 
shall be a wilderness of very corrupt doc- J^'i'ni'Ii.'j^toiiic. 
trine ; where there was true doctrine 
taught, now it sliall lie waste as a wilderness. 

06s. 10. God accounts the ruin of the most glorious 
things abused to sin, a more pleasing object than when 
those things were in tlie greatest ])onip and glory. 
The buildings and the altars were splenilid, but God 
looked upon them as more glorious when pulled down 
and grown over with thorns and briers. And so if a 
man have a very beautiful, comely body, and abuse it 
to sin, when tiod shall strike hun, and he shall be 



Vek. 8. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



439 



covered with worms as a filthy carcass, God will look 
upon that as a more lovely sight than his body decked 
with all kind of ornaments. Better that the creature 
perish, though it be the most glorious creature in the 
world, than that it be abused to sin. 

Obs. 11. Those things which men account highly of 
in the matters of worship, when God lets in their ene- 
mies they contemn. They accounted higlily of their 
calves, but when the Assyi-ians came they contemned 
them, and pulled them down. It is not only so in re- 
spect of false worsliip, but of true ; those things that 
we highly esteem and bless God for, and think wliat 
infinite pity it is that they should not be continued, yet 
if God should let our adversaries in they would scorn 
them. As now, such liberties as these are, what infinite 
pitj' were it that people should be deprived of them ; 
but if God should let our adversaries in upon us they 
would scorn and contemn these things, as the Assy- 
rians did those which the Israelites accounted to be as 
God. 

" And they shall say to the mountains, Cover us ; 
and to the hills, Fall on us." This is an expression to 
show, 

Fhst, The di-eadfulness of their misery. It should 
be a misery so great as to make them wear)' of their 
lives, should make them rather desire death than life. 

Secondly, Their wonderful desperation. In the appre- 
hension and sense of this their misery they would have 
no whither to go for help, but their hearts should de- 
spair, and all the relief that they should expect was, to 
have the mountains fall upon them, and the hills to 
cover them. Now this expression I find Christ after- 
wards makes use of in setting forth the misery of the 
destruction of the Jews by the Romans, Luke sxiii. 30 ; 
and the Holy Ghost, in speaking of the misery of the 
antichi-istian party, when the wrath of God should 
come out upon them, saith, their misery shall be so 
great, tliat their princes, and great men, and mighty 
men, and chief captains, shall call upon the mountains 
to fall upon them, and the hills to cover them, Rev. vi. 
15, 16. The reverend Mr. Brightman, on that veiy 
scripture, saith, that it was fulfilled in the time of Con- 
stantine, when the heathen emperors were vanquished : 
and he applied it to Dioclesian, who was so terrified in 
apprehension of the wrath of the Lamb, that he drank 
poison and so killed himself: to Maximian, who hang- 
ed himself; and to Galerius, who died of a most 
noisome and filthy disease. Maximinus, too, that he 
might prevent his death, likewise murdered himself; 
and Maxentius ran into the Tiber to hide himself in its 
waters. And thus they sought by dificrent violent 
deaths to hide themselves from the sight of the Lamb. 

I suppose all of you understand clearly that it is 
meant as an expression of great anguish and despera- 
tion ; but yet, that we may see why the Holy Ghost 
makes use of this expression rather than others, and 
discern clearly its appropriateness, you must know that 
the land of Canaan (the scene of the prophet's present 
predictions) was a land full of mountains and hills, and 
these mountains were, many of them, stony and rocky ; 
and the Jews were wont therefore to dig places in them 
for safety in the time of great danger, constructing 
them so, that by the narrowness of the ingress they 
might be able easily to keep out an enemy. Josephus 
saith, that thieves and robbers too were 
ub!'u.™V. ;7'.''i)e wont to make use of such caves and dens 
K mVis-"'"' ''''■ '° ^^^ mountains and hills. To such 
places this scripture alludes, and by this 
you may be helped to understand divers other passages ; 
as Isa. ii. 19, -'And they shall go into the holes of 
the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of 
the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he 
ariseth to shake terribly the earth." They should go 
then into the holes of the rocks and caves of the earth, 



for they were wont to use such things there much. 
And so Psal. xi. 1, "In the Lord put I my trust : how 
sav ye to my soul, Flee as a bu'd to your mountain ? " 
In" times of danger they were wont to flee to those 
mountains. And Psal. cxxi. 1, "I will lift up mine 
eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help :" not 
only to the temple, but to the hiUs, because in time of 
danger they were wont to think of the hills. But, saith 
David, I lift up my heart to God, and that shall be to 
me instead of a hundred refuges in hills. And Psal. 
xxxvi. 6, " Thy righteousness is like the great moun- 
tains." This is said not only because the mountains 
stand steadily and strongly, but because they were 
places of refuge and shelter. The saints have refuge 
in the faithfulness of God ; and as they used to run to 
the holes in the moimtains, so God is called a strong 
rock for the righteous to run to. God is as a rock, not 
only because the faithfulness of God is steady as a 
rock, but because, as they had caves and holes in the 
rocks that they were wont to ran to in time of danger, 
so his faithfulness affords a refuge to his people in 
every time of need : therefore is God called " a Rock." 
And it is said, " The strength of the hills is his also," 
Psal. xcv. 4. And Psal. xciv. 22, " The Lord is my de- 
fence ; and my God is the rock of my refuge." 

But yet further, that we may more fully understand 
the meaning of this expression ; When in times of 
danger they ran to the caves in the mountains, and to 
the rocks, they considered when there. Oh, if the ene- 
my should come upon us, how sad would our condition 
be ! Oh that rather this mountain that is now over us 
would sink down and fall upon us, rather than that the 
enemy should take us ! This I regard as the meaning 
and origin of tliis phrase ; they despised the mountain 
of God, the going up to his mountain, but now they 
woidd be glad to have these mountains crush them in 
pieces. 

Obs. 12. The alteration which God can make in 
cities and kingdoms. They who were proud and scorn- 
ful erewhile, are now so distressed that they would 
think themselves happy to be crushed by mountains 
and hills. 

Obs. 13. How great is the misery of falling into the 
hands of our enemies. Israel knew how cruelly the 
AssjTians had treated others, therefore, when they 
came against them, and besieged them for three years 
together, they desii'ed to die under the mountains 
rather than to' fall into then- hands. Josephus, in one 
of the forenamed places, gives us a notable story of this, 
telling us of some that fled into the mountains and 
holes for safety, and Herod pursued them; among 
others there was an old man, who had seven children 
and his wife with him, and who, rather tlian fall into 
Herod's hands, called his chilcben one by one to the 
mouth of the cave that he had made in the mountain, 
and with his own hands killed them in succession be- 
fore the enemy, afterwards he put to death his wife, 
and when he had cast their- dead bodies down the rock, 
he threw himself dow^l headlong after them ; so he 
slew himself, and all he had, rather than he would fall 
into the hands of his enemies. Certainly this is a won- 
derful exhibition of misery. Some of you pcrliaps have 
seen or felt somewhat, but all that has' been notliing to 
what was like to happen, had the enemies gotten fuU 
power. Let us bless God then that we are delivered 
from that, that we have no such cause to cry out to the 
mountains to cover us, and to the hills to fall upon us. 

Ob.t. 14. There is nothing so fearfid as the WTath of 
God. One would think that which these poor people 
desu-ed here dreadful enough, to have the mountains 
fall upon them, and the hills to cover them ; but it is 
not so dreadful as God's wrath : take all the ten-ors in 
the world, they are nothing to the wTath of the Al- 
raightv when fully apprehended : sometimes the wrath 



440 



AN EXPOSITIOX OF 



Chap. X. 



of God lies more heavy on a man's conscience than a 
thousand mountains. And, my bictliren, if it be .so 
dreadful in outward judgments, how dreadful is it like 
to be when it shall come to be fully poured out upon 
the wicked and ungodly ! " In those days shall men 
seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, 
and death shall flee from them," saith Rev. i.\. 6. Oh ! 
when God's ^»Tath appears against the ungodly, it will 
be dreadful, especially when the full vials of it come to 
be poured out. 

Obs. 4. To live in lingering misery, is worse than 
present dreadful death even in this woild. I remember 
Nonjum tecum in Suctouius tcUs of Tiberius C'a;sar, that 
imi«m r«iii. Sue- One wliom hc had condemned to death 
ton.uic.e. petitioned him that he might have his 

despatch ; whereu])on Tiberius replied, Sir, you and I 
are not friends vet, you must not die, you must be kept 
in miser}'. It Is often worse than death to be kept in 
lingering miserv- ; it is so, even in regard of the miseries 
of this world ; oh how mucli worse than death is it 
then to be kept under tlie wrath of God to all eternity ! 
How fearful is it to li^e in miseiy for ever, then, and 
never to die ! A\'hy it is better, certainly sense would 
apprehend it better, for a man to be despatched pre- 
sently, than to live in lingering misery : yet, if we 
knew all, it were better for the wicked to live in the 
greatest misery in this world, than to die the fairest 
death ; thou wert better to live as a dog, a toad, yea, 
as a stock-log at the back of the fire, (if it were possible,) 
than to die, if thou knewest all that hereafter in hell 
awaits thee, being wicked : llieti thou shalt not die, 
though it would be the greatest happiness to thee. If 
thou shouklst after a thousand years ciy to God, O 
Lord, that mountains might fiiU upon me ! the Lord 
would answer, You and 1 are not friends yet : and if 
after a thousand years more thou shouklst cry, O Lord, 
that I might be crushed to pieces ! the Lord would an- 
swer you still, You and I are not yet friends. I trem- 
ble, saith Bernard, to think of that, that 
"""'^o^'i '■'''■' I should fall into the hands of Uving 
death, and of dying life, where men do 
not die that they might for ever cease to exist, but die 
that they may for ever die ; they are always dying, but 
never die, but are kept by the almighty power of God 
on purpose that they might be fuel for his wrath, and 
subjects for his revenging justice. O consider this, 
you that are so ready to desii-e death, because you are 
at any time in a lingering misery. Is a lingering 
misery so evil ? Then what will be the lingering evil 
of eternity ! 

Obs. 15. The wonderful miser)- of wicked men in 
their aflUction. Tliey have no whither to ^'o for lielp ; 
they have not God, they have no refuge but the moun- 
tains and hills ; and wliat is their refuge tliere, but that 
they may fall upon them ? Oh the difference between a 
saint of God and a wicked man in times of affliction ! 
VThen in times of affliction, thou (if thou art wicked) 
shalt rage and be mad, and know not whither to go, 
and the uttermost help that thou canst think to have 
is from the hills and mountains to fall upon thee ; then 
the saints of God shall be able to look u]) to heaven, 
and crj-. Heaven is ojien for us, open to receive my 8o\il. 
Angels, come and guide it, and bear it in. O arms of 
mercy, bowels of mercy, spread open yourselves to 
embrace me ! Here is a difference. And is not this 
better than to crj- to mountains to fall upon tliee, and 
hills to cover thee ? And yet such a difference in men's 
estates do sin and godliness make. 

Obs. 16. The wonderful evil of despair, what a dread- 
ful thing is dcs|)eration. Tlie greatest benefit it suggests 
is to be crushed in pieces : so the help that many have, 
is but a halter to sli-angle them, a knife to murder 
them, or the water to drown them. Desperation is 
truly a dreadful thing. Francis Spira, surrounded by 



its hoiTors, cried out. Verily, desperation is hell itself. 
Upon all this, Luther concludes with this exhortation : 
Let us stir up ourselves to the fear of God, let us flee 
idolatiT, let us beautify the word by our holy lives, and 
pray to Christ that we may escai)e such things as these, 
which God inflicts ujjon the contemnei-s of his word. 
If you would not come into this wonderful despairing 
condition, O learn to fall down before the word ; fear 
God now, that you may not despair tlieti. You that con- 
temn, and slight, and scorn the word now, this may 
prove to be your portion ere long, this desperate cry 
may be the greatest ease that your forsaken souk can 
liave. 

Ver. 9. Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of 
Gibeah : there they stood : the battle m Gibeah against 
the children of i/iitjuily did not overtake them. 

" O Israel, thou hast siimed from the days of Gibe- 
ah." " O Israel," I am speaking this to you, it merely 
concerns you, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah. 
You thinx your sin is not so heinous as to merit these 
dreadful threatenings, that you should come to this 
desperate condition ; ^^^lv, say the men of Israel, what 
means the jjrophet in being so ten-ible in his threaten- 
ings ? pray what is our sin ? Yes, you have sinned as 
in " the days of Gibeah," or " from the days of Gibcali," 
as in your books ; or it may be read, beyond, or more 
than in " the davs of Gibeah." " From tlie days of 
Gibeah j" from what time was that ? You may read 
the story of Gibeah in Judg. xix., xx., and theu- sin. I 
shall not need to spend much time now in opening 
what Gibeah was, or the nature of its sin, because that 
in chap. ix. 9, of this prophecy, I met with those words, 
" They have deeply con-upted themselves, as in the days 
of Gibeah." But not only the 19th end 20th chapters, 
where we have the story of their horrible wickedness 
in abusing the Levite's concubine, but likewise the 
18th, which speaks of >iicah's idol, and the idolatry 
that was prevalent among the people, b here referred to. 

Now, you have sinned, as " from the days of Gibeah ;" 
that is, )our forefathers of old have committed idolatry 
and sin against me, and you are grown rooted in )our 
sin, and have taken it from vour forefathers. For that 
sin of the Levite's concubine was very ancient. It 
seems to have been committed between the time of 
Joshua and the time of the Judges. For though events 
be set in Scripture so that one seems to follow another, 
yet they do not so always in point of time. But my 
reason why that sin of the Levite's concubine seems to 
have been then, is this : because you find in that stor)' 
of the 19th of Judges, when the Lcvite was i)assmg on, 
his servant would have had him go into Jehus, but " his 
master said unto him, 'We will not turn aside hither 
into the city of a stranger, that is not of the children of 
Israel; we will pass over to Gibeali," Judg. xix. 12. So 
that it seems Jerusalem was not then taken in by the 
childi-en of Israel ; but if you read the 1st chapter of 
Judges, you shall find that Jerusalem was taken, it was 
taken before you read of any particular judge; therefore 
this sin that was in the days of Gibeah was ver)- an- 
cient. You have sinned of old, saith he, and you have 
continued in the succession of sin of old. If you take it 
"from tlie days of Giljeah," we might thus interpret it 

But it is rather, I think, to be taken com])aratively, 
Your .sin is more than the days of Gibeah, it is greater, 
whatever you think of it. You think you worship and 
serve God, yet the truth is, was that sin horrible, that a 
whole city should come together to force a LeWte's 
concubine till she was dead at the door ? was that a 
horrible sin ? yea, and was it horrible foi them to 
stand to defend it ? Your sin is greater. "Why ? 

1. That was but one particular act, it was all done 
in one night ; but vou go on in a constant, settled way. 



VzR. 9. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



441 



2. That was a sin but of some few of the people ; 
yout sin is more general. 

3. That sin they had not so much means to resist, 
nor so much experience of the ways of God as you, 
and therefore your sin is greater than the sins that were 
in •• the days of Gibcah." 

4. Because that, continuing in tlie commission of sins 
M'hicli God made use of your forefathers to revenge, 
you greatly provoke God. Tliat is the meaning : and 
for further opening of that sin I shall refer you to that 
whicli I delivered on chap. ix. 

But understanding their sin as either "from the days 
of Gibeah," or " more than the days of Gibeah," the 
observations are, 

Obs. 1. The sins of ancestors continued in are at- 
tended with aggravations. We are ready to excuse our 
sin, and say, ^^^ly, we do nothing but that which our 
forefathers did. Yea, but it may be that your sins are 
greater than the sins of your forefathers, because they 
had not such means. This would answer those that 
plead for old superstitious vanities, Why should we be 
wiser than our forefathers? But know, that if you 
continue in tlieir sins, it is worse in you than in them. 

Ohs. 2. God takes it very ill that those men, or the 
posterity of those, whom he uses as instruments to punish 
sin in others, and to reform others, yet should be guilty 
themselves of the same, or greater, sins. Oil ! (saith 
the prophet,) you may justly expect to have the moun- 
tains to fall upon you, and the hills to cover you, for 
you are more wicked than " in the days of Gibeali ;" 
thougli I used yom' forefathers to ]Hraish that great sin, 
yet you continue to be more vile than they were that 
were punished by your forefathers. O my brethren, 
God cannot endure to see that wickedness continued in 
men, whicli they have been employed to punish in 
others. ^\'hat ! shall we, or any in this generation, be 
used to execute the anger of God on superstitious peo- 
])!e ; and shall we continue in the sin of superstition ? 
shall we be used to cast out men's inventions, and shall 
we bring in men's inventions ? Y'ea, shall we be used 
to punish oppression, and tjTanny, and injustice ; and 
shall we continue in oppression, tyranny, and injustice ? 
Oh ! this will cry to heaven, when it shall be said, God 
stii-red you up to make you an instrument to cast out 
such oppressing courts, and tjTanny, and certain men 
tiiat were so cruel to godly people ; you were employed 
to cast them out, and you now succeed them in lilce 
oppressions, and tyranny, and injustice, and you make 
my saints cry to heaven for the burdens that you lay 
upon them. Oh ! this would be very heavy. Take we 
heed, that when God uses us, or our forefathers, to re- 
form any evil, take heed that it be never said, that those 
evils continue in their childi'en after them. 

Our Reformation, as the punishment of the sin of 
Gibeah, cost mucli blood ; much has been shed to punish 
oppressors, to bring in delinquents, to cast out those 
that have been burdens to the people of God. There- 
fore, as it was an aggravation of guilt in their posterity 
to continue in that sin, whose punishment had cost so 
much blood; so, the more it costs to cast out our oppress- 
ing courts, &c., the more fearful will our sin be if we 
continue in oppression ourselves. You complain some- 
times of ministers, if tliey reprove sins, and be guilty 
of the same sins they reprove you of; you account that 
very evil, and so indeed it is. 'vSo it may be as well said 
of magistrates, for them to punish sins, and yet con- 
tinue in them themselves, is verv evil. 

" There they stood." Either this must be meant, 

I. Of the men of Gibcah, that they stood, and the 
battle did not overtake the childi-en of iniquity. Or, 

II. Of the men of Israel. There the men of Israel 
stood, and then- battle did not overtake the children of 
iniquity. 

I. If it be meant of the men of Gibeah. then the ex- 



pression marks their stoutness, they would stand it out, 
" there they stood." Though they had committed such 
a horrible wickedness, and there was a desire only to 
have the real delinquents punished, yet they combine 
together, and would stand it out ; they stood stoutly to 
maintain the wickedness that was committed, especially 
after their first success : they fought, and in both days 
they slew forty thousand; now, having conquered in 
the first battle, this did hearten them ; yea, they had 
the day the second time, and that made them stout in 
their way. Success will imbolden men in their wicked- 
ness. God many times gives success designedly to 
harden the hearts of men, that they may stand it out 
to their ruin, for so it j)roved to the Benjamites. Be 
not troubled then at the success of adversaries, God 
gives them success but to lead them to ruin. 

II. If you take these words, " there they stood," to 
refer to the men of Israel, it would cost one a great 
deal of time to lay before you the variety of interpreta- 
tions given to them. I will, therefore, only give you 
what I think may be the scope of the Holy Ghost, or 
at least what may be fairly derived from the words. 

" There they stood." That is, when the men of Israel 
saw, in theii' battle at Gibeali, that they did not prevail 
at fii'st, and that their brethren stood out stoutly, and 
that they themselves had lost so many thousand men, 
upon this they were at a stand. " There they stood," they 
knew not what in tlie world to do, to think that in so 
good a cause, in a work in which they had warrant 
from God to engage, yet that they should have such ill 
success : " there they stood." 

Obs. 3. !Men had need be very well grounded in a 
good cause when they meet with much ihfficulty. I 
believe since this cause that we have been about in 
England has been begun, many, through unbelief and 
cowardice, have been at a stand ; they stood, and knew 
not which way to go : Lord, is this the cause of God? 
is this the trutli of God ? '\^liat ! can his cause have 
such ill success ? j\lany men's spirits fluctuate with the 
success. 

" There they stood ;" that is, though they were at a 
stand, and somewhat troubled, yet they persisted in 
their work ; notwithstanding the difficulties they met 
with, they would not fly off, but " there they stood " to 
it ; they were resolved, wliatever ill success they had, 
to go on in the work to which God had called them. 

" The battle in Gibeah against the children of ini- 
quity did not overtake them." '\Mien they did fight 
against the children of iniquity, yet the battle did not 
overtake them, to wit, the Benjamites, not the fii-st 
day, but they were foiled twice : though I know some 
interi)ret this otherwise, yet tliis seems to me the most 
genuine explication. 

But why does the prophet introduce it here ? The 
men of Israel, to whom Hosea ])rophesied, might say, 
You tell us, that our sin is as in " the days of Gibeah," 
yea, let us but have success the fii'st day, and the se- 
cond day, we hope we shall do well enough. Nay, 
saith the prophet, your sin is worse ; you may not tliink 
that your case is so good as the Benjamites, the battle 
did not overtake them, but it shall overtake you ; and 
upon this ground the prophet brings in this, that the 
battle did not overtake them, granting that which they 
would object, yet so as not to suffer it to make for them, 
but to take away their hopes of escape. 

Obs. 4:. The children of iniquity may escape once, 
and again : though men be childi-en of iniquity, yet the 
battle may not overtake them. The account in Judges 
is a story as well calculated to take away the seeming 
success in an ill cause, and disappointment in a good 
cause, as any I know in all the book of God. It did 
not overtake them at first. God's wrath follows many 
men in this world, and yet for a long time overtakes 
them not, he oft calls it back: Psal. Ixxviii. 38, " But 



442 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. X. 



he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and 
destroyed them not : yea, many a time turned he his 
anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath." But at 
length God's wrath overtakes men. " My words and 
my statutes, which I commanded my servants the pro- 
phets, did they not take hold of your fathers? " Zech. i. 
6. I sent out iny tlireatening words, and they escaped a 
long time, but at length my words took hold of them. 
As the dog may follow the hai'c barking a great while, 
but at length overtaking, he springs u|)on it, and tears it ; 
so, did not my words take hold upon your forefatliers ? 
Calvin gives another intcrjirctation of tliese words, 
and some other notes upon them, but I think that the 
foregoing is their main and genuine scope. 

Ver. 10. It is in my desire that I should chastise 
them ; and the people shall be gathered against them, 
when they shall bind themselves in their ttco furrows. 

" It is in my desire." God speaks here as one that has 
forborne a length of time, and now longs to satisfy 
himself. 

Tremelius upon the place notes, that the form of the 
word for chastising here is unusual, and adds, that 
perhaps God would express some more than ordinary 
punishment. Luther renders mDNi 'PW3 Valde cupide 
eos castigabo, Exceeding desirously will I chastise them. 
It is in my will to chastise them. O blessed God, do 
not we find in thy word, that the works of thy justice 
are said to be thy " sti-ange works," and that thou art 
not willing to grieve the children of men, that mercy 
pleases thee ? but where do we ever find that justice 
was so pleasing to thee ? 

It is true, though at first God seems to forbear the 
execution of justice as a thing he has no mind to, yet 
if sin be stubbornly continued in, now God desires it 
as a thing than which there is nothing more pleasing 
to him. He is burdened with men's sins, and desii-es 
to bring punishments upon them, as a man under a 
great burden desires to be eased ; " Ah, I will ease me 
of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies," 
saith the Lord, Isa. i. 24: and in Ezek. v. 13, you find 
that God in threatening of wrath saith, that he would 
do thus and thus, and he would be comforted ; and in 
Prov. i. 26, it is said that he " will laugh at the cala- 
mity of the wicked, and mock when their fear cometh ;" 
and in Rev. xiv. 10, the >vrath of God is called " the 
wine of his wrath," because he takes so much pleasure 
in the execution of it. The reasons for this are, 

1. God's justice is God himself, as well as any other 
attribute. 

2. God delights to vindicate his honour, therefore 
the word for chastisement signifies sometimes the vin- 
dication of a man's honour. The honour of God is dear 
to him. Youi- peace and comforts may be dear to you ; 
yea, but my honour is more dear to me. 

3. In chastisements God fulfils his word ; the word of 
God would be slighted and contemned else. Now this 
pleases me therefore, to chastise them, to fulfil my word 
upon them. 

Oh the fearfid evil of sin, that brings the creature 
into such a condition, that God's heart is delighted in 
every evil that sinful creatures suffer ! This must needs 
be a sad condition indeed, for the merciful God, that 
delights so much in doing mercy, yet now to look upon 
a sinner under his wrath, and to delight in it, and love 
it, and be well pleased to see the creature, even the 
work of his own hands, in such sufferings. Hereafter 
there will be pun- justice, God will delight in the de- 
struction of sinners in h^ll, in the execution of his jus- 
tice upon them ; he will there do nothing else but re- 
joice in it, there shall be nothing but joy in God's heart 
to see the execution of bis justice u])on sinners to all 
eternity ; yea, and God will call all the angels and saints 



to come to rejoice with him : Come, ye angels and saints, 
and rejoice with me ; here is a wretched sinner that was 
stubborn and rebellious against me in the time of his 
life, and see how my power has overtaken him, see the 
dreadfulness of my wrath, come and rejoice witli me for 
ever in this mv wrath. This will be the condition of 
sinners eternally in hell. 

Consider this, you that have a desire to sin, a mind 
to sin, you that derive delight and comfort from sin. 
Is it in your will to sin? It is God's will to jjunish. 
Can you rejoice in sin ? God can rejoice in the execu- 
tion of his wrath. Are you resolute upon vour sin ? 
God can be resolute in the ways of his wratfi. When 
God chastises his servants for their infirmities, he does 
it as a thing to which he has no mind at all, and there- 
fore saith the apostle, " If need be," we fall into many 
temptations, 1 Pet. i. 6; and they are hut seeming griev- 
ous ; even he liimself is afflicted in all their afiiictions, 
Isa.lxiii. 9. David would have Joabgo against Absalom, 
but saith he, " Deal gently for my sake with the young 
man, even with Absalom," 2 Sam. xviii. 5 ; so, when 
God chastises his servants, he sends an affliction ; Go, 
saith he, and scourge such a one j yea, but deal gently 
with him for my sake. The bowels of David did yearn 
towards Absalom, even when he sent Joab to fight 
against him ; so the bowels of God do yearn towards 
his people, even when he send-s afflictions upon them. 
But when he comes to deal with the wicked and un- 
godly, I will do it to purpose, saith God, I will delight 
in it, yea, I will be comforted in it. 

" And the people shall be gathered against them." 
That is, I will chastise them thus, by gathering people 
against them. The AssvTians, when they gathered 
against them, did it merely to scrse their own ends ; 
yea, but saith God, I have a hand in it, I will gather 
them against them. And certainly God had a mind to 
chastise them, when he would gather enemies against 
them. The AssjTians, perhaps, would never have dared 
to presume to come against Israel, if God had not had 
a hand in it: and certainly we could never have 
imagined it possible, that so many should be ga- 
thered together thus publicly, in this land, to maintain 
wickedness, and to fight to make themselves slaves, 
except that God had a mind to chastise England. 

But I find that others read it thus : 

I will chastise them according to my mind : and so 
the word will bear. 

The Scptuagint read it, Kara ri^v iiriOviiiav fiov. Jxucta 
desiderium meum. Vulg. According to my desire. 

OJcolampadius on the place saith, God prescribed a 
certain time to this people to come in and repent, but 
saith God, You shall not prescribe me how long I .shall 
stay, but I will do it when I please, both as regards the 
time and the degree of the cnastisement. 

Obs. 1. AVhen God has a mind to bring about a thing, 
he will in his own time gather the pco])le. I remember, 
in the life of Pompcy, when some asked him. what they 
should do when the enemies came against them? that 
he replied. Let me but stamp upon the ground of Italy, 
and I shall have men enough. That, in him, was an 
idle vaunt, but it is a true one in G»d ; let him but 
stamp with his feet, and he can gather people enough 
together. 

Obs. 2. God will choose with what rod he will 
scourge us, according to his own mind, both as regards 
the degree and the kind. Under many afflictions we 
mourn and repine, and these discontented expressions 
come from us. Oh, I could bear any thing but that ! 
But is it fit for thee to choose thine own rod ? God 
might have said also, I had rather you had committed 
some other sin. It may be, because that is the afflic- 
tion most cross to thv spirit, that therefore God » ill 
have it; God sees that that is more for his honour, and 
perhaps for thv good. Therefore let us Icam to sub- 



Vek. 11. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



443 



mit to the will of God. Is it fit that thou shouldst 
choose thy sin and thy rod too ? Xo, stay there ; if 
thou wilt choose thy sin, God will have liberty to 
choose thy rod. 

" When they shall bind themselves in their two fur- 
rows." c-iJ*y TcS D1DS3 These words appear very ob- 
scure at first, and I find a mighty deal of puzzling among 
interpreters about them. The difficulty is in the word 
nnvy here translated " fmTows ;" the same letters, 
omitting the points, may be rendered, their two sins ; 
or, by substituting for one of the letters another much 
like it in form, their two eyes : in all these three ac- 
ceptations the sense may go reasonably well. As 
thus : ■• 

Fu-st, And they shall bind themselves in their two 
sins. Or you may take it of God's threatening -vvhat 
he would do ; I will bind them for their two sins ; so I 
find Ai-ias ^Montanus and others translate it. 

The Septuagint render it iv n^ iratltitaBai avroig Iv 
Toiq Ivaiv aliKiag avTuiv, I will chastise them for their 
two sins ; and so it may be, chastise as well as bind, 

vincereT-!< ^°'' ^^^ words that signify binding and 

castigaro ^D' chastislng are very cognate. I will chas- 
pereili'um'ip'sorom. tisc them for their two sins. When he 
Luiher. binds them he will chastise them. And 

so I find Luther understands it. 

And then they think it refers to the two calves of 
Dan and Beth-el ; or the two sins of bodily and spiritual 
adultery : or otherwise it has the same sense with that 
in Jer. ii. 13, "My people have committed two evils ; 
they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, 
and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can 
hold no water." 

Secondly, As it is in your books, " they shall bind 
tliemselves in their two furrows ;" that is, I will bring 
theu' enemies upon them, and they shall yoke them 
like oxen that are yoked to plough, they shall bring 
them into servitude, and into bondage, they shall make 
them plough in their two fui-rows, that is, do double 
work. So Polanus, who saith, they shall 

oannsin oc. ^^^^ doublc tasks upon them, and make 
them work in a servUe way. And I the rather think 
this is the meaning of it, because the Holy Ghost 
pursues this metaphor in the following verse, thus, 
" And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and 
loveth to tread out the corn." 

Thirdly, Adopting the alteration in letters proposed, 
the sense would be, they shall yoke them as oxen are 
yoked, eye to eye. They yoke the oxen even, and set 
eye to eye ; so the enemies shall come and yoke theiu, 
so that they shall be like beasts to do their work ; and 
this shall be the condition of Epliraim that has this 
fair neck. 

" They shall bind themselves in their two furrows." 
Some others, among whom is Calvin, understand by 
this, they shall covenant together. When the enemy 
comes upon them, then they shall join together in cove- 
nant, as oxen that are yoked together ; Judah and Israel 
shall join together, and they shall be in their furrows, 
in their trenches, as England and Scotland in the late 
war. So when the people are gathered together, they 
shall bind themselves together, and lie together in 
their several trenches. So I find some interpret it, but 
this appears foreign to the chief and genuine scope of 
the passage. 

I understand it thus; they shall be brought into 
miserable bondage, they shall be like oxen: and so 
saith one interpreter upon the place. When you see 
oxen yoked together, theu be reminded of the yoke of 
the enemy; you live daintily and bravely now, but 
when God shall let out the enemy upon you, you shall 
serve as slaves, yea, as beasts. 



Ver. 11. And Ephraim is an heifer that is taught, 
and loveth to tread out the corn ; but 1 passed over 
upon her fair neck ; I will make Ephraim to ride ; 
Judah shall plough, and Jacob shall break his clods. 

In the 2nd verse you heard much of the divisions of 
Ephraim, and of the ten tribes ; but in the latter end 
of the 10th verse you heard how God would join them 
together. But how should they be joined ? It should 
be in their bondage, they should be bound together in 
their furrows. Now, though it be in your books, " they 
shall bind themselves," which has likewise a sense 
which we spake to then ; yet you may as well read the 
words, they shall bind them together, and so carrv the 
sense, that they should be bound in theii- furrowsj like 
oxen yoked in the plough ; they would not come in to- 
gether under God's yoke, but they shall come in to- 
gether under the yoke of the adversaries : and that I 
think is the principal scope of the words, " they shall 
bind them in their two furrows." Thej' that were so 
divided in then- prosperity, when they come into bond- 
age, shall, by their enemies, be bound together. It 
was said of Ridley and Hooper, they could not agree 
together till they were in prison, but then they harmo- 
nized well. And so when we were heretofore in our 
bondage we could agree better together than now. 
Oh it were just with God to bring us again under the 
bondage of our- enemies, and bind us in our furrows 
together ! 

But Ephraim thought herself far from this. No, 
Ephraim is not for ploughing work, Ephraim loves 
to tread out the corn, but not to plough. They were 
wont in those times, instead of tlu'ashing out the seed 
from the chaff, to have beasts to tread it out, or to 
draw mstruments whereby the seed was separated from 
the husk. Now there are some things to be remem- 
bered here. 

First, There was no yoke upon them while they 
were ti'eading out the corn. 

Secondly, They were then not to be muzzled, but to 
feed as they pleased, and this by the command of 
God, Deut. XXV. 4. 

Now this was a very easy work for them, to be with- 
out yoke, to run up and down in the corn, and so 
fatten themselves; they had enough to feed on, cer- 
tain food, and present food; whereas those heifers 
tliat went to plough were fain to be abroad in the 
storms, and cold, and wind, and work all day long, 
and perhaps had no food till night ; this was a hard 
work, and Ephraim did not love such. This seems to 
have reference to some of the ten tribes, who would 
stay in their country, and worship at Dan and Beth-el, 
and would not go up to Jerusalem. Oh, that was hard; 
and it was better for them to stay in the land, where 
they might enjoy theu' possessions, then- shops, their 
tradings, theu' friends ; that was easy, but to go to Je- 
rusalem might cost them their estates, it would excite 
opposition against them, and they must leave all and 
go for the worship of God, to worship God according 
to his own way, they must for a time leave all : this 
was a ploughuig work in respect of the other. Now 
Ephraim, those that live among the ten tribes, loved 
no such hard work. From whence there ai-e many 
excellent points to be observed. 

Obs. 1. It is a sign of a carnal heart, to be set upon 
easy, to the avoidance of difficult, work in God's ser- 
vice. " Ephraim loveth to tread out the corn." It is 
a dangerous thing to desire more ease in God's work 
than God would allow. 

06s. 2. The carnal and h)-pocrites can be well con- 
tent with those services which bring with them present 
comfort and encouragement. AVhen they did tread 
out the corn, there was present supply. So it is with 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. X. 



men, when they can have present maintenance. Ter- 
novius, a learned man, upon this very 
qi.i!irin ri"i)t scri|)ture observes, ^\'here men see not 
ut'3i!l"'«'iducr'"' present gain coming in, they despise 
ijo«aiittitcr.d«iiu Christ: but where they mav have to cat 
for the present, there tliey may be easily 
brought to believe any service or worship that is, for 
the ])rcsent, countenanced by the state. From Xumb. 
\ii. 9, we see that God allowed no cart to the children 
of Kohath to carry the ark, and they sinned in putting 
it upon one, 2 Sara. vi. So, where men may enjoy 
certain revenues, whether they work or not, or whether 
they work negligently or not, it is a great temptation ; 
much greater than in a man's enjoying encouragement 
on uncertainties, and on the assurance that he shall 
have it no longer than he labours, and labours to pur- 
pose ; but when men have certain revenues coming in, 
though they labour by themselves or by others, though 
negligently or industriously, it is a great temptation. 

06s. 3. To labour for present accommodation only 
to themselves, is a sign of carnal hearts. A generous 
spirit will labour for posterity. If none should j)lough, 
how would there be corn to tread out P We must be 
■willing to plough though we have not present food, 
though we should have nothing till night, yea, though 
we should have nothing till tlie night of death ; )ea, 
throughout all our lives we should be willing to plough 
in hope. Epliraim loved not that work. That is a 
generous spirit, that is willing to endure difficulty here, 
though he tinds no present returns, yea, though none 
reap the benefit but posterity. 

This may be also applied to soul work, in our seek- 
ing to God. Many are content to pray, and follow God 
and his ordinances, so long as they may have present 
comfort, but if that fails they have no heart to the 
duty. Now we should be willing to plough, that is, to 
endure difficulty, though we have no present returns. 

This is that which causes so many to perish in the 
world, they must have present content; whereas the 
saints of God are willing to trust God though they 
have nothing in this world, to trust him to have theii- 
wages in the world to come. 

" But I passed over upon her fair neck." By her 
easy work in treading out the corn, and not having the 
yoke upon her neck to plough, she became very deli- 
cate, her skin was white and tender. " Her fair neck," 
or, the goodness of her neck, msix 3^B Her neck, 
through her prosperity, had become delicate, nothing 
must trouble her ; let others, if they will, engage in 
works attended with trouble and difficulty, for her 
part, she was tender and delicate, and must endure no 
burdens, no difficulty at all. 

Obs. 4. The evil of outward adornings. " Her fair 
neck." 

Many are proud of their fair necks and skins, so 
proud that they grow in consequence extremely wan- 
ton ; they must lay open their fair necks, that others 
may see them, see how white they are, what fair skins 
they have ; and put black patches likewise, to set off 
their beauty and the whiteness of their skins ; and if 
that suffice not, they will even lay over them a paint, 
to make them fair if they be not otherwise so : nothing 
but ease, and delicacy, and pleasure is for them, as if 
they came into the world for no other end l)ut to live 
bravely and be looked upon ; as if mankind and all 
creatures must work and suffer to provide for these 
nice and delicate wantons, who yet are of no use at all 
in the world. Certainly God never gave any great 
estates for no other use, but only to be brave withal, 
and to keep their skin white. AVTiatsoever estates we 
have, yet except we endeavour to be useful in the 
world in proportion to those estates, we can have little 
true comfort in what we enjoy : the comfort of the lives 
of rational creatures certainly lies not in a fair white 



skin ; their comfort is in being useful in the places 
where God has set them, their good consists in that. 
Man is bom to labour, and there must be labour one 
way or other, every one is bound to labour. These 
fair white skins, and fair necks, oh what foul souls 
many of them have! their beauty is but skin deep. 
Filthy and abominable arc many of them in the eyes of 
God, and in the eyes of those who know the corrup- 
tions of their hearts. How would these fair nocks be 
able to bear iron chains for Christ ? to be nailed to the 
stake, to have such a neckerchief put upon them as 
Alice Driver had ? The story is in the Book of Mar- 
tyrs. "When they put the chain about her neck to nail 
her to the stake, she gloried in it, and blessed God for 
it. Yes, but this Alice Driver was wont to plough, (foi- 
so it is said a little before,) her father brought her up 
to plough, and not so delicately ; she eoidd endure then 
an iron chain uj)on her neck for Christ. Hard breed- 
ing is fittest for Christian suffering. 

" But I passed over upon her fair neck." Some in- 
terpret the words as expressing God's indulgence, as if 
he was content to let Ephraim prosper and thrive in 
their way, and not to bring any hard bondage upon 
them i but the inteq)retation which I find others give 
is more jirobable : I came upon her fair neck, and made 
the yoke to pass over. So Jerome U])on the place 
saith. When this phrase, " I passed over," is applied to 
God, not only here, but always in Scripture, it is in a 
way of threatening ; and it may very well be here a 
threatening expression following the similitude taken 
from husbandly. 

In the same allegorical manner Ephraim is comi)ared 
to " an heifer that is taught," as if he should say, he 
would not willingly work. Whence, 

Obs. 5. God looks upon dainty, tender, delicate 
people, who mind nothing but their own ease and con- 
venience, with indignation. What ! Ejihraim must be 
so tender and delicate, that nothing must come ujion 
"her fail- neck?" I will make the yoke to come upon 
it, saith God. When people tlirough their delicacy 
must be altogether tended, and have all things service- 
able to them, and they of no use at all, God cannot 
bear it. And as for the eminency of any of you, cither 
in estates or honours in the world, above others, it 
ought not to be the cause of envy, for it is God that 
jiuts the difference between one and the other. We do 
not envy that some should go finer than others ; but 
this neither God nor man can endure, that any .should 
have so much in the world, and yet be of so little use 
to the world, should be through their delicacy as if they 
were bom for nothing else but, like babies, to jilay 
withal. I will make the yoke to pass over theiu, 
saith God. Though you do not put your hands to ser- 
vile labour, there are otlier manner of works ; but then, 
through your delicacy, if you meet with any difficulty, 
you will do nothing for God: the Lord looks upon 
•iuch dispositions with indignation, as sinful, and has 
his time to bring them to hardness. How many deli- 
cate and fair necks, that could not endure any difficulty, 
has God brought the yoke upon in these days ! jiersons 
that were so nice and tender, and complaining of every 
little difficulty in any work that God would have them 
to do. God has made the yoke to pass over their 
heads, and to lie heavy upon their necks. God threat- 
ens this to the daughters of Babylon, to the anti- 
christian party especially, in Isa. xlvii. 1, 2, "Come 
down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Baby- 
lon, sit on the ground : there is no throne, () daughter 
of the Chaldeans : for thou shalt no more be called 
tender and delicate. Take the millstones, and grind 
meal : uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover 
the thigh, pass over the rivers." And then in the 3rd 
verse, "Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy 
shame shall be seen : I will take vengeance, and I wLll 



Vee. 11. 



THE PROrHECY OF HOSEA. 



445 



not meet thee as a man." That which you cannot en- 
dure so much as to hear of now, (your very ears are so 
delicate, as well as your necks,) Ihal I will bring upon 
you. O my brethren, how much better is it to be 
willing to endure hardships for God, than to be brought 
to hardships by our adversaries; and rather to put 
our necks under the yoke of Jesus Christ, than to have 
God put oiu- necks under the yoke of his wrath and 
displeasure ! But God has his time to bring upon them 
hard things ; and therefore, though God spares your 
bodies, that you need not put them to the servile tasks 
that others do, yet be so much the more willing to do 
service for God otherwise. Venture yourselves among 
your kindi-ed ; that is the work to which God calis ladies. 
You meet wuth carnal friends that are honourable and 
of great rank in the world, now, to espouse in the midst 
of them the cause of God, is as hard a work as to la- 
bour with one's hands, and may do a great deal more 
service. When you come into carnal company, be 
willing to put forth yourselves to endure hardships in 
that way which God calls thee to, and God will accept 
of it ; but if, through thy delicacy and niceness of mind, 
thy spii'it comes to be as delicate as thy skin is, and 
thou must not displease any, nor suffer any thing for 
God, it is just with God to bring thee to suffer in spite 
of thy heart. 

" I will make Ephraim to ride." We regard this as 
a fiu'ther threatening ; in Scripture it is appUed both 
to mercy and judgment : thus to mercy, in Isa. Iviii. 14, 
" Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord ; and I 
will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the 
earth." And to judgment, in Job xxx. 21, 22, " With 
thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me. 
Thou liftest me up to the wind : thou causest me to 
ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance." Other 
scriptures might be shown where this expression is in 
a way of judgment. And so it is thought by interpreters 
here to refer to the speedy captivity of the ten tribes. 
As if God should say, By his ease, and by his much 
feecUng in treading out the corn, he is grown so fat 
and lusty that there is no ruling of him ; yea, but, saith 
God, I will ride him; though he kicks and spurns and 
is so unruly with his fat feeding, yet I will put such a 
curb into his mouth, that I will order him and rule him 
as I please. Ephi-aim was like a pampered horse that 
is kept at full feeding, none could ride him ; yea, but, 
" I will make Ephraim to ride," saith God. 

OA.s. 6. God has ways to curb those who through 
their prosperity are delicate and unruly ; though they 
may champ upon the bit, and foam at the mouth, and 
stamp again, yet God will rule them : " I will make 
Ephraim to ride." 

" Judah shall plough ;" that is, Judah shall for a long 
time take pains and go through many difficulties in 
the ways of my worship, and shall suffer much while 
Ephraim lives delicately. Judah did indeed suffer 
much more difficulty and hardship than the ten ti-ibes. 
But I think this scripture refers especially to those 
two passages that we find, the fu-st in 2 Kings xviii. 
4 — S, and the other in 2 Chron. xxviii. 6. 2 Kings xviii. 
records the great reformation that Hezekiah made in 
the worship of God in Judah and Jerusalem. And 
then Judah's suffering you have in 2 Chron. xxviii. 
0, where it is said, that " Pekah the son of RemaUah 
slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in 
one day, which were all valiant men." It is a very 
strange scripture. Israel, the ten tribes, were worse 
than Judah : Israel forsook the true worship of God ; 
Judah kept themselves to the true worship ; and yet 
God let Israel so prosper that they so prevailed against 
Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, as to slay in one day 
a hundred and twenty thousand valiant men. Oh 
what lamentation and wailing must have been in the 
country then, that of two tribes a hundred and twenty 



thousand valiant men should be slain in one day ! We 
think it is a dreadful battle when three thousand are 
slain in the field, but here is a battle in which a hun- 
dred and twenty thousand are slain in one day, and 
that out of two tribes. And in 2 Kings xiv. 13, " And 
Jehoash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, 
the son of Jehoash the son of Ahaziah, at Beth-shemesh, 
and came to Jerusalem, and brake down the wall of 
Jerusalem," kc. Thus Judah and Benjamin, those two 
tribes that kept to the worship of God, were sorely 
afflicted by Ephraim, the ten tribes which had forsaken 
the worship of God. Sti-ange are the counsels of God 
concerning men. 

" Judah shall plough ;" that is, they shall endure a 
gi-eat deal of trouble in the reforming what is amiss 
among them. Whence, 

Obs. 7. It is an honour for men to labour and go 
through difficulties for God while others are labouring 
for their ease. Be not troubled that you see other 
people can take liberty to themselves to provide in- 
comes to live bravely. Does God give you a heart in 
the mean time to be willing to go through hard work 
for him ? Envy them not, thou art in the better con- 
dition, thou art ploughing for God; while they are 
providing for their own ease, thou art doing God ser- 
vice ; oh ! thou art far the happier. 

" Judah shall plough." Take the ploughing for the 
hard things they suffered, as well as the hard things 
they did for God, and thence, 

Obs. 8. Let none boast that they live more at ease 
than others. Others suffer more hardship than thou r 
do not thuik that God loves thee more than others. 
God loved Judah at this time more than Ephraim, and 
yet Ephraim lived bravely, and prevailed over Judah. 
judah was God's true chm'ch, and Israel had aposta- 
tized from God, and yet one had more outward pros- 
perity than the other. Thus many times those upon 
whom God's heart is more set, suffer hard afflictions ; 
and those on whom God's heart is not so much fixed, 
enjoy their prosperity. 

O, I beseech you, consider this well; for at this 
day, how many of our brethren are there in the western 
parts, on whose backs the ploughers have jjloughed 
deep furrows, while we have been here as it were 
treading out the com ! Let not us think that God loves 
us more than them ; they may be more dear to God 
than we : Judah was far more dear to God than Israel, 
and yet Israel must live jocundly and bravely. 

O consider this, you that are of greater rank. All 
your life is treading out the corn : you see your poor 
neighbours endure much hardship, O think not that 
you are higher in God's thoughts than they ; they may 
be more dear to God than you, and yet they may be 
put to difficulties, and you may live bravely all your 
lives. 

But it may seem to weaken the foregoing observa- 
tion, that the ploughing is spoken of as future, "Judah 
shall plough." The Hebrews, however, ordinarily make 
use of the future and preter tense promiscuously. But 
if you take it in the future sense, that they shall plough 
hereafter, it may signify the captivity of Judah, that 
they shall be carried into captivity, and so be brought 
under by the Babylonians. 

" And' Jacob shall break his clods." By " Jacob " we 
must understand the ten tribes. As if God should say 
here, that Judah shall be put to some difficulties, yet 
Jacob, the ten tribes, must be put to more. Judah 
shall be carried into captivity; yea, but Jacob shall 
break the clods. Though Judah shall plough, yet the 
breaking of the clods is worse than the ploughing, for 
it is more servile ; for the ploughman is the cliief, he 
goes on in ploughing, but it is his servant or boy whom 
he sets to break the clods after him. So, though Ju- 
dah shall be brought to difficulties, yet Jacob shaU be 



446 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. X. 



put to more difficulties ; for the captivity of Judab was 
great, yet it was not so great as Jacob's. 

" Judali shall plougli, and Jacob .shall break his 
clods ;" that is, Judah's clods. The expression we have 
here, with the reference it has to Judah, intimates, ac- 
cording to some, That there shall be a time, thougli 
now you that are the ten tribes are so delicate and 
proud above Judah, and Judah so much lower than 
you, that you des))ise him ; yet the time shall come tliat 
you shall be glad to join with Judah, and be as a serv- 
ant to Judah, to break his clods, when God shall re- 
store liis people again : Judah shall return from his 
captivity, and shall be taking pains in the service of 
God ; and it shall be well for you if you can but come 
and be as his servant. 

Obs. 9. Though God may have mercy upon those 
afteruards who forsake his ti'ue worslii]), and join them 
with his people, yet, if this mercy place them in the 
meanest contlition among God's ijeojjlc, they should be 
willing to submit to it. Those that have dishonoured 
God and shamed themselves in times of trial, by for- 
saking his truths, it is a mercy if ever God unite them 
to his (hurcli ngain ; but if he does bring them to join 
it, they should tliink it a great mercy, and be willing to 
be in the meanest condition. AVhat ! must those think 
to be masters and lords, who have forsaken God and 
his truth, and have been ver>' false for their own ends 
in times of trial, shall they think in times of reformation 
to bear all before them ? Oh ! it is a mercy if they be 
but admitted to break the clods, to join with those 
servants of God that have been faithful, and willing to 
sen'e him through difficulties. 

Ver. 1 2. Soio to j/ourselves in righteousness, reap in 
mercy ; break up your fallow ground : for it is time to 
seek the Lord,till he come and ram righteousness upon you. 

The Holy Ghost still goes on in this allegory of hus- 
bandly, continuing in the exhortation the metaphor 
that he had used in the threatening. In the midst of 
his threats he falls to exhorting. 

Obs. 1. Though the sins of a people be great, and 
judgments near, yet exhortations are to be used. A\'ho 
knows what an exhortation may effect, even with the 
worst people in tlie world ? There were many things 
spoken concerning Israel, which one would have 
thought should have discouraged the prophet to med- 
dle with exhortation ; but God would have him yet 
exhort. One cannot tell what an exhortation may do, in 
tlie most desperate hardness of men's hearts, and pride 
and stoutness of men's spirits j therefore the prophet 
exhorts them, as if he should say, 'Well, if you would 
not plough, if you would not come under the yoke and 
be put into the furrows, as you were threatened before, 
why then, sow to yourselves. O, be willing to break 
up the fallow ground of your hearts, and sow to your- 
selves in righteousness, and so you shall reap in mercy. 

"Sow to yourselves in righteousness, I'cap in mercy." I 
find some of the ancients interi)ret this somewhat wildly. 

" Sow in righteousness ;" that is, (saith Jerome ujjon 
the ])Iace,) Sow in the law, in obedience to tlie law, and 
reap in the grace of the gospel ; that is, you shall .sow 
in the works of the law, and reap in the gospel : but 
this seems far-fetched. 

As Jerome is somewliat too legal, so Luther (because 
his heart was much in the gospel, and he was wont to 
view all scri])tures, as far as possible, a.s expressing the 
grace of Uie gospel) inclines somewhat too much to the 
other extreme. 

"Sow in righteousness." MTiat are tlie seeds of right- 
eousness ? That is, saith Luther, the doctrine of the 
gospel tendering the righteousness of Jesus Christ : 
the attending to, and embracing, this doctrine of the 
gospel, that tliere is righteousness in Jesus Christ alone, 



this is sowing in righteousness; for what other right- 
eousness is there but this ? ANTien reason would ascend 
to the highest degree of righteousness, what does it? 
Only this, to conclude righteousness to be, to depart 
from evil and do things that are good. But what 
righteousness is this ? But the Scripture righteousness 
teaches a man to know that he has no good at all in 
himself, that all his evil is pardoned in Jesus Christ ; 
this is the righteousness of the gospel, and this is the 
seed of all good works. I name this, though I can 
hardly conceive it to be the scope of the prophet here j 
yet a very good meditation arises from it, which I see 
noticed by that useful man in the church of God, Lu- 
ther, who goes on to say, ^^'hat madness and blindness 
in the adversary' is there, that will urge people to 
sow, and yet reject and cast off this seed that they 
should sow, that is, tlie doctrine of the imputation of 
the righteousness of Christ by faith ! VTlyy, saith he, 
in all imlpits they ciy out to men for good works, that 
they should sow in righteousness ; but where have they 
their seed ? Certainly the truth which he inculcates 
here is excellent How vain is it for men to be taught 
to sow good works till they have got the seed! and the 
seed of all good works is, the righteousness that we 
have by Jesus Christ : and thereupon he rebukes those 
who blame the doctrine of the gospel as the means of 
licentiousness. A great many, when we preach, saith he, 
of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, think thatwe preach 
licentiousness, and tliat men may live as they list, but it is 
quite the contrarv"; when we preach the righteousness of 
Jesus Christ, we preach the seed of aU good works ; and 
from those who have this seed, gpod works will issue. 
But, saith he, further, they would have righteousness ; 
but what righteousness ? They slight the righteousness 
of God's making, the righteousness of his Son, but they 
must have righteousness of their own to tender up to God ; 
and then, when they come to good works, they will slight 
God's good works, and they will be giving to God of 
their good works. The world doth neglect those works 
enjoined by him as hght things, that is, the works of 
mercy, kindness to the saints, &c. No, they wiU have 
none of these, they will have otlier brave works, to build 
churches, and temjiles, and monasteries, and to lavish 
out gold about them, they are their chiefest good works : 
they will not deign to do the work as it were of a serv- 
ant, but aim rather to be a benefactor to God ; for, in 
relieving thy poor brother when none but thyself and 
God know it, tliou dost the work of a sei-vant, but 
to build brave temples and monasteries, and lansh out 
gold upon them, this is for you to be a benefactor to 
God. Thus much for Luther's speech. 

" Sow to yourselves in righteousness." We know of 
the prophet, though he would lead the people to Christ, 
yet his preaching was chiefly legal. " Sow righteous- 
ness ;" that is. Go on in the works of righteousness, 
those works that are right, and just, and equal, such as 
you may give a good account of before God and man : 
as if he should say, Do not you think to put me off 
merely with outward services, with ofl'cring sacrifices, 
and the j)omp of ceremonial, perhaps, superstitious, 
worehip, I will never accept of these things ; but let 
me have righteousness, let there be the works of right- 
eousness ; according to the rules of righteousness, so 
work. And the Jews, if they did but perform generally 
the external works of righteousness, might liave exter- 
nal mercies. U indeed they did some works of right- 
eousness, and not others, then they could not expect 
mercy from God ; but tliough there were no saving 
grace in them, yet if they did but perform the external 
works of righteousness, and there was a jiroportion be- 
tween one and another, there seems to have been an 
external covenant that they were under for outward 
mercies for their outward righteousness : not but that 
I think for heaven they must have had true grace and 



Vek. 12. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



447 



godliuess, as the saints must have now ; but external 
mercies were more annexed to external duties than now 
amongst us. 

You will say, AVe have external promises too. 

Yea, but they are attached to godliness in Christ 
Jesus. 

Now from the words we may 

Obs. 2. The actions of men are seeds, such seeds as 
win certainly come up. Other seeds may die in the 
ground, and rot, and never come up ; but there is never 
an action wliich thou performest, but wiU come up one 
way or other, it will come u]) to something. 

Obs. 3. The seed sown will come up after its kind. 
The seeds of tares wiU not come up to wheat, but will 
continue tares, and so the wheat, wheat : all our ac- 
tions will come up after then- kind. Men neglect 
theu- actions, and tliink that when they liave done, it 
is over, they forget what they did yesterday or the day 
before ; but though you may forget it, yet it will come 
up in the same kind, though you think not of it. I re- 
member Pliny reports of some parts in Africa, that 
when they sow then- seed, they go away, and never 
look after it for many mouths together : so it is with 
many men, they sow, but they never mind what they 
have done, and quite forget what their seed has been, 
till they must come to reap. But certainly thine ac- 
tions he there, and will grow up to something. 

Obs. 4. As the seed lies in the ground rotting awhile, 
but afterwards comes up, so it is with oiu- actions ; they 
seem as if they were quite forgotten, but they will come 
up ; yea, and good actions seem as if they were wholly 
lost many times : well, though the seed doth rot, rot 
in the gi'ound for a time, yet it will come up afterwards. 

Obs. 5. The seed, when sown, comes up through the 
blessuig of God upon it. No endeavour of the husband- 
man can make the seed come up, but he must leave it 
to the blessing of God ; so the seeds of our actions 
must be left to God. God's justice will make the seeds 
of the wicked come up, and his goodness and mercy 
will make the seeds of the samts come up ; leave thine 
actions to the blessing of God. 

Obs. 6. The better the seed is, for the most part the 
longer it lies under ground. AAHien you sow wheat and 
rye, you sow them in the autumn of the year ; but when 
you sow barley and oats, you sow them in the spring, 
and they do not, as the wheat, endure frost and snow. 
Even so the best of om- actions be longest under ground. 

06s. 7. The ministers of God are sowers of the seed 
of the word ; and the hearers should be sowers too. 
The minister sows the word in thine ears, and then thou 
shouldst take it from thence and sow it in thy heart, 
thy life and conversation. 

06s. 8. If om- actions be seeds that we sow, then large 
opportunities of doing much service for God should be 
our riches ; like a large field, that is sown with good 
grain; if thou hast a heart to improve those oppor- 
tunities. 

Oh that we would but consider of this, that when the 
Lord gives any a large opportunity for service, God lets 
them out so much land ; Go, (saith God,) you must hus- 
band so much land, and sow it for mine advantage. 
Many of you that are poor, have not a foot of land in 
the world, and you think that landed men are happy 
men : does God give you opportunity of sen-ice to 
honour him ? Oh ! thou hast got a great deal of land, 
the meanest of you that have opportunities of service ; 
God lets you out his land, you have abundance of land 
and ground given to you by God : and a man should 
account himself rich according to the 0])portunify of 
his service ; as men in the country account themselves 
rich according to the land that they have to plough 
and sow^. In Lev. sxvii. 16, it is said, " If a man shall 
sanctify unto the Lord some pai-t of a field of his pos- 
session, then thy estimation shall be according to the 



seed thereof." The meaning is, that if a man will 
sanctify a piece of land to God, you shall prize it not 
according to its extent, but according to the seed it is 
fit to receive. So the opportunities that are fit to re- 
ceive much seed, should be accounted rich opportuni- 
ties. And we should esteem the price of our lives to be 
according to the seed thereof: Thou livest such a year, 
what is thy life worth ? It is according to the seed 
thereof. And so for these four or five last years, oh 
what opportunities have we had for service for God ! 
now they ai-e to be prized according to the seed there- 
of, that is, as our service and work were in those years. 
Then certainly, if we must estimate our Uves according 
to the opportunity of service for God, then these last 
five years we may reckon as fifty. It is a great blessing 
to have a good seed time ; the Lord has blest us with 
this good seed time. Oh now, wdiat a folly were it for 
a man out of base penuriousuess to refrain from sowing 
his gi-ound, because he is loth to venture his seed ! or 
thi'ough love of his ease loth to go abroad ; it is some- 
what cold, and he will keep by the fii-e-side, and will 
not go abroad to sow his seed. Oh ! thus it is with us, 
through our base unbelief we will ventiu-e nothing for 
God, we ai-e loth to put ourselves upon any difficulty ; 
this is ova folly. 

06s. 9. It is not every seed that wiU serve. Be sow- 
ers, but sow " in righteousness ;" let it be righteous- 
ness, let it be precious seed. Thus, in Psal. cxxvi. 6, 
they are spoken of as " bearing precious seed" with 
them. Oh ! there are many who sow venomous seed, 
that will bring forth poisonous fruit ; all their days they 
have been sowing nothing but seed of unrighteousness. 
Yea, in this field that God has given to us, of oppor- 
tmiity of service for him, what have many done ? 
what have they sown ? They have sown salt in it ; that 
is, they have sown their passions, they have sown con- 
tention and the seeds of cUscord, and that has been the 
cause why that our field, those opportunities which 
we have enjoyed for God, has been so unproductive : 
there has been so much salt, the salt spirits of men and 
women have been so manifested in their passions and 
frowardness, and then- contentions one against another, 
that it has made us barren. Thus, Prov. vi. 14, " Fro- 
wardness is in his heart ; he deviseth mischief continu- 
ally, he soweth discord." And ver. 19, it is made one 
of the things which the sold of God abhors, that a 
man .should " sow discord." And so in Prov. xvi. 28, 
" A froward man soweth strife." Oh ! how many are 
there amongst us that go from one place to another, 
and tell you such a tale, and such a report, and sow 
nothing but strife and discord ! such the Lord hates. 
What ! in such a time as this is to sow discord ! there 
coidd never have been a time more unfit to sow the 
tares thereof. Oh ! let men take heed of sowing dis- 
cord now ; God calls for the seed of righteousness. 

" And reap in mercy." I find many interpret this, 
mercy to men : that is, sow the seeds of righteousness, 
and let the fruits of mercy be abundant amongst you. 
But to carry it according to that which is more like to 
be the scope of the Holy Ghost, we are to understand 
by " mercy," the mercy of God. Now two things are 
to be observed in this phrase : 

First, That it is in the imperative mood, " reap in 
merev," not, ye shall reap in mercy. 

Secondly, In the original it is, "lOn-'SS ad os miseri- 
cordicc, in the mouth of mercy. 

Now to explain these words accordingly. 

First, That it is in the imperative mood, " reap in 
mercy;" not, ye shall reap in mercy. This signifies 
these two tilings : 

1. The certainty of the mercy they shall have. 

2. The readiness of the mercy, that it is ready at 
hand for them to possess ; just as if one should say to 
jxiu in your shops. Let me have this commodit)', and 



448 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. X. 



here take your money, that is, here is your money ready 
-and certain. 

SeconiUy, In the mouth of mercy. Now if the 
translators had rendered it thus, Sow m righteousness, 
and reap in the mouth of mercy, it would have been 
obscure ; but tliose who understand the original, know 
that the mouth of a thine; is often used for the ])ropor- 
tion and measure of a thing. As thus in Lev. xxvii. 16, 
" Thy estimation shall be according to the seed there- 
of." ' Now the Hebrew is, Thy estimation shall be to 
the mouth of the seed, that is, according to the ]n'o- 
portion of the seed so shall the estimation be. And so 
you have it in Exod. xvi. 16, " Gather of it every man 
according to his eating;" that is, to the mouth of 
everv man, in a proportion according to what is fit for 
every- man. 

" Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy." 
Thus, " Sow in righteousness ; " it is a poor seed that 
we shall sow : now God saith not, you shall re«p '• in 
righteousness," but " in mercy," from tlie mouth of 
mercy. You take out of the mouth of the sack, and 
sow your poor proportion, but when you come to reap, 
you shall reap, if you be faithful, according to the pro- 
portion of mercy ; what is fit for a merciful God to do, 
what is suitable to the infiniteness of my mercy, that 
shall you rca]). It was so with the Jews, if their obe- 
dience was but external, yet they should have mercy 
beyond that outward obedience : but if it be applied 
to those who live in the times of the gospel, indeed 
that which comes from you, being so mixed as it is, is 
but poor, yet you may expect to reap, not according to 
•what TOU ilo, but according to what may manifest the 
infinite mercy of an infinite God. Every one, let tliem 
be never so weak, and employed in never such poor 
and mean services, yet, if their hearts be upright, they 
shall not rea)) according to the meanness of the work, 
nor the poverty of the service, but look, what glory and 
ha|)piness is suitable for an infinite God in way of in- 
finite mercy to bestow, that they shall have in the 
mouth of mercy, suitable to mercy. Thus you have 
the meaning of the word. 

Obs. 10. As a man sows, so shall he reap. Though 
he shall reap more than he sows, yet he shall reap in 
the same kind. If he sow wickedness he shall not reap 
mercy; but he that sows righteousness shall reap 
mercy. It is a mocking of God, for men to think that 
thougli they sow wickedness yet tliey shall reap mercy ; 
therefore saith the apostle, in Gal. vi. 7, " '\^^latsocver 
a man soweth, that shall he also reap. God is not 
mocked." If thou thinkest to reap mercy when thou 
Kowest wickedness, thou mockest God to his very face. 
If a man should sow tares and say, I shall have a good 
crop of wheat, would you not think that man mad ? or 
he should think you a fool to believe him, were he to 
tell you so. So for vou to think that either God or 
man should believe that you should have mercv when 
you sow not righteousness, it is, I say, to mock God ; 
and know, " God is not mocked ; for what a man sow- 
eth, that shall he also reap;" and thy fruit shall be an- 
other manner of fruit, thou shalt rent that which shall 
be bound in bundles, and thou bound together with it, 
and cast into unquenchable fire. Hut of those that sow 
righteousness, not a seed shall be lost, they shall be 
recompensed for all their pains, and labour, and suffer- 
ings. For so saith the Lord, Psal. cxxvi. 5, " Tlicy tliat 
60W in tears shall reap in joy." There shall be an as- 
suring fruit to those that sow in righteousness, for true 
gospel-righteousness is the most precious thing in the 
world, more worth in one of its righteous acts than 
hjaven and earth. God will not lose that seed, it is 
jtrccious seed ; there is more of God in one righteous 
act of a godly man, than there is in all the works of 
creation and providence, (angels and saints excepted,) 
yea, than in all the whole frame of creation. 



The reason i;i this. Because in all the creation God's 
glory is manifested but passively, God works there and 
holds forth his glory passively; but in the righteous 
acts of the saints, there is an active glorifying of God ; 
there is an act of the very image of God, and the life of 
God : the Divine nature is there, and therefore there is 
more of God in the working of righteousness than in 
any thing else besides. 

Oh, let the saints rightly estimate the actions of right- 
eousness ; thougli there be much evil mingled, yet there 
is a great deal of the glory of God in every action. If 
we were but grounded in this principle it would make 
us aboiuid in the work of the Lord. So in the morning 
and in the evening let not thy hand rest, trust God with 
thy seed, do not be deterred with this difficulty and 
the other: "He that obseiveth the wind shall not sow; 
and he that regardcth the clouds shall not reap," Eccl. 
xi. 4. Is it a duty that God requires of thee ; do not 
think. Oh, but it is windy, and ill weather : no, but 
sow thy seed, " sow it in righteousness," and commit 
it to God, and thou shalt reap. Blessed are those who 
have sown much for God in their life-time ! Oh the 
glorious harvest that these shall have ! the very an- 
gels sliall help them to take in their harvest at the 
great day ; and they need not take thought for barns, 
the very heavens shall be their barns. And oh the joy 
that there shall be in that harvest ! the angels will help 
to sing the harvest song that they shall sing who have 
been sowers in righteousness : but oh the confusion 
of face which will be upon those who were not willing 
to endure difficulty in ploughing and sowing ! " The 
sluggard will not plough byreason of the cold; therefore 
shall he beg in harvest, and have nolliing," Prov. xs. 
4. In harvest he will be crying for mercy. Lord, mercy 
now. But what fruits of rigliteousness ? No fruits 
of righteousness, no mercy. " Reap in mercy ! " an 
expression as remarkable as we have in the whole 
book of God ; not reap in righteousness, but " repp in 
mercy." 

Obs. 11. After all we do, yet we have need of mercy. 
Let us be the most plentiful in sowing the seeds of 
righteousness, yet we arc unprofitable servants afler we 
have done all, and must " reap in mercy." 

But surely an act of righteousness has much in it. 

Yea, but all the good of it is God's, so much as there 
is in it of evil is ours ; and after we have done all, we 
bad need come to God as beggars to ci-y for mercy. 
Those who have lived the most holy lives, yet woe to 
them if they have not mercy, if they have not right- 
eousness beyond their own, if mercy come not in to 
plead for them ! M'oe to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, if 
mercy plead not for them ! if at the great day they have 
nothing to tender up to God but their own righteous- 
ness, they are certainly lost and undone for ever. All 
that we can do is infinitely unworthy of the majesty of 
God. In 1 Chron. xxix. 14, when the people offered so 
much to God for the building of his tabernacle, mark 
how David was affected with it ; " Who am I, and w hat is 
my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly 
after this sort ? for all things come of thee, and of thine 
own liave we given thcc." And in 1 Chron. xxii. 14, when 
David had jirovided "an hundred thousand talents of 
gold, and a tliousand thousand talents of silver," for the 
building of the temple of God, besides " brass and iron 
without weight," yet afler all he exclaims, Out of my 
jioverty have I offered tliis. So Arias Montanus renders 
"jys In vour books it is, " in my trouble I have pre- 
pared " this, but the word signifies poverty as well as 
trouble and affliction. And so saith David, after all 
this. Yet in my poverty have I done this ; whereas this 
was a mighty thing that was offered. I remember Sir 
Walter lUlcigh, in his History of the World, p.irt 2. 
chap. 17. sect. 0, reckons up the sum of what David 
there prepared for the temple of the Lord, and mokes 



Ver. 12. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



449 



it more tlian any king in the world is worth ; he makes 
it to come to three thousand three hundred and thirty- 
three cart loads of silver, allowing two thous;ind weight 
of silver, or six thousand pounds sterling, to every cart 
load, besides threescore and seventeen mUHons of 
French crowns : and yet when he had done all. Out 
of my poverty have I done this. As if he should say. 
Lord, what is this in respect of thee who art the great 
God ? If thou wilt but accept of this, I shall be infi- 
nitely bound to thee. 

O my brethren, let us ever learn after all our duties 
not to be proud, but keep your hearts loM-_ and humble 
before God. Has God enabled us to sow in righteous- 
ness ? our hearts are puffed up presently : oh no, thou 
must keep thy heart still under. Alas! such is the 
pride of our spirits, if we be but enlarged a little in 
prayer we are ready to be puffed up presently. Oh ! 
what is this to the service which a creature owes to 
the blessed and eternal God ! Hadst thou spent all thy 
time since thou hadst any understanding, night and day, 
in the work and service of God, hadst thou been the 
greatest instrument of God's service that ever was in 
the world, yet thou hast cause to lie down at God's 
mercy-seat and cry, IMercy, Lord, mercy for a poor 
wretched, vile creature, after thou hast done all ; we are 
so unable to do any thing ourselves. Luther saith. 
The very act of thanksgiving is from God. 

'acuf Lw™."" ■'^"d therefore be humbled, and cry, 

Grace, grace to all that has been : and 

let all public instruments not take too much upon 

them, but lie low before the Lord. Oh ! did we but 

know God we would indeed be low after our duties. 

To lay down one's life for God you will say was a 
great service. Cyprian's prayer at his martyrdom con- 
tained these two remarkable expressions ; Lord, I am 
prepared to pour forth the very sacrifice of my blood 
ior thy name's sake ; yea. Lord, I am prepared here to 
suffer any tomient whatsoever. These two expressions 
he used. You will say, Now surely this man might 
stand upon his terms with God. But he goes on : IJut 
when thou dost lift up thyself to shake the earth, Lord, 
under what cleft of the rock shall I hide myself, to 
what mountain or hill shall I call to fall upon me and 
cover me ? As if he should say. Lord, though I be 
here ready to give up my body to be massacred for 
thee, to give up my blood to be an offering, and to 
suffer any torment, yet when I consider what a God I 
have to do withal, if thou shouldst deal with me as I 
am in myself, oh I must cry to the rocks to cover me, 
and the hills to f;ill upon me. This should teach us to 
keep our hearts low and humble after we have done 
the greatest work whatsoever. One of the German 
divines when at the point of death was full of fears 
and doubts, and some said to him, Y'ou have been so 
employed, and have been so faithful, why should you 
fear ? He replied, The judgments of man and the judg- 
ments of God are diffei-ent ; I am to go before the 
great and all-seeing God. Though it is true, God would 
not have us daunted with any terrible apprehensions 
of him, yet he would have us be possessed with rever- 
ence, so as to be humbled when we think what a God 
it is we have to do withal : you must " reap in mercy." 
Oh ! this shall be the song of fhe saints to all eternity, 
Mercy, mercy : " Not unto us. Lord, not unto xis, but 
unto til}' name give glory," Psal. cxv. 1. 

Obs. 12. God will give abundantly above our works. 
Oh, it is a point that has very much encom-agement to 
poor troubled sinners that are low. Raise up thy faith : 
it is not what thy work is ; though it be low and mean, 
and though there be many failings in thy work, yet is 
there uijrightness in it ; and if thou hast sown the seeds 
of righteousness, thou shalt reap according to what 
shall honour the mercy of an infinite God at last. 
Allien Alexander was giving a cift to a poor man, he 
2 G 



dared not receive if, it was too gi'eat. Y'ea, but, said 
Alexander, though that be too great for thee to receive, 
vet it is not too great for me to give. So I may say to 
])oor souls, when they hear of these glorious promises. 
Their hearts are ready to think. This is too good news 
to be true, too great a mercy for me to receive. So it is 
as thou art in thyself, but if God will give according 
to the proportion of his mercy, it is not too great for 
liim to give. 

Now thus it is that God will deal with those that are 
in covenant with him, that have all their fruit from the 
seed of righteousness, Christ in the heart. I say, the 
Lord will deal with them according to the proportion 
of infinite gi'ace. 

Take this one meditation, That where there is any 
uprightness, when thou shalt come to reap from God, 
tliou shalt reap so much as must manifest to all angels 
and saints to all eternity, what the infinite mercy of an 
infinite God can do ; and that is enough, one would 
think : the poorest Christian, who does but the least for 
God, when he comes to reap shall have a harvest that 
must manifest the infinite riches of the infinite mercy 
of God, and what he is able to do for the exaltation of 
a creature to glory. Comfort thyself in this, in thy 
poor, low condition, and in the performing of thy poor 
services. 

" Break up youi' fallow ground : for it is time to 
seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness 
upon you." 

" Break up your fallow ground," &c. : the prophet 
exhorted them in the words before, to sow in right- 
eousness, that they might reap mercy. 

But you must not sow without ploughing, that were 
a preposterous way ; therefore, though the words come 
after, yet the thing is to be done before. Look that 
you plough up the fallow ground : you have been sinful 
and ungodly in your way, it will not be enough for you 
now to set upon some good actions, AVe will do better, 
we will do such and such good things that God re- 
quires of us : no, that is not the first work you must 
fall upon, but it must be to plough, to " break up your 
fallow ground." 

Obs. 13. The hearts of men naturally are as fallow 
grounds, nothing but thorns and briers gi'ow upon, 
them, they are mifit for the seed of the word. 

Wlien he bids them plough up their fallow grounds, 
these three tilings are implied : 

First, The work of humiliation. The truths of God, 
both of the law and of the gospel, must get into theu" 
hearts, and rend them up, even as the plough rends up 
tlie ground. 

Secondly, That weeds, thorns, and briers must be 
turned up by the roots, the heart must be cleared of 
them. It is not enougli to pluck out a weed or a thorn 
here and there, but we must plough up the ground, 
turn all upside down, and get rid of all the beggarly 
stuff and thorns that were in our hearts heretofore. 

Thirdly, Get a softness in your hearts : as when the 
ground is ploughed, that which was before hard on the 
outside, and baked by the heat of the sun, being now 
turned up presents a soft mould, prepared to receive 
seed. 

There are many evils in us that we would reform, 
but we have not been humbled for them, for our cere- 
monies, and subjection to false government of the 
church. AVho has been humbled for these things, as sin ? 
We reform them as things inconvenient, but not being 
humbled for them as sin, the very roots of these things 
are in the hearts of many, so as, if times should change, 
a distinction would serve their turn to come and sub- 
mit to them again ; so that we sow before we plough. 
In Jer. iv. 3, you have this exhortation carried a little 
further ; " Break up your fallow ground, and sow 
not among thorns." They must not think to mingle 



450 



.\X EXPOSITION OF 



that which is good with that which is evil : it may be a 
few good seeds are brought into a business ; yea, but 
there is a great deal of evil. My brethren, take heed 
of being so deceived ; many, though they do not intend 
to deceive you, yet they may deceive you by mixing 
some good things with a great many evil ; and there- 
fore examine things. But I note this place in Jere- 
miah the rather from the consideration of the time of 
its delivery, which was about the time of Josiah. Now 
that was a time of great reformation ; but saith Jere- 
miah, ANTiat though you do manythings? you sowamong 
thorns, you do not jjlough up the ground, you are not 
humbled, your sins are not taken up by the roots ; and 
therefore, though a great deal of ill stuff seems to be 
cast out, and many good things are set up in the wor- 
ship of God, which were not formerly, yet you must 
plough, plough up your fallow grounds. The Holy 
Ghost joining them together, "Sow in righteousness," 
and " break up your fallow gi-ound," I would have you 
observe. That there are some that do sow and not 
plough, and there are others that do plough and not 
sow, but we must join both together. 

There are that do plough and not sow ; that is, they 
(it may be) are troubled for their sins, much humbled 
perhaps on account of them, but they do not reform, 
after their humiliation there does not follow reform- 
ation. Now as reformation, where humiliation has not 
gone before, usually comes to little purpose, so humi- 
liation, where reformation follows not after, comes like- 
wise to little purpose. 

In Isa. xxviii. 24, a similar image is applied to God ; 
" Doth the ploughman plough all day to sow?" to note 
that God observes his times, and that we must not be of- 
fended because that he does not things as we would 
have him always, that is, he lets wicked men prosper 
sometimes, and the godly suffer afflictions : as if the 
Holy Ghost should say here. Let God alone with his 
work, God observes his times and seasons : as the 
ploughman does, he does not always plough ; so God 
has his times and seasons, and knows when to relieve, 
and when to afflict, liis church, and when the wicked 
shall prosper, and when they shall be brought into ad- 
■versity : God instructs the ploughman to know his 
season, and he knows his o^^'n, therefore be not of- 
fended. And so should we know our seasons, and ob- 
serve our times for humiliation and reformation. But 
this for the reformation of a state. 

But the ])loughing of the heart is the thing that is 
here especially intended, and I desire to apply it par- 
ticularly to eveiy individual. Those who have such 
sore necks that they cannot bear the yoke, yet must 
all hold the plough here spoken of. Now for this 
ploughing of your hearts, it is to get in ti-uths into your 
spirits, that may rend up your hearts. I will name some 
few truths that are as it were the ploughshare ; you 
should not only know them, but labour to get them 
into your hearts. 

1. Such is the vileness of every sin, that it separates 
the soul from God, and pxits it under an eternal cm'sc. 
This one truth you must get deep into your hearts, it 
will help to unloosen the roots of the thorns and briers 
that are there, the settled apprehension of this truth. 

2. There is such a breach between God and the soul 
by sin, that all the power in all the creatures in heaven 
and earth is not able to make up this breach : here is a 
shaqi ploughshare to get into the heart. 

3. By nature I am fully engaged in this controvci'sy 
with God, my heart is full of it, all the faculties of my 
soul are filled with that heinous sin. 

4. Every action throughout my whole life, in my 
unregenerate estate, was nothing else but sin, nothing 
else but sin, and that too of a vile nature. 

5. If any sin be pardoned to me it is by virtue of a 
price paid that is more wortli than ten thousand worlds. 



Now here is the gospel as well as the law, for the 
ploughing is but the spiritual using of the law : for you 
must take notice that the law, as law, accepts of no hu- 
mihation for sin, but viewed in the light of the gospel 
it does tend to humiliation : the law in the gospel hum- 
bles the soul so as to do it good. Now therefore get 
the truths that the law, ha\'ing reference to the gospel, 
requires, and see what they will do in thy soul : you must 
work them in. And let conscience be put on to diaw 
this plough : these are as the ploughshare, and the 
working of conscience is the drawing of this plough ; 
when the plough stops, ( as when it meets with a thorn 
and brier,) a strong conscience will draw it on, and 
will rend up by the roots the thorns and briers. Though 
these truths put you to pain, yet you must be content 
to draw them on in the soul ; and if these and the like 
truths be got into thy soul, and thou be at plough, 
and thy conscience be drawing, I shaU say unto thee, 
God s|jeed the plough; yea, God speed these truths 
which conscience is drawing on in the soul, for they may 
tend to a great deal of good, to ])repare thee for the seed 
that may bring forth righteousness and mercy to thy 
sold for ever. I confess it is a hard work to ])lough 
thus ; indeed only to hear sermons, and talk and con- 
fer of good things, these things are pretty easy ; but to 
go to plough, to plough with such truths as these are, to 
get up the thorns and briers by the roots, this is a very 
hard task : but we must be willing to do it, and to con- 
tinue ploughing ; as the fallow ground must not only 
be ploughed once, but it may stand in need of plough- 
ing the second and third time before it be fit for the 
seed to be east m ; and so with our hearts. It may be 
some of you have been ploughing, and have got in 
some truths; yea, but many weeds and thorns have 
grown up since, and you must to ploughuig again : it 
may be many years ago since you have been thus 
ploughing, and your hearts ha^■e lain fallow ever since ; 
do not think it enough that once you have been hum- 
bled, but be often ploughing up this fallow ground; it 
is far better to have the plough get into your hearts, 
though it be sharp, than to have the sword of God's 
justice upon you. We have in these times a wanton 
gcnei-ation, that cannot endure to go to plough, they 
would be doing nothing but taking in the sweet, tread- 
ing out the corn. Bu,t this ploughing they cry out of 
merely through wantonness, and sinful self-indulgence ; 
they would have nothing but jollity and licentiousness 
in their hearts and ways; yet the Scripture, in Luke ix. 
62, compares the ministers of the gospel to ploughmen ; 
" No man, having put his hand to the plough, and look- 
ing back, is fit for the kingdom of God," not fit to be 
employed in the administration of the gospel. These 
men talk of humiliation for sin, but they reject that, 
than which nothing more humbles for sin, the price 
that was paid for sin in the blood of Jesus Christ : there 
is no such sharp ploughshare as that. If I were to 
preach one sermon in all my life for the humbling of 
men for sin, I would take a text that might show the 
great price that was paid for it, and therein open the 
breach which sin has made between God and man's 
soul ; but they will not make use even of the gospel 
as a plough to plough the heart for the work of humi- 
liation. 

Well, God has prospered this work heretofore, and 
notwithstanding all the wantonness of men's spirits 
this way, yet, I say still, God speed the plough ; God 
speed this way of ploughing the hearts of men, and 
getthig in those truths calculated to humble the hearts 
of men for their sins. These were the truths which God 
blessed in former times, and none ever lived so much 
to the honour of the gospel. For this generation that is 
come up, they talk of the gospel, but they live not to 
the honour of it, the gospel has not honour by them, 
nor has Jesus Christ. But the former generation of 



Veb. 12. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



451 



men, though in some things they might faU, yet cer- 
tainly God blessed them in theii- way, so far as it was 
according to ti'uth. 

No mai-vel though these men bring forth such little 
fruit of righteousness, it is because they sow among 
thorns ; presently they are blown at the top, and full of 
confidence, but their seed is among thorns, and there- 
fore it doth not prosper. And thus much for this ex- 
pression about the ploughing up of fallow grounds, 
both in reference to general reformation and humili- 
ation, and concerning men's souls in particular. 
" For it is time to seek the Lord." Here we may 
Obs. 14. It is a mercy that there is yet time for you 
to seek the Lord. It might have been past time with 
you for seeking the Lord, God might have forced his 
honour from you in another way, have fetched out liis 
glory from you in j-our eternal ruin. Oh ! it is a mercy 
that God will be sought of you ; and therefore " break 
up your fallow ground," and " sow in righteousness ;" 
" for it is time to seek the Lord." Oh ! you that yet 
live loaded with years and guilt, remember this scrip- 
ture ; yet j'ou have " time to seek the Lord," and it is 
a wondrous mercy ; if you but understood the extent of 
it, you would fall down with yoiu- faces upon the 
ground, and bless the Lord that jou have yet time to 
seek him. What do you think those damned creatures 
in heU would now give, if it might be said of them, 
that they have time to seek the Lord ? if they might 
have but one hour more to seek the Lord with any 
hope of obtaining mercy from him ? What you are 
now, they were not long since. Oh ! do you fear and 
tremble, lest, if not seeking the Lord, you ere long be 
as now they are ; so that it shall be said of you, Time is 
gone, time to seek the Lord is past ; God wiU not now 
be sought of us. Oh " seek the Lord while he may be 
found, and call upon him w'hile he is near." When 
divers ministers and others were attempting once to 
comfort a woman of Cambridge under great terror of 
conscience, she regarded them with a ghastly look, and 
gave them only this answer, Call time back again. If 
you can call time back again, then there may be hope 
for me : but time is gone. 

Oh that we had hearts to prize our time, to seek the 
Lord therefore " while he may be found." When thou 
goest home, fall down upon thy face before the Lord, 
and bless him that yet " it is time to seek the Lord." 
It is time for the public, through God's mercy, yet to 
seek the Lord. It might have been past time ; and 
who almost that desired to know any thing of God's 
mind for these last seven or eight years or more, but 
did think that England's time of seeldng God was even 
'• clean gone for ever ? " But the Lord has been pleased 
to lengthen out our time to seek him ; and this we 
should prize and make use of. 

Obs. 15. It is high time now to seek the Lord. For, 
First, God has shown much patience and long-suffer- 
ing toward you, and there is a time in the which the 
Lord salth he will" be weary with forbearing ; there- 
fore the Lord having suffered thus long with you, it is 
high time for you to seek him, lest he should'say, that 
he was weary in forbearing, and would forbear no more. 
It is fit you should seek the Lord at all times, but now 
it is high time, when God hath been so long-suffering 
towards you ; how do you know but that the time for 
the end of patience is at an end ? 

2. Mercy is even going, and judgments are threat- 
ened : as if the prophet should say. If ever you will 
seek him, seek him now ; God is going, and judgments 
are at hand, and therefore it is high time for you to 
seek the Lord. As a prisoner pleads whilst the judge 
is on the bench, but if he sees the judge ready to rise, 
then, knowing that if he depart he is undone for ever, 
he lifts up his voice, and cries out, Mercy, mercy. So 
it is now high time for you to seek the Lord; high time, 



mercy is going, judgment is at hand ; God, as the Judge, 
is going off the bench ; now cry, cry out for your hves, 
or you are undone for ever. 

This may well be applied to us, both in general, and 
in the particular. It is high time for us ; God has shown 
himself' about to depart from us, yet still he lingers ; a 
company of his saints have been crying, and as the 
Lord has been going from us, they have lifted up their 
voice, and so he yet grants us time. 

Obs. 10. This time is an acceptable time. God now 
calls upon you, and holds forth the sceptre of his grace 
towards you, therefore it is now an acceptable time to 
seek God ; seek him now, and he will be found. 2 Cor. 
vi. 2, " Behold, now is the accepted time ; behold, now 
is the day of salvation :" while you enjoy the means of 
grace, while God is offering mercy in the gosjjcl, it is 
the accepted time, it is the time to seek the Lord. The 
misery of man is therefore great, because he knows not 
his time. In Eocl. viii. 6, "7, the wise man saith, " Be- 
cause to every purpose there is time and judgment, 
therefore the misery of man is great upon him ; for he 
knoweth not that which shall be." Oh ! this is true of 
us, we know not our time, and therefore is our misery 
great upon us. " And when he was come near, he be- 
held the city, and wept over it, saying. If thou hadst 
known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things 
that belong unto thy peace ! but now they are hid from 
thine eyes," Luke xix. 41,42. Missing of time is a dan- 
gerous thing; that may at one time bo done with ease, 
which cannot with all possible labour be effected at an- 
other. Thou canst not tell what may depend on one 
day, on one minute ; perhaps even eternity may depend 
upon this moment, upon this day. A man goes abroad 
from his family and gets into company, perhaps into an 
alehouse or tavern to drink, and there spends the day in 
wickedness ; tliou dost not know but on that time the 
day of thy eternity may depend, it may be cast upon that 
day : as Saul was cast upon that sacrificial act of his ; 
" For now" (saith Samuel) " would the Lord have estab- 
lished thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. But now thy 
kingdom shall not continue," 1 Sam. xiii. 13, 14; so 
God may say to thee. Well, notwithstanding all thy 
former sins, I would have been content to have passed 
by them, if thou hadst sought rae this day. The con- 
sideration of this would make us take heed how we 
spend even a single day. A mariner may do that at 
one time which he cannot possibly do at another. He 
has now a gale of wind, and may quickly get over sea; 
but if he stay till another time, though he would give 
his heart's blood to get on, he cannot. And so some- 
times thou hast such gales of the Spirit of God, as may 
do good to thy soul for ever; take heed thou lose them 
not, if tliou losest them thou mayst be undone for ever. 
Oh ! it is fit to wait upon God for our time ; and if God 
give us time, let us take heed we do not trifle and say, 
We shall have time hereafter. Therefore in Phil. ii. 12, 
the apostle salth, " Work out your own salvation with 
fear and trembling:" and there follows, ver. 13, " For 
it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do 
of his good pleasure." What connexion is there ? If 
God work the will and the deed, why need I work at 
all ? Nay, the connexion is thus. Do you work out your 
salvation with fear and trembling, take all opportuni- 
ties you can, let the fear of God be upon you so as to 
omit no opportunity; for you do absolutely depend 
upon God, so that if he withdraw himself from you, you 
are undone for ever, for you can do nothing of your- 
selves, it is God that worketh the will and the deed. 
As if we should say to a mariner. Be careful, take ad- 
vantage of your wind and sail, for all your voyage de- 
pends°upon God ; if you neglect your o])portunity. you 
are gone. It is time for the youngest of all to seek the 
Lord ; as soon as ever you begin to have the dawning 
of reason, it is time for you to seek the Lord ; oh that 



452 



.\X EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. X. 



you did hut know vour time ! But what time is it for 
the old, for those who have neglected seeking the Lord 
the most part of their lives ? is it not high time for vou 
to seek the Lord, who have spent so much of your lives 
in vanity and folly ? The time you have is tmccrtain ; 
and yet suppose you should live so long a period as in 
the course of nature you might, yet many of you can- 
not have as much time to seek the Lord as you have 
had in departing from God, you cannot have so much 
time to honour God as you have had to dishonour him: 
and therefore is it not time for you to seek the Lord ? 
I remember it is said of Themistocles, that when about 
to die, at the age of a hundred and seven, he was 
grieved on this account, Xow I am to die, when I be- 
gin to be wise. And certainly it cannot but be a grief to 
any to think, Through God"s mercy, the Lord has begun 
to work grace (I hope) in my heart, yea, but as soon as 
I begin to know God, and have any heart to serve him 
in this world, I must be taken out of it. It was a pro- 
verbial speech once, (you find it in Plutarch's Lives,) 
"Weighty things to-morrow. Oh ! take heed this pro- 
verb be not fulfilled concerning you, Weighty things 
to-morrow. Take weighty things, things of infinite con- 
sequence, while you have time. Let weighty things be 
regarded now. 

But further, certainly it is time now for England to 
seek the Lord, for many reasons. 

1. Never any nation in tlie world had a greater op- 
portunity for seeking and honouring God tlian we have 
had. We were like to liave been befooled of our o])por- 
tunity of getting mercy from God ; but the Lord has 
betrusted us with it again after it was got even out of 
our hands ; oh ! let us then catch hold of it now, and 
bless God that we have it even restored to us again, 
and let it be a strong argument upon us now to seek 
the Lord. 

2. Certainly it is time in a more special manner now 
for us, because that things are in so great a confusion, 
that all are at their wits' end almost. Alas ! our wise coun- 
sellors at the stem, are fain to depend upon mere pro- 
vidences and casualties, and the truth is, there is such 
a confusion of things, that if God should say to the 
wisest man in the land, "Well, do you contrive which 
way you think things should be best, and I will carry 
out your suggestions, they could scarce tell what to 
say, or on what to determine, such confusion prevails. 

3. AVe thought it was time to seek the Lord, when 
■we were in great danger from the adversaries, when 
we apprehended tliat they would come to our ver)" 
gates : surely it is as great time to seek the Lord now, 
when he has delivered us from our enemies, that we 
may not devour one another. And when God has 
given us some rest from them, and said, "Well, all that 
before you were afraid of was, that the enemies would 
prevail, and then you could do nothing, but I have 
quelled their power in a great measure, and commenced 
the work of reformation, oh! we are now at a stand, 
and know not what to do, and we go on in such craflv 
ways one against another, that ever)- one is at a stand. 
Oh then, it is time for us to fall down upon oiu- faces, 
to seek God to direct us, to regard the great oppor- 
tunity that God has put into our hands. 

4. We now want only light to know what to do ; and 
therefore whereas heretofore we have sought to God 
for power that we might be able, now we are to seek 
to him for light, that we may know how to improve 
our ability. There are these two things in seeking 
God ; praying to him, and labouring to put ourselves 
into that way and disjjosition wherein God is wont to 
meet with his people, and communicate himself to his 

icople. 
"Till he come and rain righteousness upon you." 
The word n-w here translated "rain sometimes 
signifies to teach ; and the Scripture makes use of that 



similitude of rain, for doctrine, because of the like- 
ness of doctn'nes distilling as the rain. Accordinsly 
some interpret it, Ply the work until he teaches right- 
eousness ; and so regard it as a prophccv of the Mes- 
sias : " Sow righteousness," and " break up your fallow 
ground, for it is time to seek the Lord," till the Messias 
come and teach vou the righteousness of God. So they 
paraphrase it. "But take it as it is here, 

"And rain righteousness." And then there are 
these things in it : 

I. The signification of the word " righteousness." 

n. VThat is meant by " raining righteousness." 

I. By " righteousness " is meant, 

1. That God will deliver them from oppression ; that 
though they have unrighteous dealing with men. yet 
they shall have righteous dealing with him. And this 
is a great mercy to a people, for God to undertake that 
there shall be nothing but righteous dealings betwixt 
them and himself. 

2. The fruit of God's faithfulness in the fulfilling of 
all those promises of his for good unto them, wherein 
the Lord does style himself righteous. If you will 
now break up, saith he, your fallow ground, and seek 
the Lord, the Lord will deliver you from oppression ; 
and the Lord will make good all his faithfulness to 
you, according to all that good word that he has pro- 
mised. 

II. By " raining righteousness" is meant, 

1. That all their good and help must come from hea- 
ven as the rain doth ; as if the prophet should say, If 
you look to men, yea, to men in public place, you have 
little hopes that there should be such righteous deal- 
ings, or to expect that the good word of God in all his 
promises to his people should be fulfilled ; yea, but look 
to heaven, saith God, " I will i-ain," it shall come down 
from heaven by ways that are above nature, and be- 
yond the power of man, " I will rain righteousness." 
Seek him therefore till he rain righteousness ; be not 
discouraged though you should see public men cany 
things never so unrighteously, yet seek the Lord till 
he rain righteousness. 

2. The plenty of righteousness, that righteousness 
shall come in abundance. It may be now, somo men 
may meet with some righteous dealings, and be en- 
coui'aged when tilings are at the best among men, but 
this righteousness comes but by drops ; vea, but seek 
the Lord till he " rain righteousness." \Miat is it to 
have a few drops of water ? You may go into your gar- 
den, and with a little pot of water water the herbs ; yea, 
but when it rains down water, then the earth is refresh- 
ed. And so saith the Lord here, Seek me till I come 
with a shower of righteousness, and rain it down upon 
you. 

3. The working so graciously in the works of my 
righteousness to you, as shall make the seeds that you 
have sown to be fruitful, to grow up to the honour of 
my name, and to your good. Now there are many 
godly amongst you, and they sow righteousness, they 
do many good actions ; but, alas ! kept down still by the 
scorching heat of the oppressors. In places where op- 
pression prevails, many godly, truly godly, persons sow 
much seed of righteousness, but little good comes of it, 
all is kept down : yea, but saith the Lord, Seek me till 
I rain righteousness ; I will rain from heaven such 
showers that shall be the fulfilling of my promises to 
you, that shall make all your righteous actions grow 
iip to the praise of my name, and the good of your 
brethren. Oh what a blessed time, when there shall 
be nothing but righteous dealings, and all the faithful- 
ness of God .shall be fulfilled, and there shall be plenty '. 

Obs. 17. God will come to sow righteousness in time. 
Those that plough and sow in righteousness, God will 
come in his grace and goodness to them : " To him 
that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward," 



V£K. 12. 



THE PROPHECY OF HO SEA. 



453 



Prov. xi. 18. Be not discouraged, you that sow right- 
eous seed ; for it is not with the seed of righteousness 
as with the seed that is sown in the eartli, for if that 
do not come up within a certain time, it will never 
come up ; but you cannot say so of the seed of right- 
eousness, it will come up. 

Obs. 18. God sometimes comes not jn-esently in 
raining righteousness upon his people that do sow- 
righteousness. " Seek the Lord, //// he come and rain 
righteousness : " as if the prophet should say, You have 
hearts to seek the Lord, to be humbled, and reform, to 
sow in righteousness ; well, be not discouraged, con- 
tinue seeking, stay till he doth rain righteousness. 
After the seed is sown, you would fain have a shower 
the next morning, but, may be, it will not fall so soon, 
stay till God's time : God does not always hear the 
prayers of his people so as to answer them when they 
would. It is very observable concerning Elijah, at one 
time when he cried for fii'e to come down u])on the 
sacrifice, it came down presently ; but when he cried 
for rain, he was fain to send his servant seven times : 
Elijah did not get rain from heaven so soon as fire 
from heaven. 

Obs. 19. Those that seek aright will continue seek- 
ing God " till he come and rain righteousness." There 
is an excellent scripture ui Psal. ci. 2 ; saith David, " I 
will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. when 
wilt thou come unto me ? I will walk within my house 
with a perfect heart." As if he should say. Why, Lord, 
it is thy presence I desire more than a thousand 
worlds, and I will endeavour to behave myself " within 
my house," in my family, not only in the presence of 
others, but in my family, in the most " perfect way ;" 
Lord, "when wilt thou come unto me ? " It seems God 
did not come and manifest himself presently : though 
David did behave himself in a perfect way in his house, 
yet David professes he would wait still. Many scrip- 
tures may be given for this, and many arguments why 
a gracious heart will not leave over seeking till the 
Lord comes. 

It is the Lord I seek, and he is a great God, and fit 
to be waited on, though he come not presently. AVe 
think it is a matter of state, because of the distance 
that there is between one and another, to make them 
stay ; why should we think much that we should wait 
upon the great and infinite God? And, perhaps, you 
pray and find no benefit ; it is fit for you to wait upon 
God. There is an infinite distance between God and 
you ; seek and wait till he comes. 

There are many motives to continue seeking God. 

1. That in so continuing to seek, we are doing our 
duty. This is a vei'y great evil among many; they are 
praying and seeking God, but they only ha^•e their 
eyes upon what they shall get by seeking God, and if 
nothing comes of it, then they are discontented ; where- 
as the mere consideration that in patient seeking thou 
art doing thy duty, should be enough to quiet thy heart. 

2. Thou certainly canst not be better engaged than 
in seeking God. Whither wilt thou go ? If thou leav- 
est seeking God thou turnest from thine own mercy 
to vanity. And hast thou a temptation to leave off 
seeking God ? shalt thou get any thing by it ? Cer- 
tainly thou canst not do better, and therefore seek the 
Lord, " seek the Lord till he come." Isa. xxx. 18, is a 
most excellent scripture to uphold the heart in seeking 
God, though God do not seem to come : " The Lord is 
a God of judgment; blessed are they that wait for 
him." You have not judgment, you know not when it 
is a fit time that things should be done; but "the 
Lord is a God of judgment," he knows how to do 
things in judgment, and therefore " blessed are they 
that wait for him." Think of this, and deny your own 
judgments and your own thoughts, and know that you 
are waiting upon the Lord, who is " a God of judg- 



ment," infinitely wise, to come to his people in a fit 
season, and to come so that at last you would not wish 
that he had come sooner. 

3. All the while you are waiting, God is working 
good. We are waiting at men's doors, and they take 
no notice of it; but if we knew, all the time we are 
waiting, that our petition were reading and they in 
consultation about it, and we were only detained for 
the issue of the consultation, it would satisfy us. And 
so a gracious heart may be assured of this. Hast thou 
sought the Lord in the truth of thy heart? The thing 
is not come yet, but ever since thou hast sought the 
Lord, the heart of God has been thinking of that thing 
which thou soughtest him for, and wilt not thou go on 
to seek God still, till he doth come ? 

4. While thou art seeking God, thou art not altoge- 
ther without some dews. Indeed God does not come 
and rain in showers that righteousness which he will 
hereafter, but surely thou hast dews, thou hast some 
encouragements ; do not slight those dews of God's 
grace which thou art receiving, for then thou mayst 
stay the longer before the showers of righteousness 
come ; rather prize the dews, and the showers of right- 
eousness will come the sooner. Many Christians, though 
they have many dews of God's gi'ace upon their hearts 
to refresh them, yet, because they have not showers, 
think they have nothing. What ! hast thou no dews of 
grace ? what is it that keeps thy heart so tender as it 
is ? thou wouldst not for a thousand worlds wilfully sin 
against God : certainly, if thy heart were hardened the 
truths of God would not so aflfect it. Indeed the ra'n 
comes in a visible manner ; yea, but there are dews of 
grace that come in a secret way : thou dost not, indeed, 
see the comings in of those dews of grace upon thy 
heart, yea, but others may see their effect. 

5. When the Lord does come, he w'ill come more 
fully a great deal. It is recorded of Glover, the mar- 
tyr, that when he had been seeking God for the raining 
of righteousness, and become willing to give his life for 
God, and yet God had absented himself from him, he 
complained to his fellow, Austin, that God was not 
come. Well, but, saith his friend, he will come ; and 
give me a sign before you die, if you feel the Spirit of 
God come to your heart. The poor man was to be burnt 
the next day, and continued all night in seeking God, 
and yet he came not ; yea, the sheriff came to carry him 
to the stake, and his heart still remained dead. But he 
went on till he came within view of the stake, and then 
the Hoi)' Ghost came into his heart, and filled him with 
joy, so that he lifted up his hands and voice, and cried, 
He is come, he is come. Now there came a shower of 
righteousness upon his heart; he was content to seek 
the Lord till he came. 

Obs. 20. Those who are content to seek God till he 
come, his coming will be to them with plentiful showers 
in raining righteousness. Oh how many cursed apos- 
tates are there that will curse themselves one day for 
not continuing to seek God till he came! Perhaps 
some here have had some convictions of conscience, 
and because they have not had encouragement, pre- 
sently they have become discouraged; and so thou hast 
basely gone back, and now God has left thee, and thou 
art become a base, useless hypocrite, a dishonour and 
a disgrace to religion, and all because thou wouldst not 
stay till God came. Oh ! but others have staid God's 
time, and God came at length so fully that now they 
bless his name that they did stay. I remember I have 
read of Columbus, who first discovered the West In- 
dies, that his men were even weai-y, he was so long in 
sailing, and so they resolved they would return back 
again; so all their labour had been lost. But Columbus 
came to them with all entreaties to go on a little time, 
and at length prevailed with them to continue the 
voyage but three days longer. So they were content 



454 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. X. 



to venture tluce days, and within those thiee days they 
began to see land, and so discovered those parts of the 
world of whicli before we linew nothing. Now, what 
a miserable thing had it been if they had come back 
and lost all their voyage ! Thus it is with many a soul 
sailing towards heaven and eternal life. Thou hast been 
a long time tossed up and down in the waves of the sea, 
the waves of temptation and of trouble, and thou think- 
est it Ls best to return : oh ! stay a while, do not limit 
thy pursuit to three days, but go on ; it might haply be 
said of some, that had they proceeded in their voyage 
but tluee days more, they might have come and seen, 
whcreai now they have lost all. Oh, " seek the Lord" 
then, •• till he come and rain righteousness upon you." 

Obs. 21. The help of those who seek God is from 
heaven. "Till become and rain." They do not so 
much c xpect help from the creature as from heaven, to 
it they look up tor their help. AMien all comforts in 
creaturi;s fail, they look upwards and there see their 
help. 

Obs. 22. The eflfect of God's coming to his people 
after seeking, is to make them fruitful ; " till he come 
and rain righteousness ;" that is the end of the mercy 
of God in coming to people. It may be you would have 
God come; but wherefore ? to bring comfort unto you ? 
No, the end of God's coming to his saints is to make 
them fruitful. And this would be an argument of tlie 
sincerity of your hearts in seeking God : when you are 
seeking him, what do you seek hnn for ? only for com- 
fort, and peace, and to ease you from troubles ? Yea, 
but do you seek God that you may be fruitful ? The 
hypocrites seek to have grace that they may have com- 
fort, but tlie godly seek comfort that they may have 
graco ■ no it is, that God may " rain righteousness." I 
am i,« M dry ground, oh that God would come with 
the influence of his grace to make me fruitful in the 
works of holiness ! Many of you would have comfort, 
(as now in these days men's ears are altogether set upon 
comfort,) but is your comfort the showers of God ? does 
it make the seeds of righteousness fructify in your 
hearts ? Certainly you can have little comfort in that 
which is not, as rain from heaven, to bring up the fruits 
of righteousness in your hearts and in your lives. 

Obs. 23. God's coming with blessings upon those who 
seek him, is righteousness; that is, the good that they 
have as a fruit of seeking of him, is the fulfilling of God's 
word, for which God's faithfulness was engaged. Jesus 
Clirist had purchased it by his blood, and tliey had be- 
fore a bond for whatever good they received from God. 

This consideration should much help us, both in our 
seeking God, and in the enjoyment of our comforts. 
AVhen we are seeking God we are not seeking him 
merely as for a gratuity. Though in reference to us it 
is only free grace, but to Christ it is righteousness, it 
is that which Christ has purchased. Therefore saith 
St. John, " If we confess our sins," he does not 
say, God is merciful to forgive them, but " God is 
faithful and just to forgive our sins," 1 John i. 9. 
And so, when you receive a mercy from God, you are 
not to look upon it as a mere alms, though in reference 
to yourselves indeed it is so; but in reference to Christ, 
your Head, it is righteousness, it is that which Christ 
Las purchased, that which God gives you as a fruit of 
his ftiithfuhiess, as well as of his own free grace : when 
thou art seeking of God let not the eye of thy faith be 
only u])on the grace and mercy, but upon the very 
righteousness, of God. 

Obs. 24. Though the good we do results in our own 
benefit, yet God rewards it as if he gained by it. God 
makes promises to us, that if we do thus and thus we 
shall enjoy such and such mercies. " Sow to your- 
selves in righteousness, reaj) in mercy." AATien we sow, 
God gives us leave to aim at ourselves ; but yet when 
God comes to reward us, he rewards us as if it were 



only for him and not for ourselves, he rewards us in 
ways of righteousness. 

And thus much for these words, raining righteous- 
ness. God has ram of another kind for the wicked 
and ungodly: "Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, 
fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest," Psal. xi. 6. 

Ver. 13. Ye have ploughed wickedness, ye have reap- 
ed iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of ties: became 
thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy 
mighty men. 

Notwithstanding all exhortations, and all offers of 
mercy, yet you have gone quite contrary, saith the pro- 
phet. Instead of breaking from your iniquities, you 
have ploughed them. 

" Ye have ploughed wickedness ;" that is, you have 
taken pains to jjropagate that which is evil, both in 
yourselves and others. That is the ploughing of wick- 
edness. " The ploughing of the wicked is sin," Prov. 
xxi. 4 ; that is, their endeavours, their labour is espe- 
cially for the furtherance of sin, the very strength of 
their spirits is let out for the promotion of their wick- 
edness. So Job iv. 8, " Even as I have seen, they that 
plough iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same :" 
to plough means to endeavoiu: and labour for iniquity, 
for so the word win here translated " to plough," signi- 
fies, to frame, work, or endeavour any thing with all 
our might. You have set yoiu- hearts altogether upon 
this work of furthering wickedness, in thinking of it, 
in plotting about it, in stirring up of one another, and 
doing all you can in your endeavours for the further- 
ance of wickedness. 

Y'ea, you have been willing to go through all diffi- 
culties to accomplish your wicked intentions ; as we 
read in Micah vii. 3, a scripture which shows remark- 
ably the strong endeavours of wicked men after theh 
sin, they "do evil with both hands earnestly." It is 
a very strange text ; they are willing to take pains and 
to put forth all their energies in their sins. 

Oh how many are there who take more pains to go 
to hell, than others do that go to heaven ! they will 
so struggle and suffer for their sins, be willing to break 
with then- friends, to venture their estates, to hazard 
their healths, to accomplish their sinful lusts ; yea, to 
do any thing in the world, to compass their wicked- 
ness. Y'et will they not plough for God, but complain 
of any little difficulty in his ways ; whilst no difHculty 
in the ways of sin can deter them. Oh what a w ickeil 
and wretched heart is this, to be offended with every 
difficulty in God's ways, and yet be content to endure 
all bitterness in the ways of sin ! Oh that we were 
but as instrumental for God, and willing to plough as 
hard for him, as others do for sin ! "\\'hen you shall 
come to the, and to reap the fruit of your labour, what 
terror do you think will this be, when your consciences 
tell you that you have taken more pains in the ways of 
wickedness than ever you did in the ways of God ! As 
Cardinal Wolsey exclaimed when he was about to die. 
Oh 1 had I but served God as diligently as 1 have 
served the king, he would not have deserted me in 
my grey hairs. So when you come to die, and your 
consciences say, Oh that I had but broken as much 
sleep for prayer and seeking of God; oh that I had 
but ventured my estate, and name, as much in the 
ways of God as in the ways of sin ! it had been happy 
for me ; is it possible that any of you can die in peace, 
when your consciences shall tell you that you never 
took those pains for God which you have done for sin ? 
In a good motion for God, if others engage you will 
join, but you will not ])lough hard for it ; but in thin^ 
that are suitable to your own lusts, you will not onlyjom 
with others, but move it yourself, and plough hard for 
it. Oh what a pity is it, that men's parts and strength 



Vek. 13. 



THE PROPHECY OF ROSEA. 



455 



should be so expended on that which is evil ! How in- 
strumental might men of active spirits be for God if 
their necks were but in God's yoke ! but they, all the 
days of their lives, have their necks in the devil's yoke, 
and are ploughing continually for him, and they will 
reap accordingly. 

Now this ploughing wickedness refen'ed especially 
to their false worship ; there they endeavoured strenu- 
ously, they ploughed hard to get up theii' false worship, 
their worship at Dan and Beth-el, and not to go to Je- 
rusalem to worship. 

"Ye have ploughed wickedness." You do not hear 
of any sowing ; for the truth is, there needs no sowing 
for wickedness, there needs but the preparation ; do but 
plough, that is, do but prepare the ground, and wicked- 
ness will come up of itself. When you plough right- 
eousness you must sow the seeds of righteousness. 

" Ye have reaped iniquity." That is, you have your 
heart's desire, you have brought about your own ends, 
you have what you ploughed for. Sometimes men 
plough and take a great deal of pains in that which is 
evil, and God crosses them ; but at other times God 
lets them reap ; that is. You labour to promote such a 
thing, though it be not according to God's mind, and 
it may be God will let you have it ; well, you plough 
for it, and you shall have it : and dost thou bless thy- 
self in that ? Oh, woe to thee ! it is a woeful harvest 
that thou hast. It is a fearful curse for any to have their 
heart's desires in their sin satisfied. It were a thousand 
times better that thy ploughing were to no purpose at 
all, that all thy labom's and endeavom's were quite lost : 
thou art loth to lose thy endeavours in the ways of sin, 
but it were a thousand times better that thy endeavours 
were all lost than that thou shouldst attain that which 
thou ploughest for. 

But I find the word nnS^jf here i-endered "iniquity," 
is used also in Scripture to signify, the punishment of 
iniquity ; the Hebrews having the same word to sig- 
nify sin, and the punishment of sin. 

Or thus, which I think the Holy Ghost somewhat 
aims at, You plough M'ickedness, and reap iniquity. 
The ploughing was for theu- false worship, and their 
reaping was iniquity. I beseech you here 

Obs. 1. The fruit of false worsliip is the increase of 
sin in a nation. "Ye have ploughed wickedness," for 
so afterwards it is called, the " great wickedness ;" and 
the fruit of that is the increase of much sin, it brings 
forth a harvest for sin. When men have striven to set 
up any false worship, and succeeded, what is the fruit? 
There grows presently a formality in religion, men 
have a religion, and yet they enjoy their lusts; for the 
true worship of God alone will not stand with men's 
lusts, therefore when men set up any kind of false wor- 
ship, this will be the fruit, there will be a formality in 
religion, and this will please men exceeding well, for 
they can live in worldliness and licentiousness. And 
verUy, my brethren, one main thing that makes carnal, 
loose hearts contend so much for a loose kind of wor- 
ship, is that they may have so much the more liberty to 
sin. Endeavouring for this kind of evil will result in 
the reaping of iniquity. 

" Ye have eaten the fruit of lies." Wliat are those 
lies of the which they eat the fruit ? 

1. Those arguments by which they justified them- 
selves in theu- iniquity. Yea, but they are but the fruit 
of lies. They would set up a way of false worship, but 
they would have some reasons for it, they would have 
some arguments to defend it, and those, oh, how they 
hugged and closed witli them ; and let any one bring 
and show them that such a thing may be proved thus 
and thus by such an ai'gument, now, because they had 
a mind to the thing, then- hearts closed upon those ar- 
guments ; and they fed upon it, it did them good at their 
hearts. 



2. The comforts which they had fi-om their false 
worship. In the' way that you set up you have a great 
deal of comfort, and you are very glad that it thrives. 
It is but a lie, saith God. 

3. The hopes they entertained when their false wor- 
ship was established. They had such hopes that all 
should be so well, and that there should be no more 
trouble between them and Jerusalem. But you feed 
upon lies, saith God. 

4. The interpretation of God's dealings, m blessing 
them in their false worship. All kind of outward 
blessings which they had they interpreted as the good- 
ness of God to them for that which they had done : as 
that is usual in places where there is any tiling in mat- 
ters of religion altered, though it be not right, yet you 
shall have men that are for that way, whatever bless- 
ing comes upon a nation, they will interpret it as the 
fruit of that. Yea, but this will come to nothing. 

5. The false reports that they raised against those 
who oj)posed then- false worship. There were many 
that would not yield to their modes of false worship, 
and upon that reports were raised concerning them, 
what kind of men they were, and what they had done ; 
and when these reports were brought to them of the 
other way, they did them good at then- hearts. Yea, 
but " ye have eaten the fruit of lies :" many men's 
breakfasts, and dinners, and suppers, are nothing else 
but " lies." Surely, now, this will breed no good nou- 
rishment. And why is it that we have such a deal of 
ill blood amongst us ? Simply because that men have 
such coarse food. 

" Because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multi- 
tude of thy mighty men." Israel, the ten tribes, had 
two great confidences, that are expressed in this latter 
part of the verse. 

I. In their way ; that is, in the way of religion that 
they had chosen for themselves, and which was dis- 
tinct from the way of Judah, from the true worship 
of God. 

II. In their mighty men ; that is, the power they had 
in their state. 

These are two great confidences of people. 

I. Confidence in their way. " Thou didst trust in thy 
way." They were confident that was right, and were 
not willing to hear any thing to the contrary : and 
if they did, yet their hearts were so biased by their 
false worship, that any thing that was said to the con- 
trary was nothing to them ; they were very confident 
that no one could say any thing to purpose against 
them ; No, we have so many understanding, learned 
men for. this way, no question it is right, none but a 
company of silly, weak men, follow any other course. 

Thus they trusted and pleased themselves in their 
way, and sought to harden themselves and one an- 
other in it. They have got the day, they have, doubtless, 
laid all upon then- backs who have opposed them ; there 
is a great deal more reason for this than for any other 
procedure ; there is no way of peace to the state, to 
the kingdom, but this ; that which others would have, 
namely, to go to Jerusalem to worship, is most unrea- 
sonable. Yea, they tliink that God is well pleased with 
their devices, and that they do good service in opposing 
and persecuting those who are not of their way. Thus 
they trust in their way. 

Obs. 2. That which is a man's own way he is very 
ready to trust in, and to esteem liighly. We have for 
this a notable scripture in the book of Judges, chap. ii. 
19, expressing well the strength of spirit that is in men 
when then- way is'of their own devising ; " They ceased 
not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn 
way." I beseech you observe this, it is buf a difi'erent 
expression, oun doings, and oun tcaij ; the doings were 
tlieir own, such things as they had contrived to them- 
selves, their own way ; and then they ceased not from 



4d6 



.\X EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. X. 



them, they were stubborn in them because they were 
their own. " The way of a fool is rif^ht in liis own eyes ; 
but he tliat liearkeneth unto eounsel is wise," Prov. 
xii. 15. "A fool," one that understands a little, yet if 
the way be his o«ti, he will not heai-ken to counsel, he 
tliiuks he needs not counsel with any ; he is so strong 
in it because it is his own way. It is a hard thing to 
get men out of their own contrivances in matters of 
religion : and therefore what God saith of all the hea- 
then, in Jer. ii. 10, 11, is observable; "Pass over the 
isles of Cliittim, and see ; and send unto Kedar, and 
consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing. 
Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no 
gods ? but my people have changed their glory for that 
which doth not profit." No nation but God"s own 
people would change their gods; why? because the 
gods of the nations were of thcii- own making. Men 
adhere strongly to their own inventions. " Thou didst 
trust in thy way." As when an object is too near the 
eye, the eye is not able to see it, so as to discern the 
evil that may be in it ; so the evil tliat is near one- 
self, very near, that is one's own, it is very hard to see. 
If a man's heart be engaged in a way of his own, he 
will be ready to father it upon God himself, and say. It 
is God's way ; and he will be ready to think that all 
other ways, different from his, are men's own. 

None are more ready to charge others with jiride 
than the proud ; and none more ready to charge others 
of adhering to their own way, than those who most 
stick to their own conceits : it is one mark of such a 
man's heart, to think that whosoever differs from him, 
is perversely stubborn in his own conceits and liis 
own ways. 

It is difficult to make such will-worshippers acknow- 
ledge that their ways are of their own devising ; but 
however men may attempt to deceive themselves or 
others, and even ascribe to God their own inventions, 
yet the Lord will one day discover all their ways, and 
show how much of their- own is in them. We have a 
notable text for that in Prov. xxi. 2, " Every way of a 
man is right in his own eyes : but the Lord pondereth" 
or weigheth " the hearts." Mark, " Every way of a 
man is right in his own eyes : but the Lord pondereth 
the hearts:" that is, Though we choose ways to our- 
selves, and think they are right, and are ready to de- 
clare that our ways are God's ways, that we may justify 
ourselves so much the more ; but saith the te.\t, " the 
Lord pondereth the hearts;" that is, God weighs ex- 
actly how much there is of his own, and how much 
there is of our own in it. Oh ! it were a happy tiling if 
■wc were able to do so ; it is a great part of the skill of 
a Cliristian to be able so to ponder his own ways, as to 
knovy how much of God and how much of himself is in 
a thing. Very few in the world know this ; there is 
scarce any action that the best of us do, but there is 
somewhat of self in it, somewhat of God it may be, and 
somewhat of self; but now hero is the skill, to be able 
to weigh how much of God and how much of ourselves 
is in an action. Your goldsmiths can presently tell 
you how much gold and silver is in a vessel, but an 
unskilful man looks upon it and thinks it all gold. 
Oh ! it were an excellent skill to be able in all our ac- 
tions thus to ponder all our ways, to know how much 
of God and how much of ourselves is in them ; it is for 
want of this sjjiritual discei-nment that we miscarry so 
often. " Every way of a man is right in his own eyes : 
but the Lord pondereth," God weighs men's action's, to 
see how much of himself and how much of us there is 
in them. 

But now, then, is it so, that it is in the hearts of men 
to trust so much in their own way, because it is their 
own ? Oh wjiat a shame is it, thcii, that we should iiul 
have our heaits close with, and trust in, God's way! 
Let a way be never so ba^e and vile, yet if it be a 



man's own, his heart closes with it, and trusts, and is 
strong in it : oh, then, when the way is apjiarcntly 
God's, why should we be so fickle and unsteady as we 
arc almost always in it ? Make but the way of religion 
to be thine own, and then thou wilt be strong enough 
in it ; but till that time comes, till we have given u]) our 
wills to the will of God, and we have made God's will to 
be our own will, we arc never likely to be strong in the 
ways of God. When there is but one will between 
God and us, when God's interest is our interest, when 
God's glory is our glory, then shall we become strong. 
Oh ! happy .Ti-e they w ho have so given up themselves 
to God, that they look upon their own good to be more 
in God than in themselves: to look upon one's own 
good, and will, and the comforts of our hearts, and the 
happiness of ow lives, to be more in God than in our- 
selves, is the work of grace that leads to perseverance 
in godliness. Thus it is between man and wife ; when 
the wife comes to make the will of her husband her 
own, then she loves him strongly, and constantly : so 
when God's will is made to be our own, then we will 
follow God's will strongly, and shall persevere in it. 

II. Confidence in their mighty men ; " in the multi- 
tude of thy mighty men." This made them very con- 
fident in their way : why, they had an army to back 
them, they had an ai-my to fight for them, to maintain 
that way of theirs, they had countenance from men of 
power, they had strength enough to crush any that 
should oppose them. 

Obs. 3. When the outward strength of a kingdom 
goes along with a way of religion, men think it must 
needs be right, and that all its opponents are but weak 
men. Mark the connexion : " Tliou didst trust in thy 
way ; " that is, (as I find it generally interpreted,) their 
way of religion ; and then " in the multitude of thy 
mighty men ; " these two are put together : and generally 
men will ti'ust in, and incline thus to, the strongest side, 
and the scale would turn were the strength of the mighty 
men to go another way ; as now, suppose that the 
strength of the kingdom of the ten tiibes had resolved 
to go up to Jerusalem to worship, and not to worship 
at Dan and Beth-el, do you think there would have 
been almost any considerable party that would not have 
gone up to Jerusalem, but worshipped at Dan and 
Beth-cl ? but when the strength of tne kingdom held 
the other way, when the mighty men and the way of 
religion countenanced each other, the generality of the 
peoi)le went that way that the mighty men went. Tliis 
IS the vanity and tlie exceeding evil of men's hearts, 
that which way soever the mighty men go, that way 
they will trust in. There are very few who will de- 
liberately say, I will go that way in which I sec the 
mighty men ; but there is a secret bias which inclines 
the minds of men to hearken to what may be said 
for that way, and not willingly to listen to what may 
be said for another. It is such a bias as makes them 
w iUing and ready to let in any probability ; if there be 
but tlie least probability for the way m which the 
mighty men go, they take in that, and that makes way 
for another and another likelihood ; and so, imbibing 
more and more, they become so confirmed for that 
way, as to put off the strength of any thing that can 
be said against it, except it be so apparent, as that 
they must be forced to sin against their consciences 
directly if they listen not to it. I say, when the spirits 
of men arc biased by seeing the strength of the king- 
dom go in a way, though (perhaps) they may lay some 
good at their hearts, yet there is that corruption in 
man's heart, that except we can make the other way so 
clear, that, notwithstanding all possible shifts and 
every kind of reasoning, they shall be so self-condemned, 
th.it ihiir own consciences shall tell them they go di- 
rectly against their light, I say, except we can come 
thus, we cannot prevail with men's hearts, when t!-uj 



Vet.. 13. 



THE TROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



sway of a kingdom goes another way. And there 
are many trutlis of God that concern his worship, 
which cannot be made so clear but that a man may 
have such a diversion to satisfy his conscience in this, 
That I in going another way do not go against my con- 
science : God would have us adopt tliat which is most 
likely to be his mind, without any consideration of any 
outward respects. Oh how will outward respects turn 
the balance ! In Eev. xiii. 3, when power and author- 
ity were given to antichrist, " all the world wondered 
after the beast." So it is ordinarily, that way which 
the mighty men go men's hearts will generally follow. 
Oh the Uttle honom- that Jesus Christ has by us ! 
Our hearts arc swayed for the most part by carnal 
arguments and carnal motives. 

Obs. 4. Great armies are the confidence of carnal 
hearts. " In the multitude of thy mighty men." AVhen 
they can get together a great army of a multitude of 
mighty men, let there be never such threats in the 
word, yet if they tliink they have strength enough to 
bear them out, they bless themselves therein. Oh ! let 
us take heed of this carnal confidence. Through God's 
mercy the Lord has given us now, that we have the 
multitude of mighty men on our side ; let us take heed 
that our faith do not ebb and flow with our armies. I 
will give you one scripture that shows how far a gi'a- 
cious heart should be from making flesh his arm; 
" Cursed be the man," saith Jer. xvii. 5, " that maketh 
flesh his arm." And how far a godly man was from 
trusting in an army of mighty men, we have in 2 Chron. 
xiv. 11 ;" It is nothing" (saith Asa) " with thee to help, 
whether with many, or with them that have no power." 
Why, Lord, though we havQ no power, yet thou canst 
help us. Wiy did Asa speak thus ? Had he no power ? 
You shall find in the chapter a little before, that Asa 
had five hunch'ed and fourscore thousand valiant fight- 
ing men, almost six hundred thousand, at the very time 
when he is pleading with God, " Lord, it is nothing 
with thee to help, whether with many, or with them 
that have no power." We account it a great army if 
we have twenty, or thirty, or forty thousand men ; he 
has almost six hundred thousand men, and yet goes to 
God and prays, Lord, thou canst help where there is no 
power. 

But yet further, from the connexion of these two, 
their trust in their way, and in the multitude of their 
mighty men : from thence, 

06s. 5. Those who trust to any way of their own, 
had need of creatiu-e strengths to uphold them. They 
had indeed need of bladders under their arm-holes, if 
they trust in a way of their own. But now, if the way 
in which a man confides be the way of God, why then, 
though all outward helps and all worldly encourage- 
ments should fail him, though we should see the crea- 
tures at never so great a distance, yet the heart that 
puts its trust in God has enough to uphold it ; here is 
the difi'erence between men trusting in their own way, 
and in God's. Indeed when men trust in their own 
way, so long as the sun shines upon their path, and 
they have external helps, they can go on confidently ; 
but let outward helps fail, and thcu- hearts sink within 
them. 

But now, when the heart is upright with God, and 
trusts in the word and promises, then it is able to say with 
Habakkuk, chap. iii. 17, "-Although the fig tree shall not 
blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines ; the labour 
of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; 
the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall 
be no herd in the stalls ; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, 
I will joy in the God of my salvation." AVhatsocver 
becomes of armies, and of the policy of men, of friends, 
and all outward things, yet I will bless myself in the 
Lord, and bless the time that ever I knew God and his 
ways ; my heart yet is confident it is the way of God, 



and upon this his way I can venture my state, my 
liberty, my life, yea, and my soul ; let all things seem 
to be 'under a cloud, and never so dismal, yet my heart 
is steady, and is fixed in this way of God into which 
the Lord God graciously has drawn my heart. 

Oh, this is an excellent thing. Examine your hearts 
in this respect, whether, when at any time you have 
seen things go very cross, your hearts have not shaken. 

I remember an observation which some make about 
John the Baptist. After he was cast into prison, he 
sends two of his disciples to know whether Christ were 
the Jlcssias, or no ; they think that though before he 
was cast into prison he did know that he was so ; 
" Behold the Lamb of God!" but when once he came 
to suff'crings, there was some shaking of his spirit. So 
it is ofttimes with men, when things do somewhat shine 
upon them, and they have some outward encourage- 
ments, they go on, and are persuaded that their way is 
right; but when things fall cross, and the hearts of 
men are opposed, and they are like to meet with more 
evils than ever they made account of, then they begin 
to call things into question, and ask. Is this the right 
way ? Oh ! it is a sign that there was much failing ia 
thy heart at first, when in the time of outward afflic- 
tions thou comest to call in question whether it be tha 
way of God or not. 

Yer. 14. Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy 
people, and all tJiy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shal- 
man spoiled Beth-arbel in the day of battle : the mother 
icas dashed in pieces upon her children. 

As if the prophet should say. You have the militia on 
your side, and you think you shall be able to cU'ive on 
your design, as having all the strength with you : but 
what if there should be seditious tumults within you ? 
what though the power of the enemy without come 
not upon you, cannot God work your ruin in a way that 
you think not of? Oh how suddenly may God suflTer 
the discontentments of people to break forth into rage 
and fury, so that intestine tumults shall arise, and 
bring all into the most miserable confusion ! 

Obs. 1. Tumults are a token of the great wrath of 
God on a city or country. " Therefore shall a tumult 
arise among thy people ;" a threatening of God's severe 
wrath against these people, who were so confident in 
their way. A man may avoid external dangers to his 
body, but a distemper within may be his death. Fear- 
ful miseries come upon cities and countries when tu- 
mults arise : these two things have been their main 
cause : 

1. Great oppressions. 

2. Engaging numerous parties in matters contro- 
versial. 

These conjoined are very dangerous, for men will 
carry on what they have begun, if once they be engaged 
in it. To engage' a rude multitude in a business, espe- 
cially if it be controversial, is a very dangerous thing ; 
for we know not what they may do to pursue and fol- 
low their engagements. AVhen the rauhitude is in a 
rage, they are like a tiled house on fii-e, which you 
cannot approach when once the flaiues have reached 
the tiles, as they fly so about your face : so in tumults, 
there is no com'ing near to talk to them, to convince 
them, but they are ready to fly presently upon you. 
And none are so cruel as the vilest of people when 
they are got together in a head : men of no blood care 
not what blood they shed. " A poor man that oppress- 
eth the poor is like a sweeping rain which leavcth no 
food," Prov. xxviii. 3. Oppressions are great, the evil 
of tyranny is very great ; but the evil of tumults is still 
greater. We see it many times in men of mean rank, 
sometimes in those committees which some of you 
complain of. Now men could bear oppression a great 



458 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. X. 



deal more easily from those who are much above them, 
but the oppression of our equals, or of abjects, is in- 
tolerable ; if they come to get power any way, they are 
likely to be more oppressive than others. We have 
cause to bless God for delivering of us from tumults in 
this respect. 

I might show you most dreadful examples of tumults 
in history. Joseplius speaks of many, for when God 
■was at last about to destroy the Jews by the Romans, 
their utter ruin was prepared by tumults and seditions 
among themselves. In his second Book of the Jewish 
Wars, chap. 11, he speaks of one Eleazar and Alex- 
ander that raised a tumult, and murdered as they went 
men, women, and children, and so made havoc of the 
countiy, that the nobles of Jerusalem were fain to 
come out clothed with sackcloth and ashes upon their 
heads, to beseech them that they would have pity ujjon 
their country, and upon their wives and children, and 
upon the temple ; the nobles, with sackcloth and ashes 
upon their heads, came to assuage the rage of this 
tumult, so gi-ievous was it. And in his sixth Book, 
chap. 11, he saith, that being in some straits for food, 
if any places in the city had their doors shut U]). the)- 
suspected that there was meat in them, and would pre- 
sently break in, and seize whosoever they found by the 
throat, so as to force the meat half chewed out of their 
very mouths ; and if any of them should let it go down 
before they could lay hold on their throats, they would 
use them most cruelly for doing so. And in another 
place he saith. that the citizens suffered so much by 
them, that when the enemies took the city they 
thought it rather a relief than an increase to tlieir 
misery. My brethren, we should rather bear much 
than foment tumults ; take heed of that, you know not 
what the end of such things will be. In Amos ii. 2, it 
is said, " Moab shall die with tumult;" and here, " A 
tumult shall arise among thy people." 

"Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people." 
When God intends utterly to destroy a people, he 
suffers tumults to arise among them, as one of his 
sorest scourges. I find some take the word "tumult" 
to refer primarily, if not altogether, to the confusion of 
the hearts of people, when the enemies should come 
upon them, that they should be all in a confusion, not 
knowing what to do through fear and terror. As sup- 
pose on a sudden an army should come against a city, 
people would be wringing their hands, and running up 
and down from place to place, pale and terror-stricKcn, 
and confounded in theii' minds. Thus God threatens 
it should be with them. As if he should say, You are 
jolly and brave now, but when the A.ssyrians come 
upon you, then shall your hearts fail, and terror and 
perjilexity shall possess you, your women and yoiu- 
children shall erj- out for fear, and you shall-be unable 
to aid them. This is the sense which some give it, but 
the former is not to be rejected. 

It is a mercy that God lias not tried us thus : we 
live in our houses, and follow our tradings, and lie 
down and sleep in quietness, and rise again ; but we can- 
not imagine what woeful distractions there would be 
in the spirits of people in the city, if there were a con- 
siderable army encamped round about it. Perhaps some 
of you here have been in places where the enemies 
have come suddenly, so that you know what this tumult 
in the spirits of men and women means. Bless God (I 
say) that tlie Lord has delivered us from such tumults 
as these. The power and providence of God in the 
government of the world by a few, so keeping the peo- 
ple from tumults, and from bringing all to confusion, 
are to be acknowledged, and his name to be sanctified. 

The word pse translated " tumult," seems indeed to 
import this, signifying, the crying of fearful creatures, 
of those that are terrified and scared. Oh ! it is a great 
mercy for men to be so stablished that, in the appre- 



liensioii of dangers, they can find their hearts unper- 
plexed, being stayed upon God. Of a righteous man 
it is said in Psal. cxii. 7, " He shall not be airaid of 
evil tidings : hi.s heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord : " 
but it is a still greater blessing, when we see the armies 
before us, and hear the neighings of horses and clatter- 
ing of the s])ears, then to be fixed. Oh ! ve should 
labour in the time of peace to make our calling and 
election sure. In Psal. Ivii. 7 — 9, " My heart is fixed, 
O God, my heart is fixed ; I will sing and give praise. 
Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I my- 
self will awake early. I will praise thee, O Lord," &c. 
M'hen does David thus cry to awake, and to give glory 
to God, and sing praise, and declai-e that his licart was 
fixed y When Saul persecuted him, and he was in danger 
of his life : Saul pursued him to take away his life, yet, 
even then, saith IJavid, " My heart is fixed, O God, mv 
heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise." So in Psal. 
xlvi. 2, 3, " We will not fear, though the earth be re- 
moved, and though the mountains be carried into the 
midst of the sea ; though the waters thereof roar and 
be troubled, though the mountains shake with the 
swelling thereof Selah." This P.salm was wont to be 
called Luther's Psalm, for in times of trouble he would 
say. Come and let us sing the 46th Psalm. Many 
scriptures we might cite to this pur))0se. Of Archi- 
medes the mathematician it is recorded, that when the 
city of SjTacuse was taken, he continued, in the midst 
of the sack and carnage, intent upon the drawing of his 
lines, so that when the soldiers burst in on him with 
their naked swords he was drawing his mathematical 
figures. AVhich of you, if at prayer, or any serious 
duty, you should hear of the breaking in of adversaries, 
could have your hearts at such a time fixed in a settled, 
constant way uj)on God. 

As outward tumults in cities and countries are very 
great evils, so are likewise spiritual tumults in the 
heart, when God seems to come against the soul as an 
enemy, or the apprehension of his absence causes 
trouble and distraction of the heart. Thus in Psal. xl. 
2, "He brought me up also" (saith the psalmist) "out 
of an honible pit." Now the word is in 
the original the very same that we have j.],,^ ,,^^uiSt 
here, from the pit of tumultuousness. 
It is as if he should say. My heart was sometimes fixed 
indeed, but at other times it was in a tumultuous con- 
dition, when I apprehended God not coming in accord- 
ing as I expected ; yea, but the Lord did bring me up 
out of the pit of tumultuousness. Oh ! has not this 
been the condition of some of you in time of trouble 
of your spirit, when you have apprehended the absence 
of God from you ? Your hearts have been all in a 
tumult ; has the Lord delivered you ? Remember the 
Psalm, " The Lord has brought me up also out of the 
jiit of tumultuousness ;" I was in a tumultuous condi- 
tion, my heart was even overwhelmed, but the Lord 
has delivered me out of the pit of tumultuousness. 
And then in Psal. Ixi. 2, " From the end of the earth 
will I cry unto thee, when mv heart is overwliclmed : 
lead me to the rock that is higlier than I." Remember 
that scripture likewise. 

" And all thy fortresses shall be spoiled." Wliat are 
strong holds for the safeguard of a people, when the 
strong God is against them ? You liave made lines and 
fortifications, yea, but the strong God is against you. 
•' All thy strong holds shall be like fig trees with the 
first-ripe figs : if they be shaken, they shall even fall 
into the mouth of the eater," Nah. iii. 12. 

And now, my brethren, blessed be God we know this 
scrii)ture to be true in a way of mercy, God has made 
our enemies so to us ; and not in a way of judgment : 
God might have made our strong holds so to them, 
this scripture might have been fulfilled thus, " All thy 
fortresses shall be spoiled," that is, though we have 



THE PKOPHJi-CY OF HOSEA. 



459 



made fortresses, we might have heard, first of this and 
then of the other strong hold in such a place having 
been spoiled, this castle and the other castle taken, 
and we might have even been amazed with the news, 
and have said. How does God fight against us, that 
though we had such strong holds, and men enough to 
man them, yet for all that they have been but as " the 
first-ripe figs," which, " if tliey be shaken, even fall 
into the mouth of the eater ! " How were our hearts 
dejected when we heard but of one strong hold (Bris- 
tol) being taken from us. But I say, through God's 
mercy, this summer the Lord has made this text good 
unto "us ; all tliy strong holds, not all ours, but all the ene- 
mies', how have they been spoiled generally ! Oh ! the 
Lord has appeared glorious this way, and has made 
this last summer to be a continual miracle of mercy to 
us in tliis very respect. " All thy fortresses shall be 
spoiled." 

" As Shalman spoUed Beth-arbel." 

Jerome reads it, As Salmana was destroyed by the 
house of him that vindicated Baal in the day of battle. 
And so all that follow the Vulgate refer this to the 
story that we have iu Judg. viii., where Gideon slew 
Zalmunna the prince of Jlidian ; and so they take Ai- 
bel as an abbreviation for Jerubbaal. The Holy Ghost 
seems to make that great judgment of God upon Zal- 
munna to be exemplary, as in Psal. Ixxxiil. 11, '• Make 
all theii- princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna;" but 

■-_ , I , , the letters m the Hebrew here are differ- 

.^3T ..sns gjjj^ ^j^ij ^g j^ j^^j j.gj^^j gf Qifigo,-,^ though 

he did use very much severity upon Zebah and Zal- 
munna, that he dashed the mother upon the chil- 
dren. 

Luther thinks it is meant of some notable act of cru- 
elty upon some place very near to them, the particulars 
whereof we have not recorded in Scriptui'e. Indeed the 
name Beth-arbel we find not in the canonical Scripture ; 
but in 1 Mace, ix.2, such a place is mentioned, which af- 
terwards became very famous for the great overtlu'ow 
which Alexander the Great gave to Darius : so tliat it 
is as if the Holy Ghost should say, Did you not hear of 
that horrid, savage slaughter, which Shalman caused in 
Beth-arbel, when the mother was dashed in pieces upon 
her children ? they regarded not sex nor condition, the 
tender-hearted mother, embracing her children, was 
dashed in pieces upon them : such dicadful wrath of 
God your Beth-el may expect. 

t i<3 Beth-arbel signifies the house of the 

domis del insidiiio- insnariug god, the god of policy and 
subtlety. It seems the people that called 
tliis city by this name, had a god which they honour- 
ed as the god of subtlety ; and they trusted in it, ex- 
pecting that thereby all their enemies would be insnar- 
ed. Tlierefore called they their city Beth-arbel, the 
house of the insnaring god. But now this would not 
do, the more they sought by subtlety to undermine their 
enemies, the more were then' enemies enraged ; and 
therefore when they came upon them they spoiled 
them, and dashed the mother upon her own childi-eu. 
Vie might from this very word, 

Obs. 2. "We should not think by our plots and poli- 
cies to prevail, if God be against us. Do not think to 
put off God by plots and policies, and to avoid dangers 
that way : this people did so, because they had a Beth- 
arbel, a gud of policy, they thought to prevail, but tlieir 
misery was so much the greater. ^lothers and chil- 
di'en were da.shed in pieces one against another. If 
you make Arbel, policy, to be your god, you may ex- 
pect so much the more the rage of God, and of the in- 
sti'umcnts of his wrath against you. 

And let men take heed how they seek to deceive and 
cozen other men, for there is no such way to encourage 
one man against another, as to attempt to undcnnine 
him by policy: deal not so with your friends, acquaint- 



ance, and neighbours, you will encourage them so much 
the more. 

Obs. 3. When God lets out the fury and rage of war, 
the cruelty is great. " The mother was dashed in 
pieces upon her children." We read in Psal. cxxxvii., 
concerning idolaters, that when the Lord lets out his 
wrath upon the parents, he will let it out upon the 
childien too ; " Happy shall he be, that taketh and dash- 
eth thy little ones against the stones." It is a very 
strange phrase. And in Isa. xiii. 16, "Theu- children 
also shall be dashed to pieces before then- eyes." I re- 
member, Ursine, in his comment on that place of Isaiah, 
quotes this 137th Psalm ; and he has first this note, 
That though God does thus execute his wrath, yet 
usually, because it is so dreadful, and there is so much 
savageness in the thing in man's eye, tlierefore God is 
wont to do it by wicked men, and we never read that 
he made use of his own saints to execute that wrath. 
And then to that doubt. Is it not said in the Psalm, 
" Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little 
ones against the stones ? " which words seem to approve 
of the deed ; he, and Calvin, and others, answer thus. 
That it means not that they are blessed in their persons, 
or heirs of eternal blessings of mercy ; but it is a pro- 
phetical wish that they might have the blessing of suc- 
cess in the work, as an execution of God's wrath and 
God's justice : though the instruments did it to execute 
their savage cruelty, and so sinned in it ; yet the pro- 
phet looks upon the justice of God in it, and, speaking 
in the spirit of prophecy, wishes success to them in such 
a work, that the justice of God may go on and have its 
course. 

Obs. 4. The sins of parents ofttimes come upon theii' 
childi-en. What has the poor infant done ? Oh ! you 
tender-hearted mothers, consider of this, how far your 
sin may reflect upon your childi-en. If ever you should 
see bloody soldiers to come in in a terrible way, (as 
sometimes you have apprehended,) and they should 
dash you upon your childi-en, consider it is your sin 
that has done it. 

But you will say, Shall the childi-en sufifer for the 
fathers' sin ? 

Do not we read that God will visit the sins of idol- 
aters mito the third and fourth generation ? In/leed 
were yom- children innocent, had they no original sin, 
then it were another matter ; but now, considering they 
have enough in them to make them subjects of God's 
WTath, God may take advantage the rather because of 
thy sin ; and therefore take heed, and especially take 
heed to God's worship, for we do not find in Scriptm"e 
where any children are so threatened as the childi'en of 
idolaters are. 

Obs. 5. The judgments of God near to us shordd 
awaken us ; we should think, Why may it not be upon 
ourselves ? This was a heavy judgment of God upon 
some city near, and God would awaken them. Oh, 
what we have heard has been upon our brethi'en in 
other parts, and we have been sottish, and not sensible 
of it, because it has not just come upon our gates : the 
Lord expects when we hear of any dreadful evil upon 
others, that we should tremble and fear before him. 
And then one thing fm-ther note from hence : 

"The mother was dashed in pieces upon her children." 

Shalman ^cStf signifies, one that is peaceable ; one 
that is peaceable, and yet he shall exercise his cru- 
elty so as to dash the mother upon her children :_this 
is not one that bears cruelty in his name, not a tiger, 
but a Shalman, a peaceable man, as his name signifies, 
and yet thus cruel when he comes to have power ! 

Obs. 6. Men who have peace in their names, and 
peace in their mouths, and peace in show, yet when 
they come to have power oftentimes are very cruel. 
We" were like to have found it so ; if our adversaries had 
prevailed, this city especially might have been made a 



460 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. X. 



Beth-arbcl, and mothers dashed upon their children. 
It is true, when the adversaries did prevail in any place 
they did not do so, but it was not through any pity, 
but out of fear ; but had they gotten the day, then we 
might have expected even dashing of the mother 
against the children. 

Ver. 15. So shall Beth-el do unto you because of your 
great u-icliedness : in a morning shall the king of Israel 
utterly be cut off. 

" So shall Bcth-el do unto you." AVhat ! shall Beth-el 
rise up against the rest of the ten tribes, and come and 
destroy mother and children together ? That is not the 
meaning. 

But Beth-el shall do it ; that is, Beth-el is the cause 
of this, tliat ch-eadful slaughter that is like to be among 
you, it shall come from Beth-el. AVTio would ever have 
thought that ? 

Obs. 1. Miserable judgments ofttimes arise from 
causes we little think of. From Beth-el should come 
this slaughter and dreadful bloodshed. iVnd as that 
more generally, so more particularly this : 

Obs. 1. From places of idolatry come the greatest evils 
to kingdoms. As it is very observable, on the contrary, 
from the places of God's worship comes the greatest 
good. So Psal. Ixxvi. 2, 3, " In Salem also is his 
tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Zion. There 
brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the 
sword, and the battle." Did God break them there ? 
Was there a fight in Zion, and in Salem ? No, that 
is not the meaning, but in Zion and Salem, where God's 
tabernacle was, those servants of God w'ho were there 
worshipping and praying to God, got the victory. So 
we may say, that in such a place, that was fasting and 
praying in the time of our battles, there God brake the 
arrow and the bow. Where the true worship of God is, 
from thence comes the good of a kingdom. And so in 
Isa. xxxi. 9, " Wiose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in 
Jerusalem." The Lord is there threatening the ene- 
mies of his people, and he saith, that " his fire is in Zion, 
and his furnace is in Jerusalem ;" there God has his fur- 
nace, and from thence it shall go to destroy the adver- 
saries. And so, on the contrary, where idolatry is set 
up, and false worship maintained, from thence come 
evils and miseries upon us. 

" Because of your great wickedness." 

The words arc, csnyn ryi 'jso because of the wick- 
edness of your wickedness ; so the Hebrews express 
the superlative degree, by a genitive case, the evil of 
the evil, the wickedness of the wickedness. 

Obs. 3. False worship is the great sin by which espe- 
cially God is jjrovokcd against a people. Wience, let 
us not make light account of the worship of God, for 
how little soever God's worship is in our eyes, yet in 
his sight it is a great matter ; and though you think 
that the sins against God in the matter of his worship 
be but small, yet God saith, it is the " great wickedness," 
it is the wickedness of wickedness. And great wicked- 
ness it may be called, not only in respect of its nature, 
but from its many attendant aggravations. 

Obs. 4. God takes notice not only of men's sins, but 
of the aggravation of their sins. Oh ! let us do thus ; 
not only look upon your sins and acknowledge your- 
selves to be sinners, but look upon the aggravations of 
your sins ; Tliis sin committed against so many mercies, 
so many prayers, and resolutions, arid vows, and cove- 
nants, and so many deliverances that I have had : la- 
bour to lay the aggravations of your sins upon your 
hearts ; this is the way to humble them before the 
Lord. Indeed the saints of God need not seek to ex- 
cuse their sins, they need not be afraid to lay them in 
all tlieir aggravations on their hearts, in all their aggra- 
vations. Greaten your wickedness before the Lord ; do 



not, as ordinarily people do, extenuate your sins, for if 
there be any possible extenuation, Jesus Christ will 
find out that in his pleading. Christ is your advocate 
who sits at the right hand of the Father, and it is his 
work to plead your cause, and therefore if there can be 
any thing to extenuate a sin he will do it. You know 
that, in his sojoiu-n in this world, when his disciples 
did offend very much in that sleepiness of theirs, so 
that when their Master was to suffer they could net 
watch with him one hour, that sin might have been 
aggravated with abundance of circumstances, but saith 
Christ, " The ^miX. indeed is willing, but the flesh is 
weak," Matt, xxvi. 41 ; he extenuates and excuses. 
Now that which Christ did there, he will be ready to 
do in heaven, for thou that art a saint. 

Obs. 5. Wrath is proportioned to the greatness of 
the sin. Great wickedness and great wrath go together, 
and therefore according to the greatness of our sins 
should be the greatness of our humiliation. For so it 
is said of Manasses, that he humbled himself " greatly :" 
and in Lam. i. 20, where the church is humbling it.self 
before God for the great wickedness and the great 
wrath that was upon them ; " Behold, O Lord ; for I 
am in distress : my bowels are troubled ; mine heart is 
turned within me ; for I have grievously rebelled."' 
Mark, here you have these two points together; the 
church aggravates her sin, " I have grievously rebelled ;" 
and what then ? " O Lord ; I am in distress : my 
bowels are troubled ; mine heart is turned within me." 
Oh ! remember this text, you whose consciences tell you 
of grievous rebellions. 

" In a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be 
cut off." 

Now, to understand this, we must consider to wliat 
it refers, what king of Israel this was, and when this 
was fulfilled. It refers to the account in 2 Kings xvii., 
and the king of Israel here spoken of is Hoshea, Israel's 
last king, therefore it is said that he shall " utterly be 
cut off;" for ho and all his family were utterly cut off, 
there was an end of the kingdom of Israel, that had 
continued so long provoking God. I have forborne, 
saith God, the kings of Israel a long time, but now they 
shall " utterly be cut off'' in Hoshea. 

Tills king of Israel's spirit was stout enough against 
God and his prophets. My brethren, it is not the 
stoutness of the greatest men ujion earth to say, they 
will, and they will ; yea, they will venture their lives 
and kingdoms. Why, if they will, God will too, he 
has a will as well as they ; at length God's will grows 
as strong as theu-s, and proceeds against them, and 
against their very families : " the king of Israel sliall be 
utterly cut off." 

Kings of the earth suffer little from men. AVliat a 
brave thing is it for a man to be able to go up and 
down in countries, and rend, and tear, and opjiress, and 
bring thousands into woeful miseries and extremities, 
and yet be afraid to suffer nothing at all himself ! There- 
fore it is fit for God to take in hand those men that 
are above the power of their fellow men ; when men 
cannot deal with them, the Lord himself takes them 
in hand, and they are so much the more under the 
immediate justice of the infinite God. 

" Shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.'' 

But when sliall this be ? " In a morning." Tliere 
is a sad morning coming. 

Cyril interprets it thus : God in his jiaticnce is com- 
pared to a man asleep, and in the execution of judgment 
he is said to awake ; God brings his righteous judgments 
to light every morning. But that is a little too forced. 

Secondly, "" In a morning ;" that is, early, betimes. 
So in Jcr.'xxi. 12, "O house of David, thus saith the 
Lord; Execute judgment in the morning." So the 
king of Israel shall be curly cut off; and indeed tliis 
king of Israel was early cut off, he did not reign above 



Ver. 13. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



461 



eight or nine years at mo<t. God takes some in the 
morning of theu' time, in their youth, -n-hen their day 
is but as it were dawning ; some sinners he apprehends 
sooner tlian others. " In a morning shall the king of 
Israel utterly be cut off." 

Thirdly, " In a morning ; " that is, even when the 
light comes, when they have hopes of further good, 
then he shall " utterly be cut off; " which comes yet 
nearer and more full to the sense and scope of the 
Spirit of God here. And so if you read the story in 
tlie book of Kings, you find, when Hoshea was about 
to be cut oflf, he had entered into a league with the 
king of Egypt, and thought that now "a morning" 
would arise, and he should have a bravo day, and live 
many merry days now ; and when he thought the light 
of this morning was beginning to dawn, God came to 
cut him off. 

Obs. 6. '^^'^len people think that now light is break- 
ing out, after a long night of darkness, then God's dis- 
pleasm'e breaks forth upon them. We cannot but ac- 
knowledge that the Lord has granted us a morning 
light, but let us fear and tremble, for the time of 
God's displeasure is sometimes in the morning. When 
we think we have light breaking forth, God may have 
other ways to bring darkness upon us than we are 
aware of; we know how dreadful a day it was with 
Sodom after a sunshine morning. It is very observable, 
the difference of God's dealing with his own people, 
and with those that are carnal and of the world. Com- 
pare this scripture with Zech. xiv. 7. Here, " In a 
morning shall he be utterly cut off." But in Zech. xiv. 

7, where God is speaking of mercy to his people, he 
speaks of a day that should be known to God, and 
saith, "At evening time it shall be light:" he com- 
forts his people thus ; but when he threatens the wick- 
ed he saith. When the morning comes it shall be 
darkness. The Lord is wont to turn the darkness of 
the saints into light, and to turn the light of the wick- 
ed and ungodly into darkness. Oh, let us learn to fear 
that God then who is able to turn light into darkness, 
and darkness into light. " Seek him," saith Amos v. 

8, " that turneth tlie shadow of death into the morn- 
ing, and makcth the day dark with night." He can 
" turn the shadow of death into morning." Suppose 
there be the greatest darkness upon you, God can 
make that a morning of light ; and suppose there be a 
morning of light, God can turn that into darkness. 
Many, because they have a morning, bless themselves, 
and think all must needs go on according to their de- 
sires ; it is very customary for men, especially when 
compassing some notable design of their own, if it 
prosper in the beginning, they think all will go on. 
Oh, thou mayst be utterly deceived ; thy designs may 
have a morning, and then God may cut off thee and 
thy designs, and all thy thoughts may even then 
perish. AVe read that Saul had many victories after 
that God had pronounced that he should be rejected. 
And therefore we had need fear that God, who can turn 
the morning into darkness, and darkness into light. 

Obs. 1. God loves to di-aw forth great sinners to the 
light ; not to come upon them in the dark, but to bring 
forth his judgments in the morning, openly and clearly. 
God discomfited the host of Egj-pt " when the morning 
appeared," Exod. xiv. 27. 

Obs. 8. God will be quick in his work. " In a morn- 
ing he shall be cut off;" that is, suddenly. They 
thought by their power to hold it out ; No, saith God, 
I will not make a day's work of it, it shall be in the 
morning ; so the Vulgate turns it. It shall pass as the 
morning, as the light of the morning quickly passes 
over. As the king of Israel is compared to the " foam," 
so he is here compared to the " morning." Now, my 
brethren, to close this chapter, Oh what alteration of 
things God is able to make in a morning ! They (it 



may be) the day before, and over-night, were jolly and 
merry, and blessed themselves in their way ; they had 
confidence in their " way-, and in the multitude of their 
mighty men ;" but " in a morning " all is spoiled. 
God can "in a morning" make mighty alterations 
in a kingdom, and in cities, and families, and in- 
dividuals. My brethi-en, who knows what a day may 
bring forth ? who knows what a morning may bring 
forth? "Thus saith the Lord God ; n evil, Aan only 
evil, behold, is come. An end is come, the end is 
come : it watcheth for thee ; behold, it is come. The 
morning is come unto thee, O thou that dwellest in the 
land : the time is come, the day of trouble is near," 
Ezek. vii. 5 — 7. As if God should say. All this while 
that thou hast been in the act of the pride of thy heart 
and vanity of thy spirit, I did determine, that such a 
morning such an evil should come ; and it is come, it is 
come, saith God; the morning is come. O think, 
when you lie down at night, what thou hast done this 
day ; do not dare to lie down, but first make thy peace 
with God ; thou knowest not what may be in the 
morning: and whentliou risest up in the morning, look 
up to God, and seek blessing and mercy from the 
Lord, for though thine eyes be opened, and thou come 
to see the morning light, yet, before it be qidte gone, 
thou knowest not what may befall thee. Seek, there- 
fore, to make thy peace with God, both in the night 
and in the morning, for great changes may come to 
thee both in the night and in the morning, that thou 
never thoughtest of in all thy life. 



CHAPTER XI. 



Ver. 1. When Israel wa-i a child, then I loved him, 
and called my son out of Egypt. 

Tins chapter is made by some the sixth sermon of 
Hosea's prophecy. The scope of it is this : To clear 
God from severity, and to upbraid Israel for ungrate- 
ful and stubborn carriage, against mercies and means ; 
and yet to promise mercy to the remnant, to his elect 
ones. This extends to the end of the 11th verse. As 
for the 1 2th verse, though made a jiart of this chapter, 
yet it were more aptly a great deal joined to chap. xii. ; 
and so it is by some. 

At the close of the preceding chapter there were 
di'eadful threatenings against Israel, that the mothers 
should be dashed in pieces upon theu' chUdi'en, and 
the king utterly cut oS'. But now, does not this argue 
God to be a God of rigid severity? 'Wliere is the 
mercy, goodness, and clemency of God towards his 
people ? What ! to have the mother dashed in pieces 
against her children ; to cut off the king of Israel ut- 
terly ? Yes, saith God, for all this I am a God of mercy 
and goodness, for I have manifested abundance of 
mercy ah-eady, and am ready still to manifest more ; 
but you have been a stubborn and a stout-hearted peo- 
ple against me. And from this general scope, 

Obs. 1. God stands much upon the clearing of him- 
self to be a God of love and mercy. Whatsoever be- 
comes of the wicked, yet God will make it clear before 
all the world, that he is a God of much mercy. God 
takes it very ill that we diould have any hard thoughts 
of him ; let us not be ready to entertain such thoughts 
of God, as if he were a 'hard master. I remember 
Luther saith. That tlie general scope of 

. '. f^ , xii iota Spriptura hnc 

the Scripture is, to declare the Lord to r"'ciiM.e.,git,ne 
be a God of mercy and goodness; the tfiX'HT.'c^^S' 
whole Scriptures, saith he, aim especially S"„'i,''js';e''mirer['- 
at this, that we should believe and be ',';',','™-^'"'j"„'™' 
confident that God is a gracious and 



462 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



CUAP. XI. 



merciful God. And this is the scope of this chapter. 
Let us rather charge ourselves of wickedness, and un- 
grateful dealings with God, and let us for ever justify 
God, and acknowledge him to be not only a righteous, 
but a gracious God : though thou and tliousands such 
as thou art shall perish to all eternity, yet the Lord 
shall be acknowledged a God of mercy before his angels 
and saints for evermore. But thus much for the scope. 

" When Israel was a child." 

That is, at his first beginning to be a people, in his 
young time my heart was towards him. Indeed, the 
heart of God was to Israel, that is, Jacob, the father of 
the tribes, before he was born, before he had " done 
any good or evil," Rom. ix. 11, 12. But here it is 
spoken not of the father, but of the tribes. 

" When Israel was a child." That is, 

I. AVhcn he knew little of me. 

II. 'NMien he could do little for mo. 

III. AVhen there was much vanity and foUy in him, 
as there are generally in children. 

rv. When he was helpless and succoiu-less, and 
knew not how to provide for himself. 

But further, Tcrnovius, a learned com- 
fcatTl?qJiic'S'' mentator on this prophecy, thinks that 
^Cfin^m'a' "^y3 lice translated " a child," intimates 
F'^v^ilPioc. *'^^ stubbornness of Israel against God, 
ernov. in oc. ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ shaken off the yoke of 

parents, or of a master; and so '3 here translated 
"when," sometimes signifies although ; Although Israel 
was a child, a froward and perverse child, that shook 
off the yoke, yet then I loved him. And what a child 
Israel was when God loved him, you may find in Ezek. 
xvi. 4, 5, " And as for thy nativity, in the day thou 
wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou 
washed in water to supple thee ; thou wast not salted 
at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee, to 
do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon 
thee; "but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the 
lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born." 
Then in the 6th verse, " And when I passed by thee, 
and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto 
thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live ; yea, I said 
unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live." Again 
and again is the command of mercy given. And then 
in the 8th verse, " Now when I passed by thee, and 
looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of 
love ; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy 
nakedness : yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a 
covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou be- 
camest mine." 

Well, but wherein did God manifest that he did love 
Israel when he was a child ? 

Mark that 8th verse, " Now when I passed by thee, 
and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time 
of love ; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered 
thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered 
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou 
became.-it mine." 

The love of God to Israel is expressed in these three 
particulars. 

First, God " entered into a covenant" with him. Oh, 
it is a great mercy of God, and a fruit of great love, 
that such an infinite God would be pleased to make a 
covenant with his people, to bring them into covenant 
relation with him : all mankind was in covenant with God 
at first, but falling from that first covenant, God took 
into covenant with himself only a peculiar people, and 
made this distinguishing grace a fniit of his great love. 
Secondly, "Thou becamest mine:" that is, I had 
separated "thee for myself, and took thee for a peculiar 
one to me, and intended special mercy and goodness to 
thee ; " thou becamest mine," so as that I should have 
a special propriety in thee, and thou shouldst have a 
fq-.ecial propriety in me. 



Thirdly, I confirmed all this by an oath, "I swaj-e 
unto thee." Was not here love, for God to covenant, to 
take in to such propriety, and to swear that we should be 
his ? Thus " when Israel was a child, then I loved him." 
Now the observations are these: 
Ob.t. 2. It is the privilege of the church and of the 
saints, to be beloved of God. God loves his jjeoplc, 
this is their privilege, he loves them with a special 
love. In Jer. xii. 7, they are called, the " dearly be- 
loved of mv" (God's) "soul:" see how God loves his 
people. God delights in his saints, and there is nothing 
in the world that should sanctify a gracious heart 
more than this, that God loves him ; and a.s God's love 
is extraordinary to them, more than to other people, so 
their love again should be reflected upon God in a more 
than ordinary way. Nothing can be a recompence to 
love, but love : that is certain, love is never satisfied but 
with love; and therefore, seeing God professes love to 
his people, he expects love from them ; therefore he will 
not be satisfied with any duties you perform, unless 
they flow from love. Love must hqve love ; and know, 
that you cannot prize God's love more than God jirizes 
vours ; there is nothing in heaven and earth that God 
prizes more than the love of his saints, and therefore, 
if ever God's love, or God's prizing of your love, may 
gain love, O you saints, love the Lord. 

06s. 3. It is a great aggravation to sin, to sin against 
love. For to that end God here shows that he loved 
them, that he might aggravate their sin so much the 
more, and clear himself. Often in the days of your 
humiliation, and at other times, you regard your sin as 
aggravated, as it is against knowledge, and does a great 
deal of hurt, and brings you under dreadful threaten- 
ings, provoking the wrath of an infinite God against 
you ; these are things calculated to humble your hearts 
for sin; but this still more, that your sin is against love, 
that though God has shown much love to you, yet you 
sin against a loving and a gracious God. God begins 
with this aggravation, it being his scope here to clear 
himself, and to convict his people of ungratefulness : 
" When Israel was a child, then I loved him." Sins 
against love are great sins indeed. 

Ob.i. 4. It is very useful to call to mind God's old 
love. " When Israel was a child, then I loved him." 
His love to us when we were children ; yea, his love to 
our forefathers. For a nation, too, to consider the 
ancient love of God to it at its fii-st beginning, is of 
verj- great use ; nay, brethren, it would be of ven,- great 
use to us to consider God's ancient love to England. 
And I will give you one remarkable proof of it, that it 
was the first nation which ever God set his heart upon 
to bring into the fold of the gospel, the first nation in 
the world that by ])ublic authority submitted to the 
gospel; and certainly God remembers that love of 
England. So wo find it recorded. True, indeed, we 
cannot give Scripture proof for this, because it was 
since the time of any Scripture; but so cvntur. c»ni. j. 
far as we may credit early records, we ^y.j'iiJ'Ec'I.'^^ 
find it, of all nations upon the face of the ex'j. n.iiri o.t.i. 
earth, the first that received the gospel """*" " '''™'" 
with the countenance of public authority. And this is 
not a little matter ; certainly the Lord remembers "the 
kindness of" our " youth," and the old love of I'.ngland, 
its " first love," in "receiving the gospel. Indeed God 
caused the gospel to be preached to other places before 
it was to England ; but no place by the countenance of 
public authority received it so soon as England did, 
and therefore, in that respect, England may be said to 
have been the very first-fruits of the gospel. Oh, it 
is good for us to consider of that, anil many good uses 
we mav make of God's ancient love ; when we see any 
further expressions of it, the tho\ights of his former love 
may encourage us to believe that surely God intends 
its continuance. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



And then for ourselves individually, it is very good 
for us to look back to his ancient love. Some of you (I 
suppose) in this place may say, that God loved you 
•when you were children : When I was a child, I had 
such and such expressions of God's love toward me ; it 
was love that I was born of Christian parents, and 
educated in Christian doctrine, that I was delivered 
from such and such dangers, yea, (it may be.) God be- 
gan to reveal himself to me betimes. And if you would 
call to mind all the loving passages of God's providence 
since you were children, you might have matter of 
meditation sufficient. Many of you complain that you 
cannot find matter for meditation : I will give you a 
rule to help you in meditation at any time, it is this : 
when you cannot meditate of other things, but you are 
presently bewildered and know not whither to go, then 
turn yourselves to this ; to think of all the gracious 
passages of God's providence towards you ever since 
you were children ; and this theme the weakest may be 
able to piu'sue with profit. 

Obs. 5. All God's old mercies remain engagements 
to duty, and aggravations to sin. " Wlien Israel was 
a child, then I loved him." It is spoken of to aggra- 
vate their sin, and further to engage them to duty. 
Remember that the love and mercies of God to you 
when you were children, are engagements to duty when 
you are old, and aggravations of your sin : sins against 
old mercies are the greatest sins. Oh that you should 
sin against that love of God to you when you were 
children ! God began with you then, and has con- 
tinued his love and mercy to you ever since ; oh then 
make this an aggravation of your sin in the day of 
your humiliation, charge it upon your own souls. These 
and these sins have I committed ; though God loved 
me, though his mercy and goodness were toward me 
when I was a child, and have followed me ever since, 
yet I have walked unworthy of all that love and mercy. 
Know, that though you may forget the old love of God, 
yet the Lord remembers it ; he remembers his old mer- 
oies, and he remembers your old sins. 

Obs. 6. Let not our hearts sink in despairing 
thoughts, though we see that we are able to do but 
little for God, and though we are unworthy of his love. 
Though there be much vanity and folly in our hearts 
and in our lives, yea, though there has been much 
stubbornness, yet still let not our hearts sink in de- 
spairing thoughts. " When Israel was a child, then I 
loved him." They could do little for me, and they 
knew little of me, and they were vain, and foolish, and 
stubborn, and yet '■ I loved them." Certainly, the 
dealings of God toward Israel are as a tyjje of his 
dealuigs toward his saints, as the afflictions of Israel 
are typical with respect to the church : and as we 
gather an argument for patience in afflictions, when we 
read how God dealt with the people of Israel in the 
wilderness ; so also should our faith he strengthened 
by the long-suffering and tender mercy shown tliem : 
though they were unworthy, and poor, and weak, yet 
God loved them. Therefore you, poor people, that find 
yourselves weak in understanding, alas ! you know lit- 
tle, and can remember little, of that which is good, and 
you can do little for God; Yea, I find (perhaps saith one) 
much frowardness and stubbornness in my heart against 
God ; but do you bewail it ? if so, let not vour hearts 
he discouraged, do not think that these are things that 
will binder the love of God; God's heart mav be to- 
wards you notwithstanding all this ; God's love does not 
find, but makes the object lovely ; therefore God can 
love though thou knowest little, and canst do but little. 
But you will say. He can love, but will he love ? If 
I did but know that, my heart would find peace. 
To that I answer. 

First, When you hear that God loved Israel when he 
was such a child that " none eye pitied him," this is 



enough to help you against any concluding thoughts 
against God's love, for God loved his people Israel 
when they were as unworthy as you are. 

Secondly, The readiest way for you to know with 
certainty whether God will love you or not, is, 1. To 
raise up your faith, if you are able, upon such grounds 
as this, 'The consideration of his love to his people when 
they were unworthy. 

2. In quietness and meekness of spirit to lay thyself 
before the Lord as an object of his pity. Thou dost 
not think thvself worthy to be an object of love, yet lay 
thy heart before God as an object of pity, and theie 
resolve to wait till the time of love shall come, till God 
shall make known that his heart is toward thee for 
good. It is not the way for thee to be froward and vei- 
ing, because of thy unworthiness, meanness, poverty, 
and baseness, and so to determine that on account of 
these he will not love thee ; no, I say, the way for thee 
to have the sense of God's love, is this, when thou 
seest there is no worthiness in thee why he should love 
thee, yet to remember that there is enough in thee to 
make thyself an object of his pity. 

06s. 7. God's love begins betimes to his people, let 
not his people's love be deferred too long. God is be- 
forehand with you in love, and whenever we begin to 
love him it is upon this ground, " because be first 
loved us." You who are young, love God betimes, for 
if you be such as ever shall be saved, God did not only 
love you when a child, but he loved you before you 
were born, before the foundations of the world were 
laid. Oh ! it is a pity that the fh-st springing of your 
love should not be bestowed upon God. Certainly old 
love is the best love ; as old love in God is sweet, so old 
love in the saints : it is a sweet thing to think that God 
loved me from a child ; but then, if I can say this too, 
I loved God from a child, this will make it sweeter : 
put but these two together, and what is wanting to the 
comfort of one's life? God loves that love which is 
from a child : " I remember thee, the kindness of thy 
youth," Jer. ii. 2 : God loves the love of young ones, 
the love of children. How sweet will old age be to thee 
if thou canst say. Lord, through thy mercy I have loved 
thee from a child, and that is an evidence that thou 
didst love me when I was a child ! How many are 
there now old, whom God loved when they were young, 
that would give ten thousand worlds, if they had them, 
that they had known and loved God sooner than they 
did! I say, those whose eyes God enlightens, and 
hearts God converts to himself, would give ten thou- 
sand thousand worlds that they could but say this. Oh 
that I had but loved God from a child ! Y'ou who are 
children and young ones, do you begin betimes to love 
God, that, if you live to be old, you may say, that God 
loved you from a child. It was an excellent speech of 
Austin, when it pleased God to work 
upon his heart, Lord, I loved thee too ^!ZW"Aai. 
late. And so it will be with any that 
begin to love God, they will say that they loved God 
too late ; this tardy affection will be the great bui-den 
to their souls. 

" And called my son out of Egypt." 

" And called ;" that is, by Moses and Aaron, I sent 
them to call them out of Eg)"pt ^""^ *" ^'''"" ^^^'^ 
from thence. This seems to refer to Exod. iv. 22, 
where the Lord directs Moses to go to Pharaoh, and 
to speak on this wise, " Thus saith the Lord, Israel is 
my son, even mv first-born." So in Jer. xxxi. 9, " I am 
a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born." 

" My son :" the Seventy render it in the plural, ra 
rtKva avTov, his sons ; but in the original it is 'JsS my 
son ; thus, although the Holy Ghost speaks of all the 
people in general, yet he puts them in the singular 
number, and in their very community calls them the 
sou of God. 



4G4 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



CriAP. XI. 



Obs. 8. The clun eh i> related to God as a son to the 
father, yea, tlie very first-l)orii. A\'hnt God speaks of 
the people of Israel is especially intended towards his 
saints, which are the true Israel of God ; they have the 
privilege to be sons unto God, to be children. " Seemeth 
it to you," saith David, " a light tiling to be a king's son- 
in-law ? " Wliat then do you think it is to be son to 
the King of heaven and earth, and heii' of heaven and 
earth ? " Is Ephraim my dear son ? " Jer. xxxi. 20. 
This is the privilege therefore of the saints, that God 
deals with them as sons ; " I will spare them," saith 
the Lord in the prophet Malachi, chap. iii. 17, " as 
a man sparcth his own son that scrveth him." And 
the special privilege that they have from this is, that 
they are not under the law as slaves, in reference 
to God ; those that are in the state of slavery are 
under this law. Do, or die ; if thou dost offend but in 
the least thou shalt perish for ever, the curse of the 
law is upon thee. But the sons of God are brought 
into another condition, not to be under that law ; they 
indeed, if they do offend, may be corrected and chas- 
tised, Psal.lxxxix.30 — 32; but they are never under the 
law of the sentence of eternal death for their offences. 
There is a great deal of difference between the admi- 
nistration of God towards slaves, and towards sons : 
tins is the great privilege of sonship, that thou art not 
under the law, but art brought under another law, 
even the law of Jesus Christ ; that though thy sin in- 
deed, of its own nature, if God should deal with thee 
in justice, would be enough to put thee under an 
eternal curse, yet being a son, God puts thee under 
another law, and deals not with thee by that which 
pronounces a curse against every sin. 

Obs. 9. Let wicked men take heed how they use the 
saints, for they are God's sons ; they are not slaves, 
they are the sons of the eternal God. " Is Israel a 
servant? is he a home-born slave ? why is he spoiled ? " 
Jer. ii. 14. How comes it to pass that Israel is so 
dealt with ? What ! is not Israel a son, and " Ephraim 
my dear son ? " Jer. xxxi. 20. 

When any of the people of God are under the power 
of any men, God looks upon them as sons ; and if they 
deal hardly with them, God will inquire and say thus. 
Is such a one a slave ? had he been a slave I would 
not so much have cared for youi' dealing thus with 
him, but he is a son. You find in the Acts that they 
were afraid when they heard that Paul was a Roman. 
When thou knowest thou hast to deal with a son of God, 
know that though thou hast not liberty to misuse any, yet 
when thou niisusest him, thou dost it at thy special peril. 

04s. 10. The saints are not only sons in their par- 
ticular relation, but in their community. The whole 
community of the church, as members, are but as one 
son : " I called my son out of Egypt ;" he speaks of 
the whole body of Israel. Now the Lord looks upon 
the community of his church as one son, in the singular 
number ; one, not in outward incorporation and visible 
government, but in spiritual union and communion 
with their common Head. Many ])rivileges belong to 
the church of God in their community, as well as in 
their particular relation. And they should labour to 
unite themselves much together, seeing God joins them 
together in the singular number. Oh ! the Lord loves 
unity in his church. 

Obs. 11. God's sons are not exempt from sore and 
grievous evils in this world ; though they be sons, yet 
they may be in Eg\pt : " And called my son out of 
Egypt." So in Jer. xii. 7, " 1 have forsaken mine house, I 
Lave left mine heritage; I have given the dearly beloved 
of my soul into the hand of her enemies.'' Though " the 
dearly beloved of God's soul," vet " given into the hand 
of her enemies." Though God*s son, yet in Egypt. So 
with the church under antichrist ; for above twelve Inni- 
drcd years God gave up his sons into that spiritual Egvpt. 



We must not think therefore, as soon as we corr.e 
under grievous afflictions, that God has cast us off 
from being sons ; though they were in Egypt, yet still 
they were " my son." Now we are ready to think, that 
if God bring us into .sore afflictions then we ai'e no 
more sons ; no, thou mayst be delivered up to the 
power of the enemy, and yet no slave, no enemy, but 
a son of God still. Deut. xxxii. 10, is much to be ob- 
served, where it is said of the people of Israel, that 
they were " in the waste howling wilderness," and yet 
they were " as the apple of Goi's eye." So thou niayst 
be delivered up to suffer sore things, to be banished 
from thy house and home, and to wander up and down 
" in the waste howling wilderness," and yet remain " as 
the apple of God's eye." It is a strange sight indeed 
to sec a child of God, an heir of heaven, a co-heir with 
Jesus Clirist, one dearer to God than heaven and earth, 
subject to the power, the cajnice, and lusts of wicked, 
base, ungodly men ; yea, it may be, for a time slaves to 
Satan ; I say, even those whom God has an eternal love 
to are ofttiraes for a season slaves to Satan ; but then 
they have not the comfort of this sonshi]), nor do they 
know it : but now they may know themselves to be 
sons, and yet slaves to the humours of wicked and un- 
godly men, and than this there is not a sti'anger sight 
in the world ; I believe the angels in heaven do not 
see a stranger sight, nor one at which they more admire, 
than a godly man under the lusts of wiclied men. This 
is God's permissive work for the present, but he in- 
tends to manifest himself in another way hereafter : 
for the present he fetches about the glorj- of his own 
ends this way, he lets even his own dear sons be in 
Egj-jit ; but God has his time to deliver his people and 
call them out of Egv-jit : it is but a call, and it is done ; 
it is as easily done as a man that gives a call for such 
a one out of such a place. Let our bondage be never 
so great, it requires but a word from God to deliver us. 

Obs. 12. It is a great mercy to be called out of 
Egypt. This the Lord here brings as a great testi- 
mony of his love to them, that he called them out of 
Egjqjt. In Exod. xii. 42, '• It is a night to be much 
observed unto the Lord for bringing them out from 
the land of Egypt :" to be called from that Egy])t was 
a fruit of love ; and so to be called fiom spiritual Egypt, 
(for man's natural estate is a spiritual Egypt,) to be 
called from antichristian Egypt, is a great fruit of love : 
and as it is a fruit of love, so it is an aggravation of 
sin, for so it is brought, " I called my son out of Egypt," 
and yet they did thus and thus. 

If God remembered this mercy, of calling them out 
of Egypt .so many years before, as an aggravation of 
their sin, how much more may the Lord make that an 
aggravation of our sin, that he called us so lately out 
of our Egj-])t ! In many ways I might show you that 
we were under as great, if not a gi'catcr bondage than 
the Israelites were under in Egyjit. And there has 
been as outstretched an arm (though not so obvious 
to sense) in calling us, as in calling them out of Egypt, 
Now let not this be an aggravation of our sin, that the 
sound of our cries under the yoke of our bondage is 
not yet out of our ears, and the ven,- sores of our 
shoulders through their yokes not yet thoroughly 
healed, and yet we grow to be wanton, foolish, vain, 
proud, cruel, oppressing one another, and abusing our 
liberty. Oh ! our sin must needs be accounted exceed- 
ing great before God. 

Well, but yet we sec not all, nor even the chief part, 
of the mind of God in this expression, for we find that, 
in Matt. ii. 1 j, the Holy Ghost cites tliis scripture which 
now I am opening to you, and interprets it of Jesus 
Clirist. Wien Jesus Christ was liiin to fly into Egypt 
to save his life, the Holy Ghost saith, that it was to 
fulfil that "which was spoken of the Lord by the pr 
phet, saving, Out of Egypt hare I called my son." 



Vek. 1. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



465 



It is a very sti'ange interpretation, of which, however, 
we have other similar in the New Testament ; and Je- 
rome on the place saith, that Julian and some of the 
Jews, with others who hated the Christian religion, 
took much advantage of this quotation of Matthew in 
their arguments against the authority of the gospel, 
saying. Surely it proves Matthew very unskilful in 
Scripture, that he should make such a quotation as this, 
when it is apparent that it is spoken of the calling of 
the people of Israel out of Egypt. And truly wc should 
never have thought that there had been such a mean- 
ing in this place of Hosea, had we not found it so in- 
terpreted by the Holy Ghost. But before we open this, 
and show how this scripture is rightly quoted by the 
evangelist, I would observe, that we may see by this 
intei-pretation, both of Matthew, and divers other 
places in the New Testament, that there is much more 
of the mind of God in the Old Testament than was 
gener-ally known to them who lived in those times. 
Which of the Jews could have so interpreted " I have 
called my son out of Egypt ? " that is, Jesus Christ, 
after his birth, shall be persecuted and forced to fly for 
his life, and that into Egj^pt, and he shall come again 
out of Egj'pt ; who could have thought this to be the 
intention of the Holy Ghost ? Things were not under- 
stood till they came to be fulfilled, and then their ac- 
complishment interpreted the prediction. And the 
truth is, as m the Old Testament so in the New, there 
are a great many scriptures of which we understand 
yet but little ; the time of our ascertaining their full 
meaning, is reserved to the period of their fulfilment. 
!Many such prophecies we have in the Revelation and 
other places, that are (I am confident) as dark to us as 
this place of Hosea was to the Jews ; and there is as 
exceUent a spu'itual meaning in many places of the 
New Testament hidden from us, that will hereafter be 
revealed clearly to the church of God, as there were in 
the Old Testament ; I know not whether I may say as 
many as those, but certainly as much hidden from us. 
Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain from the beginning of the 
world, is he who shall open the book that is sealed, 
Rev. v., as a fruit of his death ; it is the Lamb, as he is 
a Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, that 
shall open the book that is sealed. There are many 
things in the book of God that are sealed to us this 
day, and it is the purchase of the blood 
^"xx"ur'p"i9'-"" °^ Jesus Christ to open it; and when his 
time comes, it shall be opened to us. 

" And have called my son out of Egypt." 

Interpreters, I find, do much weary and tire them- 
selves and their readers about the aptness of this as 
quoted in Matthew : their manifold opinions may, per- 
haps, be reduced to these three heads : 

First, Some think that ^latthew quotes this but only 
by way of allusion or similitude ; that there is a simili- 
tude between Chi-ist's going to Egyqjt and returning, 
and the people of Israel's going to Egypt and return- 
ing ; but that is a frigid and a poor inteiijretation, and 
against what is said in Matthew, that Christ was taken 
down into Egypt, that the Scriptm-e " might be fulfilled." 

Secondly, Junius, that learned man, thinks that the 
very literal sense of the place, is lather a prophecy of 
Christ's going into Egypt and returning again, than of 
the people of Isi-ael doing the same : and so, in his 
sixth parallel, (Paral. lib. i.,) he saith. It is as if God 
should say, I have threatened that I will utterly destroy 
the king of Israel, but shall I therefore whoUy destroy 
Israel ? No, no, I will not do that for my Son's sake ; 
for though Israel is unworthy and receive not my 
Son, and by my Son's going into Eg}-])t it is declared 
that they are so unworthy of him that they should 
never have my Son come among them again, yet he 
shall come among them again, and that shall be an 
evidence to them, that I will not cast off my peo- 
2 H 



pie Israel. This is a very spiritual and good inter- 
pretation ; and we find often that, when the Lord did 
promise mercy to his people, and would give an evi- 
dence that he would not destroy them, he was wont to 
give a promise of Jesus Christ; as in Isa. ix. 6, " Unto 
us a child is born, unto us a son is given ;" he seals 
the promise that he will not cast off his people by pro- 
mising the Messias. So Junius thinks that the Lord 
here seals this promise of mercy to the people of Israel, 
that he will not utterly cut off his own people ; why ? 
because he wiU call his Son out of Egyjjt. But yet I 
cannot think this altogether satisfactory, and will give 
you that which may more clearly appear to be the mind 
of God. 

Thu-dly, This scripture in Hosea was intended not 
only to show what was past, that God did indeed call 
his people out of Egypt, but to typify God's future in- 
tentions. Other instances occur in which many things 
spoken in the Old Testament literally of other matters, 
yet, apparently, are meant typically of Jesus C'hi'ist; as 
Exod. xii. 46, compared with John xix. 36 : in Exodus, 
in the institution of the passover, God saith, " Not a 
bone of it shall be broken ;" now in John xix. 36, it 
is said, when the soldiers came to break the bones of 
the two thieves that were upon the cross, through the 
ordering of Providence they found that Christ was 
dead, and so they brake not his bones. One would 
think now that this were a mere accidental thing ; but 
yet the Holy Ghost saith, " These things w-ere done 
that the Scripture should bo fulfilled, A bone of him 
shall not be broken." Thus you see in things appa- 
rently very accidental, God has a special work, and often 
intends great things by what seem in our eyes to be of 
little moment. 'Wliat more light thing than that, that they 
should not break the bones of Christ ? though clear- 
ly meant at first literally concerning the paschal lamb, 
yet it had an ultimate typical reference to Jesus Christ. 
Compare two other scriptures togetlier, 2 Sam. vii. 14, 
with Heb. i. 5 : the words in Samuel apparently concern 
Solomon, " I will be to him a father, and he shall be to 
me a son ;" but now the apostle, in Heb. i. 5, applies 
them to Christ, and saith, " To which of the angels 
said he at any time, Thou art my son, this day have I 
begotten thee ? And again," saith he, " I will be to him 
a Fatlier, and he shall be to me a Son ? " These refer 
primarily to Solomon, and typically to Jesus Christ. 
So the words of the prophet here refer hterally to 
Israel going into Eg)-i)t and returning back again, but 
yet have a fmther typical bearing on what would be 
done with Christ, that he should go to Egypt and re- 
turn back again. 

Obs. 13. God has an eye to Christ in all he does, all 
his works some way or other have reference to Jesus 
Christ : indeed God's carrying his people to Egypt and 
bringing them back again, was one of liis greatest 
works, but still in that he had an eye to Jesus Christ. 

Obs. 14. It will be one great part of the glory of the 
saints hereafter, to see how God had reference to Jesus 
Christ in all his great works in the world. Now we 
look upon things and witness their influence, but we do 
not discern their reference to Jesus Christ ; hereafter 
it will be a special part of the glory of the saints, that 
they shall see how in all the works of God he had re- 
gard to Jesus Christ. In the work of creation ; God 
would not have created the world but for his Son : in 
the fall, and in every thing, he purposed the magnifjdng 
of the great work of his Son ; and those who had a 
special work of the Spirit of God in those times did 
understand God's meaning, though ordinarily they did 
not. I remember one learned interpreter, to show 
how they might understand God's mind by his types, 
thus expresses himself: As it was with Jonathan, when 
he carried his bow and arrows into the field to notify 
to David whether he should flv awav for fear of Saul, 



466 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XI. 



or return back again. Now when Jonathan shot his 
arrows, ho said to his lad, " Rehold, the arrows are on 
this side of thee, take them ;" or, " Behold, the arrows 
are beyond thee." Now the youth knew no more but 
that he was to look for the arrow, but David knew 
more, that when he said it was beyond him, then he 
should do thus, and when it was on this side, then he 
should do thus. It expresses very well the difference 
of the tj-]ies and the letter of things : those who knew 
but merely the letter, were like Jonathan's lad, that did 
but only according to what Jonathan said ; but David 
knew the intention of the mind of Jonathan, and so 
was able to make use of it. Oh ! it is an excellent 
thing to be able to understand the mind of God in his 
word; it is a fruit of the love of Jesus Clirist to his 
saints. And certainly if the people of Israel had but 
known this, when they first went into Egypt, and re- 
turned back again, that the Lord aimed at Jesus C'hrist 
in it, would it not have been a comfort to them ? If 
they had known that God intended to make them con- 
formable to his Son, would not this knowledge have 
supported them ? Then certainly it must needs be a 
comfort to the saints to know now, tliat in all their 
sufferings they have a conformitj' to Jesus Christ ; we 
know it now, and that the reason why we suffer is to 
make us conformable to Jesus Christ : the Jews did not 
know that this was the reason why God would have 
them suffer, but we know it, and therefore in all our 
sufferings we should exercise our faith in the sufferings 
of Jesus Christ. Do we suffer thus and thus ? he flid so, 
to take away the sting of our sufferings. And in a spe- 
cial manner, you that have been driven from house and 
home, and compelled, perhaps, to fly for your lives, and 
to go among strangers ; still your suffering is not so 
great as was the suffering of Jesus Christ ; he fled for 
his life when he was but an infant, and did not only fly 
to strangers, but to his enemies, to the Egj^tians : 
you are driven but from one part of England to an- 
other. O, exercise your faith in this. It was a very 
strange work of God's providence, that presently after 
he was born he must tiy for his life. You that are 
obliged to carry your children with you, O remember 
how Joseph and Mary were obliged to do it; and their 
flight was a great deal worse than yours, for they had 
no resource but to fly to Egypt. Now supposing it was 
by land, for which many reasons may be given, they 
were compelled to fly almost a hundred miles through 
the desert wilderness where there were no habitations : 
you fly from one town to another, and find relief; they 
were fain to fly above a hundred miles through the 
vei-y desert between the land of Canaan and Egypt. 
Now, though it is true the pcojile of Israel were forty 
years in the wilderness ; but not through the length of 
the place, as three days' journey might have carried 
them into the land of Canaan, had not God delayed 
them, and suffered them to entangle themselves on ac- 
count of their stubbornness and rebellions ; yet, al- 
though we have no reason to conclude that Joseph's 
flight into Egj-jit was as tedious, certainly it must 
needs have been sad and miserable : it cannot be con- 
ceived that any of your flights should be so sad and 
miserable as that was, for they could not carry any 
provision with them, but were fain to fly in a private 
way to save the life of Jesus Christ. Oh, how often 
do you think did Joseph and Mary look upon this babe 
when they were fljing through the desert wilderness, 
and think, What! is this the Son of God; is this the 
Saviour of the world ; is this he that should be the 
Redeemer of Israel ; is this he that is God and man ; 
is this he that is the Second Person in Trinity, that pre- 
sently after he is born we must fly for his life through 
a desert wilderness ? Oh the strange work of God in 
the very work of man's redeni])tion ! Things were so 
low and poor, and seemed to go on in such a contrary 



way, as would have staggered any one's faith, that 
Jesus Christ should do such great things as he after- 
wards did. O my brethren, this is the way of God, to 
task the faith of men, especially at first. So it was •nitli 
Christ's flight into Egypt. 

Ver. 2. As they called them, so they went from them: 
they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to 
graven images. 

" As thev called them." That is, Moses and Aaron, 
and other prophets and ministers of God sent unto 
them, called them to serve the Lord, and to worship 
him according to his own way. And especially they 
called them from idolaters and false worship. 

As I called them, koOuiq ii(rtKu\i(ra aiirovc, Sept. 
That is, though they were so called, I called them, 
yet they went from them. "When the means of God 
are so powerful, to resist then is a very great evil. " If 
our gospel," that is, our gospel preached with so much 
plainness and power, " be hid, it is hid to them that are 
lost," 2 Cor. iv. 3. But take it here, 

" As they called them." That is, look what earnest- 
ness there was in Moses and Aaron, and other minis- 
ters of God, to call them from their evil ways, so much 
stubbornness and stoutness was it for them to resist. 
Calvin thinks it is. Because they called them, therefore 
they went fiom them. That is, they went from them 
for the very nonce, as we are wont to say. Because 
Moses would have us do thus and thus, we will for 
that very reason do just the contrary. 

" So they went from them." That is, turned theii- 
backs upon' them : like stubborn children and servants, 
when they are called they will not hear, but turn their 
backs upon you ; so did they to Moses. From whence, 

Obs. 1. It is a mercy of tied to have God's ministers 
calling us to obedience. Who are we that God should 
send his messengers after us ? What need has God of 
us ? Suppose we go on in the ways of death, and 
perish, what shall God lose by it ? But this is God's 
mercv, that he will call after us. God might say. If you 
will go, go on and perish everlastingly. Oh, but he 
doth not so. 

Obs. 2. It is as great a mercy of God to call us out 
of sin to duty, as to bring us out of affliction, and we 
should account one as great as another. We think it 
a great mercy if the Lord will call us out of an afflic- 
tion : but when God calls us out of sin to duty, do 
you think that that is as great a mercy ? If you "do, it 
is a sign of a sanctified heart indeed. You are in 
sickness and under great extremity; if God should 
say, I will give out my word to deliver you, that would 
be a sweet word, you would say ; yes, but when God 
gives forth his word to call thee out of thy sin to a 
duty, thou shouldst as joyfully take a hint of that 
word of God too. O, prize God's call to you from sin 
to duty, as much as from misery to prosperity. 

Obs. 3. It is a great aggravation of men's sins, if they 
bo called to duty after God has called them out of 
misery, and they obey not. After thou comest out of 
an affliction, whether bodily or spiritual, God expects 
thou shouldst as diligeutlv hearken to his call that 
calls thee to duty, as thou (iidst take hold of his mercy 
when he held it to thee to deliver thee out of thine 
affliction. Charge thy soul thus. Oh WTetched heart that 
I have ! I called to God, and he has heard my call, and 
delivered me ; and now he calls me to duty, and shall I 
sto]i mine cars against God's call ? Oh how just were 
it for God to leave me in misery, when I tui-n my back 
to him when he calls me to duty ! 

Obs. 4. For men not only to disobey God's call, but 
to turn away themselves from it, and from those who 
speak to them in his name, betokens a high degree of 
suil'ulness. In Jcr. ii. 27, " Thev have turned their 



Ver. 2. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



467 



back unto me, and not their face ; " and so Jer. xxxii. 
33, " They have turned unto me the back, and not the 
face:" that is more than not to obey, it signifies to 
refuse to obey, to resolve not to obey. In Jer. xviii. 
17, God threatens them that, "in the day of then- ca- 
lamity," he would show them his back too. As, when a 
traitor is petitioning his prince, so long as the prince is 
but willing to parley with him, and to read his petition, 
there is liope ; but if the prince turn his back and will 
not look upon his petition, then hope is gone : so there 
is hope that we may bring persons to obedience so 
long as they will hearken to the word, but if once they 
turn their backs, then there is little hope : and when 
God turns his back upon sinners, woe unto them ! Ke- 
meraber, you that turn your back upon calls to obedi- 
ence, O remember that scripture in Jer. xviii. 17, 
that God threatens in the day of your calamity he will 
turn his back on you. Men do not attain to this wicked- 
ness at once ; at first they are loth to be convinced 
that such a thing is a truth, but at length, when the 
evidence of truth comes clear, they in a desperate way 
turn theii' backs upon it, and resolve not to hearken to 
it. A striking instance you liave of this in Jeremiah. 
At first they said that Jeremiah did not speak the word 
of the Lord, but afterward, ''As for the word that thou 
hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will 
not hearken unto thee," Jer. xliii. 2 ; xliv. 16. 

Obs. 5. It is yet a higher wickedness to have our 
corruptions irritated and provoked by the word. " As 
they called them, so they went from them." When 
men's hearts are as lime, that the showers of the word 
serve only to inflame them, their condition is sad in- 
deed ; when the clearer evidence they have of the 
word, and the more power with which it is preached, 
the more desperately wicked they become. We find 
it so in some places, and you wonder at it ; but wonder 
not, for where the word does not convert, it hardens. 

Obs. 6. God's free grace is very gi'eat and very 
strong. The Lord was merciful to his people that were 
thus stubborn and stout, but the more they were called 
to obedience the more wicked they grew, and yet God's 
mercy continued towards them for a long time together ; 
and indeed, in that God should set his heart and love 
upon such a people as tliis, is almost one of the great- 
est helps against despair that we know of. Do but look 
into the book of God, and read of the people of the 
Jews, what a wretched, froward, perverse, stubborn, 
stout-hearted nation they were, and yet that the God of 
all the people of the earth should choose them to be his 
peculiar people ; oh the free grace of God ! nothing God 
has more at heart than to honour free grace. I confess I 
had thought to have spent some time in showing you 
the extreme stubbornness of the Jews, with the special 
view of magnifying the free grace of God towards such 
an unworthy people : you find that God does so him- 
self ; when he speaks of his mercy to that people, he 
gives them this notice, that he would have them to 
know, that what he did for them was not for theii' own 
righteousness : thus Dent. ix. 6, " Understand therefore, 
that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land 
to possess it for thy righteousness ; for thou art a stiff- 
necked people : " as if God should say, 1 magnify fi-ee 
grace : whereas I might have chosen some other people 
that might have been more yieldable to my hand, I 
chose you, that it might appear that all that I did was 
out of free grace. In Psal. Ixxviii. 8, "their fathers" 
are called " a stubborn and rebellious generation ; " they 
seemed to be of strong spirits, but their strength was 
against the truth ; and though stubbornness has a 
seeming glory in it, yet the truth is, its strength is but 
very weakness. Thus Ezek. x-sd. 30, "How weak is 
thine heart, saith the Lord God, seeing thou doest all 
these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman ! " 
They are said to be strong-hearted, " imperious," but 



saith the Holy Ghost, "How weak is thine heai-t!" 
And you shall find in Scripture that they are called 
stiffnecked, and iron-sinewed, impudent and rebellious 
children, that walked contrary to God, and had harden- 
ed their hearts and made them like an adamant ; so 
Stephen saith. Acts vii. 51, " Ye do always resist the Holy 
Ghost : " moreover it is vei'y observable, if you examine 
the Scri])tures, that presently after the)' came out of the 
land of Egypt, within three days after God had shown 
them such a miraculous work they fell to murmuring ; 
nay, they did not stay so long, for it is said in Psal. 
cvi. 7, " They provoked the Lord at the sea, even at 
the Ked sea." In Exod. xvi. 2 ; xvii. 2, the people 
chide with Closes. So throughout Exodus, Numbers, 
Deuterononi)', Judges, and the Kings, you find them 
continually rebelling, a people witli an ii'on sinew 
against God ; and yet for all that the Lord makes choice 
of tliis people, and loves them : oh ! free grace, the 
free grace of God ! When yom- chilcben are stubborn 
and stout against you, and you think it a grievous af- 
fliction to you, reflect, none in the world are so crossed 
with stubborn children as God himself. 

And though an)- of j-ou should find your hearts very- 
stubborn, yet for all that do not allow them to sink 
into despau', for God's grace is fi-ee to overcome even 
stubbornness of heart, as it did here. You have a 
most remarkable confii'mation of this in Exod. xxxiv. 
8, 9, " And Moses made haste, and bowed his head to- 
ward the earth, and worshipped. And he said, K now 
I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, 
I pray thee, go among us ; for it is a stiffnecked peo- 
ple." Then- being " a stiflhecked people " was no argu- 
ment of despair, that God should not go among them ; 
but Moses uses it as an argument with God, Lord, they 
are " a stiffnecked people," yet " let my Lord, I pray 
thee, go among us;" "and pardon our iniquity and 
our sin, and take us for thine inheritance." We may by 
the way here note how the Chaldee paraphrase renders 
this. Let the majesty of the Lord go among us ; the 
majesty or divine presence ; the Hebrews call it Shechi- 
nah, m'SW which they usually distinguish from God 
the Father, and say there is no coming before the 
blessed high King without the Shechinah. So our 
Saviom' more plainly, John xiv. 16. But to return : 

Obs. 7. None should despair'. God holds forth by 
this example that he would have none sink with de- 
spair, but be brought in by his fi'ee grace, not-with- 
stantling the stubbornness of theii' hearts against him. 

Now as for the latter part of this 2nd verse, respect- 
ing then' sacrificing to Baalim, and burning incense to 
graven images, I shall not enter upon it, as I have 
spoken of it fully before. 

Ver. 3. / taught, Ephraim also to go, talcing them by 
their arms ; hut they knew not that I healed them. 

Here we have the third degree of God's goodness 
towards Ephraim, the fruit of his love ; he called them 
out of Eg)-pt, and he called upon them" by his prophets, 
and he taught them to go. 

" I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their 
arms." God here compares himself to a nurse, or to a 
tender parent, that carries along the child, guiding it 
by the hand and feet, and in rugged, foul places, taking 
it up in the arms; such were my dealings towards 
Ephraim, saith God. In Psal. Ixxvii. 20, God is said 
to lead them by the hand of Moses and Aaron, like a 
flock of sheep." But here he is said to lead them 
like a nurse or a parent; and this expression seems 
to have reference to Dent. i. 31, "In the wilderness, 
where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare 
thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that 
ye went:" look, as a man leads his son by his hand, 
and when he comes to difficulties, bears him up and 



468 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XI. 



takes him in his arms, so did the Lord thy God deal 
towards thee " his son ;" and, as a loving parent, taught 
thee how to go in thv way out of Egyi)t, and kd 
thee all through the wilderness until he brought thee 
into Canaan. 

When they came first out of Egj-])t they knew not 
which wav to go no more than a child, and if God had 
then left tlicm, certainly they had perished ; their way 
was very full of difficulty, and God did seem to lead 
them about, but the Scripture saith, "he led them 
forth by the right way," Psal. evil. 7. Though they 
•were forty years in the wilderness, whereas they might 
have gone through within a few days, yet still they were 
led in " the right way," God " taught them to go." 

Obs. 1. "When God calls his people out of afflictions, 
they know no more than a Uttle child how to guide 
themselves in their way. AVe think if we be delivered 
from such and such an evil we are well ; but when God 
does grant deliverance, if he should leave us there, we 
would quickly spoil ourselves, and turn our mercies in- 
to miseries. The pride of men's hearts inclines them to 
self-confidence, hence they get many a knock and bruise. 
Oh how many stumble aiid perish because they will be 
going themselves, and not depend upon God's hand ! 

■\Ve find this Ijy experience : God has in a great 
measure called us out of Egj'pt, and we hope that he 
intends a Canaan to us, yet, what childi-en are we ! we 
do not know how to take a step in our way ; oh how 
often since have we been at a stand, in a maze, not 
knowing which way to take, this or that ! and how 
often, alas, have we fallen and gone astray! If ever 
people reqmied God to teach them how to go, we do so 
at this day ; our path is an untrodden path, and there 
are many stumbling-blocks in our way, and we often 
stumble and fall in "them. Poor children do not more 
require the hand of the parent or nurse, when they go 
upon the ice or in slippery ways, than we need the 
hand of God upon us to lead and guide us in these our 
ways. 

Obs. 2. The way in which God often leads people, 
may be a way of much difficulty. He " taught Ephraim 
also to go," and " led him forth by the right way." 
If we inquire what that way was; it was the way 
through the wilderness, yea, the way before they came 
into the wilderness, before they came to the sea : thus, 
Exod. xiv. 9, " The Egviitians pursued after them, all 
the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, 
and his army, and overtook them encamping by the 
sea, beside Pi-hahu-oth, before Baal-zcphon." They 
were in a very strait wav, the sea before them, Pharaoh 
and all his army behind them, and they were " encamp- 
ing by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth," at the mouth of 
those mountains whicli compassed them round about ; 
and they were " before Baal-zophon," that is. The god 
of watching, the god which the Egyptians believed did 
watch those that went out of their countrj- without 
permission. Yet, under the eye of this their watching- 
god, hemmed in between mountains, the sea before 
them and a great army behind them, God " taught 
them to go." In what way does God teach them to go? 
God " taught them to go " even througli the sea. And 
when they have gone through the sea, is all the evil 
over ? No, they must go into the waste howling wil- 
derness, and there be led about for forty years togetlier ; 
and yet God here reckons up such guidance of them 
as a fruit of his love. 

So long as we arc in God's way, though it be diffi- 
cult, yet have we cause to bless him that we are in it ; 
and let not us be troubled at the difficulties we meet 
with, when we see God before us, leading us in our 
way. 

Obs. 3. The more difficult their way is, the more 
care God has of his people. We do not find such an 
expression of God's care to teach tliem in any other 



way but when they went first out of Egj-pt ; because 
then their way was the most difficult, therefore God 
took upon him in a special manner their guidance. 

Be not discouraged at your difficulties. i)ut when you 
are in your way, and your conscience tells you that it 
is not a way that you have chosen to yourselves, look 
up to God for guidance, crj^ to him ; as you find in 
Psal. cvii. G, '• They cried unto the Lord in their trou- 
ble ;" and then, ver. ", " he led them forth by the right 
way." Mark how these two are joined together; 
" They cried unto the Lord in their trouble," and " he 
led them forth by the right way." When )ou are in 
straits, cry to God in your trouble, and the Lord will 
lead you forth " by the right way." When we have 
been in the greatest straits, and have had the hardest 
way to go, how has God taken us up in his arms! 
Through God's mercy, though we be ver)- weak, yet we 
are gone on a gi-eat way from Egy])t, even bondage in 
our spiritual Egy])t. It is unthankfulness in people to 
say, We are in as bad a condition as ever we were. 
AVhat God may bring us to through the unthankful- 
ness of men we know not ; but certainly, through 
God's mercy, we have been led along a great way on 
oiu: journey. God has taught us to go ; it has not been 
the wisdom nor foresight of men that has carried us so 
far on in our way, no, we have found, apparently, we 
are not much beholden to the wisdom of men for thai 
way in which we have been carried, but it is God fnas 
has come in in our straits. We see by what has fallen 
ouf, how othen^ise we should have perished in our 
way, or even returned back again into Egi,-pt : how 
often have we been ready to think. Would things were 
with us as heretofore ! oh ! such has been the peevish 
discontent of our spirits, that we have been thinking of 
turning back into our Eg^-pt : as it was with Israel of 
old, though God was with them in their way, yet often 
they thought of returning back again. M'e have been 
ready to think of by-ways for ourselves, and every one 
to trust to his own devices ; and what cross paths have 
we walked in, first one way, and then another, undoing 
what we have done ! first engaging men, and then dis- 
couraging the same men that we have encouraged ; 
though they have continued the same, yet our spirits 
toward them have not remained unchanged. We may 
apply to ourselves Jer. xxxi. 22, which is spoken in 
reference to their way, coming out of their captivity ; 
" How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding 
daughter?" AVe may well say to England at this 
day. Oh, how long wilt thou go about? that is, shift- 
ing this way and that, and not daring to trust God in 
his way. We are afraid, that if we should go on in the 
right path in which God guides us, that we should mis- 
carry, and therefore we go about, and that is the rea- 
son it is so long before we have our deliverance ; we 
follow our own way, and do not submit ourselves to the 
guidance of God. God makes to his people an excel- 
lent promise in Jer. xxxi. 9, in reference to the guiding 
of them in their way from their captivity : " Thev 
shall come with weeping, and with supphcations will 1 
lead them : I will cause them to walk by the rivers 
of waters in a sti'aight way, wherein thev shall not 
stumble : for I am a father to Israel, and tphraim is 
my first-bom." Tliis is a passage very suitable to the 
scripture we are now opening. It is a fruit of fatherly 
love to guide us in a straight way, and keep us from 
stumbling. But mark how this shall be done ; " They 
shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I 
lead them ;" there must we weeping and supplication, 
to cry to God for guidance in our way : as a poor child, 
if it be left a little by the mother or nurse, stands cr)-- 
ing for support and guidance ; so it should be our care, 
in all our straits, not to fly upon this or that instru- 
ment, but to crj' to God to lead us forth by the right 
way. Wc may apply this to God's guidance of the 



Vek. 3. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



4G9 



soul from spiritual Eg}-j)t ; when God brings tlie soul 
out of spiritual bondage he guides it in the way to the 
heavenly Canaan. You whom the Lord is bringing 
out of your spmtual bondage, look up to God to teach 
you how to go. '\\Tiy ? For the way on which you 
have entered is a hard way, a straight way, and narrow 
way ; it has many stumbling-blocks in it, and many by- 
paths near it, that are very like to it : your way is a 
very slippery way, and you had need be taught how to 
go ; else you may slip and fall, and grievously wound 
yourselves. You that are young beginners in the way 
of religion, be not too confident in your- own under- 
standing and your own sti-ength. ISIanypoor children, 
for want of the care of then- nurses, have gotten such 
falls when they were children that have lamed them 
and made them go crooked all theu- days : and so it 
has been with many young professors of religion ; be- 
cause they have been too bold and confident in their 
own understanding, the Lord has left them to such 
fells that they prove but crooked all the days of their 
profession ; and though they do go on in the ways of 
religion, they are but maimed and crooked professors. 
And truly we have very great cause to fear, that they 
■who survive but a few years, to see the present young 
professors of religion live to be something old, I say, 
Tre have cause to fear that those that live to see it, will 
seea gi-eat many maimed and crooked professors among 
them ; for many young ones in these slippery times, that 
Tenture so much upon the ice, upon doubtful things 
that they understand not, get such falls and bruises as 
are like to stick to them as long as they live. Oh, let 
young ones take heed of venturing upon doubtful 
things, let them look up to God to make their way 
plain before them, and not lean to their own under- 
standings, lest (I say) they meet with falls attended by 
bruises that tliey may feel another day. 

Obs. 4. Seeing God makes it a fruit of his love to 
teach his people how to go, when you see others slip 
and stumble in their profession of religion, bless God 
for his mercy towards you, that he teaches and upholds 
you in your way. As when a man is riding upon the 
road in winter time, it may be he sees some before 
him whose horses get into holes and stumble, to the 
great danger or even serious injury of their riders ; now, 
if you should see a man thus falling and bi'eaking his 
leg or arm, would you not have cause to bless God 
that delivered you from such a mishap : so, when you 
see professors of religion falling in the ways of their 
profession, O bless God that he teaches you in your 
way, upholds and guides you. In slippery ways you 
■wili take hold of the hands of tender women to guide 
them ; and so God does with you : know, the whole 
course of yoiu" way from spiritual Egj-pt to spiritual 
Canaan, is so covered with ice and so rugged, that God 
is fain throughout it all to take you by the hand. Oh 
the goodness of God, to condescend thus to his poor 
creatures, to compare himself to a nurse ! Oh how often 
would we run into harm's way (as we are wont to 
say) if God did not lead us ! 

Obs. 5. Take heed, you who are weak, and have need 
of teaching, that you be not wayward and wanton, 
that you be not foolish and um-uly, and that you do 
not wilfully run into rugged and slippery ways. God 
indeed is as a nurse to teach you how to go ; yea, but 
be not you as wayward and froward children, that some- 
times tire their nurses. It is more difficult to teach some 
children than others how to go, they are so froward 
and wilful that, if the eye of their nurse be from them 
but never so little, they will go their own way. O take 
heed you be not among those froward, wilful children, 
that will still be going their own wa)-. 

Obs. 6. God's ministers and all of us should labour 
to follow God in this his tender care of others. "V\"e 
should be like our Father. God takes a delight in 



teaching weak ones how to go, and in guiding them in 
their way. Truly, we that profess ourselves to be God's 
children, should imitate our Father : and especially 
God's ministers should take a delight to help weak 
ones on in their way ; yea, to carry them in their very 
arms. That which God is said here to do, is elsewhere 
ascribed to Moses, as in Numb. xi. 12, " Have I con- 
ceived all this people ? have I begotten them, that 
thou shouldest say unto me. Cany them in thy bosom, 
as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the 
land which thou swarest unto their fathers ? " It seems 
Moses, though he thought it to be very hard to bear 
so many people in his arms, (as it were,) yet God gave 
that commission to him, and he did it according as he 
was able, carrying the people as a nurse or a parent 
carries the sucking child in their bosom. 

Obs. T. God's ministers must not be discouraged 
though they meet with those that are very froward. 
We are as froward in reference to God, as any can be 
in reference to us ; and therefore ministers, when they 
meet with young professors, and other beginners in the 
ways of godliness, and find them often untoward and 
peevish, should not because of that cast them OB'S but 
consider, if God had cast off you because of that, what 
would have become of you ? No, instruct with meek- 
ness even them that oppose themselves ; though they 
kick and spurn, yet instruct them with meekness. In 
1 Thess. ii. 7, we have a notable pattern how a minister 
should carry himself in this respect ; " But we were 
gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her chil- 
dren." Thus ministers should be of gentle spirits, and 
know that C^od places them to teach chikh-en how to 
go in their way. So we find in Tit. i. 7, that they must 
not be " soon angry ;" ministers must not be of angry 
dispositions. You would be loth to put your childi-en 
to froward nurses, their very milk would some way 
savour of them, and injure your childi"en ; it is a special 
qualification, and necessarily required in a nurse, that 
she be of a gentle and patient disposition. Now God's 
ministers are compared to nurses ; and do not think the 
comparison too mean, for God himself is compared to 
a nurse, when he saith, " I taught Ephraim also to go, 
taking them by their arms." 

Obs. S. That the love and tender care of parents and 
nurses in bringing up chilcben, and enduring much 
trouble with them, imposes a great obligation on chil- 
dren when grown up to requite with duty and due re- 
spect theu' parents and nurses; and if they do not, it 
greatly aggravates their guQt. You that are grown up 
from children, remember the care, the soitow, and th» 
trouble of your bringing up, and be ashamed of youi 
undutifulness. How is it that you have all your limbs, 
but from the care of your parents and nurses ? You are 
to bless God for the care of those to whom you were 
committed when childi'en, and know that you r:i<~. due 
respect unto them for it. He is an apostate to the gi-eat 
law of nature, who violates charities due to parents and 
nurses. I remember I have read of tlie Pisidians, a 
certain heathen people, that when they were feasting 
at any time, the first-fruit of all theu- feast they would 
off'er to their parents, as thinking it unseemly for them 
to rejoice in the use of the creatiu-e, without showing 
due honour to their parents, from whom they had their 
being and education. Heathens have ever condemned 
and punished undutifulness in cliildren ; and the law 
of God (we know) does punish a stubborn chUd with 
death. 

" But they knew not that I healed them." Many 
times children, though there be a great care to teach 
them how to go, yet wUl by their very venturesome 
wantonness get many a knock and bruise. So it was 
with this people ; Indeed my care was towards them, but 
they would go their own way, and often to their own 
hurt. Well, did God therefore reject them, and say. It 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XI. 



is througli your own fault that you have gotten these 
bruises and maims ? No, " I healed them," saith God. 
Though they were never so froward, and got thereby 
many" bruises, >et my ])ity was so great, that I healed 
those very wounds arid bruises occasioned by their own 
wilfulness. 

Though in the reading of this we may pass it easdy 
by, yet it is as remarkable a scripture as most we have 
in the book of God. WTiat is the reason our con- 
sciences do so misgive us, and that we are so afraid 
that the Lord will leave us to ourselves ? Our accusing 
consciences tell us this, that we may thank ourselves 
for our state ; the Lord showed us another way, but we, 
through our sinful frowardness, would take our own. 
Can we then think that the Lord will have care of us 
in our sores that we got ourselves by our wilfulness ? 
Yes, (saith God,) such was my compassion towards 
Ephraim, that I taught them how to go ; and yet they 
got bruises ; but still " I healed them." 

Obs. 9. God will not cast off his chikben though 
they get hurt ; yea, though they get hurt by their own 
sin, yet the Lord is so gracious as to heal them. There 
are remarkable words respecting this in Isa. Ivii. 17, 
18, " For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, 
and smote him : I hid me, and was wroth, and he went 
on frowardly in the way of his heart." " He went on 
frowardly " when " I smote him." What then ? In the 
18th verse, " I have seen his ways." One would have 
thought there should have followed, I will therefore 
smite him, and jilague him, and make him to know 
what it is to deal so frowai-dly and perversely with me ; 
but behold the goodness of the Lord ! God's " ways 
arc not our ways, neither are his thoughts our thoughts," 
for he saith, "I have seen his ways, and will heal him : 
I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and 
to his mourners." I will not say, I will never lead him 
more, because he would not regard my teaching, but 
go his own ways and get many bruises ; no, I have 
seen his ways, and will heal him, and lead him, not- 
withstanding. 

O be not discouraged when you have gone out of 
God's way, but be troubled and ashamed ; make use of 
this promise : the Lord sees the frowardness of his peo- 
ple, and yet will heal them, and lead them, and restore 
comfort to them. 

And, my brethren, thus has the Lord dealt graciously 
■with us in our inconsiderate, foolish, sinful courses. 
How often have we in this land been brought low by 
them I we have been sore wounded, yea, in danger of 
bleeding to death, by the falls that we have got ; we have 
oflen given up all for lost, as it were ; men's ways have 
been so perverse and cross, and there has been so little 
hope of any good, that sometimes, when we have met 
together, we have even said, All is gone, we are but be- 
trayed, and therefore there is little hope of any good. 
Have not we oftentimes said thus ? but the Lord has 
come in and healed us, and that scripture in Isa. Ivii. 
has been made good to us ; the Lord has beheld the 
frowardness of our ways, and yet has healed us, and 
has led us. You have gone on in such and such ways, 
saith God, and you have even undone yourselves in 
them, and you were despised, and others squandered 
away your estates, and nothing came of it ; well, you 
knew not what to do, I will lead you in ways that you 
do not think of, in such ways as you have the least 
hopes of good by, I will lead you on in those ways, and 
restore comfort' to you. My brethren, tFie ways by 
which the Lord has this last summer restored comfort 
to England, were they ways that any of you thought of 
this time twelvemonths? Certainly, it was never in 
the imaginations and thoughts of men to be brought 
by such ways as the Lord lias led us in, and by which 
he has restored to us comfort ; the Lord saw that the 
old army was not the way to restore comforts to Eng- 



land, and he has devised other means, new-modelled 
our army : well, let God's healing of tlie bruises that 
we got in walking in our own ways make us thankful, 
and careful that we run not wilfully into any such ways 
any more, that we be not still more venturous and more 
cai'eless ; if we be, God may suffer us to break our 
bones ; for though God be patient, and loving, and 
merciful, yet he has time to leave men to the perverse- 
ness of their own ways. It may cost us dear before we 
are healed, if God leave us ; though God may not lake 
away his love to cast us wholly off, yet we may be 
forced to cry again and again with David, " Restore 
unto me the joy of thy salvation ;" " make me to hear 
joy and gladness ; that the bones which thou hast 
broken may rejoice," Psal. li. David would go out of 
his way, and he fell so as to break his bones ; Oh 
" that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice." 
\Vlien God heals us, he expects that we should take 
notice of his work, and acknowledge in it his hand. 

" But they knew not that I healed them." I healed 
them, saith God, but they knew not that I healed them. 

Obs. 10. God does us much good that we know not 
of: " but they knew not that I healed them." I say, 
God does us much good that we know not of, not only 
in preventing mercies, but in healing mercies ; we at- 
tribute our healing to this and the other cause, but it 
is God in the use of means, sometimes even beyond 
means, though means oftentimes have been used with- 
out any good result, till at last God by a secret and in- 
visible blessing comes and heals us. We must not envy 
at the honour due to instruments ; but certainly, by the 
healing that we have had this last summer, we have 
cause to look beyond all men and means ; and though 
God has used means, yet we should attribute all the 
glory immediately to God. Oh ! let not us by our pride 
and stoutness, our oppression, our foolishness, make it 
a])pear that we do not acknowledge that God has 
healed us : God stands much upon being acknowledged 
to be the healer of his people, because it is his glory. 
In bodily healings we are ready to acknowledge those 
that heal us ; what thankfulness is given to physicians 
when they have been instruments of good to us ! Be- 
fore the cure, what would men give ! all their estates, 
that they might be healed of such a disease ; but when 
healed, it may be, some will neglect the physician ; but 
only those of base spirits, for men generally are very 
ready to show gratitude in such a case : how gainful 
therefore is the practice of physicians that God makes 
use of to heal men's bodies ! Louis XL of France 
allowed his chaplains twenty shillings a month, but his 
])hysician, one John Cottiore, ten thousand crowns; 
four crowns must serve his chaplain, while ten thou- 
sand are barely sufficient for his physician ; so gainful is 
the practice of the latter, because men are more sensible 
of the healing of their bodies than the healing of their 
souls. 

AVell, any of you who have been in great sickness 
and distress of body, yea, and in distress of soul too, 
and are healed, do not now, by the inconsidcrateness of 
your minds, and the abuse of your strength in the 
ways of sin, manifest that you do not know that God 
has' healed you ; both in respect of national healing, 
and in respect of personal healing, let every one make 
use of those words of David, Psal. ciii. 1 — 3, " Bless 
the Lord, O my soul : and all that is within me. bless 
his holy name:" and again, "Bless the Lord, O my 
soul, aiid forget not all his benefits : who forgiveth all 
thine iniquities ; who healeth all thy diseases." Oh 
that we were able to join these two together now, 
" ^V^lo forgiveth all thiiie iniquities," and " healeth all 
thy diseases !" Healing is a mercy indeed, but how much 
more sweet a mercy when it is a fruit of forgiveness ! 
God has in great measure healed the land and nation, 
oh that we could say that he had forgiven us ! Our 



THE PKOPIIECY OF HOSEA. 



47i 



healiiif; -nithout our forgiveness will be to little pur- 
pose ; and therefore, in tlie times of our greatest wounds, 
we should cry for forgiveness in the first place, and not 
be satisfied with any healing without forgiveness of our 
sins. And so particularly, God, it may be, has healed 
some of you, or some in your families, of bodily diseases, 
and has been pleased to relieve you in your sad condi- 
tion ; yea, but can you put both together, bless the 
Lord who has forgiven all the iniquities of my family, 
and healed all their diseases? Do not satisfy your- 
selves with any thing short of this ; when thou findest 
the one, "all thy diseases" healed, be not satisfied ex- 
cept by faith thou canst see the other, " all thine ini- 
quities" forgiven. 

Ver. 4. / dreic them icith cords of a man, with bands 
of love : and I ivas to them as they that take off the yoke 
on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them. 

This is a great verse, and it will be very hard to pass 
over it in an expositoi-y way only. 

" I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of 
love." 

Here is a fifth expression of God's love. Two occurred 
in the former verse, " I taught them to go," and " I 
healed them," and others preceded them ; now here 
is the fifth, " I drew them with cords of a man, with 
bands of love." God still aggravates his mercy that 
they may see the aggravations of their sin. There is 
no such way to be kindly humbled for sin, as to see it 
has been committed against much mercy. 

" I cb'ew them with cords of a man." 

Some understand this as if it were a proper name, 
with the cords of Adam, for the word is ms a man 
of red earth. 

But it is rather to be taken appellatively ; " with the 
cords of a man," that is, I did not deal with them like 
beasts, which must be di'awn or forced on with vio- 
lence ; my way was not thus with thera, to draw them 
and force them on with iron chains or strong cords 
about them ; no, saith he, I dealt with them like men, 
" I (bew them with cords of a man." Which denotes 
these three things : 

I. I dealt with them rationally, as men, not as beasts, 
and so sought to draw them. 

II. I dealt with them gently, not with rigour and 
violence, but as a man, for they were human ; so my 
ways were ways suitable to their humanity : as the 
Scripture sometimes speaks of the rods of men, I will 
chastise them with the rods of men, by which some 
think is meant, I will deal with them gently. 

in. I dealt with them honourably, in a manner 
suitable to that respect which is due to man. I con- 
sidered that they were men, made at first according to 
my image, that they were the most excellent creatures 
that I had upon the earth, and therefore I dealt with 
them in a way suitable to preserve the honour of their 
human nature, rationally, gently, honourably. 

I. Consider how God dealt rationally with this people. 

1 . The statutes which I gave them were according to 
the very principles of right reason, therefore, in Dent. 
iv. 6, he saith, "Keep therefore and do them ; for this 
is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of 
the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say. 
Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding peo- 
ple. Why ? Mark the 8th verse ; " What nation is there 
so great, tliat hath statutes and judgments so righteous 
as all this law, which I set before you this day ? " Mark, 
all the nations that are about you shall say, "\\niat na- 
ticn is there so wise, that has statutes and judgments 
like this nation? surely then my law had abundance 
of reason in it, reason sufficient to convince, not only 
you, but all the nations round about you. " I di'ew 
them with cords of a man," that is, rationally. 



2. God strengthened it with many arguments, which 
is some way beyond the manner of men. If the Lord 
had but only given forth his law, and left men to dis- 
cover its meaning, it had been enough ; yea, but the 
Lord " drew thera with cords of a man," that is, added 
to liis law many ar-guments and reasons to show its 
equity. Now men think it enough if they give out a 
law, you are not used to have the proof and the reason 
of it ; yea, but saith God, " I di-ew them with cords of 
a man ; " I gave them a law that had reason in it, and 
explained that reason : as, if we should go no fur- 
ther than the very moral law, see how God begins, " I 
am Jehovah thy God, which have brought thee out of 
the land of Egypt;" evei-y word containing a reason to 
back tlie law. " I am Jehovah ;" therefore obey. I am 
"thy God;" therefore obey. I am thy God "which 
have brought thee out of the land of Egypt ; " therefore 
obey. You thus see how the Lord argues his law by 
the strength of reason. 

3. Yea, he not only employs reason, but many per- 
suasions, and motives, and exhortations, as man deals 
with man : if you read the 4th, 5th, and 6th chapters of 
Deuteronomy, you shall find all these, calculated to al- 
lure to obedience as well as to convince ; motives and 
persuasions being as the " cords of a man," to draw man 
as a rational creature. 

4. If they had any objections, I answered them all. 
Do you not find when you come to hear the word, that 
it meets with every secret objection? you can have no 
secret objection against any thing that God requires, 
but at some time or other the word meets with it. 

5. Yea, I called them to reason with me, therefore I 
dealt with them like rational creatures ; as in Isa. i. 18, 
" Come now, and let us reason together, saith the 
Lord ;" see how God deals with people after the man- 
ner of men : as now, if you should fall out with a 
jieighbour, who, it may be, is li'oward and humorous, 
when you are able to overcome your own passion, you 
go to him and say, I pray thee let us reason the case 
together, and if it be yours, take it ; so God saith. Let 
us reason the case together, be not carried on with 
humour and passion, but let us come and fair-ly reason 
the case one with another. 

6. God earnestly desires that they woidd but con- 
sider of things. In Deut. xxxii. 29, " O that they were 
wise, that they understood this, that they would con- 
sider their latter end ! " Now when you have to deal 
with the froward and passionate, if by the strength of 
reason you could control your own passion, you would 
be ready to express yourselves thus. Oh that I could 
but find such a man exercising his reason, that he were 
but wise, that he would but weigh things ! Thus God 
saith concerning his people. Oh that they were wise, 
and considered, and understood ! 

7. God pleads with them after the manner of men. 
In Jer. ii. 35, " Behold, I will plead with thee, because 
thou sayest, I have not sinned." Thou art righteous in 
thine own thoughts ; come then, I will plead with thee, 
and convince thee, saith God. As now, if any m-ong 
you, and yet will not acknowledge their fault, per- 
haps some" of turbulent spirits will make them know 
that they have wronged them by casting them into 
prison ; but God does not do so, he pleads the case with 
them. 

8. The Lord will appeal to their own consciences 
whether they have dealt well with him, yea or no ; he 
will make them to be the judges. In Isa. xlvi. 8, 
" Remember this, and show yom-selves men : bring it 
again to mind, O ye transgressors : " do not be led on 
like beasts in your passion and humour, show your- 
selves but men, and do but remember, and think of it. 
I will leave it to you to judge : " Judge, I pray you, 
betwixt me and my vineyard," Isa. v. 3. And then 
again, " Ai-e not my ways equal ? are not your ways 



472 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XI. 



\ 



unequal ? " Ezek. xviii. 29. Now all these expressions 
ai-e to show how God drew them with the " cords of a 
man," rationally. 

II. He drew 'them gently. As if God should say, I 
have not driven them on with rigour, but I have dealt 
gentlv with them, like men. Indeed as to one who was 
alwaj's striking a youth, or servant, or man, you would 
be ready to say. You have not to do with a beast, or a 
dog, but with a man : saith God, I remembered I had 
to deal with a man, and therefore I dealt gently. There 
are these six or seven particulars, in wliich God ex- 
presses his dealing gently with them. 

1. I suited myself to their very dispositions. This 
now is to deal in a gentle way. As a schoolmaster 
looks upon his scholars not as a company of beasts, 
but as the cliildren of men, and therefore considers 
their dispositions and tempers, and, if he be a wise 
schoolmaster, suits himself thereto, and draws them on 
with such ways and cords as are suitable to human na- 
tuie : so I do, saith God, I lead them gently, drawing 
them as " with cords of a man." 

2. I observed when they were in the best temper, and 
have sought to work upon them then. If you that ai'e 
wives will deal with your husbands like men, observe 
when they arc in a good temper, and then seek to draw 
them. God does so : I observed when they were in the 
best possible temper, and then I came upon them to 
draw them with the most strength. 

3. I gave them time to consider. Though they were 
never so untoward, jet I did not instantly chasten 
them, but gave them time to bethink themselves : 
many scriptures we might adduce on this point. Now 
when we fly upon others presently, without thus giving 
them time to consider, we deal not with them like men, 
but beasts ; but " I drew them," saith God, " with cords 
of a man." 

4. I hired them to obedience by my gifts. I do not 
only in an imperious way command them to obey at 
their peril, but I have come and hired them to the 
ways of obedience, and gave them gifts to draw them, 
and so I dealt with them like men. 

0. When they did not obey, I considered whether it 
were thi'ough weakness or wilfulness, and, putting a 
difference between them, dealt with them accordingly. 

6. In all afflictions that were brought upon them, I 
considered that they were but men of weak natures, 
and could not bear much; I did not lay on as if I were 
laying upon an ox, or some such creature that had 
much strength to bear, but I considered that they were 
men, and their natures tender, and I laid on my strokes 
gently : as you know the prophet speaks in Isa. Ivii. 
16, "I will not contend for ever, neither will I be 
always wroth : for the spirit should fail before me, and 
the souls which I have made." The Lord looks upon 
the weaknesses of his ])eoplc, and therefore will not 
contend, lest their spirits should fail before him. 

7. In their afflictions I sym)>athizcd. So you know 
what the Lord saith, " In all their afflictions I was af- 
flicted," Isa. Ixiii. 9. As a tender father, or wise mas- 
ter, if he strike the child or servant, the vciT blows, in 
a manner, will be felt by himself; but it is not so with 
you when you strike a beast. So saith God, when I 
afflicted them, it went to my very heart, and I was af- 
flicted as well as they. 

III. He drew them honourably. That is, so that the 
honour and respect which were any way due or suitable 
to such a creature were preserved. 

1. My instructions over exceeded my con-cctions. 
I never inflicted more stripes than I gave instructions. 
It is a dishonour to manknid for any superior to give 
more blows tlian instructions ; but I dealt with tliem 
like men, suitalile to the respect which is, in a manner, 
^lue to human nature. 

2. Whatsoever spark of ingenuousness remained in 



them, I took care to preserve it. If there were but a 
spark of this virtue in any of them, I not only did not 
quench it, but took great care to preserve it in all my 
dealings towards them. 

3. I aimed at their good as well as mine own glory 
in all things. Many scriptures confirm this. When you 
strike beasts, you do not consider of the good of the 
beast, but of the benefit you may derive by the fur- 
therance of your work ; but when you strike men, you 
should regard their good as well as your own advan- 
tage. No parent should strike a child, but with refer- 
ence rather to the benefit of the child than to the gra- 
tification of their own humour: when you strike 
merely for your own advantage, without aiming at the 
good of those vou punish, you deal not with them like 
men, but like beasts. 

4. In all my dealings I still held forth hope of re- 
conciliation upon their returning unto me. Though 
they deseiTed never so much, and I seemed to come 
against them in the harshest manner, yet I never so 
dealt against them but there was hope preserved that, 
on their repentance, I would be reconciled to them : 
this is to deal with them like men. When you, parents 
or governors, deal with any that offend you, never be 
so harsh as not to leave, though they be verj- evil, some 
hope that upon their coming in they may be reconciled 
to you. 

5. In all my dealings with them, though they were 
hard sometimes to flesh and blood, yet I put a differ- 
ence between them and other people. Other people 
were to me in comparison but as dogs, but these as 
men, yea, as free-men. So in Jer. ii. 14, " Is Israel a 
servant ? is he a homebom slave ? why is he spoiled ? " 
What ! Israel a servant, a home-born slave ? No, he 
must be looked upon as a free-man. So in Isa. xx^■ii. 
7, " Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote 
him ? " No, I look on them in a different respect, and as 
men, yea, as free-men, and deal with them accordingly. 

6. SMiensoever they began to return, I met them 
half way. I did not stand it out to the uttermost, to 
discourage their hearts, but I met them half way in all 
their returnings. And did not God deal honourably 
with them ? Indeed, if you desire to treat contemptu- 
ously those who have oflended you, you say, Let them 
wait ; but if to honour others, if we see them but 
coming afar off, we go forth with haste to meet them, 
as the father of the prodigal did: so saith God, I 
did not deal with them in a contemptuous manner, 
but " I drew them with cords of a man," and honour- 
ably entreated them. 

Thus you have this expression opened, " I ilrew them 
with cords of a man." 

Now there are divers things to be obser\ed on these 
three points. 

Obs. 1. The ways of God are very rational, so that 
they may draw any man of understanding to love them. 
If man's nature were not degenerated, if we did but 
stand right in regard of our principle of reason, it 
were impossible but the ways of God should draw 
us, at least to an outward obedience to them : there 
is no reason in your ways, but there is reason in 
God's ways ; and therefore, if you had but the hearts 
of men, though vou had not tie hearts of saints, you 
would be constrained to approve at least of God's ways, 
and di-awn to an outward conformity with them. If 
men were not besotted with their lusts, and did but 
bethink themselves of the ways of God, they certainly 
never would be so confident in their wickedness. " If 
thv people," saith Solomon, 1 Kings viii. 47, "shall be- 
think themselves in the land whither they were carried 
captives ;" there is .so much reason in God's ways, that if 
one did but bethink himself. " I considered," saith Da- 
vid, Tsal. cxix. 59, " my ways, and turned my feet unto 
thy testimonies." Oh, it is a great mercy to have a con- 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



473 



sidering heart ; and it is a great judgment of God to 
leave any to a slight and vain spirit, not to weigh and 
ponder things. Most people are led on in a continued 
hun-y of passion, like to the horse in the battle, and no 
man saith, What have I done ? O, couldst thou but at- 
tain so much power over thy passion and the violence 
of thy lusts, as to get alone and weigh God's ways, 
surely thou couldst not but be convinced that the ways 
of God are better than thy ways, they are so rational. 

06s. 2. The way to prevail w'ith men, is to deal with 
them in a rational way. The way that I took to pre- 
vail with this people, was to draw them with the cords 
of men. Certainly the means God adopts to prevail 
with people are the best. 

Therefore those who would prevail to bring any to 
adopt their views, should deal with them in a rational 
way : so the Spirit of God, in John xvi. 8, _" And when 
he is come, he will reprove the world of sin ;" that is, 
he shall come with demonstration, for so tXkyKn liter- 
ally signifies : to convince by way of demonstration so 
clearly, that one cannot possibly deny. And so the apos- 
tle saith, Our preaching was iv airo?£i?fi vvivp.aTo<; km 
Smdiieug, in the " demonstration of the Spirit and of 
power," 1 Cor. ii. 4 : mark, " in the demonstration of 
the Spirit," and so in " power." This concerns minis- 
ters more especially : if ministers would speak power- 
fully to people, let them speak in demonstration, the 
demonstration of the Spirit indeed it must be, there is 
a spiritual reason in the Scripture. Ministers must not 
think to scare men into the ways of godliness, though 
I know sometimes God makes use of the bare terrors 
of the law ; but the main thing whereby ministers must 
have hope to do good to their people, must be by preach- 
ing convincingly, to overcome their very reason as far 
as possible, and to set the law of God so before them, 
that if they will but judge between God and their own 
souls, they shall condemn themselves, and approve of 
God. That ministry is likely to be the best soul-saving 
ministry, which meets with every objection of theu- 
hearts, and at every tui'n reveals their secrets. O re- 
member 3'ou preach to men, and therefore make use of 
that reason which you find in Scripture. I Icnow reason 
alone will never do it ; but yet when God works to the 
salvation of souls, he works upon them after the man- 
ner of men, and therefore the ministers of God, that are 
co-workers with God, should work in a manner corre- 
spondent. 

And not only ministers, but magistrates too, must la- 
bour to draw them with the cords of men, that is, by rea- 
son rather than violence, in difficult cases of conscience. 
In such things as men cannot be convinced, and yet 
are not wilfully ignorant, they must not make prisons 
and fines their arguments, these are not the cords of 
men : indeed in civil matters, that can^ in »!■ i r very face 
the light of common equity and justici.', magistrates 
need not stay to persuade or convince, but may enforce 
obedience by punishments ; but in all things of a more 
dubious nature, and that, from their connexions and con- 
sequences, are difficult to be understood, and are conti'o- 
verted even among godly and wise men, there they must 
proceed with tenderness and caution : people must first 
be instructed and informed, and then, if they do not op- 
pose wilfully, but seem to desire to understand, and yet 
cannot, they must not be dealt with in a way of vio- 
lence. That is not to deal with men like men, to force 
them to things for which they discern no reason, and 
with all their labour are unable to understand ; certainly 
in such cases forbearance must be shown ; and especi- 
ally the rather, because that Christ, by an apostle, has 
charged us not to yield to any thing in matters of reli- 
gion, tUl we understand the reason of it ; " Whatsoever 
is not of faith, is sin." '\Mien Christ saith thus, that we 
must not receive a thing because such and such men 
enjoin it, till we examine and understand it for our- 



selves ; surely, then, the uttermost that the power of 
violence and force may do is this, to make men ex- 
amine things ; but it should proceed no further. And 
so parents and masters should use conviction rather 
than connection. 

Obs. 3. It is a great aggravation of men's sin, to 
stand out against reason, not to be drawn by these 
" cords of men." Many stand out against the ways 
of God, while yet their consciences fly in their faces 
and condemn them. Oh what a wretch thou art, 
that though the Lord has sought to di-aw thee with 
the " cords of a man," with reason, and has convinced 
thee, yea, has gotten the cords into thy conscience, 
and would pull thee to himself, thou wilt not be di-awn 
by them ! this is indeed an aggravation of your guilt. 
Some vain reasonings can draw man to sin as a cart- 
rope : They " draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin 
as it were with a cart-rope ;" that is, their vain reason- 
ings that they have for their sin, twisted together, make 
a strong cart-rope to draw iniquity. Oh ! shall not 
God's cords be as strong as the devil's cords or man's 
cords ? Many there are, though God seems to di-aw 
them with these " cords of a man," yet whose lusts are 
so strong, that, like pampered horses in a team, they 
will break the cart-ropes, break all their harness to 
pieces ; theu- unruly spirits even say like those in Psal. 
ii., " Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away 
their cords from us." Well, thou shalt one day be 
held by the cords of thine own sin, (as the Scripture 
speaks,) and thy conscience shall lash thee with those 
cords of conviction that failed to draw thee. Shall not 
the cords of conviction cbaw thee from thy sin ? they 
shall serve to be as whips to lash thy soul even to all 
eternity. Know that the rules of right reason and 
Scripture reason shall stand, when thou, and thousands of 
such wilful fools as thou art, shall perish eternally. And 
these are the notes for God's dealing in a rational way. 

Obs. i. Man's nature, if not degenerated, is loving 
and gentle. So saith God, " I drew them with cords of 
a man ;" that is, gently, in accordance with man's na- 
ture, as fair means will work upon it rather than rigid 
severity : hence, in ordinary speech, kindness is called 
humanity, Let men have some humanity in them, that 
is, let them be courteous ; to be courteous and to show 
humanity we use as synonj-mous. So that the nature of 
men, though fallen, yet if not twice dead, and overcome 
by its corruptions exceedingly, is naturally kind and 
gentle. 

O, you that profess religion, labour to be eminent in 
courteousness, in gentleness, in humanity ; know that 
grace, though it does elevate above humanity to Chris- 
tianity, yet it does not take away humanity. No, it 
raises" it higher ; and therefore, seeing there is some- 
thing left in man's nature of gentleness and fairness, 
surely those that have grace and a principle within to 
curb corruption, should covet earnestly these most ex- 
cellent gifts. 

Obs. 5. We should di-aw our relations with gentle- 
ness. Seeing that gentleness is the cords of men, we 
should use it to draw on to goodness those whom we 
desu-e. Ministers, parents, governors, neighbours, ob- 
serve the dispositions of those you have to deal with, 
suit yourselves to them, labour so to gain their hearts 
if possibly you can ; and that they may have good 
thoughts of the wavs of godliness, manifest no bitter- 
ness,"uor sourness. Did not God gain upon your hearts 
by gentleness ? But if God did come in a harsh way to 
your apprehensions at fii'st, yet know, there is no such 
distance between you and your neighbours, your chil- 
dren, or servants, "as there is between God and you ; 
tlierefore it is for )0U to deal with yom- fellow creatures 
in a gentle, kind manner. If a hunter would get his 
game, he does not make a hooting and noise, but steals 
on them gently and quietly; and so, if you would win 



474 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XL 



souls, vou must attract and allure them by " the beauties 
of lioliness." Learn this, you that are of harsh tempers, 
who do nothing but attempt to terrify to good, saying. 
If you will not do thus and thus, I will deal with you 
thus and thus : O, try what gentleness will do ; do not 
so domineer over others as to think that it is for you 
to satisfy your wills upon them, but laboui' to be all 
things to all men. 

And never chastise children nor servants but with 
grief ; and put a difference between weakness and wil- 
fulness ; and let your hand be heavy on lliem only upon 
mere necessity, when all other means have been tried 
unavailingly : God deals thus with his people. 

Obs. 6. Gentle means rejected, aggravate sin. As 
now, if you can bring gifts to a man, you can quickly 
blind his eyes : we have found that man's nature, even 
in the place of justice, loves gifts ; they are the cords 
of men, suitable to their natures indeed. Now God 
does thus (as I may so speak) bring gifts ; but if God 
shall not prevail with his gifts, this will be a great ag- 
gravation of your sin. 

Obs. 1. Always preserve the honour of inferiors. It 
is a rule that will be very hel])ful to those that have 
young ones to bring up ; though the fault be great, yet 
put them not to so much shame before others, as they 
shall have no esteem or honour to lose, they will grow 
desperate then ; and so long as the bridle of shame is 
on them, you may keep them from much evil. And 
this is the reason that your gaol-birds never almost 
come to any good ; why ? because they have no honour 
to lose, all is gone already, and therefore they grow 
desperate. Nothing is more suitable to a man's nature 
to deter from evil, than the fear of the loss of respect and 
of honour ; and therefore the veiy doom of the damned 
at the day of judgment is thus expressed, they shall rise 
" to shame and everlasting contempt," Dan. xii. 2. " To 
shame," that is as much against human nature as any- 
thing : and therefore you that have to deal with men, 
take heed how you deal ; always keep such a hand over 
them, as those that are under you may see that they 
have yet some honour to lose ; do not deprive your- 
selves of such a means to bricDe your children or serv- 
ants. Some of you have for your servants persons of 
s;c.)a birth in this city, divers have children well born 
and well educated ; use them accordingly, draw them 
with correspondent cords : if you be ot meaner birth 
and education, and had hard breeding, and were drawn 
by iron cords, do not think to deal thus with others 
who have had better breeding than yourselves, but 
deal with them fairly, with due consideration of what 
suits their quality and condition. 

Obs. 8. How will the sliame and confusion of men 
be aggravated hereafter, who disregarded God's using 
them in an honourable manner ! This is the way to 
bring shame and confusion upon you for ever, as here- 
after men and angels, and your own consciences, shall 
say : Just it is with God to punish me with eternal 
shame and confusion ; why ? for God had respect to me 
when I lived, and dealt with me honourably, seeking 
to draw me with the cords of a man ; and it is just that 
now he should give me my portion among devils and 
reprobates, and that he should no more regard me as a 
creature, but rather hate and abhor me as a devil, for I 
would not regard his dealing with me as a man. This 
will justify God in that wrath which will one day fall 
on vou. 

Obs. 9. Not to be drawn to our duty but by violence 
and strength, is bestial. Brute beasts can roar and cry 
out when the pain is upon them ; and so it is with many 
men, they never cry out of their sins, never fear God, 
never yield to his hand, but only when his strokes are 
upon them, then they cry out and bellow like beasts. 
Well, God delivers them ; but they turn to their lusts 
as formerly, and as soon as they are delivered forget 



their vows and covenants with Go.l; thev sin again, 
and God comes uijon them again, and again they be- 
wail their sins : Oh that we had spent, say they", our 
time in praying, and in lamenting our sins' which we 
spent in such and such company ! This is when God's 
hand is upon you, and the effect of the hearing of his 
word : to be drawn by the word is to be like a man ; not 
to be moved but by blows evidences a bestial and 
bi-utish heart. Charge yourselves with this brutishness 
of spirit ; I fear some of you have cause to say. In all 
the course of my life my heart has never yielded to 
God, but just when his strokes have been upon me. I 
beseech you, brethren, deal with God like men; God 
deals with you like men. 

Obs. 10. The Lord deals with us suitably to our na- 
ture. " I drew them with cords of a man." O let us 
then deal with God, as far as we are able, suitably to his 
nature. A\Tiat ! does God regard us as men ? let us 
then regard him as God, let us glorify God as God. 
AVhen the Lord has to deal with us he considers we are 
men ; w'hen we have to deal with God, let us consider 
he is God ; and as the Lord is pleased to condescend to 
us as men, O let us labour to ascend to him as God. 

" With bands of love." 

" Bands," that is, thick cords ; not only with " cords," 
as before, but thick cords, so r^rsya here translated 
"bands" signifies; for its primitive nsjl means to 
wTcath, and to thicken with wreathing ; as you see those 
that make cords and lines, take their hemp and form 
one wreath, and then another, twisting many of them 
together, so as to make a strong cord. 

" With bands of love ;" that is, with such bands as 
have many wreaths in them, many plies joined together 
to make them a strong cord, a cord as strong as a cart- 
rope : so I find the same word used in Isa. v. 18, where 
it is said, " AVoe unto them that di-aw iniquity with 
cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope V 
The word pisysi there ti-anslated " cords," is the same 
that occurs in the former part of our verse, the " cords 
of a man;" but now- the other, " and sin as it were 
with a cart rope," is the same word here rendered, the 
"bands of love;" that is, a thick rope, as of a cart, 
with many ^vreaths in it: so that though the former 
word, " cords," in your English, seems to imply as much 
as the latter, " bands," yet, according to the Hebrew, tliis 
is especially emphatical. As indeed when we come now 
to open the "bands of love" with which God did draw 
this people, we shall find many cords wreathed and 
twisted together to bind them fast to God. An expres- 
sion somewhat parallel to this occurs in Jer. xxxi. 3, 
" With loving-kindness have I drawn thee." 

I di-ew them "with bands of love;" that is, I used 
them in a loving way ; if love could have gained them, 
could have overcome their enmity, and bound them to 
me, they have wanted no love, saith God : whereas 
theft- sins deserved the bands of iron, instead, they 
have had " bands of love." 

If you ask me what were those " bands of love," by 
which God drew this people of Israel unto himself, I 
answer, 

1. Separation from all other people. God did won- 
derfully separate this people from all the nations in the 
world, to be a people unto himself, and that out of 
love ; and this was a great fruit of love, and a strong 
wreath to bind them, that God should set his heart 
upcm this to be his own people above all other people 
in the earth. In Exod. xxxiii. 16, "'WTiercin shall it 
be known that I and thy people have found grace ' 
in thy sight ? is it not jn that thou goest with us? so" 
(saith he) "shall w-e be separated, I and thy people, 
from all the people that are upon the face of the earth." 
It is in your hooks, only, shall be scpar- „|,|„„„,„ 
ated, but i:'Sb3> signifies wonderfully om,'„i". i',.,.. 
separated, we shall be wondcrfidly separ- 



Ver. 4. 



TilE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



473 



ated from all the nations of the earth. Indeed the 
Lord did wonderfully separate this people from all the 
nations of .the earth, and this only out of love, and 
not from any excellency he saw in them. " The Lord 
did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because 
ye were more in number than any people ; for ye 
were the fewest of all people," Beut. vii. 7. 

Obs. 11. The Lord does not always stand upon the 
greatest number. Lideed our argument is, that so 
many go in such a way, and so few in another, and so 
surely God is most like to approve of that which the 
majority adopt. No, God does not always stand upon 
number: "I did," saith he, "not choose you because 
you were more in number than any people, for you 
were the fewest of all people ; " therefore it was only love 
that made the Lord choose this people at first, and 
separate them from other nations. 

2. Election of the parents and their seed. " I chose 
you, and your seed also." And this was a great mercy : 
If I had but only set my heart upon youi-selves, it had 
been somewhat, but it was upon you and your seed, so 
as to bring you and your seed into covenant with me. 
Tiiere are two twists (as I may so say) in this band of 
love, that he should choose them and then- seed, and 
bring them both into covenant, for thus you have it 
in Deut. iv. 37, "Because he loved thy fathers, there- 
fore he chose their seed after them;" and in Ezek. 
xvi. 8, the text saith, " Thy time was the time of love; 
and I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant 
with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou beeamest 
mine." The time was a time of love ; and that made 
the Lord to enter into covenant with this people. God 
showed it was a time of love indeed, that he would take 
such a people as this was, and enter into covenant with 
them. 

3. God's setting his heart upon them to delight in 
them. I made them my portion, my inheritance, my 
treasure, the dearly beloved of my soul, my glory, a 
royal diadem to myself; I could show you Scripture 
for every one of these expressions : Deut. vii. 6, " The 
Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people 
unto himself;" a " special people," and he gives them 
all those epithets. Surely these are " bands of love." 

4. Pitying them in their afflictions. If so be at any 
time they were in any afflictions, I pitied them, and 
looked upon them with the eye of mercy, and reheved 
them, and redeemed them out of their afflictions : " In 
his love and in his pity he redeemed them," Isa. Ixiii. 9. 

5. God engaged all his attributes for theu" good. I 
set on work all my wisdom, and my power, and my mercy, 
to do them good above all nations, working great won- 
ders for them, Now for this we shall not need to cite 
any particular passage, the whole story of God's carry- 
ing them from EgJTJt through the wilderness to Canaan, 
and there providing for them, is a sufficient testimony. 
So, in Isa, Ixiii, 9, we named before God's redeeming of 
them, he adds this too, " and carried them all the days 
of old," The Lord never was so glorious in his power 
towards any people as towards them, the right hand of 
his power and excellence was stretched out for them, 
Exod, XV, 

6. A continued watchful eye over them, "With 
bands of love," I had a continual watchful eye over 
ihem and their land, mine eye was upon their land 
where they dwelt for good, above all other lands tliat 
were upon the earth : " A land which the Lord thy God 
careth for : the eyes of the Lord thy God are always 
upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto tie 
end of the year," Deut, xi. 12, Canaan was a land that 
God eared as httle for as any place of the earth before 
his people came into it, a land wherein God was as 
much dishonoured as in any other place ; but now when 
his people came into it, it is a land that his eye is upon, 
that the Lord takes care of, from the beginning of the 



year to the end of the year: such respect did God 
show to his people. 

7. He gave them his oracles, the revelation of his 
will. This was another notable fruit of the love of God 
to this people. " In Judah was God known : his name 
was gi-eat in Israel." " He showeth his word unto 
Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He 
hath not dealt so with any nation : and as for his 
judgments, they have not linown them," Psal. cxlvii. 
19. 20. This was a notable privilege that Israel had 
above all other people. In Kom. iii. 1, it is asked, 
""N^Hiat advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit 
is there of circumcision ? " In ver. 2, the apostle replies, 
" Much every way : " the Jew has much advantage 
every way above all other people of the earth. Why, 
wherein ? " Chiefly, because that unto them were com- 
mitted the oracles of God." Other men had the book 
of nature, they could see God's name, as it were, ■nTitten 
in the characters of that book; yea, but the special 
things of God, the counsels of God concerning the 
eternal state of the childi'en of men, were not then 
revealed : but saith he, I gave to this people my oracles, 
I revealed to them those counsels of mine concerning 
man's eternal state, I opened to them my whole heart 
and soul, all that I would have known to the children 
of men for that time I opened to them. Oh this is a 
band of love indeed, to have the oracles of God com- 
mitted to a people. 

8. The Messiah was to come of them. This was the 
eighth twist (as it were) in these " bands of love," to 
make them a great cable to bmd them unto God. 
I set my heart so upon, as to have the Messias to come 
from them, in whom all the nations of the earth should 
be blessed. I rather chose this people than another to 
have my Son to be born of them, to be of their stock. 

9. A law, the sum of which was nothing but love. 
I showed before, that the law of God had strength of 
reason in it, and so God " drew them with the cords of 
a man," that is, his law was rational. So here he draws 
them " with bands of love," gives them a law, the sum 
of which was nothing but love, as thus : ^Miat is the 
sum of the first and second table of the law ? The sum 
of the fu'st table is, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul ; " and the 
sum of the second table is, "Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bour as thyself;" so that love is the sum of the whole law. 

10. God gave them more than any else could offer. 
He outbid all temptations. Whatsoever good, pleasure, 
deUghts, honour they could expect in following any 
thing else, I showed them that they might have all 
these and much more in myself; there was nothing 
they could have in following after any of then- false 
worship, but I made it appear that they might have as 
much in myself, I outbid all temptations in order to 
encourage them in my ways. Accordingly, throughout 
the whole Scripture, we find the Lord propounding 
himself to his people as a lovely object, on purpose to 
draw theii- hearts away from all other things which 
might seem to be lovely, that he might have the whole 
soul to himself. 

11. He heard all their prayers. Whensoever they were 
in any want, if they did but cry to me, I heard them. 
" '\Miat nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh 
unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that 
we call upon him for ?" saith Moses, Deut. iv. 7. 

12. And lastly, I have done so much for them, that 
it cannot be conceived that I should have done more. 
" "\ATiat could have been done more to my vineyard, 
that I have not done in it?" Isa. v. 4. Let any one 
speak what more love they could conceive posssible 
from a God to his people than I have shown. So that 
put all these together, and you see how God drew this 
people " with bands of love." Now this for the expli- 
cation ; our observations from hence are, 



476 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XI. 



Obs. 12. Love has strong bands ; yea, " strong as 
death," Cant. viii. 6. None are so strongly bound to- 
gether as friends that are bound in love. The bands 
of nature are not so strong as the bands of love. "A 
friend is nearer than a brother," saith the Scripture. 
The bands of love are the strongest bands, they are a 
twisted band. For, 

1. Love is in itself a lovely thing to behold, there is 
an amiablcness in love to attract the eve and the heart. 
So Cant. vii. 6, " How fair and how pleasant art thou, 
O love, for delights !" How fair and how pleasant is 
love ! Take " love " for the affection of love, it is fair and 
pleasant for delights ; and when the beloved is called 
by the name " love," it shows that love is very amiable 
and very beautiful. 

2. Love has in it much sweetness, much power to 
insinuate itself into the heart. Base, adulterous love 
we know has a great deal of power to insinuate itself 
into the heart ; so in Eccl. vii. 26, the hands of the 
whorish woman are called " bands ;" how much more 
attractive power must dwell in true, gracious love ! 

3. Love is generative, love has a great generative 

power to beget love. Augustine saith, 
ai!o!«m'pTo''iSM'io, There is no greater provocation to love, 
JmiSdo!"Aug' ^^^^ *° begin to love. Love can draw- 
iron hearts. Magnes amoris amor, love 
is the loadstone of love, it will draw love, and, wher- 
ever it is, beget love. 

4. AVhere love is got into the soul it commands all 
the faculties and understanding. Look, what a man 
loves his powers are exercised about : if a man love his 
sin, his understanding will work for it ; oh what subtle 
arguments will men have for the sin they love ! a man's 
heart will be very subtle to argue for the object of its 
regard. So, on the contrary, when once the Lord has 
taken the heart with love, this love commands the un- 
dei'standing, and then all reasonings are for God, and 
the soul hearkens to none that are against him, or 
against his ways. If a man's heart be taken with love 
to a woman, he will hear nothing against her ; but if 
his mind be alienated from her, then every report 
against her he will readily receive, and even aggravate 
to the uttermost. So when a man's heart is taken with 
the things of God and of religion, it will hear nothing 
against them ; but if the ways of God cease to please, 
then they are glad if they can hear any thing that 
makes against them. Love commands all the faculties 
of the soul, the understanding and the thoughts ; 
it commands the will and affections ; it commands 
the body, and estate, and liberty ; it commands all 
that a man has, or is, or can do. Love has the ab- 
solute commanding power of all ; oh ! love has strong 
bands. 

6. Love makes all services for the beloved delightful ; 
it not only commands, but renders the obedience easy : 
" I will rest in my love, and rejoice over them witli 
singing," saith God. "When the heart is once taken 
with love, I say, it not only does that whicli is good for 
the object of its regard, but does it with delight. 

G. Love knows not any bounds, it never sets itself 
any limits, but would even infinitely prevail. 

7. In its service love knows no w carincss. The soul 
is never weary in the actings of love. Men that love 
their pastime will sit up all night and never be tired; 
60 witli those who love the ways of God, tliough the 
flesh may be weak, yet the spirit flags not. 

8. Love is strong, so that it stands out against all 
op|)Ositions, nothing can prevail against it. " Love is 
strong as death." " Many waters cannot quench love, 
neitlier can the floods drown it," Cant. viii. 6, 7. 

9. Love rejoices in suffering; not only delights in 
doing, but delights in suffering. If one tliat loves an- 
other shall suffer for him whom lie loves, he will rejoice 
in those sufferings. 



10. And lastly. Love seeks not its own, suffers not 
itself to be itself, (as it were.) to be at its own disposal. 
The heart once taken with love is no longer its own, 
but gives itself into the possession of that which it 
loves. Join all these together, and you may see that 
love has strong bands. 

Obs. 13. Let us do as God does ; that is, labour to 
cast the bands of love upon those with whom we have 
to deal. It is God's way to bind his people to himself, 
"I thew them with bands of love." Then, saith God, I 
have enough, I have them secure enough, if I get them 
within the bands of love. Oh, if you would draw any 
to you, let it be by love. You that are ministers, and 
especially appointed to the work of drawing others to 
God, what should you do? Open the love of God to 
them, present the grace of the gospel to souls, labour 
to work upon their hearts by all the mercies of God ; 
by the mercy of God tendered to them, received by 
them, and bestowed upon them : there is no such way 
to draw souls to God as this. " Kepent, for the king- 
dom of heaven is at hand," Mark i. 15, that is, the 
preaching of the gospel. The first of all Christ's ser- 
mons, and of his disciples', was, " Repent, for the king- 
dom of heaven is at hand." As if he should say, O 
sii's, look about you, consider your ways ; there is a 
glorious kingdom now at hand, a kingdom of right- 
eousness and mercy, wherein the glory of the grace of 
God is revealed to the children of men in another way 
than ever formerly. This is the way to bring men to 
repentance. True, it is good to use all means, to show 
the greatness, and the justness, and the holiness of God, 
and the like ; but the prevailing argument above all 
to bring men to repentance is, that '■ the kingdom of 
heaven is at hand :" and indeed we would do so if 
we considered that repentance is a gospel grace ; it 
comes not by the law, the law recognises it not, but 
the gospel, and therefore to present the love of God to 
the children of men as manifested in the gospel, is the 
way to draw to repentance. AVe have a notable story 
in the Book of MartjTS, as also in Euse- Book or M^rtjrs 
bius's Ecclesiastical History : John the ^b i.^euku ub. j. 
apostle having committed a young man 
who was very hopeful to the care of a bishop, the 
youth afterwards proved to be very wicked, associated 
himself with thieves, and so became in time the captain 
of a company of thieves and robbers ; with them he 
lived in the mountains, wholly bent on slaughter, mur- 
der, and extreme cruelty. After this, John comes to 
tliis bishop, and bids him restore to him the charge 
which he and Christ had committed to his custody; 
whereupon the elder, looking down with a heavy coun- 
tenance, sobbing and sighing, said. He is dead. John 
inquiring when, and by what kind of death, he an- 
swered, He is dead to God, for he is become the captain 
of a company of thieves in such a place. The apostle 
then, rending his garments in great sorrow, said. Pre- 
pare me a horse, and let me have a guide. And so he 
rode in haste, and, being come to the place, is stopped 
by the thieves' watch. The apostle neither flies nor re- 
sists, but saith. For this puq)Ose came I hither, bring 
me to your captain. He, in arms, stood awaiting his ap- 
proach ; but when he perceived that it was John, he 
was struck with shame, and fled away. The old man, 
forgetful of his years, pursues him fljing, and cries, 
My son, why flics't thou from me thy father, unarmed 
and old ? O son ! tender my case ; be not afraid, as yet 
there remains hope of salvation, I will undertake for 
thee with Christ. And thus he runs after him, crying, 
that yet there was hope of mercy and pardon, and that 
he would die for him. He, hearing this, fii-st stood still, 
turning his countenance to the ground, next shook off 
his armour, then trembled for fear, and wept bitterly ; 
so that this " band of love," this affectionate concern 
of the apostle, broke his heart, and he returns back and 



Vee. 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



477 



falls weeping upon the neck of John, and became after- 
wards an eminent Christian. 

Whatever may be thought of this story, yet certainly 
there are no such bands as these of love to draw the 
hearts of people to God. Have you to deal with stony 
hearts ? the way is to lay them upon the soft pillow of 
the gospel, and so you may break them. Lay a stone 
upon a stone, and it starts from you and does not 
break ; but if you lay it upon a pillow, you may pre- 
sently break it with a hammer. The word is compared 
to a hammer ; yea, but we must labour to lay the hearts 
of people upon the pillow (as it were) of love, upon the 
grace of God in the gospel, that is the way to subdue 
them. None are so bound to God as those who are 
bound to him by love : those that are bound to God by 
fear, unmixed with love, their bands will not hold, 
they will seek quickly to break through their restraints ; 
none (I say) that are held to God by the bands of fear 
alone, but will seek after any occasions to break those 
bands, and if they can but get any opportunity, they 
will, and commonly at last do, break through them : 
but now, those who are held by bands of love, are 
bound for ever unto God. 

Obs. 14. When men cast off the sweet of their sin 
by the sweet of the love of God, then they will never 
return to their sin again. If it be only the bitterness 
of the law, and its punishment, that makes them cast off 
sin, they will be ready to turn to their sin again ; but 
when it is cast out by the sweet of love, when one sweet 
enters for another, such hold on their way. Austin, 
speaking of a sweet of sin, saith. Thou, 
■'"^'s.'iSi.'f L '''■ Lord, didst cast out those sweetnesses, 
and thou didst enter in thyself instead of 
them, who art more sweet than any pleasure whatso- 
ever. And it was from hence that he held on so in his 
way, because God, casting out the sweet of sin, instead 
thereof did himself enter into his soul. Oh, said he 
then, how sweet it is to want those sweetnesses ! No 
marvel though grace be so persevering, and we read so 
much of perseverance, especially in the times of the 
gospel, because that there are none truly converted to 
God, but have that sweet come into their souls through 
love, which is more delightful to them than all the 
sweet they had by sin before. 

Never be afraid, you whom God is beginning to turn 
to himself, never be loth to part with any sweetness 
you had in the ways of sin, for by turning to God you 
shall find a thousand times more in God and his ways. 
Oh, they are things that you love, and you are loth to 
part with them ; yea, but when you arc turned to God, 
God will be as lovely to you as ever any thing in the 
world was. If the ice be but broken over-night by the 
husbandman, when he comes the next day he finds it 
frozen up again ; but let the sun dart on it his warm 
beams, and then it runs down in streams : so the 
breaking of the heart by the terrors of the law, is but 
like the breaking of the ice with a pole by the husband- 
man to give the cattle drink; but when the love of God 
comes to the heart, then the corruptions of the heart 
dissolve, even as the ice dissolves when the warm 
beams of the sun rest upon it. 

The way, therefore, to gain the hearts of men is by 
love. And we should the rather do it, because it is the 
great design of God in the gospel, to manifest his love 
to the chikh-en of men ; he has in it opened his heart, 
and the treasures of his love. What is the gospel, but 
the manifestation of the treasures of the love of God ? 
those eternal loving-ldndnesses of God towards man- 
kind are all displayed in the gospel ; and no minister 
can be a faithful minister of the gospel, who does not 
endeavour to open this heart-love of God to the chil- 
di-en of men in Jesus Christ. Oh ! it is a pleasant 
work to be a minister of the gospel in this respect, 
to be always searchmg into the treasures of love, 



and to array them before souls to win them unto 
God. 

And then, likewise, if you have to deal with men, 
you must labour to draw them with the bands of love. 
In Phil. ii. 1,2, " If there be therefore any consolation 
in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the 
Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy, that 
ye be like-minded, having the same love," saith the 
apostle. Oh ! let it be through love that you come to 
be " like-minded ;" and do not think to force men mto 
the same mind, by using bitter language and expres- 
sions to them if they differ in judgment from your- 
selves. But if there be any love, be of the same mind ; 
labour to get into one another's hearts, if you would do 
good one to another. A minister, if he would do good 
to his people, must labour to get into their hearts, that 
the people may love him : therefore it has been observed, 
that your wrangling ministers and bitter men, who, if 
they be but crossed in any thing, presently vent their 
own bitterness, never do any good at all ; but those 
that are willing to deny themselves, and to sufi"er 
for the cause of the gospel, prevail most. So, if you 
would do good to any of your kindred, do what you 
can to get into their hearts ; labour to win their love, 
and so you may be a means to draw them to the ways 
of God : if once they be persuaded that you love them, 
you may then reprove any thing that is evil in them, 
and persuade them to any thing that is good, they take 
nothing ill from you. Therefore men of sour and bitter 
spirits labour under a great disadvantage in compass- 
ing their designs ; if they speak any thing, though never 
so good, yet is it rejected, because that people think it 
proceeds not from love. But on the other side, let one- 
of a sweet and loving disposition speak never so harsh- 
ly, yet the party will take it well, because he knows he 
loves him. Oli ! these " bands of love," my brethren, 
they are mighty strong. When you meet together in 
any society, if you would effect your object, do not seek 
to get your will by wrangling and frowardness, but by 
" bands of love." I confess there are some of such 
perverse spirits, that the more advances are made, the 
further they recede, they have even lost all ingenuous- 
ness ; but if you have to deal with men whom you be- 
lieve to be gracious and upright, then do not think to 
gain any thing from them but by love. 

These " bands of love," in the text, the devil seeks 
to break ; his great design is, to make men have hard 
thoughts of God and his ways, to make them believe 
that God hates them, and that though they have some 
good things from him for the present, yet that the heart 
of God is not towards them ; and so he labours to make 
a separation between the soul and God. In like man- 
ner he strives to break the " bands of love " between 
Christian and Christian. That was a fearful judgment 
which we read of in Zech. xi. 14, when the staff that 
was called " Bands" was broken, intimating, as a judg- 
ment, the disruption of the brotherhood between Judah 
and Israel, and the ruin attendant on their rejection of 
Christ. "When the staff of " Beauty," "the covenant 
which God had made with all the people," was broken, 
the " other staff, even Bands," " the brotherhood between 
Judah and Israel," was " cut asunder." 

My brethren, never were the " bands of love " more 
broken among Clu-istians than they are now. We read 
of " bands of love," but what is become of them ? They 
are broken. They were in former times twisted in so 
many wreaths, (as I told you the original signifies,) 
that one would have thought they could never have 
been broken ; but now, on every occasion, we find they 
snap asunder. Oh how justly might God bind us 
with u'on bands, seeing that the " bands of love" will 
not bind us ! God has cut the cords of divers of our 
yokes asunder, and has broken the bands of the op- 
pressor, and now, behold, we break the " bands of love." 



478 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XI. 



Oil ! unworthy wretches that we are, we look with a 
jealous eye one upon another, every one shifting for 
liimself, there are no "bands of love" in our hearts. 
Of the wicked it is said in Scripture, " there are no 
bands in their death," that is God's patience ; but woe 
to us, we live without bands ! and that results from 
our sin, and the wrath of God upon us. In Eccl. iii. 
8, it is said, there is " a time to love." WTien is the 
time ? Certainly, if ever there were a time to love, this 
surely is it. 

O Divine love ! whither art thou gone ? hast thou 
left the earth as unworthy of thy beauty and glory? 
Oh that thou wouldst come again into the hearts of 
the saints, and bind them together ! The want of the 
"bands of love" every one complams of; Oh those 
soul-refreshing and soul-ravishing meetings that we 
were wont to have ! But, especially, we find the bands 
of public love quite gone, and quite broken : read but 
over 1 Cor. xiii., and see the effects of love there, 
and by that you will find the "bands of love" quite 
gone. Love, the scripture tells us, " thinkcth no evil," 
it puts the best interpretation possible on all things. 
Now sui'cly there is great want of love amongst us, 
that when men, in the uprightness and sincerity uf their 
hearts, desire to find out the mind and will of God, and 
that merely out of conscience, because they dare not 
go any further than they see the mind of God go be- 
fore them, therefore they shall be judged to be a stifif- 
necked people, and to be the great hinderers of reform- 
ation. Is this the best intci-pretation that possibly can 
be made of things ? Can there be no other grounds 
why they differ t\-om then- brethren, but merely stiff- 
neckedness ? how if it shall be owned by Jesus Christ at 
tlie great day, that it was out of sincerity, because they 
desired to liuow the mind of Jesus Christ fully, and 
yet they could not see what their brethren say they 
did? We should put on every thing the best possible 
interpretation. Love " hopeth all things," and " bear- 
eth all things;" now for such public striking against 
any such forbearance, and cry'ing out that we would 
have a tolevf '.ion of all tilings in religion ; for this is 
thpir great argument, whereas they know in their con- 
sciences that their brethren do join with them in the 
doctrinal part and in the main points of religion, and 
the things wherein they differ are matters of no such 
great moment, but may be forborne with jieace enough 
if men's hearts were peaceable and still ; now to infuse 
that into the people's heads, that if forbearance be 
shown in any thing, there must be a toleration of all 
things, surely this is not a fruit of love, this is not 
that which the Holy Ghost saith, that love bears all 
things. I am loth to proceed, lest it should serve as an 
occasion of stirring up any spirits, and so hindering 
the fruit of love : let me say, on the contrary, there 
may be too eager censure the other way, that is, we 
may too readily accuse such as are of a different way 
and judgment, that they do it altogether out of their 
self-ends and self-aims. I verily believe, that those bre- 
thren on the other side who do differ, may be conscien- 
tious in their way, and do it out of zeal to God, and to 
what they apprehend to be truth ; we should apprehend 
one another so, if we see corruption of heart manifest- 
ed in nothing else but merely in the judgments and 
opinions. Now if both could but thus judge eacli of 
other, that they both are upright in what tliey pursue ; 
one side imagines that their party follows God's mind, 
and the other that the side which they espouse is the 
Lord's side : let us judge now that they do- it in up- 
rightness, except it appears some other wav, then we 
should quickly close and join hearts together, if we 
had such u])right opinions one of another : the more it 
is the design of the devil to break those bands of bro- 
therhood and of love, the more should we labour to 
unite together; we should countermine Satan. 



And you who are superiors, labour you to gain your 
inferiors by love. Do not say of them. They are of un- 
toward dispositions, and how can my heart be towards 
tliem to love them ? Oh I none of your inferiors are 
more untoward to you than you are to Christ ; and 
Clirist, if he should not love you because of )our un- 
towardness, what would become of you ? Now consider 
this, when your servants and children are untoward. 
Why should that hinder love, whereas my untowardness 
does not hinder the love of Clirist to me ? I remember 
to have read of Monica, Austin's mother, that some of 
her neighbours who had Christian husbands wondered 
how she and her husband, who was a heathen, managed 
to live so lovingly together. Our husbands, said tliey, 
are Christians, and yours a heathen, and yet you live 
more lovingly with him than we do with our husbands. 
She answered them. It may be, when your husbands do 
any thing that provokes you, you are presently froward 
with them ; but I labour to overcome my husband by 
love, and so to gain his heart to me, and thereby we 
live so lo\Tngly together; Christianity teaches me to 
perform the duties of a wife to my husband, though he 
be a heathen. I verily believe there are manv godly 
couples, who for want of love live worse than when one 
yoke-fellow is carnal. You will say, How can that be ? 
Yes, though there be godliness, yet there may be such 
H'owardness and passion as may cause wonderful dis- 
turljance : but on the other side, where there is godli- 
ness and love, there is such an overcoming with love, 
that though the man be wicked and never so harsh, 
yet, having the nature of a man in him, he w iU be over- 
come by love. Would you then be united more than 
you have ever yet been ? Labour to cast the bands of 
love one upon another ; let the husband study how to 
overcome his wife with love, and so the w ife the hus- 
band, and then there will be a sweet union uidced. 
And so for masters and servants, there should be love 
there to unite one to another : though the master be 
above the servant, yet the master should account his 
servant's regard a happiness : there is not such a dis- 
tance between you and your servants, as between God 
and you. Oh ! it is a sweet thing when a man can say 
in his family, I bless God, all my family love me ; and 
whatsoever they do, they do it out of love to me. It 
may be you are harsh towards your servants, and you 
will make them do what you command them to do, 
and they dare not do otherwise : yea, but what is that ? 
do your servants love you ? do thev do all for you out 
of iove ? you might have as mucli and a great deal 
better obedience from your servants than jou have, if 
it sprang from love. And so likewise in a family, when 
one servant loves another : as it was said of David in 
1 Sam. xviii. 22, " all his seiTants love thee," all Saul's 
servants did love David ; so servants should labour to 
live so in families that all the other servants should 
love them. 

But you will say, They are so wicked, how can I hope 
to have love from them ? 

Yes, though they cannot love thee because thou art 
godly, yet godliness has sometliing in it common to the 
excellency of man's nature. 

Yea, and magistrates should labour to gain those 
subject to them by love. As the greatest in a family, if 
he be a lord, or an earl, should not think it too much 
to gain a servant by love ; so those intrusted with the 
greatest power in government, should not think it too 
much to gain the affections of their meanest subjects. 
We se» It was thus with David, 1 Chron. xxviii. 2, 
" Then David the king stood up upon his feet, and 
said. Hear me, my brethren, and my people." What a 
sweet expression respecting a great prince! "Then 
David the king stood up upon his feet, and said, Hear 
me, my brethren, and my people ;" he did not sit do« n 
magisteriidly, and say, >iy people, and you that are my 



Vee. 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



479 



subjects and servants, I command you to do thus and 
thus ; but he stands up to them, and saith, " Hear me, 
my brethren, and my people." This was a way to gain 
the liearts of people to him. You know Absalom 
sought in a false way to steal away the hearts of peo- 
ple by a gentle carriage. I have read of John the 
Second, of Portugal, that he chose for his emblem a 
pelican, because when her young have been bitten with 
serpents, she feeds them with her o\™ blood, and 
thereby cures them : thereby he would testify his readi- 
ness to let out his blood for the good of his subjects, 
for the healing of his subjects ; he would not feed 
upon his subjects' blood, but he would rather let out 
his own blood for their good. This is the commenda- 
tion of a prince, not to seek to feed upon his subjects' 
blond, and to raise up his honour and prerogative by 
shedding it ; but to love them so as to be willing to let 
out his own blood for theu' good, if requked. The 
maxim that some have laboured to infuse into princes, 

I had rather be feared than be loved, is 
''^'"""m'S^'"''"' a maxim beseeming only tjTanny, and 

no way suitable to an ingenuous mmd. 
Certainly that man, be he what he will, who is actuated 
by such a principle, is a man of a sordid and base 
spirit ; a man of a generous, ingenuous mind would 
rather be beloved than feared. Let every man seek to 
gain another by love. If you strive to gain any but by 
love, 

1. You are not likely to prevaO. 

2. If you do prevail, there will be more previous 
trouble than fruition will repay. 

3. 'When you do prevail, and men do as you would 
have them, they dare not do otherwise ; yes, but they 
hate you : what good is it for a man to have his will 
upon another, if in the mean time he hate liim ? 

4. If you do not prevail by love, they will do no 
more than just needs must. And this is the reason, in- 
deed, why hj^ocrites are hide-bound toward God, why 
they do so little for him ; God has never gained their 
hearts by love, but only by fear, and therefore they 
will do no more for God than of necessity they must ; 
whereas (as I said before) love never propounds bounds. 

5. If you do not get them by love, they watch for 
all opportunities to fling off. Now what a poor gain 
is this, to gain one with a deal of trouble, and for him 
to do what I would have him, and yet to hate me, and 
to do no more than needs must, and then to watch for 
all opportunities to appear against me ! ^\Tierefore, 
my brethren, to close this, let us follow after and pro- 
voke one another to love ; you will find sweetness in 
your own love, sweetness in the very exercise of it, and 
sweetness in the fruits of others' love. 

Obs. 15. As love has such bands in it, let us make 
use of the love of God to bind our hearts to him. You 
have heard that love has bands ; you have heard too 
that we should do as God does. Is this then God's 
way ? Oh ! let us make use of all the love that ever 
God has shown to us to gain our hearts to him. 

This would be a large theme to speak of, if we should 
attempt to open to you what the love of God has been 
to you, how much love God has sho^wn to the nation, 
and to ourselves, to gain our hearts. Oh the many twists 
of this cord! it is a strong cord indeed to bind us to 
God. This is that which God seeks by all his love, to 
work our hearts to love. 

Not to speak now of the love of God to you as to 
creatures, nor as to men ; but to speak a little of his 
love to you as you are saints. I shall show you very 
briefly what strong cords of love God has cast upon 
you, to gain your hearts to love him. God's love, then, 
to you is, 

1. Eternal. Beforeever you were born the bowels of 
God yearned towards you (as I may so speak with holy 
reverence). God was twisting these bands of love from 



all eternity that he might gain your hearts ; and think- 
ing that at such a time such and such persons shall live 
upon the earth, I will make preparation by such bands 
of love now as, when revealed to them, shall unite and 
fasten them close to myself. It was love from eternity. 
Oh the ti'ansactions that were between the Father and 
the Son from all eternity to manifest love to your souls! 
the great counsels (I say) that were transacted between 
the Father and the Son before the world was, were 
about these yom- bands of love. 

2. Elective and separating. When he left many 
thousands, he set his heart upon you. Mai. i. 2, " AYas 
not Esau Jacob's brother ? saith the Lord : yet I loved 
Jacob." So, wert not thou of such a family ? and yet 
thou seest how God has cast off a great part of that 
family, and yet has he loved thee ! Wert not thou 
such a one's brother, such a one's sister, that remained 
wiclied and ungodly, and, it may be, died so ? and 
yet God has loved thee ; he has passed by so many 
great ones in the world, and so many of thy kindi'ed, 
and rather pitched his love upon thee. It is a love of 
choice, and therefore might the rather gain thee to 
thy God. 

3. Free. " I will love them freely," Hos. xiv. 4. "The 
Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, 
because ye were more in number than any people ; for 
ye were the fewest of all people," Deut. vii. 7. God 
there would manifest his love to his people to gain their 
hearts to him : " The Lord did not set his love upon 
you," saith he, " because you were more in number ; 
but," as in ver. 8, " because the Lord loved you." It 
is a strange mode of arguing, " The Lord did not set 
his love upon you because you were more in number," 
but the Lord did set his love upon you '• because he 
loved you." He could go no higher ; there can be no 
other reason why the Lord should love you, but be- 
cause he did love you. VTe are wont to say, It is a 
woman's reason to say, I will do such a thing because 
I mil do it. Now if any of you would have a reason 
why God loved you, why thus. He loved me because 
he loved me. The Lord did not set his love upon you 
for this reason ; but he did set his love upon you be- 
cause he loved }'ou ; so it is a free love. Oh let the 
freeness of it be another ingredient, so as to bind your 
hearts unto him. 

4. God so loved you that he gave his Son for you. 
" God so loved the world, that he gave his only be- 
gotten Son," John iii. 16. Sometimes it has been in 
the thoughts of men, whether there might not be more 
worlds than this our world. Certainly God in his in- 
finite power might make a thousand worlds more glo- 
rious than this, such worlds that the meanest creature 
in them might be as high in excellency above the sun, 
as the sun is above a piece of earth. But now this we 
may know, let there be never such excellent creatures 
made, they cannot have a greater fruit of love than 
mankind has fi'om God. Oh I this is the love of God 
to mankind, and calls aloud to the childi-en of men to 
love God ; here is a fi-uit of love beyond that shown to 
angels, for the Lord took not upon him the natm-e of 
angels, but the nature of man. 

5. He has given himself too, as well as his Son. Not 
only given the Second Person in the Trinity, but him- 
self. He does not think it enough to give heaven and 
earth to thee to be thy portion, but he will make him- 
self thy portion, he will be thy God. You would think 
it a great matter if God should say, Well, all this world 
I will give for thv portion : yea, that I may give thee 
a testimony that I love thee, 1 will make another world 
for thy sake, and make thee the lord of it ah : but in 
that God has given thee his Son, and given thee him- 
self, this is a greater degi-ee of love ; and the soul of 
man, were it so enlarged as it might be, yea, so as grace 
does enlarge the hearts of the saints, such a soul would 



460 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



CUAP. XI. 



say, Lord, what wilt thou give me, if thou givest me not 
thy Son, if thou givcst me not thyself ? though I be less 
than the least of thy mercies, yet, except I have thyself 
as my portion, all else is not sufficient for me. AWll, 
saith God, that thou nwyst know that my heart is set 
upon thee for good, I will give thee my Son, I will give 
thee myself and my Spirit. Oh, what love is this to the 
children of men, that ever we should live to have our 
ears filled with such a sound from heaven ! 

6. God so loves his people, that, in comparison of his 
saints, he cares not what becomes of all the world. 
Thus, Isa. xliii. 4, " I have loved thee ; therefore will I 
give men for thee, and people for thy life." If thy case 
be so that it shall not be well with thee without great 
evils that shall come upon the generality of the chil- 
(ken of men, and people, and nations ; I do not so 
much care for them, (saith God,) my heart is upon you. 
so much so, that, in comparison of you, I care not what 
becomes of all the world. Oh the love of God to his 
saints ! 

7. A pardoning love. " Unto him that loved us, 
and washed us from our sins in his own blood," Rev. 
i. 5. You do not hear it said, that Christ has loved us 
and purchased great kingdoms for us, has made us 
lords, and earls, and countesses, and so loved us ; 
no, but " unto him that loved us, and washed us from 
our sins in his own blood." Now it is a good argu- 
ment that the love of God is upon you, if you account 
this to be a great fruit uf love, to wash you from your 
sins by the blood of Jesus Christ. Surely if he will do 
so much for you, as shall cost him so dear as his own 
blood, he loves you ; the love of Jesus Christ broke 
through the difHculties, for when there were such trans- 
actions between the P'athcr and Son about redeeming 
the soul, God said. If thou wilt take upon thee to de- 
liver them from their sin, thou must come thyself and 
be made a curse for their sins. And Jesus Christ re- 
plied, Lord, thy will be done in it, yet let me deliver 
them from their sin ; though I lose my life, though it 
cost me my blood, though I be made a cm'se, whatso- 
ever it cost me, yet let their sins be washed from them. 
He has washed us from our sins at the price of his own 
blood. Oh the love of Christ to his saints ! what 
bands of love have we here ! I have seen some who, 
that they may twist and bind their cords the more fast, 
will wet them : the cords of the love of Jesus Christ 
are wet with his own blood. 

8. A conforming love puts loveliness on the creature, 
even God's own nature. If one could say any thing 
greater than has been said, this, one would think, should 
be very high and gi'eat : for God so to love us, as to make 
us partakers of tlie Divine nature ; so to love us, as to 
put his own life into us, to enable us to live the very 
same life as himself does ; so to love us, as to put his 
own image upon us ; oh, this is the love of God to his 
.saints ! . 

9. He loves thee with the very same love wherewith 
he loves Jesus Christ himself. Thus John xvii. 26, 
" That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be 
in them," saith Christ to the Father. Oh to have the 
same love as that with which the Father loves Christ ! 
Is not this a strong band to bind thy heart to God ? If 
God had loved thee only so as to give thee an estate 
and honours here in this world, this were no other than 
the love which the reprobate may have ; and will this 
love satisfy thee ? Oh the difference between the love of 
God to his saints and the love of God to other men ! 
he loves the great ones of the world, that are wicked, 
with no other than the love wherewith he loves a re- 
probate ; but he loves the saints with the same love 
wherewith lie loves his Son ; and this love will bring 
thee one day to be one with the Father and with the 
Son : is it not then a strong band of love to gain thy 
heart to himself? 



10. A love of communion. God delights in com- 
munion with his saints : God indeed does all this for 
his saints, puts the Divine nature and the life of God 
into them, and sets so much love upon them ; why ? 
that he might have a people to enjoy everlasting com- 
munion with him. I would fain, saith God, have some 
ereatui'es that might live with me, to enjoy communion 
with me ; that might live to see my face, and to behold 
all the glory that I intend to manifest to all etcrnitv. O 
blessed God! hast not thou the angels that are' with 
thee to enjoy thy glory, to liave communion with thee ? 
No, saith God, but I would have these poor creatures 
that are so low and mean in the world, I would have 
them raised up to enjoy communion witli myself. This 
is the end of God's bestowing any grace upon his saints, 
it is that he might raise them to enjoy communion with 
him, and to delight in him, and he to delight in them ; 
that he might have creatures to communicate the ti'ca- 
sures of his goodness to, and that thou mightest com- 
municate what thou art able to him. Surely Christ 
does not account himself full without his saints ; and 
thei-efore you find in Eph. i. 23, that the church is 
called " the fulness " of Jesus Christ ; and therefore he 
prays, " Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast 
given me, be with me where I am," John xvii. 24 : I 
shall not account myself full except they be with me, 
and see my glory. Oh the love of Jesus Christ to his 
saints ! 

1 1 . A sweetening and sanctifying love. Thou mayst 
see love in every thing ; though thou hast now less of 
the creature than others have, yet thou hast it out of 
love ; on all thy mercies thou mayst see the eternal 
love of God to thee. The Lord from all eternity saw- 
that such a kind of life was the best calculated to fur- 
ther the eternal good he intended for me, and therefore 
he has chosen to place me in this condition. Oh how 
sweet may the life of any be when they can reason after 
this manner. Well, this condition in which now I am in, 
the Lord from eternity saw the fittest condition to work 
my heart to himself, and therefore it is that I am in 
this estate rather than another. And then thou findest 
daily by experience how the Lord has helped thee in 
thy straits, and heai-d thee in thy prayers, and answer- 
ed thy desires. This I told you, in tlie opening of the 
text, was a fiuit of love to the people of Israel, and so 
it has been with thee. 

12. An overcoming love. God's love overcomes all 
our unworthincss, both before and after conversion. 
He foresaw all, yet still his love was not quenched to- 
ward thee, but saith the Lord, My love shall break 
through all. Many times you set your love upon some 
who prove untoward and unworthy, and you think 
with yourselves. Could I have but foreseen this un- 
towardness they should never have had my love : but 
now the Lord foresaw all thy ill requitals, and yet it 
did not hinder the love of God towards thee. 

13. In the love of God there is the love of all rela- 
tions. As now, the love of a father towards a child ; 
the Lord takes ujion him the relation of a father : the 
love of a husband ; the Lord takes upon him the rela- 
tion of a husband : and the love of a friend too, a friend 
" that stickcth closer than any brother." 

14. God's love is an everlasting and unchangeable 
love. This cro\\Tis all, his is a love that shall never be 
quenched. He that the Lord loves, he loves unto the 
end ; " he will rest in his love," Zeph. iii. 17 ; Jer. xxxi. 
3. If thou knowest that he has loved thee in his Son, 
thou hast hereby an " everlasting consolation ; " let 
heaven and earth meet together, let there be what 
changes and alterations there will, yet there is "ever- 
lasting consolation" for thee, if thou knowest but this 
love of God, 2 Thess. ii. 16. 

Now, my brethren, all this I have done that your 
hearts may be gained unto God. And what wilt thou 



Vki;. 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



481 



do now ? Wilt not thou now love the Lord thy God ? 
shall not all this love of God to thee in Christ constrain 
thee ? " The love of Christ eonstraineth ns," saith the 
apostle, 2 Cor. v. 14. " O love the Lord, all ye saints ;" 
if the Lord ha^ thus loved you. love ye the Lord, all ye 
his saints. Then God is love himself, he is the ele- 
ment of love : and whither should love go but up to its 
kindred element ? Air desires to be in its proper place ; 
and earth will descend to its proper place : the proper 
place of love is God, God is (as it were) the element of 
love, for so the Scripture saith, "God is love; and he 
that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God," 1 John iv. 16. 
O labour to be rooted and stablished in love : " That 
ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to 
comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and 
length, and depth, and height ; and to know the love 
of Christ, which passeth knowledge," Eph. iii. 17 — 19. 
Being rooted in love, thereby ye come to comprehend 
with all saints the breadth, and length, and depth, and 
height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth 
knowledge. Neither the strength of natural parts nor 
learning so teach us the love of Christ as love ; get but 
your hearts " rooted and grounded in love," and you 
will come to understand the glorious things of the gos- 
pel in another manner than ever you did. And mark 
what follows, "that ye might be filled with all the 
fulness of God." Had we not such an expression in 
Scripture, we should not dare to make use of it. What ! 
for a poor creature to be filled with " God," to be filled 
with " the fulness of God," to be filled with " all the 
fulness of God?" This is the reason why Christians 
are so scant in their obedience, and empty in their 
spirits, because they are. not acquainted with this 
" breadth, and length, and depth, and height " of " the 
love of Christ." know that God prizes thy love, and 
is satisfied with nothing but thy love. In Cant. vii. 12, 
" There will I give thee my loves," saith the spouse. 
MTien thou comest to the ordinances to hear the word, 
to receive sacraments, or to prayer, yet if thou comest 
not to give the Lord Christ thy "loves," it is nothing; 
" There will I give thee my loves." Christ prizes love 
at a high rate ; and that love which will serve for other 
things, certainly will not serve Christ. He loves thee 
too little (saith Augustine) who loves any thing be- 
sides thee, or will not love that thing for thee. You 
may love w'ife, and children, and friends, yea, but you 
must love them all for God ; when you see any thing 
lovely in them, think it is but a beam of the loveliness 
of God. And thus I have endeavoured now to raise 
your hearts to God by love : the Lord has cast bands 
of love upon your souls ; oh that, by the ministry of 
his word this day, these bands may be somewhat 
strengthened, that you may go away with your hearts 
more strongly than ever united to the love of God ! 

But there is one point more observable in these 
'■bands of love" by which God draws people to himself. 

The scope of the prophet here in mentioning these 
'■ bands of love," is to aggravate their sin ; from 
whence, 

Obs. 16. Nothing more aggravates sin than that it is 
committed against love. God has three bands to bind 
us to obedience. 

1. The band of his law. 

2. The bands of afflictions. 
.3. The bands of love. 

But now to break the bands of the commandments, 
and the bands of afflictions, and the bands of love too, 
this aggravates sin veiy much. 

O thou sinner! charge thy sin with this aggrava- 
tion. What ! sin against such a God, such love ? Oh 
what a vile heart have I ! Augustine saith, The sjjirit 
is too hard, which, though it will not bestow, yet will 
not requite love. O let not there be such a hardness 
in the spirits of the saints. Thou didst not begin with 



God to love, thou didst not begin to bestow love ; be 
not so hard towards God as not to requite love. Do 
not we see how base, adulterous love can gain u])on 
men's hearts ? what strong bands that love has ! The 
giving of gifts and bribes, what bands tliey are to tie 
men's hearts, and hands, and tongues ! And shall not 
the love of God, and the fruits of that love, be a stronger 
band to tie thy heart unto him ? Nothing goes more 
to the heart of man or God than the abuse of love ; a 
man can better bear the abuse of his money, the abuse 
of any thing, than of his love. God's Spirit is grieved 
with his saints : we do not read that the Spirit of God 
is grieved with the wicked ; God may be " angry with 
t'ne wicked every day," but not grieved ; but when the 
saints sin against him the Spirit of God is grieved, be- 
cause their sins are against love. AVhen thou sinnest 
against God, the Lord looks upon thee, as Csesar once 
upon Brutus: Wiat! thou too. my son ? What! thou 
whom I have so loved ? What ! break all those bands ? 
"\^Tien we read in the 2nd Psalm of the kings and 
princes of the earth, who said, " Let us break their 
bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us," 
we think that is great rebellion ; but for thou that pro- 
fessest thyself to be God's, it is a greater evil to break 
these " bands of love." O thou, my son, ray child, thou 
on whom I have bestowed so much love, yet thou to 
sin against me ! When thou art committing any evil, 
conceive with thyself as if God were looking upon thee, 
and pleading with thee, by all those fruits of his love 
that ever thou hast received from him ; and wilt thou 
yet sin against him for all this? We read in Luke 
xxii. 61, 62, when Peter had sinned, Clirist did but look 
upon him, and he '■ wept bitterly : " oh ! Peter saw love 
in the looks of Jesus Christ ; and therefore we know, 
when Christ afterwards came to him, he pleaded with 
him with this argument of love, " Lovest thou me?" 
and " lovest t'nou me ?" Oh ! when he saw the eyes of 
Christ so sparkling with love, and then considered that 
he had sinned against that Christ who had so loved 
him, had broken all those " bands of love," then " he 
went out, and wept bitterly." The word in Mark xiv. 
72, is imjia\wv, breaking out in weeping; so it may 
imply the force employed in doing any thing ; he did 
break out, break out in weeping, he was not able to 
bear it, his heart burst even in sunder, when he con- 
sidered how he had burst asunder the " bands of love." 
What! after such manifestations of mercy and goodness, 
such warmings of heart in communion with Jesus 
Christ ? O my soul ! what canst thou find in any ways 
like God's ways ? canst thou find the like love and the 
like sweetness in any as thou hast done in God ? yet 
for all these unkind, unloving dealings, God follows 
thee with love, his heart is yet open unto thee. As a 
man may go from the sun, and yet still the beams of 
the sun follow and warm him ; so the hearts of the 
saints do many times decline from God, yet they have 
the warm beams of love following after them to di'aw 
their hearts again to him. Oh ! return, retm'n into 
this bosom of infinite love, here thy soul may have 
everlasting embracings. 

" And I was to them as they that take off the yoke 
on theii- jaws, and I laid meat imto them." 

Here is a fruit of love in dc•li^■ering them from their 
bondage. As a husbandman who is merciful to his 
beast will not tire it too much with hard labour, but 
takes off the yoke, lifting it up with his hands, and 
gives it food ; so did I, saith God, I did not tire Ephraim 
with labour and servitude. When you were in Egypt, 
and often afterwards when under your enemies' yokes, 
1 freed you from your bondage ; as the husbandman, 
when the beast has been ploughing and begins to be 
hot, lifts the yoke up to cool the neck that the beast 
may refresh itself. 

" As they that take off the yoke on their Jaws." 



482 



.\N EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XI. 



Because of some instruments, some bridle that was 
fastened to the yoke that was on their neck and put 
into tlieir jaws. Therefore this phrase, " As they that 
take off the yoke on their jaws." 

Luther on the place understands this of that spiritual 
ease which there is in the yoke of Jesus Clu-ist; and 
so saith, The Lord by his Spirit helps us to obey ; he 
docs not only command, and tell us what to do, but 
assists us with his Spirit, and gives us power, and lifts 
up the yoke, and beai-s it together himself with us ; and 
hence saith Christ, " My yoke is easy, and my burden 
is light." Indeed it is an easy yoke in comparison of 
the law : the law saith. Do this, and live ; do not, and 
die : the law takes advantage upon every infirmity, it 
admits not of endeavours without performances, it gives 
no strength to what it commands : but the yoke of 
Christ is easy ; Chi'ist " continues strength ; " there is 
never a command without an appropriate promise of 
strength, as an artery that runs together with the veins. 
And Christ accepts of endeavours ; his yoke is far easier 
than the yoke of the law. 

We must not think this too far-fetched, because we 
find that the Holy Ghost in the New Testament inter- 
prets the beginning of this chapter concerning Christ, 
whidi we would never have thought to have been meant 
of Christ, " I called my son out of Egyjit." Now if so 
be that God had an eye to Clirist in the words, " I 
called my son out of Egypt," why should we not 
think that Christ might be also referred to, when he 
saith, " I was to them as they that take off the yoke on 
their jaws ;" I delivered them from the yoke which nei- 
ther they nor their fathers could bear, and I brought 
on them the more easy yoke of the gospel ? 

But though the Holy Ghost may have had an eye to 
this, yet that which is primarily and literally meant is, 
the deliverance from oppression, I delivered them from 
the oppressions that were upon them. AVTience then 
the observations are, 

Obs. 17. Deliverance from oppression is a great 
mercy. Oh what case is there in it ! how does it cool 
our necks ! " I have broken the bands of your yoke, 
and made you go upright," Lev. xxvi. 13. AVe had 
once heavy yokes upon us, that made us stoop, we 
stooped under them ; but through God's mercy these 
bands of our yokes are in a good mea.sure broken, so 
that we may go upright; and woe to us if we go not 
upright now! In Ezek. xxxiv. 27, "They shall know 
that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of 
their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of 
tjiose that served themselves of them." My brethren, 
if ever God manifested himself to be the Lord towards 
us, it has been in breaking the bands of the yokes that 
were upon us, and in delivering us from those who 
served themselves of us. Wo were under a proud and 
cruel generation of men, that minded themselves, and 
cared not what became of the consciences, estates, 
liberties, or lives of men, if only they could have their 
humours and their lusts gratified ; and what means 
could we see for the deliverance of ourselves from their 
yoke? But the Lord has appeared; and then, saith the 
text, " They shall know that I am the Lord ; " if we 
did not know that God was the Lord before, yet now 
we may know him. And the truth is, such have been 
the wonderful works of God towards us in the break- 
ing of our yokes, that methinks it were enough to con- 
vince an atheist ; those of you who have been heretofore 
troubled with temptations of atheism, the strange ways 
of God towards this nation in freeing of us from the 
yokes which have been upon us, may convince vou of 
a God, may make you say, Surely there is a God in 
heaven that beholds the ways of the children of men : 
" tlie Lord, he is God." Then " they shall know that 1 
am the Lord." 

Oh that upon the manifestation of God in this way 



of mercy we may come to know that God is the Lord ! 
The Lord might have forced us to have known that he 
was the Lord by laying more grievous yokes upon us, 
by bringing us under more dreadful evils than we have 
ever yet experienced ; but the Lord has rather been 
pleased to choose another way, to make us to know 
that he is the Lord by taking our yokes ofi' from us. 
This God has done. 

Obs. 18. To grow wanton after deliverance from 
yokes is very sinful. This arises naturally from the 
scope of the context here, which is, to aggravate their 
sin so much the more ; as if he should say, I have taken 
off the yoke from your jaws, and yet now you are wan- 
ton, and kick and spurn with the heel against me. 
AMiat ! now when we come to have a little more liberty, 
and begin to feel our necks freed of those yokes that 
were upon them, shall we begin to frisk, and spurn, 
and kick, and that against God himself, who has taken 
the yoke from off us ? Oh, this is very dreadful. What ! 
to abuse our liberty from bondage to all manner of 
licentiousness in horrid and wanton opinions, in wicked 
and abominable practices ? certainly this is an ill re- 
quital of this fruit of love, in lifting up the yoke from 
off our jaws. This is a very great evil which we are 
this day guilty of; if ever there were a people guilty 
of this evil, of kicking and spuming against God so 
soon as he has taken off the yoke from their jaws, then 
we are at this day. Could any have believed, if it had 
been revealed from heaven but six years since, that 
within six years this people of England should be de- 
livered from those sore yokes under the burden of 
which they cried to heaven, yea, that the Lord would 
work in a miraculous way. to deliver them ; and yet, 
upon their deliverance, there should be such wanton- 
ness, such horrid, blasphemous opinions, and wicked, 
licentious ways, even among the very professors of re- 
ligion ; could it have been believed ? Certainly if our 
godly forefathers that were under the yoke, and that 
cried to God for deliverance, were to rise out of their 
graves now, and hoar a full narration of all that liberty 
which God has granted to his people in England, in 
the breaking of cul those yokes of tyranny, both in the 
civil and in the ecclesiastical state, they would present- 
ly think that they should see wonderful, glorious results 
from all this in England ; but if, after conversing for a 
little time with men, they were to hear such monstrous 
opinions, and to see the extreme licentiousness and 
wantonness in the hearts of men, as expressed in tlieir 
actions, they would be ready to spit in the very faces 
of their children, to disown with contempt those that 
now live in such times as the present. The wantonness 
of our hearts in abusing our deliverance is very evil in 
these respects : 

1. It hardens our adversaries. Our former oppressors, 
the prelates and otliers, will not they say, (or do not 
you give them occasion to say,) Now you see what is 
the fruit of casting us out ; was there such wantonness 
before ? were there such horrid opinions when we had 
power ? We kept down all such things, in our time of 
authority we could easily curb them ; but you see what 
extravagancies there are, how men run wild, as soon as 
our power is taken from us. By this means they are 
hardened : and others that are of a prelatical spirit are 
hardened, and begin to think, Surely the other is the 
better way. And indeed if this be a good argument, if 
the keeping men in union, and suppression of errors by 
violence, prove the truth of any way, or of any govern- 
ment, it may as well prove prelatical as any other, for 
we know that they kept men bv violence from venting 
such notorious errors ; but shall we, be- 
cause there is not this tvTanny upon us, "T^jiiTtlln'il' 
be more erroneous, and more wanton in 

our spirits ? 

2. It darkens the glory of this great work of God. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



483 



The Lord has been pkased to magnify his name in the 
deliverance of these kingdoms from the yoke ; now 
what should be the care of all the people of God, but 
to seek to magnify the great work of God, to make it 
beautiful and glorious before the eyes of all ? But now, 
by this wantonness and licentiousness, men do darken 
the glory of God, and obscure its lustre and beauty. 
In Psal. cxlix. 4, the Lord promises to beautify the 
meek with salvation ; " He will beautify the meek with 
salvation :" now the Lord has wrought so towards us 
as to beautify us with salvation, and indeed there is a ^ 
gi-eat beauty in the salvation which he has wrought : 
but this does (I say) darken the glory of God, and takes 
away the beauty of the work of God in our salvation. 
What ! has God done all this for us, tliat men might turn 
wanton, and run •wild into monstrous opinions and 
blasphemies ? Oh, woe to thee ! how unfit art thou to 
live in such a time as this is, to darken the glory of 
such a glorious work as God has wrought for us here 
in England ! 

3. It deprives others of just libertj'. It is on your ac- 
count who are so wanton, and run so wild in your 
opinions and in the looseness of your lives, that the 
discreet, and wise, and holy, and peaceable, who desire 
to make use of their liberty in Christ, must be denied 
it for your sakes. Whatever denial they have of that 
liberty which they wou4d use in a gracious and peace- 
able way for the honour of God, will one day be laid 
to your account, for by your wantonness it is occa- 
sioned. 

4. It may bring the yoke on us again, or be the 
means of bringing others under heavier bondage. 

.5. It justly prejudices rational men against liberty, 
and inclines them to think that they shall do God 
good service by laying heavy yokes upon men who 
thus dishonour his name. If ever, instead of the great 
strings that have tied j'okes upon you, you should 
have lesser strings, and these meaner instnmients of 
oppression should be multiplied to tie still heavier 
yokes upon )'0u, thank yourselves, you are the cau.se of 
it. ■' The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his 
liand," Lam. i. 14. The Lord may justly bind the yoke 
of your transgressions upon you. Oh that God would 
humble us for the abuse of our freedom from our yokes ! 
Oh let us take heed of this, and say with ourselves. 
Surely this is not the use that we should make of our 
deliverance ; no, but rather this use, we will rather so 
much the more willingly take the yoke of Jesus Christ 
upon us. In Exod. xii. 25, after the people of Israel 
were delivered from the yoke of Egyptian bondage, 
presently it is said, " ye shall keep this service ;'' speak- 
ing of the passover, that was to be kept upon their de- 
liverance from Egj'pt, " ye shall kee]) this service." 
The word there for " service" is may the same that is 
used sometimes for their service and bondage under 
the Egyptians ; as if the Lord should say. You were 
once in service indeed, there was a service that the 
Egyptians required of you, a servile service it was, and 
your necks were under it ; now I will work thus miracu- 
lously to deliver you from that servility, and you shall 
keep this my service, which is a great deal better than 
the service under your enemies. And indeed this should 
be the use ; we were slaves to our adversaries, let us be 
willing now, seeing we are free-men, to be servants of 
Jesus Christ, and to take his yoke ; but the growing 
wanton upon the removal of our yoke is a great aggra- 
vation of sin. " Because thou servedst not the Lord 
thy God with joyfulness, and witli gladness of heart, for 
the abundance of all things ; therefore shalt thou serve 
thine enemies which tlie Lord shall send against thee, 
in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want 
of all things : and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy 
neck, untU he have destroyed thee," Deut. xxviii. 47, 48. 

Obs. 19. Oppression of others after deliverance from 



oppression is a crying sin. If this be a mercy that we 
should bless God for, that we are delivered from the 
yokes of men, and the abuse of it in our wantonness be 
a great sin, then it must needs be an aggravation of 
our guilt, to begin to la)- yokes one upon another. If 
it be the mercy of God to take off your yokes, we 
should seek to take the yokes off from our brethren, to 
make their ways as easy to them as we jjossibly can, 
and not devise means to pinch their consciences ; con- 
science oppression of all oppressions is the most griev- 
ous. There was heretofore a generation of men, who 
studied what would pinch conscience most, and that 
which they found most likely to do so, they would urge 
to the uttermost upon men ; this was devilish ; I hope 
we have not many so vile as these were. Though such 
and such opinions and ways may serve our turn, we 
sh6uld consider whether they may not be burdensome 
to othfrs. 

Well, but though they be burdens, if they be truths, 
why should they not be ui'ged ? 

Nay, suppose they be truths, yet, except they be 
necessary, let not men be instrumental in imposing 
them upon others : if a necessity exists, then no plea 
can be admitted. Some men, however, are so happy 
(if I may so call it) that they have a latitude in their 
judgments, that which way soever the times turn they 
can find out a distinction to help themselves, that- so 
their fair necks should never come under a yoke : it is 
their singular good fortune that their judgments always 
suit with the times. 

I will not condemn such men, for possibly it may be 
God gives them to see further than others do ; but yet, 
by this they have ease : but now, were these men in- 
genuous, tliey should consider their brethren thus : I 
have a latitude, and I could conform myself to the com- 
plexion of the former times, as, now times are changed, 
I can to the present ; but some others, whom I have 
reason to judge as faithful and as gracious as myself, 
have no such latitude ; it falls out unhappily for them, 
for in former times their judgments could not suffer 
them to do what was enjoined them, they were fain to 
suffer, and to be deprived of estates, and livings, and 
whatsoever they had ; well, now the times are changed, 
it happens that their- judgments cannot conform to the 
alterations the changed times bring along with them ; 
and yet surely this arises not from frowardness, nor 
perverseness, for take these men in all things else, I 
find them as conscientious, as spiritual, as myself. Alas ! 
must they now suffer, and shaU I add to then- afflic- 
tions ? shall my hand be used to lay the yoke on them 
and to press it hard ? God forbid ; I will rather study, 
though I will not yield any truth, but stand to defend 
whatever I am persuaded in my conscience is a truth, 
yet I will rather study as far as I possibly can to ease 
them, and to make their lives comfortable. I know God 
has given them ability and hearts to do him service, 
and it may be as much as I ; oh why should they be 
hindered and discouraged in their work ? I will study 
what latitude there may be for them. This were some- 
what Uke, this were ingenuousness indeed, this would 
truly savour of a good spirit, and be a gracious testi- 
mony of your thankfulness to God for breaking off the 
yokes that were upon you. My brethren, when our 
yokes are taken away or lifted up, we must have regard 
to others as weU as omselves, and not think or say. Let 
them bear, let their necks bear ; oh no, what ai-e our 
necks more than theii's ? If God pities his people and 
will lift up the yoke, let us do what we can to put un- 
der our hand to relieve others, although we bear some- 
what ourselves. Some men glorj- in imposing burdens ; 
but it is not such a glorious thing to lay yokes upon 
others, the glory is in lifting up the yoke from off them. 
This is the glory of God, to take off the yoke from the 
jaw and from the neck. Christ professes his " yoke is 



AX KXPOSITIOX OF 



Chap. ai. 



easy," his " burden is light ; " oh ! let not ours then be 
hard and heavy, if Christ's be easy. And especially in 
these days of our fasting and prayer, oh ! let us be 
very careful to lift up the yoke from off our brethi-en 
as far as possibly we can williout sin. " Is not this the 
fast" (saith God) "that I have chosen? to loose the 
bands of ■wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and 
to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every 
yoke?" Isa. Iviii. 6. "Is not this the fast that I have 
chosen, — that ye break every yoke." And in the 9th 
verse, " Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall an- 
swer ; thou shalt cry, and he shall say. Here I am. If 
thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke." Still 
mark liow God urges this removal of the yoke, when 
you come to fast : Is this the fast lliat I require, to do 
thus and thus? no, saith he, but "to undo the heavy 
burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ve 
break every yoke : " and again, if you shall do so, 
" Tlien shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer ; thou 
shalt cry, and he shall say. Here I am." God stands 
much upon this in the days of our fasting, that wc lay 
no burdens and yokes upon our brethren, but that we 
do what we possibly can to take off yokes, tliat we may 
be able to appeal to God, Lord, thou knowest that I do 
as ni\ich as I can, and I pray that thou wouldst direct 
mc in mine endeavours to render comfortable the li\ cs 
of those whom I believe to be faithful and conscientious. 
This is not to give liberty to evei-y kind of licentious- 
ness and blasphemy, but when I see that certain things 
may consist with godliness, and godly and peaceable 
men have many doubts among them, and especially 
seeing I hold these my present views but a short time, 
and did not see heretofore as now I do, I will do what 
I possibly can with a good conscience, that my brethren 
may enjoy thy ordinances in what liberty thou wilt 
afford unto them. This savours like the spirit of a 
Christian indeed. 

And, likewise, you that are in any authority, seeing 
God accounts it liis glory to take off the yoke from 
his people, O, be you tender towards them that are 
luider you ; as magistrates, as governors, as parents, as 
masters, lay not, my brethren, too heavy yokes on your 
children and servants : fatliers should " not provoke 
their children to wrath," and masters should be gentle 
towards them that are under them, knowing they have 
also a Master in heaven. Give them therefore whatever 
liberty may consist without sin, even outward liberty ; 
keep them not continually at work, but afford them 
some times of recreation and refreshment. True, yom- 
holy-days are taken away, but surely there is no such 
likely way to bury them' in oblivion, that they should 
never be thought of again, as to have some set times 
for servants and children to recreate themselves. It is, 
too, the only way to keep the sabbath pure ; for if they 
have no recreation during the week, thev will have it 
on the sabbath, or return once more to their former 
superstitious holy-days. The beast must not always lie 
ploughing, sometimes the yoke on his jaws must be 
taken off. 

" And I laid meat unto them." 

Luther saith, I so WTOught for them, 
.^STTuih."' that they should cat their meat quietly: 
as if the pro|)het sliould say, You did not 
j)rovide for yourselves yoxu' meat, God jirepared it for 
you, and came and laid it before you. Thus God laid 
meat before tliem when he rained manna from heaven ; 
when the quails were he provided them. AVhencc, 

Obs. 20. Mercies pre])ared, provided, and laid liefore 
us, are to be prized. When we receive a mercy, I say, 
tliat did not cost us much, but is prepared and set be- 
fore us, it is to be prized. 

How many of you have all your mercies ])rc))ared 
for you ! when you go abroad on business, you take no 
care for provision at home in yom' families, you do but 



rise and dress, and go abroad, it may be to a sermon, 
or other company, and return home again ; you have 
your tables spread, and find full dishes upon them, with- 
out any care of yours, all is prepared for you. O, 
consider the mercies of God towards you in this thing. 
^\'hereas many poor people are fain, before they can 
get bread for their families, their wives and children, to 
work hard ; but the Lord lays meat before you. God 
is to be acknowledged in this. 

The propriety of the word is, I made 
it to descend ; it came down from heaven, dcSndcrc^Kit 
it was neither too high nor too low, but 
it came just to you, fitted for you : which teaches us 
further, 

Obs. 21. In receiving our food, we must look up to 
heaven. AVe are more beholden to the heavens than to 
the earth for our bread. God is to be acknowledged in 
that " he satisfieth the poor with bread," yea, and that 
he satisfies the rich with bread ; the richest of you all 
are to see how it comes from heaven : I made it to de- 
scend. I say we should look from whence our very 
food descends, it descends from heaven. Lift up thine 
eyes to heaven when thou art eating meat ; be not as 
the switie under the tree, that looks downward to the 
acorns, but never upward towards the branches of the 
tree from whence the acorns fall ; but look up to heaven 
from whence thy meat and thy provision did descend. 

Obs. 22. The service of God's people is easy, and 
their provision bountiful " I was to them as they that 
take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto 
them." Now the service of many of your servants is 
hard, and their provision very penurious, you would 
have them do your hard labour, and yet provide little 
food for them ; oh, this is the basest of all cruelties, to 
put servants to hard labour, and yet not to provide 
comfortably for them for their food. 

But, my brethren, the main thing that I would note 
from hence is, How great are the mercies of.God to us, 
wlio has eased our yoke this day, and laid meat too be- 
foi-e us ! My brethren, who would have thought four 
years since, that there would be civil wars for almost 
four years together in our land ; and such cruel, bloody 
wars, and so general throughout the whole kingdom ; 
and that yet we should at this day have provision so 
])lentiful as we have ? Did not all say, even at the fii-st 
year when the wars began. Surely things will be very 
scarce ? many began to lay in corn and other provision, 
and we had cause enough to fear; but behold the 
bountifulncss of the love of God, that has eased our 
yokes, and has laid meat before us, that " the poor is 
satisfied with bread," and there are " no conijjlainings 
in our streets ;" we have not only our bread, but our 
tables filled. AVhat difference do you see in the table.^ 
of men now from former times ! If a stranger should 
come into this kingdom, hearing what miserable wars 
there have been, (as bloody and cruel as ever were in 
any kingdom,) and yet sec every man's table so filled, 
he could not but stand and wonder : certainly strangers 
think our condition to be far more sad in respect of 
provision than it is. Let us not then be wanton with 
our plenty. AA'e were wont to say. If we might have but 
bread and cheese and the gospel, it were good cheer ; 
now, mv brethren, we have food of earth, and the 
bread ot life too. ^^'hat ! is it sweet to be freed from 
outward bondage, and to have meat laid before us ? 
how sweet is it then to be freed from spiritual bondage, 
and to have the food of life laid before us! yet this is 
our condition. Our blessing specially consists in this, 
in having our spiritual vokes taken off from us, and 
having tlie bread of life laid before us in a more plen- 
tiful mca-sure than ever we liad : was there, ever n time 
that this city had so much meat laid before it for the 
soul, as at this day ? The misery of other parts of the 
kingdom is your mercy ; the Lord grant that you do 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



485 



not loathe and despise your manna: God has ways 
enough to cut you short. 

Ver. 6. He shall not return into the land of Egypt, 
but the Assi/ria)i shall be his king, because they refused 
to return. 

To give you first a short paraphrase of the words, 
(for there is no difficulty in them,) and then the notes 
of observation : it is as if the prophet should say, 

Howsoever he thinks to help himself with ease, to 
shelter himself in Egypt, yet he shall not, but he shall 
go into captivity into Assyria ; for all the means which 
have been used would not bring him to return. 
■ The observations then are, 

Obs. 1. That which hardens men's hearts against 
threats in their sin, is some expedient that they have 
in their thoughts ; Let the worst come that can be, yet 
I have such and such a relief. 

My brethren, it is a great mercy of God to be so 
wholly taken from all carnal props, from all vain shifts 
and hopes, as to be thoroughly convinced that there is 
no help in any thing, or in any creature, in heaven and 
earth, but only in turning to God, and casting the sonl 
down before mercy ; If that saves me not, I am undone 
for ever. When the heart comes to this, God is working 
in a gracious and merciful w'ay : I see my sin, my afflic- 
tion that is upon me, and feel it; though my heart 
would be shifting this way and that way, yet God has 
convinced me nothing can do me good, I am lost and 
undone whatever course I take, except I return to God, 
and humble my soul before him, and seek his face, and 
obtain his mercy. 

06s. 2. A stout heart cares not whither it goes, ra- 
ther than it will return to God. " He shall not return 
into the land of Egj-jjt." It was a very strange per- 
verseness to think of this shift, to go back to Egypt. 
Why, was not Egy])t the place of their bondage, and the 
Egj'jitians still retained their cruelty ? and yet they 
thought of this help, that they would turn to Egypt 
rather than to God. So the prodigal will rather go to 
the swine to feed upon husks, than to his father. And 
some stubborn children care not what miseries they 
suffer, rather than they will come and humble them- 
selves to their parents ; they will hang themselves, and 
drown themselves, and seek their fortune, as they are 
wont to say, rather than be persuaded to come in and 
submit themselves ; no, never as long as they live, 
though they die, yet will they not : and thus their hearts 
are stout. But while they think they are stout against 
their parents, they are stout against God too, and God 
has ways to bring men's stout hearts to yield. 

Obs. 3. Stubborn hearts, though God be dealing with 
them in mercy, will, foolishly and desperately, if any 
thing cross them, wish to return to their former condi- 
tion of miseiy. If you make any thing that God does 
an argument to a stubborn heart for duty, if it pleases 
him not, he will reject all that is done for him, and say 
he had rather be as he was before, Let me go into 
Egypt again. This is their unthankfulness, that be- 
cause they are vexed and crossed in some one thing, 
they will foolishly and desperately wish that they were 
returned to their former condition. ' 

Oh, thus it is with many of us ; how foolishly, how 
wlckedl;,, have we thought and said it was better with 
us before than now, let us return to our former condi- 
tion ! this is thy folly and thy desperate wickedness. 
But saith the text, " He shall not return," though he 
thinks of returning : as if the Holy Ghost should say, 
Do not ])lease yourselves to think it is but to return to 
Egypt, that you can no where be worse off than you are 
now ; God has worse things in store for them who 
harden their necks. 

And, my brethren, this is our case this day ; let not us 



think .of returning to our former condition : certainly, 
were we to attempt to return, our condition would be 
far worse than before, our danger far greater. This is 
certain, to the view of any men tliat have their eyes 
open, that our condition in England must, if we return, 
be far worse than before. !Many say, OIi, we were thus 
and thus in former times, and if we were now but as 
then we should do well enough ! O, let us not think 
so ; we must certainly be far worse off than we were, 
for if we think of returning it wiU not be to Egypt, but 
to Assyria. 

06s. 4. God knows how to cross the wills and mar 
the plots of wicked men. They please themselves with 
their devices, they will do thus and thus ; if they be put 
to this shift, then they have a second, and a thii'd. Yea, 
but there is a God in heaven who has determined 
otherwise. 

Never were wicked men more crossed in their plots 
than they are at this day ; they have said that they 
would do thus and thus, but God has said they should 
not, and they have not. 

Now God in his mercy defeats the sinful projects of 
his people ; but when the wicked are crossed iii their sin, 
it is because God has other ways to bring about greater 
evils on them : " the Assyrian shall be his king." Well 
then, whatsoever any man's thoughts and desires are, the 
Lord deliver us from turning into Egypt again. And like- 
wise the Lord grant the Assyrian may not be our king. 

" But the Assyrian shall be his king." The Lord de- 
liver us from both Egypt and Assyria. AVhy an As- 
syrian ? why was he threatened to be their king ? You 
shall find that he was one of a cruel and proud heart ; 
the Ass3Tians were generally so, a generation of men 
cruel, proud, stout, and hard-hearted. '• O AssjTian, 
the rod of mine anger," saith God, Isa. x. 5 ; and in 
ver. 7, " It is in his heart," in the heart of the king of 
Ass)Tia, "to destroy and cut off nations not a few." 
Andin the 12th verse, "Whereforeit shall come to pass, 
that when the Lord hath performed his whole work 
upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the 
fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the 
glory of his high looks." Oh ! it it is a sore evil to be 
subject to the rage of a proud and stout-hearted man, 
who will set his heart against God himself; who, though 
God fights against him, yet will stand it out ; and 
though his design is crossed, yet will not come in ; who 
will not give glory to God though his will cost him 
the blood of many thousands, but will go desperately 
on, regarding more his own will and lusts than the 
blood or lives of millions. How sad and dreadful is 
the condition of those who have such a stout heart to 
reign over them, armed with power, inflated with pride, 
enraged with cruelty ! This is that which the Lord 
threatens here ; and why ? '■ because they refused to 
return." I beseech you observe this ; " He shall not 
return into the land of Egypt," saith God, " but th& 
Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to re- 
turn." From whence further, 

06s. 5. If we will not do God's will, God will cross 
us in our own. They would have their will, they would 
retm-n,but they shall not, saith God; they will not re- 
turn to me, therefore they shall not return whither 
they will themselves. God can cross us in our own 
wills at every turn. Foolisli men ! who will presume to 
cross God in his wiU, when God has them at such in- 
finite advantages to cross them every way in eveiy 
thing 1 If you cross God in that in which he delights, 
you may expect God wiU cross you in that in which 
you most delight. 

O, when you are crossed in any thing that you have 
set yo)ir thoughts and heart most upon, commune with 
yourselves thus ; Have not I crossed the mind of God, in 
that upon which God most set his heart ? It is a good 
way. my brethren, to take a holy revenge upon our- 



486 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XI. 



.selves, and if we cannot get our hearts to work for God 
as they otighf, not to suffer them to work for ourselves 
as thev iroutd. 

Obs. 6. God is not so much displeased at our sins, 
as at our not returning. He saith not, that the AssjTian 
should rule over them because they have sinned, but 
because they refused to return. " Because they would 
not return." It is too much that thou hast sinned, but 
as soon as ever thou hast sinned it concerns thee to 
think of returning ; God expects as soon as ever the sin 
is noticed, that thou shouldst presently begin to return. 
It is dangerous to continue in the least sin ; this ag- 
gravates thy sin dreadfully, and endangers thy sealing 
up to wrath everlasting. 

Obs. 7. To refuse to return, notwithstanding means 
used, and mercies tendered, is a fearful aggravation. 
Not to return is evil, but to refuse to return, notwith- 
standing means used and mercies tendered, oh this is 
fearful indeed. 

O lay this to heart, thou convicted sinner ; what 
offers of mercy has God made to thee ! what callings 
to mercy hast thou heard, outward calls in pro\ideuce, 
and inward calls by the Spirit of God ! Oh how has 
God called after thee, " Return, return, thou Shulamite ;" 
return, return, return, thou wretched, wilful sinner ; O, 
come in and return ! What means of all sorts hast thou 
had to cause thy heart to return to God ! and yet stand- 
est thou out ? i'hink of what the Spirit saith in Job ix. 
4, " ^^'ho hath hardened himself against him, and hath 
prospered ? " What ! dost thou think to hai'den tliyself 
again-t God, and yet to pros|)er ? " AVHio hath hard- 
ened himself against him, and hath pros])ered?" And 
mark what follows ; " Which removeth the mountains, 
and they know not : which overturneth them in his 
anger. Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and 
the pillars thereof tremble." And yet cannot thy heart 
be overturned, can it not tremble ? Inthis, that thou 
refuses! to return, thy sin is aggravated above the sin 
of the devils themselves, for we do not know that ever 
the devils refused to return, for they were never of- 
fered mercy ; God did never offer the devils mercy, God 
never sent to preach to them, either by his ministers, 
or word. Betuni, and ye shall have mercy; here is a 
price i)aid, here is a salvation for you, your sins may 
be pardoned : the devil had never such an offer. Who 
linows what the devil might do if such an offer were 
made to him ? But now these offers are made to thee, 
and tliou refusest to return. O return, therefore, thou 
sinful soul that art wandering from God in the ways 
of death and destruction, this day give in thine answer : 
as we read in Jer. iii. 22, where the Lord calls his back- 
sliding children, " Ilttiun, ye backsliding childicn, and 
I will heal your backslidings." Mark the answer 
ihey give to God, " Behold, we come unto thee ; for 
thou art the Lord our God." Oh that there might 
be such an answer given this day from some back- 
sliding soul that is turned from God ! O poor soul ! 
whither art thou gone ? God calls this day to thy soul, 
Keturn, return ; and professes that he is willing to heal 
tliy backslidings. O give in this answer, " Behold, we 
come mito thee ; for thou art the Lord our God." Oh 
that some soul might this hour refuse no longer to re- 
turn. AXliy wilt not thou return ? God is content to re- 
turn to thee : thou art turned from God, and God in the 
ways of his administrations is turned away from thee ; 
but mark the promise in Jer. viii. 4, 6, " Thus saith 
the Lord ; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall ho turn 
away, and not return ? Why then is this people of Je- 
rusalem sliddenback by a perpetual backsliding? they 
hold fast deceit, tliey refuse to return." 

Some interpret the words here, " Shall he turn away 
and not return," of God. The Lord is not so turned 
back, hut he is ready to return ; oh ! why shouldst 
thou liickslideTvith "a perpetual backsliding?" 



" Because they refused to return." The word i:»c 
translated ''they refused," may signify they scorned. 
What ! talk to him of returning, tell him of his sin 
against God, and its greatness, and the greatness of 
the danger, and the threatenings of God against his sin? 
he des])ises all these things, these are poor things to 
scare children withal; tell him of the mercies of God 
in pardoning his sin, he slights all. This humiUation 
now for sin, this breaking off' of sinful courses, they 
deride the motions of them, they scorn to return. 
Hence, further, 

Obs. 8. Scornful spirits, when called upon in the 
bowels of mercy to return from their evil ways, do not 
only refuse to return, but also scorn and slight what is 
said to them, ^^'ell, howsoever thou dost scorn and 
contemn it, know there are some who admire at God's 
mercies in calling thee to return, who admire at mercy 
tendered to themselves, and prize it more than all things 
in the world ; they turn to the Lord with all their souls, 
nothing in all the world can stop them ; they bless God 
that ever their ears heard the call of God, wooing them 
to return, and they would not for ten thousand thou- 
sand worlds but they had heard it, and felt the Spirit 
of God working their hearts to return to him. 

Ver. 6. And the sword shall abide on his cities, and 
shall consume his branches, and devour them, because 
of their own counsels. 

" And the sword shall abide on his cities." They re- 
lied on their cities and therefore refused to return; but 
saith the Lord here, vnya ain nSm " The sword shall 
abide on his cities." The Vulgate and Jerome translate 
it. The sword has begun on their cities. 

If we understood it thus we might derive a very 
profitable meditation. 

Obs. 1. It is time for a people to return, when God 
doth but whet, or draw out, his sword. " At what instant 
I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a 
kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy 
it ; if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, 
turn from tlieir e^■il, I will repent of the evil that I 
thought to do unto them," Jer. xviii. 7, 8. Oh ! happy 
had it been for us, if, when the sword begun with us, 
we had turned from our evil. 

But we must rather take it as in our version, and so 
the words are more proper, " The sword shall abide on 
his cities." 

The evil of the sword I have already opened in the 
latter end of the former chapter, but that which I here 
would note is. The abiding of the .sword upon their 
cities. From whence, 

Obs. 2. The abiding of the sword is a sore judgment. 
So it was here, for afterwards, in the reign of Hoshea, 
was this prophecy fulfilled, when Samaria was be- 
sieged for three years together. When God threatens 
fearfully, he threatens the abiding of the sword ; " the 
bathing it in heaven," its being " filled with blood," 
" made fat with fatness," and that it "shall devour," and 
" shall be satiate," and " made drunk with blood." All 
tliesc six expressions you have in two scriptures, Isa. 
xxxiv. 5, 6, and Jer.'xlvi. 10. Oh! this a dreadful 
thing, for the sword to abide. It has abode long on 
Germany, the Lord has been angry with them for almost 
these thirty years : we think three or four years long 
for the abiding of the sword amongst us. 

But if it be such a fearful judgment for the sword to 
abide, how vile are they that seek to prolong its abid- 
ing on a people, and that for their own advantage ! 
Oh ! that is a cursed thing ; such men live upon blood, 
every draught they drink they drink blood, who have 
endeavoured the prolonging of the sword upon this 
kingdom for their private advantages. 

Mv brethren, we have cause to bless God, that he 



Ver. 6. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSE A. 



487 



has raised up instruments * for us, who have hazarded 
the shortening of their own lives to shorten the war, 
who have done their work of late as if they took it by 
the great. There is a froward and envious generation 
of men, who will say of some, because in certain things 
they differ from them, that they would be glad that these 
troubles might continue, because then they might have 
the more liberty. But we see these men, though of 
different judgments, do not contrive measures to con- 
tinue the trouble, but hazai-d themselves to conclude 
it as soon as possibly they can, and that to admiration, 
doing things in the winter season, that is not ordinari- 
ly heard of among other nations ; and all this, that the 
sword may not abide upon their country, but that 
peace may be hastened : on such surely the blessing of 
God must rest. 

Obs. 3. The sword has its commission from God, and 
will abide as long as God will have it. He that is the 
Lord of hosts, gives the commission to the sword, and 
till he recalls his commission the sword shall go on. 
We may think the wars at an end ; oh ! let us look to 
it that we may make up our peace with God, and then 
we may hope it ; but otherwise the Lord may cause " a 
serpent to come out of the cockatrice's egg," the Lord 
may kindle fires otherwise than we can imagine ; there- 
fore saith God, " The sword shall abide." It may be 
they thought, that indeed if the enemy come he will 
not stay long ; but, saith God, he " shall abide." 

I verily persuade myself, that there were many, yea, 
and some of the wisest in this kingdom, who persuaded 
themselves at the beginning of the taking up of the 
sword, that it would scarce have held twelve months 
together, it was so impossible to have foreseen the 
abiding of the sword so long upon us as it has. Yea, 
but if God gives commission it must abide : there is a 
notable text for that, in Jer. xlvii. 6, 7, " O thou sword 
of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet ? 
put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still." 
Mai-k the answer there : " How can it be quiet, seeing 
the Lord hath given it a charge ? " It must go on, it 
must abide, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge. 

Obs. 4. It is a sad thing for the sword to be in the 
field, but still worse for the sword to be in the cities, 
for in the cities is the strength of the kingdom. " And 
the sword shall abide on his cities." 'VATien the sword 
comes into the cities, oh the fearful sights of houses 
fired, of streets running with blood, the hideous noise 
of shrieking women and children ! Jose- 
jSoUbi^Sp.T. phus, in his account of the Jewish Wars, 
reports of Jerusalem, that when the Ro- 
mans came against it and took it, the narrow' streets 
were so filled with dead bodies that there was no pas- 
sage ; and he adds, that the streets ran with the blood 
of the inhabitants, and many things set on fire, were 
quenched with the blood of men and women which 
deluged the streets, so dreadful was the sword there. 
The number of those that were slain and died during 
the time that the sword was stretched out against that 
one city, he saith, was eleven hundred thousand, it 
having been surrounded when crowded with strangers 
at the time of the celebration of the T'assover. Oh ! for 
the sword to come to jiopulous cities is very dreadful. 

And the more dreadful it is, the greater is the mercy 
of God to our city ; the Lord has so wholly delivered it 
from the sword that it has not come upon it at all. If 
the sword had come to this city, oh ! it would have 
raged indeed ; for this was the butt of the malice of the 
adversaries, their fury was reserved for this city ; but 
the Lord has protected it, it has been the city of the 
Lord of hosts, the Lord has commanded that no army 
should meddle with it for hm-t : Isa. xxxvii. 35, " I will 
defend this city," saith God, " to save it for mine own 

* The new-modelleJ army. Ann. IG45. 1646. 



sake." Y'ea, it is for God's own sake indeed that he 
has said to the sword, " Go through the land ; " and 
indeed quite through the land, except this city, and a 
few surrounding counties about it: as in Ezek. xiv. 17, 
" Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say. Sword, 
go through the land," &c. The sword has even de- 
vom-ed from one end of the land to another, and yet 
this city is preserved, and not only preserved, but 
made a refuge and a succour for all the godly party 
flying fiom the rage of the sword. " Great is the Lord, 
and greatly to be praised" in this city, preserved by 
the Lord ; except it had been preserved by the Lord, 
the watchmen certainly had waked " but in vain," Psal. 
cxxvii. 1. 

" And shall consume his branches, and devour 
them." 

The "branches," that is, the towns and villages 
about the city ; for the cities in a kingdom are like the 
root or the body of a tree, while the villages or towns 
are as the branches ; and here are threatened both city 
and branches. 

And this city has been as a great body of a tree, that 
has sent out juice, and sap, and succour to all the 
towns and villages in the kingdom, "\^^len the sword 
is upon the city, there is little hope that the villages 
shall escape. Isa. xiv. 31, " Howl, O gate ; cry, O city, 
thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved." AATien the city 
cries, then whole Palestina is dissolved. No mai'vel 
then, though there has been such plotting in this city, 
by making divisions, besides other treacherous and vil- 
lanous ways, to bring the sword upon it to spoil it. 
A'i'hat efforts have there been to betray us, one plot 
upon another ! as soon as one is broken up, presently 
another is formed, and all against this city. Oh what 
a pleasant sight would it have been to our adversaries, 
to have seen it in confusion, and wallowing in its own 
blood ! But the more there is depending upon it, the 
more carefully should all that love peace, and the wel- 
fare of the kingdom, labom' for its good ; every one 
should labour for the peace of it, that it may be a city 
compacted with unity within itself, that all that are 
godly and faithful therein may unite together, and 
every one bear the infirmities of his brother ; that there 
may be no grating upon one another's sphits, no ex- 
asperation, no stirrings-up of violence one against an- 
other, especially against those that are gracious and 
peaceable. The more plotting, and falseness, and 
treachery there is against this city, the more faithfully 
should we labour for its good, yea, and the more should 
we increase our prayers for it. So Psal. Iv. 9 — 11, " I 
have seen violence and strife in the city. Day and 
night they go about it upon the walls thereof : mischief 
also and sorrow are in the midst of it. Wickedness is 
in the midst thereof : deceit and guile depart not from 
her streets." What then ? In the 1 7th verse, " Even- 
ing, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry 
aloud : and he shall hear my voice." What saith the 
psalmist? "I have seen violence and strife in the 
city," yea, and " deceit and guile depart not from her 
streets." What shall I do then ? " Evening, and morn- 
ing, and at noon, will I pray." We complain of con- 
tentions, and divisions, and strifes in the city, and that 
there are so many plots and treacheries against the 
city; O let not us only talk of these things, but in- 
crease our prayers in frequency and fervency. Let 
there be no family without prayer to God in it, even- 
ing and morning at least ; and if you prayed twice a 
day before, then" pray thi-ice a day now, because of the 
strife, and treachery,' and deceit in the city ; and the 
Lord will hear our voice. And he concludes the Psalm 
thus, " Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half 
their days ; but I will trust in thee." Let them be 
never so bloody-minded, and desire never so much to 
imbrue the city in blood, yet saith the text, " Bloody 



488 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XL 



and deceitful men shall not live out hall' tlivir days ; but 
I will trust in thee." 

" Because of their own counsels." 

The evil, folly, and danger of men's own counsels, we 
we have spoken to, in the 10th chapter, 6th verse, 
"Ephraira shall receive shame, and Israel shall be 
ashamed of his own counsel." Now only a word here 
in reference to tlie abiding of the sword upon them. 

The sword has abode upon us divers years : the 
wisest amongst us did not think the sword would have 
continued so long as it has done ; and yet who can 
tell Avhen there will be an end of these things? 

Among other evils, certainly this evil of our own 
counsels is a great evil, that has made the sword to 
abide upon us : every man follows his own counsel, one 
man for his friend, and another for his friend. Men's 
own counsels, both in parliament, in city, in the army, 
in the country, throughout the kingdom, have been a 
great cause of the abiding of the sword so long a time 
upon us. 

" Their own counsels." The Vulgate renders it, con- 
necting it with the foregoing words. Sua con.silia come- 
dent capita eorum, shall eat up, or destroy, theii' heads. 
Those men that seemed to be tlie wisest and most full 
of counsel among them, even they were the cause of 
the continuance of this evil upon them. Montanus 
and Vatablus render it, their counsellors ; because 
those that put them upon such counsels were the cause 
of the abiding of the .sword. So in Ezek. xi. 2, of 
Jaazaniah and Pelatiah, ])rinces of the people, it is 
said, " these are the men that devise mischief, and 
give wicked counsel in this city." God has an eye up- 
on such as " give wicked counsel in this city," as the 
men that are the causes of the evil that is upon it. 
There is nothing more useful in troublesome times 
than counsel, if set aright ; and nothing more danger- 
ous in troublesome times than counsel, if it be wrong. 
The Lord deliver us, both parliament, army, city, and 
kingdom, from our own counsels. This will ever be ; 
men will ever follow their own coiuisels, till they be 
taken off from their own designs and their own ends, 
till they can trust God with his work, and be willing to 
have their own private advantage swallowed up in the 
public good. Squint-eyed and selfisli counsel will de- 
stroy us, if God be not infinitely merciful to us : yea, 
and it may be there are some well-intentioned for God, 
who yet in their counsels may be led aside by carnal 
principles : as for instance, many of good intentions, 
many who dcsu-e the furtherance of the kingdom of 
Christ, and can appeal to God that their hearts are 
sincere in their desire, think that there is no such way 
for the furtherance of the kingdom of Christ, as by the 
correspondency of it with the kingdoms of the world. 
Tills they regard as a sovuid fundamental princi])le ; but 
certainly they are mistaken, for as the kingdom of 
Christ is not of this world, so the way to promote it is 
not by endeavouring the correspondency of it with the 
kingdoms of this world. God has laid the great work 
of man's salvation, the greatest work tliat concerns the 
glory of his name, in that wliich is foolishness to men ; 
and almost all the great works of (iod. cs])ecially those 
that have a more immediate subserviency to the king- 
dom of his Son, he brings about, not by man's counsel, 
but by ways and means whicli seem folly to the coun- 
sels of men carnally wise. " For it is written, 1 w ill de- 
stroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing 
the understanding of the prudent," 1 Cor. i. 19. 

■Ver. 7. And my people are bent to backilidinf; from 
me : though they called them to the most High, none at 
all icould exalt him. 

" And my people are bent to backsliding." Sometimes 
they may begin to reform, but they are quickly off 



again, for there is a principle of apostaey in them. 
" My people are bent to backsliding." If they do any 
thing in the way of reformation it is upon some ex- 
ternal motive ; theu' hearts are inclined another way : 
they are like a bough of a tree bent contrary to its na- 
ture by an external force ; it may be for the present it 
yields, but there is in it an inclination, a propension, to 
return whither its own nature careies it. Thus it was 
often with Israel, upon some extraordinary work of God 
they would do such and such things, but they were as 
a deceitful bow that soon starts back. 

My brethren, let us search our hearts. There was a 
great forwardness of reformation in the beginning of 
the parliament ; how did men stir then ! their spirits 
seemed to be then otherwise disposed than now : but 
it appears that in many of them it was only a spirit 
against those that had oppressed them, and a triumph- 
ing and rejoicing in having their wills upon them, and 
in the novelty of the change of things, but their hearts 
remained as carnal, diossy. and vain as ever. Therefore 
when men's wills were a little satisfied, and they saw 
that the godly people of the land began to rejoice, 
hoping for gi-eater freedom than ever for, and counte- 
nance of, the religious party, and they found that there 
were some difficulties in the work of reformation, and 
that thereby their lusts should be curbed, that they 
should not, as before, have a licence to sin, upon this 
their heai-ts " are bent to backslidmg ; " that is, they 
fall off from the godly people of the land, with whom 
they formerly closed, and seemed much to rejoice in, 
their hearts are now against them as much as ever they 
seemed with them ; yea, their hearts do vex and fret 
at any liberties they may possibly enjoy, or at any 
work of reformation that is begun. Thus it is with 
the nation at large, men's hearts " are bent to back- 
sliding." 

And if we look at men individually, their hearts " are 
bent to backsliding " from the ways of godliness which 
they began to profess, as thus ; many young ones, and 
others, who have had workings on their hearts, and 
have made great profession of religion, yet, never hav- 
ing had their hearts changed, start back now ; and that 
for many reasons. 

1. God's ways have been unsuitable to them, and 
therefore they have found them hard and tedious. 

2. To other things they have had a greater inclina- 
tion, oidy they have been kept fi'om them by the 
strength of conviction and external motives. 

3. "They have grown weary of the ways of God : that 
is a third degree, weariness of the ways of God. 

4. They have watched all advantages how they might 
get off from their profession. 

5. They have been sony that they have engaged 
themselves so much as they did. 

(). Any objections against such ways they greedily 
embrace, and diligently improve. 

7. They are very ready to take any offence. 

8. They watch for offences. 

9. Anv opinion that will give them a liberty from 
that straitness wliich they made profession of before, 
they are willing to embrace and entertain ; if there be 
any practice that may give them any more liberty, they 
fall presently to it, and so they come to backslide. Now 
their actual backslidings are but a fruit of the bent of 
their sjiirits ; their spirits were bent to backsliding be- 
fore, and what they do now is but a fruit of the in- 
ward inclination. Let such know, that if they have no 
need of the ways of godlines.s, the wavs of godliness 
have no need of them; the ways of godliness shall he 
justified and honoured, when they shall perisli and be 
swejit off as filth and dung from the face of the earth. 
I will leave only that scripture with them, " If any man 
draw back, mv soul shall have no pleasure in him,'" 
Heb. X. 38. 



Ver. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSE A. 



489 



But I find "na^tt'oS D^Ni'rn which we translate " bent 
to backsliding," rendered variously ; and indeed the 
Hebrew does seem to countenance divers readings. 
Calvin, Pareus, and others of our later writers, render 
the words suspeyisi sunt, they are as men hanging in 
suspense ; for n'SiSn they say, translated by us " bent," 
signifies a jjropension to a thing ; and is accordingly 
rendered by them, in suspense ; the Septuagint favours 
this, translating it by f7riicpf;mfi£)'og. Now then, if 
the translation of the word be thus, which is for aught 
I know as suitable, or rather more so, than our version, 
why then there are these two things mainly in it. 

First, They are in suspense ; that is, they being in 
sti-aits know not what to do. I find' in Deut. xxviii. 66, 
the same word that here is translated " bent," is there 
rendered " shall hang in doubt:" "thy life shall hang 
in doubt before thee;" and that makes me the rather 
think that this interpretation may set out the mind of 
the Holy Ghost in this scripture. So then the meaning 
would be this : 

They see themselves in such a sad condition that 
they know not which way to turn ; they see their plots 
take not, their designs prosper not, they see God is 
out against them ; and they would fain devise new plots, 
but they see as great an unlikelihood to prosper in their 
new, as in their former plots ; what the issue of them 
may be they know not : thus are they in suspense and 
in doubt, not knowing which way to turn themselves. 

And blessed be God who has put our adversaries in 
suspense and doubt : this is a judgment of God upon 
men who cannot trust God in his right and holy ways ; 
they must have ways of theu' own, they must follow 
their own counsels, and these their own counsels in- 
snare them, and bring them into most miserable straits, 
from whence they know not how to extricate themselves. 
God makes the wajs of the righteous plain lo them ; 
but the counsels of men's hearts bring them into straits. 
They thought to deal wisely for themselves, but the 
truth is, tlieir counsels, in which their wisdom was mucli 
applauded, bring them into such miserable straits and 
extremities, that they know not what to do. 

Secondly, Luther has a very good interpretation of 

this, reading the words tlius : My people 

biut'an "w redite doubt whether they will turn to me or 

ad me. Luiii. jjQj.. ^[^gy ggg jjjgy profit uot in their 

way, their consciences misgive them, they have some 
thoughts of returning to me, sometimes they are per- 
suaded it is best for them to return ; but the corruption 
of their own hearts stirs up temptations, and when they 
are presented to them, they know not what to do ; they 
give many onsets, but they come not oflT freely; my 
people do hang in doubt and suspense, and do not 
come off freely to my way. 

And this is according to the Chaldee 

ra°t''s"e''com™'e!rad paraphrase, Jly people hesitate to con- 

rGaS.'para"phra!c. '^'^"^ themsclves to my law: there are 

tossings to and fro in their minds, they 

are in doubt, and come not to a full resolution. 

Obs. 1. It is a great evil for men to strive with their 
consciences. When their consciences put them upon 
the ways of God, they think there is good in God's 
ways, and that God is not well pleased with their pre- 
sent courses, and that it might be well for them if they 
reformed : yea, but then, on the other side, there come 
in temptations, and there are such difficulties in the 
way, I shall discountenance such and such great ones, 
I shall have opposition from some whom my measures 
will displease, I shall hazard myself, and the like ; I 
must deny myself and go against the hair in many 
things, I must cross my heart in certain things on which 
it is strongly bent ; why may I not do well enough in 
some other way, without so much trouble to myself? 
Thus their hearts reason within them : and yet again at 
other times serious thouglits begin to work, and their 



consciences thus to stir. Have not I to deal with a holy 
and glorious God? how if things shall prove otherwise 
than they are apprehended by me? what good will id 
do to me to cozen my own soul ? were it not better for 
me to return ? Oh that I could but tell how to speak 
this day to such as are perhaps yet in suspense ! It may 
be there are some such here this day ; they cannot be- 
quict in their present state, when they awake in the 
night season their consciences trouble them, and yet> 
when they come abroad among company then that 
carries them away again ; and thus their lives do as iij 
were hang in suspense, and they are vexed and troubled 
in their own thoughts, not knowing what to do. Oh 
that I could (I say) speak to such hearts this day, that 
I could but tell how to present to them some deter- 
mining thoughts ! I will but in a few words suggest 
four or five meditations to such, that may help them to 
come to a determination ; for the truth is, this is the 
cause almost of all the wickedness of such as have en- 
lightened consciences under the means of grace, they 
do not come to a fidl determination. If thou art in 
suspense, let me cast into the scale these thoughts : 

1. These stirrings now upon thee, which put thee 
thus to ojjpose the ways of sin, and bring thee so far as 
to be in suspense, know, they are the work of the Holy 
Ghost in thee ; I do not say, that all going against such 
stirrings and workings is Ihe sin, that nvpardonable sin ; 
but this I say, the sinning against those stirrings and 
workings of thy conscience is a sin against the Holy 
Ghost : take heed then of sinning against the good 
Spirit of God ; the Holy Ghost has begun to conceive 
in thee, take heed thou dost not destroy the child in 
the womb. A'S'e know it is murder to destroy a child 
in the womb, when it is but beginning to be conceived ; 
and thou that art in this suspense, thou hast a conception 
of tlie Holy Ghost in thee ; take heed of murdering it. 

2. If the Spirit of God leaves thee after this, thou 
wilt be more hardened than ever : let this be in thy 
thoughts. Thou hast stirrings of conscience, and some 
propension to the ways of God, but yet thy corruptions 
hang off; look to thyself while these worldngs of God 
are u])on thee, if they leave thee they will leave thy 
heart harder than before. 

3. In matters of such infinite consequence, certainly 
the safest way is the best way. It is not enough for 
tliee to say. Is it necessary ? and why must I do thua 
and thus ? and what need" it ? and may not I do well 
enough without it ? But when thou art reasoning 
about matters that concern eternity, though thou canst 
not fully satisfy thy mind, yet to take the safest way is 
the best way ; and that thou art upon the safest way, is 
enough to countervail whatever trouble thou mays'o 
meet with ; though it should not be absolutely neces- 
sary that thou shouldst take such a course in such a 
particular, yet if thy conscience but suggests to thee, 
that this way is safer than the other, to go the safest 
way is best. 

4. There is more evil in the least sin, than there can 
be good in whatsoever all the creatures in the world 
can tender to thee. Resolve upon this ; this is a cer- 
tain, undeniable principle : There is more evil in the 
least sin, than there can be good in all that all the 
creatures in the world can tender to thee. 

5. It is best for me to do that now, which I would 
wish I had done if I were now to die. Put that me- 
ditation into the scale. Art thou in suspense, inclining 
now this way, now that, whether fully to come off fronj 
those ways of sin that thou art upon, or no ? put this 
fifth thought into the scale. It is best for me now to do 
that which I would wish I had done if I were now to 
die. This will tend mightily to weigh down abundanca 
of temptations that may be put into the other scale ; 
and so thou mayst come to a determination, and de- 
liver thy soul. 



490 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XI. 



" Bent to backsliding," rendereil liy Calvin and others, 
they are in suspense, the Vulgate translates, My people 
hang in a kind of hope that I will return, and that all 
may be well with them at last ; that though they do 
thus and thus, yet ;ill may be well with them at last ; 
God has often delivered them out of great atflictions, 
and why may not he deliver them still ? And so they 
hang in expectation of Ciod's coming to them. So thev 
make 'n3Wt:S here translated " backsliding," to be a re- 
turning, a returning of God. I confess the word has 
something in it that signifies returning ; but those 
who are skilful in Hebrew say, it is not used in a good 
sense, but in an evil ; it is rather a going from, than a 
returning. Still, as the Vulgate has it, the hope of 
God's returning, and that tilings may be well, is the 
cause of the hardening of many hearts in sin ; they 
hang as it were in the air, thinlung that it may be well 
with them, and that things may not prove so bad as 
they hear. But cursed is that hope of comfort which 
has nothing else to ground upon, but only. It may be 
things ai-e not so bad as we hear out of the word. 

" Though they called them to the most High." That 
is, the prophets and messengers of God " called them to 
the mo.st High," they wanted not means in the ministry 
of the word, they were called to " the most High," that 
is, to God. Now that God is " the most High," we 
have shown, chap. vii. 16, where he has also the title 
of " the most High." You who are highest, look upon 
God as above you ; know that God looks upon you, and 
all men that are lifted up in the pride of their own 
hearts, as infinitely below him. 

" They called them to the most High ;" that is, they 
called them in the ministry of the word, that they might, 

1. Know him ; that is, that they might know him, 
" the most High," to be the infinite, supreme, glorious 
Majesty ; that they might know the infinite distance 
which there is between God and the creature, and that 
they might know him to be the highest end of all 
things, so as to work after him submissively. 

2. Acknowledge him ; that they might thus fear him, 
that they might worship him, and love him, and trust 
in him, as the most high God. 

3. Submit their wills to him whose will is supreme 
above all, and especially in matters of worship. 

■4. Come to have this high God as their God, and 
enjoy him as their portion. Thus the prophets " called 
them to the most High." 'Wliercas their hearts were 
drossy, and low, and base, they minded only the satis- 
fying of their flesh, and having their wills one upon 
another ; their hearts hung down to their devised wor- 
ship, which, though suitable to their public ends, and 
carrying great wisdom in their adoption of it, yet God 
would not own ; God despised that worshi]) of theirs 
with which they thought to honour him : the prophets 
therefore called them from these base, drossy things, to 
the most liigh God. Hence, 

Obs. 2. Men's hearts naturally sink down to low and 
mean things ; things unworthy of their souls, unworthy 
of that excellent nature with which thev are endued. 
Men indeed have swelling hearts in their base, sinful 
way, but this very pride is their disease. The heart of 
man wants a true elevating principle, and the know- 
ledge of "the most High" would more dignify and 
exalt it than pride can ever do : sin, wheresoever it is, 
debases man's nature. 

06*. 3. It is the end of the ministry- of the word, to 
call to the most high God those who nave their hearts 
grovelling after low and base things. Have not you 
found this fruit of the ministry of the word in your 
hearts, calling you many a time to the most high Ciod 
from the vanities on which your hearts were fixed, 
teUing you of the great and glorious Being with whom 
you have to deal in all your ways, who will have to deal 
witli you to all eternity ? I question not but many of 



your consciences have found this, even a word darted 
into your hearts that has called you from low, base 
things to the high and blessed God. 

Obs. 4. It is a great and sore evil to stop our eai-s 
against the calls of the word. What ! not answer to 
God's call ? Does God call you, and you not answer 
to him ? We say to a child, Your father calls you, or 
to a servant. Your master calls you, will you not an- 
swer ? Oh I to shut our ears against the call to the 
most high God is a dreadful thing, it will lie heavy 
upon thee one day ; those calls which thou hast had in 
thine cars will ])rove to be terrors in thy heart. Cer- 
tainly, though tliou lettest go the invitations of the 
word calling thee to the most high God, remember 
this, the calls which thou hast to the high God, being 
neglected by thee, will prove terrors in thy heart. 
Poor creature, to what dost thou listen ? what invita • 
tions engage thy heart, that the calling to " the most 
High " cannot overcome thee ? 

Obs. o. The calling '■ to the most High," is a special 
means to cause those that are in suspense to come to 
a full resolution. In Psal. xc\-ii. 9, " Thou, Lord, ait 
high above all the earth : thou art exalted far above all 
gods." AVhat follows in the 10th verse ? " Ye that 
love the Lord, hate evU." God is a high God above 
all gods ; hate evil then ; set yourselves against evil, be 
resolved in the ways of God. "N^Tien you are called to 
" the most High," you may see how infinitely worthy 
God is of all glory from you, what infinite good there 
is in him, and what infinite power he has to avenge 
himself of you, if you neglect his call ; therefore there 
is a mighty deal of force to cause resolution. In 
Acts vii. we have a notable speech of Stephen con- 
cerning Abraham. Abraham was called from his fa- 
ther's house, and it cannot be imagined but that he had 
many thoughts to keep his heart in suspense ; when 
called from his kindred, and all the contentment and 
comfort he had there, it is impossible but flesh and 
blood would suggest many thoughts to Abraham to 
keep his heart in suspense. But what led Abraham's 
heart to resolve fully what to do in such a case ? The 
text saitli, " The God of glory appeared to him," Acts 
vii. 2 ; it was not only God, but " the God of gloi-y." 
My brethren, when God is calling you oB from all crea- 
ture comforts, from all things that may quiet your 
hearts in the world, and you nave strong temptations 
to keep you in the ways of sin, let but the God of 
glory appear to you, and this will engage your heai-ts. 
this will bring them to a full resolution. Oh ! blessed, 
blessed are those souls to whom, though they have 
continued long in suspense, yet at length the God of 
glory has appeared in the midst of their doubts and 
temptations. 

And if there be such a force in this, then learn to 
present before thy soul that is in such a suspense, the 
glory of the great God ; look up to tliis great God ; It is 
the infinite high God to whom I am called. thou 
hesitating, wavering soul, look u]), and answer this call 
of God unto himself, answer it thus : 

O Lord, thou art an infinite, blessed, glorious Being, 
the Supreme Being of all. I am a poor, vile worm. 
that lies under thy feet, and it is of thy mercy that thou 
wilt vouchsafe to look towards me ; thou mightest 
have let me gone on in my baseness, and have suflered 
me to perish to all eternity, without giving me any call 
to thyself; but now that thou shouldst give me a call 
to thyself, thou, the high, and glorious, and blessed 
Lord, this is mercy: Lord, I come, and with fear and 
trembling fall down before thee, saying, " Lord, what 
wilt thou have me to do?" Those who have been 
wavering and afterwi\rds settled, have found that this 
has been the thing which has settled them, some dread- 
ful authority of the high God that has come to their 
hearts in some truth beyond their former experience. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



Obs. 6. The true worship of God is an elevating 
*hing. Then are they called to " the most High," when 
they are called to the true worship of God, for it raises 
the soul to " the most High." Men's inventions are 
low, base, and unworthy things. O consider whether 
thou findest this in the worship of God ? Dost thou find 
thy soul raised up to " the most High" in his worship ? 
if not, thou dost not worship God aright. Let no man 
look upon the worship of God as a low, mean thing ; 
know, when thou art worshipping God, thou hast to 
deal with " the most High," whom angels worship and 
adore, with that God who is far above all creatures in 
heaven and earth : thus thou art to regard the worship 
of God. Oh how far are most men from this in their 
worship of God ! veiT few there are that lift up their 
hearts to " the most High," even in the duties of wor- 
ship. And so it follows in the words, 

" None at all would exalt him." Wiy, If God be 
the most high God, how can he be exalted ? 

I answer, he is so high, that he cannot be more high 
than himself, God cannot be more excellent than he is 
in himself God cannot make himself better than he is, 
nor more glorious in himself than he is: therefore no 
creature can make him more than he is : all that all 
the creatures in heaven and earth can do for God, can 
add nothing to him. " Blessed be thy glorious name, 
which is exalted above all blessing and praise," Neh. 
ix. 5. 

Yet then God accounts himself to be exalted, when 
he is known and acknowledged as the high, supreme, 
first Being ; when we fear him as a God ; w'hen we hum- 
ble ourselves before him as before a God ; when we are 
sensible of the infinite distance there is between him 
and us ; when we are willing to lay down what we are, 
or have, or can do for the furtherance of his praise ; 
when his will is made the rule of all our ways, and 
especially of his worship ; when we make him the last 
end of all ; when it is the great care of our souls and 
work of our lives to do what possibly we can, that he 
might be magnified and lifted up in the world ; and 
when we account the least sin a greater evil than can 
be recompensed by all the good which heaven and 
earth can afford us : when we do thus, God accounts 
himself exalted by us. And this is the work that we 
all have to do, to give up ourselves to the exalting of 
the name of this blessed God. He is worthy, so worthy 
of honour from us creatures, that though ten thousand 
millions of men and angels should perish eternally for 
the furtherance of the least degree of his honour, h§ is 
worthy of it all; and therefore let us know it to be our 
work to endeavour in our places to exalt him : and 
blessed is that man or woman, who when about to die 
is able to say, O Lord, thou hast been high in my 
heart ; thy wisdom I have adored, and submitted mine 
unto it ; thy will I have honoured, and yielded mine 
likewise to it ; and it has been the great care of my soul 
that I might, according to the ability given unto me, do 
something in my place to lift up thy name : such may 
go out of the world in peace, as having in some mea- 
sure fulfilled their mission into it. 

O you whom God has exalted, let it be your care 
to exalt God ; and especially ye saints of the Lord, know 
God has exalted you on high, and expects that )0U 
should lift up his name : he has lifted you up out of 
the depth of misery, from the nethermost hell, he has 
joined you to, and made you one with, his Son, he has 
loved jou with the same love wherewith he loved his 
Son, with him he has made you heirs, even " joint- 
heirs." he has given his angels to be ministering spirits 
to you, he has made it his great design to honour him- 
self in your eternal good, he has prepared a crown of 
glory for you ; O then, do you join together to exalt 
the name of this God who has lifted up you who were 
such poor vile worms, let the high praises of this God 



be in youi- hearts and mouths for ever. Thus Psal. cviii. 
4, " Thy mercy is great above the heavens, and thy 
truth reachethunto the clouds :" mark what follows in 
the 5th verse, " Be thou exalted, O God, above the 
heavens ; and thy glory above all the earth." O Lord, 
we see thy mercy is exalted above the heavens, and thy 
truth to the clouds ; then, Lord, be thou exalted above 
the heavens, that is, in our hearts and in our lives. Oh 
that God may be exalted in an answerable way above 
the heavens in what we do for him, as he has been ex- 
alted above the heavens in what he has done for us. 
Let us all exalt God's name : in cither our everlasting 
destruction or salvation he will be glorified ; let us pray 
that our safety may be identified with his glory. 

jMy brethren, God has exalted himself of late in 
our eyes, in a glorious manner. " Be thou exalted, 
Lord,"in thine own strength," Psal. xxi. 13. The Lord 
has exalted liimself in his o-rni strength : but mark 
what follows, " so will we sing and praise thy power." 
O let us sing and praise the power of God, who has of 
late so exalted himself in his own strength, and for the 
good of his own peo])le. 

Obs. 1. God has little honour in the world. "None 
at all would exalt him."' Men seek to exalt themselves, 
but none to exalt God ; every man follows his own 
ways and his own lusts, but the blessed and glorious 
God is exalted by few, or none. Men will arise to lift 
up antichrist, the kings of the earth will give their 
power to the beast, but none will exalt the Lord. Oh 
let this grieve the hearts of the saints, to see that the 
blessed God, so blessed in their eyes, should be exalted 
by so few. 

And consider, every one of you, how little he has 
been exalted by you in all your ways. And why should 
you vex and fret that yon have not honour and respect, 
when the blessed God, so infinitely worthy of honour 
and glory, is yet respected by almost none. Well, let 
this be our resolve from it ; the less glory I see God 
have from the children of men, the more let me labour 
to honour him. 

" None at all would exalt him ;" so yom- version 
reads it: Luther and others, however, offer another 
interpretation, which, although not so good, may con- 
sist with the original, DCIT nS for if you observe the 
words, " him" is not there : they accordingly render it, 
there is'none that lifts up himself; and explain it thus. 
Men are in a sleepy, suUen mood, that when God calls 
them, they will not stir up themselves to listen. And 
Luther makes use of this similitude. As a stubborn 
servant, or child, when the master calls him, will not 
stir and lift up himself to his call, there are none will 
lift up themselves ; drossy, base, drowsy spirits, that are 
sleepy, and sink down to base, low things, they will 
not lift up themselves when they are called to the most 
high God. " They called them to the most High, 
there is none that lifts up himself." 

It is a great evil to give way to a dead, dull sullen- 
ness of heart. When you come to the ministry of the 
word, you come with hearts dead and sinking down 
with discouragements. Now, when God calls, you 
should stu- and lift up your hearts to close with those 
truths of God which do" concern you ; and it is a great 
evil in manv, when they hear excellent truths which 
might do them good, that yet they do not lift up their 
hearts to close with those truths. 

Ver. 8. How shall I give thee up, Ephraivi ? how 
shall I deliver thee, Israel ? how shall I make thee as 
Admah ? how shall I set thee as Zeboim ? mine heart 
is turned within vie, my repentiiigs are kindled together. 

Here, according to Luther, ends the 11th chapter, 
and the 12th begins at the next verse. 

For the words themselves, we have not in aU the 



492 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XI. 



book of God a more full expression of the palhetieal 
affections of mercy and compassion in God. 
" How shall I give thee up, Ephraira ? '' 
I beseech you observe, God was in the midst of his 
threatenings of judgment, and of charging them with 
their sin : " The sword shall abide on his cities, and 
shall consume his branches, and devour them, because 
of their own counsels. And my pconlo are bent to 
backsliding from me : though tliiy called them to the 
most High, none at all would exalt him." How! not 
one would come in ? what should follow ? One would 
think, Now let wrath pursue them, let the curse of tlie 
Almighty overtake them; one would wonder that it did 
not : but mark a greater wonder ; after charging them 
with this wickedness, and in the midst of threatenings 
of the most dreadful judgments, God exclaims, "How 
shall I give thee up, Ephraim ? "' &c. 

The Lord here takes u])on him (as it were) the per- 
son of a loving father towards a stubborn and rebellious 
child. The child has gone away from the father, and 
has continued in it.s stubbornness; it may be the father 
sends after it ; it will not come, it will not return, but 
goes on perversely. The father has many w orkings in 
his heart to cast it off; He shall never be the better for 
me, let him beg his bread from door to door, he is un- 
natural. Yea, but in the midst of these resolutions, and 
these sad thoughts towards the child, there comes a 
turning of his heart on a sudden : How shall I give it 
up ? how shall I disinherit it ? how shall 1 do it ? It 
is my child, though stubborn ; why may it not return? 
why may not yet God work good upon it ? It is very 
evil, but how shall 1 give it up ? I know not how in the 
world to bring my heart to it. Thus the Lord breaks 
out here. Here we have in your books four hows : 
" How shall I give thee up, Ephraim ? how shall I de- 
liver thee, Israel ? how shall I make thee as Adniah ? 
how shall I set thee as Zeboim ? " I confess in the He- 
brew there are but two, yet they have the sense of 
four, and accordingly the interpreters insert them ; 
How ? how ? how ? how shall I do it ? There are four 
interrogations here, and four answers. Four jjathetical 
interrogations that God asks as it were himself: 
First, " How shall I give thee up, Ephraim ? " 
Secondly, " How shall I deliver thee, Israel? '' 
Thirdly, " How shall I make thee as Admah ? " 
Fourthly, " How shall I set thee as Zeboim ? " 
And to these there are four answers, as thus : 
First, " Mine heart is turned within me." 
Secondly, " My repentings are kindled together." 
Thirdly, " I will not execute the fierceness of mine 
anger." 

Fourthly, "I will not return to destroy Ephraim." 
These are the four answers ; and for the last of them 
two reasons are given : 

F'irst, " I am God, and not man." 
Secondly, "The Holy One in the midst of thee." 
Now what the force of these reasons is we shall see 
when we come to them. But now to open to you briefly 
the words in a way of paraphrase, and then the several 
doctrinal notes from them. 

" How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?" or, as some 
read it. What shall I do to thee, I'.phraim ? 

I am as it were at a stand what to do ; as the father, 
that with the rod in iiis hand comes to correct, and 
lets the rod fall out of his hand, his affections work so 
strongly. 

What shall I do ? As if God should say. Oh, were 
there but any repentings, I would rejoice; yea, I would 
accept them were they but ever so little. Could I but 
tell now to vindicate mine honour in any other way 
than by your destruction. I would do it ; oh, what 
shall I do ? It i.s your foolish, wilful stubbornness, 
going on in such a vile, sinful way, that puts God to 
such a stand. What shall I do ? God seems here to 



have his heart troubled within him, much like that in 
Exod. xxxiii. 5, when God was offended with the peo- 
ple, " Put off thy ornaments from thee," saith he, " that 
I may know what to do unto thee." It is a strange 
expression ; as if he should say, Come and fast and 
pray, "put oft" thine ornaments," and humble yourselves 
before me, that I may know what to do to you : oh ! 
why may there not be some hopes? " Put off thine or- 
naments," if there be but any repentings. 

Or if you take it as it is in your books, " How .shall 
I give thee up, Ephraim?" then the scope is. Thou 
art upon the very brink of destruction, in the very 
mouth of ruin ; wrath and misery stand waiting only 
for my giving thee up ; oh ! but how shall I do it ? but 
I cannot tell how to find in my heart ; how shall I do 
it ? " How shall I give thee up, Ephraim ? " 

" E])liraim." This word contained a strong argu- 
ment to move the compassion of God. If tliou wert in- 
deed the refuse of the world, I would not so much care 
for many thousands of them ; but thou art " Ephraim," 
" my pleasant child," " my dear son," Jer. xxxi. 20. 
" How shall I give thee up, Ephraim ? " 

" How shall I deliver thee ? " As if he should say. 
Justice calls for thee, that I would deliver thee up to 
her; justice pleads that thou art her due; but how 
shall I do it ? how shall I do it ? how shall I deliver 
thee ? " Mine heart is turned within me." 

The Septuagint and Vulgate render the words, How- 
shall I protect thee ? 

The mistake arises from this : the same radical let- 
ters in the Hebrew that stand for deli- , ^-.^^ induit 
vering, signify likewise a shield, and cirpi-iir;3i3 proir«:t 
therefore they translate it. How shall I "^ «- 
protect thee as with a shield ? but the sense is much 
the same, thus. How shall I protect such a one as 
thou art? how .shall it be for mine honour that thou 
shouldst be under my protection ? Men, indeed, do 
abuse their power to give protection to others, (and 
you know there has been a great abuse of this kind 
since the parliament began,) but saith God, How shall 
I do it ? that is, I who am a holy and infinite God, how 
shall I protect such a one as thou art ? 

" How shall I deliver thee, Israel ? " " Israel ;" here 
is another argument : Israel, I remember thy father, I 
remember that mighty prince who wrestled with me 
and prevailed, and I account it my glorv' to be the 
glory of Israel and his seed. What! art thou the 
jjosterity of Israel, of one so dear to me, of a prince 
that lieretofore so prevailed with me in prayer ? what ! 
art thou his posterity ? " How shall I deliver thee, Is- 
rael ? " When God looks upon them he sees them sin- 
ful and v^TCtchcd, but when he looks upon what they 
were in reference to their forefathers, " How shall I 
give thee up, Israel ? " 

" How shall I make thee as Admah ? how shall I . 
sot thee as Zeboim ? " 

Admah and Zeboim were the names of two of thej 
five cities of the plain ; now four of these five citie 
were destroyed by fire from heaven for their wickedn 
ness, and one only spared for Lot's sake. But thu 
.\dmah and Zeboim were two of the cities on which 
the judgments of God were most terrible. The apostle 
Jude in his Epistle, ver. 7, saith, they, with " Sodoiri 
and Gomorrha," " are set forth for an example, sufl'ering 
the vengeance of eternal fire." Now, saith God here, 
the truth is, you have provoked me as much as Ad- 
mah and Zeboim have done, their sins were not greater 
than yours, and as great wrath belongs to vou as to 
them ; but oh ! how shall I do it ? " How shall I make 
thee as Admah ? how shall I set thee as Zeboim ? " 
how shall I constrain my heart to such a measure ? 

Jerome on the place moves this question. Why docs 
he mention Admah and Zeboim, and not Sodom and 
Gomorrah ? 



Veil 8. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



493 



The answer wliich he gives is this : Judah is compar- 
ed in their sin to Sodom and Gomorrah, Isa. i. ; Ezek. 
xvi. ; for Judah liad more means than Israel had, 
Judah had the temple amongst them, and therefore 
their sin was more aggravated. So Sodom and Go- 
morrah were the chief sinners ; Adraah and Zoboim 
did but as it were follow their example, and, by so do- 
ing, inwrapped themselves in the same judgments ; but 
yet their sin was not altogether like Sodom's and Go- 
morrah's ; therefore Judah, that had more means, is 
compared to Sodom and Gomorrah, and the ten tribes 
to Admah and Zeboim. 

" Mine heart is turned within me." 

Luther, according to his usual way in magnifying 
the grace of God, saith here. It is as if 
mncitlt"m?,l'p'op. 'he heart that is stu-red with anger for 
ter pcccaia horn., tlic sins of mcu. Were not the true heart 
Dei cor, vcrum Dd of God ; and therefore saith he, " Mine 
Sai.SsiV^rquJKi heart is turned to me," mine own lieart : 
ftonc.TJtirEjpos. low I have mine own lieart indeed, when 
I have thoughts of jieace ; when I had 
thoughts of wrath it was not as it were mine own 
heart. So in Isa. xxviii. 21, God calls his execution of 
judgment, "his slrange work." God's oicn heart is 
affected with our evil, and even turns with mercy to- 
wards us. So, Mine heart is come to me, saith God, as 
if it were gone before. 

But otherwise, " Mine heart is turned within me ;" 
that is, 

As when a man's heart is much affected with love 
and compassion, there is the working of the spirits and 
blood round about it, and within it mighty motions and 
stirrings ; so, saith God, methinks I find all my blood, 
as it were, and spirits, so working and stirred, that I 
find my heart even turning up and down witliin me, 
when I come to the execution of wrath. And then, 
■ " My repentings." That is, those thoughts of God 
by which he came to do such things as men do in their 
repentings. 

" Are kindled together." That is, all the thoughts 
that could ])0ssibly be mustered together to turn my 
heart from the dictates of justice to the ways of mercy, 
conjointly conspire (saith God) to kindle a flame within 
me. As a number of brands being laid together make 
a great flame ; so all those thoughts, presented toge- 
ther, mightily stu- and burn within me. 

Oh, this is the goodness of God to his people, to have 
all things that in any way may be a motive to do them 
good, to come together before him, and make a fire in 
the very bosom of God. All the reasonings, as it were, 
of my heart being joined together for them, have kin- 
dled a fire, so that I cannot hold, but I must needs vent 
myself thus, " How shall I give thee up, Ephraim ?" 

But you will say, "Why does God express himself thus ? 

God might, without any more ado, pardon, and help, 

or deliver ; why then should he express himself thus ? 

To this Calvin answers, He accommo- 

Accommodat se i^i. ii.. i /-,, 

Tudiiaii nosuK. datcs hmiselt to our weakness. God, 
'^°''' who disdained not to take man's nature 

upon him, disdained not to personate a man who, be- 
ing much wronged, is reasoning in himself what to do; 
his heart is full of pity, his bowels ye:.rn, and he would 
fain find a way for mercy; and when provocation of 
execution comes into his mind, it is as a dagger to his 
heart : Oh, how shall I do this ? 

God personates such a man, and saith, How shall I 
do it ? and mercy and justice are introduced to plead 
the case, both against and for Ephraim. 

Justice comes in and pleads. Lord, their sins are 
great and many ; their mercies have been great, the 
means which they ha\e had have been exceeding many, 
thou hast been patient a long time towards them, and 
this thy long-sufl'ering has been abused, their hearts 
are still hardened, thy name is blasphemed because of 



them. These arguments are advanced against them. 
But then mercy steps up and pleads, But, Lord, art not 
thou a God ? Thou art a God : these actions indeed 
may overcome men, but shall they overcome thee ? Is 
not this Ephraim ? are not they thy people ? are they 
not in co\cnant relation with thee ? Spare them. Lord, 
for their forefathers' sake, for Abraham's sake, for Is- 
rael's sake, who was so mighty with tliee. Remember, 
Lord, " the kindness of their youth," the wonders that 
thou hast done heretofore for them, when they were 
stubborn and rebellious. Lord, thou hast many of 
thine elect among them, and wilt thou then utterly 
consume them ? Wien the Lord hears mercy thus 
pleading against justice, he exclaims. How shall I do 
it ? I cannot do it. Thus you have seen the opening 
of the words, with the paraphrase. 

Thus you have the words explained and paraphrased, 
and if any one of you should think that I do not con- 
fine myself to a mere brief exposition of this scripture, 
I may even answer you. How shall I do it ? it were a 
very great burden upon one, to open such scriptures as 
these in an auditory that desire to have something 
spoken to theu- hearts, and to jiass them over with a 
mere brief exposition. But for the notes, the first ob- 
servation is, 

Obs. 1. The greatness of men's sin hinders not the 
working of the bowels of God's mercies towards them. 
" None at all would exalt him :" they followed their 
own counsels, and did what they list, yet, " How shall 
I give thee up ? " I will give you a like instance, and 
that is as remarkable a one as we have in all the book 
of God. What sins were greater than the sins of Je- 
rusalem against Christ when he lived ? yet Christ looks 
on Jerusalem, and weeps over it ; w'eeps over it, when 
he considered of its destruction. Yea, and mark, 
though Jerusalem was guilty of the blood, yea, took 
away the very life, of Christ ; yet when Christ was risen 
again, one of the first things recorded of him, is his 
saying to the disciples going to Emmaus, " That repent- 
ance and remission of sins should be preached in his 
name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem," 
Luke xxiv. 47. Repentance and remission of sins 
preached to all nations : oh, but surely Jerusalem 
must be left, Jerusalem that did slay the prophets, and 
was so injurious, yea, Jerusalem which put Jesus Christ 
to death ; though all nations should have repentance 
and remission of sins preached to them, yet one would 
think Jerusalem now should be excepted. No, saith 
Christ, " beginning at Jerusalem ;" Jerusalem shall be 
the first place where I will have repentance and remis- 
sion of sins preached, even that Jerusalem which took 
away my life ; I will have repentance and remission of 
sins preached there first of all. Truly God's mercies 
are beyond man's iniquities. 

My brethren, consider on this, first. If the bowels of 
God's mercies work towards us, notwithstanding our 
great sins, why should not the bowels of our compas- 
sions work towards our brethren, notwithstanding their 
infirmities ? why should we, upon every little discon- 
tent, cast off allpity and love to our brethren ? What ! 
such great unworthiness in us, and yet it move not God 
to cast us oft", but still, " How shall I give thee up ? " 
O, when you look upon your brethren with whom 
your hearts did once close, and who were to you as 
your own souls, in the contemplation of being any in- 
struments of evil to them you should have such rea- 
sonings as this. How shall I do it ? I see infirmities 
in them, yea, but notwithstanding my great sins, God 
saith of me, " How shall I give thee up ?" 

Secondly, Why should great afflictions for God hin- 
der our hearts working to him, when our great sins 
against God hinder not God's heart from working to- 
wards us ? Why should any great afflictions for God 
hinder our hearts working towards him ? Surelv if 



494 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XI. 



God will be merciful to us notwithstanding our sins, 
we should go on in the ways of obedience to him not- 
withstanding any consequent afflictions. 

Obs. 2. Sinners are at the very mouth of misery, the 
brink of destruction, when tliey think not of it ; nothing 
is required but for God to give them up. 

Obs. 3. Nothing but God's fi-ee mercy keeps us from 
being destroyed ; " It is of the Lord's mercies that we 
are not consumed." 

Obs. 4. Sin puts God to a stand. How shall I do it ? 
It brings disorder into the world ; God must set his 
infinite msdom on work to bring things about to his 
own glory. Sin has brought disorder and confusion ; 
Now, saith God, I must set mine infinite wisdom on work 
to bring glory out of this confusion. If God has any 
good intentions to thee, know, thy sin lays such diffi- 
culties in God's way to find out a channel for his merer 
toward tlice, as puts him to a kind of stand ; as thus, 
for God to find out a way that all the wrong whicli 
sin has done to him should bo atoned for, and yet thy 
soul saved, is the hardest thing in the world. Thou 
canst commit sin easily, but (I say) when the sin is 
committed, for God then to discover a way whereby all 
that dishonour which is done to him may be made up, 
(as it must be, for otherwise all the disorder will not 
be brought into order,) and yet thy soul saved, is the 
hardest thing in the world ; and were not God a God 
infinite in wisdom, he would never be able to devise 
the means of reconciliation. God does seem, as it were, 
to be at a stand ; How shall I act so as to save these 
sinners, and yet not wrong myself? Oh this should 
humble us for our sins ! As if a child should de jo mucli 
evil as to bring himself into such briers and troubles, 
that if his tender father, being affected with his sad 
condition, would help him, he is put to abundance of 
difficulties, and is fain to beat his brains, and study 
ways and means how he shall contrive to save this his 
child from utter undoing : now if the child has any in- 
genuousness in him. he will not think, It is no great 
matter, so be it 1 be delivered ; oh ! but this will break 
his heart. Oh what troubles have I brought my father 
into ! It is thus with us in reference to Go J, if we 
look upon God thus as personating a man. 

Obs. 5. The salvation of a sinner breaks through a 
great many reasonings and workings of God's heart. 
How shall I do it ? saith God. We little think what 
reasonings there are many times between mercy and 
justice about our lives, about our souls ; could we but 
hear them as they debate in heaven regarding us, it 
would go to our hearts. The great salvation that 
comes by Christ was not determined without many 
reasonings between mercy and justice ; tliere was pre- 
sented to God whatsoever justice could say, and what- 
ever mercy could say: What! (saith God.) must my son 
be under my wrath, and be made a curse, for the satis- 
fying of justice ? yet this must be ; justice requires sa- 
tisfaction ; how can it be done without the Son of God 
being made a curse for man's sin ? Such reasonings 
there are in the heart of God about man's salvation. 
In 1 Sam. xxvi., we read of Abishai and David's de- 
bating about Saul'slife : " God," saith Abishai to David, 
" hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day : 
now therefore let me smite him," &c. No, saith David, 
" destroy him not." And thus they reasoned one with an- 
other. Saul was in a very dangerous situation when 
there was that reasoning about his life : in a like state 
arc we many times ; the justice and mercy of God rea- 
son about our lives and souls. Oh, how do we depend 
upon God for our lives and souls ! and if we be saved, 
we are saved through many reasonings. 

Obs. 6. According to the relation a sinful people 
have to God, so God finds it a difficult thing to execute 
wrath upon them. How shall I do it ? The wrath of 
God is many times brought to the birth, and God can- 



not, as it were, (to speak after the manner of men,) know 
how to put strength to it to bring it forth. This is 
the reason that in Scripture we have such sending after 
sinners, and crying to them to return, such earnest 
wishes. Oh that they would retum I and such pleadings 
with them. They will not come in, and return : this is 
the reasoii why we read of the Lord whetting his sword, 
and bending his bow, and preparing his arrows. 

Why, is not God ready at any time to execute judg- 
ment upon a sinner ? 

No, he will be whetting, and bending, and preparing, 
and all because it is a work that he is loth to go 
through with (as it were) : and tliis is the reason why 
God will not stir up his wrath, or if it be sliiTed up, 
he will call it back again. Lam. iii. 33, " The Lord 
doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of 
men ;" and all this is, because it is God's nature to 
be merciful ; mercy pleases him, and the Lord perfectly 
foresees, and has perfectly in his view, all the reasons 
that might move him to mercy, and stand in the way 
of his justice : as now thus : 

1. The many prayers of the saints. Justice must 
break tlirough all the prayers of all the saints of God 
that are in such places ; and this is not an easy matter. 
We account it not an easy matter to break through a 
mighty army. God cannot come to a people that he 
is related to, and is worshipped by, but he must break 
through an army, the army of the prayers of his people : 
now saith God, How shall I do it ? a mighty aiTay of 
the prayers of my people stands between me and tli'em. 

2. The little ones, yea, the children of his own peo- 
ple, in a place. You know when God was about to 
destroy Nineveh, he looked upon the many thousands 
that could " not discern between their right hand and 
their left hand," Jon. iv. 11. But when God comes 
to destroy a kingdom that worehipshim, he looks upon 
those many infants, and sees in many of them the i)os- 
terity of his servants. As they are but little ones, that 
moves his bowels; they have not been guilty of those 
sins wherewith their parents have sinned : And as they 
are, many of them, the little ones of mine own precious 
servants, how shall I destroy this place, even for their 
sakes ? 

3. God considers that he has but little worship in 
the world. There are but few in the world who worship 
him at all ; And though it is true there are such mix- 
tures in worship here, that in respect of that I cannot 
accept of what they have done, yet it is somewhat that 
I am worshipped ; there are very few in the world that 
own me to worship mo at all. 

4. Services formerly rendered to him in that place. 
True, thinks God, but few there honour me now, but 
there are many of my servants that have done much, 
and suffered much ; how many have I that have stood 
out to witness for me, and my truth ! Certainly, my 
brethren, the Lord, in saving any kingdom when in 
danger, if it be a place that he has been honoured in, 
and where his people have suffered much for his name's 
sake, then he remembers it : and there is not a louder 
argument, next to the blood of Jesus Christ, in the ears 
of God, to save a place from ruin, than the blood of 
his people that has been shed for him ; and therefore 
such a place is beholden to all that have suffered there 
for God. 

5. The remnant of his saints. Some are yet left. And 
would I have saved Sodom if there were but ten right- 
eous persons ? now I will reckon how many I have 
here ; not ten, or a hundred, but (it may be) God shall 
find thousands of righteous persons. Now the blood of 
my Son pleads for them, and how then shall I give 
them up ? 

6. A foresight t)f the miseries of the afflicted. Oh ! 
their veiy cries are in mine ears already. If I should 
deliver them up into the hand of their enemies, oh the 



Vbe. 8. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



495 



extrenuty thfey -n'ould endure ! how would they he 
plundered of aU they have, put into prison, and miser- 
ably tormented ! what shriekings and cries would there 
be, even from my people that serve me! Methinks 
mine ears are filled already with their cries beforehand. 
Often when we speak of the sorrows and miseries of 
people, before they come we are a little affected with 
them, but when we are eye-witnesses of them we are 
much more moved ; as if any of you have seen the 
woeful miseries of those that have been under the 
power of their adversaries here, your heai'ts must have 
been affected indeed : but now all these miseries are 
pi-esent before God, as if they were now in real being, 
and therefore, " How shall I give thee up ? " 

7. The insulting triumph of the adversary. If I 
should deliver them, they will not honour me, they 
will blaspheme, they will scom at their prayers and 
fastings, and at all their trusting in God, and at their 
good cause ; What is become of your good cause, they 
will say, and of your so laying claim to God as you 
have done ? Now the Lord foresees these blasphemies 
and insultings of the proud adversaries, how they will 
triumph, and tread upon his saints as dirt under their 
feet. 

8. Many of mine elect are to come out of theii' loins, 
and therefore though I do not preserve the kingdom 
for their own sakes, yet for those elect ones that come 
out of their loins. If I should deliver them up to the 
rage of the enemy, then the line of my election would 
even be cut asunder, and therefore, " how can I give 
thee up ? " I shall wrong myself in this thing, m giving 
them up I shall cut asunder even the very thread of 
election. 

9. Other objects of wrath. If my wrath must be satis- 
fied, let it run out upon others, " who wiU set the briers 
and thorns before me, that I may go through them and 
bum them U]) together." 

10. The affliction of the saints is God's own affliction. 
True, they will suffer very much, but in all then- afflic- 
tions I must be afflicted too ; I foresee how their afflic- 
tions wUl affect mine own souL 

11. I am bound to fetch good out of all their evils. 
Suppose I should give them up ; yea, but then I must 
work for mine own glory, and fetch out good from all 
their sufferings ; and will it not be as easy for me to be 
patient towards them, as to work good from their suf- 
ferings when they are given up ? God reasons in this 
manner. 

12. If I destroy them, what glory shall I have? I 
shall have the glory of ray justice; yea, but it will be 
but passively : and will that be much, to have justice 
so glorified ? I have enough in hell to glorify my jus- 
tice in a passive way. 

13. Lastly, Mercy may yet work upon their hearts. 
Who knows but if yet I continue the gospel amongst 
them^and deliver them from their present great straits, 
who knows but then- hearts may be turned to me ? 

O my brethren, I question not but at this day all 
these reasonings have been in the heart of God con- 
cerning England. When we have been at the very 
pit's brink, the Lord has been often saying even con- 
cerning England, " How shall I give thee up," England ? 
" how shall I make thee as Admah ? how shall I set 
thee as Zeboim ? mine heart is tui-ned within me, my 
repentings are kindled together." Before the parlia- 
ment, when forces were raised against our bretliren of 
Scotland, then said the Lord, " How shall I give thee 
up?" And then at Edge Hill, and at Brainford, and at 
Newbury, and Marston Moor, and Nazeby fight, we 
were at every one of them even at the point of being 
delivered up to the rage of the enemy ; and then came 
in these reasonings of the heart of God, Oh ! how shall 
I make them as other people, as Germany, or other 
nations ? besides other mercies in former times, as in 



1588, and the powder treason, tliese have been the 
workings of the bowels of God towards us, a poor, 
wretched, and sinful people. And let us now learn to 
acknowledge whence our preservation is. It is not from 
this man, and the other man, so much as from the rea- 
sonings of the heart of God thus for good to us-ward. 

Hence let us learn what to do when temptation to 
any sin comes. What ! is it thus with God ? does God 
say when we are in danger of being destroyed. How 
shall I do this ? Then when tempted to sin against 
God, let us say, How shall I do this, and sin against 
God? Joseph reasoned thus: when he had as fit an 
opportunity to sin as almost a man could have had, 
yet presently there came this reasoning into his heart, 
How shall " I do this great wickedness, and sin against 
God?" Reason itself dictates this. When God has fit 
opportunities to destroy us, God's mercy reasons within 
him ; so when we have oui- temptations to sin, our 
hearts should consider, Oh ! how shall I do this, and 
sin against the Lord my God? Let us present to our 
souls every argument against sin. Men will gather 
pleas for their sins ; and so we should gather all we 
possibly can against them. It were ivell, my brethren, 
if men after they have sinned would say. Oh! what 
have I done ? But it is better if men before they have 
sinned would say. How shall I do it ? Oh ! certainly 
our minds are very barren, that we have not, upon 
every occasion when a temptation comes, pleaehngs 
within to move us against it. Indeed after a sin is 
committed, men then can think of this and the other 
reason. Oh ! it would be ill for us if God should thus 
deal with us, first deliver us up and destroy us, and 
then think of this and that which might have been 
done to have preserved us : therefore God, just when 
the danger comes, thinks of every thing calculated to 
avert ruin from us ; so, when the temptation to a sin 
comes, then sliould we think of every motive that 
might defer us from its commission. 

Obs. 7. A choleric disposition is none of God's image. 
AVhen God comes to execute anger he cannot do it, 
but he must have a How shall I do it ? before he does 
it, he must make a stop. Proneness to anger, sudden- 
ness to let out wrath, is not the image of God in any, 
man or woman. 

When any of you are about to do any thing, espe- 
cially against your brethren, against those to whom you 
are related, be not over-passionate, reason the case first 
in thine own heart : How shall I do this ? True, I think 
they are in the wrong, but what good will result if I 
do thus and thus ? Are they not those with whom I 
have had sweet converse, and whose godliness I have 
witnessed ? Would it not be more for the honour of 
God if I forbore ? Will any good come to the public ? 
Shall not I rather serve the designs of the enemies with 
such sharpness and bitterness ? will they not laugh 
and scorn at religion ? Oh, how shall I do this ? Oh, 
when we have workings in our own thoughts as bitter 
as gall, if, before we vent them, we would but put this 
question to ourselves. How shall I do this ? by pre- 
senting all the arguments we possibly can to stop our 
anger, much good would result. 

Yea, when ministers have prepared something to 
deliver, yet if there be any tartness in it, they should 
think. How shall I do this ? what may come of it ? I 
may vent myself, but what good will result? what 
glory to God? what advantage to the chiu-ch? We 
should make many pauses, and many stops to our anger. 
As sometimes, when traveUing in the country, you ceme 
upon some steep hill, you find that the countrymen lay 
here and there in several places something to turn the 
current of the water, for otherwise it would gore too 
much if it should run down swiftly, but when it has 
some stop it does not do so much hurt. Oh how does 
the anger of men gore deep ! Why ? Because it runs 



496 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XI. 



down headily, and violently, having nothing to stop it. 
Men in anger are very full'of thoughts and resolutions, 
and all the reasonings of their hearts in their anger 
tend to nothing else hut to heat their hearts more ; all 
their thoughts work that way, till their hearts arc made 
fiery hot, and so they burst'out and cannot stay ; they 
muse upon nothing else but that which may further 
their anger and displeasure : and those that arc barren 
enough in their thoughts otherwise, yet are verj- quick 
in invention, and witty in the letting out of anger and 
vrath. Hut this would be your wisdom, had you the 
image of God prevailing in you, when you find anger 
stirring in your bosom, to rather muster vip reasons that 
may qualify and allay it, and to muse upon those things 
which may serve to be a stop to it for the present, as 
<jod doth here. Oh ! did men but pause, and say, How 
shall I do this ? what peace and quiet might we have 
among us ! 

Obs. 8. Saints may heboid in seeking God in prayer. 
^Vhat ! does God find it hard to him to execute wrath, 
does he muster up all possible arguments to .stop his 
anger, and consider continually how he may manifest 
goodness and mercy ? A\'hy, then, if thou hast any 
arguments to ])lcad with (Jod for mercy, thou mayst 
come up w ith boldness and freedom to him ; he is ready 
to receive thee, for thou bringest unto him that vvliich 
is exceedingly suitable to him, s\iitable to his very heart. 
"IVhat ! dost thou apprehend that the displeasure of 
God is out against thee, or against a land to which God 
is in any wise related ? hast thou any arguments at all 
to ])lead with God in jirayer ? God gives his creature 
leave to plead with him, as if he ■nere a man: come, 
then, with a free spirit, come cheerfully, and full of 
hope, for thou comest now to do that which God's 
heart is full of. Could a man know the thoughts of 
other men, and what most occupied their minds, and 
fould he suggest thoughts to them suitable to what was 
passing within, what entertainment would he have ! 
When a poor sinner, then, (if a penitent sinner,) comes 
to God, and suggests any arguments for mercy, I say 
thou dost suggest that of which the heart of God was 
full, and which is exceedingly suitable to it: thy 
pleadings mercy has been pleading akeady ; and mercy 
canies on those arguments with a great deal more 
strength than thou art able to do, but it takes it well 
at thy hand to present any arguments to it. Thou art 
loth to perish, and God is as loth thou shouldst perish. 
If God give thee a heart to come to him to stop wrath, 
thou comest to him to do a work as acceptable to God 
as it can possibly be unto thee. AVhcn thou appre- 
liendest judgment ready to be executed, look up to 
mercy : it mav be the Holy Ghost may raise an act of 
faith, which will set on work the bowels of God's mercy. 
That which is very ready to work, a little thing will 
set on work ; the least act of faith then would certainly 
constrain God to show mercy. Mercy has been ])lcad- 
ing n great while, and justice pleading: mercy calls 
thee in to help, and to assist her to jjlead for thee, and 
who knows but the casting voice stays for thy coming 
in ? though there have been ])lcadings in God's heart, 
yet the dispensations of God mav be such that the 
casting voice shall not be given till thy pleadings are 
heard; by them the matter may be determined. 

06.?. 9. How different were the dealings of the Fa- 
ther with his own Son. Do the bowels of God thus 
work towards poor sinners, pleading for them when 
wrath is readv to be executed ; then we may here see 
the great difference between God's dealings with his 
saints and with his Son. When God comes to deliver 
np his people to punishment, for their sakes he saith. 
" How shall I deliver thee ?" AVe do not find that God 
said so concerning his Son. God did deliver up his 
Son to wrath without a How shall I do it? yea, the 
heart of God was in it ; there is no such expression of 



reluctancy about this work, but the Scripture saith that 
" it pleased the Lord to bruise him." Indeed it wa.s for 
glorious ends which God had in view. Whvso? God 
might have ends enough to bring forth his glorv' in our 
bruising : but yet, notwithstanding any thing that he 
might efl'ect, he saith. How shall I do it ? God doth 
not delight to grieve the children of men, but God did 
grieve his Son, he bruised him, and it pleased him to 
bruise him. You find such an expression in Isa. liii. 
10; and in Psal. xl.. "In the volume of the book it is 
vfritten of me, I delight to do thy will." It was the 
will of God that Christ should come and suffer what he 
did. \\'hen Kphraim was bemoaning himself, God's 
bowels were troubled within him, he lets the rod fall 
out of his hand; thus, in Jer. xxxi. 18 — 20, when 
Ephraim was bemoaning himself, mark how God's 
bowels of mercy work, but the Scripture saith, that 
" God spared not his own Son ;" God would spare 
E])hraim. Jesus Christ did bemoan himself when he 
cried out, " If it be possible, let this cup pass from me ;" 
and, "OGod, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 
Oh what a bemoaning of himself was this! and yet in 
Rom. viii. .32, it is said, " lie that s))ared not bis own 
Son ;" he did not spare him, notwithstanding all the 
moans that he made to him, but he delivered him up. 
M'c read here, and divers times in Scripture, of God's 
repenting of the execution of justice upon sinners ; but 
when he speaks of Christ. "1 have made him a Priest 
for ever ;" that is, so as he should be a sacrifice, both 
the Priest to offer, and the sacrifice itself: in Heb. vii. 
21, "The Lord sware, and will not repent." Oh, cer- 
tainly it was from this work of God, the delivering up 
of his Son, that the Lord has such working of bowels 
towards sinners when wrath comes to be executed : 
■• How shall I give thee up?" 

Obs. 10. The saints that walk close with God must 
needs be very secure. If the Lord deal thus with re- 
bellious sons, what will he do with a son that serves 
him, that walks close with him ? Though a son be 
very vile, very sinful, yet there is a " How shall I give 
thee up ? " O, then, thou whose conscience witnesses 
of thy sincere endeavour to walk close with God con- 
tinually, know that thy estate must needs be secure. 

06s. 1 1. 'When God delivers up his own jicople to 
any judgments, it is for some weighty cause. Never 
docs any affliction come to them, but it breaks through 
many reasonings of God's heart; God intends by it 
something great. Does judgment begin at the house 
of God ? It is because the Lord has some great in- 
tents to bring forth, and not because the Lord takes 
lilc.isure in the moans of his people, in the sorrows and 
sufferings of his seiTants ; for certainly these bowels of 
compassion would not let such sore and grievous evils 
pass, if there were not some great ends and purposes 
of God to bring about. 

06.?. 12. There is a difference between the day of 
patience and the times of wrath. For the sake of the 
godly there God's patience speaks thus towards the 
body of the people, "How shall I give thee up?" Rut 
there is a time that God will laugh at the destruction 
of sinners, and " will mock when their fear cometh," 
when he will execute his wrath, and be comforted, as 
the Scripture speaks. There is a time indeed when God 
saith, " How shall I give them up?" but there is an- 
other time wherein God gives forth " the wine of his 
wrath," Rev. xiv. 10. " The wine ;" it delights the Lord 
as wine does a man. A\'hcn indignation shall be as wine 
to God, then mercy and patience shall hold their peace, 
for they have had then their glory already, they will 
never speak more j but turn over the sinner to justice, 
yon, plead to justice against the sinner. 

Obs. 1:5. If God thus hastens not judgment against 
us, we should not hasten it again.st ourselves. Rut let 
us make use of these dealings of God for the breaking 



Vee. 8. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



497 



of our hearts, and causing them to return unto him ; 
let not us assist justice to our own destruction ; seeing 
mercy pleads against the execution of wrath, let us 
take heed of new provocations : when God ponders the 
letting out of his wrath, let not us pull it upon our own 
heads ; seeing God keeps off, and forbears, let not us 
hasten it. If Sodom had but known God's reasonings 
with Abraham in its behalf, one would have thought it 
would have broken the very hearts of Sodom. And 
let us consider the reasonings of God in this, and lay 
them to our hearts to break them, and think thus with 
ourselves, Lord, why should it be so hard with thee to 
deliver me up, when it is so easy with me to sin against 
thee ? No pleadings have stopped me in the course of 
my sin, the word has pleaded, conscience has often 
pleaded, but I have not been stopped ; oh, why should 
any pleadings stop thee in the course of thy wrath ? 
The Lord cause such workings to be in our hearts to 
break them, considering, that indeed it is through the 
pleadings of mercy that any of us are alive, that we are 
out of the nethermost hell. And thus much for those 
words, " How shall I give thee up, Ephraim ? how shall 
I deliver thee, Israel?" There follows, 

Obs. 14. God's people are subject to as sore evils as 
the worst of men. " How shall I make thee as Ad- 
mah ? how shall I set thee as Zeboim ? " Indeed, the 
sins of the saints have such great aggravations, that if 
God should deal with them according to a covenant of 
works, and not in a covenant of grace, their condition 
would be sadder than the vilest and most wicked. In 
Amos ix. 7, God saith, " Are ye not as the children of 
the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel ? " You 
have had, indeed, deliverances, and so have they : and 
what are you better than the children of the" Ethi- 
opians unto me, if I should look upon you as in your- 
selves ? Therefore in Isa. i. 10, the princes of Judah are 
called the "rulers of Sodom," and the people, the 
"people of Gomorrah." And in Lam. iv. 6, "The pun- 
ishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is 
greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom." 
Ezek. xvi. 48, " As I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom 
thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as 
thou hast done, thou and thy daughters." "As I 
live;" God swears to it, that Sodom was not guilty of 
such gi'eat sins. 

You will say. Yea, but we are delivered fi'om such 
evils, by being under another covenant. 

Yea, but that should not at all hinder the work of 
your humihation, but rather further it, considering 
what you are in yourselves. 

Obs. 15. When sinners are nearest to judgment, yet 
bowels of mercy are working towards them. '\Mien 
they deserve to be as Admah and Zeboim, even then, 
saith God, " How shall I give thee up ? how shall I 
make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Ze- 
boim ? " 

06s. 16. Those that are in relation to God have a 
great privilege, which others have not. Thus, as if God 
should say. Let Admah and Zeboim perish if they will, 
let fire and brimstone come from heaven and eternal 
fire pursue them, what care I for Admah and Zeboim ? 
but " how shall I make thee as Admah ? and set thee 
as Zeboim ? " I know not how to find in my heart to 
make thee so. Those in relation to God have a great 
privilege, which others have not; God disposes his 
mercies as he pleases. 

It may be, some of you think that your sins are not 
so great, or not greater than the sins of others, and 
therefore you may escape as well as they. No, you 
may mistake in that ; God may save some that "are 
guilty of greater sins than you, and yet damn you, 
damn you for sins less than theirs. God's mercy is his 
own ; if God will destroy Admah and Zeboim eter- 
nally, who can speak against God's dealings with 
2 K 



them ? But " how shall I make /liee as Admah ? how 
shall I set thee as Zeboim ? " God knows how to make 
a difference between man and man. Let none pre- 
sume, and say, Because others commit as great sins as 
I, I may escape as well as they ; no, thou reckonest in 
this without thine host ; God may make a great dif- 
ference between his deaUngs with them and with thee, 
and still do thee no wrong, for the mercies of God are 
his own. 

Obs. n. If God be unwilling to make his people 
like .the wicked in punishment, let not them make 
themselves like to them in sin. Does God put a dif- 
ference between reprobates and his people in punish- 
ment ? Oh, let the saints then labour to put a differ- 
ence between themselves and such as are of the world 
in respect of sin ; let that be no argument to them, 
Such and such do thus, and why may not I do so too ? 
that is no argument with God. I have destroyed such 
and such, and why may not I destroy thee ? that argu- 
ment will not prevail with God. Thou comraittest 
such a sin, and I have some in liell whom I sent thi- 
ther for the same sin : this argument prevails not with 
God. O, let not such an argmnent prevail with thee, 
that because such and such sin, therefore thou too wilt 
venture. 

Obs. 18. Though God be never so much inclined to 
mercy, yet this doth not hide from his eyes the sins of 
his own people. He still sees them, he sees what they 
are in themselves, and he sees what would become of 
them if they were left to themselves. Now I am in a 
way of mercy towards you. yet I look upon you now 
as such as have deserved to be as Admah and Ze- 
boim : do not think that because my inercies work to- 
wards you, that therefore your sins are not before 
mine eyes ; I know your iniquities, and yet am gracious 
and merciful. 

And is it so ? Neither then should the hope, or en- 
couragement, of mercy fi'om God, hide our sins from us. 
As the thoughts of God's mercies to us do not hide 
our sins from him, so our hope of mercy from God 
should not hide our sins from our own eyes ; but at the 
very time we think of the greatest mercy, we should 
look upon ourselves as, in ourselves, the most wretch- 
ed, miserable, forlorn creatures. 

" Mine heart is turned within me." 

The word "isnj here translated " is turned " signifies , 
some great stirring, some change into another con- 
dition, and not only denotes (as I see several inter- 
preters observe) that God changes the sentence of his 
vTath, yet without any change in God's nature. 

But I think the words besides have another special 
meaning, and that is, they denote the strong affections 
in God : in all this we must speak of him after the man- 
ner of men ; as now, we know that strong affections in 
us, whether they be affections of love, or of joy, or of 
anger, carry the heart along with them, and cause in 
it very strong motions. I will give you one scripture 
that has this very phrase, which wiU show you the mean- 
ing is not " turned within me," that is, in a way of 
change, so much, as that it denotes the strong motions 
that are in the heart of God toward sinners : in Lam. 
i. 20, the church is lamenting her sin, and expressing 
the mighty workings of heart which she felt in herself 
by reason of her sin, and of her affliction, and there the 
same expression occurs that you have here : " I am in 
distress : my bowels are troubled ; mine heart is turn- 
ed within me." The meaning there is not that I am 
changed in my heart, so as to be turned from my sin ; 
but that I find a mighty moving in my heart, through 
the mighty workings of" it, and the strong affections of 
my heart. You may make my heart to leap within 
me, (as we say sometimes,) or pant, or ache within 
me. Any kind of strong affections makes strong stir- 
rings in the heart. So here, " ray heart is turned with- 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XI. 



in me," I find strong motions and mighty stirrings in 
my heart. 

Obs. 19. Strong raovings of the licart of a penitent 
after God, give strong encouragement to come to God, 
for there are strong motions in God's heart after him. 
" -My heart is turned," there are mighty strong movings 
in my heart for mercy to you. Do you find such movings 
in your hearts as you never before were acquainted 
with ? before your hearts lay dead, and dull, and 
nothing would stir them, and now you find them 
mightily moved ; do your hearts work strongly to- 
wards God .' be encouraged in those stirrings ; there 
are as strong stirrings in God's heart towards sinners. 

Ol).i. 20. Let arguments of obedience to God cause 
■itimngs in our hearts ; let them not lie dead and dull 
within us As arguments for mercy, oh how stirring 
are they in God's heart! If any argument for mercy 
toward sinners be propounded, the heart of God mighti- 
ly stirs. Oh what arguments do you ofton meet with 
coming from the word, which one would think might 
work upon the heart of a devil to draw to obedience, 
and yet your hearts lie dead and dull under all those 
])0werful arguments ! Oh how unsuitable are your 
hearts to God ! Do you expect that God's heart should 
work strongly towards you to do you good, and yet 
nothing stir in you ? 

Ob.f. 21. Let us not think it too much to have our 
hearts turned from strong resolutions to do evil. "Mine 
heart is turned within me," turned in respect of the re- 
voking of the sentence. Men often have strong reso- 
lutions to a thing, and they see arguments that might 
tin-n them, but yet, they have resolved, and they are 
loth to change their thoughts and resolutions : oh ! 
take heed of this, for God expresses himself after the 
manner of men. There h.ive been many times strong 
resolutions found to destroy thee eternally, but the 
Lord does that which man would do when he changes 
his resolutions, though there be no change in God's 
nature ; and he would, by expressing himself after this 
manner to us, inculcate this, that we should take heed 
we stand not upon our resolutions when there are argu- 
ments to the conti'arj', but be willing to have it known 
that now we are otherwise minded than before. 

" My repentings are kindled together." 

Surely God repents not as man does. You know 
the answer of divines, viz. that his administrations are 
such as if he did repent : but the word 'cinj here trans- 
lated " repentings," comes from Dnj which signifies as 
well to comfort as to repent, noting that repentance 
and comfort are very near akin one to another : as the 
Hebrews express sin and punishment by the same 
word Ntsn so they do repentance and comfort. 

" Are kindled." My bowels yearn within me ; which 
expression you have in Gen. xhii. 30, Joseph's " bowels 
did yearn upon his brother ; " and 1 Kings iii. 26, when 
the mother of the child saw it wotdd be cut to pieces, 
"her bowels yearned upon her son :" the word " yearned " 
there is the same here with " kindled," her bowels kin- 
dled within her. 

" Arc kindled together." 

AVhatsoever might cause any repentings, they all 
come together, they lie glowing at the neart. The 
notes are the.se : 

Obs. 22. God's repentings are mighty encourage- 
ments to prayer. AVhcn we present arguments to God 
for mercy, to think, that those arguments which we 
present, and all other that possibly may be presented, lie 
glowing at God's heart, yea, tliey lie glowing warm at 
the heart of God; they are not only before God, but 
there they lie as a number of sticks collected together 
and glowing, and ready to flame out ; so all consider- 
ations that any way may serve to benefit the saints, do 
lie glowing together at the heart of God. It may be 
sometimes, when we come in prayer, alas ! we are strait- 



ened in our own bowels, perhaps we cannot express our- 
selves, it may be but in one or two particulars we are 
able to give vent to our feelings, and that which conies 
out of our hearts comes ver)' cold ; but when we are 
straitened in our own bowels, and can express but little 
for ourselves, if we be such as belong to God's covenant, 
we must know that all considerations for our good that 
possibly men and angels can express, are all with God, 
all of them lay in a heat at God's heart. I do not 
know such a full expression as this is of repentings 
kindled: "kindled together." 

Obs. 23. ^Xe must gather together as many argu- 
ments as we can to kindle repentance within us. Sure- 
ly there is all the reason for it in the world. Does the 
Lord gather all together that may be for our good, and 
lay them upon his heart, and there keep them till they 
kindle and work powerfully upon his heart for our 
good? then, when we would repent, (for there is rea- 
son that we should repent as well as expect that God 
should for us,) we should be gathering all arguments 
we possibly can, and never leave till we find them 
kindled and warm at our hearts. 

Oh ! many of you have sometimes one argument 
that sticks at your hearts, and at another time another ; 
at such a time some one truth darted in, and took pos- 
session of your hearts, and you would say as those that 
went to Emmaus, Did not we find our hearts burn with- 
in us ? So you found truths coming in successively at 
such sermons. Yea, but now coidd you get but all the 
arguments for repentance that ever God darted into 
you together, and work them upon your hearts, and 
never leave till they be kindled, and continue crying 
to God, as Elisha did, till he got fire to come from 
heaven to consume the sacrifice ; O Lord, my heart 
has a deal of watery stuff in it, that will not kindle, till 
the fire of the Holy Ghost descends ; oh that it were 
with us, as David in Psal. xxxix. 3, " My heart was hot 
witliin me, while I was musing the fii-e bunied:" so 
we shoidd go into our closets, and gathering all things 
together that we can, to work upon our hearts, continue 
musing till we find the fire burning within us ; nay, 
our hearts so inflamed, as to break forth with our 
tongues, to say. The I;Ord, he is God, he is worthy for 
ever to be feared, and honoured, and served ; I have 
lived like a base and sinful, wretched creature, with- 
out a God in the world, but the Lord is God, and wor- 
thy to be honoured with my body, and soul, and estate, 
with my name, and liberty, and life, and whatsoever I 
am, or can do: now if it would break forth in such a 
resolution, how excellent would it be ! Oh ! let us be 
humbled, I beseech you, for the coldness of our hearts, 
that nothing can kindle there. What a damp is there 
upon our spirits, that when any argument is laid it 
goes out presently! We have truths laid upon us when 
we come to the word, but our damp hearts quench 
them all, they do not kindle. ^Many are witty enougli 
to gather arguments for sin, and lay them upon their 
hearts, and so to kindle wickedness within ; as in Psal. 
xli. G, where you have a notable scripture of wicked 
men that came to David ; " If he come to see me, he 
s])eaketh vanity: his heart gathereth iniquity to itself; 
when he goeth abroad he telleth it." All things that 
might suit with their wicked hearts, and for the further- 
ance of their ungodly ways, they gathered together for the 
encouraging and strengthening of themselves in their 
wickedness : so it should be the care of the saints to 
gather all things that might further repentance in them. 
Tliat is the reason why wicked men are so hot in that 
which is evil, they gather arguments together; and 
hence it is that wicked men, when they have been in 
wicked company, come from it so hot in their resolu- 
tions to sin ; wliy ? because they have gathered a groat 
deal together to' inflame their hearts : and so shoulc! 
the saints, when together in holy communion and fe'- 



Vee. 9. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



499 



lowship, be gathering one from another, eveiy one 
should afford something to hiy (as it were) to kindle 
the fire. But how ? Laying their light ends together, 
and not their dead ends. 

06s. 24. Our mercies to others should not be cold, 
but burning. Let us be merciful, as our heavenly Fa- 
ther is merciful ; that is, not only wishing good to 
others, but let there be kindled mercies within us so 
ardent that we may not be able to confine them. I 
sup])0se many of you, especially of estates, have had 
many thoughts that you would do this and this for 
such good uses, and you see some reason v.hy it should 
be so ; yea, but now, have these arguments burnt in 
your hearts, so as to cause you to break forth into re- 
solutions ? Well, though I have had thoughts and in- 
clinations to make use of my estate thus and thus, yet 
I have been kept off; but now they are kindled in my 
heart, and I am resolved upon it. Thus it was with 
God, and let it be so with you. 

Ver. 9. / will not execute the /ierce7iesis of mine an- 
ger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim : for I am 
God, and not man ; the Holy One in the midst of thee: 
and I will not enter into the city. 

" I will not execute the fierceness," the burning, " of 
mine anger," >bn |i"in 

True, your sins, and arguments against you, did lie at 
my heart, and did even burn it ; but I will not execute 
that : I will execute the kindling of my mercy, but not 
the kindling of mine anger. 'Slark the several phrases, 
" repentings are kindled " in the w'ay of mercy, and 
■wrath is kindled; there was burning wrath, and burn- 
ing mercy, but that which prevails is, the burning 
mercy. I will not execute the burning of m.ine anger. 
Why ? For " my repentings are kindled together." 

But how was this true ? Was not Israel carried into 
captivity, and continued there many years, and never 
yet returned again (as some think) ; and when they were 
carried into captivity, for three years together there 
was a siege at the city ? and yet God saith here, " I will 
not execute the fierceness of mine anger." 

That which before was said, will sufficiently answer 
this : " How shall I make thee as Admah ? how shall I 
set thee as Zeboim ? " that is, though God did suffer 
them to be carried away captive, and their enemies 
prevailed against them, yet he did not make them as 
Admah, nor set them as Zeboim; the fierceness of 
God's anger, the burning of the anger of God, was not 
out against them. And, even in their carrying into 
captivity, the Lord had respect to his elect ones, and 
to this very day he purposes to do them good : and so 
we shall find in the next verse, that there is a promise 
of their returning from their captivity ; and, therefore, 
though they were for a long time to continue there, 
yet still God did " not execute the fierceness of his 
anger." 

Sin indeed stirs uj3 anger, and fierce anger, in God. 
The Septuagint translate the words thus, Ou f(j; rroi^o-w 
Ka-i Trjv 6py>)v rov Bw/iou /iov, I will not do according to 
the anger of my wTath ; that is," in extremity, I will 
not do thus with you. There were mighty stirrings in 
God's heart, pleadings of justice an'd pleadings of 
mercy, but God's mercy overcomes, gets the day, as it 
were; mercy triumphs over justice. 

Obs. 1. The stirrings of mercy in our hearts should 
rather prevail with us than the stirrings of wrath. 
When we have workings this way and that way, we 
should consider which is the most benign side. The 
arguments had need be very much stronger for wrath 
than for mercy : if the arguments have any equality, or 
nearly any equality, in them, certainly the arguments 
for mercy should prevail : they do so with God's heart : 
O, be vou like God in this. 



Obs. 2. Stirrings for God should rather prevail with 
us than temptations to sin. Have not you found it 
thus many times in yourselves ? You have had stirrings 
in your hearts to certain duties, and at the same time 
temptations to certain sins ; now I put it to your con- 
sciences, as in the name of God, cannot you tell how 
the temptations to sin have often got the day ? Y'ou 
have been rather carried from God to yoiu- base, sinful 
lusts, and yoiu- conscience has been overcome : con- 
science has pulled, and the drawings of the Sphit have 
been very ])owerful, but yet temptations have been 
more powerful, and you have yielded : oh, be ashamed 
of this, that it should ever be said, that, at such a time, 
conscience and temptations strove together within you, 
and temptations overcame conscience. 

06s. 3. God's mercies do not free his people from all 
fruits of displeasure. " I will not execute the fierce- 
ness of mine anger." My brethren, this is not meant 
merely of the times of the law ; for this anger of God 
U]5on them is to this very day. But yet it is not 
" fierceness of anger," like that of Admah and Zeboim : 
there are, doubtless, among them the elect ones of God 
at this day. God will not have this called " the fierce- 
ness of anger : " it is displeasure, it is captivity, long 
captivity ; they are a reproach and a by-word to the 
world ; and yet there has not fallen on them " fierce- 
ness of anger." Our discontented hearts are ready to 
call every little affliction " fierceness of anger : " Oh 
how fierce is God ! if we suffer ever so little. Yet did 
we indeed but know what anger our sins deserve, we 
would learn not to call every affliction that is upon us, 
no, nor our greatest afflictions, " fierceness of anger." 

06s. 4. We should acknowledge mercy, though we 
suffer hard things. If yet we be not uttei'ly, nor ever- 
lastingly, cast off, let us acknowledge mercy. It is a 
mercy that " my repentings are kindled." " I will not 
execute the fierceness of mine anger." Why ? Be- ' 
cause they were not as Admah and Zeboim. 

Let us then all learn this. Whatsoever afiSictions are 
this day upon us, though it may be we are ready each 
of us to think our own afflictions to be the greatest of 
all, yet learn thou, I say, to bless God that fir-e has not 
been rained from heaven to consume thee and thy fa- 
mily ; for this might have been thy portion, this 
" fierceness of anger." 

" I will not return to destroy Ephi-aim." 

God here compares himself to a captain that comes 
with his soldiers to a town. I suppose many in this 
place may easily understand the meaning of this word, 
by what they have seen and felt themselves. Soldiers 
come to a town, pillage, and leave it ; and so the poor 
people think. Soldiers have been here, and we hope we 
shall do well enough now, as the worst is over : but it 
may be, within a month or two after the same soldiers 
come again, and utterly ruin the place and strip them 
of all. But now saith God, " I will not return to de- 
stroy Ephi-aim ; " that is, Though I lay my hand upon 
them, and afflict them, and take away many comforts 
from them, yet when I have done that, there I will leave 
them, I will not come back again with a purpose utterly 
to ruin them ; this I might do, I might return upon 
them with one evil upon another, but I will not do so. 

06s. 5. Sinners should not be secure when some 
evil is upon them, and think now they know the worst. 
No, God may justly return upon them again and 
again. If thou turnest not to God under thy affliction, 
God may justly return upon thee to ruin thee. In- 
deed, if thy afflictions have been such as have caused 
thy heart to return to God, thou mayst then hope that 
God will not return upon thee ; but if so be thou be- 
havest thvself frowardly under thy aflUctions, thou 
mayst justlv ex])ect the return of God. 

66s. 6. God is very gracious to his people when evil 
is upon them. He will not add and add sorrow till 



500 



.VN- EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XI. 



he utterly destroy them, but lie will forbear that lie 
may have some subject for his mercy, he " will not 
contend for ever." 

•• For I am God, and not man." 

Here is an argument that is very full : '• I will not 
execute the fierceness of mine anger, 1 will not return 
to destroy Eplu-aim : for I am God, and not man." 

God before personated a man in those yearnings of 
his bowels, that is, when God would e.Kpress his mercy, 
he came in the most familiar way to reveal it; but 
when he comes to speak of anger, there he would have 
us know that he is not like to a man in the Avay of an- 
ger. ^Vith respect to mercy, saith he, if there be any 
man on earth specially remarkable for mercy, know 
that I am like him ; but with regard to anger, I am not 
like man. God is very desirous that we understand 
fully his heart in the ways of his mercy, but when he 
•pciiks of the execution of his wrath, I will not do that ; 
why? " for I am God, and not man." Mark the 
strength of this expression, '• for I am God, and not 
man." The difference between God and man in the 
execution of wrath, you will find it vei-y useful to con- 
sider : we shall proceed therefore to discuss it, and 
1 icn draw from it several observations. 

1. Man is of a weak spirit, not able to rule his an- 
ger. If men be but a little excited with anger, it is 
turned into rage, and there is no rule at all ; but I am 
not man, saith God ; 1 am God, I am no man, it is 
not with me thus, I am not of a weak spirit, I am 
able to nile my anger ; and can repress it in the midst 
of the expression of my greatest wrath. '■ I am God, 

and not man ;" the word is not mtt but 
~**^ 'w-M " '"^ """ ^ s''"0"g man, or a noble man ; I am 

Sn God, a strong God, and able to rule 
anger so as man cannot. 

2. Man is of a revengeful and cruel disposition, and 
cares not what he does so that he may have his lusts ; 
but I am of a loving, sweet, and tender disposition; " I 
am God, and not man." 

3. Man, many times, because he has not satisfaction 
within his own heart, therefore is in a rage with every 
body ; he flies upon others, not so much for any thing 
that they do, but because of the disquiet of his own 
heart : but " I am God, and not man," I am infinitely 
all-sufficient of myself, and there is no disquiet in me ; 
all is at rest and quiet within me, and this makes me 
to be of such a quiet disposition toward my crea- 
tures. 

4. If there be any mercy in a man, it is but very lit- 
tle, a little matter will stop the current of man's mercy; 
but " I am God, and not man," there are infinite mer- 
cies in me, an infinite current, and the current of the 
mercy that is in me cannot easily be stopped, for " I 
am God." 

5. Man is of a fickle and inconstant disposition, but 
" I am Jehovah, I change not, therefore ye sons of Ja- 
cob are not consumed." 

6. If man iiasses by an offence, it is from some mo- 
tives or some persua,sions from without ; if there be 
none of tliese, he is severe and rigid : but " I am God, 
and not man ;" I have enough in mine own heart to 
prrsuadc me ; though there be no arguments from with- 
out, there is enough within me, in my own bowels, to 
persuade me, for " I am God." 

7. Man thinks it a dishonour to him to begin re- 
conciliation with those that have ofl'ended him; What! 
shall I go and disgrace myself to begin with my infe- 
rior ? let him begin with me if he will : this is man's 
disposition ; but " I am God, and not man," I account 
it my glory to begin the work of reconciliation, there is 
not such a disposition in me as in man. 

S. Man cannot foresee the consequences that may 
follow upon his forbearing or pardoning of offences, 
and therefore he is loth to do cither ; but " I am God, 



and not man," I have infinite wisdom, and can foresee 
all the results. 

9. Man cannot work good out of evil shown toward 
him, and that makes him not forbear; but " I am God, 
and not man ;" I know how to work mine own ends, 
and the glory of my name, out of all the sins of my 
people. 

10. Man, though he promises much mercy, yet oft- 
times, if those to whom he promises mercy offend him, 
he will recall his promise again ; and he thinks he may 
do so justly; all man's promises are but conditional: 
yea, but " I am God, and not man," I do not so ; though 
I know beforehand there will be many weaknesses and 
infirmities in my creature, yet I have some promises 
that are absolute promises to my elect ones, and I will 
not recall them, though they be unfaithful and sinful. 
Man not only recalls promises when there is occasion 
given, but many times through unfaithfulness. There- 
fore Brentius, an approved divine, remarks on this 
place, Tlie word is /.y/i,not Adam: and so he translates 
it, I am God, and not a noble man ; you shaU not have 
such dealings with me as from yom- great men, many 
of whom make great and fair promises, and you depend 
upon them, but they will deceive you, as is said in 
Psal. Ixii. 9, " Surely men of low degree are vanity, 
and men of high degree are a lie :" your courtiers and 
great men, how do they deceive the expectation of 
those that are with them, especially in their need ! they 
leave them in the lurch many times ; but " I am God, 
and not man ;" you shall not have sucii unfaithful deal- 
ings from me. 

11. K man forbears and passes by offences now, he 
cannot have the offenders again at advantage when he 
pleases, and therefore he thinks he had best avail him- 
self of the present opportunity ; but " I am God, and 
not man," my creatures I have always at advantage ; I 
can spare them now, for I can have them under my 
feet again, and again, and again, and therefore I have 
no such reason to take advantage of my poor creatures 
as one man has of another. 

12. Man is bound to positive rules of justice that are 
set to him ; but " I am God, and not man ;" I will have 
mercy on whom I uilt have mercy, and whom I icill I 
harden, Rom. ix. 18. 

Obs. 5. Goodness and mercy is that wherein God 
glories. It is true, the Lord is high above man in all 
excellencies ; but mark here, how he glories that he is 
" God, and not man," in the execution of wrath. 
Many glory in their anger, and make that to be their 
excellency ; oh they are brave men, and of brave spirits ; 
when they can vent their wrath, when they can rail 
and speak evil, and make others submit to them, and 
strike or punish them, why now they are brave men ; I 
will make you do thus and thus : as in a family, you 
shall have sometimes a poor man or woman manifest 
abundance of pride of spirit, as if they were princes 
and monarchs, they will do thus and thus, and thiy 
think themselves of brave spirits ; but mark, God glo- 
ries in this, that he does not execute the fierceness of 
his anger. 

I am infinitely above man. Wherein, O Lord, art 
thou above them ? I am above them in this, that I 
can rule mine anger, and am merciful to those beneath 
me. Herein lies God's glory. 

My brethren, this scripture (were there no other) 
shows that jiassion and anger debase man. God glories 
in his long-suflering and patience towards his creature. 
Thus in Numb. xiv. 17, " And now, I beseech thee, let 
the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast 
s|)okcn." What had God spoken, or where had he 
spoken any thing ? Mark, this scripture refers to the 
latter end of Exod. xxxiii., where God promised that 
Moses should see his glory, and in chap, xxxiv. God 
made his glory pass by him; and what was it,? " The 



Ver. 9. 



THE PROPHECY OF ROSEA. 



501 



Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffer- 
ing, and abundant in goodness and truth," &c. Now- 
here ]Moses refers to this, and lays hold upon it, as if 
he should say, O Lord, was not there a time that I was 
pleading with thee ? and didst not thou promise to 
show me thy glory ? and was it not '■ the Lord, the 
Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and 
abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for 
thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and 
sin." Why now. Lord, manifest thy glory ; now. Lord, 
show thyself to be a glorious God. In doing what ? 
Mark the 19th verse of that chapter of Numbers, " Par- 
don, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people : " such 
is God's glory, and such the manifestation of his power. 
One would think that the power of God should rather 
be manifested in the destruction of sinners ; no, the 
power of God is manifested in mercy rather than in 
misery and destruction : and we find, that those who 
come nearest to God are the most loving, and gracious, 
and merciful ; yea, if they do but come near to God as 
fiir as possibly natural men may, their conformity ap- 
pears in their love, forbearance, meekness, and gentle- 
ness. Even the heathens could say. The greater anv one 
is, the more placable is his anger j a generous mind is 
not easily moved. And so they compare the lion, and 
bears, and wolves together: The lion, said they, is a 
magnanimous creature, therefore it is enough to fall 
down before it ; but for wolves and bears, they insult 
over the prostrate ; so those who have the most mag- 
nanimous spirits have likewise jiatient, and forgiving, 
and pardoning spirits. This note is as cross to a carnal 
heart as it almost possibly can be, I mean, to one who 
gives way to the lusts of his passion, for he thinks him- 
self only magnanimous when he can vent his anger ; 
often, were it not for the dread of being accounted a 
fool, he would forbear his anger. Yet know this, anger 
is not thy honour ; it makes thee base in the eyes of 
thy servants, and children, and wife ; it makes them 
look upon thee and despise thee, when they see thee 
coming into thy house like a mad fool, and cb'unken, as 
it were, with thy passion. 

6. If God were like man, sinners could not be for- 
borne. As if God should say. The truth is, your sins 
were such as, were not I God, it were impossible that I 
could bear : for so it is, though we think not of it ; the 
evil of sin is so great, that if all the patience, in all the 
men that ever existed since the world began, were 
combined in one man, if he knew the great evil that 
there is in sin, he would destroy the world, he would 
not forbear, if his heart were but holy, as God is holy : 
" The Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee." 

Obs. 7. It is a good way to exercise faith in God's 
mercy, to look upon God as God, as a Being bevond 
us, beyond any creature; for so this is therefore ex- 
pressed, to the end that the people of God might exer- 
cise faith in beholding God as God. That is the way to 
help thee in thy faith : wouldst thou exercise faith 
upon God? look upon him as God, and do not con- 
ceive him to be as a man. It is true, to look upon him 
sometimes as a compassionate man is a little help, but 
that will not alway suffice. Perhaps it would help a 
little some that are here to reflect thus : If thou hadst 
to deal with the most merciful man that ever lived 
upon the face of the earth, wouldst not thou hope then 
that thou mightest be saved if he had the disposal of 
thy eternal state ? Suppose there were a judge of the 
most tender spirit in the world, and all the relentings 
that ever were in all men's hearts met in him ; if this 
judge had the disposal of thy eternal state, thou 
wouldst hope for mercy : but would it not help thee to 
know thou hadst to deal with one infinitely above that 
judge ? That judge were a cruel tyrant, a savage tiger, in 
comparison of this God. God is " God, and not man," 
he is infinitely above man in the ways of his mercy. 



!Many times by looking on God as ourselves we are first 
bold in sin, and afterwards sink down in despair in our 
sin. So in Psal. 1. 21, "Thou thoughtest 1 was alto- 
getlier such an one as thyself," saith God ; that is, be- 
cause I was patient and long-suffering towards thee, 
thou thoughtest I was like a man. A man, though he 
be a little offended, you think you may please him 
again ; and so you thought I was like to yourselves, 
therefore you went on in your sins. This is one of the 
devil's stratagems ; he first makes us look upon God 
like ourselves, and so we think that God has no greater 
hatred to sin than we have ; but then, when we have 
once committed the sin, and the devil would tempt to 
despair, he makes us look to God as like to oiu'selves ; 
that is thus, I find that I could not forgive such a one 
if he had so wronged me ; and therefore from God they 
expect no mercy, regarding God as like to man, nay, 
like a corrupt man. Oh what a dishonour is this to 
God, that because thou thyself hast such a froward, 
perverse, cruel heart, that thou canst not forgive, thou 
therefore lookest upon God as if it were as hard for 
him to forgive as for thee ! My brethren, the looking 
upon God as God, would help against many discou- 
raging thoughts in poor sinners : as thus, 

1. ]NIy sins are very great ; men will forgive little 
offences, but God is " God, and not man," and therefore 
great mercies are little in comparison to him. 

2. I have sinned against many offers of mercy ; but 
God is " God, and not man," and God's mercy is such 
as brings in men that have refused the offers of mercy. 

3. None is so sinful as I ; but God is " God, and not 
man," and therefore he is above thee in the ways of 
his mercy : God has more mercy yet than ever he did 
manifest to any one creature in the world, and though 
I be the vilest of all sinners, yet let me look upon God 
as " God, and not man." 

4. I am unworthy of any mercy from God. Indeed, 
if you had to deal with a man it might hinder ; but God 
is " God, and not man," therefore it is not unworthi- 
ness that hinders mercy in God, mercy pleases God. 

5. I am like to be of no use to God. True, if you 
were to deal with a man, he might not be pleased ; but 
God stands in no need of you, or of any of his creatures, 
for he is, " God, and not man ;" thou dost not honour 
God, as God, if thou dost not cast thy soul upon his 
mercy, as the mercy of God. 

If I put this to thee, I hope the glory of it will be 
so great as will keep it from being abused. What ! dost 
thou think thy condition is grievous ? but dost thou 
think that such mercy as this which now I am naming 
would not serve the turn, that thou shouldst have such 
mercy as an infinite God should therefore manifest, to 
that end that he might show to men and angels to aU 
eternity, what the power of his infinite mercy can do ? 
Would' not this mercy serve thy turn, such a mercy as 
is spoken of, Eph. ii. 4 — 7 ? I will name it again, 
abuse it at your peril : suppose thy condition so low, 
yet would not this serve thy turn, such mercy as an 
infinite God would show, to that end that he might 
make appear to men and angels to all eternity, what 
he is able to do in the infiniteness of his mercy ? would 
not this serve thee, and help thee, and heal thee ? 
Now this is tendered to thee in the gospel, even in 
Christ as an object of thy faith ; and the very present- 
ing of this is a work of the ministry of the gospel, that 
it might draw acts of faith, for it has a power to draw 
forth faith, yea, to beget faith ; the very presenting such 
a thing as this is, has a quickening power in it. True, 
if you look u])on God only as a merciful man, the 
glory is not such as that the shining of it upon the soul 
will add life: as now, the shining of the moon, or a 
hundred torches, will never beget life in a garden, but 
the shining of the sun will do it ; so the apprehending 
of the mercy of God any other way but as God, as God 



502 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XL 



in Christ, will never beget life in the soul. Look then 
on him in the infiniteness of his mercy, whose thoughts 
of mercy are beyond ours, as high as the heavens are 
above the earth ; this is the way to beget faith. There- 
fore those who cannot believe take very ill courses for 
themselves, whilst they dwell only on such things as 
may discourage them, and think that this is pleasing 
to &od : certainly the way to beget or raise faith in 
thy heart is, to look upon God as God in Christ. 

Yea, but you will say, The truth is, this that you 
speak of, that God is " God, and not man," is rather a 
discouragement to my heart ; it is God that I have 
sinned against, and not man : as in one sense it may 
encourage, so in another it discourages me : " Against 
thee, thee only have I sinned," saith David, Psal. li. 
And, indeed, this is the most piercing thought in a 
truly penitent heart, My sin is against God; I have lived 
so long without God, and in my sins have struck 
at God himself Oh, wretch that I have been I I 
have been guilty of darkening the glory of the great 
God in the world. Now I will answer thee this in a 
word. 

And is this that which aggravates thy sin in thy 
heart ? Does this work upon thy heart most ? Canst 
thou appeal to God, that of all the considerations of sin 
that ever thou hadst in thy life, nothing grieves thee 
so much, as that it is committed against God, because 
God is so glorious, so infinitely worthy of honour from 
all his creatures ? Be of good comfort, and take en- 
couragement from this point, and mark what I am say- 
ing ; and with that I shall close all ; 

If the consideration of the glorj- of God above man 
thus aggravates thy sin to thy humiliation, then it will 
aggravate the mercy of God to thy consolation as well. 
If thou workest tliis thought upon thy heart, INIy sin is 
against " God, and not man," and therefore my heart is 
humbled ; then the Lord would have thee to make use 
of the consideration of his glory as a God for thy 
comfort : God is " God, and not man," in the dispensa- 
tions of his mercy. 

" The Holy One in the midst of thee." God glories 
much in his holiness, and that in the midst of his 
people. 

God is here said to be " the Holy One," 

To show that the anger he would let out should 
be unmixed ■n'itb evil ; that what considerations might 
be required to order and guide it should not be want- 
ing. Men's angers are very unclean, there is much 
smoke and filthy stuff in the fire of their wi-ath. But 
in Exod. xv. 11, God is said to be "glorious in holi- 
ness ;" and in Rev. xv. 7, God's vials of wrath are 
" golden vials." 

Let us labour to be holy in our anger. This is a 
rare thing : if there be any corruption in man's heart it 
usually appears in his anger. 

Obs. 8. God delights to show the glory of his holi- 
ness in mercy, and in pardoning rather than in avenging 
sin. 

Obs. 9. God's faithfulness is a special part of the 
glory of his holiness. 

IIcMce see how holiness will help our faith. And 
we should learn to manifest our holiness in our faith- 
fuhicss. I am holy to make them holy, to sanctify 
them to myself 

" In the midst of thee." Casting the beams of his 
glory on every side of him. 

But how " in the midst," when they were so vile, 
and cast off from being his people, a sink of idolatry 
and wickedness ? " In the midst," in respect of some 
of his elect saints. 

04s. 10. God continues amon^ a people for his elect's 
sake. The saints should consider of God, a holy God 
in the midst of them, and accordingly behave them- 
selves. Lev. xxvi. 12, "I will walk among you, and 



will be your God, and ye shall be my people." And 2 
Cor. vi. 16, speaks of a union still closer, " I will dwell 
in them, and walk in them." 

Obs. 11. Men of place and government should be in 
the midst of those that are under them, carrying them- 
selves holily ; yea, though those subject to them should 
be froward, pettish, and sinful, yet they should carry 
themselves according to rule in all holiness, gravity, 
wisdom, and moderation. 

Rivet, Ternovius, and some others, think that here 
is enaltage numeri, a change of the number, holy, for 
holy ones, or saints : rendered so it would refer to 
the destruction of Sodom ; there were no righteous, here 
are "the holy ones in the midst of thee." 

Obs. 12. The saints are of great use where they Uve. 
They are the cause of mitigation of judgments. 

" And I will not enter into the city." 

Luther thus, God would signify him- c„„„,„ „j„„ „„„ 
self to be merciful to scattered Israel ponam ■» una tan- 
among the Gentiles, ut tamen non redeant to"m mun'J™.''" 
ad politiam Mosaicam, but so that they ''""'' 
should not return to the Mosaical law. 

But it is rather to be taken in reference to the man- 
ner of God's proceedings in the destruction of Sodom : 
after he had done conferring with Abraham, he entered 
into the city, and destroyed it by fire and brimstone. 

Obs. 13. God many times stands at the gates of a 
city, ready to enter in and destroy it, but humiliation 
in prayer, and reformation, keep him out. 

God has not yet entered thus in here. Oh ! let not 
our sins cause a merciful God to go out, and a provoked 
God to enter in. 

Ver. 10. They shall tralk after the Lord: he shall roar 
like a lion : when he shall roar, then the children shall 
tremble from the irest. 

" They shall walk after the Lord." 

They shall not walk after their own inventions any 
more, nor after the lusts of their own hearts, nor after 
the examples or counsels of men, but after the Lord ; 
they shall see God before them, then- hearts shall be 
drawn after him ; as they shall see God in his various 
administrations, so they shall turn. Which way soever 
God leads them, though in paths they have not known 
before, and in which few others walk, yet " they shall 
walk after the Lord." 

In difficult paths, though never so dangerous to out- 
ward appearance ; yea, though God should lead them 
from then- dearest comforts, their sweetest contents, and 
though it do not appear to them whither the way tends, 
what God means to do with them ; yet, seeing God be- 
fore them, they shall be willing to walk after him. 
They shall account the way in which God is, tlie best, 
the safest, and the most comfortable. " These are they 
which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These 
were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits 
unto God and to the Lamb," Rev. xiv. 4. " They shall 
walk" in a constant, steady course of obedience, " after 
the Lord." 

It is the Lord, the blessed, glorious God, whom theii- 
souls love ; whom they desire to honour ; to whom they 
have given up souls, bodies, lives, liberties, names, 
estates, whatsoever they aie, have, or are able to do. 
AVhen Peter heard it was the Lord, he threw himself 
into the sea, that he might walk after him there. Thus 
the soul converted to God loves to walk after God. 

" They shall walk after the Lord." This may be 
spoken of the church, as walking after the Lord in 
times of reformation, especially that famous " time of 
the restitution of all things," when God shall call home 
his people, the ten tribes, wlio yet are scattered up and 
down, wandering and gro])ing in darkness. "They 
shall walk after the Lord ;" the Lord shall be a Captain 



Vkr. 10. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



503 



to them, leading them along as his redeemed ones, work- 
ing by them glorious things in the earth, and bringing 
them through all opposition to places of rest, and 
fulness of all good. God shall appear in such visible 
administrations of his mighty power, that they shall 
say, Lo, this is our God, this is the Captain of the host 
of the Lord, yea, it is even the Lord himself; we will 
join together and follow him, whose wisdom, faithful- 
ness, and courage is infinite ; we will follow no other 
but him, and be in subordination to none else. The 
sight of such a Captain going before them shall put 
life, courage, and magnanimity into tliem, whatsoever 
they were before. Hence, 

Obs. 1. It is the infinite goodness of the Lord, to be 
the Captain of his people. 

06«. 2. It is the honour, safet)-, happiness of the saints, 
to have God before them, to be walking after him. 

" He shall roai- like a lion." 

If God appear thus it will make them fly from him. 
No, they shall, notwithstanding this, walk after him. 

06s. 3. The awful majesty of God, in his wonderful 
and dreadful works, causes the wicked, guilty conscience 
to fly from him ; but the saints shall follow after, and 
cling to liim. Isa. xx.\iii. 14, 15, " The sinners in Zion 
are afraid ; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. 
'\Mio among us shall dwell with the devouring fire ? who 
among us shall dwell with everlasting bm-nings ? He 
that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly." 
Acts V. 13, 14, "And of the rest durst no man join 
himself to them : but the people magnified them. And 
believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes 
both of men and women." Psal. xlvi. (Luther's Psalm) 
ver. 2, 3, " Therefore will not we fear, though the earth 
be removed, and though the mountains be carried into 
the midst of the sea ; though the waters thereof roar 
and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the 
swelling thereof." Ver. 6. " The heathen raged, the 
kingdoms were moved : he uttered his voice, the earth 
melted." But, ver. 7, " The Lord of hosts is with us : 
the God of Jacob is our refuge." Nahum i. 2, " God 
is jealous, and the Lord revengeth ; the Lord revengeth, 
and is furious ; the Lord will take vengeance on his 
adversaries." Ver. 3, " The Lord hath his way in the 
whu'lwind and in the stonn." Ver. 5, 6, " The moun- 
tains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the cartli is 
burned at his presence, yea, the world, and aU that 
dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation ? 
and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger ? his 
fury is poui'ed out like fii'e, and the rocks are thrown 
do'mi by him." Now mark ver. 7, " The Lord is good. 
a strong hold in the day of trouble ; and he knoweth 
them that trust ia him." Joel iii. 15, 16, "The sun 
and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall 
■svithdi-aw then- sliining. The Lord also shall roar out 
of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem ; and the 
heavens and the earth shall shake : but the Lord will 
be the hope of his people, and the strength of the chil- 
dren of Israel." Hab. iii. 17, 18, "Although the fig 
tree shall not blossom," &c., " yet I will rejoice in the 
Lord, I wiU joy in the God of my salvation." 

Oh the blessing of a clean conscience! it looks on the 
teiTor of the law, and of God, with comfort. Where 
there is neighing of horses, beating of drums, rattling 
of pikes, roaring of cannons, yet if a friend be the 
general, we fear not. AU the terror there is in God, is 
comfort to the saints ; the wicked have the dark side 
of the cloud, the saints the bright. Deut. xxxiii. 2, 
" He came with ten thousands of saints : from his right 
hand went a fiery law for them." Ver. 4, " Moses 
commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the con- 
gregation of Jacob." Neh. ix. 32, " Now therefore, 
our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, 
who keepest covenant and mercy." Psal. "xlvii. 1, 2, 
" O clap your hands, aU ye people ; shout unto God 



with the voice of triumph. For the Lord most high is 
teiTible." 

Be godly, and keep conscience clean, in these latter 
times ; train up your children in ways of godliness. 

" He shall roar like a lion." Tlie roaring of the lion, 
Plutarch saith, invites the rest of the beasts, there is 
something for them. 

But when was this ? Many think, when the Baby- 
lonian monarchy was broken by Cyrus ; then Belshaz- 
zar's knees beat together, and then the captivity re- 
turned, and divers of the ten tribes joined in the return. 
But this is spoken of the body of them ; and if any 
such remarkable return had taken place, Ezra would 
not have left out their genealogies. 

Others refer it to the times of the gospel, Heb. xii. 
26, " Yet once more I shake not tlie earth only, but 
also heaven." The voice of the gospel, " Repent," 
and, " He that believeth shall be saved ; but he that be- 
lievelh not shall be damned," was a terrible voice. 
Wlien seciu'e minds (saith Luther) hear that salvation 
belongs to none but tliose that are baptized, and that 
believe in the name of Christ, they indeed tremble, 
and are solicitous concerning their future state. When 
Junius read the first chapter of the Gospel of John he 
was ten'ified. 

But I take this to be meant rather of some notable 
work of reformation and calling in of these ten tribes 
to join with the church. The Lord will roar to terrify 
the hearts of their adversaries, that they shall not be 
able to hinder their return. Hence, 

Obs. 4. Wlien God's time is come for a thorough re- 
formation in the world, he will make the earth tremble. 
Psal. cii. 16, "'WTien the Lord shall build up Zion, he 
shall appear in his glory." It has been his way in his 
appearing for his church : Psal.lxxvi.7 — 9, "Thou, even 
thou, art to be feared : and who may stand in thy sight 
when once thou art angry ? Tliou didst cause judg- 
ment to be heard fi'om heaven ; the earth feared, and 
was still, when God arose to judgment, to save all the 
meek of the earth." Ver. 12, "He shall cut ofl' the 
spirit of princes: he is ten-ible to the kings of the 
earth." Isa. xxxiv. 4, " All the host of heaven shall 
be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together 
as a scroll : and all their host shall fall down, as the 
leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falUng fig from 
the fig tree." Ver. 5, " For my sword shall be bathed 
in heaven." Ver. 6, " The sword of the Lord is filled 
with blood, it is made fat with fatness." Ver. 7, " Their 
land shall be soaked with blood." Ver. 8, " For it is 
the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of re- 
compenees for the controversy of Zion." Ezek. xvii. 
10, " Shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind 
toucheth it ? " 

At the raising of Christ's kingdom, " Thy right hand 
shall teach thee terrible things," Psal. xlv. 4. " The 
kings of the eai-th, and the great men, and the rich 
men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and 
every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in 
the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains ; and said 
to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us 
fi-om the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and 
from the wrath of the Lamb," Rev. vi. 15, 16. " There 
shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since 
there was a nation : and at that time thy people shall 
be delivered," Dan. xii. 1. As when 
Egj-pt was smitten there were signs and peTl,mi"Smi» 
prodigies, so now, in all places, admirable "^""^jjp'-J"""- 
wonders in all the elements of the world ; 
because, 

1. The ungodly have been cruel against the saints: 
Psal. Ixxiv. 4, " Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy 
congregations." 

2. The wicked wQl be secure, yea, his own people 
and will stand in need of roaring to awaken them. 



501 



A\ EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XL 



3. The adversary will be stout and proud : Coufim- 
delur omne jus, el leges pevibuni, All right will be 
overturned, and laws perish. 

4. The difficulties will be great, so that Christ asks 
if he " shall find faith on the earth " at his coming, 
faith that ever his work shall be brought about, Luke 
xviii. 8. Therewillbemighty changes of things. Hence, 

Obs. 5. God can soon make mighty alterations. De- 
spair- not then, though wicked men strengthen them- 
selves never no much. '■ Be not ye afraid of them : 
remember the Lord, which is great and terrible," 
Neh. iv. 14. '• Thou shall not be affrighted at them : 
for the Lord thy God is among you, a mighty God and 
ten-ible," Deut. vii. 2L 

Obs. 6. We should learn to prepare for those times. 

" MTien he sliall roar, then the children shall tremble 
from the west." 

"The lion hath roared, who v,ill not fear?" Amos 
iii. 8. There shall be mighty stirrings of heart ; men's 
hearts shall shake within them, so that there shall be 
way made for people whose hearts are awakened to 
come into the church. The enemies shall be struck 
■with such astonishment, that they shall not hinder ; 
their violence and rage shall be abated. They shall 
say, as did once the Egyptians, Let us take heed what 
we do, the Lord fights lor them. 

And the hearts of those whom God intends to call 
shall be awakened, the slightness and vanity of their 
spirits shall be taken away. The awe on their hearts 
shall make them fear ; they shall be roused from their 
sluggishness ; they shall make haste to come in to join 
with the jieople of God. Fear causes 
cHimi^Treme"'^ haste, SO the word used here signifies, and 
Properabunt, vau- it is SO rendered by some. Men delay 
and trifle, till God strikes their hearts 
with fear. Spirilus Sanctus nescit tarda molimina, 
The Holy Ghost likes not lazy labouring. " Thy chil- 
dren shall make haste," Isa. xlix. 17. 

" Then the children shall tremble from the west." 

Those afar off, which were most un- 

^'mS'si^™ likely. "The isles shall wait for his 

law," Isa. xlii. 4. The Mediterranean, 

the mid-land sea, is in the west. See Isa. xlix. 1, 12. 

Hence, 

Obs. 7. There are like to be great stu'rings in the west- 
ern parts in the times referred to here by the prophet. 

Ver. 11. They shall tremble as a bird out of Emjpi, 
and as a dore out of the land of Assyria : and I will 
place them in their houses, sailh the Lord. 

" They shall tremble as a bird out of 

'^"\*uiS'i:'"""' Egvirt;" being struck with fear they 

shall hasten, so the original may signify. 

This some think was fulfilled when divers of the ten 
tribes joined with Judah in their return from captivitv, 
for the monarchy of the Assyrians was subdued by the 
Persians, whose king was Cyrus. Therefore it is 
thought that the same liberty was given in AssjTia for 
the ten tribes, as in Babylon for Juclah. And not long 
after, Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, overcame the Egyp- 
tians, Herodotus, lib. 8, and Justin, lib. 10. And it is 
likely that he would be favourable to the ten tribes, as 
his father had been to Judah. 

But Ezra, as was noted above, in likelihood would 
not then have omitted their genealogies. However, in 
the great restoration of things, this will be fulfilled. 
The Jews were strongly set to go to Egypt ; now they 
shall as strongly desire to get out, to join with the 
churches : fly as a bird, not come as a snail ; get over 
all difficulties; their elevated spirits raising them, they 
consider not earthly, drossy things. Now all their de- 
sire is to join with the saints, that they together with 
them may " walk after tlK^Lord." 



" And as a dove out of the land of Assjiia." 

1. Doves are sacred there, Euseb. Preparat. Evang. 
lib. 8. 5. 

2. They are terrified with the least noise. Terretur 
miyiiyno pene stridore columbo. 

3. Doves fly swiftly. " Oh that I had wings like a 
dove !" saith the psalmist, Psal. Iv. 6. 

4. They fly by flocks. " Who are these that fly as 
a cloud, and as the doves to their windows ?" Isa. Ix. 8. 

5. It may be doves migrate from AssjTia at certain 
times of the year, as several sorts of fowls do with us 
in their seasons. 

" And I will place them in their houses, saith the 
Lord ;" that is, I will ])rovide lockers for them : he fol- 
lows the former metaphor of doves. 

God's people have been tossed up and down, they 
have had no abiding in their houses. But " I will 
place them in their houses, saith the Lord." Hence, 

Obs. 1. God has his time to place his people in their 
own houses in rest, quietness, and safety ; to deliver 
them from violence and wrong. " Moreover I will 
appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant 
them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and 
move no more," 2 Sam. vii. 10. 

Obs. 2. It is a good work to be instrumental in pro- 
viding, that those who live godly and are peaceable 
may abide quietly in their houses, and not be tossed 
up and down, because they cannot conform their belief 
or practice to others' standard. The tossing such up 
and down, though it may be from a zeal for Clirist, yet 
Christ will never own. 

Obs. 3. They that " walk after the Lord," shall be 
placed in their houses. They were willing to leave 
their houses that they might foUow him, and now God 
places them in them. 

Learn, then, to trust God with your houses, resolve 
to follow the Lord whithersoever he goes ; he has a time 
to ])lace his people in their houses, when others, who 
dared not trust God, shall wander in darkness. 

Obs. 4. This must be the work of the Lord, it is only 
he can do it. " Saith the Lord." That mercy that comes 
beyond all means, it is the sweetest mercy. No matter 
what the means be, whether any or no, so that you 
have a word of God for the thing. 

Ver. 12. Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and 
the house of Israel with deceit : but Judah yet rulelh 
icith God, and is faithful with the saiiits. 

The Lord having manifested the bowels of his tender 
compassion towards Ephraim, the ten tribes, proceeds 
further to show what was that which stopped the way 
and course of his grace, of the grace that otherwise 
might have been let out unto them. 

" Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the 
house of Israel with deceit." 'jaSD besets me round 
with lies; I am, in respect of the sin of Ephraim, (that 
is, of the governors.) and of the house of Israel, (that 
is, the peo])le,) I am, in respect of their sins, as a man 
beset round, who would have egress, but when he goes 
one way, there he is stopped, and another way, he is 
stopped there too. God compares himself to such a 
man, as if, in going on in the ways of mercy, he is there 
stopped by some course of sin, and entering on another 
path, he is there stopped again. 

" Ephraim compasseth me about with lies ;" that is, 
with false worshi]), for that is a lie with false pretences; 
they ])ut fair glosses upon things, but all are but lies; 
they have beset me with politic shifts of their own de- 
vising. 

These did beset God, yea, and beset the prophet too, 
for so I find some turn it; they think it is spoken as in 
the person of the ])rophet, the prophet complaining 
that he was beset with lies ; that they might, as far as 



Vek. 12. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



50.; 



they could, prejudice his ministry, and take off its power 
in their hearts, they beset him with lies, with false re- 
ports of this and the other thing. Upon which one 
has that note : A faithful divine, a 
JihiSuid estquam preacher, is nothing else but, as it were, a 
omncsuma doS! ccntro to whlch all the lines of falsehood 
rum tcnduM. tend ; it is a great plot of the devil to 

unerm c. ^j.^-nr his Hncs, and to let them make the 
ministers of God (whom God uses as any instruments 
of good unto his people) to be as the centre of them all. 

But I rather take it as spoken in the name and per- 
son of God. " Ephraim compasseth me about with 
lies ;" that is, they not only seek to blind men, but 
they would (if it were possible) deceive me, saith God. 
And indeed, when men seek to blind their own con- 
sciences, what do they but seek to deceive God ? In 
the very act of worship (saith God) they are false ; they 
profess honour and service to God, but they lie unto 
him, even when they are worshipping him. 

Obs. 1. Many in their prayers, in the solemn act of 
worship, beset God with lies. Oh how many come into 
the presence of God, and there profess to God to ac- 
knowledge his greatness, his glory, his majesty, his 
power, his sovereignty, his dominion over them, and 
profess a great deal of fear of the name of God ! and 
yet God knows it is not in their hearts, it is but as a lie 
to God. When they are worshipping God, they ac- 
knowledge their sin, and judge themselves for their 
sin, as if they were very much humbled and troubled 
on account of it ; but God knows that all this is but a 
lie, there is no such humiliation of their hearts before 
God as their expressions would seem to convey : espe- 
cially when they are the mouth-pieces of others, they 
cry to God for grace, and would fain above all things 
in the world have his grace ; but God knows it is but a 
lie, all their prayers are even a besetting God with lies. 

O, consider how far any of you, especially in pray- 
ing witli others, have been guilty of this, which is so 
marked with condemnation. Psal.ixxviii. 36, "They did 
flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him 
with their tongues." The word inins» translated " flat- 
tered," signifies deceived, They deceived him with their 
mouth. 

Why, can God be deceived ? 

No ; but they did what lay in them to deceive him ; 
if it were possible for God to have been deceived they 
would have deceived him. No marvel though men de- 
ceive men as they do : many that are of upright hearts, 
wonder when they hear that men's spirits can be so 
false ; no marvel, I say, when God himself complains 
of^being deceived by them ; that is, they are so false, 
and do so beset God with lies, that, if it were possible, 
he himself should be deceived. 

Obs. 2. Many also beset the business and affau-s that 
they manage with lies. That is, thus, they plot with 
themselves how they may handsomely contrive to put 
together a goodly number of lies, that so they may beset 
men's understandings. There are such cunning at- 
tempts in the world to beset the understandings of men, 
that men shall not know what to say to thhigs ; and yet, 
whilst they cannot tell how to believe them, neither 
do they know what to say, things are so contrived. 
Deceitful men think with themselves. If such a thing 
shall be questioned, then I have such a shift to put it 
off; and if another thing shall be doubted of, then I 
have such a report, and such a fair pretence, to make it 
good. And thus they beset businesses with lies, and 
beset men's understandings. 

" But Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful 
with the saints." 

This of Judah's ruling with God, Luther, Meisner, 
and others think has reference to the story which you 
find in 2 Kings xviii., of Hezekiah's great reformation. 
Truly, if it be so, then it appears that this people had 



continued very long in besetting God and his prophet 
with lies, for" then the prophet had been threescore 
years and ten a prophet to this people, and had been 
for that period showing to them their sin ; for from the 
time of Hosea's prophecy to the beginning of Heze- 
kiah's reign, it wiU appear to be above threescore and 
ten years, and still the prophet is complaining of this 
people, at that time when Judah did thus rule with 
God, tliat they still continued besetting God with lies. 
I would from this, 

Obs. 3. When men are once engaged in shifts and 
lies, they grow pertinacious in them, there is litlle 
hope of their recovery. Then, let what will be said 
against them, let God's hand never so much appear, let 
the truths be never so clear before them, they go on 
pertinaciously when once they are engaged in such a 
course. 

" Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the 
saints." 

That is, Israel, the ten tribes, was not encciu-aged 
bv her sister Judah's example, for Judah did otherwise ; 
though the ten tribes did beset God with lies thus, 
their worship was all false, and nothing but a lie, yet 
Judah continued still in the true worship of God. 

Obs. 4. Though examples of evil in others are no ex- 
cuses, yet where there is no such temptation the sin is 
so much the greater. If indeed Israel could have said 
thus. You indeed complain of our false worship ; who 
do otherwise ? Does not Judah do so as well as we ? do 
not they follow the same course ? we took om' example 
from them. No, Israel could not say so. This would 
not have wholly excused, but it miglit somewhat have 
extenuated, their guilt ; evil examples do somewhat 
lessen, but not wholly excuse. Yet when there is no 
examples at all, but men take up evil of themselves, and 
are rather examples to others, this is a gi-eat aggrava- 
tion of their sin. Again note, that, 

Obs. 5. To continue in false worship when there is a 
right way held forth by others, aggravates the sin. If 
indeed we could say. We have been all our days brought 
up in this way, we knew no better, we saw none that 
held forth to us any other way ; this might be some 
palliation. But they could not say so, for " Judah yet 
ruled with God ; " Judah held forth the right way of 
worship according to the mind of God, and therefore 
the sin of Israel is here aggravated. 

Obs. 6. It is a great commendation to continue in 
the true worship, when others fall off. " Judah yet 
ruleth with God." It was more to the commendations 
of Judah to continue in the true worship, after Israel 
had broken off; for in Israel were the ten tribes, more 
in number, and more flourishing as a kingdom a great 
deal than Judah ; yet for Judah to hold on in the right 
worship of God, when so many fell off from it, and 
when a more flourishing kingdom than itself had con- 
tinued so many years in false worship, this was a great 
commendation. Indeed there is a great temptation in 
this, when we see a multitude go another way ; the 
devil prevails thereby much to draw men's hearts to 
that way ; but the stronger the temptation is, the great- 
er is the commendation of those who shall stand out. 
What though there be but a few, and you see others 
who walk contrary in seeming present prosperity, yet 
if thou canst hold on in the way of truth, in the way 
of God's worship according to his word, God looks 
upon this as a thing very pleasing to him ; it is a very 
great commendation to those who do thus, and God 
takes it kindly from them : Judah does thus, whatso- 
ever Israel does. 

There were many evils, and those very gross, in 
Judah, but yet saith the prophet Hosea here, " Judah 
yet ruleth with God." Why ? For the prophet Hosea 
was a prophet to Israel, he was not sent to Judah to 
inveigh against Judah, but to the ten tribes ; and there- 



506 



AS EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XI. 



fore, though there were many evils in Judah, he takes 
not so mucli notice of their evils, as of the evils of the 
ten tribes. Whence we may further 

06s. 7. We should be more severe with those that 
are nearest to us, when they dishonour God, than with 
others. As now, a minister is not so much to inveigh 
against those over whom God has not set him, but if 
there be any evil in those that belong to his charge, 
there he should deal more plainly ; and so for others, 
you are not so much to meddle .with othei's who do not 
concern you, as with your own family, those that are 
under your immediate charge. True, we should not 
see God dishonoured, but we should some way or other 
(as God calls us to it) testify for him ; but the main 
thing that we should look to is, those that are under 
our charge : many are veiT indulgent towards those 
that are under their charge, and very busy and bitter 
against others. 

"Judah yet ruleth vnth God." Jerome upon this 
place tells of a tradition that the Jews have here about 
Judah's rule, and it is this : When the people came out 
of Egypt, and Pharaoh pursued them, and the Ked Sea 
was before them, and the mountains on either side, 
they were mightily tenified ; yet God bade Moses to 
command them logo on. The people thought with them- 
selves, Whither shall we go? and so were afraid. Now 
Judah had a spirit (say they) beyond the rest, and was 
the first tribe that ventured to go into the sea, and from 
thence obtained the principal place among the tribes. 
This is but their tradition. 

But the meaning here is, that the kingdom of Judah 
yet continued according to God's mind in the house of 
David, and maintained the true worship, and so ruled 
with God. There are divers excellent notes further 
from hence : 

Obs. 8. To enjoy but little with God, is better than 
much without God. As thus, The kingdom of Judah 
was but small in respect of the kingdom of Israel ; yea, 
but " Judah ruleth with God." As here in a kingdom, 
so in an estate : hast thou a small estate ? yea, but hast 
thou it with God ? oh ! it is a great deal better than to 
have a great estate and have much guiltiness with it, 
to have it without God. Israel maintained their rule 
by shifts ; and that is a great evil. Though thou hast 
thy de-iires, yet if thou dost compass them, and still 
maintain them, by shifting courses, it is a sore and 
great evil, thou canst have little comfort in their en- 
joyment ; for this is the meaning of the prophet, as if 
he should say, Israel ruleth, but how did they get and 
maintain their rule ? It was in false, sinful ways. It 
may be thou hast thy will over thy brother ; yea, but 
thou hast it in a sinful way : thou bles.sest thyself in 
that thou hast thy will, but thou hast little cause, if 
thou knewest all. Israel did not rule " with God." 

, „. . , Luther, on the place, saith. Papists 

Luther in loc. j . , * , , ' 

dare not venture to embrace the true 
doctrine, for fear their rule should be lost. So it is with 
many people, they are afraid of the loss of their rule, 
if they should entertain the true ways of God's wor- 
ship : they think that the true ways of God's worshi)) 
cannot consist with their rule and ])Ower, and therefore 
they had rather retain them, and let the true worship 
of God go. Thus it was with Israel. 

Or thus: "Judah yet ruleth with God;" that is, 
Judah, continuing in a right way of worship, does so 
refonn as he rules in an honourable condition ; Judah 
rules with God. Judah, reforming as he does, " ruleth 
with God," is in an honourable condition. Here, 
further, 

Obs. 9. To serve God is to reign. The kingdom that 
serves God reigns indeed ; yea, that individual who 
serves God reigns. It is an honourable thing to ser\e 
God; the Lord Christ "has made us kings" unto his 
Father, so honourable is the service of God. 



" Judah yet ruleth with God." The Vul- 
gate understands ruling with God thus, T»t»dBc»^i cu.m 
Judah descends, or comes down, as a 
witness with God. And indeed the difference, though 
it may seem to be very great in English, ^diiuc ir ie.us -ir 
yet in the Hebrew it consists in the points, » m 6»mnatui tu 
not in the letters. Ribera maintains this "'■'■' ■'"<:""''< ""' 
reading, and suggests these two remarks on it : 

First, A\Tien others leave the true worship of God, 
Judah continues, and so witnesses for God. A\'Tience, 

Obs. 10. God has never been without some witnesses 
to his truth. And in evil times, when others do forsake 
God and his worship, then for people to be willing to 
venture, and ajjpear any way to witness for God, is a 
very honourable thing. Oh ! it is a blessed thing to be 
a witness to the truth ; Therefore was I born, saith 
Christ, that " I might bear witness to the truth." Those 
that are faithful and upright in evil times are God's 
witnesses. 

Secondly, He descends, that is, he is content to be 
in a lower condition, so that he may witness for God ; 
though Israel be in a more flourishing condition, and 
we be kept low, it is no great matter so that we may 
be God's witnesses. Hence, 

06?. 11. A gracious heart shrinks not from humilia- 
tion which affords the opportunity of witnessing for 
God. I see, indeed, others in the world, they are brave, 
and have the countenance of the times, and have all 
things according to the desires of the flesh ; but we are 
kept low. It is no matter, so that we may but witness 
for God : let others take the outward glory and bravery 
of the world, let us be witnesses ifilh and /or our God. 

" And is faithful with the saints." He is faithful, 
that is, he continues in the right government God would 
have him, and in his true worship. 

06s. 12. To forsake the true worship and govern- 
ment God has appointed, is unfaithfulness ; and 
cleaving to it, especially through much difficulty and 
suffering, i^ n special part of faithfulness. It is an enl 
not to be faithful with the state in civil affairs, but not 
to be faithful with God in matters of religion is a 
greater evil. 

06s. 13. God has a special eye to a state's faithful- 
ness with him in point of worshi]). Though there may 
be otherwise many evils, yet if they be faithful to him 
in point of worship, God has a special regard to that. 

06s. 14. Faithfulness consists in a constant persisting 
in good. It is not faithfulness only to profess good, but 
to continue in our profession. Judah " is faithful with 
the saints." I find divers learned men take this to be an 
enallage of the number, and instead of '■ with the saints," 
read, with the Holy One ; for we may find instances 
in Scripture where the plural number is used for the 
singular, as in Josh. xxiv. 19, n'e-ip cnSs-o "for 
he is an holy God." The word translated " holy" there 
is m the plural number, as here, and yet it must be 
understood and read in the singular, " he is an holy 
God ;" and so some read here, faithful witlt the holy 
God. 

But to take it as you find it in your Bibles, " faith- 
ful with the saints ;" that is, with Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, with Moses, with the prophets, with the fore- 
fathers ; with them he continues laithful. 

Or, faithful with such as are sanctified, the true 
priests of God, that God had sanctified to himself; 
faithful with the sanctified ones. \Miereas Jeroboam 
took " of the lowest of the people," and made them 
priests to God, Judah would have no other priests but 
the sanctified ones of God. 

Or, lastly, faithful with the people of God. For all 
of Israel that were holy, that were godly, that were the 
saints, and were not detained by some special hand of 
God, went up from the ten tribes to Judah. to the true 
worship of God ; now Judah entertained them, and used 



Vkr. 1. 



THE PKOPHECY OF HOSEA. 



them well, and was faithful to them. But, on the con- 
trary, Israel, the ten tribes, were unfaithful, by using 
the saints of God evilly that would worship God ac- 
cording to God"s own way ; they were cruel and op- 
pressing, and unfaithful to them, but Judah was faithful 
towards such, embracing and encouraging them. For 
us to go on in faithfulness, though we have none to 
join with, is a commendation; and the ways of God 
are excellent, whether any or no do join with us in 
them. But it is a great encouragement to be faithful 
with the saints ; that is, to go on in those ways in wliich 
we see the saints walk : and to join with the saints, 
with such as are the choice saints of God, greatly en- 
courages and strengthens the peojile of God in their 
way. " Faithful with the saints." Oh ! it is good to 
be with the saints, even with the scattered remnant ; 
a great deal better is it than to be with abundance of 
the men of the world. 

Obs. 15. We should look more at the example of a 
few saints, than at the examples of thousands of loose 
and carnal professors. Judah " is faithful with the 
saints." It is true, the example of no man is to be a 
rule ; but when the most gracious and holy saints adopt 
certain ways, it gives them a sanction, and mightily 
encourages and confirms others in them. 



CHAPTER XII. 



Ver. 1. Ephraim feedeth on wind, and folhu-eth after 
the east wind: he dailij increaseth lies and desolation; 
and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil 
is carried into Egypt. 

" EpHEAm feedeth on wind." We read, in chap, 
viii. 7 of this prophecy, that they had " sown the wind," 
and should "reap the whMwind;" and now they feed 
according to what they sowed, and of what they reaped. 
They did sow the wind, and here they feed on wind. 

Feeding on wind, is a proverbial speech, to note, 

1. The following after vain, unprofitable things. 
When men please themselves in their own conceits 
and in their own counsels, and walk in ways that are, 
and will certainly be, improfitablc to them, they are 
said to feed on wind. AVhen men tliink to please God 
■with their own inventions, to escape danger by their 
own shifts, to prevail against the saints by their deep 
counsels and fetches, they feed upon wind; when men 
promise to themselves great matters by ways of their 
own, that are not God's, they feed upon wind : and for 
all this the prophet rebukes the ten tribes. 

2. The swelling pride and elation of heart. You 
know, according to the food so will the body be ; those 
that feed on wind must needs have hearts puffed up 
with conceitedness of themselves, and contempt of 
others that are not in the same way as themselves : 
they lie sucking imaginary content and sweetness in 
their own ways ; they are full of themselves ; whereso- 
ever they come they must needs vent themselves, they 
are so full of their wind ; they feed on wind, yet one 
prick of disappointment will quickly let out all the wind 
from such bladders, they are quickly amort and dead 
in the nest if they be disappointed. 

3. Dependence on carnal, creature comfort. Evil 
men that Uve upon carnal, creature comforts, upon the 
applause of men, upon honours, they likewise feed on 
wind, and are puffed up for a while ; but any prick of 
God's appealing against them lets out the windy stuff, 
and quickly they are dead. Any member of the body 
that is puffed up with wind seems to be greater than 
any other part, but it is not stronger ; no, it is conse- 



quently the weaker: and so it is with the hearts of men, 
that are puffed up with windy conceits and with crea- 
ture contentments, they have no strength by this infla- 
tion ; though they seem stronger, yet when they are 
called either to do or to suffer for God, they then ap- 
pear to be very weak, and therefore will change as the 
wind changes. Pliny, citing as his authority Demo- 
crates, who has written a whole book on the chame- 
leon, observes of that animal, which is said to feed 
upon wind. That there is no creatm-e in the world 
more fearful than the chameleon, and the reason that it 
is so changeable (for it will change into every kind of 
colour, according to that to which it is joined) is this 
very timidity of its nature engendered by its food. 
And truly, it is a very good description of men that 
feed upon wind; they seem big when they have no op- 
position, what will they not then do ; they will do such 
and such great matters : but the truth is, none are of 
more fearful hearts than those who are puffed up with 
the wind of their own conceits ; when God comes to 
cross them, or they are called to suffer in their ways, 
they will quickly turn to any colour, this or that ; be- 
cause they do but feed on wind, therefore is their might 
weakness, and they have no strength at all in them. 

4. The turbulent, unquiel disposition of such. We 
know that the wind raises tempests and storms ; and so 
men that are puffed up with the wind of their own 
conceits, are the men that raise such tempests and 
storms in the places where they live. My brethren, the 
saints have better food to feed u]ion, food that makes 
them more solid and more staid. While the men of the 
world feed on the wind of applause, on their own con- 
ceits, on their own vain counsels and plots, and upon 
the creatm-e, and think to satisfy their cravings there- 
by ; the saints feed on the mercy and all-sufficiency of 
God ; they feed upon his word and promises, and upon 
the covenant of grace ; they feed upon Jesus Christ, 
whose "flesh is meat indeed," and whose "blood is 
drink indeed," and so they come to have strength in 
them, for their food is food indeed. Others, feeding 
on the wind, are filled with their own devices, and 
hence it is that they cannot savour nor relish heavenly 
things ; the breathings of the Spirit of God are not en- 
tertained by them, because they are filled with their 
own wind : but the saints are willing to empty them- 
selves, and to receive into their souls the Holy Ghost, 
and the blessed things which the Holy Ghost brings; 
Christ comes in to sup with them, and they to sup with 
him. Rev. iii. 20 ; and thus are they nourished to eter- 
nal life, and fitted for any service or any suffering to 
which the Lord is pleased to call them : their food is 
different ii-om the food of other men. 

"And foUoweth after the east wind." This east 
wind, especially in those countries, is noted as a wind 
exceedingly hurtful to man and beast. We also 
have a proverb of the east wind ; The east wind blows 
good neither to man nor beast ; but more especially 
in that country. So we find in Gen. xli. 6, "And, 
behold, seven thin ears and blasted with the east wind 
sprung up after them." And in Ezek. xvii. 10, "Shall 
it not utterly wither, when the east wind toucheth it?" 
And in Job xv. 2, "Should a wise man utter vain 
knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind ? " 
When you see men talk and utter vain things, they do 
but seek to fill their bellies with the east wind. The 
east wind was so hurtful because attended with a heat 
of the sun that made it dry and scorching in those 
countries : therefore the Septuagint translates this kov- 
auva, the scorching wind ; and the Vulgate renders it, 
astics, heat. 

Now you will say, What does the Holy Ghost mean 
here ? It is to hold out a very excellent truth to us : 

06s. 1. Creature comforts will prove but wind. 
Those who seek to satisfy themselves with such, and 



508 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XII. 



to stay themselves on their own counsels and their 
own inventions, not only deceive themselves, and will 
be disappointed at last in their expectations, but they 
will find these their ways to be very pestilential, hurt- 
ful, and dangerous, they will find that they will undo 
them, and bring them to utter misery. Oh how many 
have undone themselves with their own counsels ! 
^\'ere men but merely disappointed of their vain hopes, 
there were a great evil m that ; but if disappointment 
T,-ere the only consequent evil, it were not so much. 
But you must not escape so ; you that tcill feed upon the 
wind, and bless yourselves in your own ways, you must 
expect to meet with wrath and misery ; these ways 
whereby you may think to shift from danger wiU bring 
you into danger. Oh! how many on their sick-beds, and 
death-beds, have cried out in the bitterness and trou- 
ble of their souls, for following of their own conceits 
and counsels, and the ways of other men! they see 
now that they are undone, undone by those ways : Oh ! 
■ne have fed upon the wind, and we find evil ways that 
pleased us then torment us now, we find them to bring 
anguish, sorrow, and trouble upon us. 

Obs. 2. It is a grievous thing, when troubles come, 
to have nothing within us to bear us out but the wind. 
Suppose men meet with the rough east wind, or storms 
and tempests befall them, yet if they have had solid 
food, whereby they come to get good blood, and mar- 
row, and spirits, they may be able to bear it; but when 
the body is empty and meets with tempests, oh, this is 
very grievous to the poor frame. So it is with many 
■nhcn they meet with afflictions ; but the saints have 
such solidity within them as bears them out ; but other 
men that are empty, that have fed upon the wind all 
their days, have nothing to bear them out in great 
afflictions', but their hearts sink down in horror and 
despair. 

" He daily increaseth lies." Ephraim, the ten tribes, 
all the day long increaseth lies, that is, he has new 
plots, and new devices, and new shifts for himself; he 
increaseth lies, new opinions and new reports ; so we 
are to understand the word in its latitude. " He daily 
increaseth lies," and that. 

First, In matters of doctrine ; there " he daily in- 
creaseth lies," having once forsaken the truth. If the 
truth be once forsaken, men know not whither they 
shall go : Grant but one en-or, we are wont to say, and 
a thousand will follow, and they will multiply abund- 
sntlv, especially some errors; there are some such breed- 
ing lies, that, if they be granted, there must be a great 
many others to maintain them. Never was there such 
an increase of false doctrine, of lies in that sense, as at 
this day. In Kcv. xii. 15, when the dragon could not 
prevail against the woman, that is, the church, by 
bloody persecutions, then, saith the text, the di-agon 
'• cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the 
woman, that he might cause her to be carried awav of 
the flood ; " this was the i)olicy of the devil, first" la- 
bouring by violence to prevail against the church, but 
■when he could not do that, then he " cast water out of 
his mouth like a flood ;" that is, as interpreters observe, 
he laboured to undo the church by a deluge of error 
»nd heresies, when he could not ruin it by open vio- 
lence. Truly this scripture is even fulfilled concerning 
us this veiy day : the Lord has been pleased to curb the 
dragon, and those that were his instruments in open 
and violent persecution, so that they cannot persecute 
the truths as they were wont to do ; and now then this 
is the way of the devil, this dragon sends out of his 
mouth a flood of errors and heresies after the truth, 
after the church, labouring to swallow up all by this 
fiood. And certainly we are in a great deal of danger 
at this day in this respect; there is a flood and deluge 
of all sorts almost of old errors, and many of them ex- 
tremely dangerous, and men are serviceable to the 



dragon in this thing more than they are aware of Oh 
that we could but see the subtlety of Satan in this con- 
tinual increasing of lies ! for these four or five years 
there has been an increase such as could never "have 
been thought of ; certainly if some of our forefathers 
that were holy and gracious should rise out of their 
graves, and see and hear such things as may be seen 
and heard in our days, they would stand amazed, and 
wonder how it were possible that ever England should 
be filled with such hon-ible opinions and customs as 
have prevailed in these latter times : so that now there 
lies the ho])e of the devil, by increase of such lies to 
eat out godliness and religion. This indeed seems to 
be the most hopeful design conceived by the devil in 
these latter times : men's hearts are carnal, loose, and 
sensual, and therefore they are prepared to receive these 
lies ; and hence they multiply apace. But yet let none 
multiply them more than they are, by putting among 
them some truths, by shutting in truths in the midst 
of them, to make Ihem appear likewise to be lies, and 
to be taken as honest men are when by any accident 
they are gotten in the company of lewd people, they 
are apprehended upon suspicion, merely because thev 
are in their company. This is one of the devil's choicest 
devices, to shuffle in some truths among them, and be- 
cause he could not have them suspected otherwise, they 
must be taken upon suspicion because they are there 
among them. Let not men gather these lies together to 
the end that they may oppose some truths thereby, but, 
as the prophet speaks. " ^Vhat is the chaff to the wheat? " 
if men wUl speak of lies let them inveigh against them, 
and only against them, and make it appear that that is 
the work of their spirits, merely to oppose them, and 
not under such a pretence to make other things, which 
yet they cannot jjrove to be false, appear to be odious 
and monstrous, merely by shuffling them together 
among such horrible and damnable lies. 

Secondly, Lies against the pro])hets, against the 
saints, and against the ways of God. And certainly 
there was never the like multiplying as there is at this 
day in this sense too ; men carry their multiplying 
glasses along with them up and down, A lie at first is 
like a stone cast into the water : you know a stone 
when cast in makes a little circle, and then that an- 
other, and that another, every succeeding circle greater 
than the fonner ; and so it is Avith many lies, at first 
they appear not so great, but they gain strength as 
they go, acquirunt vires eundo. There are many ways 
of multiplying and increasing lies, 

1. By carrying about reports, and so making one lie 
generate many. 

2. By misreporting of reports; that is, by putting re- 
ports into another dress, according to what men them- 
selves apprehend ; and that which is a truth when it 
comes to be examined nakedly, yet will, being put into 
another dress or arrangement, seem to be very false. 

3. By adding to reports. Every man, according to his 
spirit, cbaws consequences, and when he has drawn 
them, he connects them with the report, as if they were 
part of the original, whereas they are but the comment. 

4. By inventing new ones they come to increase and 
multiply ; because such and such falsehoods will not do 
the feat, more shall then be added to them. 

5. By maintaining lies by lies, as if men, being once 
engaged in a business, must defend themselves. If once 
they have misreported a thing, there is no help for it, 
but now it must be defended one way or other, some- 
what must be done to establish it : as many times is 
the case with your servants ; a servant has done a thing 
amiss ; well, tliis servant seeks to cover it by a lie, and 
when once he has told one, he must tell a great many 
more to defend that one: and thus it is with men. 

And truly, my brethren, seeing that this scripture 
does so by providence come in our way, let me speak 



\EE. 1. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



509 



thus much to you from it. It is one of the strangest 
things that ever occurred in the world, that there 
should be such strange reports of things that are mat- 
ters of fact, yea, that one godly man, or company of 
men, should say one thing, and others, whom we think 
godlv, should say quite contrary, and both in matters 
of fact : » I say, the consideration of this might indeed 
well make men stand amazed ; for there is no sin that 
is more against the ingenuousness of a gracious heart, 
than a deliberate lie ; to speak against a man's know- 
ledge, and against a man's conscience, is one of the 
greatest sins against the ingenuousness of a gracious 
heart ; and yet, even such as we think to be godly and 
gracious, issuing reports so contradictory to each other, 
and that about matters of fact, what shall we say to 
this ? 

To a friend who wrote to Austin about the allow- 
ability of telling an official lie, he answered, He 
must not tell a lie, no, not to save the whole world. 
Now what a difference is there in the hearts of men 
in these days ! Truly, I do not know a gi-eater tempt- 
ation to atheism at this day than this is ; for what will 
men think ? There certain religious men speak thus, 
and others whom we account as religious speak quite 
contrary. Is there any religion in the world ? We 
see so much contradicting one against another, surely 
one side much be false. It is this, I am verily per- 
suaded, that is the cause of much atheism amongst us, 
and if God be not pleased to prevent one way or other, 
it will open a wide door to atheism in the nation. 
Some rejoice at these things, and nothing is more 
pleasing to them when they meet together ; whereas 
thev should be matter for our humiliation, we should 
mourn for them, to see how God is thus dislionoured, 
and what abundance of hurt is thereby like to come to 
souls. But now therefore, a little to quiet our hearts, 
tliat we may not be in danger of turning atheists by 
it, let us consider from whence comes it, that so many 
lies should be increased and multiplied. 

1. Both sides may be right. They report according 
to their own apprehensions of things ; and apprehend- 
ing them in a different way, and on different principles, 
both of them may think they are in the truth, and yet 
one may contradict the other. For it is very much 
according to the principles of men's spii'its in any thing, 
especially if a business has many tilings depending on 
it, and there are many circumstances to be laid to- 
gether, to connect them as best suit their own appre- 
hensions and principles. In such cases both parties 
may think they are in the truth, and contradict one 
another, and yet neither of them speak against their 
consciences : this (I say) may possibly occiu- even 
among good men. 

2. Xlen do not always speak from their own know- 
ledge, but are ready to take up the reports of those in 
whom they place confidence. 'WTien men see those 
whom the)" love of their side and way, they are very 
confident in their reports, and speak, not from being 
eye-witnesses themselves; and so they may come to 
contradict one another, and yet not do violence to their 
consciences : this is indeed the evil of giving too easy 
credit to reports. But though it be an evil, yet it 
comes not from a wilful violation of their consciences. 

3. Sometimes when men report, they do not report 
all. Reports are cross one to another ; yea, but did 
you hear all, or do you report all ? It is a bad thing 
•when a man will take one part of a thing and report 
it ; another man may come and report the quite con- 
trary; whereas if all were brought together and the 
■whole series of things laid before them, there might 
appear such agreement in essentials as would unite 
both parties. Bring things to the original, and then 

* See the Apology of the Dissenting Brethren; and the 
Assembly's Answer to it. 



you see how they agree : as now, sometimes in Scrip- 
ture there are divers renderings ; yea, but by bringing 
them all to the original, we come to see wherein their 
differences harmonize. And so with reports, bring 
them to the original, and you may help yourselves and 
others to see, when partial statements are rejected, a 
foundation for entire agreement. 

4. Reports are contradictory, but that may arise ra- 
ther from men's memories, than from any thing in the 
things themselves ; I say, the contradiction may exist 
merely in the memory. 

Let us learn then, my brethren, 

Fu-st, To take heed of spreading reports to the dis- 
honour of religion. 

Secondly, To search into rather than report a matter ; 
if you hear any thing which you think must surely be 
a lie, to go to the party, or get some that are acquainted 
with them to go to them, to see whether they can sa- 
tisfy you in the thing. !Many men stand and worider 
at a report, whereas if they, or any friend for them, 
would but inquire into the matter, they might have 
such a plain history of the things related to them as 
would fully satisfy them. 

Thirdly, To take heed of being inventive. Men still 
follow after new vanities ; if they find not satisfactiori 
in one, they are not moved thereby to seek the true 
God that they may have satisfaction, but seek for it in 
other things. Oh let us consider thus ; I find no sa- 
tisfaction in this ; yea, but is it not because I forsake 
the Lord God, in whom there is all satisfaction ? let 
me repair to God, and in him I shall find all fulness. 
No, but they take another course ; I have not satis- 
faction in this thing, then I will seek for it in some- 
thing else : and so they go from one false way to an- 
other, and in this sense increase lies. I will have new 
devices to shift off truth. The consciences of men will 
not be put oft' with old shifts ; they have satisfied their 
conscience a wliile with one device ; yea, but it will 
be put off no longer with that, they must have another ; 
and when conscience comes to apprehend the weak- 
ness of that, then another. Oh, take heed of being in- 
ventive for the satisfying of conscience. Thine inven- 
tions may prove judgments in the hand of God. 

" And desolation." 

TMien men embrace their own vain conceits, and 
hopes, and false ways, they think they have gotten a 
great catch ; but the truth is, they embrace their own 
ruin ; mark how they are joined together, " He daily 
increaseth lies and desolation," " desolation" is the fruit 
of " lies ;" and moreover, desolation is increased by lies ; 
the more sin the more desolation, you will perish the 
more di-eadfuUy. " A false witness " (saith Prov. xix. 
9,) "shall not' be unpunished, and he that speaketh 
lies shall perish." But he that walks uprightly walks 
surely. Prov. xii. 12, " The lip of truth shall be estab- 
lished for ever ; but a lying tongue is but for a mo- 
ment :" it may bluster a while and deceive many; yea, 
but it is " but for a moment." 

" And they do make a covenant with the Assyrians." 

That is, that they might have power to crush their 
brethren of Judah, they seek to make a covenant with 
the Assyrians, thinking to strengthen themselves there- 
by. You have found this charged upon them many 
times in this prophecy, in chap. x. particularly ; their 
making a covenant with wicked men is repeated again 
and again, to show the heinousness of their sin, in for- 
saking God to join with the ungodly, and to teach us 
this lesson : 

06s. 3. ^^^len people are guilty of a sin, the pro- 
phets of God should beat upon it again and again. I 
shall not need to speak any further of this. 

" And oil is carried into Egypt ;" that is, they carry 
oil for gifts, and merchandise. The land of Canaan 
abounded much in oil, while there was little or none 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XII. 



in the land of Egypt, and therefore it was a great mer- 
chandise to cany oil from the land of Canaan into 
Eg)pt. So in Rzek. xxvii. 17, " Judah, and the land 
of Israel, they were thy merchants : they traded in thy 
market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and 
oil, and balm." But oil was (as it were) the staple 
commodity. 

Now, my hretliren, Egj'pt you know is a type of 
antichrist, and Canaan a t)-pe of the church. Eg)-pt 
has no oil. no oil grows there ; no, there are gall and 
wormwood, but there is no oil ; but oil is in the land 
of Canaan. My brethren, what are we but almost like 
Egypt this day? We would be loth to return into 
Egypt to our former bondage, but we even turn our- 
selves to be as Egypt, we have little oil among us. 
M'liat ! is God bringing us to Canaan ? how comes it to 
pass there is no more oil then ? Oh ! the oil that is 
among us (if there be any) is rather the oil of scorpions 
than any thing else ; men's spirits, and men's pens and 
tongues, are even full of this oil, as if the ink made in 
these days was made of the oil of scorpions. Israel 
(the ten tribes) would send oil to Egii'])t, to gain the 
favour of Egypt : that they might have their wills over 
their brethren, they would be at a great deal of cost, 
and part with their oil. O my brethren, shall it be 
so with us in a spiritual sense: that we may have our 
wills over our brethren, shall we part with our oil ? 
Why do not we say as the fig tree, " Shall we leave our 
sweetness to come and reign over you?" So, shall we 
leave our oil, that is, the suppleness, the gentleness, 
the tenderness of our spirits, shall we jdeld these, that 
we may prevail over our brethren ? Oh how many 
were of supple, tender spirits, and loving one towards 
another ! yet, out of a desire to prevail against their 
brethren, have parted with their oil, even with the 
tenderness and .suppleness of theu' spirits. Remember, 
Egjpt has no oil, oil is the produce of Canaan. 

Ver. 2. The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah, 
and will punish Jacob according to his ways ; according 
to his doings will he recompense him. 

This verse I shall presently pass over. But the first 
part is very observable. 

" The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah." 

Calvin saith of this. It is a wonderful 

SiTA*'- thing. Did not God say, that " .Tudah 

yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with 

the saints ;" and now saith, " The Lord hath also a 

controversy with Judah?" 

I find some therefore would reconcile it by rendering 
it thus, •' The Lord hath also a controversy /or Ju- 
dah i" but this seems a little strained : but if we read 
it as rendered in our version, " The Lord hath also a 
controversy with Judah," four reasons may be given 
why, after God had said that " Judah yet ruleth with 
God, and is faithful with the saints,"" he adds, He 
" hath also a controversy with Judah." 

1. To show that God does not so look at the good 
of his ])cople, but that he sees their evil too. You 
know those jjiissages in Rev. ii., where, when God com- 
mends certain churches for doing thus and thus, he 
adds, " Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee," 
I do not so observe your good, as that your evil should 
escape me. My brethren, some there are, that if there 
be any evil in men, can see no good in them ; this is 
wicked. But there are others, that if there be any 
good in them, can sec no evil ; this is too much indid- 
gence, they err in both extremes. 

2. Men are very aj)t to excuse their evil by their 
good. 1 mean thus, that such as embrace the true 
worsliip of God, are right there, they nill have pure 
ordinances, and the worship of God conformable to the 
word ; but because of that, though there be some loose- 



ness and negligence in their ways otherwise, they at- 
tempt to silence conscience ; and think they are the true 
worshippers of God, and have the oidinances of God 
in their purity and jjower, and so think to swallow 
doivn all, much looseness, much carnality, much pride, 
much sensuality, much hypocrisy : because they retain 
the true worship of God, they seek to satisfy conscience. 
Oh ! take heed of this : Judah retained the true worship 
of God, yet " the Lord hath also a controversy with 
Judah," and the Lord Jehovah may have a controversy 
against you also. 

3. That Israel might neither think God or the pro- 
phet partial. The ten tribes might say. Does God 
threaten us ? Is not Judah as bad as we ? are there not 
evils among Judali as well as amongst us ? are we only 
the sinful people ? No, (saith the prophet,) I acknow- 
ledge there is much evil in Judah, and therefore " the 
Lord hath also a controversy with Judah," and Judah 
is not like to escape : delude not yourselves with the 
vain hope, that because others are bad, therefore you 
may escape; no, they are bad, and therefore God has 
a controversy against them. This may be a useful 
note to us ; men are very ready to put off the evils 
which they are guilty of with this, I am not worse than 
others, I do such a thing amiss, and others do the same 
as well as I ; and so they think to escape that way. O 
thou weak, vain man, why wilt thou deceive thy soul 
with this ? Dost thou think that another man's evil 
will excuse thy sin ? Thou art a vain man, and know- 
est not the way of God. 

4. To show the ten tribes how much more must they 
expect the displeasure of God. If with Judah. who re- 
tains the true worship of God, yet, for some otlier evils, 
God has a controversy, then what will become of Is- 
rael, who has those same evils, and rejects the true wor- 
ship of God too ? As if the prophet should say, Your 
condition is far worse, therefore doth the Lord say, 
" The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah," that 
he might aggravate the evils of Israel : like that of 
Peter, " If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall 
the ungodly and the sinner appear?" K so be that 
with the church which has the pure ordinances God is 
yet displeased for their sin, how much more will he be 
displeased with them who are corrupt in his worship ! 
Therefore men should not bless themselves with such 
discourse as this. Why, others have evils as well as we. 
Yea, but if God will punish them for their evils who 
have fewer, and a great deal more good, than thou, how 
much more will he punish thee ! Oh ! if those that 
are the dear saints of God, that worship him in truth 
and sincerity, shall not escape scot-free for the evils 
among them ; O, then, what will become of thee who 
art a wicked and vile wretch, and ha.st no good at all ? 
If a Moses, that had done God so much service, yet for 
one sin of passion, in that he once spake unadvisedly 
with his lips, was shut out of the land of Canaan by the 
Lord, and commanded to speak no more to him of tliat 
matter ; what will become of thee, who hast a passion- 
ate, froward spirit, of thee, who never hast nor wilt do 
God such service, what will become of thee ? Oh, how 
mavst thou look to be shut out ! This use you must 
make of the sins of others, and God's dealings with 
them. And saith he, 

" And will punish Jacob according to his ways." 

There are two questions necessary for the opening of 
this. 

First, Why the fen tribes are called by the name of 
Jacob? we never read that they are called by the name 
of Isaac, and of Abrahain. 

Now the answer to this is very satisfactory, thus : 
The ))eoplc of God are called in Scripture by the name 
of Jacob, and of Israel, Jacob's other name, rather tlian 
by the name of Abraham and Isaac, because they, 
tliougli they were godly, and wei'e the father and 



Vee. 3, 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



511 



grandfather, yet in Abraham's family there was a 
wicked son as well as a good one ; likewise from Isaac's 
loins there came Esau as well as Jacob ; but from 
Jacob's loins there came none but were of God's church. 
Jacob's sons were the twelve patriarchs, and therefore 
the posterity is called by the name of Jacob, rather 
than that of Abraham or Isaac ; " I said not to the 
seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain." 

Secondly, Why is Jacob mentioned in this place ? 

Because the prophet intends presently, in the words 
that follow, to bring the example of Jacob to them be- 
fore he was Israel, to aggravate their sin in order to 
their humiliation; and therefore here he names Jacob, 
to take away that vain plea of their hearts. Whereas 
they would say, Ai'e not we the ])osterity of Jacob, have 
not we Jacob for our fatlier ? AVell, (saith he,) I will 
punish Jacob ; and I will show you presently, that you 
have no such cause to boast yourselves that you have 
Jacob to be your father. So, with most interpreters, I 
understand this. 

'• According to his doings will he recompense him." 
Of this part of the te.\t I shall speak nothing, because 
in chap. iv. ver. 9, we had the very same words. 

Ver. 3, 4. He took his brother by the heel in the womb, 
and by his strength he had poicer with God: yea, he 
had power over the angel, and prevailed : he wept, and 
made supplication imto him : he found him in Beth-el, 
and there he spake with us. 

This prophet inveighing against the sins of these ten 
tribes, and threatening judgments, in these words takes 
away the plea which he saw was in their hearts against 
what he had said ; We are the children of Jacob, and 
why do you thus charge us, and threaten us in the 
name of God ? was not Jacob our father ? as in Christ's 
time they pleaded that Abraham was their father. 

Now in these words the prophet takes away this 
plea : You may bless yourselves in that Jacob was your 
father, but it will do you little good, for you are a de- 
generate offspring. True, God was very gracious to 
Jacob, and Jacob was very dear to God ; it is otherwise 
with you, Jacob worshipped God after another manner 
than you do. The prophet therefore sets before this peo- 
ple here, in the words read, God's mercy to Jacob, and 
Jacob's graciousness in his behaviour toward God, that 
he might upbraid those children of Jacob who walked 
so unworthy of such a gracious father as Jacob was. 

Now how this is set forth we shall speak to present- 
ly, only from the general scope of the passage we notice 
this one instruction : 

Obs. It is a great reproach to wicked childi-en, to 
hear of the graciousness of their parents. It should be a 
matter of much humiliation to them to hear of the re- 
lation that their parents had to God, and how zealously 
they worshipped him ; childi'en that have had gracious 
parents, should look upon it as a shame to them when 
at any time the graciousness of their parents is but 
mentioned before them. A king of Poland was wont 
to carry the picture of his fathej', of whom he had 
honourable esteem, in a plate of gold about his neck ; 
and when he was about to do any matter of great im- 
portance, he would take this picture and kiss it, and use 
these words, God grant that I may now do nothing i-e- 
missly, nothing unworthy of my father. O, you that 
have had gracious ancestors, think often of them, and 
when you are tempted to sin, reflect. Is not this un- 
worthy of my ancestors ? would they have done thus ? 
Children should so walk as the virtues of their fathers 
should not die in them, but they should hold them 
forth. As Ambrose, in an oration on the commend- 
ations of Theodosius, saith, Though Theodosius be 
gone, yet surely, so long as his son lives, Theodosius 
will live among us. He meant thus, that the virtues of 



that excellent emperor would certainly live in his son, 
who was so hopeful. Oh ! it is an excellent thing 
when the vii'tues of gracious parents live in their chil- 
dren ; and it is a very evil thing when the parents are 
dead, yea, and their virtues are dead in respect of 
their children, nothing of them appears in them : they 
love to inherit theu- lands and estates, but it were far 
better to inherit then- virtues and their godliness. But 
the people of Israel did not inherit the godUness of 
Jacob, and did not lay to heart the goodness of God 
towards their father Jacob, so that the prophet here 
now lays it all open before them, and to that end 
makes use, in the two verses which I have read to you, 
of three remai'kable circumstances narrated of Jacob. 
They are recorded in Genesis, and there is in them 
much of the mind of God. 

I. His taking his brother by the heel in the womb, 
Gen. XXV. 26. 

II. His wresthng with the angel. Gen. xxxii. 24 — 32. 
DI. His interviews with God at Beth-el, Gen. xxviii. 

10—22 ; XXXV. 9—15. 

I. His taking his brother in the womb. " He took 
his brother by the heel in the womb." You must refer 
to Gen. XXV. 26, to know the mind of God in this ; 
there you find that in the womb of Rebekah there was 
a stri\-ing between Jacob and Esau before they were 
born, and at their birth Jacob jnits his hand out and 
takes his brother by the heel, from whence he had his 
name Jacob, which signifies a heel, and 
from thence a supplanter. And Esau Jlppili^tiS^ 
obtained his name because he was hairy ^VH'-WS 

, , , , , J operatus est. 

when born, because he was as it were a 
man already, a man made in the womb. Saith Luther, 
AYhen Esau was born, and they saw him 
so hairy, they thought he was the man Sc.™d°°Kf"inevir 
that would do very great and famous fa"'il't""^L"th'°™' 
things in the world, and from thence he 
had his name Esau : now Jacob in his birth takes by 
the heel this very Esau, of whom such high expect- 
ations were entertained. A most wonderful history, 
saith Luther on the place, this of Jacob's thus taking 
his brother by the heel. 

But what is the meaning of this ? (you will say ;) why 
does the prophet instance this ? What is this to the ten 
tribes, that Jacob took his brother by the heel ? what 
good would this do the people to whom Hosea was 
prophesying? and what did he aim at? Was this story 
to be a means to humble the people for theu- sins ? how 
could it do it ? Therefore we must know that the scope 
and meaning of this great work of God, in Jacob's taking 
" his brother by the heel in the womb," was to show, 

1 . The free election of God. Esau was the fii'st-born, 
and so in an orderly course the birthright should have 
descended on him and on his posterity, for such was 
the custom, the blessing was wont to go along with 
the first-born, and with their posterity ; (in which the 
fu'st-born was a type of Christ, who is called, " The 
first-begotten of ail creatures ; " and the blessing upon 
the first-born was a type of the blessing that we have 
by Christ;) now, though this in an orderly way be- 
longed to Esau, as being the fh-st-born, yet Jacob's 
taking of him by the heel was a certain token from God 
that Jacob should supplant him, and that he should 
get from him the bii-thright, and so the blessing ; and 
in that Jacob should thus get the blessing, though he 
were the younger, and this sign was given of it when 
he was in the womb, this showed the free election of 
God, that it was through God's mere free grace that 
Jacob had the blessing rather than Esau, and that con- 
sequently the posterity of Jacob were in a better con- 
dition than the posterity of Esau. It was only the free 
grace of God, not from any excellency in Jacob, any 
worthiness in him more than in Esau, for God thus pre- 
signified the good which he intended to Jacob, " the 



512 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XII. 



children being not yet born, neither having clone anj- 
f^ood or evil," Rom. ix. 11. 

Though Esau was the elder and stronger, a haiiy, 
active, stout man, and Jacob a plain man, yet Jacob is 
chosen, Esau is rejected : and God pre-signifies this by 
his taking his brother by the lieel. Now in this sense 
it concerneth the people very much. 

As if he sliould say, ■\Miat ! you are the posterity of 
Jacob, and not of Esau, and you glory in this ; well, 
how comes it to pass so great privileges are attached 
to the posterity of Jacob rather than to the posterity of 
Esau ; how comes this ? Is it not from the free grace 
of God in choosing one rather than the other, and that 
in the very womb ? As in Mai. i. 2, 3, " I have loved 
you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast tliou 
ioved us ? Was not Esau Jacob's brother ? saith the 
Lord : yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau." In this 
I manifested my free love, even unto this people, that 
tliough Esau was Jacob's brother, and eldest brother, 
vet I loved Jacob and hated Esau. So in Rom. ix. 
11 — 13, " For the children being not yet born, neither 
having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God 
according to election might stand, not of works, but of 
him that calleth ; it was said unto her. The elder shall 
serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I 
loved, but Esau have I hated." Now that this took 
place in the womb was to show God's free grace. 

If any should say, But God foresaw that Jacob would 
be a better man than Esau ; 

I answer. If it were of foreseen works, there were 
no ai-gument in this to prove God's free election : but 
the apostle makes it to be an argument to ])rove God's 
free election of Jacob rather than Esau, because he 
diose them in the womb. 

Luther, on Gen. xxv., has an excellent discourse on 
this subject, concerning God's rejecting the pride, pomp, 
and vanity of the world, and choosing the things that 
are mean and contemptible in the ejes of the world ; 
and it was an emblem of it, in that God would rather 
choose Jacob the "plain man," than Esau the hunter, 
and the hairy man ; I say, this shadowed forth that 
tlie Lord intends to reject the brave things of the 
world, its gallantr)-, glory, and pomp, and will rather 
choose the mean and contemptible things of the world. 
AVho can ])ersuade (saith Luther on the place) the 
pope, and Charles the Fifth, the French king, and the 
like, that they, being great in tlie world, yet are con- 
temptible in the eyes of God, and God has rather 
chosen despised and contemptible things than them ? 
And that was the scope of the prophet, that they should 
consider of the free gi-ace of God towards Jacob, and 
so be humbled. And we shoidd hence, 

Ohs. 1. AVe are to acknowledge God's election of 
our forefathers, and all the good we enjoy by such a 
choice, to be a fruit of free grace. Others were before 
God as well as our forefathers ; as now, when God 
brought the gospel first to England, other nations were 
before God as well as it, it was mere free grace that 
])itchcd upon them rather than others, and we enjoy 
the blessing of it to this day; let us not sin against this 
free grace of God showed to our ancestors. 

O'is. 2. Those who enjoy great blessings, either 
temporal or spiritual, from God's mercy to their ances- 
tors, are to consider and devoutly acknowledge the 
free grace of God. As now, such of you as are rich 
and great in the world, whence is it that your ances- 
tors were more rich tlian others, and were not beggars 
as w-ell as others ? was it not free grace, the free, unde- 
served goodness of God ? The ancestors of others were 
befoi-e God in " the same lump,'' Uom. ix. 21, and that 
God should pitch upon your ancestors to be honour- 
able in the earth and rich, and you enjoy the benefit of 
it in this world, ascribe to his discriminating mercv. 
It may be, too, some elder brother, though honourable 



and rich, is rejected, and families rise from the younger 
brother rather than the elder; it was so here, Jacob 
that was the younger afterwards came to have the 
blessing, and Esau was rejected. Sometimes the pos- 
terity of the elder brother proves wicked ; it was so 
here, religion flourished in the family of Jacob, and not 
in the family of Esau. * 

Look back to this, and see what cause you have to 
bless God, and how you are engaged to his free gi'ace 
towards you in regard of your ancestors ; as here, the 
prophet would have this people look back to the free 
gi'ace of God to tlieir father Jacob. 

2. How eagerly Jacob desired the blessing. " He 
took his brother by the heel in the womb." That is, 
as if he should say. Your father Jacob was greedy of 
the blessing, greedy of the birthright ; there was a se- 
cret instinct of God on the spirit of Jacob when he was 
in the very womb, which rendered him so desirous of 
the blessing of the birthright, that he would do what 
he could to get it from his brother. As if tlie prophet 
should say. Oh, but you that are his posterity are car- 
nal, you do not regard the privilege of the birthright, 
nor the attendant blessing ; being carnal, you care not 
which way the blessing goes, so that you may but live 
and have your ease and contentment to the flesh ; oh, 
you are not like your father Jacob, who eagerly desired 
this blessing. 

AVe are to make use of this for the humbling of our 
souls, thus : Some of you that have had your parents 
in your youth gracious and godly, and greedy after the 
tilings of God, how negligent have you been ! Oh how 
negligent have I been ! how careless is my spirit, and 
slight and vain ! yea, though come to years, yet do I 
little regard that which my parents were eagerly de- 
sirous of when very young. 

3. The prevailingof the people of God against the 
wicked at last. " He took his brother by the heel in the 
womb." God made Jacob a famous and notable type in 
this work, that certainly the saints, though they may 
seem to be low and mean for the present, yet shall they 
get advantage, ultimately, over the men of the world. 
The men of the world are set out by Esau : they rufile 
abroad in the world, and are of fiery hot spirits, as Esau 
was, and they have great things in the world for a time, 
and the saints are under them, as Jacob was under Esau ; 
but certainly the saints shall prevail against all the Edom- 
ites, all the Esaus, if I may so speak ; there is a time 
coming in which they shall supplant them, and get the 
power over them, in which the godly shall prevail at 
length against all tlie wicked and ungodly in the world. 
You should consider it as if the prophet said to them. 
You are seeking to provide for yourselves in your sin- 
ful ways. Oh ! if you did but consider, that the faith- 
ful, though they be persecuted for a time, and in a low 
condition, yet they shall get the power over all the 
great ones in the world, it would be otherwise with you 
than it is now. So the Scriptures tell us, that at length 
they shall have the dominion : Dan. vii. 18, " The saints 
of the most High shall take the kingdom ;" and in ver. 
21, "I beheld, and the same horn made war with the 
saints, and prevailed against them.'' But how long? 
A'cr. 22, " Until the .\ncient of days came, and judgment 
was given to the saints of the most High ; and the time 
came that the saints possessed the kingdom." And ver. 
27, " The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of 
the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to 
the people of the saints of the most High:" there is 
a tune that it shall be given to them. And Psal. xli.^. 
1-4, " The upright shall have dominion over them in the 
morning." Tliis was typified in this notable work of God 
in Jacob's taking Esau by the heel to supplant him. 

4. The providence of God, how it extends towards 
infants, even in the very womb. The verv- striving of 
children in the womb is not without provioence ; there 



Vee. 3, 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



513 



was a mighty providence of God in tliis, to pre-signif)' 
tlie greatest things of God that are revealed in the 
Scripture. Now, though there be no such exti-aordinary 
and great things set forth by the ordinary stirrings of 
infants in the womb, yet certainly there is no stirring 
of the child in the womb, but it is with some provi- 
dence of God, and God has his eye upon, and his 
hand in, the working even of the very child in the 
womb. 

5. The secret ways of God in working upon infants. 
Though they have not the use of reason, yet, saith Lu- 
ther here, there may be mighty workings of God even 
upon their spirits, in a secret •way that we are not able 
to understand. And thereupon he exclaims against 
such as deny baptism to them, because they deem them 
not capable of any work of God upon them. The de- 
n'\mg of baptism upon that ground, he 
oj.o un t impi .m f.g\\g j ygj.y odious and impious opinion ; 
f ■■ ' til, saith he, as it is with children, they 

.|.'. li ive their nourishment in the womb in 

gant' qu4 ci.m' e.s auotliBr manner than when they are born ; 
;«""'"' ^""^ '" so the work of God upon their spirits 
may be such as when they are in the 
womb, and when they are little ones, before they come 
to the use of reason, that may be far different to what 
the work of God is upon them when they come after- 
wards to have the use of reason. 

C. That men who prove remarkable in their lives, 
have many times, in their very birth, notable presages 
of their future exploits. So Jacob here ; " He took his 
brother by the heel in the womb." So ISIoses, by what 
occurred at his birth, by his strange and wonderful de- 
liverance afterwards, and by his being brought into 
Pharaoh's court, gave a presage of what he would be ; 
and so John Baptist gave early intimations of his im- 
portant mission ; and so other accounts tell us, that of 
men wlio have been famous for good or evil, there have 
been presages at their birth. Of Nero, who did such 
monstrous things, it is said that he was born with his 
heels forward. And of Dominicus, that great persecu- 
tor of the saints, that when his mother was with child, 
she dreamed that she had in her womb a wolf, with a 
firebrand in his mouth ; and he even proved to be so, 
for he was one of the first that stirred up persecution 
against the saints by fire. Your papists turn it quite 
otherwise ; I remember one of them interpreting this 
providence of God, in sending the mother of Dominicus 
(who was the father of the Dominicans) such a dream, 
saith it was to signify, that by the splendour of his 
holiness and doctrine he should inflame the whole 
world : experience, however, taught far otherwise. Now 
I note this only to show the vanity of men's spirits in 
interpreting ways of ]n-ovidence merely according to 
their own humours. And thus much for that remark- 
able circumstance recorded of Jacob, that '■ he took his 
brother by the heel in the womb." Now follows the 
next, and that is, 

n. His wrestling with the angel. " And by his 
strength he had power with God." 

This story refers to Gen. xxxii. _ In the preceding 
chapter you find that God, having bid Jacob return 
into the land of his fathers, and to his kindred, pro- 
mised him that he would be with him in his journey ; 
yet mark, though God had made him go this journey, 
and had promised that he would be with him in it, yet 
Jacob, for all that, meets with as hard things in the 
way as almost we can read, or hear, that any one ever 
experienced. He had an express command of God to 
go, and a promise that he would be with him in the 
journey ; yet it would ask some time to show the many 
hard things which Jacob met withal in it ; but, amongst 
others, this was a very sad one, that being to go by the 
land of Seir, the country of Edom, w'here his brother 
Esau lived, he sent messengers before him, not being 
2 L 



altogether without some fear that the old grudge still 
remained in the heart of his brother, and that now, 
having an opportunity to satisfy his desire upon him, 
he might take advantage of it. As he feared, so he 
found it, for having sent messengers to his brother, they 
return again to him, and bring him word that his bro- 
ther was coming against him with four huncked men ; 
so manifesting, by the manner of his coming, that he 
did intend mischief against Jacob. And now, upon this, 
the heart of Jacob was much distressed ; so the text 
saith. Gen. xxxii. T, " Then Jacob was greatly afraid 
and distressed;" vehemently afraid, and great straits 
were upon his spirit. Now, being in such great straits, 
Jacob seeks to provide for himself; he did not presently 
conclude and say. We are utterly undone, but he would 
see what could be done ; so, though lie knew the fury 
of his brother, yet, if it were possible but to save some 
part of his company, he would do it, and so he pru- 
dently divides them in the way that he conceived best 
for their safety. But though he dealt thus prudently, 
yet, that he trusted not to, but seeks unto the Lord ; 
he would go to prayer in the great strait and extremity 
he was in. So in ver. 24, " And Jacob was left alone ; 
and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking 
of the day ;" which cannot be interpreted otherwise than 
that he was waiting upon God to know his mind, and 
to seek God. x\nd when he was alone, there comes out 
one in the form of a man, wrestling against him as 
though he likewise intended to destroy liim ; and this 
was no other than God himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. 
That it was Christ appearing in human shape, and not 
an angel, is clear from ver. 5, where he is called Jeho- 
vah, God of hosts ; and you find, in Gen. xxxii. 30, that 
" Jacob called the name of the place Peniel ; for," saith 
he, '• I have seen God face to face, and my life is pre- 
served." God comes and appears against him as an 
enemy, even at that time in which this holy man Jacob 
was in such great straits; and yet Jacob, though God 
did thus appear against him, cbd not sink in his heart, 
but stirred up all the strength that he had, and wrestles 
even with God himself, thus appearing like an enemy, 
and "had power" at length, "and prevailed." One 
would have thought that there had been enough to 
have sunk Jacob's spirit, the distress that he was in at 
that time, his brother coming with four hundred men 
ready to destroy him, he left alone, one coming out and 
wrestling with him ; yet, " by his strength he had power 
with God, and prevailed." This is as remarkable a re- 
lation as any we have in the Old Testament. 

"■ He had power v^ith the angel," that is, with God, 
when he came and wrestled with him in a time of so 
great extremity. I beseech you here to 

04*. 3. It is God's way sometimes with his best and 
dearest saints, in their greatest dangers, and in their 
greatest afflictions and troubles, to seem to come forth 
as their enemy. When Clod came and wrestled with 
Jacob, and seemed to be as an enemy to him, was the 
time of the greatest extremity that one would think it 
possible for a man to be in, you cannot apprehend 
greater distresses, or greater cause for distress, than 
Jacob had at this time ; a poor man with a few women 
and children and cattle, and his brother who owed 
him a grudge, and had sought his death, coming with 
four hundred men in an hostile manner, and he " left 
alone," yet at this time God appears like an enemy to 
him ; tliis was sad, a very heavy condition indeed. As 
God did with Jacob, so with Christ himself; God never 
so appeared outwardly against Christ, as when his dis- 
ciples left him. just in the night when he was to be be- 
trayed, then he was in an agony, and sweat drops of 
water and blood ; yea, and when he was in the hands of 
his enemies, and lift up to the cross, and made a deri- 
sion of to all the world, yet then he cries, " My God, 
my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? " Forsaken at that 



014 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



CUAP. XII. 



time in so great distress ! Jacob in this was even a type 
of God's forsaking Christ in times of such great distress. 
And so we find in Job, when he was in his great dis- 
tresses, yet " the terrors of the Almighty " were upon 
hhn : and Heman, witli divers others whom we might 
name. This is a point of very great concernment to us. 
O, be not discouraged, ye peo])le of God, if at any time 
ye be brought into a condition like Jacob's. His story is 
of very great concernment to you ; God's ways towards 
hiin shadowing forth what they are like to be to other 
sa'.its afterwards, even to the end of the world, namely 
this; That the most eminent and most precious saints 
of God must not think to be excused even from this 
condition, that when they are brought into the greatest 
outward afflictions that possibly can be imagined, God 
may not even at that time appear against them like an 
enemy. Oil ! this is the saddest condition conceivable, 
to one who has any acquaintance with God. Many 
poor servants of God in affliction will say. As for these 
afflictions, they are heav-j' indeed upon me, my estate 
gone, or husband gone, or wife gone, and my friends 
leave me in this condition ; yea, and it may be the hand 
of God is upon me in sickness, and so one trouble after 
another : but though the.se things are heavy, had 1 but 
the light of the face of God upon me it would be nothing 
to me ; had I but those comforts which once I enjoyed 
in the assurance of God's love, all would not be much 
to me ; but now, when all these outward comforts are 
gone, I see God appearing like an enemy to me so as 
he never did before. Does God deal thus with any of 
his people ? am I not a reprobate ? For God is wont, 
when his people are in affliction, to appear witli the light 
of his face to comfort and encourage them ; but he 
has not done so to me : even at this time I find God 
more terrible to my soul than I have ever yet found 
him, and therefore surely I am but a cast-away. I make 
no question but some of you may know the meaning of 
such temptations as these in the time of your afflictions, 
or if you have not known the meaning of them hither- 
to, you may hereafter ; and you that have known, or 
hereafter shall be brought to know, what these things 
mean, O, treasure up tliis scripture, it will be worth 
a world to you ; for the devil will mightily strengthen 
himself with this, What, are not you a cast-away? 
Surely God has rejected you, else he would never ap- 
pear against you in your afflictions if he had any love 
to you. 

Answer, I say, the temptation thus : 

I have read m the book of God, and heard that even 
thus God dealt with my father Jacob, who was so pre- 
cious to him. 

Yea, but was not he in some way of sin ? 

No, he was in the way in which God bade him go, 
and yet even then, in his so great distress, God wrestled 
with him, never wrestled more with him than then, 
and seemed even then, at such a time as that was, to 
come against him like an enemy. Oh ! treasure up this, 
that your hearts may not sink in despair, when the 
greatest afflictions and spiritual desertions meet to- 
gether. 

" By his strength he had power with God." 

It appears that when God came thus against him to 
wrestle with him, God intended no hurt to him, it was 
but to stir up his strength, and to prepare him for 
great deliverance, and for choice mercies; God at this 
very time did intend to Jacob as great a mercy as ever 
he gave to any of the children of men in this world, 
and that was this. That he should have strength to pre- 
vail with God, that he should have his name changed 
and be called Israel, a prince prevailing with God, and 
so be honourable to the end of the world, and be set 
up as a type to strengthen the faith and to comfort the 
desponding hearts of all future saints; I say, it was as 
great a mercy as ever any mere child of man had in this 



world, and that at the verj- time when Jacob was in 
almost the greatest conceivable depth of affliction. 
Therefore here, 

Obs. 4. God sometimes brings the deepest affliction 
when he intends the greatest mercy. Do not therefore 
conclude. Never any was so afflicted as I have been : 
why, Jacob might have said so, and yet God had never 
greater thoughts of mercy towards him than he had 
then. Therefore remember this again, when tempted to 
think. Never any was so afflicted as I have been : grant 
it, yet it maybe there is mercy intended for you at this 
time, such as never yet was granted to any of the chil- 
dren of men before ; it is possible it may be so, it was 
so with Jacob, and therefore let not your faith flag. 

" By his strength he had power with God." In this 
his great distress he does not lie down as a man dis- 
couraged, but he stirs up what strength he had, and 
falls a wrestling with this man, even with God, thus 
appearing against him as an enemy. Oh ! thus should 
the seed of Jacob do, you that are the seed of Jacob, 
for so specially prapng Christians in time of distress 
are called. " I said not to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me 
in vain," Isa. xlv. 19. They are not called the seed of 
Abraham, but of Jacob ; because Jacob was so eminent 
in praying in such great extremity, you that are the 
seed of Jacob should do so. Every little opposition that 
comes upon a sluggish heart, upon one of low and 
mean principles, presently damps his spirit, makes 
him )-ield and bows him down, and he is ready to say, 
All is gone. Oh! art thou of the seed of Jacob? The 
seed of Jacob should never think their condition to be 
so sad, but there may be recoverj-. Is it a great afflic- 
tion that is upon me ? am I in great distress ? let me 
so much the more stir up my strength. AMien Alex- 
ander was in a gi-eat danger he exclaimed, Now there is 
a danger fit for the mind of Alexander. So, does God 
bring into great straits ? now there is a strait fit for a 
gracious heart, for one that is partaker of the Divine 
nature to encounter : stir up therefore what strength 
thou hast ; do not say, I shall never be able to overcome 
this difficulty ; do not say so, for you are not in greater 
straits than Jacob was at this time, and yet mark, Jacob 
had power, and stirs up his power. It may be you have 
such strength as will do more than you are aware of; 
the grace of God is mightv in ths hearts of his saints. 
Have you never been cna\)led to do more than ever 
you thought you should have been ? Jacob stirs up his 
strength, lie does not lie down sullen and discouraged, 
as is usual for Christians to do ; if God docs but afflict 
them, and especially if he draws but the light of his face 
a little from them, presently they lie down discouraged, 
and will not be comforted. Oh! thou dost not show 
thyself to be of " the seed of Jacob," thou hast not the 
spirit of thy father Jacob in thee. 

" By his strength he had power with God." 
" Strength :" what strength ? you will say. 

He had very great bodily strength, he «Testled partly 
with bodily strength ; as in Gen. xxix. 8, 10, you find 
that Jacob was a very strong man of his body, for the 
stone of the well which the shepherds were fain to meet 
together to roll away, Jacob took and rolled away pre- 
sently : but certainly he had strength beyond his ordi- 
nary bodily strength at this time ; God raised a bodily 
strength beyond whatever he had, and likely beyond 
whatever man had before. God increased Samson's 
bodily strength to a great pitch ; and the power of God 
was seen in that, and may be seen much m the elevat- 
ing of nature in a creature ; as the Scripture saith, the 
body that " is sown in weakness, is raised in power," 
1 Cor. XV. 43. Luther saith. That men's bodies shall 
be raised to such strength, that they shall be able to 
toss mountains as a man tosses a ball. And Ansclm 
has an expression of like import. That the saints shaa 
be so strong in the world to come, that if they will they 



Vee. 3, 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



515 



can shake the earth at their pleasure. Surely mucli 
bodily strength was here to wrestle with an angel. You 
know the power of an angel ; one in one night could 
slay above fourscore thousand men ; and yet here Jacob 
himself wi'estles with an angel ; that is, with the Mes- 
senger, the Angel of the new covenant, the Son of God, 
the Second Person in the Trinity. But especially Ja- 
cob's spiritual strength, his soid-wi"estling, was great ; 
the wrestling of faith within him was at that time very 
great, it was the irresistible might of man's weakness, 
when made strong ry kvepyn(f tov Qtov, by the in- 
working of God. 

Obs. 1. When God strives against his servants, he 
gives them coiTespondent strength. Here Jacob was 
in great exti'emity, and God comes and wrestles against 
him, but God gives him strength proportionable to his 
^Testling, O, take this for thy comfort and encou- 
ragement. Many times thou art ready to reason thus, 
Alas, I am not able to endure a little affliction, what 
shall I do if I meet with a greater affliction ? certainly 
then I should sink. 0, be not discouraged with such 
unbelieving thoughts, for though thou art weak, and 
it is as much as ever thou canst do to stand under thy 
present burden ; know assuredly, if greater burdens 
come, there will come greater strength too : there was 
answerable strength put into Jacob to wrestle with 
those difficulties to which he was called. God will not 
suffer us to be tempted beyond our strength. 

"By A('i strength." What ! Jacob's strength ? Mark, 
the strength that God puts into us, though it be God's 
own, yet when we have it, and work by it, God ac- 
counts it as ours ; it is called Jacob's strength, though 
the truth is it was God's strength ; God himself ^vrest- 
ling with him gives him strength, and yet he will ac- 
count it Jacob's own strength. Hence, further, 

Obs. 0. It is a great honour to manifest much 
strength in wrestling with God in prayer. In this was 
the honour of Jacob, with his strength he prevailed with 
God. We should not come with weak and empty 
prayers, but we should put forth strength ; if a Chris- 
tian has any strength in the world for any thing, he 
should have it in prayer. According to the strength 
of the fire, the bullet ascends ; so according to what 
strength we put forth in prayer, so is our prevalence. 
This strength of Jacob was a type of the spiritual 
strength which God gives his saints when they have to 
deal with him : and we find in the New Testament 
mention of veiy great strength that the saints have by 
the grace of God. In Eph. iii. 16, " That he would 
gi'ant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be 
strengthened with might by his Spiiit in the inner 
man." Mark what expressions are here. That they 
might " be sti-engthened," be strengthened " with 
might," and " with might by his Spirit," the Spirit of 
God, and " in the inner man ;" and all this " according 
to the riches of his glory." Such strength a Christian 
may attain to ; I say, a Christian may here in this world 
attain to such strength ; there is might added to strength, 
and the Spirit of God to enable him to that might, and 
that in the inner man, and that according to the riches 
of God's gloiy. Surely the sh'ength is great that is by 
the Spirit of God, but such strength as shall manifest 
the glory of the Spirit of God, yea, such strength as 
shall manifest the riches of the glory of the Spirit of 
God, this is the strength attainable for Christians, even 
here in this world : this is the strength which the 
apostle prays for the Ephesians. O, let us be ashamed 
of our weaknesses, seeing such strength is to be had. 
Jesus Christ is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, he has 
strength, and of his fulness we may come to receive 
gi'ace for grace. O, let us not be satisfied with faint 
desires and wishes, when Jesus Christ is tendered to us 
a.s the fountain of strength. 

Now I appeal to you Christians, Do you walk so 



that yom- strength manifests that such riches of the 
glory of God dwell in you ? There is another scrip- 
ture, "Strengthened," saith Col. i. 11, "with all might, 
according to his glorious power." Mark, " with all 
might, according to his glorious power." Thus Chris- 
tians should seek to be strengthened with all might, 
according to the glorious power of God. To Mhat ? 
" Unto all patience and long-sufi'ering with joyful- 
ness." " Unto all patience." It may be, you have 
strength to bear some afflictions, and have some pa- 
tience ; but are you strengthened with " all might ? " 
and are you strengthened according to the glorious 
power of God, unto " all patience ? " .'Vnd it may be, 
for a time you seem to have some patience ; but hath 
])atience had her perfect work in you ? and is it to all 
" long-suffering?" Though the affliction continue a 
great while, will you patiently hold out to " long-suf- 
fering," and that " with joyfulness ? " This is the glory 
of Christians, to have strength with God, the glorious 
power of God strengthening them " with all might," 
" unto all patience and long-sufi'ering," and that " with 
joyfulness." " By his strength he had power with 
God, and prevailed ;" he was as a prince with God : as 
in Gen. xxxii. 28, " For as a prince hast thou power 
with Ciod :" so here, whereas it is said in your books, 
" he had power with God," the words D'nSs—ns mr 
may be as well translated, he was a prince with God ; 
and then it is repeated, " yea, he had power over the 
angel," Ss*! -iNSn-Si* ncl he was a prince against the 
angel, and so prevailed. 

06s. 6. The way to prevail with men is, to prevail 
with God. Esau came against Jacob to destroy him, 
and he was afraid, but God gave him a certain evidence 
that he should prevail ; Thou hast prevailed with me, 
saith he, and there is no fear of prevailing with all the 
men of the world, now thou hast prevailed with God. 
This indeed, and especially in these times, were a veiy 
useful topic to enlarge upon ; that the way to prevail 
with men is, to prevail with God. What are all the 
powers of men ? they are all at the disposal of God : 
the work is done when thou hast but prevailed with 
God. Thou hearest of great dangers that there are 
abroad in the world, but do thou get alone in thy 
closet, and fall a wrestling with God, and continue 
wrestling tUl thou dost feel thy faith wrestling with 
God, then thou mayst come down and conclude the 
work is done : none shall ever prevail against those 
who have so much interest with God ; these may live 
joyfully in the world, never need fear the power and 
the rage of wicked men, they have that within them 
that helps them to prevail with God, and certainly man 
cannot prevail against them. Oui' rough bretliren 
have come out against us, as here Esau, this rough bro- 
ther of Jacob, came out against him, and yet Jacob, pre- 
vailing with God, prevailed against Esau. And bless- 
ed be God, that when our rough brethren have come 
enraged against us, there have been some amongst us 
who have prevailed with God, and by prevailing with 
God have prevailed over them, and against them. But 
though we are delivered from these rough brethren, 
yet we have rough ones of another kind still, that are 
against us. Oh, but let us cany ourselves blamelessly 
and inoffensively towards them, who yet behave them- 
selves roughly and furiously against us, and so seek to 
prevail with them by a constant carnage of innocence 
and blamelessness of life before them, and thereby con- 
vince tbem, if it be possible, of all then- mistakes. But 
above all, let us seek to prevail with God, and then 
God may turn their hearts, yea, the hearts of our 
roughest and most furious brethren, whose mouths are 
so opened, and whose pens are so plied against us ; let 
us, I say, prevail with God, that so at length they may 
come and fall upon our necks as Esau did, and give us 
the right hand of fellowship : such tilings are not im- 



516 



AX EXPOSITIOX OF 



ClIAP. XII. 



possible. Let us not be troubletl more than God would 
have us, but seek God, and wrestle with him : it is in 
vain to stand wrestling with them, giving ill word for 
ill word, and pen for i)en, that is not the way ; but 
■wrestle with God, and walk convincingly before them, 
and so you may turn the hearts of your rough brethren, 
and that in a' little time. Surely it is not more im- 
possible to soder the spirits of brethren that seem not 
to be at so great a distance and so imbittered one 
against another as were Esau and Jacob, it is not more 
impossible for God now to soder them, than it was for 
God to soder the spirits of those brethren, that their 
meeting should be one of peace. 

In this prevailing of Jacob against Esau we have a 
tvpe of the church's prevailing against all the ungodly : 
tiiough the enemies may be strong and furious, cer- 
tainly the people of God shall prevail. As before in 
Jacob's taking Ksau by the heel, there was a type that 
the pcoijle of God shall supplant all the wicked; so 
Jacob's prevailing at this time, presignitics that cer- 
tainly the churches shall prevail ; let men do what they 
will, "and be as bitter as they will, tlie Jacobs shall pre- 
vail at length. 

'• Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed." If 
you look into the story you shall find that he did pre- 
vail, but it was after he had wrestled a great while. 
Constancy in wrestling with God will overcome at 
lengtli, though we do not prevail at first, as Jacob did 
not, but was wrestling all night, and day broke, and 
then he prevailed. (), be not discouraged though 
you ]n-evail not at fii-st. Oh ! I have been seeking 
"God thus long, and have not ])revailed. But go on still, 
you know not but that may be done in one hour that 
has not been done a long time before. 

I\Iark further, Jacob after he was lame pi'evailed. 
Jacob liad been wrestling all night, and got nothing ; 
then the hollow of his thigh was touched and he be- 
came lame; now surely he will be overcome. Shall he 
prevail now ? he that could not prevail in the midst 
of vigour and strength is not like to prevail now. But 
then Jacob " had power over the angel, and prevailed." 
Oh, this is verj- useful and seasonable for us. 

Obs. 7. The' time for the church to i)revail is when 
she is most weak : when most imlikely to prevail, when 
she is lame, then is the time for her to prevail. We 
are ready to think, Oh, if we could not effect it when 
we had so much strength, is it like to be done now 
■when our strength is so impaired ? Now by this Jacob 
came to be more humbled when his thigh was touched, 
80 that he was lame. God uses to damp means, and to 
bring even the sentence of death as an introduction to 
the greatest mercies. 

]''urther. Though Jacob had a strong adversary 
against him, and he wrestled long with him, and he 
had become lame, yet, continuing wrestling, he grew 
more resolute towards the latter end ; for you never 
read of Jacob being so peremptory before, " I will not 
let thee go, except thou bless me." The hollow of 
Jacob'.s thigh having been touched is one thing very 
demonstrative of the sad condition he was in ; but this 
likewise should have been noticed, that the angel 
would have been gone, God would have been gone 
and have left him in that affliction, but then Jacob's 
s]nrit grew up more with a greater resolution than he 
had before, "hwill not let thee go, except thou bless 
me." It seems tliat Jacob now more clearly than be- 
fore discerned that he was God. This should be our 
way in our dealings with God, that when God brings 
ns into the lowest condition, and seems as if he would 
leave us, wc should stir up our spirits then, and be 
more resolute and strong than before. Oh! it is time 
now for the heart to bestir itself, when God is ready to 
go away. Do not say, God will be gone, and therefore 
sink down sullenly ; it is time for thee then to stir up 



all that thou liast, and to act faith more then : as if 
Jacob should say, I will try yet one fall more, I will 
not yield the cause yet, certainly I must not perish : 
true, all things seem against me, as if I should be de- 
stroyed, but it must not be ; faith begins to stir; has not 
God bid me come here? have I not his word? did not 
God say, he would do me good in this journey ? and 
though it is true, tlie providence of God seems to work 
against me, yet the word of God works for me, and I 
will try whether shall prevail, God's word, or God's 
providence. Thus Jacob wrestles : " I will not let thee 
go ;" as if he should say, I have the word for what I do, 
and God has bound himself by covenant, and so, though 
heaven and earth meet together, although I see my 
brother coming against me, and God departing from 
me, and all threatening ruin, yet I will believe still 
that there is mercy for me. Tliis was Jacob's last turn, 
(as I may so say,) the trying as it were the last fall in 
this his wrestling, in opposing the word that he had 
with the work of God towards him. And here we 
would especially, 

Obs. 8. It is' our duty in every situation not to lay 
so much Aveight upon any work of God as upon the 
word of God. Let us build upon the word rather than 
fear the works, for it has been the usual way of God 
when he has given out a word, that his works have 
seemed to go quite cross, as not only in our father 
Jacob, but even in our father Abraham. ANHiat was the 
word of God to Abraham ? There were two ]n-omises 
made by God to Abraham: 1. That he would bring 
him into a land that flowed with milk and honey. And, 
2. That he would make his seed as the stars in the 
firmament. A\'ell, here was God's word, but how was 
God's work ? The very next thing that you hear of 
Abraham was, that after he had left all his friends, and 
had come into Canaan, he was ready to starve presently : 
now the word is, Thou shalt be brought into a land 
flowing with miik and honey ; and as soon as ever he 
comes into that land he was ready to starve. Here is 
a land indeed ! 

2. That his seed should be as the stars of heaven. 
Abraham was twenty-five years after this before he 
had a child. He grew old, and also his wife. Well, 
at length he had one, and God commands him to sacri- 
fice that one. What a work is here ! how quite con- 
trary to the word ! AVell, Isaac was saved ; fort)- years 
elapse before he married ; here are sixty-five years gone 
from the promise, and there is but one of his seed that 
must be as the stars of heaven. At length Isaac mar- 
ried, and he was twenty years without a child ; here are 
eighty-five years and but only one birth from him ; 
yea, and after that it appears that Jacob was above 
fourscore years before he married and had any chil- 
dren ; thus there are between eight and nine score years 
gone, and but only Isaac and Jacob. How does the 
work of God here'scem to contradict his word ! It is 
the way of God, and therefore let us never trouble our- 
selves about God's works; he came indeed afterwards 
with his works and fulfilled his word to the uttermost, 
but for the present they seemed to be against it. O, 
lay up this as a lesson, you will have use for it many 
and many a time. It follows, 

Obs. o! Prevailing at last will recompense all our 
strivings. " And prevailed." Jacob was fully recom- 
pensed ; he speaks of it as a recompence of Jacob after 
his striving ; it was a hard wrestling, but he prevailed 
at length. And so it will be with all the jicople of 
God ; let them go on and wrestle, and though things be 
hard for the luesent, when mercy comes it will pay for 
all. Tliou wilt hereafter see no cause of rencnting that 
thou continucdst wrestling with God; O, thou wdt see 
cause to bless God. Blessed be God that kept up my 
heart all this while: God knows that many times it 
was ready to sink, but if I had left off, what had be- 



ViiE. 3. 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



517 



come of me ? I had lost the mercy that I now find ; 
but I continued through God's mercy, and now he is 
come at lengtli. Prevailing recompenses all our labour 
and trouble in seeking. 

AVell, he prevailed ; but what is this to this people of 
Israel ? Thus ; this was to show their base degeneracy, 
as if he should say, Oh, of what a brave spirit was your 
father Jacob ! but you are a base people, you subject 
yourselves to heathens, to idols : your father would not 
have subjected himself to any creature in the world, 
yea, he would wrestle with God himself when he had 
his word for it; but Jacob's posterity can crouch to 
the humours of men in the worship of God, and do 
any thing to save their skin ; you are unworthy to 
be counted his posterity. Jacob's posterity indeed 
should be prevailers above the world's temptations. 
What ! shall we yield to a base lust, when Jacob would 
not yield to the Almighty, but prevailed with him ? 
are we of the seed of Jacob now ? Oh, we are of low, 
mean spirits, led aside of every vanity, and overcome 
with every difficulty. But how did he jn'evail ? in what 
way did he put forth this his strength ? It follows; 
" He wept, and made supplication unto him.'' 
This weeping of Jacob is not recorded in the history 
of Genesis, nor, except here, in all the book of God. 
His sup])lication is recorded, but not his weeping ; 
therefore his weeping was conveyed by tradition, or 
otherwise by revelation. There are many ridiculous 
conceits of the Jews and some old writers about this ; 
they say it was the angel that wept, and prayed Jacob 
to let him alone. But to take it generally, as our di- 
vines do, that Jacob wept, and made supplication, and 
so prevailed with God; Jacob's heart was so pressed 
with liis condition, that it caused tears to gush forth 
fi'om him ; and no marvel though tears came from him, 
for his heart could not but be full, when he came to 
think thus with himself: AVhat! after I have served 
such a hard service under Laban my uncle, and God 
bade me come away from him, whicli I took to be such 
a great and merciful deliverance from God, j-et how 
soon was I in danger of my life, even my uncle Laban 
pursuing me, but God delivered me there ; and must I 
now fall into the hand of my brother ? is the day come 
for him now to have his rage upon me ? I see Uttle 
other likelihood; his strength is great, and God himself 
appears against me, and I have been wrestling a great 
while, and I can get nothing from God, but that it is 
likely here I must die and perish ; yea, and that God 
should leave me thus as he does, that God should ap- 
pear a greater enemy to me than my brother Esau, 
and lame me ! oh, now, is not this a sign that God 
intends to destroy me ? yea, God would be gone too 
when I am in such a strait. All this makes him weep. 
As when a poor child is in straits and is crying to the 
mother, she beats it, and leaves it in its difficulties ; 
can you then blame the child though it cry ? So it was 
here ; Jacob was in straits, and was seeking God, and 
God beats and afflicts him, and w-ould be gone ; oh, 
this does press tears out of the eyes of Jacob ; What 
will become of me now ? As if Jacob should have said, 
Vi'eve I to perish alone it were not so much, but my 
wives perish, and how can mine eyes endure to see 
their destruction ? yea, it may be they will be ravished 
before mine eyes by these rude soldiers. These kind of 
workings in Jacob spirit you cannot but conceive must 
draw tears ; he wept before the angel, considering this 
his sore distressed condition. 

And on the other side, the reasonings of his faith 
would make him weep too, when he considered, Yea, 
but surely I am in the way of God, though I be in a 
great deal of danger; I have the promise and covenant 
of God with me ; I have to deal with the holy, blessed 
and gracious God in all my ways ; who knows but that 
my extremity may be God's opportunity ? The heart of 



my brother is certainly in the hand of God, and all 
creatures are in God's hands too. Now the actings of 
faith, as well as those of fear and trouble, would make 
one weep ; and it were well if we could weep on both 
sides. Sometimes you roll in your thoughts all the ag- 
gravations of your afflictions, and they make you weep: 
now, can you roll in your thoughts the aggravations of 
God's goodness and mercy, and can they make you 
weep ? The end why God brought Jacob into this con- 
dition, to fall a weeping before the angel, was, that he 
might humble him, and break his heart, before he gave 
him deliverance ; for it was one of the greatest honours 
(as we intimated before) that God conferred on Jacob, 
or ever on any man ; therefore God would bring him 
very low before he would raise him so high, and make 
him fall a weeping, as well as praying, before he should 
have the mercy. Oh, this is God's way; he will bring 
men very low, to humble them before they shall have 
mercy ; therefore when men's hearts are high and lofty, 
stout and hard, they are not in a way of mercy from 
God ; but when men's hearts begin to break, thaw, and 
melt, and are tender, then they are on the threshold of 
mercy, as here. So we find it often in Scripture, that 
God, intending mercy, first breaks the heart and melts 
it by mourning and sorrowing : as Josiah, you know 
that was his condition, his heart melted when he heai'd 
the law, and God sends presently a promise of mercy 
to him. And in Jeremiah, the Lord promises his peo- 
ple, that he will bring them with weeping, and with 
supplications ; that shall be their way to Ziou. 

Obs. 10. Heart-breaking, with tears before God, be- 
come.s the most generous and magnanimous spirit. It 
is an excellent thing to see a man of a brave spirit, 
strong and full of courage in service /oc God, yet melt- 
ing, tender, and soft in his dealings icilli God. If you 
.should see now a great captain or general, brave and 
magnanimous when abroad in the field about any diffi- 
cult work, but when before God in prayer, weeping 
like a child, mourning and lamenting, and his heart 
breaking as soon as a child's ; the manly, undaunted 
coiu'age, and the broken-hearted, child-like simplicity, 
would extort respect. Spirits of such a mould are 
excellent, spirits that can turn according to what God 
calls them to, this way or that, can be stout and hardy 
in a work that demands stoutness, and can be soft, 
tender, and yielding where such qualities are required. 
Thus was our father Jacob. Oh, to have tender-heart- 
ed captains and generals, to have courageous, yet 
broken-hearted, spirits, to mix the work of grace thus, 
is most excellent, and it becomes the most brave and 
prudent spirit in the world, not only to fall down to 
prayer, but to weep before the Lord. Some men think 
it too low a thing to fall a weeping in prayer, as if it 
were womanish and childish ; oh, it is an argument 
that thy heart is carnal and base, to think that it 
arises from want of understanding; I say, the thought 
is evil, and originates in the much corruption of thy 
heart. No man ever shed more tears in the presence 
of God than David, that brave and prudent captain. 
But to go far higher, I will set before you the example 
of Jesus Christ ; Heb. v. 1, saith, " AA'ho in the days of 
Ills fle^h, when he had offered up prayers and supplica- 
tions," how? ''with .strong crying and tears." Even 
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God blessed for ever, he 
that was equal with the Father, the Lion of the tribe of 
Judah, he that had all strength and power, and had all 
the treasures of wisdom hid in him, and in whom the 
fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily, yet when he had to 
deal with the Father, he offers up " prayers and sup- 
plications, with strong crying and tears." Does it be- 
come the Captain of our salvation in his seeking of 
God to weep ? know then, it is not unbecoming any 
man or woman. Are you of the seed of Jacob? then, 
when you would prevail with God, labour to work your 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. Xil. 



hearts even so as to express your affections, outwardly 
labour to do it in prayer, it Mill help to break thy 
heart. As a broken heart will cause outward e.\- 
pressions, so outward exi)ressions will be a further 
cause to break the heart. And work thy heart by all 
arguments thou canst to come to that tenderness and 
softness, that thou mayst be like the Captain of thy 
salvation. When thou art crying to God, err e\en w itli 
tears before him ; and when thy heart is so broken with 
tears, then exercise thy faith upon the prayer of Jesus 
Christ. Now it is through the Spirit of Jesus Christ 
that my heart thus breaks, but I do not rest upon these ; 
God forbid that I should rest upon my enlargements, 
upon my breakings of heart ; no, but I will rest upon 
the breakings of Jesus Clrrist, who in the days of his 
flesh did send up mighty cries with tears unto 6od, and 
prevailed. 

06«. 11. Prayer is the great prevailing ordinance 
with God. " He made supplication." It has been the 
great engine that has carried things on in the world. 
When, in Rev. viii. 4, 5, "the prayers of the saints" 
were offered up, " there were voices, and thunderings, 
and lightnings, and an earthquake." Prayers of the 
saints can move heaven and earth ; they can jjrevail 
with the God of heaven and earth. The praying legion 
was called the thundering legion. And Luther saith 
„ ^ , , of prayers, Thev are our guns, our can- 
nons ; our prayers can prevau more that 
cannons. The saints have always i)ut their gi-eat 
strength in prayer. Psal. cix. 4, is a very observable 
Scripture, " For my love they are my adversaries." But 
what then? But I pray. In your books it is, "but I 
give myself unto prayer." The words " give myself" 
you may observe printed in another distinct character, 
(which is to note that they are not in the original, but 
added by the translators, and in that they dealt faith- 
fully,) but if you read it as in the Hebrew, "For my 
love they are my adversaries :" but I pray : as if he 
should say, That is my refuge, I account prayer my great 
help ; they are my adversaries, and rail upon me, but I 
will not rail upon them again ; when they oppose me 
I will not oppose them again. But I pray ; I will pray 
to my God, and I believe that 1 have help enough there 
to resist all mine enemies. Jacob prevailed over the 
angel by supplication. It is a good sign of a gracious 
heart to lay the weight of business upon prayer. But 
I will not enter into this commonplace of the excel- 
lency, or power, of prayer and supplication, but only 
this. It is not every prayer that will prevail so with 
God. 

Wiat prayer will then ? 

Such a prayer as Jacob's was, in Gen. xxxii. 9 — 12. 
In it there are many excellent ingredients. 

1. Faith in the covenant of God. " And Jacob said, 

God of my father Abraham, and God of my father 
Isaac." Upon this faith in the covenant the strength 
of any prayer most dejjends. Indeed to have strong 
expreisions and affections in prayer is good ; but 
strength of faith in the covenant of God is the greatest 
strength of i)rayer, and it was with this strength that 
.Tacnl) prevailed. " O God of my father Abraham, and 
God of my father Isaac;" as if he should say, O thou 
God, that hast entered into covenant with my father 
Abraham and Isaac, remember thy covenant, O God, 

1 rest upon it, upon the covenant of grace which thou 
hast made with them ; for so certainly that with Abra- 
ham and Isaac was the same, for it is .said, that " the 
si^n of circumcision was a seal of the righteousness of 
faith," Rom. iv. 11. "And in thy seed shall all the 
nations of the earth be blessed," Gen. xxii. 18. There 
was the covenant of grace. Now, O Lord God, it is the 
covenant of grace that I rest upnn in these my straits. 
Wien you arc in any strait, and go to God in prayer, 
if you can have recourse to the covenant of grace, and 



act youi- faith upon God's covenant witli you, oh I that 
will be a strong prayer. When there are but words in 
prayer, they vanish as the wind, but when there i.s much 
faith in prayer, that makes it to prevail : " the prayer of 
faith," that is prevalent, saith the apostle James, chap, 
v. 15. 

2. His appeal to God, that he was in the way in which 
he had set him. He could appeal thus to God ; " Thou 
which saidst unto me. Return unto thy country, and to 
thy kindred." ^^^ly, Lord, am I out of my way ? Am 
I not in the way which thou hast set me ? I met with 
difficulties in my way, but. Lord, thou saidst to me, 
" Return unto thy country ;" thou biddest me return. 
That is an excellent ingredient in prayer, and adds 
much strength, when the soul in prayer can come to 
God and say, O Lord, this and that difficulty has be- 
fallen me, but. Lord, I am in the way thou hast set me, 
I am doing thy work, I am not out of my way. For 
any to be out of the way which God has set them in 
will mightily damp their hearts in prayer. And it is a 
mighty encouragement to prayer, and carries it on with 
mighty strength, when the soul can appeal to God, 
Lord, whatsoever straits I meet withal, yet I am in thy 
way. 

3. The pleading of a particular promise : " And I 
will deal well with thee." God made a promise to 
Jacob in particular, that he would deal well with him 
in his journey that he went. And though it is true, 
the great strength is in the great promise, the covenant 
of gi-ace ; yet it adds much strength likewise to use 
particular promises that concern the very business we 
are about ; and it is a very good thing, when we go 
about a business that has difficulty in it, to search the 
word, and to see what promises there are that more 
particularly concern the business we go about. 

4. A deep sense of his own un worthiness. Ver. 10, 
"I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and 
of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy serv- 
ant." The soul prevails when it comes with humility 
before God in prayer, and is truly sensible of its un- 
worthiness of any mercy. Lord, 1 am not worthy of 
the least crumb of bread, but rather worthy to l)c cast 
out from thy presence for ever : it is an easy matter for 
persons to have such words in their- mouths, but to have 
this indeed in their hearts in prayer, adds very much 
strength to prayer. 

5. The acknowledgment of the mercy that he had 
received, and of the truth of God in fulfilling promises. 
Both add much strength to prayer, to take notice of 
what God has done for us, to observe how he has, in 
groat measure, fulfilled his word for us. When we are 
jjraying, we many times are sensible only of what we 
would have, but not of what we receive ; and the vehe- 
mency of our desires after what we would have, takes 
away our a])prehensions, and hinders our acknowledg- 
ment of tlie mercies we have had already. But when 
thou comest to prayer, whatsoever thy state be, though 
in never such gi-eat straits, yet acknowledge what thou 
hast already, be willing to praise God in thy lowest 
condition. 

6. Remembrance of former meanness. " For with 
my staff I passed over this Jordan ; and now I am be- 
come two bands :" that is a further expression of his 
humility, and God's further mercy. 

7. A thorough conviction of the importance of what 
he prays for. " Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand 
of my brother, from the hand of Esau : for I fear him, 
lest lie will come and smite me, and the mother with 
the children." Lord, I do not utter words without feel- 
ing, for. Lord, as I am crying to thee for help against 
my brother, I do apjirehend my great extremity ; Lord, 
I fear him, lest he come and smite me, with the mother 
and the children. 

When we come to prayer, we must not have words, 



Ver. 3, 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



519 



fine and puffed u;-., but with little in them, but there 
must be as much sense of the thing that we pray for, 
as the words that we speak do seem to import and 
carry with them : many times we have great words and 
little sense, and that makes our prayers so empty. 

8. Strong arguments. Though it is true, that what 
we can say to God cannot move God, yet it may move 
our own hearts ; and God would have us to use strong 
arguments in prayer. " And thou saidst, I will surely 
do tliee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, 
which cannot be numbered for multitude," ver. 1 2. As 
if he should say, Lord, how- will thy promise be fulfilled ? 
Didst thou not say that my seed should be as the sand 
of the sea ? Now if the mother and childi-en be cut ofi', 
what will become of thy promise? 

God is so indulgent as to suffer us to plead our cause 
with him. And these pleading prayers are strong 
prayers ; he wept, and made supplication, so he pre- 
vailed with God. Now, labour you (if you be of the 
seed of Jacob) to pray as your father Jacob did. But 
so much shall suffice for that second history, about Ja- 
cob's prevailing with the angel. 

III. His interviews with God at Bethel. " He found 
him in Beth-el, and there he spake with us." 

The words in the original are, -\aT bri IJNXC SN-n'3 
licy He u-M find us in Betli-el, and there he spake 
with us. As if it were an encouraging word of the 
angel to Jacob, that God would find him in Beth-el ; 
and indeed the words would bear such an interpret- 
ation, but, as the learned know, the future is often used 
for the preter tense in the Hebrew, and it is more 
agreeable to the context to read them as you have 
them in your Bibles, " He found him in Beth-el, and 
there he spake with us ;" that is, he found Jacob in 
Beth-el, and spake to Jacob, and in speaking to Jacob 
he spake to us all. 

Now for the opening of this history, and showing 
how it suits with the scope of the prophet in this place. 
We read in Scripture of two meetings which God and 
Jacob had at Beth-el, and this text in Hosea seems to 
refer to them both. 

1. When for fear of danger he fled from his brother-, 
when his brother had mischievous thoughts against 
him, after he got the blessing from him. Gen. xxviii. 10. 

2. When God appeared to him after he came out 
of Padan-aram, Gen. xxxv. 9 — 15. 

1. He finds him in Beth-el, Gen. xxviii. 10; yea, in- 
deed, for as Jacob lay asleep with a stone under his 
head, he saw a vision of angels ascending and descend- 
ing from heaven, and God speaking excellent things 
unto him. Hence, 

Obs. 12. God finds his people many times when they 
little think of him. He comes to his people in ways of 
mercy when they scarce dream of it : Jacob was but in 
a dream at this time, and yet God came in very won- 
derful ways of mercy towards him. 

Oh how often has God found us in this way ! how 
often may many of you say, that the Lord has come 
unexpectedly to you in ways of mercy, which you could 
never have expected. Oh, when unexpected mercies 
come, we should consider that God has found us ; our 
sins might have found us, whereas the mercies of God 
have found us out. 

2. The other time that God found Jacob was. Gen. 
xxxv. 9 — 15, when he was in great distress, after his 
daughter Dinah had been defiled, and his sons Simeon 
and Levi had committed that great outrage against the 
Shechemites. so great as to fall on the city, and slay all 
the males. Upon that Jacob and all his family wei-e in 
great danger of being destroyed, for the act was so 
foul, that it could not but make all the people (as Ja- 
cob thought) to abhor him, and " to gather themselves 
together against him, and to slay him," Gea. xxxiv. 30. 
The distress of Jacob was doubtless very great ; his 



daughter defiled by one uncircumcised, his two sons 
committing such an outrage, and himself and his hoiise 
in danger of being destroyed utterly by them ; for who 
would have thought but that all the inhabitants of the 
land should have risen against him, and have cut him 
off? Now the next thing that we hear of, God meets 
with him at Beth-el, and speaks very gracious things 
to him there ; and he did not only speak to him, but 
there " he spake with us." 

That is. God meeting with Jacob in Beth-el, that 
which he spake to him there concerned us as well as it 
concerned Jacob. An expi-ession to the same junpose 
we have in Psal. Ixvi. 6, " He turned the sea into dry 
land : they went through the flood on foot : there did we 
rejoice in him :" for indeed the mercy of God towards 
the Israelites, which at that time did rejoice them, was 
a matter of rejoicing for us. Whatsoever is written, is 
written for our learning, it is as if God spake to us. 
That which God spake to Abraham, I am God all-suf- 
ficient ; walk before me, and be upright ; he spake that 
to us, he spake that to thee and me. That which God 
spake to Joshua, " I will never leave thee, nor forsake 
thee," Josh. i. 5, that the apostle, to the Hebrews, ap- 
plies to the Christians at that time, Heb. xiii. 5 ; that 
he spake to us, he spake it to thee and me, if we be 
believers. That which God spake to the distressed and 
afflicted ones in Psal. cii. 17, " He will regard the prayer 
of the destitute, and not despise their prayer ;" that he 
spake to us, for in ver. 18 it is said, " This shall be 
written for the generation to come." And that which 
God spake to Jacob at these two several times in Beth- 
el, is written for the generations to come, is written for 
us. AVell then, what was it? what was the s])ecial 
thing which God spake to Jacob when he found him at 
Beth-el? and what was that to us? I will show you 
many things ; there are nine or ten notable things to be 
observed by us, which God spake to us at Beth-el. 

Obs. 13. The foundation of the comfort of the saints 
is in the covenant of God. " There he spake with us." 
When he appeared to Jacob, what said he to him ? " I 
am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God 
of Isaac," Gen. xxviii. 13. Jacob was flying for his life 
then, and this was to comfort him in his danger, " I 
am the Loi-d God of Abraham thy father, and the God 
of Isaac :" then he spake this to us, that the foundation 
of the saints' comforts in the times of their distresses, 
is the covenant of gi'ace which God has made with 
them, and their fathers before them. 

Obs. 14. The seed of Jacob are the inheritors of the 
land of Canaan ; for so he told him, " The land whereon 
thou liest, to thee wQl I give it, and to thy seed." Now 
this concerns us, that the seed of Jacob shall inherit 
the land of Canaan, that was typified by it. There are 
some who think that yet there shall be an inheritance 
of the land of Canaan by the faithful seed of Jacob, but, 
however, this certainly " he spake to us," that all the 
seed of Jacob are the inheritors of the land of Canaan 
one way or other in the literal, or in the typical sense. 

06s. 15. ^lercies promised should be believed, even 
when there is great unlikelihood of then- fulfilment. 
So he spake to us there. He tells Jacob there, when 
poor and solitary with his staff, aiid no provision but a 
stone for his pillow, he tells him then that his promise 
shall be made good, and his seed become so great as 
to inherit the land of Canaan. How unlikely was all this 
at such a time ! but God would have him to exercise 
his faith upon the promise even then, when there was 
such a great unlikelihood of its accomplishment. 

Obs. 16. The multiplying of the church is a great 
blessing ; for, saith he, thy seed shall be thus and thus, 
as the sand of the sea shore ; I will increase my church 
abundantly from thy loins. 

Obs. 17. Saints, even the strongest, have need of re- 
newing of promises. God renews the same promise to 



520 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XII. 



him that was made before to Abraham, that his seed 
should be great; but the truth is, that the promise, 
though as certain as before, yet liad been a long time. 
Obx. 18. The blessing which comes to the world, 
comes by the ])romised Seed. He tells him, that in his 
Seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed : the 

freat blessing of the world is by the promised Seed, by 
esus Christ. 

Obs. 19. It was in God's heart, thousands of years 
ago, to do good to us Gentiles : though at that time 
■we were as dogs, yet it was in God's heart to bless us. 
Oh, this is a eomlortable speech to us, it concerns us 
Gentiles in a more special manner than it did them to 
whom Ilosea at this time prophesied. 

The presence and ])rotcction of God are the only en- 
couragement of the saints in their ways. So in ver. 15, 
saith God, " Behold, I am with thee, and will keep 
thee in all places whither thou goest ;" this he spake to 
us, this the saints should make high account of. 

Obs. 20. God is still working towards the fulfilling 
of jiromises ; for so he telLs him, " I will not leave thee 
until I have done all that which I have spoken to thee 
of;" though you cannot see how my administrations to- 
wards you do any way work for the fulfilling of my pro- 
mise, yet know 1 will not leave you till I have fulfiJled 
all my promises. 

06s. 21. The mercy and faithfulness of God are con- 
stant. However things may go with us here for a 
while, yet the mercy of God continues, the line of 
Cod's mercy is not cut asunder, but his faithfulness 
carries it on till all the good that he has promised, or 
that faith can believe, is granted to us ; for so he tells 
Jacob there, " I will not leave thee, until I have done 
all that which I have spoken to thee of." All this God 
" spake with us," the first time of his meeting with Jacob 
in Bcth-el. 

Now the second time that ho met with Jacob in 
Beth-el, is spoken of. Gen. xxxv. 10, and there see what 
God "spake with us." God changes Jacob's name to Israel, 
confirms his promise and covenant to him again as be- 
fore, remembers his wrestling, and his prevailing with 
him : and in that God tells us he remembers our fervent 
prayers; after they are gone, his heart is yet upon 
them. A general view of all he spoke to us there, 
would lead us to observe, 

06s. 22. The saints have need of the confirmation 
of mercies, especially of the covenant. 

Obs. 23. God's presenting himself to the soul as God 
Almighty, is a great help to faith. AVe find in Scrij)- 
ture that God very seldom, when he speaks of his al- 
mighty power, speaks of his willingness to do good ; for 
that God would have his people take for granted, it is 
implied in the covenant which he made with them at 
first. " I am God Almighty," saith he here : thou hast 
had experience of my almighty power in tiu'ning the 
heart of thy brother : and now thou art in a great dan- 
ger; because thou art few in number, thou art afraid 
of the peo])le of the land ; but " I am God Almightv ;" 
there is li'Uc power in thee, but in me power dwells. 
Th" ^msideration of God's almighty power, is that 
fvhicli should help the saints in the midst of all their 
straits and afflictions. 

A\'hen Jacob was afraid of being cut off because be 
was few in number, now God presents himself as God 
Almighty, and blesses him now with fruitfulness, and 
tells him he will multiply him to "a nation and acom- 
i)any of nations," '• and kings shall come out of thy 
loins." In all this we have an excellent lesson that 
God speaks to its. 

06.«. 24. God delights to revive his people in their 
fears with suitable mercies. Jacob was never in greater 
fears than on those two occasions ; yet now the Lord 
comes at this time of his gi-eat straits, and tells him of 
multiplying him to many nations, and that kings should 



come out of his loins ; at that time when he was afraid 
that the nations should come and destroy all that be- 
longed to him, God tells him that kings should come 
out of his loins. Oh, the Lord delights to revive his 
people in their fears, and that with suitable mercies! 

Oh, it should teach us to be tender-hearted towards 
the saints that are in fears and troubles, and to labour 
to comfort our brethren with seasonable and suitable 
mercies ! And especially after great conflicts that is 
obscn'able ; for Jacob had been wrestling with God 
not long before, and after these great conflicts God 
comes with the manifestation of great mercies. This 
God spake to us there, that we should not be discou- 
raged, though God In-ing us into gi-eat conflicts ; be- 
cause after those times are the seasons for God to speak 
to us things the most comfortable, and the most encou- 
raging. There God "spake wi.h us." Thus you see the 
third story opened to you, and its useful import, I 
know scarce a scripture fuller than these two verses. 

And the reason why the prophet brings this third 
story to upbraid this people is, as if he should say 
thus : 

First, Your father Jacob worshipped the true God in 
Beth-cl ; you worship the calf in Beth-el (for you know 
that in Dan and Beth-el the calves were set up). Are 
you the children of Jacob ? did Jacob worship an idol 
in Reth-el? No, God found him in Bcth-el, and God 
spake with him there; but vou worship a calf in 
Bethel. 

Secondly, God made gracious promises to your fa- 
ther Jacob in Beth-el ; you slight them, you regard them 
not, you go to shifting courses for yourselves, and dare 
not rely upon promises as your father Jacob did. 

Thii'dly, You pollute the place which God had made 
his house, that place where there were such gracious 
manifestations of God you pollute. It is an aggrava- 
tion of sin, to sin in those places where God has showed 
much mercy. 

And then, lastly, You are gone from the covenant 
which your father Jacob made with God at Beth-el. 
Your father Jacob (as God renewed his covenant) en- 
tered into covenant himself with God at Beth-el, and 
saith, that the Lord should be his God ; but have not 
you forsaken that covenant ? You do not stand to the 
covenant which your father Jacob made at Beth-el. 

Ver. 5. Even the Lord God of liosls ; the Lord fs 
his memorial. 

He that appeared to your father Jacob was no other 
than the Lord of hosts, Jehovah, and Jehovah is his 
memoriak 

Your father Jacob conversed with God, he had great 
])Owcr with the great God, the Lord of hosts, Jehovah. 
You forsake this God, vou see no such excellency in 
him, you rather turn to idols. 

" The Lord God of hosts." But how does the ]irophet 
make use of this title of God, "The Lord God of 
hosts ? " 

It is in reference to those hosts of God that ap])rared 
to Jacob a little before he met with his brother Ksau, 
when, after having wrestled with (iod, and having his 
name changed, the text saith, "The angels of God met 
him. And when Jacob saw them, he said. This is God's 
host," Gen. xxxii. 1, 2. This refers to that place. The 
hosts of God appeared to Jacob just upon this time of 
his wrestling, and the text saith there, "rhc called the 
name of that place Mahanaim,'' that is, two hosts, or 
two camps. Saith Hosca, The Lord of hosts is his 
name; as if he should say, It is the same Lord that 
was the Lord of hosts that appeared to Jacob your 
father a little before his wrestling ; it is the .same (Jod, 
he remains the same God still, and yoin- sin is against 
that God, even against the Lord God of hosts. 



Vee. 5. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



521 



Now for this title, " The Lord God of hosts/' That 
■which you see this morning, may remind you a little 
of it, yet I shall not speak much of it now, because 
you that have been auditors here, and others too, may 
know, that even in this place I have preached on that 
glorious name of God, the Lord of hosts, and likewise 
some years since published my exposition on it," be- 
cause God did then appear to England in that title, the 
Lord of hosts, more fully than in former times. There- 
fore I endeavoured to open it as I was able unto you, 
to show what glory of God was in that name, that we 
in this land might especially learn to sanctify it ; and 
since that time the Lord has given us more occasion to 
sanctify that name of his than formerly ; indeed this 
title, Lord of hosts, as well as Jehovah, is the memo- 
rial of God, and should be to the posterity that re- 
mains ; we should tell the posterity after how the Lord 
has manifested himself as the Lord of hosts amongst 
lis. If ever God appeared in the glory of this title in any 
country or nation, he has done it here ; it is from the 
Lord of hosts that oiu- armies have so prevailed ; one 
that has but half an eye (as we are wont to say) can 
see it. Had God wrought our victory by a company 
of old, brave, gallant soldiers, and by mighty armies, 
then the glory of God as the Lord of hosts had been 
eclipsed in some measure ; but whereas such great 
things have been done, as scarce any history can tell 
us of, since Joshua's time, here, in this very kingdom, 
■within these twelve months, and that by the weakest, 
the feeblest instruments, how ■null the Lord of hosts 
be in "his memorial," if these transactions be set out 
to the life, lustre, and verity of them! children yet un- 
born will learn to magnify God by this name of his. 
That such things shoidd be done by an army so con- 
temptible in the eye of flesh and blood as this our army 
■was, none other surely than the Lord of hosts appeared 
for us. 

And in that God has manifested himself for his own 
people so much, I will give you one scripture ■which I 
do not remember I made use of then, to show you 
what the hosts of God are besides the sun, moon, and 
stars, and the works of creation in general. Besides 
all these, God has two special armies, the saints and 
the angels ; these I may call ilahanaim, the two hosts 
of God. Respecting the angels, I shall not need to 
give you Scripture : but with regard to the people of 
God, that they are called " the hosts of the Lord" in 
■way of distinction from all other of the hosts of God, is 
manifest from Exod. xii. 41, where the people of Israel 
going forth from Egypt, the text saith, " And it came 
to pass at tlie end of the four hundred and thirty years, 
even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts 
of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt." What 
were they but God's people ? the church is called there 
" the hosts of the Lord." God's own people God glories 
in as his hosts in way of distinction from all other pco])le. 
And so in Cant. vi. 4, the church of God is said to be 
" terrible as an army with banners." And through 
God's mercy the Lord has manifested what great things 
he can do by such an host, by an army that has had so 
many of his chosen ones among them ; they have been 
the hosts that God, the Lord of hosts, has taken so 
much delight to be the Captain of, and to go forth 
withal. But thus much for that name, " the Lord of 
hosts;" what use the prophet makes of that name we 
shall speak to presently, how it is a doctrinal point that 
he builds his exhortation upon, " Therefore return unto 
the Lord." 

'•The Lord is his memorial:" Jehovah is his me- 
morial. 

This name Jehovah is a name in which God gloricg 

* The glorious Name of the Lonl of Hosts: the tide of a 
book of the author's, being one of the first iu defence of the 
wars on the parliament's siJe. 



much, for indeed it is the name of God's being, which ex- 
presses that more fully than any other name of God ; this, 
and that name of God, " I am that I am," which comes 
from the same root, and is in effect the same with this 
name Jehovah ; I say, God glories in this above all his 
names : and therefore in Deut. xxviii. 58, " That thou 
mayest fear this glorious and fearful name," Jehovah, 
thy God ; in your books it is, " The Lord thy God," but 
in the original, Jehovah, thy God. God looks upon 
this name as his glorious and his fearful name, and 
would have people to take heed that they look to this, 
tliat tliey " fear this glorious and fearful name, Jehovah 
tliy God." This name the Jews keep a miglity stir about, 
and think they And great mysteries in it; they have 
such superstitious reverence for it, that they will not so 
much as pronounce it ; they call it the ineffable name ; 
and if it be written, they think it is a very wicked thing 
to tread upon the paper which contains it. But it is 
very observable here how cross the superstition of men 
is to God; they in reverence to God will not so much 
as mention this name, because, they say, it is a name in 
which God so much glories : and yet mark here, ray 
text saith, this name is God"s "memorial," God would 
have this name mentioned above any of his names, it 
is the name by which he would be remembered to all 
generations. So in Exod. iii. 15, you find, that God 
speaking of this his name, Jehovah, Jehovah Elohira, 
Jehovah in covenant, saith, that he would be known by 
it to all generations : " This is my name for ever, and 
this is my memorial unto all generations." It might 
indeed well be wished that the very word Jehovah had 
been retained in your English version (Lord printed 
in capitals always indicates its presence in the original). 
There is much then in this name : 

First, It sets forth the glory of God more than any 
name, because above all names it shows that God has 
a being from himself, in which much of the glory of 
God consists ; this is proper to God : and indeed from 
this one principle, that God is from himself, we come to 
understand almost all things that can be known of God 
by any light of nature, by any natural understanding, 
unaided by Divine revelation. The knowledge of God 
in Christ is above both, being matter of pure revelation ; 
but the knowledge of God as Adam at first knew him, 
and as the creature can know him by any natural 
light, derives its greatest strength from this principle, 
That God has his being from himself: and from this 
follows, 

1. That he is the First Being of all things. 

2. That he is the Supreme Being, he is above all. 

3. That he is an Eternal Being, he can have no be- 
ginning, because it is from himself. 

4. That he is an Infinite Being, that there are no 
bounds at all to his being : for whatever is bounded, is 
bounded by something without it ; but God being from 
himself, and having no cause, can have nothing to limit 
and bound his being. 

5. That there is all being in God ; whatever has any 
being, it must be either that that is the first, or from 
the first : he is an Absolute Being of himself, having it 
from himself, and therefore all being is eminently 
contained in God himself 

6. That whatsoever is in God, is God himself; from 
this name Jehovah, he is an Absolute Being, nothing 
but himself: this is the difference between God and 
any creature. Whatsoever is in the creature, is not the 
being of the creature. A man has wisdom; now the 
wisdom of a man is one, and the essence of the man is 
another, thing ; but it is not so with God, whatsoever 
you can say of God, is God ; the wisdom of God, is 
God ; the mercy of God, is God ; the justice of God, is 
God himself; and so all the attributes. We often con- 
ceive of the attributes as if they were distinct from the 
being; when we say, God is wise, as if God were one 



522 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XU. 



thing, and wisdom were another ; but certainly if we 
would appreliend God as in himself, wc cannot appre- 
hend him SO; as if his wisdom were one thing, and 
God another ; or his mercy one thing, and God another : 
so that the truth is, nothing can properly be predicated 
of God, because when a tiling is predicated there is a 
difference between the subject and the predicate, but 
there is no such distinction with resiject to God; but 
whatsoever can be said of God, is God himself; and 
much of the glory of God ap])ears in this one thing, in 
tliis, I say, that all that is in God is God himself. The 
under>taiiding God thus, helps us to see God in his 
glor)- as much as any way whatsoever ; few people how- 
ever a])prehcnd this, but look upon God as a creature, 
and so tliink God is some excellent thing that has so 
many excellencies in him : but to understand it aright, 
we should know that all that Is said of God is God 
himself, and therefore all but one being in God; wis- 
dom, mercy, justice, power, life, holiness, and faithful- 
ness appear many diverse things to us, but in God all 
are but one excellency. As now, the beams of the 
sun appear diverse to us, they shine througli a blue 
glass, and there is a blue reflection, and a gieen glass, 
and then it is green, and a red glass, and then it is red, 
but yet all constitute but one beam. So the infinite, 
first, absolute Being of all, ajipearing in liis several 
workings and in his several administrations, seems to 
be several ; but they all form but one being that is in 
himself: such is the signification of the name Jehovali. 

7. All the being of the creature depends upon God, is 
from God originally, and so depends upon God every 
moment. Every time you hear the name Jehovah you 
should be put in mind of this, that as all creatures hail 
what tiiey had from God at first, so they do absolutely 
depend upon God every moment for their being, and 
for their every good. 

8. God being thus Jehovah, will give a being to all 
his promises, and to all iiis threatenings. And there- 
fore when he appeared to Moses, to tell him that he 
would fulfil the i)romise made to his people, to bring 
them out of Eg)"pt, he tells him that though he Iiad a|)- 
peared to Abraham by the name El-shaddai, God-all- 
suflicient, yet he had not appeared to him by the name 
Jehovah ; which is as much as if he should say. Yea, in- 
deed, when I spake to Abraham, I made a promise to 
him, that I would give him such a land, and thus and 
thus, but I did not give a being to the promises ; but 
now 1 come to make way for the fulfilling of this pro- 
mise, now I appear to be Jehovah : thus Jehovah is 
God's " memorial," tiiat is, every time you read the 
name Jehovah, or hear that name Jehovah, tlien you 
should meditate on these things, and contemplate God 
as Jeliovah in all these diflerent aspects. And thus for 
the opening of these two names. The observations 
from them are, 

Ubs. 1. Though God be never so strong and terrible 
in himself, never so great and glorious, vet faitli has 
strength to wrestle with him. Jacob had power with 
God. God ! what God ? The Lord of hosts, Jehovah, 
the great and glorious God. And yet Jacob wrestles 
with this Lord of hosts, God-Jehovah, and prevails 
witli him. 

So that hence Christians should learn to raise up 
their spirits when they have to deal with C!od. If God 
ha.s given them faith, they should be daunted neither 
by God's terror nor his greatness. Thou dost some- 
times look upon God as the great Creator of heaven 
and earth, the great Lord of hosts, the infinite Jeliovah, 
and tlie lustre of his glory seems to amaze thee ; be 
not afraid. O thou believing soul, if thou art a seed 
of Jacob, notwithstanding all the terribleness, and all 
the glor)', that there is in God, and the infinite distance 
that there is between him and us, which his name Je- 
hovah sets out unto us, yet thou mayst WTCstle with 



this God, even with this God, and prevaih Many poor 
Christians are much daunted and discouraged with the 
sight of the greatness of God ; but this text is a vei-y 
great hel]) to silence the apprehension of such. Indeed 
it is for ungodly men, to whom God is an enemy, to be 
daunted with the apprehension of the greatness of 
God ; but to the seed of Jacob, even when Jacob pre- 
vailed it was with this God, that is, the Lord of hosts, 
whose memorial is Jehovali. 

Obs. 2. The greatness and glory of God in these his 
names is a great aggravation of sin. Oh, the Lord is 
infinitely terrible, he is the Lord of hosts, Jehovah, 
and yet you wretched creatures have departed from, 
and sinned against, tliis God. Oh, it is a fearful aggra- 
vation of men's sin, that their sin is against such a God. 
the Lord of hosts, whose name is Jehovah ; nothing 
can humble the soul of a sinner more effectuaUy than 
the sight of the Lord in his glorious attributes, ^^'hen 
thou comest to know witli what a God thou hast to 
deal, this will make thee see the greatness of thy sin. 
Therefore the prophet sets God in his glor)' before 
this people, that they should come to see their great 
sin, and that there should be a stop given to the course 
of their hearts, which were running on in the ways of 
unrighteousness. 

06s. 3. God is the same to us as he was to our fore- 
fathers, if we forsake him not. He was thus to your 
father Jacob, the Lord of hosts, Jehovah ; and his me- 
morial is still the Lord of hosts, and Jehovah, and 
therefore you might have this God to ajipear the Lord 
of hosts for your good as well as he did to your fore- 
fathers, and you might have God appear to be Jehovah 
for you as well as he did to Jacob, if you forsake him 
not. O wretches ! that you should forsake this God, 
whom you might have to be the Lord of hosts and 
Jehovah to you. 

O, let us learn this, when we read in Scripture, ov 
hear from our forefathers, how God has ap])eared here- 
tofore for his saints, for our forefathers, to reilect, God 
is the same God still, and we may come to have as 
much good from this God as ever any had since the 
world began ; there is no shortening of his power, and 
no darkening of his glory, but with whatsoever power 
God has wrought, in whatsoever glory he has appeared, 
in former times, he may manifest the same for us now. 
It is a mighty argument for people to keep close to God 
and be faithful with him even because of this. 

Obs. 4. There is no need of images to keep God's 
remembrance. The glorious titles of God and his at- 
tributes, and the manifestation of himself in his works, 
is the best memorial of God ; that is our way, the way 
of man to make to himsell' memorials. God has made 
himself " a memorial." A\'hen you read in the word this 
glorious title of God, Jehovah, it is a better memorial 
of God than all the images in the world are, and we 
may better sanctify God's name, and have our hearts 
better wrought upon, by such titles of God, than by all 
kind of images whatsoever. 

06.4. 5. God manifests his glory, that he may be re- 
membered from generation to generation. " The Lord 
God of hosts ; Jeliovah is his memorial ;" as if he 
should say, God then manifested himself as Jehovah, 
and he would be remembered in other ages to be so ; 
what God does to his people in one age, he not only 
expects to have his name sanctified for that iircsent, but 
he would have it laid up from age to age, and would 
be honoured in all generations from those great mani- 
festations of himself in some one age. 

My brethren, oh that we had hearts to do this ! Oh 
that wc could make this God his memorial ! that we 
could lay up what God has manifested of himself in 
this age,' for the benefit of another age! I hope God 
will one way or other provide means for the recording 
of tlie famous things that God has done in this age. 



Ver. 6. 



THE PIIOPHECY OF HOSEA. 



523 



that it may be a memorial to the posterity afterwards ; 
for certainly our age cannot give God the glory that is 
due unto his name for what he has done ; ive had need 
labour to continue it to posterity, that the ages to come 
may remember what God has done to give gloiy to 
him ; it is his memorial. 

06s. 6. This name of Jehovah, the memorial of God, 
aflfords matter for a very useful meditation. You that 
say you cannot meditate, your* meditations are barren ; 
would you help yourselves in meditation to have a holy 
memorial of God, think much of the name Jehovah, 
remember what has been hinted to you from that name, 
and what is contained in it. 

Ver. 6. Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy 
and judgment, and wait on thy God co?itmtcally. 

" Therefore." Here comes the application now ; the 
two preceding verses contain the doctrine, this is the 
use, " Therefore turn thou to thy God ;" so that this 
" therefore" has reference to all that the prophet had 
said concerning Jacob, and to these titles of God; as if 
he shoidd say thus : 

I. You had such a gracious father that did thus 
prevail with God, to whom God did so appear, " there- 
fore turn thou to thy God." 

II. God is " the Lord of hosts," therefore turn to 
him. 

III. " Jehovah is his memorial," therefore tm-n to 
him. 

I. The reference it has to their father Jacob affords 
us this note : 

Obs. 1. The consideration of our godly forefathers is 
a great argument to turn us to God. O you ehil- 
di'en who have had parents that were wrestlers with 
God, are you wicked now ? Consider what parents you 
had, and turn you therefore to God. In 2 Tim. i. 3, 
•' I thank God," saith St. Paul, " whom I serve from 
my forefathers with pure conscience." Oh ! it is a 
great comfort to a man or woman if they can say thus, 
" I thank God, whom I serve fi'om my forefathers with 
pure conscience :" my forefathers served God, my 
grandfather, or grandmother, or father, or mother, was 
godly ; and I thank God even from them that I serve 
God : God is " my God," and " my father's God,' 
Exod. XV. 2. 

II. The consideration of God as " the Lord of hosts," 
is a mighty motive to cause us to turn to God. Wilt 
thou go on in ways of enmity against the Lord of hosts, 
the Lord of hosts, who has angels and all creatures to 
fight for him ? Wilt thou, a poor worm, stand out 
against this God ? Thou that goest on in a w'ay of wick- 
edness, know thou lightest against the great Lord of 
hosts. What were it for a drunken fellow to come and 
think to oppose but such an army as goes out of the 
city at this time ? but for a poor wretched worm to 
think to stand against the infinite God, the Lord of 
hosts ! oh ! it were infinite boldness and presumption, 
and desperate madness ; therefore turn to the Lord. 
All the while thou art going on in ways of wickedness, 
thou art fighting against the Lord of"hosts. 

And, on the other side, if thou hadst but a heart to 
turn to the Lord, oh how joj-ful would this title be to 
thee, that that God which is thy God, is the Lord of 
hosts, is the Lord of all the hosts in the world ! We 
are not afraid now to see soldiers, and to hear the beat- 
ing of drums, and shooting of guns, when we know 
that all are our friends ; but if we should have heard 
tlie beating- of drums, and neighing of horses, and the 
guns of our enemies, that would have struck fear. So 
one that hath turned to God, need not fear any army, 
any creatures ; why ? all is commanded by God theu' 
Father. Oh the joy, peace, and security that a heart 
mav have which is tmned to God ! In Acts xxvii. 23, 



24, Paul saith, " There stood by me this night the 
angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, 
Fear not, Paul." Mark, There stood before me the 
angel of God. Did not that terrify him ? " The 
angel," that is but one of the members of the hosts 
of God ; any one angel has a great deal of terror in 
him sometimes, for there is much of the gloiy of God 
in angels, and we know that their appearing has struck 
terror into many men. But now, saith Paul, the angel 
said, " Fear not ;" if it be the angel of God, '■ whose I 
am, and whom I serve," then I need not fear ; yea, let 
God muster up all his hosts, and appear to one that 
has turned to him, if he can say thus, " Whose I am, 
and whom I serve," these hosts will say, " Fear not." 
Therefore tm'n to the Lord, because he is the Lord of 
hosts. 

in. God is Jehovah, therefore should we tiu'n to 
him. There is a great deal of force in this name to 
cause sinners to turn to him, for this name Jehovah 
has as much terror in it to a guUty, ungodly soul, as 
any thing we read of in all the book of God. I say, 
put all together that we read in the book of God, yet 
if we did but thoroughly understand the name Jehovah, 
we should see as much terror in it to a guilty conscience, 
and a sinful soul that goes on in the ways of wicked- 
ness, as almost all that is mentioned of God that might 
be terrible. As thus, 

Jehovah. If he be Jehovah, he has power over every 
thing that has a being to torment thee with it, for he 
has aU being in himself, all being is from him, and he 
disposes of all : therefore whatsoever thing has any be- 
ing in it, this God has the power over it, to make use 
of it to torment thee withal. Do but consider what 
power some little creature, if it be in some part of a 
man's body, has to produce torment ; a little gravel in 
the kidneys, or stone in the bladder, poor and weak in 
itself, but being in that place, what torture does it 
bring ! Now if they have such power to torment thee, 
then what power have all things in the earth, and the 
infinite God that has all essence, and all being, and can 
dispose of all things as he pleases, to bring pain, misery, 
and torment to a sinner ! It is a very humbling con- 
sideration to a sinner. 

And, on the other side, if there be any power in any 
thing that has a being to bring any comfort, it is all 
in God, for God has all in him eminently. As now, 
one creature has power to torment in one way, another 
in another way; and so one creature has pow-er to 
comfort us one way, another another ; but all this is 
eminently in God. The gravel torments one way, the 
gouty humour in the veins torments another way, and 
fire and the sword torment after another manner, and 
burning fever, fire without and fire within, and the 
stinging of serpents, all torment after diflerent man- 
ners: now all power of all things is in God eminentlj', 
in him is the quintessence of all things, and therefore 
the power of God is able to bring all sorts of torments 
at one time in one thing. As now, suppose several 
herbs of several vii-tues, if these herbs wei-e all distilled 
into one water, then a drop of that has the vu-tue and 
efficacy, it may be, of forty several herbs ; so now, (if I 
may so compare,) God has aD kind of power in him- 
self, and is able to put forth in one instant all the 
power and efficacy that there is in all creatures in 
heaven and earth, either to torment or to comfort us. 
If one herb has one sweetness, and a second another, 
and the third another, how sweet wiU be the distilla- 
tion of them all together. Now aU sweetnesses being 
in God eminently, oh what comfort is there in God to 
the soul ! Thus, either way, the name Jehovah affords 
full matter for meditation, either to humble us for 
sin by the ch-eadfulness of his wrath, or to com- 
fort and encourage us by the reflection that there is 
all being in God eminently, and that all depend ab- 



S24 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



solutely upon him ; therefore turn to God, because he 
is Jehovah. 

Obs. 1. The excellency of the saints is an argument 
to turn us to God. AVhc'n both together, the excellency 
of Jacob and the excellency of God, this is set as an ar- 
gument to turn to the Lord. Turn to me. 

But they might say, Do not we turn to God ? we do 
serve God. Tlience further, 

Obs. 2. We depart from God in the midst of our 
services when we perform them not in God's way. 
They did worship God after a fashion, but God did not 
account that worshipping of him, but departing from 
him ; therefore turn to God. 

"Turn thou." 

That is, every one of you ; do not stand objecting 
and cavilling agauist what I say, hut turn to God e\ev\ 
one of you. "Turn thou to thy God." Thou art Israel, 
thou art the jiosterity of that great prevailer with God, 
therefore turn Ihoii to God. The note of observation 
from hence, which, if you lay it to heart, you will find 
it of very great use, is this : 

06s. 3. Kvery one should consider what peculiar ar- 
guments there are that concern him in particular to 
turn to God. " Therefore turn thou to thy God." 
There is a great deal more reason why thou shouldst 
turn to God than others. 

Oh that every one of us here in this place would but 
in our meditations labour to recall all those particular 
arguments that concern ourselves, that might turn us 
to God ! Do not take it in the general, Turn to God be- 
cause he is your Creator, turn to God that you may be 
saved : this concerns all. But consider what special 
reasons thou hast, as thus : Consider what special mani- 
festations of God have been vouchsafed to thee ; what 
special offers of grace have been made to thee ; what 
special workings of the Holy Ghost there have been 
upon thy heart ; what special illuminations of God"s 
Spirit there have been within thee ; consider what spe- 
cial dangers thou hast been in ; what special vows and 
covenants thou hast made to God, and yet hast depart- 
ed from him afterwards : consider what special engage- 
ments thou hast had: these are but hints to lead you 
to lay to heart all the arguments that may concern you 
especially to turn to thy God. " Therefore turn thou 
to thy God." Do not thou look upon others, and think 
thus, I do as others do : yea, but thou hast more reason 
to turn to God than others, there are more argu- 
ments to persuade thy heart than others, " Therefore 
turn thou to thy God." And this is a great mercy of 
God towards any, when he darts powerfully those spe- 
cial considerations and argimients that concern their 
souls to turn to God : we come to hear the word, and 
to hear the nature of repentance, and the motives to 
repentance, but that generally concerns all, and does 
not much move our heart ; ' but at another time it 
pleases God to suggest something out of the word that 
concerns us in particular, and this affects our hearts 
more powerfully than all the rest. As if a man be 
asleep, though there be a great noise, perhaps it does 
not awaken him, but let one call him by his name, and 
speak particularly to him, and that will awaken him 
when a greater noise will not do it : so, though 
there be general rea.sons for turning to God, they do 
not so much prevail with people, as when God speaks 
to us by name, and saith. Turn thou to God. There 
are these sjjccial arguments why thou shouldst turn to 
God rather than others. Many times you will say, If 
ever any were bound to God, then I am : then turn 
thou to God because thou art more engaged than 
others. 

"To thy God." 

That is, though you have departed from him, vet he 
lias not so wholly cast you off, but he may yet be thtj 
God. From whence, 



Obs. 4. The sight of any relation to God, or hope of 
mercy from him, is a special means to draw the heart 
to turn to him. He may yet be thi/ God. God has not 
left thee ; O thou wretched, sinful soul, who knows but 
that he may be thy God, and thy God to all eternity? 
Thou mightest have been past hearing of any ])ossibilily 
of God's being thy God, and therefore turn to God, turn 
to thi/ God. 

" Keep mercy and judgment." 

"Want of mercy, in the '1th chapter of this prophecy, 
was charged upon this people, that there was no 
mercy in the land. And so in divers other places, want 
of justice. Now, "turn thou to thy God; keep mercy 
and judgment." From the context, 

Obs. 0. In our turnings to God, we must reform ouv 
special sins. It is not enough for any to turn to God, 
and leave some gross sins ; but is there any sin more 
special than another, that you have lived in before your 
turning to God ? reform in that sin above all. None 
can ever have any sure argument that their repentance 
is true, though they have left many sins, if they have 
not left their special sins. There is some special sin 
that thou hast lived in, what sayest thou to that ? 

Obs. 6. It is nothing for people to reform in God's 
worship, except they reform also in the duties of the 
second table. The duties of the second table, mercy 
and judgment; "Turn thou to thy God; keep mercy 
and judgment." Many seem to be forward in duties of 
instituted worship, which is very good ; we are to 
honour God, God is jealous in that business : but now, 
together with that, if we be not conscientious in the 
duties of the second table, of mercy and judgment too, 
it is nothing: all will vanish and come to nothing ex- 
cept thou llvcst righteously and mercifully with men 
also, as well as worship Cod aright; do not think 
to put off thy conscience with the duties of worship, 
except thou dost " keep mercy and judgment." This 
we would observe generally; but more particularly, 

Obs. 7. A heart truly turning to God, must needs be 
very merciful to men. God expects that from all who 
turn to him, that upon thy turning to God, thy bowels 
should yearn towards thy brethren, and turn to them 
in love, and in mercy, and meekness, and gentleness, 
and forgiveness. For when thou tumest to God, is it 
not the mercy of God that draws thy heart? If it be 
not that, thy turning is not right ; never any turned to 
God rightly but their hearts were taken with God's 
mercy ; and can thy heart be taken with God's mercy, 
and thou not merciful to thy brethren? Many pro- 
fessors of religion think little of this, but I find the 
Scripture makes as much of this as of any thing but 
faith itself, faith in the covenant of grace. These three 
things the Scripture holds forth, and urges veiy much 
upon men, faith, mercy, and unity. The two latter 
are thought to be of little or no moment with men, but 
certainly the I,ord Christ lays much upon mercy to- 
wards men, that all that are his members should lie of 
merciful and of uniting dispositions one towards an- 
other. Oh, it is mercy in which the Scripture makes 
religion to consist : James i. 27, " Pure religion and 
undcfiled before God and the Father is this, To visit 
the fatherless and widows in their affliction." And in 
James ii. 1.3. " Mercy rejoiceth against judgment." 
This will help us in the time of straits, and in the sea- 
son of danger, that we have been merciful towards our 
brethren, for so I understand the words, " Mercy re- 
joiceth against," or over, " judgment : " not that 6od's 
mercy is more than his judgment, and (hat, though a 
sinner has deserved judgment, yet God's mercy will 
prevail, and triumph over it ; but I take the text to re- 
fer to mercy in man, and not mercy in God, that is, 
thus ; AV'hcn man has had a merciful heart towards 
others, towards his brethren, that then if he .should live 
to meet with affliction, live to a time of judgment, 



V£it. 6. 



THE PROPHIX'Y OF HOSEA. 



times of common calamity, common dangers, that 
mercy which he has exercised towards liis brelliren in 
the time of his prosperity will cause his soul to triumph 
in. the midst of all dangers. In the time of afiiic- 
tion mercy rejoices over judgment: Let judgment come, 
let afflictions come in the world, let there be never such 
hard times among the nations, yet I have a testimony 
to my conscience, the Lord has given me a merciful 
heart towards my brethren that are in misery, and I 
that am but a poor creature, who have but a th"op of 
mercy to that God whose mercy is infinite as the ocean 
of mercy, will not that God be merciful to me much 
more ? Keep mercy therefore, you that turn to God, 
be of merciful dispositions towards your bretlu'en. Oh ! 
this is wanting among many professors of religion, they 
are of cruel and harsh dispositions, rigid, sour, and 
severe towards others, they care not what becomes of 
them. O, be merciful to your brethren ; you that are 
turned to God, show it in this, that you keep mercy. 

" And judgment." 

That is, righteous judgment among men. Thou canst 
not turn to God from thy unrighteousness, and to a 
righteous God, and yet still not be righteous towards 
men. INIany texts of Scripture I might have shown 
you, that commend this grace of righteousness ; and it 
is made the great promise to the church in its glorious 
state, that righteousness shall prevail there, that her 
people shall be a righteous people. 

But further, " and judgment." Not only judgment 
in doing no man any WTong, and righteousness in deal- 
ing ; but a manifestation of thy hatred against sin, by 
the execution of judgment, 

Obs. 8. Where there is a true turning to God, there 
must be righteousness among men. Certainly, if turned 
from thy unrighteousness towards a righteous God, 
then thou wilt be turned likewise from thy unright- 
eousness towards thy fellow men. ■ 

Obs. 9. Those who are in authority must manifest 
their hatred against sin, by the execution of judgment. 
Though in thine own cause thou mayst forbear, yea, 
thou shouldst be merciful ; but when public manifest- 
ation of hati'ed against sin requires justice, then there 
is no place for sparing ; when God calls thee, in any 
public place, to manifest hatred against sin, then { I 
say) thou mayst not think of sparing. 

But you will say. Oh, I must pity, and show mercv. 

AVell, if you would be merciful, be merciful in your 
own cause. jNIany will plead for indulgence to male- 
factors, yet in their own business they have no in- 
dulgence to those who offend them. It beseems a 
judge to be very pitiful when he is wronged himself, 
but it beseems him to be very righteous and just when 
the public calls him. 

Obs. 10. Mercy is fu-st, and judgment afterwards. 
"Keep mercy and judgment." The Scripture makes 
a difference between our respect to mercy and judg- 
ment : thus, Micah vi. 8, " What doth the Lord re- 
quire of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and 
to walk humbly with thy God?" A pre-eminence must 
be given to mercy, mercy must not only be shown, but 
loved ; justice must be done. 

Obs. IL The mixture of mercy and judgment is very 
comely. " Keep mercy and judgment." The Scripture 
joins them very often : " I will sing of mercy and judg- 
ment," Psal. ci. 1. "He that foUoweth after righteous- 
ness and mercy flndeth life, righteousness, and honour," 
Prov. xxi. 21. "Unto the upright there ariseth light 
in the darkness : he is gracious, and full of compassion, 
and righteous," Psal. cxii. 4. And in Jer. ix. 24, the 
Lord seems to gloiy in this his righteousness as well 
as in his mercy ; saith the Lord, Let no man glory in 
the flesh ; " but let him that glorieth glory in this, that 
he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord 
which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and right- 



eousness, in the earth:" let him glory in this, that he 
knows that I am such a God ; this is my glory, that I 
am both righteous and merciful. 

Now for the several rules : First, When mercy should 
be shown. Secondly, AVhen judgment should be exe- 
cuted. How men should be directed to mix both these 
together. 

First, JNIercy should be shown, 

1. AVhen men ofl'end by infirmity, tln'ough weak- 
ness, and not through wilfulness. 

Oh that we would consider of this ! Our brethren that 
sometimes differ from us in judgment and in practice, 
consider. Do they appear, in any of their ways, to be 
wilful in their way ? can you take it upon your con- 
sciences, that it is through obstinacy or any wicked 
principles that they walk otherwise than you ? does it 
not appear in aU their other ways that they walk hum- 
bly and conscionably, that if they be in the wrong, yet 
it is through mere weakness thai; they cannot discern 
the truth, which thou thinkest thou dost see ? Now 
thou shouldst be merciful towards them, and carry not 
thyself in a rigid, severe, bitter, and harsh way towards 
them, but in a merciful way ; mercy when the offence 
arises from infirmity. 

2. When the ottender is ah-cady sensible of his 
offence. 

3. When there may be as much good done by a fair, 
gentle, and merciful carriage, as by a harsh and rigid 
demeanour. 

4. Especially when any begin to feel passion arise 
in their hearts, and a spirit of revenge to stir in them, 
above all times, then is the time for mercy. Examine 
thy heart, thou hast to deal with thy brother ; now 
see whether there do not begin to arise passion and 
revenge in thy spirit towards him, now is the time for 
mercy ; it is not the fit time for judgment, it is not a fit 
time to give judgment, nor for thee to execute judg- 
ment, but now is the time for mercy. 

Secondly, Judgment should be "kept," especially, 

1. 'When called to manifest hatred against sin. 

2. "\Vhen the public good requires it; when you can- 
not bo merciful to one, but you must be cruel to another. 
As in many things wherein men would be merciful, the 
truth is, the mercy they show to some is cruelty to 
others : and when thou hast the least interest in a busi- 
ness, then there is the most like to be the time for 
judgment. 

" Keep mercy." 

"Keep;" not only do some acts of mercy, but 
" keep mercy." 

!Many men, in some good moods, oh how pitiful are 
they ! how merciful ! but come to them at another 
time, and how rigid, how sovu' arc they then ! how bit- 
ter, how cruel, how harsh are they ! We have found 
it so by experience. You can say of such a man. Oh ! 
what sweet converse had we together, and what a sweet- 
tempered man he was ! how loving, how meek, how 
gentle, how pitiful ! But come to him now, how harsh 
and rugged ! yea, extremely bitter in his expressions, 
mightily tiu-ned, as if he were not the same man. 
" Keep mercy," keep it. Docs God at any time melt 
thy heart, and make thee ap])rehensive of thy need of 
mercy ? does thy heart begin to bleed towards thy 
brethren? O, keep it, keep this temper; the Lord 
keep this in the thoughts and purposes of thy heart for 
ever. It should be the care of Christians, not only to 
do that which is good, but to keep their hearts in such 
a constant frame. Oh that some of you would but 
call to mind the days of old ! Was there not a time 
in which your hearts did melt towards your brethren, 
and you had sweet converse and communion with them ; 
what is become of those spii-its now ? O, turn to that 
gracious, sweet temper again ; and if ever God reduce 
you to that temper, keep it. Consider what is it that 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



ClIAP. XII. 



has changed my heart, what has brought me to it. Now 
if God does discover how thou hast lost that sweetness 
of thy heart, oh ! labour to repent and turn to God, 
and resolve, If ever God bring me to that temper again, 
(as sometimes, through his mercy, I have felt,) I hope, 
through his grace, that I shall keep myself in that 
temper. Oh ! how hapjiy were it with us, if, when God 
brings our hearts into a good temper, we had but hearts 
to keep them in the same ! " Keep mercy." 

" And judgment." "Keep judgment" too. In some 
acts you find men very just, while in others they will be 
false enough. But now it should be our care to be as 
is sa'd of God in Jer. 1. 7, " the habitation of justice :" 
so also it should be in the courts of justice, they should 
be indeed " the habitation of justice." Perhaps some- 
times, in some one cause, a man may have justice in a 
court ; yea, but if it be not so in all causes, and at all 
times, justice is not " kept." Justice should be always ' 
at home ; a court should be always the habitation of 
judgment. And so it should be in families, and in indivi- 
duals. It may be thou wert some time just in thy ways ; 
yea, but then thou liadst not a temptation to unjust 
dealing. Some men, by a temptation, are brought to 
such unjust dealing, that if a man had said some years 
ago that thou wouldst have done such things, you would 
have been ready to exclaim, '• What, is thy servant a 
dog, that he should do this great thing?" 2 Kings viii. 
13. When a man is once engaged in any unjust way, 
he will go on ; therefore keep judgment. 

" And wait on thy God continually." That is, do not 
satisfy yourselves in' duties of mercy and judgment only, 
but worship God : for by waiting on God is meant the 
exercise of spu'itual graces, wherein the worship of God 
consists, wherein we come to make God to be our God. 
As it is not enough for men to think they worship God, 
and yet make no conscience of the second table ; so 
neither is it enough for men to make conscience of the 
second table, and not to worship God. It may be some 
of you are very just ; yea, but what worship of God is 
there in your families, and in your own hearts ? Do 
your souls worship God, and sanctify the name of God 
in all your ways ? Therefore to the words, " Turn thou 
to thy God, keep mercy and judgment," is added, " and 
wait on thy God continually." 

" Wait on thy God." Let us consider how we are to 
wait on God. 

1. In faith. The basis or foundation of waiting, is 
faith ; to believe there is good in God, help, supply in 
him, and in him alone, however contrary things seem 
to be. I believe there is help in God alone, and not in 
those base ways into which my cwrupt heart before 
led me. 

2. In the use of the means which God has appointed 
for the attaining of my desires. 

3. In an earnest looking out for mercy. I believe 
here is mercy, and no where else ; I attend on God for 
it in the use of these means, and I look out for mercy. 

4. In quiet submi-ssion in the mean lime, though 
God stays long. That is true waiting, not to be dis- 
contented, not to have my heart sink, though God 
stays long. 

5. In seeking God all the while. That soul that does 
this, may be said to wait on God. 

Ob.i. 12. A turning heart is a waiting heart. The 
heart that turns truly to God is taken off from all 
creature contentments, so as to rest in them, and looks 
up to God for all help, and for all supply. And this 
waiting is of vei-y great use to those that are turning 
to God. Consider of it ; is any of you about the work 
of turning to God ? has God begun to make a turn in 
any of your hearts ? Know, that when you are turn- 
ing to God, you are very like to meet with a great many 
tilings that may discourage you, many suggestions of 
the devil and your own hearts : Why should not I go 



back again ? What good have I gotten by reading and 
praying ■* I get nothing by it, all will come to nothing 
at ia-st, Tem|)tations are like to come thick and three- 
fold upon the heart of a sinner turning to God. I am 
confident 1 am speaking in this to the hearts of all that 
know what it is to turn to God ; there was a time that 
thou wert departing from God, and then thou wentest 
on quietly, but ever since God has begun to turn thy 
heart, oh the thick and threefold temjjtations of the 
devil that have come to thee ! Now this is a very sea- 
sonable exhortation ; Turn to God and wait upon him, 
be not discouraged ; notwithstanding all difficulties, 
fears, temptations, and discouragements, from men, and 
devils, and thine own heart, yet wait upon God and 
keep in his way. 

Oh ! it had been happy had this exhortation been 
set home upon the spirit.s of many to whose hearts the 
Lord was beginning to give a tmn. Not long since the 
Lord was beginning to turn thy heart to himself, and 
thou didst meet with some things that discouraged thee, 
which has turned thee quite off again. Oh ! had but 
this exhortation come seasonably then, " Turn thou to 
thy God, and wait upon him;" oh! it had been happy 
for thee. The Lord make it seasonable now to thee ! 
Oh ! remember this text, •' Turn thou to thy God," and 
" wait upon him continually." 

" Wait." Oh ! there is reason that thou shouldst 
wait upon God. Thou sayest. If I had comfort, and if 
I were sure I should be saved at last, though I have 
discouragements from men, yet, if I had but comfort 
from God, then I could be content : yea, but wait, wait 
for comfort, wait for peace, wait for assurance ; God is 
a great God, and is worthy to be waited on. There are 
some reasons why we should wait upon God. 

1. Men that are above others will take state upon 
them, and they will be waited on. God is great, and 
therefore wait upon him. 

2. We are vile creatures and unworthy, and there- 
fore let us wait. If a beggar should rap and rap, and 
you come and see it to be a beggar, your heart rises 
upon him ; if he beg, he must wait if you be busy. We 
are beggars, and therefore it is fit we should wait. 

o. God has waited on us a long time. How long 
did God wait u])on thee ? It may be thou wert twenty 
years old before thou didst begin to turn to God, per- 
haps thou wert thirty or forty years old, and God was 
waiting upon thee to be gracious all that time ; God 
was waiting for opportunity to do thee good, therefore 
wait thou now upon God. 

4. What we wait for is worth our waiting. If a man 
believed there were nothing but scraps to be had at last, 
then he wovdd not wait so long ; but if he hoped some 
great thing was to be gotten, then he would wait. 
When beggars come to a mean house, they knock at 
the door and stay a little, and if they give them nothing, 
away they will go ; but if they come to great houses, 
or coaches, they will wait, though it be long, and run 
a great way after them. That which wc wait for is 
worth thousands of worlds f we wait for the pardon of 
sin, we wait for the assurance of God's love, we wait for 
the shedding abroad of the Holy Ghost in our hearts ; 
we wait for rich treasure, and know that there is enough 
to be had in God : your waiting will pay for all. 

5. It is a great part of God's worship to wait upon 
him. It is not the wor.ship of God, only to pray, and 
hear the word, and receive sacraments ; but when you 
are waiting you ai-e worshipping of God. 

6. God is all this while preparing mercy for you. 
Sui)posc a .scrivener write something for you ; well, the 
thing is not yet done ; yea, but he is writing as fast as 
he can. Kiiow, O thou soul who art turning to God, 
all the while thou art waiting God is working ; God 
is .setting all bis attributes on work for thy good while 
thou art waiting, and therefore wait on thy God. 



Ver. 6. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



527 



7. God is infinitely -wise, and he knows when it is 
best for us to have the mercy, he knows the times and 
seasons; wait then still upon God, for "the Lord is a 
God of judgment." Alas ! we are hasty, we cannot 
judge when the time is fittest, but God is " a God of 
judgment," and therefore wait upon him : should we 
have a mercy just when we would, our mercy would 
undo us, and therefore let us wait. 

O my brethren, we have as much encouragement 
here in this land to wait upon God as ever any people 
had. We would fain have had the wars ended, and we 
began to murmur and repine because it was not done, 
Oh, but we will not wait ; therefore we will not turn ; 
and those that turn to God least will wait least upon 
him, and those that turn to God most will wait most 
upon him. I)o not you see that God has wrought 
abundance of good for us by deferring what we would 
have ? Suppose we had had no opposition at the begin- 
ning of the parliament, but that the king had agreed, 
and said. You shall have your desires. Our desires 
then were limited to some few things, as the abolition 
of ship money, tonnage and poundage of monopolies, 
&c., and the granting of triennial parliaments, and the 
like. Now what abundance has God wrought by de- 
ferring what we would have had ! Oh, it is good for 
people to wait upon God. Let us look back to our mur- 
murings and repinings all this while ; true, we have 
suffered something ; yea, but has not God wrought 
good out of our sufferings ? And suppose there should 
be fears of new storms arising, oh, let us not say we will 
wait no longer. Take heed of foolish resolutions of 
yoiu' own. God is wisest, leave God to do his own 
work ; keep the way of God and go on in your duty, 
and then let God work his own ends, either by war or 
peace, as he pleases, only "wait thou upon thy God." 

" Continually." It is fit for us to wait. Yea, but we 
have waited a long time. Well, but yet know that 
you are at the right door. Suppose a man be knock- 
ing at a door, and he has knocked a great while and 
nobody comes, he begins to think it is not the right 
door, but somebody tells him that it is, and thereon 
he stays : so we may assure our hearts thus much, we 
are at the right door certainly, and let us not think to 
go away, we shall find somebody within, God wiU 
appear at length. What ! shall we lose all for want of 
waiting a little while longer ? Thus it is with many 
wretched apostates, that have taken a great deal of 
pains in seeking after God a great while, and for want 
of waiting a little longer they have lost all. Oh, let 
there be this resolution in your hearts. If I die and 
perish, yet I will die and perish waiting upon God. 
Certainly the soul which has this resolution will never 
come to despau- ; yea, there is no such way for the 
hastening of mercy, as for a soul to lie flat at the feet 
of God : Let God do what he will with me ; if I perish, I 
will perish waiting upon him ; though he kills me, I 
will trust in him, and stay upon him. You have waited; 
how long, I pray P Oh, you have been waiting and 
seeking God it may be this half year, or twelve months. 
What is that, I pray ? O thou wretched soul ! thou 
hast deserved eternal flames, .and- wilt thou grudge 
waiting on God a few years ? If God would keep thee 
waiting all thy days, (as he has done many,) and at 
the last manifest himself unto thee, thou hast cause to 
bless God for ever ; and therefore do not grudge though 
thou hast been waiting a wlide, and it may be, though 
thy time is come, yet God's time is not come. The time 
which you call long, God calls not so ; one day with 
God is as a thousand years; it is no time with God, and 
therefore do not complain of the length of thy time. 
But for waiting, and that " continually," there are fur- 
ther reasons. 

1. Your betters have waited longer. Read but Psal. 
Ixxxviii., and there you will find one better than you 



who waited all his time. The Lord was pieased to 
work grace upon him when he was young, his heart 
was turned to God then ; and you may find in the text, 
that fi-om his youth up, the terrors of God were upon 
him. " Wait thou upon thy God continually." 

2. You cannot better yourself. Whither wilt thou 
go, poor soul ? now you are seeking God, you have 
not wh?t you would have, whither will you go ? Can 
you mend yourself any way ? if you cannot, then wait 
upon God " continually." 

3. It may be before God began to turn thy heart, 
thou didst think mercy was easy to be obtained, that 
it was nothing to believe ; thou didst wonder that peo- 
ple spake so much of the hardness of believing, in 
thine eyes it was easy. Well, the Lord is now work- 
ing upon thy heart, and would humble thee for those 
slight thoughts which thou hadst of faith ; the Lord will 
have thee to know, that believing in his grace requires 
a mighty work of God, even the same power which 
raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Be humbled for 
thy slight thoughts about the work of faith, and know, 
that this (it may be) is the thing which God intends 
in so long keeping thee so low, that thou mayst come 
to see that faith requires the mighty power of God to 
work it ; that so thou mayst give glory to God when- 
ever thy heart shall be raised by the work of faith to 
believe in him, and to be enabled to triumph in him, 
and say, " Lo, this is our God, we have waited on 
him," and this is the God of my salvation. And there- 
fore, you that are turning to God, wait upon your God 
continually. 

Ver. 7. He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are 
in his hand : he toveth to oppress. 

This scripture, though it seem somewhat harsh, and 
hai'd to read, yet it may be a good providence of God 
that has brought it before us at this time. 

The scope of the prophet and connexion here is. 
We may exhort, but so long as their hearts are covetous, 
and set upon their way of getting gain, they will never 
regard what we say ; they will not turn to God, they will 
not hear of it, but will rather turn a deaf ear to all 
entreaties. This indeed is the guise of men who have 
great dealings in the world, and whose hearts are set 
upon their riches, let the most glorious truths possible 
be set before them, yet they are as nothing to them. 
We read in Luke xvi. of Christ himself preaching be- 
fore a company of men, and some of them being very 
covetous; mark what the text saith, ver. 14, " Aud the 
Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these 
things : and they derided him," they blew their noses 
at him, so the word signifies, they scorn- 
ed him. Christ spake of excellent and •"""""'P'f""'- 
divine mysteries, some of his auditors had dealings in 
the world, and great estates, and they scofied at his 
words : Tell us of such things as these ! tell us of 
ways of gain, how we may come to enrich ourselves. 
Similar seems to have been the disposition of some of 
the auditors of Hosea at this time, therefore saith he, 

" He is a merchant." The word |y:3 here translated 
" amerchant," signifies a Canaanite, and may be rendered 
according to the very letter. He is a Canaanite, for in 
Hebrew the word for Canaanite and merchant is the 
same. Thus Job xli. 6, " Shall they part him among the 
merchants ? " among the Canaanites : and Prov. xxxi. 
24, She " delivereth girdles unto the merchants ;" the 
Hebrew is, to the Canaanites. Now the reason why a 
merchant and a Canaanite are synonymous in Scripture 
is, because the country of Canaan was much given to 
merchandise, and indeed much to deceit. As as- 
trologers were called Chaldeans, because Chaldea was 
famous for mathematicians ; and robbers and thieves 
were called Arabians, because the inhabitants of Arabia 



528 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Cn.vr. XII. 



■ncre addicted to tlieft; so because Canaan had so 
many merchants, tlierefbre a Canaanite and a merchant 
were designated by the same term. 

But hero the Holy Ghost calls them not Israelites, 
mark, he saith not, Yoii are an Israelite, but a Canaanite ; 
and that by way of upbraiding them, as if because they 
had degenerated so much from Israel, spoken of before, 
he would not call them Israelites, but Canaanites. 

06.5. 1. Men by their sin may lose tlie honour of 
their progenitors. 

06s. 2. Though the calling of a merchant is not only 
a lawful, but a very honourable employment, yet the 
abuse of it may make it very contemptible. If it be 
abused and corrupted it may become very con- 
temptible ; for so here the Holy Ghost does cast such 
a word upon them, to show how, through their corrup- 
tion, they had rendered contemptible a calling that was 
Iionourable, and brought ignominy upon themselves ; 
for though merchants that are subtle may, in the pride 
of their hearts, rejoice in their craft and cimning, and 
think that they can circumvent others by their deceit, 
and get money by over-reaching them, tliey may glory 
in this, as if it were a great excellencj- in tliem, but the 
Holy Ghost casts contempt upon those ; " He is a mer- 
chant," a Canaanite, and " the balances of deceit are in 
his hand." 

" The balances of deceit are in his hand." The Lord 
abhorred their "balances of deceit," yea, and professed 
that they are an abomination to him, if you read Lev. 
xix. 35, 36, " Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judg- 
ment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure. Just ba- 
lances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall 
ye have : I am the Lord," I am Jehovah. If you will 
acknowledge me to be the Lord, to be Jehovah, be just 
in your dealing, have no unjust balances, let there be 
no injustice in your trading. And in Deut. xxv. 13 — 16, 
" Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great 
and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine house divers 
measures, a great and a small. But thou shalt have a 
perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure 
shalt thou have : tliat thy days may be lengthened in the 
land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. For all that 
do such things, and all that do unrighteously," (mark.) 
"are an abomination to the Lord thy God." ^luch stress 
is laid upon it. You think you may take liberty in such 
things. No, saith the text, all that do such things are 
"an abomination to the Lord thy God;" deceit in trad- 
ing is not only a thing that God forbids, but a thing 
that God abominates. Dost thou profess anj- interest 
in God ? hast thou any hope that God should be merci- 
ful to thy soul, to do thee any good ? dost thou think 
that God is thy God? know, this is an abomination 
then to thy God, to that God in Mhom thou professcst 
to have some interest. I'rov. xi. 1 confirms this, " A 
false balance is abomination to the Lord ; but a just 
weight is his delight," God takes jilcasuro in that. 

" The balances of deceit." Vi'c are to regard this as 
a synecdoche for all kinds of deceit in trading, though 
only balances are here mentioned ; not only deceitful 
balances, but measures, and talc, and lights, and mix- 
tures, when they shall mix water and otlier things with 
any commodity to make it heavier, or mix bad with 
good ware, or, by some of their many arts, put a deceit- 
ful gloss and appearance on things ; or use deceitful 
words, and make many protestations, yea, even swear 
deceitful oaths, with regard to the original cost and 
quality; ^and deceitful books, and deceitful reckonings; 
all such things are here condemned, and he who prac- 
tises them is termed " a Canaanite." Yet those have 
their due honour that are righteous in their dealing ; 
but such as make profession of merchandise, and are 
not righteous in their dealings, cannot think much that 
the Scripture should call them, by way of upbraiding. 
'■ a Canaanite." 



Even a joining with others in deceit is included in 
this : as if a man, who knows the way they take is 
to cozen others, yet to get gain he will be content to 
join with them to partake a part of their gain : these 
things, and perhaps your own consciences would tell 
you of abundant more that you know of, of the myste- 
ries of inicpiity that there are in trading. As we read of 
those in the Kevelation, that were under the ])ower of 
antichrist, they might not buy nor sell, except they had 
the mark of the beast upon them. And the truth is, 
among a great part, if not most, of our buyers and sell- 
ers, there is the mark of the beast upon them, deceit- 
fulness and falseness among them ; and because this is 
thought to bo so light a matter, therefore the Scripture 
lays the more weight upon it. And so much as the 
time will give me leave, I .shall labour to lay some 
weight upon this, of deceitfulness in ways of trading. 

" The balances of deceit are in his hand." Hereby 
(saith a learned interpreter on the place) 
is intimated a continual and perpetual S"p"'rpe'iuum'"t'u"-'" 
study and endeavour to deceive, he has j'™™- ^"•'■- '" 
it at hand, it is in his hand continually. 
In the forecited ])lace, Deut. xxv., men are forbidden 
to have a false weight in theu' bag ; you must not keep 
a felse weight in your house, much less in your hand. 

Or, it may be, he alludes to those that have a sleight 
of hand to make the balances turn one way or the 
other, so that their customers shall not perceive it. 

" He loveth to oppress." "^Miat oppression is there in 
trading ? If I buy a commodity and sell it again, what 
oppression can there be ? _There may be oppression in 
trading, as thus : 

1. In monopolizing commodities. "WTien a few men 
get a trade into their own hand, and make such use of 
it for themsel\es that poor men who have been brought 
up to it, and \\a\e no other means of livelihood, are not 
able to live by it, this is oppression. Certainly this 
monopolizing in trading is a great oppression : the Lord 
has in great measure delivered us from it, but yet not 
wholly, there is a great cry against it in many parts of 
the land still. 

2. ^^'^hen men take the advantages of the weaknesses 
of those with whom they deal in their trading ; but 
especially when they take advantage of men's necessi- 
ties, tliat is, if such a man must sell his commodity, 
now for men to take advantage of his necessity, and 
therefore beat it down, so as even almost to undo a 
man in the very things he is necessitated to sell. I 
verily believe you know the meaning of such tilings as 
these are. 

Or now, those who work upon the like necessity in 
buying, as sometimes when men must at a certain sea- 
son bring over certain commodities, you will let them 
lie to the last, that so you may have them at any rate ; 
and so when you come to know that men nnist needs 
have a commodity of you, then to raise the jjrice so as 
they cannot live upon it, this is even to drink their- very 
blood, this is oppression. 

3. In wronging the poor of their rightful wages. 
There are many poor men, that are servants to you who 
are merchants and tradesmen, they live upon their la- 
bour, and they must come and fetch commodities of 
you, that they may live ; now you, knowing their ne- 
cessity, that they must have your work, therefore beat 
down their wages, and give not unto them so that they 
may maintain their families. Y'ou will say, I do not 
wrong them, if they do not, others will. It may be, 
but it does not excuse you. 

4. In the oppression of debtors. AVhen tradesmen 
have gotten poor men into their debts, then they will 
make them that they shall buy of them, and of none 
other, and so will put oft' on them their braided ware, 
and that at a dear rate. You will say. We sell it them. 
Yea, but you force them to buy of you ; for if they 



Vee. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



529 



should go from you, then you fall upon theni, and put 
them into prison, or evil entreat them some other way. 
This is to love to oppress, to take the advantage of 
men's necessities when they are gro^mi poor. Certainly 
these things are grievous to the Spirit, and abominable 
in the eyes of God. These are rebuked here ; and that 
vou may see that there is a gi-eat deal of evil in these 
•■ balances of deceit," and oppression in trading, do but 
consider these particulars : 

1. Observe how this is introduced in my text, as 
oppo.<ite to turning to God. " Turn thou to thy God ;" 
then presently, " He is a merchant, the balances of de- 
ceit are in his" liand ; he loveth to oppress." Those who 
endeavour to get gain to themselves by any deceit or 
oppression, these are men that yet have not turned to 
God. Thou hast not turned to Jehovah, thy heart is 
not turned to him, thy heart is turned to the earth, the 
earth is thy portion, and the tilings of the earth thine 
inheritance; it is not God that thou hast chosen, thou 
hast not turned unto him. 

2. Thou dost certainly not know the nature of sin, 
who darest venture the least sin for the greatest gain ; 
had God ever enlightened and awakened thy conscience 
to see the true nature of sin, thou wouldst rather lose 
all thy estate, and be clothed with rags all thy days, 
than willingly commit the least sin to get the greatest 
estate. It was a saying of Austin, That there must not 
be so much as an officious lie ; that is, a lie when a man 
intends no hurt, but good ; yet this must not be told, 
saith he, no, not to save the souls of all the world. 
Surely then a lie must not be told to get twelve pence 
in a bargain, or five shillings, or fifty shillings, or five 
pounds ; it must not be told to save the souls of all in 
the world. Now to tell a lie to deceive others as well 
as thyself, surely God has not yet laid the weight of sin 
upon your souls ; the day is yet to come, that you shall 
know (perhaps to all eternity) what the weight and 
burden of sin mean. 

3. Certainly you do not trust in God ; you may speak 
of trusting in God, but it is apparent by this, that you 
liave jealous thoughts of God, that you do not believe 
that God takes care of you. And here is not only sin, 
but an evidence of your misery ; you are in such a con- 
dition, that your own consciences condemn you, and 
tell you that God takes no care of you, for did you be- 
lieve that God cared for you, had a care over your body, 
estate, and soul, then wouldst thou leave all to God; 
I will cast my care upon God, I will go on in God's way, 
and leave all other things to him. But now, when a 
man is low in the world, and would fain rise liigher, or 
would provide a certain portion for his children, and he 
falls to deceiving, and thinks to obtain it that way, the 
plain explicit English of it is, For my part, I dare 
not trust God to take care for me, and that which I 
think God does for me is not enough ; if I trust to 
God's blessing, I may be a poor man, my children may 
be poor : I dare not then trust to promises, nor protec- 
tions, nor providences, but I must take my own way. 
The truth is, the language practically amounts to this, I 
cannot get an estate by God, and therefore I will see 
what I can do by the devil. 

4. All duties of religion that thou performest are 
rejected by God. You who are conscious to your- 
selves of falseness in your ti'ading, and, it may be, have 
gone on many days and years in your ways, I say, all 
the duties of religion that you perform are rejected by 
God ; you u-iU deceive, and yet come to hear, and de- 
ceive again, and yet hear, and so make the duties of 
religion subserve as a colour to your deceit, '\\nio 
would suspect that a man so forward in matters of re- 
ligion should be so deceitful ? Oh ! cursed is that 
wickedness above all wickedness ; it is aggravated by 
this, when thou makest religion to be a colour of de- 
ceit, know that God casts all thy profession and duties 

2 M 



as filth and dung back again in your face. '■ Thou 
hast," saith Ezek. xxviii. 18, " defiled thy sanctuaries ;" 
how ? " by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the 
iniquity of thy traffic." By the iniquity of thy irojjic 
thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries. You go abroad, and 
there you traffic, and deceive, and put off' false com- 
modities, and have false reckonings, and the like : now 
you come into the sanctuary ; oh, but you defile the 
sanctuary by the multitude of your iniquity ; and 
among other iniquities, the iniquity of your traffic is 
that which especially defiles the ordinances of God to 
you. In Micah vi. S, when those hypocrites had said, 
What shall we do ? shall we come with " thousands of 
rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil.'" saith 
the prophet, " He hath showed thee, O man, what is 
good ; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to 
do justly," &c. ? As if he shoitld say, Though you come 
with all these things, it is all to no purpose, whatsoever 
offerings you offer to God, it is all nothing, except you 
" do justly." 

5. There is a curse mingled with every thing which 
thou dost enjoy. Though, it may be, some things are 
gotten honestly, yet (I say) there is a curse mingled in 
all things thou docst, it venoms and poisons every thing 
thou doest. In Zech. v. 2, 3, there was a flying roll of 
twenty cubits, and tlie breadth of it ten cubits : " then 
said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth 
over the face of the whole earth ;" for whom ? " for 
every one that stealeth shall be cut off," &c. Every bit 
of meat which thou dost eat at thy table, thou mayst 
look upon as dipped in the curse of God : I have gotten 
this by deceit. Thou wouldst be loth to have every bit 
of meat rolled up in dut and so put into thy mouth ; 
but know, O fraudulent man ! thine every bit of meat 
is rolled up in the curse of God. 

6. Surely thou, who art guilty of this deceit in the 
way of trading, canst not pray if thou comest to prayer; 
sui'ely thy conscience is very blind, for when thou art 
conscious to thyself of deceit, how canst thou come 
into the presence of a righteous God ? Canst thou say, 
O righteous Father ? darest thou come into the pre- 
sence of such a holy and righteous God, who professes 
to abominate thy ways ? Surely thy conscience must be 
very blind, if thou dost not understand the evil of thy 
sin. It may be, at first, in thy trading, thy conscience 
did trouble thee for a little time, thou hadst misgiving 
thoughts ; but thou hast worn them out, and so art 
ready to bless thyself that thou hast gotten over such a 
difficulty as that is : thy condition is far worse. Or if 
not, if thy conscience be not seared with a hot iron, 
then thou wilt be terrified. I verilj- think that those 
who have any light left in them dare not go to prayers. 
Oh ! dost thou so prize a little gain, as to take away 
the freedom of thy spirit, and the holy boldness of thy 
heart in prayer ? Oh how shouldst thou say to gain. 
Get thee hence as a menstruous cloth ! 

7. Know, that if thou shouldst come to make use of 
thy estate in any good work, God rejects it. Isa. Ixi. 
S, " For I the Lord love judgment, 1 hate robbery for 
burnt-offering." What ! will you get by deceit an estate, 
and come and offer it to me ? I abhor it. saith God. 
Chrj'sostom saith, A^^ly dost thou despise and dis- 
honour God thus, in bringing unclean tilings to him ? 
it is a reproach to God : a man who has gotten an estate 
by deceit, if he brings his estate to any service of God, 
he thereby reproaches God. 

8. Know that God will avenge such things. It may 
be the poor man whom thou oppressest in thy trading 
cannot right himself upon thee, because a bargain is a 
bargain, you will say. Yea, but God will come over 
with the bargain again ; it may be you have done with 
him in your bargain, but God has not done with you. 

You will say to him. You saw what it was, and you 
bought the thing of me as it was, and I have nothing 



530 



AN EXPOSITIOX OF 



Chap. XII. 



to say to you ; but God has much to say to you on this 
point. Mark those two scriptures : first, in Micali vi., 
the Lord having shown what he did require, lliat men 
should be just in their ways, adds, in vcr. 1 1 — 13, '• Shall 
I count them jnire with the wicked balances, and with 
the bag of deceitful weights? for the rich men thereof 
are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have 
spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. 
Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee." O, 
when God comes to smite thee, he will make thee sick 
to i)urpose ; sickness to such men as have defiled con- 
sciences in their trading is dreadful sickness indeed : as 
if God should say. You shall have no great content in 
what you have ; 1 will be avenged on you for what you 
do ; either you or your heirs shall not enjoy it. But the 
second text is one which concerns Christians very much, 
a place that cannot possibly have escaped the notice of 
those of you that are exercised in Scripture, 1 Thcss. iv. 
6, " That no man go beyond and defraud his brother 
in any matter." You must not go beyond your brother. 
Y'our brother is weak ; you will say, Let the weaker 
look to it as well as he can. No, you must not take 
advantage of his weakness, he is your brotlier ; you 
must not defraud him, no, not " in any matter : " why ? 
" because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as 
we also have forewarned you and testified." 

And know, this day the Lord forewarns you once 
more, and by the ministry of his word does testify' 
against you in this respect ; and if you wilt go on in any 
way of deceit, you go on against the very strength of 
the word and strength of conscience this day, and this 
word preached this day to you shall certainly testify 
against you another day. 

9. IIow terrible will death be to such men, when 
they shall leave the sweet of all their estates, and carry 
nothing but the guilt of all with them ! In Job xxvii. 
8, " What is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath 
gained, when God taketh away his soul ? " Sometimes 
men seek to deceive, and they are discovered, and so 
rendered base and contemptible to all the world ; yea, 
but sometimes tliey may carrj' it so cunningly, that 
they shall never be discovered perhaps in this world, 
but they shall gain, and say with Ephraim here, " I am 
become rich, I have found me out substance ; " but 
" what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath 
gained ? " what profit shall it be, though thou hast 
gained' the whole world and thou shalt lose thy own 
soul? 

10. Thou must restore, if thou hast any estate now, 
or if thou dost ever get one; restoration must be 
made, or thou canst not expect to find mercy from 
God, all thy sorrow, cries, and jjrayers arc vain ; with- 
out restitution, there cannot be expectation of pardon 
and forgiveness. The ancient s])eech that all divines 
in all ages of the church have closed withal was, There 
must be restitution of that which is falsely gotten ; if it 
be in thy power to do it, thou must restore it, or else 
thou canst not have any hope of mercy ; those sweet 
morsels which you have swallowed must be vomited 
up again. And therefore, you that are apprentices, take 
heed of being deceitful to ])lease your masters, for if ' 
you have a hand in it you must restore. I will give 
you Scripture and reason, why it is impossible that any 
kind of repentance can be accepted of God without 
restitution. 

1. Because, if I have power to restore, all the while 
I do not restore I continue in the sin ; I do not only 
wrong the man-just the very hovir I have deceived him, 
but all the while 1 keep that which is his in my hand : 
this is the reason why that repentance can never be 
accepted of God, which consists with a wilful continu- 
ance in the sin tliat a man seems to repent of. Do I 
repent of my sin, and yet wilfully continue in the sin ? 
I say, wilful, for I have it in my hand to restore, f' , 



but I shall undo myself. Yea, but that is wilful still ; is 
it_ better for thee to keep an estate or to keep a sin ? 
Now, certainly any man that has any light must needs 
acknowledge thus much. That if I truly repent me of 
my sin, I must, as far as I possibly can, undo my sin ; 
can I say, I am heartily sorry for a sin, when' I do 
not what I can to undo that sin ? 

2. There are divers scriptures commanding restitu- 
tion; I will give you two or three. Ezek. xxxiii. 14, 15, 
" Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely 
die ; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is law- 
ful and right ; if tlie wicked restore the pledge, give 
again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, 
without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he 
shall not die." He does not " walk in the statutes of 
life," except he " give again that he had robbed." So 
in Numb. v. 6, 7, you have the law about restitution ; 
" XMien a man or woman shall commit any sin that 
men commit, to do a trespass against the Lord, and 
that person be guilty ; then they shall confess their sin 
which they have done." Is this all ? No ; mark : "and he 
shall reconi])ense his trespass with the principal thereof, 
and add unto it the fifth ])art thereof, and give it unto 
him against whom he hath ti-espassed." He must con- 
fess his sin ; yea, but that is not enough, he must re- 
compense the paity. This is a most excellent scripture. 
Mark, it is said here, " If a man shall commit any sin 
that men commit, to do a trespass against the Lord ;" it 
is not only against man, but " against the Lord," against 
the rule of justice which the Lord has set for the main- 
taining of order and human society in the world. And 
then observe further : " If a man or woman shall commit 
any sin that men commit, to do a trespass." You will 
say, I do no other than all tradesmen do. Mark the 
text, " If a man or woman shall commit any sin that 
men commit ;" as if the Holy Ghost should say, I confess 
it is a common sin, but though it be ordinarily com- 
mitted by men, though there should be confession of 
that sin, yet if there be not restitution, it will do you 
little good. I remember Latimer, in one of the ser- 
mons that he preached before King Edward, speaking 
of this very point of restitution, saith, that the first 
day that he preached about it there came one and gave 
him twenty pounds to restore ; the next time he preach- 
ed another brought him thirty pounds ; and on another 
occasion there came another and gave him two hun- 
dred pounds ten shillings. He uses this homely ex- 
pression, " Restore what you have gotten, else you will 
cough in hell, and the devUs will laugh at you." Cer- 
tainly it is that which will lie heavy upon conscience ; 
gravel in the kidneys will not grate so upon you as a 
little guilt on your consciences. I myself knew one 
man who had wronged another but of five shillings, 
and it seems he did not much regard it, the sum being 
so small ; yet God awakening his conscience fifty years 
after, he could not rest till he had restored that five 
shillings. And therefore know, that though it be many 
years since you have gotten any thing by deceit and 
wrong, yet ijod will (if he has a love to you) con- 
strain you to restore it. Oh what foolish lusts are 
the lusts of covetousness ! As the apostle saith. Those 
that will be rich fall into many foolish lusts : this sin 
of covetousness and deceitfuiness brings men into 
foolish lusts, and makes men pierce themselves through 
with many sorrows. And on that God would pierce 
them with some sorrow this day, tliat they might 
never have one night's quiet rest, till they at least re- 
solve in their hearts that they will commence the work 
of restitution. 

And even those of you that hav- made false agree- 
ments with your creditors, if God awakens your con- 
sciences, I see not how you can quiet tlicm till you 
satisfy your creditors : these things will not be peace 
another day. 



Vee. 8. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



531 



Now the Lord convince those that, hearing the word 
of God, are guilty, and know that God will call for an 
account of this thing, and of this test that through 
prondeiice has been preached to them this day. 

Ver. 8. And Ephraim said. Vet I am become rich, 
I have found me out aubstance : in all mii labours they 
xhalljind none iniquity in me that were sin. 

In the verse l)efore Ephraim is charged for being a 
'• merchant," for having " the balances of deceit in his 
hand," and loving to oppress. But " Ephraim said, Yet 
I am become rich." 

'■ Y'et." The particle ■!!» signifies, here, nevertheless; 
as if they should say. Let the prophet say what he will, 
let him inveigh against me as he pleases, I know not 
what he means by his deceit and oppression, I am sure 
I gain well by it. " Yet I am become rich ;"' I am sure 
I prosper in this way, and that is enough for me. 

'•I have found me out substance." The word ^1^? 
here translated •' substance," signifies sometimes ini- 
quity, labour, violence, rapine, affliction, riches, an idol; 
all these things this word signifies : indeed most of 
them, if not all. are usually acconipaniments of riches 
in the hands of the wicked. 

The Greeks call riches avatfjvx>iv, rest, refi'eshing to 
the soul. They account the great refreshing and rest 
to their souls to be in their riches, however acquuod. 

" Substance." Those things which the prophet tells 
us of are but notions, imaginations ; but in what I 
have found there is " substance ;" to have an estate, 
and riches, and incomings, in them is substance. "I 
have found me out substance." Hence, 

Obs. 1. Wicked men will have something to say for 
themselves, though their ways be never so foul. The 
prophet brings heavy charges against them, "the 
balances of deceit," and loving to oppress, and other 
sins before named ; yet Ephraim saith ; he hath some- 
what to say. It is a very hard thing to stop the mouths 
of wicked men, and especially of the rich wicked; 
wicked men that prosper in then' wickedness, say what 
you will, you cannot stop their mouths. The work of 
conversion is not so much as begun till the mouths of 
sinners be stopped, till they be so convinced of then- 
evil ways that tliey have nothing to say for themselves. 

06*'. 2. Wicked men may prosper for a while in their 
evil coui'ses. " Ephr-aim said. Yet I am become rich." 
It is true, sometimes God meets with wicked men, and 
curses them in their way, so that they have not their 
desire satisfied ; but often they have, they do become 
rich, they get then- hearts' desires : Job xxi. ; Psal. 
Ixxiii., and many other places. 

04s. 3. Wicked men attribute to themselves their 
prosperity and riches. "I am become rich, I have 
found substance." They do not look up to God, indeed 
they dare not ; those whose gains are sinful, dare not 
acknowledge God in them. This is the evil of getting 
any thing in a way of sin, that a man cannot come to 
God and say. Lord, I bless thee that thou hast given 
me this. No, his conscience would fly in his face. 
Wicked men attribute all to themselves : this is a very 
wicked and vile thing. Dent. vi. 12, "Then" (speak- 
ing of their having houses and lands in Canaan) " be- 
ware lest thou forget the Lord," and only look at thy- 
self, and atti-ibute all to thyself The " great and goodly 
cities," " and houses full of all good things," are given 
to thee by the Lord thy God, " which sware unto thy 
fathers." 

Obs. 4. Carnal heai-ts account riches the only sub- 
stantial things. " I have found me out substance." 
They think there is no substance in other things. Y'^ou 
speak of spiritual things, of communion with God, of 
faith in Jesus Christ, and of the promises, they are but 
poor dry things, that have no substance in them ; but 



tell me of gain, and incomings, there is some savour 
there, m them there is substance. Indeed nothing 
gives substance to spiritual things but faith : in Ileb. 
xi. 1, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the 
evidence of things not seen." Faith gives a substance 
to things spu-itual, a believer looks upon them as sub- 
stantial, and regards these outward things as imaginary. 
Carnal hearts think spiritual things imaginary, and an 
outward estate substantial: the word of God is quite 
contrary to these. Thus in Prov. viii. 21, wisdom 
saith, " That I may cause those that love me to inherit 
substance ;" that is, as if nothing had a substance but 
only that which comes in by wisdom, by grace. We 
call rich men substantial men ; Such a man, we say, is a 
substantial man ; for indeed all the substance that the 
world looks after is riches, they account them substance. 

Obs. 5. Carnal hearts much gloi-y in their possessions. 
" I am become rich, I have found me out substance." 
They make their boast in what they have got, they 
bless themselves in their way. In Zeph. i. 9, it is spoken 
of the very servants of rich, covetous men, who seek to 
get an estate but to their masters, in a way either of 
violence or of deceit, they "leap on the threshold." 
They triumph, and leap in theii- rejoicings, that they 
have cLixumvented others, that they have got such and 
such things to their masters ; much more then will the 
masters themselves leap and rejoice in the having their 
hearts' desires filled : they glory in it. 

Obs. 6. Carnal hearts, that have gotten estates by 
sinful means, seek to relieve their guilty consciences 
with the consideration of the outward comforts they 
enjoy. The prophet charges them with their sin, charges 
the guilt of their sin upon them. But we are rich, say 
they, and we inherit substance. Wicked men will seek 
to relieve then' consciences, then- guilt)' consciences, by 
rejoicing in their riches, and in their estates, and in 
what they have got. In Isa. Ivii. 10, you have a scri])- 
ture somewhat suitable to this ; " Thou hast found the 
life of thine hand ; therefore thou wast not grieved." 
It may be, if a man goes on in an evil way, and does 
not prosper in it, God crossing him, then he begins to 
bethink himself. Is not this a smful way ? does not God 
oppose me in it? and then he begins to be grieved. 
But if he can find the life of his hand go on, and he 
prosper and have what he desires, then he will not be 
grieved, then his heart is hardened. Wicked men will 
set their riches and estates against all their guiltines.=, 
and think they will countervail it. I beseech you, weigh 
this matter well, consider that there is no more full and 
sure sign of a worldly man than this, that he can think 
to relieve his conscience in the guilt of the least sin, by 
the enjoyment of the things of the world ; that he can 
set the good things of the world against the guilt of 
sin, that he can put any thing in the world in the balance 
to down-weigh the least guilt of any sin. Herein is 
evidenced a worldly, wretched heart : thou dost bless 
thyself in thy great estate, but hast thou contracted no 
guilt at all in its acquisition ? Thou canst not say but 
some guiltiness has been contracted ; yea, but this con- 
tents thee, so much gain has been the result. Oh ! thou 
art a wretched man, that canst set the gain in the world 
against the least guilt that thou hast contracted. Oh ! it 
has been an ill bargain, riches got by guilt ; thou hast 
made (I say) an ill bargain for thyself. Thou knowost 
not God, knowest not with whom thou hast to deal, 
that canst set any gain by sin for to countervail the 
evil of that guilt' that thou hast committed for the 
getting of that gain of thine. 

Obs. 1. Wicked men labour to persuade themselves 
that God is not altogether so displeased with them as 
many would persuade them. Surely, if my condition 
were so dangerous as you would persuade me to, I 
should not prosper so much in my way as I do, I should 
not get riches so as I do. Upon this they begin to think 



532 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XII. 



that God is of their mind, as in Psal. 1. 21, "Thou 
fhoughtest that I was ahogether such an one as thy- 
self.'' "We find hy experience that when men are un- 
der aflliction, wlicii Gods hand is upon them, the}- hc- 
gin to tliink that he does not like their ways; but 
■\vlicn llicy go on and prosper they are ready to think 
that God'ap])roves. Tliere is a notable story concern- 
ing tliO mother of Lombard, Gratian, and C'oinestor, 
(the first, the Master of the Sentences; the second, tlie 
comjiiler of a great part of the pope's law, the De- 
cretal Epistles; the third, the author of the Scho- 
lastical History, the best man and book of the three,) 
ail famous men, and all three bastards; now when 
their mother came to make her confession to the 
priest, she could not acknowledge much evil in her 
whoredoms, nor find her heart much grieved or trou- 
bled on account of them ; and when the priest ui'ged 
her to repent and do penance, she replied that the 
thing might be evil which she did, yet that the pros- 
])erity and eminent usefulness of three such sons might 
well cover her transgressions. Thus it is ordinarily ; 
men think the magnitude of the sin lessened by the 
greatness of the success. The people they may laugh 
ropuiusme.ibii.it, at me, (saith a covetous man,) but I 
at mihi piaudo ip.e applaud mvsclf at homo, as I contem- 

domi »imul Hc num- i i * . , , 

mos contempior in plate the money m the chest; so long 
as I see comings-in, let men talk what 
they will, I cannot believe that things are so bad 
as they report, that God is so much against me, 
my prosperity surely is an indication of liis favour. 
These are the reasonings of a carnal heart. Of Dio- 
vi,ieiis (iiiam i)ona nysius it is related, that when he had 
di'iJ'frcriftSi'tShu- committed sacrilege, and had a good 
aiuj vaj. Minimus, vovage after it, he said. You tell me of 
■"''■ sacrilege, but see what a good voyage 

the gods themselves have granted me. Oh, these are 
heathenish reasonings, and yet I fear they are not al- 
together rooted out of such as profess themselves 
Christians. " Ye who go down to the sea in ships, who 
do business in great waters," it may be if you meet 
with an ill voyage, then you begin to recollect yourself. 
What sin have I been guilty of? but now, if your voy- 
age be jirosperous, though you have contracted much 
guilt upon your spirits while you were at land, vet 
prospering in your voyage, you never think but all is 
■well. Oh no, a good voyage "is no sign of the absence of 
guilt _; as sometimes 1 "have told you, that a painted 
face is no sign of a good complexion : it may be it is 
the curse of God upon thee that does let thee so to 
prosper; and if God had any love to thee, he would not 
let thee to prosper so, he would cross thee in thy ways, 
that so thou mightest bethink thyself. Another, per- 
haps, has been as wicked as tho'u, and yet the Lord 
had a love to him, and he crossed him in his ways, so 
that he has begun to betliink himself, and cannot rest 
till he gets the guilt of his sin done away; but for 
thee, God's heart it seems is not yet towards thee, he 
has no love to thee ; and if he lets" thee go on and still 
prosper in a course of sin, this is the friiit of reproba- 
tion : and certainly there can scarcely be a greater note 
of reprobation than prosperity in sin. This is what we 
•should all pray to God to deliver us from ; Lord, let us 
never prosper in sin; if thou seest our way to be 
naught, that we thereby conti-act guilt upon our 
.spirits. Lord, let us not thrive and prosper ; if we do, a 
thousand to one but we are undone for ever. 

" And Rpliraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have 
found nu' out substance." 

I'lphraim thus put otf all that the prophet spake. So 
when Christ was preaching to the Pharisees, the text 
saith. Those that were rich derided him. Rich, covet- 
ous men .slight any thing that is said against them, 
for they liavc wherewithal, they think, to relieve their 
consciences against all their guilt. Well, though thou 



mayst think to relieve thy conscience for the present, it 
will not always be so ; there is a time that conscience ?n'U 
speak, and will not be put off with those idle conceits. 
Obs. 8. The saints believe the word against sense, 
and carnal hearts believe sense against the word. 
Herein lies the difference between a godly man and a 
wicked ; I say, one that is godly and has faith, believes 
the word against sense ; Let me go on in a way which 
I know is God's way, though I do not prosper, yet I 
have peace in it, I do not repent me of it : but a wicked 
man will believe sense against the word ; Let the word 
say my way is never so dangerous, yet if by sense I 
find that I prosper in it, that shall suffice me. " Yet I 
am become rich, I have found me out substance." 

" In all my labours." That is, in all that I get by 
my labours. 

" They shall find none iniquity in me that were sin." 
That is, let them search, they shall not find in me that 
which is sin. As if they should say. No, I abhor what 
you say; to oppress, cheat, and cozen, who can prove 
it ? let any prove if they can that I cheat, or get any 
thing in a false way ; I dai-e any to come and say it ; 
is there any law that can take hold of me ? " They shall 
find no iniquity in me ;" though there be some little 
matter, yet there is nothing for which the law of the 
land can take hold of me ; and if my way be such as 
no man can take advantage against me by the law, 
why should I be thus condemned ? That is the mean- 
ing of these words. Hence, 

Obs. 9. Evil things often have good names. "In all 
my labours." The truth is, that which is meant here, 
is that which they had got by op]iression and deceit, 
and they call it by the name of their labours. So covet- 
ousness is called by the name of good husbandry, and 
following their callings, and the art and mystery of 
their callings. JIany think to silence their consciences 
by such shuffling of names. 

06s. 10. It is very hard to convince covetous men 
of their iniquity. Rich, covetous men are much con- 
ceited in themselves. " The rich man is wise in his ovm 
conceit," Prov. xxviii. 11. You shall sometimes see a 
man that gets riches ; and as we say of some when we 
look upon their wit, we wonder at their wealth : and 
others when we look upon their wealth, we wonder at 
their wit to get an estate : they have wit only to get 
money, but for any thing else they are ignorant, poor, 
weak men, especially in matters of religion ; as weak 
as children are they, and yet wise in their own con- 
ceits, for they have got that which they see all the 
world runs after. It is very hard to convince covet- 
ous men of their falseness, that they get any thing in a 
sinful way. 

Again, There is no sin more hard to convince a man 
of than covetousness ; and yet the apostle saith, 1 Cor. 
v. 11, that it is a sin for which a man is to be cast out 
of the church. AVhen almost did you ever hear of ;i 
covetous man convinced ? what example can you al- 
most ever bring of one that has licen covetous and 
rich, and got his estate in a false way, that shall come 
and give glory to God, and acknowledge his sin, and 
cast up his sweet morsels again ? Covetousness is a be- 
sotting, a blinding sin : Wlio shall find any iniquity in 
me ? what do I but that which I may do ? 

Obs. 1 1. As it is hard to convince, so it is difficult to 
charge, covetous men with their sin. For so according 
to some it is, AATio dares charge me ? It is a very dan- 
gerous thing to charge a rich man of any evil, for he 
has his purse by his side, and can tell how to revenge 
himself on you. 

06s. 12. Men may in words profess what they 
themselves are guilty of to be an abominable thing. 
" They shall find none iniquity in me that were sin." 
If I should be false, that were a very horrible and vile 
tiling. Go to all tradesmen one after another, and 



Vek. 8, 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



S33 



tell them of cheating, and cozening, and deceiving; 
they •nill scorn your words, It were a wicked thing, one 
were unworthy to live. How often, when tradesmen 
have a mind to cheat, will they profess, that if they 
should cozen and cheat, they were unworthy to trade 
any more ! Oh what cauterized consciences have many 
men, that give up themselves to gain, and make Mam- 
mon their god ! Luther renders it, God 
di'scStrafESt'"" forbid that I should be found wicked in 
n-.fU^faciis. Luth. j^^y actioiis. Many deep in guilt will clap 
their hands on their breasts, and when 
you charge them with having cheated and cozened you, 
Oh, God forbid that I should do so ! they exclaim ; and 
although their consciences will tell them that they have 
done so, they will be ready to take their oaths, and 
swear, and use such curses that they never did sueh a 
thing, or never had such a thing ; and when their books 
are false, they will swear that they are true. 

Obs. 13. Wicked men care not, so others cannot ac- 
cuse them. If they can carry it so closely that men 
shall not see it, then they bless themselves ; all is well 
and fail', if they have cunningly contrived their wicked- 
ness, that men cannot charge them with it. A\'ho 
shall find iniquity in me that were sin? Well, though 
you think yourselves well enough because men cannot 
find out your sm, yet God can find it out, " be sure your 
sin will find you out ;" God has his time to find out ini- 
quity that will be sin to you, and there is much be- 
tween God and your consciences, though men cannot 
charge you. Oh, but if so be that God would but dis- 
cover to the world what he is able to charge you with, 
how loathsome would many of you appear to your 
neighbours ! how unfit would you be to trade with men ! 
or who woidd meddle with you ? Now certainly your 
condition is not the better because it is kept so secretly 
that men cannot charge you ; perhaps it would be better 
if they could, for it might bring you sooner to be hum- 
bled for it. You think now, because you have only to 
deal with God, you can do well enough with him. Do 
you think it such a matter to deal with the infinite, 
holy, and glorious God? Servants would be troubled if 
their masters knew their deceit and cozening ; but if a 
little child knew it they care not for that ; so men think 
it is no matter if God know it, but they are loth that men 
should know it, that will bring shame and disgrace to 
them. O carnal, wicked, atheistical heart, that cannot 
be satisfied if men know the evil, but can rest content 
though God is conscious to it ! 

Ohs. 14. A carnal heart extenuates its guilt. Indeed 
the words may be interpreted, VTho shall find iniquity 
in me ? if they could find it, I would acknowledge it 
to be a great sin. But I rather take it thus. Who shall 
find any great iniquity in me ? It is but a little over- 
reaching, a little craft and cunning, the matter is not 
great. Well, that which thou dost account little, the 
Lord will one day account great ; the overreaching and 
defrauding thy brother, though it be but a sleight of 
hand, God will find one day to be a great matter. 

06s. 15. A soul which God is humbling for good, 
rather aggravates his sin. That is the way of a true con- 
vert, he labours rather to aggravate his sin, to bring 
all the circumstances he can to make his sin heavy 
upon his soul. Oh ! I find I cannot get my heart to 
break for my sin, I cannot apprehend the evil of my 
sin as I would in the greatness of it, and therefore, oh 
that God would help me to see its magnitude ! He stu- 
dies all the attendant circumstances to make his sin 
great in his own eyes. But now, a heart that is not 
wrought upon to a work of repentance, all that he la- 
bours for is to lessen his sin, and to have all the rea- 
sonings that he can in a way of diminution of his sin. 
Oh, this is an ill sign ! 

It is a very ill sign, first, when a man resists convic- 
tion as long as he can. Secondly, when, after he can 



stand out no longer, then he begins to extenuate his guilt : 
It is no more than others do ; and how should I main- 
tain my family ? and I hope men may make the best of 
what they have. Oh ! if the Lord once show thee the 
evil of sin, all these reasonings will vanish before thee, 
and thou wilt fall down and humble thyself before God, 
as one worthy for ever to be cast out from the presence 
of the Lord ; for in this, that thou darest not trust in 
him. thou seekest to hell to provide for thyself and 
family, rather than thou wilt de])end upon God. 

Obs. 16. If wicked men can but escape the danger 
of law, that is all they care for. " They shall find none 
iniquity in me that were sin :" that is, by the law. Oh 
how many are there whom you may easily convince of 
having been very false ! Y'ou speak to their consciences. 
Y'ea, but what is that ? can you take your advantage ? 
Take your advantage if you can, say they. IS'ow if it 
were not for atheism in men's hearts, it would be the 
greatest advantage of all, that a man is able to charge 
his conscience. What witness have you for such a 
thing ? I have your conscience. Oh, they are glad of 
that : if they hear that you have no other witness, they 
think they can do well enougli. Now that is an argu- 
ment of atheism in men's hearts, that they think they 
are well enough, whatsoever they do. when law cannot 
take hold on them. Well, there is a court of con- 
science to sue thee in, and justice will sue thee in that 
court, and cast thee one day, though man's law cannot. 

Ver. 9. And I that am the Lord thij God from the 
land of Egypt uill yet make thee to dice'U in tabernacles, 
as in the days of the solemn feasts. 

The connexion is this : Y'ou say j-ou are grown rich 
by those sinful ways of yours ; " I am become rich, I 
have found me out substance." Y'ou think now you 
have no need of me, you have found substance other 
ways, and I am forgotten \>y you ; but you should re- 
member that '• I am the Lord thy God, which brought 
thee out of the land of Egvpt :" there was a time when 
you had iieed of me, a time when you knew not what 
to do without my help, and were in great affliction ; 
then I delivered you with a mighty hand ; you should 
remember those old mercies of mine. Oh, but you are 
ungrateful, you do not think what I have done for 
you in bringing you out of the land of Egypt. If I 
be the same God still, why might not you live upon 
me, and receive as much good from me, as others ? 
Y'ou will go and seek to shift for yourselves by false 
ways, and forsake me. Am not I the Lord ? that 
'• God which brought you out of the land of Egypt?" 
have not I, by what I have done for you, shown plainly 
to you that you might as well provide for jourselvea 
by me as by any other god, by my ways as well as by 
any other ways that you take ? Can any god work for 
you so as I have done ? Is there that good to be got in 
those ways of sin which there is in mine ? " I that am 
the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt ;" not only 
at that time delivering you, but ever since providing 
for you, and graciously preserving you, and doing you 
good many ways, from the time that I have been a 
God to you ; and yet you do thus wi-etchedly forsake 
me. In all yom- straits I have helped you, in all your 
necessities 1 have supplied you, in all your difficulties 
I have relieved vou, in all your distresses I have de- 
livered you, in all your Ijurdens I have eased you ; the 
whole course of my providence has been gracious to 
you ; from the very time of your coming out of the land 
of Egvpt, how did I provide for you in the wilderness, 
afterwards by judges, and then I raised you up kings! 
" I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt." 

Obs. 1. AVhen men prosper in sin, they forget what 
God has done for them in former times. As if he 
should sav, You do not remember that I am " the 



534 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XII. 



Lord tliy God from the land of Eg>'pt." Now you are 
••waxen fat" and have your hearts' desires; but re- 
number there was a time when you were low enough, 
ai|d cried and made your moan to me in your affliction ; 
remember those days. Oh how ordinary is it for us 
in our prosperity to forget God's mercies in delivering 
us from affliction ! Not long since we were low enough, 
but the Lord has in great measure delivered us from 
our Egvpt,and presently, as soon as"God lias delivered 
us. every man begins to think of enriching himself and 
to intrigue for estates ; presently (I say) we have for- 
gotten our sad condition, the time of our mourning, of 
our praying. Oh how contrary is the disposition of our 
hearts now to what it seemed to be a little while ago, 
>\ hen under sore and sad afflictions ! 

(Jhs. 2. God takes notice of men's unthankfulness. 
God looks upon a people that walk so -vilely : What ! 
are these the people that I have done such things for ? 
AA'liat God has done for us is (to speak after the man- 
ner of men) fresh in his memory. 

And if we could have what God has done for us 
afresh in our minds upon the commission of new sins, 
it would be a mighty means to humble us. 

Obs. 3. Old mercies are great engagements to duty, 
and great aggravations of our neglect of it. But we 
have had occasion to speak of these things before. 

•' Will yet make thee to dwell in tabei-nacles, a.s in 
the days of the solemn feasts." 

Some read it by way of interrogation, thus, AVhat ! 
shall I, the Lord that brought thee out of the land of 
Egypt, yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles ? Shall I 
yet continue my wonted love to you as to make you 
to keep your feast of tabernacles still with joy, as you 
were wont to do yearly ? shall I do thus ? saith God. 

Calvin gives a peculiar interpretation, different from 
all ; as if God should say thus. It is a wonderful thing 
that you should be so forgetful of my great mercy in 
bringing of you out of Egypt, it is so out of your minds 
that I had need work over that deliverance again : 
what ! shall I cast you out of yoiu- houses, and bring 
you into captivity again, and then deliver you, and 
bring you into the wilderness to dwell in tabernacles 
again ? shall I again go over my work ? It is so much 
gone out of your minds and hearts, tluit such a repeti- 
tion seems needful to quicken your spirits. Thus Cal- 
vin interprets this passage, and he is generally as just 
as any. This interpretation may be well applied to us, 
thus : 

Let us consider ourselves, that if all God's merciful 
dealings towards us were to begin again, if we were to 
go through all those straits, and fears, and sorrows that 
we have passed througli, our hearts would shake within 
us : as a mariner that has ])assed through dangerous 
seas, thinks. If I were to pass over these again, it would 
be hard and "rievous. Now let us consider, if God 
shotdd but reduce us to the same condition that we 
were in seven years ago, and say, You shall pass 
th-ough all those straits, and return into the condition 
you have been in ; it would be very sad to us to think 
of, the bare apprehension would make our hearts 
quake. I Tcrily believe scarce any of you who have 
been at all observant of the providence of God to>\ ards 
you, but would be very loth to venture all again, would 
be loth that God should go over with you m all those 
])rovidcnces. And yet God is the same God still, and 
may do it ; yea, but flesh and blood would sliake at it 
Now do not show yourselves so unworthy of God's gra- 
cious dealings with you, as to put him to it to bring 
you into straits again, to renew what he has done 
unto you. Thus we applv Calvin's interpretation. 

Many remrd the wonls as a mere threat, and no 
otherwise : I did indeed bring you from the land of 
EgV]it, but I will bring vou into tabernacles again. As 
if God should say, 1 will cast you out of your brave. 



stately palaces, your city and country houses, and you 
shall come into the wilderness again, and dwell in tents 
and tabernacles. Thus the many interpret it. 

But I rather think the words contain a consolatory 
promise, whereby the Holy Ghost invites them to re- 
pentance ; as if God should say thus. Though you have 
indeed deserved to be cast out of your dwellings, and 
to be brought into tents and tabernacles in the wilder- 
ness again, yet I remember my ancient goodness to- 
wards you, and my covenant with your father Abra- 
ham ; lam the same God that brought you out of the 
land of Egypt, therefore return and repent, and I will 
be with you in as much mercy as ever I was ; whatever 
the breaches have been for time past, I will now be as 
gracious to you as I have ever been ; as you have cele- 
brated the feast of tabernacles with abundance of re- 
joicing, so I will continue this your prosperous estate, 
you shall from year to year have cause to rejoice in 
this your solemn feast. All their feasts were feasts of 
rejoicing ; " They have made a noise in the house of 
the Lord, as in the day of a solemn feast," Lam. ii. 7 ; 
but now this feast of tabernacles was especially a feast 
of rejoicing, and that you have in Lev. xxiii. 40, where 
they are commanded to rejoice in this feast, for it was 
after the ingathering of then- com and wine. In Ueut, 
xvi., where this feast is further spoken of, it is said at 
the end of ver. 15, " Thou shalt surely rejoice ;" it is 
not only you may, but a command, look to it that you 
do rejoice in this feast of tabernacles ; so that the feast 
of tabernacles was a very joyful feast. Now saith God, 
" I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Eg\-pt," 
I will yet make thee rejoice, as in the feast of tabema- 
cles. From hence we have these notes : 

Obs. 4. God loves to give hopes of mercy to sinners 
upon their repentance. God loves to draw the hearts 
of wretched, vile sinners, by giving them hopes of 
mercy upon their repentance. So in 1 Sam. xii. 19, 20, 
they confessed their sin, their special sin, in asking a 
king, above all ; but saith Samuel, Though " ye have 
done all this wickedness, yet turn not aside from fol- 
lowing the Lord." So Ezra x. 2, " Yet now there is hope 
in Israel concerning this thing." God sees that if there 
be not hope, men will grow desperate in their wicked- 
ness. " There is no hope : no, for I have loved stran- 
gers, and after them will I go," Jer. ii. 25. Oh ! it is 
good for sinners to see there may be still hope. 

And God's ministers, when they have to deal with 
sinners, though very wicked, yet should give them some 
line of hope to catch at ; though they be even drowned 
in their covetousness in the world, and in their guilti- 
ness, yet should we east to them a line of hope ; there 
is nothing revealed to exclude the possibility of thy 
soul yet at length being saved. Oh let men take heed 
of despairing, determining conclusions against them- 
selves. 

06s. 5. It is not the greatness of any sin that can be 
ground enough for a desperate determining conclusion. 
To any who say, God will never show mercy ; I reply. 
No magnitude of sin, no accumulation of aggravated 
circumstances, can be ground enough for thee to say, 
God will never show mercy ; it is a proud, sullen, d^- 
perate spirit of thine to make such conclusions : thou 
raayst indeed, and thou oughtest to sav. It were just 
with God not to show mercy, the Lori might justly 
ca-st me out of his sight ; but to say that he iri/l not 
show mercy, is more tnan thou, or any angel in heaven, 
can say ; and therefore, O wretched, sinful, guilty con- 
sciences, and especially you that have been ajiostates, 
that have forsaken God and his truths, yet return, re- 
turn. O return, thou Shulamite, thou mayst possibly 
find God as merciful to thee as ever he was ; there is 
hope of mercy for thee still, and if thou dost perish 
ctenially, it will rather be for some future, than for any 
past, transgression ; if God let thee live, if he let thee 



Vee. 9. 



THE PKOPHECY OF HOSEA. 



535 



live to-night, I say, taou wilt rather perish for the sins 
■ committed this moment, than for all the sins committed 
in all thy life-time before. 

But now thy continuance in impenitency is a new 
sin ; thy continuing to reject the grace of God, and 
abiding still in thy unbelief, this indeed may cause God 
to bring over again all thv former sins, and reckon for 
them. Oh ! this consideration might draw the heart 
of the most wretchedly wicked sinner to God. 

Is it so, that it is not for any of my past sins that I 
am like to perish, but if I perish I shall perish rather 
for continuing in evil, than for what evil I liave com- 
mitted ? Oh ! the Lord forbid then that I should con- 
tinue, let me this day stop. The Lord would have 
hopes of mercy cast to the vilest and most wicked. 

And let us be merciful, as our heavenly Father is 
merciful ; that is, let servants and children, tliat have 
offended 5'ou, see that upon their returning they shall 
find as much favour from you as ever they did. Some- 
times governors, when provoked, behave themselves so 
rigidly towards their inferiors, that it makes them even 
desperate : God deals not so with you ; be ye then mer- 
ciful, for God is merciful. 

And as God shows himself unchangeable towards his 
people in goodness, so it beseems us to be. If we have 
shown respect any way to other, either in speeches or 
otherwise, if they appear to be what they v,-ere, it be- 
seems us to be towards them as then ; let them but ap- 
pear to be what they were when such respect were 
shown to them, and, according to the example of God, 
it beseems us to show ourselves to them again and 
again, to what we then did. " I that am the Lord thy 
God from the land of Egj-pt, will yet make thee to 
dwell in tabernacles." 

Ohs. 6. The consideration of what God has done, 
should help our faith in belie\ing what he will do. 
May not he who has delivered us thus far, deliver us 
)'et, further ? I am the Lord that has delivered you 
from Egypt. O, let us make use of what God has 
done for us, to help our faith to confide in him for 
further grace. The truth is, God has done so much 
for England, that not more remains to be done than 
has been done ; and if there be but as much of the 
power, goodness, and mercy of God manifested towards 
us for the next five or six years, as for these last six, 
certainly it wiU be as glorious a nation as ever was 
upon the face of the earth : it will be the beginning of 
the new Jerusalem, if God should continue so as he 
has done. And why may not the Lord, that has 
brought us out of Egj-pt, bring us to rejoice as in the 
feast of tabernacles ? 

And so spiritually ; God, who at first did enlighten 
thy mind, and brought thee from Egv-ptian darkness, 
is certainly able to do as great things for thee still, and 
to finish the work he has begun for thee. How many 
are there who, though they have found God's mighty 
hand upon them in giving a turn to their hearts, and 
bringing them out of " the gall of bitterness " and 
" the bond of iniquitv'," yet, when they feel but their 
corruptions a little stirring, are ready to think that 
they shall perish one day by the hand of those same 
corruptions ? When we were enemies, were we not re- 
conciled to him ? God has given the deadly wound 
to thy sin, he has mortified thee, and the truth is, there 
is not more to be done to bring thee to heaven who 
hast the least degree of grace than God has already 
done ; by giving thee the least measure of grace, he 
has made a greater alteration in thy estate fi-om one 
that is in an estate of nature, than the alteration will 
be from thy conversion to the height of glory ; that 
alteration will not be so much, neither will it require 
such a great power of God to make thee a glorious 
saint in heaven, as it requu'ed to make thee of a child 
of WTath, a child of God : thou hast the better half, the 



most eminent power of God is put forth already ; for 
our change from grace to glory will be but gradual, 
but our change from nature to grace is total ; and 
therefore, let thy faith be helped from what God has 
done, to believe what he will do. 

" I will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles." 

Albcrtus and others regard this, '■ I will yet make 
thee to dwell in tabernacles," as a promise of their re- 
turn from captivity, that they must agam, in the land 
of Jewry, keep the feast of tabernacles. 

I confess, were this a promise to Judah, I should 
think this to be the meaning of it ; but because it is to 
Israel, who never returned, I shall follow those who 
think it refers to the times of the gospel, and to all the 
true Israel of God that should be converted to the 
faith ; and I think it has reference to that, because we 
find so often, in this prophecy of Hosea, things ap- 
parently far ofi' applied to the times of the gospel. 

" I will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles." In the 
spiritual sense thus. The Lord has his time, though he 
seemed to cast ofi' these ten tribes, yet to bring the 
Jews, and all the Israel of God, into his church, and to 
build for them in it several tabernacles. And there in 
several churches, as in so many several tabernacles, 
they shaU have the feast of sweet things, of " fat 
things," of " wine on the lees well refined," Isa. xxv. 
There shall they keep a feast, and there shall their 
hearts rejoice, and be " satisfied as with marrow and 
fatness." 

My brethren, the Lord has delivered us in great 
measure from Egypt : all the difficulty now is about 
the building of tabernacles ; for the present there is 
very little matter to make tabernacles of amongst us. 
I remember Mr. Ainsworth, on Exod. xxv. 2, citing 
R. Menahen, tells of a tradition of the Jews, which ob- 
served there was no iron stuft" for the building of the 
tabernacle. (Truly our hearts are mostly iron, and hard 
one towards another, and therefore not fit matter for 
tabernacles.) In 1 Kings vi. 7. tliere was no iron tool, 
either, heard in the building of the temple. O my 
brethren, ii-ou tools will not do the work for the build- 
ing of God's tabernacle, we must have tools of another 
kind. There are no tabernacles almost yet, wherein 
the saints, either of one judgment or of another, have 
much rejoicing ; the gloi^ of God has not yet filled 
the tabernacles which we have built. What God intends 
towards this generation, whether ever to bring them 
into those tabernacles that he here promises, I know 
not ; but surely that God which has brought us out of 
Egjiit, will bring either us, or the posterity after us, 
a generation of his own people, to keep the feast of 
tabernacleswith rejoicing. 

Ver. 10. / have also spoken hy the prophets, and I 
have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the mi- 
nistry of the prophets. 

This is a further declaration of God's goodness to 
this people, and an upbraiding of them for their wick- 
edness, when they have had so many means ; as if God 
should say, They have not wanted the revelation of my 
will, I have spoken by my prophets, and multiplied 
visions. Heb. i. 1, seems to have reference to this, 
" God, who at sundry times and in divers manners 
spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets ;" 
TToXv/ifpwc Koi TToXurpoTrwc, in several sorts of ways God 
revealed himself in former times. 

" I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have 
multiplied visions." 

There is not much difliculty in the words. The notes 
briefly are these : 

Obs. 1. It is God that speaks by his prophets. 
Though the prophets and the messengers of God are 
mean, yet so long as they speak to you in his name, 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XII. 



the autliority of what they say Is above any. They 
may be under their auditors many ways, but the mes- 
sage they bring is above them ; thougli they are weak, 
yet the power of God goes ak)ng with what they speak, 
to make it good ; and tliercfore you shall find when 
Christ sent his disciples to preach, saying, " Go and 
tcacli all nations," he fu-st said, " All power is given 
to me in heaven and in earth," and then followed, 
" Go ye therefore and teach all nations ;" as if he 
should say. All the power that is given to me shall go 
along witii your teaching. It is the Lord that speaks, 
the Lord Christ that speaks in his word by his mes- 
sengers ; '• He that hcareth you, lieareth me ; and he 
that despiseth you, despiseth me." 

The word docs little good till men come to appre- 
hend this, that it is God that speaks by his messengers. 
1 Thess. ii. 13, the apostle saith, that they received the 
word, " not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, 
the word of God." That is observable of Samuel ; God 
called to Samuel, and Samuel thought it had been Eli 
that spake, and all that time God would not reveal his 
mind to him, till at length Samuel returned this answer, 
" Speak, Lord ; for thy servant heareth," 1 Sam. iii. 9. 
Mark, God would reveal his mind to Samuel then, and 
not before. So it is here ; you come to the word, and 
you come to hear the gifts of such men, such a man 
has excellent gifts, and abilities, and delivery, and such 
kind of things ; God reveals nothing to you, you have 
licard a sound, and that is all, and no more is revealed 
to you than if you heard an oration in a school : but 
when God shall be pleased to dart tliis thought into 
youi' minds, I am now going to hear that which is the 
word of God himself, the word of that God that is my 
judge, and that must be my judge at the great day: 
now see whether God will not make himself known to 
you, that so you shall say, jNIethinks I never hoard ser- 
mon before in all my life ; I have come and heard a man 
preach, but I never heard God preach before ; it was 
not as the word of God, but as the word of such a 
man. God expects that men should " tremble at his 
word," and therefore look upon it as his word. 

Obs. 2. It is a great mercy to a people for God to 
reveal his mind to them by his prophets. AMiat would 
all the world be but as a d\ingeon of darkness, were it 
not for the prophets and ministers of God ? they arc as 
" the light of the world." and " the salt of the earth," Matt. 
v. l.'i, 11, the world would rot and be unsavoury were it 
not for the ministrv of the word in the world. And so 
we find, that when (iod would make a sjjecial promise to 
his people, he promises them, that they shall have their 
tcashers ; " And though the Lord give you the bread 
of adversity, and the water of afhiction, yet shall not thy 
teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine 
eyes shall see thy teachers," Isa. xxx. 20. Oh ! here is 
a promise to a gracious heart. But to another it is no- 
thing. What ! shall the minisli'y of the word counter- 
vail the loss of my estate ? God does not say, I will 
take away from you your afflictions ; oh no, but " thine 
eves shall see thy teachers ; " perhaps your eyes shall 
never see your money and estates again, but your 
eves shall see your teachers. Kings on their coro- 
nation days are "wont to give great gifts to show their 
magnificence; then the conduits will sometimes run 
wine : now, when Christ ascended up to be crowned 
on liigh, what were the great gifts that he gave to 
the world ? " He gave some, apostles ; and some, pro- 
phets; and .some, evangelists; and some, pastors and 
teachers," Eph. iv. 8, 10. These are the great gifts of 
Jesus Christ upon his ascension into heaven and taking 
the crown of glory; as if Christ should say, Shall I give 
a magnificent gift to the world like a prince, like the 
King of heaven ? I will give gifts unto men, I will give 
them apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers : that is the 
great, magnificent gift that Jesus Christ has given to 



the world, oh that we could learn to prize it I I re- 
member 1 have read, in Chi"ysostom's time, that the 
godly men, when lie was silenced, were so afl'eetcd with 
it, that they had rather the sun did withdraw his beams 
and not shine in the world, than that the mouth of 
C'hrysostom should be stopped ; they so jjrized the word 
of God by his mouth. Oh that men could learn to prize 
it more, at a higher rate ! And you that are citizens, 
show you esteem it highly in this one thing : many of 
you here have your city and your country houses, but 
what little care have we to seat ourselves in places 
where we shall have faithful ministers of God to reveal 
the mind of God to us ! If you come to seat yourselves 
any where, you scarce take it into consideration to give 
a penny the more because of a faithful minister, or a 
penny the less if it has none; oh! this shows the 
extreme neglect of God, and of Iiis ordinances. How 
few eountrv' villages about the city are supplied with 
faithful preachers ! Faithful prophets are a great bless- 
ing of God. 

Obs. 3. God will take account of what becomes of 
the word, labour, and pains of his prophets. So he here 
u])braids Ephraim with them. God will take account 
of all the spirits that his ministers spend, of every drop 
of their sweat, and of all their watchings in the night ; 
I sent my projihets, rising early, and going to bed late ; 
God will take account of all, and you shall know that 
there has been a prophet among you; the ministers 
shall be brought out to say and testify. Lord, I was in 
such a place, and I revealed thy mind thus unto them ; 
they could not but be convinced, and yet still they con- 
tinued in their wickedness. 

Obs. 4. It is a great mercy for God to declare his 
mind again and again. " I have multiplied visions," 
saith God. It were a mercy for God but once to tell us 
of his mind, and if we will not come in at first, for ever 
to cast us ofi'; but "I have multiplied visions." In Jcr. 
xviii. 7, God saith, " At what instant I shall speak," 
&c. ; and God may justly expect, that " at what in- 
stant" Christ is preached, that people should come in, 
for indeed their commission seems to run very quick; 
" Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to 
every creature. He that believeth and is baptized 
shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be 
damned," Mark xvi. 15, 16 ; as if Christ should say, 
There shall be quick work made with men. But yet the 
Lord is gi'acious to men, to multiply visions one after 
another, to reveal his mind at sundry times and in 
divers manners : the Lord is long-sutfering ; though our 
hearts be not moved at one time, yet still he would try, 
and he would have his ministers do so too. " In meek- 
ness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God 
pcradventure will give them repentance to the acknow- 
ledging of the truth," 2 Tim. ii. 25. It was a great 
aggravation of Solomon's sin, that he departed from 
God after the Lord had appeared to him twice ; " And 
the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart 
was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had 
appeared unto him twice," 1 Kings xi. 9. 

Oh how may God upbraid us with tliis, that not 
twice, but twenty, yea, a hundred times he has ap- 
peared to us ! May not your consciences tell you, that 
at such and such "a time you have had the visions of 
the Almighty, and yet you have stood out against them, 
yea, against them again and again ? O my brethren, 
the multiplying of visions gi-eatly aggravates the sin of 
our resistance. It was the comfort of Paul at his con- 
version, that he " was not disobedient unto the heaven- 
ly vision," Acts xxvi. 19. Oh how ha))py were it for 
you if upon the first vision your hearts would come in! 
bh that you could but say. Though it is true, I lived 
at such a time and place in ignorance and darkness, I 
knew little of God, yet the first time I came to hear 
the word, wherein the mysteries of the gospel were re- 



Vee. 11. 



THE PKOPHECY OF HOSEA. 



537 



Tealed, I bless God my heart yielded : so the apostle 
blesses God for the effect that the word had upon the 
Thessalonians from the first day, even until that time. 

" And used similitudes, by the ministry of the pro- 
phets." 

Tliis is a very strange expression, occurring no where 

else that I know of in the book of God. I will not 

trouble you with divers readings or interpretations, to 

.. _ . me it seems to show the aggravations of 

I. spor.it Deu5 in , . , , i i i , ^ 

TerbosiniiWiiKHnem nicu s suis, that they hearkened not to 
voi'un'ScmJ'ual^' the word, though it was brought down to 
Luiii. in loc. ^.|jg jg^.g]^ q£ (.jjg^. umiei-standings by simi- 

litudes. 

06s. 5. The Lord takes account of the manner of 
men's preaching, as well as the things they preach. 
Men may have their sins aggravated, not only for 
standing out against the word, but against the word so 
and so delivered. The main necessary truths of God 
are made known to you all; yea, but some of you 
have them made known to you in a more sweet and 
winning way, in a more convincing manner, than others 
have, and God takes account, not only of the message 
you hear, but of the manner of its deliveiT. 

Obs. 6. The revealing the word by similitudes is 
very useful and profitable ; for it conduces much to 
make truth go to a man's heart before he is aware, and 
to impress it upon the memory ; many remember the 
simile, and so the truth which it conveyed. It is re- 
ported of tlie Marquis Galeacias, a nobleman of great 
estates, and near of kin to the pope, that once coming 
Peiw MariTT on ''"' ^° heax Pctcr Mart\T preach, by a 
L°t" r Gai^" """ niGre simile that he used, God smote his 
heart, and made it the means of his con- 
version. The simile was thus : Peter Jlartyr in his dis- 
course had occasion to say, Men may think very hardly 
of God and his people, but this is because they do not 
know him ; as suppose a man a great way off sees a 
company of excellent dancers, the musicians are play- 
ing, and there is exact art in all that they do ; at the 
distance he regards them as a company of mad-men, 
but (added he) as he draws nearer and nearer to them, 
and hears the melodious sound, and observes the art 
that they use, then he is much taken and affected : 
and so it is with you ; you are a great way off. and look 
from a great distance u))on the ways of God, and so 
you think his peo])le mad ; but could you but come to 
observe what excellency is in them, it would take cap- 
tive your hearts. God blessed such a similitude as this 
to that great man's heart, so that though his wife and 
children lay imploring at his feet, yet he came to Ge- 
neva, and there continued a godly man all his days. 
But we should take some heed here. 

1. Similes should be brought from things known. 

2. "\V e must not urge similes too far, we must take 
heed of a luxiuiant, wanton wit. 

3. And they must be veiy natural, plain, and proper, 
or else man will appear in them rather than God. 

Obs. 3. Slight not the word when it comes by a 
simile. " And used similitudes." You will say. This is 
but a simile. But though it be, yet God is speaking to 
thy heart in it. 

Obs. 4. Take heed that you do not rest in the plea- 
santness of the simile. Many come to the word to 
have their fancies touched and pleased, more than any 
thing else : do not play with similes ; look rather at 
what you can see of God in them, than how far they 
savour of the wit of man. 

Ver. 11. Is there miquity in Gilead? surely they 
are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, 
tlieir altars are us heaps in the furrows of the fields. 

^Tiat Gilead was you have heard before in chap. vi. 
ver. 8, " Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity." 



It was a city of the priests beyond Jordan, where the 
priests that were beyond the river lived. Sometimes 
it is taken for the Mount Gilead, where Jacob and La- 
ban met and made a covenant one with another. Here 
neither is excluded ; but most, I find, refer it to the city 
of the priests. And what Gilgal was you had opened 
to you in chap. ix. ver. 15, "All their wickedness is 
in Gilgal." Now Gilgal was the place where they were 
circumcised on this side Jordan, and belonged to Ju- 
dah. Gilead belonged to Israel, Gilgal to Judah. 

'■ Is there iniquity in Gilead ? sm-ely they are vanity : 
they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal." 

The latter part of this passage the Septuagint render, 
a/9a i/zfu^at; riaav iv Ta\aa5 dp\ovTiQ BvaidZovTtg, surely 
the princes sacrificing in Gilead are vanity. And in- 
deed the word n'lW translated " bullocks" is much 
akin to anitt- which signifies princes, the difference 
mainly consisting in a tittle on the right hand or on 
the left, and so tliere might easily be a mistake. But 
to read it as it is here, " They sacrifice bullocks in Gil- 
gal," great sacrifices ; and they think to put off God with 
their great sacrifices, sacrificing bullocks, but all in vain. 

The places having been spoken of before, we may 
proceed at once to see what the scope of the Holy Ghost 
is here. " Is there iniquity in Gilead ? " 

" Is there ? " an interrogation ; it is as if he should 
say, '\^'ho dare say there is iniquity in Gilead? Gi- 
lead ! what ! the city of the priests, iniquity there ! 
who will charge Gilead, where the priests are, with ini- 
cjuity ? What ! are you wiser than all our priests ? Just 
like to the plea which some heretofore have had, A\Tiat! 
do not our ministers do thus ? Is not this their opi- 
nion ? shall we not regard what om- ministers do ? " Is 
there iniquity in Gilead?" is there iniquity among 
them ? do they not join in this way ? This seems plain- 
ly to be the scope of this charge, " Is there iniquity in 
Gilead ? " It is the city of the priests ! is there iniquity 
there ? what ! in a place where they use to meet, 
where they dwell ? 

" Surely they are vanity," saith the prophet. Even 
these priests of Gilead, on whom you rest so much, are 
but vanity ; you may give up your consciences and your 
ways to them, because they come and persuade you 
that such a thing! is to be done, and you must do it, 
and so by giving up your consciences and ways to them 
you may be led into much evil. 

" Surely they are vanity." Though they be your 
priests, though they be learned men, and should under- 
stand the way of God, yet they have their own interests 
too, they drive their own designs ; they keep not the 
truth of God, but they follow their own" minds. "Sure- 
ly they are vanity." Those ways to which they per- 
suade you, God allows not of, they will prove vanity. 
Let the learned note, even wise, learned, understanding 
men, priests who seemed to be much for God, may yet 
be vanity. 

Obs. 1. "V\Tiatsoever is presented in the worship of 
God, if not by God's appointment, is mere vanity. 
" Surely they are vanity," even Gilead. 

Again, This Gilead being on the other side of Jor- 
dan, was taken by the Assyrians, and its inhabitants 
were first carried away captive, as appears, if you 
read 2 Kings xv. 29. Those that were on the other 
side Jordan were carried captive first, and Gilead 
among the rest ; so that it is probable that this pro- 
phecy was delivered after the capture of Gilead by the 
enemy, before the rest of the tribes were taken : and 
then the force of his ai-gument is this : 

There is iniquity in Gilead ; yea, and Gilead has 
smarted for her iniquity ; though they promised them- 
selves peace, yet all proved but vanity : yea, they smart- 
ed very di'eadfully, for in Amos i. 3 it is said, that 
Gilead was " threshed with threshing instruments of 
iron." Now Amos was contemporary with Ilosea, and 



538 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XII. 



speaks of the wonderful miseries that had befallen the 
city of Gilead. As if the prophet should say, l>o not 
you know there is iniquity in Gilead ? has not God de- 
clared it by liis severe wrath u])on Gilead ? have not 
they proved vanity? What then can Gilgal expect? 
They yet sacrifice bullocks, they are guilty of the same 
sin of false worship as Gilead was. God had appointed 
but one place to worship in, but they had abundance 
of sacrifices, and had their altars as common as the 
very heaps of stones in the fields. 

Obs, 3. When God's judgments have been against 
any for sin, all guilty of the same sins have cause to 
fear, and not promise safety to themselves though they 
be spared a while. 

But further, and chiefly, Gilead had smarted thus 
and thus, and the prophet now speaks to Gilgal, which 
belonged to Judah : Look to yourselves ; if Gilead has 
smarted thus, you are like to suffer as much or even 
more ; for Gilead did not own the temple ; the ten 
bribes (you know) had forsaken the temple, and were 
further removed from God in their very profession; 
but Gilgal belonged to Judah, and so nearer to God in 
outward relation, they professed a greater care of his 
worship: now, saith he, \ATiat! shall God be thus 
avenged of Gilead for false worship ? how then sliall 
Gilgal escape, that profess a gi-eater nearness to God 
in his worship, and yet for all that corrupt God's wor- 
ship, and "sacrifice bullocks;" "yea, their altars are as 
heaps in the furrows of the fields?" Hence, 

Obs. 4. Those whose principles and professions are 
nearer to God than others, if they be superstitious, God 
will be sorely avenged upon them : those (I say) whose 
princi])Ies and profession come most near in the mat- 
ters of worship. 

We may look at this point as nearly concerning our- 
selves ; thus, if a superstitious, prelatical ministry and 
people had the wrath of God pursuing them, as it has 
been heavy upon them, then those who sliall profess to 
come near in tlie point of reformation, whosoever they 
be, this side or the other, who profess to come nearest, 
if they mingle their own inventions in worship, God 
will be more sorely displeased with them : the more 
piety and holiness, the more we profess to come close 
to the word of God, and yet withal mingle our own in- 
ventions, the more is God displeased ; Gilgal offends 
more than Gilead.* 

"Their altars are as heaps in the fuiTOWs of the 
fields." As husbandmen use to gather their stones that 
kept the corn from growing, and every furrow almost 
some of them were laid in a heap ; so, saith he, theii' 
altars were as common as those heaps of stones. 

Or it may have reference to some of their supersti- 
tious or idolatrous customs. In the furrows of the fields 
thcv had many altars built to sacrifice, that they might 
seek God for the fructifying of then' land ; such a kind 
of worship of God as afterwards the heathens rendered 
to their dii lerminalen, for a blessing on their lands ; 
and, following their example, the papists. And hereto- 
fore in England you know it was customary in proces- 
sion-weeks for the men, when they went up and down 
their perambulation, in the bounds of their fields to set 
up crosses and crucifixes, and to have prayers read, 
and psalms sung, which were intended not merely to 
show the bounds of their ]iarish, but to invocale God 
for his blessing upon their fruits. By making and set- 
ting up crosses in the bounds of their fields, they 
thought there so came a blessing upon their corn, and 
therefore, at certain times of the year especially, tliey 
would go to their crosses, and offer their prayers there, 
that they might have their corn and ])astures more 
blessed. Thus we see superstition and idolatry are ever 
the same, among the Gentiles, among the papists, and 
lately among ourselves ; they all had their altars " as 
heaps in the furrows of the fields." 



Or in a way of threat, as some interpret it. Their 
altars shall be broken down, and they shall be "as 
heaps" of stones "in the furrows of the fields:" so 
in Jcr. xxvi. 18, "Zion shall be ploughed like a field, 
and Jerusalem .shall become heaps ; " as God threat- 
ened them, so their altars are here threatened to be 
broken down, and to be as heaps in the field ; God will 
regard their fine and costly altars no more than rub- 
bish and heaps of stones in the fields. 

Ver. 12. And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, 
and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept 
fheep. 

God by the prophet here again introduces Jacob. 
He had spoken before of his wrestling with God and 
[)revailing, and yet again the prophet recurs to his 
histoiy, because he saw that the people of Israel, when 
charged with their sins, and threatened with the anger 
of God, still had recourse to Jacob their father, and 
thought because they were the seed of Jacob, tlicrefore 
God would not deal so severely with them ; therefore 
still the prophet seeks to lead them off from such a 
mode of reasoning. 

" And Jacob fled into the country of Syria." As if 
he should say thus. You pride yourselves in your father 
Jacob; yea, but consider in what a mean condition 
Jacob was, and if any privilege comes to you as being 
his seed, it results from the mere free grace of God, , 
and not from any excellency there was in your father 
Jacob. He would take oft' the conceit of excellency in 
their father Jacob, for whose worthiness they thought 
that God surely would not forsake his jiosterity, though 
very wicked : as if he should say, Consider what a poor 
condition your father Jacob was in : 

First, He was a poor exile, fain to flee for his life, 
even from his father's house. And then when he did 
flee, he fled to his uncle ; and what was he there ? a poor 
servant; he lived in two hard apprenticeships (as it 
were) with his uncle Laban ; he found him to be a very 
hard master to him for seven years, and for seven yeare 
after that he behaved himself roughly and rigidly to- 
wards him, ofttimcs changing his wages. Saith he. Do 
not forget the meanness of Jacob : he fled thus ; and 
when in Syria he would mai-ry, he had no dowry, but 
was fain to serve for a wife, his condition was so low 
and mean. That is the first reason why the prophet 
brings in Jacob here again, to take them off from too 
high a conceit of Jacob their father, that they should 
not rest themselves in him, nor pride themselves in his 
excellency. 

Secondly, That he might show what their father 
Jacob was, how unlike to him were his posterity, for 
he was patient and humble under long and hard attlic- 
tions ; as if he should say. He was content to serve, and 
to be in a low and mean condition ; but you are proud 
and haughty, you can bear nothing, you must be high 
and brave, and must confonn yourselves to other na- 
tions. Your father Jacob was content to serve a long 
time for a wife, seven years, and seven years again, 
and went on in a humble and patient way, and kept 
close to God all that while : it is not so with you who 
are his posterity. 

Thirdly, He brings in the example of Jacob, to show 
how wonderful the providence of God was towards him. 
in carrying him to his uncle's house, and providing 
there for him; in protecting him against his uncle 
Laban ; in raising his estate, for he went over with his 
staff in his hand, but the Lord raised him to be two 
bands : the providence of God was such towards youv 
father Jacob. As if the prophet should say, You speuk 
of your father Jacob, oh that you would but so con- 
sider him as to be what he was, to be patient aii'l 
humble under God's hand, and to wait upon God'^ 



Vek. 12. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



539 



providence to work good for you : no, but you v.'iU be 
providing- and shiftinji; for yourselves, and tou dare not 
trust to Uod as your father Jacob did. Thus, in these 
three respects, you .see something of the intention of 
the prophet in introducing again Jacob. 

But this TV-ill not suffice for the exposition of this 
notable scripture ; -ne must refer to the story of Jacob, 
as narrated Gen. xxviii. and xxix. 

This verse refers to both, 

I. His flight from the house of his father Isaac to 
Syria, to Laban, Gen. xx-viii. 

II. His serving Laban for his -wives those twice 
seven years, Gen. xxix. 

I. Jacob's flight into Syria. From this you may de- 
rive much instruction. It was ordered for two ends : 

1 . To save his life. Esau threatened the life of Jiicob, 
and by the counsel of his mother he fled to his uncle 
Laban's, until the wrath of Esau should be apjjeased. 

2. God purposed good out of his evil ; he designed 
him advant.iges from his flight. Many times God is 
pleased to turn the flights of his people to their abund- 
ant good : they may flee because of their enemies, and 
think that if they can but have their lives for a prey 
they will do well ; yea, but God may have a, further 
end, and intend abundance of good to them, even that 
they shall flnd more mercy in that place where they flee 
but to get a shelter for then' lives, than ever they had 
in all their lives before. Many that have fled from per- 
secution of ungodly men, though they have fled from 
their father's house, and from their own country, yet 
in their flight have found greater mercies there than 
ever they did in all their lives before ; they can tell 
great stories of the mercies of God to them in the 
places of their exile. So it was here with Jacob : one 
purpose of God in his flight was, that he might provide 
a wife for himself out of his mother's kindred, for so he 
was charged by his father, to get a wife of the daugh- 
ters of Laban, Gen. xxviii. And further observe, as 
Isaac foresaw that Jacob was like to endure a great 
deal of trouble and affliction in this his flight, he re- 
news the blessing upon him. And thus God is wont 
to do when he sees his people in a way wherein they 
are like to suffer sore and hard afflictions ; he pre- 
pares them by renewing his blessing upon them, by a 
fresh manifestation of himself to them. His father's 
blessing did help much to carry Jacob through all his 
afflictions, and the renewing of God's blessing suffices 
to caiTy the believing soul through many and deep 
waters. 

n. Jacob's serving for his wives those two seven 
years. When Isaac sent Jacob away, he sent him in a 
very mean condition, without any such provision as 
Abraham's servant had when he went to seek a wife 
for Isaac ; in Gen. xxiv. 10, we read Abraham sent 
with his servant a great deal of provision, and ten 
camels, and earrings, and bracelets, and the like ; but 
Jacob is sent away to seek for a wife with only a staff 
in his hand. 

If it be said, that the reason why he was sent so 
meanly was, that he might not be discovered on ac- 
count of the rage of Esau. 

Though that might be a reason of his first going 
away in so mean a condition, yet that could not be the 
reason why Isaac should not afterwards send after him ; 
but we never read that Isaac sent any servant after 
him, but sent him away with his staff in his hand, 
having only the blessing of God upon him. Therefore 
it is more probable, that God thereby did mean to 
train up Jacob in a low condition, in an estate of af- 
fliction, to patience, and humility, and dependence upon 
God. 

Well then, he flees to Syria to his uncle Laban; 
when he comes there he serves him, yea, he was a 
servant to him for even twenty years together in a low 



condition. Gen. xxxi. 38 ; and during all this time he 
found Laban, though his kinsman, very rough to him; 
as many times young people, coming to their kindred, 
find them at first very rough and harsh towards them. 
Laban was very churUsh, yea, even very false, to him, 
yet Jacob goes on, and endui-es "in the day the 
drought," and " the frost by night." Isaac his father 
was alive at this time, and yet we never read that 
during it he sent to him, a thing much to be wondered 
at ; we read of no intercourse between them all this 
while, but Jacob lives apart from his father, though a 
rich man and a great man, and goes on in a humble, 
patient, and quiet way, depending upon God to make 
an issue out of all his sufferings ; and God did at length 
make a very glorious issue out of all, though Laban 
used him hardly. Now, being Isaac's son and having 
the blessing, one would have thought that Laban should 
have been willing to have bestowed a daughter upon 
him ; nay, but he is obliged to serve for a wife, and 
when he has served, is deceived with a Leah, which 
was a vei-y great injury to Jacob, but Laban urged her 
upon him. It is very' great cruelty in guardians, or 
parents, or any that have the government of others, to 
force wives upon them for their own private advantage ; 
those matches seldom come to good; though God 
turned this to good, yet I say these forced matches 
seldom come to good, they are the undoing of many. 
Jacob desired to have the wife that he had served for. 
Nay, saith Laban, Gen. xxix. 27, " Fulfil her week," 
the week of the festivity of her marriage, that is, con- 
firm the marriage with Leah first ; for Laban knew that 
except he had willingly afterwards gone in to her, he 
had not been bound to her as a husband : Laban wonM 
have him own her for his wife, and then, said he, we 
will agree together, you shall serve seven years more 
for Rachel, and you shall have her also. But now we 
must not understand this as if Laban kept Rachel from 
Jacob till he had served " yet seven other years," that 
is, completed fom-teen years ; no, he did but fulfil the 
week of Leah, and then Laban gave Rachel to him, 
yet upon condition that he should afterwards serve 
seven years for her also : this is plainly what was i-e- 
quired of him. And as an evident demonstration that 
Rachel was given to Jacob before her seven years were 
completed, it appears from the story that Leah had no 
children until Rachel was man-ied to Jacob, and yet 
all the twelve patriarchs were born to him within the 
compass of the twenty years that he was with Laban. 
Now if the fii'st had not been born till after the four- 
teen years' service, it could not possibly be, that all of 
the rest should be born within the six remaining years ; 
for we find in the story that Leah had four children 
one after another, and then left ofl' bearing, and then 
she gave Zilpah to Jacob, who bare two sons, and after 
that Leah had another son and a daughter, and all 
this before Rachel had any children : so that it must 
needs be vmderstood that Rachel was given to Jacob at 
the end of the fii-st seven years, yet that he served two 
seven years for these two wives. 

Now the Lord was pleased to turn this to a great 
deal of good, though it was hard service and bondage ; 
these two wives that Jacob served so long for, were 
made the two gi-eatest instruments of good that ever 
have been in the church before or since, excepting only 
the virgin that brought forth Christ: for by these two 
was the house of Israel built up, twelve tribes came of 
them and of those that they gave to Jacob, but the 
Holy Ghost reckons the building up by these two ; and 
from them the blessing that was wont to be upon a 
married condition was proverbially taken ; in Ruth iv. 
11, the elders said to Boaz, " The Lord make the 
woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and 
like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel :" 
this was the common blessing on a married condition, 



540 



A^■ EXi'05;iTiox of 



Chap. XII. 



The Lord make this woman like llaclicl and like Leah, 
that built the house of Israel. 

"Why like these two, rather than Sarah ? 

Because they built up the house of Israel, and all 
that came from them were of the church. Oh it is a 
great blessing in a married condition to build up the 
house of God. Though thou shouldst serve hardly for 
a wife, yet if God makes thy marriage so blessed to 
thee, as to enable thee thereby to build up the church 
of God, that is a blessed marriage : those that are 
married, and their friends, in their i)rayers, should pray 
to God for such a blessing ; Oh that the Lord would 
make this ■woman to be a builder up of the house of 
Israel ! 

But from the prophet's introducing here the flight 
and servitude of Jacob, we may 

Obs. 1. Such as pride themselves in their ancestors, 
should look back to their mean condition. Some are 
very high in their conceits because they have such and 
sucii ancestors ; it may be two or three degrees ofl' they 
were gieat, but look but a little further, and they were 
but mean ti'adesmen, or yeomen in the countiT : here 
the prophet would take these off from priding in their 
ancestors. It is a great vanity for any to jnide them- 
selves in their ancestors. Plato said, all kings came 
from ploughmen, and all ploughmen from kings. Be- 
cause some are great and rich by some providence or 
other, they think themselves above the common sort of 
mankind, they look upon others with contempt : " Look 
unto the rock whence ye are hewn," saith the prophet, 
Isa. li. 1, '• and to the hole of the pit whence ye are 
digged." 

Obs. 2. Patience, and humility, and dependence upon 
God in times of long-continued afflictions, much com- 
mend the grace of God in any. I say, when any shall 
be patient, and humble, and depend upon God in times 
of long affliction, this much commends the grace of 
God in them. 

O let me urge this, 1. Upon any of you that are in 
hard services. If I weie to speak to a congregation of 
appi'entices, that had hard services, and rough masters, 
and cruel mistresses, I would charge them not to fret 
and vex, not desperately to fling off and say, "Why 
should I bear such services ? Do not in a desperate 
mood determine to go and seek your fortunes, as they 
arc wont to say. Many young men have undone them- 
selves through the roughness of their masters and mis- 
tresses to them in their ajjprcnticeships, and though 
the evil will be upon themselves, yet God will require 
this at their masters' and mistresses' hand. This is a 
sign that there is no fear of God, that because they are 
in hard services, therefore they should resort to despe- 
rate courses. It may be your brother or sister has an 
excellent service, more liberty, better wages, and better 
provision, than you have ; yet, seeing God in his provi- 
dence has disposed of you to such a hard service, look 
uj) to God, and wait upon him continually to work good 
through it; God may intend good to you in such a ser- 
vice more than you are aware of. 

2. As for any of you that are come out of hard ser- 
vices, look back to them, and consider how you be- 
haved yourselves in them. Are you the seed of Jacob ? 
If you be, though your service lias been hard, yet have 
you gone on patiently, and humbly, and in dependence 
upon God, as Jacob did ; and God will remember this 
for good to you afterwards. Yea, but now, did not you 
behave yourselves proudly and stubbornly, and so make 
your service so much the more hard, by ])rovoking your 
governors ? O, look back to these things, and con- 
sider how far you are from being of the disposition of 
Jacob, that you profess to be your father. Many aj)- 
prentices in their hard services have done that which 
tliey have cause to repent of afterwards. 

Obs. 3. Love will carry through long service. " Is- 



rael ser\L'd for a wife." Love is ashamed to comjilain 
of difficulties. Oh, so it would bo if we loved God ; 
we would not then complain of his service as difficult. 

Obs. 4. A good wife is a great blessing of God, 
though she has no portion. Though a man serve for 
her, yet is she a great blessing from God ; there is a 
more sj)ccial mercy of God there, than there is in giv- 
ing men an estate. He served long, and long, even for 
a wife. 

Luther, on the place, speaks much i>-„„,„„io„g„!,m. 
about the blessing in marriage of a good pmwmvii J„ob 
wife. Certainly, saith he, Jacob did not .,»%",« q.ii per- 
serve so long that he might have a com- Kmqu.im'S'.Siiii 
panion of his life with whom there ^rSn?"m'c" 
should be nothing but railing, scolding, piiif insT^m c»l 

, ,, '=' , , 11 1 Luui. HI loc. 

and wrangling; no, but he looked upon 

marriage as the school of all virtue, for so should a 

married estate indeed be. 

Obs. 5. Children should not marry without or against 
their parents' consent. If you profess yourselves to be 
of the seed of Jacob, (for so the godly are called in 
Scripture,) be like to your father Jacob in tliis. in bein^ 
obedient to your parents in your matches. Jacob had 
a charge from his father to take a wife in Laban's 
family, and therefore he would rather serve seven years, 
and seven years afterwards, than seek a wife any w here 
else. There is no greater cbsobedience in the world, 
than that of cbilcben, in the case of maniage. Hinging 
off the yoke of subjection to their parents. Luther 
urges this point exceeding much. Civil laws requue 
the consent of parents in all lawful marriages ; and so 
the authority of sacred Scripture declares to us, that 
those marriages have been ever happy that have been 
with the consent of their parents. And again, (saith 
he.) experience testifies that those marriages have been 
for the most part unhappy, that have been without the 
consent of parents ; certainly the blessing of God is 
not upon them ; you may think to please yourselves in 
the gratification of your "lusts for a week or two, but it 
is just with God that you should live miserably all your 
davs who make no more conscience of disobedience to 
yoiir parents in your matches. And if anv of you here 
jiresent be guilty in this respect, know tliat the Lord 
rebukes you this day, commands you to go alone and 
humble yourselves, and to bewail that sin of yours, 
which is certainly verj' great : you had need, both hus- 
band and wife together, to fast and pray to God to re- 
move the guilt of that sin, that so you may have a 
blessing upon your married estate, and upon your pos- 
terity. 

Ver. 13. ylttd by a prophet the Lord brought Israel 
out of Egypt, and by a prophet teas he preserved. 

Still the prophet goes on to show their meanness in 
their ancestors. Your father Jacob was thus a poor 
exile, and fain to serve for his wife. It is true, Josei)h 
w as a while in prosperity ; but when Joseph was dead, 
all your ancestors tlien were in Egy]>t as miserable 
bonil-slavos ; they were there as bond-slaves, and how- 
should they get out? there was no apjiarent way, 
Pharaoh, a mighty king, opposed to them, they without 
friends or armies to help them. God indeed sent them 
a prophet, Moses; and what was he? one that had 
been a poor shepherd for forty yeai-s together in the 
w ilderness : and when this ])rophe't was to go into Egj-pt 
to deliver them, was it likely that he should ever suc- 
ceed? He went into Egypt in a mean and low condi- 
tion ; " He took his wife and his sons, and set them 
upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt," 
Exod. iv. 20 ; and when he came there the children of 
Israel would not own him, and Pharaoh would not let 
Israel go : how should this one Moses deliver them ? 
nav, their bondage increased when Moses came to 



Ver. 13. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



them. Yet " by a prophet'' (the text saith) " the Lord 
brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he 
preserved." This was a miglity work of God, to bring 
Israel out of Egypt by a prophet, and to preserve them 
in the wilderness. And by the way, you read in Exod. 
xxxviii. 26, there were numbered of males " from 
twenty years old and upward, six hundred thousand 
and three thousand and five huncbed and fifty ; " and 
in Numb. i. 46, in the second year after they went out 
from Egji^t, you find that there was just tlie same 
number, besides Levi, whom God had taken for him- 
self to be his portion : thereby God would show that 
none should lose any thing that they did for him. 
How often, wlien men have been willing to give any 
thing to God, has God made it up in one year ! 

But to return, I introduce this to show the great 
work of God, that by a prophet he brings such a num- 
ber out of Egj'jjt, and preserves them in the wilder- 
ness, using no means for their preservation or guidance 
but a mean prophet : by him he provides water, and 
meat, and clothes for them ; defends them against 
their enemies, that they should not come and destroy 
them ; when they were in any danger, helps them ; 
when stung by the serpents, shows them what they 
should do to be healed ; and by him, a mean prophet, 
composes all their difi'erences. Such was the mighty 
work of God towards them. 

He does not say, " the Lord brought Israel out of 
Egj'pt," but " by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out 
of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved." This 
was to show. 

First, Their very low and mean condition, that they 
had no succour nor help in the sight of human reason ; 
human reason could no way help them, they had none 
but a poor prophet. 

Secondly, That God in their deliverance would ap- 
pear himself, and would work such a glorious work by 
his own hand. 

Thirdly, To upbraid this people to whom Hosea then 
preached, for the abuse of his prophets. There was a 
time (saith he) a prophet stood you in stead : now you 
care not for the prophets, they may speak what they 
will, but you care not for them ; but there was a time 
that a prophet stood you in stead, however stout and 
proud you are now. I find divers interpreters observe 
this, and among the ancients Cyril of Alexandria espe- 
cially, showing how instrumental a prophet had been 
for good to them. Had not God blessed the endea- 
vours of a prophet for good to your forefathers, where 
had you been at this day ? 

Obs. 1. The consideration of the shiftless estate of 
om- ancestors should humble us much. And if the 
consideration of our ancestors' estate should luunble us 
thus, how much more when we consider our own ! 
Oh, lately, how shiftless were we ! And the truth is, 
though there were armies raised, yet God would not so 
much as look at them, but rather looked at his pro- 
phets, and his servants; the prating people were the 
main and principal means that helped us in that con- 
dition : and this should humble us : we should take heed 
of growing haughty and proud when we are delivered, 
considering how shiftless we were but a little while 
ago ; and therefore, if now we .have gotten peace, and 
prosperity seems to be following in, let us guard 
against pride ; look back to that shiftless, poor condi- 
tion that you were in a little while ago. 

Obs. 2. When God works great things for Ins church, 
his way is to work it by very small means. Little means 
God uses when he intends the greatest mercies to his 
church. God's deliverance of his people from Egypt, 
was a type of the deliverance of his churches to the 
end of the world from their bondage and afflictions. 
And God sends them a prophet, and he must deliver 
them : " By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of 



Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved." Though 
God did it, yet God speaks of the prophet as the great 
instrumental means for their help. God takes delight 
in this, when he does good to his people, not to make 
use of such great means, as when he works liis own 
ends towards other people : when God intends good 
towards other people, he will do it in a more natural 
way, by natural means : but when he comes to work 
good for his own, he will do it in a more supernatural 
way ; for mercies are so much tlie sweeter by how 
much the more God is in them ; the more we see the 
finger of God in a mercy, the sweeter it is. And above 
all things, the Lord accounts himself glorified in his 
people's depending upon him in the want of all means ; 
the Lord accoimts this his glory, that he may be an 
object of the rest of the souls of his people, that when 
tliey are in any straits, in anj' aftiictions, yet they can 
look upon God as an object for their rest, and can say, 
" Retm'n unto thy rest, O my soul," 

O consider this, ye servants of God, when in straits 
and difficulties ; remember, that God accounts it to be 
that in which he rejoices, as the special glory of his 
name, that his servants shall make him in their straits 
the rest of theu- souls : and this is the reason why he is 
wont to work so much good for his people by such 
poor and weak means. 

Obs. 3. It is a great aggravation of men's sins, if 
they grow naught and wicked after God has in a more 
than ordinary manner appeared for their good. If then 
they grow naught and wicked, when God has appeared 
from heaven for then' good, and wrought beyond all 
natural means, and set them upon their legs again, and 
delivered them, it much aggravates their sins. 

Obs. 4. Unkindness to, and abuse of, such as are re- 
lated, though but by succession, to those whom God 
has used to be instruments of our deliverance, is a very 
great evil. This I think the Holy Ghost especially in- 
tends here. By a prophet the Lord brought them 
out of Egypt, and by a prophet he preserved them ; 
and what ! do you now ti'eat unkindly and abuse pro- 
phets ? Divers good things God had done for his peo- 
ple by prophets, as by !Moses here, so afterwards by 
.Samuel, and Elijah, and Elisha ; great things in the 
matters of state God had done for this people by pro- 
phets, and therefore he takes it very ill that they should 
so abuse and slight the prophets. 

This shows, \. A base levity of spirit. 2. An abo- 
minable ingratitude of spirit and vile injustice : and 
God will avenge these things. AVe have a remarkable 
illustration in Judg. viii., ix. In the former, ver. 33 — 35, 
it is said, " And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was 
dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and 
went a whoring after Baalim, and made Baal-berith 
their god. And the children of Israel remembered not 
the Lord their God, who had delivered them out of the 
hands of all their enemies on every side : neither 
showed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, name- 
ly, Gideon, according to all the goodness which he liad 
showed unto Israel." Gideon had been such a famous 
instrument of good to Israel, that they received forty 
years' prosperity by him ; but as soon as he was gone, 
the people went a whoring from God, and thenthey 
were unkind towards Iris posterity. So in chap. ix. 6, 
" And all the men of Shechem gathered together, and 
all the house of Millo, and went, and made Abimelech 
king." And Jotham one of Gideon's sons, expostulates 
with them, and tells them the ])arable of the trees that 
desired a king; and, in ver. 19, 20, saith, " If ye then 
have dealt truly and sincerely with Jerubbaal and with 
his house this day, then rejoice ye in Abimelech, and 
let him also rejoice in you : but if not, let fire come out 
from Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and 
the house of Millo : and let fire come out from the 
men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and de- 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XII. 



vour Abimelech." As if lie should have f aid, God will 
avenge this. "What ! did God make my father an in- 
strument of so great good to you, and do you so ill re- 
quite all his kindness and sen-ice ? The Lord judge, 
and if it be so indeed, as now I charge you, let this be 
a manifestation of God's displeasure, that "fire come 
out from Abiraelech," &c. As if he should say. Do 
not think that you can have peace and quiet in your 
present courses ;" you think you have provided well for 
yourselves in setting up Abimelech, and you now bless 
yourselves therein ; We shall have peace, say you : oh 
no, the dis])lcasure of God will go on and pursue you, 
and there will beaflre among yourselves; and it isjust 
with God that it should be so, for this ingratitude of 
yours towards those who have been so instrumental for 
your good. The Scripture holds out this, that this is 
one way for God to avenge himself upon a people that 
shall be ungrateful to such as have been insti-umental 
for good to tliem, that they shall have a perverse spirit 
mingled among themselves, that when they think to 
provide for their own ease and peace, they shall have 
a fire kindled among them, so as in the conclusion to 
devour each other. These people, in Judg. viii. 22. 
were very zealous for Gideon, when God had delivered 
them by his means ; " Then the men of Israel said unto 
Gideon, llule thou over us, both thou, and thy son, and 
thy son's son also:" they made great promises then, 
they were then mightily affected. We were in a dan- 
gerous condition, say they, and were like to have been 
in perpetual bondage under our enemies, but God has 
stirreif up thee, and blessed thee, and therefore thou, 
and thy son, and thy son's son shall rule over us. Tliey 
were mightily affected with this mercy of God when it 
was fresh, but presently after you shall find they " re- 
membered nbt the Lord their God, who had delivered 
them," nor Gideon, the instrument of God's mercy to 
them ; but requited the posterity of Gideon as ill as if 
he had been one of their greatest enemies. 

O my brethren, this is a sore and grievous evil, tlie 
Lord cannot endure ingratitude. 

Ver. 14. Ephraim provoked him to anger most bit- 
terly: therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, and 
his reproach shall his Lord return unto him. 

" Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly." 
It is true, (saith God bv the prophet,) that I loved 
your father Jacob, and 1 have magnified myself to- 
wards his posterity, in the great and wonderful things 
which I have done for them ; but you have been a 
wretched peo])le. and provoked me most bitterly : as if 
he should say. Gentleness, sweetness, and love, dwell 
in God, if he be not ])rovoked ; if there be any anger, it 
is from men's provoking him. 

You have provoked mc bitterly, in bitterness : you 
have provoked, you have imbittered my Spirit agamst 
you, by your bitter sins ; you make my Spirit, that is 
so sweet of itself, to be bitter against you. 

The word Dniicn signifies sometimes to exalt and 
make high ; and accordingly Tremelius, Vatablus, Cal- 
vin, and others, translate it, high places, You have pro- 
voked me with the high places. Indeed that was a spe- 
cial sin, the sin of idolatry, which provoked God most 
bitterly against them. 

But it is more full to translate it according to the 
more strict signification of the word, You have provok- 
ed me in bitternesses, you have been very bitter against 
my saints that would go from Samaria to worship at 
Jerusalem. I have shown in this prophet how bitter 
the ten tribes were against any that would separate 
from them and go to worship at the temple. You have 
provoked me in that bitter sin of abusing my prophets, 
m that ingratitude of yours towards those whom I have 
made instrumental for your good ; you have provoked 



me in sinning against such great mercies ; you have for- 
saken the living God, the fountain of all good, and 
have turned yourselves to vanity ; you have provoked 
me to anger most bitterly. From whence, 

06*. 1. God is not angry but when he is provoked. 
Neither should we be ; let us be as our heavenly Father 
is : saith God, " Ephraim provoked him to anger." 

Obs. 2. Sin provokes God, puts God to stir up 
his anger, puts it to the trial whether there be any 
anger in God or no. So Heb. iii. 9, "Y^our fathers 
proved me," iiouiiiacav, they tested me, they would 
])ut it to trial whether there was such anger in me. 
Wicked men indeed do so : they hear much of the anger 
of God against sin, and they put it to ti-ial, they will 
see whether it be so or no ; they dare not say so in 
words, but their actions do so. Oh, it is a dreadful 
evil to provoke God. 1 Cor. x. 22, " Do we nrovoke the 
Lord to jealousy ? are we stronger than he ? " Can you 
stand it out with God ? Is it not folly to provoke a man 
that is a superior, that has power over you, and can 
crush you? O wretched, bold heart, that darest stand 
it out to provoke the eyes of his glorv, to provoke the 
Holy One of Israel ! WTiat, to provoke him that can 
stamp you into hell presently ! to provoke him that has 
the point of the sword of justice at your hearts ! but 
yet this is the boldness of ungodly men ; a man that 
dares not provoke his landlord, yet will dare to pro- 
voke God. 

06s. 3. It is a great evil to provoke one another to 
wrath, but a greater evil to provoke to wrath God. In 
Eph. vi. 4, parents are charged not so much as to pro- 
voke theu' children to wrath; and wilt thou then pro- 
voke God ? If we will provoke one another, let us " pro- 
voke unto love and to good works ;" to a kind of 
acrimony of love, Heb. x. 24. So in Gal. v. 26, it is 
said, " Let us not be desirous of vain-glon,-, provoking 
one another;" jrpoica\ov/«»'oi, calling forth one another's 
corruptions, that is the meaning of it ; Let there not 
be a desire of vain-glory, provoking one another, call- 
ing forth one another's corruptions. Oh ! it is an evil 
thing that we do call forth the corruptions of one an- 
other so. Was there ever times like the present ? men 
provoking one another, and stirring up one another to 
envy, wrath, and malice ; O, take heed of this, wonder- 
ful mischiefs have resulted fiom it. What mischief 
do you think will come then of provoking God to an- 
ger? Consider this, especially you that are of passion- 
ate spirits ; if a wife, a servant, or a child, do any thing 
amiss, you are presently all on file ; oh that you would 
reflect. What ! shall I, a poor worm, be so soon provok- 
ed with a fellow creature if he displease me ? O Lord, 
what a wretch am I then, that dare provoke the infinite 
God ! What, can I think my anger to be so terrible to 
a child, a neighbour, a servant ? oh, how terrible is 
the anger and wrath of an infinite God against a erea- 
tui-e when he is provoked ! I cannot bear it, whoever 
provokes me ; why should I think that the infinite God 
should bear witli me when I provoke liim ? Oh that 
the passionate would consider ! But further : 

" Bitterly." 

" Most bitterly." Gualter has a ver)- good expression 
about tills ; and especially in speaking of idolatry as 
provoking God : Just as if a wife that had broken her 
covenant, and used many unlawful dalliances, should 
attempt in like manner to manifest regard to her own 
husband, and he aware of her falseness. Oh what a 
bitter provocation would this be ! a husband would not 
bear it. Just so did this people do in their idolatries; 
in idolatiy they go a whoring to idols, and will tender 
up to God himself that kind of worship which they 
give to their idols : oh this is a bitter provocation. ■ 

Obs. 4. Though sin of its own nature docs provoke 
God, yet there are some sins which provoke him mo; 
than others. " Ephraim provoked nim to anger nn' 



Vek. 14. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



543 



bitterly-" So Heb. iii. 8, " Harden not your hearts, as 
in the provocation," iv r<f irapaTTiKpaa^if, in the time of 
bitterness. Oh, some things, as hardness of heart and 
false Avorship, inibitter God's Spirit ; yea, many times 
even those thinsrs wherein we think we do God a great 
deal of service imliitter his Holy Spirit. Oh, there are 
many men who think they serve God in doing that 
which provokes him bitterly. AVe know what the 
Scripture saith, that when they shall deal thus and thus 
with the saints they shall think that they do God good 
service : they may have a good intention in what 
they do, and yet provoke God bitterly. Oil let us not 
rest in good intentions ; I question not but this people 
pleaded their intentions to the prophet. Well, what- 
soever their intentions were, yet by their actions they 
bitterly provoked God. 

And as there are some sins that are as bitter clusters, 
" theii' grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bit- 
ter," as the Holy Ghost saith, Deut. xxxii. 32 ; so God 
will be as bitter against those that provoke him bit- 
terly, " Xhey shall be devoured with bitter destruc- 
tion." Deut. xxxii. 24. Oh, for the creature to forsake 
God is " an evil thing and bitter," Jer. ii. 19 ; and it 
will be bitterness in the end, as Abner said to Joab, 2 
Sam. ii. 26, " Knowest thou not that it will be bitter- 
ness in the latter end?" Oh, those dalliances of thine 
will be bitterness in the end ; those sins of thine that 
are the most pleasing to thee, as they are bitter to 
God, so God will make them bitter to thee one day. 
" Her end is bitter as wormwood," Prov. v. 4 : though 
the beginning is .sweet as "an honeycomb" to you, 
yet the Holy Ghost saith, that " her end is bitter as 
wormwood." So Jer. iv. 18, "Thy way and thy do- 
ings have procured these things unto thee : this is thy 
wickedness, because it is bitter." My brethren, we are 
charged in Scripture to take heed of being bitter one 
against another ; the husband is charged not to be bit- 
ter against his wife, Col. iii. 19. It is an evil thing 
when in a family there is bitterness. Oh, but when the 
Spirit of the eternal God is bitter against a people ! 
You mvcs who have such a bondage upon you, who 
find it evil to have such bitterness from your hus- 
bands, oh but then look up to God, is God's Spirit 
.sweet to you ? it is a blessing to have the Spirit of God 
sweet. There is a generation of men that have God's 
Spirit bitter towards them, by their being bitter one 
against another. In Eph. iv. 31, it is said, " Let all 
bitteiTiess, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and 
evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice :" 
this is the charge of God ; as we would obey him in 
any thing, we are charged to put away " all bitterness, 
and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speak- 
ing." Oh what a spirit of bitterness prevails among us ! 
how bitter are our words and speeches ! In Psal. Ixiv. 
3, wicked men are said to " whet then" tongue like a 
sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even 
bitter words." If ever bitter words did fly like aiTows 
about our ears, they do at this day ; I verily believe that 
England never understood, as lately, what bitter words 
meant. In Rev. viii. 1 1, it is said, " the third part of the 
waters became wormwood ; and many men died of the 
waters, because they were made bitter." My brethren, 
sometimes tlie thud part of sermons are wormwood, are 
bitter : oh. I would to God that we could not sometimes 
say the same of prayer ; bitterness in prayer, in writ- 
ing, in sjieaking, in conferring one with another, do 
not you tliink that this much provokes God ? Yea, even 
those men that were wont to draw down sweetness on 
one another's spirits in prayer, what do they now ? they 
cannot meet together but with bitter spirits, one im- 
bittering the otlier, as if there were nothing but gall 
and wormwood among us. Let me apply that scrip- 
ture in James iii. 11, "Doth a fountain send forth at 
the same place sweet water and bitter ? " What ! those 



that were of such sweet natures and dispositions, and 
by grace much more sweet, docs there now nothing but 
bitterness come out of such fountains P one would won- 
der to see men's natures so changed besides the work 
of grace. Oh, shall out of the same fountain come forth 
" sweet water and bitter ? " 

" Therefore shall he leave his blood upon him." That 
is, he shall bring his sin upon his own head : Those that 
will be wilful in sin, their blood be upon their own 
heads; that is the meaning. Never stand excusing 
any more : you have warning enough ; if you will go on 
in your way, the blood be upon your own head, you 
will undo yourselves and there is no help. Mark the 
phrase, " Therefore shall he leave his blood upon 
him." 

Obs. 5. When God bi-ings the guilt and the punish- 
ment of sin on a man's own head, and there leaves it, 
that is sad indeed. In 2 Sam. xii. 13, it is said, that 
when Nathan came and rebuked David for his sin, on 
David's confessing his sin Nathan said to him, " The 
Lord also hath put away thy sin :" T2j>n nin'-DJ 
■jnNtfln which is translated by some thus. The Lord 
hath made thy sin to pass away : oh, that is a happi- 
ness indeed, when it may be said of God, he has made 
the sin and the guilt to pass away fi'om the sinner. 
But on the other side, when God leaves the sin, with its 
attendant guilt, upon the sinner, as if God should say, 
Here is the guilt of sin upon the head of such a man, 
and let it abide and lie, I shall leave his blood upon 
him ; as in Ezek. xxii. 20, the Lord saith, " So will I 
gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will 
leave you there." The Lord many times brings his 
saints into the fire of afflictions, but he will not leave 
them there ; but when he brings the wicked into the 
fire, there he leaves them. 

" And his reproach shall his Lord return unto him." 
That is, they do what lies in them to bring a reproach 
upon me the living God, as if there were not an all-suf- 
ficiency in me, but I will make the reproach to turn 
upon their own heads ; yea, they reproach my saints 
too, but I will make this to return upon their ot\ti 
heads. O take lieed of doing any thing to bring a re- 
proach upon God. 

Yon win say, Can the creatui-e bring a reproach up- 
on God ? 

I might show you divers ways ; I wiU instance but 
one. 

Apostatizing from God. AYlien professors of religion, 
that have been very forward and seemed to rejoice in 
the ways of God and to rely upon him, forsake God 
to follow after their vain lusts, I say, these do bring 
a reproach upon God himself. In Heb. x. 29, they 
are said to do " despite to the Spirit of , 

grace," they wrong and bring a reproach ^'"pi'^'^'"- 
upon the Spirit of grace. And Heb. vi. 6, it is writ- 
ten, they put the Son of God " to an 
open shame ; " they make him a reproach ""'f^^^^'J"'"'' 
before all. As when you cart peo])le up 
and down the city you hold them out as a scorn ; so 
they put the Son of God to open shame ; they do (as 
it were) hold forth the Son of God to open shame. 
There is more good to be had in a wliore tlian in Jesus 
Christ, and Ciod, and the blessed Spirit ; that is the lan- 
guage of a whoremonger, and all a])Ostates, however di- 
versified, their sins are like-minded. 

Well, ye apostates, from whence is it that the people 
of God are reproached, but because of you ? Do you 
then bring a reproach upon God, upon his name, upon 
profession, upon his saints ? the Lord has ways to turn 
the reproach upon yourselves ; and usually such men as 
these, before they die, God puts to open shame, he 
leaves them to such vile courses as tliey come to be a 
shame, a by-word, a scorn, and cast out as dung and 
filth, not only to the churches, but from such as have 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Cn.vp. XIII. 



any kind of civility or morality at all. O, take heed of 
bringing a reproach upon God, and so upon his saints. 
O, let the saints go on in a constant -way of holiness 
and faithfulness ; God will wipe away their reproach, 
the Lord will return the reproach upon the heads of 
such as seek to rci)roach them. But when there comes 
a reproach u])on the wicked, it shall be another man- 
ner of reproach than upon the saints, it is called " a 
perpetual rei)roach ;" the reproach of the saints is not 
a perpetual reproaeli, but when it is upon the ungodly 
it shall be a perpetual reproach; and in Jer. xlii. 18, 
those two things are joined together, " a curse, and a 
reproach." So Neh. iv. 4, '■ Hear, O God, for we are de- 
spised ; and turn their reproach upon their own heads." 
Sanballat and Tobiah did reproach the servants of 
God, who sought in the uprightness of their hearts to 
honour God ; but, Lord, " turn their reproach upon 
their own heads," saith Nehemiah. 

And truly this is the best way, when the servants of 
God are reproached ; though they may by lawful means 
seek to vindicate their names, yet theu- chief resource 
is to pray. Lord, turn the reproach upon the heads, or 
into the bosoms, of our adversaries. 

Obs. 6. God will be Lord, let the wicked do what 
they can. " And his reproach shall his Lord return unto 
hini." " His Lord ;" what ! is God the Lord of this peo- 
ple ? " His Lord ;" as if the prophet should say. You 
reject God and will not be in subjection to him, you 
will not own him to be your Lord ; but he will be your 
Lord in spite of your hearts. Christ has purchased to 
be Lord over the' world, and he will be Lord over all, 
over all apostates, hypocrites, wicked men ; let them do 
what they can, Jesus Christ will be Lord over them in 
s])ite of their hearts. 

Oh it is a blessed thing to give up ourselves will- 
ingly to the subjection of Jesus Christ. If we say, " We 
will not have this man to rule over us," Christ will say, 
But I will rule over you ; " I have sworn by myself, the 
word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and 
shall not return. That unto rae every knee shall bow, 
every tongue shall swear," Isa. xlv. 23. " Be still, and 
know that I am God," Psal. xlvi. 10. So I say to the 
most troublesome and tumultuous spirit, that would 
cast off the yoke of God ; Be still, thou wretched, thou 
proud spirit, and know that God is the Lord, he will 
prevail against you. God made Julian 
u ai.05 a c ^^ ij„o,y ^^^[^^ when struck by a dart he 
cast his heart blood into the air, with an O thou Gali- 
lean, thou hast overcome me ! And so all wicked men 
shall be forced to say one day, Well, though I would 
cast off the commands of God behind my back, and 
break his cords, yet the Lord has overcome me ; and 
though I perish to all eternity, yet God will be Crod 
blessed for ever, and Lord of the whole earth. 



CHAPTER XI n. 



Ver. 1. When Ephraim spake Irembling, he exalted 
himself in Israel; but uhen he offended in Baal, he 
died. 

Tins chapter is partly legal and partly evangelical. 
Legal ; charging this people with their sin of idolatry 
and of ingratitude, showing them God's wrath, partly 
already inflicted, and further threatened them, to the 
Hth verse, and again in the loth and 16th verses, there 
returning to further threats; but in the Hth verse 
there is something mixed of the gospel in the midst of 
these charges and threats. Ephraim would have put 
off all the evil that came on him upon God ; but God 



charges Ephraim himself with it : all the change of _ 
Ephraim's condition from what it had been, comes 
from his own sin ; and the evil that is like further to 
come upon him will be for his own sin. 

"When Ephraim spake, trembling;" not, when 
Ephraim spake tremblingly ; but, when Ephraim spake, 
(there should be a stop,) trembling; as much as if it were 
said, there was trembling when Ephraim spake, those 
that heard him did tremble. When Ephraim spoke, 
there was trembling. There was a time when Ephraim 
was very honourable among the tribes, when the very 
speaking of Ephraim had great power, and took great 
impression u])on whomsoever he spake to. Yea, though 
Ephraim was the younger brother, that came of Joseph, 
yet, by the guidance of the hand of Ciod upon Jacob's 
hand, the blessing came upon him more especially; 
and so from time to time God put much honour upon 
this tribe of Ephraim, according to the blessing he had 
from Jacob, when his right hand did lay hold upon 
the head of Ephraim. Joshua was of the tribe of 
Ephraim, and when Joshua spake what trembling was 
there among all the people ! what mighty power and 
authority had he ! And you read in Judg. viii. 1, 2, in 
their speaking to Gideon, what ti-embling they caused, 
and what yielding presently ensued : " And the men 
of Ephraim said unto him, Why hast thou served us 
thus, that thou calledst us not, when thou wentest to 
fight with the ^Midianites ? And they did chide with 
him sharply. And he said unto them, Mliat have I 
done now in comparison of you ? Is not the gleaning 
of the grapes of EjAraim better than the vintage of 
Abi-ezer ? " And so in Judg. xii., when Ephraim came 
to fight with Jephthah they had thought to have done 
the same, they spake great and swelling words ; Ephraim 
took much upon him, and made account that all should 
tremble and shake when he spake. 

" He exalted himself in Israel." Jeroboam was of 
the tribe of Ephraim, and so it refers in a more especial 
manner to him, and his house, the princely power being 
put upon that tribe of Ephraim in Jeroboam, and they 
having power in their hands prevailed very much at 
the first, and caused trembling in all those to whom 
they spake. As if the Holy Ghost should say. There is 
a great change now in Ephraim, he is not now as he 
was, nor likely to continue so. Ephraim presuming 
upon his excellency, and upon his strength and worth, 
ventured to sin, " he offended in Baal," that is, in a 
way of idolatrv, for so Baal sometimes is a general 
woid for an idol: Jer. ix. 14, " But have walked after 
the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim," 
after their idols. And the Chaldee paraphrase seems 
to allow of this ; They did sin, in that they did worship 
idols. 

" ^^'hen he offended in Baal." But though this is 
meant immediately of Jeroboam, including his calf, yet 
it has special reference to the idolatry that was after- 
wards in this princely tribe, in the successors of Jero- 
boam, and in a more special manner in Ahab ; 1 Kings 
xvi. 31, he did not satisfy himself in worshipping of 
the calves, but added this, to worship Baal, the god of 
the Sidonians. 

" He died." 

" He died." His spirit even died ; he was of a stout, 
but afterwards came to be of a low, base, and sordid 
spirit, and so " died." They were under the sentence 
of death ; Jeroboam's house was cut off, and Ahab's 
house cut off; and the jieople died at la.st ; they be- 
came vile and contcmjitible, so that every body could 
insult them. When a lion is alive and roars, he is ter- 
rible to all the beasts ; but the most timorous thing w'ill 
run over, or trample ujjon, a dead lion. So Ejihraim 
was tcrrililc to all about him, but when he had " of- 
fended in Baal " his honour was taken from him. and 
he w as fain to crouch to everv one • and the wTath of 



VtE. 1. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



545 



God pursued and never left him, nor his family, nor 
the people, but they died and came to nothing. Oh 
the poor sph'it that thei'e 'svas in this tribe after they 
" offended in Baal ! " In 1 Kings xx., you shall see 
what a low and mean spirit they had : whereas before, 
when they spake men trembled, none could make 
them tremble ; but there, ver. 1 — 1, it is said of Ben-ha- 
dad, the king of Sp'ia, that he " gathered all his host 
together ;" " and he sent messengers to Ahab lung of 
Israel into the city, and said unto him. Thus saith Ben- 
hadad, Thy silver and thy gold is mine ; thy wives also 
and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine. And 
the king of Israel answered and said. My lord, king, 
according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I 
have." They had a low and mean spiiit, yielding to 
any thing ; and yet of a perverse, froward spirit, to be 
cruel over those that were under them : the Lord was 
departed from them, and so their spirits were gone, and 
they were as a dead carcass, which every one could in- 
sult with im])unity. Thus you have the general mean- 
ing of this scripture ; yet we shall consider it more 
particularly when we examine it in reference to Jero- 
boam. But from what has been said, there are these 
observations : 

Obs. 1. It is an honour to have respect fi'om others 
when Ave speak, to have what we say received with re- 
Aerence and respect, showing that it impresses the 
hearts of others, and is not cast out as a vain and 
worthless thing. Thus Job describes his honour, chap. 
xxix. 9, 10, " The princes refrained talking, and laid 
their hand on theii' mouth. The nobles held their peace, 
and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth." 
And in the 21st verse, " Unto me men gave ear, and 
waited, and kept silence at my counsel." A gi'cat 
honour it was to Job, that when he spake his speech 
was so regarded. 

Let children, and servants, and all inferiors, learn to 
nive due honour to those whom God has set above 
th.era ; not to scorn at nor slight their words, nor when 
they speak to them to go away and smile and jeer: 
I nit it is fit when a father speaks to his child, that the 
child show reverence and respect in its very counte- 
nance and caiTiage ; and so when masters speak to 
their servants, and superiors to then- inferiors. But 
e'^pecially let us give God such honour' when he speaks, 
oil let there then be trembling ! Should inferiors 
honour their superiors by showing reverence when they 
speak ? O let us give this to God. " Bless the Lord, ye 
his angels, that excel in strength, that do his com- 
mandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word," 
Psal. ciii. 20. The angels excel in strength ; and what ! 
do they slight and disregard the word of God ? Oh no, 
they hearken unto the voice of his word, showing for it 
a reverent respect ; and it infinitely beseems us, when 
God speaks, to " stand in awe," and " do his command- 
ments." 

Obs. 2. Those who are in place of power over others 
account it their honour, not only that those under them 
should regard, but that they should tremble at what 
they say. Man greatly delights to lift up himself 
above others, and to lord it imperiously over them : we 
might give divers examples of men who have had great 
jjower in their hands, who, when any thing has dis- 
]jleased them, would speak so as to make others to 
shake and ti'emble : nay, not only men in great place 
will do this, but you will find the same disposition in 
men that are very mean and of a very low rank. And 
in families too, how many when they do but speak to 
their wives, though they be collateral, and not directly 
under them, yet how imperiously will they speak, yea, 
so as even to make the house shake almost ! and so 
with their servants and chilch'en ; and this they account 
their glory. My brethren, though this be often througli 
much distemper, and pride, and vanitv in men, to de- 
2 .\ 



light to make all that are under them to tremble when 
they speak, yet this is an honour due to God, and God 
expects it from us ; for the Lord is infinitely above us, 
we are all under the feet of God, and at his disposal, 
both for our present and eternal state. 

And it is fit for us therefore to show reverence to 
God when he speaks, to have a heart to tremble at 
his word, that is what God looks for. So Isa. Ixvi. 2, 
" To tills man will I look," saith the Lord, " even to 
him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth 
at my word :" the word that God speaks is that which 
has the cbeadful authority of God in it ; it is that which 
binds conscience, that word which, if thou obeyest not, 
will bind thee over to eternal death. It becomes the 
greatest monarchs in the world to tremble when God 
speaks : oh ! who art thou that canst stand against the 
voice of God ? Oh, bold and hard of heart art thou, that 
canst stand out against God's voice. " The voice of 
tlie Lord is powerful ; the voice of the Lord is full of 
majesty," Psal. xxix. 4. And Hab. iii. 16, " "WTien I 
heard, my belly trembled ; my lips quivei'ed at the 
voice : rottenness entered into my bones, and I trem- 
bled in myself." This is the honour that is due to 
God. Oh, it is a comely thing to see a congregation sit 
even trembling under the word of God, manifesting 
their hearts to be affected with the authority and ma- 
jesty of that which God speaks ; for " the voice of God 
is full of majesty." 

" When Ephraim spake, there was trembling." 

This the prophet mentions as an aggravation of his 
sin and misery afterwards. As if the prophet should 
say. There was a time that God did subdue the hearts 
of people, so that Ephraim had a gi'eat deal of author- 
ity over those that were under him ; " when Ephraim 
spake, there was trembhng." AVhence, with Parens, 

Obs. 3. The subjection of the hearts of men to those 
in authority, is a work of God, God is to have the glory 
of it. It is from God that the hearts of multitudes are 
brought under some few, so as to fear them, and to re- 
ceive what they speak with trembling. Thus we read 
in Josh. iv. 14, " On that day the Lord magnified 
Joshua in the sight of all Israel ; and they feared him, 
as they feared Moses, all the days of his life." Before 
Moses's death Joshua was but his servant, and we do 
not read that he was so magnified among the people 
that they feared him. No, the fear was then upon 
INIoses, because Closes was in place of authority ; but 
when Closes was taken away, and Joshua was to suc- 
ceed him, then the Lord magnified him, the Lord put 
a lustre upon him, and the Lord caused the people to 
fear him, as they had feared Moses. It is a work of 
God to cause people to fear magistrates. So in Dan. 
V. 19, " For the majesty that he gave him," that is, that 
God gave the king, " all people, nations, and languages, 
trembled and feared before him." It is God that puts 
majesty upon governors, to make those that are under 
to fear. Psal. Ixxvii. 14 deserves to be noted ; it is 
there said of God, " Thou art the God that doest won- 
ders." What are those wonders and marvellous things ? 
If you read, you shall find among others, " Thou led- 
dest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and 
Aaron ;" that is reckoned among the -n onders and mar- 
vellous things that God did, that he did lead his people 
" like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron." That 
so great a multitude should be so led by the hands of 
two, is a wonderful work of God, God is to have the 
glory of it : it is for the maintaining of government and 
order in the world, that God so subdues the hearts of 
many under few. 

Obs. 4. The meaner the beginnings of men are, the 
more imperious oftentimes they prove in power. " When 
Ephraim spake, tliere was trembling." This was the 
vounger brother, and had power, not according to the 
ordinary common course, but by a special providence 



546 



AN EXPOSITR N OF 



Chap. XIII. 



of God ; and so we very often find that men of mean 
quality and inferior rank, if any providence raises 
them above others, they prove the most imperious. 

Obs. 5. Sin will bring men's honour down. " But 
when he offended in Baal, he died." Though there 
was a time that every one reverenced Ephraim, and 
did much regard what they spake, yet, they falling to 
sin and wickedness, it is just with God to bring their 
honour and esteem do\iTi, to bring them into the dust, 
and to make them vile and contemptible in the eyes of 
those that ere wliile did reverence them. We find this 
threatened both to magisti-ates and ministi7. With 
respect to magistrates, in Job xii. 21, " He poui-eth 
contempt upon princes:" God poui-s contempt ; though 
they had very great honour and esteem, yet through 
their sin contempt is thrown upon them. And then 
for those in the ministr)-, in Mai. ii. 9, " Therefore 
have I also made you contemptible and base before all 
the people." "The priest's lips should keep knowledge," 
and those that were faithful were very honourable ; but 
when they became " partial in the law," that is, wlicn 
they began to tm-n the word of God to their own ends, 
the' Lord made them vile in the eyes of the people. 
The main charge against them was, that they were 
" partial in the law ;" they would handle the word of 
God partially, what they could get to drive on theii- 
own ways by, they would improve that to the utter- 
most, and turn the word which way they pleased; they 
thought by tliis means to prevail, and to get esteem of 
the people, yet this was the thing that God tlu-eatens, 
to make them thereby to be vile and contemptible in 
the eyes of the peoj)le. AMjen people come to discover 
that men do indeed drive on their own designs and 
their own ends in the ways of God, nothing will take 
away their repute and then- honour more. Oh the 
great change that there is in the honours and esteem 
of men ! God for then- sin casts them out, and there 
pours contempt on their names, as those who have 
outlived then- honours, even in the very hearts of the 
saints. Indeed when there is a change in the outward 
condition from prosperity to afflictions, then wicked 
and carnal men will not regard those whom they be- 
fore honoured. As in Job's case, in chap. xxix. he tells 
us how he was honoured, and regarded, and reverenced 
where he lived in prosperity ; but when he was in af- 
fliction, chap. XXX. 1, he saith, " But now they that are 
younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I 
would have disdained to have set with the dogs of ray 
flock." This is our wickedness, to change our minds 
of the esteem of men because of their prosperity or 
adversity ; it evidences great vanity of spirit : surely, if 
now God by his providence has brought do^vn, in 
regard of his outward estate, one who has been high in 
place and godly in the exercise of his functions, he is 
yet to be honoured still, continuing in his integrity and 
holiness. But now 1 speak of this as a judgment of 
God upon men, when God casts out their names from 
the very hearts of the saints, and that worthily too, 
when they deserve to be looked upon as dead carcasses, 
though heretofore in much honour and esteem. Here- 
tofore they were as gardens that had many sweet 
flowers, excellent common gifts, for which they were 
respected ; but now like gardens overgrown with 
weeds, which no man regards. As houses that were 
hung with costly hangings, but afterwards pulled down 
and nothing left but the bare walls ; so their gifts were 
very precious. As houses once opulent, which their own- 
ers have deserted, leaving nothing but bare walls, it may 
be mice and vermin run up and down in rooms that 
were once hung bravely ; so it is with many who 
hud excellent gifts, which were highly honoured and 
esteemed by people that knew them, but now the 
hangings are gone, there is nothing but vermin run- 
ning up and down in their spirits. Oh what a mighty 



havoc sin will make ! how it will bring men's honours 
down! 

Let men therefore take heed of trusting in their for- 
mer repute, for let them have done what they will 
heretofore, yet If thej depart from God then- honour 
will depart too. Men that are in place of authoritj', 
or in the ministry, had need consider this point well ; 
for it is a matter of great moment for them to keep up 
theii- repute and esteem, that they may be the more 
useful, and do service, not only for themselves, but for 
God. And it is one of the great designs of the devil, 
to seek to cast dirt upon those whom God is wont to 
use as instruments for good : oh, it concerns them to 
look to it that they be chargeable with nothing justly. 
It is very observable how God remembers Ephraim 
for dishonour a long time after. In Revelation, chap, 
vii., where the tribes are reckoned up, only two tiibes 
are left out, Dan and Ephraim ; Ephraim is not men- 
tioned there by his o\ni name, but by the name of Jo- 
seph ; and the reason that is given is, because those 
two tribes were ringleaders in idolatry. If you read 
Judg. xviii., you find the children of Dan there setting 
up "the graven image;" and you know the great 
changes that Ephraim made in the worship of God, by 
Jeroboam's setting up of calves, and so aftei'wards sin- 
ning in Baal : hence the great dishonour by omission 
that God put on them afterwards. 
" A^^len Ephraim spake." 

"Spake" what? What did Ephraim speak when 
he caused trembUng ? Om- observations hitherto have 
been general, but referring it to Jeroboam, that was of 
Ephraim, and so to his courtiers, what did they speak ? 
They spake these two things, and so caused ti'embling 
in the hearts of the people. 

I. About the alteration in the government, about the 
taking off the ten tribes from the house of David ; 
" What portion have we in David ? neither have we 
inheritance in the son of Jesse," 1 Kings xii. 1 6. Allien 
this was mentioned, there was trembling ; it did cer- 
tainly at first cause the people's hearts to shake, they 
thought it was a very great matter, they knew not 
what would come of it ; what ! to forsake the house of 
David, and to have a change of government ? this 
caused many thoughts of heart, and much trembling, 
lest evil might result. " AA'hen he spake, there was 
trembling," but, "he exalted himself." Notwithstand- 
ing such concussions of spiiit, yet Jeroboam went on 
in his way, and would venture the worst ; let come of 
it what would, he would on, " he exalted himself." 
But then afterwards he sins in his idolatry, as his suc- 
cessors sin in their Baal, and then " he died ;" God 
struck him, and his family, and so the ten tribes. From 
whence our notes of observation ai-e, 

Obs. G. Alteration in government is a matter of 
veiy great hazard and difficulty. Men that have to deal 
in any kind of alteration in matter of government, had 
need be very wise in their carriage in it in respect of" 
the people, for much depends upon them. When there 
was any alteration in government there was trembling, 
mighty fears and troubles in the hearts of the people. 

06s. 7. Resolved spirits will break through diffi- 
culties. 

06s. 8. A\'Tien God intends to have a work accom- 
plished, he will raise up men to go through with it, not- 
withstanding any difficulties there arc in it. " He ex- 
alted himself.'" Though the people's minds were very 
much troubled, and there was a great deal of shaking 
throughout the land, yet he lifts up himself; he had 
some encouragement from the prophet, and otherwise, 
so that he uould go through with the matter. It was 
a purpose which God had purposed, that he might fulfil 
what was threatened to Solomon for his former sin. 

06s. 9. If the workers together with God, after duties 
are accomplished, rest in their own parts or strength, so 



Vee. 1. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



547 



as to forsake and sin against God, it is just witli him 
to leave them, that they shall vanish and come to no- 
thing. •' He exalted himself," and pi-evailed in what he 
spake, notwithstanding the trembling of the people ; 
and now, having got himself warm in the nest, and 
strong in his kingdom, he lifts up himself in another 
manner, and forsakes God, and trusts in his own 
strength, and then he dies ; God casts him ofl'. 

ilen had need take heed, though they be carried 
through many and great difficulties by a spirit more 
than ordinary, they had need take heed (I say) that 
afterwards they do not walk in their own strength, but 
walk humbly before God : if they forsake God, they 
will die and perish. 

n. About the alteration in religion : this likely 
caused more trembling than the other. What did Jero- 
boam speak ? That now they were not to go up to 
worship at Jerusalem, God did not stand upon such 
things : no, they might save themselves that long 
lOurney : and so there was a calf set up at Dan and 
Beth-el. and they must go and worship there : this was 
a mighty alteration in their worship. And surely when 
tliis was mentioned first to the people, there could not 
but have been great trembhng : the spirits of the godly 
surely would tremljle at such a motion, they would 
look upon it as a most di'eadful curse of God upon the 
kingdom, that there should be such a change in the 
matters of religion, from truth to falsehood ; and even 
among others, too, there was a general trembling, for 
men have some kind of conscience with regard to re- 
ligion and the worship of God, and this was so flat 
against the word, that where there was but any con- 
science of God they could not but have had some fear, 
they could not tell what might come of it, and there- 
fore there could not but be a very great concussion of 
spirit in the people of the land. At first this was so ; 
but yet afterwards their spirits became dead spii-its, 
that he might do with them what he would : and so 
they joined with Jeroboam, and even with Ahab, and 
sinned more and more. 

Obs. 10. Alteration in religion is a very difficult 
business. It cannot be expected but the hearts of people 
wUl stu' much upon the alteration of religion : though 
it be from worse to better, yet the hearts of people will 
stir very much at first. ^Vhen the Reformation from 
popery took place here, what a stir was there ! the)- 
were presently ready to take up amis in Cornwall. 
What ado was there for the book of Common Prayer ! 
so that the king was fain to write to them, that it was 
no other than the sum of what they had before, only 
translated into English, with some amendments. And 
certainly the casting out of prelacy has caused a great 
deal of trembling; a great ado there is. How hard it is 
to get but a single rotten tooth out of a man's head ! it 
costs a great deal of pain and trouble. Though the 
wars were undertaken for the maintenance of our 
liberties, as subjects and men, and for the civil right 
we have to our religion also ; yet we see that the very 
thoughts of any kind of change whatever in matters of 
religion, causes the hearts of men to shake and to be 
unsettled. A change in matters of religion, even 
though from the worse to the better, is an affair of 
great moment, and therefore requires much prayer. If 
it cause trembling when the change is from the better 
to the worse, it will likewise cause ti'embling where it 
is changed from the worse to the bcttei': and therefore 
it requires that all the godly should join all their 
strength together, against those that would oppose 
their strength against it. 

Oba. 11. Alen of resolute spirits will go on, even in 
matters of religion, though it be from the better to the 
worse. You may say. The people will not bear nor 
endure it. Yea, but they will venture to go on-with 
their way and design, though it be fi-om the better to 



tlie worse ; but now, if tlie change be from the worse 
to the better, then it is a special gift of God to give 
men hearts to persevere, notwithstanding difficulties. 

Obs. 12. Gradual encroachments under fair shows 
further designs. " He exalted himself," though there 
were " trembling :" that is, he succeeded in this his 
change of religion, not by open violence presently, but 
he carried things on by fair shows, one thing after an- 
otlier, and so prevailed with . the people. This is the 
way to compass an object. 

b/is. 13. God's long-suffering must not be abused. 
" but when he offended in Baal, he died." Though 
God may suffer men to make some alterations in re- 
ligion, though they be for the worse, and let them 
pros])cr, yet if they will grow from one degree to an- 
other in forsaking Ciod, then God comes upon them 
with his wrath, and they die ; if they know not where 
to hold, God will not continue patient towards them 
any longer. 

06.«. 14. A family or people from which God has 
withdrawn his protection and blessing, is as a dead 
carcass. " lie died." I understand similarly Matt, 
xxiv. 28, " For wheresoever the carcass is, there will 
the eagles be gathered together." Though it is true 
that this is spoken about the coming of Christ, yet I do 
not think that the carcass is Christ, and the saints the 
eagles, although it has been interpreted so by several; 
but Christ's coming, here meant, is his coming against 
Jerusalem, his coming in his judgments against the 
people of the Jews : they were now as a dead carcass, 
God having forsaken them; and the eagles, birds of 
prey, would come upon them : this might refer par- 
ticularly to the Romans, whose ensign is the spread 
eagle. The body of the Jews that had forsaken God 
and his truth, and so were but as a dead carcass, would 
become the prey of those eagles. A people or family 
that forsakes God and Ms worship is as a dead carcass, 
the prey of the spoiler. 

Obs. 15. Corruption of worship- causes God thus to 
withdraw from a people, and make them to be as a dead 
carcass. " But when he offended in Baal, he died." 
As it was said of Troy, so long as they kept the Palla- 
dium, the image of Minerva, Troy was impregnable, 
but when that was gone, then was it overcome and 
spoiled ; so when God's woi'ship, which is the life and 
safety of a place, is corrupted and gone, then cometh 
death. Though I do not think that God always ob- 
serves the same strictness in matters of wor.shipas with 
the Jews ; for the Jews cerfahily. though they had a 
covenant of grace in which God dealt ^^■ith them, yet 
they had too a special covenant which God made with 
them, respecting their being in the land of Canaan. 
Now indeed God goes by general rules, that is, to jjun- 
ish the disobedient and to reward those that are godly, 
his ways now towards nations and people, with regard 
to outward punishments and mercies, are but according 
to general rules; but his administration towards the 
Jews, besides general rules, were according to a special 
covenant made with them about then- living in the land 
of Canaan, either prosperously, or in adversity. 

Obs. 16. AVhen wicked men are most active in evil, 
yet then may they be under the sentence of death. 
When they seem to have the greatest power to do 
what they list, yet then they may be as a dead peo])le. 
" When he offended in Baal, he died." If you will 
but observe the story, for these prophets cannot possi- 
bly be understood without reference to the history in 
Kings and Chronicles : observe but the account in the 
Kings : when was it that Ephraim " offended in Baal ? " 
It was in Ahab's time ; they were never more active for 
their idolatrous ways than then, nor was there ever 
more violence or cruelty exercised on the prophets of 
the Lord ; for then Jezebel had her hundred prophets 
set at her table, but the prophets of God were fain to 



548 



AN EXPOSITIOX OF 



Chap. XIII. 



be hid in a cave, and Elijah to shift for his life : and 
yet " when he offended in Baal, he died." Pied ! why 
he scorned to be full of life, and activity, and vigour, 
and thought to do what he list, and to trample all un- 
der feet that would stand against that way of worship. 
But for all this theii- bravery and pride they were dead, 
sailh the Holy Ghost, they were a base people, and 
under the sentence of death; God was gone from 
them, and they were decaying, and so they should deny 
him more and" more till they utterly perished. "A^Tien 
he offended m Baal, he died." 

Vcr. 2. A7id now they sin more and more, and have 
made them molten viiages of their silver, and idols ac- 
coidin" to their owti understanding, all of it the icork 
of the craftsmen : they say of them. Let the men that 
sacrifice k'iss the calves. 

" And now they sin." 

The family of Ephraim and the ten tribes, for so 
Ephraim is taken for Jeroboam sometimes, and some- 
times for the whole tribe, and sometimes for the go- 
vernors, and sometimes for all the ten tribes as distinct 
from Judah. 

" Now they sin more and more." 
From whence I beseech you observe the taking in 
the people now together with Ephraim : at first it was, 
"when he offended in Baal, he died;" but now it is 
said, " Ikey sin more and more : " all the people join 
with him in sin. 

At first, when he began to speak about the alteration 
of religion, the people trembled to think of it ; but it 
seems afterwards they could swallow it down well 
enough, they could join witli Jeroboam, yea, and .\hab 
too, '• more" and more ;" let them impose what they 
would upon them, they could yield to it. 

Obs. 1. Use makes a mighty alteration in men's 
spii'its. How many men's hearts and ways are dif- 
ferent from what they seemed to be ! If one had men- 
tioned formerly such things as they do now, they would 
have trembled". K about six years since one could but 
have presented in a map all our speeches and actions 
one against another, and told us how things should be, 
our hearts would have shaken, and we would have 
trembled at the very thoughts of it ; but now " more 
and more" we go on, and God knows whither we 
shall go ; oh the alteration that a little time makes 
in men's spu-its! Now (saith he) they are a dead, 
heartless people; you may do what you will with 
them ; they will now do things altogether opposed to 
their fonner ])rinciples. A man would wonder that this 
peojjle, who were so astonished at the bare thoughts 
of the change in religion, should now be swallowed up 
in idolatry. 

06s. 2. The sudden affections and sudden expressions 
of people are never to be regarded. Though people 
may seem to be up and very forward in their affections 
and expressions, yet, I say, never rest too much upon 
them. Nothing is more uncertain than 
Mobile vuigu.. ^j^g spirits of the multitude, and there- 
fore it is the most irrational thing for any of wisdom 
to think to carry things that way for a constancy ; you 
may find them forward in one way at one time, but 
ihcy will be quickly off again, and that which one time 
they will extol, at another time they will cry down; 
and such alteration of spirits these times will be a wit- 
ness to, I believe, as great as ever occurred from the be- 
ginning of the world. " Now they sin more and more." 
" And now." 

There is a gi-eat emphasis in this particle, " now." 
" They sin more and more; " that is, even " now," when 
the very sentence of deatli was out against them, even 
" now " they do it. Tlius did .Vhab in 1 Kings xvi. 30, 
" And .Vhat) the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the 



Lord above all that were before him ;" he added evil 
to evil. From whence, 

Obs. 3. When destruction is neaiest evil men are 
most wicked. Now their sin ripens apace : when the 
scum grows highest, then it is nearest the fire ; and so 
the nearer it is to the fire the higher it will grow. It 
is a great sign that the times of men are not long, when 
they grow notoriously wicked. See a man that hitherto 
has been forward in that which is good, he may have 
failings, and yet the Lord may pity him ; but now let 
this man grow to be very wicked, not only to abate of 
his profession, but to become 0])enly sinful, expect the 
ruin of that man suddenly, it will not tarry long. 

04s. 4. It is a great aggi'avation of men's wickedness 
to sin after God thi'eats, and in the times of judgment, 
when they are under God's hand. Oh, when God ap- 
pears against us we should jjresently submit, at the 
least holding up of his finger : but this is the pride of 
men, not to stoop even when the hand of God is 
against them, and the rather because they would justify 
their sin ; if they should stooj) and yield on the hand 
of God coming out against them, this would debase 
them, but they rather will stand out the more that they 
might justify their sin, that they are not as men would 
take them to be. 

Obs. 5. "WTien men have lost their credits, honour, 
and esteem thi-ough the just judgment of God, they 
grow more base and vile in their sinful ways than ever. 
Ephraim had a great deal of esteem and honour, but 
he lost it through God's just judgment, and now he, 
and the people together, " sin more and more." "We 
find this usual, that men's esteem and credit, though 
they have very base hearts within all the while, yet 
will keep them in a very fau- way ; and, on the con- 
trary, many who have lived very fair so long as they 
had esteem and credit, yet if their credit be but crack- 
ed, and theu- esteem gone, will prove very base and 
sordid. As in a garden, if a man have but a few weeds 
in it, he will have them pulled up : but if it be over- 
grown with weeds, then he cares not much for it, but 
lets it run more and more: so in men's hearts, though 
there be something amiss in them, and yet their names 
kept up, they will reform; but if once they have fallen, 
so that their" honour, credit, and esteem are gone, they 
go on further and further in wickedness. Or as it is 
with a man when he has a new garment, he is afraid at 
fii'st of every little spot, and much more of a rent ; but 
when afterwards the garment becomes much suUied, he 
becomes careless of it, he never stands brushing of it 
as before : it is thus for all the world with men in re- 
spect of their hearts and of their lives, and therefore it 
is good for them to look to it betimes, when their names 
begin but a little to be lost, when they may see the just 
hand of God beginning to come, then to reform ; for if 
they let themselves go upon liberty, they will grow vile 
and abominable. " They sin more and more." 

04s. 6. Tliere is no stop in apostacy. Let men once 
apostatize from God, and there is no stop then ; they 
cannot tell whither they may go, if once they begin to 
roll down. A man may think thus, 1 will bu't roll thus 
far, and there I will stop. No, if once you begin to roll, 
you will roll and roU down to the bottom ; you know 
not whither you may roll, or where you may fall. If 
a man should leap into the water, and say, I will sink 
but thus far, to the middle and no farther, this were 
but folly ; you will sink more and more : so it is with 
apostates ; I verily believe those that did make slight 
at first, did not think that they should go so far. Oh, 
God forbid that they should do tilings so vile and 
so abominable! yea, but when once they ai-e rolling, 
when once they are sinking, they roll and .sink more 
and more, till they roll into the bottomless pit of hell ; 
they sink more and more, till they sink into the very 
bottomless gulf, into such things as they would before 



Vek. 2. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



549 



have shrunk from with abhorrence. There is a curse 
upon the wicked in Psak xxxv. 6, " Let their way be 
dark and slippery ; and let the angel of the Lord per- 
secute them." When men tcill go out of the ways of 
God into slippery paths of their own, it is just with 
God that an evil spirit should di-ive them on in those 
ways. As in your travelling in champaign countries, 
a highway goes to such a town, and another lies close 
by it, and you, it may be, choose the wrong one, and so 
go on and think it will bring you to the place where 
you are travelling ; but it winds so that you go further 
and further fi-om the right road, perhaps many miles 
before you are aware of it : so it is in apostacy ; it may 
be, at first, when men depart from the ways of God they 
think it not of much moment, but then these evil ways 
wind gradually, and, it may be, almost imperceptibly, 
widening the tlistance between them and God. " They 
sin more and more." 

I will give you the steps of an apostate's departure 
from God. 

L Some slight sin against knowledge, though never 
so little, for sin of mere infirmity I cannot call apos- 
tacv ; but if it be ever so little a sin against knouiedge, 
it breaks the bond of obedience : when you will ven- 
ture to do that which you know is against God, this 
bond of obedience being broken, no marvel though you 
fall and " sin more and more." 

2. Every act of sin tends to increase the habit. 
Corruption grows by acting ; as with grace, every act 
of grace extends grace in the heart of a man ; and the 
way to grow in grace is, to act grace much ; so that 
when you are acting your grace, you do not only that 
which is yoiu' duty, but you are growing in grace : so 
■when you are acting of corrnption, you are not only 
doing that which is evil, but you are increasing the 
tendency to it : and therefore every sin that causes us 
to decline from God, makes us to go more and more 
from God. 

.3. Every sin against conscience weakens the work of 
conscience. The authority of conscience will quickly 
be weakened when it is once broken ; break but off the 
yoke of conscience, and conscience will be weaker than 
it was before. The first time a man sins against con- 
science, his conscience, having a great deal of strength 
in it, mightily troubles him ; but having had a flaw, 
(as it were.) it grows weaker. I remember a notable 
story which that reverend and famous divine. Dr. 
Preston, relates of one in Cambridge, who, after having 
committed a great sin,, had this temptation. Do the act 
again, and your conscience will trouble you no more : 
this temptation prevailed with him, he did it again, 
and then he grew a very sot indeed, and went on in his 
wickedness. Every sin does somewhat to weaken con- 
science, and therefore one that falls off from God will 
" sin more and more." 

4. A man loses his comfort in God according to the 
degree of his departure from him. For some kind of 
comforts hyi^ocrites may have ; as there may be com- 
mon gifts of the Spu-it to enable them to do service, so 
there may be common gifts of the Spirit to comfort 
them, they may taste of the powers of the world to 
come. Many have some flashes of joy; but when they 
are departed from God they cannot have so much com- 
fort as they were wont to have, and when they have 
not that comfort they must have it some way, and are 
fain to go sharking up and down to get it some where 
else : I cannot have that comfort in God which I was 
wont to have ; I was wont, when I was troubled, to go 
and read the word, I could find comfort there ; let me 
go into good company, I could find comfort tliere ; but 
in the presence of God I could find comfort ; but now 
I cannot: and so the heart must have comfort some way 
or other, and therefore goes more and more from God. 

5. A^Tien one has sinned against God, holy duties 



become very unsuitable to his soul. It is a more diffi- 
cult thing to engage his heart in them than before, and 
so he comes to neglect duties, and by neglecting them 
his corruption grows. They were a powerful means to 
restrain corruption ; for when a man is abroad and in- 
clined to licence, yet when he thinks thus, Yea, but be- 
fore I go to bed I must pray, and how shall I then beg 
grace from God, when now! wilfully sin against him ? 
this curbs a man : so long as he can keep any kind of 
suitableness between his heart and holy duties, though 
he should fail in some things, he would quickly recover ; 
but when he begins to have holy duties so veiled as to 
leave them off, then he will " sin more and more," for 
the ciu'b is removed. 

6. The presence of God is terrible to an apostate. 
He cannot think of God without some terror ; before 
he would often think and speak of God, but now he 
puts off the thoughts of God, the thoughts of him and 
his presence bemg terrible ; it must needs be that he 
must wander up and down even more and more, be as 
a Cain wandering away from the presence of God. 

7. The thoughts of whatsoever might turn an apos- 
tate's heart to God, are grievous to him. If he thinks 
of tm'ning to God, presently will be presented to him 
some difficulty that will make him even put off all 
those thoughts, and rather give himself liberty to his 
own ways. 

8. One sin cannot be maintained without another. 
As now, you find when one man has done wrong to 
another, he knows not how to carry it out but by doing 
him more wrong, to crush him if he can. And so there 
are divers sins that have many sins depending upon 
them ; if a man be engaged in a business that is sinful, 
that he may carry it on successfully he must commit a 
great many other'sins, and so fall ofl' more and more. 

9. The pride of men's hearts is such, that they wiU 
attempt to justify transgression. Men love to justify 
what they have done ; when they have sinned, they will 
grow more resolute and violent, that all people might 
think that their hearts recoil not in the least. You 
think many times when you see men very strong and 
violent in an evil way, that surely they are fully satis- 
fied in it ; oh ! you are mightily mistaken in that, they 
may be very violent and very strong in their way, only 
that they may persuade other folk, though their own 
consciences tell them that they are not satisfied. Thus 
the pride of men's hearts makes them " sin more and 
more." 

10. WHien men have gone far in sin, they grow 
desperate. They little hope ever to recover themselves, 
and therefore "sin more and more." 

11. God in his just judgment withdraws himself 
from apostates. God withckaws those gifts and com- 
mon graces that they had, and saith, Let them go on ; 
" he that is filthy, let him be filthy still." 

12. God gives up apostates to their corruptions, and 
to the power of the devil. It is a di-eadful thing when 
the chm-ch does it, although it be for the salvation of 
the soul, and for the destruction of the flesh, 1 Cor. v. 
5 ; but when God delivers up one to his corruptionSj it 
is for the soul's destruction : Do you rule him, saith 
God, because he would not be ruled. No marvel then 
though an apostate '■ sin more and more." 

O, stand with all your might against the beginning 
of sin; tremble, and stop on the tlu-eshold. Had this 
people done so, at the fu-st they trembled, oh, had 
they but kept that trembling heart continually, it would 
have preserved thera from abimdance of evil : and so, 
do not some of you remember that there has been a 
heart-trembling and hesitancy at the very thought of 
those things which, it may be, some of you now prac- 
tise ? oh, happy had it been for you had you kept such 
a frame ! You young beginners, you tremble at tempt- 
ations, you tremble at the thoughts of sin, at the fiist 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIII. 



rising of con-uption in your hearts; oh keep this frame, 
and regard not that boldness of spirit which tliere is in 
some. Some venture to the edge of the precipice, but 
it is a dangerous situation ; rather keep a trembhng, 
sin-fearing heart, for if you lose that, and bemn but to 
tamper with some sin, if the devil thus beguile you, it 
is most likely that after the first offence you will sin 
more and more, and never pause till you are wholly 
involved in the snares of the devil. 

And let us learn, my brethren, to be more and more 
in tlie ways of God, as apostates are more and more in 
the ways of sin. Oh that it were so with us ! Let us 
not content ourselves to do a little for God, but still 
more and more, as David, in Psal. Ixxi. 14, " I will yet 
praise thee more and more," I will add to thy praise, 
so the original signifies : Lord, some praise thou hast 
had in tlic world, oh that I could live to add any thing 
to. it! '• i will yet praise thee more and more." 

Obs. 7. Idolatry is a very growing sin. " Allien he 
offended in Baal, he died," and now " they sin more and 
more." Gross idolatry has grown upon men under fau- 
pretexts and upon plausible principles. 

Jly brethren, do but break this one bond in the 
matters of worship, that all worship must be by insti- 
tution, I say, all the worship of God must be either that 
which is written in man's heart, or that which is in the 
word by uistitution : if so be that men will break this, 
and venture to exalt any creature beyond what God, 
either in a work of nature or by an institution, has raised 
it, then begins superstition ; this, I say, is the fruitful 
source of all false worship, to raise any creature higher 
than God, cither in nature or by institution, has raised it; 
do but venture to put upon any one ceremony more than 
nature or Divine institution has put upon it, and you 
know not where you shall stop. You know to what a 
height of idolatry popery is grown, but it began fair 
at first. And so we were going to most ^•ile and 
abominalile idolatry; but by what steps ? We had 
broken the bond of regulating the worship of God by 
the word, and were bringing in men's own reason and 
inventions, and were beghming to put a religious re- 
spect upon that which God had never done : now do 
but grant such a licence in the least matters, and then 
you know not whither you will run in the way of idol- 
atry, you will " sin more and more." 

Oh let reformation be to us as idolatry is to wicked 
men, let us not rest in any degrees, but still refomi 
more and more : idolaters will not stand still, oh why 
should they then who seek to reform stay their hands ? 

" And have made them molten images of their silver." 

They were at great charge in making them, and so 
went on strongly m their way ; though it cost them 
much, yet still they would go on. 

" They have made them molten images." 

Tertullian inveighs much against the maker of any 
images for religious senices, and saith. It is not enough 
for you to say. We will not worship them, but you must 
not make them. 

" Of their silver." 

" Their silver" is put for their money ; silver is used 
in di\crs languages for money in general. The calves 
were of gold, but it is said they were of silver, because 
the people contributed their money ; and other images 
thev added to them that they made by their money : 
their idolatry was chargeable to them. To avoid trouble 
in going to Jerusalem, and expenses in their sojouni 
there, they would not go to Jerusalem to worship ; but 
they were willing to part with their silver for their idola- 
trous worship. Thoughmen will nothave God'sservice to 
be chargeable to them, yet their own ways are often so. 

• Hoc a^itur de cultii Dei, iu quo cessare debet quicquid 
est prudentia;, quicquid est ratiouis in hominibus, quicqiiid 
cunsilii el mniiis eorum sensi'is ; nam si hie tantiUum sibi ^jcr- 
luiitunl, nihil aliud quain Dei cultum vitiaut. Hoc priuciinuui 



" And have made them molten images of silver, and 
idols according to their own understanding." The word 
□•33ty translated •' idols " signifies griefs, or things that 
do terrify or cause grief: and indeed idolatry vill bring 
grief, and men of superstitious, idolatrous spirits are • 
often filled with fears. But this is all " according to 
their own understanding," that is, as they thought fit 
themselves, such as should be suitable to their own 
ends, they took the liberty to tender up theu- respects 
to God according to their own inventions ; and hence 
indeed comes superstition. Hence come the great cor- 
ruptions in the worship of God ; when men ii-ilt inter- 
pose their own understandings, will leave the simpUcity 
of the rule, and go then- own way ; when they think 
that the worsliip of God is not pompous enough of itself. 
They who do not worship God in a spmtual way, will 
labour to make up the want of the spiritual part Ijy the 
addition of many externals, invented by " their own 
understanding;" and because such things in the ser- 
vice of God are rational to them, they think they must 
be acceptable to God, and therefore wonder that any 
should oppose them. 

Calvin on this very test has most memorable expres- 
sions against men bringuig their own understandings 
into the worship of God ; saith he, * Here the worship 
of God is spoken of, in which whatsoever is of man's 
prudence, whatsoever is the dictate of mere reason, 
must yield, prudence and reason must give way ; yea, 
whatsoever are the counsels of men, they must not judge 
by sense, by reason, or by prudence, in the matters of 
God's instituted worship ; if they do permit themselves 
in the least degree, they do nothing but defile the wor- 
ship of God. And again, he saith. This is the very prin- 
ciple whereby men must be taught to worship God aright, 
that they must be made fools fu-st themselves. If men 
will come to worship God, they must deny and lay down 
their understandings, they must not so much as allow 
themselves to be wise. And thus he heaps these expres- 
sions one upon another, adding. Let them listen to the 
word of God alone, for this condemns whatsoever is 
pleasing to the judgment and reason of men. 

God is indeed little beholden to men's understandings 
in those two things, matters of worship, and of faith. 
Respect, it may be, for the man, may somewhat the 
more make such an expression pass cm-rent, that it b 
the very principle of right worshipping of God for men 
to be fools. Hence many of the learned men of the 
world have accounted them fools and simple men ; as 
heretofore the Nonconformists, were not they so ac- 
counted because thev would not yiclA to those things 
which were imposed upon them? yea, we must be 
fools. It is true, when once we have an institution 
men's prudence and reason are required to guide us in 
the right management of it ; but to raise up any thing 
in the worship of God beyond what I have warrant for 
in the word is no where allowed. In such a case it is 
not enough for men to say ; This is good, and what hurt 
is there in it ? and without this there will come a great 
deal of stu- ; and can any reasonable man deny its ex- 
cellence ? I say, when we come to matters of wor-ship, 
wlierein we expect a presence of God for a spiritual 
work on the soul of man, all these arguments we must 
lay aside, they are inadmissible. I cannot here argue 
for a thing, that it is good, and that I have need of it, 
and therefore must have it ; but I may argue, that it 
is good, and that I have need of it, because instituted. 
Luther, likewise, saith. In matters of worship we must 
not regard so much u/iat the thing is, but uho it is that 
cotumaiids it : do not let us lean to our own under- 
standings. Thus much for their sin of idolatry. 

est rite colendi Dei, ut homines stulti fiant ncque permittaut 
tibi sapcve, scd tantum prebeant aurcm Deo ; Hie damnat 
quicquid ari'idet Judicio houiiuuui vel ralioui. Calv. iu loc. 



Vek. 2. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



551 



But further, tliey thought to carry themselves in a 
prudential "way, but the Lord condemns it as sottish ; 
they thought they were very wise in it, yea, but their 
wisdom was very foolishness. For there follows, 

" All of it the work of the craftsmen : they say of 
them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.'' 

As if he should say, What a sottish thing is this, that 
when they themselves put all its excellency on the 
ereatiu'e, they will yet worship it, and say to the men 
that sacrifice, " Kiss the calves !" "Whereas God chal- 
lenges worship on this ground, because he is himself 
the supreme, the only soirrce of all excellency. 

Obs. 8. Those who trust most to their own under- 
standings in matters of worship, God gives most up 
to sottishness. I say, if men will venture to go accord- 
ing to then' own understandings in worship, God may 
justly give them up to sottishness, and none are given 
lip more than those who think to be most prudential 
;id wise. In Isa. xxix. 13, God saith, " Their fear 

'" ard me is taught by the precept of men." What 

:\\cn ? " Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a 

marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous 

work and a wonder." What is the marvellous work, 

'"hat is the wonder ? " The wisdom of their wise men 

hall perish, and the understanding of then' prudent 

,.eii shall be hid." What! they will lean on their 

i\ n understandings in my worship, and they will pre- 

-libe what I should have, and they think they are 

iry wise in what they do ; I will do " a marvellous 

■ ork and a wonder." 'UTiat is this ? I will cause 

the wisdom of their wise men to perish, and the un- 
:"._rstanding of their prudent men shall be hid;" they 
•hall be left to sottish and absurd ways, that all that 
; e about them shall see that they are judiciaUy blinded. 

O my brethren, we see this fulfilled at this day; 
those that will venture upon their own imderstandings 
in worship, how hath the Lord left them to blindness ! 
though men of excellent parts in former times, yet their 
parts begin to be blasted. 

And observe it, you will find this to be the case 
more and more : such men as bring their own under- 
standings into God's worship, I say, the Lord will blast 
at one time or other, so that others shall see, and take 
notice, and stand and wonder at it. 

" All of it." 

" All of it." As if he should say. If there were any 
thing of God in it, possibly it might be accepted, but 
when it is all of man . 

This may be said of many of our services ; they are 
all of man, there is nothing of God, nothing of the 
spirit of Christ in them ; no marvel though they vanish, 
and we vanish in them. 

" They say of them. Let the men that sacrifice kiss 
the calves." ^iplt" D'Sjy CIS 'nsi The Seventy render 
these words thus, eiaare avOpuTrovg, fioff^oi yap U\e- 
Xoirraaf which interpretation the Vulgate likewise 
adopts. In zeal to their idols they sacrificed men. 
According to which reading the sense would be. Those 
are worthy to kiss the calves that sacrifice men. This 
was forbidden, Lev. xviii. 21, and xx. 2. But it was 
done in a perverse imitation of Abraham, who would 
have ofi'ered up Isaac. It prevailed much among the 
heathen ; the king of Moab sacrificed liis eldest son, 
who should have reigned in his stead, 2 Kings iii. 27 ; 
and TertuUian saith, Apolog. cap. 9, that it continued 
till the time of Tiberius. Lactantius, Just. lib. i. cap. 21, 
records of the Carthagmians, that being vanquished by 
Agathocles, king of Sicily, they thought the gods were 
displeased with them, and that they might appease 
them, they sacrificed two hundred of the noblemen's 
sons. 

The place where the Jews sacrificed men, was in 
Tophet, in the valley of the son of Hinnom. Hinnom 
i? derived from a word signifying to lament, and roar, 



because of the noise of those that were sacrificed; 
whence Gehenna. 

Tophet, of a word signifying to beat on a drum ; 
which they used, not only to diown the noise, but all 
the kindred of the sacrificed person did rejoice with 
timbrels and dances in great mirth, till the sacrifice 
was fully consumed. The Hebrews are quoted by 
Seidell De Diis Spris., Cognati omnes tympanis et 
chordis summa cum Imtitia eocultanl quoad omnino com- 
bust us fuerit . 

But to pass by that interpretation, and to take it as 
it is read in our books : by these words they call upon 
the sacrificers, and encourage them in then- idolatrous 
ways. ... 

" Kiss." The kiss is a ceremony of worship ; Psal. 
ii. 12, "Kiss the Son;" but also it expressed theii-love 
and delight, as well as their homage. Hercules' chin, 
in Sicily, was worn bare with kissing, saith Cicero. 
And if "they could not reach the chin, then they kissed 
the hand. Hence Job xxxi. 27, " If my mouth hath 
kissed my hand." How foolish were they, ub -s •. " 

to forsake the blessed God to worship "' •-■"''- 
calves ! How should we be forward and cheerful in the 
worship of the blessed God, in coming to kiss the Son ! 

Obs. 9. It is false worship, to give religious respect 
to any creature, by kissing, as well as by bo^^ing to it. 
I know no reason why a book may not be set up to be 
oowed to, as well as to be kissed, in taking an oath. 
The lifting up of the hand to the high God, in an 
oath, we find in Scripture, therefore that is safe. 

Ver. 3. Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, 
and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff 
that is driven icith the irhirlwind out of the floor, and 
as the smoke out of the chivmey. 

Here are four elegant similitudes to set forth Ephraim's 
weak, vanishing condition ; God's power over them, the 
swiftness of the punishment, its violence, and his utter 
desolation, so that his place shall not be found. 

1. " A morning cloud." Ephraim was risen, seemed 
to thi'eaten gi'eat things, overcast the leaves like a 
cloud ; but on the brightness of God's justice appearing, 
all was dispelled. Their " goodness" (chap. vi. 4) was 
" as a morning cloud, and as the early dew ;" now they 
shall be so themselves. 

2. " Early dew." The dew seems to bespangle the 
grass ; but the sun rising, it is soon dried up. Ephraim's 
estate was beautiful, but the heat of God's wrath con- 
sumes all presently. 

3. " Chafi'." 'y'ca signifies the smallest of the chaff, 
the dust of the chaff-heap, and that abroad, where their 
floors were, and a whirlwind coming upon it. Psal. 
XXXV. 5, " Let them be as chafi' before the wind : and 
let the angel of the Lord chase them." 

Obs. 1. Many, when they begin to be unsettled, the 
angel of God, as a messenger of wrath, drives on apace 
to misery. 

4. " Smoke." " The smoke out of the chimney," it 
seems to darken the heavens, but presently it is scat- 
tered. The original signifies a chink or ^^j^f,.^ sijniiicat 
hole; because in Judea there were not J°"7™;,'°,'',^i5' 
such chimneys as we now use, but as it cimi.u, quaiibus 
were windows, or open places in the up- sid fenestra supe^ 
per part of the house, or in the waU.as ^fTfnfSiei'e'.'^ati- 
at present in Norway and Sweden, saith °;J"on™il°rf° 

a learned interpreter upon the place, suecii Temov. in 
We may hence, 

06s. 2. The vanity of jjroud men. Here God com- 
pares to such mean, vile things, persons that heretofore 
were so lofty. So 1 Kings xiv. 10, Jeroboam's house 
is threatened to be destroyed, " as a man taketh away 
dung, till it be all gone." 

"\Vhv then should wicked men be feared who are 



552 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIII. 



thus before the Lord ? Do not bless yourselves in any 
prosperity, never think yourselves settled; for when 
you are most prosperous, and likely to continue so, yet 
are ye but " as the morning cloud ;" yea, as " the early 
dew," " the chaff," " the smoke." 

Ver. 4. Vet I am the Lord thy God from the land of 
Egi/pl, and thou xhalt know no god but me : for there 
u )io saviour beside me. 

" Yet I am the Lord thy God." This is spoken, 

I. As an aggravation of their sin. " Yet I am the 
Lord thy God ;" as if he should say, You have thus 
provoked me, notwithstanding I am the Lord thy God. 
I have done very great things for you and for your 
forefathers. 

Obs. 1. It is very evil to sin against great works of 
mercy. When we do any thing for another wherein 
we think we might gain him to ourselves for ever, and 
- he yet — this is very grievous. 

II. By way of encouragement. " Yet I am the Lord 
thy God ;" I am ready to show thee the like mercy 
still. This is to break their hearts, and to provoke 
them to come in to the Lord. He .sjjeaks to an apos- 
tate people ; as if he should say, AVere you yet what 
you sometimes seemed to be, oh how gracious should 
I be to you ! I am yet whatever I seemed to be to you ; 
why arc you so jierverse towards me ? Jcr. ii. 2, " I 
remember thee, tlie kindness of thy j'outh, the love of 
thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wil- 
derness, in a land that was not sown." 

III. As a strong argument to obedience. " Yet I am 
the Lord thy God." When the will of God is once known, 
saith Ijuther, on Gen. xxvii., we are no further to dis- 
pose of rights, because neither parents, lords, nor mas- 
ters have this title, " I am the Lord thy God." 

" From the land of Egj-j)t." As if he should have 
said, What a state had you been in, if I had not deliver- 
ed you out of Egypt, from the iron furnace, a low, base 
employment ! ye had been bond-slaves, and might have 
spent your days there in sorrow and trouble. Consider 
then, 1. Yom- low estate. 2. How your strength might 
have been spent. 3. AVhen this anguish was upon you, 
what crying to me, and my delivering of you ! Hence 
• note, that, 

Obs. 2. Deliverance from Egypt is a proof of God's 
being our God. 

But does this concern us ? 

Much. There is a sjjiritual Egypt from which we 
liave been delivered, as the apostle makes use of the 
paschal lamb in a spii-itual sense, 1 Cor. v. 7. The 
power, severity, and holiness of God, appear in the 
delivery of his people from Eg)-pt ; so also in our de- 
liverance fi-om antichrist, as Kev. xv. 2, 3, the church 
is brought in singing the song of Moses (which the 
children of Israel sung for their deliverance from Pha- 
raoh) for its deliverance from anticlirist. Pharaoh was 
the dragon in the waters, Psal. Ixxiv. 13, 14, .so is anti- 
christ, Kev. xii. The city of Zurich engraved the year 
of their deliverance from antichrist upon pillars in let- 
ters of gold. 

" And thou shalt know no god but me." 

That is. Thou shalt effectually acknowledge, worship, 
serve, love God as a God ; no other. 

06s. 3. The end of God's great work is, that he may 
be known to be a God, a sincere, gracious, and holy 
One. The knowing God to be a God, is a special part 
of that worship whicli is due to God. 

To acknowledge God to be God, is to know him in 
his excellency, majesty, and glory, above what is known 
of him by the light of nature. 

This cannot but have a mighty operation on the 
heart. For, 

To know God to be a God, is, 1. To know him to 



be the first Being of all. 2. The infinite, ail-sufficient 
God. 3. The fountain of all good to his saints. 

1. This must needs gain the heart to him. 2. There 
is no worship of God where this is not. 3. Where this 
is all follows. 4. The right knowledge of God keeps 
from false worship. " But now, after that ye have 
known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye 
again to the weak and beggarly elements," the Jewish 
ceremonial worship ? Gal. iv. 9. 

" Thou shalt know no god but me." This is the 
first commandment, of which Luther saith, All duties 
flow from that great ocean of the first commandment, 
and again return thither. We see the projjhets to be 
most exercised in tlie use of the first commandment. 

Obs. 4. It is not good to know idolaters' worship at 
all. For this is spoken in the text by way of opposition : 
" Thou shalt know no god but me ;" that is, thou shalt 
be acquainted with no other worship. As in Deut. xii. 
30, " Take heed to thyself, that thou inquire not, say- 
ing, How did these nations serve their gods ?" 

Therefore those that are not gi'ounded, (and who is 
so grounded if it be against the precept of God ?) 
should not even inquire after, much less go to see, the 
worship of idolaters. 

Obs. 5. Nothing should be known or acknowledged 
to have any good in it, but with an infinite distance 
between it and God. " Thou shalt know no god but 
me ;" that is, nothing but with a difference from me, 
as much as between God and the creature ; " For who 
in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord ? who 
among tlie sons of the mighty can be Likened unto the 
Lord ?" as saith the psalmist, Psal. Ixxxix. 6, and else- 
where. There is an infinite distance between God and 
every creature : we may know creatures as ereatm-es, 
but nothing as God, but God. 

Obs. 6. We should know and acknowledge God 
when we are in misery and straits. So the church, 
" Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of 
Israel, the Saviour," Isa. xlv. 15. Many in time of 
prosperity will know God and acknowledge him ; but 
when troubles come, they change their thoughts. 

" For there is no saviour beside me." Hence the 
observations are : 

06s. 7. God delights to manifest himself a Saviour 
God. Thus Jer. xiv. 8, " O the hope of Israel, the Saviour 
thereof in time of trouble." Isa. Ix. 16, " Thou shalt 
also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the 
breast of kings : and thou shalt know that I the Lord 
am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of 
.Tacob;" and Ixiii. 1, " Who is this that comcth from 
Edom ? — I that speak in riglitcousness, mighty to 
s;xvc." And Acts v. 31, speaking of Christ, " Him hath 
God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a 
Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgive- 
ness of sins." There is his glory, and there should ours 
be also. He might manifest himself a God in our ruin. 

06s. S. Saving mercies are great mercies. 

06s. 9. Though God does more for us than any, yet 
he receives not so much from us. 

06s. 10. No creature can do us any good further 
than God enables it. 

06s. 11. Our faith should be exercised on God as a 
Saviour, to whom there is none like. " Be strong in 
the Lord," (saith the apostle,) " and in the power of his 
might," Eph. vi. 10 : if our dangers are more than any, 
yet our Saviour is more than any also. " I will call 
on the Lord, who is worthy to be praised : so shall I 
be saved from mine enemies," 2 Sam. xxii. 4. 

06s. 12. God must be acknowledged in all salvation. 
" They forgat God their Saviour, which had done great 
things in Egj-])t," P.sal. cvi. 21. 

Obs. 13. We should make use of all God's saving 
mercies, to engage our hearts to him. For, 1. God 
saves from such evils as none else can. 2. He saves 



Vep. 5. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



Dd3 



seme from as great or greater than ever he has. 3. 
God saves from all evil. 4. Without means. 5. Above 
means. 6. Contrary to means. 7. None saves but by 
him. " There is no God else beside me ; a just God 
and a Saviom-; there is none beside me," Isa. xlv. 21. 
8. God saves in all modes of saving, 2 Sam. xxii. ; 
Psal. xviii. 

But ■will he be such a Saviour to me in my con- 
dition ? 

Yes ; he expresses himself thus in the midst of 
threats; in that chapter of Isaiah just cited, ver. 22, 
he saith, " Look unto rae, and be ye saved, all the ends 
of the earth :'' even then when he threatens, look up 
to him as a Saviour above all. God magnifies this his 
title evei-y day, to some in one manner, to some in 
another : time is coming when he will magnify this in 
saving them wholly from all evil. 

Obs. 14. Though God does us more good than any, 
vet for our hearts not to be with him as with other 
things, is vile. 

06s. 15. Happy are they who have an interest in 
this God. If we have interest but in one man that is 
able to do us good, we bless ourselves in it. 

Obs. 1 6. We are never safe but when our peace is 
made with God. 

Obs. 17. Unless you pray to God as a God, having 
all power to save, you pray to an idol. Isa. xlv. 20, 
" They have no knowledge that set up the wood of 
their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot 
save." 

Obs. IS. God is not worshipped as God, but when 
he is worshipped as a Saviour. It is not to say God is 
our God, but to rely on him as a Saviour. 

Ver. 5. / did knoiv thee in the uilderness, in the land 
of great drought. 

" The wilderness," where there grew not one grain of 
corn. You who were so poor in the wilderness, de- 
pending on me for every morsel of bread ; yet after, 
when you were fed, how proud and wanton grew you ! 

"But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked then he 

forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed 
the Rock of his salvation," Deut. xxxii. 15. In Ezek. 
xvi. 49, the Sodomites are condemned for behaving 
themselves contemptuously against the poor ; but these 
do it against God. 

God evidences this his knowledge and acknowledg- 
ment of them as his people, in leading them through 
the wilderness, by several instances and expressions : 
he takes notice of this wilderness, Deut. viii. 15, " Who 
led thee through that great and terrible wilderness ;" 
Luctus ubique paror, et plurima mortis imago. He 
knew them as " a peculiar treasure above aD people ; 
a kingdom of priests, an holy nation," Exod. xix. 5, 6. 
" He kept him as the apple of his ey e ;" as an eagle 
beareth her young ones on her wings, " so the Lord 
alone did lead him," Deut. xxxii. 10 — 12. They 
"lacked nothing," chap. ii. 7. He led them "with 
his glorious arm," Isa. Ixiii. 12. 

Now God knew them in the wilderness, 1. In respect 
of their sin, which he visited. 2. In regard of their 
wants, which he provided for. We may connect both 
thus: 

They went three days and found no water; and 
when they found it, it was so bitter they could not 
drink of it. Then he sweetened it by a mu'acle, Exod. 
XV. 22, 23, 25. Then in the wilderness of Sin they 
complained that the whole assembly would be slain 
with hunger; then came manna, a rain of manna, 
Exod. xvi. They loathed manna, and then quails were 
sent. Numb. xi. They " pitched in Rephidim, and 
there was no water," so that they were " almost ready 
to stone" ISIoses ; then water out of the rock is given 



them, Exod. xvii. 1 — 6. But, ver. 8, " Then came 
Amalek and fought with Israel :" when Moses held up 
his hand Israel prevailed ; and when Moses's hands 
hung down Amalek prevailed ; ut last Joshua discom- 
fited them, vei'. 9 — 13. Exod. xviii., Jethro is sent to 
refresh them, with Moses' wife, and his two sons ; and 
chap, xix., XX., God gives them his law. Numb, xii., 
Miriam and Aaron contend with Moses : that sedition 
God rebukes. Numb, xiii., spies being sent, they dis- 
courage the people, yet God leads them on. Numb, 
xvi., Korah, Dathan, and Abiram conspire, upon which 
the earth opens and swallows up the rebels. " But," 
ver. 41, "on the morrow all the congregation," a hun- 
di'cd forty and seven thousand, murmur against IMoses 
and Aaron for it ; upon which the plague comes. They 
had other idols besides the calf, Amos v. 25, 20 ; Acts 
vii. 42, 43. Numb, xxi., "King Ai-ad the Canaanite 
fought against Israel, and took some of them prison- 
ers." Ver. 5, Their souls loathe manna, fiery serpents 
are sent. Ver. 23, Sihon, king of the Amorites, comes 
out against them and fights. Ver. 33, Og, the king of 
Bashan, goes out against them. Chap, xxii., Balak 
sends Balaam to curse them. Chap, xxv., The people 
"commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab," 
and go " unto the sacrifices of their gods " at Baal- 
peor, upon which a plague ensues. Chap, xxxi.. They 
war with Midian, slay then- five kings, destroy theix- 
cities, women, children, fiocks, thirty-two thousand 
women that had not known man they take captive. 
And in this war they lost not one man, ver. 49. Now 
our observations are : 

Obs. 1. Man's wickedness strangely contrasts with 
God's goodness : God knew then- sin and yet destroyed 
them not ; they receive mercies and yet sin. 

Obs. 2. It is a great mercy for God to know a man 
in time of distress. This is (3od's way. ISIen know in 
prosperity ; but let us make God our friend, he will be 
a friend otherwise than men wiU be. 

Obs. 3. We should not be dejected in times of 
trouble; that is the time for God to know thee: be 
willing to follow God in any estate. 

Obs. 4. God's knowing us in distress is a mighty- 
engagement. Let us look back to the times when we 
were in trouble. 

Obs. 5. Let us know God's cause w'hen it suffers, 
and know our brethren in their sufferings. 

Obs. 6. God's knowledge is operative and working ; 
it does us good. Our knowledge of God should be so 
too. To sin against our knowledge of God is evil, but 
to sin against God's knowledge of us is worse. 



Ver. 6. According to their pasture, so uere they 
filled; they te ere filled, and their heart was exalted; 
therefore have they forgotten me. 

You heard in the preceding verse of the gracious 
providence of God towards his people while they were 
in the wilderness : " I did know thee in the wilderness, 
in the land of great di'ought." God glories much, and 
mentions often, his care over, and goodness to, his 
])eople in the wilderness; When they had got out of 
the wilderness into the land of Canaan, where there 
was much pasture, they thought themselves to be well, 
that now they could live of themselves ; and so they 
lived to themselves, and in a little time destroyed 
themselves : the truth is, they were in a worse condi- ■ 
tion then than when they were in the wilderness, for, 
saith he, "According to theii' pastui'e, so were they 
filled ; they were filled, and their heart was exalted ; 
therefore have they forgotten me. Therefbre I will be 
unto them as a lion : as a leopard by the way will I 
observe them : I will meet them as a bear that is be- 
reaved of her whelps." 



654 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. Xlll 



Wc do not hear such terrible things against them 
when they were in the wilderness. 

"I did know thee in the wilderness," but now it is 
otherwise. 

From the connexion note first, 

06s. 1. It is better to want the comforts of the crea- 
ture, and to have God's protection, than to have abund- 
ance of the creature, and depend on oui-selves. We do 
not love a dependent life, but it is safest ; many have 
more of God's presence with them, and protection over 
them, when they are in the wilderness, when they are 
in adversity, than they have when they come into pros- 
l>erity, when they come to enjoy abundance of the 
creature : God knows them when they are in afflic- 
tions, and they know God; but when they become pros- 
{jerous, God neither knows them so much, nor they 
mow God so much. 

Examine, I beseech you, when you were low; say, 
had you ■ not more of God's presence with you then 
than you have now ? Did not God know you more then ? 
did not you know God more then ? had you not more 
sweet communion in those times than you have now ? 
Oh, God made you know him by gracious visitations 
of his Spirit, and there were gracious workings of your 
spirit towards him. Arc not you gi-own flat, dead, 
djrossy, and carnal now more than before ? do not you 
seek greedily after tlje world to fill yourselves there- 
with ? and do not you begin to be exalted in your 
own hearts ? do not you begin to be ])utfed U]) ? have 
you no friends that are so ? If you know but any of 
your friends tliat, when they were lower than they now 
are, knew God better than now they do, and God 
knew them, and there was more sweet converse be- 
tween God and them, put them in mind of this text : 
" I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of 
great drought. According to their pasture, so were they 
filled ; they were filled, and their heart was exalted ; 
therefore have they forgotten me." God deliver them 
from the remaining part of the text, " I will be unto 
them as a lion ; as a leopard by the way ; — as a bear 
that is bereaved of her whelps." You seldom find in 
Scriptui'e any of God's saints worse for afflictions ; give 
me any one example : for my part, I know not one in 
all tlie book of God that came worse out of an afflic- 
tion than when they went in; but I can tell you of 
many, even of God's dear people, that came worse out 
of prosperity than when they came in. Therefore it is 
observable in 2 Chron. xvii. 3, it is said in commenda- 
tion of Jehoshaphat, that he walked in " tlie first ways " 
of David liis father. David his father at first was in an 
afflicted estate, afterwards in a more prosperous con- 
dition ; he was hunted like a partridge at fii'st, but 
when he came to prosperity his ways were not so good, 
therefore the Holy Ghost puts a commendation on his 
" first ways" rather than upon his after ways. I fear it 
may be said so of some, that their first ways, when they 
were low, were a great deal better than their after ways. 
This for the connexion. 

"According to their pasture, so were they filled." 
According to the fatness and riches of tlie land when 
they came into it they were filled; they fell upon 
whatever sensual pleasure they could enjoy to tlie ut- 
termost of their means. They would improve all the 
means and opportunities they had to give contentment 
to the flesh ; " so were they filled." Thus you sec men 
that love to live in the gratification of the flesh up to 
tlie height of their means, will be sure to have satisfac- 
tion if possible ; if they go abroad and see any thing 
that may give content to the fiesh, they resolve to have 
it if tliey can when they come home. According to 
all the means that they have, so they will have the 
flesh satisfied. How happy were men if they were 
80 wise for their souls, il according to the means of 
grace wc sought to fill our souls ! Oh, how does the 



Lord lead us in green pastures, and yet what empty 
souls have we ! 

" Acconling to their ]>asturc, so were they filled." 
But can we say, that according to the green pasturi 
in which God leads us, so are we filled? AVe live i: 
green pastures, and yet are we empty. Here we stt 
that men regard their bodies, regard the sensual plea- 
sures of the fiesh abundantly more than spiritual, as i! 
there were a greater good in sensual delights than then 
if in all spiritual comforts. 

" According to theu- pasture, so were they filled : 
they were filled." Twice we have " iilled." 

A little will serve man's desires in spiritual things, but 
they will fill, and fill themselves again, in things sensual. 

It notes tlie greediness of their spirits in falling upon 
those contentments which they had for the flesh. Wnc;. 
they came into a fertile land " they were filled ; tht^ 
were filled:'' such is the nature of carnal men, to fall 
with greediness on creature-comforts, and to think on 
nothing but filling themselves, tilling, filling. In P.sal. 
Ixxviii. 29, you may see what their disposition wa^ : 
even before they came into their fat pastures, when 
God but in the wilderness granted them flesh, "the^ 
did eat," saith the text, '• and were well filled." So it i 
in your books, but the force of the Hebrew is, the\ 
were filled very much, they were filled exceedingly 
they filled themselves to the uttermost Prov. xxiii. J. 
well describes the greediness of men's hearts after car- 
nal contentments ; " Wilt thou set thine eyes upon thir 
which is not?" speaking of riches: thus it is in yor. 
books, "Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which i- 
not ? " but the more correct translation is, Wilt thou 
make thine eyes to fly upon that which is not ? When 
a carnal heart sees any ojiportunity of enjoying carnal 
contentments, he makes his eyes to fly upon them, to fly 
upon them with eagerness : great is the greediness of 
carnal heart ! 

" Acconling to then- pasture, so were they filleiL" 

They thought of nothing but filling themselves, 
whereas other thoughts should have mingled with their 
self-gratification, when God brought them into their fat 
pastures. True, we may enjoy what God gives us ; yeo. 
but we must not only seek to fill om'selves, but we an.- 
to labour to mix such thoughts as these with the goo ' 
things which we enjoy. .Vs thus, now: 

1. Here I enjoy abundance of good in the creatun 
whence have I all this? is it not from God? They dii: 
not think of this, so be it they might fill themselvc- 
As the swine under the acorn tree seeks to fill tli 
belly, but never looks from whence the acoms conif 
so carnal hearts fill themselves, but never look wlieiic 
the blessings come; whereas a gracious heart take- 
the comforts of the creature that God aflbrds, but. 
while it is receiving them, it looks up to God the prin- 
cipal of .ill. 

2. ANTiat do I think God aims at? God gives nu 
abundance of the creature, but what. is God's end? i- 
it only to satisfy my flesh ? has God no further end 
than this ? 

.'J. I now possess these contentments, but what op- 
jiortunities have I by these to do good more than bi- 
fore? Surely these are not given me merely to pampi: 
the flesh, but arc given me as large opportunities o! 
stTvice for God. 

4. Now I enjoy abundance. What is tlie rule that 
God has set in the word for the ordering of my heart in 
the time of plenty ? 

5. I have mucii now in the world more than before ; 
but oh my unworthiness ! how unworthy am I of 
these comforts I unworthy of the least morsel of bread, 
and yet my table is furnished, and I am filled. Carnal 
hearts fall upon their dishes, and pour down their full 
cu]is, and never think of their unworthiness, how uii- 
wortliy Iheij are of the least drop of water. 



Vee. 6. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



5od 



6. God gives me abundance of the creature; but 
what is it that makes the diifercnce between me and 
others ? Some others ai'e empty enouo-h, tlieir bellies 
are empty, their houses empty, their cupboards empty ; 
but I am filled ; why should God deal thus with me 
rather than with others ? 

7. I enjoy abundance here in the creature ; but is 
there not danger, is there not a snare in the possession ? 
Have not I a naughty, vile heart ? How if these should 
prove to be temptations to me to di'aw my heart from 
God ? were I not better without them ? In the Epis- 
tle of Jude, ver. 12, it is spoken of as an evidence of 
carnality, that they feast, " feeding themselves without 
fear ;" they fall upon what is before them and fill them- 
selves, but ''without fear :" whereas we should never 
enjoy fulness in the world, but with fear ; fear of the 
snare that there may be in the abundance. 

8. I have abundance ; but what uncertainty is there 
in all these things ! I have it now, but how quickly 
may it be gone ; these things taken from me, or I from 
them ! 

9. I have much, and therefore I have a great account 
to give to God of these my pastures ; tliis my fulness 
will make my account so much the greater. 

10. I have much : oh, but, considering how little ser- 
vice I do for God, may not I fear that this which I 
have is to be my portion ? 

11. Do not many obligations attend on my posses- 
sion? That fulness which I have, does it not more 
fully engage me unto God than others ? Carnal hearts 
ai'e void of these thoughts in the enjo)"ment of their 
fulness, they cai'e not, so be it they can but fill them- 
selves, how they get, or how they use their abundance. 

O my brethren, our hearts should be filled with 
these thoughts in our fulness ; but it is with most as in 
Isa. Ivi. 12, " Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and 
we will fill ourselves with strong chink ; and to-morrow 
shall be as this day, and much more abundant : " there 
is all that they care for. 

Those especially fall most greedily upon carnal con- 
tentments that have been kept short a long time. So 
it was here. 

" I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of 
great drought. According to their pasture, so were 
they filled." " They were filled," they minded nothing 
but filling themselves, they gormandized ; as it is usual 
with them that have lived very sparingly and meanly 
before, if they come to a full diet they fill themselves 
so greedily, as even sometimes to distemper themselves, 
and occasion plagues and grievous diseases : when a 
man has fasted to starving almost, he had need be very 
careful what he does when he comes to a fuU table. 
Physicians will not suffer men that have fasted long to 
eat much : it brings many diseases on soldiers and 
others, because sometimes they want much, and some- 
times they have abundance, and so they spoil them- 
selves ; as we read of Saul's men, that they fell upon 
the cattle so that they did eat the blood. Oh let us 
take heed of this ; it should be a seasonable lesson to 
those who have known what emptiness has meant in 
these times, and are now going into theii' countries 
again, and to enjoy their possessions ; oh let them take 
heed how they fall upon the comforts of the creature 
greedily; they should rather prepare themselves before- 
hand, and season their hearts with those tlioughts, that 
may keep them from the danger of fulness. And when 
"they come to their houses and lands, and begin to stock 
them again, they should think. Oh, M"hat were those 
sins of mine when I was here before in my house, and 
enjoyed fulness ! how little honour had God by my 
abundance before ! Let me now remember all my nrur- 
murings and repinings when God took away my estate, 
and let me seek to make peace with God even for 
them. In the time of my distress, I cried to God, and 



I was afraid that I should never enjoy my estate again ; 
and has God given it to me ? on let me improve it 
better for his service than ever I have done. Such 
thoughts men should have when they come to their 
estates again, and not fall upon them as if they only 
souglit to make up for interrupted pleasures, and 
thought of nothing else. There is a great deal of 
danger here, God has ways to make men cast out their 
sweet morsels when they regard nothing but the filling 
of themselves. 

"And then- heart was exalted." 

This their fulness puffed them up : pride is a disease 
that ordinarily foUows fulness. It is omQiit est esse 
hard, saith Bernard, to be in honour ;» tonore sine 

. , ,T -ri • 1 . 1 T /» tumore. Bern. 

Without swelling. Pride is the disease oi 
prosperity; so, Psal. Ixxiii., David describes the pros- 
perity of the wicked, and in ver. 6 adds, " Therefore 
pride compasseth them about as a chain ; violence 
covereth them as a garment :" and lience that caveat 
of the apostle, 1 Tim. vi. 17, " Charge them that are rich 
in this world, that they be not high-minded." " Charge 
them," saith the apostle, for it is usual for men that 
are rich, that are full, to be high-minded. " Charge 
them, that they be not high-minded." Because, 

1. That these things in the world are great things 
in their eyes, yea, they are the only good things to a 
carnal heart ; they are his happiness, and therefore he 
blesses himself m them, and is puffed up on account of 
them. 

2. When they enjoy fulness in the world, then their 
lusts are satisfied, then they have fuel for their lusts, 
which makes them grow mighty high. 

3. They can live of themselves and depend upon 
none, and this essentially puffs them up. In Psal. x. 5, 
speaking of proud men in prosperity, the psalmist 
saith, •' As for aU his enemies, he puffeth at them." 
They care for nobody in the world, they can live of 
themselves ; others depend upon them, and they de- 
pend upon none, and this elates them. 

4. They conceive some excellency in themselves. Why, 
they have more than others ; as if it were because they 
had more excellency in themselves, and were more 
worthy than others ; they are not common people, but 
are called out from among others as the prime and 
chief, as if there were more worth in them : this puffs 
them up. 

5. They see all desire what they have ; they see a 
great distance between them and others, and those that 
are under them do highly esteem them. "They call the 
proud happy ;" the rich have many flatterers. " They 
were filled, and their heart was exalted," not only above 
men, but above God. Psal. Ixxiii. 9, " They set their 
mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh 
through the earth." They will speak against every one 
when they are high themselves, scorning at the ways of 
Ciod, and at his saints. WTien do wicked men that are 
of scornful spirits, scorn and speak most roughly against 
the people of God and Ms ways, but when they are 
filled ? when at taverns they have filled themselves with 
wine and good cheer, then they scorn, and blaspheme, 
and " set then- mouths against the heavens, and their 
tongues walk" throughout the city and country, against 
parliament, and all indiscriminately; their tongues are 
free when they are filled. Hence Psal. xxxv. 16, 
" With h)-])ocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed 
upon me with their teeth." In the time of then- feasts, 
when they were fiUed, then they were " mockers," and 
" they gnashed upon me with thcu- teeth." Abundance 
of evil is done by scorning and contemning at feasts ; 
and in that respect their wine, with which they then fill 
themselves, may be called, as in Deut. xxxii. 33, " the 
poison of di'agons, and the cruel venom of asps ;" for as 
it fills their bodies with heat, so their sjiirits with rage 
and malice. And especially those who were heretofore 



656 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIII. 



low, if they come to be filled, their hearts are most ex- 
alted. Oh the sad examples we have of this at this 
day ! many not long since in a low and mean condition, 
havinfj gotten places, they have got estates and power 
in their hands, oh how are their hearts exalted ! 'Would 
you ever have thouglit to have lived to have seen such 
a change in their s[)irits as at this day ? In how many 
ways do they discover their pride now they are pro- 
moted ! 

1. In their estrangement towards those that they 
were familiar with heretofore. They keep aloof from 
you ; they are filled, and now their hearts are exalted. 

2. Their carriage is very high and lofty ; you must 
wait now if you would but speak to them. 

3. Now they need no advice or counsel. They were 
wont to communicate themselves to you, and to be will- 
ing to hearken to advice and counsel ; yea, but they are 
filled now, and theh' hearts are exalted, as if the exalta- 
tion of their estates put more wit into their heads. 

4. Now they are harsh; to those that are under 
them they speak harshly and ruggedly, and care not 
for any under them. When they lived formerly among 
their neighbours, then they would complain of the 
harshness and rigidness of others, but since they are 
filled they are as harsh as any ; and so before, when 
they were low, they cried out of oppression, but when 
they come once to be in place themselves, and to be 
filled, then they act as others : hence that in Psal. 
Ixxiii. 8, " They speak wickedly concerning oppression : 
they speak loftily : " if you complain of oppression, they 
speak thus. It is spoken of wicked men in prosperity. 

5. They show their jiride. When they are filled they 
cannot bear contradiction now as they were wont, they 
cannot now endure rcjirchension. 

6. Those mercies which not long since they would 
have highly prized, they now slight, they are now in 
their eyes as mean things. 

7. All the use they make of what they enjoy now 
more than before, is to got higher and higher, for that 
alone they use it all. Those who have been low and 
mean in their estates, now they begin to be fiUed their 
hearts are exalted ; and thus do they discover the exalt- 
ation of their hearts. Oh ! but this is a great and a 
sore evil, for so it is rebuked by the prophet. O thou 
that hast thy heart exalted on being filled, it is a sign 
that thou hast a poor, low spirit of thine own, to be so 
lifted up with those things which thou dost enjoy. 

For, 1. Mliat low and mean things are they! AVhat 
are they but crumbs that the Master of the family casts 
to dogs ? . 

2. They are such things as make thee never a whit 
the better, nor the more excellent. Indeed it is said, 
that knowledge puffs up the heart, for it puts an excel- 
lency upon the man ; but the heart of the wicked is 
little worth, let him have never so much prosperity. 

3. Those things in wliich thou pridcst thyself, are no 
ether than may be, and have been, the portion of a re- 
probate. They are no other than may, consist with 
God's eternal hatred of thee, and his eternal wrath 
against thee. 

4. They are such things as may come from God's 
wrath, and like enough they do ; and when thou art 
filled with, and thereby puffed u]) by them, it is a sign 
that there is a curse mixed with tlicm. If a man comes 
to a table and eats, and then swells presently, God be 
merciful to mc, am I ])oisoned ? saith he. If thou fillest 
thyself, and art puffed up, it is an argument thy l)ros- 
perity is poisoned, the curse of God is on it. Had not 
you rather have the coarsest diet, were it only whole- 
some, than the daintiest dish with poison in it ? Is it 
not better to have the russet coat that is not danger- 
ous, than a velvet coat that has the plague in it ? Thy 
condition, if thou kncwest it, may be was a great deal 
better before. Oh that any considerations might abate 



the elation of men's spirits, that are so puffed up with 
outward prosperity ! 

5. Tliou art less fOled with spiritual good than be- 
fore ; that which is substance thou hast lost, and thou 
art filled with wind. 

6. Ere long what thou hast must be taken away. 

7. Perhaps the right to what thou dost enjoy, is but 
the right that a malefactor has to his supper before 
the day of his execution. 

8. The evil of any one sin is a gi'cater evil than all 
thy prosperity is a good ; if it but occasion any one sin 
to thee, it brings more evil upon thee than all the fill- 
ing thou hast is good unto thee. 

9. Thou art filled ; but oftentimes it falls out so, that 
the very time for God to let out Ids wrath upon wicked 
men is when they are most filled. Job xx. 22 remark- 
ably confu-ms this : " In tlie fulness of his sufficiency 
he shall be in straits:" it is an expression to be noted; 
they think they have sufficient now to live of them- 
selves, but " in the fulness of theh- sufficiency they shall 
be in straits." And in ver. 23, " Allien he is about to 
fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon 
him." And in Psal. Isxviii. 29 — 31, "So they did eat, 
and were well fiUed : for he gave them their own de- 
sire; they were not estranged from their lust. But 
whde their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of 
God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them." 
Oh, thy fulness is no cause for thee to Uft up thy heart, 
for when thou art fullest, then is the time for God's 
hottest wrath to be let out upon thee, thine abundance 
but prepares thee for slaughter. How much better is it 
for the beast to feed on the common and live, than to 
be brought into fat pasture and prepared for the 
butcher! AATien thou wert feeding on the common, 
thou wert in a way of preservation ; but now thou art 
come into the fat pasture, it is to prepare thee for 
slaughter : be not exalted then in thine own heart be- 
cause of thy fulness. 

10. It may be God has respect to others in thy ful- 
ness, it is not in regard to thee. 

11. Hereafter thou mayst perhaps curse tlie time 
that ever such an estate befell thee, curse the time of 
thy fulness. Perhaps upon thy sick bed thou mayst lie 
and wish, Oh that I had kept my shop still, and been 
continued in my low condition ! I had gone out of the 
world with a great deal less guiltiness than now I am 
like to appear before God with. Oh, be not exalted 
because thou art full. 

" Therefore have they forgotten me." Proud men 
forget God ; " The wicked, through the pride of his 
countenance, will not seek after God," Psal. x. 4. 
They have forgotten what need they had once of me, 
what cries they sent up to me, what moans they 
made before mc ; they have forgotten how gloriously 
I wrought for their deliverance, and all their conse- 
quent engagements to me; they have forgotten to ac- 
knowledge me, or sanctify my name, in all the good 
they enjoy. Oh, this is a sore and great, and yet an 
ordinary, evil ; as soon as we have our turns served, 
God is minded no more. " They remembered not his 
hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the 
enemy," Psal. Ixxviii. 42. Oh, it should have been in 
their memory, to have sanctified the name of God in 
their gi-eat deliverance ; but when they were delivered 
they rcmemcmbcred it not. " Call upon me in the 
time of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt 
glorify me," saith God. We call upon God in the time 
of' trouble, and God hears us, and delivers us, but the 
latter part is forgotten ; and that soon too ; " They soon 
forgat his works," saith Psal. cvi. 13: sometimes we 
forget before the work is quite accomplislied. Oh ! the 
Lord deliver us from this great evil. Sliall I say. Deliver 
us ? I may say, not deliver us from this evil only, but 
oiU of it, for it is upon us already. Oh the great 



Ver. 6. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



557 



things that God has done for this land within these six 
years ! Never, since Joshua's or Moses's time, was there a 
story of God's worliing for a people so wonderful as the 
story of this last six years would be if faithfully re- 
corded ; and yet, though the Lord be going on in his 
ways of mercy towards us, we have forgotten. Oh, does 
it not appear so ? What do men look after ? Every 
man his own advantage and ends, seeking to fill them- 
selves, minding nothing else. And what mighty haughti- 
ness of spirit is there in many men within this six years ! 
Oh how have we forgotten the Lord, forgotten those 
instruments that God has made use of for good to us ! 
God had more honour from us when there was not the 
hundi'edth part done for us ; now we (as it were) shake 
our ears, and, let God do as he will, we hope we can 
contrive to shift pretty well for ourselves. Oh ! the 
Lord deliver this city out of, and from, this evil of for- 
getting the Lord when we are filled. Your trading is 
becoming more abundant now than formerly ; now the 
country begins to be open, and they repair to the city 
for all. Oh, the Lord deliver this city from siu:feiting 
by their fulness, and from this sin of forgetting the Lord. 
Oh that we could but say. That the Lord having re- 
stored the trading to the city, and that in a measure 
exceeding former experience, that we are resolved to 
sanctify the name of God more than ever we did. Oh ! 
do you remember God every time you see customers 
come into yom- shops, every time you see the waggons 
come out of the country into yom- streets, do you bless 
God? and how is he therefore honoured among you ? 
Oh that it were so ! It is a sore and grievous evil to 
forget the Lord, after he has granted us fulness ; it is 
a horrible ingratitude, as if there were nothing to 
be regarded but ourselves. And especially dangerous, 
because, 

1. It is against many previous warnings of God. If 
you read Deut. vi. 10 — 12, and viii. 10 — 20, you shall 
find there how the Lord charges his people: "When the 
Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land, 
when thou shalt have eaten and be full-, then beware 
lest thou forget the Lord." " Then beware lest thou 
forget :" again and again this is inculcated, showing 
how prone we are to forget the Lord in oiu' fulness. 
Oh that you, whom Providence has brought here this 
morning, would consider these scriptures ! Now God is 
beginning to come in with more fulness than before ; 
O, beware that you forget not the Lord God in the 
midst of your fulness ; let there be as much or more 
prayer in your family than there was in former times, 
that you may have a sanctified use of the fulness which 
you now enjoy. Yea, to forget is worse than beastly. 
" The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's 
crib ; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not 
consider." If the ox be but fed, he knows his owner. 
Who is it that feeds you ? Is it not the Lord ? and 
■will you forget him ? Oh ! this will lose the blessing 
of all you enjoy, and your hearts will grow wicked be- 
yond what you can imagine ; you cannot imagine the 
evil that your hearts will grow to, if you forget God in 
the enjo}-ment of that estate in which God sets you. 

2. It is a sin that God knows not how to pardon. 
For so he expresses himself, Jer. v. 7, " How shall I 
pardon thee for this ! " As if he should say. Though I 
be a God of infinite mercy, yet here is a sin I know 
not how to pardon. Why, saith he, when I had fed 
them to the full, they committed adultery, and they 
abused that fulness. Oh ! " how shall I pardon thee for 
this?" 

3. If ever you have need of God again, how will 
conscience be stopped ? With what face could you go 
to God again for help, if brought low ? conscience will 
presently say. You were once empty and God filled you, 
and what honour had God from you ? No, your hearts 
were exalted, and you forgot God. 



4. To forget the Giver in the enjoyment of his gifts, 
is most foolish. We depend upon God in the midst of 
all our fulness as much as before, every moment we lie 
at God's mercy ; though perhaps you are not sensible 
of it, yet certainly it is so. 

5. Your forgetting God will make you forget your- 
selves ; and just it may be with God to forget you, and 
to change the course of his administration towards you. 
Oh ! take heed then of beuig exalted, and of forgetting 
the Lord, in your fulness. 

Truly, brethren, God had rather have his people fall 
into almost any sin than pride, and consequent forget- 
fulness of him. Therefore you find in Scripture, that 
God will rather set the devil upon his people, than have 
their hearts exalted. As Paul, lest he should be lifted 
up above measure, he had a thorn in the flesh, the buf- 
feting of Satan. God had rather see the devil bufi'et 
his people than sec theii' hearts exalted. 

Yea, he had rather sufl'er them to fall into any other 
sin. Charge your souls, then, against this, as David; 
" Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, 
bless his holy name; bless the Lord, O my soul, and 
forget not all his benefits," Psal. ciii. 1, 2. See what a 
charge he puts upon his soul ; " O my soul," thou hast 
received many benefits from the Lord, and there is 
this deadness in thee ; if but left to thyself, thou wilt 
forget the Lord, and this wUl be a sore evil in thee ; 
" bless, then, the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his 
benefits." Oh that you would go home and charge 
your souls not to forget the Lord and all his benefits ! 
let husband put wife in mind with this charge, and wife 
the husband, but especially yourselves in secret, between 
God and yourselves, to charge your souls not to forget 
his benefits. On the contrary, the more we remember 
God in our blessings they will be, 

1. The more sweet to us. Y'ou have a great many 
mercies, but when you forget God you lose the very 
sweetness of all your mercies. Oh ! when you can see 
a mercy, and see the God of that mercy, then it is sweet : 
when I can see a mercy, and the fountain from whence 
it comes, and whither it tends, then the mercy is sweet : 
oh ! therefore you deal foolisUy in forgetting the Lord. 

2. The more safe. 

3. The more eminent will we be in grace. Oh what 
a lovely object is it to behold a man or woman heaven- 
ly and spiritual in the midst of all outward enjoy- 
ments ! I say, the graces of such do indeed glister 
like diamonds, like most precious pearls; and therefore, 
remember the Lord in all the good things that you 
enjoy. 

Ver. 7. Therefore I will be unto them as a lion : as 
a leopard by the way will I observe them. 

!Most dreadful expressions follow here. God is ex- 
ceedingly provoked with the exaltation of men's hearts, 
and theu- forgetfulness of him in prosperity. 

Is this the same God that spake so of E])hraim here- 
tofore ? " Is Ephraim my dear son ? " Ephraim " my 
pleasant child." " How shall I give thee up, Ephraim ? " 
" mine heart is turned within me ;" " ever since I spake 
against him, I do earnestly remember him still," aud " my 
rel)entings are kindled together." Is this the Lord that 
now wilfbe " as a lion," " a leopard," " a bear bereaved 
of her whelps," " a wild beast," unto Ephraim ? AVhat ! 
is this the God that heretofore can-ied them as eagles 
do their young upon their wings, and nourished them 
as the eagle nourisheth her young ones ? Is this the 
God that was as a gracious father unto them, to whom 
this people were as " the dearly beloved of God's soul ;" 
and now God " a lion," " a leopard," " a bear bereaved of 
her whelps," " a wild beast to tear them ? " Is this the 
merciful God ? Is it thus that God appears who is love 
and mercy itself? my brethren, how dreadful docs 



5d8 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIIL 



sin render God to his creature ! But all this while there 
is no change in God's heart ; God is the same in liim- 
self as before ; the change is in the creature. The sun 
that softens the wax, the same sun hardens the clay. 
The same blessed, infinite, glorious Being, that does 
good to his creature in one condition, is in another as- 
pect dreadful to the creature. " With an upright man 
thou wilt show thyself upright, and with the froward thou 
wilt show thyself froward," Psal. xviii. 2.5, 26. Above 
all, God sets himself out in a most ten-ible manner 
against those whose hearts in prosperity were exalted 
and forgot him. 

Obs. 1. The Lord pities men, yea, sinful men, in the 
time of theu- adversity; but when they arc at the height, 
and forget him, his anger is especially hot against them. 
I will cite one passage to show how God has legard to 
men in low conditions ; but against those that are fatted 
up in prosperity, his anger burns most fiercely. Ezek. 
xx.xiv. 16, " I will seek that whicli was lost, and bring 
again that which W'as driven away, and will bind up 
that which was broken, and will strengthen that whicli 
was sick : but I will destroy the fat and the strong ; I 
will feed them with judgment." " Tliat which was lost," 
" I will seek ;" " that which was broken," '• I will bind 
up ;" " that wliich was sick," " I will heal ;" but " I will 
destroy the fat and the strong ; I will feed them with 
judgment." Here surely is a scripture full of comfort 
for the hearts of those that are in an afflicted condition. 
See how God regards such ; but God has not such re- 
gard to " the fat and the strong," he " will feed them 
with judgment," and destroy them. The care and pro- 
tection of God is more over the lost ones, and the 
broken ones, and the sick ones, than the fat ones and 
the strong ones ; they are to be fed with judgment. " I 
will be to them as a lion ;" and the reasons of this are, 

1. Their heai'ts are very much hardened in their sin, 
their sin is grown to a height. 

2. There are so many creatures that they have use 
of more than others, that do cry against them. Poor 
people have not so many creatures to cry against them 
as the rich have. 

3. They can make friends to avoid the stroke of jus- 
tice from men, but the poor fall under it unpitied ; 
therefore God takes them into liis hands and deals with 
them more severely. 

4. ^^'hen judgment comes upon them it is more ob- 
served, and therefore God to them will be " as a lion." 

" As a lion." You have a parallel passage in Psal. 
1. 22, " Consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you 
in pieces, and there be none to deliver." Their h'.-jrts 
were exalted, they forgot God, " therefore I will be 
unto them as a lion." 

1. A lion is the most terrible creature. "The lion 
hath roared, who will not fear ? " Amos iii. 8. O my 
brethren, the threats of God should be to us as the 
roaring of a lion, and our hearts shoidd ti-emble at 
them. 

2. None can take away the prey from a lion. " As a 
young lion among tlie flocks of sheep ; who, if he go 
through, both trcadeth down, and tcareth in pieces, and 
none can deliver," Micah v. 8. None can deliver out of 
God\.Iiand. 

3. A lion is strong, and crushes at once the whole 
com])ages of a man's bones. Alas ! man, what is he ? 
In Job iv. 19, he is said to be "crushed before the 
moth;" much more then before a lion: oh, then, much 
more before the Lord God when he comes as a lion ! 

4. The lion will narrowly mark any one that wounds 
her. If there were hundreds of men together, and one 
did but shoot at or wound her, she will be sure to mark 
that man. The Lord marks out those that sin against 
him, and that wound his name ; they must not tliink to 
e8ca|>e among others. The Lord's eye is upon them 
particularly. 



5. The lion sleeps but little, and with her eyes open. 
So the Lord. As '■ he that keepeth Israel neither slum- 
bereth nor sleepeth," Psal. cxxi. 4 ; so he that destroys 
his enemies does not slumber nor sleep. 

6. The lion will fall upon no creature except from 
hunger or provocation. The Lord, though his wrath be 
terrible as a lion, yet is not so ready to fall ujion his 
creature; it must be for some special end, or from 
some provocation, but then he falls terribly indeed. 

7. It is observed of the lion, that if you do but fall 
down on the ground, and submit and yield, it will pass 
by, and will not tear and rend where there is a hum- 
ble submission, whereas other creatures will. Oh ! 
thus God is a lion, terrible, but yet only to those that 
stand out against him. 

8. The naturalists observe of the lion, that it cannot 
endure to be looked asquint upon by any. Thus it is 
with the Lord ; the Lord loves no squint-eyed Chris- 
tians, I mean, none that have by-ends of their o«ii : the 
Lord loves uprightness in our ways and dealings. 

9. They say of the lion, that it is a gi'eat enemy to 
apes and wolves. So is God to flatterers and tyrants. 
Thus God is comi)arcd to a lion. 

" As a leopard by the way will I observe them." 
isrK "^il-'^y 1C33 The Seventy render this Kaui tijv 
oc'ur 'Affavpiwv, by the way of tlie AssjTian : so the 
Vulgate and Jerome. 

The she-leopard is the same as that which they call 
a panther ; and the Lord compares himself to it, because, 

1. It is so fierce, that it presently flies „,. ,, . 

m the face of a man. " As a leopard, I .iiun.bb. 2.c=p.j3. 
will fly in the very faces of such; such S'^'S- E''-^- *» 
manifest much pride in their faces, and I will fly in 
their verj' faces, saith God. 

2. It is a very swift creature, Hab. i. 8. So the Lord 
will swiftly come against wicked and ungodly men, " as 
a leopard," swiftly, and overtake them. 

3. A leopard watches its prey, being very subtle, to 
observe the fit times and opportunities to fall uj)on the 
prey. So the text, " As a leopard by the way will I ob- 
serve them :" this strongly intimates the fearful wrath 
of God against wicked men. As in Jer. v. 6, " A 
leopard shall watch over their cities." I say there is 
much of God's wrath in this, it is ver\' terrible ; the 
Lord sets his infinite wisdom on work to watch fit 
times and op))orlunities to let out his wrath upon un- 
godly men. " I will watch over them for evil," as in 
another scripture is threatened. Those arc truly in a 
sad condition whom the Lord watches over for evil : 
God watches over his people for good ; but such as, 
when they are full, exalt themselves and forget the 
Lord, God watches over them for evil : they should be 
destroyed soon ; But, saith God, I have a fitter time 
than now, wherein I will both get myself a greater 
name, and it shall be worse for them ; in due time shall 
their feet slide. This is the reason why men live so long 
in their prosperity, and go on and satisfy theii- wills, 
because God is watcliing over them, and liis time is not 
yet come. 

4. When the leopard comes upon its prey, it leaps 
upon it suddenly. And so does the Lord to ungodly 
men ; he comes in an hour that they expect not. and 
leaps upon them. And therefore you must not think 
that vou are as well, because you are in as safe a con- 
dition, as you were a year or seven years since. It is as 
well with me, saith one, as it has been with me in nil 
mv life-time. What then ? you may be never a whit the 
further off from dangers, for the way of God in bring- 
ing his wrath is many times sudden. 

5. The leopard sometimes will sleep a very long 
time, even three days together, but after it awakes it 
is more fierce than before. And so tlie Lord, thou"'' 
sometimes he may be patient towards .sinners, yet, wl 
he comes to awake out of liis sleep, he is more tcrri! 



Vee. 8. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



559 



" Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep. And he 
smote his enemies in the hinder part : he put them to 
a pei'petual reproach," Psal. Ixxviii. 65, 66. 

Ver. 8. / will meet them as a bear that is bereaved 
of her tvhelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, 
and there icill I devour them like a lion : the wild beast 
shall tear them. 

The third creature is the bear : " I will meet them 
as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps." 

This creature is very fierce and ten-i- 
SibiVifJI'M'' ble ; accordingly we read in 2 Kings ii. 
24, " There came forth two she-bears 
out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of 
of them." " Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a 
man, rather than a fool in his folly," Proy. xvii. 12. She 
is fierce at all times, but above all, if she be " robbed of 
her whelps." It is observed that no creature loves her 
young ones more than the bear, and yet they are the 
most deformed of anj' ; an emblem, it may be, of a man 
that loves his own deformed fancies. One interpreter 
remarks upon it : Oh, how will the Lord be in a holy 
rage, if his childi'en be wronged, liis own children, who 
bear his image ; when the instinct of nature in this 
creature, the bear, incites it to such rage when she is 
robbed of such ugly things as her whelps are ! 2 Sam. 
xvii. 8, saith Hushai to Absalom, " Thou knowest thy 
thy father and his men, that they be mighty men, and 
they be chafed in their minds, as a bear robbed of her 
whelps in the field." Thus the Scripture often com- 
pares exceeding fierceness and rage, to the fierceness 
of " a bear that is bereaved of her whelps ;" therefore it 
is added here, 

" And will rend the caul of theii- heart, and there will 
I devour them like a lion." Here he mentions the lion 
the second time. The word in your books is the same, 
but in the original it is somewhat different. 

As the lion is named here the second time, we may 
observe, that when it comes on its prey it rends the body 
asunder, and loves to suck the blood and the fat 
that is about the heart ; and as for the other parts, ex- 
cept in extreme hunger, it leaves them for other beasts 
to prey upon ; but the heart, and the blood, and the fat 
about the heart, the lion loves to suck. And therefore 
saith God here, " I will rend the caul of their heart, 
and there will I devour them like a lion." 

Luther well observes on this, The Lord here will do 
as a lion does, he more immediately will strike out their 
hearts, and jjunish them with spiritual plagues and 
judgments ; and as for then estates and bodies, he will 
leave them to other beasts, and they shall plagiie them 
and punish them that way : they had a film upon thcii- 
hearts, and instructions could not reach them ; but God 
will tear that caul, will tear that film from off' their 
hearts that kept off instructions. Oh ! let us take heed 
of this that keeps out of our heart,s the word of God, 
take heed of that for ever, for God has ways to tear 
this film from off thy heart. 

As Bernard, putting his finger on his brother's side, 
who was a soldier, and disregarded his good instruc- 
tions and admonitions, said. One day a spear shall make 
way to this heart for instructions and admonitions to 
enter : so I may say to such whose hearts have a film 
upon them, that what the preacher saith cannot find 
entrance, God may justly come and rend this caul from 
off' thy heart that keeps out the admonitions of his 
word. Arias Montanus notes, that it may refer to the 
sending the plague upon their hearts, and leaving theii' 
estates and comforts to the Assyrians. 

" The wild beast shall tear them." Why, did he 
not name wild beasts enough before ? There was " the 
lion," and " the leopard," and "the bear," and "the lion" 
again, and yet he adds, "the wild beast;" as if he 



should say, If there be any terror, any dreadfulness. in 
any wild beasts whatsoever, there is that in my wrath, 
if you escape one wild beast another shall tear you; 
and now he comes to all wUd beasts ; put them all to- 
gether, and such is the fierceness of my wrath. There 
arises from hence one excellent observation : 

Obs. All the cbeadfulness of all creatures in the 
world combined meets in the wrath of God. As all 
the good that is in all creatures together is in the love 
and mercy of God ; so all things that can in any way 
bring any torment on, Tjr torture to us, and the quint- 
essence of all this is in God's wrath : " The wild beast 
shall tear them." 

L\Ta thinks that this prophecy was fulfilled when 
they were carried captive, and in their jouraey many 
died, and so they were cast into fields and de\oured 
by wild beasts : and it is likely it may be fulfilled in 
part so ; as usually, when soldiers carry an enemy cap- 
tive, they throw them, if they be sick unto deatli, with 
little concern into a ditch, that is all they care for them. 
And so it was with this people ; the Lord, though he 
knew them in the wilderness, and his protection was 
over them, yet now forgets them, and lets them be 
carried into captivity, and cast to wild beasts to tear 
and devour. 

Some think that the expression of God's wrath by 
these beasts, has reference to the four monarchies, 
which God would make use of to be very terrible to 
his saints. In Dan. vii. you find the four monarchies 
of the world, the Babylonian, the Persian, the Grecian, 
and Roman monarchies, set forth in the same man- 
ner, as here the Holy Ghost sets out the wi-atli of 
God against Israel ; for the ti'uth is, those things that 
we have here in Hosea were to set forth God's ways 
to his people in after-times, and not merely when they 
were to be carried captive. In Dan. vii. 3, there ap- 
peared four great beasts ; the first lilie a lion, by which 
was signified the Babylonish empire ; the second like a 
bear, the Persian ; the thnd like a leopard, the Grecian ; 
for Alexander was as a leopard, exceeding swift, all his 
exploits he performed in twelve years, and was but 
thirty-three years old when he died. Moreover, they 
observe of the leopard, (which is named 
fi-om a panther,) that its body smells ex- le^pTriur'AS 
ceeding sweet above all beasts ; of Alex- P'""- -s-onnoi 

,,, . . .,,.,. "O. 9. cap. u. 

ander s bod)', too, it was said, that it had a 
peculiarly sweet smell. Then the fourth being the 
Roman empu'e, mark how it is imaged, just as God 
here sets out his wrath ; he names not any particular 
beast, but describes it as " dreadful and terrible, and 
strong exceedingly ; and it had great Li-on teeth : it 
devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue 
with the feet of it : and it was diverse from all the 
beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns." 
You know now that that was divided 
:ito ten kingdoms, or ten sor 
governments at several times. 

This is the Roman empu'e, the power of which 
antichrist was to have ; by both which the Lord would 
exercise his people, and be very terrible to his people, 
especially those people of his that were apostatizing 
people, that would worship him according to then own 
ways: God would be thus terrible to them wherever 
they lived ; under any of the former empnes, they should 
have God either as a lion, a leopard, a bear, or like 
this last-mentioned di-eadful creature. 

But you win say. Why do you speak thus ? Or it 
may be people would speak thus to the prophet, O, 
why do you speak of God in this ten-ible manner ? Is 
not our God a gracious and a merciful God ? why then 
will you render God thus terrible ? In answer the 
prophet saith : 



560 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIII. 



Ver. 9. O Israel, thou, hast destroyed thi/self ; but in 
me is thine help. 

O, do not find fault with the dreadfulness of God, 
that God appears thus clothed in terrors to you ; and do 
not blame the ministers of God, that they rei)resent God 
in this dreadful manner before you. Though it is true, 
that God ap])cars ready to destroy you, yet still the 
Lord is infinite, holy, and blessed, and a God of mercy 
and goodness in himself: " O Israel, thou hast destroyed 
thyself," thou mayst thank thyself for all this. Many 
of you, ■when you hear the ten'ors of God set before 
you, perhaps your hearts rise against them, and your 
spii'its exceedingly loatlie such manifestations. Why 
then do ministers make God apjiear so terrible, when 
he is such a merciful and gracious Godf O, rather 
lay thy hand upon thine own heart and say, God in- 
deed is thus gracious and merciful, but it is my wick- 
edness arrays God in terrors. The judgments of God 
are called " strange things," because God delights not 
in the execution of wrath, in a])pearing hke " a lion," 
" a leopard," and " a bear." That which pleases the 
heart of God, is to appear as a Father to do good to his 
people ; but, " O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself" 

Obs. 1. This will one day aggravate men's judgments, 
that they are themselves the cause of all the evils which 
they suffer. You may think to put it over on God, and 
say. Oh how di'cadful is God's justice ! but God knows 
how to put it all upon yourselves. The destruction of 
sinners will ap])car to be from themselves ; God will 
clear it up to all the world, before men and angels, and 
will clear it up to men's own consciences : the damned 
in hell shall not be able to speak against God's justice 
at all, but shall be forced to charge themselves with all 
the evil that is upon them : Oh ! it was through this 
wretched, vile, and wicked heart of mine ; God was not 
wanting to me in any means of good, but I had a re- 
bellious heart, and I have brought all this evil upon 
myself ; I have destroyed myself. 

" O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself" Destroved 
liimself ! did not God, in the words immediately before, 
say, that he would " meet them as a bear that is be- 
reaved of her whelps," and " rend the caul of their 
heart," that he would be as " a lion " to them, and as 
"a leopard?" and yet here he saith, "O Israel, thou 
hast destroyed thyself!" 

06s. 2. Though God makes use of instruments to 
execute severe wrath on a people, yet their destruction 
is to be attributed to themselves. " O Israel, thou hast 
destroyed thyself," thou mayst thank thyself for all this. 
The original S.'sit" nnrn? is by some 
rcrjio^ue, Israel, rendered differently ; by Calvin anil many 
others, It has destroyed thee, Israel.' 

The old English translation, wherein Beza's (the 
Geneva) notes arc, renders it, one has destroyed them : 
the word may be so translated; one has destroyed 
them, or, it has destroj-cd them, or, somewhat has de- 
stroyed them ; as if God should say. Not I, but some- 
what else has destroyed them. 

Trcmelius translates it, thy king has 

tulii!''"Trcm.'' destroyed thee ; for so the context will 

bear. " Has destroyed us" (so are the 

words.) Has ? what has ? Mliv your king lias de- 

vi,„, „ I. stroved vou, saith 'iVcmelius. Most of 

the Hebrews complete it thus, your calf 
has destroyed )ou, your idols have destroyed you. 
Co„.ni.ii„Bct,u. ■^'^'^" ^'•™> 5'°"'' feigned comforts have 
*•> E" destroyed vou. Drusius reads it interro- 

oiTupi . ui pativel'y, A^'ho has destroyed thoc? Your 
fulness, of which ver. fi, or your own heart and wick- 
edness, have destroyed you. ' The Greek thus, Ty hafp- 
Sopn Tov I/rpai'/Xrif (3on9i;(i«, Who shall give help to the 
corruption of Israel ? Though the words be read so 



diversely, yet most agree in giving them the same 
meaning as your books ; your ovin wickedness has de- 
stroyed you ; your sinful, ungodly, idolatrous living, 
forsaking God and his ways, and putting confidence in 
an arm of flesh, that has destroyed thee. 

" But in me is thine help." Those words are some- 
what different in the original, for there are two ins, 
TiT>'3 '3-'3 in me, in thy help. And so you may ob- 
serve, that in your Bibles is is printed in a diflerent 
character, which notes that it is not directly according 
to the original. In me, in thy help. 

Drusius on the text saith. In me, in 
thy help ; that is, I am in thy help, and eftaxiSum luum ' 
tliy help is in me. This seems to be "''"'°'^- ''"" 
according to the intention of the Holy Ghost, ^^^lat- 
soever help thou hast, I am in it, and thy help it is in 
me. " In me is thine help." 

Parens reads it, against thy help, and .^ ^^ . 
so supplies the word, thou hast rebelled «u«uutoreir 
against thy help. Thou hast destroyed thy "'"^'^ ''""" 
help ; why ? because thou hast rebelled against thy 
help. The original will bear this, against thy help. 

But the other more full and general interpretation, 
and more in accordance with the original, is, thy help 
is wholly in me, and I am wholly in thy help ; thou 
hast destroyed thyself, but thy help is wholly in me. 
This shall suffice for the reading of the words. Now 
for the several truths that are to be here held forth to 
us out of them. 

Obs. 2. Men would fain put off their evils from them- 
selves to God. Men are naturally loth to charge them- 
selves with the evil that comes upon them, it is their 
ill hap, their 01 fortune, their ill luck ; or they could 
not help it, they did what they could ; and so think to 
attribute it all to God ; it is for want of means, for 
want of this or that thing which God denied to them, 
it is because God put them into such and such a con- 
dition ; but never come to charge themselves. But the 
prophet speaks here in a compassionate way ; O Israel, 
(saith he,) never stand charging it upon God, '• thou 
hast destroyed thyself" 

Obs. 3. God knows how to turn all the evil upon 
ourselves. Though we may think to lessen our evil by 
putting it upon God, God will turn it all upon our own 
heads, and make it clear to all the world that we were 
the cause of all the evils that were upon us, both tem- 
l>oral evils, and those evils that shall come upon such as 
shall perish eternally. It will be one of the great 
works at the day of judgment, to make it manifest to 
men and angels, that all the misery that comes upon 
the damned is from themselves ; their own consciences 
will acknowledge it, and God will be justified before 
all : it will be found that the cause of man's perdition 
is not in the decree of God ; God's decree damns none ; 
their sin damns them, not the decree. For, 

1. The decree of reprobation is but the leaving men 
to be dealt with in a way of justice. Wiereas saitli 
God, Here are some upon whom I am resolved to mag- 
nify my grace to all eternity, whatsoever comes between 
to hinder it, I am resolved that these shall be subjects 
for me to exercise my grace on to all eternity ; that i< 
election : but there are others whom I will le.\ve to a 
way and course of justice, they shall have what they earn, 
and no otherwise. So that the decree is not the cause 
of men's damnation; their sin comes in between that 
and their damnation, so that they destroy themselves. 

2. It infuses not any evil into them. You will say. 
Sin comes in between decree and damnation ; but how- 
comes sin in ? Certainly not by any infusion from 
God, but by man himself, man himself is its author. 

3. It is not by any coaction. You will say. Though 
sin in men is the cause of it, yet men cannot helj) it, 
men cannot but sin. Now to reply : 1. Man sins as 
freely as if he could do otherwise. God made man in 



Vek. 9. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



such a condition that he might not have sinned ; and 
though it is now true that, through their fall, men can- 
not do that which is good, they cannot but sin, " having 
eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin," 
as the apostle saith of some, yet they sin as freely as if 
they had power to keep from sin ; sin pleases their 
wills, it is suitable to them : so it is true that the saints 
in heaven cannot but glorify God, but yet they glorify 
God with freedom too ; they are so set in an estate of 
glory, that they cannot sin, but yet they honour God 
freely, that is, in honouring God they do that which is 
suitable to their own spirits. 2. Every sinner that 
perishes, murders himself. All that are damned eter- 
nally, all of them are self-murderers : this is a grievous 
thing : " O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself." The 
more there is of self in men's destruction, the more 
grievous is their condition. It would make our hearts 
bleed to see a bird shot with an arrow feathered from 
its own body : all the judgments of God, all the arrows 
of the Almighty, that come against sinners, are as it 
were feathered by that which comes from sinners them- 
selves, they are the cause of their own evils. The 
more self in sinners' destruction, the more hard is their 
condition. Self appears in sin, 

1. When men bring misery upon themselves without 
any temptation. The less temptation, the more self: 
and some destroy themselves so, that it comes merely 
from themselves without any temptation. 

2. WTien men's sins are plotted, contrived sins. The 
more plotting and contriving about sin, the more art 
thou the author of thine own evil or destruction. 

3. When men sin, although warned beforehand of 
their sin. They are told beforehand of the evil, yet still 
are wilful in it, and will go on in it : such may thank 
themselves for their destruction. 

4. When men, notwithstanding they are often stopped 
in their sin, and though God many times in the dis- 
pensations of his providence, and by his word, stays 
them in their course of sin, and yet still they will go 
on. Thank thyself if thou be undone. 

5. The more means to the contrary they enjoy, the 
more enlightenings, the more di-awings of the Holy 
Ghost to win them from their sin, and yet unavailingly. 

6. When men's sins are of that nature, that they do 
not only deserve, but they actually work, thcu- destruc- 
tion. All sins deserve it, but some sins work it ; as 
drunkenness, and some others which might be named ; 
the very sin there destroys the sinner. 

7. AVhen men shall presume to venture further in 
any danger than they can help themselves out of. They 
think they will go but thus far, and no farther, and so 
they venture on beyond thek power to help themselves ; 
they destroy themselves. 

Now this evil of self-destruction is so much the more 
grievous, when men destroy themselves in things in 
which they most bless themselves, in which they do 
most glory, and in which they promise to themselves 
the greatest good ; if this proves to be their destruction, 
it is so much the more grievous. Oh, it is a sad thing 
to be a self-destroyer ; for, 

1. What pity can there be for such ? Who will pity 
any who are the cause of all their own evil , who wil- 
fully bring it upon themselves ? You will say. Thank 
yourselves; who will pity you? Oh, this will be the 
condition of all that perish ; neither God, nor angels, 
nor saints shall pity them ; neither the father out of 
whose loins they came, nor the mother who have them ; 
they shaH see that they have undone themselves. 

2. The extreme vexation that there will be in men's 
spii-its when they shall be convinced of this, when 
the Lord shall present to them all the means they 
have had, and all the mercies they have enjoyed, so 
that their consciences shall ily in their faces and tell 
them, You may thank yourselves for this, it was that 

2 o 



wretched heart of thine that thou hast so talked of; I 
told you of this before ; that pride, that hypocrisy, that 
self-seekmg, and that falseness of thine, have brought 
thee to all this. Oh this will be an eternal vexation, it 
will be the matter for the worm to gnaw upon in hell 
hereafter. Oh, we have destroyed ourselves ! 

3. God will revenge this upon men; for no man has 
the power over himself; thou destroyest one of God's 
creatures in being a self-murderer, thou shalt be punish- 
ed for destroying thyself. Because they have not the 
disposal of themselves, they are God's creatures. It is 
a greater sin for a man to murder himself, than his 
father or mother. Austin was wont to say. It is a 
greater sin than parricide, to be a self-murderer ; and 
the reason he gives is. For the nearer the relation, the 
greater is the sin of the murder : as it is a greater sin 
for me to murder a kinsman than a stranger, a greater 
sin to murder a brother than a kinsman more remote, 
a greater sin to murder a father than a brother, so it is 
a greater sin for me to murder myself than my father ; 
why ? for I am nearer myself than my father : and 
so the sin is greater for any to lay violent hands upon 
themselves than upon another. You would think it a 
hoiTid thing if the devil were to come with a tempta- 
tion. Go, take a halter and hang up your mother that 
bore you, or take a knife and cut your father's throat ; 
but when you are tempted to murder yourselves the 
sin is still greater. Self-murder is a great evil, and yet 
all people in the world that perish are self-murderers. 
When we do but hear of a man that hangs or drowns 
himself, we think it is a very sad thing : now when you 
look upon wicked men going on in the ways of sin and 
destruction, look upon them as so many men running 
to drown themselves, and plunge themselves into the 
bottomless gulf; as so many men cutting their own 
throats, and hanging themselves, for so they assuredly 
do. Hence let us learn, 

1. To charge ourselves with all the evil that is upon 
us. Do not so put it off. neither on God nor the devil, 
but charge ourselves still, for certainly we cause more 
evil to ourselves than all the devils in hell. Jll llie 
devils in hell could not undo us, if we did not undo our- 
selves. We are ready to charge it upon wicked men, or 
temptations of the devil ; and if not so, then upon God ; 
for so you do, when any thinks to excuse his sin thus, 
God knows I do what I can : that is as much as if you 
should say. For my part, I am free of any evil that comes 
upon me, if I perish I am guiltless ; I do what I can, 
and it is because God does not give me grace : thus you 
put it from yourselves on God. No, let us learn to 
charge ourselves with evil : a tender heart will take even 
that which is the devil's to himself, and a carnal heart 
will put over that which is from himself on the devil. 
Observe the difference between one that has a tender 
spirit, and another ; when any temptation originating 
really with the devil comes, he presently charges his 
own heart. Oh what a wretched, vile heart have I ! 
whereas it may be but mere suggestions and tempt- 
ations of the devil, and not the steam and filth of his 
heart ; but he judges his heart from those temptations, 
and thinks it is nothing but its uncleanness and filthi- 
ness. But you shall have another man that has a most 
filthy, wicked heart, and there come most abominable 
steams which break forth into foul diseases, and though 
it comes altogether from himself, yet saith he. The 
temptations of the devil lead me aside, and I cannot 
tell how to resist him. It is not from temptations, it is 
from thyself, from that wicked, unclean heart of thine ; 
and were there no devils in hell at all, thou hast the 
seeds of all sin in thy heart, thine own uncleanness is 
their fruitful source. 

2. To be afraid of ourselves, and to pray to God to 
be delivered fi-om ourselves. Better to be given up to 
the devil than to 07ie's self. Y'ou know the incestuous 



562 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIII. 



person was delivered up to Satan, but it was for the 
destruction of the flesli, and tlie saving of liis soul, 
1 Cor. V. ; but when one is given up to himself, it is 
for the damning of his soul : then we may well say by 
anticipation of the lost, " Thou hast destroyed thyself." 

And, my brethren, we have cause to think of this 
very seriously likewise in respect of tlie kingdom and 
nation. Certainly, il' ever this kingdom be destroyed, it 
must needs be written for the generations to come. 
Here i.»a kingd?in that has destroyed itself. Certainly 
we cannot say it is from God, if we perish : what God 
will do with us we know not, but truly, this we may 
plainly see, that if God leaves us but a little more to 
ourselves, we are in a very fall- way to destroy om-- 
selves; and that after all that God has wrought for 
us. God has wrought like a God for us ; but we, 
how do we deal for ourselves ? Like men, shall we say ? 
Oh no, like brute beasts : if men, mad-men, men that . 
aic ai)pointed to destruction. It will be the saddest 
story that ever was in the world against a people, if so 
be that at length we perish, after God has done so 
much for us. Truly, now God has wrought like a God 
to deliver us from our common enemies, God has need 
to work as much for us like a God to deliver us from 
ourselves. Great have the works of God been in deli- 
vering us fi-om the rage of those of whom we thought, 
and that justly, that they intended oui' destruction. If 
God should now say, A\'"ell, I have done my work, I 
have delivered you from those you were afraid of, and 
now I will leave you to yourselves, oh ! we had cause 
to fall upon our faces, and say, O Lord, do not so, for 
it had Icen better that they had destroyed us ; for if 
tliou shouldst leave us to ourselves, our destruction 
would be a more bitter desti'uction. Do not we see 
how fast we run towards destruction? being but a little 
left to ourselves, what a perverse spirit is there now 
amongst us ! We say sometimes of the prelates, The 
hand of God is against them ; how have they brought 
themselves into a snare ! Now they may stand and look 
upon us, and even laugh almost at us, and say. Well, 
let them alone ; as we speak of some, Give them line 
enough and they will quickly hang themselves; Let 
them alone, and they will fall out one with another, 
and destroy one another, they will quickly ruin them- 
selves if they be let alone. Oh, we have as much ex- 
perience as any of the vanity of men's hearts, of their 
folly, pride, hj-pocrisy, and frowardness. Who could 
ever have thought this five or six years ago ? If this 
had been jiresented as it were in a map to us. You shall 
be in great dangers, you shall have mighty enemies 
rise ready to swallow you up ; but I will appear and 
work for you, I will put forth my glory, the right hand 
of my power and excellency shall a])pear for you; and 
when all this is done, you shall undo yourselves, and 
out of your own selves shall be your ruin, even from 
those in whom you much trusted, and much applaud- 
ed, even they shall be cause of the evil ; yea, and you 
who now think your hearts are so right, and have said, 
Oh, if God would but deliver us, how we would mag- 
nify his name ! you yourselves shall be the cause of the 
evil of the kingdom. Had any said so of some of 
whom now our hearts have cause to shake within us, 
when we think, (as the prophet did of Ilazael,) You 
shall do tlms and thus, they would have been ready to 
answer, AVhat ! are we dogs ? are we dead dogs, that 
we should do such things? Well, the Lord deliver us 
from ourselves. 

" But in me is tliine help." 

We can easily destroy ourselves, but can wo save 
ourselves ? A child can break a glass that all the men 
in the country cannot mend. Every fool may do mis- 
chief to liimself, yea, and to others, but can he hel]) ? 
It is God only that is the help of his people ; it is not 
means tliat help, but God ; yea, God nmcli glories in 



that very thing, to be accounted the cause of all good; 
be would have all evil cast upon men, but all good from 
himself, even present good, and eternal good, he would 
have attributed to himself. 

One, though a Jesuit, comments thus 
on these words, " In me is thine help." d«,ln^,on™ ?S^. 
Hence it follows, (saith he,) that nredes- '''"""'• >-• gratum 

. . .' ^ , '•* J ^ non cMip p.\ ptsnis 

tmation, vocation, and grace, do not pm^^iiTmtorum 
come from the foresight of the merits of !Si"'«'."^'ur.v" 
those that are predestinated, but from f,!.vIi',"tM,:,'.(!i'i~™. 
God's predestinating, calling, preventing ,'f^'-",'u',a,',Si'i Dti" 
with his grace : these things are the help J^'"''- " ^p"'' '•> 
of God. Even from the mouth of a Jesuit 
we have this thus acknowledging sometimes in theii- 
writings, and when they are serious, that neither pre- 
destination, nor vocation, nor grace, comes from anv 
foresight of what man would do, but only from God's 
predestinating, calling, preventing the predestinated 
by his grace ; and this is the help of God. God is the 
centre of all good, both present and eternal. 

Austin was wont to say, God does 
many good things in a man that a man m^<« >ma facu 
docs not himself; man does nothing qui non fjcii ho^no 
which God does not that man may do. quU'iVul'non'hcii 
This point we must not speak at large to, ^;^f|;™"'°°'»- •^" 
but pass by presently, for we met with it 
before in the prophecy, where it was said, " There is no 
saviour beside me," chap. xiii. 4. 

'• In me is thine help." That is, thy continued helj) ; 
not only hel]) for the jjresent, but whatsoever help thou 
hast continued to thee, it is all in God. " Be thou 
their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time 
of trouble," Isa. xxxiii. 2 ; not only their help for the 
jjresent, but tliey need still a continued supply and help 
every morning. We may here, fui-ther, 

Obs. 4. There is no misery that man can bring him- 
self to in this world, but there is help for it in God. 
Though thou hast destroyed thyself, yet in me is thy 
help ; there may yet be help in God. As if God should 
say, I do glory in being a helper. It is God's gloiy 
to help men in miseiy ; let it be ours. 

It is the glory of many men to destroy, to do mis- 
chief; but it is the glory of God to be a helper. 

Luther, on the place, saith, I desire to 
defend thee, to preserve thee, this mdeed !;"Kl'„f ta?,'™ 
is to be a God. To be a helper, God "<;, Drum ««■ 
glories m this. Oh tliat we could ac- 
count it our glory to be helpful to one another ! 

Let us also look upon God in this his glory, and 
make him the object of our faitli in times of dis- 
tress. Let us not lie vexmg and fretting under our 
misery, but lift up oui' eyes to God the Helper. Let no 
want of means, no unworthiness in us, cause our hearts 
to sink : those despairing temptations that say to us, 
There is no help in God, they are very sinful at any 
time, let the condition be never so bad. 

You will say, I am a wretched creature, I have un- 
done myself. 

W'e\\, though thou hast, yet desponding, despairing 
thoughts, which lead us to say. There is no help in God, 
are wicked and sinful. God accounts it his glory to 
help men even when they have destroyed themselves. 
There is a time indeed when there will be no help for 
sinners ; but whilst in this world, we may say as She- 
chaniah, in Ezra x. 2, " Yet uow there is hope in Is- 
rael concerning this tiling." Oh make use of lliat 
scripture when thou seest thyself sink down even to 
the ver)' gulf, oh, yet there is hope in the God of Israel 
for this very thing. Suppose thy condition be worse 
than any in the world, yet you ki.ow, it ha.s not been 
known what God has laid up for them that love liim; 
there is still help in God. 

Yea, but will he help? O doubting soul, reason thus : 

1. There is help in God, and he accounts it his glory 



Vek. 10 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



563 



to be a helper. He accounts it not so much his gloi-y 
to be a destroyer, no, that is his " strange work," but 
to be a helper, that is his great glorj'. 

2. T^Hien men are most undone, even then is the 
time for God to help. "Thou hast destroyed thyself; 
but in me is thine help." Oh, come and return, there 
may yet be help for thee, though thou hast destroyed 
thyself 

"Thou hast destroyed thyself ; but in me is thine 
help." This may be said in aggravation of their sin 
and stubbornness : "Why dost thou not come in to me ? 
have not I always been a help to thee in all times of 
straits and distresses ? You are in great misery ; now I 
am the same that I ever was, there is yet help enough 
.in me : fi-om whence, 

Obs. 5. If the misery of those who have heretofore 
seen help in God increases, and they sink yet lower and 
lower, they had need examine themselves thoroughly. 
Surely they have shut the door against themselves for 
help, for God is never weary of doing good ; " The 
Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save ; nei- 
ther his ear heavy, that it cannot hear : but your ini- 
quities have separated between you and your God," 
Isa. lix. 1,2. I beseech you mark but this, there is a 
great difference between God and man in this helping. 
Men that are very kind and helpful sometimes, yet at 
other times will be very surly and harsh towards the same 
whom formerly they much befriended, and that not fi'om 
any cause withoiit, but merely from the temper of their 
own hearts, and the change that has taken place in 
their own spirits ; not because those that they have 
been kind to are worse now than before, no, but be- 
cause of a froward, surly, harsh humour that is risen 
up in themselves : you shall see such a difference in 
men who have been very sweet, loving, and helpful to 
you at some times ; but come to them at other times, 
and you shall find them dogged, and surly, and harsh, 
and you cannot tell what has provoked them ; it arises 
from nothing but a distemper within. Thus it is with 
men, but it is not so with God. " Thou hast destroyed 
thyself, but in me is thine help ;" it is still ; I have been 
thy helper all thy days, and still am the same God, 
ready to do thee good, and to help thee. 

Obs. 6. The more God has helped any, the greater 
will be then- destruction, if they be destroyed at last. 
" Thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help." 
I have been a help always, I was ever ready to help 
and to do good, and yet thou art undone. Oh, to be 
destroyed when God is at hand to help, to perish when 
there is a fountain just before us, as Hagar, this will 
be sad indeed ! To perish in the midst of means, and 
in the midst of mercies, what an aggravation will this 
be to men's sins another day, when they are past the 
time of mercy to help, then to think. Oh how gracious 
was God to me while I Kved ! 

And as a nation, too, we should apply this to our- 
selves. " Thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is 
thine help." It will be the aggravation of our misery 
if we should yet perish. O my brethren, consider, 
shall all the great stories and remarkable accounts that 
we have given of God's mighty working in helping us, 
shall they be of no other use but to aggravate our 
miseries at last ? It would be a sad termination. 

Ver. 10. / ivill be thy king : where is any other that 
may save thee in all thy cities ? and thy judges ofichom 
thou sai-dst, Give me a king and princes ? 

First, to speak a little to the words as you have them 
in your books, for the Hebrew will admit of such an 

* Vid. Bucer in Matt. xvii. 27. Citncta supremo nia- 
gistrattis concedenda propter conscientiam ; i. e. The su- 
preme magistrate is to be submitted to in all things, but 
matters of conscience. He speaks of private men, not of those 



interpretation ; and then I shall show you another 
reading, in my judgment, as suitable to the original. 

" I will be thy king." 

Notwithstanding all your plots, all your rage, I will 
govern you. " I wUl be thy king," and will do that 
which beseems me as the great King of heaven and 
earth ; I will not be borne down by you with all your 
tumult, I will govern you, I will have mine own ends, 
do what you can ; things shall not go as you will, but 
they shall go as I will have them ; you would cast off 
my authority, but I will maintain it ; "I will be thy 
king." 

Obs. 1. It is a sad condition when God rules over a 
jieople in spite of their hearts. And yet God many 
times rules over people in spite of their hearts, whether 
they will or no ; while they are plotting and striving 
for themselves this way and that, God is bringing 
about his own ends in their ruin. "The Lord reigneth ; 
let the people tremble," Psal. xcix. 1. It is not thy 
fretting and wilfulness that will hinder the course of 
God's ordering things in the world, he will be King at 
last do what thou canst; while thou and thousand 
thousands such as thou art shaD perish eternally, God 
wiU be King. Oh, it is infinitely" better for thee to fall 
down before the Lord and say, Lord, thou art above 
us, thou hast power over us, thou shalt be our King for 
ever. It is always just with God to say, "I will be thy 
king ;" but certainly God has not made such a dis- 
tance between man and man that any should say. Not- 
withstanding my injustice, and the misery it entails on 
the people, yet " I will be thy king," I will have mine 
own ends, mine own will. The bond between kings 
and states certainly is mutual.* 

" I will be thy king." 

I will not cast off all care of them, I will not leave 
them to the mercy, or rather to the cruelty, of others ; 
iDut let them come and return to me, and I will deal 
with them as a king to defend, to govern them, and to 
do them good. 

That God should be King over a people is his mercy, 
and man's felicity. Tliis should be our prayer, Lord, 
give us not up to be ruled by our lusts, but do thou 
rule over us ; and, Lord, give us not up to be ruled by 
the lusts of wicked men, suffer not unjust and «ruel 
tnen to rule over us, but do thou reign over us. Let us 
say, " The kingdoms of this world are become the king- 
doms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign 
for ever and ever." 

But the words are read otherwise, thus, in the old 
translation, where Beza's (the Geneva) notes are ; I 
am, where is your king that may save thee in all thy 
cities ? And I find most interpreters adopt this. 

So the Septuagint, Troii 6 jianiKtiiQ aov oirog, where 
is that your king. And the Chaldee paraphrase, where 
is your king that should save you in aU your cities ? 
The sense is much the same. 

As if he should say, I am the same God that ever I 
was, but where is your king that shouli^ save you in 
your cities? Oh may the words read so pierce the 
hearts of some, if ever they have had any acquaintance 
with God, and known what communion with God has 
meant, to hear but God say these words, " I am," I am 
the same God that ever you knew me to be : but where 
is your king that should save )-ou? And if, with 
Pareus, you read it as here, I will be, and there make 
the stop ; I wiU be, what he had' said „ . , 

r ' ' Pareus in loc. 

before, as a lion, a leopard, and as a oear 

bereaved of her whelps ; and then, where is your king 

that should save you ? 

This is God's name, in Exod. iii. 14, " I am that I 

who by laws are appointed to be a screen between the prince 
and people, such as Calvin's Instit. lib. iv. cap. 20. sect. 31, 
saith the three estates in parUament are. 



6(H 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIII. 



^: 



am," or, " I will be what I will be." So saith God here, 
1 am, I will be ; but then where is " thy king ? wlicre 
is any other that may save thee in all thy cities ? and thy 
judges of whom thou saidst.Give me a king and princes?" 
'Sly brethren, I am no i)roi)het, and have not the spirit 
of one to prophesy of things before, or order scripture 
when it should be preached on anc^when not ; I am, 
you see, pursuing my ordinary course, and meeting 
with this scripture, am bound (according to my ability) 
to demonstrate to you wherein its force lies. I hope 
yom- consciences will witness that there shall not be the 
least straining of it, but that I endeavour to give you 
the story, and the temper of the people at this time. It 
appears plainly that there were three things that they 
much rested upon : 1. The king. 2. The city. 3. The 
nobles. Put king, and city, and nobles together, and 
who can prevail against us ? Saith God, " AVhere is thy 
king ? where is any other that may save thee in all thy 
cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst. Give me a 
king and princes?" These three they put together. If 
our king come to the cities he will have a party and 
strength there, and we know the cities are able to com- 
mand all the country and kingdom. The militia, and 
a numerous comi)any of men and riches, are congre- 
gated in the cities, and therefore the king, together 
w ith them, and the princes, the nobles of the land who 
favour him, these all surely render our condition safe ; 
and yet in the midst of all these God asks them, by 
way of derision and insultation, " 'Where is thy king ? 
where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities ? " 
The notes from the words are, 

Obs. '2. The tilings that carnal hearts rest U))on will 
vanish. Where are they ? saith God ; what is become 
of them ? You \\:ould encourage one another, and say. 
Come, we shall have a day yet, for we have this 
strength, and tlie king and nobles for us. Where are 
they ? Those things on which carnal hearts rest will 
vanish and come to nothing. 

06s. 3. God loves to insult over men in their carnal 
confidences. For so, he doth not say here. Your king 
shall not save you, nor your cities shall not save you, 
nor your princes and nobles shall not save you ; but, 
AVhere are they ? in a kind of irony : God loves to in- 
sult over the carnal confidences of men. And we find 
in Scripture many such passages, as in Deut. xxxii. 37, 
" And he shall say, AATiere ai'e their gods, thek rock in 
whom they trusted?" And in Isa. six. 12, " Where 
are they ? where are thy wise men ?" AATiat ! we have 
got statesmen, men versed in state affairs, we have them 
with us. But "where are they?" saith God. Thus 
the Lord insults over men that put their confidence in 
the flesh, and especially when they have been confident 
in their own ways, forsaking God, and so bringing 
themselves to misery ; when tlicy have brouglit them- 
selves to misery by forsaking the ways of God, then 
God insults. Now where arc these things in which you 
so confided ? 

And h'uly, even the saints, so be it they do it in a 
holy, humble way, may ha\e some kind of triumph 
over ungodly men ; only as so much carnality still ad- 
lieres to them, there is danger, they liad need keep 
their hearts very low ; but if they do it in the strength 
of God, we have it in Scrijiture, " The virgin, the 
daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee 
to scorn." Only keep your hearts (I say) low, and you 
way come to sec the glory of God, and then triumph in 
.his, that God has heard your prayer, and has been with 
his people ; and that though the enemy has had so 
much power and strength in the flesh, yet the Lord has 
disappointed them. 

<)h.i. 4. It will greatly confound carnal hearts, when 
they shall be asked, Where is their confidence ? They 
Kl\all be found speechless. AVhcn they shall be asked, 
AVhere is your bravery, and pride, and the stoutness of 



your hearts ? they shall be able to say nothing. Oh ! 
this will pour confusion and shame upon them. Cer- 
tainly, ere long, all carnal heai-ts that make their boast 
in the pomp and glory of the world shall be greatly 
confounded. 

"AA'here?" I say, this confounding " where " will 
be asked of every wicked and ungodly man : what will 
they be able to say then ? In Judg. ix. 28, we read of 
one " Gaal the son of Ebed," who said, " If'lio is Abi- 
melech?" but in ver. 38, when Abimelcch came with 
strength against him, Zcbul said to him, " AVhere is 
now thy mouth, m herewith thou saidst, AVho is Abime- 
lcch, that we should serve him ?" AATien men are in 
their ])ride and bravery, then tliev scorn at God and 
men, they little regard any thing ttat is said to them; 
but when God brings them. down low, then where is 
that mouth of thine that did so boast, and speak so 
proudly ? 

Jly brethren, let us learn from hence, therefore, to 
seek after, and rest upon, those things of which we may 
be able always to give an account where they are, if it 
should be asked us. The saints, if it should be asked 
them, AA'here is their God ? can answer. It is the God 
of heaven that we have trusted in, the God that is in 
the highest heavens, and in the hearts of the saints ; we 
can tell where our God is. It is just with God that 
wicked men should be insulted over, because they in- 
sult over the saints : if God do but seem to absent 
himself from his people, they will presently triumph 
over them, sajiug. Yea, where is your God ? where are 
your prayers and fastings ? Have not some of you 
heard such language many times in this kingdom ? 
The saints of God can always give an answer to this 
"AVhere?" they can tell where their fastings and 
prayers are : but the wicked are not able to tell what 
is become of their confidences and boastings. 

Therefore, O you saints of God, never be afraid of 
evil men, for ere long it will be demanded of them, 
where their ])onip, and glory, and pride are, and they 
will not be able to answer. 

" And thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a 
king and princes." 

By judges, sometimes kings are meant, 
as Amos ii. 3, " I will cut off the judge re^!r?c5piant.''«t 
from the midst thereof;" (he speaks, saith *JSnj<ii»iS*'"" 
Drusius, of the king of Moab:) but we mwijoiuL i>rcgc 

, - , c , . , , , MuKU loquitur. 

are to understand here their nobles and 
g:cat men, upon whom they relied, for so they are 
called in Scripture. They had indeed judges before that 
time, when they said, " Give me a king and princes ;" 
they had judges, but they were of meaner rank in com- 
parison of those they had after : they had judges that 
by God's appointment governed them, but they were 
too mean for them ; no, they must have a king, they 
must have princes, they must have judges that are kings 
and princes, great men, for these that they had to rule 
over them were but of their own rank, and this would 
not satisfy them, they must have such as were great 
ones, high above them : those were but ordinary men ; 
what were they but the commons, of the same rank with 
other men, raised up but a little while ago from the 
grade of ordinary men ? and why should we be ruled 
and governed by them ? No, we must have a king, 
and nobles, and they must govern us : " Give me a king 
and princes." Kead but the story of the judges, and 
you shall find that God had evermore appeared with 
them, I do not remember any one of them who pre- 
vailed not when God raised him up : but now this 
peojjle regard them not ; why ? because they were but 
mean men of their own rank, though God did assist 
and prosper them so exceedingly. 

Obs. 5. Though God be much with men, yet if they 
be of a low rank, carnal hearts regard them not. Let 
them do never so great services, and be never so instru- , 






Ver. 10. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



5C5 



mental for the kingdom, even those that have had tlieir 
estates, then- liberties, and all preserved by them, and 
by the mighty spirit that God has put into them, yet, 
vvlien the work is over, they look upon them but as 
mean, ordinary men, men of a common rank, and so let 
them go : after all the great things that God has done 
by them, still their thoughts and minds are upon others 
that are above them, upon princes, and nobles, and 
such men ; they regard and rely more upon men in 
whom they see outward pomp and glory, than upon 
those who have evidently the presence of God with 
them. Oh, we see that that which has been is still to 
this very day. 

" Of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes." 

Where did they say so ? They said so in 1 Sam. viii. 
5, " Make us a king to judge us like all the nations." 
Indeed the word " princes " we do not find there, but 
here the Holy Ghost adds, "and princes;" but that 
must of necessity be supposed, for if there be a king, a 
king must have his court and nobles about him, and, as 
a fountain of honour, confer honour on the great men 
about him ; so that though princes be not named there, 
)'et the Holy Ghost supplies them as a thing that must 
of necessity be understood; Come, let us be governed 
by a king and the great ones attendant on him. But 
you will ask me, 

AVhat is the reason that nothing would satisfy them 
but a king and nobles ? 

If you read 1 Sam. viii., you will find that they were 
almost mad upon it, a king they must have, and would 
have. Oh ! it was very grievous to Samuel's spirit : he 
told them tlieir great sin, and the Lord said, " They have 
not rejected thee, but they have rejected me." Samuel 
told them what God said, and God bade Samuel tell 
them what a king they should have, that he would op- 
press them extremely, exercise arbitrary government 
to the full, take away their servants and children, and 
do with them what he pleases ; You will be brought to 
be his slaves, any parasite at court may easily get your 
estates ; you shall be accounted an offender for a word, 
and fined at pleasure ; you shall be in most miserable 
bondage, if you have a king. But now after Samuel 
had told them all this, " Nay," say they, " but we will 
have a king." If any one should come and reason. 
Why do you desire a king so much ? what will you get 
by it ? do not you think that he will have your estates, 
your liberties, and all you possess, at his disposal ? no 
one could deny this, they did not deny the least word 
that Samuel said, but they held their conclusion, "Nay, 
but we will have a king." What sliould make them 
thus ? These seven reasons may be given for it. 

1. For novelty's sake. They had tried other kinds of 
government before, but now they would have some- 
what more. Men's spirits ar6 very much given to change, 
though they can give no rational account why they 
desire it. 

2. They might entertain some disti-ust of their former 
judges ; because they were men of meaner rank, they 
might think that they should not be able to help them ; 
Let us, say they, have a king that shall go before us in 
our wars. Though the)' had never so much experience 
of the judges, yet they thought there would be more 
good if they had great ones, and they were afraid tliat 
these men of a lower, meaner rank would fail them 
at last. 

3. They might desire to be like other nations, be- 
cause they loved pomp. What ! say they, shall we see 
our neighbouring nations governed by those who have 
great pomp and glory, and siiall we be governed by 
men that were but tradesmen a while ago ? No, they 
would be like other nations. 

4. Perhaps they had experienced some oppressions 
from the former judges. Though most of them were 
good, yet certainly there can be no human government 



but will afibrd some cause at one time or other for some 
to complain. Take the best government that can be 
in the world, yet, seeing it is a government of men and 
administered "by men, there will be some cause or other 
at some period for complaint. Now this is the peevish- 
ness of men's hearts, that if there be but any condition 
wheVein they suffer, they do nothing but complain of 
their suffering, and desire a change ; and they never 
think of the inconveniences and sufferings that may 
result. They would be rid of these to whom they were 
now subject, and would have a king. Tliese men angered 
them, laid on them some odious taxes; now, so be it 
they might get rid of them, they care not what they 
bring upon themselves; and therefore, "Nay, but we 
will iiave a king." 

5. Out of a spirit of opposition against the way of 
God's appointment. God was their Governor, and their 
hearts rose against his rule, through a mere spirit of 
opposition, though they could give no reason why they 
might not be as well under it as any other : but it was 
God's way, and there is an opposition in the heart of 
man to any thing that has God in it. 

6. They had some ho])es that they should have more 
liberty for their lusts. Now, in their present form of 
government, there was more inspection over them, and 
they could not so easily corrupt their rulers ; but in a 
merely human government, if they could but make a 
friend of their ruler, they might do what they list ; if 
they would but consent to be a slave to him, they might 
make all their neighbours slaves to them : they had 
probably a great deal more hopes of licence for their 
lusts in this than their jn'esent government. 

7. jMany of them had hopes to get preferment this 
way. Let us have a king and princes, and we shall so 
get preferments and places in the court, therefore we 
will not be satisfied with any other way but this ; we 
live in a mean, low condition without this, but we shall 
get preferments by the change, therefore give us a king. 

But now this is observable, Though they thought 
they had a great deal of reason for themsehcs, yet after 
they had once smarted, and found indeed that there 
was upon them, after they had these kings and princes, 
more oppression than ever they were under in their 
lives ; now was a time that Hosea could speak freely to 
them, and say in the name of God, Where is your 
king, and those men for whom you were so earnest ? 
what good have you got ? For it is observable, though 
they were never so eager upon having a king, yet, if 
you read the story in Samuel, when God did but 
thunder from heaven, then they exclaimed, "We have 
sinned." ^\'hen they Were under oppression, then Hosea 
could speak freely and plainly to them, Where is your 
king? and where are these men? 

Obs. G. Men will not hear so long as they do not 
suffer. If men be once bent upon a certain course, and 
have their estates about them, and countenance from 
great ones, speak what you will against their way, they 
will not hear you ; but let these men smart, and find 
by experience 'the evil of their course, then you may 
speak to them and say. Do you think now that was 
wisely done, for which you were so eager ? do you think 
vou dealt well for yourselves ? Oli then they will be 
ready to say, I confess I did not think so seriously of 
those things before, I looked only upon that which 
appeared good for the jiresent, and now after-wit is 
bought, although it be dear, I see cause to repent. 

]\iy brethren, surely kings and nobles are great 
blessings of God when they are good. Y'ou see I have 
not in the least strained the place, but held forth to you 
its true scope. Let none go away and say, that I 
inveighed against kings, or nobles ; certainly in them- 
selves they are great blessings of God, and we must 
acknowledge it fitting to have a difi'erence between 
man and man. 



€66 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIII. 



It is a slander that is upon a sort of people, as if 
they would have all things to lie level, and one to have 
as much honour as the other. God forbid we should 
have such a thought : let us give honour to those whom 
God would have honoured, and never envy nor grudge 
at their honour : if God pleases to send those that are 
good, I say, they may be great instruments of great 
blessings of God to us. But now mark the very next 
words that follow in the 11th verse. They would have 
a king. 

Ver. 11. / gave Ihee a king in mine anger, and look 
him away in my wrath. 

They were ready to say. Why do you thus blame us 
for our eager desire ? did not God approve of it ? 
God himself was content we should have one ; God 
himself chose our first king, Saul, and appointed Samuel 
to anoint him. And if you understand it of tUe other 
king, Jeroboam, for so interpreters go, they might say. 
And Jeroboam also ; did not God foretell by the pro- 
phet, that Jeroboam should have ten tribes ? and did 
not the man of God tell us that this was from the Lord ? 
And therefore why should you so mucli upbraid us 
about our kings ? it is the mind and will of God that 
we should have them. 

The answer of the prophet is : True, God did give 
you a king, and appointed Samuel to anoint him, and 
foretold that Jeroboam should be king over the ten 
tribes : yea, but it was in his anger : he gave you one 
indeed, but it was in his anger. You were so set upon 
it, that you would have one ; If you will, take him, 
saith God, and take- him with all that shall follow 
.,.. . ., after: so that it was (as one speaks) 
quam lib ciorato rather irom an angrj' God, tlian irom an 
°°' entreated God. 

" I gave thee a king in mine anger." Saul and 
Jeroboam were given in anger, those primarily, as 
a punishment of tlieir sin : Saul as a punishment of 
their sin in rejecting Samuel, and in their disobedience 
to Samuel, and the way of government that they had 
then. And Jeroboam was given as a punishment of 
their sin of idolatry, that was committed in Solomon's 
time (as also of their rebellion and apostacy) : and yet 
it is said that God did it. 

06.?. 1 . God may have a hand in things wherein men 
sin exceedingly. They sinned in getting a king, they 
sinned exceedingly in setting up Jeroboam, and yet 
God has such a hand in it, that he saith, I gave them 
these things. Calvin, (and I the rather cite liis words 
here, Ijccause the adversaries would cast that aspersion 
on him, that he held that God was the author of sin,) 
on this very place, saith,* From this place we learn, 
that God does so exercise his judgments, that whatso- 
ever evil there is, it is to be ascribed to men; whatso- 
ever good, to himself: God seems to direct this work 
wholly to his own providence. From hence let us learn 
soberly to admire the secret judgments of God ; neither 
let uS imitate those impure dogs : impure dogs ! what 
are they that do therefore grin and bark at God, be- 
cause they cannot understand how God doth use wicked 
men ? because they understand not this, they conclude 
lliat God is the cause of sin. lie calls them the im- 
pure dogs, because they understand not how God dotli 
work in making use of wicked men, that God is the 
author and cause of sin. His spirit was mucli against 
this, and therefore it was an extreme slander upon him, 
as if he should hold such an opinion. That is the first. 
God may have a hand in things wherein men sin ex- 
tremely, and yet he remain holy. 

• Kx hoc loco (lisciin\is, Dcuin sic exercore sua juclici,i, iit 
ii"icqiiiil mali est, <lol>cat hominibus ascribi : Ucus viilf lur 
hue totuin tliri^'nrr sii.i proviiliMitia. discaimis adniirari subrio 
arciiitt Uci judicia, neiiuc iaiitomur irapuros istiis cam's qui 



Obs. 2. Things that are very evil, may yet have pre- 
sent success, it was a veiT evil thing for them to de- 
sire a king at tliis time, and likewise for the people to 
rend from the house of David, yet both of them suc- 
ceeded according to their desire. Let us then learn 
never to judge of the goodness of a thing by its success. 
Say some, I warrant you we will have this ; and if they 
get what they desire, they think God approves of it': 
they may desire a thing, and be set upon it, and tliough 
much be said to the contrary, yet they may drive on 
theii- designs, and prosper in it ; but this is no argu- 
ment that God owns it as good: never judge of things 
by success. 

Obs. 3. God's gifts are not always in love. " I gave 
thee a king," saith he, but " in mine anger." God's 
gifts are not always in love; no, they are in anger 
many times. Read but Numb. xi. 18 — 20, you shall 
find there God giving people their desires. He lets 
them have them, but how ? " Say thou unto the people. 
Sanctify yourselves against to-morrow, and je shall cat 
flesh : for ye have wept in the ears of the Lord, sa\ing, 
Who shall give us flesh to eat ? for it was well with us 
in Egypt : therefore the Lord will give you flesh." You 
have wejit and cried, saying, " ^Mio shall give us flesh ?' 
" The Lord will give you flesh ; " and " ye shall not eat 
one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten davs. 
nor twenty days; but even a whole month, untif it 
come out at your nostrils ; " you shall have enough of 
it, even till "it be loathsome unto you:" why? "be- 
cause that ye have despised the Lord which is among 
you." The Lord gave them their desires, because they 
had despised him. So you are ready to bless vour- 
selves that you have what you would have, and think 
that therefore God regards you, whereas God give-; 
you what you desire because you have sinned against 
him ; if he were not angry with you, he would not give 
it. Saith Augustine, God many times in Dj„d„i„^|„„ „, 
giving is angry, in denying is merciful, ■famio mu<rciu'r. 
It is because he is angry that he gives "^'" ' 
you such things as you would have. So in Psal. 
ixxviii. 29 — 31, God gives them flesh according to 
then- desires, but " while their meat was yet in tlieir 
mouths, the wrath of God came upon them." If wo j 
had time a little to open this most excellent point, it 
might quiet our desires ; for we might endeavour to 
speak of the several ways of God's giving, that, by 
comparing one thing with another, we might learn to 
distinguish whether a thing be given in love or in 
anger, come to know how much is in it of God's loving- 
kindness. 

But only now let me leave this with you about it, 
Take heed of immoderate desires for any worldly thing: 
take heed of saying. I nnist, and I will, and I will have 
it ; whenever you find your hearts strongly risuig to a 
thing, then be afraid, be afraid of having it, as much 
as you were of having any thing in your lives. No one 
can have any comfort in any thing as coming from 
God's love, until they can first quiet their hearts, and 
be willing to be at God's disposal, be willing to be 
without it ; that is one main sign of God's giving in 
anger, or in love. AVhen anv find an eager desire after 
a thing. Oh it is verj- suitable to such and such a pur- 
pose ; yea, but now if I can go alone and consider that 
God is wiser than I, and knows what is best for me ; if 
I can labour to work my heart to this. Lord, if it be 
good for me, then I desire it ; but if thou seest i". 
would not be good, then Lord, here I am, do with mr 
what seems good in thine eyes; as David did: surely 
nature could not but work strongly in his case, when 
leaving the holy city, yet he saitl, " If I shall fin<l 

i>bs;aniunt, quia non possunt agnoscere quomodo Deus utatiir 
diiuu iinprobis hnmmibus, quia hoc non pereipiunt, con- 
cliidiiut Douuuum esse causa peccati. Calv. in loc. 



Vee. 11. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



567 



favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again, 
and show me both it. and bis habitation : but 3' he 
thus say. I have no delight in thee ; behold, here am I, 
let him do to me as seemeth good unto him," 2 Sam. 
XV. '2), 26. Yea, this was a trial indeed, and doubtless 
this temper of David's heart in his affliction was tlie 
thing that gave him so mucli enlargement to praise 
God. when he returned to the ark and eity again. Had 
David vented himself in impatient complainings ; What ! 
must I go from the city of Jerusalem ? how doth God 
deal with me ! I am resolved I will return to Jerusa- 
lem and take possession of the city, whatsoever comes 
of it, though it even cost me my life ; perhaps David 
might have gotten thither, but there would not have 
been so much love of God in it, as when he could give 
up himself to God's disposal. And so, if this people 
could have said thus. True, Lord, thou art our King, 
but we are despised because we are governed by men 
of such mean quality : and the truth is, God had pro- 
raised them a king also, and therefore it was not such 
an evil thing to desii'e a king, the evil lay in the eager- 
ness of their desu'e, they would have him now : if they 
had been but quiet, and said, Lord, thou dost tell us 
in thy word of a king that we shall have. Lord, fulfil 
this thy word, and for the present we are content to 
submit to thee, as long as thou thinkest fit ; now, it 
may be, God would have given them a king then, or 
presently after, and so they might have had a holy and 
gracious king ; but they must have him now, and so 
they had him with the anger of God. You remember 
the words of Rachel to Jacob, " Give me children, or 
else I die." She had a child and died ; though it was 
not in God's anger as an enemy, yet it was a fatherly an- 
ger. O think but of this, you women that are so desirous 
of children, or any outward blessing. You, too, who are 
desirous of altering your condition, as in marriage, and 
must needs have such a one, although you beg yoiu- 
bread all your days, and although parents are against 
it, and you cannot, even yourselves, discern evi- 
dences of grace. Now, saith God, you shall have it, 
you shall join together, and you shall work your own 
misery by this eagerness of your spirit. brethren, 
let us learn to be moderate in our desires, and commit 
them with our hearts to God. 

" I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him 
away in my wrath." 

I liave observed before that God's gifts are not always 
in love, and now, because it is an important point, there 
are two things which I desu-e to do very briefly. 

I. To show )"ou, how a man may know that what 
God gives him is given in anger, and not in love. 

II. To draw some corollaries from the foregoing. 

I. How we may" know that what God gives is in an- 
ger, and not in love. It is a very hard thing to con- 
vince men, if they have their desires satisfied, that it is 
rather from anger than love. Men are so well pleased with 
the satisfying of their desires, that they can very hardly 
be convinced^ but that God intends good to them in it ; 
and therefore you shall find, in 1 Sam. xii. 17, that God 
was fain to do one of his great and wonderful works to 
convince this people that the king whom he gave them 
there was given in anger rather than in love : " Is it 
not wheat harvest to-day ? I will call unto the Lord, 
and he shall send thunder and rain ; that ye may per- 
ceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye 
have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking you a 
king." Samuel had before, in chap. viii.. told them of 
their sin in asking a king, but they would not be con- 
vinced ; " Nay," say they, " but we will have a king 
over us." Now saith Samuel, It is wheat harvest; and 
whereas it was a strange and wonderful thing for the 
Jews to have rain then, but though it be harvest time, 
yet it shall rain and thunder ; and all to the end that 
you may be convinced of your great wickedness in ask- 



ing you a king. They had not only had their desires 
granted before this time, but, as they thought, had them, 
in some wise, confii'med ; for Saul had prospered after he 
had been a king : but yet for all that, (saith he,) I 
will give you an evident demonstration, that it is not 
in love that you have him, but it was your gi-eat wick- 
edness in seeking you a king. " So Samuel called un- 
to the Lord ; and the Lord sent thunder and rain that 
day." And then, in ver. 19, " All the people said unto 
Samuel, Pray' for thy serv.ant.s unto the Lord thy God, 
that we die not : for we have added unto all our siits 
this evil, to ask us a king :" now we do acknowledge it 
to be a very great and sore evil indeed, tlAugh our 
king has prospered a while, yet God shows us now that 
it is an evil. And by this you may see that it is hard 
for men to be convinced, when they have according to 
their hearts' desires, that it is in anger rather than in 
love. 

But to give you some notes, whereby you may be 
helped to see, whether what you have granted by God 
according to your desires be in anger or love : 

1. When you desire a gift, rather than God in it. 
When your desires are for the gift rather than the 
Giver, you can have no comfort that there is love in it. 
There is no man that has to deal with another, if he 
knows that what he does deske from him, it is not.out 
of love to him, but merely from the love of the gift, 
certainly, though he may give him for some other ends, 
yet he does not give it out of love. Those desires that 
are not out of love, are not satisfied from love. Love 
satisfies no desires that are not raised by love ; love acts 
always upon love. Now God knows what the ground 
of our desu-es is ; if we desire the gift rather than the 
Giver, rather than God in it, we can have no comfort 
that our enjojTnents proceed from love. Whatsoever 
a gracious heart would have from God, yet this is the 
main thing in its desires. Oh, let me have God in them! 
such is my condition in this world, that God appoints 
that I shall not enjoy him immediately altogether, but 
I shall enjoy him through such and such mercies, oh 
then that I might have these mercies, that I might en- 
joy him ui them ! Certainly any thing that thou hast 
in satisfaction of such desires is out of love ; but when 
thou lookest no further than the creature, wouldst 
have the thiug. but lookest not at God in it, thou canst 
not expect the love of God to be conveyed by it. 

2. When our desires are immoderate and violent. 
This was just the case of this people here : "Nay, but we 
will have a king over us," we must needs have him ; 
whatsoever comes of it, we will have him. 'Wlien God 
satisfies the desires of his people in his love, he first 
quiets their hearts, bringing them into a sweet and 
blessed moderation ; but when men's hearts are so 
violent, that the thing they desire they must have, God 
many times saith. You shall have it then, take it: but 
then he speaks not in love, that is very remarkable : 
Numb. xi. and Psal. Ixxviii. 29 — 31, and other passages, 
confirm this point. But I would further remark of that 
Psalm, that the Lord, after ho had showed that he did 
not answer their desii'es in love, but in wrath, then, in 
ver. 31, saith, after the judgments of God had come 
upon them in the satisfying of their desires, tliat many 
of them were slain by God; and the parallel passage 
referred to in Numbers saith, " He called the name of 
that place Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried 
the people that lusted;" that is. The sepulchres of the 
lusts of their desu'es : God sets a brand upon that place, 
Here, saitli he, ai'e the graves of the desirers ; they 
must needs have flesh, and they stood upon their de- 
sires, their desires must be satisfied ; and here are the 
graves of the desirers, saith God. O remember, you 
that lust after evil things, remember when your desires 
are immoderate and violent, it is just with God to set a 
brand by some remarkable hand of his against you, and 



5G» 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIII. 



say, llore is tlie mark of these desires that were so im- 
moderate and so violent. 

3. When God grants men their desires before the 
due time. They liave vhat they would have, but they 
have it not in God's time. Children long with desire 
after green fruit, but if they could stay but a few weeks 
or months, one apple then would be worth a hundred 
when they are green ; but they cannot stay, they must 
have the fruit when it is green ; they have it, but it 
does them no good. So when we have our desires satis- 
fied before the due time, it i)roceeds not from love. 
God had promised that Israel should have a king in 
due time, that there should come kings from the loins 
of Abraham ; and in Deut. xvii. 14, there is a prophecy 
of the king they should have : yea, but they would not 
stay God's time, and therefore he was given not out of 
love. Psal. cvi. 13, it is said of those that did so lust 
that God gave them their lusts in his wrath, "they 
waited not for his counsel." That is noted there. Oh, we 
should be willing to wait for God's counsel. '\\^e would 
have the thing presently done ; yea, but God's counsel 
works one thing after another, in mutual dependence, 
and we should be willing to wait for his counsel : if we 
will not mind God's counsel, but must have our desires 
satisfied, and that now, we cannot expect love in 
them, but rather wrath : he gives unto them in his 
anger. 

4. "VMien God grants us what we would have, but 
without the blessing. He grants the thing, but takes 
away the blessing of the thing, he takes away the com- 
fort and satisfaction of it; " They shall eat, but they 
shall not be satisfied." So in Psal. cvi. 15, " He gave 
them their request, but sent leanness into their soul : " 
this is a similitude transferred from the body to the soul. 
iMcn may often have a dog's appetite, (as the physicians 
call it,) that is, a mighty greedy stomach, but they can- 
not digest what they eat, and so the body is lean ; so 
here, they had a mighty desire, but as in the body 
many limes there is such a disease that the meat turns 
not to nourishment, so in their souls, they had even 
that which their souls desired, yea, but their souls 
could not be satisfied. The body thrives not with what 
it eats when it has such a disease upon it ; so, though 
the soul virtually has what it desired, yet it had a dis- 
tem))er with it ; thus it could not be satisfied, nor thrive, 
nor prosper with what it had : " He sent leanness into 
their soul." How often arc we greedily desirous of 
certain things, and think, Oh how happy should I be if 
I had them ! It may be God lets you have your desires, 
but when he has he snatches away the comfort of it ; 
you shall have a well, but it shall have no bottom, you 
shall not be able to get out the good and comfort in 
what you have. Surely God is not in it, for the bless- 
ing of God maketh rich, and addeth no sorrow with it; 
no, it brings comfort. 

5. When that which we desire is merely to satisfy 
our lusts ; merely that we might have our humours and 
lusts satisfied, that is aU. We do not desire such and 
such things that by them we may be fitted for the ser- 
vice of God, we cannot give an account why these and 
tliesc things .should hel]) us in the work of the Lord, 
but that we may go on as well without them ; but they 
are suitable to our lusts. Oh ! if God does give thee 
any thing to satisfy thy lusts, certainly he gives it in 
Ills wrath : as now, if a man have a disease in his body, 
and his enemy know what wUl feed his disease, he will 
gladly give it him that he may be the sooner dcs])atch- 
ed ; no faithful ])liysieian, no loving friend, will give to 
any that which will I'eed their disease, but will rather take 
it from them in love. Oh ! the Lord sees men's hearts set 
ujjon such and such lusts, and if certain things which 
lliey desire are granted them, their lusts will be fed by 
I'r.cm i They shall have them, saith God. It is as danger- 
ous a sign of reprobation as any thing, to give them 



that which shall be most suitable to .their lusts, that 
shall most harden them ; and on the other side, a token 
of the greatest love, when God shall take that from his 
childi'en which he knows will but feed their lusts. 
ISIany diseases are such, that the only way to cure them 
is to keep the jjatient on a short diet ; though they cry 
for food, and be very hungry, yet they must be kept 
very low ; why ? because the nature of the disease is 
sucli as will di'aw all nourishment to its own increase : 
and so God is fain to do with his own people, when he 
sees them sick of a disease which will naturally draw 
to its centre all the nourishment afl'ordcd. 

6. When men are so eager that they care not whe- 
ther the gift comes from a reconciled or a i)rovoked 
God ; it is all one to them : Let me have it ; but whether 
it comes from God reconciled, or God provoked, they 
little care. In Numb. xi. is the notable story before re- 
ferred to, of God's satisfying desires in his wrath. In 
the beginning of the chajiter God is veiy much ])ro- 
voked with the people : " M'hen the people complained, 
it displeased the Lord : and the Lord heard it ; and his 
anger was kindled ; and the fire of the Lord burnt 
among them, and consumed them that were in the utter- 
most parts of the camp. And the people cried unto 
Moses," and so the judgment was removed from them. 
But then, presently after, they fell to murmuring befoi'e 
ever any thing was done to reconcile God and their 
souls together. You do not read of any work of hu- 
miliation to seek reconciliation with God, between the 
time in which God manifested his sore displeasure 
against them, and that in which he satisfied their desires ; 
no, they looked not at that, let them only have their 
desires ; hence it came to be that their desires were 
satisfied in wrath. 

Does thy conscience tell thee that there has been a 
time wherein God has been displeased with thee, and 
his anger has burst out against thee ? Perhaps thou 
art in a better condition now than thou wast before ; 
O, but tell me, hast thou humbled thy soul before God 
to make up thy peace with him ? Has there been a 
day of atonement between God and thy soul ? Has 
God's displeasure been out against thee, and now does 
he come and satisfy thee in what thou dost desire, be- 
fore any thing has been done in falling down before 
him and seeking his face, and making peace ? Thou 
canst not have comfort in this. Thy desires are satisfied 
rather in wrath than in mercy. 

7. AVlien God regards not our preparation for a 
mercy. Carnal heai'ts take no gi-eat care themselves 
of it, Let me have it, say they, our fitness matters not. 
It is your sin and wickedness not to regard the pre- 
paration of your hearts for what you have ; and it is 
God's judgment to give it to you before you be pre- 
pared. A gracious heart, when it would have a mercy, 
is as careful to get the heart prejiared for the mercy, as 
to obtain it. Those things would indeed suit me, but 
is my heart fit for such a deliverance ? is my heart fit 
for such mercies? If it be thy care to prepare thy 
lieart when thou art labouring for the mercy, surely, 
when it comes, it must be sweet indeed ; but when 
there is no preparation before, thou canst not know 
that it is in love. AVe little think that we have need 
of preparation for mercies. If indeed God should 
threaten some judgment, we would think that we had 
need be prepared ; but certainly there is as gi'cat need 
for preparation for mercies, to be able to make good 
use of them, as for afllictions, to be able to bear tliem. 
This I have likewise from Numb. xi. 18 ; it is said, " And 
say thou unto the people. Sanctify yourselves against 
to-morrow." There is a charge that they should sanctify 
themselves against to-morrow, for God would give 
them flesh. I do not find that thev did do it, but \Apn 
God promised to give them flesh, )ic bid them sanctify 
themselves ; as if he should say, If that your desires 1 



Ver. U. 



THE PROPHECY OP HOSEA. 



5G9 



cfme liefore you have sanctified yourselves, it will be 
i;i wrath, not in mercy. O, therefore, when earnest 
to have your desires satisfied think thus, Tlie Lord 
charges thee to sanctify thyself ; do I take care of 
this V do I make it my endeavour to sanctify myself 
before the mercy comes ? Then thou mayst have com- 
fort in it, and not otherwise. 

8. "WTien we rest on the means we use, and seek not 
God by prayer. AVhatevcr we enjoy that we get not by 
prayer before, or sanctified by prayer after, we cannot 
know that it proceeds from "love. " Thou preventest 
him," saith David, Psal. xxi. 3, " with tlie blessings of 
goodness." God sometimes acts so towards his saints, 
but generally, when he intends a mercy from love, he 
first fills the' heart with the spirit of prayer ; when a 
mercy comes after much prayer, then it is surely a 
mercy from love. When the saints have been praying, 
and then God has come in with mercy, oh then they 
have gathered arguments of God's love to them ; This I 
had because I sought thee : as Hannah did concerning 
Samuel : how did she rejoice in Samuel ! " For this child 
I prayed," saith Hannah unto Eli ; oh this is the mercy 
that I prayed for ; therefore she called her child's name 
Samuel, one " asked of the Lord." And so wlien we 
can call every gift we have, Samuel, that is, a gift 
asked of God, a gift gotten by prayer, this is an argu- 
ment of love. But otherwise we can have no assurance 
that it is from love. True, a king was not unlawful for 
them to desire, because they had such intimations in 
Scripture ; but they acted not so much out of regard to 
them ; no, they come to Samuel, and say, " Give us a 
king ;" we do not read that they go to God for it. Such 
a great change of their state as that was, one would 
tliink, should have required divers days in seeking of 
God. It was a mighty change, to a new kind of govern- 
ment, from one that was offeod's own appointment, to a 
form of government similar to that of the surrounding 
nations. Yet we find no days of prayer for this great 
change, and therefore it was in wrath that they had it. 
Therefore when you would have any thing, look not 
so much to come by it according to second causes, but 
be much in prayer, according to the excellency of the 
thing for which you seek. 

9. A\'Tien God gives our desires, but not a sanctified 
use of them. When God gives you the shell, but not the 
kernel, surely it is not in love. If your children should 
ask a nut of you, and you give them a nut that has 
no kernel, they will not think (if so be that you knew 
it) that it is in any great love. Truly, all the good 
things that wicked men have, they are but shells with- 
out kernels, they are not in love. The kernel of every 
blessing is a proportionable measure of grace to use it 
for God. You have a great desire that God should 
change your condition ; if he should, and not give you 
a heart fit for that, you had better be without the 
change. You have a desire that God should prosper 
you in such a business ; yea, but if he does not teach 
you how to abound, you had been better never to have 
abounded. Now it is not in love for God to give any 
success, except he gives a measure of grace propor- 
tioned to the success ; therefore this you should all ex- 
amine ; The Lord has altered my condition, and many 
good things I have more than before ; but what graces 
have I more than before? what exercise of grace, 
what work of grace, more than before ? Certainly if it 
be in love it will be so. 

10. When a secret curse attends what we have. If 
so be that a man should be very hungry, and have a 
mighty desire to satisfy himself, and he falls greedily 
upon his meat and eats it, but as soon as he has eaten 
it his body swells to an enormous size, surely he be- 
gins to think then that aU is not well. Lord have 
mercy upon me, saith he, afraid that he is poison- 
<'d. So God gives you your desire, and as soon as 



you have it you begin to swell, you are bigger than 
you were before, your hearts are proud, and you can 
look scornfully upon others ; oh, you are poisoned ; this 
is an ill satisfying of your hunger, you are poisoned 
surely in this. In Isa. x. 16, you have a notable ex- 
pression to this purpose ; " Therefore shall the Lord, the 
Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness ; and 
under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the 
bm-ning of a fire." Even such things wherein there 
appears to be a great deal of glory, such things per- 
haps as when your desires are satisfied you can glory 
in ; oh you glory in such and such a mercy, such a good 
thing you have above others; but under this glory 
there is a burning kindled, there is a great deal of the 
wrath of God in it, a secret curse attends it. 

11. AVhen we regard not what becomes of others, so 
we have our desires satisfied. And this is from their 
example here. Let us have a king. A king ! what shall 
become of Samuel then ? has not he judged you, and 
been faithful with you ? What ! will you show your- 
selves so ungrateful to him for all the good he has done 
to you, as to reject him, and his house, and family ? 
Oh, they cared not for that ; Let us have a king ; let 
what will become of Samuel and his house, what care 
they ? And so when men are greedy in theu- desires. 
Let us have such and such a thing, but care not what 
becomes of others, it is another note of desires not 
granted in love. 

12. When God, in satisfj'ing of our desii-es, makes 
way for some judgment. Now indeed the thing that 
we have is comfortable, but stay awhile, and you shall 
see there is some judgment approaching by that very 
thing which you receive ; and w-hen the judgment is 
come, afterwards you will see how the mercy made way 
for it: very great judgments many times befall men, 
that are made way for by the satisfying of their own 
desires. God has many ways to prepare a path for his 
anger, often by giving you your desires ; there is no- 
thing more ordinary in experience than this, and there- 
fore we need not stand upon it. If you will but ex- 
amine the course of your lives, sometimes you may see, 
that if God had satisfied your desires in such and such 
things, it would have made way for the greatest misery 
that ever you had in all your lives ; and when God de- 
nies sometimes to his people, they can confess, O Lord, 
I see that had I had my desu-es gratified, I had been 
undone. And on the other side, you will find that 
those things which you account the greatest mercies to 
you, do make way for tlie greatest evils ; surely, then, 
they were not given in love. 

13. \A'hen men are greedy of things to the disregard 
of the results ; when they would have their desires 
satisfied in a foolish way, never minding what incon- 
veniences may follow, but merely looking to their pre- 
sent comfort. Thus it was here ; they would have a 
king; Samuel came and told them all the incon- 
veniences that would follow upon it, how that they 
should have this affliction and the other ; You that are 
so desirous of him, if he pomes among you, he will 
bring you into slavery, your estates and your children 
shall be under his power, you will be in slavery to 
every courtier. Nay, but we will have a king for all 
this : they would needs change the way of government; 
Oh that we might have a king ! and they would be 
brought more under law than before ; for indeed in the 
time of the judges, you find that the people of Israel 
enjoyed a great deal of liberty, and obeyed the judges 
in a great measure voluntarily ; you thus find but two 
tribes that followed Barak and Deborah, and so of 
Jephthah, and Samson, those that " offered them- 
selves willingly among the people" followed them, Judg. 
V. ; and with Gideon those of Ephraim " did chide 
sharply," Judg. viii. 1 ; so much freedom there was in 
the time of the judges. Yea, but we will have a king. 



570 



AN EXPOSniOX OF 



Chap. XUI. 



and we will all then be tied to the same thing, and be 
under the same power, and so there will ensue fii'm 
union : we shall no longer act each according to his 
ovm will, but all shall come in and join under the same 
law, and so we shall go on unitedly. Certainly this 
was their reasoning in their desire of having a king. 
Now this kind of union among the people, doubtless, 
was very good, but they considered not what incon- 
veniences might result from their being thus chained to- 
gether. Prisoners that are chained at a post are to- 
gether all the day long ; but would you have such a 
kind of union, would you be united with such chains ? 
Consider, that with the union slavery may come upon 
you. But they did not consider any such things ; No 
matter, say they, come, let us all be joined in one, and 
let the same law be upon every one. But now, how 
this would bring them under bondage and slavery in 
those things they would be loth to be brought under in, 
they considered not at all. 

14. '\^^len men seek to have theii' desires satisfied 
merely because they love change. We cannot have 
any comfort that God's gifts proceed from love, when 
they are sought for out of a foolisli, inconstant spirit. 
They thought they had been long enough under judges, 
and in a mere desire of novelty, not knowing what 
might come of such a change, demanded a king. And 
so people, though there be never so much good in a 
way, yet out of a novelty they would fain have a 
change ; and if God gi'ant them a change when they 
have no other gi-ound but that for it, it is a sign that 
there is wrath in it, and not love. 

15. AVhen it is through impatience to submit to God 
in a former condition. It is ill when granted to gi-atify 
the appetite for novelty, but when given to impatience, 
then it is sure to be in wrath, and not in mercy. If 
your condition be changed, God has put you in a lower 
and meaner condition, it is true, it is lawful for you 
to desire a change ; yea, but if you desire it because 
you cannot submit to God's hand, and it is given to 
you, then it is a sign that it is given in wrath : but 
when you have brought your hearts to this. Lord, here 
I am, dispose of me as thou pleasest, I am content to 
lie under thy hand, but. Lord, I look up to thee for 
rnercy ; consider I am a poor weak creature, and it is 
fit that thou shouldst have thy will, and not I mine ; 
then if God make a change, you may have comfort that 
it is in mercy ; but if you have it through impatience, 
vou can have no comfort at all in it. It was just so 
here ; they could not bear the hand of God in any pre- 
sent trouble that they had upon them, and so thought 
to help themselves by having a king, and God gave 
them one, but it was in his anger. 

16. 'NAHien our desires of further mercies make us 
forget former mercies. They would have a king that 
might go before them, and fight for them. Fight for 
them ! did not God fight for them before ? Oh, wonder- 
ful and glorious battles thcv had when they were un- 
der their judges, wlicn they had Samuel to direct them, 
they never afterwards had more glorious victories than 
then : nay, you shall find in the whole story of the 
judges, that they did always prevail ; and their judges 
generally were good, and guided them in God's ways ; 
but the kings did not so, for the kings of Israel were 
none of them good, from the first to the last. O un- 
thankful wretches that they are, so eager to have an- 
other condition, never minding nor blessing God for 
what they had, forgetful of all the good tliey had re- 
ceived. Samuel could appeal to them, " Whose ox 
have I taken ? or whose ass have I taken ? or whom 
have I defrauded ? " 1 Sam. xii. 3. Ho had judged 
them righteously. But they forget all God's goodness 
and mercy towards them, and must change their con- 
dition. (), consider this, you that desire a change ; be 
not unthankful for what you have had; if you be S5 



eager to have more as to forget what you have had, 
if God should send you more your case is like ,to be 
worse than it is now. If one should take meat to eat 
before he has digested his previous food, because the 
new dishes brought to the table please his palate, this 
does not nourish him, but tiu-ns to evil humours, and so 
does him hurt ; but if he would stay till he has digest- 
ed what he has eaten before, then he might eat and be 
thereby nourished. You that would fain have more 
and more, have you digested what you have had ? are 
you thankful for former mercies? has God had the 
glory of what you have had before ? then, if God gives 
you any thing, you may have comfort to your souls that 
it comes out of love. 

17. 'VMien men desire new things out of distrust of 
God, and make such conclusions of unbelief; Sm-ely 
if God should not gi'ant such and such things unto 
them, then they are lost and undone, and there is no 
way in the woiid to help them. Their desires are ex- 
cited by distrust; whereas, (my brethren,) gracious 
desires are the fruit of faith, it is the prayer of faith 
that does good ; it is faith that inflames the gracious 
desires which are sent up to God, they are sent up by 
the strength of faith, and not the strength of unbelief. 
It is the strength of unbelief that makes the desii-es of 
people so strong as they are, as thus : These people 
desired a king ; why ? because they could not trust 
God to have but only judges as they had before. 
Samuel was an old man, and his sons were naught, and 
they see themselves in a hard condition ; yea, but now 
seeing God had not spoken to them about a new go- 
vernment, they should have had it from God, if at all, 
God should have chosen them one ; but they thought 
that they must have one to go before them in their 
battles, or else they would miscarry, and they saw the 
princes of the earth that they went before their sub- 
jects in their battles, and therefore they woidd be like 
unto them, and durst not trust God in that way in 
which they were before. And therefore it was in wrath 
that God gave them their desu'es. 

18. If, when God changes our condition, we bring the 
sins of our old condition into our new, we can have no 
assurance that the change proceeds from love. Our 
care should be, when our condition is changed, to ask, 
What were the sins of my former condition ? what were 
the sins of my afflicted, my low condition ? Let me 
take heed that I do not bring into my new state my 
former coreuptions. 

19. If we seek to attain our desires by unlawful means, 
certainly that is cursed. If God does let us prosper 
in ways that are unlawful in themselves, we cannot 
believe that what we enjoy proceeds from love, but 
from wrath. 

I have the more willingly enlarged on this point be- 
cause of its great usefulness. 

II. Now then, by way of coroUaiT, from all that has 
been said, let us learn, 

1. To take heed that we quiet ourselves in our de- 
sires. Be not too earnest in your desires. Remember 
that scripture, 1 Cor. x. 0, " Now these things were our 
examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil 
things, as they also lusted." It refers to their lusting 
for their quails, here called " lusting after evil things ;" 
though the things themselves were good, yet the manner 
of their lusting made them evil to them. These are 
for our example, that we should not lust so as they 
lusted. Wlien you read Numb. xi. and Psal. Ixxviii., 
and there find how they lusted after evil things, and 
how the wrath of God came upon them when they had 
their desires satisfied, remember that these things " are 
written for our admonition," 1 Cor. x. 11. And so 
when we read of their eager desires after a king, and 
what they met withal when tliey liad him, it should teach 
us so far to moderate our desires, as to labour to regu- 



i 



Ver. 11. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



571 



late tlicm by the word, and to subject them to the mind 
of the blessed God. 

2. To prepare our hearts for what we have, and to 
seek proportionable grace for any thing that we do de- 
sire. Treasure up this lesson. A^Hien thou wouldst 
have a mercy from God, O seek proportionable grace, 
and prepare thyself for the mercy. 

3. Not to be too much exalted when thou hast thy 
desii-es satisfied. Methinks this point might be as a 
prick, to prick the bladders of the pride of men's hearts. 
O, take heed, though you have prospered according 
to your desires. Saul prospered a great while, and yet 
it was in wrath. Certainly there is no great matter to 
be expected from such things as wo may have in God's 
wrath, and therefore no cause to be exalted. 

4. Never to di-aw any arguments of God's love, by 
our desires in outward things being satisfied. It is a 
vain conceit of people to think thus, God loves me ; 
why ? because I have desired such and such things, 
and God has given them to me. K a man were to go 
and choose a wife, and knew her face were painted, would 
he conclude, Surelj- here is one of an excellent com- 
plexion? No, he would leather suspect it. Truly it would 
be as just to infer that this woman's complexion, and the 
constitution of her body, are sound and good, as to con- 
clude that my condition is good because God satisfies 
my desires. 

5. Never to envy any men who have their lusts satis- 
fied. There is little cause that you should envy them. 
Were you to see a man that loves wine di-ink some 
which you knew to be poisonea, or a man witn a satm 
suit which you knew had the plague in it, there were 
no cause of envying either ; water, or a leather suit, 
were a great deal better. God satisfies men many 
times, but it is in wrath, and to prepare them for 
slaughter. 

6. To be content to wait patiently, and when our de- 
sires are denied. Oh, this is a point of very great use, to 
teach us patience when God denies us. Be patient and 
content when God denies you your desires, for you do 
not know what God may aim at in it. 

7. Not to rest in what you enjoy, but to seek to know 
the source from W'henoe it comes. And this I take to 
be as special a difference as any I know between a 
carnal and a gracious heart. A carnal heart thinks 
thus. If I have the thing, I care not for any more ; but 

;;vacious heart looks at the principle from whence it 
iiies, he loves to look at the root and som'ce. A 
.,:adener that owes the flowers, regards the root more 
than the flower a great deal ; but a stranger is more 
pleased with the flower than with the root. So carnal 
hearts look only at flow'ers, but gracious hearts look 
: the root. I have such and such a thing, but have I 
: evidence of God's love ? Look how high the head 
the fountain is, so high the water will go, and no 
^her. AVater will ascend as high as the place was 
: m whence it descended. And so eveiy mercy we 
luive will cany us as high as from whence it came. If 
from conmion, general bounty, it carries us to God but 
in a common, general way ; but if it comes in special 
'f ve through Christ, it carries us to God in Christ. 
S. To seek those gifts which God never grants to any 
it in love. There are some things of such a noble 
;d excellent nature, that God never grants them to 
ly but in love, they are precious things indeed. And 
■.is one consideration shows the difference, as much as 
any thing I know, between spiritual and temporal 
blessings. Temporal blessings, though they are in them- 
selves good, and attended with many sweet accommoda- 
^' ns, yet they arc of such a low nature, that many 
lies they come to men out of God's wrath ; the)' may 
iisist with wrath, yea, they may flow from wrath. 
I't spiritual blessings, the graces of God's Spirit, tliose 
iritual blessings wherewith we are blessed in Christ 



Jesus, are of such a nature that they can never come 
but from love, and out of love. From this you see, 
that a little grace is more worth than the enjo)-ment of 
all the world. God may give a man the empire of all the 
world, and he may do it in wrath, and the gift tend to 
the furtherance of wrath; but if you have but the least 
dram of grace, if you have but any spiritual knowledge 
of God in Christ, " this is life eternal :" " This is hfe 
eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, 
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent," John xvii. 3. 
Faith ; this is a precious gift. If thou hast any know- 
ledge of the Divine nature, it comes from the infinite 
ocean of eternal love, and will carry thee to the in- 
finite ocean of love. O, then, prize grace, seek after 
grace. 

You whose hearts have been so eager and desu-ous 
after outward things, turn now the stream of your de- 
sires. I have been eager after such and such things ; 
if I have them, yet I may have the wrath of Ciod with 
them, and what good will they do me then ? Oh, but 
I hear of things that are to be had, which I can never 
receive but in love, they are the privileges that come 
to the saints in Jesus Clmst. 

9. To bless God, if we know and find that what we 
have proceeds from love. You are to bless God for 
what you have ; but in that he has given you your 
desires, and given them out of love too, here God 
blesses his blessings, and your blessings should be 
double, treble, seven, a hundredfold. 'The Lord has 
delivered me from such an affliction, and I find it is in 
^ovc. As Hezekiah could say, when he " was recovered 
of his sickness," " Thou hast in love to my soul de- 
livered it from the pit of corruption," Isa. xxxviii. 17 ; 
so I make no question but many of the people of God, 
even many of you that are before him this" day, are 
able to say. Well, from the observations which I have 
heard this day upon this point, thus- opened, I can say, 
to the glory of God, Out of love to my soul has he 
delivered me out of such an affliction, from such a 
sickness ; out of love to my soul has he granted me 
such a mercy : I had been praying and crying to him 
for certain mercies, and out of love to my soul has 
he granted them to me. O, you may go away with 
comfort in what you have, be it never so little that 
God has given you. O, the Lord has given 50U a 
good portion, your lot is fallen into a good ground, 
you have a goodly inheritance, certainly you have a 
child's portion, go away and be satisfied in it. 

And now, my brethren, though this, in a practical 
point of view, is the chief, I confess I have not yet 
come to that which is held forth in the very words, 
and that is about the giving of governors in God's 
wrath ; I only have spoken concerning the giving of 
our desu-es generally : but now, for the particular, spe- 
cific object of their' desires, that God had given them 
a king in his wrath ; that I confess is a point in 
which there may be much of the mind of God known, 
and which would require some time in fully opening. 
It would be hard to speak of such a point as this is 
without vei7 great deliberation, and to liave full scope 
when at any time I speak of it ; and therefore I do not 
intend at tliis time to meddle with this point of God's 
giving kings in wrath, I shall rather defer it to the 
next day. Only one note further, and that is this : 

Many get from their consciences the gratification of 
their liists, as they strive to obtain from God the ob- 
jects of their desires. They are very violent in their de- 
sires, and would fain have God grant them such and 
such things ; at length, though it be a thing very dis- 
pleasing to God, he saith. Let them have it. Just so it 
is in regard of conscience, for conscience is God's vice- 
gerent in the soul of man. Now many men are very 
desirous of things which their consciences at first 
strongly oppose. Oh, they would fain have such and 



572 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



CiiAr. XIII. 



such things : saith conscience, You may not, you will 
sin against God, you will wound me, and bring sorrow 
and affliction on yourselves. Tliis makes them pause ; 
they are very much grieved that their consciences will 
not sanction theii- desires, and it may be they are so 
far enlightened that they dare not act without their 
approbation : now, although they may restrain them- 
selves for a while, yet still their lusts are very violent, 
and they would fain have their consciences to jield 
to them ; they labour therefore and struggle with them, 
and seek to find out some evasions and distinctions 
■whereby they may either lay them asleep, so that they 
may not trouble them, or at length to satisfy their con- 
sciences so far as to extort from them permission to 
gi-atify their desires. Now their lusts, when they are 
grown hot, send up such steams into their understand- 
ings as hinder the work of conscience, conscience be- 
gins to be more dull in its work, not so quick in the 
apprehensions of its duty, nor in the exercise of it, as 
before ; and at length, after much ado, when they have 
tii'cd and wearied themselves, and tired conscience too, 
they at length do obtain even of their very consciences 
such things as they have a mind to ; so that now their 
consciences begin to say to them. Seeing you have such 
a strong and earnest desire, do it : they do it with all 
eagerness, blessing themselves, and thinking they have 
gotten a great victory in that- they have prevailed on 
their consciences to sanction their pursuits. It may be 
these men will say. If I thought it were against con- 
science, if conscience did tell me that it ought not to 
be done, I would not do it for a world. Yea, but, friend, 
how do you obtain leave of your conscience ? There 
■was a time that conscience was opposed ; how comes it 
now to sanction ? is it not through the violence of your 
spirits ? You would needs have it, you were set upon it 
that you must have your liberty and preferment, your 
ease and content, and you must not suffer such and 
such things, and by this violence of your spirits you 
fiucceeded in prevailing over your consciences : now 
conscience lets you go on ; but remember, conscience 
will tear you for it another day: you have prevailed 
over it so that it does not accuse you of your evil ways, 
6ut lets you go on ; do you think you will not hear 
of it another day ? O yes, certainly conscience, being 
God's vicegerent, will do as God will do in this case: 
when men importune for their desires of God, Why, 
saith God, let them have them ; but do not you think 
that God will call them to an account for it ? so it is 
here. As men shall hereafter pay full dearly for those 
things which God suffers them to have here ; so many 
will pay full dearly for those things which conscience 
now gives them liberty to enjoy : though you have 
liberty, yet it is a liberty forced from conscience, and 
conscience will have another reckoning with you here- 
after. You know how it was with Lalaam, he desired, 
because of his preferment, to go to curse Israel, and 
though God did deny him once, yet he would ask 
again, and would not be satisfied till God said, at length, 
Go ; yea, but for all that God met him in the way, and 
had like to have destroyed him. Just so do many 
■«vith their consciences ; it may be they sec some prefer- 
ment that they may get in such a way,-«nd their eon- 
sciences for the present have some tenderness, but they 
will ask their consciences, and if their consciences say 
No, they will ask again and again ; and as, I say, God 
said at length to Balaam, Go, but said it to him in 
anger, and met him in the way, and had like to have 
destroyed him ; so, though conscience may suffer thee 
to serve thy desires, yet will it one day come out with 
a drawn sword against thee, and be perhaps thy de- 
struction. 



Notes prepared by the author for anotlier sermon on ver. 
Jl, which (being prevented by the Lord's taking him to 
himself) he preached not. 

Ver. 11. / gave thee a king in viine anger, and look 
him away in my wrath. 

Obs. 1. Kings and princes sometimes are given to a 
people in anger. Job xxxiv. 30, " That the hypocrite 
reign not, lest the people be insnared." It is in anger 
if a hypocrite reign. Psal. cix. 6, " Set thou a wicked 
man over him : and let Satan stand at his right hand." 
Dan. viii. 23, 24, " In the latter time of their kingdom, 
when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of 
fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, 
shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but 
not by his owti power : and he shall destroy wonder- 
fully, and shall prosper." So it was said of the Agri- 
gentines, that I'halaris was given to them as a ])lague, 
and Marius to the Romans. Anastasius Nicenus, 
Quest. 15, in Script., speaks of one in the time of 
Phocas, pleading with God, and sanng, Wherefore, 
Lord, hast thou made Phocas emperor? The answer 
from heaven was. Because I could not find a worse. 
He tells also of the bishop of Thebais, who, being proud 
because advanced, had these words spoken to him : 
A^'herefore, miserable man, art thou proud ? Thou wert 
not made bishop because thou wast worthy, but be- 
cause the city deserved such a bishop. 

But it may be demanded. When are kings and 
princes given in anger ? I answer, 

1. When men are eager upon them. The men of 
Sliechem were eager upon Abimelech, Judg. ix. 6; 
they had him, but in wrath; for, ver. 23, it is said, 
" Then God sent an evU spirit between Abimelech and 
the men of Sheehem." ' And what the issue was we 
know. 

2. When kings and pi'inces are desired out of an 
opposition to what God would have them to be under, 
as here in the text: so 1 Sam. viii. 10, 19. 

3. When such are given as were Saul and Jeroboam. 
For explication of this, obser\e, 

I. AVhat Saul was. 

1. TjTannical. 1 Sam. viii. 11, compared with the 
title of Psal. xviii. 

2. Bold and venturous, to do things of his own head 
in God's worship. He sacrificed before Samuel came, 
1 Sam. xiii. 9. 

3. Hypocritical. He blessed Samuel, and pretended 
he had " performed the commandment of the Lord," 
1 Sam. XV. 13 ; whereas he had rebelled against it, ver. 
22 23. 

4. Rash. " Cursed," saith he, " be the man that eat- 
eth any food until evening," 1 Sam. xiv. 24 ; which was, 
first, a binderance to the execution of vengeance, 
ver. 29, 30 ; and again, all the people heard not, and 
he had like to have executed the curse on his son 
Jonathan, if the people had not rescued him. 

5. Hardly convinced. He stands in the defence of 
himself agamst Samuel the prophet, 1 Sam. xv. 20. 

6. Greedy of gain. Samuel charges him with flying 
upon the spoil, 1 Sam. xv. 19. 

7. A respecter of the people more than of the com- 
mandment of Ciod. " I feared the people," saith he, 
" and obeyed their voice," 1 Sam. xv. 24. 

8. A seeker of his own vain honour. " I have sin- 
ned : yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders 
of my ])eople, and before Israel," 1 Sam. xv. 30. 

9. Abandoned by God's Spirit. " But the Spirit of 
the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil sjimt from 
the Lord troubled him," 1 Sam. xvi. 14. 

10. Of a poor low spirit to help himself when God 
was departed. When he was troubled with the evil 



Vek. 11. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



573 



spirit, he was fain to accept the poor help that music 
could afford him, 1 Sam. xvi. 17. 

11. Subtle and crafty. David, speaking of Saul, 
saith, " They have prepared a net for my steps," " they 
have digged a pit before me," Psal. Ivii. 6 ; cxlii. 3. 

12. Proud and haughty. " For the sin of their mouth 
»nd the words of theu- lips let them even be taken in 
their pride," Psal. lix. 1 2. " Will the son of Jesse give 
eveiyone of youfields and vineyards," &c., 1 Sam. xxii. 7. 

13. Given to cursing. " And for cursing and lying 
which they speak," Psal. lix. 12. 

14. Envious. When they had sung in the dance, 
" Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thou- 
sands ;" the text adds, " Saul was very wroth, and the 
saying displeased him ;" " and Saul eyed David from 
that clay and forward," 1 Sam. xviii. 6 — 9. 

15. A hater of the saints. 1 Sam. xviii. 11, Saul 
cast his javelin at David, and said, " I will smite David 
even to the wall with it." And ver. 12, 13, " Saul 
was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him, 
and was departed from Saul. Therefore Saul removed 
him from him." And 1 Sam. xix. 1, "Saul spake to 
Jonatlian his son, and to all his servants, that they 
should kill David." And ver. 17, he calls him his 
enemy, saying to Michal, " Why hast thou deceived me 
so, and sent away mine enemy, that he is escaped ? " 

16. Cruel. 1 Sam. xxii. IS, 19, he caused to be 
slain eighty-five priests ; and smote the city of Nob, 
(the city of the priests,) " men and women, childi'en 
and suckHngs, and oxen, and asses, and sheep, with 
the edge of the sword." Psal. vii. 2, David prays 
for help, " lest he " (Saul) " tear my soul " (saith he) 
" like a lion, rending it in pieces." And Psal. Ivli. 
4, " My soul is among lions : and I lie even among 
them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose 
teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp 
sword." 

17. Treacherous : he pretends a benefit, intends a 
mischief. " And Saul said to David, Behold my elder 
daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife : only be 
thou valiant for me, and fight the Lord's battles. For 
Saul said. Let not mine hand be upon him, but let the 
hand of the PhiHstines be upon him," 1 Sam. xviii. 17. 

18. False of his word. " But it came to pass at the 
time when .Nlerab Saul's daughter should have been 
given to David, that she was given unto Adriel the 
Meholathite to wife," 1 Sam. xviii. 19. And 1 Sam. 
xxvi. 21, Saul saith, "I have sinned: return, my son 
David : for I will no more do thee harm :" yet, chap. 
sxvii. 1, David was so pursued by him, that he fled to 
Achish king of Gath. 

19. A disregarder of oaths. 1 Sam. xLx. 6, "Saul 
sware. As the Lord liveth, he shall not be slain ;" yet, 
ver. 10, 11, he would have smitten him to the wall with 
his javelin, and missing that, he sent messengers to 
murder liim in his house. 

20. Stout against his conscience, and all the means 
which God used to reclaim him. 1 Sam. xxiv. 17 — 20, 
" Thou art more righteous than I," cS:c. " I know well 
that (hou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom 
of Israel shall be established in thy hand," &c. Hence 
David, Psal. lix., praying against Saul, as appeal's in the 
title of the Psalm, saith, ver. 5, " Be not merciful to 
any wicked .transgressors." 

21. A preferrer of base men, and rejecter of good. 
David was his enemy, but Doeg a mighty man with 
him, 1 Sam. xxii. 18, 22. 

22. He cares not for his own laws to satisfy his 
humours. Having suppressed wizards and witches, 
yet he seeks to them and promises them immunity, 
1 Sam. xxviii. 9, 10. 

23. Unwearied in his malice. He never rests, but fol- 
lows David, as one hunts a partridge, from place to 
place ; if disappointed one way, he tries another ; sends 



to David's house, then to Naioth, then to Keilah, then 
to Ziph, then to Engedi, to Hachilah : " Saul sought 
him everyday," 1 Sam.xxiii. 1-1. " Behold, he travaileth 
with iniquity," Psal. vii. 14. 

24. One that could not be overcome by kindness, 
love, faithfulness, &c., 1 Sam. xxiv. 4; xxvi. 8, 9. 

25. Vexed because he could not have his mind. 
They " return, and make a noise like a dog," vexed to 
lose his morsel, Psal. lix. 14, 15. 

26. Desperate in forsaking God, and going to the 
devil for counsel, 1 Sam. xxviii. 7, and afterward wil- 
fully kills himself, 1 Sam. xxxi. 

n. ^Vhat Jeroboam was. 

1. One that seemed to be much for the good of the 
people, but when he had power in his own hands, then 
none more fierce, 1 Kings xi. 27. He cared not for 
the people, Hos. xiii. 1. 

2. One whose carriage was very taking, diligent, 
industrious, and valiant, a man fit for rule, 1 Kings xi. 
28. But when he had got power into his own hands, 
there was nothing but imperious domi- . 
neering ; as Tacitus saith of Galba, All cRpai'SpMSfiTisS' 
men judged him fit for rule, till he ruled, ^r"^''- 

3. One who subjected religion to policy. " And Je- 
roboam said in his heart. Now shall the kingdom re- 
turn to the house of David, if this people go up to 
do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem. 
Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two 
calves of gold," S:c., 1 Kings xii. 26 — 28. 

4. False,pretendingone thing, and meaning another. 
He said unto the peo])Ie, " It is too much for you to go 
up to Jerusalem : behold thy gods, O Israel, which 
brought thee up out of the land of Egypt," 1 Kings 
xii. 28. 

5. Idolatrous. " But hast done evil above all that 
were before thee : for thou hast gone and made thee 
other gods, and molten images,'' 1 Kings xiv. 9. 

6. A conscience oppressor. He laid snares for those 
that went up to Jerusalem to worship, as was noted, 
Hos. ix. 8. 

7. A scorner. " He stretched out his hand with 
scorners," Hos. vii. 5. 

8. Subtle. He ordained such a feast as was at Jeru- 
salem, made a house of high places, and priests, that 
all might be furnished like the worship at Jerusalem, 
1 Kings xii. 31. 

9. Intemperate. "Intheday of our king the princes 
have made him sick with bottles of wine," Hos. vii. 5. 

10. One who despised the true ministers of God and 
loved a base clergy. " Made priests of the lowest of the 
people," 1 Kings xii. 31. 

11. Enraged against the servants of God, and God 
himself, when opposed. " And it came to pass, when 
king Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, 
which had cried against the altar in Beth-el, that he 
put forth his hand from the altar, saying. Lay hold on 
him," 1 Kings xiii. 4. 

12. Exti'emely stout, notwithstanding such a hand 
of God upon him. " After this Jeroboam returned not 
from his evil way, but made again of the lowest of the 
people priests of the high places," 1 Kings xiii. 33. 

13. A slighter of God and his worship. " And hast 
cast me behind thy back," 1 Kings xiv. 9. 

14. One who " did evil above all that were before 
him," 1 Kings xiv. 9. 

15. One who trusted to his many men and policy, 
not regarding what is said to him about fighting against 
God, 2 Chron. xiii. 8, 12, 13. 

16. One who, though conquered before God's serv- 
ants, who relied on the Lord, so that he lost " five 
hundi-ed thousand chosen men" at one time, yet con- 
tinued in his evil, 2 Chron. xiii. 17. 

17. One who for his own ends would make use of 
God's prophets, 1 Kings xiv. 



57-i 



AN EXPOSITIOX OF THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



Chap. XHl. 



18. A man of a base spirit. God threatens he will 
take his house away, " as a man taketh away dung," 
1 Kings xiv. 10. 

19. One whose family was such, that, except in one 
little child, there was found in it no " good thing to- 
ward the Lord God of Israel," 1 Kings xiv. 13. 

20. One " who made Israel to sin." The common 
epithet the Scripture gives him. 

21. One who ruined the kingdom by his sin. " He 
shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam," 
1 Kings xiv. 16. 

Yet for all this, " the days which Jeroboam reigned 
were two and twenty years," 1 Kings xiv. 20. 

Seeing governors are sometimes given in wi'ath, let us 
pray that they be given to us in love. But there follows, 

" And took him away in my wrath." As if he 
should say, Though they were evil, yet I took them 
away, to make way for worse. 

Obs. 2. Oppressors are taken away, and greater op- 
pressors come in their room. 

Cahin, thus, I will take away this kingdom from you, 
which I see to be an occasion of blindness to you ; for 
if it remain, I shall be nobody with you, nor will my 
word be of any authority. 

Obs. 3. 'Wlial God gives in anger never prospere. 

Expect not therefore help from those men or things 
that God gives in wrath. 

Sometimes God accepts of repentance when it is un- 
feigned, as in David's taking Bathsheba to wife, of 
whom he had Solomon, &c. ; viz. if the thing itself be 
good. 

Obs. 4. What God gives in anger cannot hold long 
with us. Caution, yet this kingdom of Israel continued 
twenty years. 

Obs. 0. Those things that begin ill, prosper not 
usually. Initium malediclum, finis matedictus, Calvin 
in loc. The beginning is accursed, and so is the end. 
Thus many things begun in anger, end in wrath : this 
kingdom of Israel is an example of this from the be- 
ginning to the end. [But yet here also that holds, 
which the author noted above, ver. 9, that no condition 
is so bad, but there is help in God for it, and if so be 
that the continuance in it be not with sin, or the thing 
a sin in itself] 

Obs. 6. When men have enjoyed their desires in 
wrath a while, God rends them in fury from them. This 
is terrible indeed, for as it was given in indignation, all 
the while it was enjoyed it was abused. " 'VA'hile the 
meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came 
upon them," Psal. Ixxviii. 30, 31. 

ra!inr .iorum ™ ^"' 3' ""' ^ '^ must licre note the difier- 

i,iii.iorum tutor. ' Bucc wliicli Parcus observes. That the 
"'*"' calamities attendant on what God gives 

in displeasure, are indeed wrath to his own people, but 
to his enemies fury. 

Obs. 7. God's removal of a wrathful gift, is often but 
an instance of more wrath. 



But here are two questions : 1. How may we know 
when God takes away, and not in wTath ? 

1. When the comfort or creature which he takes 
from us, began to draw our heart from him, and it is 
seasonably removed to our sanctification. 2. AVhen 
we can bless God and be thankful. 3. When God 
makes it up in himself, and in the comforts of his Si)irit. 

2. MTien does God take away a thing in WTath ? 

1. When it is given in anger. 

2. \^^len he takes it away by violence in some ter- 
I'iblc manner. Psal. Iviii. 9, " Before your pots can 
feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a 
whu-hvind, both living, and in his WTath." Psal. lii. 5, 
" God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, he shall take 
thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, 
and root thee out of the land of the living." Lam. ii. 
6, " Pie hath violently taken away his tabernacle ;" as 
a man that is angry snatches away what he had given. 

3. ^^^len he fakes it in the liour of our t.^pusmhc in- 
ueed. Zeph. ii. 4, " They shall drive out S'^^riuiSHS" 
Ashdod at noon day ;" when they should fKitntibu! ui 
have taken the benefit of their houses for caiidioriiM. "dJus. 
shelter, and theii- meat for refreshment. "' '""^ 

4. When we murmur and complain inordinately of 
our afiliction. 

5. 'WTien we shift and shirk out for succour. 

6. Wicn there is nothing but bitterness, and only 
evil in the removal. 

7. When one evil makes way to another evil, and 
none are sanctified. " He made a way to his anger," 
Psal. Ixxviii. 50. 

8. "When the deprivation carries with it the marks of 
special sins ; yea, when the sin itself is aUowod to de- 
prive us of a mercy : as when intemperance takes away 
health ; ambition brings into disgi'ace ; covctousness 
takes away riches. " This is my covenant unto them, 
when I shall take away then- sins," Rom. xi. 27. 

9. 'When it happens according to those misgiving 
thoughts which we have had, and to which yet we 
would not give heed. 

10. WTien it brings sin into remembrance. " Thou 
makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth," Job 
xiij. 26. " Art thou come unto me to call my sin to 
remembrance, and to slay my son?" 1 Kings xvii. 18. 

\ATiei'efore seeing this is so fearful, let us pray, with 
David, " O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, 
neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure," Psal. vi. 1. 

Obs. 8. "\\Tiether we have our desires, or whether 
they be taken away, yet still all may be in wrath. To 
this state our sins may bring us. 

Obs. 9. Change of oppressing government by foreign 
power, is a sign of wrath. 

Obs. 10. God's hand in a business excuses not man's 
sin ; he can make use of man's sin to the furtherance 
of his ends, and yet be innocent. 

Obs. 11. AVe must judge of nothing by success. 



i 



OB 

A COMMENTARY, 

BY WAY OF SUPPLEMENT, 



ON THE FIVE LAST VERSES OF THE 



THIRTEENTH CHAPTER OF HOSEA ; 



WHEREIN IS SET FORTH, 



EPHRAIM'S DIGNITY, DUTY, IMPENITENCY, AND DOWNFAL. 



VEET SUITAiLE TO, AKD SEASONABLE FOE, THESE PEESENT TIMES. 



WHERE YOU HATE THE TEXT EXPLAINE.D, SUNDRY CASES OF CONSCIENCE CLEARED, 

ilANY PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS RAISED, WITH REFERENCES TO SUCH AUTHORS 

AS CLEAR ANY POINT MORE FULLY. 



BY THOMAS HALL, B. D. 

PASTOR OF KING'S NORTON. 



Thus will I do unto thee, O Israel : and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, Israel. — Amos iv. 12. 
A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself. — Prov. xxii. 3. 

Etsi Christus et apostoli minantur facinorosis, et graviter reprehendunt vitia; tamen proplictarum conciones ideo ad de- 

terrendos malos aptiores, et ad timorem Dei inculcandum efEcaciores sunt, quia semper certas pteaas flaeitiosorum addunt, 

quas eveutus postea ostendit non fuisse vanai. — Luther, in Pra;fat. ad Hoseam. 



RENOWNED CITY OF LONDON, 



GRACE, MERCY, AND PEACE, BE MULTIPLIED. 



A 'woiiD spoken in season Is much commended by the -wisest of men, Pror. xv. 23, and xxr. 11. Yea, It is 
made one of Christ's excellencies, that he had " the tongue of the learned," that he should " know hovr to speak 
a word in season," Isa. 1. 4. Such words are not only profitable, but also powerful, and carry abundance of con- 
vincing strength'and force with them, Job vi. 25. This, principally, has imboldened me to dedicate this treatise 
to you. Had I searched for five verses throughout the whole Bible, I could hardly have found five together (all 
things considered) more suitable and seasonable for the present times. 

In them we have an alarm for the drowsy, a corrosive for the impenitent, a cordial for the penitent, and many 
quickening considei'ations to move us all to a speedy preparing to meet om- God in a way of unfeigned humili- 
ation, before the decree bring forth, and the fierce anger of the Lord seize upon us. 

Here we may see Ephraim's dignity, and Ephraim's downfal, and those sins which helped to bring him do^^Ti ; 
and in him we may read England's condition. The Lord has made us his Ephraim, he has laid his right hand 
upon us, he has made us the head of the tribes, he has set us above, when for our sins he might long since have 
laid us in the dust. Ephraim's sins were Ephraim's ruin ; and if those sins be found in England which were 
found in him, what can we expect but the like judgments ? for God Is the same to the same sinners. If Sa- 
maria's sins be found in London, London must look for Samaria's judgments. God wHl not spare sin, wherever 
he finds it, be it In city or country. Sin has brought do-mi greater cities than yours ; as they had thek times of 
rising, so of ruining ; as of building, so of burning : witness Nineveh, No, Tyre, Babylon, and Jerusalem, sin has 
made them all a desolation. For my own part, I shall never expect that city or state should prosper, till God's 
church prosper ; or that our houses should continue, when God's house lies waste ; all oiu- buildings will be but 
NTods and Babels, that Is, unsettlement and confusion, till God's house be settled and exalted amongst us. Hag. 
i. 4 — 11. The sins of England I fear more than all the enemies in the world. It is not Spain or Italy, it is not 
France or Turkey, that I fear ; though all nations should compass us about, yet, were we but an obedient people, 
I should not doubt but that In the name of the Lord we should destroy them. But it is the atheism, heresy, 
blasphemy, security, impenitency, apostacy, profanation of holy things, formality, hj-pocrlsy, unrighteousness, 
division, and contempt of the gospel ; these, even these, are the enemies that I fear; and If any thing destroy 
us, It Is these abominations that reign amongst us. " Be thou instructed," therefore, O England, and thou, O 
London, the chief city thereof, lest the Lord's " soul depart from thee," and thou be made " desolate, a land not 
inhabited," Jer. vi. 8. God has borne long with our provocations, but he will not always bear, but will at last 
reconcile his patience with the fierceness of his fury. Let not therefore Satan delude any, as if these were but 
some melancholy conceits, some fearful fancies, or vain prognostications of some lying asti-ologers ; but know, that 
these are certain assertions, grounded upon the infallible word of God, whose threatenlngs, as well as promises, 
are like to silver, that has been seven times purified, and thoroughly tried, Psal. xii. 6. 

True, we have many privileges that others want, but no privileges can preserve an impenitent people fi-om 
ruin : Jerusalem was highly privileged, and had the choicest preaching, a little before its do-mifal. The sins of a 
city and nation may be so gi-eat, that though Noah, Job, and Daniel (three men that could do verj- much with 
God, Ezek. xlv. 14) should stand before the Lord for them, yet they shall not prevail for a hardened, apostatizing 
people. Where such spiritual judgments go before, temporal judgments always follow, Isa. vi. 9 — 12. Sinning 
is worse than sufiering ; better see a people bleeding, than blaspheming ; for by our sufferings God is glorified, 
but by our sins he is dishonoured. 
2 p 



6^8 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

We are a people that are much for liberty, we cannot endure a yoke ; no, though it be Christ's easy yoke, yet 
we will not have him to reign over us ; we will not serve him with gladness and singleness of heart in the abund- 
ance of all things, and therefore he may justly make us serve our enemies in the want of all things, Deut. 
xxviii. 47, 48. And as we are all for liberty, so he may justly proclaim a liberty for us to the sword, pestilence, 
and famine, Jer. xxxiv. 17. 

God has humbled many in your great city, by sickness, poverty, and decay of trading, &c. ; but have you been 
made humble thereby ? He has sent the choicest of his ministers amongst you, and fed you (in a spiritual sense) 
with the finest of the wheat ; but have you answered God's cost and care ? and are you bettered by all his dis- 
pensations to you ? Have you heard the voice of the rod, and who hath appointed it ? or have you not rather 
fallen away more and more, and grown worse and worse ? if so, how can you expect peace, when your apostacies 
and spiritual fornications are so many? 2 Kings ix. 17, 18. 

But it is not for me to counsel you, who have so many li\-ing and dead counsellors at hand ; I shall therefore 
betake myself to prayer, desiring that the good-will of Him that dwelt in the bush may dwell amongst you, that 
he would be for walls and bulwarks to you, and your glory in the midst of you ; that he, by the Spirit of fii'c and 
of burning, would purge out of you every thing that oflfends, that your scum of blasphemy, heresy, hypocrisy, un- 
righteousness, &c., may no longer abide in you, but that the name of your gi-eat and famous city may for ever 
"le Jehovah Shammah, The Lord is there. This is and shall be the prayer of 

Your servant in the Lord, 

THOMAS HALL. 

Kin^s Norton, Nov. 17, 1659. 



TO THE READER. 



Having occasion lately to peruse Mr. Burroughs on Hosea xiii. 13, I found that his commentary was defective, 
and that Mr. Burroughs (that prince of preachers) died before he had finished the chapter ; whereupon I pe- 
rused the remainder of the chapter, and finding it to be very pertinent to these present di'owsy, dangerous times, 
and that no man had set upon it these twelve years, (for so long has Mr. Bun-oughs been dead,) having a little 
respite, in the strength of my God I undertook it, and by liis assistance have at last completed it. True, it has 
cost me some pains, the most of these five verses being so turned and tortured, so intricate and perplex, admit- 
ting of so many various lections and senses, and interpreters so divided amongst themselves, that he had need of 
a great deal of prayer and patience that undertakes them. I think there are not many harder verses in the 
Bible than some of these, yet by a good hand of Providence I have gone through them, and have not balked 
any known difficulty, but have made all as plain and intelligible as possibly I could. 

Many posthumous works have had supplements excelling their predecessors ; this cannot be expected here. 
All that I can promise thee is this, that I have as fully and faithfully explained the text as I could. I have 
raised thence many useful observations, and given references (because I understand they are very acceptable to 
many) to such as enlarge upon any point more fully. Some common places are succinctly handled, and if any 
controversy occur, (according to my custom and calling,) they have a lash and a pass. 

As for the fourteenth chapter, it is piously and pithily opened by two very grave, judicious men ; 
Drll^^oiib. so that now you have the whole prophecy completed. If thou reap any benefit, give God the praise, 
who is pleased to show light in the darkness, and strength in the weakness, of 

Thine in the Lord, 

THOMAS HALL. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Verse 12. 

The iniquiti/ of Ephraim is bound up ; his sin is hid. 

This chapter contains the sum of the eleventh sermon 
of Hosea, wherein the prophet (hke the sweet singer 
of Israel) treats both of judgment and mercy, and 
uses both drawing and driving motives (one or both of 
which usually work upon all ingenuous dispositions) to 
bring them to repentance. And since God has ordain- 
ed the law to make way for the gospel, and humilia- 
tion to go before consolation, therefore the prophet 
denounces, 

1. Judgments against Israel, and specially that of 
the sword, which should cut off his kings, destroy his 
kingdom, take away all their pleasant things, and make 
them a desolation : neither was God to be blamed for 
all this, for it was their own sins that had brought 
those evils upon them, viz. their idolatry, pride, carnal 
confidence, impenitence, stupidity, ingratitude, and for- 
getfulness of that God, who had raised them to gi'eat 
glory and dignity. 

2. He sets forth the fierceness of God's wrath against 
them, ver. 7, 8. Great blessings when abused bring 
great judgments. Their sins had turned God, their 
great Benefactor, into a " lion," " a leopard," " a bear 
bereaved of her whelps," " a wild beast ;" * and imbit- 
tered his soul against them. They dreamt they 
should find him a God all mercy ; he tells them they 
are mistaken, for now they should find him a God full 
of fury. 

3. Whereas they might think to escape because God 
had so long forborne them, the prophet, by a prolepsis, 
prevents this conceit : " The iniquity of Epiu-aim is 
bound up, his sin is hid ;" that is, Ephraim thinks now 
he may take his pleasure, since his iniquitj' lies hid, 
and he has so long escaped ; but mark what follows, 
ver. 13, "The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come 
upon him." As the pleasure of conception has the 
pangs of child-birth attending it, so this secure and 
pleasant people shall certainly meet with sorrow in the 
end ; and therefore Ephraim is but " an unwise son," 
and guilty of great folly, in that he does not speedily 
make his peace with God. 

4. Lest they should despair, he intermixes comfort 
with his threatenings, and allays the terrors of the law 
with the promises of the gospel, ver. 14. 

5. Yet, lest they should grow secure, after a little in- 
terruption in the order of the words, he retui-ns to 
denounce judgments, and tells them, that notwith- 
standing the promise of deliverance, yet first they must 
expect a desolation of the chief city and the kingdom, 
ver. 15, 16. 

In this 12th verse we have briefiy set forth the des- 
perate and deplorable condition of God's people ; they 
were come to that height of wickedness, and grown so 
stupid under God's strokes, that now they must expect 
no more pardon, nor look that God should bear any 
longer with them. So that in these words the Lord 
meets with the vain conceits of the loose persons of 
those times, w'ho soothed themselves in their evil ways, 
and because the Lord suspended his judgments for a 
time, therefore they never apprehended them, but 
thought that the Lord was such a one as themselves, 

* Deus comparatur leoni ssevo, quo nvilla bestia truculen- 
tior. 2. Pardo in via observanti, quo nuUa subtilior. 3. Urso 
catulis orbato, quo nulla ssevior. 4. Cuivis immani bestise, 



that is, no way displeased with their sins ; but since ht 
connived at them, they concluded he slept, and took 
no notice of them, but had utterly forgotten them. 
But they are much deceived, saith the Lord, for I have 
seen all their wickedness, and have sealed up all their 
sins till the due time of revealing them (which is now 
at hand) be come. It is true, I have borne long with 
them ; let that offend none, for I have not forgotten 
their provocations, they are all bound up so that not 
one of them shall be lost, but they shall dearly reckon 
for them all together. As God has ",a book of remem- 
brance" wherein he records the good deeds of his 
people, which shall one day be published to their ever- 
lasting praise, Mai. iii. 16; so he has a book of re- 
membrance wherein he records the wickedness of the 
wicked, which shall ere long be published to their 
everlasting shame. As the sin of Judali was " written 
with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond," 
so that it should not easily be blotted out, Jer. xvik 1 ; 
so all the sins of Ephraim, from the time of Jero- 
boam's reign to their going into captivity, were bound 
up and sealed, that they might not be lost. Papers 
that lie loose and unbound are scattered with every 
wind, but when they are fast bound up and sealed, 
then they are safe and sure. jMoney that lies at ran- 
dom is lost, but that which is locked up in coffers is 
safe, and will be brought forth when need requires. 
So God had not forgotten Ephraira's sin, but had hid 
and sealed it up till the determined time to punish him 
was come ; he had locked it up in his memory for a 
day of reckoning. 

Yet, to leave no clod unbroken that we may find out 
the golden ore, I shall give you the grammatical read- 
ing of the words ; for a good foundation is the strength 
of the building. 

"The iniquity." pj( the pravity and perverseness, 
the prevarication and crookedness, of Ephraim's ways 
is laid up. 

" Of Ephraim." Ephraim was Joseph's second son, 
but it is here put for the ten tribes of Israel, of which 
Ephraim was one of the chiefest ; so Hos. iv. 17 ; v. 
3 ; xi-i; vii. 8, 11 ; and their first king after the divi- 
sion was an Ephraimite. 

" Is bound up." inv The metaphor ^^^ ^^^.^ ^^^^^ 
here implies special care and custody, divit, consir'in»it 

I • 1^ It. ^1 ^C +1,.^ quasi in fasciculiim ; 

and IS borrowed trom the men oi tne iia Gen. xiu. 35 ; 1 
world, who are careful to lock up their ^sj-'j^'^^;/""- 
money that it be not lost. The like ex- 
pressions vou may read, Deut. xxxii. 34 ; Job xiv. 
17 ; xxi. 19; Lara.'i. 14. So the iniquity of Ephraim 
was sealed and kept safe, to be brought forth in 
due time as a charge against him. Though men 
scatter their sins abroad and forget them, yet God 
bundles them up and remembers them_; and as par- 
doning grace does loose the sinner, so sin unpardoned 
is said to be bound up and reserved for punishment, 
Matt. xvi. 19. ..... 

" His sin." irsan The punishment of his sin. It is 
a frequent metonvmy to put sin for the punishment of 
sin. So Lev. xx' 20 ; Numb. xii. 11 ; Ezek. iv. 4—6. 
Peccatum ejus, from Chala, to err, or wander fi'om the 
mark : such is sin ; it is a wandering and going astray 
from the law of God, it is an erring from the mark which 
we should always aim at, viz. the glory of God and our 
own salvation. 

Biqua alia, prioribus immaniov, sub genere continetur. Ter- 
novius in loc. 



580 



AX EXPOSITIOX OF 



Chap. XIII. 



TTTES abscondita 



"Is hid." Not from God, but with 
si-'fcSfetonJifi'. God; it is laid up by him for a day of 
i" p.iui'iTu'u'''' reckoning, when the Lord sliall pour out 
rmr.xixa.isi jer. the fierceness of his wrath on Israel. So 
that their sin is hid, not in mercy, but in 
judgment ; not for protection, but for desolation. " Sa- 
maria shall become desolate." God lays up the sins of 
the wicked in store against a day of wrath, when he in- 
tends to punish them for all together, Rom. ii. 5. 

Obs. 1. God is wondrous patient, and bears long with 
sinners. He is many years in laying men's sins up in 
his treasur)'. He does not immediately cut off sinners, 
nor always destroy wicked men in the act of sin, as he 
might do, (for so many sins as men commit, so many 
damnations they deser^■e,) but with much patience, and 
great long-suffering, he bears with " the vessels of 
wrath," Rom. ix. 22. He bore with the old world many 
hundi-ed years, even till the whole earth was coiTupt 
before him, and his Spirit tired out, as it were, with 
striving with them. Gen. vi. 3 ; 1 Pet. iii. 20. He spared 
Sodom so long that their sins cried to heaven for 
vengeance against them. Gen. xviii. 20, 21. He spared 
Amalek, too, four hundred years, 1 Sara. xv. 2, .3. He 
spared Israel here three hundred and sixty years ere he 
sent them into captivity, Ezek. iv. 4 — 6. He spared 
the Gentiles four thousand years. Acts xiv. 16, and bore 
w ith Jerusalem till they stoned his prophets, and would 
not be reclaimed, Matt, xxiii. 37. His vials of wrath 
are vessels of large extent, but narrow mouths ; they 
pour out slowly, but chench deeply, and distil effectually 
God's wrath on the heads of his enemies. Rev. xvi. 1, 
18, 19. Though we provoke him daily, yet he is patient 
towards us, " not willing that any should perish, but 
that all should come to repentance," 2 Pet. iii. 9 ; Rev. 
ii. 21. He sends his messengers in great compassion 
to us, " rising early "to stop us in our sinful courses, and 
so prevent our destruction, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 15 ; Jer. xxv. 
4. Yea, he is not only patient, but '■ long-suifering," 
which is a further degi-ee of patience, it is patience 
lengthened out, Exod. xxxiv. 6 ; Psal. ciii. 8 ; Jonah 
iv. 2. He waits, and waits long for our returning, cry- 
ing, " "Wilt thou not be made clean ? when shall it once 
be ?" Jer. xiii. 27. AVere some good man to sit but one 
hour in the throne of God, and look do^^'n upon the 
earth, as God does continually, and see what abominable 
idolatries, blasphemies, heresies, homicides, perjmnes, 
adulteries, persecutions, oppressions, were committed 
in that hoiu', he would undoubtedly in the next set all 
the world on fire. It is well, in this respect, that we 
have to do with God, and not with man. " I will not 
execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return 
to destroy Ephraim." Why so? "Fori am God," most 
true in my promises, and of infinite patience, " and not 
man," who is mutable and passionate, and could not 
bear the daily indignities and provocations which are 
committed against me, Hos. xi. 9. Great then is the 
sin of those who abuse the patience and long-sufl'ering 
of the Lord, adding sin to sin, and cbimkenness to thirst ; 
that draw on iniquity with the cords of vanity, and so 
treasure up wrath against the day of wrath, impunity 
breeds in them impenitcncy ; " Because sentence against 
an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart 
of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil," Eccl. 
viii. 11. Every word has its weight; these indulged 
sinners do not barely practise sin, but their heart is set 
on it ; the vei7 bent of their spirit is to evil indefinitely, 
that is, to all manner of evil, and that with resolution 
and purpose of lieart, they follow it fully. As good men 
cleave to God and his ways with " purpose of heart," 
Acts xi. 23, and are married to liim. Cant. ii. 16, so do 
these to sin and Satan, they are married to them, Hos. 
iv. 1". Impunity and prosperous wickedness make men 
insolent, Psal. Ixxiii. 8, 9, impudent, Isa. iii. 9. And 
resolute in sin, Jer. xliv. 16, 17. Such are ajit to think 



there is no God, or at least that he regards not things 
below ; or that he is like themselves, approving of their 
ways, and that which they do is no sin, Psal. 1. 16 — 22. 
Those gross hypocrites, that talked so much of God's 
word, but denied him in their works, being slanderers, 
adulterers, thieves, thought that because God was silent, 
and did not presently punish them, that therefore he 
approved of then- wickedness. But mark what follows, 
there is a stinging but, " but I will reprove thee, and 
set them in order before thine eyes." Thou shalt know- 
one day how I hated thy sins, by the punishments wliich 
I will inflict upon thee for them ; and though now thou 
hidest them, yet then I wUl marshal them and set them 
in rank and order before thy face. Consider this, there- 
fore, you that cast God's counsels behind your backs, 
and hate to be reformed, before he awaken your drowsy 
consciences, and rouse up that mastiff which lies sleeping 
in your bosoms, before you come to answer for all in 
the midst of flames. It is a sad and sore delusion 
wherewith Satan deceives millions of men, that because 
they are not presently punished, therefore they shall 
never be punished; and since God has forborne so long, 
therefore he will always bear, and they shall never hear 
more of their sins ; hence it is that the wicked flatter 
themselves in their sins, Deut. xxix. 19 ; Psal. xxxvi. 
1, 2 ; Isa. xlvii. 7. 

06*. 2. God's forbearance is no acquittance ; though 
he bear long, yet he will not always bear. We see he 
bore long with the old world, Sodom, Jerusalem, &c., 
but at last they paid for all. Mercy abused turns into 
fur)', and the preservations of wicked men are but re- 
servations to gi-eatcr wrath. God has leaden heels, but 
iron hands ; the further he fetches his arm, the heavier 
will the blow come ; the further he draws his arrow, 
the deeper will it wound. God's mill may gi'ind soft 
and slow, but it grinds sure and small, and he will re- 
compense his patience with the fierceness of liis furj-, 
Nah. i. 3, 6. Ever after the sweetmeats of sin, look for 
a sad and sour reckoning. There was never any that 
sinned against the Lord, be it never so secretly or sub- 
tlely contrived, but fu'st or last the punishment of their 
sin foimd them out. Gen. iv. 7 ; Numb, xxxii. 23. As 
parents let their children alone till, after multiplied 
faults, they have committed some signal one, and then 
reckon with them for all together ; so the Lord lets the 
wicked alone till they be ripe for ruin. Gen. xv. 16, and 
have filled up the measure of their sin, that wrath may 
come upon them to the uttermost, Amos i. 3, 6, 9, 11, 
13. The whore of Babylon, that has so long made 
herself di-unk with the blood of the saints, shall at last 
be burnt with fire ; yea, it is said she is fallen aheady, 
to show the certainty of it. Rev. xiv. 8. God will avenge 
the injuries done to his church, though it be long first, 
Luke xnii. 6. When God has long held his peace, and 
been still, then he will crj- suddenly, " like a travailing 
woman," and "will destroy and devour at once," Isa. 
xlii. 14. 

Now, the Lord show mercy to England, and awaken 
us out of our deep security, for we have been a people 
that have exceedingly abused the patience and long- 
suffering of our God ; as he has loaded us with mercies, 
so we have loaded him with our iniquities ; we have 
made him to wait with our sins, and broken his heart 
with our abominations, Ezek. vi. 9. As we have been 
increased, so have we sinned against him; the more 
victories and success we have had, the more blasphemous 
and licentious we have been. Ho we thus requite the 
Lord, O foolish and unwise ? Is this the thanks we 
render to God for above a hundred years' preaching? 
Shall not the Lord visit for such sins as these, and will 
not his soul be avenged on such a nation as this ? True, 
the Lord has borne long with us, but he will not alwap 
bear ; but as he said to Ephraim here, so may I say to 
England, The iniquity of^ England is bound' up, and 



Ver. 12. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



581 



her sin is hid till a meet time of punishment is come, 
which we have cause to fear is now at hand ; and then 
God will reckon with us for all together, as we do with 
rebellious children. Remember your covenant-breaking, 
saith God. Item, Take this for your blasphemies, and 
that for your adulteries ; take this for your heresies, 
and that for your atheism and apostaey ; take this for 
your intolerable tolerations, and that for your reviling 
my messengers. 

06s. 3. This is a special device of Satan, fii'st to 
tempt men to sin, and then to security in sin. To this 
end he persuades them they may do well enough ; though 
they have done thus and thus, yet they shall hear no 
j,^ .J ^^ more of it. Thus he deluded our first 

cupit esse captives, parents ; fu'st he tempts them to sin, and 
"^' then goes about to persuade them that 

they shall not die, nor be punished for their sin, Gen. 
iii. 4. He labours to free men from fear, that so they 
may be free to sin. In good things he separates the 
means from the end, and in evil he separates the end 
from the means. Thus this great deceiver of the whole 
■world blinds men and deludes them, persuading them 
that what they have done, either is no sin, or if it be 
a sin, yet it is but a small one ; or if it be a great one, 
yet it is not kno'mi ; or if it be known, yet it shall never 
be punished. Thus seducers and false prophets, those 
devils incarnate, devils clothed with flesh and blood, 
like their father the devil, curse where God blesses, and 
bless where God curses. They daub over men's sins, 
and sew pillows under men's elbows, persuading men 
that the evils tlu-eatened shall never come, but they 
shall have peace, though God has said there is no 
peace to the wicked, 2 Kings i.x. 18; Jer. viii. 11. 
Hence the apostle warns us thrice to take heed that no 
man deceive us with vain words, making us believe 
that we may be idolaters, covetous, fornicators, &c., 
and never be punished for it, 1 Cor. vi. 9; Gal. vi. 7 ; 
Eph. V. 6. "Be not deceived ; God is not mocked :" you 
may, by your shifts, distinctions, and evasions, delude 
yourselves, and delude others ; but there is no delud- 
ing God, who knows us better than we know ourselves. 
Carnal hiding of sin liinders the prosperity of the sin- 
ner, Prov. xxviii. 13 ; the more men hide them in this 
kind, the more God will reveal them ; as we see in 
Saul, Achan, and David; what means did each of them 
use to cover his iniquity, but all in vain, for God 
brought it to the public view of all, 2 Sam. xii. 12. The 
only way to have our sins hid indeed, is plainly and 
sincerely to confess them, Psal. xxxii. 5. 

Obs. 4. It is a sore punishment to go unpunished for 
sin. '\^^len the Lord was angry with Ephraim, he bids 
"let him alone," and tells him that he will not punish 
him for his sin, Hos. iv. 14, 17; that is. Since Ephraim 
will go after idols, after idols he shall go, I will not by 
any punishment restrain him, but I wiU let him go on 
and prosper in his abominations to his utter confusion : 
and thus to be given up to one's own heart's lust, is a 
sign of God's highest displeasure. In this sense not to be 
stricken is the sorest stroke, Isa. i. 5, and for God not 
to be angi-y is the greatest anger ; as to be stopped and 
corrected for sin is the greatest mercy, Psal. Ixxxix. 
32—34; xciv. 12, 13. 

Obs. 5. Punishment is never nearer than when it is 
least feared. A great cahn many times is the fore- 
runner of a storm. 'When men cry, " Peace and safe- 
ty, then sudden destruction cometh upon them," 1 
"Thess. V. 3. When the old world was eating, cbink- 
ing, buying, building, marrying, and sleeping in se- 
cui'ity, then comes the flood. "When Agag thought 
" Surely the bitterness of death is past," saith Samuel, 
Hew him in pieces, 1 Sam. xv. 32, 33, When men are 

* Nemo sit deterior quia Deus est melior, toties delinquen- 
do, quoties ignoscitur ; quid enim indignius quara ex divina 
misericordia desamere argumentum ad divinam j ustitiam pro- 



at ease in Zion, a woe hangs over their heads, Amos vi. 
1 — 8. AVhen men look upon judgments as afar ofi', 
then God will defer no longer, Ezek. xii. 27, 28. Se- 
cure Laish becomes a booty to its enemies, Judg. xviii. 
7, 27. The Amalekites, when they had taken Ziklag 
and were di'unken, fearing no danger, were suddenly 
surprised and slain, 1 Sam. xxx. 16, 17. When the 
Philistines met to be merry and sport themselves with 
Samson, he brings the house upon their heads, Judg. 
xvi. 25, 29. Darius, in the midst of his cups was slain 
by the Persians, Dan. v. 30. And Babylon, that boasted 
she sat as a queen and should see no sorrow, had sud- 
den plagues come on her, Rev. xviii. 7, 8. 

Let no man then delude himself with the thoughts 
of impunity ; for though conscience may sleep for a 
time, yet at last it will be a-nakened, and then the 
longer thy sins have been hid, the more wQl they rage 
against thee, especially at the day of judgment, that 
day of revealing the hidden work of darkness. God 
will then " bring every work to judgment, with every 
secret thing, whether it be good or evil," Eccl. xii. 14. 
God will then unlock his treasury, and those sins which 
are now sealed up shall be brought to open light ; and 
those secret villanies which men would not have expos- 
ed for all the world, shall be written as with a beam of 
the sun upon their foreheads to their everlasting shame. 
Sinners shall then have no cause to say, " "Where is the 
God of judgment?" Mai. ii. 17. 

Let us therefore make a right use and improvement 
of the patience of God,* let it melt and humble us, and 
lead us to repentance. Let us, in this our day, know 
the things that belong to our everlasting peace, whilst 
the patience of God yet waits upon us, and he stands 
knocking at the door of our hearts, Rev. iii. 20, before 
the door of grace be shut against us, for then it will be 
too late. To quicken you, know that God in the end 
will reckon with you for all his patience and forbear- 
ance ; the longer he has borne with you, the greater 
will your sin be. He takes an exact account of every 
day and year that he has borne with us ; " Forty years 
long was I grieved with this generation," Psal. xcv. 10. 
He takes notice of every provocation ; " They have 
tempted me now these ten times," Numb. xiv. 22 : 
though you forget your provocations, yet God does 
not. Yea, he records every sermon that we hear, and 
the day and year that it was preached to us. Hag. i. 1. 

Lastly, let us imitate God, and be followers of him as 
dear chikben, be patient as he is patient. Though we 
cannot be so by way of equality, yet by way of analogy 
and resemblance, in our degree and measure, we may 
and must : if he bear with us, we may well bear with 
our brethren ; if he has forgiven us pounds, we may 
well forgive them pence. We should be " kind one to 
another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as 
God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us," Eph. iv. 32 ; 
Col. iii. 13. Let om- moderation and quietness of mind 
be made known to all, Phil. iv. 5 ; and if any man wrong 
us, let us melt them with our kindnesses, Rom. xii. 20, 
as Da\id melted Saul, and made him weep, and confess 
that he was more righteous than him- 
self. Even nature could say. It becomes fi^' '"'"°'- '' '• 
a noble spirit to pass by injmies. "NMien 
one told King John that his deadly enemy was buried 
there, and advised him to deface his monument; No, 
said the king, but I wish all the rest of mine enemies 
were as honourably buried. It was an excellent an- 
swer of Clirysostom to the Empress Eudoxa, and sa- 
voured of a sweet, mortified frame of spirit. If the 
queen (said he) will banish me, let her banish me ; 
" The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." If 
she will saw me asunder, let her do it, the prophet 

vocandam, et quia Deus libenter excipit pcenitentes, data 
opera velle fieri peccatores ? Tertul. de Pcenit. c. 7. 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIII. 



Isaiah suffered as much. If she will, let her cast me 
into the sea, and there Mill I remember Jonah. 

Ver. 13. The sorrows of a travailing woman shall 
come upon him : he is an unuise soti ; for he should not 
stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children. 

In this verse the prophet goes on to denounce judg- 
ments against an obstinate and rebellious people, if by 
any means he might awaken them out of their security. 

By the sorrows of a woman in travail, he sets forth the 
sudden, sure, and sore destruction, which was even now 
coming upon the heads of those carnally-confident sin- 
ners. They promised themselves peace and prosperity, 
they had made a league with death, and had put the 
evil day far from their souls, and therefore di-ew near 
to iniefuity, Amos vi. 3 ; no words nor warnings, no 
mercies nor judgments, could work upon them ; thei-e- 
fore the Lord resolves to bear no longer with them, but 
speedily to sm-^irise them with his judgments. '-The 
sonows of a travailing woman shall come upon him.'' 

In this verse we have, I. A commination, or a judg- 
ment threatened, set forth by the similitude of the sor- 
rows of a travailing woman ; a metaphor very fi-equent 
in Scripture, wherein are set forth sudden, sharp, in- 
evitable sorrows. 

1. Pangs uixm a woman in travail come suddenly 
and unexpectedly ; sometimes whilst they are eating, 
drinking, sleeping, playing, and think not of the pains 
of travail : so the Lord threatens to bring upon this 
stupid people calamities which should be like the sor- 
rows of a travailing woman, sudden and unexpected. 

2. The pains of a woman in travail are sharp, ex- 
quisite, and extreme sorrows, the bitterness whereof 
that sex can witness. 

Such pangs the Scripture often makes the emblems 
of extreme anguish and distress, Psal. xlviii. 6 ; Isa. 
xxvi. 17, 18; xxxvii. 3; Jer. \i. 24; xxii. 23; xlix. 
24; Micah iv. 9, 10; Gal. iv. 19. So the calamities 
which were coming upon this people were not slight 
soiTOWs, but such as brought desolation with them. 
2. The longer a dead birth is concealed and carried in 
the womb, the more dangerous and difficult is the 
travail. Ephraim had for a long time concealed his 
sin, and therefore now his pangs are like to be so much 
the more giievous. 3. If the birth be living, the 
greater the birth, and the longer they go with it, the 
sharper are the pangs. So the longer God bears with 
a people, and the more his patience is abused, the more 
terrible will his wrath be. 

3. Inevitable and UTesistible. There is no escaping 
when once the time of travail is come. Cum adest 
hora, non dalur mora. So the set time of Ephraim's 
calamities was now at hand, which they should in no 
■wise be able to avert or avoid. 

II. A reason for this commination, taken from the 
folly of Ephraim ; he is, and, for aught I see, for ever 
will be, " an unwise son," which appears in his stupidity 
end obstinate persisting in his sins, without any striving 
to get out of them by repentance. Ephraim is " an 
unwise son," for had he been wise he had not staid so 
long in the birth. 

Lest Ephraim should reply, that a travailing woman 
is soon delivered, her pain may be sharp, but it is but 
short, she has hope not only of an end, but also of a 
birth, the joy whereof maketh her remember her 
anguish no more, John xvi. 21 ; the prophet proceeds, 
Ephraim " is an unwise son ; for he should not stay 
long in the place of the breaking forth of children." 
Ephraim " is an unwise son," that sticks long in the 
birth, and so will be the deatli both of himself and his 
mother. He uses no means to facilitate the birth, or 
to help himself by passing through the strait gate of 
repentance. God stands over him, stretching forth his 



hands all the day long to wash off his filth, but he had 
no mind to come out of his filth, or to be washed from his 
wickedness, Ezek. xvi. 4, 9 ; rather than endure the pangs 
of regeneration, he will venture to stay a while though 
he be stifled for his pains. As if the prophet should sav. 
Were Ephraim wise he would humble himself, and make 
his peace with God, that he might, by his mercy, be de- 
livered fully from his miserable straits. If he were not 
utterly stupified, or rather mad, he would take notice 
of God's judgments impendent over him, and would 
imitate little infants, who strive to free themselves out 
of the straits and dangers of the birth. So would 
Ephraim have endeavoured to free himself by true re- 
pentance. But alas ! so besotted and hardened is he in 
his sins, that he rests content with his carnal condition, 
never once striving or desuing to come out of this dark- 
ness into light, or to be brought from under the power 
of Satan unto God. 

So tliat in these words the prophet notably inveighs 
against the stupidity and folly of God's ])eople, in that 
they had rather be stifled in the filth of their sins, lie 
in the mouth of death, and under the pressures of 
God's wrath, to the destruction both of themselves 
and the church, (which he had before compared to a 
mother, Hos. ii. 2,) than extricate themselves out of 
this sin and miseiy by true repentance. 

Obs. 1. Where sin precedes, sudden, certain, shai-p, 
inevitable sorrows always follow. In the former part of 
the chapter we read of Ephraim's idolatrv', pride, impeni- 
tency, &c. : now follows, " The son-ows of a travaiUng 
woman shall come upon him." Sin and punishment are 
inseparable companions. Gen. iv. 7, 14; xix. 15; Numb, 
xxxii. 23 ; Deut. xxviii. 15 — G8 ; hence the word which 
we render iniquity, signifies also pain and sorrow, be- 
cause the workers of iniquity bring pain and sorrow 
upon their own heads. Job xxi. 19; Psal. xxxii. 10. 

How then should we hate sin with a pure and per- 
fect hatred! not only odio ininiicitiop, but also odio 
aversationis : hate it so as to turn from it. This is the 
cause of all our sorrows ; we may thank our sins for all 
our sickness, pains, and plagues, Lam. iii. 39. Wc 
should therefore do by our sins, as the Jews did by 
Paul (whom they looked upon as their enemy) ; " when 
they saw him in the temple, they stirred up all the 
people, and laid hands on him, crying out. Men of Is- 
rael, help : This is the man, that teacheth all men every 
where against the people, and the law, and this [ilace." 
Acts xxi. 27, 28. So should we encourage each othir 
against sin, and lay violent hands upon it, saying. Men 
and brethren, help : this is it that destroys our people, 
lays waste our cities, opposes the law, defiles our duties, 
and incenses the Most High against us. 

Let us therefore purge it out of our understandings, 
and mortify it in our affections. Considering, 

(1.) What sin is in its own nature. It is poison, 
dung, vomit, filth, folly, madness, darkness, sickness, 
destruction, death. It turned angels into devils, men 
into beasts, light into darkness, life into death, and 
order into confusion. 

(2.) What sin is in respect of God. It is a reproach 
and a contempt of him, 2 Sam. xii. 9 ; it is blasphemy, 
rebellion, enmity, Rom. viii. 7. 

Obs. 2. Scripture language is modest. The mouth of 
the matrix is called " the place of the breaking forth of 
children." Thus Adam is said to know Eve ; and David 
to go in to Bathsheba : and so adultery is called " stolen 
waters," Prov. ix. 17. The Holy Ghost knowing the 
power of our corruption, and how apt we are to be 
fired with filthy speeches, therefore, by euphemisms, 
puts seemly titles on unseemly things. The Scriptures 
not only command chaste and modest things, but they 
also speak chastely and modestly of those things. 

Abominable then is the sin of the popish casuist*, 
who speak so grossly of the secrets of women in their 



Vee. 13. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



583 



cases on the seventh commandment. By then- obscene 
words they corrupt good manners, and rather hicite 
than suppress sui. If men must answer for " every 
idle ■word," much more for sinful and immodest ones. 

Obs. 3. It is a point of great folly to lie long under 
convictions, and yet never proceed to thorough con- 
version. The world is full of such unwise Ephraims, 
that are of a Laodicean temper, neither hot nor cold, 
that halt between two, or rather twenty, opinions. 
Their heaits are di'S'ided between God and the world, 
God and their idols, Hos. x. 2. They have their un- 
derstandings enlightened, their affections stirred, and 
they are strongly convinced of the truth and comfort 
that are in God's ways, and yet there they " stay," they 
never proceed to a thorough conversion. They are 
almost, but not altogether, persuaded to be Christians ; 
and so shall be almost, but not altogether, saved, Acts 
xxvi. 28. God has brought them to the birth, and 
there they stay, refusing to come forth. He would 
cure them, but they will not be cured ; he would con- 
vert them, but they will not be converted, Jer. li. 9. 
Many have a name to live, and are not far from the 
kingdom of heaven, they come even to " the place of the 
breaking forth of childi-en," but there they " stay long," 
too long. They were never fully brought off from 
their vain principles and practices, and therefore when 
a temptation comes, they retiu-n to them again, as the 
dog to his vomit. 

Many go far, very far, so that they hear the word 
•with some kind of faith and affection, with sorrow and 
joy, reforming many things, performing many good 
duties, both publicly and privately ; being endowed with 
excellent gifts of knowledge, utterance, praying, and 
preaching, and shows of many graces, to the deceiving 
of themselves and many others ; as Balaam, Saul, 
Ahab, Jehu, Herod, Judas, Demas, Ananias and Sap- 
phira, and those apostates mentioned Heb. vi. 4 — 6 ; 
and yet for want of sincerity they lose all. It is said 
of king Joash, that he smote the ground twice or thrice 
and then stayed; whereupon the prophet was angry 
with him, saying, " Thou shouldest have smitten five or 
six times ; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst 
consumed it," 2 Kings xiii. 18, 19. So many a man 
begins well, and subdues two or three lusts, it may be, 
but for want of thorough work in subduing them all, 
loses all. A man may go within a mile of some famous 
city, and yet for want of going that mile never come 
there. A man may bid within a shilling of some good 
bargain, and yet for want of that shilling lose it. The 
people of Israel went as far as Kadesh-barnea, and 
were within eleven day's journey of Canaan ; and yet by 
reason of their sins many of them perished in the wil- 
derness and never came there, save only Caleb and 
Joshua, who followed the Lord fully and sincerely. 
Numb. xiv. 34 , xxxii. 8 — 13. It is sad when a man 
shall come near the kingdom of heaven, and yet never 
come there, Mark xii. 34 : to sink within sight of the 
harbour ; Hke Rachel, to die within a mile of Ephrath, 
Gen. XXXV. 16 ; to come within one stride of the mark, 
and yet miss it, that torments the soul. Many pur- 
pose well, and promise well, they begin to repent, and 
begin to reform, but they are ever beginning, and 
never bring any thing to perfection : like those " sUly 
women " who were " ever learning, and 
hoc"abet't"titfa, nevcr able to come to the knowledge of 
?eS.'"seMli'"" the truth," 2 Tim. iii. 7; like that hypo- 
critical son, who said he would go, but 
" went not," Matt. xxi. 30, then- cold and heartless 
essays come to nothing. These lose heaven many 
times for some one lust, as Judas for his covetousness, 
Esau for a mess of pottage, and the young man who had 
done much, yet in whom one thing was lacking, which 
marred all, Mark x. 21 ; if he could but have parted 
with that, he might have had Christ and happiness. 



O then deny yourselves universally, sell all for the 
pearl of price ; you may buy gold too dear, but you 
can never buy Christ too dear. What if thou part with 
riches, pleasures, friends ? thou shall have better riches, 
pleasures, and friends, all shall be made up in a better 
kind ; yea, thy friends and riches (if God see it good 
for thee) shall be given thee into the bargain, Matt, 
vi. 33. 

It is true, conviction is very necessary, and an excel- 
lent preparative to conversion ; as ploughing fits the 
ground for sowing, so does this fit the heart for grace : 
and therefore the first work of the Spii'it is, to " re- 
prove the world of sin," John xvi. 8. A man must by 
the law be convinced of his misery, before ever he will 
beg for mercy ; and though all are not converted who 
are convinced, yet all are convinced who are converted. 
Men will not come to Christ till they see no other 
remedy. The malefactor cries not for a psalm of mer- 
cy, till he be cast. The prodigal never cares for com- 
ing to his father, till he comes to see and say. Here " I 
perish with hunger," Lidve xv. 17. Men must be 
beaten out of their strong holds, like fish out of their 
holes, or else they wUl not come in ; we may break 
hook and line too, to get out a great fish, but cannot, 
till he be half choked. First convince a man that his 
disease is desperate, and then persuade him to cut off 
a leg or an arm. Fh'st disarm men of all shifts and 
flattering di-eams, and then you will bring them to their 
knees. Saul had many shifts, but Samuel refels them 
all, and at last brings him to, " I have sinned," 1 Sam. 
XV. 30. If you belong to God, he will effectually con- 
vince you in his due time ; he that has begun a good 
work in you, will finish it ; he that has brought to the 
birth, will give strength to bring forth ; he that has 
brought you out of Sodom, will not rest till he has set 
you safe in Zoar; he perfects all his works in his 
people, Psal. Ivii. 2. 

This then is the fii'st and great work of the Spuit, to 
convince men thoroughly of their lost and undone con- 
dition. This is virtually and fundamentally all ; till this 
be done, no good can be done ; we shall never be truly 
humbled, nor prize a Saviour, nor be fit for his service, 
nor be intrusted by him. Men must be convinced in 
themselves what they are in themselves, before Christ 
wUl reveal himself unto them. Christ will not pour 
the oil of mercy, but into broken hearts ; nor be a phy- 
sician to any, till they be sick of sin. Such will be 
ductible and tractable to his will. Paul, when unhorsed 
and humbled to the ground, is ready to do whatever 
Christ commands him. Acts ix. 6. 

Naturally men have covers, false colours, cavils and 
excuses for sin ; but when the Spii'it comes with con- 
vincing power, it stops their mouths, and puts them to 
silence, so that they have nothing to say for themselves, 
Rom. iii. 19 ; they see themselves to be guilty, and such 
as cannot plead their own cause without an advocate. 
Whilst men are in their natural condition, they are full 
of self-righteousness, and filled with false notions. 
Like spiders, we are full of poison, and yet not sick of 
it, because it is our nature ; but when the Spirit comes, 
it undeceives men, it rectifies their judgments, and 
confutes those vain conceits which before possessed 
them. It now clearly convinces them of the vanity of 
the creature, of the hatefulness of sin, and the necessity 
of a Saviour. Conviction is a clear and infallible de- 
monstration, which takes away all a man's shifts, and 
does so nonplus him, that he has nothing to say for 
himself. When Christ had confuted the Pharisees, he 
took their cloaks from them : Now I have spoken to 
them, " they have no cloak for their sin," John xv. 22. 
Every natural man has some cloak and cover for his 
sin : but when the Spirit comes, carnal arguments are 
confuted, and the devil's strong holds are battered, 
2 Cor. X. 4, 5; now he confesses he is poor and naked, 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



CUAP. XIII. 



lost and undone, without a Saviour; now he has no 
plea, nothing to pyetend by way of excuse for himself. 
And this is the first form in Christ's school j he will 
never prove a good proficient in the higher form of the 
gospel, that has not fii'st been convinced and abased by 
the terrors of the law. God will have men know what 
he has done for them, and his grace prized at a due 
rate, and respected by them. Christ is not Christ to 
any till sin be seen ; neither can we bring you to any 
thing in Christ, till we have brought you to nothing in 
yourselves. AVhen men are first broken up with the 
sight and sense of sin, then they may aspect to be 
sown in righteousness, Hos. x. 12. Take heed then, 

[1.] Of resisting the Spirit's convictions: do not drive, 
drink, or game them away ; it is a sin against the Holy 
Ghost so to do, though not the sin against the Holy 
Ghost, Acts vii. 51. ilany stifle the Spirit's convic- 
tions, like harlots, who destroy their conceptions that 
they may avoid the pangs of child-birth. Put not out 
God's light in thy soul, lest his Spirit strive no more 
with you in this Idnd, Gen. vi. 3. When God sends 
his ministers to preach, print, dispute, and convince 
you, yet if you will not be convinced, take heed lest he 
say, you shall not be convinced ; and in his wrath he 
say, ]Means of grace never better this people, sacra- 
ments never comfort them, sermons never stir them ; 
since they will be filthy, let them be for ever filthy, 
and since they will not be purged, they shall not be 
purged till they die. Thus for God not to strive is the 
sorest judgment, and a forerunner of some dreadful 
judgment upon a person or nation. 

^lany love to hear of privileges, but not of duties ; 
of salvation, but not of sanctification ; of heaven, but 
not of conviction and conversion, wliieh is the way 
thither. Like the Israelites, that liked Canaan, but 
would not go through a wilderness to it. But a graci- 
ous soul is thankful for humiliation, as well as for con- 
solation ; and blesses God, when by his word and Spirit 
he convinces him of his misery, that so he may be fit 
for mercy. The sinner convinced of sin, is nearer heaven 
than the best natural man in the world. PubUcans and 
harlots, that have no excuse nor apology for their gross 
sins, are in a more hopeful way of cure, than Pharisees, 
who think themselves righteous enough. Better (saith 
Austin) be a humble sinner than a proud innocent. 

[2.] Of ignorance and unbelief, which are two great 
hinderances of conviction. AVhen men know not their 
misery, nor believe the curses which yet are due to 
them, no wonder if such be unwi-ought upon. 

[3.] Of quenching the motions of the Spirit in you, 
for if ever you be convinced, the Spirit must do it, 
John xvi. 8 ; all the men and ministers in the world 
cannot do it without the Spirit. We may tell you long 
enough of this and that sin which you have done, and 
all to no purpose, till the Sjjirit sets in with the work, 
and makes you sensible of sin ; then, and never till then, 
it becomes effectual. Mark, therefore, when the Spirit 
moves in thee, and improve those ojiportunities for thy 
soul's advantage. For as, when cliiUlrcn are come to 
the natural birth, it is God that must and can give 
strength to bring forth ; so, much more in this super- 
natural birth, is his almighty assistance requisite. 

O, then, follow on convictions till they come to con- 
version, be no longer unwise children, tliat " stay long" 
in the place of bringing forth. Be not almost, but alto- 
gether, Christians. liest not content with a name of 
living, but live indeed. Beseech the Lord to bring tliy 
soul out of this prison, tell him that Clu'ist has pi'o- 
claimed liberty to captives, and thou art one ; thou hast 
been long in captivity to sin and Satan, beseech him 
now at last to free thee, and thy soul shall praise him. 
Be earnest, let God see that thy desires are real, and 
tlicn lie that has brought to the birth will give strength 
to bring forth. 



[■i.] Consider, if a man may attain conviction, and yet 
miss of conversion and salvation, what will become of 
those that were never yet convinced of their sin, nor 
had so much as the faith of devUs, to believe and trem- 
ble. If Jehu that was zealous for God, and Ahab that 
humbled himself, and Judas that lived unblamably, and 
the Pharisees that prayed and fasted, and Herod that 
reformed many things, and Ananias and Sapphu'a that 
gave their goods to pious uses ; if all these came short 
of heaven, where, oh where, will thousands amongst us 
appear, that come short of those who came short of 
heaven ? Rest not then in thy dead and formal condi- 
tion, but get a sound and thorough conversion. To 
quicken you, consider, 

(1.) In so doing you will be wise children. Naturally 
we all desire to be accounted wise, the title of fool is 
odious to us ; but we are never wise indeed, till convic- 
tions go on to thorough conversion. '\Mien the prodi- 
gal was enabled to determine to return, then, and not 
till then, did he come to himself, Luke xv. IT. 

(2.) You shall have God's Spirit to assist you. The 
work indeed is hard, but such assistance will make it 
easy. The Spirit of God loves to be employed in such 
noble work as the destruction of sin, and the exalting of 
Clirist in the soul. He is the Spirit of comfort and peace, 
but he lays the foundation of it in convincing us of our 
sin and misery. 

(3.) It will make you profit more by sei-mons, sacra- 
ments, prayer, &c. tVTien the soul is thus ploughed up 
with a sense of sin, then it is a fit soil to sow the seed of 
God's word in. 

(4.) It will prevent abundance of sorrow. If Ephraim 
had not stayed so long in the place of bringing forth, 
it had been better with him, and he had prevented 
those desolations that after seized upon him. 

(5.) By coming off fully to Christ, you will enjoy 
abundance of peace and comfort, which otherwise you 
will miss of. A thorough conversion brings joy, as a wo- 
man that is once delivered of her birth, forgets her sor- 
row for joy that a child is born into the world. The 
wise merchant, who sold all, and parted with every lust, 
for Christ, went away rejoicing, as having made a wise 
bargain. The Spirit lays the foundation of comfort, first 
in convincing men of their sin and misery, and then of 
an all-sufiicient righteousness to free them from that 
misery, John xvi. 9, 10. 

Obs. 4. Impenitent sinners are unwise men. Impeni- 
tent Ephraim is called " an unwise son ;" though for 
number, power, and riches, he was the chief of the 
tribes. Hence impenitent sinners, and fools, are syno- 
nymous in Scripture, Prov. i. 7, 32 ; Psal. xiv. 1 ; Rom. 
i." 22 ; Tit. iii. 3. • Though the Wind world may ad- 
mire, yet, in God's esteem, for all their parts and power, 
they are but fools and mad-men, 1 Sam. xxv. 25 ; Luke 
xii. 20; XV. 17; 1 Cor. ii. 14. It is a grief to parents 
when their chikhen are fools, Prov. x. 1 ; xix. 13 ; and 
it is a trouble to God when his chiklren are stubborn 
fools, that may, but will not, know the things that con- 
cern thpir peace. AMien men are wise to do evil, but 
averse to do good, when men fin-get the God of their 
mercies, and suff'er seducers to mislead them, this speaks 
men fools, Deut. xxxii. 6 ; Gal. iii. 1. AVhen men fear 
sufferings more than sin, and resist assistance when it 
is tendered them, and had rather be strangled in the 
birth than have strength to bring forth, aill this pro- 
claims men's folly. 

Obs. 5. To be "stupid under judgments is a sore judg- 
ment. To be sick, and yet to be insensible of sickness, 
is a deadly sign : yet so was Ephraim here ; the pangs 
of a travailing woman were upon him, yet he " stays 
long " in the place of bringing forth, like a child tliat 
docs not struggle or move for its own relief, which is 
mortal both to the mother and the child. It is made a 
note of a wicked man, that he cries not to God for help 



Vee. 14. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



585 



and deliverance, when he binds him with the cords of 
correction, Job xxxvi. 13. Men are stupid indeed, -when 
they are wasted, and yet will not be warned ; plagued, 
and yet not instructed, Isa. i. 5; ix. 13; Jer. v. 3; 
Amos iv. 6, 11. Yet such there have been, and are 
still, that are no whit affected with God's judgments 
upon them, nor repent they of their sins, though 
scorched with plagues, Isa. xlii. 25 ; Rev. ix. 20 ; xvi. 
9, 11. And is not this England's sin? The pangs of 
a travailing woman are come upon us, and we are en- 
compassed with dangers on every side ; grey hairs, which 
are a sign of weakness, old age, and death approaching, 
are here and there upon us ; yet we know it not, so as 
to make a right use of it, and to repent, Hos. vii. 9. 
The more pains God takes to cure us, the more we re- 
volt both in doctrine and manners ; and, therefore, since 
in our filthiness there is lewdness, and we will not be 
purged, we may justly fear that we shall not be purged, 
but as we have had our wiU, so God will have his will 
too : I will cause my fury to rest upon you, Ezek. 
xxiv. 13. 

It will be our wisdom to foresee the plague, and hide 
ourselves ; to mourn for the things we cannot mend ; to 
keep ourselves free from the sins of the time, that so 
we may be kept free from those plagues which are cer- 
tainly coming upon this sinful land : if any thing set 
us free from the sense of evil, it is the fear of evil, 
Prov. xxviii. 14 ; Hab. iii. 16. 

Obs. 6. God owns his people even when they are 
guilty of great folly and stupidity. Ephi"aim is a son, 
though " an unwise son." The ten tribes under Jero- 
boam, Ahab, and the rest of those wicked kings of 
Israel, were sadly overgrown with idolatry, secui'ity, 
impenitency, &c. ; and yet God owns them for his people 
to the last, and theh- circumcision as valid still. Jeru- 
salem that killed the prophets, yet was owned by Christ 
for the chm-ch of God ; and he preached unto them, 
even when he wept over them for theu' sins, and for 
the foreseen calamities which were coming on them. 
The church of Corinth, what carnality, divisions, and 
profanation of holy things were amongst them, and yet 
still styled " the church of God," 1 Cor. i. 2. Great, then, 
is the uncharitableness of those people, that cast off 
churches and people whom God has not cast off, and 
unchurch those whom God has not unchui'ched. The 
brother of the prodigal was angry at his father's kind 
reception of him, and calls him " this thy son," by way 
of proud disdain, and not this my brother, Luke xv. 
28—30. 

How many are angry at us for owning the Church of 
England for a national church, and her parochial as- 
semblies for true assemblies, though the word and 
sacraments be rightly dispensed there ! This savours 
strongly of Pharisaical pride, and too high conceits that 
some have of themselves and of their church way, in 
whose assemblies there may be found worse tilings than 
in many of those churches which yet they reject. 

Ver. 14. I will ra7isom them from the power of the 
grave ,■ / will redeem them from death : O death, I will 
be thy plagues ; O grave, I will be thy destruction : 
repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. 

This verse is a kind of parenthesis, and being taken 
entirely in itself, the context will run more smoothly. 
It is full of knots and difficulties, having almost as 
many interpretations as interpreters, and as many vari- 
ous lections as words. 

" I will ransom them from the power of the grave ; 
I will redeem them from death." Some read these 
■words conditionally, and put in the word if, taking the 
verb in a different mood and tense, thus. If Ephraim 
were wise and would but repent, I would have ransomed 
him from death, I would have redeemed him from the 



power of the grave ; that is, I would either have i)re- 
served him from captivity, or else I would have deli- 
vered him thence. This is true, but not from the text, 
for the word is DTSN I will ransom, I will redeem ; 
and we may not change mood and tense to make a 
sense of our own, though never so good. The words 
therefore are to be taken simply in themselves, for a 
singular support to God's people in their deepest dis- 
tresses ; as containing in them a precious cordial, and a 
most comfortable evangelical promise, of a mighty re- 
demption and glorious resurrection to the remnant 
according to the election of grace, whom God would 
have comforted in times of tUstress. It is usual with 
the prophets to intermingle comforts with their threat- 
enings, to keep God's people from despair. So Hos. i., 
ii., xi. ; Amos ix. 8 — 15. I3efore he had threatened de- 
struction to the wicked, now he comforts the penitent. 
In the words we have, 

1. The deep distress that God's people were in, they 
were in the hand of the grave, and Ln the v,^^ ^,q ^ „,„„ 
jaws of death, i. e. they were as it were sepuichri, i. e. 
dead and buried in captivity. The word Job"'?o;'pSj!'»iii. 
SlStt" signifies both the grave and hell. '°' 

(1.) It is for the grave. Gen. xxxvii. 35; Prov. 
XXX. 16. (2.) For hell metaphorical, i. e. some deep 
distress, Psal. Lxxxvi. 13. (.3.) For the local hell, Prov. 
XV. 11. We may take in all these significations, for 
Christ has redeemed us from them all, and triumphed 
over them on the cross. Col. ii. 14. 

2. A promise of their redemption from this their 
misery. " I will ransom them from the power of the 
grave." AMiat is that ? Why exegetically it is added, 
" I will redeem them from death ;" that is, I will bring 
my elect out of then- captivity, where they lay for dead, 
and this deliverance shall be to them a pledge of their 
resurrection to eternal life. 

3. The manner how this shaU be done, set forth 
by a prosopopoeiacal apostrophe to death and the grave, 
whom he brings in as some living enemy, and there- 
fore calls to him, saying, " O death, I will be thy 
plagues ; O grave, I will be thy destruction." O death, 
thou seemest to be mighty and powerful, but I will 
wholly disarm thee ; I will not only bite thee, but ut- 
terly destroy thee. 

4. The certainty of this deliverance, drawn from the 
constancy of God in keeping his promise, and from the 
immutability of his decree. " Repentance shall be hid 
from mine eyes ;" 'i'ymnD' Dnj I wUl never repent of the 
mercy which I have promised them, but my goodness to 
them shall be firm and unalterable. This sense suits 
best with the original and with the context, wherein 
God promises a choice mercy to his people. The Vul- 
gate and Seventy render it, consolation is hid from 
mine eyes : true, onj signifies consolation as well as 
repentance ; but to render it as a threatening here, as 
if God should say, I am fully determined to destroy my 
people, for consolation is hid from mine eyes, is very 
improper, for it confounds the context, and the scope 
of the verse, which is to comfort, and not to disquiet 
God's people. In it the prophet, the better to strengthen 
their faith, highly extols God's almighty power ; for in 
straits we are very apt to question that. Numb. xi. 
13 — 23 ; PsaL Ixxviii. 19. To an eye of sense, God's 
people, lying in captivity, were as dead men, and past 
all hope of recovery : Yes, saith the prophet, though ye 
were dead, yet God can raise you again, for he is Lord 
of death and hell, and has a sovereign power over them 
all ; though death conquers all, yet he conquers death ; 
though it be mighty, yet God is almighty, and there 
is nothing too hard for him ; he will be the death of 
death, and if none will redeem you thence, he will. 

The question is, of what redemption and deliverance 
does the prophet here speak, whether of a temporal or 
spiritual redemption ? I answer, of both. 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XUI. 



1 . Literally the Lord promises to free his elect and 
penitent people from the grave of their captivit)-. 
Banished men are connted as dead men, especially in a 
civil sense, and the i)lacc of their banishment is as the 
grave. Now many of the remnant of Israel, after the 
destruction of their kingdom, joined themselves to the 
Jews, and with them came out of Babylon. Though, for 
tlieir idolatry and ingratitude, he threatened perpetual 
banishment to tliem, yet, for the comfort of his people 
then, and of their progeny, he promises a redemption 
for them, Hos. i. 10 ; which was fulfilled about two hun- 
dred years after that Samaria was taken, when C)tus 
proclaimed liberty to the Jews to go build the temple, 
Ezra i. 

2. Typically it alludes to our spiritual and eternal 
redemption by Christ, and our conquest over death and 
hell by him. By Adam's sin, death came u])on all men, 
Kom. V. 15 ; but Christ, by his rcsun'ection, has freed us 
from the power of death, and has led it captive, which 
formerly led us captive, I'sal. Ixviii. 18 ; Kph. iv. 8. 
Tliis is the redem])tion (saith Zanchy) which is prin- 
cipally and properly licre meant : for though the pco])le 
of Judali, after seventy years' captivity in Babylon, did 
return again out of it ; yet the people of Israel, after 
that Samaria was taken, never returned again to their 
own land, for it was laid waste, and inhabited by 
strangers. It is usual with the prophets, suddenly to 
digress from their history to Christ, who was then- 
scope, delight, and love ; so that every hint and sha- 
dow in the Old Testament brought him to their re- 
membrance : and then from Chiist to recur to their 
history again. Tluis it is here ; and so Isaiah, prophesy- 
ing of Cyrus, wlio .shoidd deliver Israel out of Babylon, 
in the same chapter prophesies of Christ the redeemer 
of his church, Isa. xlv. ; and Ezekiel, having inveighed 
against idle and idol shepherds, jn'esently turns his 
speech to Christ, who is the true Shepherd of his people, 
Ezek. xxxiv. 2 — 16 : so Zech. ix. 9 ; xiii. 6, 7. 

In this verse the prophet introduces death and the 
grave, as two tn'annical enemies, to whom he speaks 
ill the name of tlie Lord Christ ( as the apostle ex- 
pounds it, 1 Cor. XV. 55) as a conqueror, saying, " O 
death, I will bo thy ]]lagues ; O grave, I will be thy 
Srnt..a"intn«vcrbi. destruction." Or as the apostle from the 
d iiiiiifcctu Scrip- Septuagint, (though in this text the 

tune sffpc olienisai' .i- ,. . n , 

mi.iini.ct vcivo- apostlc m some things varies from the 
ir"n"X'r'miTu»'' prcsent Scptuagiot, and so do otlier cita- 
j™'m.' """ ''°"''"'' tions in the New Testament ; which shows 
Slii'ori'a'.'Jr!t''\iiir ^^'^ '""-' °^ those, who cqualizc it with 
ca.mi .prcwmha- tlic Original Hcbrcw,) " O death, where is 
int. suin. ^]jy sting? O grave, where is thy vic- 
toi-y?" 1 Cor. XV. 55. The first Adam brought death 
into the world, but the Second Adam has abolished it. 

Tliere is some difficulty in the words, and therefore I 
shall open them particularly, and break every clod, 
that I may find out the golden ore in this glorious 
triumph over death, and notable encomium on the 
resurrection of the dead. 

I'iscator and others read the words interrogatively, 
as an insulting and triumphing interrogation, thus, O 
death, where are tliy plagues ? O grave, where is thy 
dtstniction ? They are no wlicre to be found, for Christ 
has removed them, and taken them out of the way of 
his people, so that now there is no hurt in death. This 
various reading comes from the ambiguous signification 
of the word »nK which is rendered by some, I will lie ; 
J, _ ^ _ ^ , by the Septuagint, irov, where ; and the 

s.nhi,iRi,.i 'imii«ri opostlc, following tlic Spptuflgint, s)ieak- 
li'.'. p."'.v1m'mnMa ing to Grccks, and that in Greece, alleges 
tacMM"''oi','''h»c?,h! " Greek text, as being most familiar and 
•I. iM,i.-,ici vrri- best known to them. T)ie apostle gives 
the sense and meaning, but not the 
words, which is frequent in Scrijiture ; the penmen be- 
ing intent on tlie matter, were not curious in the words, 



but did add and alter what might explain and clear 
them : yet the prophet and the apostle are casUy re- 
conciled, thus, '• O death, I will be thy plagues," i. e. I 
will pull out thy pestilent sting ; '• O grave, I will be 
thy destruction," i. e. I will get the victory over thee. 
I, the Lord Christ, will redeem them from 
death by paying a valuable price for their Sir.li.pS'S. 
redemption; this none could do but I: i>"»". «<i p>»iio. 
yea, 1 will be the death of death, I will mere. itaVNjBig 
be its plagues and destruction ; it shall ^^'.^iX.m^S'" 
never prevail against my people, for I ^S.S^'i^emp'" 
will restore them to life again, 1 Cor. xv. "" poswssiunum. 
26, 54, 55. It is not I am, or I have ""^ ' 
been, but, I will be, thy destruction. Now, in Hebrew, 
the future tense oft expresses both the present and 
preterperfect tenses ; it implies not only the time to 
come, but also the time present, and the time past : I 
am, I have been, and shall be for ever, death's destroyer. 
Christ was virtually the Lamb slain from the beginning 
of the world, and so was death's destroyer; but actu- 
ally he conquered death and the grave, by lying dead 
in the grave, and by his alinighty power raising him- 
self thence again, so that death hath now no more 
dominion over him and his, Acts ii. 24. 

" O death, I will be thy plagues ; " jiio "^'nai '."is not 
one or two, but many plagues, even so many as shall 
destroy thee. Thou didst destroy my people, but now 
I will destroy thee ; thou didst triumph over them, but 
now I will triumph over thee, and lead thee, and all 
the enemies of my people, in triumph at my chariot 
wheels, Psal. Ixviii. 18 ; Eph. iv. 8 ; for under death 
and the grave is sj-necdochically comprehended the 
conquest of all the enemies of our salvation ; as sin, 
death, hell, Satan, banishment, imprisonment, poverty, 
sickness, tribulation, persecution, famine, sword, &c., 
over all these we arc more than conquerors, even tri- 
umphers, through Christ that loved us, Rom. viii. 35, 
37. He names only death, because death is " the last 
enemy that shall be destroyed," 1 Cor. xv. 26 ; yet, by 
an argument from the greater to the less, he comfortis 
his people thus. If I can deliver you from death and . 
the grave, then much more from banishment and cap- 
tivity. 

" O grave, I will be thy destruction," SiNC ^at2p '."IK I 
will be thy rooting out and cutting off. The same word 
is used, Deut. xxxii. 24: Psal. xci. 6; Isa. xxviii. 2; 
and here implies. Thou didst destroy my people, but 
now I will destroy thee, so that they may now sing ! 
triumphantly, O death, where is thy pestilent sting, 
wherewith thou wast wont to torture and torment us ? 
it is gone, it is destroyed by Christ, who is thy death, 
O death, and thy utter destruction. As a man that 
drinks a cup of poison, drinks that which will be his 
ruin ; so the grave, by swallowing and devouring Christ, 
was conquered and killed by him. Of old tlicy did 
celebrate the victories and triumphs of Achilles, Her- 
cules, Alexander, Julius Ca>sar, and the rest of the 
great conquerors of the world : but, alas, all those died 
and were conquered by death. Only Chiist, the King 
and Saviour of his cliurch and people, by his death fl 
has conquered sin, Satan, and death ; and has madf 
full satisfaction for us to the law and justice of God. 

So that which the prophet speaks here of the restor- 
ation of the Jews in particular, the apostle applies 
to the general resurrection of the dead : " AVhen this 
corruptible shall have put on incomiption, and this 
mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be 
brouglit to pass the saying that is written. Death is 
swallowed up in victor)'. O death, where is thy sting? 
O grave, where is thy victory?"' 1 Cor. xv. 54, 55: 
where the apostle quotes two texts, and it is usual with 
the ])enmen of the New Testament to refer to divers 
texts out of the Old Testament, and to unite them 
into one in the New. So Peter, speaking against Judas, 



Vek. 14. 



THE PKOPHECY OF HOSEA. 



587 



Acts i. 20, saith, " It is -WTitten in the book of Psalms, 
Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell 
therein : and his bishoprick let another take : " the 
former part is taken out of Psal. Ixix. 25, and the lat- 
ter part out of Psal. cis. 8. So of Mark i. 2, 3, the 
former part is taken out of Mai. iii. 1, the latter 
from Isa. xl. 3. So Clirist himself. Matt. xxi. 13, al- 
ludes to Isa. Ivi. 7, and Jer. vii. 11. So here the apos- 
tle cites one text out of Isa. xxv. 8, " He will swallow 
up death in victory," n»jS nwn ySa which the Seventy 
render, ica7-l7ri£i» 6 9avarog iaxi^as, death devours all ; 
but this is contrary both to the sense of the prophet 
and the apostle, who speak not of the prevailing power 
of death, but of the power of Christ over death. Death 
is swallowed up in victory, and that great devourer of 
all is by Christ devoured. This promise is now ful- 
filled in the death of Christ, who has already destroyed 
the power of death for his people ; and shall be com- 
pletely fulfilled at the resurrection of the dead, when 
all corruption and mortality shall be totally taken away, 
and death shall be swallowed up in victory for ever. 
In the sense of this mercy, the apostle breaks forth, 
ravished as it were with the contemplation of this con- 
quest over death, into a triumphant song, which all the 
saints shall sing at the last day : when they shall be 
totally freed from the captivity of death and the grave, 
then shall they insult over subdued death, and say, "O 
death, where is thy sting," wherewith thou wast wont 
to woiuid all creatures ? " O grave, where is thy vic- 
tory," by which thou hast hitherto kept the dead under 
by force, which now thou must render again, as not 
being able any longer to hold them under thy power ? 
Rev. XX. 13, i4. It is only sin by which death has 
power over us ; and it is the just rigour of the law 
which inflicts death upon us for sin. But thanks be to 
God who has given us the victory over sin, which is 
the cause of death, and over death, which is inflicted 
for sin, through Jesus Christ our Lord, by whom we 
obtain an immortal and incorruptible life. Thus the 
apostle has faithfully given us the sense of the prophet, 
though not his very words. 

The sum and substance of all is this. Though Ephraim 
has been an iniwise son, and has delayed his returning 
unto me, yet his impenitency and security shall not re- 
tard or disannul my faithfulness and truth to my peo- 
ple, I will never repent of those gracious promises 
which I have made to them, but will certainly fulfil 
them. Let not therefore my chosen, penitent ones 
despair as if there were no hope, no help for them ; for 
I, their Saviour, will redeem them from the power of 
aU their enemies, and cause them to rise fi-om death 
(which had power over them through sin) to the glory 
of eternal life. So that now they may begin their 
triumphant song, " O death, where is thy sting ? O 
grave, where is thy victory ? " 

Obs. 1. Though the Lord be terrible to the wicked, 
yet he is a tower to the righteous. Though plagues 
come suddenly and inevitably upon the wicked, like 
pangs upon a woman in travail, yet even then has the 
Lord a tender respect to his people, and will ransom 
them from the power of the grave, Isa. i. 24 — 27 ; iii. 
10, 11. And though they should go into captivity 
with the wicked, yet God will set a distinguishing mark 
of mercy upon them, Ezek. ix. 4 ; Rev. vii. 3. In the 
midst of his judgments he remembers mercy, and has 
a tender care over his people, making them to be pitied 
of all that lead them captive, Psal. cvi. 46; wherever 
they go, they have his more especial presence with 
them to uphold and comfort them, Isa. xliii. 2, 3 ; Jer. 
x\-i. 13 — 15; Micah iv. 10; Dan. iii.; vi. 22. When 
all forsake them, yet I will not forsake them, but will 
be " a little sanctuary" to them in their captivity, Ezek. 
xi. 16, 17. God is ever mindful of his covenant to his 
people, and in the midst of all confusions, he has an 



ark for Noah, a Zoar for Lot, a Midian for Moses, a 
Haran for Jacob, a cave for David, a gra\e for Me- 
thuselah, and Josiah, and a Pella for Christians. Elijah, 
that was zealous, and a man of fire for God in wicked 
times, was carried in a fiery chariot to heaven. Jere- 
miah, that witnessed against the corruptions of the times, 
how tenderly does the king of Babylon deal with him, 
when the king and his nobles lay in misery ! Jer. xxxix. 
11—14. 

Obs. 2. The Scripture of the Old Testament is the 
word of God. The apostle shows us the divine au- 
thority of it, even in gospel times, by referring to this 
text, and another in Isa. xxv. 8, to prove the Divine 
mystery of the resuiTcction. About four bundled 
places are cited out of the Old Testament in the New. 
Both Testaments are the sacred word of the great God, 
and serve for mutual illustration and explanation. 

Obs. 3. The Scripture lies not in the bare words and 
syllables, but in the sense and meaning. Hence it is 
that Christ and his apostles, citing texts p„^ j^,,^ ^, 
out of the Old Testament, give us the ipnsioios et evau- 
sense and meaning of the place, but not scHpiuiSum Sie"- 
the very words ; so in a text sometimes qi?i',s°e"non"ve"bl, 
tliey omit a word, and sometimes they MduTSSonibua- 
add something for explanation' sake, as 9"= curisse, aum 

■» r ii ■■ 1 - .-lo*" • .^1 n ■• - «, mteUectui res pa- 
Matt. U. lO, 23 ; XXVl. 31 ; Kom. X. lo 21. terel. Jerom. ad 

So Gen. ii. 24, compared with Matt. sLx. ''»°'»''=''- 
5, where ot Svoj, they two, is added emphatically, not 
they twenty, shall be one flesh. So Deut. vi. 13, com- 
pared with Matt. iv. 10, where the exclusive particle, 
ix6vii>, only, which was not expressed in Deuteronomy, 
but tacitly and interpretatively understood, is added by 
our Saviour very significantly. So Isa. Ixiv. 4, coUatecl 
with 1 Cor. ii. 9, " Neither have entered into the heart 
of man :" these words are added by way of illustration 
by the apostle. So Isa. xxii. 13, " Let us eat and drink, 
for to-morrow we shall die." But the apostle puts it 
in the present tense, 1 Cor. xv. 32, " to-morrow we 
die ;" and this he does for explication' sake, to express 
the desperate madness of those epicures, who would 
eat and drink securely, although they were to die pre- 
sently. This shows the folly of the quaking Scrip- 
turists, (such there are in our days as well as anti- 
scripturists,) who take the bare words and syllables, and 
will not suifer any meaning or exposition to be given 
nf them. Thus when they call for a proof of infant 
baptism, you must show them in so many words. Thou 
shalt baptize infants, else they will not believe you. 
Tell them, that generals include particulars, and that 
children are confederates, and in covenant with their 
parents, and therefore have right to the seal of the 
covenant ; and that infant baptism now is as lawful 
as infant circumcision of old ; yet this doth not satisfy, 
because they cannot read in so many letters. Thou shalt 
baptize infants. So the papists stick to the bare letter, 
" This is my body." Whereas that bread could not 
be his natural body, for Christ was then alive when he 
said, '■ This is my body ;" and the apostle calls it bread 
four or five times after consecration, 1 Cor. xi. 23 — 28. 
The Scripture lies not m the bare and naked words, 
but in the scope and true interpretation 
of the words, which is, as it were, the soul re°rbis's?J°ptearum 
and life of the Scripture. Hence Christ |^'i,rB'SFsu''nOTi 
bids us not barely read, but search for "" supfficie,' sed in 

. 1 ^ ■' . r ii c- • X medulla, non in 

tlie sense and meaning ot the bcriptures, sepmooumtoiiis,sed 
John V. 39. The lawyers have a saying, jer'om'.'com.Td"' 
me7is legis est lex, not the bare words, ''^^ "• 
but the meaning of the law is the law. 

Obs. 3. Chi-ist is the Lord. He who has power over 
death and hell is the Lord ; but Christ has this power. 
Rev. i. 18 ; XX. 13, death and hell gave up their dead 
to Christ their Judge. It is he that by the price of his 
own blood has redeemed us from the hand of sin and 
Satan, from death and hell ; what the prophet spake 



588 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIII. 



of Jehovah, the apostle applies to Christ, 1 Cor. xv. 
54, 55. 

Obs. 4. There is a holy harmony and sweet consent 
in the Scripture. There is no repugnancy, no real 
contradiction there ; like stones in an arch, they mu- 
tually uphold and strengthen each other. The doc- 
trine of the prophets gives light to the apostles, and 
the apostles again illustrate and explain the prophets. 
In hoth there is one and the same Spirit of truth, who 
"at sundry times, and in divers manners," has pub- 
lished one and the same truth to his people, lieb. i. 
1, 2. They must not therefore be opposed, but com- 
posed ; not made to contradict, but to confirm each 
other, Luke xxiv. 44. 

Obs. 5. God's people, whilst in this world, may fall 
into deep distress and misery. They may be brought 
so low, that to a carnal eye they may seem dead and 
buried, past hope and help, not only in theh- own eyes, 
but also in the eyes of others. We have a notable 
instance for this, in Ezek. xxxvii. 1 — 15 ; the desperate 
condition of God's people in their Babylonish captivity, 
is there set forth by dead, dried bones, to an eye of 
sense past all hope or possibility of recovery ; inso- 
much that God's own people, whose faith should not 
fail, cry out, ver. 11, "Our bones are dried, and our 
hope is lost : we are cut off for our parts." Yea, the 
prophet himself was staggered : the Lord asked him, 
ver. 3, "Son of man, can these bones live?" is it 
possible that ever such dry bones should live again ? 
The prophet answers, " O Lord God, thou knowest : " 
it passes my apprehension to conceive how this should 
be, I know not how it should be effected ; but, Lord, 
thou knowest what thou hast to do, and to thee no- 
thing is impossible. This the Lord does in his wis- 
dom, to di'aw us out of ourselves and all creature con- 
fidences, that in a holy desperation we may say with 
repenting Israel, " Asshur shall not save us ; we will 
not ride upon horses : neither will we say any more to 
the work of our hands. Ye are our gods : for in thee 
the fatherless findeth mercy," Hos. xiv. 3. 

Obs. 6. God in his due time will deliver his people 
out of the deepest distress. He is omnipotent, he can 
and will redeem Israel, not out of one or two, but 
" out of all his troubles," Psal. xxv. 22. Art thou weak ? 
He can strengthen thee. Art thou sick ? He can heal 
thee. Ai-t thou dark ? He can enlighten thee. Art 
thou dead ? He can enliven thee. Hast thou lain in 
thy grave till thou stinkest again ? So did Lazarus. 
Hast thou lain till thou art rotten ? So did Israel in 
their Babylonish captivity, and yet were restored, Ezek. 
xxxvii. 11,12. So in desertions we are apt to despond ; 
■when we walk in darkness, and can see no light, neither 
sun-light nor moon-light, neither star-light nor candle- 
light, but are like unto dry bones in a sepulchre, with- 
out life, without spirit, witliout strength, without com- 
fort, and see no way of deliverance. Aye, but now is 
a time to live by faith, and not by sense, Isa. xl. 
27 — 31; 1. 10. Such is our weakness, that we art apt 
to " limit the Holy One of Israel," and to think that he 
can help us in lesser trials, and bring us out of petty 
crosses ; but when some great waves of temptation come, 
then we are apt to question God's power and promises, 
and to say with Uavid, " I shall now perisli one day by 
the hand of Saul," 1 Sam. xxvii. 1. We are apt to say 
with Martha, If Christ had come a little sooner, he 
might have raised Lazarus, but " by this time he stink- 
eth," and is past help, John xi. 39. Aye, but it is the 
better for that, for now Christ's power will be the more 
manifested, and his Father the more glorified. The 
more grievous thy disease, the greater will the praise 
of thy Physician be in thy cure ; and we shall love 
much, when we see how much is forgiven ; and there- 
fore David makes it an argument to move the Lord to 
pity him, because his sins were great, Psal. xxv. 11. 



Remember, it is God's usual course to let men be dead 
and buried (as it were) in misery, and to bring things 
to extremity, and then appear. Gen. xxii. 14 ; Psal. 
xlvi. 1 ; when trouble comes, then he comes too. We 
read of three persons that Cluist raised from the dead : 
one was dead, but not carried out, Mark v. 41. A 
second was dead, and carried out, Luke vii. 14. A third 
was dead, carried out, buried, and lay till he stunk in 
his grave, and that was Lazarus ; Christ speaks but the 
word, " Lazarus, come forth," and he lives. God is never 
nearer to his people than when to a carnal eye he seems 
farthest off; as we see in the three young men that 
were cast into a fiery furnace, and Daniel into the lions' 
den. Sense and carnal reason would have said, God 
had now forsaken them, and there was no help, yet 
even then did they find the greatest help ; so good it is 
to trust in God. 

06s. 7. Death in itself is a formidable enemy, and, 
considered as a curse due to impenitent sinners, is very 
terrible ; even the most terrible of all 
terribles, as Aristotle calls it. It is armed °uf"^''^a^^, 
with stings and ijlagues, and is tlierefore <i>ofii^i,-,aTo: 
called an " enemy, 1 Cor. xv. 26 ; and 
" the king of terrors," even such a terror as is the 
chiefest and greatest of terrors, Job xviii. 14. Hence 
dreadful calamities are set forth by " the shadow of 
death," Job x. 21, 22 ; xvi. 16; xxiv. 17 ; Psal. xxiii. 4 ; 
Jer. xiii. 16; the "messengers of death," Prov. xvi. 
14 ; and the " snares, sorrows, and terrors of death," 
Psal. xviii. 4, 5 ; Iv. 4. It is this that snatches men, 
when they least think of it, from their dear relations, 
pleasures, riches, recreations, mansions, honours, which 
they love as their lives ; and this must needs be terrible 
to a natural man, who has no assurance of better things 
when he dies. Hence such are said to be in bondage, 
and a slavish fear of death, all their life long, Heb. ii. 
15. Whilst wicked men look upon death at a distance, 
and think it far off, they fear it not ; but when God 
shall open their eyes by sickness, and summon them to 
appear befoi-e him, then, like Pashur, they are Magor- 
missabil), a ten-or to themselves, and all that are round 
about them, Jer. xx. 3, 4. Saul, though a king, and a 
valiant man, yet, when he heard that death was at the 
door, and he must die to-mon'ow, was so disphited with 
this dismal news, that he fell into a deadly trance, and 
was not able to bear it ; the fear of death had well nigh 
ended him before his death came, 1 Sam. xxviii. 19, 
20. So Belshazzar, a mighty monarch, in tlie height 
of his mirth, is " greatly troubled," his countenance is 
changed, his thouglits trouble him, and his joints are 
loosed ; but whence came all this terror and amazement? 
from fear of this king of fears, death, which suddenly 
after surprised him, Dan. v. This puts 
an end to all a wicked man's comforts and '" f 'J' f^ •''''• 
hopes ; conscience shall now be awakened, 
and he must give an account of liis stewardship. This 
made Louis XL, king of France, to command his servants, 
in his sickness, that they should not once mention that 
bitter word death in his hearing. Yea, even the godly, 
in a tem])tation, for fear of death, have not acted lilie 
themselves at other times ; as we see in three of the 
greatest worthies that we read of in the Scriptures : first, 
Abraham, famous for faith. Gen. xii. 12, 13; xx. 2, 11 ; 
and David, famous for valour, 1 Sam. xxi. 12, 13; 
and Peter, for courage, yet to save his life Peter denied 
his Lord. 

Ohs. 8. Death is a conquered enemy. Clirist has 
disarmed him, and taken away his sting. He has re- 
deemed his from the power of the grave, and swallowed 
up death in victory. Christ, by his death, has destroyed 
dcatli, and " him that had the power of ri,,i„i,.. .iiciiur t.. 
death, the devil," Heb. ii. 14. By suffer- !,-„"■ „"^',™,Sr" 
ing of that death which was due to us for .ed'qua lyminuj, ' 
our sins, he has destroyed the power of h>bct'linp«i'>^u> 



Ver. 14. 



THE PROPHECY OF ROSEA. 



589 



See Dr. Goodivin 
Christ's Death ar 
Resurrection, seel 
3. p. 22. qu^rt. 



eoi qui morii propter Satan, and taken away that advantage 
Si'ii"rtTpl"us'^rot'e's- which he had against us by reason of sin, 
ce'jhSd'" '""'' whose wages is death. Satan thouglit by 

death to destroy Chi'ist, but Christ, by his 
death, destroyed his kingdom, and became more glori- 
ous by dying ; like another Samson, he slew more at 

his death than in his life. So that now 

O beatam illorum ^i . ^ 

mortem qui partici. WB are morc than conquerors, virtpviKwjitv, 
^Siu^'Kno""'" ^^ ^re even triumphers through "him 
that loved us." He has triumphed over 
death, and all the enemies of our salvation, and we in 
him, our Head, triumph, 2 Cor. ii. 14; Col. ii. 14, 15. 
By lying in the grave he has sweetened our gi-ave for 
us, so that now we may sleep in it as in a bed of do'mi, 
Isa. Ivii. 2 ; and our flesh may " rest in hope " of a glo- 
rious resurrection, Psal. xvi. 9. Now, if ever, we may 
sing that triumphant song, " O death, where is thy 
sting ? " It is destroyed, abolished, gone. This strong 
man armed is overcome by a stronger than he. Neither 
the pleasures of life, nor the pains of death ; neither the 
height of prosperity, nor the depth of adversity, no- 
thing now can separate us from Christ, Job v. 20 — 22 ; 
Kom. viii. 35 — 39. Death may dissolve our corporal 
marriage, but it is so far from abolishing, that it perfects, 
our spiritual mari'iage ; killed we may be, 
but conquered we can never be. Christ's 
victory is our victory, and all his con- 
quests ours. 

But if Christ, by his death, has destroyed death, why 
then do tlie godly die ? To this I answer, Christ did 
not die to deliver us from sickness and death, but to free 
us from the curse that is in these. By his death he has 
pulled out the sting of death. The death of the body 
still remains, but the sting, and that which is penal, is 
taken away, so that it cannot hurt us ; and therefore the 
^ text saith not, I will free you from death, 
ne sit, sed ne obsit but c vianu mortis, from the destructive 
*"^' power of death ; so as it shall have no 

dominion over you to hurt you, nor be able to separate 
you fi'om Chi-ist. As the apostle saith of sin, it is in 
us, but it does not reign in us. So die we must, but 
death has no dominion over believers, as it has over 
■wicked men ; it gets the victory over them, they die, 
and die eternally ; but a believer's death is neither total, 
penal, nor perpetual. 

1. It is not total. It seizes only on the body, the 
carcass, the outside ; it goes to its dust, but the spirit 
returns to God that gave it, Eccl. xii. 7. 

2. It is not penal, but profitable. In the grave we 
put off our filth, deformities, defects, infirmities, and 
mortality itself. It is our attiring house, to fit us for 
immortality and gloiy. 

3. It is not pei-petual, it is but a sleeping till the 
general resun-ection, Rom. viii. 10, 11. Our conquest 
over death is partly fulfilled in this life, but it shall be 
consummate in f ado, and fully completed at the resur- 
rection. Then shall they " awake and sing, that dwell 
in dust," Isa. xxvi. 19. This upheld Job in the midst 
of all his sorrows, " I know that my redeemer liveth ;" 
my comfort is, though I die, yet I have one to right 
me that lives for ever. Job xix. 25. David comforts 
himself with this, that God would redeem him from 
the power of the grave, and fi'om the hand of hell ; 
though riches cannot redeem the rich, yet God would 
redeem him, Psal. xlix. 15. 

But I must part with wife, children, friends, plea- 
sures. But know, all these losses will be made up in 
a better kind ; as you may see at large in ^Ir. Bj^ield's 
Cure of the Fear of Death, at the end of his Marrow, 
p. 745 ; and Bp. Hall's Balm of Gilead, p. 141. 

Let us then not fear death with a slavish fear. Christ 
died to free us from such a fear of death, Heb. ii. 15. 
A religious, prudential fear does well ; fear it so as to 
arm yourselves and prepare for it, but not so as to be 



dejected under it. No wise man will fear a conquered 
enemy ; if you truly believe in Christ, the conqueror of 
death, you need not fear death. Think on Christ when 
you think on death, and then you may in a holy 
sarcasm and contempt say, " O death, where is thy 
sting?" Christ has unstinged it, and, as it were, dis- 
armed it ; so that now we may safely put it in our 
bosoms : buzz it may about our ears as a drone bee, but 
sting it cannot, for Christ has taken away the guilt of 
sin, and has made that which was sometimes a curse 
to become a blessing, of a foe he has made it a friend, 
of a poison a medicine, of a punishment an advantage, 
Phd. i. 21, of the gate of hell a passage to heaven. It 
is now like the valley of Achor, " a door of hope ;" 
that which was sometimes the king of terrors is now 
become the king of comforts, as making way for the 
enjoyment of the highest comforts. We part with a 
life of miseiy to enjoy a life of gloiy. AVe are wont to 
say, A fair exchange is no robbery ; but such a change 
is our great advantage. Hence it is that the apostle, 
summing up a Christian's privileges and riches, sets 
down death as part of it, 1 Cor. iii. 22, not only life, 
but death is yours. He that can truly say, I am 
Christ's subject and servant, may as truly say. Death 
will be my preferment and high advancement. So 
true is that of Solomon, Eccl. vii. 1, the day of a man's 
death is better than the day of his birth. Then, and 
never till then, shall w6 rest from our labours, Job iii. 
17; Rev. xiv. 13, and be perfectly freed from sin and 
all its attendant evils. 

Look not therefore on death with philosophical eyes, 
as if it were the end of all our comforts, but look on it 
with Christian eyes, as the year of jubilee, the day of our 
coronation, and consummation of the marriage between 
Christ and our souls. 

A natural man, that looks upon death with an eye of 
sense, sees nothing but hon'or and terror in it ; but a 
gracious soul, that looks on it with an eye of faith, sees 
life in death, light in darkness, and comfort in discom- 
fort : though for a time he must lie in the grave, and 
death seems to have dominion over him, yet he as 
certainly sees a resun-ection as if he were already in 
possession of it, and therefore he triumphs afready in 
assurance of a total conquest through Clu-ist ; death is 
afready swallowed up by him in victory, Isa. xxv. 8. 
Christ was his life, and therefore now death is his gain. 
He Hved holCy, and now he dies hap- j,on p„(„t male 
pily; he lived unto the Lord, and there- mori qui^bene me- 
fore he now dies unto him, Rom. xiv. 7, 
8; 2 Cor. v. 15. His care was to keep a good con- 
science, and now he has the comfort of it, 2 Cor. i. 12. 

Let atheists, then, and worldlings, and wicked men, 
fear death, who know no better life ; but let the right- 
eous, who has hope in his death, Prov. xiv. 32, em- 
brace it, and bid it welcome, as the martp-s did, who 
went as joyfully to their stakes as others do to mar- 
riages. Witness all those living speeches of dying 
saints which shall shortly be published ^^ ^ 
by an able and industrious hand to the 
world. Cyprian, hearing the sentence of death pro- 
nounced against him, said. Lord, I thank thee that 
now thou wilt free me from the bonds of the body. I 
shall not now lose my life, but change it for a better. 
Pomponius Algerius,'in an epistle which he wi-ote to 
liis fi-iends from the delectable Horh'ard of the Leonine 
prison, July 12, 1555, excellently saith, I shall tell you 
strange things, I have found a honeycomb in a lion's 
belly ; in a deep dungeon I have found pleasantness ; 
in a place of bitterness and the shadow of death I have 
found peace and hope of life. In the belly of hell I 
have found comfort. 'WTiere others weep, there do I 
sing for joy ; and where others fear, there have I sup- 
port. The good hand of my God has done all this for 
me. He that seemed sometime to be far from me, is 



690 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIII. 



now most present with me. He that I had but some 
glimpses of before, I now see face to face. He has 
turned my winter into a glorious spring : why should I 
fear any freezing cold, who am thus inflamed with the 
love of' God ? Let malefactors fear this prison, to me 
it flows with honey. 

06s. 9. God's decrees are infallible and unchange- 
able. Repentance is hid from his eyes, he knows not 
what it means. " God is not a man, that he should 
lie ; neither the son of man, that he should repent," 
Numb, xxiii. 19; 1 Sam. xv. 29. He is Jehovah, lie 
change th not, Mai. iii. 6. His covenant he will not 
break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of his lips, 
Psal. Ixxxix. 34, 35 ; ex. 4 ; Isa. liv. 9, 10 ; if he has 
decreed to show mercy to his people and to redeem 
them from the power of hell, all the devils in hell shall 
not be able to hinder it. It is not the counsel of men 
or devils, but the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand, 
Psal. xxxiii. 10, 11. If he has spoken it he will do 
it, yea, and the contrary plots of wicked men shall help 
to effect it. Acts ii. 23; Rom. ix. 11. 

But is not God said to repent ? Gen. vi. 6 ; Jar. 
xviii. 8 ; Amos vii. 3, 6. That is spoken, not properly, 
but after the manner of men, and according to our 
capacity, because his work is changed, though himself 
continueth unchangeable, for with him " is no variable- 
ness, neither shadow of turning." He is constant and 
faithful in performing all his promises to his people, 
1 Thess. V. 24. "All the paths of the Lord are mercy 
and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testi- 
monies." They are mercy in promising, and truth in 
performing; not one thing shall fail of all the good 
things which God has promised to his people. Josh, 
xxiii. 14 ; though they be not presently fulfilled, yet in 
God's due time they shall be accomplished, for though 
God come not at our time, yet he never fails his own, 
Deut. xxxii. 35 ; Hab. ii. 3. 

Obs. 10. Believers in this life may be assured of thek 
salvation. Repentance is hid from God's eyes ; whom 
he loves once he loves for ever. Xot one of those that 
the Father has given to Clirist shall perish. Matt, 
xviii. 14 ; John vi. 39. " The foundation of God stand- 
eth sure," more sure than the pillars of the earth or 
the poles of heaven, 2 Tim. ii. 19. The decree of 
election is there called, 1. A foundation. 2. A firm 
and sure foundation. 3. It is not a foundation of 
man's laying, but it is the foundation of God. 4. It is 
not a tottering, but a standing foundation, built on a 
rock, sealed and confirmed by the Spirit, counsel, and 
special knowledge of God ; he " knoweth them that 
are his." Hence the covenant of the Lord made with 
his people is called " an everlasting covenant," 2 Sam. 
xxiii. 5; Hos. ii. 19, 20; and he has promised to 
plant his fear in their hearts, that they shall never de- 
part from him, Jer. xxxii. 40. If they fall, yet they shall 
not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds them 
with his hand, Deut. xxxiii. 3; Psal. xxxvii. 24 ; Prov. 
ii. 7, 8; John x. 28. They stand not by their own 
strength, but are kept and guarded by his almighty 
power "through faith unto salvation," 1 Pet. i. 5. 
Common gifts and graces may fade and fail, but his 
gifts, that is, his peculiar, essential gifts, which apper- 
tain to salvation, are " without repentance," Rom. xi. 29. 

Ver. 15. Though he be fruitful amoyig his brethren, 
an east icitid shall come, the Kind of the Lord shall 
come upfront the wilderness, and his spring shall be- 
come dry, and Ins fountain shall be dried up : he shall 
spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels. 

The prophet having comforted God's people, returns 
again to the denouncing of judgments against the 
wicked ; and because similitudes make a deep impres- 
sion, therefore he uses lliem. He sets forth, ver. 13, 



their distress by the pains of a woman in travail ; and 
in this 15th verse, the spoil and havoc that should be 
made amongst them by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, 
which he illustrates by a double similitude. 

But, first, he prevents an objection which Ephraim 
might make ; I am fruitful, and abound with riches, 
honours, strength, and therefore I fear no fall. Admit 
it be so, though Ephraim be " fruitful among his bre- 
thren," yet " an east wind shall come, the wind of the 
Lord shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring 
shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up : 
he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels." 

On this verse there are almost as various interpreta- 
tions as there be interpreters, so that I may say of it 
as Maldonate said of another text, Nescio an hie locus 
facilior faisset si nemo eum exposuisset. This text had 
been plainer unexplained. 

1. Some make the words a promise of great bless- 
ings to Ephraim after all his sorrows; Yet he shall be 
fruitful amongst his brethien. After the Assyrian had 
spoiled him of all his treasure, yet by the might of him 
that ransometh men from the grave, they shall be raised 
up. But this is a forcing of the words contrary to 
their genuine sense and meaning. 

2. Others apply it to Clirist, and say. 

He shall increase and multiply his elect prfrrt, aium oi«- 
both in number and glory at the last «<^^»o"> vi'"«it 
day. The very rehearsal of this is con- 
futation sufficient. 

3. The Vulgate, leaving the Hebrew to follow the 
Septuagint, read it, Ephraim dividet, Ephraim shall 
divide amongst his brethren, and make a schism 
amongst them, therefore God will send the Assyrian 
against him. But ''ae word Ls «'"tB*cre4Cf<, not dividet. 

4. LyTa liic (Lriirat, when he takes, or rather mis- 
takes, the word for a division and separation at the end 
of the world, when the evil shall be separated from the 
good, and the goats from the sheep. Quite contrary 
to the scope of the text, which speaks of increa.sing, 
not of dividing ; and of brethren, which sheep and 
goats were never yet accounted. 

In the words then we have, 

I. Ephraim's dignity from God's mercy to him. 

II. Ephraim's downfal and consequent misery. 

I. Ephraim's dignity flowing from God's mercy to- 
wards him. " Though he be fruitful among his bre- 
thren." He was the head of the tribes, Judah alone 
excepted, and that only in respect of dignity ; for in 
number of men, and in power and riches, Ephraim ex- 
celled them all. The prophet alludes, 1. To Ephraim's 
name, which signified fruitful and flourishing ; such as 
his name was, such was he ; Ephraim was his name, 
and fruitfuhiess was with him ; both the —..^^ —^ 
fruitfulness of the earth, and the fruit- fnTd&.v.t, c^..: 
fulness of the womb ; he was like a ^^U."'' '"" 
bough by a well-side, fruitful, and flou- 
rishing, whose branches run over the wall. He had 
the upper and the nether springs, the blessings of hea- 
ven above, and of the earth beneath. Gen. xlix. 22, 25. 
2. He alludes to tlie blessing which Jacob liis grand- 
father gave him on his death-bed ; Ephraim " shall be 
greater than" Manasseh, " and his seed shall become 
a multitude of nations," Gen. xlviii. 19. 

II. Ephraim's downfal and consequent misery. God's 
mercies should have made him more fruitful and obe- 
dient, but he, like an unwise son, became more inso- 
lent, idolatrous, and disobedient, Hos. xiii. 5, 6. There- 
fore God will now sweep all away, and make him know 
the value of his mercies by the want of them. 

" An east wind shall come, the wind of the Lord 
shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall 
become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he 
shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels." 

In which are contained, 



Vek. 15. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



591 



1. The judgment threatened. " An east wind shall 
come." rm Dnp " an east wind." This wind usually is 
most violent and boisterous ; when God is said to break 
ships, it is with " an east wind," Psal. xlviii. 7 ; when 
he divided the sea, it was with " a strong east wind." 
Exod. xiv. 21. It is a dry, sharp, searching, hurtful 
wind, destructive to the herbs and fruits of the earth, 
especially in those countries. Gen. xli. 6 ; Job xv. 2 ; 
Ezek. xvii. 10: xix. 12; Isa. xxvii. 8; Jonah iv. 8. 
Hence, great afflictions are compared to east winds, 
Job xxvii. 21 ; Jer. xviii. 17. This east wind is not to 
be taken properly, but metaphorically ; by it is meant 
the king of AssjTia with his forces, who should come 
from the east, and, like an east wind, should dry up and 
destroy all before him. In this sense, the violent Chal- 
deans are compared to an east wind, Hab. i. 9. And 
the Assyrian is also compared to an eagle, which comes 
swiftly, with great force and violence. 

2. From whom this wind shall come. It comes not 
by chance or fortune, but it comes from God, and 
therefore it is called " the wind of the Lord :" that is, a 
mighty, strong, irresistible wind, carrying down all be- 
fore it ; such a one as God himself shall raise for the 
punishment of Ephraim, viz. that most cruel and most 
merciless Ass^Tian, sent by the Lord to avenge the 
quaiTel of his covenant. 

3. From whence it shall come. It " shall come up 
from the wilderness," where the winds blow most fiercely 
and vehemently, because they meet with no resistance. 
It was " a great wind from the wilderness " that brought 
the house upon Job's children. Job i. 19. This denotes 
the fierceness of the AssjTian against Israel, he shall 
rage unmercifully against him. 

4. The hurt which this violent wind shall do. " His 
spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried 
up." A^Tiat is that ? why exegetically there is added, 
."ncn 'Sa-Ss ivis nor' " he shall spoil the treasure of 
all pleasant vessels." When the fountain is dried, the 
streams must needs fail. Allusion in this is made to 
the land of Ephraim, which abounded with fruits and 
springs, and it withal sets forth the great abundance of 
all things that Israel enjoyed ; they had not di-ops, or 
ponds, or torrents, but constant springs of mercy, whilst 
others had only some streams thereof; they sat at the 
fountain head, they had the root, when others had but 
branches, Hos. ix. 16. We might paraphrase the whole 
thus : Since Ephi-aim and the rest of the tribes have 
rebelled against me, they shall be brought to utter de- 
solation ; all the springs of my blessings shall be taken 
from them, and all manner of happiness shall fail 
them ; I will send the Assyrian amongst them, and he 
='""11 .spoil all their treasures, and carrj- away all their 

ornaments ; even their most precious and 
'iiidtmpi- desirable things, though never so closely 
i^i.eua'iori hid, this searching wind will find them 
!MSs'i[mS °^f' ^^ '* go'd, silver, jewels, costly oint- 
. ,,.d.impecu-' ments, perfumes, apparel, or any of the 
quocunque niodo preclous fruits of the earth : whatever 
"^-ii'f'rs'; N^hum desirable thing is hid and highly esteem- 
inco *""'"'"" '° ed, either by the covetous, the volup- 
tuous, or the lascivious, shall aU become 
a prey to the merciless AssjTian. 

men 'Sa which we translate "pleasant vessels," signi- 
fies properly a vessel of desire, a Hebraism for very pre- 
cious things. Hence Daniel is called niicn-r'N a man 
of desires ; that is, a precious man, and greatly beloved, 
Dan. X. 11 ; a good land, ni^n jjis a land of desire, 
that is, a most desirable land, Jer. iii. 19. So all plea- 
sant things, whether gold, jewels, garments, ai-e called 
things of desires, that is, precious things, 2 Chron. xx. 25 ; 
Dan. xi. 8, 38, 43. It is usual with the Hebrews 
thus to express the superlative degree by putting the 
substantive in the genitive case. 
The sum of all is, Though Ephraim be high, and 



mightily exalted above his brethren, yet since he has 
not exalted my name who have exalted him, nor made 
my benefits and my mercies motives to duty and obe- 
dience, but has fought against me with my own favours, 
and abused my blessings to ni)' dishonour, therefore I 
will bring the Assyrian upon him, who, like an east 
wind, shall blast him, utterly dash all his hopes, spoil 
his treasures, and carry him into captivity : so that he 
who was some time the head of the nations, shall now 
become the tail ; he that was above, and was the terror 
of the nations, making them tremble when he s])ake, 
shall now become the scorn of the nations, and the 
contempt of the people. 

Obs. 1. God's goodness is wholly free. He chooses 
not for seniority of birth, or excellency of parts, or 
worthiness of the person, but he loves whom he loves, 
and shows mercy to whom he will show mercy, Horn, 
ix. 15. Ephraim here, the younger brother, is preferred 
before Manasseh, the elder, and is advanced in number 
and dignity above him. This displeased Joseph, and 
oft displeases us ; but what pleases God should please 
us, we should quiet ourselves in such dispensations as 
our Sa^nour did, Matt. xi. 26, " Even so. Father : for .so 
it seemed good in thy sight : " that is, since it is thy 
good pleasure to hide the mysteries of salvation from 
the wise men of the world, and to reveal them to simple 
men and women, it contents me well, because it is thy 
good pleasure so to have it. We are apt to confine 
God's grace to the order of nature, and external accom- 
plishments. Amongst all the sons of Jesse, even Samuel 
the seer would not have; chosen David, the youngest 
and the least regarded, and therefore set to keep sheep, 
to be king of Israel ; yet God makes choice of him, and 
passes over his brothers Eliab, Shammah,and Abinadab, 
goodly persons, great soldiers, and prime courtiers. 
God's blessing goes not by carnal seniority, but by 
spii-itual gi-ace and choice. He is wiser than the wisest, 
and often chooses where man leaves, and leaves where 
man chooses, as we see in Abel, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, 
Jacob, Judah, Joseph, who, although younger brethren, 
yet were preferred in favour before Cain, Japheth, Haran, 
Ishmael, Esau, Reuben, Simeon, Levi. 
This God does not only to magnify his ^'"S""" 
sovereignty and free grace, but also to 
check our vain thoughts, who are apt to limit the Holy 
One of Israel to our ways and inventions. 

Obx. 2. God's ministers must use plain and familiar 
expressions for the better convincing of then- people, 
both of their sin and misery. The prophet here uses 
simiUtudes from a travailing woman, from the east 
wind ; and the Lord, by way of aggravation of their sins, 
tells them that he had spoken to them by his prophets, 
and had "multiplied visions," and given them much 
preaching, yea, and the better to convince them, he had 
" used similitudes by the ministiy of his prophets," Hos. 
xii. 10. This is an excellent way of preaching, and 
prevailing, it both notably illustrates the truth, and in- 
sinuates itself into men's affections. Galeacius Carac- 
ciolus, an Italian marquis, and nephew to a pope, was 
converted by an apt similitude which he heard from 
Peter ]Mart)T. Similitudes are more memorable, and 
suit best with the capacities of all ; for thereby things 
are brought, 1. To our sense. 2. To our understanding. 
3. To our memoiy. 4. To affection and practice. Tliis 
made the prophets so frequently use them, Isa. v. 1, 2; 
Ezek. xvi. 3 ; Hos. xiv. 5 — 9. " Nathan caught David 
■nath a parable, 2 Sam. xii. 1, 2, kc, and out of his own 
mouth condemned him. Christ, who spake as never 
man spake, whose words were full of power and au- 
thority, yet, the better to work upon his hearers, fre- 
quently used parables, from the sower, from leaven, 
from mustard-seed, flowers, feasts, from a treasure, &c., 
Matt. xiii. ; xxiv. 32 ; Mark iv. 33 ; Luke xiii. 6 ; John 
XX. 6, 7, &c. 



532 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XITL 



And the apostle Paul fetches similitudes from run- 
ners and wrestlers, &c, 1 Cor. ix. 24 : 2 Tim. iv. 7. 

■\Ve are naturally very incapable of the best things, 
1 Cor. u. 14, like a duU ass colt, untractable, Job xi. 
12. We are slow to believe, and hard to perceive, the 
truths of God ; Christ blamed his own disciples for it, 
Luke xiiv. 2-5. Plain preaching is the best teaching. 
it is the best way to convince and convert men ; and if 
plain, familiar preaching will not work, certainly by 
dark, mvsterious preaching it will never be effec^^L 
Hence Christ telk Xicodemus, that if when he haa 
spoken of earthly things they believed not, how will 
they believe when he shall speak to them of heavenly 
things ? John iiL 12. This made Paul, that he had 
rather speak five words in a known tongue to edift- 
others, than ten thousand in an unknown tongue, 1 Cor. 
xiv. 19. That is the best preaching which sets forth 
things to the life, and makes them as plain as if they 
were written with a sun-beam. 

We should therefore admire the riches of God's 
mercv to us in condescending to teach us so plainly and 
familiarly, usin^ all means to convert us, and bring us 
home to' himself; so that if any perish for want of 
knowledge, they may thank themselves, for God has 
left no means unessayed to do us good. He has used 
comparisons from things : 1. Natural. 2. ArtificiaL 
3. Ceremonial 4. Moral. 

1. XaturaL Thus, to show his tender love and care 
over his people, he alludes to a mother's love to her 
child, and to a hen, that with much tenderness gathers 
her chickens under her wings ; and compares his peo- 
ple to '• the apple of the eye," PsaL xviL 8; Zech. li. 8, 
which is guarded with many tunics, the better to pre- 
serve it from danger. 

2. Artificial; from ploughing, sowing, silversmiths 
trying their metals in the fire, Psal. xiL ; 1 Thess. t. 21. 

3. Ceremonial. PsaL IL 7, '• Purge me with hyssop," 
alluding to the cleansing of the lepers under the law. 

4. Moral, Isa. IxvL 12. 

Many complain they are not book-learned. 1. Whose 
fault is that ? thou canst not plead ignorance for want 
of means. 2. If thou couldst read never a letter, vet 
the book of the creature is written in such large cha- 
racters, that he who runs may read them ; had we but 
spiritual hearts, we might learn many spiritual lessons 
from them. 

Obs. 3. The higher the mercy, the deeper the judg- 
ment if abused. '■ Though he be fruitful among his bre- 
thren, an east wind shall come." Fruitful Ephraim, 
that was the head of the tribes, and advanced above his 
brethren, is now for his sins made the most contempti- 
ble amongst them. Zanchy renders '3 lieet by quoniam, 
and imderstands the verse thus, Quoniam Ephraim 
fructijicacit, ice. Seeing Ephraim is friiitful amongst 
his brethren, L e. since he abounds in riches, power, 
and many privileges above the rest of the tribes, these 
shall be so far frtim savi'ng him, that God will be more 
fierce against him for their abuse. Capernaum, that 
wis exalted to heaven in the abundance of the means 
of grace, (for it was the city of Christ's residence, where 
he frequently cured the sick, preached, and wrought 
many miracles,) yet for ingratitude, unfhiitfulness, and 
abuse of those means, was thrust down to hell ; that is, 
it lost its privileges, and was brought to a very low 
and miserable condition ; so that at this day the land is 
a desolation, not three houses standing where those 
three famous cities, Chorazin. Bethsaida, and Capernaum 
stood ; and at last they shall be damned in nell too, 
for contemning so great salvation, when offered to 
them. Matt, ii. 23. As Ahasuerus said of Haman. 
who had abused his favour. Hang him on a gallows 
fifty cubits high, Esth. vii. 9; so will Christ say of 
such. Plunge them into hell so much deeper than others, 
because they rejected Christ when he was tendered to 



tedtagcc Salvika. 



them. Xone sink so deep into hell as the lewd, licen- 
tious Christian. Favour abused increases sin, and 
men's offences are aggravated by their obligations. If 
Turks and Tartars shall be damned, debauched Chris- 
tians shall be double damned, becatwe they bring a re- 
proach upon Christ and his ways, and open the mouths 
of the wicked to cry, Behold, these are the people of 
the Lord, see how loosely and imrighteously they live, 
Ezek. xxx\-L 20. Where the Lord has been a " valley 
?f vision," and bestowed much preaching, if people 
answer not the Lord's cost, they must expect a burden 
of judgment to light upon them, Isa. xxiL 1. No place 
was punished like Jerusalem, because no place had bet- 
ter preaching and more privileges. Lam. iv. 6 ; Dan. iac 
1 2. They thiit have preaching, shAil one day know what 
it is to have had prophets amongst them, Ezek. iL 5, 
and shall pav full dearly for their contempt of them, 
2 Chron. iixvL 1-5, 16 ; Prov. i. 24 — 27 ; xxviii. 9 ; Isa. 
V. 24, 25; XXX. 9, 12, 13; Jer. vL 19 ; ii. 12, 13; 
Zech. vii. 11, 12 : Matt i. 14, 1-5. This is the reason 
why judgments usually begin at "the sanctuary," Ezek. 
ix. 6, and at "the house of God," 1 Pet. iv. 17 ; Rom. 
iL 9 ; though it end not there, but go on to the wicked. 
The cup begins at Jerusalem, and then goes round to 
Egypt, Uz, Ashkelon, Ekron, Edom, Moab, and to 
" all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the 
face of the earth," Jer. xxr. 15—33. The highest in 
preferment are first in punishment; and if this be 
done to Zion. woe to Babylon, Jer. xlii. p,,^,,,^ ^ 
12. The sins of God's people are com- »<»>«*«< 
mitted against greater light and love, 
and bring more dishonour to God, and disgrace to his 
truth, than the sins of others ; and therefore of all men 
he will not spare them for their iniquities, as we see in 
Moses, Eli. David, Hezekiah, Zacharias, 1 Sam. iL 
27 — 30 ; 2 Sam. xiL 14 : Luke L 20. They are a peo- 
ple nearer to him than others, and therefore he will not 
bear with them as he does with those that know him 
not. Lev. x. 2, 3 : Numb. xvL 9 ; Amos iiL 2. .\ father 
will sooner correct his children if they offend, than 
strangers whom he does not know, Heb. liL 5, 6. We 
can endure dung in our fields, which we cannot abide 
in our parlours. We suffer those briers to grow in the 
wilderness, which we cannot away with in our gardens. 
If they be open enemies, God can better bear it ; but 
it highly provokes him to be woimded in the house of 
his friends ; when he shall nourish and bring up chil- 
dren, and they shall rebel against him, he cannot, he 
will not, brook it, Isa. L 2, 7. 1. To show his impartial 
justice to the world ; 2. For the terror of others ; 3. 
To take off the scandal that comes hereby to religion ; 
he will punish sin wherever he finds it, Numb. xx. 12. 
He has his fire in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem, 
and is terrible in the assembly of his saints, PsaL 
IxviiL 35. 

Obs. 4. No privileges nor prerc^tives can preserve 
a disobedient people from ruin. Ephraim here had 
many privileges, as you may see, Gen. iIviiL 16, 19, 
20; Deut. xxxiii. 13^ — 17. where, under the name of 
Joseph, Moses blesses Ephraim with the precious 
things of the heavens above, and the precious things 
of the earth beneath, as com, wine, gold, silver, ic, 
and prophecies that the good will of him that dwelt 
in the bush should dwell amongst them ; that is, God 
would show his special love to them as his peculiar 
people, and not only give them outward, but inward 
blessings also, and would so strengthen them, that no 
enemy should be able to stand before them; yet 
Ephraim, sinning against the God of those mercies, lost 
alL No privileges can shelter us if God be against us. 
He that raised us, cai> as easily ruin us ; he that 
exalted us, can as easily abase us ; he that made us 
famous for mercies, can quickly make us infamous for 
judgments, and consume us after he has done us good. 



V£R. 15. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSE A. 



593 



Josh. sxiv. 20. It is not silver, nor gold, Prov. xi. 4 ; 
Ezek. vii. 19 ; Zeph. i. 18, not men, nor might, that can 
save us, if God be against us, Psal. xs. 7, 8 ; Isa. xxii. 
6 — 14 ; Nah. iii. 12. 'Sla.ny trust in their sv.-ords, and 
think by their valour and skill in war to defend them- 
selves, and possess the land as their inheritance for 
ever ; but God tells them, since they trust in the svord, 
that they shall fall by the sword, and be cast out of all, 
Ezek. xxxiii. 26 — 28. K he be against us, all is against 
us ; and if he but stamp or hiss for an enemy, they 
presently come against us, Isa. v. 26. Jerusalem was 
strongly fortified, and no man thought that ever the 
enemy could have entered it, Lara. iv. 12 ; and if 
privileges could ever have preserved a sinful people 
from ruin, Jerusalem had never been destroyed, for 
they had more privileges than all the people in the 
world besides. It was called " the perfection of 
beauty," and " the joy of the whole earth ;" " the city of 
God," Psal. xlvi. 4; "the city of the great King," 
Matt. T. 3.3. So famous was it for preaching, that it is 
called " the valley of vision," Isa. xxii. 1 ; and they were 
called, a pecuUar people, a holy people, a people near 
to God, that knew his name, and were blessed by him 
above all people. They had godly magistrates, as 
David, Hezekiah, Josiah, &c., and zealous prophets, as 
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, &:c., and afterwards, Clirist 
and his apostles. To them pertained "the adoption, 
and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the 
law, and the servica of God, and the promises; whose 
are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh 
Chi-ist came : " these eight privileges the apostle sets 
do^^•n together, Rom. ix. 4, 5. None better seated, 
none more strangely delivered, none had such signal 
providences, and glorious ordinances ; all the world be- 
sides lay in darkness, they only wei'e a Goshen, a land 
of light, God's glorj', his pleasant portion, and delight, 
&c. So that if any people under heaven might have 
been secure in respect of privileges, it was Jerusalem ; 
yet they, falling to atheism, idolatn,-, persecution of 
God's messengers, &c., are become a desolation. Sodom 
was a beautiful place, like the paradise of God, Gen. 
xiii. 10; Babylon was "theglory of kingdoms," Isa. xiii. 
19 ; yet both the one and the other were destroyed for 
their lewdness and pride. 

England Is apt to boast of its privileges, and to tell 
what great things God has done for us. With thank- 
fulness it must be acknowledged that God has done 
great things for us indeed : he has made us, as he did 
Ephraim here, the head of the nations, when for our 
sins we might have been the tail ; he has set us above, 
when for our horrid apostacies, and hideous blas- 
phemies, he might justly have laid us beneath ; he has 
made us the terror of the nations, and given us victory 
upon victon,', success upon success, and has prospered 
us by sea and land, blessed us with the best laws, and 
the best land (aU things considered) in the world ; and, 
as if all this had not been sufficient for us, he has given 
us the word and the sword, Moses and Aaron, magis- 
tracy and ministry, the best (I think) in the world. 
Besides the singular helps in print, those excellent 
tracts, both polemical and practical; compare but our 
large Annotations with the Dutch Annotations, and you 
mU see what cause we have to be thankful in that 
respect. 

All these things make us deeply indebted to our 
God ; but had we ten thousand times more privileges 
than we have, yet if we walk not up to them, and an- 
swer them with obedience, we are an undone people. 
The greater our privileges, the nearer to judgment, if 
we abuse them. Shiloh was for a time privileged with 
the tabernacle and the ark, those visible pledges of 
God's special presence and residence amongst them ; 
_ but they, abusing these mercies, were given up to judg- 
ments, Jer. vii. 12 ; and if England go on in sinning, 
2 Q 



as it has done of late, and proceed in its h}-pocrisy, 
blasphemy, apostacy, heresy, fonnality, profaneness, 
and abuse of God's favours, we must certainly expect 
some sweeping judgment. It is not privileges, it is not 
circumcision, nor uncircumcision, it is not those out- 
ward prerogatives, that make us acceptable to God, but 
a new creature. Gal. vi. 15 ; either new men, or no men 
in God's esteem. Let us then become a holy people, 
and we shall be a happy people. Let us answer our 
privileges with self-denying hearts and lives, that as 
God has done more for us than for others, so we may 
do more for him than others ; that as he has given us 
distinguishing mercies, so we may answer them with 
distinguishing manners, not living like the men of the 
world, that the Lord may rejoice over us to do us good, 
and may show us yet greater things than these, Exod. 
xix. 4, 5. 

Obs. 0. Abuse of mercies forfeits mercies. God had 
done much for Ephraim ; he had not been to him a 
baiTcn wilderness, or a land that was not sown, but he 
brought him out of the wilderness, miraculously de- 
livered him out of Egypt, freely adopted him for his 
own, planted him in a fat pasture, even a land flowing 
with milk and honey, gave him his law, and sent to 
them many extraordinary prophets ; but they, instead 
of exalting God, who had exalted them, grew proud 
and insolent, forgetting the God of all their mercies, 
and confiding in kings and princes, kissing the calves, 
and sacrificing to Baal, who could not save them, and 
then they died, Hos. xiii. 1 — 12. "\Mien they began to 
fight against God with his own mercies, and to abuse the 
health, wealth, and blessings which God had given them, 
to the dishonour of the Donor, then they lost their 
riches, strength, gloiy, kingdom, and all ; then comes 
the Assyrian, like an east wind, and sweeps away all. 
Before his name was Ephraim, fruitfulness, but now 
God threatens them with emptiness, barrenness, dry- 
ness of roots, fruits, branches, springs, even the loss of 
aU. As all the world had been witnesses of God's spe- 
cial favour to them, so now they should be witnesses 
of their just confusion. AMien men honour not the Lord 
with their riches, but kiss their own hands, and sacri- 
fice to their own nets ; when, like beasts, they bite the 
hand that feeds them, and crop the tree that shelters 
them, it is just with God to take all from them, Hos. ii. 
8, 9. In Neh. ix. 7 — 2-5, we have a large catalogue of 
God's singular mercies. Ver. 26, we read how they 
abused those mercies ; and then, ver. 27, 28, we read of 
God's judgments on them for abusing those blessings. 
So Psah cvi. 9 — 11, we see God's mercies; ver. 13 — 39, 
we have the abuse of them ; and ver. 40 — 42, the con- 
sequent judgments. It is usually seen, that where the 
Lord bestows the greatest mercies, there he oft re- 
ceives the gi'catest indignities ; where he gives most 
honour, there he receives most dishonour. '^Tien 
Jeshurun is fat and full, then he kicks, Dent, xxxii. 1.5. 
Ephraim here was a son, and had all the privileges of 
a son ; the greater then was his sin to rebel against that 
God who had been so tender to him. He had, 

1. Dilection. " VThen Israel was a child, then I loved 
him," Hos. xi. 1, 4. 

2. Direction. " I taught Ephraim also to go," and 
sent Jonah, Amos, Hosea, and other prophets to in- 
struct him, Hos. xi. 3. 

3. Correction. As a father corrects his children for 
their good, so did God by Ephraim, Hos. v. 15 ; vi. 1, 2. 

4. Provision. Fathers provide for their children ; so 
flid God for Ephraim : " I did know thee in the wilder- 
ness, in the land of great drought. According to their 
pasture, so were they filled ; they were filled," Hos. xiii. 
5, 6. 

5. Protection. He was their King, who isaved them 
from their enemies : " I will be thy king : where is any 
other that may save thee in all thy cities ? " Hos. xiiL 10. 



594 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIII. 



God has done as great things for England (all things 
considered) as ever he did for Ephraim ; he has heen 
a tender Father to us, he lias blessed us abundantly both 
i J church and state ; he has broken the power and policy 
of many subtle Ahithophels and great Zanzummims, 
giants, and sons of Anak. He has made mountains a 
plain before us ; and though fierce men have ridden 
over our heads, yet has he brought us through fire and 
•water into a wealthy place. For England's sake he 
has sent to Babylon, and brouglit down all their nobles : 
he has bound even kings and princes in chains, and 
then- followers in links of iron. He has made the 
■wicked to bow before the good, and the evil at the 
gates of the righteous. No nation so blessed of our 
God as we, and no nation that has worse requited the 
Lord's blessings than we have done. As he has loaded 
us with mercies, so we have loaded him with blasphe- 
mies, heresies, apostacies ; no favours can win us, no 
benefits bind us ; if God had been our deadly enemy, 
we could not have acted more ignobly and disingenu- 
ously against him than we have done. It is a mu-acle 
of mercy that he yet continues his mercies to us, and 
that he "has not long ago stripped us naked, as in the 
day when we were born, Hos. ii. 3. We have render- 
ed evil to the Lord for all his goodness to us, and 
therefore we may justly fear that evil should pursue 
us, Prov. xvii. 13. If he shall be punished that ren- 
ders evil for evil to man, what shall be done to him 
that renders evil for good, and that to his God who 
never did him hurt ? The good Lord humble us for all 
our ungrateful and disingenuous walking before him, 
who has been so good and gracious to us ; and grant, 
that at last we may know and acknowledge the God of 
oin- mercies, lest an east wind come and bereave us of 
all ; for though at present we have peace and plenty, 
and fresh springs of mercy round about us, yet God 
can suddenly dry up all our springs, and bring a plun- 
dering Assyrian from the east or west upon us, (for 
those metaphorical winds, as well as the natural, are all 
his servants,) that shall quickly rob us of all our plea- 
sant things. Let us not therefore flatter ourselves, 
and think that because at present we have peace, 
, „ , , . therefore no evil shall come upon us ; 

Sm Carjl on Job, n -^ -r. , i . • k *u 

jeiLkj-n on judc, for if England go on to sm alter the 
rate as it has done of late years, adding 
drunkenness to thirst, sin to sin, and heresy to heresy, 
&c., the wi'ath of the Lord will certainly break forth 
against us; and then we that would not serve him gladly 
and sincerely in the abundance of all things, shall be 
made to serve in want and misery, that we may know 
the difference Ijetween his service, and the service of 
men, Dent, xxviii. 47, 48. 

OAs. 6. The judgments of God are irresistible. Let 
Ephi-aim be deeply rooted like a tree, or well founded 
like a tower, yet, if ever this east wind of God's dis- 
pleasure do arise, it will pull him up by the roots, 
blow him down, and carry him into captivity, carry 
him into scarcity, carry him into infamy, yea, carry 
him to death, and then to hell. If the Lord gives 
but the word of command, he has winds in store to 
carry us into any of those sad coasts. Though great 
men are rooted in the earth like great mountains, (in 
their own conceit, and in the opinion of others,) yet 
they are but like tennis-balls in the hands of God, 
which he hurls at pleasure which way he pleases, as is 
excellently set forth, Isa. xxii. 18. With a word of his 
mouth he can speak his enemies into confusion; he can 
with more ease destroy them, than we can crush a 
moth in our windows, or tread a worm to death under 
our feet. How easily and irresistibly does a bar of 
iron break an earthen pot to pieces ! Psal. ii. 9. There 
is not the least creature but is too strong for us, if God 
set it on. He did not vex Egypt with lions and leo- 
pards, but with grasshoppers, frogs, flies, and lice, to 



show his almighty, irresistible power, who can punish 
us by the most contemptible creatures. Thus he slew 
Popeleius and Hatto by rats and mice, Hermonactcs 
was stung to death with bees, Pope Adiian was choked 
with a fly, C'assander was eaten with lice, Antioclius and 
Herod with worms. Thus we see God's omnipotency, 
and man's impotency, and must learn to fear him who 
is able to arm the least and weakest of his creatures, 
and make it strong enough to encounter and conquer 
sinful man. 

Obs. 7. Cruel enemies are God's rod. They come 
not by chance, or of their own accord, but the AssjTian 
here is sent by God as the rod of his indignation against 
rebellious Ephraim ; hence he is called •' the wind of 
the Lord," as being more immediately sent by him. So 
Isa. X. 5 — 7, 15, the AssjTian is called God's "rod,'' 
" staff'," " axe," " saw," with which God chastises " an 
hypocritical nation ;" they can do nothing without a 
hand to move them. There is no evil in this kind, but 
it comes from God, Isa. xlii. 24, 23 ; xlv. 7 ; liv. 16 ; 
Jer. 11. 20; Lam. iii. 1, 37; Amos iii. 6; Hab. i. 6. 
Hence Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, is called 
God's " servant," Jer. xxv. 9, whom he employed in his 
service for the correction of his people ; and the wicked 
are called his " sword," Psal. xvii. 13. As the winds 
natural, so the winds metaphorical, are all at God's 
command, sent by him as executioners of his wrath 
upon a sinful people. Lev. xx\'i. 25; Ezek. xiv. 17, 22. 

But how can it stand with the justice of God to use 
such wicked, blasphemous instruments ? 

He that brings light out of darkness, and good out 
of evil, can make good use even of the sins of men. 
As a wise physician can so order poison, that it shall 
become a medicine, and can expel poison by poison ; 
so the most wise God can extract good out of the act- 
ings of those evil ones, and what they intend for evil, 
he by his over-riding providence disposes unto good. 

For the clearing of this, we must take notice of a 
fourfold act of God in the actions of wicked men. 
There is an act, then, 

1. Of inspection, whereby he sees aU that is done, 
Job xxxiv. 21, 22 ; Psal. xciv. 7, 9. 

2. Of permission, whereby he does actively suft'ei 
that to be done, which he has power to hinder, Psal. 
Ixxxix. 40—42. 

3. Of hmitation or restraint, whereby he keeps in the 
wicked so that they cannot do any thing more or less 
than he will have done, Gen. xx. 6; Job i. 12. 

4. Of direction and order, whereby the evil action- 
of wicked men (which are in themselves evil) are, bi, 
his most wise disposing and oven-uling providence, 
turned to good, Gen. xlv. 5, 7, 8 ; 1. 20 ; Acts ii. 23, 
24. The devil, Judas, Pilate, and the Jews, had ends 
of their own in crucifying Christ, but God had an end 
above their ends, and a plot above their plots, to which 
all their plots (though against then- intents) were sub- 
servient. They did fulfil God's decrees against theii- wills. 

But if they do only that which God foresees, permits, 
hmits, and disposes, "how can they be said to sin, and 
why does God punish them since they fulfil his will ? 

Because they do it not in obedience to God, but out 
of malice, covetousncss, and self-ends, &c. Whatever 
thev pretend, yet they intend nothing less than the 
doing of God's work, and the fulfilling of his will. 
Their end is to satisfy theii- lusts, to enlarge their bor- 
ders by the conquest of countries and the spoils of the 
people, Isa. x. 7. This may, 

1 . Awe us ; since in war we have not to do with men 
only, but it is God who is mighty in power, and terri- 
ble in judgment, that comes agaii.st us. If we had on- 
ly to do with potsherds of the earth we might make 
some resistance, but when the Creator shall come 
against the creature, Omnipotency against impotency, 
I w^o can stand ? Isa. xlv. 9. He 'is the Lord of hosts, 



Ver. 15. 



THE PKOPHECY OF HOSEA. 



595 



and if he be against us, the hosts of heaven and the 
hosts of earth are against us also. 

2. Comfort us in the midst of all our sufFermgs by 
the hands of cruel men, that yet they are but God's 
rods to chastise us for our good. Even they are his 
servants, and can do nothing without a commission 
fi'om our Father, John xis. 11. They cannot curse 
where God does not curse, Numb, xxiii. 8. The very 
devil their master is chained and limited, and cannot 
devour whom he will, but only whom he may, that is, 
■whom God permits him to devour. We are apt, like 
curs, to bite the stone, and not look at the hand that 
threw it, whereas we should always look at the hand of 
God in all our distresses (whatever the instruments 
be) ; then we shall be dumb and silent, when we see 
that it is God that has done it, Gen. 1. 20 ; Job i. 21 ; 
Psal. xxxix: 9 ; 1 Cor. x. 13. The wicked are but God's 
sculUons to cleanse us, his files to furbish us and scour 
off our rust, his millers to grind us, and make us fit 
manchet for our Lord's use. The Chaldeans were 
cruel persecutors, yet the Lord sends his people into 
the land of Chaldea for their good ; he makes them to 
learn that many times in Babylon, which they would 
never have done in Zion, Jer. xxiv. 5. God can make 
a medicine of these vipers, and can dispose the worst 
things to his people's good, Rom. %'iii. 28. Then- very 
persecutions shall spread the gospel. Acts viii. 1 : Phil, 
i. 12, 19. So that in .some sense we are beholden to 
our enemies, for they make us better. 

3. Comfort us also, inasmuch as when those rods 
have done their work, themselves shall be burnt, Isa. 
X. 24 — 2. After Pharaoh had done God's work on Is- 
rael, God drowns him. After the Assyrian had done 
God's work upon his people, the Babylonians come and 
destroy him, and his flourishing empire, Nah. i. 2, 3. 
God sufters them for a time to vent their sin and 
malice, that his justice may be the more apparent in 
their downfal. 

Obs. 8. Sin bereaves us of our most pleasant, pre- 
cious, and desirable things. So, Jer. xv. 13 ; xx. 5 ; 
and Isa. Ixiv. 11, where the church complains, that 
" all our pleasant things are laid waste." In which 
words, mark. 1. The generality of their loss ; not some, 
but " all ;" all their treasures, all their princes, all their 
palaces, all their riches, all their cities, sin had ruined 
all. 2. Their propriety in them ; " our " pleasant things. 
To see another suffer, it may affect us, but not so 
deeplv as when we ourselves suffer. 3. The excellency 
of the things which they lost ; they were "pleasant" 
and desu-able things. To lose base, contemptible 
things does not so much ti'ouble us, but to lose our 
choicest things goes near us. 4. Which aggravates all, 
here is, 1. Conflagration, "Our holy and oui' beautiful 
house is burnt with fire." 2. A devastation and desola- 
tion, all is " laid waste." 

So long as Ephraim was Ephraim, that is, faithful 
and fruitful, he flourished ; but now that he had for- 
saken God, God forsook him, and lets in an east wind 
that destroys aU. He that before was famous, and the 
head of the tribes, is now, since he has found out false- 
hood, and new lights, and new gods, become infamous, 
and the footstool of the tribes. So Hos. xiii. 1, "When 
Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel ; 
but when he offended in Baal, he died:" that is, 1. 
When Ephraim spake trembling, or with trembling, (as 
it is in the original,) he was afraid of sin. Or, 2. When 
Ephraim spake, there was trembling ; that is, he was 
once very awful to the rest of the tribes, so that when 
he spake, the rest of the ti-ibes were ready to tremble. 
But when once he fell to idolatry, and worshipped 
Baal, he lost his reputation, and no reckoning was 
made of him. He that before was formidable, is now- 
become contemptible both with God and man. at home 
and abroad. Now every paltry adversary tramples 



upon him without control, as the fearful hare on a dead 
lion. See thus how Ben-hadad, the king of Syria, in- 
sults over Ahab, who had " sold himself to work wick- 
edness :" 1 Kings XX. 3, 4, " Thy silver and thy gold is 
mine ; thy wives also and thy children, even the good- 
liest, are mine. And the king of Israel answered and 
said, Jly lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am 
thine, and all that I have." Look, as the worried cm- 
falls upon his back, and turns up all fours, as craA'ing 
quarter, so did this sordid idolater crouch to his ene- 
my ; when God was departed from him, he was even as 
a dead carcass. "\A'hilst Israel kept close to God, and 
walked in his way, neither Balak nor Balaam, neither 
the devil nor his agents, could by their enchantments 
hurt them ; but when by the wicked counsel of Balaam 
they were enticed to sin against God by committing 
whoredom with the daughters of Moab, then God's 
wrath breaks forth against them, and they die for it, 
Numb. XXV. 1 ; xsxi. 16. Hence a heathen could say, 
It is our sins that w-eaken our armies, nostris pcccatu 
and make them fly before their enemies, barbari lories sunt, 
As all good is in God, the chiefest good, Rom'SiSsu''pera- 
who is therefore called a sun for con- '"■■ =''""'"^- 
solation, and a shield for protection, and the God of 
all comfort both inclusively and exclusively, Psal. 
Ixxxiv. 11 ; 2 Cor. i. 3 ; so all the evQ in the world 
may be seen in sin, which is the chiefest evil, as po- 
verty, sickness, war, death, hell. Sin dries up all our 
springs, stops our fountains, spoils our treasm-es, and 
robs us of all our pleasant things ; our pleasant land, 
our pleasant food, our pleasant raiment, our pleasant 
houses, pleasant chikfren, sin, sin, sin bereaves us of 
them all. God turns " a fi'uitful land into barrenness, 
for the wickedness of them that dwell therein," Psal. 
cvii. 34 ; and therefore when any thing goes amiss with 
us, we should search for the sin that has done us the 
mischief; find out the Achanthat has caused the trou- 
ble ; find out the Jonah that has raised the storm ; do 
justice on the one, and drown the other, and we shall 
have peace. We should slay that which otherwise will 
slay us, and ruin iniquity, which ruins our houses, 
lands, wives, children, "all our pleasant things." It 
is this enemy that robs us of our health, wealth, peace, 
plenty, ordinances, magistrates, ministers, and all our 
comforts. 

You may say. We will hide our treasures that none 
shall find them. But mark, there is no hiding of your- 
selves, or substance, when God pursues, Jei\ xi. 11. 
The wind of the Lord will pierce into the most secret 
places, and find out you, and all your hid treasures, 
Psal. xxi. S ; cxxxix. 7, 8 ; Isa. xiii. 16, 17 ; Amos ix. 
2 — 4. God has those that watch for your riches, Jer. 
iv. 16, 17; and greedy soldiers that shall search for 
your hid treasures, Isa. x. 13, 14 ; xlv. 3; Obad. 6. 

Let us then wean our hearts from those flying, fading, 
transitoiy things. What the prophet said of riches, " If 
they increase, set not your hearts upon them," may be 
fitlv applied to all creature comforts; if friends increase, 
set not your hearts upon them ; if chikb-en increase, or 
honours, or armies, or pleasant habitations, &c., yet 
set not your hearts upon them, but look ujjon them as 
things that have wings to fiy ii'om us in our greatest 
need. Lie loose, therefore, in your affections to all 
earthly enjoyments, that so whenever the Lord shall 
call for them by fire, sword, or any other way, it may 
not trouble you to part with them ; make not idols of 
them in over-loving them, lest you lose them. It is 
great folly greedily to lay up treasures for we know 
not whom, Psal. xxxix. 6 ; Jer. xvii. 1 1 ; it may be for 
an enemy, as Ephraim here : little did he think that the 
mei'ciless Assyrian should be enriched with his labours, 
and that the men whom their souls hated should be 
masters of all their desirable and pleasant things. 

Since earthly things are so uncertain and fading, 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIU. 



" Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, wliere 
moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break 
through and steal ; but lay up for yomselves treasures 
in heaven," Matt. vi. 19, 20. Lay out your estates for 
God, his truth, his cause, his people, and the spiritual 
good of you and yours. This is to lay up treasures in 
heaven. Get grace, that is durable riches which will 
never leave you, and that better part wliich shall never 
be taken from you. 

Ver. 16. Samaria shall become desolate ; for she lialh 
rebelled against her God : they shall fall bij the suord : 
iheir infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their icomen 
u:ith child shall be ripped up. 

This verse contains the end of the sermon, and of 
the chapter, and tlicrefore those interpreters do ill who 
make it to begin the next chapter, when this verse 
fitly coheres with the precedent verse : there the pro- 
])hct showed how they should be plundered and lose 
their goods, here he tells them how they should be 
butchered and lose their lives. So that the prophet 
does not here begin a new senaon, but only confirms 
what he had spoken before of the destraction of Sama- 
ria, and the overthrow of the whole kingdom. So that 
the words are a clear and concluding exposition of the 
former similes ; wherein we have, 

1. The dismal downfal of Samaria, 
ac'i/n J'reiaH.'ii'f- "Samaria shall become desolate," ott'sn 
p"cc"iilili'«rd2."£- P""^!!' The prophet labours to awaken 
i.otii. cau-x A L.ip. them by foretelling the greatness of their 

LeigliB Crit. S. . , .' DO 

punisliment. 
2. The meritorious cause of this sad destruction, viz. 
her rebellion, " for she hath rebelled." So that she 
has no cause to complain of God, as if he dealt hardly 
with her, for her own rebellion is the true cause of her 
destruction, and her great provocation has brought this 
upon her ; as the church in the like case complains, 
" The Lord is righteous " in sending sword, plague, and 
famine upon us, " for I have rebelled against his com- 
mandment," Lara. i. 18. 

_ . 3. The aggi'avation of this their rebel- 

«uum, emphatice iion ; it was not agamst man, but agamst 
men'"ui«''<5,"K. God, yea, against " her God " in covenant, 
Jf.^.H™°.i!;'^Ii^'"'' who had been so good and gracious to 

dine adoptioiiis a»- , , , . ^ • & _ 

\.nie beneflcium. her Doth lu tcmporals and spirituals, yet 
she most ignominiously casts off him, and 
prefers the calves, Hos. xiii. 2. 

4. The manner of their desti'uction, or what kind of 
death they shall die, and that is by the sword, " they 
shall fall by the sword." They shall not only lose their 
treasure, and their land, but their lives also. He says 
not, all shall fall, but indefinitely iSs' " they shaD 
fall ;" that is, many of the inhabitants of Samaria, and 
of the kingdom of Israel, shall be slain by the Assy- 
rian. 

5. The better yet to awaken them out of their secu- 
rity, he sets forth the rage of the AssjTian, with its 
aggravations, tcUing them, " their infants shall be 
dashed in pieces, and tlieir women with child shall be 
ripped up." They should not only die themselves, but 
their little ones also should perish with them. 

" Samaria sliall become desolate." Samaria was built 
by Omri, king of Israel, who " bought the hill Sama- 
ria of Shemer for two talents of silver, and built on the 
hill, and called the name of the city which he built, 
after the name of Shemer, owner of the hUl, Samaria," 
1 Kings xvi. 21. It was the royal city, even the chief 
city of the kings of Israel, where they kept their court, 
and had their special residence ; there they reigned, and 
there they were buried. This was the metropolis, or 
mother city; all the other cities of the kingdom of 
Israel were called tlie daughters of Samaria, Kzek. xvi. 
40, 55. In Augustus Ca'sar's time, it was called Se- 



baste, and not long after was totally ruined. And here 
let it be noted once for all, that when the prophets 
speak of the ten tribes only, sometimes they call them 
Samaria, sometimes E])hiaim, and sometimes Israel, 
Joseph, Jezreel, Bcth-el, Beth-aven ; but when they 
speak of the two tribes, they usually do it under the 
name of Judah, Jerusalem, Benjamin, and the house of 
David. 

Samaria was a populous, strong, well-fortified city, 
there were in it horses, and chariots, and armour, 
2 Kings X. 1, 2. It was every way well prepared to 
hold out against an enemy, as appears by the three 
years' siege of that potent enemy which lay against it; 
yet, notwithstanding all the fortifications, Samaria shall 
be made desolate, because of her sin. Samaria is here 
put for the inhabitants of Samaria, viz. the Israelites, 
and synecdochically for the whole kingdom of Israel, as 
distinct from the kingdom of Judah. The prophet 
names only Samaria, because it was the jirimc city, 
and all the rest were taken before ; there was none left 
but Samaria, and sin brings down that also. This city 
was twice besieged, first by the Syrians in Ahab's time, 
1 Kings XX. 1 ; 2 Kings vi. 24 ; and now by the Assy- 
rians. Pul and Tiglath-pileser had before molested 
Israel, 2 Kings xv. 19, 29, and now comes Shalmaneser, 
a third king of AssjTia. He besieges Samaria in the 
days of Hoshea, the last king of Israel ; he takes it, and 
cari'ies the inhabitants into captivity, from which they 
never returned, but were totally rooted up, having con- 
tinued, from Jeroboam their first king, about two hun- 
dred and sixty years. 

"For she hath rebelled against her God." The Lord 
had used all means to reclaim them, his Spirit had long 
striven with them in the ministry of those ])rophe;s 
which he had in compassion sent amongst them, a."? 
Jehu, Semaiah, Azariah, with Elijah, Elisha, Joel, 
Jonah, Amos, Micah, and specially this our prophet 
Hosea. How plainly does he tell them 
throughout his prophecy, of their idol- S?re''fl!os"t.rei 
atry, apostacy, ingratitude, and of the SmanS/m 'con- 
judgments which were coming on them \^■^ B»"'i.a>i 
for those sins ! yet nothing will work 
upon them, but they persist obstinately in their sins, 
and therefore the Lord resolves to pour out his fury on 
them. Since they had imbittered his soul with their 
sins, and given him gall who had given them honey, 
and given him wormwood for his milk, therefore he 
now resolves to send on them bitter punishments, Hos. 
xii. 14. 

" Thev shall fall by the sword ;" that 
is, they shall die by the sword ; so the ,^2111.1^0™ 
phrase is frequently taken in Scripture, ^1;;^"" "" Teucru. 
as Lev. xxvi. 7, 8 ; Numb. xiv. 3, 43 ; 2 
Sam. i. 12 ; Psal. Ixxviii. 64 ; Ezek. v. 12 ; Hos. vii. 16. 

" Their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their 
women with child shall be rip])ed up." This sets forth 
the great rage and fury of the barbarous Assyrians, and 
withal implies the greatness of Samaria's sin, which 
provoked God to so great wrath. Tliey should s])are 
neither old nor young, no mercy should be showed to 
women or childi'cn, no sex, no age sliould escape un- 
punished ; their little infants and sucklings, which 
usually are spared, yet now shall be dashed in iiieces. 
Soldiers are wont to show mercy to women and chil- 
dren, unless sorely provoked ; the Assyrians had be- 
sieged Samaria three years, and therefore they dealt 
the more severely with them. Fenced cities sometimes 
hold out long, but when taken they generally suffer 
much. Of such brutish inhumanity we read, 2 Kings 
XV. 16, where the tyrant Menahem ripped the infants 
of Tiphsah out of their mothers' wombs, because their 
fathers " opened not to him." These examples in no 
wise justify, much less excuse, the malicious crueltv of 
wicked men who despitefuUy slay the godly with their 



Ver. 16. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



597 



seed ; such cursed Edomites shall surely and suitably 
]xiy for it, Psal. cxxxvii. 7 ; Amos i. 13. The Assyrians, 
■«lio here dash in pieces Ephraim's children, had at last, 
by way of retaliation, their own so served, Nah. iii. 10. 
(/ The sum of all is this : O people of Israel, I have 
often told you what you will not believe, that your de- 
struction is near ; therefore now know, that whether 
you believe it or not, yet God will certainly and sud- 
denly execute what he has decreed, and fulfil what he 
has spoken by me ; neither have you any cause to 
■complain of cruelty in God, since it is your own rebel- 
lion which has brought this judgment on your own 
heads. There have been no means wanting on God's 
part to do you good, he has sent his projihets rising 
early and coming late unto you. He would have 
cured you, but ye would not be cured, and therefore 
now ye shall never be purged ; but your chief city, with 
the regions round about it, shall be made a desolation, 
your men shall ftiU by the sword, yea, your women and 
little children shall die without mercy. 

Obs. 1. God usually warns before he smites. He 
sends Hosea to tell them before, " Samaria shall bo- 
come desolate." He speaks before he strikes, and de- 
nounces judgments before he executes them. Seldom 
does he send any great judgment against his own peo- 
ple, but he tells them of it first. He lightens before 
he thunders, shoots off his warning pieces before his 
murdering pieces, and hangs out the white flag of 
mercy before the black flag of destruction. He deals 
not with us, as one did with Diogenes, who first brake 
his head, and then bid him take heed. But he first 
admonishes us to repent ; thus he did to the seven 
churches of Asia before their destruction. Rev. ii. .5. 
He first cuts men do'i\'n with the sword of his mouth, 
before he cuts them do\^-n with the sword of his hand, 
Hos. vi. 5. He first blows the trumpet, (and commands 
men so to do, Deut. xx. 10 — 12,) before he sends the 
sword, Hos. v. 8, 9 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 15, 16 ; Jer. vii. 
25 ; xxvi. 18 ; Joel ii. 1 ; Amos iv. 12 ; Zeph. ii. 1—3. 

Sometimes God warns, 

1. By extraordinary and immediate revelation. Thus 
he warned the wise men that came to Christ not to go 
to Herod, but to return to their own country another 
way. Matt. ii. 12. 

2. By prodigious signs and comets. These are the 
usual forerunners of some judgment approaching. They 
have a voice as well as the word ; if they will not 
hearken to the voice of the first sign, yet they will be- 
lieve the voice of the second, Exod. iv. 8. Christ tells 
us, that before the destruction of Jerusalem, there 
should be many fearful sights and signs, Luke xxi. 11, 
25. And Josephus affirms, that before its destruction, 
for a whole year's space there appeared a comet like a 
sword. Before our German wars, there appeared a 
blazing comet in 1618. 

3. By his ministers, Ezek. xxxiii. 2, 7, 8. Thus he 
warned the old world, a hundred and twenty years, 
by the preaching of Noah, before he drowned it, Gen. 
vi. 13. Before the destruction of Jerusalem, he sent 
Christ himself and his apostles to call them to re- 
pentance. 

4. By his lesser judgments. 1. He comes as a moth, 
which eats one thread now, and another anon, and 
without any noise devours all. 2. As a worm, or rot- 
tenness, which eats out the heart of the strongest oak. 
3. If that will not do, there lies a lion that tears all in 
pieces without resistance, Hos. v. 12, 14. 

5. By his rods on others, as on the Palatinate and 
Savoy, &c. ; so he sent the Jews to Shiloh, Jer. vii. 12 : 
also by taking away eminent magistrates and zealous 
ministers, Isa. iii. 1 — 6. 

6. By the motions of his Spu-it ; he knocks at the 
door of our hearts, and warns us to return. Rev. iii. 20. 

An:l this he does, 1. In mercy to his people, that 



they might prepare to meet him, and so prevent his 
judgments ; as those that believed the threatening of 
the hail, housed themselves and their cattle, ancl so 
were saved, Exod. ix. 18 — 21. He deals 
not with us like an enemy, who surprises S'i'i!rra°Jt'!;gent'e 
his adversary unawares ; but, like a faith- S'l°nk""nom" 
ful friend, he tells us of the storm ap- 
proaching, that we might hide ourselves from it, 2 
Chron. xii. 5 — 7; Job xxii. 29; Hab. iii. 16. 

2. For the manifestation of his justice upon the 
wicked, who shall be made inexcusable, in that they had 
such fair warning given them, but they would not take 
it. Nineveh, at the preaching of one Jonah, repented 
and escaped ; the Lord be merciful to England ! how 
many hunch'eds of Jonahs have we had to call us to 
repentance, and yet we turn not, but fall away more 
and more ! It is a sad aggravation of men's sins, and 
puts a sore sting into men's troubles, when conscience 
shall fly in their faces and say. Thou wast foretold of 
such judgments, and forewarned of siich and such 
miseries, but thou contemnedst the voice of thy teach- 
ers, and didst set at nought all their counsels ; and 
therefore now thou must expect no more pity or pa- 
tience from God, but mayst justly expect that he should 
fulfil the word which he spake by his servants against 
thee. 

Let then his warnings win thee, and his patience and 
long-sufiering lead thee to repentance. Let not his 
admonitions be always lost upon thee. Be not still 
secure and senseless, like Lot's sons-in-law, who, when 
he warned them of danger approaching, " seemed as 
one that mocked," Gen. xix. 14 ; but how soon did 
they find that he was in earnest! So Isa. v. 19, they 
mocked at the prophet that told them of captivity and 
judgment, and bid him let them see the things he spake 
of; and they did so to their soitow. And is it not so in 
our davs ? when we tell people of judgment approach- 
ing, and ready to seize upon them, they look upon it 
as some vain dream or melancholy fancy, till they are 
made to feel the contrary. See how dreadfully God 
thi'eatens such secure, unbelieving sinners, Deut. xxix. 
19—21. 

Believe his timely warnings. Without faith all warn- 
ings are ineffectual ; it is only Noah, that by faith 
feared and built an ark, that was saved, both he and 
his household, Heb. xi. 7. 

Obs. 2. The ministers of God must apply the word 
to their people. The prophet preaches at Samaria 
against the sins of Samaria, and tells them to their 
faces, that for their rebellion they shall be made a de- 
solation. Thus did all the prophets ; they made Jeru- 
salem to know her abominations, Isa. Iviii. 1 ; Ezek. 
xvi. 2. So did Christ himself apply the word par- 
ticularly to his hearers. Matt. xi. 21, 23 ; xxiii. 37, 38; 
John iv. 17, 18 ; so did the apostles. Acts ii. 36, 37. 
This is the only way to convince and convert men ; 
what is spoken generally to all, few will apply to them- 
selves. Quod diciluf onuii, dicitur nuUi. 

Be not then offended at the plain and powerful preach- 
ing of the word. A plaister that is not applied, will 
never heal. A minister shall never profit his people, 
till he apply the word to theu- particular cases. Those 
whom the Lord intends for conversion, by his Spirit he 
sets the word so home upon their hearts, that they 
think the minister knows even all their secret thoughts. 

Obs. 3. Judgments seldom go alone. Ephraim was 
plundered before, but now he must be butchered ; be- 
fore he lost his goods, now his life must go, which is 
more precious than all pleasant things. Job ii. 4. How 
oft do we read of sword, plague, famine, those three 
arrows of God, shot together against a rebelHous peo- 
ple, Ezek. xiv. 21. As sins seldom go alone, so nei- 
ther do judgments : see what a concatenation and chain 
of judgments is set down together, Deut. xxvlii. 15 — 68. 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIII. 



God wants not variety of judgments to inflict u])on a 
sinful ]>cople, that they may know what a sad and liit- 
ter tiling it is that they have provoked him. Pharaoh 
had ten plagues one ai'tcr another. The trumpets and 
the vials in the Revelation came not single, but by 
sevens, bringing in mischief upon mischief, and jjlague 
upon plague, till he had consumed them, Deut. xxxi. 
17 ; Jer. li. 31, 32. 

Obs. 4. AVhen lesser judgments do not mend a people, 
God usually comes with greater. If plundering will 
not mend Ephraim, desolation shall end him, Hos. v. 
12, 14. When C'hedorlaomer had plundered Sodom, 
and that did not better them, Gen. xiv. 11, at last 
comes fire from heaven and consumes them. Gen. xix. 
When gentle physic will not work out the peccant 
humour, the physician applies stronger. If gentle cor- 
rection will not mend our children, we double om- 
strokes. If one beating will not mend a people, God 
will plague them yet seven times more according to 
their sins. Lev. xxvi. 21, 24; Isa. i. 5; Jer. v. 3, 6. 
When no judgments will work upon Pharaoh, then he 
is drowned. When temporal judgments do not mend 
a people, he sends them to eternal. It is an ill sign 
when men are incorrigible under judgments, and be- 
come the worse for beating, Isa. ix. 13. Ahaz had a 
brand set upon him, to warn all others to take heed of 
tliis sinning sin : " In the time of his distress did he 
trespass yet more against the Lord : this is that king 
Ahaz." That king, that wicked, infamous, irreligious 
king, who " sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, which 
smote him." ,What madness is this, to serve such as beat 
their servants for their pains, and ruin them ! for so it 
follows, " They were the ruin of him, and of all Israel," 
2 Chron. xxvi'ii. 22, 23. 

Desperate sores must have desperate cures. Hard 
knots must have hard wedges. " Fitches are beaten 
out with a staff," but the cummin must have a rod, 
Isa. xxviii. 27. When the Lord had used all means 
to bring Israel to repentance, when he had sent blast- 
ing, plague, famine, and sword upon them, and yet they 
were impenitent, Amos iv. 6 — 11, he proceeds there 
in ver. 12, to tell them that now he would deal more 
sharply and se\erely with them. "Therefore thus will 
I do unto thee," i. e. thus terribly, thus 
tjcet, ut <ium .d_ dreadtully, ui a more fierce and furious 
manner than ever : " Therefore thus will 
I do unto thee, O Israel: and because 



Quid Kit racluruB 
Ucet, lit (lum i 
ringuln pcDnftri 

genera pendent 
icerli.ptenilent 



I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet 
thy God, O Israel." There is no meet- 
ing him in a way of opposition, or rising up against 
him; (for who ever hardened himself against God and 
Miiiamu. recu el P'"0'*pf rc'l ?) 1'"' meet him in a way of 
iaciirpiia« cordis le humiliation and repentance with prayers 
B«to., ,.pnan. ^^^^ tears, despatch those messengers to 
meet him on the way whilst he is afar off, that you 
may prevent the execution of God's wrath. A lion 
will not seize on a yielding prey; the bending reed is 
preserved, wlien the stubborn oak is pulled up by the 
roots, Isa. ii. 11, 12, &c. By this means we shall either 
remove the judgment, or get it sanctified, so that all 
shall be for good unto us, or else God will take us 
away, as he did Josiah, before the evil comes. AA'e 
shall escape those trials we cannot bear, and be enabled 
to undergo those trials which we cannot escape. 

Obs. 5. Eminent places ofttimes are eminent in sin. 
In great cities there usually are great sinners. Jeru- 
salem was a great city, and what great abominations 
were in it ! murder, oppression, bribery, profanation of 
sabbaths and holy things, her princes were roaring 
lions, her judges ravening wolves, and the priests did 
violence to the law, Ezek. xxii. Babylon was a fa- 
mous, wealthy, populous city, yet full of cruelty and 
pride, full of witchcraft and fornication, both corporal 
and spiritual, Jer. 1. 31—38. The cities of Sodom and. 



Gomorrah were full of crying sins, as pride, idleness, 
gluttony, inhumanity, and notorious uncleanness. And 
here in the text Samaria was full of idolatry and re- 
bellion against God, 1 Kings xiii. 32; Isa. x. 10, 11 ; 
IIos. viii. 5 : the lesser cities were called the daughters 
of Samaria, Ezek. xvi. 46, and those were like their 
mother. Great cities have great influence upon their 
neighbour towns ; if they be idolatrous, superstitious, 
riotous, proud, profane, so will the places round about 
them be ; if great Babylon be a harlot, she will quickly 
become " the mother of harlots and abominations," 
Key. xvii. 5. We should not therefore desire to live 
in such populous places, (unless we be called by God to 
them, for then he will keep us, as he did Lot in Sodom,) 
but to go and live in them without a call, only for plea- 
sure, or to see fashions, S:c., is a sore temptation. We 
see travellers that go thus to such great places, return 
ofttimes infected both in body and soul. So true is 
that of one, Nunquam inter homines fui, quin minor 
homo reclii. 

Obs. G. Such places as have been eminent for sin, 
usually are eminent for punishment. As we see in the 
old world, Sodom, Jerusalem, and Samaria here, for 
her sin, is made a desolation, Micah i. 6. A^^len sin 
grows general and national, it brings national judg- 
ments, Isa. viii. 18 ; Jer. xi. 9, 11; Hos. iv. 1 — 3. When 
all Israel transgressed the law, no wonder if the curse 
come upon them, Dan. ix. 11. Many think to escape 
the better because they have so many companions, 
when the more general the sin, the nearer to judgment. 
If aU nations sin, all nations must have the cup of 
God's wrath given them, Jer. xxv. 15 ; Mai. iii. 8, 9. 
It is as easy w ith God to destroy a world of men as 
one man, they are all but as a di'op and a little dust to 
him, Isa. xl. 15 — IT. Multitudes of sinners increase 
wrath. When the Jews " assembled themselves by 
troops in the harlots' houses," then God would pardon 
them no longer, Jer. v. 7, 8. The more wicked the 
times and places are that we live in, tlie greater our 
praise will be if we be godly. To be good in good 
times and places, a hypocrite and formalist may be : 
but with Lot to be good in Sodom, and Job in the 
land of Uz, and with Noah in the midst of an ungodly 
world, and with Elijah to be righteous and zealous in 
the midst of an unrighteous and perverse generation, 
that is praiseworthy indeed, and argues much sin- 
cerity. It was the commendation of the church of 
Pergamos, that she professed Christ's name where Satan 
had his throne, and did not deny him in the days when 
Antipas, his faithful martyr, was slain, Rev. ii. 12, 13. 
Fly sin then, which brings destruction, not only on the 
sinner, but also on the very towns, cities, castles, and 
places where they dwell. As God has promised that 
])cace and prosiierity shall be in tlie dwellings of the 
rigliteous. Job v. 24 ; viii. 6 ; Prov. iii. 33, and that he 
will make a hedge about them, and all that they have, 
to preserve them from rnblury. fire, molestation by 
evil spirits, and other calamities, Job i. 10; so, on the 
contrary, sin makes a man naked, and exposes him, 
and all that he has, to the curse of God. He will de- 
stroy the very d'i\ollings of idolaters, swearers, eurscrs, 
bribers, <.*i.c.. Job xii. 6 ; xv. 34 ; Zech. v. 4. The wick- 
edness that has been practised in the gicat liousos and 
castles of this land, has laid many of them in the dust, 
and we may look to be brought yet lower: we have 
brought God low in our judgments, low in our af- 
fections, low in our actions, low in his ordinances, low 
in his vicegerents and ambassadors : and therefore it 
is just with God to lay us low, and to debase us, who 
have so many way; debased him. 

Obs. 7. No fortifications can preserve a sinful j)i o- 
ple from ruin. Let them make walls as high as heaven, 
and ditches as deep as hell, yet if sin reign within, ii 
will bring all down. It is not a fleet by sea, nor forces 



Vtli. 16. 



THE PKO?HECY OF HOSEA. 



599 



by land, it is not a magazine of treasures, nor an 
arsenal of armour, that can preserve a -n-icked kingdom 
finm ruin. As Samaria was a well-fortified, so it was a 
rebellious, idolati'ous, sinful place, and this brought it 
down, Ezek. xvi. 46 ; xxiii. 4, 5 ; Hos. vii. 1 ; Amos 
iii. 9, 10 ; Micah i 5, 7. Though it were strongly for- 
tified both by art and nature, and very large, about 
three miles in compass, yet Samaria's sin was Samaria's 
ruin. Nineveh was a populous, ancient, great, strong, 
wealthy city, yet hsr great sins laid her in the dust, 
and made all her strong holds di'op like ripe figs, with 
little ado, into the mouth of the Chaldeans. Babylon 
a most ancient, ample, wealthy, well-fortified, potent, 
populous city, yet, abounding with sin, all her power 
and policy could not keep her from ruin. tTerusalem, 
that strong city, encompassed with mountains, towers, 
and bulwarks, fortified Ijoth by art and nature, and so 
powerfully protected by the Lord himself for many 
years together, to the admii'ation of all the world, that 
it was judged invincible; Lam. iv. 12, "The kings of 
the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, W'ould 
not have believed that the adversary and the enemy 
should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem ; " yet 
Jerusalem's sin was Jerusalem's ruin ; and, therefore, let 
none confide in cities, or any privileges whatsoever. 
We are apt in our distresses to run to well-fortified 
places, but in vain is salvation looked for from those 
creature confidences; if the Lord help not, how should 
these help ? This is to forsake God, '• the fountain of 
living waters,"' the Almighty, and aU-suflicient, " a very 
present help in trouble," and to go to cisfenis, " broken 
cisterns" of creature comforts, that will fail and forsake 
them in a time of trouble, Jer. ii. 13. 

Obs. 8. Sin is a bitter thing. Samaria has rebelled, 
or imbittered (as the word is in the original) God, and 
" provoked him to anger most bitterly " by her sin, 
Hos. xii. 14. Ephraim's sins were bitter to God, yea, 
they were bitternesses, in the absti'aet. and in the plural 
number also. This may discover to us the cursed na- 
ture of sin, and the iniquity of our iniquities, which 
turns God's sweetness into bitterness, his patience into 
wrath, and his bowels into wormwood. If any thing 
can sadden God, and imbitter his soul, it is sin. To 
see every base lust preferred before him, to see Satan 
in the throne, the heart, and the Spu'it of God kept out, 
must needs imbitter his Spirit against us. The Lord 
that made heaven and earth, and sustains the pillars of 
it, yet never complains of that burden ; but sin is such a 
burden, that he oft complains of that, as tiring him out, 
Isa. i. 14, 24; xliii. 24; Amos ii. 13; and the bitter- 
ness thereof is as gall, which he cannot endure. Dent. 
xxxii. 32. God is all love and sweetness, and would 
not deal thus bitterly with us, did not our bitter sins 
provoke him to it. 

Sin is bitter, 1. To God. 2. To Christ. 3. To the 
Holy Spirit. 4^. To angels : 1. To good angels. 2. To 
the evil angels. 5. To men : 1. To good men. 2. To 
wicked men. 6. To states and kingdoms. 7. To the 
creatures. 8. In its efl'ects : 1. Private. 2. Positive. 

Sin is bitter, 

1. To God, as we have seen before. 

2. To Christ ; it made him cry in the bitterness of his 
soul, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" 
and made his soul heavy imto death. So bitter were 
our sins to him that they made him " a man of soitows," 
Isa. liii. 3, and made him sweat, )wn gullas sed grunios, 
clots of blood, Luke xxii. 44. "When Christ hung upon 
the cross, they gave him gall and vinegar to drink : 
every sin is as gall to him. " The Lord is righteous ; for I 
have rebelled against his commandment," or, as it is in 
the original, because I have imbittered him ; he is 
righteous in aU his judgments on me, for I have im- 
bittered him against me by my bitter sins, Lam. i. 18. 

3. To the Holy Spirit of God. Nothing grieves it. 



and drives it out of tire soul, but sin, Gen. vi. 3 ; Eph. 
iv. 30. 

4. To the angels. 1. To the good angels : it is bitter 
and displeasing to them to see their Lord and Master 
daily provoked by a company of sinful, rebellious crea- 
tiu'es ; and should the Lord give them but a word of 
command, they would suddenly smite all the wicked 
dead, and revenge the dishonours done to him, as we 
see in Sennacherib's blasphemous camp, where one angel 
in one night killed a hundi'ed fourscore and five 
thousand men. 

2. To the evil angels: it has throAvn them from 
heaven to hell, and of angels it has turned them into 
devils, and keeps them in chains of darkness to the 
judgment of the great day, Jude 6. 

5. To man. 1. To good men : there is nothing so 
bitter to them as sin, nothing grieves them like this, 
that they have grieved the good Spirit of God. AU 
losses, crosses, reproaches, are light with them in com- 
parison of sin. . The cliurch of Ephesus could bear any 
affliction, but not sin, Rev. ii. 2. Good David oft 
complains of the burden of his sins, seldom of Iris suf- 
ferings, Psal. xxxviii. 4. So bitter a thing is sin to 
them, that it ofttimes makes them weary of their lives, 
and long to be dissolved that they may sin no more, 
Rom. ^^i. 24; 2 Cor. v. 4 ; it makes them a burden to 
themselves, Job vii. 20, and causes them to weep bit- 
terly, JIatt. xxvi. 75. Hence Job, chap. xiii. 26, calls sins 
bitter things, "Thou writest bitter things against me," 
what is that? "thou makest me to possess the ini- 
quities of my youth." 

2. To wicked men. Though whilst conscience 
sleeps they may think it a light matter, yet to an en- 
lightened and an awakened conscience nothing is more 
bitter. This made Adam to hide himself, and Cain to 
complain that his sin was a burden too heavy for him 
to bear. Judas could not endiu'e tlie bitterness of it, 
but went forth and hanged himself. Nothing so bitter 
as sin when it is once charged by God upon the con- 
science; of all heavy things this is the most heavy: "A 
wounded spmt who can bear ? " Those that will not 
now believe it, yet shall one day find it, that it is an 
evil and bitter thing that they have sinned against 
God, Jer. ii. 19; iv. 18; Lam. iii. 15; Amos viii. 10; 
Prov. ix. 17, 18; xiv. 13; xxiii. 32; Gal. v. 19—21; 
Acts viii. 23. Solomon, who had found sweetness in 
the ways of the flesh, yet at last felt and acknowledged 
the bitterness of such courses, Prov. v. 3, 4 ; Eccl. 
vii. 26. Though sin may for a time seem sweet to the 
sinner, and it be a pastime to them to do wickedly, yet it 
will be bitterness in the end, the poison of asps is in it, 
Job XX. 12—14. 

If sin then be so bitter, how comes it to pass that 
wicked men are no more sensible of it.' 'To this I 
answer, 

1. Their consciences are seared with the custom of 
sinning, which has taken away the sense of sin, so that 
now it is become connatural and pleasant to them, and 
so is not axievous. Poison in a toad „ 

,"=2 , . . , „ . Elementum in suo 

IS not troublesome, he is never sick or it, loto non est ponde- 
nor sensible of it, because it is natiu'al to "'""°- 
him ; but poison in a man, a sheep, a dove, is deadly, 
because it is not in its proper place. 

2. It is a spiritual bitterness ; now wicked men haye 
no spiritual life in them, they are dead' in sin, and so 
are insensible of it. 

3. The devil, that prince of darkness, keeps wicked 
men in darkness and ignorance, so that they know not 
the terrors of the Lord, nor what " a fearful thing" it is 
to fall into the hands of an angry God: and this makes 
men so fearless of sin. As we cannot desire what we 
know not, so we cannot fear it. A child that knows not 
what a terrible thing a lion or a bear is, will venture to 
provoke them ; but a man of understanding will run 



600 



AX EXPOSITIOX OF 



Chap. XIII. 



from them. It is fools who make a mock of sin, who 
never knew the danger of it ; but the godly, who know 
its bitterness, will rather choose any miseiy than tlie 
least iniquity, any affliction rather than sin. 

6. To states and kingdoms, and provokes the Lord 
to send bitter enemies against them, Hab. i. G. The 
very land where wicked men dwell is sick of them, and 
cannot have ease till it has spewed them out. As a 
man that has poison in his stomach is not well till he 
be rid of it, and as the sea would not be quiet till Jo- 
nah was thrown overboard ; so nations can have no 
rest till they have vomited up such wicked men, which, 
like con'ii])t humours, oppress and burden them, Lev. 
xviii. 25, 2S ; xx. 22. This is that bitter water which 
causes the curse to seize on persons and nations, Numb. 
V. 18, and brings upon them bitter destruction, ])out. 
xxxii. 24. Thus the ten tribes here were spewed out for 
their idolatry, when they were carried captive by Slial- 
maneser into the land of tlie Medes, from whence they 
never returned, 2 Kings xvii. 18. And the Jews were 
vomited up when they were carried captive into Baby- 
lon for the space of seventy years, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21. 

7. To the creatures. They all groan under the bur- 
den, and as a woman in travail longs to be disburdened 
and eased of her birth, so the whole creation travails 
in pain, and longs to be delivered from that bondage, 
vanity, and con-uption, to which it is subject by reason 
of the sin of man, Rom. viil. 20 — 22. 

8. In its effects, which are twofold : 1. Privative. 2. 
Positive. 

1. The privative effects of sin are sevenfold: it de- 
prives us of, 

1. The favour of God, which is the ver)' life of souls : 
" In his favour is life," Psal. xxx. 5. 

2. God's fatherly care and protection over us. Gen. 
iv. 14 ; Exod. xxxii. 2d. 

3. The guard of the angels. Evei-y godly man has 
not one angel, but a guard of angels about him, to 
keep him, whilst he keeps God's ways, Psal. xxxiv. 7 ; 
xci. 11, 12; Heb. i. 14. 

4. Peace of conscience ; a jewel of more worth than 
all the world. Adam, when he had sinned, was afraid, 
and hid himself. David, after his sin, complained of 
broken bones, his sight and sense of sin was as bitter 
to him as if he had broken all his bones, Psal. li. 8. 

5. Our excellency. Purity is our excellency; it is sin, 
and only sin, that robs us of our glorj-, and makes us 
like other men. As Jacob said of Keubcn when he had 
defiled his father's bed, " Thou shalt not excel," Gen. 
xlix. 4. 

6. All true right to the creature. A wicked man is 
a usurper, though he may have a civil right, in foro 
soli, yet, mforopnli, he has a sanctified right to nothing. 
When men are in Christ, then, and not till then, all is 
theirs, 1 Cor. iii. 22. 

7. Heaven and eternal happiness. Rev. xxi. 27. 

2. The positive effects of sin are more especially three. 
It exposes us to all miseries, externa^ internal, and 
eternal. 

Sin exposes us to miseries, 

1. External, in body, goods, good name; we may 
thank sin for all our siclmesses, sorrows, sores, losses, 
plagues, poverty, &c., Deut. xxviii. 15—68; Lam. 
iii. 39. 

2. Internal. It brings hardness of heart, the sorest 
of plagues ; all the jjlagues of Pharaoh, all the sores of 
Job, and all the son'ows of Joseph, are nothing com- 
pared with it. This brings spiritual blindness, a repro- 
bate sense, a spirit of slumber, and strong' delusions, 
Isa. vi. 9, 10; ]iom. xi. 8. 

3. Eternal miseries both in soul and body ; it brings 
sorrows endless, easeless, and remediless. So that there 
IS no evil like the evil of sin, no ])lague like this plague. 
As piety has the promise, and carries its reward with 



it, and though no man should recompense it, yet the 
good we do is recompence itself; not only for, but in, 
the very keeping of God's commandments there is great 
reward, Psal. xix. 11 ; the act of keeping them is a 
reward as well as the issue. As even,- good work brings 
its reward with it, so ever)' evil work brings its sorrow 
with it ; and though no man jjunish it, yet it is a punish- 
ment to itself, it hjinis operis, though not/inis opermt- 
ti.s; Jer. iv. 18, " Thy way and thy doings have pro- 
cured these things unto thee." Sin is that which 
procures us all our soitow, we shoidd therefore hate it 
with a pure and perfect hatred, and get this cause of 
all our sorrows removed, and then the effect will cease. 

Now is sin so bitter? 1. Then take heed of [jlcading 
for sin, or extenuating it. Put not sweet names upon 
so bitter a thing. There is a woe denounced against 
such as do so, Isa. v. 20, " AVoe unto them that call evil 
good, and good evil ; that ])ut darkness for light, and 
Hght for darkness ; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet 
for bitter!" Such look upon sin through the devil's 
spectacles, and then no wonder if they call drunken- 
ness good fellowship, covetousness frugality, pride de- 
cency, &:c. Such put a fair glove upon a foul hand, 
and false glosses upon filthy vices, the better to deceive. 
" But let no man deceive you with vain words, for 
even for these things cometh the wrath of God upon 
the children of disobedience." Call not therefore sin 
so as the corrujit world calls it, but esteem and call 
it as the word of God calls it. How is that ? "Why, it 
calls it an abomination, poison, sorrow, sickness, bit- 
terness, filth, vomit, folly, madness, darkness, dung, 
death. Sec. 

Vt'lien the judgment is thus truly convinced of the 
vileness of sin, it is an excellent preservation against 
sin. 

2. If sin be so bitter, then sad is the condition of 
such as are insensible of its bitterness, who make that 
their recreation here which will be their damnation 
hereafter, who plead not only for infirmities (which yet 
no good man dares do) but also for enormities. They de- 
clare their sin like Sodom, impudently and impenitent- 
ly ; they thank God they never knew what the burden 
or bitterness of sin meant ; but know, if sin be not bit- 
ter here, it will in another world be more than bitter. 

And therefore this may comfort those that groan and 
grieve under the burden and bitterness of sin ; such as 
make their sin their greatest son'ow, Christ will be unto 
them their greatest joy. Christ calls such, as it were by 
name, to come to him, Isa. Iv. 1, 2 ; Matt. xi. 28. This 
qualifies a man, and fits him for Christ; when Christ 
sees of the travail of his soul in our souls, it delights 
him, Isa. liii. 10, 11. This sense of sin argues some 
spiritual life in the soul. Nature will not comjilain of 
nature, nor will corruption complain of corruption ; it 
is only grace that makes us truly sensible of the bitter- 
ness of sin. 

3. Pity those that groan under the burden and bit- 
terness of sin. No son-ow like their sorrow, no burden 
like the burden of a wounded conscience. Add not 
affliction to the afflictions of those whom God has 
wounded, but pour the oil of mercy into their sin-sick 
souls. Be not like Job's friends, miserable comforters, 
and physicians of no value ; if we must ease our ene- 
my's ox or ass when he lies under his burden, shall we 
not much more ease our brother's soul ? Exod. xxiii. 5. 
Be not harsh or hasty, be not sour and censorious, to 
such, but be meek and merciful, and so bear each other's 
burdens. Gal. vi. 1, 2. 

Obs. 9. It is a sad aggravation of people's sins when 
they sin against iheir God. The God of all their mer- 
cies, the fountain of all their enjoyments ; p,^ iii„nm rme 
their God in covenant, whom they have Ju-iiut. m qm f«d»- 
avouched for their God, and vowed open- ™ a'i'qSm'ii^"' 

-• ■ • ■ — • - - BocirljiUt cc(m d^ 

betMAt, a quo dod 



Vek. 16. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



601 



^dii^rimj!" ^fi-' ■"■ouW Jbe his people, to love, serve, fear, 
I'r'. ^\°"' '° ^^^ °^^y ^^™ ' y^^' '^°"trary to all vows, 
baptistical, eueharistical, personal, na- 
tional, to fly from God, and to rebel against him, tljis 
is the height of sin, and makes it exceeding sinful, and 
provokes the Lord to say, " Lo-arami, Ye are not my 
people," as he said to Ephraim, Hos. i. 9. 

And is not this England's sin ? God has taken us 
into covenant with himself, he has owned us above all 
the people in the world, he has made us the head and 
terror of the nations, he has done wonders for us at 
home and abroad, and made us his darUng nation ; 
whilst others swim in blood, we swim in blessings of 
peace ; whilst others are weeping and wailing by the 
waters of Babylon, we dwell in an Eden, joy and glad- 
ness are found in us, thanksgiving and the voice of 
melody. He has made us his Ephraim, he has laid his 
right hand upon us, he has planted us in a fruitful soil, 
hedged us about with his gracious protection and good 
laws ; he has removed from amongst us all the ap- 
parent impediments to our growth and fruitfulness ; he 
has furnished us with choice persons, and those persons 
with excellent gifts and graces ; he has a special care 
over us for good ; and now he looks (as well he may) 
for the pleasant grapes of obedience, but behold tlie 
sour and wild grapes of confusion, disorder, error, and 
disobedience abound amongst us. We have broken 
all our covenants, we are not only str- 

HaU on 2 Tmi. iii. 3. p 1 » 1 i 

mon-proot, but we are also covenant- 
proof; no bonds so sacred, so strong, but we can as 
easily break them as Samson did the cords of the 
Philistines. So that what can we expect but that the 
Lord should take away his hedge of government both 
temporal and spiritual, breaking down the wall which 
defended us from our enemies, and letting in all the 
wild beasts that might destroy us ? Justly might he 
withdraw his good hand of providence and protection 
from us, and expose us to all manner of rapine and 
ruin, for our apostacies and rebellions. 

Obs. 10. Sin, especially the sin of rebellion, brings 
the sword upon a people. " They shall fall by the 
sword." This is God's last and great rod, and he never 
brings it forth till he be greatly provoked by his peo- 
ple's sins, Job xxxvi. 12 ; Isa. i. 20. "When no other 
means will better a people, then comes the sword and 
cuts them off. God has three evil arrows, which he 
shoots at a rebellious people, viz. the sword, famine, and 
pestilence, Ezek. v. 16, 17 ; these are called "arrows," 
because they are sharp and deadly; and " evil," because 
of the misery and mischief which they bring : of all 
the three, the sword is the sorest, as appears by Da- 
vid's choice, 2 Sam. xxiv. 14 ; besides, the plague and 
famine are the usual attendants of war; where the 
sword goes before, there famine and pestilence usually 
attend. 

Obs. 11. Little infants are great sinners. "Their 
infants shall be dashed in pieces." 

1. That great sin and rebellion of Adam is imputed 
to them for sin ; what he did, they did, we were all in 
the loins of that one man, Rom. v. 12. 

2. They have not only original sin imputed, but im- 
parted also ; they have inherent original sin, which is 
radically, seminaUy, fundamentally all sin. The young- 
est child carries an old man of sin within him. We 
are no sooner born into the world, but we have a world 
of sin about us. 

3. The sad diseases, pangs, and dismal deaths which 
seize on infants, are strong proofs of this point, their 
very dying speaks them sinners. " The wages of sin," 
be it original or actual, " is death," Rom. vi. 23. Ori- 
ginal sin, which is the greatest sin in the world, cleaves 
to their natures, and makes them odious and abomin- 
able in God's sight, so that they are by nature children 
of wrath, and obnoxious to all his judgments. We are 



all damnati antequcim nati, and so might justly have 
been sent from the womb to the tomb. 

Obs. 12. Wicked parents bring judgments on their 
posterity. Their poor little ones fare the worse for 
them; Hos. ix. 12, 13, "Though they bring up their 
children, yet will I bereave them," and " Ephraim shall 
bring forth chikken to the murderer," who is God's 
executioner ; so become parricides, rather than parents. 
Thus the old world was di-owncd, and their children 
with them ; and the Sodomites were burnt, and their 
chilch-en with them. Achan was not only stoned him- 
self, but his sons and daughters, yea, and his cattle, 
perished with him. The accusers of Daniel were slain 
by the lions, both they and their children, Dan. vi. 24. 
The Jews that rejected and crucified Christ, brought a 
curse not only upon themselves, but also upon their 
childi-en, INIatt. xxvii. 25, " His blood be on us, and on 
our children," which has now lain on them above six- 
teen hundred years. 

It is just with God to cut off the wicked and their 
seed, as we kill the wolf with her whelps, and the fox 
with her cubs : though the young toad has not actually 
poisoned any, yet, because it has a poisonous nature in 
it, we destroy it. So does God by the chilcben of the 
wicked. Gen. xix. 25 ; Numb. xvi. 32, 33 ; 1 Sam. xv. 
3 ; Isa. xiii. 16 ; Jer. xliv. 7 ; Hos. x. 14. "Wlien men 
rebel against God and reject his ways, he will send 
against them a barbarous and cruel nation, that shall 
not regard the persons of the old, nor have compassion 
on the young, Deut. xxviii. 50 ; xxxii. 25 ; Ezek. ix. 6. 

But are not infants called " innocents," Psal. cvi. 38 ; 
Jer. xix. 4 ? how then can it consist with the justice of 
God thus severely to punish them ? 

True, they are so called, but not because they have 
no sin; but, 1. In respect of those cruel men, who 
without any cause shed the blood of those little ones 
who had deserved no such thing at their hands. So 
the Assyrians here were guilty of great inhumanity, in 
killing those infants, and God in his due time retali- 
ated it on them, Nah. iii. 10. 

2. Though they may be called innocent in respect of 
any actual sin, yet they are not so in respect of original 
sin, which seminally and radically is every sin. The 
guilt of that sin cleaves to their natures, and makes 
them obnoxious to all tortures here, and eternal tor- 
ments hereafter. 

3. The sins of the parents may be also a moving 
cause, and may provoke the Lord to smite the parents 
with their children. Exod. xx. 5, the Lord threatens 
to visit the sins of idolatrous parents upon their chil- 
dren, because eitlier they already walk in their fathers' 
sins, or else in time they would do so, or, it may be, 
worse, which God only knows. 

3. God has a sovereign right and power over all his 
creatures ; he is the potter, and we are his clay, he may 
do with his own what he pleases, he may make us or 
mar us, raise us or ruin us ; and none may say unto 
him, AVhat doest thou ? He that gives life may take it 
away, how and when he pleases ; his will is the rule of 
justice, yea, justice itself; we must therefore adore 
God's judgments when we cannot comprehend them, 
and know that, though they may be secret, yet they are 
always just. 

4. Children are parts of their parents, part of their 
family and part of their substance, and God may justly 
punish the sinful ])arent in liis child, as well as ih his 
cattle and estate, because they do not only belong to 
him, but also are a part of him. 

5. Sin committed by a particular member of a politic 
body is by a synecdoche, frequent in Scripture, at- 
tributed to the whole body, and does, in a measure, 
reallv belong to it. Thus Achan's sin, ,.,^ , . . . ,_ 

• , , "^ , ,1 1 , 1 \ Id. Lavaterin Josh, 

though not known to the ])eople, yet made 

them all guilty, till he was put to death, Josh. vii. 11. 



C02 



AX EXPOSITIOX OF 



Chap. XIII. 



6. Yet these temporal judgments may be mingled 
with spiritual mercies ; as we see in Jeroboam's cliild, 
who was taken away in mercy, because there was some 
goodness found in him, 1 Kings xiv. 12, i:j. Especially 
the infants of God's people, that are in 
'.^!!?"?5nA" covenant with their parents, there is 
3BiS'"i'^"intur gfeat grounds of hope that they liave 
wmfcrme. fijio ifci. changed tlicir temporal life for an eter- 
nal ; and arc freed from many sins, sor- 
rows, and temptations, to which men that live to riper 
years are exposed; yea, if they should be cast away 
for their original sin, yet their damnation will be 
lighter than if they had lived longer. It had been good 
for reprobates if they had not been born, or that tlicy 
had died as soon as they had been born, for then they 
would not have had so many sins to answer for. 

But has not God said, " The son shall not bear the 
iniquity of the father?" Deut. xxiv. 16; 2 Kings xiv. 
6 ; Ezek. xviii. 20. It seems then to be cruelty to 
kill the children for the parents' sins, especially such as 
are unborn, and have not deserved such evils. To 
which I would answer, 

1. It is true in respect of the Assj-rians, it was 
cruelty and hon-id barbarousness in them to kill ))oor 
harmless little ones, and God threatens to visit such 
sins upon the heads of such sinners. 

2. It is not cruelty in God, for children are children 
of wrath as well as their parents ; as all have sinned, so 
he may punish all without injustice. Besides, he per- 
mits and orders the cruelty of wicked adversaries to 
his own glory and his people's good. As for Deut. 
xxiv. 16, it speaks of God's restraining of magistrates, 
who may not jiunish the children for the fathers' 
offences. True it is, God finds cause enough in chil- 
dren themselves to punish them, but when they imitate 
their wicked parents, this hastens and heightens wrath, 
by adding sin to sin. 

3. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, 
if he depart from the father's iniquity and do not walk 
in his stops. Ezek. xviii. 14, 17, "If he beget a son, 
that seeth all his father's sins which he hath done, and 
consideroth, and doeth not such like," " he shall not 
die for the iniquity of his father." But if the son ti'ead 
in his father's steps, lie shall bear his own iniquity, and 
becomes accessory to his father's sin, by imitation, and 
approliation of it," Matt, xxiii. 152 ; Luke" xi. 48, .50 ; the 
blood of former generations liad not been required of 
that generation if they had not been as bloody as tlie 
former. But where old sins are continued and aji- 
proved of by new acting of them, there tlie old sins, as 
well as the new, are justly punished. So that the 
threatening is not to be unclerstood absolutely, but 
conditionally, viz. if the children do persist in their 
fathers' sins and walk in their wicked ways. 

4. The son shall not bear the jicrsonal iniquities of 
the father in reference to eternal punishment; God 
will not damn a son simply for the sin of his father, it 
is a man's own sin which is his everlasting ruin, yet he 
may lay many temporal chastisements upon a good son 
for the sin of his father. Tlie Lord, in Ezek. xviii. 20, 
2y, 32, seems to speak of eternal, and not of temporal 
punishment. 

1. This should make parents fearful of displeasing 
God, lest they bring miseries, not only on themselves, 
but also on their children: their idolatry may bring a 
curse upon tlicir children's children to many genera- 
tion^i. No children in Scripture are threatened like the 
children of idolaters. In none of the commandments 
docs God threaten to visit the sin of the fathers upon 
the children but only in the second, Exod. xx. 5. It 
is well observed by a pious and precious divine, that 
llicrc are eight sins which do more especially bring 
iud;;inents on a man's posterity ; whereof tlie first is 
idolatrv. 



2. Adulter)-, 2 Sam. xii. 14. 

3. Covenant-breaking, 2 Sam. xxi. 13. 

4. Persecution of the godly, Matt, xxiii. 31 — 36 ; 
Psal. cxxxvii. 7. 

5. Murder, 1 Kings xxi. 21 : Jer. xv. 4. 

6. Oppression, Job xx. 19—26; Hab. ii. 9. 

7. Contempt of magistracv and ministrv. Numb. xvi. 
32, 41, 49 ; 1 Kings xiii. 33," 34. 

8. Wien men pretend reformation, and intend them- 
selves, as Jehu did, Hos. i. 4. 

God is very pitiful and tender over infants, as ap- 
pears in that he would not destroy Nineveh for the 
infants' sakes that were in it, Jonah iv. 11 ; and in the 
sacking of cities he commands them to spare infants, 
Deut. XX. 14 ; but it is the sin of parents which many 
times hardens God's heart against them, and makes 
liim to delight in the destruction both of them and 
theirs ; yea, and it hardens men's hearts against them 
so that they cannot but act such cruelty against them, 
as they never intended, as we see of Hazael, 2 Kings 
viii. 11 — 13. MTien the prophet Elisha wept, and 
told him what mischief he should do to Israel ; " Their 
strong holds wilt thou set on fii-e, and their young 
men wUt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their 
children, and rip up their women with child ; " " Hazael 
said. But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should 
do this great thing?" He then thought it a base and 
barbarous thing, when he was king Ben-hadad"s servant, 
to act such inhuman cruelty upon the motliers with 
their infants. The prophet only tells him that he shall 
be a king, ver. 13, and then when he had changed hi-; 
condition he would also change his manners, and com- 
mit all the abominations which he mentioned. Let 
parents then labour for grace, that tliey may leave a 
blessing, and not a curse, to their posterity, Gen. xvii. 
7 ; Exod. XX. 6 ; Psal. cxii. 2. If you will not pity 
yourselves, yet pity your little ones, let not them fare 
the worse for you. It is ill being a wicked man's child, 
yea, their very beasts fare tlie worse for them ; Aehan 
was stoned, and his cattle with him, Josh. vii. 24, 25. 
The wicked Egyptians bring a murrain iqion their 
cattle, Exod. ix. 3. As a good man is a public good, 
the family, city, kingdom, fare the better for liim, yea, 
his cattle are spared for his sake ; " The Lord shall 
sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of 
Egypt : and there shall nothing die of all that is the 
children's of Israel," Exod. ix. 4. God blesses the 
very cattle of his jicople, and if the creature could 
speak it would desire to serve those that serve God. 
Most ])arents provide inheritances for their children, 
but ofttimes they leave their sins with them too. It 
was a sad legacy that Joab left to his children, that 
one should be a leper, another a weakling, a third 
beg his bread, 2 Sam. iii. 29. So many a man, to 
one child he leaves liis murder, to another his adultery, 
to a third his usury, to a fourth his swearing. Ge- 
liazi left a talent of silver behind him to liis posterity, 
but he left the leprosy with it. Better want such 
men's lands and inheritances, tlian thus to inherit their 
sins too. 

2. Let children be humbled then for their fore- 
fathers' sins, that tliey be not imputed to them, Lev. 
xxvi. 41. So did Nelicmiah, chap. i. 6; and David, 
Psal. Ixxix. 8, " O remember not against us former 
iniquities ;" d'J6'N"\ njiy the iniquities of our forefa- 
thers. He that sees the sins of his predecessors, and is 
not humbled for them, approves of them, and so be- 
comes accessory to them. Hence the liOrd blames 
Bclshazzar for not humbling himself for his father's sin 
and punishment which he knew of, Dan. v. 22. Let us 
therefore acknowledge ourselves to be the children of 
sinful parents, and say before God, " A Syrian ready to 
perish was my father," Deut. xxvi. ■j: and. witli David, 
" We have sinned with our fathers," Psal. cvi. 6 ; and, 



Ver. 16. 



THE PROrHECY OF HOSEA. 



603 



with Daniel, chap. ix. 8, deprecate the punishment 
which is due to us for their sins. So Jer. xiv. 20. 

3. Admire the patience of the Lord, that has borne 
so long with us who have been sinners from the womb. 
If little ones, who never sinned against the patience of 
God as we have done, endure such pangs, sorrows, 
sickness, and death, what may men of years look for, 
who have added to original corruption a numberless 
number of actual ti'ansgressions ? If this be done to 
the green tree, what shall be done to the di-y ? If in- 
fants (who are innocents, and righteous comparatively) 
shall scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and 
rebellious sinner appear ? If he spare not little ones that 
lie in their mothers' bowels, but sutfer wicked men to 
drag them thence ; where, oh where shall those wicked 
parents appear, who have been the primary cause of all 
this mischief and sorrow to them, and have been the 
authors and actors of that wickedness which has brought 
this misery on them ? It should therefore be matter of 
great humiliation to us all, when we see the sharp and 
sore judgments that oft light ui)on little ones for their 
origmal sm. 

As God's people were wont in extraordinary cases to 
bring their infants and sucklings with them to keep 
fasts, Joel ii. 16, the better to affect their hearts, and 
break them with sorrow for sin, which threatened de- 
struction to them and their little ones ; even this use 
should we make of the miseries of infants ; when we see 
God's hand u])on them, we should humble ourselves to 
tliink what judgments are due to us who have so many 
actual sins to answer for, which these little ones are 
free from. We should therefore mourn over them as 
. David did for the people. As for these 
fechTn nie romw"' shecp, what have they done ? it is I that 
tile ferrum. Vitg. j^^^,^ sinucd. So Ict US Say, As for these 
little ones, what have they done ? it is we, even we 
that have sinned, and provoked the Lord to anger with 
our transgressions. 

06s. 12. Rebellion brings destruction. Samaria 
shall be made desolate, for she has rebelled. AVhen 
God's heritage is as a lion that roars and rages against 
him, then he gives it into the hands of its enemies, Jer. 
xii. 7—11; iv. 17; xliv. 16, 17, 22; Lam. i. 18, 20; 
Micah vi. 13; Matt, xxiii. 38. Israel had sinned, and 
now the Assyrian destroys their cities, eats up their 
fruits, passes through their land, carries the people into 
captivity, and makes slaves and exiles of them in a 
strange country. 

1. Rebellion is a capital sin; it is not every sin, 
(though every sin, more or less, has something of re- 
bellion in it, being committed against that allegiance 
which we owe to God by the law of creation,) but it is 
an habitual obstinacy and stubbornness in sin ; hence 
such are said to have necks of iron, and brows of brass, 
hard and uncu'cumcised hearts ; they are called a fro- 
ward generation, "lying children, children that will 
not hear the law of the Lord," Isa. xxx. 9 ; rebelling 
against the light, Job xxiv. 13. 

It is reckoned amongst the greatest sins, and is 
compared to witchcraft, 1 Sam. xv. 23, which is the 
highest and most hideous idolatry in the world ; it is a 
renouncing of God to follow the counsel of the devil. 
It is a sin that God will certainly visit, for his justice 
v.-ill not suffer it to go unpunished, Exod. xxxiv. 7; 
Isa. i. 2, 7. 

For sins of mere infirmity there is a pardon in 
course ; but sins of presumption, committed with a 
high hand against light and warning, are very danger- 
ous, and therefore David prays of all sins to be kept 
from such, Psal. xix. 13. "Those great sins call for 
gi'eat humiliation, before there can be any pardon ex- 
pected, Exod. xxxiv. 7 ; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 12 : Psal. 
Ixviii. 18. 

2. Do not envy the prosperous condition of rebel- 



lious sinners; though they may flourish for a time, and 
vi'aters of a full cup be wrung out unto them, yet their 
feet shall slide in due time, and every threatening shall 
light upon them. They ai'e rather to be pitied than 
envied. 

3. As ever we desire to be free from ^^^^^^^ ^ . 
desolation, let us fly those sins which perhorrescis, rorum 
cause it. Look what sins brought deso-_ '"""' '^"'^■'''^■ 
lation upon Ephraim, those sins will bring desolation 
on England, if they reign amongst us ; for God is the 
same to the same sinners. 

Quest. But what were Ephraim's sins which brought 
desolation upon him ? 

-histi: Upon search I find them to be many, but 
about twenty signal ones there are which brought de- 
struction on him. Whether they be not England's 
sins, as well as Ephraim's, the application will show. 

Ephraim's sins then were, 1. Idolatry. 2. A ready 
complying with men's inventions. 3. Contemjit of the 
true prophets. 4. Delight in false prophets. 5. Pride. 
6. Hypocrisy. 7. Self-seeking. 8. 'Witchcraft. 9. 
BaiTenness under the means of grace. 10. Ingrati- 
titude. 11. Covenant-breaking. 12. Security. 13. 
Anarchy. 14. Lukewarmness and neutrality. 15. Di- 
vision. 16. Carnal confidence. 17. Incon'igibleness. 
18. Oppression. 19. Atheism. 20. A fulness of sin. 
Lastly, Corrupt rulers. 

1. Their first grand, bosom, beloved sin was idola- 
try. They forsook the Lord, and set up calves ; when 
they should have cried. Kiss ye the Son and worship 
him, they cry. Kiss ye the calves, which Jeroboam has 
set up, and worship them, Hos. xiii. 1, 2 ; and this 
idolatry was universal, it was not in one, but in all 
their cities, 2 Kings xvii. 9 — 11 ; Ezek. xxiii. 4, 5. 

This is a God-provoking and a land-destroying sin, 
it is the choosing (as it were) another husband, it 
breaks the covenant and the marriage knot between 
God and a people. It is a preferring of the devil be- 
fore Christ, and dirty dunghill gods n'SSj before the 
living God, 2 Kings xvii. 12; Ezek. iv. 12; xiv. 10. 

Wliatever sinners may escape, yet idolaters are sure 
to pay for it. When men begin to choose new gods, 
the next news is. War is in the gates, Judg. v. 8 ; Psal. 
Ixxviii. 58 ; Jer. xxii. 7 — 9 ; !Micah i. 5 — 7. Many sor- 
rows attend this sin, Psal. xvi. 4. This, even this, was 
that fatal sin which laid Samaria in the dust, Amos 
viii. 14 ; and therefore Hosea more inveighs against 
their idolatry, than against any other sin. 

And is not this England's sin ? Have not we chosen 
of late many new gods, and with Ephraim set up "idols 
according to our own understanding?" Hos. xiii. 2 ; 
and have made a light within us, and not God's word, 
the rule of our actions ? We have forsaken his faithful 
ministers to follow calves, Socinian, Arian, Arminian, 
Anabaptist, Quaking calves. Moses bare with many 
provocations from the people of Israel, but when, in 
his absence, they set up a calf, he could bear no longer. 
Where can we go, but we meet with Jeroboam's calves ? 
what town, city, county, is not pestered with them ? 
These prophesy falsely, and too many love to have it 
so ; but what will they do in the end thereof, when God 
shall call them to account for all their heresies and 
blasphemies? Jer. v. 31. 

Besides the gross idolatry that stiU abounds in the 
land, many are falling openly to popery, and many, in 
their affections, hankering after the bewitching allure- 
ments of that Babylonish harlot. A sad omen of an 
approaching judgment, as France and Germany can 
testify. 

And add to this the great worldly-mindedness and 
inordinate love of the world that abounds amongst us, 
which is idolatry in God's esteem. Col. iii. 5. 

2. A second sin of Ephraim was a ready compliance 
with the inventions of men, Hos. v. 11 : xi. 6; "Ephraim 



604 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



CilAP. XIII. 



is oppressed and broken in judfjment, because he will- 
ingly walked after the commandment " and traditions 
of men, preferring them before God's commandments. 
Jeroboam no sooner commanded idolatrj-, than the 
people obeyed, 1 Kings xii. 32, 33. Omri, another of 
their kings, makes statutes for grosser idolatry, and 
even in those statutes did they walk, Micah vi. 16. 
And for this the Lord threatens to destroy tliem, Hos. 
V. 12, 14. 

And is not this England's sin ? Are not many, too 
many amongst us, more ready to hearken to a seducer 
than' to a faithful teacher, and more ready to follow 
vanity than verity, preferring the chaff of men's in- 
ventions before the wheat of God's word? Let the 
ablest minister in the land preach in some towns, yet 
how many are there that prefer a railing, seducing sec- 
tary, who preaches the fancies and dotages of his own 
brain, before the faithful servants of God, that dispense 
his word sincerely ! 

This also is a sad presage of some approaching judg- 
ment. 

3. Contempt of the true prophets. It was a rare age 
of prophets, they had the best jireaching a little before 
theii' ruin. So great was the Ijord's care over them, 
and so loth was he that they should perish, that he sent 
extraordinary prophets to them, more in number than 
he did to the kingdom of Judah, and by them he sup- 
plied the defect of the ordinary ministry of priests and 
Levites. They had Elijah, Elisha, Jonali, Amos, Micah, 
Joel, and Hosea, who prophesied to them about seven 
and forty years, besides Ahijah, Jehu, Iddo, Azariah, 
&c. ; yet such was their obstinacy and perverseness, that 
110 wooings nor warnings could work upon them ; in- 
stead of hearkening to those messengers which the 
Lord in great compassion sent to them to reclaim them 
from their idols, they mocked, jeered, misused, and 
persecuted them, and looked upon them as a jjack of 
cheats and deceivers that frighted people without a 
cause, till the wrath of the Lord broke forth against 
them, and there was no remedy ; his anger was so fierce 
it could not be extinguished. When David sent mes- 
sengers to comfort Hanun, and he abused them, Da- 
vid's anger was kindled against him, and it cost him 
vprwdivinicon- dcai', 2 Sam. X. 4. Contempt of the word 
'"" j''" '""I"""' is an infallible forerunner of judgment. 
plMatcm oav'Su" AATicn Ell's SOUS hearkened not to the 
"'• ^'"'"' counsel of their father, God cut them off. 

"\Mien Amaziah contemned the counsel of the prophet, 
k was a sign that the Lord purposed to destroy him, 
2 Chron. xxv. 16. 

And if this be an infallible sign of a nation's ruin, 
the Lord be merciful to England ! never was the land 
so full of pious, painful, learned ministers, and never 
were any so coarsely and ungratefully dealt withal by 
many, as these are. What loads of reproaches and 
floods of bitter railings are cast out against us, not for 
any evil that we have done, but solely for discharging 
our duty, and stopping men in their sinful, heretical, 
destructive ways ! we are their enemies only because 
we tell them the truth. Those that formerly were 
ready to pull out their own eyes to do us good, now 
are ready to pull out our eyes. Thus have we been 
■wounded in the house of our friends. To be derided 
by Egyptians is threatened as a misery, Hos. vii. 16; 
but to be rejiroached by friends and professors is very 
grievous. The good Lord lay not this ingratitude and 
contempt to their charge. I'hough we bear, yet God 
will not always bear. When Moses is silent, then God 
arises ; when he is dumb, then God speaks ; w hen he 
is deaf, then God hears and stirs. Numb. xii. 1,4.. God 
will .smite through the loins of those tliat rise against 
his messengei's, and of those that hate them, that they 
the not up again, Deut. xxxiii. 11. 

It is not so much the minister as the ministry that 



is cried down ; that which they should principally love 
us for, viz. for our work's sake, that is the ground of 
tliese men's hatred. As it was not the baron, but the 
barony, that was the traitor in tyrants' days ; so, for the 
most part, it is not so much the man that they smite at, 
as the maintenance, the tithes, the glebe, and the or- 
dinances of God wherewith they are intrusted. 

4. Delight in false prophets. Elijah is persecuted, 
when eight hundred and fifty false prophets are enter- 
tained and fed, 1 Kings xviii. 4, 19 ; though they 
were fools and mad-men : Hos. ix. 7, " The days of 
visitation are come ;" how doth that appear ? why, " the 
prophet," the false prophet, " is a fool," and flatters the 
people with vain hopes ; yea, " the spiritual man is 
mad ;" that is, he who brags so much of the S])ii-it, and 
falsely boasts that he is inspired by the Holy Spirit, 
and that he speaks all as moved by it, this man is mad, 
he is smitten with a siiiritual frenzy, doting upon his 
own dreams, and lunatic illuminations, and venting his 
brainsick notions instead of God's word. These priests 
Jeroboam (in his carnal policy) chose out of " the low- 
est of the people," (fit servants for such gods, calves 
suit well with calves,) which were not of the sons of 
Levi, who were set apart by God's special command 
for the service of his house, but " whosoever would " 
might thrust himself into the office, how unworthy so- 
ever, 1 Kings xiii. 33 ; but see what follows imme- 
diately, ver. 34, " This thing became sin unto the 
house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy 
it from off the face of the earth." This, even this, 
was that indelible sin which ruined both him and his 
family. 

And is not this the sin of England ? are not false 
prophets by many thousands prefeiTed before the true ? 
will not many go ten miles to hear a decei^■er, that will 
not go two to hear a faithful minister of Christ ? When 
men go by troops to such harlotiy meetings, the Lord 
will visit for this, as well as for corporal harlotiT, Jer. 
V. V, 9. 

The Quaking seducers are certainly led by this spirit 
of the devil, as will easily appear, if we consider the 
men, the matter, or the manner of their speaking. 

1. The men, both speakers and hearers, are generally 
a profane generation, they are tnordaces et mendaces, 
notorious railers and liars, lilie their father the devil. 

2. The matter of their speaking. A\'hat is it? why, 
it is against ministers and their maintenance, against 
the coercive power of the magistrate, against Scripture, 
ordinances, &c. 

3. The manner of their meeting. It is profane and 
tumultuous. A rout meet together, on a mountain, a 
common, or under some hedge, and there, without any 
praying before, some speak, others jeer, some dispute, 
some quarrel and fight, others take tobacco, (amidst 
such an unsavoury com])any they had need of some 
better antidote,) so that one would think they were at 
some bear-baiting, and not at the service of God. That 
men should be tolerated, yea and encouraged, to serve 
God, is commendable ; but that men should be tolerated 
to blaspheme and worship the devil, is abominable. 

2. What folly and madness have seized on the false 
prophets of our times, the swarms of blasjihemous 
pamphlets do sufficiently testify to the world ; the 
thousands and ten thousands infected by them plainly 
foretell that some judgment is at hand. 

3. How many of Jeroboam's priests have thrust 
themselves into the work of the ministry, who vent 
heresies and blasphemies instead of truth ! What toler- 
ation and countenance have been given to such, is known 
now to all the world. Foreign churches complain 
against us for it ; and what cause we have to fear that 
wrath is coming upon us for this sin, let the wise reader 
judge. If ever that caution of our Saviour were in 
season, it is now, Malt. x. 17, "Beware of men." 



Vee. 16. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



605 



Christ does not say, Beware of serpents, or devils, (he 
promised them power over these, Mark xvi. 17, 18,) 
but, " Beware of men." 

1. Beware of wicked men, wolfish persecutors and 
bloodsuckers, who hate us " without a cause," Psal. 
Ixix. 4 : how much more, when by our unwise walking 
we shall expose ourselves to their fury and malice ! 

2. Beware of hj-pocrites, and seeming good men. 
The devil can transform himself into an angel of light, 
and oft appears in Samuel's mantle, the better to de- 
ceive ; he is never more to be feared. It is this i-mictus 
Satcmas, this white devil, that does us most hurt : the 
swearing, cursing, black devil, every one cries shame 
of; but it is the preaching, praying, professing devil, 
who pretends to extraordinary sanctity and mortifica- 
tion, that deceives even many a good soul in its over- 
much credulity. These are more dangerous (in some 
sense) to us, than the very devil himself; for if the devil 
shoukl appear to us in his own native deformity, we 
should run from him for fear, no man would hearken 
to liim : if the devil should come in person, and call 
men to the alehouse, or from their callings, who would 
obey ? but when he comes to us in a friend, a wife, a 
bosom companion, he is not so easily perceived, and so 
we are sooner insnared ; and therefore our Saviour 
saith not. Beware of Satan, but. Beware of those men 
who are tlie instruments of Satan : if they should come 
like angels, we should suspect them, if like beasts, we 
should shun them, if like fiends, we should fear them ; 
but coming to us like men of the same ])rofession with 
us, and professing great kindness to us, how soon are 
poor plain souls deceived ! and therefore " beware of 
men,'' for as God loves to work upon men by the minis- 
try of man, and sends them to such ; so the devil, who 
is God's ape, loves to draw men from God, by men, 
viz. by seducers and deceivers, who are inspired, fitted, 
and filled by him for that purpose. If Ahab will not 
hear Micaiah, the true jirophet of the Lord, the devil 
has four hundi'ed false prophets at hand to deceive him. 
M''hen he would seduce Adam from his obedience, he 
does not appear himself, but he sets Eve his wife upon 
him, and so prevails. When he would have innocent 
Abel slain, he does not do it himself, but he has a 
malicious Cain that will do it. AVhen the devil would 
have Christ crucified, he has a Judas, a devil incar- 
nate, ready at hand to betray him, John xiii. 2. 

3. Beware even of good men. The devil can shroud 
himself under a Peter, and tempt our Saviour by him. 
Matt. xvi. 23 ; by his example he can compel the Gen- 
tiles to live after the Jewish manner, in observing the 
ceremonial law. Gal. ii. 14. The best of men are but 
men at best ; they know but in part, they have theii' 
infirmities, and must have their grains of allowance ; 
we may not therefore glory in men, nor pin our faith on 
their sleeves, because we know not whither they may 
cari-j- it. The great sin of this age is, building on man ; 
Such a holy man is for a toleration, and such a one 
holds such opinions. What tell you me of men ? we 
must live by rule, not by example, neither may we fol- 
low any good man further than he follows Christ in his 
word, 1 Cor. xi. 1. Be it Paul, you must try his doc- 
trine by the touch-stone of the word, before you trust it. 
Acts xvii. 11. Remember " every man " is "a liar," 
Rom. iii. 4, either actively, or passively ; either by im- 
posture, and of purpose, or else by impotency, and in 
event. 

4. Beware of great men. We are apt to be led by 
their examples ; if Prince such a one, or Sir Thomas 
such a one, rise, how apt are people to follow, without 
any consideration ! Great men oft are great sinners, 
they have their native corruptions heightened by their 
pomp and prosperity. Job xxi. 7 — 15 ; Jer. v. 5. When 
great men are wicked men, and have great parts and 
great wits, they do great mischief, as Ahithophel, 



Catiline, &c. Beware then of following such great 
ones. 

5. Beware of subtle seducers, pretenders to new 
light. Gen. iii. 5, to revelations, glorious mysteries, &c., 
Rom. xvi. 17; " inwardly they are ravening wolves," 
Matt. vii. 15. Poison in itself is dangerous, but never 
more dangerous than when mixed with honey. These 
have " men's persons in admu-ation," but it is for their 
own ends and advantage, Jude 16. And if ever this cau- 
tion were seasonable, it is now, when there are so many 
jugglers and cheaters gone forth into the world. Their 
number is greater than formerly, and they act more 
subtlely and mystically ; they act against Christ under 
the name of Christ, Slatt. xxiv. 5, and that so cun- 
ningly and craftily, that, if it were possible, they would 
deceive the very elect, Matt. xxiv. 24 ; they have Ja- 
cob's voice, but Esau's hands ; they talk divinely, as 
if they had no bodies, and live lewdly, as if they had 
no souls; hence it is that we are so oft admonished to 
take heed of them, Rom. xvi. 17 j 2 Tim. iii. 5 ; 2 
John 10. 

But such cite Scripture. So did the devil. Matt. iv. 6. 

But there is some truth in what they say. So there is 
in the mass, and in stage plays. It is the devil's usual 
practice, to mix some sugar with liis poison to make it 
go down the better, and to mingle some truths with his 
errors; as the fowler mingles corn with his ehafi', that 
he may catch the sooner. You will shun those that 
poison your bodies, O take heed of those that would 
poison your souls. No murder like soul-murder. Shun 
a seducer, as you would shun the devil himself, whose 
factor he is ; and when he speaks fairest, and pretends 
most love, then fear him most. When Herod intended 
Christ's destruction, he then pretended devotion. Matt, 
ii. 8. When Absalom sought his father's kingdom, he 
pretends a vow at Hebron. When Saul would ruin Da- 
vid, he makes him his son-in-law, 1 Sam. xviii. 17. 
Beware then of men, who put fair gloves upon foul 
hands; who pretend pity, but act cruelty; who promise 
liberty when they intend thraldom. 

But they are great professors. So were those that 
followed Christ, yet he would not trust them, for he 
knew the deceit that was in them, John ii. 24, 25. All 
is not gold that glitters, nor are all Israel that are ef 
Israel ; and therefore take heed whom you trust. 

6. Beware of thy foes. We are beset round W'ith 
them, and that both corporal and spiritual ; we had need 
therefore to be sober, and watch, and to pray with Da- 
vid, Help me, O Lord, and that " because of mine 
enemies," Psal.xxvii.il. Many there be that watch 
for our halting, we also should watch and countermine 
them. There is a cursed enmity in the wicked against 
the righteous. Gen. iii. 15; Psal. xxxvii. 14; so that 
they could even slay them all, as Cain did Abel, 1 John 
iii. 12, because by thefr light and life they reprove 
them. And this enmity is, 

1. Natural, and so constant and delightful. 

2. Intensive. As a good man loves good men, ap- 
preciative et intensive, ajf'ectu et effectu, with a high 
degree of afi'ection, and shows it in his actions ; so the 
wicked hate the godly with an inveterate, intensive 
hatred, they could even wish that they had more lives 
than one, that they might exercise their malice on 
them ; antipathy is against the whole kind, they desire 
that even the name of Israel might be no more in re- 
membrance. 

3. Irreconcilable. Enemies may be reconciled, but 
enmities never, tUl nature be changed : when Saul is 
converted, and become a Paul, then, and not till then, 
he prizes whom before he persecuted. 

4. Beware of thy friends and relations. By these 
the devil ofttimes does us more hurt than by our open 
enemies ; and therefore when one was praying. Lord, 
deliver me from my foes ; Nay, said one that heard 



GOG 



.\N EXrOSITIOX OF 



Chap. XIII. 



him, rather pray, Lord, deliver me from my friends. 
^Xc usually shun our foes, and take heed of their coun- 
sel ; but it is the devil in a friend that undoes us. The 
Italian proverb is, God keep me from the hurt of my 
friends, and I will see to my foes. 

But it is my wife that jjersuades me, and shall I not 
hearken to her ? If thy wife gi^■e thee good counsel 
according to the word, then, in all that Sarah shall say 
unto thee, hearken to her voice ; else you must stop 
your ears against those sirens. How many wives have 
deluded their husbands, and dravni their hearts from 
God ! Adam, by hearkening to Eve, undid himself 
and all his posterity. Solomon was besotted by his 
idolatrous wives, Samson betrayed by Delilah, and Job 
had undone himself had he hearkened to his wife's 
wicked counsel, Job ii. 9. 

I3ut it is my son, my brother, my kinsman, that coun- 
sels me. Even these may deceive you, if you take not 
heed ; " A man's foes shall be they of his own house- 
hold." AATiat the Scripture speaks in case of persecu- 
tion, is most true in case of temptation ; brotlier shall 
betray brother, the father the child, and children shall 
rise against the father. Matt. x. 21, 36. Even Christ's 
brethren rose against him, John vii. o ; and the Jews, 
that were his kinsmen according to the flesh, were so 
fiercely set against him, that they preferred Barabbas, a 
robber, before him, and sought to stone him. Matt, 
xxvii. 20; John xi. 8. Thus Cain slays his brother, 
Ishmael persecutes Isaac, Esau Jacob, and Jose))h's 
brethren sell him. So that if ever that coimsel also 
were in season, it is now, Micah vii. 5, 6, " Trust ye not 
in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide : keep the 
doors of thy mouth from her that heth in thy bosom." 
A^liy so ? " For tlie son dishonoureth the father, the 
daughter riseth up against her mother ;" we may add, 
the ser^'ant against his master, the subject against his 
superior. 

8. Beware of strangers. Trji men before you trust 
them. Time discovers men's tempers; the heart of 
man is so deeply deceitful, that it requires some time 
to know it ; and if it be not safe to trust relations, 
much less strangers. Hypocrisy is spun with a fine 
thread, and none are so soon deceived as the over-cre- 
dulous ; and therefore Solomon so oft blames men for 
trusting strangers, Prov. v. 20; vi. 1, 2. Christ's sheep 
will not follow strangers, John x. 5. 

9. Above all, beware of that evil man thyself. It is 
a secret, subtle, daily, deadly, bosom enemy, which 
does us most mischief; we ourselves are the sorest 
enemies to ourselves, Inimicortim pessinuts, quia prox- 
tmiis. All the devils in hell, and all the men in the 
world, could not hurt us, if we were but true to our- 
selves. It was a good prayer of St. Austin, Lord, de- 
liver me from that evil man myself. The way to con- 
quer Satan, is first to conquer ourselves. This is the 
highest and hardest martyrdom, to deny ourselves uni- 
versally. Let us then walk wisely in this day of Eng- 
land's trial, remembering that the Scripture calls wicked 
men wolves for ravening, dogs for greediness, lions for 
cruelty, and foxes for subtlety. Any of these creatures, 
when enraged, are terrible, and we will take heed of 
them ; but when the cruelty and subtlety of all these 
creatures shall concentre and meet in man, how great 
is the danger, and how had we need to " beware of 
men," especially when they come with fair pretences, 
and with " feigned words," veiling over foul matters, 
2 Pet ii. 3 ; calling pride, decency ; error, new lights ; 
liypocrisy, extraordinary sanctity; heretics, the serv- 
ants of God ! The devd knows that if sin should ap- 
])ear in its own pro))er colours, men would hate it, so 
ugly and loathsome is it. If Jeroboam had told Israel 
plnmly, they must worship devils, when they worshipped 
the calves, who would have followed him ? 

5. They were full of pride, llos. v. o; vii. 10, "The 



pride of Israel testifieth to his face." They were proud 
of their riches, and proud of their buildings, and there- 
fore the Lord threatens to " smite the winter-house 
with the summer-house," which they had built for pride 
and pleasure, Amos iii. 15. 

And is not this England's sin? Was there ever 
more pride in heart, in habit, in hair, in vestures, ges- 
tures, words, and works ? And does not pride ever go 
before destruction, and a high mind before a fall ? 
But of this elsewhere at large. 

6. Hypocrisy abounded amongst them ; they -were 
like a deceitful bow, that breaks and deceives the 
archer ; they compassed the Lord about with their lies, 
crying. My father, my Father, howling before him in 
their misery, when, alas, their righteousness was but as 
the morning dew which suddenly vanisheth away, Hos. 
v. G; vi. 4; vii. 14, IG ; viii. 2; xi. 12; 2 Kings xvii. 
9. This made the Lord to reject and abhor both them 
and their services, Amos v. 21, 22. 

And how does this sin reign in England from Dan 
to Beersheba, from east to west, from one corner of the 
land to another ! Never was the land so full of pray- 
ing and preaching, lectures, repetitions, private meet- 
ings, &c., and never such unraortified, unholy, unright- 
eous walking, unanswerable to those duties. This 
abuse and profanation of holy things makes the land to 
tremble under us, Ezek. xxii. 8. The land is full of 
science, but where, oh where, is the conscience ? The 
voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are ,^- i„p„|,„„ ,„j 
the hands of Esau. Many talk like an- piBiioquiiuKer- 
gels, but live hke devils ; they talk as if "' ' ' 
they had cloven tongues, but walk as if they had cloven 
feet. Most amongst us live directly contrary to their 
prayers. They pray against pride, and yet their \mAc 
is visible ; they pray against worldly-mindedness, and 
yet they are notoriously worldly ; they ])ray for self- 
denial, and yet are great self-seekers, &c. Oh this 
cursed hj'pocrisy, hypocrisy, hypocrisy, ruins all ; it is 
that leaven that sours all oiu- services, that coloquin- 
tida that makes our duties deadly. If i„„,uii,D,i „„«,,„ 
any sin destroy England, it is this. God m.ju.»crfu.raibj- 

*, .,* ,'=' ., ,. pocnel. Scult«t 

may bear with other sms, but this pro- 
vokes him to his face, and is such a horrid mocking of 
him, that his soul abhors. 

7. The Israelites were great self-seekers. They 
brought forth fruit, but it was .to themselves, Hos. x. 
1 ; they were all for present profit and present pay, 
like the heifer that loves to " tread out the corn," 
(where she may eat as she goes,) but loves not plough- 
ing, that is hard and hungry work, Hos. x. 1 1 ; they 
were all for liberty and ease, they could not abide 
God's yoke, and therefore the Lord tells them, that 
since they loved liberty so well, they should have 
enough of it, but to their ruin. Israel was a wanton 
heifer, the whole pasture could not contain nor con- 
tent her, and therefore the Lord threatens to give her 
the liberty of the lamb in the wilderness, where it 
should be exposed to u thousand dangers and miseries, 
Hos. iv. 16. 

And is not this the great sin of England ? Was 
there ever less self-denial, and more self-seeking in the 
land ? Wiere shall we find a plain, simple, single- 
hearted Jacob, that prefers God's glory before his own 
interest, and can be content to perish, so that God's 
name may flourish ? Show me, O show me that man, 
that I may give thanks unto God for him. 

Most men in our days are squint-eyed : they pray, 
hear, repent, fast, give alms, but still they have an 
eye to themselves in all their actions, Zech. \'ii. 5 ; 
Matt. vi. 2. 

And as Ephraim, so England is all for liberty; 
liberty in church, and liUjrty in state ; liberty in spirit- 
uals, and liberty in temporals. We have tliose that, 
like sons of Belial, can bear no yoke, none m\>- 



Vee. 1G. 



THE PRCPHECY OF HOSEA. 



607 



rei'^n ovcv them. They must have liberty, liberty, 
lil)erty ; and 1 ■nili " proclaim a liberty for you, saith the 
Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the 
famine." This is the portion of such libertines, Jer. 
xxxiv. 17. 

8. Witchcraft and enchantments. This also was a sin 
which helped to ruin Ephraim. They had familiarity 
with the devil, and by his aid they could divine and 
enchant, 2 Kings xvii. 17. 

And was there ever more witchcraft in England than 
at this day ? Oh this sinning sin grows rife amongst 
us. Those seducing, deluding, quaking sots and sec- 
taries, that go up and down the land with their enchant- 
ing ribbons, and other diabolical practices, plainly show 
that too many of them are in league with the devil. 
They talk much of the Spirit moving and the Spirit 
leading them; theii- bastards, their railing, and their 
blasphemy, show that it is an evil spirit that leads 
them. 

This sin helped to ruin the Jews : " Therefore thou hast 
forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they 
are soothsayers like the Philistines," Isa. ii. 6. If 
England be guilty of the like sin, it must also look for 
the like punishment. 

9. Barrenness under the means of grace. God was 
not wanting in any means of grace to Ephraim, but 
Ephraim was an empty vine, and wanting to himself, 
Hos. X. 1. 

This also is the great sin of England, we are dead 
under lively oracles, and fruitless under fruitful ordi- 
nances, and lean under soul-em'iching means ; like 
Pharaoh's lean kine, that devoured the fat ones, yet 
themselves were still lean. Gen. xli. 20, 21. We dis- 
honour the Lord's pastures and discredit his ordinances 
by our unfruitfulness, and open the mouths of the 
wicked to cry, Ecce quotes simt qui Christum cotunt ! 
Behold how dead and dull, how base and barren, how 
unholy and unrighteous, these Christians are ! Such 
barren ground is " nigh unto cursing," Heb. vi. 8. 
Which of us will plough the rocks, or sow the sands, 
or bestow cost upon ground which will bring forth 
nothing but briers and thorns ? The barren fig tree 
was cut down, because it cumbered the earth, and 
made the ground about it the worse, Luke xiii. 6 — 9. 
The fig tree that had nothing but bare leaves of pro- 
fession, was cursed for want of fruit, Mark xi. 13, 
14. God will lay his axe to tlie root of those trees 
that bring not forth good fruit, Matt. iii. 10 ; and lay 
waste his vineyard, and command the clouds to rain 
no more rain upon it, when after all his cost and care 
it brings forth nothing but " wild grapes," Isa. v. 2 — 7. 
When the Lord comes to walk in the beautiful vine- 
yard of his chui-ch, and finds a tree that flourishes not 
in so fruitful a soil, he will cut it down, it shall no 
longer cumber the ground. 

Our great unfruitfulness under the rich means that 
we enjoy should deeply affect us. If Hannah wept for 
the barrenness of her body, how should we lament the 
barreiniess of our souls, and cry, as Kachel, " Give me 
children, or else I die!" so. Give me grace, or I am 
undone ; make me fruitful, or I perish for ever. Com- 
plain to God against it ; the best and most fi'uitful 
Clu'istians have made the saddest complaints against 
themselves. Holy Bradford, how oft did he lament 
over that deadness, unfruitfulness, unthankfulness, which 
cleaved to his nature! David, how oft does he beg 
for quickening grace ! Do by your barren hearts, as 
men do by their barren grounds ; they will dig, dung, 
di'ain them, and use all means to make them fruitful : 
so do you ; pray, read, meditate, hear, confer, and use 
all means to get your dead hearts bettered, and your 
graces quickened. 

Yet, Jest any should deceive themselves, thinking 
that they grow in grace, when they do but deceive 



themselves, you must know that. 1. There mav be a 
growing in gifts, when there is no growing in i;race. 
Many a man knows more, and can pray longer, than 
formerly, and yet no growth in grace. True growth is 
principally internal in the root, in humiliation, sanctifi- 
cation, faith, obedience ; it is a growing up, not only in 
some things, but in all things, Eph. iv. 15. True growth 
is universal, it is not only a growing in the head, (a« 
some that have the rickets do,) but in heart, head, and 
every part. True growth, saith Aristotle, is a diffusing 
of nourishment to all the parts, the understanding, 
will, memory, aflfections, body, soul, all are bettered. 

2. It may be you do grow, but do you grow answer- 
ably to all the means and mercies which God has be- 
stowed upon you ? They that have much, of them shall 
be much required. Where the husbandman bestows 
extraordinary cost, there he expects an extraordinary 
crop ; and herein the best of us all have great cause to 
be humbled in the dust. Who can say he has answered 
the Lord's cost and care, and grown answerably to all 
those sermons, sabbaths, sacraments, good books, cor- 
rections, and all the other rich means which God has 
afforded us in these latter days ? Oh what giants might 
we have been intlie ways of grace and goodness, if every 
ordinance had been effectual upon our hearts ! he that 
is weak amongst us might have been as strong as Da- 
vid, and he that is strong as David might have been 
as an angel of the Lord, for wisdom and purity, Zech. 
xii. 8. Like Saul, we might have been taller by the 
head and shoulders (in the ways of grace) than other 
men. Our leanness, and our lewdness, our barrenness, 
and unfruitfulness, our walking so unansweralily to the 
rich means of grace that we enjoy, certainly foretell a 
storm approaching. 

10. Ingratitude, and abuse of God's mercies to the 
promoting of idolatry. The more God did for them, the 
less they did for him ; their fulness bred forgetfulness, 
and the more they were increased, the more they sin- 
ned. Hence the Lord so oft complains of this sin, as 
provoking him more than all the rest, Hos. ii. 8 ; iv. 7 ; 
X. 1 ; xi. 3, 4 ; xiii. 5, 6. It was this sin especially that 
brought the sword upon them, Hos. ii. 9 ; xiii. 7. The 
prophet Amos also, who was contemporary with Hosea, 
notably sets forth the great ingratitude of this people 
in abusing God's mercies, Amos ii. 9 — 11. 

And is not this that crying sin of England ? Do we 
not fight against God with his own blessings, abusing 
our health, wealth, wit, peace, plenty, corn, wine, gold, 
silver, Scriptures, ordinances, yea, all our comforts 
and creatm-es, to the dishonour of the Giver of them ? 
His mercies make us proud, his riches covetous, his 
peace secure, his food intemperate, and all his benefits 
serve us but as weapons to rebel against him. 

And do we thus requite the Lord, foolish and un- 
wise ? is this the thanks we give him for all his patience, 
preservations, success, and deliverances ? Will not the 
Lord visit for these things ? and shall not his soul be 
avenged on such a nation as this ? Had England no 
more sins to answer for but this, even this were sufS- 
cient to make it a desolation, as it did Samaria. 

11. Covenant-breaking. God had betrothed them 
to himself and chosen them from the rest of the world, 
to become his people ; " But they like men have trans- 
gressed the covenant ; there have they dealt treacher- 
ously against me," Hos. vi. 7 ; X. 4. Like sons of Adam, 
they walked in his steps ; though they were abundantly 
blessed by God, yet they revolted from him, and trans- 
gressed the covenant ; there, even there, where they 
should have been most faithful, viz. in the covenant, 
there they dealt most falsely and perfidiously with him. 

And is not this one of the crying sins of England? 
Never was there a wiser and better composed covenant 
in the nation, and never any worse performed ; we 
have lifted up our hands to the most High, that we will 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIII. 



(in our places and callings) extirpate heresies, and yet 
many walk as if they had taken a covenant to propa- 
gate them ; many amongst us make no more of their 
covenants, than an ape does of his collar, which he can 
put off or on at his own pleasure. 

Let any man but read all the branches of the cove- 
nant, and then eomi)are with them our contrary walk- 
ing ; and he cannot but admire the infinite patience of 
the Lord, tliat he has not long since sent a sword to 
avenge the quarrel of his covenant u])on us. Lev. xxvi. 
25. We must not think to do such things, and escape, 
or to break our covenants with God, and then be deli- 
vered, Ezek. xvii. 15 — 20. If the Lord so sadly avenged 
the breach of covenant with a man, yea, with a heathen, 
and idolater, what shall be done to him who breaks his 
covenant made with the great God of heaven and 
earth ? and if a good man will perform the covenant 
which he has made, though it be to his disadvantage, 
how great is their sin then, who perform not the con- 
ditions of such covenants as tend to their everlasting 
welfare ! Psal. xv. 4. The Jews have a saying, that 
there is no punishment that befalls them, but there is 
in it a dram of the golden calf: so there is no misery 
that befalls England, but there is in it a (b-am of cove- 
nant-breaking. 

12. Security. Though " strangers had devoured his 
strength," yet he knew it not ; the Syrian and Assyrian 
had consumed him, and made a prey of him, yet such 
was his stupidity, that he knew it not, viz. with a jjrac- 
tieal, saving knowledge, so as to repent, and make a 
right use of it : " yea, grey hairs are here and there 
upon him," which were a sign of weakness, and old 
age, and approaching death ; yet they laid it not to 
heart, IIos. vii. 9 ; but they were at ease in Zion, and 
trusted in the mountain of Samaria, putting the evil 
day far from them, and therefore a woe is denounced 
against them, Amos vi. 1, 3; ix. 10. 

And was there ever more security and senseless stu- 
pidity in England than at this day ? Do not the minis- 
ters of Christ generally complain that they see not that 
life, zeal, activity, tenderness, compunction, in their 
peo])le, which formerly existed? JIany applaud and 
flatter themselves with their gifts and external profes- 
sion of sanctity, but tlie ])ower of it is very much want- 
ing amongst us. A great calm ofttimcs is a forerunner 
of a storm ; and great security is a great forerunner of 
some great judgment. Wien the old world was eating, 
drinking, buying, building, marrying, and thought not 
of a Hood, then it came and swept them all away ; when 
men cry Peace and safety, then comes sudden and swift 
destruction, 1 Thess. v. 3. 

13. Anarchy. They "have devoured their judges, 
all their kings are fallen," Hos. vii. 7. They discovered 
their rage in their seditious and frequent conspiracies, 
to the devouring and destroying of their judges and 
magistrates, as appears in the frequent murders of their 
kings. 

■\ATiat anarchy and confusion is amongst us, he is a 
great stranger in our English Israel that knows not. 

14. Lukcwarmness. This is another sin that helped 
to ruin Eplu-aim. Hos. vii. 8, " Ephraim is a cake not 
turned," and so but half-baked, or dough-baked ; ne- 
f/ue criidus, neque coclua, neither hot nor cold, neither 
fish nor flesh, but of a middle, mongrel religion, halt- 
ing between two, partly for God and partly Tor the 
devil, partly for Christ and partly for Baal : but God 
hates such halting, half-hearted doings ; and tlierefore 
spews them out of his mouth, and sends them packing 
into captivity. 

And is not this the sin of England ? are we not a 
lukewarm generation, neither hot nor cold, that halt 
not between two, but two hundred opinions ? AVe 
have a knee for God, and a knee for liaal ; a tongue 
for Christ, and a tongue for antichrist ; a tongue for 



truth, and a tongue for falsehood ; like the harlot, we 
arc ail for dividing : but God will be served trulv and 
totally, without halting or halving; he has made our 
V, hole hearts, and he will have all, or none at all. Oh, 
this sin of formality and lukcwarmness cries for some 
judgment against us. AVhere is our zeal for God's 
glory ? our mourning for the gi-eat dishonours that are 
done to his name ? our crying out and witnessing 
against the blasphemies, heresies, juggling, and Sataniciil 
delusions that abound amongst us ? Nay, do not many 
l)Iead for a general toleration of all sorts and sects ? 
and if under a colour they make a law against such, 
yet it is either made so* wide that offenders creep 
through, or the rulers are so overawed that they dare 
only admonish when they should punish, and bai-ely 
shave the head which of right should be cut oft". 

Now, will not the Lord visit for these things ? and 
shall not his soul be avenged on such a cold and care- 
less nation as this is ? 

15. Divisions. Ephraim was against Manasses, and 
Manasses against Ephraim; there was division upon 
division amongst them ; their sins had divided them 
from their God, and now God in his just judgment sets 
a spirit of division amongst themselves to their de- 
struction. Hos. X. 2, " Their heart is divided ; now shall 
they be found faulty ;" or, as some render the word, 
they shall be ruined. For desolations in a state oft 
follow divisions in the church, as we see in Poland, 
Germany, and elsewhere. 

And was England ever more sadly divided and sub- 
divided than at this day ? AA'hat separations and sub- 
separations are found amongst us ? One is of Paul, 
another of Apollos ; divisions in principles, divisions in 
])ractice, divisions in judgment, and divisions in af- 
fection ; divisions in church, and divisions in state : 
for the divisions of England there be sad thoughts of 
heart. Jerusalem's divisions were Jerusalem's ruin ; 
the Lord grant that England's divisions prove not 
England's ruin. These give the enemy great ad- 
vantage against us, and encourage them to set upon 
us. Wien Israel and Judah were at variance, tlien 
comes Shishak the Egj-jjtian and troubles Jerusalem, 
2 Chron. xii. 2. 

It is obsened, that England was never 
conquered but when it was divided gu^.l'Sniu/imi- 
within itself. ""'• '"'•""^ 

Oh that God who has made our hearts would mend 
them, and unite them, that we may never lose our re- 
ligion, laws, estates, persons, posterity, and all that is 
dear to us, and lay ourselves open to the malice of a 
bloody enemy, who has no way to overthrow us sooner 
than by our sinful dissensions. 

16. Carnal-confidence. For this sin they are fre- 
quently reproved ; one while they trusted in their 
kings ; anon they go down to Egypt for help, and then 
seek to the Assyrian : they forsook the Lord, and 
trusted in an arm of flesh, which yet could not help 
them in then- troubles, Hos. v. 13; vii. 11; xii. 1; 
xiii. 10. 

And does not this sin abound in England ? Have 
not we trusted in kings, princes, iirotectors, parliaments, 
armies, navies, &c. ? We have leaned upon our staves, 
till we have broken them all, and ruined our carnal- 
confidences by idolizing them. 

17. Incorrigibleness under lesser judgments. God 
had been as "a moth" to Ephraim, which consumed 
him by little and little ; but since that did not better 
him, tlie Lord came as "a lion" against him, and tore 
him all to pieces, Hos. v. 12, 14. Like a good phy- 
sician, he used all means to heal them, Hos. vii. 1, by 
his word, by his mercies, by his judgments; but since 
nothing would mend them, the Lord swears by him- 
self, to root up them, and their posterity, for their stub- 
bornness, Amos iv. 



Vee. 16. 



THE PROPHECY OF ROSEA. 



609 



And is not this our sin ? Has not the Lord used 
all gentle means, and spent all his lesser rods, in vain 
upon us ? Who can say he has been the better for all 
the agues, fevers, taxes, poverty, sick- 
fleSillTurlcoprfpu" Hess, Or any of those lesser rods which 
gimu?!!'' sSian'." ^°'^ ^^^ ^'^'^ iipon US? ^lay not the 
Lord complain of England as he did 
sometime of Israel for their incorrigibleness ? Amos 
iv. 6 — 12. Thus and thus have I done to you, " yet 
have ye not returned to me, sailh the Lord ;" and 
therefore now will I bring some greater judgment on 
you, unless by repentance you " prepare to meet thy 
God," and so prevent his wrath. 

18. Oppression and cruelty. They acted their op- 
pressions on the poor in a violent, virulent manner, 
which brought destruction upon them, Amos iii. 9 — 12 ; 
iv. 2. They used false weights, and loved to oppress ; 
they were all for getting, though it were liy force and 
forgery, Hos. xii. 7. 

And does not this sin reign amongst us ? AVas there 
ever more racking of tenants, and grinding of the 
faces of the poor? "Was there ever more cozening, 
cheating, overreaching, and unrighteous dealing in the 
land, and that by some who pretend to an extraordi- 
nary measure of religion. I believe the like has not 
been known in the memory of man. Our forefathers 
had less light and knowledge, but there was far more 
plainness and single-heartedness in those days than 
characterizes ours. 

I have but little dealing in the world, (had I less I 
should be well contented,) yet I must profess, that I 
can scarce tell where to find a plain, simple, single- 
hearted Nathanael. Let such know that God abomi- 
nates them. Dent. xxv. 1.3 — 16, and will be avenged on 
them, 1 Thess. iv. 6. The whole land fares the worse 
for such. This was one of those sins, amongst the rest, 
that brought judgments on Jerusalem, and will cer- 
tainly bring judgments on London, and the rest of our 
cities where such enormities abound, Ezek. xxii. 12, 
29, 31. 

19. Atheism. They forgot God days without num- 
ber, he was not in all their thoughts. Hence the Lord 
so oft complains, that they knew him not, nor con- 
sidered that he remembered all their doings, Hos. ii. 
5, 8, 1.3; V. 4; vii. 2. 

Atheism at this day is the crying sin of England ; 
we are not in so much danger of papism now as of 
atheism. How has this God-provoking, land-ruining 
sin overspread the whole island ! We have all sorts of 
atheism amongst us, mental, vocal, vital. 

1 . We have close atheists, and gross atheists ; we 
have atheists contemplative, and atheists practical. 
Some are closer atheists, they do not directly and 
plainly cast God out of the world ; yet these fools (who 
are the world's wise men) say in their hearts, " There is 
no God," Psal. xiv. 1. This kind of atheism is not so 
easily discovered, nor reproved, and so it wants that 
help which gross atheism meets withal. 

2. Many that confess God in their words, yet deny 
him in their works, and by consequence deny his all- 
seeing eye and being, as if God took no notice of things 
below; these are practical atheists. Tit. i. 16. Eliphaz 
sets the brand of wickedness upon the forehead of this 
sin. Job xxii. 5, 13, 14 ; and God threatens to search, as 
" with candles," for such atheistical ones, that is, he 
will search narrowly, and sift them thoroughlj', as the 
woman that lighted a candle to search for her lost 
groat, Zeph. i. 12. Yet atheism is frequently acted in 
the world in one degree or other : Psal. x. 4, " The 
wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not 
seek after God ;" that is, he thinks he has no need of 
him, but has enough in himself, and therefore he will 
not go to God : " God is not in all his thoughts ;" a 
Hebraism, signifying he is in none of his thoughts, no, 



not in one of his thoughts or ways. The devil would 
fain make men not believe that which he himself can- 
not but believe, viz. that there is a God. This is one 
of the highest degrees of wickedness in the world. To 
deny God is so high a sin that it takes away all at once, 
the devil needs not come a second time. This is to 
sin against the greatest light; it is not only a sin 
against the light of Christianity, but against the light 
of nature, against the witness of the ci'eature, and the 
whole creation. Such sin against the providence of 
God, and against the common consent of all nations. 
TuUy could say. There was never any nation so bar- 
barous as to deny that there was a God. I have seen 
a city without walls, but never any city but acknow- 
ledged a God. I have heard of some that have denied 
that there was a God ; yet never knew the man, but, 
when he was sick, would seek unto God for help. 
Therefore, saith Seneca, they do but lie that say there 
is no God ; they sin against the light of their own con- 
sciences ; they who most studiously go about to deny 
God, yet cannot do it, but some check of conscience 
will fly in their faces : hence heathens have condemned 
some to death that denied there was a God. This 
is a mother-sin, and the root of all abominations, yea, 
in every sin there is a virtual, tacit, interpretative 
atheism ; they say, as it were, in their hearts, that God 
does not see, Psal. xiv. 1 — 3; Ixxiii. 11, 12; xciv. 
5 — 9. This sin ruined Jerusalem, Ezek. ix. 9, and if 
it spread in England as it has done of late years, it will 
certainly ruin us also. 

We all carry the root of this prolific sin about us, 
and in every sin there is a grain, at least, of atheism. 
When we are charged with it we are apt to say, as 
Hazael, " But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should 
do this great thing?" he would not believe that there 
was so much wickedness in him. " The Lord hal|h 
showed me that thou shalt be king over SjTia," an- 
swered the prophet, and then thy corruptions will soon 
appear, when thou hast power and opportunity to act 
them. So say T, thou art a son of Adam, lapsed and 
fallen in him, thou hast the seed of this sin within thee, 
and when a temptation comes it will quickly discover 
itself to the world. 

Take heed of polytheism, which is the ready way 
to atheism ; the having of many gods is the ready way 
to have no God. An onini religion is the ready way to 
no religion. The world abounds with false gods. Our 
gods are, 

1. Whatsoever we love more than God, that is our 
god : Amor tuics, Dens tuus. 

2. A\'hiatsoever we confide in more than God, is our 
god, Job xxxi. 24. 

3. Whatever we glory and rejoice in more than 
God, Jer. ix. 23 ; Phil. iii. 19. 

4. Whatever we ascribe efficiency to, Hab. i. 16. 
God will have all power ascribed to himself, Deut. viii. 
12, 13, 17, 18. 

5. "Whatever we obey against the mind of God, be 
it friend or foe, men or devils, that we make our god. 

20. Their- sin was full, and they ripe for ruin. God 
had borne with theu' provocations about two hundred 
and sixty years, even till they had filled up the measure 
of their sins, and then he brought destruction on them. 

Now Ephraim's sin was full in respect of, 1. Multi- 
tude. 2. Magnitude. 3. Strength. 4. Growth. 5. 
Impudency. 6. Obstinacy. 

There was a fulness in respect of, 

1. IMultitude. 1. All sorts of sin abounded, both 
in doctrine and manners ; there was idolatry, adultery, 
murder, witchcraft, Iving, stealing, oppression, 2 Kings 
xvii. 9—11 ; Hos. iv! 1, 2; vii. 7; Amos ii. 6. 2. All 
sorts of sinners abounded, high and low, princes, priests, 
and people, all were idolaters, and deUghted in false 
worship, Hos. v. 1 ; Micah vii. 3 — 6. 



eio 



AN EXPOSITION OF THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



Chap. XIII. 



This universality of sinning is ever a forerunner of 
judgment : when all the old world had corrupted them- 
selves, then came the flood ; when all Sodom was 
wicked, and all Jerusalem rebelled, when " the mean 
man boweth down" to idols, "and the great man 
humbleth himself," then God will not forgive, Isa. i. 5, 
6; ii. 9; Jer. v. 1—7; vii. 18, 19. 

2. Magnitude ; which is a forerunner of destruction. 
When the sins in themselves are great, as idolatry, 
witchcraft, hypocrisy, apostacy, and these sins are 
heightened by circumstances, being committed against 
great light, love, patience, &c. This was Ephraim's, 

1 wish it were not also England's, case. 

3. Strength. When men do wickedly " with both 
hands," that is, earnestly and actively, Micah vii. 3. 
"WTien men " draw iniquity with cords of vanity," and 
study how they may do mischief with all their might, 
Isa. v. 18; Ezek. sxii. 6. 

4. Growth. AVhen men " sin more and more," as 
Ephraim did, Hos. xiii. 2, and grow " worse and worse," 

2 Tim. iii. 13, persevering in theii- sin without end or 
measure, this also prognosticates niin to a nation. The 
Lord did not presently destroy the Aniorites, but suf- 
fered their sin to come to its fulness, that he might 
pour upon them the fulness of his fury ; Gen. xv. 16, 
" Tlie iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." Though 
they were notoriously wicked, yet ho bears with them till 
their sins were ripe for ruin. A woman must go her 
forty weeks till the child be come to perfection, and then 
comes her travail suddenly and surely. So sin has its 
conception, rise, reign, and ruin, Psal. viL 14 ; James 
i. 15. 

6. Impudency. When men declare their sins like 
Sodom, and openly profess their wickedness with " a 
whore's forehead " that refuses to be ashamed, Isa. iii. 
9; Jer. iii. 3; vi. 15; Zeph. iii. 5. 

6. Obstinacy. AVhen nothing can reclaim a people, 
but they are resolvedly wicked, as Ephraim here, who 
was married to idols, and would not return, being 
deeply rooted in iniquity, Hos. iv. 17; v. 4; ix. 9. 
They sold themselves to do wickedly, 2 Kings xvii. 17 ; 
they woiild not be warned by the falls of others, whom 
God had punished before them for the same sins, 
2 Kings xvii. 8 — 15, but rejected the counsel of his 
Prophets, till the wrath of the Lord broke forth, and 



there was no remedy, as you may see, 2 Kin^s xvii. 
7 — 24, where you have Ephraim's sins, and Ephraim's 
punishment, fully set forth. 

Now what could the Lord do less than root up such 
a people, so obstinate under reproofs, so unthankful for 
mercies, so incorrigible under judgments, so incapable 
of repentance, so impatient of remedies, so impenitent 
under all the means of grace which God had afforded 
them? 

Let us now reflect upon ourselves, and see whether 
Ephraim's sins be not England's sins : if so, parity of 
sins will bring parity of judgments; if our sins run 
parallel with those of Ephraim, we may justly expect 
Ephraim's downfal. 

It is said of Lot, that his righteous soul was vexed 
with the sins of Sodom, 2 Pet ii. 7, 8; the original 
signifies, his soul was racked and tor- jfl„,„„f<,.. j„. 
mented when he saw the abominations aa^iC«i.'o'<i''.<»i» 
of the Sodomites. These twenty sins £^°<iS»uu'' ' 
which abound in England, and fore- "^""^ 
bode some approaching judgment, should even rack 
and torment our souls with grief, that so we may be 
marked for mercy when judgment comes, Ezek. ix. 4 ; 
Hab. iii. 16. 

Lastly, their rulers were corrupt, their kings, princes, 
judges, were idolaters, revolters, violaters of tlie law, 
bribers, &c., Hos. iv. 18, 19; v. 13; ix. 15; and the 
people were corrupted by them, for where the head is 
rotten, the members cannot be sound. Of all the 
twenty kings of Israel (after the division of the state) 
there was not one good from first to last, they were all 
idolaters ; which serves to clear and vindicate the jus- 
tice of God in the utter overthrow of those kings, and 
their kingdom, who had for the space of two hundred 
and thirty-seven, or two hundred and sixtj' years, abused 
the goodness and patience of the Lord. 

On the whole matter, the counsel which the Lord 
gave to Ephraim, shall I give to England, Hos. xiv. 
1 — 3. Return, O backsliding England, from thy 
atheism, apostacy, heresy, blasphemy, hj-pocrisy, for- 
mality, ingratitude, witchcraft, security, anarchy, and 
take with you words of sincere confession, and turn 
unfeignedly to the Lord ; so wUl he receive you gra- 
ciously, and accept both of your persons and perform- 



Jstacrs ^vtimt in ^inu of STroutilc, 



GODS GRACIOUS ANS^\^ER THEREUNTO. 



AN EXPLICATION 



FOURTEENTH CHAPTER OF HOSEA; 



IN SEVEN SERMONS, 

y 



PREACHED IN MARGARET'S CHURCH, AT WESTMINSTER, BEFORE THE HONOURABLE 
HOUSE OF COMMONS, NOW ASSEMBLED IN PARLIAMENT. 



BY EDWARD REYNOLDS, 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE SAID H0U8E. 



HONOURABLE HOUSE OF COMxMONS, 



ASSEMBLED IN PARLIAMENT. 



In obedience to your commands, I here humbly present to your view, what you were pleased with patience and 
readiness of affection lately to attend unto. I considered, that though the choiceness of the auditory might 
require the exactest preparation, yet, both the condition of the times, and the nature of the duty, called upon 
us to lay aside our ornaments. And therefore I spake with such plainness, as might commend the matter 
delivered rather to the conscience of a penitent, than to the fancy of a delicate hearer. The king of Nineveh 
was a king as well in his sackcloth as in his robes : and the truth of God is indeed fuller of majesty when it is 
naked, than when adorned with the di'ess of any human contribution, which many times takes from it, but 
never adds to it any value. 

I looked upon you in your double relation, both common, as Christians, and special, as men intrusted with 
the managing of those arduous and most pressing difficulties under which this distempered kingdom is now 
groaning. 

And for the quickening of those endeavours which belong to you in both these relations, I presented you both 
with the bottom of a nation's unhappiness, which is sin ; and with the top of their felicity, which is God's free 
grace and favour : that by your serious cares to purge out the one and to procure the other, you mig^it, by God's 
blessing on your consultations, dispel that black tempest which hangs over this kingdom, and reduce the face of 
things to calmness and serenity again. 

When the children struggled together in the womb of Rebekah, she was thereupon inquisitive, " If it be so, 
why am I thus ? " Gen. xxv. 22 ; and she addressed herself to God for a resolution. Surely this nation is be- 
come like the womb of Rebekah, the children thereof struggling together in their common mother ; and when 
God has mercifully freed us from foreign enemies, brethren are become enemies to brethren, and by their enmi- 
ties likely to tear and torment the bowels of their mother, and to ruin themselves. 

And what have we now to do, but to inquire the cause of these sad commotions. Why are we thus ? And 
surely the cause is chiefly where the disease is, within ourselves. "We have been like the womb of Rebekah, a 
barren nation, not bringing forth fruits for the so many mercies with which God has filled us. So that now it is 
no wonder if God cause us to be in pain within our own bowels, and to feel the throes and " sorrows of a tra- 
vailing woman," Hos. xiii. 13, ready to bring forth her own confusion, a Benoni or an Ichabod, a son of sorrow 
or a son of shame, to this hitherto so peaceable and flourishing kingdom. 

All that we can comfort ourselves with in these pangs and qualms of distemper is, that there are some Jacobs 
amongst us, who, instead of supplanting their brethren, will wrestle and have power Avith God, Gen. xxxii. 24 ; 
Hos. xii. 3, 4. The people have often petitioned, sometimes his sacred Majesty, sometimes this Honourable 
House, which are his great council, many overtures and endeavours of accommodation have been tendered, and 
yet we cry out in our pangs, and have, as it were, brought forth wind, neither have we wrought any deliverance 
in the earth, Isa. xxvi. 17, 18. 

I have here, therefore, presented a new petition, dictated and drawn up to our hands by God's own Spirit, to 
which both king and parliament, peers, and prophets, and people, must all subscribe, and offer it with prostrate 
and penitent hearts to Him who " standeth in the congregation of the mighty," and " judgeth among the gods," 
that he would " take away all " our " iniquity," and " receive us " into favour again, and accept of a covenant of 
new obedience, Psal. Ixxxii. 1 ; Hos. xiv. 2. 



614 THE EPISTLE. 

And this petition God is pleased to anticipate with an answer of grace in the consequent parts of the chapter 
whence the text is taken, and that particularly to everj' branch of the petition. He will take away iniquity. 
His anger shall not punish, his love shall heal our backslidings, the greatness of our sins shsill not hinder the 
freeness of his grace. He will do us good, and give us life, by the dew of his grace reviving us ; and glorj-, 
clothing us, like the lily of the field, with the beautj' of holiness ; and stability, fixing us by his grace, as the 
cedars of Lebanon are fastened upon their roots ; and growth, or enlargement, as the branches spread fortli 
themselves ; and continual vigoiu' and plenty, as the olive tree, which is always green and fruitful ; and glorious 
comforts by the sweet savour of the knowledge of God, which, like the spice trees of Lebanon, shall diffuse a 
spiritual perfume upon the names, and into the consciences, of penitent converts. 

He will prevent us with the blessings of safety, as well as of sanctity and comfort ; we shall, under his shadow, 
find shelter and protection from all our fears. Though, like corn, we be harrowed under the clods; though, like 
a lopped vine, we seem naked and reduced to lowness ; though, like crushed grapes, we lie under heavy pres- 
sui-cs ; yet he will receive, and enlarge, and comfort us again ; and when we are in our own eyes as fatherless 
children, he will set his eyes upon us as a tutor and guai-dian ; he will hear, and observe, and answer, and pity us, 
enabling us to make good our covenant by his grace, and causing the fruit of his loving-kindness to be found 
upon us. Thus God is pleased to borrow the various pei-fection of other things to adumbrate the united and 
accumulated mercies which he promises to a turning and petitioning people. 

You have the petition sent you from God, and his answer preventing you in all the members of it with the 
blessings of goodness. I have nothing else to do, but to beg of you, and of all this great people whom you repre- 
sent, the subscription of your hearts and lives to this petition ; and to beg of God, that he would graciously in- 
cline the hearts of this whole kingdom, rather to wrestle with him for a blessing, than to struggle and conflict 
amongst themselves for a curse. With which prayer I humbly conclude, commending your persons and your 
■weighty affairs to his grace j and rest. 

Your most humble servant in Christ, 

EDWARD REYNOLDS. 
^rom my study in Braumton, August the 8^, 1612. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Verse 1—3. 

O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God ; for thou hast 
fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and 
turn to the Lord: say unto him, Take away all 
iyiiquity, and receive us graciously : so will we render 
the calves of our lips. As-ihur shall not save tis ; we 
will not ride xipon horses : neither will ice say any 
more to the work of our hands, i'e are our gods : for 
in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. 

The blessing of Ephraim was, according to the signi- 
fication of his name, fruitfulness. Gen. xli. 52 ; the 
fruitfulness of the earth, a bough by a -n-ell, and the 
fruitfulness of the -n-omb, and of the breasts, Gen. xlix. 
22,25; Deut. xxxiii. 13 — 17. Contrary to which two 
blessings, we find in our prophet two judgments threat- 
ened against him for his sins; chap. xiii. 15, 16, "Though 
he be fruitful among his bretliren, an east wind shall 
come, the wind of the Lord shall come up from the 
wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his 
fountain shall be dried up : he shaU spoil the treasure 
of all pleasant vessels. Samaria shall become desolate ; 
for she hath rebelled against her God : they shall fall 
bv the sword : their infants shall be dashed in pieces, 
and their- women with child shall be ripped up." And 
ihroughout the whole prophecy, (if you read and ob- 
-■rve it,) you will find the judgments of God against 
,]thraim to be expressed by weeds, emptiness, barren- 
_ ■-«, dryness of roots, of fruits, of branches, of springs, 
and by a curse upon theii' children ; as, on the other side, 
the blessings here in this chapter renewed to Ephraim 
repenting, are all expressed by metaphors of fruitful- 
ness, Tei". 5 — 7. 

From these two woeful judgments, against the fruit- 
fulness of then- springs, and the fruitfulness of their 
wombs, by the desolations of a bloody sword, our pro- 
phet takes occasion once more to awaken and di'ive 
them to a timely repentance, that so they may recover 
the blessing of theii' name ; Ephraim may 
"ifalxorAY^..- ^^ Ephi-aim again, a plentiful, a fruitful, 
Dai'i^a a\\o, a flourishing people. That " when God's 
Td^^acxp'pofia- judgments are in the earth," they would 
"fiI'm'Ta!''^n»'o then, at least, set themselves to " learn 
apiid A. Gel. 1. 6. righteousuess," that they may wash their 
feet in the blood of the wicked. 
Of all nations under heaven this land of ours has had 
the blessing of Ephraim upon it, fruitfulness of the 
earth, abundance of plenty ; fi'uitfulness of the womb, 
abundance of people. But our misery is, that the 
abundance of our sins has mightily outvied the abund- 
ance both of our plenty and of our people ; sins, also, 
too parallel to those of Ephraim. And this parity of 
sins has no doubt called upon God for a parity of 
judgments. It is but a very little while since the Lord 
seemed to call for a north wind, as he does here for an 
east wind ; two armies there met, ready to look one 
another in the face ; but his heart turned, his repent- 
ings were kindled, he would not give up Ephraim then. 
He seems now once more to be drawing a sword, and 
having in vain " hewed " us by his " prophets," as he 
complains, Hos. vi. 5, to try whether hewing us by his 
judgments will work upon us. So that now, though I 
must read my text, " O Israel," yet I must apply it, 
O England, " return unto the Lord thy God; for thou 
hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words. 



and turn to the Lord : say unto liim, Take away all 

iniquity, and receive us graciously : so will we render 
the calves of our lips." 

The whole context contains two general parts : 

I. An invitation to repentance, ver. 1. 

II. An institution how to perform it, ver. 2, 3. 
Before we come to the particulars of the invitation, 

let us first briefly observe. That in the midst of judg- 
ments proposed against obstinate sinners, God reserves 
and proclaims mercy to sinners that are penitent. When 
a consumption is decreed, yet a remnant is reserved to 
retm'n, Isa. x. 22, 23. The Lord will keep his " vine- 
yard," when he will burn up " the briers and thorns " 
together, Isa. xxvii. 2 — 4. When a day of " fierce 
anger" is determined, the "meek of the earth" are 
called upon to seek the Lord, Zeph. ii. 3. When the 
Lord is coming " out of his place to punish the inhabit- 
ants of the earth for their iniquity," he calls upon his 
people to " hide " themselves in their " chambers," 
"until the indignation be overpast," Isa. xxvi. 20, 21. 
The angel which was sent to destroy Sodom, had withal 
a commission to deliver Lot, Gen. xix. 15. God made 
full provision for those who mourned for public abomi- 
nations, before he gave order to destroy the rest, Ezek. 
ix. 4, 6. Men in their wrath will many times rather 
strike a fi-iend than spare a foe ; but God's proceedings 
are without disorder, he will rather spare his foes than 
strike his servants, as he showed himself willing to have 
done in the case of Sodom, Gen. xviii. 26. " Moses 
stood before him in the breach," and diverted judgments 
from Israel," Psal. cvi. 23. Yea, God seeks for such, 
Ezek. xxii. 30, and complains when they cannot be 
found, Ezek. xiii. 5 ; and if he deliver others for them, 
certainly he will not destroy them for others. However 
it go with the world and with wicked men, it shall go 
well with the righteous ; there shall be a sanctuary for 
them when others stumble, and they shall pass through 
the fire when others are consumed by it, Isa. iii. 10, 11 ; 
viii. 14 — 16; Zech. xiii. 8, 9. The reasons of this ten- 
der care are, 

1. God's justice. He wUl not punish the righteous 
with the wicked; he will have it appear that there 
is a difference "between him that serveth God and 
him that serveth him not," Gen. xviii. 23 ; Mai. 
iii. IS. 

2. God's love to his people. He has " a book of re- 
membrance " ■mitten before him, for them that fear 
him, and think upon his name. " And they shall be 
mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make 
up my jewels ; and I will spare them, as a man spareth 
his own son that serveth him," Mai. iii. 16, 17. Here is 
a cUmax and gradation of arguments drawn from love. 
In a great fire, and devouring trouble, (such as is 
threatened, Mai. iv. 1,) property alone is a ground of 
care ; a man would wUlingly save and secure that 
which is his own, and of any use to him ; but if you 
add to this preciousness, that increases the care. A 
man will make hard shift to deliver a rich cabinet of 
jewels, though all his ordinary goods and utensils 
should perish. But of all jewels, those which come 
out of the body are much more precious than those 
which only adorn it. \Yho would not snatch rather 
his child than his casket or purse out of a flame ? Re- 
lation works not only upon the affection, but upon the 
bowels, Jer. xxxi. 20. And lastly, the same excellency 
that the word "jewel" adds to the word "mine;" 
the same excellency does "service" add to the word 



616 



.\N EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



" son." A man has much conflict in himself to take off 
his heart from an undutiful son. Never a worse son 
than Absalom, and yet how does David give a charge 
to the commanders to have him s])ared ! How inqui- 
sitive after his safety ! how passionately and unseason- 
ably mournful upon the news of his death ! But if any 
child be more a jewel than another, certainly it is a 
dutiful child, who has not only an interest in our love 
by nature, but by obedience. All these grounds of 
care and protection for God's people in trouble are 
here expressed ; property, they are " mine ;" precious- 
ness, they are "jewels," treasures, ornaments unto me; 
relation, they are " sons ;" usefulness, they are sons 
that " serve :" none could look on a thing so many ways 
lovely with the same eye as upon a professed and pro- 
voking enemy. 

3. God's name and glory. He has spared his people 
even in the midst of their provocations for his name's 
sake, Deut. xxxiii. 26, 27 ; Josh. vii. 9. How much 
more when they repent and seek his face ! He will 
never let it be said, that any seek the Lord in vain, 
Isa. xlv. 19. 

But it may be objected, Does not Solomon say, that 
" all things come alike to all ? " and that " no man 
knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before 
him?" Eccl. ix. 1, 2. And is it not certain and com- 
mon, that in public desolations good as well as bad do 
perish ? Does not the sword devour as well one as 
another ? 

True, God does not always difference his servants 
from wicked men by temporal deliverances ; troubles 
commonly and promiscuously involve all sorts. But 
there are these two things in it to be considered : 

1. Many times the good suffer with the bad, because 
they are together corrupted with them ; and when they 
join in the common provocations, no wonder if they 
suffer in the common judgments. Rev. xviii. 4. Nay, 
the sins of God's people do (especially in this case) 
more provoke him to outward judgments than the 
sins of his professed enemies ; because they expose 
his name to the more contempt, 2 Sam. xii. 14 ; and 
are committed against the greater love, Amos iii. 2 ; 
and he has future judgment for the wicked, and there- 
fore usually begins here at his own sanctuary, Ezek. ix. 
G; 1 Pet. iv. 17. 

2. When good men, who have preserved themselves 
from ])ublic sins, do yet fall by public judgments, still 
there is a great difference in this seeming equality, the 
same affliction having, like the pillar that went before 
Israel, a light side towards God's people, and a dark 
side towards the Egyptians, God usually recompensing 
the outward evils of his people with more plentiful 
evidences of inward and spiritual joy. A good man 
may be in great darkness as well as a wicked man, but 
in that case he has the name of God to stay himself up- 
on, which no wicked man in the world has, Isa. 1. 10. 
The metal and the dross go both into the fire together, 
but the di-oss is consumed, the metal refined. So is it 
with godly and wicked in then- sufferings, Zech. xiii. 9 ; 
Eccl. viii. 12, 13. 

This reproves the folly of those who in time of 
trouble rely u])on vain things which cannot help them, 
and continue their sins still. For judgments make no 
dift'erence of any but penitent and impenitent. Sickness 
stands not on ceremony with an honourable person, but 
uses him as coarsely as the base. Death knocks as 
well at a prince's palace as a poor man's cottage ; wise 
men die as well as fools. Yea, poison usually works 
more violently when tempered with wine, than with 
some duller and baser material. In times of trouble 
usually the greater the persons the closer the judg- 
ments. 'When Jerusalem was taken the nobles were 
slain, but the poor of the land had vineyards and fields 
given them, Jer. xxxix. — 10. 



Therefore in troubles we should be more humbled 
for our sins than our sufferings, because sin is the sting 
of suffering. That mercies should not win us; that 
judgment should not awaken us; that the rod should 
speak, and we not hear, Micah vi. 9; that the fire 
should burn, and we not feel, Isa. xlii. 25 ; that desola- 
tion should be threatened, and we not insti'ucted, Jer. 
vi. 8 ; that the hand of God should be lifted up, and 
we not see it, Isa. xxvi. 11 ; that darkness should be 
upon us, and we not give glory to God, Jer. xiii. 16 : 
this is that which should most deject us, in mercies to 
have been wanton, and in judgments senseless. Get 
repentance by an affliction, and then you may look on 
it as a ti'affic, and not as a trouble, like a merchant's 
voyage, which has pain in the way, but treasure in the 
end. No afflictions can hurt him that is penitent. If 
thou escape, they will make thee the more thankful ; 
if not, they will bring thee the nearer and the sooner 
to God. 

The way to be safe in times of trouble, is to get the 
blood of the Lamb upon our doors. AH troubles have 
their commission and instructions from God, what to 
do, whither to go, whom to touch, whom to pass over. 
Be gold, and though the fire come upon you, you shall 
keep your nature and purity still. " Godliness," saith 
the apostle, "hath the promise of this life," and in 
that general jjromise one special clause, that we shall 
not "be tempted above that we are able," 1 Cor. x. 13; 
neither are there indeed any distresses against which 
there is not a refuge and escape for penitent sinners to 
some promise or other. Against captivity. " When they 
be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them 
away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them ut- 
terly," Lev. xxvi. 44. Against famine and pestilence. 
" K I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I com- 
mand the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pes- 
tilence among my people ; if my people, which are 
called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, 
and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways ; 
then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, 
and will heal their land," 2 Chron. vii. 13, 14. Against 
sickness. " The Lord will strengthen him u])on the 
bed of languishing : thou wilt make all his bed in his 
sickness," Psal. xli. 3. Against poverty. " When the 
poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their 
tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I 
the God of Israel will not forsake them," Isa. xli. 17; 
Psal. Ixviii. 10. Against want of friends. " AMien my 
father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take 
me up," Psal. xxvii. 10 ; Ixxii. 12. Against oppression 
and imprisonment. " Which executeth judgment for 
the oppressed : the Lord looseth the prisoners," Psal. 
cxlvi. 7. Against " whatsoever plague, whatsoever 
sickness there be," 1 Kings viii. 37, 38. He is the God 
of " all consolation :" how disconsolate soever a man's 
condition is in any kind, there cannot but within the 
compass of "all consolation" be some one or other re- 
medv at hand to comfort and relieve him. And so 
much by the way of general preface from the words of 
the context, which leads us to consider, 

I. The invitation to repentance : in which we have, 
1. The matter of the invitation. 2. The motives con- 
tained in the invitation. 

1. The matter of 'the invitation is conversion: with- 
out that, the hand which is lifted up in threatening 
will fall down in punishing ; and where that is, God 
has " a book of remembrance " for his jewels, when 
his wrath burnetii as an oven against the stubble, Isa. 
xxvi. 11; Mai. iii. 16. 

But this conversion has two conditions in it. 1. It 
must be to the Lord. " O Israel, return unto the 
Lord." Not merely philosophical, to some low and 
general dictates of reason, such as Aristotle, or Plato, 
or Epictetus, or Plutarch, or the like heathen moralists 



Vee. 1—3. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



en 



could fm-nish us with, without self-denial, lowliness of 
spirit, or * faith in Christ. 

Not merely political, to credit, or profit, or secular 
ends, ■\ propter J'amam, non propter conscientiam, as the 
orator speaks, or as our prophet saith, " for corn and 
wine," Hos. vii. 14. As good be an empty vine, as 
bring forth fruit only to ourselves, Hos. x. 1. 

But it must be spiritual, to the Lord. " If thou wilt 
return, Israel, saith the Lord, return unto me," Jer. 
iv. 1. And not only " unto the Lord," for that may be 
done falsely and flatteringly, with a halting and di- 
vided heart, Jer. iii. 10. By the force of semi-persua- 
sions, like that of Agrippa, Acts xxvi. 28, and Orpah, 
Ruth i. 14, compUmenting with God, and then forsak- 
ing him. By the force of compulsory impressions, like 
that of Pharaoh and Israel in the wilderness, Exod. 
viii. 8 ; ix. 27—34 ; Psal. Ixxviii. 34—37. J Promises 
on the rack, and pride when there was respite again ; 
thawing in the sun, and freezing in the shade ; melting 
in the furnace, and out of it retui-ning again to hard- 
ness ; like the prophet's cake, bui-nt on the one side, and 
dough on the other. But it must be, 

2. Even unto the Lord ; so much the original word 
"ly imports, a full, thorough, constant, continued con- 
version, with a fixed, rooted, united, established heart, 
yielding up the whole conscience and conversation to 
be ruled by God's will in all things, Joel ii. 12 ; Acts 
xi. 23; Psal. Ivii. 7; Eph. iii. 17 j Psal. Ixxxvi. 11; 
Heb. xiii. 9. 

2. The motives to this duty are two. 1. His mercy: 
" Return unto the Lord thy God ;" he is yet " thy 
God:" no such argument for our turning to God as his 
turning to us. Adam looks on him as a judge, and 
hides ; the prodigal looks on him as a father, and re- 
turns. As the beams of the sun shining on fire deadens 
its flame, so the shining of God's mercies on us should 
dishearten and extinguish our lusts. This is the use 
we should make of mercy. Say not. He is my God, 
therefore I may presume upon him ; but. He is mine, 
therefore I must return to him. Because he is God, 
I w-iU be afraid to provoke him; and because he is 
mine, I will be afraid to forfeit him. He is so great, I 
must not dare to ofi'end him ; so precious, I must not 
, o- ■ - venture to lose him. His mercy is a 
eem Si^Jtiamrt, holy mcrcy, which knows to pardon sin, 
Ti t'??'" '^''^"'- but not to protect it. It is a sanctuary 
ci?rn°ii"t's°re"'" for the penitent, not for the presump- 
tuous, Joel ii. 12, 13 ; Isa. Iv. 6, 7 ; Jer. 
xxxi. 18 ; Hos. iii. 5 ; Psal. cxxx. 4 ; Acts ii. 38 ; Matt, 
iii. 2 ; Isa. Ixiv. 9. 

2. His judgment, and that expressed rather as our 
act than his: " Thou hast fallen by thine iniquit)'." If 
mercies do not work upon love, let judgments work 
_ . . , upon fear. Extremities are a warrant to 
loqiiendum libere importuuitics. EvcH hcathcu manners 
Liv™!^,."?""' in a storm will cry mightily upon God. 
mi°E™ani'?d°De'os ^Vhcn there is a deluge coming, is it not 
verti^X^Liv'ts ^''"^ ^°'" ^0^^ to f^^i'' ''"'^ t° prepare an 
-*]«■ stro. 1. in. ' ark ? Heb. xi. 7. " "What meanest thou, 
ioiom,' L 9! c. e"""" O thou sleeper," to lose the season and 
It- •"^'"^'"- benefit of God's visitations ? when there 
i^"cf 33! '^''' °''' "" is a tempest over the ship, heavy dis- 
tresses, and distractions both at home 
and abroad, to be so secure in thy wonted impeni- 
tency, as if thou hadst had no sins to procure these 
judgments, or no sense to feel them, Jonah i. 6 ; as if 

* Non sunt bona quas non de radice bona procedunt. Ea 
ipsa opera cjuaj dicnntur ante fidem quamvis videantur homini- 
bus laudabilia, inania sunt, lit magna? vires et cursus celer- 
rimns pra:ter viam, Aug. Enarr. in Phal. 31. Vide de Spirit, 
et Lite, c. 'iO, 21. 26. Contra Duas Epist. Pelag. 1. 3. c. 7. 
ep. 106. De Fide et Operibus, c. 14. Contra Julian, lib. 4. 
cap. 3. 

t Nihil ad ostentationem, omnia ad conscientiam refert. PI. 



there were agreements and sealed covenants between 
thee and the sword, that it should not touch thee ? If 
thou be falling, is it not high time to consider thy 
ways; to search and to judge thyself; to have thine 
eyes like the windows of Solomon's temple, broad in- 
wards ; to find out thine own provocations, ^KatrTot «a«o,-.p- 
and, as David speaks, to keep thyself -rm i^^fpe. Tin. 
from thine iniquity ? Psal. xviii. 23. _ nM.'dcleiT'"' 

Thus when in one and the same time '*""'"'■ 
mercies and judgments are intermixed, then is the 
most solemn season to call upon men for repentance. 
If we felt nothing but fears, they might make us de- 
spair ; if nothing but mercies, they would make us se- 
cure. If the whole year were summer, the sap of the- 
earth would be exhausted ; if the whole were winter, it 
would be quite buried. The hammer breaks metal^ 
and the fire melts it, and then you may cast it into any 
shape. Judgments break, mercies melt, and then, if 
ever, the soul is fit to be cast into God's mould. There 
is no figure in all the prophets more usual than this, to. 
interweave mercies and judgments, like those elegan- 
cies which rhetoricians call oliutoga, to 

,1 J i t^ • • i -tj Vossius Rhetor. 1. 5^ 

allure, and to bring into a wilderness, c. 12. sect. 7. 
Hos. ii. 14. And this of all other is the vwe Gomei D^nnit. 
>/f(fpa Kpiffi/KOf, as physicians call it, the "'''''■ " ^""'™'- 
critical time of diseased people, wherein the chief con- 
jecture lies, whether they be mending or ending, ac- 
cording to the use which they make of such interwovea 
mercies. 

I have cursorily run over the first part of the con- 
text, the invitation to repentance, as intending to make 
my abode on the second. 

II. The institution how to perform it. Therein we- 
have, 1. A general instruction, " Take with you words." 
2. A particular form, what words they should take, or 
a petition di'awn to their hands, " Take away all ini- 
quity, and receive us graciously : so will we render th& 
calves of our lips. Asshur shall not save us ; we will 
not ride upon horses : neither will we say any more tO' 
the work of our hands, Ye are our gods : for in thee 
the fatherless findeth mercy." 

1. A general instruction, " Take with you words."^ 
Of this I shall speak but briefly. It imports the serious 
pondering and choosing of requests to put up to God. 
The mother of Ai'taxerxes in Plutarch was wont to say, 
that they who would adckess themselves to princes, 
must use prinaai fSvaaivois, silken words. Surely he 
that would approach to God, must consider, and look 
as well to his words as to his feet. He is so holy and 
jealous of his worship, that he expects there should be 
preparation in our accesses unto him. Josh. xxiv. 19 j 
John iv. 23; Eccl. v. 1, 2; Gen. xxxv. 2, 3 ; 1 Sam. 
xvi. 5; Isa. i. 15, 16; preparation of our persons by: 
purity of life, Job xi. 13; preparation of q„,„i„„ , „™„p. 
our services by choice of matter, Job ix. [,'^s ^^!>™„"i; ""."' 
14; Luke XV. 17, 18; preparation of mos. Tert5t.de 
our hearts by finding them out, stirring '^'''' ' "''' 
them up, fixing them, fetching them in, and calling 
together all that is within us to prevail with God, 2 
Sam. vii. 27; Isa. Ixiv. 7; Psal. Ivii. 7, 8; ciii. 1 ; 2. 
Chron. xxx. 19. 

The services which we thus prepare must be taken 
from him ; they must not be the issues of our own 
private and fleshly hearts ; for nothing can go to 
God, but that which conies from him. And this phrase 
seems to import these three things : 1. We must at- 

1. 1. epist. 22. Nihil opinionis caus&, omnia conscientiae, fa- 
ciam. Senec. de Vita Beata, c. 20. 

X Semisauciam hac atque hac versare voluntatem. Aug- 
Confess. 1. 8. c. 8. Plerique ipsius pcenitentia;, &c. Ambro. de 
Pcpnit. 1. 2. C. 9. 'ETra\Xt|Xoi Ittl tois a/iapxij/iao-i /itrafoiai.. 
Clem. Alex. 1. 2. Strom. Irrisor est non pcenitens qui adhue 
agit quod pcenitet, &c. Isidor. de Summo Bono. Senec. Ep.. 
120. Ambros. Offic. lib. 2. c. 22. 



618 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



tend to his will, as the rule of our prayers, 1 John v. 
14. 2. We must attend to liis precepts and promises, 
as the matter of our prayers, 2 Sara. vii. 25. 3. We 

must attend to the guidance of his Holy 
ztspilfilVS: Spirit, as the life and ])rinciple of our 

prayers, without which we know not what 
to ask, Rom. viii. 26; Zech. ii. 10; Job xxxvii. 19. 

And prayers thus regulated are most seasonable and 
sovereign duties in times of trouble ; the key which 
opens a door of mercy, the sluice which keeps out an 
inundation of judgments. Jacob wrestled and obtain- 
ed a blessing, Hos. xii. 4. Amos prayed, and removed 
a curse, Amos vii. 1 — 6. The woman of Canaan will 
not be denied with a denial. Matt. xv. 24, 27. The 
people of Israel will beg for deliverance even when God 
had positively told them that he would deliver them 
no more, Judg. x. 13, 15. Jonah will venture a prayer 
from the bottom of the sea, when a double death had 
seized upon him, the belly of the deep, and the belly 
of the whale ; and that prayer of his opened the doors 
of the leviathan, as the expression is. Job xli. 14, and 
made one of those deaths a deliverance from the other, 
Jonah ii. 

Oh let the Lord's remembrancers give him no rest. 
There is a kind of omnipotency in ])rayer, as having 
an interest and prevalence witii God's omnipotency ; 
it has loosed iron chains, Acts xvi. 25, 2G ; it has open- 
ed iron gates, Acts xii. 5, 10; it has unlocked the 

windows of heaven, 1 Kings xviii. 41 : it 
Ipol'T't""""' has broken the bars of death, John xi. 
steUpijaS' *i 41 — 44- Satan has three titles given him 

in the Scripture, setting forth his malig- 
nity against the church of God. A dragon, to denote 
his malice. Rev. xii. 3 ; a serpent, to denote his sub- 
tlety, Gen. iii. 1 ; and a lion, to denote his strength, 
1 Pet. V. 8. But none of all these can stand before 
prayer. The greatest malice, the malice of Haman, 
sinks under the prayer of Esther; the deepest policy, 
the counsel of Ahithophel, withers before the prayer of 
David; the hugest army, an host of a thousand thou- 
sand Ethiopians, run away like cowards before the 
prayer of Asa, Esth. iv. 16 ; 2 Sam. xv. 31 ; 2 Chron. 
xiv. 9—12. 

How should this encourage us to treasure up our 
prayers ! to besiege the throne of grace with armies of 
suppHcations ! to deny a denial! to break through a 
repulse ! He has blessed those whom he had crippled. 
Gen. xxxii. 25 — 28 ; he has answered those whom he 
did reproach. Matt. xv. 26, 28 ; he has delivered those 
whom he did deny, Judg. x. 13 — 16. He is " the same 
yesterday, to-day, and for ever," Heb. xiii. 8. If he 
save in six and in seven troubles, shoidd not we pray 
in six and seven extremities ? Job v. 19. Certainly, in 
all the afflictions of the church, when prayers are strong- 
est mercies are nearest. 

And therefore, let me humbly recommend to the 
cares of this honourable assembly, amongst all your 
other pressing affairs, the providing that those solemn 
days, wherein the united prayers of this whole kingdom 
should with strongest importunities stop the breaches 
and stand in the gaps at which judgments are ready to 
rush in upon us, may with more obedience and so- 
lemnity be observed, than indeed they have been of 
late. It is true, that here, and in other cities and 
populous places, there is haply less cause, to complain. 
But who can without sorrow and shame behold in our 
country towns, men so inapprehensive either of their 
brethren's sufferings, or of their own sins and dangers, 
as to give God quite over, to let him rest, that they 
themselves may work ; to come in truth to Jehoram's 
resolution, Wliy should we wait upon God any longer ? 
to grudge their brethren's and their own souls and 
safeties one day in thirty, and to tell all the world tliat 
indeed their day's work is of more value with them 



than their day's worship? multitudes drudging and 
moiling in the earth, while their brethren are mourn- 
ing and besieging heaven. I do but name it, and pro- 
ceed to, 

2. The particular form suggested to them, according 
to which their addresses unto God are to be regulated ; 
which consists of two parts; 1. A prayer; 2. A pro- 
mise. The prayer is for two benefits ; 1. The removal 
of sin ; 2. The conferring of good. In the promise or 
restipulation, we have, 1. Their covenant, wherein they 
promise two things; 1. Thanksgiving for the hearing 
and answeiing of their prayers ; 2. A special care for 
the amendment of their lives. 2. The ground of their 
confidence so to pray, and of their resolutions so to 
promise ; " For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy." 
We shall now meditate on the first of these. The 
prayer of the church in their fears and sufferings ; 
wherein I shall begin, in the prophet's order, with their 
prayer against sin, " Take away all iniquity." 

'ihe word sen rendered " take away," signifies, 1. 
To expiate, or make atonement by a sacrifice. So the 
scape goat ( which was a sign of Christ our sacrifice as 
risen and living again) is said to carry the sins of the 
people into the wilderness, Lev. xvi. 22, thereby sig- 
nifying Christ's taking our sins from us, John i. 29 ; 
Heb. ix. 28. 2. To forgive, which in the court of 
mercy is the taking away of sin, Psal. xxxii. 1,5. 3. 
To remove or take away by destroying, Hos. i. 6 ; Jolj 
xxxii. 22 ; and sometimes by burning, 2 Sam. v. 21 ; 
Nah. i. 5 : so sin is said to be destroyed, Rom. vi. 6, 
to be subdued, Micah vii. 19, to be purged away with 
the spirit of judgment and burning, Isa. iv. 4. The 
meaning then is. Take away all our sins fi'om us, lay 
them upon Christ our sacrifice ; for his merit pardon 
them, by his grace destroy and subdue them, that so, 
the root of judgments being removed, they likewise 
may therewithal be removed too. From lience the 
observation which I shall insist upon is this : 

Obs. 1. When God threatens judgments, we in our 
conversion to him should pray against sins. Our eye 
of sorrow should be more upon lliat which dishonours 
him, than upon that which afflicts ourselves ; more 
upon that which is contrary to his image, than upon 
that which is contrary to our own nature ; more upon 
that which defiles, than upon that which pains us. 
Pharaoh cares for notliing but the removal of death, 
Exod. X. 1 7 ; Simon Magus for nothing but to have ])er- 
dition and the gall of bitterness kept from him, Acts 
viii. 24 ; but good men, like wise physicians, cure the 
disease at the root, as Elisha did the waters by puttin" 
salt into the spring-head, 2 Kings ii. 21. The angel 
was smiting the people with a plague ; David betakes 
himself to the right remedy, " Lo, I have sinned, and 
have done wickedly ; " he goes not to the physicians, 
but to the altar to make atonement for sin, and so the 
plague was stayed, 2 Sam. xxiv. 17, 25. Destruction 
was threatened against Israel, for their calf, their mur- 
murings, their rebellions ; Moses stands in the breach 
to divert it, Psal. cvi. 23 ; but how does he do it ? 
surely by praying against their sins, Exod. xxxii. 31, 
32 ; xxxiv. 9 ; Numb. xiv. 19. A sick man was brought 
to Christ to be healed. Matt. ix. 2 ; Chi-ist overlooks the 
disease, and begins at the sin, " Son, be of good cheer, 
thy sins be forgiven thee;" and this being forgiven, 
the malignity of the disease was removed, though the 
matter should have remained. This was tlie usual 
method of David in his troubles, to throw over those 
Shelias that had wrought his woe. " Blot out," " wash 
thoroughly," " cleanse," " create," " renew : " he is far 
more inijiortunate for pardon and purging, than for 
case and comfort, Psal. xxv. 18 ; xxxii. 4, 5 ; xxxviii. 
3, 4 ; Ii. Complaining in trouble is the work of a man, 
but repenting is the work of a Christian, Lam. iii. 
39, 40. 



Ver. 1—3. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



G19 



The reasons of this point are these three. 1. If a 
judgment should be removed wliile sin remains, it is 
not removed in mercy, but in anger ; for many times 
God gives over punishing in displeasure, as a man 
throws away the rod when his scholar is incorrigible. 
" Why should ye be stricken any more ? ye will re- 
volt more and more," Isa. i. o. If men be settled on 
then' lees, and will not be reclaimed, there cannot a 
heavier jiunishment light upon them, than to be with- 
out punishment, to be left to themselves, and the fury 
of their own wills, speedily to work out their own per- 
(Htion ; that their own pleasures may become their 
plagues, and the liberty of their own lusts their sorest 
bondage, Hos. iv. 14; Psal. Lxxxi. 11, 12 ; Ezek. xxiv. 
13; Kom. i. 24, 28; Rev. xxii. 11.* God may take 
away in wrath that which he sent in anger, Hos. xiii. 
11 ; as on the other side he may punish sin then when 
he forgives it, and may visit iniquity with rods then 
when he will not utterly take away his loving-kindness 
iiiim a people, Psal. Ixxxix. 32, 33 ; xcix. 8. 

2. If a judgment be removed, so long as sin remains 
it is gone cum animo revertendi, either the same or a 
^Mirse is likely to succeed, for God will overcome 
^\hen he is judged, Rom. iii. 4. Pharaoh's stubborn- 
ness did not but increase his plagues. God will not en- 
dvn-e that the pride of man should outvie his justice, 

. Exod. ix. 17. K we do not take Chi'ist's warning to 
go and " sin no more," we have great cause to fear his 
inference, that "a worse thing" will come unto us, 
.lohn v. 14. If ive do yet exalt ourselves, God will yet 
plead with us, Jer. ii. 9. If we will walk contrary to 
him, he threatens to do the like unto us, and to punish 
us seven times more for our sins, Lev. xxvi. 18 — 28. If 
we do not turn to him that smites us, then " his 
anger " in smiting shall not be " turned away, but his 
hand is stretched out still," Isa. ix. 12. God can bring 
clouds after rain, distresses in Ireland after distractions 
in Scotland, and distractions in England after dis- 
tresses in Ii'eland, mischief upon mischief, and counsel 
against counsel, Manasseh against Ephraim, and E- 
phraim against Manasseh, to vex and weary out a 
sinful people, till they pine away in their calamities. 

3. Sin being removed, though the affliction should 
hot be removed, yet it is sanctified and turned into 
good. Repentance, like the philosopher's stone, can 
turn iron into gold, can make afflictions golden. So 
'■ the trial of your faith," that is, your affliction, is said 
to be •' much more precious than of gold that perish- 
eth," 1 Pet. i. 7. Whereas sin remaining is like cop- 
peras, which will turn wine or milk into ink. It con- 
verts the blessings of God into the provisions of lusts ; 
cankers learning with pride, wit with profaneness, and 
wealth with luxury ; like leaven, which turns a very 

passover into pollutions. As the pearl, 

' ' which is an ornament to the woman 

who wears it, is a disease to the fish which breeds it ; 
as the same perfume which refi-eshes a dove, is mortal 
to a vulture ; as the same pillar and cloud was light to 
Israel, but dark to Egj^t ; the same deep a path to 
Israel, but a grave to Eg)'pt ; so the same blessings 
which by grace are converted into comforts, by sin are 
abused into dishonourable services, Hag. ii. 13. Sweet 
powders can make leather an ornament, when the 
sanies of a plague-sore will render a robe infectious. 
As it was said of Naaman, he was " a great man," an 
'• honourable " man, " a mighty man in valour, but he 
was a leper," 2 Kings v. 1 ; so whatever other orna- 
ments a man has, sin stains them with the foulest 
but that can be brought to deprave the fau-est endow- 
ments. A learned man, a wealthy man, a wise man, 

* Exaiulit propitiuri, non exaudit iratus: et rursus non ex- 

aiidit propitius, exaudit iratus. non parcilpropitius, parcit 

iratus. Aug. contra .Julian, lib. 5. cap. 4. Ad utilitatem 
quusdam non exaudis, ad damnatioaem quosdam exaudis. Id. 



an honourable man, but a wicked man. This makes 
all those other good things ti-ibutary to Satan. 

And therefore as the gold and silver of the Canaan- 
ites was to pass through the fire before it could be used 
by Israel, Numb. xxxi. 22, 23 ; so all other blessings be- 
stowed on men must be " purged by the spirit of judg- 
ment and by the spirit of burning," through the puri- 
fying waters of repentance, before they can bring 
honour' to their author, or comfort to their enjoyer. 
■Wlien Christ overcomes Satan, " he 
taketh from him all his armour wherein ,^Jp^?"«o?Aar°' 
he trusted, and di\'ideth his spoils," Luke ^f ' "'""■ """n-H- 
xi. 22. How does he divide the spoils ? Q»' se dedebant 
Surely he makes use of that wit, wealth, CifsBr. de bbUo gsI- 
power, learning, wisdom, influence, which '"°' ''''' ^' 
Satan used against Christ's kingdom, as instruments 
and ornaments to the gospel : as when a magazine in 
war is taken, the general makes use of those arms 
which were provided against him, for his own ser- 
vice. 

And as sin thus corrupts blessings, so on the other 
side repentance sweetens judgments, and can turn afllic- 
tions into matter of comfort. As scarlet 
pulls out the teeth of a serpent, so this '"''"• ^^5?'™"'- 
takes away the sting of a judgment. As 
wine draws a nourishing virtue from the flesh of vipers ; 
as hot birds can feed upon iron, and purge their bodies 
by swallowing stones ; so repentance, though it should 
not remove a judgment, yet it can feed upon it, and 
fetch meat out of the eater, and out of the strong 
sweetness, Judg. xiv. 14. 

There are two evils in afflictions. They are a thorn 
in the flesh, as they are matter of pain, and a snare to 
the conscience, as they are matter of temptation ; as 
there are two things in a chain or fetter, the heaviness 
whereby it loads, and the hardness whereby it galls, 
Isa. viii. 21 ; 2 Chron. xxviii. 22 ; Rev. xvi. 10, 11. 
Now as a prisoner, though he cannot make his chain 
lighter, yet, by lining it with wool or other soft things, 
he can prevent the galling ; so repentance, though it 
take not away the pain of affliction from the flesh, yet 
by humbling the soul to bear meekly, with silence and 
quietness, the indignation of the Lord, and accept of 
the punishment of sin, Micah vii. 9 ; Lev. xxvi. 41 ; Jer. 
X. 19, it removes the temptation and malignity of it 
from the conscience. And thus as Pro- , „ . , . 
tagoras by his natural dexterity ordered 
the burden which he was to bear with more ease and 
advantage ; so piety makes judgments, by spiritual 
])rudence, more easy to be borne, and the light yoke of 
Christ, as bladders in a deep water, bears up the spirit 
of men from sinking, and lightens every other burden. 
And therefore as he in Plutarch said of the Scythians, 
that though they had no music nor vines amongst them, 
yet they had gods ; so whatever other things may be 
wanting to a people, yet if God be then' God, they are 
not destitute of any happiness. Yea, as 
those roses are usually sweetest which ""'eJen^d"^"'" 
grow nearest to ungrateful weeds ; so 
the comforts of God's Spirit are strongest when a man 
is otherwise pei-plexed. It was promised to Josiah, 
that he should die in peace, and yet we find that he 
was slain in war, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 28 ; xxxv. 24. His 
weeping and humiliation altered the very nature of 
trouble, and made war to be peace to him. 

Now for the use and application of this point : this 
serves, 

1. To instruct us how to deprecate calamities when 
God shakes his rod over us. There is csque ad delictum 
nothing in all the world that God is tumTonus^exinde 

in Psal. xsi. Ma^na ira est quaudo peccantibus non irascitur 
Deus. Hieron. Ep. 33. O servum ilium beatum cujus emen- 
dationi Deus instat, cui dignatur irasci, &c. Tertul. de Pa- 
tient, cap. 11. 



C20 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



jiidfx rt setCTin, angi'y with but sin ; for all other things 
M^n'.li.'rc.'ii, are his own works, in the goodness of 
'*• which he rested with singular com- 

placency and deliglit. Sin is that against which God's 
arrows are directed ; and as the arrow- sticks in the 
butt to which the mark is fastened, so the judgments 
which are shot at sin must needs light upon us to 
whom sin cleaves. The way then to divert the arrow 
is to remove the mark. God does indeed sometimes 
bring afflictions, without respect to the provocations of 
sin, upon his best servants : as if a man should s,ha.\.v 
out of a mass of gold some excellent vessel, though 
the gold be never so pure, yet it must pass through the 
fire and the hammer again. But it is certain too, that 
no affliction comes in anger but with respect to sin. 
And the anger of God is the bitterest thing in any 
calamity. 

Now to divert this, there is no way but to get sin 
removed. Take the bark from a tree, and the sap can 
never find its way to the boughs. Sin is the vehicu- 
lum which carries shame and sorrow to the soul. Take 
.away that, and a judgment has no commission. You 
may find an eiTor in it, if you be not the same men 
that you were when it issued forth, for God shoots no 
arrows to hurt the body of his Son. Job indeed com- 
plains that God's arrows were within him, Job vi. 4, 
„ , but these were not for destruction, but 

non est siEvii.n, cer- lor trial ; as men shoot bullets agamst 
Sprov''c.l'""' armour of proof, not to injure, but to 
S."it!i°fid't"s,\"d" tf'st it. Job in this case was brought 
probJtur. cjrpr de forth, not as a malefactor to suffer, but 

Mort. Aug. de Ov. ' . 

DcL lib. 1. c«p. 29, as a champion to triumph. Let a man 
M. b,4. op. 3. ^^j^g w'hat course he can to keep off 
God's judgments, and liide himself in the closest pro- 
tection that human power or policy can contrive ; so 
long as he keeps his sin with him, God's arrows will 
get through at one joint or other, 1 Kings xxii. 34. 
A naked man with innocency, is better armed than 
Goliath in brass or iron. 

We are apt in our distress to howl and repine, to 
gnaw our tongues and tear our flesh in the anguish of 
our sufferings ; like the silly hart, which runs mourn- 
ing and bleeding, but never thinks of getting out the 
fatal dart that sticks in its side. We look upward, to 
see whether help will drop into our mouths ; and we 
look downward, to see whether human succoui's will 
avail us, Isa. viii. 21, 22 ; but we look not each in- 
ward, to find out " every man the plague of his own 
heart," that we may be rid of that, 1 Kings viii. 38 : 
and till this be done, sin as naturally draws and sucks 
judgments to it, as the loadstone does iron, or turpen- 
tine fire. Indefatigable have been the pains of this 
high court, to make up the breaches that threaten us, 
and to heal the land. Whence comes it that our dis- 
tractions remain unremovcd ? Certainly our leaks are 
not stopped, our sins ai'e not thrown away ; we labour 
at the pump to get the water out, but we do not take 
care to cure the ])assage at which it enters in : we are 
old bottles still, and God will not " put new wine into 
old bottles," Matt. ix. 17. If men would spend their 
murmurings and reproaches rather u])on their sin than 
upon their physicians, the work would be sooner done. 
When the temple of God was to be new built, and a 
public restitution of the face of things to gloiy and 
splendour was in agitation, the prophets call upon God's 
people then especially to repent, Hag. i. 7 ; Zecli. i. 3. 
Impenitency puts obstructions to God's mercy, and to 
all noble enterprises. So long as our lives are as bad 
as before, how can we expect that our condition should 
be better ':• in that case mercies tliemsclvcs become no 
mercies ; as, in the case of rcjicntance, judgments wovdd 
be no judgments. If we turn from our evil ways, God 
has engaged liimself by a solemn promise, that he will 
do us " no hurt," Jcr. xxv. 6. Otherwise to busy our- 



selves in outward ceremonies of repentance, bodily 
fasting, and verbal praying, is indeed but to flatter 
God, and, if we could, to deceive him. And God will 
answer such men not according to the prayer of their 
lips, but according to the idol of theii- hearts, Ezek. 
-xiv. 4, 5. 

2. This teaches us how to pray against sin. It must 
be against all, and in all respects. In the Hebrew text 
there is a kind of unusual transposition of the words, 
tiv NBT-Ss the word for " all" is first. Methinks it in- 
timates an intentness of the church upon that ])oint, to 
have, if it were possible, all sin taken away at the very 
first. If there be one leak in a ship, one gap in a wall, 
one gate in a city unprovided for; it is enough to sink 
a ship, to drown a country, to betray a city. One little 
boy tnrust in at a window, can unlock the door for all 
the rest of the thieves. It was but one Jonah that 
raised a tempest, but one Achan that troubled a camp, 
and one sin generally unrepented of were enough to 
undo a kingdom. Do not say it is a little one, and my 
soul shall live. Even the philosopher 
tells us, that sometimes ahKr^iiara iXa- 'Villi. uus.mp'.I! 
Xi-ara are fiifwra, the smallest errors prove 
most dangerous. How little soever it be in its owti 
nature, it becomes heinous by thy allowance. It is as 
much treason to coin pence as twenty-shilling pieces, 
because the royal authority is as much violated by the 
one as the other. 

This then we must first and principally remember, 
to set ourselves against all sin. In confession none to 
be dissembled, in supplication none to be excepted, in 
conversion none to be reserved ; never give it over so 
long as any is left. O Lord, yet it works, yet it lives, 
yet it tempts, yet it pains me. Sin has not done ac- 
cusing me, let not thy mercy have done forgiving my 
sin. Sin has not done rebelling in me, let not thy 
grace have done subduing my sin. When men kill 
snakes or vipers, so long as they see them pant, or at- 
tempt to thrust out a sting, they strike them. Sin, like 
the thief on the cross, when it is fii'st nailed and kept 
from its old tjTanny, yet will, as much as it can, revile, 
and spit out venom upon Christ. O, therefore, give it 
not over, break its legs, crucify it clean through, till it 
be quite dead. None can pray or turn to God in truth, 
or hope to be dehvcred from judgments in mercy; so 
long as he holds fast any known sin. Can any man 
look to receive benefit by the blood of Christ, who 
hugs the monster that shed it ? Is it not treason know- 
ingly to harboui' and entertain a traitor ? AA'hosoever 
love's and holds fast sin, lies to God in every prayer 
that he makes. 

This serves to reprove and humble us for our hypo- 
crisy and halvings with God in our conversions from 
sin,"and confessions of it : we are willing to pray for 
the pardon of them all, we would have none hurt us ; 
but when it comes to parting, and taking all away, this 
we cannot away with. Some are fat, delicate, golden 
sins ; we would fain spare these, as Saul did Agag, and 
hide them, as Achan did his wedge, 1 Sam. xv. 9; 
Josh. vii. 21. Herod hears John gladly in many things, 
but if he restrain him from his Herodias, he must ex- 
pect to be himself restrained, Mark vi. 20. Agrippa 
will be almost a Christian, but altogetlier may clianee 
to bring a chain with it. Acts xx\'i. 2S. Jehu will down 
with Baal and his priests, but he knows not how to 
part with his calves, lest he venture his kingdom, 
2 Kings X. 30, 31. Policy is ever entering caveats 
against piety. Thus men stand bartering with Christ 
in the bargain of salvation, not considering that the 
purchase of lieaven is like the buying of the sibyl's 
]ir<>])liecy, the longer we stand off, the dearer every (lay 
it will cost us ; the more tears, the harder repentance, 
the deeper sorrow, the stronger cries. These men know 
not the price of a soul, nor the worth of a Saviour. 



Ver. 1—3. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



621 



Oh, if Christ should have served us so in dying for 
sin, as many of us serve him in turning from sin, what 
a condition had our souls been in ! If he had died for 
some sins, and not for others ; if he had been as un- 
willing to " save" us " to the uttermost," as we are to 
serve him to the uttermost ; if he had stopped before 
he came to " It is iinished," and left any one drop of 
that bitter cup for us to drink after him, -would it not 
have caused our belly to swell, and our thigh to rot, and 
made us for ever incapable of any other mercy than 
only a less damnation? Numb. v. 21. 

Well, beloved, Christ expects, that as he died for 
all sin, so we should die to all. He will be counted 
" worthy of all acceptation," before he will bestow him- 
self, 1 Tim. i. 15. He will not suffer his blood and his 
mercy to mingle with sin, or to be a protection to it : 
he cannot endure mingling of the holy seed with the 
profane ; swearing by the Lord, and swearing by Mal- 
cham, Zeph. i. 5 ; Samaritan services, to be for the 
Lord in one thing, and for the world and flesh in an- 
other, one step straight, and another crooked, 2 Kings 
xvii. 33 ; one speech Ashdod, and another Canaan, 
Neh. xiii. 24 ; to let our conversation be yea and nay, a 
Aiterme inter cupi- mongrcl sorvlco. In this I will do as you 

'"'"'I'^""""" '' ^^'^ ™^> '^"'' ™ *^'''' ■'■ ^''^^ ^°^ ' ^'■^^ ^''® 
sS. LrIe".'e"'io Jbws that would buy Christ's blood with 
mum^SidJm m°us mouey, but not take the money into the 
Ep."iSi.''"vir"bo'nus trcasury ; they were fearful to defile their 
aueraueXiiTof chssts, but not to defile their consciences : 
tip, 46. TeTpA- this Christ cannot away with. It is dan- 
Tuivot. M. L I.e. 10. gerous to say with the Pharisee, This I 
So.oi. oJk exaT""- am Dot, and that I am not, Luke xvm. 
Id. 1. 8. c. ?. J J . gj, ^.jj[j j.j^g young man. This and that 

I have done, and in the mean time to haie one thing 
lacking, to have one door locked up still to keep Christ 
and salvation fi'om us, Mark x. 20. Whosoever keeps a 
covetous heart for the world, or a sensual heart for the 
flesh, or a proud heart for the devil, is unworthy of 
heaven by his own election, and would not go in thither 
if the door were wide open : he would not find there 
„ . any fuel for these lusts, any Nabal, or 

omnium reus est, Cosoi, Or Uiotrepncs, With whoui to con- 
ntItemMi"qua'p'i'n- verse. And surely he that allows himself 
Ep'ist.°"9"'vid.*s'en. 11 ^'^Y °^^ wickeducss is, in God's con- 
deBenefic 1. 4. C.26, structlou, habitually guilty of all, James 
ii. 10; Luke xvi. 10 ; Ezek'. xviii. 10—13. 

Therefore in this case, as Samuel said to Jesse, " Are 
here all thy childi-en?" if any be left "we will not sit 
down till he come hither," 1 Sam. xvi. 1 1 ; so we must 
conceive in our confessions and renunciations of sin, 
that Christ asks us, " Ai'e here all ? " if any be reserved, 
I will not take possession till that be cast out: there 
must not " an hoof" be left in Egypt, if God be to be 
served, Exod. x. 26. God's law, as well as man's, dis- 
allows inmates in the same house : he will not endure 
" a double heart ;" he is " heir of all things," there lies 
no writ of partition in his inheritance ; his title is so 
good that he will never yield to a composition ; he will 
have all the heart. or none, Psal. xii. 2; James i. 8; 
Psal. cxix. 104, 128. 

4. AVe should therefore be exhorted (in time of 
trouble especially) to set about this great work, to fall 
foul of our sins ; to complain against them to God, as 
the Achans that trouble Israel, as the corrupters and 
betrayers of our peace; to set ourselves in God's eye, 
and not to dare to lie to his Holy Spirit, by falseness 
or hypocrisy, as if we could reserve any one sin un- 
mortified which he should not know of; but being in 
his sight to whom " all things are naked and opened," 
to deal in all sincerity, and to hate sin even as he hates 
it, Heb. iv. 13; Gen. xvii. 1 ; 2 Cor. ii. 17. 

'• Take away all iniquity." There are five notable 
duties to which these words lead us. 

1. Sense of sin, as " an heavy burden," as the pro- 



phet David calls it, Psal. xxxviii. 4. Such sense our 
Saviour requu-es in true penitents, " Come unto me, all 
ye that labom- and are heavy leaden," Matt. xi. 28. To 
conceive them heavier than " a millstone," Liike xvii. 
2 ; than the weight of " mountains," Luke xxiii. 30. 
What apprehension had Peter's converts of sin, when 
they felt the nails wherewith they had crucified Christ 
sticking fast in their own hearts, and piercing their 
spirits with torment and hoiTor ! Acts ii. 37. AATiat 
apprehensions had the poor jailer of his sins, when he 
came as a prisoner before his own prisoners, springing 
in with monstrous amazement and consternation of 
spirit, beseeching them, " Sirs, what must I do to be 
saved?" Acts xvi. 29, 30.' 

Consider it in its nature: a universal bruise and 
sickness, like those diseases which physicians say are 
corruptio totius suhstmitice, unsoundness from head to 
foot, when " the whole head is sick, and the whole heart 
faint," Isa. i. 5, 6. And who does not feel such a 
universal languor to be a heavy burden ? For a man 
that must needs labour, to have weights hung at his 
hands ; that must needs walk, to have clogs fastened 
to his feet ; how can he choose but cry out with the 
apostle, " O wretched man that I am ! who shall deli- 
ver me from the body of this death ? " Rom. vii. 24. 

Consider it in the curse that belongs to it : "A roll" 
" written within and without" with " lamentations and 
mourning, and woe," Ezek. ii. 10. 

Look outward, and behold a curse in the creature, 
vanity, emptiness, vexation, disappointment ; every 
creature armed with a sting to revenge its Maker's 
quarrel. 

Look inward, and behold a curse in the conscience, 
accusing, witnessing, condemning, haling to the tribu- 
nal of vengeance ; first defiling with the allowance, and 
after terrifying with the remembrance, of sin. 

Look upward, and behold a curse in the heavens, 
"the "nTath of God" "revealed" from thence " against 
all ungodliness and um'ighteousness of men," Rom. 
i. 18. 

Look downward, and behold a curse in the earth ; 
death ready to put a period to all the pleasures of 
sin, and like a trap-door to let down into hell, where 
nothing of sin will remain but the worm and the fii-e. 

Look into the Scripture, and see the curse there de- 
scribed ; an everlasting banishment from the glory of 
God's presence ; an " everlasting destruction " by " the 
gloi-y of his power," 2 Thess. i. 9 ; the Lord showing 
the jealousy of his justice, the unsearchableness of his 
severity, the inconceivableness of his strength, the bot- 
tomless guilt and malignity of sin, in the " everlasting 
destruction" of ungodly men, and in their everlasting 
preservation to feel that destruction. 
" Who knoweth the power of thine tuHonn'S^ 
anger?" saith Moses; " even according Au''i'd?c?v°'De'i'' 
to thy fear, so is thy wrath," Psal. xc. i- "■ c. 2. PHmi 
11. It is impossible for the most trem- lentem pemt a cor- 
bling consciences, or the most jealous fcn'i'i.'m"e't?net'iS 
fears of a guilty heart, to look beyond '"f""' "'"'■ '■ "'• 
the wrath of God, or to conceive too 
highly of it. As in peace of conscience, the mercy of 
God is revealed to believers " from faith to faith ;" 
so in anguish of conscience, " the wrath of God is re- 
vealed " from fear to fear. 

A timorous man can fancy vast and terrible fears, 
fu"e, sword, tempests, racks, furnaces, scalding lead, 
boiling pitch, running bell-metal, and being kei>t alive 
in all these to feel their torment. But these come far 
short of the wrath of God, for, 1. There are bounds set 
to the hurting power of a creature ; the fire can burn, 
but it cannot drown; the serpent can sting, but he 
cannot tear in pieces. 2. The fears of the heart are 
bounded within those narrow apprehensions which it- 
self can frame of the evil which may be done. But 



622 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIII. 



the wrath of God proceeds from an infinite justice, and 
is executed by an omnipotent and unbounded power, 
comprising all the terror of all other creatures (as the 
sun doth all other light) eminently and excessively in 
it. It burns, and drowns, and tears, and stings, and 
bruises, and consumes, and can make nature feel much 
more than reason is able to comprehend. 

Oh, if we could lay these things seriously to heart, 
(and yet these are but low expressions of that which 
cannot be expressed, and come as short of the truth 
Itself as the picture of the sun in a table does of the 
greatness and brightness of it in its ovm orb,) should 
we not find it necessary to cry out, " Take away all 
iniquity?" this sickness out of my soul; this sword, this 
nail, this poisoned arrow, out of my heart ; this dagger 
of Ehud out of my belly ; tliis millstone, this movmtain, 
from off my back ; these stings and terrors, these flames 
and furies, out of my conscience ? Lord, my wounds 
stink, my lips quiver, my knees tremble, my belly rots, 
I am feeble, and broken, and roar, and languish; thy 
wrath lies hard upon me, and thy waves go over my 
head. 

Oh, if we had but a view of sin as it is in its native 
foulness, and did feel but a touch of that fury which 
God is ready to pour out upon it, this would stain aU 
the pride of man, and sour all the pleasures of sin, and 
make a man as fearful to meddle with it, as a guilty 
woman with the bitter water which caused the curse. 
Numb. V. 21. Most true was that which Luther spake 
in this point; If a man could perfectly see his own 
evils, the sight thereof would be a perfect hell to him : 
and to this God will bring wicked men. " I will re- 
prove thee, and set" thy doings "in order before thine 
eyes," Psal. 1. 21. Make them take a view of then- 
own hearts and lives, fuller of sins than tlie firmament 
of stars, or a furnace of sparks. "Now consider this, 
ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there 
be none to deliver." 

2. Confession ; for he that cries to have sin taken 
away, acknowledges that it lies upon him. A full con- 
fession, not of many, but of all sins, either actually 
committed, or habitually comprised in our body of 

sin. As he in the Oomoedian said, that 
he had invited two guests to dinner, 
Philocrates and Philocrates, a single man, but a double 
eater; so, in examination of ourselves, we shall every 
one find sins enough in himself to denominate him a 
double and a treble sinner. A free confession ; not as 
Pharaoh's, extorted upon the rack, nor as that of Judas, 
squeezed out with anguish and horror ; but ingenuous 
and penitent, arising from the purpose of a pious heart, 
that comes like water out of a spring, with a voluntary 
freeness, not like water out of a stUl, wliich is forced 
with fire. 

3. Weariness and detestation of all sin ; for we call 
not to have a thing removed till we be weary of it. 
Thus we are taught in the Scripture to be ashamed 
and confounded, to loathe and abhor, to judge and 
condenm ourselves, to throw sin away as a detestable 
thing, though it be a golden or silver sin. A spiritual 
judgment looks on all sin as filthy and stinking, show- 
eth a man to himself as a vessel full of dung, scum, 
excrements, and gives him no rest till he be thoroughly 

purged. For hatred is irpbe rd yei'ij, 
against the whole kind of that which we 

hate, Psal. xiv. 3 ; xxxviii. 3 ; Ezek. vi. 9 ; xvi. 63 ; 

Isa. XXX. 22; 1 Cor. xi. 31. 

4. An acknowledgment of our own impotency to 
remove sin from ourselves. We have no more power 
than a slave in chains has to get out of his bondage 
till another ransom him ; than a dead body in a grave, 
till Christ raise it. Our iniquities take hold upon us 
and keep us down, that we cannot hearken or be sub- 
ject to the will of God. If sin were not removed by a 



greater strength than our own, it would most cer- 
tainly sink us into hell, Psal. xl. 12; Jer. vi. 10; Rom. 
V. 6, 8 ; vi. 23 ; viii. 7 ; Eph. ii. 1 — 5 ; 2 Cor. iii. o. 

5. An imploring of God's mercy and grace, that 
what we cannot do ourselves, he woidd be pleased to 
do for us. In works of art it is hard to 
build, but easy to destroy. But in works quS''qu1l'v3°"S^'"'' 
of sin, though our weakness is able to ^."KKfoSuni- 
commit them, yet none but God's power faciVe et p«r«re iam 
is able to demolish them. None but um.'Liv'!'?.''!*. 
Christ is strong enough to overcome ^.?„°S.''i!!,%"u,.. 
" the strong man," Luke xi. 21. His f""^'"- ''^'' ^'''' 
person only has sti'engtli enough to b^ t 
the curse of sin ; his sacrifice only uicrit enough to 
make expiation for sin ; his grace only vh-tue enough to 
remove its pollution. Though we should take " nitre," 
and " much soap," our sin would remain " marked," 
Jer. ii. 22 ; but he comes " like a refiner's fii-e, and like 
fullers' soap,'' and can wash out all, Mai. iii. 2. His 
only business in coming into the world was, " that he 
might destroy the works of the de^^l," 1 John iii. 8. 

Now the tilings for which we pray in this petition 
are these three. 1. Remission; that God would take 
away the condemnation of sin from us, by not imputing 
the guilt tliereof to us, but would cause it to pass over 
on Christ, on whom he has laid the iniquities of his 
people, Isa. liii. 6; Rom. iv. 8. Such an expression 
the Holy Ghost uses, -iisyn The Lord has caused thy 
sin to pass over from thee to Christ, 2 Sam. xii. 13; 
which being obtained, all other judgments are ipso 
facto removed too, so far as they import proper and 
vindictive punishment. 

2. Sanctification ; that the virtue of Clirist's death, 
and the grace of his Spu-it, may subdue the power of 
sin, and cleanse and strengthen our consciences against 
the commands of it, and temptations unto it, Heb. is. 
14; Micah vii. 19. 

3. Continued renovation; that as in sanctification 
begun we have power against all kinds of sin, so by 
the contuiual supplies of the Holy Spirit we may have 
further power against all degrees and remainders of 
sin. That Christ would purify our sin unto death, as 
our sin did him, and not give over mortifying it, tiU his 
blood be revenged of it to the uttermost, and our souls 
delivered from it to the uttermost. 

I shall conclude the first part of the petition with a 
short word of exhortation to this honourable assembly. 
Those things which God works in us and bestows 
upon us by his grace, he also requires of us by his 
command : sometimes he promises to tiun us, some- 
times he commands us to turn to him ; sometimes he 
bids us put away sin, and sometimes he promises to 
take it away from us, Isa. i. 16 ; Ezek. xviii. 31 ; 
xxxvi. 26 ; Heb. viii. 10 — 12; in the one , . , . 
showmg US what is our duty, and m the jurat. Aug. epul 
other where is our help. And as this °'' 
latter consideration calls upon our faith to pray, so the 
former upon our obedience to work. I shall therefore 
(right honourables) humbly ofl'er a double exhortation 
to all of you. 

First, That every one of you would seriously endea- 
vour to " take away all iniquity" from his own person. 
And to this there lies upon you a double obligation : one 
with relation to the safety of your own souls ; for what- 
ever other honour, wealth, wisdom, learning, interest 
a man ha,s besides, if sin have the predominancy, they 
are but Satan's magazine, and that man his servant, to 
employ them against God tliat gave them; and the 
more mercies wherewith any man has been trusted, the 
heavier judgment will be poured out upon the breach 
of that trust. Better be a wooden vessel to hold wine, 
than a silver vessel to hold excrements ; better be a 
beggar with the treasure of God's grace, than a prince 
with the load of a man's own sins. 



Vee. 1—3. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



But there is a further tie upon you, with relation to 

the success of that honourable employment whereunto 

, ,., . you are called. Ita nati estis, nt bona 

Tacit AnniJ. lib. i ^ ' . 

malaque, ves/ra ad rempubiicam perti- 
neant. God will be sanctified in all those that draw 
near to him, as well in civil as in sacred administra- 
tions. It is very hard for a person in whom sin rules, 
to be constantly faithful to any public and honourable 
service ; for grace only establishes the heart, Heb. 
xiii. 9. Ahithophel, a man of great wisdom, falls from 
David; Joab, a man of great valour, falls from Solo- 
mon. And admit he be faithful, yet the sin of his 
heart sends out a prohibition to the wisdom of liis 
head and the labour of his hand : he that will be a fit 
vessel for his Master's uses, must first of all "purge 
himself," 2 Tim. ii. 21 ; as we first cleanse a vessel be- 
fore we use it. T^Taen Joshua was to negociate a pub- 
lic reformation, and to administer a public service, his 
"filthy garments" must be taken frem him, and he 
must be clothed with "change of raiment," Zech. iii. 4. 
Let every one of you make his public service one argu- 
ment more than he had before for his necessaiy re- 
formation, and let the piety of yom' lives bear witness 
to the integrity of your honourable undertakings. 

Secondly, As you must take away sin from your- 
selves, so make it your principal work to " take away all 
iniquity" out of the land. Liberty, property, privileges 
are sacred and precious things, not to be in the least 
manner betrayed; yea, in some sense we may look 
upon them, as the Jews upon their Massora, tanquam 
legis el pietatis sepem, as a fence and mound to reli- 
gion itself. Arbitrary government would quicldy be 
tampering in sacred things, because coiTuption in the 
church is marvellously subservient and advantageous 
to corruption in the slate. But the most orient pearl 
of this kingdom is our religion, and the bitterest ene- 
mies to that are our sins. These are the snufl's that 
dim our candlestick, and threaten its removal ; these 
the leaven that defile our passovers, and urge God to 
pass away and depart from us : these the obstructions 
between his sacred Majesty and you, and between both 
and the happiness of the kingdom. Think seriously 
what waj's may be most effectual to purge this leaven 
out of the land. The principal sacrificial knife which 
kills and mortifies sin, is the knowledge of the word of 
God. It would have been a great unhappiness to the 

commonwealth of learning, if Caligula 
^""cTp.'ai^"''^' liad (as he endeavoured) deprived the 

world of the writings of Homer, Virgil, 
and Livy. But oh, what an Egyptian calamity is it 
to have, in this sunshine of the gospel, thousands of 
persons and families (as I doubt not but upon inquiry 
it would appear) without the writings of the prophets 
and apostles ! a Christian soldier without his sword, a 
Christian builder without his rule and square, a C'lu-is- 
tian calling without the instruments and balances of 
the sanctuary belonging to it. Oh that every parish, 
therefore, had an endowment fit for a learned, laborious, 
and worthy pastor, and pastors worthy of such endow- 
ments, that provision were made that every family 
might have a Bible in it, and (if by law it might pos- 
sibly be procured) the exercises of religion there- 
withal ! this would be the surest magazine to secure 
the happiness of a kingdom : that all reproachful titles, 
which the devil uses as scarecrows to keep back num- 
bers from pressing in upon Christ's kingdom, were by 
law proscribed ; that scandalous sins were by the aw- 
fulness and severity of discipline more blasted and 
brought to shame ; that the Lord's house were more 
frequented, and his day more sanctified, and his ordi- 
nances more reverenced, and his ministers, which 
" teach the good knowledge of the Lord," more encou- 
raged ; in one word, that all the several fountains of 
the commonwealth were settled in a sound and flourish- 



ing constitution: that in eveiy place we might see 
piety the elm to every other vine, the supporter to 
every other profession ; learning adorned with piety, 
and iaw administered with piety, and counsels managed 
with piety, and trade regulated with piety, and the 
plough followed with piety : that when ministers fight 
against sin, with the sword of God's word, you who are 
the nobles and gentry of the land would second them, 
and frown upon it too ; a frown of yours may some- 
times do as much service to Christ, as a sermon of ours; 
and he cannot but take it very unkindly from you, if 
you wUl not bestow your countenance on him who be- 
stowed his blood on you : that you would let the 
strictness of your lives, and the piety of your examples, 
put wickedness out of countenance, and make it ap- 
pear (as indeed it is) a base and a sordid thing. 

If we would thus, in serious earnest, set ourselves 
against the sins of the land, no power, no malice, no 
policies, should stand between us and God's mercies ; 
religion would flourish, and peace would settle, and 
trade wotdd revive, and the hearts of men would be 
reunited, and the church be as a city compacted, and 
this nation would continue to be, as it has been, like 
the garden of Eden, a miiTor of prosperity and happi- 
ness to other people ; and God would prevent us, in the 
second part of our petition, with the blessing of good- 
ness ; as soon as ever iniquity were removed, he would 
do us good, which is the second thing here directed to 
be prayed for. 

" And receive us graciously." 3ltfl-npi And take 
good, to wit, to bestow upon us ; so taking is sometimes 
used for giving, thus : nnsa nijro nnpS " thou hast 
received gifts for men," Psal. Ixviii. 18, is by the apostle 
rendered Kai tloine lofia-a Totg ai-9piairoie, " and gave 
gifts unto men," Eph. iv. 8 : and it is not improbable 
that the prophet here secretly leads us to Chi'ist the 
Mediator, who first receives gifts from his Father, and 
then pours them forth upon his church. Acts ii. 33. 

The meaning then is. Lord, when thou hast pardon- 
ed, weakened, mortified sin, go on with thy mercy, 
and being in Christ graciously reconciled to us, give 
further e^-idence of thy fatherly affection, by bestowing 
portions upon us. They shall not be cast away upon 
unthankful persons, we will " render the calves of our 
lips;" they shall not be bestowed upon those that need 
them not, or that know where else to provide them- 
selves. It is true we have gone to the Assyrian, we 
have taken our horses instead of our prayers, and gone 
about to find out good ; we have been so foolish as to 
think that the idols which have been beholden to our 
hands for any shape that is in them, could be instead 
of hands and of God unto us, to help us in our need : 
but now we know that " men of high degree are but a 
lie," that horses are but " a vain thing for safety," that 
" an idol is nothing," and therefore can give nothing, 
Psal.lxii. 9: xxxiii. 17; lCor.viii.4: that power belong- 
eth unto thee, none else can do it ; that mercy belong- 
eth unto thee, none else will do it ; therefore since in 
thee only "the fatherless findeth mercy," be thou pleas- 
ed to do us good. 

"VVe will consider the words, 1. Absolutely, as a single 
prayer by themselves. 2. Relatively, in their con- 
nexion, and with respect to the scope of the place. 

1. Absolutely: and from such a consideration of the 
words we 

Obs. 2. All the good we have is from God ; he only 
must be sought unto for it ; we have none in ourselves ; 
"I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no 
good thing," P^om. vii. 18 ; we can neither think, nor 
speak, nor do it. Gen. vi. 5 ; 2 Cor. iii. 5 ; Matt. xii. 34 ; 
Psal. xiv. 3. 

And missing it in ourselves, it is in vain to seek for 
it in things below ourselves. 

They can provide for our back and belly, and yet not 



I 



624 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIY. 



even that witliout God : the root out of which the fruits 
of the earth grow is above in heaven, the genealogy 
of corn and wine is resolved into God, Hos. ii. 21, 22. 
But if you go to your lands, or houses, or treasui-ies for 
physic for a sick soul or a guiltv conscience, they will 
all return an ignoramus to that inquuT ; salvation does 
not grow in the furrows of the field, neither are there 
in the earth to be found any mines or harvests of grace 
or comfort. 

In God alone is " the fountain of life," Psal. xxxvi. 9 ; 
he that only " is good," he only " doeth good," Matt. 
xix. 17 ; Psal. cxix. 68 : when we have wearied our- 
selves with having recourse to second causes, here at 
la.«t, like the wandering dove, we must aiTive for rest : 
" There be many that say, AMio will show us any good ? 
Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon 
us," Psal. iv. 6. From him alone comes " every good 
and every perfect gift," Jam. i. 1 7 : whether temporal ; it 
is his blessing that makes the creature able to comfort 
us, Prov. X. 2 ; Matt. iv. 4 ; 1 Tim. iv. 4, 5. The wo- 
man touched the hem of Christ's garment, but the virtue 
went not out of the garment, but out of Christ, Luke 
viii. 44. Or whether spiritual ; sanctified faculties, 1 John 
v. 20 ; sanctified habits, Eph. ii. 8—10 ; Col. ii. 11,12: 
sanctified motions, Phil. ii. 13; 2 Tim. ii. 25 ; glorious 
relations, in predestination, adoption, and Christian 
liberty, Eph. i. 5, 6; John i. 12; excellent gifts, hea- 
_ ., ,,., .. venly comforts, all and only from him, 
3,4,5. conciL Arau 1 Cor. xu. 6 ; 2 Cor. 1. o ; Kom. XV. 1,5 : 
<i%"t"itt^^''" and that without change and alteration ; 
cap. 21. jjg (jQgg „Q(. dg gQQ(j one while, and evil 

another, but goodness is his proper and native opera- 
tion; he is not the author of sin, that entered by the 
devil ; he is not the author of death, that entered by sin ; 
ut our desti'uction is of ourselves, Hos. xiii. 9. And 

therefore, though the prophet saith, 
Sr'c^^".'i c"u. " Shall there be evil in a city, and the 

Lord hath not done it ? " yet he does it 
not but only as it is bomim jusliliie, good in order to 
his own gloi'y ; for it is just with God, that they who 
run from the order of his commands, should fall under 
the order of his pro^•idence, and doing willingly what 
he forbids, should unwillingly suffer what he threatens. 
In one word, God is the author of all good, by his 
grace working it ; the pemiitter of all evil, by his pa- 
tience enduring it ; the ordcrer and disposer of both, 
by his mercy rewarding the one, by his justice re- 
venging the other, and by his wisdom directing both to 
the ends of his eternal glory. This serves, 

1. To discover the free and sole working of grace in 
our first conversion, and the continued working of grace 
in our further sanctification. AMiatsoever is good in us 
habitually, as gi-ace inhering, or actually, as grace 
working, is from him alone as its author. For though 
it be certain, that when wc will and do ourselves are 
Aug He Grau agcnts, yct it is stUl under and from him ; 

chnsti c.25.conLi CerliiTH esl itos foccre cum faciamus, sed 
De Perfect. Justitiir, lUe facit u/jaciamus, as the great cham- 
'' ' pion of grace speaks ; by grace we are 

that we are, we do what we do in God's service. Vessels 
have no wine, bags have no money in them, but what 
the merchant puts in : the bowls of the candlesticks had 
no oil but that \i hich dropped from the olive branches. 
Things which seek no higher perfection 
Aug. de^c^r^Dei, 1. jj^j^j^ j^ jg (^g fouud within the compass 

of their own nature, may bv the guidance 
and actix-ity of the same nature attain thereunto ; but 
man, aspiring to a divine happiness, can never attain to 
Aug. lib de p.. it but by a divine strength : impossible it 
tienii^ c 19. jj f^^ any man to enjoy God without God. 
The truth of this point shows itself in five grada- 
tions : 

vij. AuB. de crjt 1. By gfacB our minds ai'c enlightcncd 
• irpMis!'' "'"' to know and believe him; for spiritual 



things " are spiritually discenied," Jer. xxxi. 33 ; Matt. 
xi. 27 ; 1 Cor. ii. 12—14. 

2. By grace our hearts are inclined to love and obey 
him ; for spiritual things are spiritually approved : he 
only, by his almighty and ineffable operation, worketh 
in us, et reras revelaliones, et botias volun- 

tates, both right perceptions and good A>'g'J«|Cra^cLr-... 
desires, Jer. xxxii. 39 ; John vi. 44. 

3. By grace our lives are enabled to work what our 
hearts love ; without which, though we should w ill, yet 
we cannot perform, no more than the knife which has 
a good edge is able actually to cut, tdl moved by the 
hand, Rom. vii. 18; Phil. ii. 13; Heb. xiii. 20, 2i. 

4. By grace our good works are carried on to per- 
fection. Adam, wanting the grace of perseverance, fell 
from innocency itself. It is not sufficient -^^^ 4„g Enehirid. 
for us that he prevent and excite us to ?■?- '^''",^'^5,''.'^ 

. 1 , Arb. e. 6, el 17. reto 

Will, that he co-operate and assist us to ut accipum, et cum 
work, except he continually follow and H'ieron"a™ct'm'' "■ 
supply us with a residue of spirit to per- ''''°°"" 
feet and finish what we set about. All our works are 
begun, continued, and ended in him, 1 Thess. v. 23 ; 

1 Pet. V. 10 ; Jude 24 ; John xvii. 15. 

Lastly, by grace our perseverance is crowned ; for 
our best works could not endure the trial of justice, if 
God should enter into judgment with us, Psal. cxliii. 2 ; 
Isa. Ixiv. 6. Grace enables us to work, and grace re- 
wards us for working ; grace begins and grace finishes 
both our faith and salvation, Phil. i. 6; Heb. xii. 2. 
The work of holiness is nothing but grace, and the re- 
ward of holiness is nothing but grace for grace. 

2. To teach us how to know good from evil in our- 
selves. \Miat we look on as good, we must see how we 
have derived it from God ; the more recourse we have 
had to God by prayer, and faith, and study of his wQl, 
in the procurement of it, the more goodness we shall 
find in it. A thing done may be good in the substance 
of the work, and yet evil in the manner of doing it ; as 
the substance of a vessel may be silver, but the use 
sordid. Jehu's zeal was rewarded as an act of justice, 
quoad substanliatn operis, and it was punished too as 
an act of policy, mioad modum, for the perverse end, 

2 Kings X. 30 ; Hos. i. 4. A thing which I see in 
the night may shine, and that shining proceed from 
nothing but rottenness, ^^'e must not measure our- 
selves by the matter of things done ; for there may be 
nialum m)us in bona materia. Doeg prays, 1 Sam. xxi. 
7, and Herod hears, Mark vi. 20, and hj-pocrites fast, 
Isa. Iviii. 3 ; Matt. vi. 16, and Pharisees preach, Matt, 
xxiii. 2, 3 ; but when we would know the j,^^^^ ^^ ^^ ,^^ 
goodness of our works, look to the denubus in imo po- 
fountain, whether thev proceed from the tim; ncJS^m 
Father of lights, by the Spii'it of love, and ^ '^Jt^lT'^ 
the grace of Christ, from humble, peni- |?;ii";c; J^,SSJ" 
tent, filial, heavenly dispositions : nothing jst. Aug Enamt 
will carry the soul unto God, but that 

which comes from him. Our communion with the 
Father and the Son, is the trial and foundation of all 
our goodness. 

3. To abase us in our own eyes, and stain all the 
pride and cast down all the plumes of flesh and blood, 
when we seriously consider that in us, as now degener- 
ated from our original, there is no good to be found. 
Our "silver is become di'oss," our "wine mixed with 
water," Isa. i. 22. As our Saviour saith of the devil, 
'• When he speakcth a lie, he spcaketh" U tuv l^iuv, 
" of his own," John viii. 44 ; so when we do evil we work 
of our own, and Kari avOpanrov, " as men," as the apos- 
tle speaks, 1 Cor. iii. 3. Our lusts are our own, James i. 
14 ; our very members are of that body of sin which the 
apostle calls the " old man," with phich it is as impos- 
sible to do any good, as for a toad to spit cordials, 
Kom. vii. 23 ; Col. iii. 5 ; Eph. iv. 22. 

Men are apt to glory in their good hearts and in- 



Vee. 1—3. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



625 



tentions, only because they cannot search them, Jer. 
xvii. 9 ; and being carnal themselves, to entertain 
■none but carnal notions of God's service. But if they 
knew the purity and jealousy of God, and their own 
impotency to answer so holy a will, they would lay 
their hands upon their mouths, and with Job " abhor 
themselves," Job xlii. 5, 6 ; and with Isaiah, bewail the 
uncleanness of their lips, Isa. vi. 5 ; and with Moses, 
fear and quake, as not being able " to endure that 
which was commanded," Heb. xii. 20 ; and with Joshua, 
acknowledge that they "cannot serve the Lord, for he 
is an holy God," Josh. xxiv. 19 : they would then re- 
member that the law of God is " a fiery law," Deut. 
xxxiii. 2, and the tribunal of God, a tribunal of fire, 
Ezek. i. 26 — 28 ; that the pleadings of God with sinners 
are " by fii-e and by his sword," and " his rebuke with 
flames of fire," Isa. Ixvi. 15, 16 ; that the trial of all our 
works shall be "by fire," 1 Cor. iii. 13; that the God 
before whom we must appear is " a consuming fire," 
Heb. xii. 29. Go now and bring thy straw and stubble, 
thy drowsy and sluggish devotion, thy fickle and flatter- 
ing repentance, thy fonnal and demure services, into 
the fire, to the law to measure them, to the Judge to 
censure them ; nay, now carry them to thine own con- 
science, and tell me whether that will 
fa'dfcfs.'^uS'Sle? not pass the Father's verdict upon them. 
SB'ti8°'''Greg.°''^ That which is fail- in thine eye is filthy 
in God's. 
4. For exhortation to these particular duties. 1. To 
patience and meekness under any evil that God may 
bring upon us ; and that not barely because he does 
us good in other things, which was Job's argument, 
" What ? shall we receive good at the hand of God, 
and shall we not receive evO?" Job ii. 10; but fur- 
ther, because the veiy evils that come upon us are 
oftentimes by him intended for good, as Joseph told 
iLf.ji„„. .,-.„ i, his brethren. Gen. 1. 20. We are not 

Medicina ebam m- - i , , • . i , i 

vitis prodest. Sen. angry With the physician when he lances, 
QuiB per insuarita- diets, and restrains US of our will : he de- 
iSme'Sfo c"„r"i™r nies US oui" wiU, that we may^ have our 
^re'"resen"m '"'ill J a sick man is many times most 
injunam .upcrven- faithfully Served when he is crossed. I 
commendant. Ter- lop my trees, Druise mv graiies, gi'md my 
' corn, to fit it to the ends whereunto it 
tends. God's end is merciful when his hand is heavy. 
As John's roU was sweet in the mouth, but bitter in 
the belly. Rev. x. 10; so troubles may be bitter to the 
palate, but profitable to the conscience ; like hot spices, 
that bite the tongue, but comfort the stomach, Isa. 
xxvii. 9; xlviii. 10; Heb. xii. 11. 

And as it dictates patience in suffering enl, so in 
doing our duties, though we sufier con- 
tempt and reproaches for it. If we were 
m«?'.r^^sT."o"t! to receive our rewards from men, their 
a'ca^ ^i''^'^' '■''• frowns might discourage us ; but when 
we have done God's will, God himself 
will be our reward, and make his promises our comfort. 
Moses and Aaron, though their whole emplo}'ments 
were for the good of Israel, were yet repaid with 
murmuring and discontent, and the people, like chil- 
dren, qui cibwn sumunt, sed Jfentes, (to use the simili- 
Bhetor 13 c 1. *"*^® °^ ^^ orator in Aristotle,) repined 
at the food which their prayers obtained 
for them ; yet nothing dismayed them from theu- dut)'. 
Sen ep 81 Etiam post nmifragium tentantur maria. 
The woman of Canaan prays on when she 
is denied, and Jacob holds with his hands when his 
thigh is lamed. Our first care must be to be in our 
way, to be doing our duties, and then, though (as Solo- 
mon speaks) we should meet a lion in our way, we 
must not be dismayed ; for angels are stronger than 
lions, and he has given " his angels charge over" us, 
" to keep" us " in all " our " ways," Psal. xci. 11. Yea, 
whilst we are with him, he is with us, 2 Chron, xv. 1. 
2 s 



Quiequis lolejis de- 



So that the way of the Lord is the sui'est and safest way 
for any man to walk in : " The way of the Lord is 
strength to the upright," Prov. x. 29. 

2. 'To humility. If thou be a vessel of gold, and thy 
brother but of wood, be not high-minded, it is God 
that makes thee to difier ; the more bounty God shows, 
the more humility he requires, 1 Cor. iv. 7 ; Rom. xi. 
20. Those mines that are richest are op.jeniissuna me- 
deepest ; those stars that are highest '»)'» quorum m alio 

^ ,, , ,,. , .,'^. latent venw. Sen. 

seem smallest ; the goodliest buildings ep-.». 
have the lowest foundations : the more miiSrM'sono'^bln- 
God honours men, the more they should '"• "" *''"'■ '■ '• 
humble themselves ; the more the fruit, the lower the 
branch on which it grows : pride is ever the companion 
of emptiness. Oh how full was the apostle, yet how low 
was his language of himself! " less than the least of 
all saints," " last " of apostles, " chief of sinners," no 
sufficiency to think, no abilities to do ; all that he is, he 
is by grace : thus humility teaches us in our operations 
to draw strength from God, not from ourselves ; in our 
graces to ascribe their goodness to God, and their 
weakness to ourselves, Eph. iii. 8 ; 1 Cor. xv. 8 ; 
2 Cor. iii. 5; 1 Tim. i. 15; Rom. vii. 18. 

3. To dependence and continual recourse to God, as 
the fountain of all good ; to keep an open and an un- 
obstructed passage between him and our soul. Say not, 

1 have light enough in my house, I may 

now shut up my windows, for Ught within « Ubf'Afi).''cap!l' 
has dependence on immediate supplies 
from the sun without, and so has grace upon continual 
supplies from " the Sun of righteousness." God teaches 
even the husbandman to plough and thresh, Isa. ssviii. 
26 ; in these things his dh-ection is to be implored : 
meddle not then with great and high affafrs without 
recourse to him ; his name is Counsellor, and his testi- 
monies are counsellors, let them be the rule and square 
of all your debates, Isa. ix. 6; Psal. cxix. 24. It is 
recorded for the honour of Scipio, that "« » c i 

he went first to the Capitol, and then to i. 7.' i. ' vakr.'Max'. 
the senate. But you have more noble '' '' "' "' 
examples. David is put to flight, he flees and prays, 

2 Sam. XV. 26, 31 ; Hezekiah is at a stand in all his 
counsels, he sends to the prophet and prays, Isa. xlvii. 
3, 4, 15 ; Jehoshaphat is in great distress, and knows not 
what in the world to do, but he prays, 2 Chron. xx. 6 ; 
Nehemiah is sore afraid, and hath a petition to make 
to the king, but first he makes one to God, and prays, 
Neh. ii. 3, 4. AATienever the children are come to the 
birth, and there is no strength to bring forth, all the 
world cannot fm-nish you with such another midwife 
as prayer, and recourse to God ; it has delivered even 
graves of thefr dead. Therefore let me beseech you, 
whenever you meet with such difficulties as put you to 
a stand, that you know not what to advise or resolve 
upon, go to your closets, prostrate yourselves at His 
throne, whose honour it is to be seen in the mount ; beg 
counsel of him " in whom are hid all the treasures of 
wisdom and knowledge." Let it appear that you seek 
his face to direct you, and his glory as the supreme end 
and design of all j'our consultations ; and then try whe- 
ther he be not a present help in trouble, and whether 
he will not magnify the wisdom of his counsel in the 
perplexity of yours. 

4. To fidelity, in the use of any good which God be- 
stows upon us ; for God gives not talents to men barely 
to em'ich men, but to employ them : therefore as the 
vessel has one passage to let the wine into itself, and 
another to pour it out into the flagon ; so we should 
not only fill ourselves by dependence upon God, but 
should supply ouselves by love and service to our 
brethren. 

Right Honourables, this nation has put into your 
hands all that is outwardly dear to them, their persons, 
posterities, Hberties, estates. In these sad and woeful 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



distractions they look upon you as binders, and liealci-s, 
and slanders in the gap. and repairers of the waste 
places. God has called you to a hiph and a gi-eat trust ; 
and the sad distempers of the church and state, the dis- 
tresses and desolations of Ireland, the doubts, and fears, 
and convulsions of England, and in these two kingdoms 
the interest of all the protestant churches, call to you, 
like the man of Macedonia, in St. Paul's vision, " Come 
— and help us," Acts xvi. 9. Now in this great strait, 
when the children are come to the birth and there is 
no strength to bring forth, stir up the graces of God in 
you, call together all that is within you to call upon his 
name, improve the uttermost of your interests in him 
for the state of his chxirch, manage every one of his 
gifts to the closing of those miserable breaches which 
threaten an inundation of calamity upon us all ; wisdom, 
and learning, and piety, and prudence, arc healing things. 
Remember (and oh that God would put into the hearts 
of this whole kingdom, from the throne to the plough, 
to remember) the fate of a divided kingdom from the 
mouth of truth itself. Oh that we would all remember, 
that misunderstandings, and jealousies, and divisions of 
heart, are a high evidence of God's displeasure, and 
that " through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is " a 
'• land darkened," and, as it were, infatuated, when 
Manasseh is against Ephraim, and Ephraim against 
Manasseh, and every man eateth " the flesh of his own 
arm," Isa. Lx. 19 — 21. Oh let us all remember what it 
cost Shechem and Abimelech, Judg. ix. ; what it cost 
Benjamin, and the other tribes, even the loss of three- 
score and five thousand men, Judg. xx. : remember 
Priam and his ehildi'en will laugh, Baby- 
n"iouo],"npX Ion will clap their hands, and wag their 
yoio re noTiec, hcad ; no such time for Shishak, the 
li^aVtv^J^' Egyptian, to trouble Jerusalem, as when 
poioTo euwf- Israel is divided, 2 Cliron. xii. 2. Let it 
Horn. u. 1. 2S5. j^g^pj. |jg gj^jj ^f Q^^,^ Q^^ people, that 

they are fallen into the curse of Midianitcs, and Am- 
monites, and Edomites, and Pliilistines, to help forward 
the destruction of oiie anothex'. Oh that God would 
give this whole nation hearts to consider these things, 
that he would put a spirit of peace and resolved unity 
into their minds, to be true to their own happiness, and 
bv how much the greater are the subtleties of men to 
divide them, to be so much the more firmly united in 
prayers to God, and in concord between themselves ; 
that they may not expose their persons, estates, pos- 
terity, and (which is dearest of all) their religion, to 
the crafty and bloody advantages of the enemies of the 
protestant churches, who in human view could have 
no way to overthrow them, but by their own dissen- 
sions ! 

Having thus spoken at large of the words of the 
prayer considered absolutely, we shall proceed to view 
them, 

2. Relatively, in the scope and connexion of the 
prayer suggested to the judgment threatened. And 
here we would 

Obs. 3. When temporal judgments are felt or feared, 
God's people should pray for sijiritual mercies ; human 
sorrows cannot overcome where the joy of the Lord is 
our strength. Thus the Lord seems to 
b.°" "...SdVoinmui; have taught his apostle ; he was under 
iilnu. A ''" ro"?*.' some pressing discomfort, the messenger 
ug. f . ^^ Sntan sent to buffet him, he prays for 
particular deliverance, and God answers him non ad 
rolunlalem sed ad utililulein, imj)lying a direction to all 
such prayers, " My grace is suificicnt for thee," 2 Cor. 
xii. 9. When thou feelest a thorn in thy flesh, pray 
for grace in thy heart; the buffets of Satan cannot 
hurt where the grace of God does suffice. So he directs 
us in time of plague and famine, to pray, and to seek 
nis face. 2 Chron. vii. 14 : to look more after his favour 
than our own ease ; to be more solicitous for the re- 



covery of his love than for the removal of his rod. 
This is a true character of a filial disposition. " In the 
way of thy judgments," even in that way wherein wick- 
ed men fling thee off, and give thee over, and quarrel 
with thee, and rejiine against thee, even " in the way 
of thy judgments have we waited for thee, and the de- 
sire of our soul is " more " to thy name " than to our 
own deliverance, Isa. xxvi. 8. True disciples follow 
Christ more for his doctrine than his loaves, and are 
willing to choose rather affliction than iniquity, John 
vi. 26. 

The grace and favour of God is " life," Psal. xxx. 5, 
" better than life," Psal. Ixiii. 3, and therefore must 
needs be the most sovereign antidote to preserve and 
to bear up the soul above all other discomforts ; whereas 
if he be angiy, no other helps are able to relieve us. 
Brass and iron can fence me against a bullet or a sword, 
but if I were to be cast into a furnace of fire, it would 
help to torment me, if into a pit of water, it would help 
to sink me. Now our God is " a consuming fire," Heb. 
xii. 29, and his " breath like a stream of brimstone," 
Isa. xxx. 33. Human plasters can never cure the 
wounds which God makes ; where he is the smiter, he 
must be the healer too, Hos. y\. 1. All the candles in 
a country are not able to make day there, till the sun 
come ; and all the contents of the world are not able to 
make comfort to the soul, till " the Sun of righteousness 
arise with healing in his wings." In a mine, if a damp 
come, it is in vain to trust to your lights, they will burn 
blue and dim, and at last vanish ; you must make haste 
to be drawn upward if you will be safe. When God 
shai-pens an afljiction with his displeasure, it is vain to 
trust to worldly succours : your desires and affections 
must be on " things above," if you wUl be relieved. 
There is no remedy, no refuge from God's anger, but 
to God's grace. Blood-letting is a cure „ , 
for blcedmg, and a burn a cure tor a onifT.u<io Jcprimi- 
burn ; and running in to God is the way ^"lum dSl^S^ 
to escape him, as to close and get in with JUSuil'Tatui"' 
him that would strike you is the way to 
avoid the blow. In a tempest at sea, it is very dan- 
gerous to strike to the shore, the safest way is to 
liave sea room, and to keep in the main still : there 
is no landing against any tempest of God's judg- 
ments at any shore of worldly or carnal policies, but 
the way is to keep with him still ; if he be with us 
in the ship, the winds and the sea will at last be re- 
buked. 

This then should serve to humble us for our carnal 
prayers in times of judgment, such as the hungry raven, 
or the dry and gaping earth, makes; when we "assem- 
ble " ourselves " for corn and wine," for peace and safety, 
and be in the mean time careless whether or no God 
receive us graciously. God much complains of it 
when he slew Israel ; the rack made him roar, the rod 
made him flatter, but all was to be rid of affliction ; it 
was the ])rayer of nature for ease, not of the spirit for 
grace, for "their heart was not right," P.sal. Ixxviii. 
31—37. The like he complains of after the captivity: 
they fasted and prayed in the fifth month, (wherein the 
city and temple had been burned.) and in the seventh 
month, (wherein Gedeliah had been slain, and the 
remnant carried ca])tive,) but they did it not out of 
sincerity toward God, but out of pohcy for themselves ; 
and this he proves by their beha«our after their return. 
If you had indeed sought me, you would have remem- 
bered the words of the pro])hcts when Jerusalem was 
inhabited before, and being returned, would now have 
put them to practice ; but Jerusalem inhabited after 
tlie cai)tivity is just like Jerusalem inhabited before the 
captivity : so that from hence it appears, that all their 
weeping and separating was not for pious, but politic 
reasons, Zech. vii. 4 — 7. And there is nothing under 
heaven more hateful, or more reproachful to God, tlian 



VtK. 1—3 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



627 



to make religion serve turns, to have piety lackey and 
daj.ce attendance, and be a drudge and groom to pri- 
vate ends, to make it a cloak to policy, a varnish to 
rotten wood. 

O then, ■when we weep and separate ourselves, let us 
not think to mock God with empty ceremonies of re- 
pentance, let us not assemble ourselves only to flatter 
away the rod from our back, and to get peace and se- 
curity to our own persons, and then let tlie favour of 
God, the power of his grace, the comforts of liis Spirit, 
be as unregarded as before ; (as if we fasted and prayed 
only for our backs and bellies, not for our consciences 
or conversations;) for be we well assured, he who does 
not ask the things which he ought, shall not obtain the 
things which he asks : such a prayer begs nothing but 
a denial. 

We have now many fasts together, we have prayed 
for making up our breaches, for repaii'ing our ruins, for 
composing our distractions, for reducing this kingdom 
to a happy constitution, for a right understanding be- 
tween the king and his great council. Tliese prayers 
we have not found yet return, like Noah's do\e, with an 
olive branch, a gracious answer to us again. TVTiat is 
the reason ? Where is the obstruction ? Is not he a 
God that heareth prayers ? Is it not his title ? Does he 
not glory in it ? Certainly mercies stop not at God, but 
at us. We are not straitened in him, but straitened in 
our own bowels. If there come but a bttle light into a 
room, the defect is not in the sun, but in the narrow- 
ness of the window. K a vessel fill but slowly, the fault 
is not any emptiness in tlie fountain, but the smallness 
of the pipe. If mercies ripen slowly, or stop at any 
time in the way, it is not because they are unwilling to 
come to us, but because we are unfit to enjoy them. 
Our prayers, doubtless, in many cases, have not been 
words taken from the revealed mind of God, but from 
our carnal dictates. 

We would fain have things well in our country, but 
have we hitherto looked after oiu- consciences ? The 
distractions without us, have they driven us to consider 
the distempers within, or to desii-e the things above ? 
The unsettleduess of peace in the kingdom, has it 
awakened us to secure our peace with God ? We would 
fain have better times, but have we yet laboured for 
better hearts ? we would fain have a right understand- 
ing between the king and his great council, but have 
we yet seriously set about having a more clear and sweet 
communion between us and our God? we long to see 
more good laws, but are we yet come to care for good 
lives? Every one cries out, "AATio will show us any 
good ? " but how few think on " the light of God's 
countenance ! " 

Hence, beloved, is the miscarriage of aU our prayers. 
If we would " seek first the kingdom of God," we are 
promised other things by way of ovei-plus and accession, 
as he that buys a treasury of jewels has the cabinet into 
the bargain. But when we place oiu' kingdom in out- 
ward comforts, and let our " daily bread " shut all the 
other five petitions out of our prayers, no wonder if 
" the promise of this life," which is annexed to godli- 
ness, answers not those prayers wherein godliness is 
neglected. It were preposterous to begin the building 
of a house at the roof and not at the foundation. Pieli/ 
is the foundatio?i of prosperilj/. If you would have 
your sons as plants, and your daughters as polished 
corner-stones, your garners full, your cattle plenteous, 
no complaining in your streets, Psal. cxliv. 12 — 14; if 
you would have the king happy, and the chm'ch and 
the state happy, and peace and prosperity flourish 
again ; let oiu' chief prayer be, Lord, 
pra-tn"miiS'«t make us a happy people by being our 
Suite nonest. quic God. Give US tliyself, thv grace, thy fa- 
quid mHii Tult aate . ■' j i. » 1 

Dommusmeus.au- vour, givB US renewed hearts and re- 
ferat totum, et Be formed Uves ; let not our sins confute, 



and outcry, and belie our prayers, and e^!|^^''> ^af^nL 
pray them back again without an answer, --i"". 
And when we seek thee and thy Christ above all, we 
know that thou wilt " with him also freely give us all 
things." The spiritual good things which we beg, wUl 
either remove, or shelter and defend us from, the out- 
ward evil things which we suffer. 

Further, this serves for an insti'uction to us touching 
a sanctified use of God's judgments, or threatenings. 
When we learn obedience (as Christ did) by the 
things which we suffer, Heb. v. 8 ; when -naQitiiara are 
ItaOtijiaTa, that we are chastened and taught together, 
Psal. xciv. 12 ; when sufferings quicken spiritual de- 
sires, and the more troubles we find in our way, the 
more love we have to our country ; when we can say, 
" All tliis is come upon us, and jet have we not for- 
gotten thee," Psal. xliv. 17, 18; when we can serve 
God as well in ploughing and breaking the clods, as in 
treading out the corn, Hos. x. 11; when with Jonah 
we can delight in him even in the whale's belly, and 
suffer not our love of him to be quenched with all the 
waters of the sea ; when we can truly say to him. 
Lord, love me, and then do what thou wilt unto me, 
let me feel thy rod rather than forfeit thine affection ; 
when we can look through the anger of his chastise- 
ments to the beauty of his commands and to the 
sweetness of his loving countenance, as by a rainbow 
we see the beautiful image of the sun's light in the 
midst of a dark and waterish cloud ; when by how 
much the flesh is the fuUer of pain, by so much prayers 
are fuller of spirit ; by how much the heavier are our 
earthly sufferings, by so much the stronger are our hea- 
venly desires : when God tlu-eatens punishments, and 
we pray for gi-ace, this is a sanctified use of God's judg- 
ments. And this we should all be exhorted to in the 
times of distraction, to make it the principal argument 
of our prayers and study of our lives, to obtain spi- 
ritual good things ; and the less comfort we find in the 
world to be the more importunate for the comforts of 
God, that by them we may encourage ourselves, as 
David did in liis calamity at Ziklag, 1 Sam. xxx. 6. 
Allien the city Shechem was beaten down to the ground, 
then the men and women fled to the strong tower and 
shut that upon them, Judg. ix. 51. " The name of the 
Lord is a strong tower : the righteous runneth into it, 
and is safe," Prov. xviii. 10. By thus striving for a 
sanctified use of God's judgments we shall, 

1. More honour God, when we set liim up in our 
hearts as our fear and treasure, and mourn more towards 
him than for the miseries we feel, and suspire more 
after him than all the outward contentment which we 
want. 

2. More exercise repentance ; for it is " the sorrow 
of the world " which droops under the pain of the flesh, 
but " godly sorrow " is most of all aifected with the 
anger of God. 

3. ^lore prevail with God. The more heavenly the 
subjects of our prayer are, the more prevalent they 
must needs be with a heavenly Father ; we have five 
spiritual petitions to the one for bread. The more 
suitable our prayers are to God's will, the more easy 
access they will have to his ear. The covenant of 
grace turns precepts into promises^ and the spirit of 
grace turns precepts and promises into prayers. It is 
not God's will that we should live without afflictions, 
but our sanctification is God's will, 1 Thess. iv. 3. The 
more prayers ju'oceed from love, the more acceptable 
to the God of love : now prayer against judgments 
proceeds from fear, but prayer for grace and favour 
proceeds from love. 

4. Hereby we shall more benefit ourselves. God's 
grace is much better than our own ease ; it gives us 
meekness to submit, it gives us strength to bear, it 
gives us wisdom to benefit by our afllictions. 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



God's favovir is much better than our own case, and 
is a recompcnee for sufferings beyond all their evils. 
A man would be contented to be loaded with gold, so 
he might have it for the bearing, though it be heavy, 
yet it is precious ; and God's favour' turns affliction into 

fold. If he give quietness, nothing can give trouble, 
ob xxxiv. 29 ; and if he keep back his grace and fa- 
vour, nothing can give peace ; neither wealth, nor ho- 
nours, nor pleasures, nor crowns, nor all the world, 
with the fulness, or rather the emptiness, thereof, none 
of them can do us any good. Any thing which will 
consist with the reign of lust, with the guilt of sin, 
with the curse of the law, with the wrath of God, with 
horrors of conscience, and with the damnation of hell, 
is too base to be called the good of man. " To do 
justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy 
God," this is bonum hominis, the good of man, Micah iv. 
8 ; to " fear God, and keep his commandments," this is 
totum hominis, the whole end and happiness of man, 
Eccl. xii. 13. 

O then get remission and removal of sin, get this 
lunum hominis, the oil of grace in your lamps, the 
peace of God in your hearts, the streams of the river 
of God in your consciences ; and then, though the earth 
be moved, and the mountains shake, and the waters 
roar, whatever disti'actions, whatever desolations hap- 
pen, imparidum ferient rimicE ; thou shalt find a cham- 
ber in God's providence, a refuge in his promises, a 
pavilion in the secret of his presence, to protect and to 
comfort thee above them all. 

Ver. 2, 3. — So tcill we render the calves of our lips. 
Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses : 
7ieither will we sai/ any more to the work of our hands, 
Ye are our gods : for in thee the fatherless Jindeth 
mere!/. 

In the whole context we have before observed two 
general parts, Israel's prayer, and Israel's promise. 
The prayer we have handled, and now ])roceed to, 

II. The promise, wherein are two things to be con- 
sidered : 1. The covenant itself. 2. The ground upon 
which they make it, God's mercy to the fatherless. 
First, then, of the covenant, wherein they promise two 
things: 1. Thanksgiving for God's hearing and answer- 
ing of their prayers. 2. A special care for amendment 
of their lives. 

" So will we render the calves of our lips." D'lS 
irnsw The apostle out of the Septuagint reads this, 
Knpn-oi' x"^fw>'! "the fruit of our lips," Heb. xiii. 15. 
It is the use of the Scripture to describe spiritual duties 
by expressions drawn from ceremonies and usages un- 
der the law ; as repentance is called washing, Isa. i. 16 ; 
and prayer, " incense," Psal. cxli. 2 ; Ilev. v. 8 ; and the 
righteousness of saints, " fine linen," in allusion to the 
garments of the priests. Rev. xix. 8 ; and 
Til. c"pus chTiki. Christ, " an altar," whereby both our per- 
I'r'i'cap"*.'""' ^°"* ^^'^ services are sanctified and ac- 
cepted, Heb. xiii. 10; llom. xii. 1 ; 1 Pet. 
ii. 5 ; Isa. Ivi. 7. Thus here, the spiritual sacrifices of 
praise arc called " calves," to show the end of all sacrifices, 
which were ordained for the stirring up 
j,"toI^*ap.T«''ct of spiritual aflections and praises to God, 
A'u's.'rt"?"v.'S-r.'iui. *"'! '■''''° to intimate the vanity of cere- 
1(1. cap. 6. rt Ep'uii. monial without real services. The beast 
on the altar was but a carnal, but the 
faith of the heart and the confession of the mouth was 
a reasonable, sacrifice. No point more insisted on in 
the prophets than this, Isa. i. 1 5 ; Micah vi. 6—8 ; Amos 
iv. 4, 5; V. 21 ; Psal. I 1.3—15; Ixix. 30—36. They 
had idolatrously dishonoured God with their calves of 
Dan and Beth-el, and they had carnally and supersti- 
liously placed all worship and holiness in the calves of 
the altar; but now they resolve to worship God neither 



politicly, after human inventions, nor perfunctorily, 
with mere outward ceremonies, but spiritually, and from 
inward affections ; for the lips are moved by the heart. 

Now, thanksgiving is further called " the calves " or 
sacrifices " of our lips," to intimate, that after all God's 
rich mercies to us, in pardoning our sins, and in mul- 
tiplying to us his gi-ace and spiritual comforts, we, like 
beggars, have nothing to retum but the bare acknow- 
ledgments and praises of our lips, words for wonders : 
and those words, too, his own gifts ; we caimot render 
them to him before we have received them from him. 
Psal. cxvi. 12, 13; Matt xii. 34; 1 Chron. xxix. 16. 

" Asshur shall not save us." To the general confes- 
sion of sin intimated in those words, " Take away all 
iniquity," there is added here a particular detestation 
of their special sins, with a covenant to forsake them, 
lest waxing wanton with pardon and grace, they should 
relapse into them again. The sum is to confess the 
vanity of carnal confidence, betaking itself to the aid 
of men, to the strength of horses, to the superstition of 
idols for safety and deliverance. All which they are 
now at last, by their experience and by their repent- 
ance, taught to abandon, as things which indeed cannot, 
and therefore they are resolved shall not, save them. 

By the Assyrian is here intimated all human succour 
procured by sinful correspondence, by a synecdoche of 
the part for the whole. But he is particularly men- 
tioned, 1. Because he was the chief monarch of the 
world, to show that the gi'eatest worldly succours are 
vain, when they are relied upon without, or against, 
God. 2. Because the Scripture takes notice often of 
it as their particular sin, the sending unto, relying 
upon, and paying him tribute for aid and assistance, 
Hos. v. 13 ; vii. 11, 12 ; 2 Kings xv. 19, 20. 3. Because 
instead of helping, he did greatly afflict them. Their 
flying to him was like a bii'd's flying into a snare, or a 
fish's avoiding the pole wherewith the water is troubled, 
by swimming into the net, 2 Kings xv. 29 ; Hos. xiii. 4. 

" We will not ride upon horses." By " horses" we 
are to understand the military preparations and pro- 
visions which they made for themselves, both at home 
and from Egypt, 2 Chron. i. 16; Isa. xxxi. 1. 

" Neither will we say any more to the work of our 
hands. Ye are our gods." By " the work of " their 
" hands" are meant their idols, which were indebted 
to their hands for any shape or beauty that was in 
them. The same hands which formed them were 
afterwards lifted up in worship to them, Isa. xliv. 10, 
17 ; xlvi. 6—8 ; Jer. x. 3, 15 ; Acts xix. 26. Time was 
when we said, " These be thy gods, O Israel, which 
brought thee up out of the land of Eg)-pt," Exod. xxxii. 
4 ; 1 Kings xii. 28 ; but now we will not say so any- 
more, for how can a man be the maker of his Maker ? 

" For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy." This is 
the ground of their petition for pardon and grace, and 
of their promise of^ praises and amendment, God"s 
mercy in hearing the prayers, and in enabling the per- 
formances, of his people. It is a metaphor drawn from 
orphans in their minority, who are, 1. Destitute of 
wisdom and abilities to help themselves. 2. Exposed 
to violence and injuries. 3. Committed for that reason J 
to the care of tutors and guardians to govern and pro- I 
tect them. The church here acknowledges herself an * 
outcast, destitute of all wisdom and strengtli within, of 
all succour and support from without, and therefore 
betakes herself solely to God's tuition, whose mercy j 
can and is wont to help when all other help fails. ■ 

This is the last link of that golden chain of repent- V 
ance, made up of these gradations : 1. A humble ad- 
dress unto God. 2. A penitent confession of sin. 3. 
An earnest petition against it. 4. An imploring of 
grace and favour. 5. Thanksgiving for so great bene- 
fits. 6. A covenant of new obedience. And, lastly, A 
confidence and quiet repose in God. 



Ver. 2, 3. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



629 



Let lis now consider wnat useful observations the 
■words thus opened will afford. As we see that after 
tliey have petitioned for pardon and grace, the\' then 
restipulate and undertake to perform duties of thank- 
fulness and obedience, we would, in general, 

Obs. 4. True penitents, in their conversion from sin, 
and humiliation for it, not only pray to God for mercy, 
out moreover covenant to express the fruits of those 
mercies in a thankful and obedient conversation. 
AVhen first we are admitted into the family and house- 
hold of God, we enter into a covenant. Therefore cir- 
cumcision, whereby the chilcben of the Jews were fh-st 
sealed and separated for God, is called " my" God's " co- 
Tenant," Gen. xvii. 4, because therein God did covenant 
to own them, and they did in the figure covenant to 
mortify lust, and to serve him, without which they 
visitabo r were in his sight but uneu-cuincised still. 
omr.es popuios in- " Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, 
chM^"'°F,„,,"e-'° that I will punish all them which are cir- 
<t<puo< eiri TTdi.- cumcised with the uncu-cumcised,"-S3-Sy 

Tar TrepiTeTWjjue- i , ii .1 ^ • - 1 

K)i.c_a«po/3i.crTiat ,17-1^3 7lD upon all that are circumcised 
auTw,. bepiuag. j^ uncircumcision, Jer. ix. 25. The na- 
tions joined in the following verse with Judah, who 
Hcrodoi. 1 2 Arte- ^^^ ^^^^ '•° ^^ uucircumcised, did yet use 
bamis apud Euseb. ciiTumcision, as the learned have observ- 
i.°9. ?27" ()rig" "m ed ; but being out of covenant with God, 
Rom. L 2. cap. 3. j^. j^ accouuted to them as uncircumci- 
sion, and so was that of the Jews too when they 
broke covenant with God, Rom. ii. 28, 29 ; Acts vii. 
51. And as the Gentiles being converted are called 
Jews, and said to be bom in Zion, Psal. Ixxxvii. 4, 
5; Gal. vi. 10; 1 Cor. xii. 13; so the Jews living 
Cameron, de Eccies. impeuitently are called Gentiles, Ca- 
p. M. Nee hoe no- naanitcs, Amoritcs, Hittites, Ethiopians, 
Br"e mi'?t^.Sa-' Sodomitcs, Ezek. xvi. 3 ; Hos. xii. 7 ; 
compSSon^riS- Amos ix. 1 ; Isa. i. 10. In like manner 
"mt;.'jgdIo5'"''8. baptism among Chi-istians is called by the 
et eont. Marcion, I. apostle am'ciSi)aciiig dyaOtjs 'nT(pu>Ti}iia 
fig Qibv, which the learned interpret the 
answer, or covenant, of keeping a good conscience to- 
wards God, 1 Pet. iii. 21. 'E7rfpwn;^a, a question or in- 
terrogation, which some would have to be the con- 
science making interpellation for itself to God ; others, 
to be as much as loKtjjiaaia, the examining of a man's 
self, like that before the Lord's supper, 1 Cor. xi. 28. 
I rather take it as an allusion to the manner of John's 
baptism, wherein the people fii'st confessed, and conse- 
quently renounced, sin ; and being taken into Christ's 
service, or into that kingdom of God which was at hand, 
inquired what work they were to do. And we find 
the same word in Luke iii. 10, " And the people " 
InripuTiov aitrbv," asked him, saying, "\ATiat shall we do 
then ? " whereby is intimated, an engaging of them- 
selves by a solemn promise and undertaking to the 
practice of that repentance unto which John baptized 
them. * AVhence arose that grave form of the ancient 
churches, wherein questions were proposed to the per- 
son baptized touching his faith and repentance, re- 
nouncing the world, the flesh, and the devil, with a 
solemn answer and stipulation obliging thereunto. 
M hich custom seems to have been derived from the 
practice used in the apostles' time, wherein profession 
of faith unfeigned, and sincere repentance, was made 
before baptism, Acts ii. 38 ; viii. 37 ; xvi. 33 ; xix. 4. 

* Aug. lib. de Fide ct Operibus c. 9. Tertul. ad Mart. c. 2. 
et 3. et de Coron. Milit. c. 3, et 13. de Habitu. Mulieb. c. 2'. 
de Spectacul. c. 24. etlib. de Idolatria. Apol. c. 38. luterro- 
gatio legitimaet Ecclesiastica. Firmilian. apud Cyprian, ep. 
75. et ib. ep. 70, et 76. 

f Dignaris eis,quibus omnia debita dimittis, etiam promis- 
sionibus tuis debitor fieri. Aug. Conf. 1. 5. c, 9. Non ei ali- 
quid dediraus, et tenemus debitorem. Unde debitorem ? quia 
promissnrest. Nondicimus Deo, Domine redde quod acce- 
pisti, sed redde qund promisisti. Aug. in Psal. xxxii. Cum pro- 
uiissum Dei redditur justitia Dei dicitur. Justitia enim Dei 



This is the first dedicating of ourselves, and entering^ 
into a covenant with God, which we may call, in the 
prophet's expression, the subscribing, or giving a man's 
name to God, Isa. xliv. 5. 

Now the covenant between us and God being per- 
petual, " a covenant of salt," Jer. xxxii. 
40 ; 2 Chron. xiii. 5. As we are to begin pal"-agf"i',;Yet'i-t. 
it in our baptism, so we are to continue it "• =' ''':'"i"'".J" 

T- , 1 1 n n^ Gen. xuc. 16, 17, 2G. 

to our lives end, and upon ail nt occa- stuck. Antiquit. 
sions to repeat and renew it for oui- fur- aKratu'ra; ami-' 
ther quickening and remenibrancing unto J,* J iibTsr.''""' 
duties. So did David, Psal. cxix. 106 ; 
so Jacob, Gen. xxviii. 20 — 22 ; so Asa and the people 
in his time, 2 Chron. xv. 12, 13 ; so Hczekiah, 2 Chron. 
xxix. 10; XXX. 5, 23 ; so Josiah, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 31, 32 ; 
so Ezra and Nehemiah, Ezra x. 3 ; Neh. ix. 38. 

The reasons enforcing this duty may be di'awn from 
several considerations. 

1. From God in Christ, where two strong obligations 
occur; 1. His dealing with us. 2. Our relation to him. 

1. His dealing with us. He is pleased not only to 
enter into covenant with us, but to bind himself to the 
performance of what he promises. Though whatever 
he bestow upon us is all matter of mere and most free 
grace, wherein he is no debtor to us at all, yet he is 
pleased to bind himself to acts of grace. Men love to 
have all their works of favour free, and to reserve to 
themselves a power of alteration or revocation. But 
God is pleased that his gifts should take upon them in 
some sense the t condition of debts ; and although he 
can owe nothing to the creature, yet he is content to be 
a debtor to his own promise ; and having at first in mercy 
made it, his truth is often engaged to the performance 
of it, Rom. xi. 35 ; Job xxii. 3 ; xxxv. 7,8; Micah vii. 20. 

Further, his word is established in heaven ; with him 
there is no variableness, nor shadow of change ; his pro- 
mises are not yea and nay, but in Christ Amen, 2 Cor. 
i. 20 ; if he speak a thing it shall not fail. Josh. xxi. 45. 
He spake and the world was made ; his word alone is a 
foundation and bottom to the being of all his crea- 
tures : and yet, notwithstanding the immutable cer- 
tainty of his promises, when they are first uttered, for 
our sakes he is pleased to bind himself by further ties ; 
free mercy secured by a coA'enant, and a firm covenant 
secured by an oath, Deut. vii. 12; Luke Quid est Dei .eri 
i. 72, 73; Heb. vi. 17, IS ; that we, who, ;;?"''53;;,''ii'|'5oJ,V 
like Gideon, are apt to call for sign upon mitio, et infideiium 

,. , * ., i.iii quEedamincrepatio? 

Sign, and to stagger and be aislieartenecl Aug.deCir.Dei,Ub. 
if we have not double security from God, '°' "■■■ ^"^ 
we, whose doubting calls for promise upon promise, as 
our ignorance does for " precept upon precept," may-, 
by " two immutable things, in which it was impossible 
for God to lie— have a strong consolation." Now if 
God, whose gifts are free, bind himself to bestow them 
by his promise ; if God, whose promises are sure, bind 
himself to perform them by his oath ; how much more 
are we bound to tie ourselves by covenant to God, to 
do those things which are our duty to do, unto the 
doing whereof we have such infirm principles as a mu- 
table will and an unstedfast heart. 

2. Our relation to him. We are his, not only by a pro- 
perty founded in his sovereign power and dominion over 
us, as our Maker, Lord, and Saviour, Psal. c. 3 ; 1 Cor. 
vi. 19, 20; but by a property growing out of our own 

est quia redditum est quod pvninissum est. .\mbros. in Rom. iii. 
Justum est ut veddat quod debet. Debet autem quod poUicitus 
est. Et hfcc est justitia de qua praesumit apostolus promis- 
sio Dei. Bern, de Grat. et lib. Arbit. Licet Deus debitum 
alicui det, non tamen est ipse debitor, quia ipse ad alia non 
ordinatur, sed potius alia ad ipsum, et ideo justitia quandoque 
dicitur in Deo condecentia sua; bonitatis. Aquin. part 1. qu. 
21. art. 1. Nulla alia in Deo justitia nisi ad se quasi ad alte- 
rum, ut sibi ipsi debitum reddat secundum condecentiam bo- 
nitatis, et rectitudinem voluntatis suk. Scotus 4. dist. 4G. 
qu. 1. 



630 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



voluntarj- consent, whereby we surrender, and yield, 
and give up ourselves unto God, Rom. vi. 19 ; 2 Cor. 
viii. 4. We are not only his people, but his willing 
people, by the intervention of our own consent, Psal. 
ex. 3. We give him our hand ; nin'S T'-i:n give your 
hand unto the Lord, " )-ield yourselves unto the Lord," 
2 Chron. xxx. 8, an allusion to the manner of cove- 
nants or engagements, Prov. vi. 1 ; xvii. 18 ; Ezek. 
xvii. 18. AVe offer up ourselves as a free 
junjctrgoniiiius, oblation, Rom. XV. 16, and are thereupon 
siiSius!'" "'■ called " a kind of first-fruits," James i. 18. 
"(ft"' romnJlJaque We are hls, Bs the wife is her husband's, 

interest as this ever presupposes a con- 
tract. As in ancient forms of stipulation there was 
asking and answering : Spondes ? S-pondeo. Promittis ? 
Promilln. Dabis ? Dabo. As in contract of marriage, 
the mutual consent is asked and given. Gen. xxiv. 58 ; 
so it is here between God and the soul, the covenant is 
mutual, Gen. xvii. 2. He promises mercy, to be our 
" exceeding great reward," and we promise obedience, 
to be his " willing people ;" and usually according as is 
the proportion of strength in our faith to believe God's 
promises of mercy to us, such is also the proportion of 
care in our obedience to perform our promises of duty 
to him. 

2. From ourselves. And here covenants are need- 
ful in two respects. 1. In regai'd of the falseness and 
deceitfulness of our corrupt hearts in all spiritual 
duties. The more cunning a sophister is to evade an 
argument, the more close and pressing we frame it; 
the more vigilant a prisoner to make an escape, the 
stronger guard we keep upon him. Our hearts are 
exceeding apt to be false with God. One while 
they melt into promises and resolutions of obedience, 
as Pharaoh and Israel did, Psal. Ixxviii. 34 — 37, and 
i],v,r-j nrcnsionr presently forget and harden again. Lot's 
bicili'i' in' uK"rt ^^'''^ ""''s ""*■ °f Sodom for fear of the 
eicimm non exti'r- judgments, but ouicklv looks back again 
jfi.nm puiininre vi- out of lovc to the place, Or some other 
Bt"m. ser'm'T'in curiosity and distemper of mind. Saul 
Aisum. Mar rcleuts towards David, and quickly after 

persecutes him again, 1 Sam. xxiv. 16 — 20; xxvi. 1, 2. 
This is the true picture of man's heart, under a strong 
conviction, or in a pang of devotion, or in 'time either 
of sickness, or some pressing affliction, on the rack, in 
the furnace, under the rod, nothing then hut vows of 
better obedience ; all which do oftentimes suddenly 
vanish as " the early dew," and wither away like Jonah's 
gotird. Therefore, both to acknowledge and prevent 
this miserable pcrfidiousncss of such revolting hearts, 
it is very needful to bind them to God with renewed 
covenants ; and since they are so apt with Jonah to run 
away and start aside, to neglect Nineveh and to flee to 
Tarshish, necessary it is to find them out and to bring 
them home, and, as David did, to fix and fasten them 
to their business, Psal. Ivii. 7. 

2. In regard of the sluggishness to duty natural to 
us. We are a])t to faint and be weary when we meet 
with any unexpected difficulties in God's service, lo 
esteem the wilderness as bad as F.gvpt ; to sit down as 
Ilagar did, and cry, to think tliat half way to heaven 
is far enough, and almost a Christian progress enough ; 
that baking on one .side will make the cake good 
enough ; that God will accept of bankrupt payment, a 
noble in the pound, part of our hearts and duties for 
all. Now, to correct this torpor, this AXiyoi|/i;;^in, as the 
apostle calls it, 1 Thess. v. 14, this pusillanimity, and 

• MijTf dTToXcii/zeti/ t4 irrjfitta, niJTt «\\o irpa^tiv ntjSiv 
ivnvTlov Tio itinai. Dionys. Halicarn. 1. 10. Iloiiio-fii' to 
TTiitiaTaTTofifvou viTtp Tutv &p\6imtiv ^caTrt ^vva^iu. I*olyb. 
I. n. l^ricmia nunc alia atque alia emolumenta uotcmiis 
sacramcnturum. .luv. Sat. IG. Lips, de Milit. Rom. 1. I. 
Dial. G. 



faint-heartedness in God's service, we must bind it on 
ourselves with renewed covenants, and put to the more 
strength because of the bluntness of the iron, Eccl. 
X. 10. A covenant does as it were twist the cords of 
the law, and double the precept upon the soul ; when 
it is only a piecept, then God alone commands it, but 
when I have made it a promise, then I command it and 
bind it upon myself. The more feeble our hands and 
knees are, the more care we should have to bind and 
strengthen them, that we may lift them up speedily, 
and keep them straight, Heb. xii. 12, 13; and the way 
to effect it is to come to David's resolution, '■ I am pur- 
posed that my mouth shall not transgress," Psal. xvii. 
3. Merc empty desires will not keep weak faculties 
together^ broken bones must have strong bands to 
close them fast again : a crazy piece of building must 
be cramped with iron bars to keep it from tottering: 
so if we would indeed " cleave unto the Lord," we 
must bring " purpose of heart," even strong resolutions. 
Acts xi. 23. Cleaving will call for swearing, Deut. x. 
20. As it should be our prayer, so also our purpose, to 
have hearts united to fear God's name, Psal. Ixxxvi. 
11 ; whence the phrases of preparing, fixing, confirm- 
ing, establishing, rooting, grounding, and other like, so 
frequently occurring in the Scripture, 2 Chron. xxx. 19 ; 
1 Chron. xxix. 18 : Eph. iii. 17 ; Heb. xiii. 9; James 
V. 8. 

3. From regard to our brethren, that by a holy as- 
sociation and spiritual confederacy in heavenly resolu- 
tions, every man's example may quicken his brother, 
and so duties be performed with more vigour and fer- 
vency, and return with the greater blessings. If fire 
be in a whole pile of wood, every stick will burn the 
brighter, even the greenest wood will take fire in so 
general a flame. Men usually have more courage in the 
body of an army, where concurrent shoutings and en- 
couragements do, as it were, infuse mutual spirits into 
one another, than when they are alone by themselves. 
David rejoiced in but recounting the companies and 
armies of God's people when they went uj) to Jerusa- 
lem in their solemn feasts, Psal. Ixxxiv. 7. And there- 
fore most covenants in Scripture were general and 
public, solemnly entered into by a great body of peo- 
ple, as that of Asa, Josiah, and Nehemiah, the for- 
wardness of every man whetting the zeal of his neigh- 
bour, Prov. xxvii. 17. 

4. From the multitudes, strength, vigilance, malice, 
assiduous attempts of all our spii-itual enemies, which 
call upon us for the stronger and more united resolu- 
tions. For common adversaries usually gain more by 
our faintness, and divisions, than by their own 
strength.* Therefore soldiers use to take an oath of 
fidelity towards their co\uitry and service. And + 
Hannibal's father made him take a solemn oath to 
maintain perpetual hostility with Rome. Such an X 
oath have all Christ's soldiers taken ; and at the Lord's 
supper, and in solemn humiliations, they virtually re- 
new the same, never to hold intelligence or correspond- 
ence with any of his enemies. 

The first thing in a Christian man's armour mention- 
ed bv the apostle. Eph. vi, 14, is the§ girdle, that 
which binds on all the other armom-, ( for so we read of 
girding on armour, Judg. xviii. 11 ; 1 Kings xx, 11,) 
and that girdle is truth. Which we may understand 
either doctrinally. for stedfastness and stability of 
judgment in the doctrine of Christ which we profess, 
not being "carried about with every wind of doctrine," 
but " holding fast the form of sound words," " knowing 

t Liv. lib, .'55. Appian. in Iherieo et Lybico. Polyb. 1. .3. " 

1 Vid. Tertiil. de Coron. Milit, ell, 

^ Cinpere est militarc. apud Plaut. Et stare distinctuni, 
crat pa-n-ii militatis gcniis. Sucton, Sui<la! ^wi^vuffCai est 
iia@ov\i\ta^ui, ct Zuii/i), JuvttM't, unde dicitur Deus balleum 
rcguiu dissolvcre. ilob xii. 16. 



Vee. 2, 3. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



631 



whom we believe," and the certainty of those things 
wherein we have been Instructed, Eph. iv. 14; 2 Tim. 
i. 12, 13; Luke i. 4 ; or else morally and practically, 
for stedfastness of heart in the faithful discharge of 
those promises which we have made unto God, ( for so 
faithfulness is compared to a girdle, Isa. xi. 5,) where- 
by we are preserved from shrinking and tergiversation, 
in times of trial and in our spiritual warfare. And this 
faithfulness, the more it is in solemn covenants renewed, 
the stronger it must needs be, and the better able to 
bind all our other arms upon us. Christ's enemies will 
enter into covenants and combinations against him 
and his church, Psal. ii. 1, 2 ; Ixiv. 5, 6; Ixxxiii. 5 — 8; 
Acts xxiii. 12; Jer. xi. 9 ; and our* own lusts within 
us will many times draw from us oaths and obligations 
to fulfil them, and make them vincula iniquitatU, con- 
ti-aiT to the nature of an oath, 1 Kings xix. 2 ; Mark 
vi. 23 : how much more careful should we be to bind 
ourselves to God, that our resolutions may be the 
stronger and more united against so many and con- 
federate enemies ! 

This point serves, I. For a just reproof of those who 
are so far from entering into covenant with God, that 
indeed they make covenants with Satan his greatest 
enemy, and do in their conversations as it were abuse 
those promises, and blot out that subscription, and tear 
off that seal of solemn profession which they had so 
often set unto the covenant of obedience ; such as those 
in the projihet's time, who had " made a covenant with 
death, and with heU" were " at agreement," Isa. xxviii. 
15. Men are apt to think that none but witches are 
in covenant with the devil, because such are in the 
Scripture said to be " consulters with familiar spu-its," 
Deut. xviii. 11; but, as Samuel said to Saul, "Rebel- 
lion is as the sin of witchcraft," 1 Sam. xv. 23, every 
stubborn and presumptuous sinner has so much of 
witchcraft in him, as to hold a kind of spiritual com- 
pact with the de^dl. We read of the serpent and his 
seed, Gen. iii. 15; of the dragon and his soldiers. Rev. 
Aiteriiu mse ntm '^^- '' J "^ some siuuers being of the devil, 
''IIS'D'i1IJk''s'St"' aiiim^ted by his principles, and actuated 
Teri. de Hoioi. cap. by hls Will and commands, 1 John iii. 8 ; 
M jieb.'c. 8. de 2 Tim. ii. 26. Satan tempting, and sin- 
CuituFoemm.cap.5. jjg^g embracing and admitting the tempta- 
tion upon the inducements suggested, has in it the re- 
semblance of a covenant or compact. There are mutual 
agreements and promises, as between master and servant, 
one requiring work to be done, and the other expecting 
wages to be paid for the doing of it ; as in buying and 
selling, one bargains to have a commocbty, and the 
other to have a price proportionate. Thus we read in 
some places of the service of sin, John viii. 34 ; Rom. 
vi. 16; 2 Pet. ii. 19; and in others, of the wages be- 
longing to that service, Heb. xi. 25 ; 2 Pet. ii. 15; Jude 
11 ; and elsewhere of the covenant bargain and sale 
for the mutual securing of the service and of the wages, 
1 Kings xxi. 25. Wicked men sell themselves, bargain 
and grant away then- time, and strength, and wit. and 
abilities, to be at the will and disposal of 

Mane piger stertis, „ ^ ' , „ , ,^ 

surge.inqiiitavaiitia, batan, tor sucli profits, pleasures, honours, 
?ut!'s2g'erm^mtT advantages, as are laid in their way to 
Pere.'^atynlT' allurc them ; and thus do they as it were 
with cords bind themselves to sin, Prov. 
V. 22. Ahab bought Naboth's vineyard of the devil, 
and sold himself for the price in that purchase. Balaam, 
against the light of his own conscience, and the many 
discoveries of God's dislike, never gives over his endea- 
vours to curse God's people till he had drawn them into 
a snare by the Midianitish woman, and all to this end, 
that he might at last overtake the wages of iniquity 
which he ran so greedily after, Numb. xxii. 21 ; xxiii. 

* Kai Toi/s yz ttowtov^ avTwv k. 



Tiov opKtofiotxtwv avayKTiu irpoatiyayt, iraioa yap Tiva kutu- 
Oycatj Kat iirl tmv airXdyyvtuv ainov rd opKut irotnuas, 



1, 14, 29 : xxxi. 16 ; Jude 11 ; Micah vi. 5 ; Rev. ii. 14; 
2 Pet. ii. 15. Jezebel binds herself by an oath to mur- 
der, 1 Kings xix. 2. Judas makes a bargain for his 
Master's blood, and at once sells a soul and a Saviour, 
for so base a ])rice as thirty pieces of silver. Matt. xxvi. 
15. Profane Esau makes merchandise of his birthright, 
whereunto belonged the inheritance, or double portion, 
the princely power, and the office of priesthood, the 
blessing, the excellency, and the government. Gen. 
xlix. 3 ; 2 Chron. xxi. 3 ; all which he parts with for 
one morsel of meat, Heb. xii. 16 ; being therein a type 
of all those profane wretches, who deride the M'ays of 
godliness and promises of salvation, cb-owning them- 
selves in sensual delights, and esteeming heaven and 
hell, salvation and perdition, but as the vam notions of 
melancholy men, having no other God but their' belly, 
or their gain, Phil. iii. 19 ; 1 Tim. vi. 5. 

So much monstrous wickedness is there in the hearts 
of men, that they add spurs and whips, to a horse which 
of himself rusheth into the battle. Wlien the tide of 
their own lusts, the stream and current of their own 
headstrong and impetuous afl'ections, do carry them too 
swiftly before, they yet hoist up sail, and, as it were, 
spread open their hearts to the winds of temptation, 
precipitating and urging on their natural lusts by volun- 
tary engagements ; tying themselves yet faster to misery 
than Adam by his fall had tied them, and making them- 
selves, not by nature only, but by compact, " the childi'en 
of wrath." One makes beforeliand a bargain for drunk- 
enness, another contrives a meeting for uncleanness, a 
third enters into a combination for robbery and cozenage, 
a fourth makes an oath of revenge and malice ; like 
Ananias and Sapphka, they agree together to tempt the 
Spirit of the Lord, Acts v. 9. Like Samson's foxes, 
they join together with fii-ebrands to set the souls of 
one another on fire, as if they had not title enough to 
hell except they bargained for it anew, and bound 
themselves, as it were, by solemn obligations, not to 
part with it again. 

Oh that every presumptuous sinner, who thus sells 
himself to do wickedly, would seriously consider those 
sad encumbrances which go along with this his pur- 
chase. Those who would have estates to continue in 
such or such a succession, as they themselves had pre- 
intended, have sometimes charged curses and execra- 
tions upon those who should alienate, or go about to 
alter the property and condition of them. 'These many 
times are causeless curses, and do not come. But if 
any man will make bargains with Satan, and leill buy 
the pleasures of sin, he must know that there goes a 
curse from heaven along with such a purchase, which 
will make it at the last but a -yXvui-KiK^ov, a sweet bitter, 
like John's roll, which was sweet in the mouth, but 
bitter in the belly. Rev. x. 10; like Claudius's mush- 
room, pleasant, but poisonous ; that wiU 
blast all the pleasures of sin, and turn all JjboTok.tOTumvSJ'e- 
the wages of iniquity in aurum tholosa- »'«=■ Tacit. Annai. 
num, into such gold as ever brought de- vid. a. ceii. ub. 3. 
struction to its owners. It is said of Cn. ctokiaiiiicseufortia, 
Seius, that he had a goodly horse, which Jo;;„'j^"sju%in'ora, 
had all the requh-ed perfections of stature, J;'j,1,|lJ.'^"s,^jS5a 
feature, colour, strenarth, proiiortion, meiiisdeubaomcuio 

1. , , .,, 1.1* . Tenenato, nee tanti 

comeliness, but withal this misery ever guumfaciasyo- 
attended it, that whosover became its 'c'S?^'.' ^Irti'.S. 
owner was sure to die an unhappy death. 
This is the misery that always accompanies the bargain 
of sin ; how pleasant, how profitable, how advantage- 
ous soever it may seem to be to flesh and blood, it has 
always calamity in the end, it ever expires in a miser- 
able death. Honey is very sweet, but it turns into the 
bitterest choler. 'The valley of Sodom was one of the 

ETTEiTa kaTrXayxvi-vtv atira in-ra -riuii dWwv. Dion, cle 
Catilina, 1. 37. Inter csetera vid. Euscb. Hist. Eccles. 1. 6. 



632 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



most delightful places in the world, but is now become 
a dead and a standing lake. Let the life of a wicked 
man run on never so fluently, it has a mare morlitum, 
a dead sea, as its termination. O, then, when thou art 
making a covenant with sin, say to thy soul as Boaz 
said to his kinsman, Ruth iv. 5, 6, At what time thou 
buyest it, thou must have Kuth the Moabitess with it ; 
if thou wilt have the pleasures, the rewards, the wages 
of iniquity, thou must also have the curse and damna- 
tion that is entailed upon it ; and let thy soul answer, 
as did the kinsman, No, I may not do it, I shall mar 
and spoil a better inheritance. 

II. This may serve for an instruction to us touching 
the duties of solemn humiliation and repentance. We 
must not think we have done enough when we have 
made general acknowledgments and confessions of sin, 
and begged pardon and grace from God ; but we must 
withal further bind ourselves fast to God by engage- 
ments of new obedience, as holy men in the Scripture 
have done in their more solemn addresses to God, Neh. 
ix. 38 ; Psal. li. 12 — 15 ; for without amendment of life 
prayers are but bowlings and abominations, Hos. vii. 

14; Prov. xxviii. 9. Quantum a prcs- 
^"'capfio?"'" ceptis, tatitttm ab auribus Dei longe sumus. 

No obedience, no audience. A beast will 
' TT when he is beaten ; but men, when God punishes, 
sliould not only cry, but covenant. 

To the performance whereof, that we may the better 
apply ourselves, let us a little consider the nature of a 
Duonim rioriiimvc Teligious covcuaut. A covenant is a 
c°nir«M'*v'i"iJn. '^^^tual Stipulation, or a giving and re- 
h.i.s.ie paciii ccivin" of faith between two parties, 

undo mutua ex fltjc i i .1 i • i • 

data ct acctpia wherebv Uiey do unanimously agree in 
oniur obiiguiio. ^^^ inviolable sentence, or resolution. 
Such a covenant there is between God and true be- 
lievers, he giving himself as a reward to them, and they 
giving themselves as»servants to him. He willing and 
requiring the service, and they willing and consenting 
to the reward ; he promising to be their God, and they 
to be his people, Heb. viii. 10. A remarkable form of 
joint and mutual stipulation we have, Deut. xxvi. 17 — 
10, " Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy 
God, and to wallc in his ways, and to keep his statutes, 
and his commandments, and his Judgments, and to 
hearken unto his voice : and the Lord hath avouched 
thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath pro- 
mised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his com- 
mandment.s ; and to make thee high above all nations 
■which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in 
honour ; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto 
the Lord thy God, as he hath spoken." M'here we 
have both the mutual expressions of intimate rela- 
tion one to another, and the mutual engagements to 
universal obedience on the one side, and to high and 
precious benefits on the other, growing out of that re- 
lation. For, because God is mine, I am bound to serve 
him ; and, because I am his, he has bound himself to 
provide for me. There are two parts of the covenant : 
1. That which consists in God's promise to be om- God, 
which, in general, imports thus much, God's giving 
himself in Christ to us, and, together with Christ, all 
other good things. Benefits relative, in justification 
from sin, and adoption to sons. Benefits habitual, a 
new nature by regeneration, a new heart and life by 
sanctification, a quiet conscience by peace and com- 
fort. Benefits temporal, in the promises of this life. 
Benefits eternal, in the glory of the next. Thus is 
Christ made of God to us wisdom, in our vocation, 
converting us to faith in him; righteousness, in our 

• Socrati cum multa miilii pro suis facultatibus offorrcnt, 
^schincs, pauper auditor, ciiiil, inquit, dignum tc quod dare 
•tibi pussim mvcnio, et hoc uno inodo paupcrcmme esse scntin, 
itaquc dono tibi quod uniuu babeo, mcipsum. Seneca de 
Beuif. lib. i. cap. 8. 



justification, reconciling us to his Father ; sanctifica- 
tion, in our conformity to him in grace ; and rcdemj)- 
tion, from all evils or enemies which might hate us 
here, and unto all glory which, may fill and everlast- 
ingly satisfy us hereafter, 1 Cor. i. 30. This part of 
the covenant we are not 'now to consider, but, 2. That 
part of the covenant which concerns our engagement 
to God, wherein we promise both ourselves and our 
abilities to him, to be his people and to do him service. 
The material cause of this covenant is whatsoever 
may be promised to God ; and that is, 1. Our persons. 
2. Our service. 

1. Our persons. "AYe are thine," Isa. Lxiii. 19. Giv- 
ing our own selves to the Lord, 2 Cor. viii. 5; not 
esteeming ourselves our own, but his that bought us, 
1 Cor. vi. 19, 20 ; and being willing that he who bought 
us should have the property in us, and the possession 
of us, and the dominion over us, and the hberty to do 
what he pleases with us ;* being contented to be lost 
to ourselves, that we may be found in him, Phil. iii. 9. 
If sin or Satan call for our tongue, or heart, or hand, or 
eye, to answer, These are not mine own, Christ has 
bought them, the Lord has set them apart for himself, 
Psal. iv. 3; they are vessels "meet for the master's 
use," 2 Tim. ii. 21 ; I am but the steward of myself, 
and may not dispose of my Master's goods without, 
much less against, his will and commands. 

2. Our senices ; which are, 1. Matters of necessity; 
2. Matters of expediency; and, 3. Matters of praise. 
All which may be made the materials of a covenant.! 

1. Matter of duty and necessity. As David by an 
oath binds himself to keep God's righteous judgments, 
Psal. cxix. 106. And the people in Nehemiah's time 
enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God's law, 
and to observe and do all his commandments, Neh. 
X. 29. 

2. Matter of circumstantial expediency, which, in 
Cliiistian wisdom, may be conducive to the main end 
of a man's life, or may fit him for any special con- 
dition to which God calls him. So tlie Rechabites 
promised theii- father Jonadab, and held that promise 
obligatory in the sight of God, not to drink wme, nor 
to build houses, &c., Jer. xxxv. 6, 7 ; because by that 
voluntary hardship of life they should be the better 
fitted to bear that captivity which was to come upon 
them ; or because thereby they should the better ex- 
press the condition of strangers amongst God's people, 
upon whose outwai'd comforts they would not seem too 
much to encroach, that it might appear that they did 
not incorporate with them for mere secular, but for 
spiritual, benefits. It was lawful for Paul to have re- 
ceived wages and rewards for his work in the gospel 
as well of the churclics of Achaia, as of Macedonia and 
others, as he proves, 1 Cor. ix. 4, 14; yet he seems 
upon the case of expediency, that he might " cut ofif 
occasion from them, which" desired "occasion," and 
might the better promote the gospel, to bind himself 
by an oath, (for so much these words, " As the truth of 
Christ is in me," do import, as the learned have ob- 
served,) never to be burdensome in that kind to those 
churches, 2 Cor. xi. 7 — 12. Lawful tilings, when in- 
expedient and gravaminous, may be forborne by the 
bond of a covenant. 

3. Matter of thanksgiving and praise to God; in 
which case it was usual to make, and to pay, vows. 
" What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits 
toward me?" saith David; " I will take the cup of sal- 
vation," (a.s the use of the Jews was in their feasts and 
sacrifices of thanksgiving, Luke xxii. 17,) "I will pay 

t Sunt quacdam qua; etiam non volcntcs debcmus: quae- 
dam cliam qua: nisi vovcrimus non debemus, sed postquam 
ca Deo promittimus nccessario ca rcddcrc constringunur. 
Aug. 



Ver. 2, 3. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



633 



my vows unto the Lord." Wiereby it appears that 
godly men, when they prayed for mercies, did, like- 
wise, by vows and covenants bind themselves to return 
tribute of praise in some particular kind or other, upon 
theii' prayers being heard, Psal. cxvi. 12 — 14; cxxiii. 
.2, 3 : so .Jacob did, Gen. xxviii. 22 ; so Jcphthah. Judg. 
xi. 30, 31 ; so Hannah, 1 Sam. i. 11, 27, 28 ; so Hezcldah, 
Isa. xxxviii. 20 ; so Jonah, chap. ii. 9 ; and so Zaccheus, 
to testify his thankfulness to Christ for his conversion, 
and to testify his thorough mortification of covetous- 
ness, which had been his master-sin, did not only out 
of duty make restitution where he had done wrong, 
but out of bounty engaged himself to give the half of 
his goods to the poor, Luke xix. 8. 

The formal cause of a covenant is the plighting of 
our fidelity and engaging of our truth to God in that 
particular which is the matter of our covenant. AVhich 
is done two ways ; either by a simple promise and 
stipulation, as that of Zaccheus ; or in a more solemn 
way, by the intervention of an oath, or curse, or sub- 
scription, as in the case of Nchemiah and the people, 
Neh. ix. 

The efficient cause is the person entering into the 
covenant ; in whom these things are to concur : 

1. A clear knowledge, and deUberate weighing of 
the matter promised, because error, deception, or ig- 
norance, are contrary to the formal notion of that con- 
sent, which in eveiy covenant is intrinsical and neces- 
sary thereunto. Non videtur co?ise)itire qui errat. 

2. A fi'ee and willing concuiTence. In omni pacta 
intercedit actio spontanea, and so in every promise. 
Not but that authority may impose oaths, and those 
as well promissory as assertory. Gen. xxiv. 3 ; 1 Kings 
ii. 42 ; Ezra x. 3, 5 ; as Josiah made a covenant and 
caused the people to stand to it, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 31, 32. 
But that the matter of it, though imposed, should be 
such in the nature of the thing as that it may be taken 
in judgment and righteousness, that so the person may 
not be hampered in any such hesitancy of conscience 
as will not consist with a pious, spontaneous, and 
voluntary concm-rence. 

3. A power to make the promise, and bind oneself 
by it. For a man may have power to make a jjromise 
which is not finally obligatory, but upon supposition ; 
as a woman might for her own part vow, and by that 
vow was bound up as to herself, but this bond was but 
conditional, as to efficacy and influence upon the effect, 
to wit, if her husband heard it and held his peace, 
Numb. XXX. 3, 4, 14. 

4. A power, having made the promise, to perform it. 
And this depends on the nature of the thing ; which 
must be, first, possible, for impossibilium iiidta est obti- 
gatio. No man can bind himself to things impossible. 
And next, lawful, in regard either of the necessity, or 
expediency, or some other allowableness in the thing. 
For turpe est jure impossibile, we can do nothing but 

that which we can do rightfully. Sinful 
qus scd°r?Sim";'' things are in consti-uction of law impos- 
pieiup. j,iranieniuni gible, and SO Can induce no oblisation. 

non est vinculum ' , . ^ 

iniquitatis. vid. A Servant can make no promise to the 
PTOtarefSor' dishouour Or disservice of his master ; 
KeTareiMnler- Hor a chUd or pupil, Contrary to the will 
seSc"'"" "' ^'^"'' °^ ^'^ parent or guardian ; nor a Chris- 
tian, to the dishonour or against the will 
of Chi'ist whom he serv es. In every such sinful en- 
gagement there is intrinsically dolus, error, deceptio, 
the heart is blinded by the deceitfulness of lust, Eph. 
iv. 18, 22 ; Heb. iii. 13 ; 2 Pet. i. 9 ; 2 Cor. xi. 3. And 
these things are destructive to the nature of such an 
action as must be deliberate and spontaneous. Pro- 
mises of this kind bind to nothing but repentance. 

From these considerations we may learn what to 
judge of the promises which many men make of doing 
service to God. 



1. Some join in covenants as the greatest part of 
that tumidtuous concourse of people, wlio made an up- 
roar against the apostle, were gathered together, they 
" knew not wherefore," Acts xix. 32. Such do not un- 
derstand the things which they promise ; as if a man 
should set his hand and seal to an obligation, and not 
know its contents or conditions. Such are all ignorant 
Christians, who have often renewed their covenant of new 
obedience and faith in Christ, and yet know not what 
the faith of Christ is, or what is the purity, spirituality, 
and comprehensiveness of that law to which they have 
sworn. As the apostle saith of the Jews, If they had 
known they would not have crucified the Lord of glory ; 
we may say of many of these, If they knew the purity and 
holiness of those things which they have >owcd to keep, 
they either would not have entered into covenant with 
God at all, or would be more conscientious and vigilant 
in their observation of it. It is a sign of a man des- 
perately careless, to run daily into debt, and never so 
much as remember or consider what he owes. If there 
were no other obligation to tie men to the knowledge 
of God's will, this alone were sufficient, that they have 
undertaken to serve him, and therefore by then- own 
covenants are bound to know him. For surely many 
men who have promised repentance from dead works, 
if they did indeed consider what that repentance is, 
and to what a strict and naiTow way of walking it con- 
fines them, would go nigh, if they dm'st, to plead an 
error in the contract, and to profess that 



a service, and so repent ot theu' repent- ••ii'am pmnitenuse 

T-»,-.i- • i> pa?nitentiam satisfa- 

ance. liut m this case, ignorance ot ciet, eritque tanto 
what a man ought to know, cannot void "ufifto''"mSo?fi 
the covenant which he is bound to make, tSiS.1" ' 
and, ha\ ing made, to keep ; but his cove- 
nant exceedingly aggravates his ignorance. 

2. Some make many fair promises of obedience, but 
ii; is on the rack, and in the furnace, or as scholars un- 
der the rod. Oh if I might but recover this sickness, or 
be eased of this affliction, I would then be a new man, 
and redeem my mispent time. And yet many of 
these, like Pharaoh, when they have any respite, find 
out ways to shift and elude theii" own promises, and, 
like melted metal taken out of the furnace, return 
again to their former hardness. So a good divine ob- 
serves of the people of this land in the time of the 
great sweat in king Edward's days, (I wish we could 
find even so much in these days of calamity on which 
we are fallen,) as long as the heat of the plague lasted, 
there was crying out of, We have sinned ; mercy, good 
Lord, mercy, mercy. Then people of the highest rank 
cried out to the ministers. For God's sake tell us what 
shall we do to avoid the wrath of God. Take thesa 
bags, pay so much to such a one whom I deceived, so 
much restore to another whom in bargaining I over- 
reached, give so much to the poor, so much to pious 
uses. But after the sickness was over, they were just 
the same as they were before. Thus in times of ti-ou- 
ble men are apt to make many prayers and covenants, 
to cry to God, " Ai-ise, and save us," Jer. ii. 27. " De- 
liver us only, we pray thee, this day," Judg. x. 15. 
They inquu-e early after God, and flatter him with their 
lips, and own him as their God, and Rock of salvation, 
and presently start aside like a deceitful bow. As 
Austin notes, that in times of calamity 

11 iixiiiil- Quos Tides petu- 

the VerV heathen would tlOCk to tne lanter et procaciter 

Christian churches to be safe amongst chrisu'sunTiniis 
them. And when the Lord sent lions gS JiadJ'mS'ur 
amongst the Samaritans, then they sent "™„7ciS"^'m' 
to inquire after " the manner of the God sniissent. oeciv. 
of the land," 2 Kings xvii. 25, 26. Thus °"''- '' '• '• 
many men's covenants are founded only in terrors of 
conscience. They throw out their sins as a merchant at 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



sea his rich commodities in a tempest, but in a cahn 
wish for them again. Neither do tliey throw away the 
property over them, but only the dangerous possession 
of theni. This is not a full, clieerful, and voluntary 
action, but only a languid and inconstant velleity; 
contrary to that largeness of heart and fixed disposition 
which Christ's own people bring to his service, as David 
and till- noljles of Israel offered willingly and with joy 
unto the Lord, 1 Chron. xxix. 17. 

3. Since a covenant presupposes a power in him that 
makes it, both over his own will, and over the matter, 
thing, or action which he promises, so far as to be en- 
abled to make the promise ; and since we of ourselves 
have neither will, nor deed, nor sufficiency, either to 
think or to perform, Rom. vii. 18; 2 Cor. iii. 5; Phil, 
ii. 13. We hence learn, in all the covenants which we 
make, not to do it in any confidence in our own 
strength, or in any self-dependence on our own hearts, 
which are false and deceitful, and may, after a confident 
undertaking, use us as Peter's used him ; but still to 
have our eyes on the aid and help of God's grace, to 
use oiu- covenants as means the better to stir up God's 
graces in us, and our prayers to him for further sup- 
plies of it. As David, " I will keep thy statutes;" but 
then. " O forsake me not utterly," Psal. cxix. 8. Our 
promises of duty must ever be supported by God's pro- 
mises of grace ; when we have undertaken to serve him, 
we must remember to pray as Ilezekiah did, " O Lord, 
I am oppressed; undertake for me," Isa. xxxviii. 14. 
Our good works cannot come forth from us, till God 
first of all work them in us, Isa. xxvi. 12. He must 
perform his promises of grace to us, before we can ours 
of service unto him. Nothing of ours can go to heaven 
except we fii-st receive it from heaven. We are able to 
do nothing but in and by " Christ which strength- 
eneth" us, John xv. 5; Phil. iv. 13. So that every re- 
ligious covenant which we make has indeed a double 
obligation in it; an obligation to the duty promised, 
that we may stir up ourselves to perform it ; and an 
obligation to prayer, and recourse to God, that he 
would furnish us witli grace to perform it : as he that 
has bound himself to pay a debt, and has no money 
of his own to do it, is constrained to betake himself to 
sup|)lications that he may procure the money of some 
other friend. 

4. The final cause of a covenant is to induce an obli- 
gation where wa.s none before, or else to double and 
strengthen it where one was before, to be vinculum con- 

servaiidw fidei, a bond to preserve truth 
iincufum "uo'nf- and fidelity. Being subject to many 
Slciiu'Sy'ond""' temptations, and having backsliding and 
ii'.v-™"G,lroriiito. revolting hearts, a])t, if they be not kept 
Thoiq.. ,ie Ktpub. up to service, to draw back from it, thcrc- 

hb. 6. cnp. 8. -^ ' , 1 11 

tore we use ourselves as men do cowardly 
soldiers, set them there where they must fight, and shall 
not be able to run away, or fall oH' from service. 

III. This should serve to humble us on a twofold 
consideration : 

\. Of the falseness and unstedfastness of our hearts, 
which want such covenants to bind them, and, as it 
were, fasten them to the altar with cords : as men put 
locks and fetters upon wild horses, whom otherwise no 
enclosure would shut in. Our hearts, as Jacob said of 
Keuben, Gen. xlix. 4, arc " unstable as water;" " weak," 
as the prophet calls them. * Moist bodies (as water is) 
non conlinentur xitis termini.s; do not set bounds to 
themselves, as solid and compacted bodies do, but shed 
all abroad, if left to themselves ; the way to keep them 
united together is to put them into a close vessel : so 
the heart of man can set itself no bounds, but falls all 

* 'Xypovrd AoniaTov olKfKa fip'it. Aristot.tlc (icnpr.et Cor- 
rupt, lib. 2. cap. 2. Hinc qui viinm a^iiiil mollom, remissam, 
voluptuariam, in banc ec ilium partem tlcxilcm dicuiitiir. Bioi/ 
^riv riti vyp6v Kai diappiotrra. Cbrye. liom. xiii. xiv. et Suidce, 



asunder, and out of n-arae, nf avaxvaiv, as the apostle's 
expression is, 1 Pet. iv. 4. if it be not fastened and 
bound together by such strong resolutions. Some- 
times men, either by the power of the word, or by the 
sharpness of some affliction, are quickened and infiamed 
to pious purposes, like green wood which blazes while 
the bellows are blowing; and now they think they 
have their hearts sure, and shall continue them in a 
good frame, to-morrow shall be as this day. But pre- 
sently, like an instrument in change of weather, they 
ai'c out of tune again, and, like the chameleon, presently 
change colour ; and, as Chr\'SOstom saith, 
the preacher, of all worlimen, seldom """'a,',?;^!.''"''"'' 
finds his work as he left it. Nothing 
but the grace of God balances and establishes the 
heart, and holy covenants are an ordinance or means 
which he has been pleased to sanctify to this purpose, 
that by them, as instruments, gi-aee, as the principal 
cause, might keep the heart stedfast in duty. If, then, 
Isaiah bewail the uncleanness of his lips, and Job sus- 
pect the uncleanness and wandering of his eyf s, what 
reason have we to be humbled for this unstedfastne-ss 
of our hearts, from whence the diffluence and looseness 
of every other faculty ptoceed ! 

2. If we must bewail the falseness of our hearts that 
stand in need of covenants, how much more should we 
bewail their perfidiousness in the violation of cove- 
nants ! that they take occasion even by restraint, 
like a river that is stopped in its course, j:p„„,„, ,, f,^^^, 
to grow more unruly; or, as a man ct «i, obic'c u^nor 
after an ague, which took away his sto- XaLQu»tL6.c. 
mach, to retm'n with stronger appetite to "' 
sin again. To crucify our sins, and in repentance to 
put them, as it were, to shame, and then to take them 
down from the cross again, and fetch them to life, and 
repent of repentance ; to vow, and " after vows to 
make inquiry," Prov. xx. 25 ; this is a very ill requital 
to Christ. He came from glory to sirffer for us, and 
here met with many discouragements, not only from 
enemies, but from friends and disciples ; Judas betrays 
him, Peter denies him, his disciples sleep, his kinsfolks 
stand afar off; yet he does not look back from a cross 
to a crown, and though he be tempted to come down 
from the cross, yet he stays it out, that he might love 
and save us to the uttermost: but no sooner are we out 
of Egypt and Sodom, than we have hankering aflTec- 
tions to return, at the least to look backwards again. 
'W'e engage ourselves to be ruled by the word of the 
Lord, as the Jews did, Jer. xlii. 5, 6: and with them. 
Jer. xliii. 2, when we know his word cavil against it, 
and shrink away from our orni resolutions. Oh how 
should this humble us, and make us vile in our own 
eyes ! God is exceeding angry with the breach of but 
human covenants, Jer. xxxiv. 18; Ezek. xvil. 18; how 
much more with the breach of holy covenants between 
himself and us ! He threatens to revenge severely the 
quarrel of his covenant. Lev. xxvi. 2.i ; and so doubtless 
he now does, and will do still, exce])t wc take a peni- 
tent revenge upon ourselves for it. And therefore, 

l\'. Having entered into covenant, we should use 
double diligence in our performance of it. quickening 
and stirring uj) ourselves thereto by the consideration, 

1. Of the .stability of his covenant with us, even "the 
sure mercies of David," Isa. liv. 8, 9 ; Iv. 3. To break 
faith with a false person were a fault, but to deceive 
him that never fails nor forsakes us, increases both the 
guilt and the unkindnes.s. 

2. Of his continued and renewed mer- 
cies. If he wore a wilderness unto us, ^"'p2l'^;"' 
there might be some colour to repeat us 

iiypm tlicitiir o iliKaTaipopot ih Tiiv lidovAt. Ejusanimum qui 
nunc luxurift ct la«civii\ difHuit. Terent. Heaulon. Mossallina 
facilitate adulterorum in fastidium versa ad incuguitas libi- 
dines proflucbat. Tacit. Annal. 1. 11. 



Ver. 2, 3. 



THK PROPHECY OF HOSEA, 



of our bargain, and to look out for a better senice. 
But it is not only unthankfulness, but folly, to make a 
forfeiture of mercies, and to put God, by our breach of 
covenant with him, to break his with us too, Jer. ii. 5 
— 8; xxxi. 31 — 34; IVumb. xiv. 34; Jonah ii. 8. 

3. Of our baptism and the tenor thereof, wherein we 
solemnly promise to keep " a good conscience," and 
" to observe all things whatsoever" Christ commands 
us, 1 Pet. iii. 21 ; Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. From which 
engagement we cannot recede without the note and in- 
famy of greater perfidiousness. To take 

?erah?^nl dl'caratb Chnst's pay and do sin service, to be a 
hosiibus regit.,,.. do- subicct to Michael and a pensioner to the 
dura capiat nisi dragon, to wcar the livery of one master 
SUsrS^TeAui. and do the work of another, to be an 
dj prsliript cap. Israelite in title and a Samaritan in truth, 
this is either to forget or to deride our bap- 
tism, 2 Pet. i. 9, for therein we did as it were subscribe 
oui' names, and list ourselves in the register of Zion ; 
and as it is a high honour to be enrolled in the gene- 
alogies of the church, so is a great dishonour to be ex- 
punged from thence, and to be " written in the earth," 
•and have our names with our bodies putrify into per- 
petual oblivion. Jer. xvii. 13 ; Neh. vii. 64. 65. 

4. Of the seal and witnesses whereby this covenant 
has been confirmed. Sealed in our own consciences by 
the seal of faith, believing the holiness of God"s ways, 
and the excellency of his rewards, for " he that hath 
received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is 
true," John iii. 33 ; mutually attested by our spirits, 
feeling the sweetness of duty, and by God's Spirit, re- 
vealing the certainty of reward, Rom. viii. 16; and this 
in the presence of angels and saints, into whose com- 
munion we are admitted, 1 Cor. xi. 10 ; Ileb. xii. 22 ; so 
that we cannot depart from this covenant without 
shaming ourselves to God, to angels, to men, and to our 
own consciences. Yea, the font where we were bap- 
tized, and the table where we have sacramentally eaten 
and drank the body and blood of Christ, and the very 
seats where we have sat attending to his voice, like 
Joshua's stone. Josh. xxiv. 22, 27. will be witnesses 
against us if we deny our covenant, though there be no 
need of witnesses against those who have to do with 
the Searcher of hearts and the Judge of consciences, 
that consuming fire whom no lead, no th-oss, no repro- 
bate silver, no false metal, can endure or deceive, no 
Ananias or Sapphira lie unto without their own un- 
doing. 

5. Of the estate which these covenants refer to, and 
the tenor whereunto these services are annexed, which 
is " eternal life." After we have had patience to keep 
our short promises of doing God's will, he will perform 
his eternal promises of giving himself unto us. And 
who would forfeit an inheritance for not payment of a 
small homage or quit-rent reserved upon it ? If we ex- 
pect eternal life from him, there is great reason we 
should dedicate a mortal life to him. Let us not pay 
our service in dross, when we expect our wages in gold. 

Having handled the general doctrine of our enter- 
ing into covenant with God, I shall now proceed to the 
particulars to which they here engage themselves, 
whereof the first is a solemn thanksgiving, " so will we 
fender the calves of our lips." All the sacrifices of the 
Jews were of two sorts : some were ilastical, propiti- 
atory, or expiatory, for pardon of sin, or impetration of 
favour ; others were eucharistical, " sacrifices of thanks- 
ajiving," (as the peace-offerings. Lev. vii. 12.^ for mer- 
cies obtained, Psal. cvii. 22. With relation to these, the 
church here, having prayed for forgiveness of sin, and 
for the obtaining of blessings, doth hereupon, for the 
further enforcement of those petitions, promise to offer 
the peace-offerings of praise, not in the naked and 
empty ceremony, but with the spiritual life and sub- 
stance, namely, the calves of their lips, which are moved 



by the inward principles of hearty sincerity and thanks- 
giving. 

From hence we learn, that sound conversion and 
repentance enlarges the heart in thankfulness towards 
God, and disposes it to ofi'er up the sacrifice of praise. 
And this duty here promised we may consider, 

I. Ut mater iam pacti, as the matter of a covenant 
or compact, which we promise to render to God in ac- 
knowledgment of his great mercy in answering the 
pravers which we put up to him for pardon and grace. 
It is observable, that most of those psalms 
wherein David implores help from God, p;'aYmra"inqVtm» 
are closed with thanksgivings to him, as J^'^'^Ji'^JS,',!?, 
Psal. vii. IT; xiii. 5, 6; Ivi. 12, 13: Ivii. »f;,'°">Vsi^'^ e. 
7 — 11; David thus by a holy craft in- 
smuating himself into God's favour, and driving a 
trade between earth and heaven, receiving and return- 
ing, importing one commodity and transporting an- 
other, letting God know that his mercies shall not be 
lost, that as he bestows the comforts of them upon him, 
so he would return the praises of them unto heaven 
again. Those countries that have rich and stajile com- 
modities to exchange and return to others, have usually 
the freest and fullest traffic and resort of trade made 
to them. Now there is no such rich return from earth 
to heaven as praises ; indeed to celebrate appreciatingly 
his goodness towards us is the only tribute we can pay 
to God. As in the flux and reflux of the sea. the water 
that in the one comes from the sea to the shore, does 
in the other but run back into itself again : so praises 
are as it were the return of mercies into themselves, or 
into that bosom and fountain of God's love fi-om whence 
they flowed ; and therefore the richer any heart is in 
praises, the more speedy and copious are the returns 
of mercy to it. God has so ordered the creatures 
amongst themselves, that there is a kind of natural 
confederacy and mutual negociation amongst them, 
each one receiving and returning, deriving to others, 
and drawing from others what serves most for the con- 
servation of them all, and every thing by various inter- 
changes and vicissitudes flowing back into the original 
from whence it came ; thereby teaching the souls of 
men to maintain the like spiritual commerce and con- 
federacy with heaven, to have all the passages between 
tliem and it open and unobstructed, that the mercies 
which they receive from thence may not be kept un- 
der and imprisoned in unthankfulness, but may have 
free course in daily praises to return to theii- fountain 
again. Thus Noah, after his deliverance from the flood, 
built an altar, on which to sacrifice " the sacrifices of 
thanksgiving," that as his family by the ark was pre- 
served from perishing, so the memory of so great a 
mercy might in like manner by the altar be preserved 
too. Gen. "viii. 20. So Abraham, after a weary journey, 
being comforted with God's gracious manifestation of 
himself unto him, built an altar, and " called on the 
name of the Lord," Gen. xii. 7, 8 ; and after another jour- 
nev out of Egypt, was not forgetful to return to that 
place again. Gen. xiii. 4 ; God's presence drawing 
forth his praises, as the return of the sun in sjiring and 
summer causes the earth to thrust forth her fruits and 
flowers, that thev may as it were meet and do homage 
to the fountain of their beauty. If Hezekiah may be 
delivered from death, Isa. xxxviii. 20 ; if David from 
guilt. Psal. Ii. 14 ; they promise to sing aloud of so 
great mercy, and to associate others with them in their 
praises: "Then will I teach transgressors thy ways," 
and " will sing to the stringed instruments." Guilt 
stops the mouth, and makes it " speechless," Matt, 
xxii. 12, that it cannot answer for one of a thou- 
sand sins, nor acknowledge one of a thousand mer- 
cies. AVhen Jacob begged God's blessing on him in 
his journey, he vowed a vow of obedience and thank- 
fulness to' the Lord, seconding God's promises of 



636 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



mercy with his promises of praise, and ans^\erinfr 
all the parts thereof: "If God will be with mc, and 
will keep me in this way that I go, and will fjive mc 
bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come 
again to my father's house in peace ; then shall the Lord 
be my God." If he single out me and my seed, to set 
us up as marks for his angels to descend to, with pro- 
tection and mercy, and will indeed give this land to 
us, and return me " to my father's house in peace ; " 
then "this stone, which I have set up for a pillar" and 
monument, "shall be God's liouse, for me and my 
seed to praise him in : and accordingly we find he 
built an altar there, and changed the name of that 
place, calling it Bcth-el, the house of God ; and God, 
El-beth-cl, the God of Beth-el. And lastly, if God 
indeed will not leave nor forsake me, but will give so 
rich a land as this unto me, I will surely return a 
homage back, " of all that thou shall give me I will 
surely give the tenth unto thee." So punctual is this 
holy man to resti])ulate for each distinct promise a dis- 
tinct praise, and to take the quality of his vows from 
the quality of God's mercies, Gen. xxviii. 13 — 22; 
XXXV. 6 — 15. Lastly, Jonah out of the belly of hell cries 
to God, and vows unto him a vow, that he would " sacrifice 
with the voice of thanksgiving," and tell all ages that 
" salvation is of the Lord," Jonah ii. 9. Thus we may 
consider praises as the matter of the church's covenant. 
II. Ut fruclum pa'nilenliw, as a fruit of true re- 
pentance, and deliverance from sin. AMien sin is taken 
away, when grace is obtained, then indeed is a man 
in a right disposition to give praises to God. 'When 
■we are brought out of a wilderness into Canaan, Deut. 
■\-iii. 10, out of Babylon to Zion, Jer. xxx. 18, 19, then 
saith the prophet, " Out of them shall proceed thanks- 
giving and the voice of them that make merry." 
When Israel had passed through the Red Sea, and saw 
the Eg)"ptians dead on the shore, the great type of our 
■deliverance from sin, death, and Satan, then they sing 
that triumjihant song, !Moses and the men singing the 
song, and Miriam and the women answering them, and 
repeating over again the burden of the song ; " I will 
sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously ; 
the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea," 
Exod. XV. 1, 20, 21. When a poor soul has been with 
■Jonah in the midst of the seas, compassed with the 
floods, closed in with the depths, brought down to the 
bottom of the mountains, WTapt about head and heart 
•and all over with the weeds, and locked up with the 
bars of sin and death ; when it has felt the weight of a 
guilty conscience, and been terrified with the fearful 
expectation of an ajiproaching curse, lying as it were 
■at the pit's brink, within the smoke of hell, within the 
smell of that brimstone and scorchings of that un- 
quenchable fire which is kindled for the devil and liis 
angels; and is then, by a more bottomless and unsearch- 
able mercy, brought to dry land, snatched as a brand 
out of the fii'e, translated into a glorious condition, from 
a law to a gospel, from a curse to a crown, from damn- 
ation to an inheritance, from a slave to a son ; then, 
then only, never till then, is that soid in a fit dispo- 
sition to sing praises unto God. When God has forgiven 
all a man's " iniquities," and healed all the " diseases " 
of his soul, and redeemed his " life from destruction," 
or from hell, (as the Chaldee renders it,) and crowned 
him " with loving-kindness and tender mercies," turn- 
ing away his anger, and revealing those mercies which 

are "from everlasting" in election "to 
*»'nSJ'mi'„"'' everlasting" in salvation, removing his 
«cMll>nTm'!".5l.°a'ii. ^ius from him " as far as the east is from 
grm. 2. in akciu. the wcst ;" then a man will call ujjon his 

soul over and over again, and summon 

• Est in raalonim potcstato poccaro ; ut autcm pcccando 
hoc vel hoc ilia mala faciaiit, non est iu illonnn potestate, sed 
iJi'i dividcntis tencbras, et ordinaulis eas, ut hiuc ctiam quod 



eveiT faculty within him, and invite every creature 
w ithout him, to " bless the Lord," and to ingeminate 
praises to his holy name, Psal. ciii. 1 — 22. As David 
begins that Psalm with " Bless the Lord, O my soul," 
and ends it with " Bless the Lord, O my soul ;"' so the 
apostle, making mention of the like mercy of God to 
him, and of the exceeding abundant grace of Christ, in 
setting forth him who was " a blasphemer, and a per- 
secutor, and injurious," " for a pattern to them which 
should liereafter believe on him to life everlasting," 
begins this meditation with praises, " I thank Christ 
Jesus our Lord ;" and ends it with praises, " Now unto 
the King eternal, immoital, invisible, the only wise God, 
be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen," 1 Tim. 
i. 12 — 17. It is impossible that soul .should be truly 
thankful to God, which has no apprehensions of him, 
but as an enemy, ready to call in, or at the least to 
curse, all those outward benefits which, in that little 
interim and respite of time between the curse pro- 
nounced in the law and executed in death, he vouch- 
safes to bestow. And impenitent sinners can have no 
true notion of God but such. And therefore all the 
verbal thanks which such men seem to render to God 
for blessings, are but like the music at a funeral, or 
the trumpet before a judge,' which gives no comfortable 
sound to the mourning wife, or to the guilty prisoner. 
III. Ut medium impetrandi, as an argument and 
motive to prevail with God in prayer. For the church 
here prays for pardon, for grace, for healing, not only 
with an eye to its own benefit, but to God's honour. 
Lord, when thou hast heard and answered us, then we 
shall glorify thee, Psal. 1. 15. "I will praise thee," saith 
David ; " for thou hast heard me, and art become my 
salvation," Psal. cxviii. 21. It is true, if God condemn 
us, he will therein show forth his own glory, 2 Thess. 
i. 9, as he did upon Pharaoh, Rom. ix. 17 ; in which 
sense the "strong" and "terrible" ones are said to 
"glorify" him, Isa. xxv. 3, 5, because his power in 
then- destruction is made the more conspicuous. But 
we should not therein concur to the glorifying of him. 
" AVhat profit is there in my blood, when I go down to 
the pit ? Shall the dust praise thee ? Shall it declare 
thy truth ? " Psal. xxx. 9 ; Ixxviii. 10, 11. " The li\in^, 
the living, he shall praise thee," Isa. xxxviii. 19. This 
is a frequent argument with David whereby to prevail 
for mercy, because else God would lose the praise 
which by this means he should render to his name, 
Psal. vi. 4, 5; cxviii. 17. God indeed is all-sufficient 
to himself, and no goodness of ours can extend unto 
him. Job xxii. 2 ; xxxv. 7 ; yet as parents j^„, ^^^ Riorijm 
delight to use the labour of then- chil- <i»i"i< non proper 
dren in things which are no way bene- Aquin.'s?.''," S?^'' 
ficial to themselves, so God is pleased "' '■ "'' ' '°' 
to use us as instruments for setting forth his glorv', 
though his glory stands in no need of us, though we 
cannot add thereto one cubit. He has made all men in 
ustis profundarum cogilationum suarum, 
for the uses of his unsearchable counsels. fi"c^cupli.' uf. i 
" The Lord hatli made all things for him- J™V.' ."■Ji'um 
self; vea, even the wicked for the dav of ;"'',";'"'• °'°°,ii,^ 

.,,,*, . .. , . , •, propter tuo*. liffn. 

evd, Prov. xvi. 4. \ ct he is pleased to •••' Y" ^^ ^"'' 
esteem .some men "meet" for uses for 
which others are not, 2 Tim. ii. 21, and to " set apart^ 
some for himself, and for those uses, Psal. iv. 3 ; Isa. 
xliii. 21. * God by his wisdom ordereth and draweth 
the blind and brute motions of the worst creatures to 
his own honour, as the huntsman does the rage of the 
dog to his pleasure, or the mariner the blowing of the 
wind to his voyage, or the artist the heat of the fire to 
liis work, or the physician the bloodthirstiness of the 
leech to a cure. But godly men are fitted to bring 

fariunt contra voluutatcm Dei, noa implcatur nisi voluntas 
Uci. Aug. de pr<B. Sauct. c. lU. 



Vek. 2, 3. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



637 



actually glovy to him, to glorify him operatively, 1 Cor. 
X. 30, 31 ; Eph. i. 11, 12. And this is that in which 
God chiefly delights. 

Our Saviour bids his disciples cast their net into the 
sea, and -n-hcn they had di-awn their net, he bids them 
bring of the fish which they had then caught, and yet 
we find that there was on the land before a fire of coals, 
and fish laid thereon, and bread, John xxi. 6 — 10; 
thereby teaching us that he did not use their industry 
for any need that he had of it, but because he would 
honour them so far as to let them honour him with 
their obedience. And therefore even then when God 
tells his people that he needed not tlieir services, he 
calls yet upon them for thanksgiving, Psal. 1. 9, 14. 

This then is a strong argument to be used in prayer 
for pardon, for grace, for any spii-itual mercy. Lord, 
if I perish, I shall not praise thee, I shall not be meet 
for my Master's uses. Thy glory will only be forced 
out of me with blows, like fire out of a flint, or water 
out of a rock. But thou delightest to see thy poor 
servants operate towards thy glory, to see them not 
forced by power but by love to show forth thy praises. 
And this we shall never do tQl sin bo pardoned. God 
can bring hght out of light, as the light of the stars out 
of the light of the sun, and he can bring light out of 
darkness, as he did at first ; but in the one case there 
is a meetness for such a use, in the other not. Now 
we are not meet subjects for God to reap honour fi-om, 
till sin be pardoned, till grace be conferred. Then we 
shall give him the praise of his mercy, in pitjdng such 
grievous sinners ; and the praise of his power and mis- 
dom, in healing such mortal diseases ; and the praise of 
his glorious and free grace, in sending salvation to those 
that did not inquire after it ; and the praise of his pa- 
tience, in forbearmg us so long, and waiting that he 
might be gracious ; and the praise of his wonderful pro- 
vidence, in causing all things to work together for our 
good ; and the praise of his justice, by taking part with 
him against our own sins, and joining with his grace to 
revenge the blood of Christ upon them. A potsherd 
is good enough to hold fii'e, but nothing but a sound 
and piue vessel is meet to contain wine or any rich de- 
positum. 

IV. Ut jprinciptum operandi, as a principle of emend- 
ation of life, and of new obedience. Lord, "take 
away all iniquity," and receive us into favour, then will 
we be thankful unto thee, and that shall produce 
amendment of life : " Asshur shall not save us, we will 
not ride upon horses, neither will we say any more to 
the work of our hands. Ye are our gods; for in thee 
the fatherless findeth mercy." A thankful apprehen- 
sion of the goodness of God in forgiving, giving, saving, 
honouring us, is one of the principal foundations of 
sincere obedience. Then the soul wiU think nothing 
too good for God, who has showed himself so good to 
it. " Wliat shall I render unto the Lord for all his 
benefits toward me ? " saith the prophet David, Psal. 
cxvi. 12: and a little after, "O Lord, ti'uly I am thy 
servant ; I am thy servant, and the son of thine hand- 
maid ;" that is, a home-born servant, thine from my 
mother's womb. It is an allusion to those who were 
%orn of servants in the house of their masters, and so 
were in a condition of servants. Partus sequitur ven- 
trem. If the mother be a handmaid, the child is a 
servant too ; and so the Scripture calls therajilios domus, 
children of the house, Gen. xiv. 14; xv. 3; xvii. 12; 

* Si mihi irascatur Deus, num illi ego similiter redirascar ? 
non utique sed pavebo, sed contremiscam, sed veniam depre- 
cabor. Ita si me arguat, non redarguetur a me, sed ex me 
potius justificabitur; nee si me judicabit, judicabo ego eum, 
sed adorabo ; si dominatur, me oportet servire ; si imperat, 
me oportet parere ; nunc jam videas de amore quam aliter 
sit. Nam cum amat Deus non aJiud vult quam amari. Bern, 
serm. 83. in Cantic. 



Lev. xxii. 11. His heart being enlai-ged in thankful- 
ness, presently reminded him of the deep engagements 
which bound him to service even from the womli. True 
filial and evangelical obedience arises from faith and 
love. Faith shows us God's love to us, and thereby 
works in us a reciprocal love to him ; " We love him, 
because he first loved us," 1 John iv. 19. This is the 
only thing wherein a servant of God may answer him, 
and may de simili jimluain rependere vicem, as Bernard 
speaks, return back to God what is his own gift. * If 
he be angry with me, I must not be angry again with 
him, but fear and tremble, and beg for pardon ; if he 
reprove me, I must not reprove, but justify him ; if he 
judge me, I must not judge, but adore him: but if he 
love me, I must take the boldness to love him again, for 
therefore he loves, that he may be loved. And this 
love of ours to Christ makes us ready to do every thing 
which he requires of us, because we know that he has 
done much more for us than he requires of us. " The 
love of Christ," saith the apostle, " constraineth us ; be- 
cause we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were 
all dead ; " that is, either dead in and with him, in re- 
gard of the guilt and punishment of sin, so as to b& 
freed from the damnation of it ; or dead by way of con- 
formity to his death, in dying unto sin, and crucifying 
the old man, so as to shake ofi' its power and strength. 
And the fruit of all, both his dying and our loving, is 
this, " that we should not live unto ourselves, but unto 
him which died for us, and rose again," 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. 
Thus love argues from the greater to the lesser, from 
the greatness of his work for us to the smallness of ours 
unto him ; if he died to give us life, then we must live 
to do him service. 

t Fear produces' only servile and unwilling perform- 
ances. As those fruits which grow in winter, or in cold 
countries, are sour, unsavoury, and unconcocted, but 
those which grow in summer, or in hotter countries, 
by the warmth and influence of the sun are sweet and 
wholesome ; such is the difi'erence between those fruits 
of obedience which fear and which love produces. The 
most formal principle of obedience is love, and the first 
beginnings of love in us to God arise from his mercies 
to us being thankfully remembered ; and this teaches 
the soul thus to argue, God has given deliverances to 
me, and should I break his commandments ? Christ 
gave himself to redeem me from all iniquity, and to 
make me in a special manner his own, therefore I must 
be " zealous of good works," Tit. ii. 14 ; therefore I 
must " show forth the praises of him who hath called 
me out of darkness into his marvellous light," 1 Pet. 
ii. 9. No more frequent, more copious common-place 
in all the Scriptures than this, to call for obedience, 
and to aggravate disobedience, by the consideration of 
the great things that God has done for us. Dent. x. 20, 
21 ; xi. 7—9 ; xxxii. 6, 7 ; Josh. xxiv. 2—14 ; 1 Sam. 
xii. 24; Isa. i. 2; Jer. ii. 5,6; Hos.ii.8; Micah vi. 3 — 
5. In the law a ransomed man became the servant of 
him who bought and delivered him ; and upon this ar- 
gument the apostle calls for obedience : " Ye are not 
your own ; for ye are bought with a price : therefore 
glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which 
are God's," 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20. We have but the use of 
ourselves, the property is his, and we may do nothing 
to violate that. 

V. Ut instrumentum Divines glorieB, as a means 
and instrument of publishing God's praises. There is 

t Vere Christianas est qui plus amat Dominum quam 
timet gehennam, ut etiam si dicat illi Deus, utere delieiis car- 
nalibus sempiternis, et quantum poles pecca, nee morieris 
nee in gehennam mitteris, sed mecum tantummodo non eris ; 
exhorrescat et omnino non peccet ; non jam ut in iUud quod 
timebat nou incidat, sed ne iUum quem sic amat offendat. 
Bern, de Catechizaad. Rudibus, c. 17. 



338 



LX EXPOSITIOX OF 



Chap. XIV. 



an emphasis in the word " lips." Sometimes it is a 
diminutive word, taking away from the duty perform- 
ed, as Matt. XV. 8, •• This people honoureth me with 
their lips, but their heart is far from me:" but here it 
is an augmentative word, whicli enlai'ges the duty. 
rendering it more comprehensive. " 1 will sacrifice 
tinto thee," saith Jonah, •' with the voice of thanksgiv- 
ing," Jonah ii. 9. God regards not the sacrifice if this 
be not tlie use that is made of it, to pubUsh and cele- 
brate the gloi^- of his name. The outward ceremony 
is nothing without the thankfulness of the heart, and 
the thankfulness of the heart is too little except it 
have a voice to proclaim it abroad, that others also 
may learn to glorify and admire the works of the Lord. 
It is not enough to " sacrifice," not enough to sacrifice 
" the sacrifices of thank.sgiving," except withal we " de- 
clare his works with rejoicing," Psal. evii. 22. Tliere 
is a private thankfulness of the soul within itself, when, 
meditating on the goodness of God, it does in secret 
return the tribute of a humble and obedient heart back 
again unto him, which is to praise God on the bed: 
and there is public thanksgiving, when men " tell of all 
the wondrous works" of God " in the congregation of 
his saints," Psal. sxvi. 7, 12 ; cxlix. 1, 5. Now here 
the church promises this public thanksgiving, it shall 
not be the thankfulness of the heart only, but of the 
lips too ; as it is noted of the thankful leper, that he 
" with a loud voice glorified God," Luke xvii. 15. 
" The living, the living, he shall jjraise thee," saith 
Hezekiah. But how should they do it i" " The fathers 
to the chilcken shall make known thy truth," Isa. 
xxxviii. 19. There are some affections and motions of 
the heart which sto]) the mouth, being of a cold, stu- 

jiefactive, constringent nature, as the sai) 
p'nid!^''.' HoiSiiiu stays and hides itself in the root while it 
pSm.wctCT. is winter; such is fear and extremity of 

grief. " Assemble yourselves," saith the 
prophet, " and let us enter into the defenced cities, and 
let us be silent there; for the Lord our God hath put 
us to silence," Jer. viii. 14 ; Isa. x. 14. Other affec- 
tions open the mouth, are of an expansive and dilating 
nature, know not how to be straitened or suppressed ; 
and of all these, joy, and sense of God's mercy, can 
least contain itself in the compass of our narrow breast, 
but will spread and communicate itself to others. A 
godly heart is in this like to those flowers which shut 
wlien the sun sets and the night comes, and open again 
when the sun returns and shines upon them. If God 
withdraw his favour, and send a night of affliction, they 
shut up themselves and their thoughts in silence ; but 
if he shine again, and shed abroad the light and sense 
of his love ii))on them, then their heart and mouth are 
wide open towards heaven in lifting up praises unto 
him. Hannah prayed silently so long as she was in 
bitterness of soul, and of a sorrowful spirit, but as soon 
a-. God answered lier ])rayers, and filled her heart with 
joy in him, presently her moutli was enlarged into a 
song of thanksgiving, 1 Sam. i. i;i — 15; ii. 1 — 10. 

There is no phrase more usual in the Psalms, than to 
sing forth praises unto God ; and it is not used without 
a special emphasis. For it is one thing to " praise," 
and another to " sing praises," Psal. cxlvi. 1, 2. This 
Apud pwu cuiit is, to publish, to declare, to speak of 
ini'miniiJ'iSai. abundantly, to " abundantly utter the 
cmirtrt. canFiin- mcmorv of " God's " great goodness," that 

lur. Quinbl. lib. 1. ., • .. • .l_ i . 

c.p. la N« auur " onc generation may praise thy works to 
""rw,',n"mtirn. another, and declare thy mighty act.s." 
ApX«.IlJI"a». Via\. cxlv. 4, 7. And therefore we find, 
! u^!*'"' ' *■ '" ^^*^ most solemn thanksgivings, that 
the people of (lod were; wont in great 
companies and with musical instruments to sound forth 
the praises of God, and to cause their joy to be heard 
:if;ir off, Nch. xii. 27, 43; Isa. xii. 4—6; Jer. xxxi. 7. 
Ibis then is tlie force of the expression: Lord, when 



thou iiast taken away iniquity, and extended thy grace 
and favour to us, we will not only have tliankful hearts, 
every man to praise thee by liimself ; but we will have 
thankful lips to show forth thy praise, we will stir up 
and encourage one another, we will tell our children, 
that the generations to come may know the mercy of 
our God. 

Tliis is a great part of the communion of saints, to 
join together in God's jiraises. There is a communion 
of sinners, wherein they combine together to dishonour 
God, and encourage one anotlier in evil, Psal. Ixiv. 5 ; 
Ixxxiii. 5 — 8; Prov. i. 10, 11. five was no sooner 
eauglit herself, but she became a kind of serpent, to 
deceive and to catch her husband. A tempter has no 
sooner made a sinner, but that sinner will become a 
tempter. As, therefore, God's enemies hold communion 
to dishonour him ; so great reason there is that his 
servants should hold communion to praise him, and to 
animate and excite one another to duty, as men that 
draw at an anchor, and soldiers that set upon a service, 
are wont to do so with mutual encouragements, Isa. ii. 
3; Zeeh. viii. 21; Mai. iii. 16. The holy oil for the 
sanctuary was made of many spices compounded by 
the art of the perfumer, Exod. xxx. 23 — 25, to note 
unto us that those duties are sweetest which are made 
up in a communion of saints, each one contributing to 
them his influence : as in winds and rivers, where 
many meet in one they are strongest ; and in chains 
and jewels, where many links and stones are joined in 
one they are richest. All good is diffusive, liiie leaven 
in a lump, like sap in a root ; it will find the way from 
the heart to every faculty of soul and body, and from 
thence to the ears and hearts of others. Every living 
creature was made with the seed of life in it, to pre- 
serve itself by multiplying. Gen. i. 11, 12. And ot all 
seeds, that of the S])irit is most \igorous ; and in nothing 
so much as in glorifying God, when the joy of the 
Lord, which is our strength, puts itself forth to derive 
the praises of liis name, and to call in others to their 
celebration, 1 John iii. 9 ; 1 Pet. i. 23. 

From all which we learn some means, amongst man) 
others, whereby to try the truth of our conversion. 1. 
By the life and workings of true thankfulness to God 
for pardon of sin, and acceptance into favour. Cer- 
tainly, when a man is converted himself, his heart will 
be enlai-ged, and his mouth will be filled with the 
praises of the Lord ; he will acquaint others to what a 
good God he is turned. If he have found Christ him- 
self, as Andrew and Phili]), and the woman of Samaria 
did, he will jiresently report it to others, and invite 
them to come and ste, Johu i. 4], 46 ; iv. 29. If Zac- 
clieus be converted, he receives Christ joyfully, Luke 
xix. C. If Matthew be converted, he entertains him 
with a feast, Luke v. 29. If Cornelius be instructed in 
the knowledge of him, he will call " his kinsmen and 
near friends" to partake of such a banquet. .\cts x. 24. 
If David be converted himself, he will endeavour tliat 
other sinners may be converted too, and will show 
them what the Lord has done for his soul, Psal. Ii. 13. 
The turning of a sinner from evil to good, is like the 
turning of a bell from one side to another ; you cannot 
turn it but it will make a sound, and report its owni 
motion. Ho that has not a mouth open to report the 
glory of God's mercy to his soul, and to strengthen and 
edify his brethren, may justly question the truth of his 
own conversion. In Aaron's garments (which were 
types of holiness) there were to be golden bells and 
[loincgranates, which (if we may make any allegorical 
ap|)lication of it) intimates to us, that as a holy life is 
fruitful and active in the duties of spiritual obedience, 
so it is loud and vocal in sounding forth the prai.ses of 
God. and thereby endeavouring to edify tlic church. 
Gideon's lamps and pitchers were accompanied with 
trumpets : when God is pleased to put any light of 



Vei;. 2, 3. 



THE PROPHECY OF ROSEA. 



639 



grace into these earthen vessels of ours, we should 
have mouths full of thankfulness to return to him the 
glory of his goodness. 

And as that repentance is unsound which is not ac- 
companied with thankfulness, so that thankfulness is 
but empty and h)-pocritical which does not spring out 
of sound repentance. 'We are wont to say that the words 
of fools are in labris nata, born in their lips ; but the 
words of wise men are e sulco pectoris, di'awn up out 
of an inward judgment. "The calves of the lips" are 
no better than the " calves of the stall" in God's ac- 
count, if they have not a heart in them. Without 
this the promise here made to God would be no other 
than that with which nurses deceive their little chil- 
dren, when they promise them a gay 
«S!b SubLoS.'"' golden new-nothing. Praise in the mouth 
Tertui. de Patria, wltliout repentance in the heart, is like a 
sea-weed that grows without a root ; like 
the pouring of balm and spices ^upon a dead body, 
which can never thoroughly secure it from putre- 
faction ; like a perfume about one sick of the plague, 
whose sweet smell carries infection along with it. 
, It is not the mentioning of mercies, 

wiaT'r^.'iama'''' but the improviug of them to piety, 
Ta''Tcii°Ge^.°i?iem. whlch Bxprcsses our thankfulness to God. 
Alex.' Strom. 1. 7. God sBts 6 vcry blcssiug upon our score, 
iiu.s imitatis est. aud expects au answer and retui-n suit- 
se-ec, Epist. 65. ^^-^^^ jj^ compares Chorazin and Beth- 
saida with T)Te and Sidon ; and if their lives be as 
bad as these, their punishment shall be much heavier, 
because the mercies they enjoyed were much greater. 
The not rightly, using mercies is being unthankful for 
them. And it is a heavy account which men must 
give for abused mercies, Deut. xxxii. 6 ; Amos ii. 9 — 1 6 ; 
Lidie xiii. 7 ; Heb. vi. 7, S. Sins against mercy, and 
under mercy, are " the first-ripe fruit;" when the sun 
shines hottest, the fruits ripen fastest, Amos viii. 1,2; 
Jer. i. 11, 12. God does not bear so long with the pro- 
vocations of a church, as of those that are not a people ; 
the sins of the Amorites were longer in ripening than 
the sins of Israel. "Wlien judgment is abroad, it will 
begin at the house of God. 

2. But further, we should be so much the more 
earnestly pressed to this, by how much it is the greater 
evidence of our conversion unto God, and by how 
much more apt we are to call for mercies when we 
want them, than with the leper to return praises when 
we enjoy them. Ten cried to be healed, but there 
was but one that returned glory to God, Luke xvii. 
11 — 19. Vessels will sound when they are empty ; fill 
them, and they are presently dumb, ^^^len we want 
mercies, then with Pharaoh we cry out for pardon, for 
peace, for supplies, for deliverances ; but when prayers 
are answered, and our turn served, how few remember 
the method which God prescribes, " Call on me in the 
day of trouble ; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify 
me," Psal. 1. lo; yea, how many, like swine, trample on 
the meat that feeds them, and tread under foot the 
mercies that preserve them ! How many are so greedily 
intent upon the things they desire, that they can neither 
see nor value the things they enjoy! Oinins I'entinatio 
caca est. It is noted even of good king Hezekiah, 
Seneca de Beneflc '^^^ '^^ " I'^^'l^^'^d not again according 
1.^3. c. 3. Lw. ub.' to the benefit done unto him," 2 Chron. 
xxxii. 25. Therefore we should be ex- 
horted in our prayers for pardon and grace, to do as 
the church here does, to promise the sacrifices of thank- 
fulness and obedience, not as a price to purchase mercy, 
(for our good extends not to God, Psal. xvi. 2,) but as 
a tie and obligation upon ourselves, to acknowledge 
and return the praise of mercy to him that gives it. 
And to this the apostle exhorts us, " Let your requests 
be made known unto God," not only " by prayer and 
supplication," but "with thanksgiving," Phil. iv. 6; 



1 Thess. V. 17, 18 ; 1 Tim. ii. 1 ; which we find to l;u-. e 
been his own practice, Eph. iii. 14. — 21. '\^'o .^liouiu 
keep a catalogue of God's mercies to quicken Uo to 
duty, as well as a catalogue of our own sins to make 
US cry for mercy. And to tliis duty of thanksgiving 
we may be excited by the consideration of, 

I. God's greatness. '■ Great is the Lord, and" there- 
fore " greatly to be praised," Psal. cxlv. 3. The praises 
of God should be according to his name, Psal. xlviii. 
10 ; xcvi. 8. All tilings were made for no other end, 
but to return glory to him who made them. Because 
all things are " of him," therefore all must be " to him." 
Rom. xi. 36. And this the very figure of the world 
teaches us. For a circular line ends where it began, 
and returns back into its original point, by that means 
strengthening and preserving itself For things are 
usually strongest when nearest their original, and the 
more remote from that, the weaker they grow ; as a 
tree is strongest at the root, and a branch or bough 
next the trunk or stock, and the further out from 
thence, the smaller and weaker it grows ; aud the fur- 
ther it is from the original of its being, the nearer it 
is to not being. So all creatures are hereby taught, 
both for the preservation of that being which they have, 
and for the supply of those perfections which they want, 
as well as for the setting forth of the greatness of their 
ilaker, (out of whose infinite being all finite beings 
are sustained and perfected,) to run back to God, for 
whose sake they are, and have been created. Rivers 
come from the sea, and therefore run back hito the sea 
again ; the trees receive sap from the earth, and within 
a while pay it back in those leaves that fall down to 
the earth again. Now as God has made all creatures 
thus to show forth the glory of his greatness, so he will 
have them do it by those principles, and in that man- 
ner of working, which he has planted in them. Inani- 
mate and mere natural creatures are bid to praise the 
Lord, Psal. cxlviii. 8, 9 ; but this they do blindly and 
ignorantly, like the arrow which flies toward the mark, 
but understands not its own destination, being directed 
thither by an understanding without and above itself. 
And thus when any thing by the natural weight and 
inclination of its own form moves to the ])lace where 
it may be preserved, or draws to it those further de- 
grees of perfection whereby it may be improved, and 
have more of being communicated to it, it may truly 
be said to praise the Lord, in that it obeys the law 
which he planted m it, and is by his wise providence 
carried back towards him, to derive its conservation 
and perfection from the same fountain from whence 
proceeded its being. But now, reasonable creatures 
being by God enriched with internal knowledge, and 
that knowledge in his church exceedingly raised by 
his manifestation of himself in the word as then' utter- 
most blessedness, he therefore requires that we should 
work actively, and with intention of the end for which 
he made us, guiding all our aims and inclinations to- 
wards his glory by that internal knowledge of his ex- 
cellency which he has implanted in us, and revealed to 
tis. And indeed all other creatures are in this sense 
said to glorify God, because the infinite power, wisdom, 
goodness, and perfection of God which are in their 
beings and workings so notably relucent, do become 
the object of reasonable creatures, to contemplate upon, 
and by that means draw forth admiration and adora- 
tion of him. 

II. God's goodness. He deserves it at our hands. 
He gives more to us than we are able to render unto 
him. The sun shines on the moon with its own glorious 
light ; the moon returns but a faint and spotted light 
upon the world. We can return nothing to God but 
that wiiich is his own, 1 Chron. xxix. 16, and it is re- 
turned from us not with that purity with which it 
came to us. We cannot send forth a thought round 



640 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



about us, but it ■nill rctuni with a report of mercy, and 
that mercy calls for a return of praise. But above all, 
the goodness of God mentioned in the text, " Take 
away all iniquity, and receive us graciously," this calls 
for " the calves of the lips " to be offered, as in the new 
moons, with trumpets and solemnity, Numb. x. 10. 
The beams of the sun, the more directly they fall on 
the body of the moon, fill it with the more abundant 
light ; so the more copious and remarkable God's mer- 
cies are to us, the more enlarged unto him .should be 
our praises. Therefore true penitents that have more 
tasted of mercy, are more obliged to thanksgiving, 
Psal. cxlvii. 20. " Excellent .speech becometh not a 
fool," Prov. xvii. 7 ; but " praise is comely for the up- 
right," Psal. xxxiii. 1. For as God is 
J^iiS^J,^'™. most dishonom-ed by the sins of holy 
cuiaturpiu.de.o- nicu wlicu tlicv are committed against 

lorat. AOD19SU ,., ,, •,/.,. i, 

imsnundiiiam mini- light, and break lorth into scandal, 2 
iri?nt!a'.'3sci°,»c. Sam. xii. 14, so is he most honoured by 
yudCuitSiiu''^" the confcssion and praises of holy men, 
because they know more of his glory and 
goodness than others, and can rcjjort greater things of 
him. Wicked men speak of God by hear-say, and by 
_,, .. notion onlv, but holy men by intimate 

E-it locus uDi Tere . . ' , J i. ^i , i 

<iuicscen« et iiuieiiis experience; as the queen oi bneba knew 

tmnino nonjudtSs' morc of Solomon's wisdomfrom his mouth 

"^nSfSi'li'e^rara than from his fame. He that sees but 

{lora, et p«rv. mom. the outward court and buildings of a 

Id. wr. 23. Ul Cant. , .... , " , 

palace, can say it is a glorious jilace i but 
he that, like the ambassadors of the king of Babylon 
in Hezekiah's time, shall be admitted to see "the 
house of his precious things," and all the treasures of 
the palace, can speak much more honourably of it, 
2 Kings XX. 12, l.'i. Every one might see and admu'e 
the stones of the temple without, who were not ad- 
mitted to view the gold and curious workmanship 
within. The more intimate communion a man has 
with God as a Redeemer, the more glorious and 
abundant praises can he render unto him. Besides, 
., , , ... praise is the language of heaven : the 

Ilia domus Icrtitiie 1,1 . 1. , • , . 

Ml, ui. iniiitiic. Ilia whole happincss oi the saints there is to 

domuft laudis. ista • /-i j 1 .1 . 111 

oiationu. Both. Gujoy God, and their whole business is 
iS.?' '° °°'''"'- to jiraise him. And they who are to 
live in another country, will be more so- 
licitous to leani the language, and fore-acquaint them- 
selves with the manners and usages of that country, 
than they who have no hopes nor assurance of coming 
thither. _ As they who have hope to be like Christ in 
glory, will purify themselves, that they may in the 
mean time be like him in grace, 1 John iii. 2, 3 ; so 
they that have hope to praise him for ever in heaven, 
will " study the song of Moses the servant of God, and 
the song of the Lamb," before they come thither. And 
indeed none can jiraise God but they that can abase 
and deny themselves. Wicked men in all duties serve 
and seek themselves ; but the very formality of praise 
is to seek God, and to make him the end of our so do- 
ing. The apostle exhorts us to offer ourselves "a 
living sacrifice," Kom. xii. 1 ; that is to say, to separate 
ourselves for God and for his uses. The sacrifice we 
know was God's, for his sake it was burnt, and broken, 
and destroyed. M'e must be such sacrifices ; deny our- 
selves, be lost to ourselves, not .serve, nor seek, nor aim 
at ourselves ; but resolve to esteem nothing dear in 
comparison of God's honour, and to be willing any 
way, whether by life or by death, that he may be mag- 
nified in us, Acts xxi. 13; Phil. i. 20. Love of com- 
munion in natural creatures is stronger than self-love ; 
stones will move ujiward, fire downward, to preser\e 
the universe from a vacuity, and to keep the compages 
of nature together. How much more is, and ought 
to be, the love of God himself in the new creature 
stronger than self-love, whereby it seeks and serves 
itself! And without this all other services are but as 



Ananias's lie, lies to the Holy Ghost, kcc])ing to our- 
selves what we would seem to bestow upon him. Lifting 
up the eyes, beating the breast, spreading the hands, 
bending the knee, hanging down the head, levelling the 
countenance, sighing, sobbing, fasting, howling, all no- 
thing else but mocking of God. And we may say of 
such men, as the emperor of him that sold the glasses 
for pearl, (though in a sadder sense,) Imposluram 
fociitnt el palientur. They deceive God, and fail in his 
precepts, and they shall be themselves deceived, and 
fail in their own expectations ; for " the expectation of 
the M icked shall ])erish," Prov. x. 28. 

III. By a consideration of ourselves, and that in a 
two-fold point of view. 1. Of our natural torjior and 
sluggishness to this duty. As the Dead Sea drinks in 
the river Jordan and is never the sweeter, and the 
ocean all other rivers and is never the fresher ; so we 
are apt to receive daily mercies from God, and still re- 
main insensible of them, and unthankful for them. 
God's mercies to us are like the dew on all the ground, 
our thanks to him like the dew on the fleece. A\''e are 
like fishermen's wheels, wide at that end which lets in 
the fish, but narrow at the other end, so that they can- 
not get out again ; greedy to get mercy, tenacious to 
hold it, but unthankful in acknowledging or right 
using it. The rain comes dovm from heaven in show- 
ers, it goes up but in mists. We sow in our land one 
measure, and receive ten ; yea, Isaac received a hun- 
dred-fold, Gen. xxvi. 12; liut God sows ten, it may 
be a hundred, mercies amongst us, when we scarce re- 
turn the praise and the fruit of one. Our hearts in 
this case are like the windows of the temple, 1 Kings 
vi. 4, wide inward to let in mercies, but narrow out- 
ward to let forth praises. Now as husbandmen use, 
where the nature of land is more defective, to ex- 
]iend on it the more importunate labour ; so, having 
hearts so earthly for the performance of so heavenly 
a duty, we should use the more holy violence upon 
them. And as the widow extorted justice from an un- 
just judge by her continual coming, Luke xviii. 5, we 
should press, and urge, and with ingeminated importunity 
charge this duty ui)on ourselves, as does the psalmist, 
" Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, 
and for his wonderful works to the children of men!" 
Psal. cvii. 8, 1 o, 21, 31. 2. Of our own benefit. For 
indeed all the benefit which arises cut of this duty re- 
dounds to us, and none to God. His , .j^, „n,„ii. 
glory is infinite, and eternally the same, J^»'^ c.i.ira 
there neither is, nor can be, accession to 
that by all our praises. AMien a glass reflects the 
brightness of the sun, there is but an acknowledgment 
of what was, not any addition of what was not. >\'hen 
an excellent orator makes a pancgjTical oration in 
praise of some honourable person, he does not infuse 
any dram of worth into the person, but only sets forth 
ani declares that which is to others. A curious picture 
praises a beautiful face, not by adding beauty to it, but 
by rcjiresenting that which was in it before. The 
window which lets light into a house, does not benefit 
the light, but the house into which the light shines. 
So our praising of God serves to quicken, comfort, and 
refresh ourselves, who have interest in so good a God ; 
or to edify and encourage our brethren, that they may 
be ambitious to serve so honourable a Master ; but our 
praises add no lustre or glory whatever to God. 

But further, the right performance of this duty is 
founded on the due apprehensions of God's being good, 
and of his doing good, Psal. cxix. G8 ; or on his ex- 
cellency in himself, and his goodness towards us. In 
the former respect it consists in adoring and extolling 
the great name of God, ascribing in our hearts anil 
mouths all blessedness unto him, acknowledging his in- 
finite majesty in himself, and his sovereignty over us 
his poor creatures, Excd. xv. 1 1 ; Micali vii. 18 j and so 



Ver. 2, 3. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



Wl 



covering our faces, and abhorring ourselves in his sight, 
Isa. vi. ; Job xlii. 5, 6 ; not daring to question any of 
his deep, absolute, and most unsearchable counsels; but 
because all things are of him, to acknowledge that all 
things ought to be for and to him, and are to be re- 
duced to the ends of his glorv, bv the counsel of his 
own will, Kom. ix. 20, 21 ;"xi. 33, 36; Matt. xi. 25, 26; 
Psal. cxxxv. 5, 6; Job ix. 12 ; Eph. i. 11. In the lat- 
ter respect, as he is the God in whom we " live, and 
move, and have our being," and hope for our blessed- 
ness ; so it imports, fu-st, a glorying and rejoicing in him 
as our alone felicity, Psal. xxxiii. 1 ; Hab. iii. 18 ; Phil. 
iv. 4. Secondly, a choosing and preferring him above 
all other good things, making him our end and aim, in 
life, in death, in doing, in suffering, Rom. iv. 7, 8. 
Thirdly, a thankful acknowledgment of all his mercies, 
as most beneficial unto us, and most gratuitous and free 
in regard of him, 2 Sam. vli. 1 8 ; Lam. iii. 22, 23. Last- 
ly, a constant endeavour of a holy life, so to bring fortli 
fruit, to do the will of God, and to finish his work which 
he has set us, so to order our conversation aright before 
him, as that he may have ascribed to him the glory of 
his authority over the consciences of men, and of the 
power of his love shed abroad in then- hearts ; and that 
all that see our conversation may say. Doubtless, the 
God whom these men serve after so holy a manner, for 
whom they despise all outward and sinftil pleasures, is a 
holy and blessed God, infinitely able to comfort, satisfy, 
and reward all those that so conscientiously and con- 
stantly give up themselves to him, John xv. 8 ; xvii. 4 ; 
Psal. 1. 23; Deut. iv. 6, 7; Matt. v. 16; 2 Cor. ix. 13; 
1 Pet. ii. 12. 

The second particular in their covenant is, amend- 
ment of life, and a more special care against those sins 
of carnal confidence, and spiritual adultery, whereby 
they had formerly dishonoured and provoked God. 
From whence there are two observations which ofi'er 
themselves. 

Obs. 4. True repentance and sound conversion, as it 
makes a man thankful for the pardon of sin past, so it 
makes him careful against the practice of sin for the 
time to come, especially those particular sins whereby 
he had formerly most dishonoured God, and defiled his 
own conscience. This doctrine consists of two parts, 
•flhich we will consider asunder. 

AikI fii-st, of this care and purpose of amendment in 
general. AVhen the poor converts who had been guilty 
of tlie most precious and innocent blood that ever was 
shed, began to be convinced of that horrible sin, and 
found those nails wherewith they had fastened the Lord 
of glory to a cross, pricking and piercing their own 
hearts, with what bleeding and relenting affections did 
they mourn over him ! with what earnest importunities 
did they inquire after the way of salvation wherein they 
niigiit serve and enjoy him ! never were their hands 
more cruel in shedding that blood, than their hearts 
were now solicitous to be bathed in it, to be cleansed 
by it, Acts ii. 37. The poor prodigal, who is the emblem 
of a penitent sinner, when he came to himself again, or 
bethought himself, as the phrase is, 1 Kings viii. 47, 
(for we do never depart from God, but we do withal 
forsake and lose ourselves, and are transported with a 
spiritual madness from our right minds,) immediately 
grew to a resolution of arising out of that base and 
brutish condition, and of going home to his father, and 
by that means to his wit and senses again. So when, 
by John's preaching of repentance, men were turned to 
the wisdom of the just, (for all unrighteousness is folly 
and madness,) and were prepared for the Lord, we im- 
mediately find what a special care they had to be in- 
formed in the ways of duty, earnestly inquiring after 
that new course of obedience in which they were now 
to walk, Luke iii. 10, 12, 14. All true penitents are of 
the same mind with these in the text, " Neither will we 



say any more," and, " '\ATiat have I to do any more witli 
idols ?" ver. 8 ; as Ezra in his penitent prayer, " Should 
we again break thy commandments ?" chap. is. 13, 14. 
" Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more ;" 
and when we repent of sui, it must be with a repent- 
ance "not to be repented of," Rom. vi. 9, 12 ; 2 Cor. 
vii. 10. " The time past of our life must suffice us to 
have M'rought the will of the Gentiles," 1 Pet. iv. 3. 

This care arises from the nature of true repentance, 
which has two names usually given it. 1. Mtrdroin, a 
change of the mind ; the heart is framed to have other 
and truer notions of sin, of grace, of heaven, of hell, of 
conscience, of salvation, than it had before ; for the 
mind of wicked men being defiled, they can frame to 
themselves none but impure apprehensions of spiritual 
things, as a yellow eye sees every thing yellow, and a 
bitter palate imparts to every thing its bitterness. 2. 
MirafiiXiui, a change of the cares and endeavours of life ; 
that whereas before a man made provision for the flesh, 
and his study and care was how to satisfy the lusts of 
his own heart, Rom. xiii. 14, what he should eat, what 
he should (kink, wherewith he should be clothed ; now 
his care is how he may be saved, how he may honour 
and enjoy God, Acts ii. 37 ; xvi. 30. The fti'st ques- 
tion in repentance is, "What have I done?" Jer. viii. 
6 ; and the next question is, " Lord, what wilt thou have 
me to do?" Acts ix. 6. And this care repentance 
works, 

1. By a godly sorrow for sin past. It brings info a 
man's remembrance the history of his former life ; makes 
him with licaviness of spirit recount the guilt of so many 
innumerable sins, wherewith he had bound Iiimself as 
with chains of darkness ; the loss of so much precious 
time raispent in the service of such a master as had no 
other wages to give but shame and death ; the horri- 
ble indignities thereby offered to the majesty and jus- 
tice of God ; the odious contempt of his holy will and 
sovereign authority ; the daring neglect of his threat- 
enings, and undervaluing of his rewards ; the high 
provocation of his jealousy and displeasure ; the base 
corrivalry and contesting of sinful lusts with the grace 
of the gospel, and the precious blood of the Son of God; 
the gainsaying, and wrestling, and stubborn antipathy 
of a carnal heart to the pure motions of the Spirit, and 
word of Christ; the presumptuous repulses of him that 
stands at the door and knocks, waiting that he may be 
gracious ; the long turning of his back, and thrusting 
away from him the word of reconciliation, wherein 
Christ by his ambassadors had so often besought him to 
be reconciled unto God : the remembrance of these 
things makes a man look with self-abhorrence on 
himself, and full detestation on his former courses. 
And he now no longer considers the 

silver or the gold, the profit or the """''Z^J^^'^'J^ 
pleasure of his wonted lusts, though they Ttpa xpv<ri.c re 
be never so delectable or desirable in the Aci™S?B?tnens. 
eye of flesh ; he looks upon them as ac- JPp",'',^"'"'"- "''• "■ 
cursed things to be thrown away, as the 
converts did upon their costly and curious books, Acts 
xix. 19 ; Isa. xxx. 22 ; xxxi. 7. Sin is like a plaited 
picture ; on the one side of it, to the impenitent, appears 
nothing but the beauty of pleasure, whereby it be- 
witches and allures them ; on the other side, to the 
penitent, appears nothing but the horrid and ugly face 
of guilt and sliarac, whereby it amazes and confounds 
them. Thus the remembrance of sin past, (which they 
are very careful to keep always in then- sight, Psal. Ii. 
3,) does, by godly sorrow, work special care of amend- 
ment of life for the time to come, 2 Chron. vi. 37, 3S ; 
Psal. cxix. 59; Ezek. xvi. 61—63; xx. 43. 

2. By a present sense of the weight and burden of 
remaining corruptions, w^hich work, and move, and put 
forth what strength they can to resist the gi'ace of God 
in us. As the time past wherein sin reigned, so the 



642 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



CuAP. XIV. 



present burden of sin besetting us is esteemed suffi- 
cient, and makes a man careful not to load himself 
■wilfully with more, being ready to sink, and forced to 
cry out under the pain of those -nhicli he unwillingly 
lies under already. *A very glutton, when he is in a 
fit of the gout, or stone, wUl forbear those meats which 
feed such painful diseases. A penitent sinner is con- 
tinually in pain under the body of sin, and therefore 
dares not feed so dangerous and tormenting a disease. 
fThe more spiritual any man is, the more painful and 
burdensome is corruption to him, Rom. vii. 24 ; for sin 
to the new man is as sickness to the natural man. Tlie 
more exquisite and delicate the natural senses are, the 
more are they sensible and affected with that which 
offends nature. Contraries cannot co-exist without 
strife. The Spirit will lust against the flesh, and not 
suffer a man to fulfil the lusts of it, Gal. v. 16, 17! 
the seed of God will keep down the strength of sin, 
1 John iii. 9. 

...<, , , 3. By a holy iealousv, and godlv fear 

Koi't n-ojez. ^Arist, 01 the falscuess and backsliding of our 
Ki.L-t. 1. 2. c. 5. corrupt heart, lest, like Lot's wife, it 
should look back towards Sodom, and, like Israel, have 
a mind hankering after the fle.sh-pots of Egypt, the 
wonted profits and pleasures of forsaken lusts. A godly 
heart prizes the love of God, and the feelings of sj)iritual 
comfort from thence arising, above all other things, and 
is afraid to lose them. It has felt the burnings of .sin, 
the stingings of those fiery serpents, and has often been 
forced to befool itself, and to beshrew its own ignor- 
ance ; and, with Ephi-aim, to smite upon the thigh. 
Like the burnt child, it dreads the fire, and dares not 
meddle any more with it ; it considers the heaviness of 
God's frown, the rigour of his law, the weakness and 
fickleness of the lieart of man, the difficulty of finding 
Christ out when he has withdi-awn himself, and of re- 
covering light and peace again, when the soul has wil- 
fully brought itself under a cloud ; therefore it will not 
venture to harden itself against God. Thus godly fear 
keeps men from sin. Job xxxi. 23 ; Psal. iv. 4 ; cxix. 
120; Prov. xxviii. 14; Eccl. ix. 2; Jer. xxxii. 40; 
Phil. ii. 12. 

4. By a love to Christ, and a sweet recounting of 
the mercies of God in him. The less a man loves sin 
the more will he love Christ. Now repentance works 
a hatred of sin, and thereupon a love of Christ; which 
love is ever operative, and putting forth itself towards 
holiness of life. As the love of God in Christ towards 
us works forgiveness of sin, so our reci])rocal love, 
wrought by the feeling and comfort of tliat forgiveness, 
works in us a hatred of sin. A direct love begets a 
rejlex love, as the heat wi-ought in the eai'th strikes 
back again a heat up into the air. The woman in the 
gos])cl having much forgiven her, " loved much," Luke 
vii. 47. " We love him because he first loved us ;" and 
love will not suffer a man to wrong the thing which he 
loves. AMiat man ever threw away jewels or money 
when he might have kept them ? except when the 
predominant love of something better made these things 
comparatively hateful, Luke xiv. 2G. M'hat woman 
could be persuaded to throw away lier sucking child 
from her breast to swine or dogs to devour it ? Our 
love to Christ will not suffer us to cast him off, or to 
throw his law behind our backs. New obedience is 
ever joined to pardon of sin and repentance for it, by 
the method of God's decrees, by the order and chain of 
salvation, and arises out of the internal character and 
disposition of a child of God. We arc not sons only 
by adoption, appointed to a new inheritance; but we are 
sons by regeneration also, partakers of a new nature, 
designed to a new life, joined to a new Head, descended 

iiriviv iv. Clearch. apud Atben. 1. 14. c. ]. 



from a new Adam, to whom therefore we are, in " the 
power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his 
sufferings," to be " made conformable," Phil. iii. 10. 
The apostle uses many excellent and weighty argu- 
ments to enforce this upon us. Col. iii. 1 — 4 : " K ye then 
be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, 
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set 
your affection on things above, not on things on the 
earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ 
in God. When Clu'ist, who is our life, .shall appear, 
then shall ye also appear with him in glory." 1. Our 
fellowship with Christ: we are " risen with" him : what 
he did corporally for us, he does the same spiritually in 
us. As a Saviour and Mediator, he died and rose alone ; 
but as a Head and Second Adam, he never did any 
thing but his mystical body and seed were so taken 
into the fellowship of it, as to be made conformable to 
it. Therefore if he rose as a Saviour to justify us, we 
must, as members, be therein fashioned unto him, and 
rise spiritually, by heavenly-mindedness and a new life, 
to glorify him. 2. AVe must have our affections in 
heaven, because Christ is there. The heai-t ever turns 
towards its treasure ; where the body is, thither will 
the eagles resort. 3. He is there in gloiy at God's 
right hand ; and grace should move attracted to glory, 
as the smaller particles of matter to the larger mass. 
And he is there on our business, making intercession 
in our behalf, providing a place for us, sending down 
gifts to us. And the client cannot but have his heai-t 
on his own business, when the advocate is actually 
stii-ring about it. 4. We are "dead" with Christ, as 
to the life of sin ; and a dead man takes no thought 
or care for the things of that life from whence he is 
departed. A man naturally dead looks not after food, 
or raiment, or land, or money, or labour ; and a man 
dead to sin takes no more care how to provide for it. 
5. In Christ we have a new life, therefore we should 
have new inclinations suitable to it, and new provisions 
laid in for it. A natural man feeds on worldly things 
by sense, a spiritual man on heavenly things by faith 
and conscience. We can have nothing from the first 
Adam which is not mortal and mortiferous ; nothing 
from tlie Second which is not etemal and life-giving. 
AATiatever the one gives us shrinks and withers into 
death ; whatever the other, springs and flourishes into 
immortal life. Our life, therefore, being new, the affec- 
tions which serve it, and wait upon it, must be new 
likewise. 6. This life is our own ; not so any thing in 
the world besides. I can purchase in the world only 
to me and mine heirs for ever, but spiritual purchases 
are to myself for ever. And every man's affections are 
naturally most fixed upon that which is most his own. 
T. It is i. hidden life, the best of it is yet unseen, 1 John 
iii. 2 ; and though the cabinet which is seen be rich, yet 
the jewel wliich is hidden in it is much richer. And as 
there is a sinful curiosity in lust to look after the hidden 
things ofiniquity, and to hanker after forbidden jileasures, 
so there is a sjjiritual curiosity or ambition in grace, to 
aspire towards liidden treasures, to ])ress forward to- 
wards things that are before us, " to be clothed upon 
with our house which is from heaven." As Absalom, 
being brought from banishment, longed to see the face 
of his father, 2 Sam. xiv. 32 ; so the soul, delivered out 
of the land of darkness, never thinks it sees enough of 
light. When God did most intimately reveal himself 
to Moses, Moses did most earnestly beseech him to 
show him his glory, Exod. xxxiii. 11, 18. The more 
sweetness we find in the first-fruits, in so much of 
Christ as is revealed to us, the more strong are our af- 
fections to the whole haiTCSt, to that abundance of 
him which is hidden from us. A few clusters of grapes 

t Conflictus miscrabilis. Aug. de Nupt. ct Conciipis. 1. 2. 
c. 1. Quo quis pejus ee habct, minus scntit. Senec. Epist. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



643 



and bunches of figs will inflame the desire of enjoying 
that Canaan which abounds with them. 8. It is " hid 
with Christ," so hid as that we know where it is. 
" Hid," so that the enemy cannot reach it, but not hid 
from the faith of the child. 9. It is hid " in God.'' It 
is life in the fountain, Psal. xxxvi. 9. Every thing is 
most perfect in its original source, and this is such a 
fountain of life as has in it fulness without satiety, 
purity without defilement, perpetuity without decay, 
and all-suflficiency without defect. Lastly, it is but 
i hid, it is not lost ; hid like seed in the ground ; " when 
Christ," '■■ the Sun of righteousness," " shall appear," 
this life of ours in him will spring up and appear glo- 
rious. 

Now, next let us consider this care of repentance 
against a man's own more particular and special sins. 
■ -V^shur shall not save us ; we will not ride upon horses : 
neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, 
Ye are our gods."" Israel had been guilty of very many 
])rovocations, but when they come to covenant with 
God, and to renew their repentance, their thoughts and 

I cares are most set against their carnal confidence and 
spiritual adultery ; their most unfeigned detestations, 
their most serious resolutions, were agaiust these their' 
:' most proper sins. True repentance works indeed a 
'•. general hatred of "every false way," Psal. cxix. 128, 
and suffers not a man to allow himself in the smallest 
f sin. Yet, as the dog in hunting the deer, though he 
drive the whole herd before him, yet fixes his eye and 
scent on some one in particular, which is 
' : KoiTTQ. ^6 singled out by the dart of the huntsman ; 
'"IpSrRhe". so, though sound conversion do work a 
universal hatred of all sin, because it. is 
sni, (for hatred is ever against the whole kind of a 
ihing.) though every uiemljer of the old man be mor- 
tified, and every grace of the new man shaped and 
fashioned in us, yet the severest exercise of that 
hatred is against the sins to which the conscience has 
been more enslaved, and by which the name of God 
has been more dishonoured. A man that has many 
wounds, if there be any of tliem more deep, dangerous, 
or nearer any vital part, than another, though he will 
tend the cure of them all, yet his chiefest care shall be 
towards that. As the king of SjTia gave command to 
his army to single out the king of Israel in the battle, 
1 Kings xxii. 31, so does repentance lay its batteries 
most against the highest, and strongest, and most reigu- 
hig- sin of the heart; and by how much the more a 
man prized it before, by so much the more does he de- 
ust it now. Before they counted no silver nor gold 
1 10 good to frame then- idols of, their ear-rings shall 
U'l to make them a calf, Exod. xxxii. 3 ; but when they 
li'pent, nothing can be too base to compare them, or to 
cast them unto, Isa. ii. 20 ; xxx. 22. 

Human nature is the same in all men, yet some 
faculties are more vigorous in some, and others in 
others; some w'itty, others strong; some beautifid, others 
proper ; some have a quick eye, others a ready tongue ; 
some for learned, others for mechanical professions ; as 
some grounds take better to some kind of grain than 
to others : so in the new man, though all the graces of 
Christ are in some degree and proportion shaped in 
every regenerate person, yet one excels in one giace, 
another in another : Abraham in faith. Job in patience, 
JNIoses in meekness, David in meditation, Solomon in 
wisdom, Phinehas in zeal, Mary JIagdalene in love, 
1,1 eodtm prato bos ^^^ i" labour. And so is it in the old 
iieiiiam quint, ca- man too ! though by natm'e we have all 
bc(iu°m™sonK!" the membcrs of original corruption, yet 
^''' '"*■ these put themselves forth in actual vi- 

gour differently. One man is more possessed by a 
proud devil, another by an unclean one ; Ahaz super- 
stitious, Balaam ambitious, Cain envious, Korah stub- 
born, Esau profane, Ishmael a mocker, the young man 



a worldling, Mark x. 22. According to different com- 
plexions and tempers of body, (by which habitual lust 
is excited and called forth into act,) or according to 
difi'erences of education, countries, callings, converse, 
and interests in the world, so men are diti'ercntly as- 
saulted with distinct kinds of sin ; and most men have 
then- peccalum in deliciis, which they may more pro- 
perly call their own, Psal. xviii. 23. And as this sin 
is usually the special bar and obstacle that keeps men 
from Christ, as we see in the example of the young 
man, Mark x. 22, and of the Jews, John v. 44 ; xii. 42, 
43 ; so when Christ has broken this obstacle, and got- 
ten the throne in a man's heart, then tlie chief work of 
repentance is to keep this sin from gathering strength 
again : for as they say of some kind of serpents, that, 
being cut in pieces, the parts will wriggle towards one 
another, and close and get life again : so, of all sins, a 
man is in most danger of the reviving of his ow'n pro- 
per corruption, as being like the nettle, whose roots 
are so crooked, are so catching to the ground, that it is 
a work of much care to keep the ground clean of them 
after they are weeded out. 

And therefore repentance sets itself particularly 
against that sin, as a special argument of sincerity. " I 
was also upright" (saith David) "before him, and I 
kept myself from mine iniquity," Psal. xviii. 23. And 
" he that is begotten of God" (saith the apostle) " keep- 
eth himself," 1 John v. 18 ; which he does certainly with 
most vigilance there, where he is in most danger of 
being assaulted. Thus David had, in that gi-eat and 
scandalous fall of his, stained his conscience with im- 
pure lust, with the guilt of blood ; and that not out of ig- 
norance, or common infirmity, or sudden passion and 
surprisal of some hasty temptation, (which might 
haply have consisted with uprightness,) but seriously, 
and deliberately, using many cunning arts and carnal 
shifts of sinful wisdom to colom- and daub it over ; and 
further, by this means had given a great blow to the 
holy name of God, and caused his enemies to blas- 
pheme, as Nathan tells him, 2 Sam. xii. 14 : therefore, 
in his penitential psalm, these four things he princi- 
pally insists upon, " a clean heart," deKverance from 
" blood-guiltiness," "truth in the inw'ard parts," and 
opportunity to " teach transgressors " the way of God, 
that they may be converted, Psal. li. 6, 10, 13, 14. 
Thus Zaccheus ; worldliness and defrauding had been 
his sin, restitution and liberality are the evidences of 
his repentance in special for that sin, Luke xix. 8. So 
Marv Magdalene : her sin had been uncleanness, her 
eyes vessels and factors for adultery, her hah- a net plat- 
ted and spread to catch sinners ; she remembered her 
wanton kisses, her provoldng perfumes : and now in 
her conversion, where her sin had been most prevalent, 
there her sorrow was most penitent, and her repentance 
most vigilant ; her eyes vessels of tears, her kisses 
humbled, or rather advanced to the feet of Christ ; her 
hair a towel to wipe oft' tliose tears which she judged 
too unclean to wash such holy feet; her ointment 
poured out upon a new Lover, who had anointed her 
with his grace, Luke vii. 37, 38. The sin of the jailer 
against Paul and Silas was cruelty, and the fitrst-fruit 
of his repentance was courtesy ; he " brought them 
out " of a dungeon into his own house, from the stocks 
to his table, became an host instead of a jailer, a surgeon 
instead of a tormentor, and "washed their stripes," 
Acts xvi. 19 — .34. This was Daniel's method of work- 
ing repentance in Nebuchadnezzar, persuading a proud, 
oppressing tjTant to justice and mercy, Dan. iv. 27 ; 
and Paul's with Felix, preaching before a corrupt and 
lascivious judge of " righteousness, temperance, and 
judgment to come," Acts xxiv. 25 ; and with the 
learned and superstitious philosophers, in a learned 
discovery, making known to them their " unknown 
God," Acts xyii. 23. So John, the preacher of repent- 



644 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



ancc, laid his axe to the root of every tree, to the radi- 
cal and prevailing lust in every order of men ; to ex- 
tortion in the publican, and to covotousncss in the 
people, to violence in the soldiers, to carnal confidence 
in the Pharisees, Matt. iii. 7 ; Luke iii.O — 14. And so 
Christ with tlie young man, " One thing thou lackest," 
Mark x. 21 ; and to the woman of Samaria, " Go, call 
thy husband," John iv. 16, when indeed he was an 
adulterer, and not a husband. 

The reason of this care of repentance is, 1. Because 
in godly son-ow this sin has lain most heavy upon the 
conscience. Hereby God has been most of all despised 
and dishonoured, our consciences most wasted and 
defiled, our hearts most hardened, our affections most 
bewitched and entangled. It has been a master-sin, 
that has been able to command and to di'aw in many 
other servile lusts to wait upon it. Many wounds, even 
after they have been healed, will on change of weather 
affect the part wherein they were witli acute jiains ; 
and therefore men usually are more tender of that part, 
and keep it warmer : as the apostle saith, that on our 
dishonourable parts we bestow the more abundant 
honour ; so, on such an infirm and tender part, we be- 
stow the more abundant care ; and the like do wc in 
those wounds of the soul which are most apt to bleed 
afresh. 

2. Hereby (as was said before) we testify our up- 
rightness. AVhen we will not spare our beloved sin, 
nor roll it under our tongue, nor hide it in our tent ; 
when we will not muffle nor disguise ourselves like 
Tamar, nor hide amongst the bushes and trees like 
Adam, or in the belly of the ship with Jonah, nor spare 
any wedge of gold with Achan, or any delicate Agag, 
any fatUng sins, with Saul ; but with David will show 
that we " hate every false way," by throwing the first 
stone at our first sin, that which lay nearest and closest 
to our bosoms, which the Scripture calls cutting off the 
right hand, and plucking out the right eye. Matt. v. 
29, 30; as Cranmcr put that hand first into the fire, 
with which he liad before subscribed to save his life. 
The story of the Turkish emperor is commonly known, 
who being reported so to dote on one of his concubines, 
as for love of her to neglect the affau'S of his kingdom, 
caused her to be brought forth in great pomp, and cut 
off her head before his bashaws, to assure them that 
notliing was so dear to him but that he could willingly 
part from it to attend the public welfare. This was an 
act of cruelty in him, but the like is an act of penitence 
in us, when we can sacrifice the dearest affections 
wherewith we served shi. Let Clirist kill our Agag, 
though delicately appareled, and divide the richest of 
all our spoils. If we be learned, we shall direct all our 
studies to the fear of God, Eccl. xii. 12, 13. If rich, 
we shall lay up a foundation of good works against the 
time to come, and consecrate our merchandise as holy 
to the Lord, 1 Tim. vi. 18, 19; Isa. xxiii. 18. If wise, 
if honourable, if powerful, if adorned with any endow- 
ment, our liusiness will be, with Bczaleel and Aholiab, 
to adorn tlic gos])el with them all ; from our gold to our 
goats' hair, to lay all out upon the sanctuarv, Exod. 
xxxi. ; to make those members and al)ilitics which had 
been Satan's armour, and weapons of unrighteousness, 
to be now weapons of holiness, and dedicated unto 
Christ, Kom. vi. 19. This is the holy revenge which 
"godly sorrow" takes upon sin, 2 Cor. vii. 10, 11. 

If many men who proiess repentance, and think they 
are already long ago converted unto God, woidd ex- 
amine the truth of their conversion by this touchstone, 
it would minister matter of much humiliation and fear 
to them, when their own lieart would reply against 
them as Samuel against Saul ; Hast thou indeed, as 
thou profcssesf, done the work of tlie Lord in destroy- 
ing Amalck, "what mcancth then this bleating of the 
sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which 



I hear ? " what mean these worldly and covetous prac- 
tices, these lascivious or revengeful speeches, these 
earthly, sensual, or ambitious lusts? are these Agags 
spared and kept delicately, and canst thou i)lease thy- 
self in the thoughts of a sound repentance ? Did Paul 
fear that his God would " humble " him for those that 
had not repented amongst the Corinthians, because 
there were envyings, strifes, and debates amongst 
them ? 2 Cor. xii. 20, 21 ; and wilt thou presume on 
thy repentance, and not be humbled when thou findest 
the same tilings in thyself? Hast thou never yet pro- 
claimed defiance to thy beloved sin ? made it the mark 
of thy greatest sorrows, of thy strongest prayers and 
complaints unto God ? Hast thou never stirred up a 
holy indignation and revenge against it ? and above 
all things, taken off thy thoughts from the meditation 
and love of it ? and found pleasure in the holy severity 
of God's book and the ministry thereof against it? 
made no covenant with thine eye, put no knife to thy 
throat, set no door before thy lips, made no friends of 
unrighteous mammon ? Dost thou still retain hankering 
affections after thy wonted delights, as Lot's wife after 
Sodom? and are the flesh-pots of Egypt desirable in 
thy thoughts still ? " Be not high-minded, but fear." 
There is no greater argument of an unsound repent- 
ance than indulgent thoughts, and reserved deUght and 
complacency in a master-sin. The devU will diligently 
observe and hastily catch one kind glance of this na- 
ture, (as Ben-hadad's servants did, 1 Kings xx. 33,) and 
makt use of it to do us mischief. David had been free 
from some of his greatest troubles, if he had not re- 
lented towards Absalom, and called him home from 
banishment ; he no sooner kissed Absalom, than Ab- 
salom courted and kissed the people to steal their 
hearts away from him. As there are in points of faith 
fundamental articles, so there are in points of practice 
fundamental duties. And amongst them none more 
primary, and essential to true Christians, than self- 
denial, ISIatt. xvi. 24 ; and this is one special part and 
branch of self-denial, to keep ourselves from our own 
iniquity, and to say to our most costly and darling lusts, 
Get ye hence. Asshur away, idols away, I will rather 
be fatherless than rely upon such helpers. 

Obs. 5. True repentance and conversion take off the 
heart from all carnal confidence, either in domestic 
preparations of our own, " we will not ride ujjon 
horses ;" or in foreign aid from any confederates, espe- 
cially enemies of God and his church, though otherwise 
never so potent, "Asshur shall not save us;" or, last- 
ly, in any superstitious and corrupt worship, which 
sends us to God the wrong way, " neither will we say 
any more to the work of our hands. Ye are our gods ; " 
and causes the soul in all conditions, be they never so 
desperate, so desolate, so incurable, to rely only upon 
God. It is verj' much in the nature of man fallen, to 
affect an absoluteness and a self-sufficiency, to seek the 
good that he desires within himself, and to derive from 
himself the strength whereby he would rejiel any evil 
which he fears. This staying within itself, reflecting 
ujjon its own power and wisdom, and by consequence 
affecting an indeijcndence of any superior virtue in 
being and working, making itself the first cause and 
the last end of its own motions ; is by divines con- 
ceived to have been the first sin by which y,j^ j,cmt. 
the creature fell from God, and it was ?'''.'"'• ;rt% 'a 63 
the first temptation by which Satan pre- AJual'tTooUr, b. i! 
vailed to draw man from God too. For *"'' *' 
since next to God eveiy reasonable created being is 
nearest to itself, wc cannot conceive how it should 
turn from God, and not in the next step turn to itself; 
and by consequence, whatsoever it was in a regular 
dependence to have derived from God, being fallen 
from him, it does by an iiTCgular dependence seek for 
from itself. Hence' it is that men of power are ajit to 



Vee. 2, 3. 



THE PKOPHECY OF HOSEA. 



G15 



deify their own strengtli, and to trame opinions of ab- 
soluteness to themselves, and to deride the thoughts 
of any power above them, as Pharaoli, Exod. v. 2, 
and Goliath, 1 Sam. xvii. S, 10, 44, and Nebuchad- 
nezzar, Dan. iii. 15, and Sennacherib, 2 Kings xviii. 
33 — 35 ; Isa. x. 8 — 14 : men of wisdom, to deify their 
own reason, and to deride any thing that is above or 
against their own conceptions, as Tyrus, Ezck. xxviii. 
2, 6, and the Pharisees, Luke xvi. 14 ; John vii. 48 — 52 ; 
Acts Iv. 1 1 ; Isa. xlix. 7 ; liii. 3, and the philosophers. 
Acts xvii. 18, 32; 1 Cor. i. 22, 23: and men of mo- 
I'ality and virtue, to deify their own rigliteousness, to 
rely on their own merits and performances, and to de- 
ride righteousness imputed and precarious, as the Jews, 
Rom. X. 3, and Paul before his conversion, Rom. vii. 
9; Phil. iii. 6, 9. Thus natural is it for a sinful 
creature, who seeks only himself, and makes himself 
the last end, to seek only to himself, and to make him- 
self the first cause and mover towards that end. 

But because God will not give his glory to another, 
nor suffer any creatiu-e to encroach on his prerogative, 
or to sit down in his throne, he has therefore always 
blasted the policies and attempts of those who have 
aspired to such absoluteness and independency, making 
them know in the end that they are " but men," 
Psal. ix. 19, 20, and that the Most High ruleth over 
all ; and that it is an enterprise more full of folly 
than it is of pride, for any creature to attempt to work 
its own safety and felicity out of itself. And as men 
usually are most vigilant upon their immediate in- 
terests, and most jealous and active against all en- 
croachments thereupon ; so we shall ever find that 
God singles out no men to be such notable monuments 
of his justice and their own ruin and folly, as those 
who have vied with him in the points of power, wis- 
dom, and other Divine prerogatives, aspiring unto that 
absoluteness, self-sufficiency, self-interest, and inde- 
pendency which belong unto him only. And as he 
has by the destruction of Pharaoh, Sennacherib, Herod, 
and clivers others, taught us the madness of this am- 
bition ; so docs he by our own daily preservation teach 
us the same. For if God has appointed that we shoidd 
go out of ourselves to things below us for a vital sub- 
sistence, to bread for food, to house for harbour, to 
clothes for warmth, much more has he appointed that 
we should go out of ourselves for a blessed and 
happy subsistence, by how much the more is re- 
quired for blessedness than for life, and by how much 
the greater is our impotency to the greatest and high- 
est eird. 

Yet so desperate is the aversion of sinful man from 
God, that when he is convinced of his impotency, and 
driven off from self-dependence, and reduced to such 
exti'emities as should in reason lead him back unto 
God, yet when he has no horses of his own to ride 
upon, no means of his own whereby to escape evil, he 
■will still betake himself unto creatures like himself, 
though they be enemies to God, and enemies to him 
too for God's sake (for so was the Assyrian to Israel) : 
" When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his 
wound, then went Ephraim to the AssjTian, and sent 
to king Jareb," Hos. v. 13. If he must beg, he will 
do it rather of an enemy than of God, yea, though he 
dissuade him from it, and threaten him for it. Ahaz 
would not believe though a sign were offered him, nor 
be persuaded to trust in God to deliver him from Rezin 
and Pekah though he promised him to do it ; but 
under pi-etence of not tempting God in the use of 
means, will weary God with his provocation, and rob 
God to pay the Assyrian, who was not a help but a 
distress to him, 2 Kings xvi. 5, 8, 17, 18; 2 Chron. 
xxviii. 20, 21 ; Isa. vii. 8, 13; xxx. 5. 

Well, God is ofttimes pleased to waylay human 
counsels, even in this case too, and so to strip them, 



not only of their own provisions, but of their foreign 
succours and supplies, so that they have no refuge left 
hut unto him. Their horses fail them, their Assyrian 
fails them, Hos. vii. 11, 12; viii. 9, 10. Their hope 
has nothing either sub ralione boni, as really good to 
comfort them at home ; or sub ratione auxilii, as mat- 
ter of help and aid to support them from abroad. They 
are brought as Israel into a wilderness, where tliey are 
constrained to go to God, because they have no second 
causes to help them. And yet even here, wicked men 
will make a shift to keep oft' from God, w-hen they 
have nothing in the world to turn to. This is the for- 
mal and intimate malignity of sin, to decline God, and 
to be impatient of him, in his own way. If wicked 
men be necessitated to implore help from God, they 
will invent ways of their own to do it. If horses fail, 
and Asshur fail, and Israel must go to 
God whether he will or no. it shall not i^|,eJia"TOTt'"i." 
be to the God that made him, but to a JJ"'- i'»s='"'^ '"p- 
god of his own making ; and when they 
have most need of their glory, they will change it into 
that which cannot profit, Jer. ii. 11. Thus foolish was 
Jeroboam, as to think his kingdom shovdd be estab- 
lished by two calves at Dan and Beth-el, and by that 
means rooted out his own family, and at last ruined 
the kingdom, 1 Kings xii. 28,' 29; xiv. 10, 15; 2 
Kings xvii. 21—23 ; Hos. viii. 4, 5 ; x. 5, 8, 15. Thus 
foolish was Ahaz, to seek help of those gods which were 
the ruin of him and of all Israel, 2 Chron. xxviii. 23. 
Such a strong antipathy and averseness there is in the 
soul of natural men to God, as that when they are in 
distress they go to him last of all ; they never think of 
him so long as their own strengtli and their foreign 
confederacies hold out, and when at last they are 
driven to him, they know not how to hold communion 
\\ith him in his own way, but frame carnal and super- 
stitious modes of worship to themselves, and so in their 
very seeldng him provoke him to forsake them ; and 
the very things whereon they lean, go up into their 
hand to pierce it, Isa. xv. 2 ; xvi. 12. 

Now then the proper work of true repentance being 
to turn a man the right way to God, it takes a man 
off from all this carnal and superstitious confidence, 
and directs the soul in the greatest difficulties to cast 
itself with comfort and confidence upon God alone. 
So it is prophesied of the remnant of God's people, 
that is, the penitent part of them, (for the remnant are 
those that came up '• with wec|)ing and supplications," 
seeking "the Lord their God," and asking "the way 
to Zion with their faces thitherward," Jer. xxxi. 9 ; 
1. 4, 5,) that they should " no more again stay " them- 
selves "upon him that smote them," but should "stay 
upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth," and 
should "return unto the mighty God," Isa. x. 20, 21. 
They resolve the Lord shall save them, and not the As- 
syrian. So say the godly in the psalmist, " An horse 
is a vain thing for safety ; neither shall he deliver any 
by his great strength." " Our soul waiteth for the 
Lord: he is our help and shield," Psal. xxxiii. 17, 20. 
They will not say any more, "■V\'e will flee upon horses, 
we will ride upon the swift," Isa. xxx. 16. " At that 
day," saith the prophet, speaking of the penitent rem- 
nant, the gleanings of Jacob, " shall a man look to his 
]\Iaker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One 
of Israel. And he shall not look to the altars, the work 
of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fin- 
gers have made, either the groves, or the images," Isa. 
xvii. 7, 8. And again, " Truly in vain is salvation 
hoped for from the hills, and li'om the multitude of 
mountains," that is, from the idols (which they had set 
up and worshipped in high places") : " truly in the Lord 
our God is the salvation of Israel," Jer. iii. 23. "Nei- 
ther will we say any more to the work of ovu: hands, 
Ye are our gods." 



64G 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



So then, the plain duties enjoined in the latter part 
of these verses are these : 

1. To trust in God, who is all-sufficient to help ; who 
is Jeho^•ah, the Fountain of being, and can give being 
to any i)roniise, to any mercy which he intends for his 
people ; can not only work, but command ; not only 
command, but create deliverance, and fetch it out of 
darkness and desolation : he has " everlasting strength ;" 
there is no time, no case, no condition, wherein his 
help is not at hand, whenever he shall command it, 
Isa. xxvi. 4. 

2. Not to trust in any creature. 1. Not in Asshur, 
in any confederacy or combination with God's enemies, 
be the\' otherwise never so potent. Jehoshaphat did 
so, and his " shijjs were broken," 2 Chron. xx. ."55 — 37. 
Ahaz did so, and his people were distressed, 2 Chron. 
xxviii. 19 — 21. It is impossible for God's enemies to 
be cordial to God's people, so long as they continue 
cordial to their God. There is such an irreconcilable 
enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed 
of the serpent, that it is incredible to suppose that the 
enemies of the church will do any thing which may, 
per se, tend to the good of it, or that any end and de- 
sign by them pursued can be severed from their own 
malignant interest. Let white be mingled with any 
other colour, and it loses its own beauty. It is not pos- 
sible for God's people to join with any that are his 
enemies, and not lose thereby their own purity. He 
must be as wise and as potent as God, that can use the 
rage of God's enemies, and convert it, wlien he has 
done, to the good of God's church, and the glory of 
God's name, and be able at pleasure to restrain and 
call it in again. We must ever take heed of this dan- 
gerous co;npetit!on between o\ir own interests and 
God's ; to be so tender and intent upon that, as to 
hazard and shake this. Jeroboam did so, but it was 
fatal to him, and to all Israel. The end of Judah's 
combining with the AssjTian was, that they might re- 
joice against Eezin and RQjnaliah's son ; but the con- 
sequence of it, which they never intended, was, that the 
Assyrian came up over all the channels, and over all 
the banks, and overflowed, and went over, and reached 
" even to the neck," and if it had not been Immanuel's 
land, would have endangered its destruction. If Israel 
for his own ends join with Asshur, it will hardly be 
possible for him in so doing, though against his own 
will, not to promote the ends of Asshur against God's 
church, and against God himself. And yet the pro- 
phet would not have, in that case, God's people to be 
dismayed, or to say, " A confederacy," " A confe- 
deracy ;" but to " sanctify the Lord of hosts himself," 
and make him their "fear," and their " dread," who 
:vill certainly be " a sanctuary " unto them, and will 
" bind up " his " testimony," and " seal the law among" 
his " disciples," when others shall " stumble, and fall, 
and be broken, and be snared, and be taken," Isa. viii. 
6—18. If we preserve Emmanuel's right in us, and 
ours in him, all confederacies against us shall be 
broken, all counsels shall come to nougi t. 

2. Not in horses, or in any other human prepara- 
tions and provisions of our own. " Some trust in cha- 
riots, and some in horses: but we" (saith David) 
" will remember the name of the Lord our God/' Psal. 
XX. 7. That name can do more with a sling and a 
stone, than Gohath with all his armour, 1 Sam. xvii. 
45. It is "a strong tower" for protection and safety 
to all that flee into it, Prov. xviii. 10. Whereas horses, 
tliough they be " prepared against the day of battle," 
yet " safety is of the Lord," Prov. xxi. 31. Horses are 
" tlesli, and not spu-it," and their riders are " men, and 
not God ;" and cuised are they that make " flesh " their 
" arm,'' and depart from the Lord, Isa. xxxi. 1 — 3 ; 
.Tor. \^ii. 5. No, not in a variety of means and ways 
;' M Ip, which seems to be intimated in the word 



riding, from one confederate to another ; If Asshur fail, 

1 will post to Egvpt ; if one friend or counsel fail, I 
will make haste to another; a sm very frequently 
charged upon Israel, Isa. xx. 5 ; Ivii. 9 ; Jer. ii. 36, 
37; Hos. vii. 11. These are not to be trusted in, 
1. Because of the intrinsical weakness and defect of 
ability in the creature to help. Every man is a liar, 
either by imposture, and so in purjjose ; or by im- 
potency, and so in the event, deceinng those that rely 
u])on him, Psal. Ixii. 9. 

2. Because of the ignorance and defect of wisdom in 
us to apply that strength which is in the creature to 
the best advantage. None but an artificer can turn 
and govern the natural efficacy of fire, wind, water, to 
the works of art. The wisdom whereby we should di- 
rect created virtues to human ends is not in or of our- 
selves, but comes from God, Exod. xxxvi. 1,2; Eccl. vii. 
24 ; ix. 11 ; Isa. xxviii. 26—29; James i. 5. 

3. Not in idols, not in conuipting the worship of 
God. Idols are lies, and teachers of ,„ fd„i„i„(^ „en- 
lies, and promisers of lies to all that trust dacium cum tota 

1 X -i t n TT 1 •' t r\ eubstiuitia ejus 

m them, Jer. x. 1 — 16; Hab. u. 18; mendax sit. Ttrt. 
Rev, xxii, 15. An idol is just "nothing unJciJoiViS^'i-' 
in the world," 1 Cor. viii. 4 ; and that ""-'"' '".'iP'P,^': 
whicn IS nothing, can do nothing tor j;'™^-^ ai=s- "i 
those that rely upon it. Whatever a ■kx^pCi' a«upa 
man trusts in, in time of trouble, must ?"'/'" "'" sln.h.^ 
needs liave tliese tmngs m it to ground '".*J; „ - . . 
that confidence upon : -rvfiZov (^oyjfpi^ 

1. A knowledge of him and his wants. ^"'- '"''"■ ■*''°''- 
Therefore we are bid to trust in God's providence over 
us for all outward good things, because he "kiioweth" 
that we have " need " of them, Alatt. vi. 32. 

2. A loving and merciful disposition to help. A 
man may sometimes receive help from such as love him 
not, out of policy and in pursuance of other ends and 
designs ; but he cannot confidently rely upon any aid 
Avhich is not first founded in love, I ever suspect and 
fear the gifts and succours which proceed from an 
enemy ; they will have then' own ends only, even then 
when tliey seem to tender and serve me ; therefore 
David singles out God's mercy as the object of his trust, 
Psal. lii. 8. 

3. A manifestation of that love in some promise or 
other, engaging to assist. For how can I with assur- 
ance, and without hesitancy, expect help there where I 
never received any promise of it ? Here was the ground 
of David's, Jehoshaphat's, Daniel's trust in God, the 
word and promise which he had passed to them, 1 
Chron. xvii. 25 — 27 ; Psal. exix. 42 ; 2 Chron. xx. 7 ; 
Dan. ix, 2. 

4. Truth and fideUty in the care to make these pro- 
mises good. This is that which makes us so confident- 
ly trust in God's promises, because we know they are 
all " yea and amen," that it is " impossible for God to 
lie," or deceive, or for any to "seek" his face " in vain," 

2 Cor. i. 20; Josh. xsi. 45; Heb, vi. 18; Isa. xlv. 19. 

5. Power to give being and effect to whatsoever is 
thus promised. That which a man leans upon, must 
have strength to bear the weight which is laid upon it. 
This is the great ground of oui" trusting in God at all 
times, even then when all other helps fail, because he 
is " I am." that can create and give a being to ever)' 
thing which he has promised ; because " power belong- 
eth unto" liim, and " in the Lord Jehovah is everlast- 
ing strength," and nothing is " too hard," no help too 
great, for liim who " made heaven and earth," and can 
command all the creatures which he made to serve 
those whom he is pleased to help, Psal. Ixii. 8, 11 ; 
Exod. iii. 14 ; Isa, xxvi. 4 ; Gen. xviii. 14 ; Jer. xxxii. 
17 ; Psal. cxxi. 2 ; Matt, viii, 2, Now whosoever seeks 
for any of these grounds of trust in idols, shall be sure 
to be disappointed. Knowledge they have none, Isa. 
xliv, 9, and therefore love thev have none, for how 



Vee. 2, 3. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



647 



can that love any thing which knows nothing ? Truth 
they have none, neither of being in themselves, nor of 
promise to those that trust in them ; the very essence 
of an idol is to be a lie, to stand for that which it is 
not, and to present that to which it is most unlike, Isa. 
xl. 18; xliv. 20; Jer. X. 14 — 16. And power they have 
none, either to hear or save, Isa. xli. 23, 24, 28, 29 ; 
xlv. 20 ; xlvi. 7. And therefore that repentance which 
shakes off confidence in idols, not only converts a man 
to God, but to himself: it is not only an impious, but 
a sottish thing, and below the reason of a man, first to 
make a thing, and then to worship it. to expect safety 
from that which received being from himself, Isa. xlvi. 
6, 7. These are the three great props of carnal con- 
fidence, foreign interests, domestic treasui'es, supersti- 
tious devotions : when men " please themselves in the 
cliildren of strangers," and have their land '■ full of 
silver and gold," and " treasures," full of " horses" and 
'• chariots," and " full of idols ;" when they hoard up 
provisions and preparations of their own, comply with 
the enemies of God abroad, and corrupt the worshi]) of 
God at home; these are the things for which God 
threatens terribly to shake the earth, and to bring 
down and to make low the loftiness of man. if he do 
not (as Ephraim here by long and sad experience) 
penitently renounce and abjure them all, Isa. ii. 6 — 9. 

And now, this is matter for which we all may be 
humbled. There is no sin more usual among men than 
carnal confidence, to lean on our own wisdom, or 
wealth, or power, or supplies from others, (o deify 
counsels and ai'mies, or horses and treasures, and to let 
our hearts rise or fall, sink or bear up within us, ac- 
cording as the ci-eature is helpful or useless, nearer or 
farther from us ; as if God were not a God afar off, as 
well as near at hand. This we may justly fear, God 
has, and still will visit us, because we do not " sanctify 
the Lord of hosts himself" in our hearts, to make him 
our " fear" and our defence, and that he will blow 
upon all such counsels and preparations as carnal con- 
fidence deifies. 

Therefore we must be exhorted to take off our hopes 
and fears from second causes, not to glory in an arm 
of flesh, or to droop when that fails us ; not to say in 
our prosperity, our mountain is so strong that we shall 
not be shaken ; nor in our sufferings, that our wound is 
incurable, or our grave so deep that we shall never be 
raised again. But to make " the name of the Lord" 
our " strong tower ;" for " they who know thy name 
will trust in thee." And for direction herein we must 
learn to trust in God, 

1. Absolutely and for himself, because he only is ab- 
solute and of himself. Other things, as they have their 
being, so have they their working and power of doing 
good or evil only from him, Matt. iv. 4 ; John xix. 11. 
Nihil rex majiis ■'^"'^ therefore, till he take himself away, 
uhSs" "t.S ''"r '^h°"Sl' ^6 take all other things away 
utabeatereino. se- from US, wc have matter of encourage- 
mVnMEaiijnt msi" mcut and rejoicing in the Lord still, as 
ioq''°ubi''be"e St Davld and Habakkuk resolve, 1 Sam. 
mawieTr,'"^^ ^^^- ^' ^ab. ill. 17, 18. All the world 
cumiuo- Bern. ier. canuot take awav any promise from any 
servant ot (jod ; and there is more ot re- 
ality in the least promise of God, than in the greatest 
performance of the creature. 

2. To trust him in the way of his com- 
in°qi1t«?*,'"oii'(e mandments, not in any precipices or pre- 
Se'S!'Jet°2.''de Ad- sumptious of our own. " Trust in the 
vent In viis gusto- Lord, and do good," Psal. xxxvii. 3. First 

diet, nunquid m „ '. " , ' • ,. , ■ 

ptacipitiis » Bern, tear him, and then trust in him ; he is a 
jCTj^ 14. in Psa. Qui „ j^^j^ „ ^^_^^ „ shield " only unto such, 
Psal. exv. 11. It is high insolence for 
any man to lean upon God without his leave, and he 
allows none to do it but such as fear him, and obey the 
voice of his servants, Isa. 1. 10. 



3. To trust him in the way of liis providence, and 
the use of such means as he has sanctified and appoint- 
ed. Though man lives not by bread alone, but by the 
word of blessing which proceeds out of the nioutli of 
God; yet that word is by God annexed to bread, and 
not to stones ; and that man would not tnist God, but 
mock and tempt him, who would expect to have stones 
turned into bread. If God has provided stairs, it is 
not faith, but fiu^', not confidence, but madness, to go 
down by a precipice : where God prescribes means and 
aftbrds secondary helps, we must obey his order, and 
implore his blessing in -their use. This was Nehemiah's 
way ; he prayed to God, and he petitioned the king, 
Neh. ii. 4. This was Esther's way ; a fast to call upon 
God, and a feast to obtain favour with the king, Esth. 
iv. 16; V. 4. This was Jacob's way; a supplication to 
God, and a present to his brother, Gen. xxxii. 9, 13. 
This was David's way against Goliath ; the name of the 
Lord his trust, and yet a sling and a stone his weapon, 
1 Sam. xvii. 45, 49. This was Gideon's way against 
the Midianites ; his sword must go along with the sword 
of the Lord, not as an addition of strength, but as a 
testimony of obedience, Judg. vii. 18. Prayer is called 
sometimes a lifting up of the voice, sometimes a lifting 
up of the hands, to teach us, that when we pray to God, 
we must as well have a hand to work, as j,,; p„hibebunt 
a tongue to beg. In a word, we must w, sed non prop- 

^ - *^. ... ,, ,, terniede ccelo de- 

use second causes in obedience to bod s scendt.ii. votis 
order, not in confidence of their help. proiuSis'lLiv. l s. 
The creature must be the object of our ^^j^^^^j'l'^l ^f^^^ 
diligence, but God only the object of our itpocaiei, «<=. 

. '1 J J p, , jj Superst. 

ti-ust. 

Now, lastly, from the ground of the church's prayer 
and promise, we learn, that the way to mercy is to be 
in ourselves fatherless. " The poor" (saith David) 
" committeth himself unto thee ; thou art the helper of 
the fatherless," Psal. x. 14; cxlvi. 9. When Jehosha- 
phat knew not what to do, then was a fit time to direct 
his eye unto God, 2 Chron. xx. 12. When the stones 
of Si'on are in the dust, " the time to favour her, yea, 
the set time, is come," Psal. cii. 13. When Israel was 
under heavy bondage, and had not Joseph as a tender 
father to provide for them, then God remembered that 
he was then- Father, and Israel his firstborn, Exod. iv. 
22. Nothing will make us seek for help above ourselves, 
but the apprehension of weakness within ourselves. In 
those creatures that are weakest, nature has put an 
aptitude and inclination to depend on those that are 
stronger. The vine, the ivy, the hop, are taught by 
nature to clasp and cling and wind about stronger trees. 
The greater sense we have of our own vileness, the fitter 
disposition are we in to rely on God. "I will also 
leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, 
and they shall trust in the name of the Lord," Zeph. 
iii. 12 ; Isa. xiv. 32. When a man is proud within, 
and has any thing of his own to lean upon, he will 
hardly trust in God, Prov. iii. 5 ; xxviii. 25. Israel 
never thought of returning to her fh'st husband, till her 
way was hedged up with thorns, and no means left to 
enjoy her former lovers, Hos. ii. 6, 7- When the enemy 
has shut up and intercepted all her passages to Dan 
and Beth-el, to Egj-pt and Asspia, that .she has neither 
friends nor idols to flee to, then she thinks of returning 
to her first husband, even to God. 

Now irom hence we learn, 1. The condition of the 
church in this world, which is to be as an orphan, des- 
titute of all succour and favour, as an outcast, whom 
"no man seeketh after," Jer. xxx. 17. Paul entertained 
low thoughts of the world, and the world thought as 
basely of him. "The world" (saith he) "is crucified 
unto me, and I unto the world," Gal. vi. 14. Before 
conversion, the world is an Egj-pt to us, a place of 
bondage ; after conversion, it is a wilderness to us, a 
place of emptiness and temptations. 



648 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



2. The backwardness of man toivards gi-ace ; wc go 
not to God till we are brought to extremities, and all 
other helps fail us. The poor prodigal never thought 
of looking after a father, till he found himself in a 
fatherless condition, and utterly destitute of all relief, 
Luke XV. IT, 18. 

3. The right disposition and preparation for mercy, 
which is to be an orphan, destitute of all self-confidence, 
and broken off from all other comforts. " When the 
poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their 
tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I 
;he God of Israel will not forsake them," Isa. xli. 17. 
God will " repent himself for his servants, when he 
seeth that their power is gone," Deut. xxxii. 36, when 
there is dignus vindice nodus, an extremity fit for Di- 
vine power to interpose. Christ is set forth as a phy- 
sician, which siipposeth sickness ; as a fountain, which 
siipposeth uncleanncss ; as meat, which supposeth emp- 
tiness ; as clothing, which supposeth nakedness. He 
never finds us till we are lo.st sheep; when we have 
lost all, then we are fit to follow him, and not before. 

4. The roots of true repentance. Nos pupilU, tu 
miiericors. The sense of want and emptiness in our- 
selves, the apprehension of favour and mercy in God. 
Conviction of sin in us, and of righteousness in him, 
John xvi. 9, 10 ; of crookedness in us, and of glory in 
him, Isa. xl. 4, 5. 

Hereby room is made for the entertainment of mercy ; 
where sin abounds, grace will more abound, and the 
more the soul finds itself exceeding miserable, the 
more will the mercy of God appear exceeding merciful, 
Rom. V. 20 : and hereby God shows his wisdom in the 
seasonable dispensing of mercy then when we are in 
greatest extremity ; as fire is hottest in the coldest 
A\eather. God delights to be seen in the mount, at the 
grave, to have his way in the sea, and his paths in the 
deep waters. Jlercies are never so sweet as when they 
are seasonable, and never so seasonable as in the very 
turning and critical point, when misery weighs down, 
and nothing but mercy turns the scale. 

5. How to fit ourselves for the mercy of God, 
namely, to find ourselves destitute of all inward or out- 
ward comfort, and to seek for it only in him. Beggars 
do not put on scarlet, but rags, to prevail with men for 
relief:* as Bcn-hadad's servants put on ropes when they 
would beg mercy of the king of Israel. In a shipwreck 
a man will not load him Mith money, chains, treasure, 
rich apparel ; but commit himself to the sea naked, 
and esteem it mercy enough to have tabulam post 
7iauJ'ragium, one poor plank to carry him to the shore. 
It is not exaltation enough to Joseph except he be 
taken out of a prison to honour. 

0. That we should not be broken with diffidence or 
distrust in times of trouble, but remember it is the con- 
dition of the church to be an orphan. It is the way 
whereby Moses came to be the son of Pharaoh's 
daughter ; when his own parents durst not own him, 
the mercy of a prince found him out to advance him ; 
and when he was nearest to perishing, he was nearest 
unto honour. 

In the civil law we find provision 
s^Sol?&Si',£ ct ws'^e for such as were cast ovit, and cx- 
i-ce. 40. coct. d« nosed to the wide world, some hosiiitals 

l^l>iacopi« et Cter. * . , I • , • . 

..■ct. 1 3. Vide to entertain them, some liberties to com- 
J,fnl°*i.!™«|;59. fort and relieve their misery. .\nd a like 
care we find in Christ ; the Jews had no 
sooner cast out the man that was born blind, whose 
])arents durst not be seen in liis cause for fear of tlie 
like usage, but the mercy of Clirist presently found 
liim, and bestowed comfort upon him, John ix. 35. 

• Mcnilici cum clccmosynam petunt, non pretiosas vcstes 
ostciulunt, sed seminuda membra, aut ulcera si habuerint, ut 
cJiius ad miscricordiam videiitis animus iiicliiietiir. Bern. scr. 
4. dc Advent. 



This is the true David,t to whom all helpless persons, 
that are in distress, in debt, in bitterness of soul, may 
resort and find entertainment, 1 Sam. xxii. 2. 

7. To behave ourselves as pupils under such a Guar- 
dian ; to be sensible of our infancy, minority, disability 
to order or direct our own ways, and so deny ourseh es, 
and not lean on our own wisdom ; to be sensible how 
this condition exposes us to the injuries of strangers, 
for because we are " chosen out of the world, therefore 
the world hateth" us; and so to be vigilant over our 
ways, and not trust ourselves alone in the hands of 
temptation, nor wander from our Guardian, but always 
to yield to his wisdom and guidance. Lastly, to com- 
fort ourselves in this, that while we are in our minority, 
we are under the mercy of a Father ; a mercy of con- 
servation by his providence, giving us all good things 
richly to enjoy, even all things necessary unto life and 
godliness ; a mercy of protection, defending us by his 
power from all evil ; a mercy of education and instruc- 
tion, teaching us bj'liis word and Spirit ; a mercy of 
communion, many ways familiarly conversing with us, 
and manifesting himself unto us ; a mercy of guidance 
and government by the laws of his family ; a mercy of 
discipline, fitting us by fatherly chastisements for those 
further honours and employments to which he will 
advance us ; and when our minority is over, and we 
once are come to a perfect man, we shall then be actu- 
ally admitted into that inheritance immortal, invisible, 
and that fadeth not away, which the same mercy which 
at first purchased, now prepares and reserves for us. 

Ver. 4. / itill heal their backsliding, I will love them 
freely: for mine anger is turned aicay from him. 

In the fornser words we have considered both Israel's 
petition in time of trouble, and the promise and cove- 
nant in which thereupon they bind themselves. In 
these and the consequent words to the end of the 8th 
verse, we have the gracious answer of God to both, pro- 
mising both in his free love to gi'ant their petition, and 
by his free grace to enable them to perform the cove- 
nant which they had made. 

The petition consisted of two parts: 1. That God 
would " take away all iniquity." 2. That he would do 
them good, or " receive" them " graciously." To both 
these God gives them a full and gracious answer: 1. 
That he ^^ ill " take away all iniquity," " I will heal 
their backsliding." 2. That he would receive them 
graciously, do them good, and heap all manner of bless- 
ings upon them, which are expressed by the various 
metaphors of fruitfulness ; opposite to the contrary ex- 
pressions of judgment in former parts of the prophecy. 

" I will heal their backsliding." This is one of the 
names by which God is pleased to make himself known 
to his people, " I am the Lord that healeth thee," 
Exod. XV. 26; and, " Keturn, ye backsliding children, 
and I will heal your backslidings," Jer. iii. 22. 

Now God heals sin in a fourfold manner. 

1. By a gracious pardon, buning, covering, not im- 
puting them to us. So it seems to be expounded, Psal. 
ciii. 3 ; and that which is called healing in one place, is 
called forgiveness in another, Matt. xiii. lo ; Mark iv. 1 2. 

2. By a spiritual and eflectual reformation, purging 
the conscience from dead works, making it strong and 
able to serve God in new obedience; for that which 
health is to the body, holiness is to the soul. There- 
fore " the Sun of righteousness" is said to " arise with 
healing in his wings," Mai. iv. 2 ; whereby wo are to 
understand the gracious influence of the THoIv Spirit 
conveying the virtue of the blood of Christ to tlie con- 

t David homines in angiistiis constitiitos ct opprcssns sere 
alieno in suam tvitclam suscipicns, typns Christi est publica- 
iiiif ot peccatores recipiontis. Ciloss. Pbilulog. Sacr- lib. 2. 
p. -IJI. 



Vee. 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



640 



science, even as the beams of the sun do the heat and 
influence thereof to the earth, tliereby calling out the 
herbs and flowers, and healing those deformities which 
winter had brought upon it. 

3. By removing and withdrawing judgments, which 
the sins of a people had brought, lilce wounds or sick- 
nesses, upon them. So healing is opposed to smiting 
and wounding, Deut. xxxii. 39; Job v. 18; Hos. vi. 
1, 2; Jer. xxxiii. 5, 6. 

4. By comforting against the anguish and distress 
which sin is apt to bring upon the conscience. For as 
in physic there are purgatives to cleanse away corrupt 
humours, so there are cordials likewise to strengthen 
and refresh weak and dejected patients. And this is 
one of Christ's principal works, to bind and heal the 
broken in heart, to restore comforts to mourners, to set 
at liberty them that are bruised, and to have mercy 
upon those whose bones are vexed, Psal. cxlvii. 3; 
Isa. Ivii. 18, 19; Luke iv. 18; Psah vi. 2, 3. I am 
not willing to shut any of tliese out of the meaning of 
the text, and that for a twofold reason : 

1. Because it is an answer to that prayer, "Take 
away all iniquity." The " all " that is in it, the guilt, 
the stain, the power, the punishment, the anguish, 
whatever evil it is apt to bring upon the conscience, 
remove it all, let it not do us any hurt. 

2. Because God's works are perfect ; where he for- 
gives sin, he removes it ; where he convinces of right- 
eousness, to the pax'don of sin, he convinces also of judg- 
ment, to the casting out of the prince of this world, 
and brings forth that judgment to victory. Matt. xii. 20. 

" Their backsliding." Then- prayer was against " all 
Iniquity," and God in his answer thereunto singles out 
one kind of iniquity, but one of the greatest, by name. 
And that, 1. To teach them and us, when we pray 
against sin, not to content ourselves with generalities, 
but to bewail our great and special sins by name, those 
especially which have been most comprehensive, and 
proved the seminaries of many others. 

2. To comfort them ; for if God pardon by name 
the greatest sin, then surely none of the rest will stand 
in the way of his mercy; if he pardon the talents, we 
need not doubt but he will pardon the pence too. 
Paul was guilty of many other sins, but when he will 
magnify the grace of Chi-ist, he makes mention of his 
great sins, a blasphemer, a persecutor, injurious ; and 
comforts himself in the mercy which he had obtained 
against them, 1 Tim. i. 13. 

3. To intimate the great guilt of apostacy and re- 
bellion against God. After we have known him, and 
tasted of his mercy, and given up ourselves to his ser- 
vice, and come out of Egjqit and Sodom, then to look 
back again, and to be false in his covenant, this God 
looks on, not as a single sin, but as a compound of all 
sins. When a man turns from God, he does as it were 
resume and take home again upon his conscience all 
the sins of his life. 

4. To proportion his answer to their- repentance. 
They confess their apostacy : they had been in covenant 
with God, they confess he was their " first husband," 
Hos. ii. 7 ; and they forsook him, and sought to horses, 
to men, to idols, to vanity and lies : this is the sin they 
chiefly bewail ; and therefore this is the sin which God 
chiefly singles out to pardon and to heal them of. 

This is the great goodness of God toward 
^"'- '^c°"p?t '""• '• those that pray in sincerity, that he fits 

his mercy ad cardinem desiderii, answers 
them in the main of their desires, " Be it unto thee 
even as thou wilt." 

" I will love them freely." This is set down as the 

* Si vera sit gratia, id est, gratuita, nihil invenit in homine 
cui merito debeatur, &c. Aug. lib. ile Patient, c. 20. et alibi 
passim. Ex se siimit materiam et velut quoddam seminarium 



fountain of that remission, sanctification, and comfort, 
which are here promised. It comes not from our con- 
version to God, but from God's free love and grace to 
us. And this is added, 

1 . To humble them, that they should not ascribe any 
thing to themselves, their repentance, their prayers, 
their covenants and promises, as if these had been the 
means to procure mercy for them, or as if there were 
any objective grounds of loveliness in them, to stir up 
the love of God towards them.* It is not for their 
sake that he does it, but for his own : The Lord sets his 
love upon them because he loved them, Deut. vii. 7, 
S. '■ Xot for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, 
be it known unto you," Ezek. xxxvi. 32. He " will have 
mercy on whom" he "will have mercy," Rom. ix. 15. 

2. To support them, above the guilt of their great- 
est sins. Jlen think notliing more easy while they live 
in sin, and are not afl'ected with its weight and heinous- 
ness, than to believe in mercy and pardon. But when 
the soul, in conversion to God, feels the heavy burden 
of some great sins, when it considers its rebellion, and 
apostacy, and backsliding from God, it will then be 
very apt to think God will not forgive nor heal such 
great wickedness ; there is a natural Novatianism in 
the timorous conscience of convinced sinners, to doubt 
and question pardon for sins of apo.stacy, and falling- 
after repentance. Therefore in this case God takes a 
penitent off from the consideration of himself by his 
own thoughts, to the height and excellency of His 
thoughts who knows how to pardon abundantly, Isa. 
Iv. 7 — 9 ; Jer. xxix. 1 1 ; Ezek. xxxvii. 3. Nothing is 
too hard for love, especially free love, that has no 
foundation or inducement from without itself. 

And because we read before, Hos. viii. 5, that God's 
" anger " was " kindled against them," therefore he 
here adds that this also should be " turned away" from 
them. Anger will consist with love ; we 
find God angry with Moses, and Aaron, *""°'iJ5,'.'t '*- " 
and Miriam, and Asa ; and ho does some- 
times " visit with the rotl " and " with stripes," where 
he yet does " not utterly take " away his " loving-kind- 
ness" from a people, Psal. Ixxxix. 32, 33. A man may- 
be angry with his wife, or child, or friend, whom he 
yet dearly loves. And God is said to be thus angry 
with his people, when the eff'ects of displeasure are 
discovered towards them. Now, on then- repentance 
and conversion, God promises not only to " love them 
freely," but to clear up his countenance toward them, 
to make them by the removal of judgments to see and 
know the fruits of his fi-ee love and bounty toward 
them. When David called Absalom home from banish- 
ment, this was an efl'ect of love ; but when he said, 
" Let him not see my face," this was the continuation 
of anger ; but at last, when he admitted him into his 
presence and kissed him, then that anger too was 
turned away from him, 2 Sam. xiv. 21, 24, 33. 

These words then contain God's merciful answer to 
the first part of Israel's prayer, for the taking away of 
all iniquity, which had been the fountain of those sad 
judgments under which they languished and pined 
away. A\Tierein there are two parts : I. The ground of 
God's answer, his free love. II. A double fruit of that 
love: 1. In healing their backsliding. 2. In removing 
his anger and heavy judgments from them. We will 
briefly handle them in the order of the text. 

" I will heal their backsliding." AVhen God's people 
retm-n to him and pray against sin, God, out of his 
free love, heals them of it. He first teaches them what 
to ask, and then tells them what he will give. Thus 
we find conversion and healing joined together, Isa. vi. 

miserendi. — Miserendi causam et originem sumit ex proprio : 
judicandi vel iilciscendi magis ex noslro, Bern. serm. 5. in 
Natali Dom. 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



10. " And they shall return even to the Lord, and he 
shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them," Isa. 
xix. 22. " lleturn, ye backsliding children, and I will 
heal vour backslidiiigs," Jer. iii. 22. Men, if they be 
injured and provoked by those whom they have it in 
their power to ruin, though they return, and cry pec- 
cavi, and are ready to ask forgiveness, yet many times, 
out of pride and revenge, will take theu- time and op- 
portunity to repay the wrong.* But God does not so; 
his pardons, as all his other gifts, are without expro- 
bration ; as soon as ever his servants come back to him 
with tears and confession, he looks not on them with 
scorn, but with joy ; his mercy makes more haste to 
embrace them, than their repentance to return unto 
him, Luke xv. 20 ; then out comes the wine, the oil, 
the balm, the cordials ; then the wounds of a Saviour 
do, as it were, bleed afresh to drop mercy into the 
sores of such a penitent. Oh, though he be not a duti- 
ful, not " a pleasant child," yet he is a child ; though 
"I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him 
still : therefore my bowels are troubled for him ; I will 
surely have mercy upon him," Jer. xxxi. 20. The 
Lord greatly complains of the inclination of his people 
to backsliding, and yet he cannot find in his heart to 
destroy them, but expresses a kind of conflict between 
justice and mercy, and at last resolves, " 1 
ur^irtStoltrtlfr ani God, and not man ;" I can as well heal 
oifc.coiittniio.i- their backsliding by my love, as revenge 
juitiiia miserum it by my justicc ; thereiore " 1 will not exe- 
i'"iSSik["ic''a- cute the fierceness of mine anger," but I 
I'.illccnS.'S! '"'ill cause thera to " walk after the Lord," 
\u uirn. (crm. 1. JJos. xi. 7, 9, 10. Yca, SO mcrciful he is, 
that even on a hj'])ocritical conversion, 
when his people did but flatter and lie unto him, and 
" their heart was not right with him, neither were thc)' 
stedfiist in his covenant ;" yet the text saith, " he, be- 
ing full of compassion, forgave theu- iniquity," (not as 
to the justification of their persons, for that is never 
without faith unfeigned, but as to the mitigation of 
their punishment,) "and destroyed them not: yea, 
many a time turned he his anger away, and did not 
stir u]) all his wrath" against them, Psal. Ixxviii. 34 — 
38. So Ezek. xx. 17, ''Nevertheless mine eye spared 
them from destroying them, neither did I make an end 
of them in the wilderness." 

Now thc metaphorical word both here and so often 
elsewhere used in this argument, leads us to look on 
sinners as patients, and on God as a Physician. By 
which two considerations we shall find set forth fully 
to us the exceeding mercy of God in the pardon and 
purging away of sin. 

Healing, then, is a relative word, and leads us, first, 
to the consideration of a patient who is to be healed, 
and that is here a grievous sinner fallen into a relapse. 
Healin" is of two sorts ; the healing of a sickness by 
a physician; the healing of a wound by a surgeon. 
And sin is both a sickness and a wound. " The whole 
head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole 
of the foot even unto the head there is no soundne.ss in 
it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores," 
Isa. i. 5, 6. A sickness that wants healing, a wound 
that wants binding, Ezek. xxxiv. 4. A sick sinner, 
that wants a physician to call to repentance. Matt. ix. 
12, 13; a wounded sinner, that wants a Samaritan (so 
the Jews called Christ, John viii. 48) to bind up and 
pour in wine and oil, Luke x. 34. 

Diseases are of several sorts, but those are, of all 
other, most dangerous that are in the vital parts : as all 
the diseases of sin are, and from thence spread themselves 

• FAirfp ytip T« \6\ov yt koX avTjjfjiap Karatrt^l/ri, 
'AWd yi Kai /iiTuiriffOtp tx" kotov, Sipaa TtXlaati 
'Ed arnVunriu iaio-r Hum. Iliad. I. 

ii'>s3 111 pr^esoiH TibcriiiH civilitor habuit, soil in aiiimo re- 
volvi'Dle irdj, I'tidiusi imiichis ofTvDsioub langiicrat, mcmoria 



over the whole man. Ignorance, pride, carnal prin- 
ciples, corrupt judgment, diseases of the head- hard- 
ness, stubbornness, atheism, rebellion, diseases of the 
heart ; lust, a dart in the liver ; corrupt communication, 
the effect of putrid lungs ; gluttony and drunkenness, 
thc swellings and dropsies of the belly ; despair and hor- 
ror, the grief of the bowels; apostacy, a recidivation or 
relapse into all ; an ear that cannot hear God speak, 
Jer. vi. 10 ; an eye quite closed up, that cannot see 
him strike, Isa. xxvi. 11 ; Jer. xliv. 18 ; a palate out of 
taste, that can neither savour nor relish hea>eiily 
things, Rom. viii. 5; lips poisoned, Rom. iii. 13; a 
tongue set on fire, James iii. 6 ; flesh consumed ; bones 
sticking out, sore vexed and broken to pieces, Job 
xxxiii. 21; Psal. vi. 2; li. 8. Some diseases are dull, 
others acute ; some stupifying, others tormenting. Sin 
is all ; a stupifying palsy, that takes away feeling, Eph. 
iv. 19; a plague in the heart, which sets all on tire, 
1 Kings viii. 38 ; Hos. vii. 4. 

Let us consider a little the proper passions and 
effects of most diseases, and see how they meet in sin. 

1. Pain and distemper. This, first or last, is, in all, 
sin, for it begets in wicked and impenitent men the 
pain of guilt, horror, trembling of heart, anguish of 
conscience, fear of wrath, expectation of judgment 
and fiery indignation, as in Cain, Pharaoh, Ahab, Felix, 
and divers others. Gen. iv. 13, 14; Exod. ix. 27. 28; 
1 Kings xxi. 27 ; Acts xxiv. 25 ; Isa. xxxiii. 14 ; Ileb. 
ii. lo; Rom. viii. 15; Heb. x. 27. And in penitent 
men it begets the pain of shame, and sorrow, and in- 
quietude of spirit, a wound in the spirit, a prick in the 
very heart, Rom. vi. 21 ; Ezek. x%-i. 61 ; 2 Cor. vii. 10; 
Prov. xviii. 14; Acts ii. 37. Penitency and pain are 
words of one derivation, and are very near of kin to 
one another. Never was any wound cured without 
pain, never any sin healed without sorrow. 

2. AVeakness and indisposedness to the actions of 
life. Sin is like an unruly spleen, or a greedy wen 
in the body, that sucks all nourishment, and converts 
all supplies to its own growth, and so exhausts the 
strength and vigour of the soul, making it unfit and 
unable to do any good. AMienever it sets about any 
dutv, till sin be cured, it goes about it „ „. 

like an arm out of joint, whicn, when you poXtXfutra toS 
would move it one way, falls back an- XriSTEth.' 1. 1. c. 
other. It faints, and flags, and is not ""• 
able to put forth any skill, or any delight, to the per- 
formance of any good duty. Naturally men are " re- 
probate," or void of judgment, " unto every good work." 
Tit. i. 16. Godliness is a mystery, a spiritual skill and 
trade ; learning, and use, and experience, and much 
exercise are required in its practice, 1 Tim. iii. 16: 
Phil. iv. 11 ; Heb. v. 13, 14. To be " -sinners," and to 
be " without strength," in the apostle's phrase, is all 
one, Rom. v. 6, 8. And look how much flesh there is 
in any man, so much disability is there to perform any 
thing that is good, Rom. vii. 18. Therefore the hands 
of sinners are said to " hang down," and their "knees" 
to be "feeble," and their "feet" to be "lame," that 
cannot make "straight paths" till they "he healed," 
Heb. xii. 12, 13. If they at any time on natural dic- 
tates, or some sudden strong conviction, or pang of 
fear, or stirrings of conscience, attempt any good work, 
to pray, to repent, to believe, to obey, they arc quite 
out of their element ; they are wise to do evil, but to 
do good they have no knowledge ; they presently grow 
weary of any attempts at well-doing, and cannot hold 
out or persevere in them. 

3. Decay and consumption. Sin wastes and wears 

valebat. Tacit Annal. 1. 4. Non enim Tibcrium qiiamvis 
Iriennio post cajdein Sejani, quao caiteros nioUirc solciit, lein- 
p\is, prcces, satias mitigabaut, quin incerla ct aboliia pro 
cravissimis ct rccenlibus puniret. Id. Annal. lib. 6. A id. et. 
Aristot. Ethic. lib. 4. cap. 11. 



Ver. 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



651 



_, ,.. ,. out the vigour of soul and body, feeds 

Tabificie mentis ,, ~ . - i i 

periurbiitioncs. cic. OH all oui' tiiue aud Strength, and ex- 
us»t. hausts it in the services of lust. Sick- 
ness is a chargeable thing, a consumption at once to 
the person and to the estate. The poor -noman in the 
gospel, -vvho had an issue of blood, " spent all her 
living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any," 
Luke viii. 43. So poor sinners empty all the powers 
of soul, of body, of time, of estate, every thing within 
theii' reach, on their lusts, and are as unsatisfied at last 
as at the first, Eccl. i. 8. Like a silkworm, which works 
out its bowels into a mass wherein itself is buried, so 
sin wearies men out, and sucks away their radical 
strength in its service, and yet never gives them over ; 
but as Pharaoh's taskmasters exacted the brick when 
they had taken away the straw, so lust consumes and 
weakens natural strength, in the obedience of it ; and 
yet when nature is exhausted, the strength of lust is as 
great, and the commands as tjTannous, as before, Isa^ 
Ivii. 10; Jer. ii. 25. We are to distinguish between 
the vital force of the faculties, and the activity of lust 
which sets them on work ; that decays and hastens to 
death, but sin retains its strength and vigour still, no- 
thing kills that but the blood of Christ : and the decay 
of nature arises out of the strength of sin ; * the more any 
man, in any lust whatsoever, makes himself a servant of 
sin, and the more busy and active he is in that service, 
the more will it eat into and consume him, as the 
hotter the fever is, the sooner is the body wasted and 
dried up by it. 

4. Deformity. Sickness withers the beauty of the 
body, makes it of a glorious a ghastly and loathsome 
spectacle. Go to the comeliest person living after a 
long and pining sickness, and you will not find thera 
the same : a wan countenance, a shrivelled flesh, a lean 
visage, a hollow and standing eye, a trembling hand, a 
.stammering tongue, a bowed back, a feeble knee, a 
swollen belly ; nothing left but the stakes of the hedge, 
and a few sinews to hold them together. 
'n?i'us in JitS™. Bchold here the picture of a sinner, 
Sapientis animus swcUcd with pridc, pincd witli envy, 

nimquam turgescit, , i-i x t t i 

niinquam tumet Dowed With carthlmess, wasted and eaten 
3.'°'ocSn«ein''fcms Up with lust, " filthy" and loathsome as a 
taifpS!""'"" dead carcass, Psal.'xiv. 3; Ezek. xvi. 4, 
iHis'°iiaKB.ma''ubi- °' ^^T^^u thou secst an unmerciful man, 
dine, mails con'suiis that has no compassion left in him, think 
TacTt AnnaS.Te"'' thou beholdcst Judas or king Jehoram, 
W'hose " bowels fell out by reason of his 
sore diseases," 2 Chron. xxi. 19. 'When thou seest a 
worldly man, whose heart is glued to earthly things, 
think on the poor woman who was " bowed together, 
and could in no wise lift up herself," Luke xiii. 11. 
When thou seest a hypocrite, walldng crooked and un- 
evenly in the ways of God, think upon Mephibosheth 
or Asa, lame, halting, diseased in their feet. When 
thou seest a proud, ambitious man, think upon Herod 
eaten up with vermin. O, if the diseases of the soul 
could come forth and show themselves in the body, and 
Avork such deformity there, (where it would not do the 
thousandth part so much hurt,) as they do within ; if a 
man could in the glass of the word see the ugliness of 
the one, as plainly as in a material glass the foulness of 
the other ; how would this make him cry out, " My 
head, my head ;" " my bowels, my bowels ;" " my lean- 
ness, my leanness ;" " unclean, unclean ! " No man 
thinks any shape ugly enough to represent a devil by ; 
yet regard his original, and he was a most glorious 
creature ; sin turns him into a serpent or (bagon. 
There is something of the monster in every sin, the belly 
or the feet set in the place of the head or heart ; sen- 
sual and worldly lusts set up above reason, and corrupt 
reason above grace. 

* ".•lTr\i|<rxos ijxouAosos ope Jis. Arist. Eth.l. 3. c. ult. TIo- 
vtjpia Twi' dv^pw-TruiU airXiiffrotfTi. — ' ATrttoos tj t^s ilrtdiffxtai 



Now because the sickness here spoken of is a falling 
sickness, and that the worst kind of fall, not forward in 
our way or race, as every good man sometimes falls, 
where a man has the help of his knees and hands to 
break the blow, to prevent or lessen the hurt, and to 
make him to rise again ; but as old Eli's fall, a falling 
backward, 1 Sam. iv. 18; where a man can put forth 
no part to save the whole, and so breaks and bruises 
himself thereby more dangerously. Therefore as it is a 
sickness which requires curing, so it is a wound which 
requires healing and binding. The ancients compare 
it to falling into a pit full of dirt and stones, where a 
man not only defiles, but miserably breaks and bruises 
himself. There is contritio, solulio continui, suppura- 
tio, sanies, &c. ; all the evils of a dangerous and mor- 
tal wound. 

Add to all this, that in this diseased and wounded 
condition a man has, 1. No power to heal or to help 
himself, but in that resjject he must cry out with them 
in the prophet, " Why is my pain perpetual, and my 
wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed ? " Jer. 
XV. 18. 

2. No desire, no will, no thought to inquire or send 
after a i)hysician who may heal him ; but , .,, . . 

XX '' . . •, X . Libpns aesrotat qm 

is well contented rather to continue as medico non credit 
he is, than to be put to the pain and dinat.°AriS. Ethic, 
trouble of a cure ; yea, he pleases himself ''''■ '• 
in the goodness of his own condition, Rev. iii. 17 ; 
Matt. ix. 12. 

3. He is in the hands of his cruel enemy, who takes 
no pity on him, but by flattery and tyranny, and new 
temptations, continually cherishes the disease, 2 Tim. 
ii. 26. 

4. When the true Physician comes he shuts the door 
against him, refuses his counsel, rejects his receipts, 
quarrels with his medicines ; they are too bitter, or too 
strong and purging, or too sharp and searching ; he 
will not be healed at all except it may be in his own 
way, Prov. i. 24, 25; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16; Ezek. xxiv. 
13; Matt, xxiii. 37; Jer. xiii. 11. Thus we have taken 
a view of the patient, sick, weak, pained, consumed, de- 
formed, wounded, and sore bruised ; without power or 
help at home, without friends abroad ; no sense of 
danger, no desire of change ; patient of his disease, im- 
patient of his cure ; but one means in the world to help 
Iiim, and he unable to procure it, and, being offered to 
him, unwilling to entertain it : who can expect after all 
this, but to hear the knell ring for such, and to see the 
grave open to receive them ? 

Now let us take a view of the Physician. Surely an 
ordinary one would be so far from visiting such a pa- 
tient, that in so desperate a condition as this he would 
quite forsake him ; as their use is to leave their pa- 
tients when they lie a dying. Here then observe the 
singular goodness of this Physician. 

1. Though other physicians judge of the disease 
when it is brought to them, yet the patient first feels it 
and complains of it himself; but this Physician gives 
the patient the very feeling of his disease, and is fain 
to take notice of that as well as to minister the cure. 
" He went on frowardly in the way of his heart," saith 
the Lord, and pleased himself in his own ill condition ; 
" I have seen his ways, and will heal him," Isa. Ivii. 
17, 18. 

2. Other patients send for the physician, and use 
many entreaties to be visited and their case undertaken 
by him. Here the Physician comes unsent for, and en- 
treats the sick person to be healed. The world is un- 
done by falling oft' from God, and yet God is the first 
that begins the reconciliation ; that which hinders it is 
in the world, and not in him : therefore there is a great 
emphasis in the apostle's expression, " God was in 

0u<rf?. Id. Polit. 1.2. Naturalia desidevia finita sunt ; ex falsa 
opinione nascentia, ubi desinant uou habent, &c. Sea. Ep. 16. 



662 



.\N EXPOSITIOX OF 



Chap. XIV. 



Christ, reconciling the world unto liimself,'' not himself 
unto the world ; he entreats us to be reconciled, 2 Cor. 
V. 19, 20. He is found of them that sought him not, 
Isa. Ixv. 1 ; and his office is not only to " save," but to 
"seek that which was lost," Luke xix. 10. 

3. Other physicians are well used, and entertained 
■with respect and honour; but our patient hero neglects 
and misuses his Physician, falls from him, betakes him- 
self to mountebanks and physicians of no value ; yet 
continues he his mercy, comes when he is forsaken, 
nay, repelled. '• I have spread out my hands all the 
day unto a rebellious people," Isa. Ixv. 2. 

4. Other physicians have usually ample 
nirli'juiiiiB'oesar? ^^'^ honourable rewards for the attend- 
sueton. in Julio. ancc they give ; but this Physician comes 
Viimori)orumpre'i.i only out of lovc, hcals freely; nay, is 
tl>b«specuni«in" bountiful to his patient, not only lieals 
T«™'AnSiib.ii. him, but bestows gifts upon him, gives 
the visit, gives the jihysic, sends the min- 
isters and servants who watch and tend the patient. 

5. Other physicians prescribe a bitter potion for the 
sick person to take ; this Physician cWnks of the bit- 
terest himself. Others prescribe the sore to be lanced ; 
this Physician is wounded and smitten himself Others 
order the jiatient to bleed; here the Physician bleeds 
himself. Yea, he is not only the Physician, but the 
physic, and gives himself, his ovm flesh, his own blood, 
to heal the soul of his patient; dies himself, that his 
patient may live. " With his stripes we are healed," 
Isa. liii. 5. 

We should from all this learn, 1. To admire the 
unsearchable riches of the mercy of our God, who is 
pleased in our misery to prevent us with goodness, and 
when we neither feel our disease, nor desire a remedy, 
is pleased to convince us of our sins ; " Thou hast fallen 
by thine iniquity :' to invite us to repentance ; " Take 
with you words, and turn to the Lord:" to put words 
into our mouth, and to draw our petition for us.; " Say 
unto him, Take away all iniquity," &c. : to furnish us 
■with arguments; AVe are "fatherless," "in thee" such 
find " mercy :" to encourage us with promises ; " I will 
heal," "I will love:" to give us his ministers to pro- 
claim these mercies to us, and his Spirit to ap])ly them. 
If he did not convince us that " iniquity" would be our 
" ruin," Ezek. xviii. 30, we should hold it fast, and be 
pleased with our disease, like a mad-man, 
n'umji'fcund"mVi- that quaiTcls with his cure, and had 
s^'ep"'!""""" rather continue mad than be healed, John 
iii. 19—21. 

If, being convinced, he did not invito us to repent- 
ance, we should run away from him, as Adam did. 
No man loves to bo in the com])any of an enemy, much 
less when that enemy is a judge. " They have turned 
their back unto me, and not their face," Jer. ii. 27. 
Adam will liide himself "from the presence of the 
Lord," Gen. iii. 8 ; and Cain will go " out from the 
presence of the Lord," chap. iv. 10. Guilt cannot look 
upon majesty ; stubble dares not come near the fire ; if 
■n-e be in our sins " we cannot stand before" God, Ezra 
ix. 15. 

If, being invited, he did not put words into our 
mouths, we should not know what to say to him. Wo 
know not wherewith to " come before the Lord," or to 
" bow" ourselves " before the high God," if he do not 
show us " what is good," Micah vi. 6, 8. AVhcre God 
is the judge, ■who cannot be mocked or deceived, who 
knows all things, and, if our heart condemn us, i's 
greater than our heart, and wherever we hide can find 
us out, and make our sin find us too. Gal. vi. 7 ; 1 John 
iii. 20; Numb, xxxii. 23; where, I s,ay, this God is the 
judge, there guilt stops the mouth, and makes the sin- 
ner speechless. Matt. xxii. 12 ; Kom. iii. 19. Nay, the 
best of us " know not what we should pray for as we 
ought," except tlie Spirit be pleased to help " our in- 



firmities," Kom. viii. 26. When we are taught what to 
say, if God do " not withdraw his anger," we shall 
never be able to reason with him. Job ix. 13, 14. 
" Withdraw thine hand far from me : and let not thy 
dread make me afraid. Then call thou, and I will an- 
swer : or let rac speak, and answer thou nic," Job xiii. 
21, 22. If he do not reveal mercy, if he do not pro- 
mise love or healing, if he do not make it appear that 
he is a God that heareth prayers, flesh will not dare to 
come near unto him, 2 Sam. vii. 27. We can never 
pray till we can cry, "Abba, Father;" we can never 
call unto him but in " the multitude of his mercies." 
As the earth is s^hut and bound up by frost and cold, 
and puts not forth her precious fruits till the warmth 
and heat of the summer call them out : so the heart, 
under the cold affections of fear and guilt, under the 
dai'k apprehensions of wrath and judgment, is so con- 
tracted that it knows not to draw near to God ; but 
when mercy shines, when the love of God is shed abroad 
in it, then also is the heart itself shed abroad and en- 
larged to pour out itself unto God. Even when dis- 
tressed sinners pray, their prayer proceeds from appre- 
hensions of meity ; for prayer is the child of faith, and 
the object of faith is mercy, Rom. x. 14; James v. 15. 

2. The way to prize this mercy is to grow acquainted 
with our own sickness, to see our face in the glass of 
the law ; to consider how odious it renders us to God, 
how desperately miserable in ourselves. The deeper 
the sense of misery, the higher the estimation of mercy. 
When the apostle looked on himself as "chief" of sin- 
ners, then he accounted it "a faithful saying, and 
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into 
the world to save sinners," 1 Tim. i. 15. Till we be 
sick and weary we shall not look after a physician to 
heal and ease us. Matt. ix. 12 ; xi. 28 ; till we be pricked 
in our hearts we shall not be hasty to inquire after the 
means of salvation. Acts ii. 37. Though the proclama- 
tion of pardon be made to " whosoever will," Kev. xxii. 
17, yet none are willing till they be brought to extremi- 
ties : as men cast not their goods into the sea, till they 
see they must perish themselves if they do not. Some 
men must be bound before they can be cured. All that 
God does to us in conversion, he docs most freely ; but a 
gift is not a gift till it be received, Rom. v. 17 ; John i. 
12 ; and we naturally refuse and reject Christ when he is 
offered, Isa. liii. 3 ; John i. 1 1, because he is not offered 
but upon these terms, that we deny ourselves, and take up 
a cross, and follow him. Therefore we must be wrought 
upon by some terror or other, 2 Cor. v. 1 1 . '\Micn we 
find the wrath of God abiding on us, and our souls 
shut under it as in a prison, John iii. 36 : Gal. iii. 22, 
and the fire of it working and boiling lilie ])oison in 
our consciences, then we shall value mercy, and cry for 
it, as the prophet does, " Heal me, O Lord, and I shall 
be healed ; save me, and I shall be saved : for thou art 
mv praise," Jer. xvii. 14. Things necessai-y are never 
valued to their uttermost but in extremities. When 
tlicre is a great famine in Samaria, an ass's head (which 
at another time is thrown out for carrion) will be more 
worth, than, in a plentiful season, the whole body of 
an ox. Nay, hunger shall in such a case ])revail over 
nature, and devour even the tender love of a mother, 
2 Kings vi. 25, 28. As soon as a man finds a shipwreck, 
a famine, a liell in his soul, till Christ save, feed, de- 
\i\n it, immediately Ou-ist ■will be the desire of that 
soul, and nothing in heaven or earth valued in coni- 
jiarison of him. Then tliat which was esteemed " the 
foolishness of preaching " before, shall be counted " the 
jiower of God, and " the wisdom of God ;" then every 
one of Christ's ordinances (which arc " the waters " of 
the temple, for the healing of the sea, that is, of many 
people, Ezck. xlvii. 8; and "the leaves of tlie tree of 
life," which are for " the healing of the nations," Rev. 
xxii. 2 ; and the streams of that " fountain opened " in 



Vee. 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



653 



Israel " for sin and for uncleanness," Zech. xiii. 1 ; and 
the wings of the Sun of righteousness, whereby he con- 
veys healing to his church, Mai. iv. 2) shall be esteemed, 
as indeed they are, the riches, the glory, the treasure, 
the feast, the physic, the salvation of such a soul, Rom. 
xi. 12; Eph. iii.'S; 2 Cor. iii. 8, 11 ; iv. 6, 7 ; Isa. xxv. 
6; Rev. xix. 9; Luke iv. 18 ; Heb. ii. 3 ; James i. 21 : 
John xii. 50 ; Acts xxviii. 28. And a man will wait on 
them with as much diligence and attention as ever did 
" the impotent folk " at the pool of Bethesda, when the 
angel stii'red the water ; and endure the healing severity 
of them not only with patience, but with love and 
thankfulness ; suffer reason to be captivated, will to be 
crossed, high imaginations to be cast down, every 
thought to ba subdued, conscience to be searched, 
heart to be purged, lust to be cut off and mortified ; in 
all things will such a sick soul be contented to be 
dieted, restrained, and ordered by the counsel of this 
heavenly Physician. 

" Their backsliding." DrsiS'O This word imports a 
departing, or a turning away again, from God. It is 
quite contrary, in the formal nature of it, to faitli and 
Venire ad Chris- repentance, and implies that which the 
turn, quid est aUud apostle calls a rcjienting of repentance, 
TO™ Aug^deVS. 2 Cor. vii. 10. Ijy faith we come to Christ, 

etLArbi..eap.5. ^ j^^j^^^ ^.;^ gy^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^.^ ^^ j^f^^^^ ^^^^^ j^^. 

hold upon him, Heb. vi. 18; Isa. Ivi. 2, 6; but by this 
we depart, and draw back from him, and let him go, 
Heb. X. 38, 39. By the one we prize Christ as infinitely 
precious, and his ways as holy and good, Phil. iii. 8 ; 
2 Pet. i.4 ; by the other we vilify and set them at nought, 
stumble at them, as ways that do not profit. Matt. xxi. 
42 ; Acts iv. 1 1 ; 1 Pet. ii. 7, 8 ; Job xxi. 14, 15. For a 
man, having approved of God's ways, and entered into 
covenant with him, after this to go from his word, and 
fling up his bargain, and start aside like a deceitful bow ; 
of all other dispositions of the soul, this is one of the 
worst ; to deal with our sins as Israel did with theii' 
servants, dismiss them and then take them again, Jer. 
xxxiv. 10, 11. It is the sad fruit of an evil and unbe- 
lieving heart, Heb. iii. 12. And God 
bM"u°plndi?°"" threatens such persons to "lead tliem 
G^m. ''TSSsfuWs f°i''h ■n'ith the workers of iniquity," Psal. 
ubicunque inventi cxxv. 5, as Cattle arc led to slaughter, or 

fuermt quasi hostes i (i , . , . * i 

interficcre Ucet, 1. 3. maleiaotors to cxccution. And yet we 

lesicariisfo."™''' here see God promises healing to such 

sinners : " I will heal their backsliding." 

To understand this aright we are to know that there 
is a twofold apcstacy. 1. An apostacy arising out of 
impotency of affection, and prevalency of lust, chawing 
the lieart to look toward the old pleasures thereof 
again : it is a recldivation or relapse into a former sin- 
ful condition out of forgetfulness and falseness of heart, 
for want of the fear of God to balance the conscience, 
and to fix and unite the heart to liim. This was the 
frequent sin of Israel, to make many promises and 
covenants to God, and to break them as fast, Judg. ii. 
18, 19 ; PsaL cvi. 7—13. And this falling from our 
first love,* growing cold and slack in duty, breaking our 
engagements to God, and returning again to folly, 
though it be like a relapse after a disease, exceeding- 
ly dangerous, yet God is sometimes pleased to forgive 
and to ileal it. 

2. An apostacy which is proud and malicious, when, 
after they " have tasted the good word of God, and the 
powers of the world to come," men set themselves to 
hate, oppose, and persecute godliness, to do " despite 
unto the Spu-it of grace," to fling oft' the holy strictness 

* Eorurn qui peccant antequam Deum novei-int, antequam 
miserationes ejus expert! sunt, antequam portaverint jugum 
suave, et onus leve, priusquam devotionis gvatiam et consolationes 
acceperint Spiritus Sancti ; corum inquam copiosa ledemptio 
est : at eorum qui post couversionem suam peccatis implicanSur 
ingrati acceptae gratia;, et post missam manum acl aratrum 



of Christ's yoke, to swell against the searching power 
of his word, to tread " under foot the Son of God," and 
to count " the blood of the covenant " " an unholy 
thing," Heb. vi. 5 ; x. 29. ^^'hen they know the spi- 
rituality and holiness of God's ways, the innocence and 
piety of his servants, yet notwithstanding set them- 
selves against them for that reason, though under 
other pretences, this is not a weak, but a wilful, and 
(if I may so speak) a strong, and a stubborn apostacy; 
a sin M'hich wholly hardens the heart against repent- 
ance, and consequently is incurable. To speak against 
the Son of man, that is, against the doc- 
trine, disciples, ways, servants of Christ, ^t f7Zi''"''K^ 
looking on him only as a man, the leader 
of a sect, as master of a new way, (wliich was Paul's 
notion of Christ and the Ckristian religion when he 
persecuted it, and for which cause he found mercy, for 
had he done that knowingly which he did ignorantly, 
it had been a sin not to be pardoned. Acts xxvi. 9 ; 1 
Tim. i. 13.) thus to sin, is a blasphemy 
that may be pardoned: but to speak "*' ui' f :'°p, mI"'" 
against the Holy Ghost, that is, to op- 
jiose and persecute the doctrine, worship, ways, serv- 
ants of Christ, knowing them, and acknowledging in 
them a spu-itual holiness, and eo nomine, on that very 
account, to do it, so that the formal motive of malice 
against them is the power and lustre of that Spirit 
which appears in them ; and its formal principle, nei- 
ther ignorance, nor self-ends, but very wilfulness, and 
immediate malignity ; woe be to that man whose na- 
tural enmity and antipathy against godliness ever swells 
to so great and daring a height! "It shall not be 
forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world 
to come," Matt. xii. 32. That is, say some, neither in 
llie time of life, nor in the point or mo- 
ment of death, which translates them U"ol,f'l™'sMJe 
into the world to come. Others, not in JJl.'Xti'''''''^'™''' 
this life by justification, nor in the world 
to come by consummate redemption, and pubKc judi- 
ciary absolution in the last day, whicli is therefore 
called "the day of redemption," in which men are said 
to " find mercy of the Lord," Eph. iv. 30 ; 2 Tim. i. 18. 
For that which is here done in the conscience by the 
ministry of the word and efficacy of the Spirit, shall 
be then publicly and judicially pronounced by Christ's 
own mouth before angels and men, 2 Cor. v. 10. Others, 
shall not be forgiven, that is, shall be 
plagued and punished both in this life phyiact!''Broi5iit'ori 
and in that which is to come. Give me Ji^''''"oi''3"J''°°i'' 
leave to add what I have conceived to 
be the meaning of this ]Dlace, though no way con- 
demning the expositions of so great and learned men : 
I take it thus, by " this world " we may understand the 
church which then was of the Jews, or the present age 
in which our Saviour Christ then lived. It is not, I 
think, unusual in the Scripture, for the words age, or 
world, to be sometimes restrained to the church. Now, 
as Israel was God's " fii-st-born," and " the fii'st-fruits of 
his increase," Exod. iv. 22 ; Jer. xxxi. 9 ; ii. 3 ; so the 
church of Israel is called the " chiu'ch of the first-born," 
Heb. xii. 23, and " the first tabernacle," and " a worldly 
sanctuary," Heb. ix. 1, 8, and "Jerusalem that now 
is," Gal. iv. 25. And then by " the world to come," 
we are to understand the Christian church afterwards 
to be planted ; for so frequently in Scriptiu'e is the 
evangelical church called " the world to come," and 
"the last days," and "the ends of the world;" and the 
things thereunto belonging, " things to come," which 

retro respiciunt tepidi et camales facti— Eorum utique per- 
paucos iuvenias, qui post hiec redeant ' in gradum pristinum, 
nee tamen si qiiis hujusmodi est, despevamus de eo, tantum 
ut resurgere velit cito. Quanto diiitius permanebit, tanto eva- 
det difficilius. Bernard, serm. 3. in Vigil. Vid. ser. 35. in Cant. 
Aug. de Civ. Dei, Ub. 16. cap. .30. Isid. Pelut. 1. 1. ep. 13. 



654 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XfV. 



had been hidden from " the beginning of the world," 
" from ages and from generations," and were by the 
ministry of the apostles made known unto the churcli 
in their time, which the " prophets and righteous men " 
of the former ages did not " see " nor attain unto. Thus 
it is said, •' in these last days " God " hath spoken unto 
us by his Son," Heb. i. 2 ; and, " unto angels hath he 
not put in subjection the world to come," Heb. ii. 5 : 
and. Christ was made " an High Priest of good things 
to come," Heb. i.\. 1 1 ; and, " the law having a shadow 
of good things to come," Heb. x. 1 : and the times of 
the gospel are called " the ages to come," Eph. ii. 7, 
and " the ends of the world," 1 Cor. x. 11. Thus legal 
and evangelical dispensations are usually distinguished, 
the former as " time past," the latter as " last days " or 
" ages to come," Heb. i. 1, 2 ; Eph. ii. 7 ; Col. i. 25, 26 ; 
the one an earthly and temporary, the other a heaven- 
ly and abiding administration ; and so the Septuagint 
render the original word ly-'SK Isa. ix. 6, " ever- 
lasting Father," which is one of the names of Christ, by 
HaTi'if) Tov fiiWov-os aiijvog, the Fatlier of the world to 
come. 

The meaning then of the place seems to be this : that 
sins of high and desperate presumption, committed 
maliciously against known light, and against the evi- 
dence of God's S])irit, as thty had no sacrifice or ex- 
piation allowed for them in the former world, or state 
of the Jewish church, but they who in that manner 
despised Moses and his law, though delivered but by 
angels, died without mercy, Numb. xv. 27, 30, 31 ; Heb. 
ii. 2 ; so in the world to come, or in the evangelical 
church, though grace should therein be more abund- 
antly discovered and administered unto men, yet the 
same law should continue still, as we find it did, Heb. 
ii. 2 — 5 ; vi. 4 — 6 ; x. 26 — 28 ; neither the open ene- 
mies of Christ in the one, nor the false professors of 
Christ in the other, committing this sin,' should be ca- 
pable of pardon. 

This doctrine of apostacy, or backsliding, is worthy 
of a more large explication ; but having h,indled it 
formerly on Heb. iii. 12, 1 shall but briefly 

Obs. 1. AVe should beware of backsliding above all 
other sins, of falling in soul, as old Eli did in body, 
backward, and so liazarding our salvation. If once we 
have shaken hands with sin, never take acquaintance 
with it any more, but say as Israel here, " AA'hat have 
I to do any more with idols ?" The chui-ch should be 
like " Mount Zion, that cannot be moved." It is a sad 
and sick temper of a church to toss from one side to 
another, and then cs])ecially when she should be healed, 
to be carried about with every wind. 

Obs. 2. We should not be so tcmficd by any sin, 
which our soul mourns and labours under, and our 
heart turns from, as thereby to be withheld from going 
to the Physician for pardon and healing. Had he not 
gi-eat power and mercy, did he not " love freely," with- 
out respect of persons, and pardon freely, without re- 
spect of sins, we might then be afraid of going to him : 
but when he extendeth forgiveness to all kinds, " ini- 
quity," " transgi'cssion," " sin," Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, and 
has actually pardoned the greatest sinners, Manasses, 
Mary Magdalene, Paul, publicans, harlots, backsliders, 
though we should not presume hereupon to turn God's 
mercy into poison, and his grace into wantonness, (for 
mercy itself will not save those sinners that hold fast 
and will not forsake sin.) yet should we take heed of 
desjjairing, or entertaining low thoughts of the love 
and mercy of God ; for such examples as these are set 
forth for the encouragement of all that shall " hereafter 
believe on" Christ " to life everlasting," 1 Tim. i. 16. 
And the thoughts and ways which God has to pardon 
sin are above our thoughts and ways, whereby we look 
on them in their guilt and greatness, many times, as 
unpardonable ; and therefore art fit matter for our 



faith to believe and relv on, even against sense, Isa. Iv. 
6—9. 

Now follows the fountain of this mercy. 

" I will love them freely." God's love 
is a most free and bountiful love, having ^!MlmZ'J"T''.' 
no motive or foundation but within itself, ^,i;?,f[7'"'' '''""' "' 
and his free love and grace is the ground niacmiLmi r»..r-' 
of all his other mercies to his people ; he dorutio'ippXi'".. 
shows mercy on whom and because he ioiX'uk.'i!''"' 
will. From the beginning to the end of 
our salvation, nothing is primarily active but free grace. 
Freely loved, Ueut. vii. 7, 8. Freely chosen, Eph. i. 
4 — 8. Christ the gift of fi-ee love, John iii. 16. His 
obedience freely accepted for us, and bestowed upon 
us, Rom. V. 15, 18. Justification free, Rom. iii. 24. 
Adoption free, Eph. i. 5. Faith and repentance free, 
Phil. i. 29; 2 Tim. ii. 25. Good works free, Eph. ii. 
10. Salvation free. Tit., iii. 5; Acts xv. 11. Thus the 
foundation of all mercies is free love. We do not first 
give to God, that he may render to us again. AVe 
turn, we pray, we covenant, we repent, we are holy, we 
are healed, only because he loves us : and he loves us, 
not because he sees any thing lovely or amiable in us, 
but because he will show the absoluteness of his own 
will, and the unsearchableness of his own counsel to- 
wards us. Wo are not originally denominated good 
by any thing which flows from us, or is done by us ; 
but by that which is bestowed on us. Our goodness is 
not the motive of his love, but his love the fountain of 
our goodness. None indeed are healed and saved, but 
those that repent and return ; but repentance is only a 
condition, and that freely given by God, disposing the 
subject for salvation ; not a cause, moving or procuring 
God to save us. It is necessary as the means to the 
end, not as the cause to the eft'ect. That which looks 
least free'^ of any other act of God, his rewarding of 
obedience, is all, and only, mercy. When we "sow in 
righteousness," we must " reap in mercy," Hos. x. 12. 
"\ATicn he renders " to ever)' man according to his 
work," it is because unto mm " belongeth mercy," 
Psal. Ixii. 12. 

This is the solid foundation of all Christian comforts, 
tliat God loves freely. Were his love to us to be mea- 
sured by our fruitfulness or conduct towards him, each 
hour and moment might stagger our hope ; but he is 
therefore pleased to have it all of grace, " to the end 
the promise might be sure to all the seed," Rom. iv, 16. 
This comforts us against the guilt of the greatest sins, 
for love and free grace can pardon what it will. This 
comforts us against the accusations of Satan dran n from 
our own unworthiness. True, I am unworthy, and 
Satan cannot show me to myself more vile than, with- 
out his accusations, I will acknowledge myself to be ; 
but that love which gave Christ freely, gives in him 
more worthiness than there is or can be unworthiness 
in me. This comforts us in the assured hope of glory, 
because when he loves he loves to the end, and nothing 
can se])arate from his love. This comforts us in all 
alffictions, that the free love of God, who has pre- 
destinated us thereto, will wisely order all thmgs 
for the good of his servants, Rom. viii. 29 — 39 ; Heb. 
xii. 6. 

Our duty therefore is, 1. To labour for the assuranci 
of this free love. It will assist us in all duties ; it will 
arm us against all temptations ; it will answer all ob- 
jections that can be made against the soid's peace ; it 
will sustain us in all conditions, into which the saddest 
of times may brin" us, " If God be for us, who can 
be against us?" 'Though thousands be against us to 
hate us, yet none shall be against us to hurt us, 

2. If God love us freelv, we should love him thank- 
fully, 1 John iv. 19, and let love be the salt to season 
all our sacrifices. For as no benefit is saving lo us 
which docs not proceed from love in him, so no duty is 



Vek. 4. 



THE PROPHECY OF IIOSEA. 



655 



pleasing to him which does not proceed from love in us, 
1 John V. 3. 

3. Plead this free love and grace in prayer. When 
we heg pardon, nothing is too great for love to forgive : 
when we beg grace and holiness, nothing is too good 
for love to grant. There is not any one thing which 
faith can manage to more spiritual advantages, than the 
free grace and love of God in C'lu'ist. 

4. We must yet so magnify the love of God, as that 
we turn not free grace into wantonness. There is a 
corrupt generation of men, who, under pretence of ex- 
alting grace, do put disgrace upon the law of God, by 
taking away the mandatory power thereof from those 
that are under grace, a doctrine most extremely con- 
trary to the nature of this love. For God's love to us 
works love in us to him ; and our love to him is this, 
that we keep his commandments ; and to keep a com- 
mandment is to confirm and to subject my conscience 
with willingness and delight to the rule and prece))tive 
power of that commandment. Take away tlie obliga- 
tion of the law upon conscience as a rule of life, and 
you take away from our love to God the very matter 
about which the obedience thereof should be conver- 
sant. It is no diminution to love that a man is bound 
to obedience, (nay, it cannot be called obedience if I be 
not bound to it,) but herein the excellency of our love 
to God is commended, that whereas other men are so 
bound by the law that they fret at it. and swell against 
it, and would be glad to be exempted from it, they 
* who love God, and know his love to them, delight to 
be thus bound, and find infinitely more sweetness in 
the strict rule of God's holy law, than any wicked man 
can do in that presumptuous liberty wherein he allows 
himself to shake off and break its cords. 

" For mine anger is turned away from him." Allien 
we return with sound repentance to God, then God is 
pleased to give more than ordinary tastes of the sweet- 
ness of his love, by removing judgments, which are the 
fruits of his anger, fi-om us. This point falls in with 
what was handled before, on ver. 2. Therefore I shall 
briefly conclude with these two notes : 

06*. 3. God will have us look on all judgments as 
fruits of his anger, and take more notice in them of his 
displeasure than of our own sufi'erings. Wlien wrath 
is gone out, the sword drawn, thousands and ten thou- 
sands slain in our coasts ; Israel given to the spoil, and 
Jacob unto robbers : a land set on fire with civil flames, 
and none able to quench them; a kingdom divided 
within itself; a church which sometime was the asylum 
for other exiled and afflicted Christians to flee for shel- 
ter to, miserably torn by the foolish and unnatural 
divisions of brethi'en, and dangerously threatened by 
the poUcy and power of the common enemy, who stu- 
dies how to improve these divisions to the ruin of those 
that foment them ; our work is to make this conclu- 
sion : Our God is angry ; a God that loves freely, that is 
infinite in mercy and pity, who does not afflict willingly, 
nor grieve the childi'en of men : this should be our 
greatest affliction, and the removal of this anger, by a 
universal reformation and conversion to him, our great- 
est business. And I do verily believe that England 
must never think of outliving or breaking through this 
anger of God, this critical judgment that is upon it, so 
as to return to that cold and formal complexion, that 
Laodicean temper, that she was in before, till she have 
so publicly and generally repented of all those civil 
disorders which removed the bounds, and brought dis- 
sipation upon public justice; and of all those ecclesi- 

* Sub lege est qui timore supplicii quod lex minatur, non 
amore justitiae se seutit abstinere ab opere peccati; nondum 
liber nee alienus a voluntate peccandi. In ipsa enim vohm- 
tate reus est, qua mallet si fieri posset non esse quod timeat, 
ut libere I'aciat quod occulte desiderat. August, de Nat. et 
Grat. cap. 57. Et infra, Omnia fiimt facilia cnaritati, cap. 69. 



astical disorders which let in corruptions in doctrine, 
superstitions in worship, abuses in government, dis- 
countenancing of the power of godliness in the most 
zealous professors of it; so that oiu- reformation may be 
as conspicuous as our disorders have been, and it may 
appear to all the world that God has washed away the 
filth and purged the blood of England from the midst 
thereof, by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of 
burning. 

Obs. 4. God's love is the true ground for the re- 
moval of judgments in mercy from a people. Let all 
human counsels be never so deep, and armies never so 
active, and cares never so vigilant, and instruments 
never so unanimous, if God's love come not in, nothing 
of all these can in any wise benefit a nation. Those 
that are most interested in God's love, shall certainly 
be most secured against his judgments. Hither our 
eyes, our prayers, our thoughts must be du-ected. 
Lord, love us, delight in us, choose us for thyself; and 
then, though counsels, and ti-easures, and armies, and 
men, and horses, and all second causes fail us ; though 
Satan rage, and hell threaten, and the foundations of 
the earth be shaken ; though neither " the vines," nor 
" the olive," nor " the fig-tree," nor " the fields," nor 
"the herd in the stalls" yield any supplies; yet we 
" will rejoice in the Lord," we " will glory in the God 
of" our " salvation," Hab. iii. 17 — 19 ; sin shaO be 
healed, anger shall be removed, notliing " shall be able 
to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ 
Jesus our Lord," Rom. viii. 39. 

Ver. 5 — 7. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall 
grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. 
His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as 
the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that 
divell under ids shadow shall return; they shall revive 
as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof 
shall be as the wine of Lebanon. 

In these verses is contained God's answer to the 
second part of Israel's petition, wherein they desired 
him to do them good, or to " receive " them " gracious- 
ly ; " and here God promises them several singuljir 
blessings, set forth by various metaphors and simili- 
tudes, all answering to the name of Ephraim, and the 
ancient promises made to him, Deut. xxxiii. 13 — 17. 
These blessings are opposed to many visitations threat- 
ened in the former parts of the prophecy, under meta- 
phors of contrary import. The dew of grace, is opposed 
to " the morning cloud, and the early dew that pass- 
eth away," chap. xiii. 3 ; lilies, olives, vines, spices, to 
the judgments of nettles, thorns, thistles, chap. x. 8 ; 
spreading roots, to dry roots, chap. ix. 16; a fruitful 
vine, bringing forth excellent wine, is here opposed to 
an empty vine, bringing fruit only to itself, that is, so 
sour and unsavoury, as is not worth the gathering, 
chap. X. 1 ; corn growing, instead of corn taken quite 
away, chap. ii. 9, instead of no stalk, and the bud 
yielding no meal, chap. viii. 7 ; fruit promised, instead 
of no fruit threatened, chap. ix. 16 ; wine promised, in 
opposition to the failing of wine, chap. ix. 2 ; s\yeet 
wine, opposed to sour drink, chap. iv. 18 ; safe dwelling, 
instead of no dwelling, chap. ix. 3 ; branches growing 
and spreading, instead of branches consumed, chap. xi. 
6; green trees, instead of dry springs, chap. xiii. 15: 
and all these fruits the fruits as of Lebanon, which was 
the most feitUe part of that country, a mountain fuU 
of various idnds of the most excellent trees, cedars, 

et, Non est terribile sed suave mandatura. De Grat. Christi, 
lib. 1. cap. 13. Suave fit quod non delectabat. De Peccat Me- 
rit, et Remis. lib. 2. cap. 17. Contr. 2. epist. Pelag. lib. 1. 
cap. 9. lib. 3. cap. 4. de Doctr. Christi, lib. 1. cap. 15. de 
Spiritu et Lit. cap. 3. 



C56 



AX Exrosmox of 



Ceap. xn'. 



cypresses, olives, and divers others, affording rich 
gums and balsams ; abounding also in the most medi- 
cinal and aromatic herbs, sending forth a most fragrant 
odour, whereby all harmful and venomous creatures 
were driven from harbouring there ; and in the valleys 
of that mountain were rich grounds for ]>asturc, com, 
and vineyards, as the learned in their descriptions of 
the Holy Land have obscr\ed. 

The source of all these blessings is the heavenly dew 
of God"s grace and favour, (alluding to the abundance 
of dew which fell on that mountain,) descending on 
the church, as on a garden, bringing forth lilies ; as on a 
forest, strengthening the cedars ; as on a vinej-ard, spread- 
ing abroad the branches : as on an oliveyard, making the 
trees thereof green and fruitful ; and as on a rich field, 
reviving the com. Here is spiritual beauty, the beauty 
of the lily, exceeding that of Solomon in all his glory ; 
spiritual stabilitj-, the roots of the cedars, and other 
goodly trees in that mountain ; spiritual odours, and 
spices of Lebanon ; spiritual fruitfiilness, and that of 
all sorts and kinds for the comfort of life : the fruit 
of the field, "bread which strengtheneth ;" the fruit of 
the olive trees, "oil to make his face to shine ; " the fruit 
of the vineyard, " wine that maketh glad the heart of 
man," PsaL civ. 15. 

We esteem him a very rich man, and most excel- 
lentlv accommodated, who has gardens 
wlwYw^t for pleasure, and fields for com and pas- 
i,vfi,,jh>,.\^ii- ture, and woods for fuel, for structure, 
M^t^.'«'V^U for defence, for beauty, and delight ; and 
raXii^ "i^. vineyards for wine an'd oil ; and all other 
vk^ i. a. d< Oo- conveniences both for the necessities and 
delights of a plentiful life. Thus is the 
church here set forth to us as such a wealthy man, fur- 
nished with the unsearchable riches of Christ, with 
every kind of blessing both for sanctitv and safety : as 
the aposUe praises " the God and Fatier of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual 
blessings in heavenly places in Christ;" namely, elec- 
tion to eternal life, adoption to the condition of sons, 
and to a glorious inheritance, redemption from misery 
to blessedness, remission of sins, knowledge of his will, 
holiness and unblamableness of life, and the seal of 
the Holy Spirit of promise, Eph. i. 3—13. 

The scope of the words, thus shovring that God sin- 
gles out so many excellent good things by name in 
answer to that general petition. " receive us graciously," 
or do us good, suggests the following general observ- 
ation. 

Obs. 1. God often answers prayer abundantly beyond 
the petitions of his people. They prayed only for 
good in general, leaving it (as it becomes us. who know 
not always what is good for us) to his holy will and 
wisdom in what manner and measure to do them that 
good ; and he answers them in particular with all 
kinds of good things. So in the former petition they 
prayed in general for the forgiveness of sin, and God 
in particular promises the healing of their rebellions, 
which was the greates* oj their sins. God often an- 
swers the nrpy- _/ his jieoplc, as he did the seed of 
Isaac ^iih a hundredfold increase, Gen. xxvi. 12. 
> ' ood's word never returns empty unto him, so the 
prayers of his servants never return empty to them ; 
and usually the crop of prayer is greater than the seed 
out of which it grew, as the putting in of a little water 
into a pump makes way to the drawing out of a great 
deal more. Isaac and Kcbekah had lived twenty years 
together without any children, and he grew now in 
rears, for he was forty years old before he married : 
hereupon he solemnly prays to God in behalf of his 
wife, because she was barren, and God gave him more 
than it is probable he expected, for he gave him two 
sons at a birth. Gen. xxv. 21, 22. As the cloud, which 
rises out of the earth often in thin and insensible va- 



pours, falls down in great and abundant showers : so 
our prayers, which ascend weak and narrow, return 

S^th a fiill and enlarged answer. God deals in 
lis point with his children, as Joseph did with his 
brethren in Egypt ; he not onlv put com into their 
sacks, but returned the money w"hich thev brought to 
purchase it. Gen. xlii. 25. So he dealt with Solomon, 
he not only gave him wisdom and gifts of government, 
which he asked, but further gave him "both riches 
and honour," which he asked not, 1 Kings iii. 13. The 
people of Israel, when they were distressed by the Am- 
monites, besought the Lord for help; he turns back 
their prayers, and sends them to their idols to help 
them : they humble themselves, and put away their 
idols, and pray again, and the highest pitch to which 
their petitions mounted was, "We have sinned: do 
thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee ; de- 
liver us only, we pray thee, this day," Judg. x. 15 ; and 
God answered this prayer beyond its contents ; he not 
only delivered them from tlic enemy, and so saved 
them, but subdued the enemy under them, and de- 
livered him into their hands ; he not only gave them 
the relief they desired, but a glorious victor)- beyond 
their desires, Judg. xi. 22. God deals with his serv- 
ants as the prophet did with the woman of Shunem ; 
when he bid her ask what she needed, and tcU him 
what she woiUd have him do for the kindness she had 
done to him, and she found not any thing to request 
at his hands, he sends for her again, and makes her a 
free promise of that which she most wanted and de- 
sired, telling her that God would give her a son, 
2 Kings iv. 16. So many times God is pleased to sive 
his servants such things as they forget to ask, or gives 
them the things wliich they ask in a fuller measure 
than their own desires durst propose them. David, in 
his troubles, asked "life" of God, and would have 
esteemed it a great mercy to have been merely de- 
livered from the fear of his enemies ; and God not only 
answers him according to the desire of his heart in that 
particular, and above it too, for he gave him " length 
of days for ever and ever;" but, further, settled the 
crown upon his head, and added " honour and majesty " 
to his life, Psal. xxi. 2 — 5. 
And the reasons hereof are principally two. 
1. AVe beg of God according to the sense and know- 
ledge which we have of our own wants, and according 
to the measure of that love which we bear to ourselves. 
The greater our love is to ourselves, the more active 
and importunate will our petitions be for such good 
things as we need. But God answers prayers accord- 
ing to his knowledge of us, and according to the love 
which he bears to us, Xow God knows what things 
we want much better than we do ourselves, and he 
loves our souls much better than we love them our- 
selves, and therefore he gives us more and better 
things than our own prayers know how to ask of him. 
A liiOe child will beg none but trifles and mean things 
of his father, because he has not understanding to look 
higher, or to value things that are more excellent ; but 
his father, knowing better what is good for him, be- 
stows on him education, trains him to learning and 
virtue, that he may be fit to manage and enjoy that 
inheritance which he provides for him : so " we know 
not what we should pray for as we ought," Rom, viiL 
26 ; and when we do know our spirits are much strait- 
ened, we have but a finite and narrow love to our- 
selves : but God's knowledge is infinite, and his love 
is infinite, and according to these are the distributions 
of his mercy. Even the apostle himself, when he was 
in aflliction. and buffeted by the messenger of Satan, 
and vexed with a thom in his flesh, besought the Lord 
for nothing but " that it might depart ;" but God had a 
far better answer in store to the apostle's prayer, and 
purposed to do more for him than ne desired, namely, 



Vee. 5—7. 



THE PROrHECY OF HOSEA. 



657 



to give him a sufficiency of grace to support him, and 
to magnify his strength in the infirmity of his servant, 
2 Cor. xii. 9. When the prophet had encouraged men 
to "seek" the Lord, and to "return" unto him, and 
that upon this assurance, that he 'will not only hear 
petitions for mercy and forgiveness, but " will abund- 
antly pardon," or will multiply to pardon, that is, will 
pardon more sins than we can confess, (for with him 
there is not only "mercy," but "plenteous redemp- 
tion," Psal. cxxx. 7,) he further strengthens our faith, 
and encourages our obedience to this duty, by the 
consideration of the "thoughts" of God, to wit, his 
thoughts of love, mercy, and peace towards us : " My 
thoughts are not yom- thoughts, neither are your ways 
my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are 
higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than 
your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts," Isa. 
Iv. 6 — 9. He can pardon beyond otu- petitions, because 
his thoughts of mercy towards us are beyond our ap- 
prehensions, Jer. xxix. 10 — 14. 

2. God answers prayers not always with respect to 
the narrow compass of our weak desires, but with 
respect to his own honour, and to the declaration of 
his owii gi-eatness ; for he promises to hear us that we 
may " glorify" him, Psal. 1. 15. Therefore he is pleased 
to exceed our petitions, and to do for us abundantly 
above what we ask or think, that cur hearts may be 
more abundantly enlarged, and our mouths wide opened 
in rendering honour unto him. AVhen PeriUus, a 
favourite of Alexander, begged of him a portion for 
his daughters, the king appointed that fifty talents 
should be given to him, and he answered that ten 
would be sufficient ; the king replied that ten were 
enougli for Perillus to ask, but not enough for Alex- 
ander to grant.* So God is pleased many times to 
give more than we ask, that we may look upon it not 
only as an act of mercy, but as an act of honour; and 
to teach us in all our prayers to move God as well by 
his glory as by his mercy. So Closes, when he prays 
for pardon to Israel, lest God's name should be blas- 
phemed. Numb. xiv. 15 — 19. So Joshua, when Israel 
turned their backs before theu- enemies : " What wilt 
thou do unto thy great name?" Josh. vii. 9. So Solo- 
mon, in his prayer at the dedication of the temple : 
" Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place, and do ac- 
cording to all that the stranger calleth to thee for ; that 
all people of the earth may know thy name," 1 Kings 
viii. 43. So David, in his petitions for Israel, and for 
the performance of God's promise to the seed of David : 
"Do" all "as thou hast said. Let it even be estab- 
lished, that thy name may be magnified for ever," 
1 Chron. xvii. 23, 24. So Asa : " O Lord, thou art our 
God ; let not man prevail, against thee," 2 Chron. xiv. 
11. So Jehoshaphat : " O Lord God of our fathers, art 
not thou God in heaven ? and rulest not thou over all 
the kingdoms of the heathen ? and in thine hand is 
there not power and might, so that none is able to 
withstand thee ?" 2 Chron. xx. 6. So Hezekiah, when 
he spread the blasphemies of Sennacherib before the 
Lord : " Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from 
his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know 
that thou art the Lord, even thou only," Isa. xxxvii. 
20. So the church of God in the time of distress : 
"Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of 
thy name : and deliver us, and pui-ge away our sins, 
for thy name's sake. AATierefore should the heathen 
say, AVhere is then- God?" Psal. Ixxix. 9, 10. As 
every creature of God was made for his glory, Prov. 
xvi. 4 ; Rom. xi. 36 ; so everj' attribute of God works 
and puts forth itself for his glorj'. If he show mercy, 
it is to show " the riches of his glorj-," Rom. ix. 23 ; 
Eph. i. 11, 12. If he execute justice, it is to "make 

* IlEptWou TtVos Twv tpiXwv aiTijffayTos TrpoiKa Tot? 

2 U 



"his power known," Rom. ix. 17, 22; 2 Thess. i. 9. 
AVTien he puts forth his power, and does terrible things, 
it is to make his " name known," Isa. Ixiv. 1 — 3. If 
he engage his truth, and make his promises yea and 
amen, it is for his own glory, and that his name may 
be magnified in doing what he has said, 2 Cor. i. 20 ; 
2 Sam. vii. 25, 2G. Whenever therefore we pray to God, 
and therein implore his mercy on us, his justice on his 
enemies, his truth to be fulfilled, his power, wisdom, or 
any other attrilDute to be manifested toward his peo- 
ple, the highest and most prevailing medium we can 
use, is the glory of his own name. God's ultimate 
end in working must needs be our strongest argu- 
ment in praying, because therein it appears that we 
seek his interest in our petitions as well as and above 
our own. 

This serves, 1. To encourage us unto prayer, because 
God not only hears and answers prayers, which is a 
sufficient motive to his servants to call upon him, " O 
thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come," 
Psal. Ixv. 2; Ixvi. 20; Ixxxvi. 5—7; cii. 17; but be- 
cause he oftentimes exceeds the modesty, the ignorance, 
the fearfulness of our requests, by giving to us more 
than we ask. When poor men make requests to us, 
we usually answer them as the echo does the voice, the 
answer cuts off half the petition. Like the hypocrite 
noticed by the apostle, James ii. 15, 16, when he saw a 
brother or sister naked, or destitute of daily food, would 
bid him " Depart in peace, be ye wanned and filled," 
but in the mean time would give him nothing that was 
needful ; and so rather mocked than answered their re- 
quests. We shall seldom find among men Jael's cour- 
tesy, Judg. V. 25, giving milk to those that ask water, 
except it be as hers was, cupov dcwpoi/, ^ 

muvus cum liamo, an entangling benefit, 
the better to introduce a mischief: there are not many 
Naamans among us, that, when jou beg of them one 
talent, will force you to take two, 2 Kings v. 23 ; but 
God's answer to our prayers is like a multiplying glass, 
which renders the request much greater in the answer 
than it was in the prayer. As when we cast a stone 
into the water, though but small in itself, yet the circles 
which it causes spread wider and wider till they fill the 
whole pond : so our petitions, though ver)- weak as they 
come from us, and craving but some one or other good 
thing, yet gaining access to the fountain of life, and 
unsearchable treasure of mercy which is in Christ, are 
usually answered with many and more spreading bene- 
fits. The trumpet exceedingly strengthens ^ jritm nosier u 
the voice which passes thi-ough it ; it is rio«m sonum red- 
but as a sUent breath as it comes from pa toiS^'caiSiis" "' 
the mouth entering in at a narrow pas- p°feiu'raeM^i^' 
sage, but it issues forth with spreading ^"J//E°i^f'JS^."- 
and multiplied vigour: so our prayers 
usually go up confined to God, but they come down 
again with enlarged answers from him ; as the root is 
but of one colour, when the flower which grows out of 
it is beautified with variety. 

Now this should be a great encouragement to us to 
call upon God with sincerity of heart, because he mul- 
tiplies to pardon, because we "know not the numbers" 
of his salvation, Psal. Ixxi. 15, we cannot count the 
sum of his thoughts towards us, Psal. exxxix. 17, 18. 
If any man were so wealthy, that it were all one with 
him to give pounds or pence, and who usually, when 
asked for silver, would give gold, every indigent and 
necessitous person would wait on this man's mercy. 
Now, it is as easy with God to give talents as farthings, 
as easy to over-answer prayers as to answer them at 
all. It is as easy to the sun to fiU a vast palace as a 
little closet with light; as easy to the sea to fill a 
channel as a bucket with water. He can satisfy with 

C£ cjii'irravTO's Ikuvu thai ciKtr Soi yi iiprj Xafiiiv, ifiol S' 
oiix Uai/a Couiiat. Plutarch. Apophtheg. 



658 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



goodness, and answer with wonderful and terrible 
things, Psal. Ixv. 4, 5. Oh who would not make re- 
quests to such a God, whose usual answer to prayer 
is, " Be it unto thee even as thou wilt," JIatt. xv. 
2S ; nay, who answers us beyond our own wills and 
thoughts, Eph. iii. 20, and measures forth mercy by the 
greatness of liis own grace, and not by the narrowness 
of our desires ? The shekel belonging to the sanctu- 
ary was, as many learned men think, in weight dou- 
ble to the common shekel which was used in civil mat- 
ters ; to note to us, that as God expects from us double 
the care in things belonging to him above what we use 
in the things of the world, so he usually measures back 
double to us again ; " good measure, pressed down, and 
shaken together, and running over," " into " our " bo- 
soms," Luke vi. 38. When the man sick of the palsy 
was carried to Christ to be healed, Christ did beyond 
the expectation of those that brought him, for he not 
only cured him of his disease, but of his sin, gave him 
not only health of body, but peace of conscience ; first, 
"Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee;" 
and then, '• Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine 
house," ilatt. ix. 2, 6. The thief on the cross besought 
Christ to remember him when he came into his king- 
dom, but Christ answers him far beyond his petition, 
assuring him that the very same day he should be with 
him in paradise, Luke xxiii. 42, 43. The poor man at 
the gate of the temple begged for nothing of Peter and 
John but a small alms, but they gave him an answer to 
his request far more worth than any other alms could 
be, namelv, such an alms as caused him to stand in 
need of alms no longer, restoring him in the name of 
Christ to sound strength, that he walked, and leaped, 
and praised God, Acts iii. 6 — 8. In like 
fiiSnuUtn°toJSo manner God answers the prayers ot his 
ad uiuiutein pcoplc, not always it may be in the kind, 

aVi \(ycTt :ia-' and to the express will of him that asks, 
^"iJS^tSstiii but for the better, and consequently 
Plutarch Laconic, morc to his real will than he himself 

Apophthcg. 

expressed. 
2. To encourage us in prayer to beg for an answer, 
not according to the defect and narrowness of our own 
low conceptions, but according to the fulness of God's 
own abundant mercies. It would not please one of us 
if a beggar should ask of us gold or jewels, sUk or dain- 
ties ; we would esteem such a petitioner more full of 
pride and impudence than of want. But God delights 
to have his people beg great things of him, to implore 
the performance of " exceeding great and precious pio- 
mises," 2 Pet. i. 4 ; to pray for a share in " the unsearch- 
able riches of Christ," to know things which pass know- 
ledge, and to " be filled with all the fulness of God," 
Eph. iii. 8, 18, 19 ; to ask things which "eye hath not 
seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the 
heart of man," 1 Cor. ii. 9; to ask not as beggars only 
for an alms, but as children for an inheritance, Rom. 
viii. 15, 17, 23 ; Gal. iv. 6, 7 ; not to ask some thing, 
or a few things, but " in every thing " to let our " re- 
quests be made known unto God," Phil. iv. 6, because 
with Christ he doth '• freely give us all things," Rom. 
viii. 32, even " richly all things to enjoy," 1 Tim. vi. 17. 
As Alexander the Great was well pleased 
with Anaxarchus the philosopher when 
he desired a hundred talents of his treasurer : He docs 
well, saith he, in asking it, and understands his friend 
aright, who ha.s one both able and willing to give him 
so great a gift. God allows his children a s])iritual and 
heavenly ambition, to covet earnestly the best gifts, 1 
Cor. xii. 31 ; to aspire to a kingdom, and accordingly to 
put up to him great and honourable requests ; to think 
what great tilings Christ has purchased, what great 
things God has promised and proposed to us, and to 
regulate our prayers more by tlie merits and riches of 
Christ, and by tlie greatness of God's mercies, than by 



those apprehensions which we cannot but have of our 
own unworthiness. 

Thus far from the general scope of the text, and 
though many particular observations might be raised 
from the special blessings enumerated, yet I shall 
briefly comprehend them all in the following : 

Ob.i. 2. On those whom God loves and pardons, he 
pours forth the benediction of his grace and Spirit, as 
the dew of heaven, to quicken them to a holy and fruit- 
ful conversation. The promises set down in general 
terms before, " I will heal," " I will love," are here fui-- 
ther amplified by many excellent metaphors, and ele- 
gant figures, nine in number, multiplied into so many 
particulars, partly because of the difficulty attendant on 
the belief of the promise ; partly because of the de- 
jected state of tlie people under the variety of their 
foiTner sufi'erings, who are therefore by variety of mer- 
cies to be raised up and revived ; and partly to repre- 
sent the perfection and completeness of the blessings 
intended, which should be of all sorts, and suited to all 
purposes. The foundation of all the rest is this, that 
God promises to " be as the dew unto Israel:" for 
Ephraim having been cursed with much drought and 
barrenness, when God blesses him again, he promises 
to be to him as dew is to the weary and thirsty ground, 
which so refreshes it that the fruits thereof grow and 
flomish again. Lilies, flowers, trees, vines, corn, are 
very apt (especially in such hot countries as Judea) 
without much refreshing dew and showers from heaven, 
to dry up and wither away : so would Ephraim have 
been quite consumed by the heavy wrath of God, un- 
less revived by the heavenly refreshments of his grace 
and Holy Spirit. 

But we shall proceed now to consider the words 
themselves. 

" I will be as the dew unto Israel." SsnwS SB3_n<n« 
Dew, in its natural signification, imports a comfort- 
ing, refreshing, and encouraging, a calling forth the 
fruits of the earth, by gently and insensibly insinuating 
itself into the ground ; and in that sense is mentioned 
as a blessing. Gen. xxvii. 39 : in its mystical and 
spiritual sense, it signifies Christ, Psal. 
Ixxii. 6 ; who by his holy word and hea- chryso^. m p.a 
venly grace, dropping down and distil- 
ling on the souls of men, Deut. xxxii. 2 ; Job sxix. 22, 
23; by his princely favour and lo\'ing countenance, 
which " is as a cloud of the latter rain," Prov. xvi. 15 ; 
xix. 12 : by his heavenly righteousness, and most spirit- 
ual efficacy, Isa. xxvi. 19 ; slv. 8 ; so quickens, vege- 
tates, and revives the hearts of men, that they, like dew 
" from the womb of the morning," are born in great 
abundance to him, as multitudes of men and behevera 
ai'e wont to be expressed in the Scripture by drops of 
dew, Psal. ex. 3 ; Micah v. 7. In one word, all that 
which dew is) to the fields, gardens, vineyards, flowers, 
fruits of the earth, after a hot and scorching day, the 
favour, word, grace, loving countenance, and Holy 
Spuit of Christ, will be to the drooping and afiiicted 
consciences of his people. 

From this metaphor then we learn, 

1. Tliat we are naturally drj', barren, fruitless, and 
utterlv unable to do any good, to bring forth anv fruit 
unto God ; like a heathy and parched land, subject to 
the scorching terrors of tlie wrath of God, and to his 
burning indignation. So Christ compai'es Jerusalem 
to a drj', withered tree, fitted for judgment, Luke xxiii. 
31 ; and he assures us that out of him we can do 
nothing, John xv. 4, 5. In us of ourselves there dwell- 
eth " no good thing," Kom. vii. 1« ; we are not of om- 
selves, as of ourselves, sufficient to any thing, 2 Cor. iii. 
5 : he is the sun that heals us, Mai. iv. 2 ; the rain that 
fertilizes us, Psal. Ixxii. 6 ; the root from which we de- 
rive life and nourishment. Rev. xxii. 16. As natural, so 
much more spiritual, fruitfulness, has its ultimate reso- 



Ver. 5 — 7. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



659 



lution into him, who alone is the father of the rain, 
and begetteth the drops of dew, Hos. ii. 21, 22; Job 
xxxviii. 28. 

2. That the grace of God is like dew to the baiTen 
and parched hearts of men, to make them fruitful. 
There are many things wherein the resemblance stands. 

1. None can give it but God ; it comes from above, 
it is of celestial origin, the nativity thereof is from 
'• the womb of the morning," Psal. ex. 3. " Are there 
any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause 
rain, or can the heavens give showers ? art not thou 
he, O Lord our God ? therefore we will wait upon thee : 
for thou hast made all these things," Jer. xiv. 22. And 
the like we may say in a more strict and peculiar sense 
of regeneration, that it is a spu'itual and heavenly 
bii-th ; it is " not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, 
nor of the wUl of man, but of God ; " there is no con- 
currence or active assistance of the flesh, or of any 
natural abilities, to a birth which is merely spiritual, 
John i. 13 ; iii. 5, 6 ; James i. 17, 18. Therefore Christ 
was pleased to go up into heaven, before he shed forth 
his Holy Spirit in abundance on the church, John vii. 
39 ; xvi. 7 ; Acts i. 4, 5 ; to teach us that our conver- 
sion and sanctification come from above,* by a Divine 
teaching, by a spiritual conviction, by a supernatural 
and omnipotent traction, by a heavenly calling, by 
the will of him who alone can give a will to us : no 
voice can be heard by those that are dead, but " the 
voice of the Son of God," John v. 25 ; vi. 44, 45 ; xvi. 
8—11; James i. 18; Phil. ii. 13; Heb. iii. 1; xii. 
25 : and withal to acquaint us whither the affections 
and conversations of men thus sanctified should tend, 
namely, to heaven, as every thing works towards its 
original, and every part inclines to the whole. Col. iii. 
1, 2 ; Phil. iii. 20. In allusion to this metaphor of dew 
or rain, the Holy Spuit is said to be poured out upon 
the churches. Acts ii. 17 ; Tit. iii. 6. And the word of 
grace is frequently compared to rain. As it is the seed 
by which we are enabled to be fruitful. Matt. xiii. 19, 
so it is the rain which softens the heart, that it may 
be the better wrought on by that seminal virtue, 
Isa. Iv. 10, 11 ; Heb. vi. 7; whereas false teachers are 
called "clouds without water," Jude 12, they have no 
' fructifying virtue in them. None can give grace but 
God; it is heavenly in its nature, therefore it is so in 
its original ; it " tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for 
the sons of men," Micah v. 7 : it depends not on the 
wills, concm-rences, preparations, or dispositions which 
arise out of us, but it wholly prevents us ; we are made 
active by it, but we are not at all antecedently active 
in fitting or disposing ourselves for it. 

2. It is the fruit of a serene, clear, and 
ithJl^caMo^Pii^ quiet heaven ; for dew never falls either 
cap's"''' ™' *■ '*■ ™ scorching or in tempestuous weather, 
as philosophers have observed. In like 
manner, the grace, favour, and blessings of God, are 
the fruits of his reconciled affection towards us: upon 
the wicked he rains storm and tempest, he showers 
down on them the fury of his wrath, and shows himself 
dark, cloudy, gloomy, terrible unto them, Psal. xi. 6 ; 
Ixxxiii. 15; Job xx. 23; Nab. i. 3, 8; but unto those 
that fear his name he opens a clear and a gracious 
countenance, and, being reconciled to them, sheds 
abroad his love into their hearts, and his peace into 
their consciences, like Gideon's dew on the fleece and 
on the ground, as a special evidence of his grace : and 
therefore the psalmist compares the love and peace 
that is amongst brethren unto dew, which ever falleth 
from a calm, serene, and quiet sky, Psal. cxxxiii. 3. 

3. It is abundant and innumerable. Wlio can num- 
ber the drops of dew on the ground, or the hairs of 

* Ita docet lit quod quisque didicerit, non tantum cognos- 
cendo videat sed etiam volendo appetat, agendoque pcrhciat. 
Aug. de Grat. Christ, cap. 14. 24. et cont. 2. Epist. Pelag. lib. 



little rain ? (for so they are called in the original, 
Dl*yu'3 because of their smallness and number, Deut. 
xxxii. 2.) So Hushai expresses the multitudes of all 
Israel, 2 Sam. xvii. 12, " We will light upon him as the 
dew falleth on the ground." And the multitudes of 
believers are said to be born unto Christ by his sending 
forth the rod of his strength, as dew " from the womb 
of the morning," Psal. ex. 3, which we find verified. 
Acts ii. 41 ; v. 14, 16 ; vi. 7 ; ix. 31, 42 ; xix. 20. Such 
is the grace and favour of God to his people after their 
conversion ; unsearchable, it cannot be comprehended 
or measured, nor brought under any number or account, 
Psal. Ixxi. 15 ; cxxxix. 17, 18. Christ is compared 
to manna : he was the bread that came down from 
heaven, John vi. 50, 51 ; and manna came in mighty 
abundance, so that there was enough for every one to 
gather, Exod. xvi. 16. It had dew under it, and dew 
over it, as we may conjecture by comparing Exod. xvi. 
14, with Numb. xi. 9 ; whereunto 'the Holy Ghost 
seems to allude when he speaks of " the 
hidden manna," Rev. ii. 17 ; though that ^"paglPitfrn'^' 
may likewise refer to the pot of manna 
which was kept in the tabernacle, Exod. xvi. 32, 33 ; 
Heb. ix. 4 ; as our life is said to be hid with Christ, 
now he is in heaven. Col. iii. 3. By this dew coming 
along with manna, is intimated, that the mercies of 
God in Christ, his daily mercies, (which are said, with 
allusion, I suppose, to this manna, to be " new every 
morning," Lam. iii. 23,) and his hidden mercies, to wit, 
the inward comforts of his grape and Spuit, are all in- 
numerable and past finding out. We may say of his 
mercies, as the psalmist of his commandments, " I have 
seen an end of all perfection," but these thy mercies 
are "exceeding broad;" more than eye hath seen, or 
ear heard, or the heart itself is able to comprehend, 
Psal. cxix. 96 ; 1 Cor. ii. 9. 

4. It is silent, slow, insensible ; while it is falling 
you cannot say. Here it is : it deceives the eye, it is too 
subtle to be discerned by it : it deceives the ear, it is 
too silent for that to hear it : it eludes the touch, and 
is too thin and spiritual to be apprehended. You see 
it when it is come, but you cannot obsei've how it 
comes. In this manner was God pleased to fill the 
world with the knowledge of his gospel, and with the 
grace of his Spirit ; by quiet, small, contemptible, and, 
as it were, insensible means. " The kingdom of God 
Cometh not ^^^th observation," that is, with any visible, 
notable splendour, or external pomp, (as the Jews ex- 
pected the Messiah to come,) but it came with spiritual 
efficacy, and with internal power on the consciences of 
men, and spread itself over the world by the ministry 
of a vei-y few despised instruments, Luke xvii. 20, 21 ; 
with respect to which manner of working the Spirit is 
compared to wind, which we hear and feel, but cannot 
tell " whence it cometh, and whither it goeth," John iii. 
8. The operations of grace on the conscience are secret, 
and sUent ; you shall find mighty changes wrought, and 
shall not tell how they were wi'ought ; the same man 
coming into the cliurch one hour a swine, a dog, a 
lion, and going out the next in all visible respects the 
same, but invisibly changed into a lamb. 

5. It is of a soft and benign nature, which gently 
insinuates and works itself into the ground, and by 
degrees moistens and mollifies it, that it may be fitted 
to the seed which is cast into it. In like manner the 
Spirit, the grace, the word of God, is of a searching, 
insinuating, softening quality ; it sinks into the heart, 
and works itself into the conscience, and from thence 
makes way for itself into the whole man, mind, thoughts, 
affections, words, actions, fitting them all unto the holy 
seed that is put into them : as the earth, being softened 

1. cap. 19, 20. Vocatio alta et secreta. Epist. 107. Bernard. 
Sermon. Parv. serm. 66. 



660 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



and mingled with the dew, is the more easily drawn up 
into those varieties of herbs and fruits which it main- 
tains. 

G. It is of a vegetating and quickening nature, it 
causes things to grow and revive again ; therefore the 
prophet calls it " the dew of herbs," Isa. xxvi. 19, 
which are thereby refreshed, and recover life and 
beauty : even so the word and Spirit of gi-ace, distil- 
ling upon the soul, as small rain upon lender herbs, and 
as showers on the grass, cause it to live the life of God, 
and to bring forth the fruits of holiness and obedience, 
Isa. Iv. 10, 11. Those parts of the world which are 
under either perpetual frosts, or perpetual scorchings, 
are barren and fruitless, the earth being closed up, and 
the sap thereof dried away by such distempers. Such 
is the condition of a soul under wrath, that has no ap- 
prehensions of God but in frost or fire j for " who can 
stand before his cold?" Psal. cxlvii. 17; w^ho can 
" dwell with everlasting burnings ? " Isa. xxxiii. 14. Fear 
contracts and binds up the powers of the soul; more 
than any other affection it indisposes to regidar action. 
But when the soul can apprehend God as love, find 
healing in his wings, and reviving in his ordinances, 
this love is of an opening and expansive quality, calling 
forth the heart to duty ; love within, as it were, hasten- 
ing to meet and close ■with love without, the love of 
obedience in us, with the love of favour and grace in 
God. I shut and bar my door against an enemy whom 
I fear, and look upon as armed to hurt me ; but I open 
■wide my door, my bosom, to a friend whom I love, and 
look upon as furnished with counsel, and comfort, and 
benefits to revive me. There is a kind of mutual love 
between dew and the earth ; dew loves the earth with 
a love of beneficence, doing it good, and earth loves 
dew with a love of concupiscence, earnestly desiring and 
opening unto it. Such is the love between Christ and 
the soul, when he appears as dew to it ; he visits the 
soul with a love of mercy, reviving it, and the soul puts 
forth itself towards him in a love of duty, earnestly 
coveting as well to serve as to enjoy him. 

7. It is of a refreshing and comforting nature, tem- 
pering the heat of those hotter countries, and so causing 
the face of things to flourish with beauty and delight. 
So God promises to be to his people in their troubles 
" like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest," Isa. 
xviii. 4. The spiritual joy and heavenly comfort which 
the peace and grace of God ministers to the consciences 
of believers, Ilom. xv. 13; v. 1 ; Phil. iv. 4; 1 Pet. i. 
8, is said to make the " bones flourish like an herb," 
Isa. Ixvi. 14. (.\s, on the other side, of " a broken 
S])irit " it is said, that it " drieth the bones," Prov. xvii. 
22.) " Their soul" (saith the prophet) " shall be as a 
watered garden ; and they shall not sorrow any more. 
I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort 
them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow," Jer. 
xxxi. 12, 13. 

From all which we should learn, 1. To be sensible 
of our own personal and spiritual dryness, barrenness, 
emptiness of fruit and peace, hard hearts, withered 
consciences, guilty spirits, under oiu" own particular 
sins ; so in regard of the whole land, to take notice of 
that tempest of wrath, which, like an east wind out of 
the wilderness, drieth up our springs, and spoileth our 
treasures, as the prophet complains, Hos. xiii. 15, IG; 
and to be humbled into ])enitent resolutions, as the 
church here is. If God, who was wont to be as dew- 
to our nation, who made it heretofore like a paradise 
and a watered goi-den, be now to it as a tempest, as a 
consuming fire, turning things upside down, burning 
up the innabitantji of the earth, causing our land to 
mourn, and our joy to wither, Joel i. 12, this is an evi- 
dent sign, that " the earth also is defiled under the in- 
habitants thereof," Isa. xxiv. 4, 5. Therefore as our 
sins have turned om- dew into blood, so our repentance 



must turn our blood into dew again. If ever we look 
to have a happy peace, we must make it with God : 
men can give peace only to our bodies, our fields, our 
houses, our pui-ses, (nor that neither without his over- 
ruling power and providence, who alone manages all 
the counsels and resolutions of men,) but he alone can 
give peace to our consciences by the assurance of his 
love, which is " better than life." And if there should 
be peace in a nation, made up only by human prudence 
and correspondences, without pubhc repentance, and 
thorough reformation in church, in state, in families, in 
persons, in judgment, in manners, it would be but like 
those short interims between the Egyptian plagues, 
Exod. viii. 15; ix. 34; a respiting only, not a remov- 
ing of our affliction ; like the shining of the sun on 
Sodom, before the fire and brimstone fell upon it, Gen. 
xix. 23, 24. M'e all cry and call for peace, and, while 
any thing is left, would gladly pay dear, very dear, to 
recover it. But there is no sure and lasting purchase 
of it, but by unfeigned repentance and turning to God ; 
this is able to give peace in the midst of war. In the 
midst of storm and tempest, Christ is sufficient security 
to the tossed ship. Matt. viii. 24, 27. " This man" is 
" the peace" oven " when tlie Assyrian" is in the 
'' land," Micah v. 5. AMiereas impenitence, even ■when 
we have recovered an outward peace, leaves us still in 
the midst of most potent enemies ; God, Christ, angels, 
Scripture, creatures, conscience, sins, curses, all these 
are arrayed against us. The apostle tells us, that lusts 
'• war against the soul," 1 Pet. ii. 11. There is a strong 
emphasis in the word " soul," the soul is more worth 
than all the world, nothing to be taken in exchange for 
it. Matt. xvi. 26. So long as we have our lusts un- 
conquered, we arc under a war the most woeful, which 
spoils us not of our blood, our money, our com, our 
cattle, our houses, our children, but of the salvation of 
our immortal souls. Time will repair the ruins of 
other wars, but eternity itself will not deliver' that poor 
soul which has fallen in the wars of lust. 

Therefore, if you would have peace as a mercy, get 
it from God, let it be a dew from heaven on your con- 
version to him. A " king's favour" is said to be as 
" dew upon the grass," Prov. xix. 12, and as " a cloud 
of the latter rain," Prov. xvi. 15; and it would ■with 
all joyfulness be so apprehended, if by that means the 
blessing of peace were bestowed on these distressed 
kingdoms. How much more comfortable would it be 
to have it as a gift from God to a repenting nation ! 
For God can give peace in anger, as well as war. A 
ship at sea may be distressed by a calm, as well as 
broken by a tempest. The cattle which we mean to 
kill, we fii-st prefer to some fat pasture : and sometimes 
God gives over punishing, not in mercy, but in fury ; 
leaving men to go on quietly in their own hearts' lusts, 
that they who are filthy may be filthy still, Psal. 
Ixxxi. 12; Hos. iv. 14, 17; Isa. i. 5; Ezek. xxiv. 13. 
God was exceedingly angry with Israel when he gave 
them their hearts' desire, in sending them quails, 
Numb. xi. 32, 33. Many men get their desires from 
God's anger by raurmurnig, as others do theirs from 
his mercy by prayer ; but tlien a curse attends them. 
Now therefore, when our own sword devours us, when 
our land is, " through the wrath of the Lord of hosts," 
so darkened, that " the people" thereof are "as fuel of 
the fire," " no man" sparing " his brother," " every 
man " eating " the flesh of his own arm," (the sad cha- 
racter which the projjhet gives of a civil war, Isa. ix. 
1!>, 20.) let us take heed of God's complaint, " In vain 
have I smitten your children, they received no correc- 
tion," Jer. ii. 30. Let us make it our business to re- 
cover God. It is he that " maketh wars to cease unto 
the end of the earth," Psal. xlvi. 9. And it is he who 
poureth out upon men " the strength of battle," and 
givcth them " for a spoil" " to the robbers," Isa. xlii. 



Vee. 5—7. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



6G1 



24, 25. A sinful nation gains nothing by any human 
treaties, policies, counsels, contributions, till by repent- 
ance they secure their interest in God, and get him on 
their side. God being prevailed with by Moses in be- 
half of Israel, after the horrible provocation of the 
golden calf, sends a message to them : '■ I ;vill send 
an angel before thee ; and I will drive out the Ca- 
naanite — unto a land flowing with milk and honey: 
for I will not go up in the midst of thee." And pre- 
sently there follows in the next verse, " When the 
people heard these evil tidings they mourned," Exod. 
xxxiii. 2 — 4. What were " these evil tidings ?" to have 
an angel to protect and lead them ? to have their ene- 
mies vanquished ? to have possession of a land flowing 
witli milk and honey ? was there any thing lamentable 
in all this ? Yes ; to have all this and much more, 
and not to have God and his presence, was heavy 
tidings to God's people. And therefore Moses ceased 
not to plead with God till he pi'omised them his own 
presence again, with which !Moses chose rather to stay 
in a wilderness, than without it to go into the land of 
Canaan ; " If thy presence go not with me, carry us 
not up hence," Exod. xxxiii. 13 — 15. 

2. Whatever our spiritual wants are, to look up to 
heaven for a supply of them. Neither gardens, nor 
woods, nor vineyards, nor fields, nor flowers, nor trees, 
nor com, nor spices, will flourish or revive without the 
clew and concuxTence of heavenly grace. Christ alone 
is " all and in all" to his church: though the instru- 
ments be earthly, yet the vu'tue which gives success to 
tliem comes from heaven. We shall thus consider the 
succeeding metaphors, as connected with and depend- 
ent on him who is emphatically " the dew " unto his 
spiritual " Israeh" 

" He shall grow as the lily." njaiwa mS' The 
beauty of the Kly, or, as the prophet David calls it, 
" the beauties of holiness," arise from " the dew of the 
morning," Psal. ex. 3. He is the ornament, the attire, 
the comeliness of his spouse. For his people to forget 
him, is for " a maid" to " forget her ornaments, or a 
bride her attire," Jer. ii. 32. The perfect beauty of the 
church, is that comeliness of his which he communi- 
cates to her, Ezck. xvi. 14. Of ourselves we are 
" wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and 
naked ;" our " gold," our riches, our " white raiment," 
we must buy of him, Sev. iii. 17, IS. He is the Lord 
our righteousness, whom therefore we are said to put 
on, Rom. xiii. 14. He has " made us unto our God 
kings and priests," Rev. v. 10; and being such, he has 
provided beautiful robes for us, as once he appointed 
for the priests, Exod. xxviii. 2 ; Rev. iv. 4 ; vi. 11; vii. 
9. This spu-itual beauty of holiness in Christ's church, 
is sometimes compared to the marriage ornaments of a 
queen, Psal. xlv. 14 ; Rev. xix. 7, 8 ; xxi. 2 ; some- 
times to the choice flowers of a garden, roses and lilies, 
Eiqiin-dirisabeatos Cant. ii. 1, 2; sometimcs to a most glo- 
ff'i^i'""'; coiiccta rious and goodly structure, Rev. xxi. 10 
— 27 ; sometimes to the shining forth 
of the moon, and the brightness of the sun. Cant. vi. 
10; Rev. xii. 1. All the united excellencies of the 
creatures are too low to adumbrate and figure the glo- 
ries of the church. 

" And cast forth his roots as Lebanon." vwnv? n'l 
^iJsVa The root and stability of the church is in and 
li-om him ; he is " the Root of David," Rev. v. 5. Ex- 
cept he dwell in us, we can neither be rooted nor 
grounded, Eph. iii. 17. All our strength and sufficiency 
is from him, Phil. iv. 13; Eph. vi. 10 j 1 Pet. v. 10. 

* Pallium auJi dicentem, Petra autem erat Christus. Aug. 
in Psal. Ix. Super hanc Petram quam confessus es, super 
hauc Petram quam cognovisti dicens, Tu es Christus Filius 
Dei vivi, a^dificabo ecclesiam meam. De Verbis Dom. serm. 
1.3. Quid est super hanc Petram ? Super hanc tidem : super id 
quod dictum est, Tues Christus Filius Dei. Tract. lU iu Epist. 



Tlie graft is supported bj' another root, and not by its 
own. This is the reason of the stability of the church, 
because it is founded on a rock. Matt. xvi. 18; not 
on Peter,* but on him whom Peter confessed ; on the 
apostles only doctrinally, but on Christ personally, as 
" the chief corner-stone, elect, precious," in whom 
whosoever "believeth" "shall not be confounded," 
Eph. ii. 20, 21 ; 1 Pet. ii. 6. This is the diflference be- 
tween the righteousness of creation and the righteous- 
ness of redemption ; the state of the world in Adam, 
and the state of the church in Christ. Adam had his 
righteousness in his own keeping, and therefore when 
the power of hell set upon him he felkfrom his sted- 
fastness ; there was no promise given to him that " the 
gates of hell" should " not prevail against" him ; being 
of an earthly constitution he had corruptibility, muta- 
bility, infirmity belonging to him from the very prin- 
ciples of his being. But Christ, the Second Adam, is 
" the Lord from heaven," over whom death has neither 
claim nor power ; and the righteousness and stability 
of the church are founded on, and have their original 
in, him. The powers of darkness must be able to 
evacuate the virtue of his sacrifice, to stop God's ears 
to his intercession, to repel and keep back the supplies 
and influences of his Spirit, to keep or recover posses- 
sion against his ejectment, in one word, to thrust him 
away from the right hand of the Majesty on high, and 
to kill him again, before ever they can overthrow his 
church. As Plato compared a man, so may we the 
church, to a tree inverted, with the root above and the 
branches below. And the root of this tree not only 
serves to give life to the branches while they abide in 
it, but to hold them fast that none can prevail to cut 
them ofi', John x. 28, 29. 

" His branches shall spread." vnipjv isS' The 
growth and spreading abroad of the branches of the 
church, is from him whose name is " the Branch," Isa. 
xi. 1 ; Zech. iii. 8. To him " the uttermost parts of 
the earth" are given for a "possession," and all "the 
kingdoms of this world are " to " become the kingdoms 
of our Lord, and of his Christ," Psal. ii. 8 ; Rev. si. 15. 
In regard of his first dispensation towards Israel, God's 
first-born, the land of Canaan is pecuharly called 
Immanuel's land, Isa. viii. 8. But in regard of his 
latter dispensation, when he sent " the rod of his 
strength out of Zion," and went forth conquering and 
to conquer, and gave commission to preach the gospel 
to every creature, the whole world is now, under the 
gospel, become Immanuel's land, and he is " the King 
of all the earth," Psal. xlvii. 7 ; " King of kings, and 
Lord of lords," Rev. xix. 16. " The Gentiles" " come" 
in to the "light" of his church, and "kings to the 
brightness of" her "rising;" and "the nation and 
kingdom that will not serve " her " shall perish ; yea, 
those nations .shall be utterly wasted," Isa. Ix. 3, 12. 
Now every country is Canaan, and every Christian 
church the Israel of God, and every regenerate person 
born in Zion, and every spiritual worshipper the cir- 
cumcision ; now Christ is crucified in Galatia, and a 
passover eaten in Corinth, and manna fed on in Per- 
gamos, and an altar set up in Eg)-pt, and Gentiles 
sacrificed, and stones made childi'en unto Abraham 
and temples unto God: see John iv. 21; Mai. i. 11; 
Zeph. ii. 11; Gal. vi. 16; Isa. xiv. 1; xliv. 5; Zech. 
viii. 23 ; Rom. ii. 29 ; Psal. Ixxxvii. 4, 5 ; Phil. iii. 3 ; 
Col. ii. 11 ; Gal. iii. 1 ; 1 Cor. v. 7, 8 ; Rev. ii. 17 ; Isa. 
xix. 19, 21, 23; Rom. xv. 16; Luke iii. 8; Eph.ii. 21. 
In Christ's former dispensation the church was only 

1. Joann. Felix fidei petra, Petri ore confesso, Tu es Christus 
Fibus Dei. Hilar, de Trin. lib. 2. Super hauc confessionis 
Petram, Ecclesia; sedificatio est. lib. 6. 'Eiri TauTij t^ tte- 
•rpa, TowriaTL rr; irta-Ttt t^s ouoKoyia^. Chrj'sost. in loc. 
Vid. Isid. Pel. lib. 1. Ep. 2.33. Casaub. Exercitat. ad Annal 
Eccles. 15. c. 12 et 1-3. Sixt. Seneu. 1. G. Annot. 6S, 69 



662 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



national, amongst the Jews ; liut in his latter dis- 
pensation it is oecumenical and universal, over all tlic 
world; a spreading tree, under the shadow of the 
branches whereof " shall dwell all fowl of every wing," 
Ezek. xvii. 2.3. 

"And his beauty shall be as the olive tree." »n*l 
lim r>13 The graces of the Holy Spirit wherewith the 
church is anointed are from him. He is 
Som mii? vl rtu- ^^^ "''^'"^ *''*^*^ which empties the golden 
tun. rticieniUruin qU out of himself, Zcch. iv. 12. Of his 
caiiet injfnio, si fulncss WB all Teceivc grace for grace, 
ql!SmortbiiVi»trt, John i. IG. AVith the same Spirit are we 
in'c.ntifSriSr'' anointed, animated by the same life, re- 
generated to the same nature, renewed 
into the same image, reserved unto the same inherit- 
ance, dignified in some respect with the same offices, 
made priests to offer spiritual sacrifices, and kings to 
subdue spiritual enemies, and prophets to receive 
teaching from God, and to have a duplicate of his law 
written in our liearts, 2 Cor. i. 21; John xiv. 19; 
1 Cor. XV. 48, 49; Rom. viii. 17 ; 1 Pet. ii. 5; Rev. i. 
6 ; John vi. 45 ; Jer. xxxi. .33. 

" And his smell as Lebanon." ^iJsSs lS n-tl The 
sweet perfume and scent or smell of Lebanon, which 
arises out of holy duties, the grace which drops from 
the lips of liis people, the spiritual incense which 
arises out of their prayers, the sweet savour of the 
gospel which spreads itself abroad in the ministry of 
his word and in the lives of his servants, they have aU 
their origin in him, and from his heavenly "dew. Of 
ourselves, without him, as we are altogether unclean, 
Psal. xiv. 3; Prov. xiii. 5, so we defile every holy 
thing with which we meddle. Hag. ii. 13, 14 ; Prov. 
xxviii. 9; Isa. i. 11 — 15; insomuch that God saith, "I 
hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in 
your solemn assemblies," Amos v. 21 ; they are all of 
them, as they come from us, " gall and wormwood," 
"their clusters are bitter," Deut. xxix. 18; xxxii. 32. 
But when the Spirit of Christ blows upon us, and his 
grace is poured into our hearts and lips, then the spices 
flow out, Cant. iv. 16 ; then prayer goes up like in- 
cense and sweet odours, Rev. v. 8 ; then, instead of 
corrupt, rotten, contagious communication, our dis- 
coui'ses tend to edifying, and " minister grace to the 
hearers," Eph. iv. 29 ; then the savour of the knowledge 
of Christ manifests itself in the mouths and lives of 
his servants in every place where they come, 2 Cor. 
ii. 14. 

"They that ^dwell under his shadow shall retiurn." 
^S»3 'sr* 13»' The shadow and refreshment, the 
refuge and shelter, of the church against storm and 
tempests against rain and heat, against all trouble and 
persecution, is from him alone. He is the only de- 
fence and covering that is over the assemblies and 
glory of Zion, Isa. iv. 5. " The name of the Lord is a 
strong tower," into which " the righteous" run and are 
" safe," Piov. xviii. 10. So the Lord promises, when 
his people should be exiles from his temple and scat- 
tered out of their own land, that he would himself be 
"a little sanctuary" to them in the countries where 
they should come, Ezek. xi. 16. He is a " dwelling 
place" to his church in all conditions, Psal. xc. 1 ; xci. 
1, 2; "a strength to the needy," "a refuge from the 
storm, a shadow from the heat," " an hiding-])lace 
from the wind," " a covert from the tempest," '• a 
chamber" wherein to retire when indignation is kindled, 
Isa, XXV. 4; xxvi. 20; xxxii. 2. Everj- history of 
God's power, every promise of his love, every observa- 

• Mcdicamenta quasdam priiis afflimnt ut sanent, ct ipsa 
collyria nisi sensum videmli priusclauilant, prodesse non pus- 
Bunt. .■Vug. Qu. in Matth. qu. 14. Quo tcrrcri deberct, illo 

ipio rccreolur conlumcliam tenet curalionis pignus, &c. 

Scult. cap. 42. Observat. in iMatth. dc Mulicrc Syropha-nissa. 
Plures etncimur quuties metimur. Tertul. Apol. cap. ult. 



tion and experience of his providence, every comfort in 
his word, the knowledge which we have of his name 
by faith, and the knowledge which we have of it by 
experience, are so many arguments to trust in him, 
and so many hiding-places in which to flee unto him 
against any trouble. " "Whstt time I am afraid, I will 
trust in thee," Psal. Ivi. 3. " Why art thou cast down, 
O my soul ? and why art thou disquieted in me ? hope 
thou in God," Psal. xhi. 5, 11. He " delivered," he 
"doth deliver," he "will deliver," 2 Cor. i. 10. Many 
times the children of God are reduced to sucli ex- 
tremities, that they have nothing wherewith to en- 
courage themselves but their interest in him ; nothing 
to flee to for hope but his great name, made known to 
them by faith in his promises, and by experience of his 
goodness, power, and providence. This was David's 
case at Ziklag, 1 Sam. xxx. 6 ; Israel's at the Red Sea, 
Exod. xiv. 10, 13; Jonah's in the belly of the fish, 
Jonah ii. 4, 7 ; and Paul's in the shipwreck, .\cts xxvii. 
20, 25. God is never so much glorified by the faith of 
his servants, as when they can maintain their trust in 
him against sight and sense ; and when reason saith, 
Thou art undone, for all help fails thee, can answer in 
faith, I am not undone, " for he hath said, I will never 
leave thee nor forsake thee," Heb. xiii. 5. 

" They shall renve as the corn, and gi-ow as the 
vine." pj3 inns'i pn vn' The power which the church 
has to rise up above her pressures, to outgrow her 
troubles, to revive after lopping and harrowing, to 
make use of* affliction as a means to flourish again, all 
tliis is from him. That in trouble we are riot over- 
whelmed, but can say with the apostle, " As t dying, 
and, behold, we live ; as chastened, and not killed ; as 
sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making 
many rich ; as having nothing, and yet possessing all 
things ;" like the corn which dies and is quickened again ; 
like the vine that is lopped and spreads again ; all 
this is from him who is " the resurrection, and the life," 
John xi. 25 ; who was that grain of wheat, which dying, 
and being cast into the ground, brought forth much 
fruit, John xii. 24 ; the Branch which grew out of the 
roots of Jesse, when that goodly family was sunk so 
low as from David the king to Joseph the carpenter, 
Isa. xi. 1. 

" The scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon." 
l^jaS ^"3 As God is the author of all these blessings to 
his people, so when he bestows them he does it in per- 
fection ; the fruits which tliis dew produces are as the 
fruits of Lebanon, most choice and excellent. If he 
plant a vineyard, it shall be in " a very fruitful hill," 
and with "the choicest vine," Isa. v. 1, 2; "a noble 
vine, wholly a right seed," Jer. ii. 21. AVlien in any 
kind of straits we have recourse to the creature for 
supply, either we find it like our Saviour's fig tree, 
without fruit, or like our projihet's vine, as good as 
empty, the fruits thereof not worth the gathering, Hosi 
X. 1. " Their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are 
bitter," Deut. xxxii. 32; full of vanity, vexation, dis- 
appointment. Friends fail either in their love, or in 
their power ; people cry Hosanna to-dav, and Crucify 
to-morrow. " Men of low degree are vanity, and men of 
high degree a lie." Counsels clash, or are puzzled with 
intricacies and unhapjiy obstacles, like the wheels in 
Ezekiel's vision, that seem hampered in one another. 
.\rmies, like Reuben, " unstable as water," now rise, 
I)rcsently ebb and sink away. Treasures, like the 
mountains out of which they were first digged, barren 
and fruitless, fuel rather to feed our sins than water to 

f 'OXiyoi Kai iroWuyv ovvaroiTipoi, alxfit^^i^Toi Kai tou 
pntriXloil IffXi'poTfpoi, awoXianVTit iraTplia Kai ■)ri'<rTii> ^i| 
a-ToXitravTtv' yvfivol Kai ivctSvfiivot, irrwYoi Kai iviropoi, 
Kai i\iv»lpo>i/ Afiiim't, &c. Chrjs. de Trib. Fucris, Scr. 2. 
in Psal. 1. 



Vee. 5 — 7 



THE PROPHECT OF HOSK\. 



663 



qiiencli our flames ; matter of prey to the wicked, more 
than of help to the miserable. In one word, take any 
creature-helps in the world, and there will be sometliing, 
nay, Ter\- much, of defect in them. All existence but 
God's is mixed with non-existence ; and as every man, 
so every creature besides, is a liar, like Job's brook, 
(or friends which he compares thereto,) that vanishes 
into nothing when there is most need of it. Job vi. 15 
— IS : a liar, either by way of perfidiousness, which 
promises and then deceives : or by way of impotence, 
which undertakes and then miscarries. But whenever 
God promises and undertakes to bless any man or any 
people, he can-ies on his work to perfection ; his bless- 
ings are all milk and honey, dew and fatness, wine and 
oit the fruits of Lebanon, full of sweetness and matur- 
ity. He perfects that which he begins concerning his 
se'rvants, Psal. cxxxviii. 8 ; Phil. i. 6. There doth " not 
one thing " fail " of all the good things " he speaks 
concerning his people ; they all come to pass, and not 
one faileth, Josh, xxiii. 14. The riches which are 
gotten by human lusts and sinful resolutions are at- 
tended with many and piercing sorrows, 1 Tim. vi. 10: 
but when God blesses a man with riches, he takes 
away all the soitow from it, Prov. s. 22. The gifts of 
God are all of them like his works, " very good," Gen. 
i. 31 ; and bring after them into the soul a sabbath, a 
rest, and peace. 

3. We should from hence further learn, to show 
forth the fruits of this heavenly dew, agreeably to the 
scope of the several metaphors which the prophet here 
uses, drawn from the consideration of a garden, forest, 
fruitful field ; similitudes frequently used by the Holy 
Spirit, to denote the beauty, sweetness, fruit, comfort, 
shelter, protection, which the church of Christ affords 
to its members. Isa. xxxv. 1, 2; Iviii. 11 ; Cant. iv. 12, 
16 ; vi. 2; (as, on the other side, the wicked are com- 
pared to a dry desert, and baiTen wilderness, Isa. xxxv. 
6, 7; xli. 18;' Jer. xvii. 6;) and as these are promises 
in regard of God, and so matter of comfort, they are 
duties with respect to us, and so matter of obedience. 
He promises, 

1. That his people shall "grow as the 
digniusutHomenis UIv," which is the most bcautlful of all 
^Ttlffp"^."!^ flowers, Matt. vi. 28. 29 ; that they shall 
pcsuk. Tid. piin. |jg gloriouslv clothed, like a king's daugh- 

Lb. 21. cap. !. ° . , , * *. . ® i i 

ter, wnth the garments of praise, and the 
spirit of holiness, Isa. Ixi. 3 ; set forth by various meta- 
phors of broidered work, and fine linen, and silk, and 
ornaments, and bracelets, and chains, and jewels, and 
crowns, Ezek. xvi. 8 — 13. 

And as it is his promise, so it ought to be our duty 
and endeavour to adorn the gospel of Christ, to be in 
his garden as a lily, and not as a nettle or bramble ; to 
walk as becometh godliness ; to let oui light shine be- 
fore men, that they may be won to admire the amiable- 
ness of the Lord's tabernacle, and glorifj- God in the 
hour of their visitation ; to be as light.s in the midst of 
a crooked generation, PhU. ii. 15, or as " the lily 
among thorns," Cant. ii. 2 ; to make it appear that 
spiritual wisdom causes the " face to shine," Eccl. viii. 
1 ; that holiness is indeed a most beautiful thing, which 
commends us to the eyes of God and angels ; a robe 
worn by du-ist the King of saints, and by which we are 
made like to him who is " the chiefest among ten thou- 
sand.'' and "altogether lovely,'' Cant. v. 10, 16. AVe 
should take heed of any thing whereby our holy pro- 
fession may be blemished, and the name of God through 
us defiled : of such levity as is inconsistent with the 
majesty of holiness ; such morosity as is inconsistent 
with the meekness of holiness ; such drooping as is in- 
consistent with the joy of holiness ; such stiffiiess and 
sourness as are inconsistent with the lenity of holi- 

* T€t/x^« cruX^cas, ottTOj ■jroTt IXtoit tpiiv 

Koi Kpsfiom TTOTL vi)6v 'AiroWwi'os kKCLTaio. Horn. II. tj. 



ness. In one word, we should labour by the inno- 
cence, purity, elegance, fragrance, fruitfulness ; by the 
winning ingenuity, the mild and humble condescension, 
the pnident insinuation, the meek, quiet, and graceful 
demeanour of a holy life ; to " show forth the praises 
of him that hath caHsd" us, and to " put to silence the 
ignorance of foolish men," who, like the fold, pretend to 
despise beauty, like dogs, bay at the shining of the 
moon, and " speak evil of those things which they 
know not," Jude 10. 

2. That his church should " cast forth " her " I'oots as 
Lebanon." Though she should have the beauty of the 
lily, yet she should be freed from its frailness, its apt- 
ness to fade and wither, beautiful to-day, to-morrow 
drooping to death. But she should have „,. ... ,. .„ 
stabihty like the cedar, which is one of Th«.phrast Hist, 
the strongest of trees, and least subject 

to decay : therefore is the church compared to it, Ezek. 
xvii. 22, 23, and the temple said to be built of it, 
1 Kings vi. 15, 16, to signify- the strength and dura- 
tion of the church, against which the gates of hell 
should not prevail. And we may by the way observe, 
that most of the things here mentioned by our prophet, 
are also noted to have been in the temple, or in its 
services: lilies, 1 Kings vii. 19, 22, 26; olive trees, 
1 Kings vi. 23, 32, 33 ; spices for incense, wheat and 
oil for meat-oflerings, wine for diink-offerings. Gad 
thus furnishes his people with those blessings which 
may be most properly dedicated to him,* teaching us, 
as often as we receive any gifts fi-om him, presently to 
inquii-e what relation they have to his temple, how his 
name may be honoured, how his church may be served, 
how his gospel may be furthered, how his people may 
be edified and comforted by them, how all oiu: enjoy- 
ments may be divided as spoils to Christ : the power 
of great men, Isa. Ix. 3 ; the swords of mighty men, 
1 Sam. sviii. 17, 25, 27; Judg. vii. 18; the wisdom of 
learned men, 1 Kings iii. 9, 28 ; the cunning of crafts- 
men. Esod. xxviii. 3; xxxi. 6; the wealth of rich men, 
Isa. xxiii. 18 : Prov. iii. 9 ; Psal. xlv. 12 ; Isa. Ix. 6, 9 ; 
1 Tim. vi. 17 — 19. Abraham gave of the spoils to 
^lelchizedek, Heb. vii. 4 ; and Israel of all their wealth 
to the tabernacle, Exod. xxxv. 21 ; and David and his 
people of their treasure to the temple, 1 Chron. 
xxix. 2. 

And as it is his promise, that the church should thus 
take root, 2 Kings xix. 30 ; Jer. xvii. 8 ; so we should 
account it our duty to be firm, stable, constant, " un- 
movable" in the truth, and " in the work of the Lord," 
as " a house " '• founded upon a rock ; " to stand " rooted 
and built up" in the truth, that we may " hold fast the 
profession" thereof "without wavering," not being 
" carried about with every wind of doctrine," but know- 
ing whom and what we have believed, 1 Cor. svi. 13; 
Eph. iv. 14 ; Col. ii. 7 ; Heb. x. 23 ; to " stand fast," 
" being rooted and grounded in" the "love" of God, 
that we may be " sti-engthened with might" in his ser- 
vice, and may- with " purpose of heart" cleave unto him, 
being established by his grace, Eph. iii. 17 ; Col. i. 11 ; 
Heb. xii. 28 ; xiii. 9. In the civil law, 
tni a tree has taken root, it does not be- kt^'SS^oX i. 
long to the soil on which it is planted. lartim'ca»Smn?L3. 
So it is not enough to be in the chm'ch, i.s-Cod.deiUiTiii- 
except, like '• a cedai- m Lebanon, we 
"cast forth" our "roots," and are so "planted" that 
we " flourish in the courts of our God," and " bring forth 
fruit in old age," Psal. xcii. 12 — 14. 

3. That the chm-ch should spread forth her branches, 
and fill the earth, and grow to a great compass and 
extent, that she should send out " her boughs unto the 
sea, and her branches unto the river," Psal. Ixxx. 8 — 1 1 ; 
Dan. ii. 35 ; that his church should be a universal 

Spolia in templis suspeuilere antiqiii moris erat. Cic. de 
Nat. Deor. hb. 2. Liv lib. 10. Virgil. iEn. 7. 



664 



AX EXPOSITIOX OF 



Chap. XIV. 



church over the whole world ; that as, in regard of sin, 

the ■whole world lieth in the wicked one, 1 John \. 19, 

BO it should have Christ for its propitiation, through 

faith, 1 John ii. 2. Totus in maligno 
Aug. Epist. 48. ' . . y-,, . , •, ■ ,• ° 

propter zizanta, Lnrislus propttiattoprop- 

ter t'riticum. " By one Spirit are we all baptized into 

one body," 1 Cor. xii. 13; and that one body made up 

of " all churches of the saints," 1 Cor. xiv. 33, even 

of " all nations, and kindi-ed, and people, and tongues," 

Kev. vii. 9 : no difference of persons, " neither Greek 

nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, 

Scythian, bond nor free : but Christ all, and in all," 

Col. iii. 1 1 ; no difference of places, " all that in every 

place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, 

both theirs and ours," 1 Cor. i. 2 ; no difference of 

times, " Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to-day, and 

for ever," Heb. xiii. 8. 

And as this is his promise, so we should endeavour, 

1. To grow ourselves in knowledge and grace; to 
let our profiting appear unto all men ; to abound in the 
work of the Lord ; to let our graces from the heart, like 
leaven from the middle of the lump, spread abroad, 
and find their way to all the parts and powers of soul 
and body, that the whole man may be " filled with all 
the fulness of God," and grow up " unto the measure 
of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Eph. iv. 13 — 16 ; 
Phil. iii. 12—14 ; 2 Pet. iii. 18; Heb. vi. 1. 

2. To promote zealously the growth and progress of 
the gospel in others. This is the nature of grace, to 
manifest itself, and by that means to allure and gather 
others to its own quality. It is set forth in Scripture 
by the names of light, which shines abroad, of ointment 
and perfume, which cannot be hid, of leaven, and salt, 
which impart to other things their own nature and 
relish. Therefore the Holy Ghost was given in " tongues," 
"tongues like as of fire," with "a sound from heaven 
as of a rushing mighty wind ;" all which have a quality 
of self-manifestation, and are calculated to attract at- 
tention. There is an excellent place to this purpose in 
Eph. iv. 15, 16, " But speaking the truth in love, may 
gi'ow up into him in all things, which is the head, even 
Christ : from whom the whole body fitly joined together 
and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, ac- 
cording to the effectual working m the measure of 
every part, maketh increase of the body imto the edifj"- 
ing of itself in love." The apostle thus illustrates the 
manner of spiritual increase in the mystical body of 
Christ by the proportion of the growth of members in 
the natural body, and thereby teaches us, that, 

1. There must be a fellowship between the head and 
members, which, in the mystical body, is here spoken 
of as twofold, {I'e ain-bv, and e? oii ; growing " into him," 
and receiving "from" him; looking in this work of 
growth on Christ, first, as the end to which all that 
growth aspires ; secondly, as the fountain from whence 
it proceeds ; that by growing we may have a more 
intimate and strong communion with him, by that 
virtue which we receive from him. So here are two 
necessarj- requisites to this duty of cndeavoimng the 
" increase of the body," to have Christ for our end to 
•which we work, and for our fountain out of which we 
dcri\e our ability of working. Every true member of 
Christ is intent and vigilant on the interest and honour 
of Christ ; and it belongs to the honour of Christ to 

have a perfect body. The church is his 
Scic^l^M^!' "fulness," he esteems himself maimed 

and incom])!ete if that should be finally 
deficient in any thing requisite to its integral perfection; 
and hence it is that every true Christian puts forth the 
uttermost of his endeavours in his place to cany on 
the "increase" of his Master's body; as every true- 
hearted soldier is exceedingly desirous, and, according 
to his power, endeavours, that every company and regi- 
ment under his general's command may be in all its 



offices and members comjJete. Again, every member 
of Christ being to him united, from him receives of his 
fulness " grace for grace," and so works to the same 
ends as the Head. And as the water which first rises 
out of the fountain, stands not stUl where it began, but 
goes forward till it grows into a gi'eat river ; so those 
who are joined to Christ as a fountain, do, by reason of 
that vital communion wliich they have with the foun- 
tain, carry on the growth of the whole body ; and the 
more vigorous the life of Christ is in any part, the more 
actively does that part work towards the edification of 
the whole. 

2. A mutual communion of the members of the body 
within and amongst themselves : to which is fii'st pre- 
supposed, the organical and harmonious constitution 
and compacture of the body into one, out of which 
arise the form and beauty, the strength and fimmess, 
the order and fitness, that are in it to those works 
which are proper to it, intimated in those two words 
avvapfioXoyovfisvovj and ffv;i/5*/3a?6/i£i'ov, " fitly joined 
together and compacted." It is a metaphor cb-awn from 
carpenters and other artificers, who, by several joints, 
so coaptate and fit the parts of their work 
to one another, that being put together pollniS'nilico.i-"' 
and fastened, there may one whole struc- u„°uJS""JJe„til' 
tuT'e or body grow out of them ; and in *"s„^' ^''"- "^''S- 
that body this accurate fitness and inti- 
mate connexion of the parts one with another, produce ■ 
an excellent strength, a beautiful order, and a ready 
serviceableness of each part to the other, and of all to 
the whole. So Jerusalem is said to be as " a city that 
is compact together," Psal. cxxii. 3 ; as the ark (a 
type of the church) had the ribs, and planks, and parts 
thereof so closely fastened into one another, that no 
water could get in ; and as in the tabernacle, all the 
cui"tains thereof were to be coupled together, Exod. 
xxvi. 3. So Christ is all for unity, and joining things 
into one ; two natures united in one person, two parties 
reconciled by one Mediator, two people concorporated 
into one church ; one family, one Father, one seed, one 
Head, one faith, one hope, one love, one worship, one 
body, one Spti-it, one end, and one common salvation. 
Christ is not, loves not to be, divided, 1 Cor. i. 13. This 
is a fundamental requisite to the growth of the body, 
to the preservation of its unity. The building must be 
" fitly framed together," if you would have it grow 
" unto an holy temple in the Lord," Eph. ii. 21 : Col. 
ii. 19. When there was most unity, there was the gi-eat- 
est increase in the church ; when they were all of " one 
accord," of one heart, and one soul, then " the Lord 
added to the church daily such as should be saved," 
Acts ii. 46, 47. They that cause divisions and dissen- 
sions, do not serve the Lord Jesus, and therefore they 
cannot but liinder the progress of his gospel, Rom. xvi. 
17, 18. As in the natural, so in the mystical body, so- 
liitio cotilinuilalis tends to the paining and gi-ieving of 
that Spirit by which the body lives, and by consequence 
hinders its gx-owth, Eph. iv. 30, 31. Our growth is by 
the apostle distributed into growth " in knowledge," 
and growth " in grace," 2 Pet. iii. 18 ; and divisions in 
the church are of themselves great hinderanees to both 
these : to knowledge, because the most usual breaches 
in the church arise out of diversities of opinion publicly 
asserted and insisted on by their authors and followers. 
And though accidentally, where truth is embraced, it 
is held with more care, and searched into with more 
accurateness, because of the errors that oppose it (as 
the fire is hottest in the coldest weather) ; yet corrupt 
doctrine, being of the nature of a weed or canker, m 
spreading and corroding further and further, it must 
needs consequently binder the diffusion, and so the 
growth, of true knowledge. Nor does it less hinder the 
growth of grace ; for while the people of God are all of 
one heart and of one way, then all theii' communion 



Ver. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



665 



runs into this one design of mutually edifying, comfort- 
ing, supporting, encouraging one another in their 
" most holy faith ;" but when they are divided and 
broken into factions by different judgments, if there 
be not a great abundance of humility and spiritual 
wisdom, the spkits of men run out into heats and pas- 
sions, into pcrrerse disputes, and mere notional con- 
tentions, which liave ever been diminutions to the 
power of godliness, 1 Cor. iii. 3, 4. When there are 
schisms in the body, the members will not have care 
one of another, 1 Cor. xii. 25. Greatly 
Smi.'«!tfm''s"d therefore, even for this one cause, are the 
qufd'Sfa S'duo' ^^'1 ^""l dangerous divisions of these 
«'">^s sencc. do tlmcs to be lamented, when men make 
' ' ' ' '' ' use of civil ti-oubles to disturb, yea, to 
tear asunder, the unity of the church ; when they set up, 
as in the times of the Donatists, altar against altar, and 
church against church, and make secessions from the 
common body, and then one from another, to the infi- 
nite content and advantage of the common enemies of 
our religion, and to the injury of religion itself. It 
were a blessed thing if we were in a condition con- 
formable to the apostle's exhortation, to " speak all the 
same thing," to " be perfectly joined in the same mind 
and in the same judgment," to " be of one mind," and to 
" live in peace," 1 Cor. i. 10 ; 2 Cor. xiii. 11. But if that 
cannot be attained to, let us yet all learn the apostle's 
other lesson, wherein we arc " otherwise minded," to 
depend upon God for revealing his will unto us ; and 
whereto we have already attained, " to walk by the 
same rule," to " mind the same thing," to remember 
that every difterence in opinion does not, ought not to 
dissipate or dissolve the unity of God's church. Even 
in Corinth, where the people were divided into several 
parties, yet they continued " one church," 1 Cor. xi. IS. 
The body thus constituted, and compacted for the 
increase thereof, presents these requisite characteristics. 

1. Members severally distinct from one another, 
some principal, others ministerial, all concurring differ- 
ently to the service of the whole. If the heart should 
be in the head, or the liver in the shoulder, if there 
should be any unnatural dislocation of the vital or nu- 
tritive parts, the body could not grow, but must perish. 
The way for the church to prosper and flourish, is for 
every member to keep in his own rank and order, to 
remember his own measure, to act in his own sphere, 
to manage his particular condition and relations with 
spiritual wisdom and humility ; the eye to do the work 
of an eye, the hand of a hand. Say not as Absalom, 
If I were a judge, I would do justice, 2 Sam. xv. 4 ; 
but consider what state God has set thee in, and in 
that walk with God, and adorn the profession of the 
gospel, Rom. xii. 3 ; 1 Cor. xii. 8 ; xi. 28, 29 ; 2 Cor. 
X. 13, 14 ; Eph. iv. 7. Remember Uzzah ; it was a good 
work which he did, but because he did it out of order, 
having no call, God smote him for his error, 2 Sam. vi. 
6, 7. There are excellent works, which, being done 
without the call of God, do not edify, but disturb the 
bod)', Rom. x. 15; Heb. v. 4. Every man must walk 
in the church " as God hath distributed" and " hath 
called," and " every man" must, " in the same calling 
wherein he was called," " therein abide with God," 1 
Cor. vii. 17, 20, 24. 

2. Joints and ligaments so fastening these members 
together, that each one may be serviceable to the in- 
crease of the whole. Col. ii. 19. There are bands 
which join the body to the Head, without which it can 
neither grow nor live, namely, the Spirit of Christ, and 
faith in him, 1 Cor. vi. 17; Rom. viii. 9; Eph. iii. 17: 
and there are bands which join the parts of the body 
to one another ; as namely, the same Holy Spirit, 1 Cor. 
xii. 13 ; which Spirit of grace stirs up every member to 
seek the growth and benefit of the whole, 1 Cor. xii. 
25, 26. The sincere love and truth which each mem- 



ber bears to all the rest, is called " the bond of per- 
fectness," CoL iii. 14, and " the bond of peace," Eph. iv. 
3. Now love is a most communicative grace, it will 
plant, and water, and feed, and spend itself for the good 
of the whole, it will deny itself to serve the body, (as 
Chi-ist did,) Gal. v. 13. 

3. A measure belonging to every part. Some are in 
one office, others in another, some have one gift, others 
another, and all this " for the perfecting of the saints," 
Eph. iv. 11, 12; 1 Cor. xii. 4, 11 : one is able to teach, 
another to comfort, a thu'd to convince, a fourth to ex- 
hort, a fifth to counsel, and every one of these are to 
be directed to the edification and growth of the whole, 
Rom. xii. 3 — 8 ; Eph. iv. 7. The apostle saith, that we 
are "fellow citizens with the saints," Eph. ii. 19. Now 
as amongst fellow citizens there is wont 

to be an intercourse of mutual negocia- ^'"'' t't'c'.'S^^^"' 
tion, one man has one commodity, and 
another another, and with these they usually carry on 
mutual barter ; so amongst the saints, one man is 
eminent in one grace, another in another, and accord- 
ing to then- mutual requirements, or abilities, they in- 
terchangeably minister to one another towards the 
growth of the whole. 

4. 'Jl7rix;wp?7yia, the supply of service and the supply 
of nourishment which one part affords to another, and 
so to the whole. This is principally from the Head to 
the members, called by the apostle, " the supply of the 
Spii'it of Jesus Christ," Phil. i. 19 ; of whose fulness 
we receive "grace for grace," John i. 16; into whose 
image we are transformed " from glory to glory," 2 Cor. 
iii. 18 : but it is proportionably between the members 
amongst themselves ; for as several particular ingre- 
dients make up one cordial, and several instruments 
concur to the perfecting of one aTtonXiajia, or consum- 
mate work, and the beauty of every thing arises out of 
the variety, order, and mutual serviceableness which 
the parts thereof have one to another ; so in the church, 
Christ has so tempered it together, that they might all 
stand mutually in need one of another. Therefore 
we find the saints in Scripture communicating to one 
another their experiences, temptations, deliverances, 
comforts, for their mutual edification, Psal. xxxiv. 2, 
6 ; John i. 41, 45 ; iv. 29 ; 2 Cor. i. 4, 6 ; Phil. i. 12— 
14 ; Col. ii. 1, 2. And God's dealings with saints in 
particular are therefore registered in the Scripture, 
both that we might learn thereby to build up one an- 
other, and that by their examples we might support our 
faith, and through patience and experience of the 
Scripture have hope, because what has been done to 
one is in the like condition applicable to eveiy other, 
James v. 10, 11, 17; Rom. xv. 4; 1 Cor. x. 6; Heb. 
xiii. 5. 

5. ' EvEpyji'a, an effectual working, a iivajxiQ itKaaTiKf) 
or mwTiictj, a faculty to form and to concoct the mat- 
ter, which has been subministered, to life and nourish- 
ment : which is the work of faith, and of the Spirit of 
Christ ; whereby the soul of a believer, being sensible 
of want, desii-ous of supply, and pressing forward to 
perfection, sweetly closes with whatsoever the measm-e 
of any other part has communicated to it, converting it 
to its own growth and nourishment, which the apostle 
calls the mixing of the word with fait'n, Heb. iv. 2. 
Thus far in respect of the growth of the church ; but he 
further promises, 

4. That tlie beauty of his church shall be as " the 
olive tree ; " that as she should have the glory of the 
lily, the strength and extension of the cedar, so this 
spreading should not be a vain ostentation, but should 
have joined with it the flourishing and fruitfulness of 
the olive. Now the honour of the olive tree consists in 
two things, perpetual greenness, and most profltable 
fruit, which serves both for light, to cause the lamp to 
burn, Exod. xxvii. 20, and for nourishment, to be eaten, 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



Lev. \i. 15, 16 : in the one respect it is an emblem of 
peace, it makes tlie face sliine, Psal. civ. 15 ; and in 
the other it is an emblem of grace, and spiritual gifts, 
1 John ii. 20. These are the "two most excellent bene- 
fits which God promises to his people ; " He will speak 
peace unto" them, Psal. Ixxxv. 8; Isa. xxxii. IT; and 
he "will give" them "grace and glory," Psal. kxsiv. 11. 
And as he promises, so should we practise these 
things, and learn to beautify the gospel of Christ, first, 
with our good works, as the fruits of his grace, John 
XV. 8 ; secondly, with our spiritual joy and comfort, as 
the fruits of his peace ; that others, seeing the light and 
shining forth of a serene, calm, and peaceable con- 
science in our conversation, may thereby be brouglit in 
love with the ways of God. These two mutually cher- 
ish and increase one another. The more conscience 
we make of fruitfulness, the more way do we make for 
peace ; when the waters of lust are sunk, the dove will 
quickly bring in an olive branch : and the more the 
peace of God rules in the heart, the more will it 
strengthen the conscience and care of obedience, from 
these considerations : fir.st, thankfulness for so great a 
blessing : secondly, fear to forfeit it : thirdly, wisdom 
to improve and increase it. 

5. That his church shall be in " smell as Lebanon," 
and that " the scent thereof shall be as the wine of 
Lebanon," as elsewhere we find her compared to a gar- 
den of " all the chief spices," Cant. iv. 12, 14 ; she shall 
be filled with the sweet savour of the gospel of Christ. 
" Tlianks be unto God," saith the apostle, " which always 
causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest 
the savour of his knowledge by us in every place ; for 
we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ," 2 Cor. ii. 
14, 15: -where there arc two metaphors, one of a sweet 
ointment, the other of a triumph. The name of Christ 
is compared to an " ointment," Cant. i. 3 ; and the 
preaching of the gospel, which is malung manifest the 
savour of this ointment, is called the bearing of Christ's 
name. Acts ix. 15. Now, this sweet savour is annexed 

to a triumphal solemnity, because in all 
times of public joy they were wont to 
anoint themselves with sweet oil, which 
is therefore called oleum Icptitiip, " the 
co4"i,^ncSbM- oil of gladness," Psal. xlv. 7 ; Isa. Ixi. 3. 
Tas^^Ti. 6^'%id. (For in times of mom-ning they abstained 
AtiicMum, lib. 15. from sweet ointments, 2 Sam. xiv. 2; 
Dan. X. 2, 3.) The gospel therefore be- 
ing a message of " great joy," Luke ii. 10; a leading 
of " captivity captive," and the means whereby Christ 
goes forth gloriously, " conquering, and to conquer," 
Psal. xlv. 3,4; ex. 2 ; Rev. vi. 2 ; therefore they who 
brought these good tidings are said to be as a " sweet 
savour," whose lips drop " sweet smelling mjTrh," 
Cant. V. 13, and whose doctrine is compared to the 
" powders of the merchant," Cant. iii. G ; and the time 
of the gospel is called an " accepted time," " the day of 
salvation," 2 Cor. vi. 2 ; that is, a time of singular joy 
and solemnity, a continual Easter, or festival, 1 Cor. v. 
7, 8: and herewithal he promises likewise, that his 
people should offer up spiritual incense and services to 
him in ])raycrs, thanksgivings, alms, and good works, 
Ezek. XX. 40. 

And as he promises, so we should practise these 
things. Our care should be to let our lips and lives 
breathe forth nothing but grace and edification. Col. iv. 
6 ; to be frequent in the spiritual sacrifices of prayer, 
thanksgiving, and good works, which may be as " an 
odour of a sweet smell " before God, Phil. iv. 18 ; Rev. 
viii. 4 ; to labour to leave behind us " a good name," 
not out of vain-glory, or an empty, ambitious aflect- 
ation of honour, but out of the conscience of a holy 
life, which makes the name smell " better than precious 
ointment," Keel. vii. 1. 

6. That " they that dwell under his shadow shall re- 



Convivia, ludi— po- 



turn." Which words admit of a double sense, and so 
infer a double promise and a double duty. 1. We 
may by an hysteron-proteron understand the words 
thus. When Israel have repented and are brought home 
to God again, they shall have security, defence, pro- 
tection, refreshment under the comforts of his grace, 
against all the violence of temptation, as a spreading 
tree affords a sweet shade to the weary traveller, and 
shelters him from the oppression of the heat ; whereby 
is signified the secure, quiet, and comfortable condition 
of God's people under the protection of his providence 
and promises, Job vii. 2; Isa. iv. 6; Jlicah iv. ~4; 
Zech. iii. 10. 

And as he promises such a condition, so should we 
in all troubles not trust in an " arm of flesh," or betake 
ourselves to mere human wisdom and carnal counsels, 
which are too thin shelters against God's displeasure, or 
the enemies of the church ; but we must fly to him to 
hide us, we must find spiritual refreshment in his or- 
dinances, promises, and providence, get his wing to 
cover us, and his presence to be a " little sanctuary " 
unto us, and '■ the joy of the Lord" to be our 
" strength," Psal. Ivii. 2 ; xci. 1 ; Isa. xxvi. 20 ; Neh. 
viii. 10. When the Lord comes out of his place to 
punish the inhabitants of the land for their iniquity ; 
when flood and fii-e, storm and tempest, the fury of 
anger, the strength of battle, are poured out upon a 
people ; when a destropng angel is sent abroad with 
a commission to kill and slay, Ezek. ix. 5, 6 ; when 
Death, the king of terrors, "rides up and down in 
triumph, stripping men of treasures, lands, friends, 
honours, pleasures, making them a house in darkness, 
where master and servant, princes and prisoners, are 
all alike: to have then an ark with Noah, a Zoar 
with Lot, a Goshen in Egypt : to have one arm of this 
olive tree spread over us ; to have one promise out of 
God's word, one sentence from the mouth of Christ 
promising paradise to us, is infinitely of more value 
to a languishing spirit than all the diadems of the 
earth, or the peculiar treasure of princes. 

2. If we take the words in the order in which they 
lie, then the mercy here promised is, that when God 
shall restore and repair his church, they who dwell 
under its comforts shall return and be converted 
to the knowledge and obedience which shall be there 
taught them. A\nien "the branch of the Lord" is 
" beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth 
excellent and comely," then " he that remaineth in 
Jerusalem shall be called holy," Isa. iv. 2, 3; then 
every vessel in Judah and Jerusalem shall be in- 
scribed, " Holiness unto the Lord," Zech. xiv. 20, 21 ; 
then "the heart also of the rash shall understand 
knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be 
ready to speak plainly," Isa. xxxii. 4. 

And this should be the endeavour of every one who 
lives under the shade of this tree, under the purity of 
God's ordinances, under the pious government and 
constitution of such a church or family as is here 
described, especially in these times, when, on the one 
side, the world is so much loosened and estranged 
from us, and, on the other side, reformation in the 
church is so much to be desired, to convert and turn 
men unto the Lord. All endeavours after reformation 
in a church are miserably defective, when they come 
short of this, which should be the ultimate reason of 
them all, namely, the repentance and conversion to 
God of those that dwell under its shadow. When 
God promises to give to his church " the glory of 
Lebanon," and " the excellency of Carmel and Sharon," 
the consequence of this beauty and reformation in the 
church is, " the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and 
the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall 
the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the 
dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break 



Ver. 5- 



TIIE PKOPHECY OF HOSEA. 



667 



out, and streams in the desert. And the parched 
ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land 
springs of water," Isa. xxxv. 2, 5 — 7. " The wolf," " the 
leopard," "the lion," "the bear," "the asp," "the 
cockatrice," shall be so turned from the fierceness and 
malignity of their natures, that " they shall not hurt 
nor destroy in all" the "holy mountain," but "a little 
child shall lead them," Isa. xi. 6 — 9. It is a great hap- 
piness and advantage to live under the shade of a 
godly government ; many have reason to bless God 
all their days that they were in their childhood trained 
up in such a school where piety was taught them as 
well as learning, where they had means as well of con- 
vei'sion as of institution ; that they lived in such a 
family where the master of it was of Joshua's mind, 
" As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord," 
Josh. xxiv. 15. Salvation comes to a whole house 
when the governor thereof is converted, Luke xix. 9 ; 
Acts xvi. 33, 34. I shall never look on a church as 
effectually reformed, till I find reformation work con- 
version ; till piety and charity, justice and mercy, truth, 
humility, gentleness, goodness, kindness, meekness, 
singleness of heart, zeal for godliness and mutual edifi- 
cation, and the life and power of religion, shine forth 
more conspicuously than before, ^\^len the very 
"headstone" is brought forth, and the last work in 
the building of the temple finished, yet then must the 
people cry, " Grace, grace unto it," Zech. iv. 7 ; inti- 
mating that reformation is never indeed consummate 
till the blessing of God make it effectual to those uses 
for which it was by him appointed. Church reforma- 
tion should be like Paul's Epistles, which always close 
with duties of obedience. 

7. That " they shall revive as the corn, and grow as 
the vine." In which two expressions are set forth two 
excellent and wholesome consequences of affliction. 
1. "The corn," though it die first, and 
co"ipta°t"dSoiuta Suffer much from frost, hail, snow, tem- 
Snni!?p"'reSsM- P^st, yet, wliBu the spring comes, revives 
vantur; ommide and breaks thi'ough all. So God pro- 
lur. Tertui. Apoi. miscs to his church, m the saddest con- 
'"''' dition, a reviving again, and that it shall 

be brought "forth to the light," Ezek. xxxvii. 12; 
Micah vii. 9. 2. " The vine," when pruned and lopped, 
will not only revive and spring again, but will bring- 
forth the more fruit, and cast forth the more fragrant 
smell. So God promises to his people, not only a re- 
viving out of their afflictions, (hence haply Christ was 
buried in a garden, to note, that death itself does not 
destroy our bodies, but only sow them ; " the dew of 
lierbs'' will revive them again, 1 Cor. xv. 42 — 44,) but 
further, ii profiting by afflictions, that we may say with 
David, "it was good for" us, when we find it yield 
"the peaceable fruit of righteousness" after we have 
been " exercised thereby," Psal. cxix. 71 ; Heb. xii. 11. 

And as he promises these things, so we should leam 
to turn these promises into prayer and into practice. 
When we seem, in our own eyes, cast out of God's sight, 
yet we must not cast him out of our sight, but, as Jonah 
in the whale's belly, and as Daniel in Babylon, pray 
towards his holy temple still, Jonah ii. 4, 7 ; Dan. vi. 
10. The woman of Canaan would not be thrust off 
with a seeming rejection, nor utterly despond under a 
grievous trial of faith, but, by a singular acumen and 
spiritual sagacitj', discerned matter of argument in that 
which looked Uke a denial, Matt. xv. 27. Soap and 
fuller's earth, when fh-st put on, seem to stain and soil 
tlie clothes, yet their use and end is to purifv them. 
And God's frowns and delays may seem to be the de- 
nials of prayer, when haply his end is to make the 
granting of them more full of profit and comfort. 
Therefore in all troubles we must not give over looking 
towards God, but say with Job, " Though he slay me, 
yet will I trust in him," Job xiii. 15. 



And after all afflictions we must learn to evidence 
then- fruit, to come out of them refined, as silver out of 
the fii'e ; to have thereby our faith strengthened, our 
hope confii'med, our love inflamed, our fruit and obe- 
dience increased, our sins taken away, and our iniqui- 
ties purged ; to be chastened and taught, to be chastened 
and converted, Isa. xxvii. 9. If we have run away 
from our duties, and been cast into a whale's belly for 
it, when we are delivered let us be sure to look better 
to our resolutions afterwards : " After aU that is come 
upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, 
should we again break" his "commandments?" Ezra 
ix. 13, 14. As Job's riches after his afflictions, so we 
should endeavour that our graces after om' afflictions 
may be doubled iqion us, and that the scent of our 
holy example may, like spices bruised, or the grapes of 
Lebanon crushed in the winepress, spread abroad a 
more fragrant smell befoi-e God and man, as "the 
smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed," Gen. 
xxvii. 27. 

Lastly, He promises that all these should be fruits 
of Lebanon, of the best and most perfect kind : " The 
scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon." There 
are many evidences of the goodness of God even in the 
lives of pagan men : we read of Abimelech's unwilling- 
ness to sin against God, Gen. xx. 4, 6, and of his and 
Ephron's singular kindness to Abraham, Gen. xx. 14, 
15; xxiii. 10, 11, 15. No argument more common 
than this of the virtues, the temperance, prudence, 
justice, mercy, patience, fidelity, friendships, affability, 
magnanimity, of many heathen men ; insomuch that 
some have presumed so far as to make ,.., ,. 

, i . . ,. . V id. \ egara.de 

them ecc congruo meritorious, or cusposi- J"»'^t iit. 6. can. le, 
five to salvation. But all these are but orthodos.'kspucat. 
" wild grapes," bitter clusters, the fruits 'ioha^'^fores. 
of an eraijty vine, not worth the gather- yaieiit.To.3.dispuL 
mg m order to salvation. But the graces fi4. Erasm.Prefct 
which God bestows upon his ghureh are Aug. contta juiian. 
of a more spiritual and perfect nature, ^'^''^' '' *■ °' '' 
proceeding from faith in Christ, from love of God, from 
a conscience cleansed from dead works, from an inten- 
tion to glorify God and adorn the gospel, from a new 
nature, and from the Spirit of Christ, conforming his 
senants to himself. They are not grapes of Sodom, 
but grapes of Lebanon. 

And as he thus blesses us, in the like manner should 
we serve him ; not offer to him the refuse, the halt, and 
blind, and maimed, for sacrifice ; not give unto him 
of that which cost us nothing ; but go to Lebanon for 
all our sacrifices, " covet earnestly the best gifts," press 
forward and labour to perfect holiness in the fear of 
God. Give to him our lilies, the beauties of our mi- 
nority ; and our cedars, the strength of our youth : and 
our olives, and grapes, and corn, and wine : whatever 
gifts he has bestowed on us, use them to his service and 
honour again ; nor content ourselves with " the form of 
godliness," with the morality of virtues, with the out- 
side of duties, with the seeds and beginnings of holi- 
ness, (he has none who thinks he has enough,) but 
strive how we shall outrun one another to Christ, as 
Peter and John did towards his sepulchre. It was a 
high pitch which Closes aimed at, when he said, " I be- 
seech thee, show me thy glory," Exod. xxxiii. IS. 
Nothing would satisfy him but fuhiess and satiety itself 
Be sure tliat all your graces come from Zion, and from 
Lebanon, that they grow in Immanuel's land : till Christ 
own them, God will not accept them. Moral virtues 
and outward duties, grapes of Sodom, may commend 
us to men ; nothing but inward, spiritual, and rooted 
graces, the grapes of Lebanon, will commend us to 
God. To do only the outward works of duty, with- 
out the inw'ard principle, is at best but to make our- 
selves like those mixed beasts, elephants and camels, 
in the civil law, operam. prasstant, nalura /era est, 



663 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



Leg. 5. p. aiiLrj. which, though thev do the work of tame 

bJ^J^cIS.": clp. beasts, yet have the nature of -nild ones. 

"■ !Moral virtue, without spiritual piety, 

S;iii>"l''/ap!'i9!" commends not any man to God; for we 

»t pWm.' Greg. ' are not accepted of liim but in C'hri.st, 

q.'3?.n"t. 2. " ' and we are not in Christ but by the Holy 
Spirit. 

Ver. 8. Ephraim shall say, JVhat have I lo do any 
more uith idols? I have heard him, and observed him: 

1 am like a green Jir tree. From me is thy fruit found. 

Tlie conversion of Israel to God in their trouble was 
accompanied with a petition and a covenant ; a petition 
imploring mercy and grace from God, and a covenant 
promising to him thanksgivings and obedience. And 
God is pleased in his answer to have a distinct respect 
to both these : for whereas they petition first for par- 
don, that God would " take away all iniquity," he pro- 
mises to " heal their backsliding " and to " love them 
fi-eely ;" and whereas they pray for blessings, " receive 
us graciously," God likewise makes promises of that 
in great variety, expressed by the several metaphors of 
fertility, answering to tlie name and blessings promised 
formerly to Ephraim. All this we have spoken of un- 
der the four preceding verses. 

Now, in this 8th verse, God is pleased not only 
graciously to accept, but further to put tn his seal, and 
to confirm the covenant which they make, promising 
that by the assistance of his Spirit they should be 
enabled to do what they had undertaken. This is the 
greatest ground of confidence that we can have to bind 
ourselves in holy covenants to God, even the promise 
of his strength and assistance enabling us to keep cove- 
nant with him. Therefore when David had said, " I 
have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy 
righteous judgments," there follows a little after, " Ac- 
cept, I beseech thee, the freewill offerings of my moutli, 
O Lord, and teach me thy judgments," Psal. cxix. 106, 
108. David was confident that God would not only 
accept his covenant, but teach him how to keep it, and 
that made him the more confidently bind himself by it. 

In the original the words are D'35tyS Tij? 'S-no pnSK 
Ephraim, what have I to do any more with idols? 
which therefore some would have to be the words ad- 
dressed by God to Epliraim. But there is nothing more 
usual in Scriptui'c than an ellipsis of the verb ; and we 
find this very verb omitted, and yet necessary to be 
<; Gi -. » supplied, Isa. v. 9 ; and in this jilace the 
Gr,imm jl socr. png. Chaldce paraphrast, and from him the 
360,651. ^p^j interpreters, with our translators, 

have supplied it thus, " Ephraim shall say :" and so we 
understand it to be God's confirmation of the promise 
which penitent Ejihraim had made, and his undertaking 
for him that he should indeed be enabled to perform 
his covenant. 

" What have I to do any more with 
T'r«l"!'r°[>'. 5."'"' idols ?" It is interrogalio cum indigna- 
tio7ie, an interrogation not only import- 
ing a negative, I will not any more have to do with 
them, but also a vehement detestation of them and 
indignation against them ; as that of David to Abishai, 

2 Sam. xvi. 10 ; and that of Elisha to Jchoram, 2 Kings 
iii. 13; and that of the devil to Christ, Matt. viii. 2'J. 

" With idols." D'SvyS signifies likewise son-ows and 
grief of mind, a fit word to express Israel's sin and re- 
pentance. What have we to do with these idols and 
sorrows any more ? They can produce no good, they 
they can hear no prayers, they can work no deliveiancc, 
they can bring nothing but evil and anguish to us, and 
tlierefore we will not follow them or seek to them any 
more. Here, then, is a solemn detestation, as of all 
their other sins, so of that especiallv which had most 
dishonoured God, most wounded their own consciences, 



and procured most sorrow to themselves, with God's 
confirmation of it. 

Next follow several promises of special mercies. 
1. Of hearing and answering their prayers: "I have 
heard," or answered, "him," or, as others render it, I 
will hear him. 2. Of fatherly care and providence over 
them : " and observed him," or fixed mine eyes upon 
him. I have strictly considered his condition, that I 
might proportion thereunto my mercies. This is a sig- 
nificant expression, intimating, first, vigilant care, and 
most intent and solicitous inspection and providence : 
" Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear 
him, upon them that hope in his mercy; to deliver 
their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine," 
Psal. xxxiii. 18, 19. Secondly, direction and counsel: 
" I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which 
thou shalt go : I will guide," or counsel, " thee with 
mine eye," Psal. xxxii. 8. Thirdly, honour and exalt- 
ation : " He withdraweth not his eyes from the right- 
eous : but with kings are they on the throne ; yea, he 
doth establish them for ever, and they are exalted," 
Job xxxvi. 7. Lastly, it is an expression for hearing 
prayers : God is said to have his " eyes open unto the 
supplications of" his servants, to hearken unto them in 
all that they call upon him for, 1 Kings viii. 52 ; and 
" the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his 
ears open unto their cry," Psal. xxxiv. 15. The church 
had before professed herself to be an orphan, that stood 
in need of tuition and protection ; and here God pro- 
mises to cast his eye and to place his afi'ection u])on 
her, to look to her, to be her tutor and guardian, to 
govern her with his special providence and wisdom, to 
take notice of her wants and supply them, to take 
notice of her desires and fulfil them, to take notice of 
her condition, and accordingly in aU respects to pro- 
vide for her. 3. Of refreshment, from the heat and 
violence of temptations or any kind of afflictions : " I 
am like a green fir tree," which, being ever green, and 
casting forth a large shade, affords much comfort and 
refreshment to the wean' traveller. 4. Because the fir 
tree, though refreshing in respect of its sliade, is yet 
unfruitful, therefore he further promises to be a root 
of blessings, and all kind of spiritual graces, to them : 
" From me is thy fruit found ;" that is. From me is, or 
shall be, thy fruit, as j\Iah ii. 6, 7 ; 1 Pet. ii. 22 ; Zeph. 
iii. 13. The word sxo3 " found" may here seem to 
imply and direct us to an inquiiy after the foundation 
and original of the fruit here mentioned : Though all 
thy fruit of good works and new obedience may seem 
to proceed from thyself, and to be thine own, yet if 
thou be careful to inquire after their root, 
thou wilt find that they come " from S!J""„Tto"iu'ii.u. ; 
me," though they grow upon thee, and J^''''rtrt'u"'m'"" 
that thou bringest them forth only by nos hc-re cum f.- 
the hclj), supply, and vigour of my grace u't°f««muJ .\4"' 
bestowed on thee ; thou doest them, but 
the power and strength whereby thou doest them pro- 
ceeds from me. 

These words then are the sum of God's answer to 
the covenant of his people. They " render 
the calves of" their " lips;" God hears ;jXl,Ti|i' ?««■ 
and accepts them : they renounce carnal pjt; m non Ucumt 

„ , i . . ^ , . ... ut ipie facial quod 

confidence in men, in horses, m idols ; piomiiit. Aug. dc 
and when they look off and turn away calT'ioI^' **°^ 
from these, then God looks on them with 
a fatherly eye of care, providence, counsel, and protec- 
tion : " I have observed him." They will not " say any 
more to the work of " tlieir " hands, Ye are our gods," 
nor any longer make lies their refuge ; and God en- 
ables them to do as they have said, and affords comfort 
and refreshment to them, as the .shade of a fir tree to a 
weary traveller. Lastly, they believe and acknowledge 
that when they are " fatherless," and destitute of all 
help, there is mercy in God to comfort and provide for 



Ver. 8. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



660 



them ; and this God makes good too. Mercy of pro- 
tection, " I am like a green fir tree ;" and mercy of 
bounty and benediction, " From me is thy fruit found ;" 
by the one defencUng them against their fears, by the 
other enabling them to their duties. Thus does God 
enlarge and proportion his mercy to the uttermost ex- 
tent of Israel's prayer or promise, and when they ha%'e 
no help or comfort out of him, he himself becomes " all 
and in all" to them ; making a thorough compensation 
for every thing which they part with for his sake, and 
causing them to find in him alone all that comfort and 
satisfaction to their desires, which in vain they sought 
for in other things. 

The words contain these two general points : First, 
God's promise, enabling Israel to perform theirs : 
" Ephraim shall say, AVhat have I to do any more with 
idols?" Secondly, God's special regard to their pray- 
ers, " I have heard him ;" to their persons, " and ob- 
served him :" illustrated by two metaphors ; the one 
importing protection and defence, " I am like a green 
fir tree ;" the other, grace and benediction, " From me 
is thy fi'uit found." 

" Ephraim shall say." This is God's speech and 
promise, setting to his seal and gracious ratification to 
the covenant which Israel made, ver. 2, 3, without 
which it would have been null and void : for as man, by 
believing, sets to his seal to the truth of God, John iii. 
33 ; so God, by assisting, sets to his seal to the purpose 
of man : but with this great difference ; man's seal is 
but a subscription and confession of that which was 
fii'm before ; for all God's promises are " yea and 
Amen," and faith does not put certainty into the pro- 
mise of God, Rom. iii. 3, 4; 2 Tim. ii. 13, but into the 
heart of man concerning the promises, Rom. iv. 16 ; 2 
Tim. i. 12. But God's seal is a confii-mation of the 
promise of man, and a rendering stable that which 
otherwise would vanish away ; all our sufficiency is 
from him, we can neither will nor do any thing further 
than we receive from him both " to will and to do," 
Phil. ii. 13. Pharaoh made promise after promise, and 
broke them as fast, Exod. viii. 8, 28 ; ix. 28. Israel 
one while makes promises, and quickly starts aside like 
a deceitful bow, as ice which melts in the day and 
hardens again in the night, Psal. IxxviLi. 34 — 38 ; Jer. 
xxxiv. 15, 16 ; to-day they will, and to-morrow they will 
not ; they repent to-day, and to-morrow they repent of 
their repenting ; like the sluggard in his bed, who puts 
out his arm to rise, and then pulls it in again ; " Yet 
a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the 
hands to sleep," Prov. vi. 10. So unstable and impo- 
tent is man in all his resolutions, till God say Amen to 
what he purposes, and establishes the heart by his own 
grace, Heb. xiii. 9. 'When the waters stood as a wall 
on the right hand and on the left of Israel as they 
passed through the Red Sea, this was a work of God's 
own power ; for water is unstable, and cannot keep to- 
gether, nor be contained within any bounds, by its own 
consistency. So difficult a work is it for the mutable 
^Yills and resolutions of men to be kept close to any 
pious and holy purposes. Hence, 

Obs. 1. A penitent's conversion and covenant of new 
obedience derive their stability fi-om the promise and 
free grace of God. They are not sufficiently provided 
for by any band, obligation, or covenant of our own, 
whereby we solemnly engage ourselves, except God be 
pleased by his free grace to establish and enable the 
heart to their performance. Israel here, in the con- 
fidence of God's mercy, prays for pardon and blessings; 
and in the confidence of his grace, promises reformation 
and amendment of life ; but all this is but like a writ- 
ten instmrnent or indenture, which is invalid and of no 
effect till the parties concerned have mutually set to 
their hands and seals. Till God be pleased to promise 
us that we shall do that which we have promised to 



him, and does as it were make our own covenants for 
us, all will prove too weak and unstable to continue. 
The grace of God to the purposes of men is like oil to 
colours in a table or picture, which imparts to them an 
unfading freshness. 

There is a necessary and indissoluble dependence of 
all second causes upon the fu'st, without whose influence 
and concurrence they neither live, nor move, nor have, 
or continue in, their being. Acts xvii. 28 ; Heb. i. 3. 
He who is the first of causes and last of ends, employs 
and directs the necessary, voluntary, contingent mo- 
tions and activities of all second causes, to whatsoever 
ends he himself is pleased to preordain. And this the 
natural and necessary concatenation of things requires, 
that that which is the absolutest, supremest, fh'st, and 
most independent will, wisdom, and power of all others, 
should govern, order, and direct all other wills, powers, 
and wisdoms, inferior and subordinate to it, to whatso- 
ever uses and purposes he who has the absolute do- 
minion and sovereignty over all is pleased to appoint. 
It cannot be other than a marvellous diminution to the 
greatness of God, and a too low esteem of the abso- 
luteness of that majesty which belongs to him, to make 
any counsels, decrees, purposes of his to receive their 
ultimate form and stamp from the previous and inter- 
current causalities or conditions of the creature. This 
I have always looked on as the principal cause of those 
dangerous errors, concerning grace, free-will, and the 
decrees of God, wherewith the churches of Christ have 
been so miserably in the former ages, and in this of 
ours, exercised by the subtlety of Satan, and by the 
pride of corrupt-minded men ; namely, the too low and 
narrow thoughts and conceptions which men have 
framed to themselves of God, the not ao- ,. . 

, . . ... , ^ id. Aus. Enchina. 

quiescmg m his sovereign ilomimon and ad Laurent, c. S5— 
absolute power of disposing all things *' 
which he made according to the pleasure of his own 
will ; into which I am sure the Holy Scriptures resolve 
all, Matt. xi. 25, 26; Rom. ix. 18, 21 ; xi. 3-3, 36; Eph. 
i. 5, 9, 11; Psal. cxxxv.6. 

Even in the sinful actions of men, God's influence 
and providence have a particular hand : as actions, his 
influence ; as sinful, his providence. 1. His influence, to 
the natural motion and substance of the action, though 
not to its wickedness ; for this stands not in being or 
perfection, (else the Fountain of being and perfection 
must needs be the first cause of it,) but in defect and 
privation of perfection. As when a hand draws a line 
by a crooked rule, the line is from the hand, but its 
crookedness from the rule : or, as when a man goes 
lamely, the motion as motion is from the natural 
faculty, but the lameness of the motion is from the de- 
fect and viciousness of the faculty. A swearer could 
not utter an oath, nor a murderer reach out his hand 
to strike a blow, but by the force of those natural 
faculties which have all their being and working in 
and from God ; but that these natural motions are by 
profaneness or malice directed to ends morally wicked, 
proceeds from the vitiosity and defect which are in the 
second cause, making use of God's gifts to his own dis- 
honour. 2. The providence of God has a notable hand 
in the guiding, ordering, and disposing of those actions, 
as sinful, to the ends of his own glory, in the declaration 
of his power, wisdom, and justice, to which the sins of 
wicked men are perforce carried on, contrary to those 
ends which they themselves in sinning 
proposed. As an artificer uses the force Dl,titb°"ii!''cfp'i7, 
of natural causes to artificial effects : as ifbl'^^iit'^ca'p.'''' 
a huntsman uses the natural enmity of "• Pi"*™''- sym- 
the dog agamst the fox or woU, to the 
preservation of the lambs, which otherwise would be 
destroyed ; though the dog itself by nature is as gi-eat 
an enemy to the lamb as the fox : as the Pharisees 
were as great enemies to religion as the Sadducees, vet 



670 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



cuAP. xrv'. 



Paul wisely made use of their enmity amongst them- 
selves, for his own preservation and deliverance from 
them both : so nothing is more usual than for God to 
manage and direct the sins of men to the bringing 
about' of his own purposes and counsels, Gen. 1. 20 ; 

1 Sam. ii. 25 ; 1 Kings ii. 2G, 27 ; 2 Sam. xii. 11, com- 
pared with 2 Sam. xvi. 22 ; Isa. x. 5—7 ; Acts iv. 28 ; 

Psal. Ixxvi. 10. But now to gracious 
^'^i^'cT's'''' '' actions, which belong not at all to na- 
" "'' turc as nature, but only as inspired and 

actuated with spiritual and heavenly principles, a 
more singular and notable influence of God is re- 
quired, not only to the substance of the action, but 
more especially to its rectitude and goodness ; for we 
have no sufficiency of ourselves, not so much as to the 
first oflfers and beginnings of good in our thoughts, 

2 Cor. iii. 5: when we are bid to "work out" our 
" own salvation with fear and trembling," it must be in 
dependence on the power and in confidence of the aid 
of God ; " for it is" he " which worketh in " us "both to 
will and to do," Phil. ii. 12, 13: when we covenant 
to turn unto God, we must withal pray to him to turn 
us. Lam. v. 21 ; Jer. xxxi. 18. God commands us to turn 
ourselves, and to make us a new heart and a new 
spirit, that we may live, Ezek. xviii. 30—32 ; but withal, 
he tells us that it is he who gives us one heart, and one 
way, and a new spirit, that we may walk in his statutes, 
Ezek. xi. 19, 20 ; Jer. xxxii. 39. He gives us posse, 
telle, agere, prqficere ; the power, to make us able ; the 
heart, to make us willing; the act, to walk; the profi- 
ciency, to improve ; the perseverance, to finish and per- 
fect holiness. David cannot run in the way of God's 
commandments till he enlarge his heart, Psal. csLx. .32. 
Nothing can find its way to heaven, but that which 
comes first from heaven, John iii. 13 ; we cannot give 
to God any thing but of his own. " Who am I," saith 
David, " and what is my people, that we should be able 
to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come 
of thee, and of thine own have we given thee," 1 Chron. 
xxix. 14. . J /. 

For the further understanding of this pomt, and of 
the sweet concord and concurrence between the will 
of man converted, and the effectual grace of God con- 
verting, we shall set down these few propositions : 
„.,„,. . „ . 1. That there is in man by nature a 
ji. 19, 20. tt Aug. power or faculty which we call tree-will, 
Pdij. ub^reip. 5. whereunto belongs such an indifferency 
rt Ub. i cap. 5. jjjj^ indeterminacy in the manner of work- 
ing, that whether a man will a thing or not, choose it 
or turn from it, he in neither moves contrary to his ovm 
natural principles of working. A stone moving down- 
ward, moves naturally ; upward, contrary to its nature, 
and so violently. 13ut which way soever the will 
moves, it moves according to the condition of its cre- 
ation ; when thus it chooses one part of a contradiction, 
it retains an inward and fundamental habitude to the 
other, like those gates which arc so made that they 
open both ways. " So that as the tongue which was 
wont to swear or blaspheme, does, when it is converted, 
by means of the same faculty of speaking, newly sanc- 
tified, utter holy and gracious speeches; so the will, 
which, being corrupted, did choose " evil and only evil," 
being sanctified, does use the same manner of operation 
" in choosing that which is good : the nature imparted 
to it at first remaining still one and the same, but be- 
ing now guided and sanctified by different ])rinciples. 
This we speak only with respect to the natural manner 
of its working ; for if we speak of liberty in a moral or 
theological sense, it is certain, that the 
ctr.t! L f. iiJiior more the will of man observes the right 
JuiS"™'i.°.itu>gTi"J order of its proper objects and last end, 

• Habitat in eis, cl mcntcm rcsistcnlcm repugnanteniqiic 
snllii'ii,it ut ipse conflictus, ctiamsi non sit <lain»abili« quia 
noD pcrlicit iniquitalcm, sit miscrabilis tameii quia non habct 



the more free and noble it is, the very incommuubiu 
higliest perfection of free-will consisting aStx'^^^^or. 
in an immutable adherence to God as Djrt*chii»Li?i.'c 
the ultimate end of the creature, and all "■ 
ability of receding or falling from him being the de- 
ficiency, and not the perfection, of free-will. And 
therefore the more the will of man easts off and rejects 
God, the more base, servile, and enslaved. In which 
sense we affirm against the papists, that by nature man, 
since the fall of Adam, has no free-will or natural 
power to believe and turn to God, or to prepare him- 
self for faith and conversion. 

2. In man fallen, and thereby universally in all his 
faculties leavened with vicious and malignant principles, 
there is a native corrupt force, which puts forth itself 
in resisting all those powerful workings of the word 
and Sjiirit of grace, which oppose themselves against 
the body of sin, and move the will to holy resolutions: 
for the wisdom of the flesh cannot be subject to the 
law of God, Rom. viii. 7. The flesh will lust against 
the Spirit, as being contrarj' thereunto. Gal. v. 17. An 
uncircumcised heart will always resist the Holy Spirit, 
Acts vii. 51. There is such a natural antipathy between 
the purity of the word and the impurity of the will of 
man, that he naturally refuses to hear, and snufis at it, 
and pulls away the slioulder, and hardens the heart, 
and stops the ear, and shuts the eyes, and sets up 
strong holds and high reasonings against the ways of 
God, and is never so well as when he can get off all 
sight and thoughts of God, and be as it were without 
God in the world, Jer. v. 3 ; vi. 10 ; xvii. 23 ; xix. 15 ; 
jSIal. i. 13 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16. 

3. According to the degrees and remainders of this 
natural corruption, so far as it is unmortified and un- 
subdued by the power of grace, it does pioportionably 
put forth itself in withstanding and warring against 
the Spirit of God even in the regenerate themselves.* 
A notable example whereof we have in Asa, of whom 
it is said, that he "was wroth with" Hanani '|the 
seer, and put him in a prison house," being " in a 
rage with him because" he reproved him for his car- 
nal confidence, 2 Chron. xvi. 10. And the apostle in 
many words both states and bewails the warring of 
this " law of sin" in his " members" against " the law" 
of his " mind," so that when he did with the one serve 
the law of God, with the other he served the law of sin, 
and was unable to do "the good which" he "would," 
and "the evil which" he "would not" he did by the 
strength of sin that dwelt in him, Rom. vii. 14 — 25. 

4. The will of God is set forth in Scrip- 
ture in a twofold point of view: 1. There ^''^/i^,'-"'^ 
is voluntas signi, or tliat will of God 

whereby he requires us to work, and which he has ap- 
pointed to be observed by us ; his will signified in pre- 
cepts and prohibitions. ' "This is the will of God," 
saith the apostle, " even your sanctification," 1 Thess. 
iv. 3. So we are said to prove, to ti'y, to do, God's 
will, or that which is pleasing in his sight, Matt. vii. 
21; Rom. xii. 2; John viii. 29. And, 2. There is 
voluntas beneplaciti, the will of his purpose and coun- 
sel, according to which he himself in his own secret 
and unsearchable good pleasure is pleased to work ; 
for he " worketh all things after the counsel of his own 
will," Eph. i. 11. "Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that 
did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep 
places," Psal. cxxxv. 6. And no second causes can do 
any thing else, though they never so proudly break 
the order of God's revealed will, but what his "hand 
and counsel determined before to be done." Acts iv. 
28. Tlie will of God's precept and command is every 
day violated, resisted, and broken tlirough by wicked 

Sacera. .\Hg. de Nupt. ct Concupisc. hb. 2. cap. 2. contra 
iilian. Polag lib. 5. cap. 7. 



Vek. 8. 



THE PEOPHECY OF HOSEA. 



CTl 



men to their own destruction : " How often would I," 
'■ and ye would not 1 '' ^latt. xxiii. 37 ; Jer. xiii. 27. 
But the will of God's counsel and purpose cannot be 
resisted or withstood by all the powers of the world ; 
the counsel of the Lord must stand ; and those very 
agents that work purposely to disappoint and subvert 
it, by those very workings of theirs bring it to pass;* 
and when, by their own intentions, they are enemies 
to it, by God's wonderful ordering and directing they 
are executioners of it, Rom. ix. 19; Psal. xxxiii. 11; 
cxv. 3 ; Prov. xix. 21 : Isa. xlvi. 10 ; Josh. xxiv. 9, 10. 

5. According to this distinction of God's will, we 
are to distinguish his call. Some are called volunlate 
iigni, by the will of bis precept, when they have the 
will of God made known to them, and are thereby per- 
suaded to the obedience of it in the ministry of the 
gospel : in which sense our Saviour saith, " Many are 
called, but few chosen," Matt. xx. 16 : and to those 
who refused to come to him that they might have life, 
he yet saith, "These things I say, that ye might be 
saved," John v. 34, 40. Others are called volimtate 
beneplacili, ordained first to eternal life by the ft'ee 
love and grace of God, and then thereunto brought by 
the execution of that his decree and purpose in the 
powerful calling and translating of them from darkness 
into light. And this is to be called Kara -n-poBicnVjf 
according to purpose. Rom. viii. 28, namely, the pur- 
pose and counsel of showing mercy to whom he will 
show mercy, Rom. ix. 18. 

6. Tliey who are called by the mere outward call or 
voice of Christ in the evangelical ministi'y, may, and 
do, resist this call, and so perish. Chorazin, and Beth- 
saida, and Capernaum, were outwardly called by the 
most powerful ministerial means that ever the world 
enjoyed, both in doctrine and mu'acles ; and yet our 
Saviour tells them that they shall be in a worse condi- 
tion in the day of judgment than Tyre, Sidon, or 
Sodom, Matt. xi. 21, 24. So the prophet complains, 
" Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the 
arm of the Lord revealed?" Isa. liii. 1; which the 
evangelist applies to the argument of conversion, John 
xii. 37 — 41 ; for so the hand or arm of the Lord is said 
to be with his ministers, when, by their ministry, men 
turn to the Lord, Acts xi. 21. And the same prophet 
again, or Christ in him, complains, " All day long I 
have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and 
gainsaying people," Isa. Ixv. 2; Rom. s. 21: so dis- 
obedient and gainsaying, that we find them resolve 
sometimes directly contraiT to the call of God, Jer. ii. 
25; xviii. 11, 12; xliv. 15—28; Matt, xxiii. 37. 

7. They who are called inwardly and spiritually, 
with a heavenly call, vocatione altcl et secimdum pro- 
positum, with such a call as flows from the counsel and 
purpose of God for then- salvation, though they do 
resist quoad pugnani, though corruption in them strive 
to bear up against the grace of Christ, yet they do not 
resist finally and quoad eventum, to the repelling or 
defeating of the operation of God's effectual grace ;J: 
but they are thereby framed to embrace, approve, and 
submit to that call, God himself working a good will 



* Multa fiunt a malis contra voluntatem Dei, sed tantse est 
ille sapieatise tant^ quo virtutis, ut in "eos exitus sive fines 
quos bunos et justos ipse prescivit tendant omnia quae volun- 
tatiejusvidenturadveisa. Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. 22. c. 1. Alii 
obediuiit, alii ligantur; nemo leges omninotentis evadit. Id. 
de Agone Christiano, c. 7. Vid. Biadwardin. de Causa 
Dei, lib. 1. cap. 32. et Hug. de Sanct. Victor. Sum. Sentent. 
Tract. 1. cap. l.S. et de Sacrament, lib. 1. part. 2. cap. 19, 20. 
etpart. 3. cap. 5, 6, 13, 14, 15. Auselm. lib. 1. cur Deus 
Homo. c. 15. Lombard, lib. 1. dist. 17. 

f Vocatio alta et secreta qua tit ut legi atque doctrinae ac- 
comraodemus assensum. Aug. Ep. 107. et de Praedestinat. 
Sanct. c. 16, 17. 

1 Illud nescio quomodo dicitur, fruslra Deum misereri nisi 
nos velimus. Si enim Deus miseretur, etiam volumus : ad 



in them, captivating their thoughts to the obedience of 
Christ, and disposing them to that which is pleasing in 
his own sight, Phil. ii. 13 ; 2 Cor. x. 5: Heb. xiii. 21. 

And this is done by a double act. 

1. An act of spiritual teaching, and irradiating the 
mind and judgment with heavenly light, called by the 
prophet the putting the law into the inward parts, and 
writing it in the heart, Jer. xxxi. 33 ; 2 Cor. iii. 3 : 
and by our Saviour, the Father's teaching, John vi. 
45, and the Holy Spirit's convincing of sin, light- 
eousness, and judgment, John xvi. 8 — 11 ; and by the 
apostle, a " demonstration of the Spii'it and of power,'' 
1 Cor. ii. 4, a spiritual revelation of wisdom out of 
the word to the conscience, Eph. i. 17. For though 
we are to condemn fanatic revelations beside the word, 
and without it; yet we must acknowledge spu-itual 
revelation, or manifestation of the Divine light and 
power of the word by the Holy Spirit in the minds of 
men convented : for the word of God being a spiritual 
object, does, to the saving knowledge of it, require 
such a spuitual quality in the faculty which must know 
it, that it may be able to pass a right judgment upon 
it; for spiritual things "are spii-ituaUy discerned," 
1 Cor. ii. 14. It is true that hypocrites, and other 
wicked men, may have very much notional and intel- 
lectual knowledge of the Scriptures, and those holy 
things therein revealed, Heb. vi. 4; 2 Pet. ii. 21 ; but 
none of that knowledge amounts to that which is 
called the teaching of God, and a spiritual demonstra- 
tion :§ for the mysteries of the gospel were to this end 
revealed, that by them we might be brought to the 
obedience of Christ ; and therefore the knowledge of 
them is never proportionate or commensurate to the 
object, till the mind be thereby conformed to Christ, 
till tlie conceptions which are framed in us touching 
God, and sin, and grace, and heaven, and eternal things, 
be suitable to those which were in the mind of Christ. 
1 Cor. ii. 16. Evangelical truths are not fitted to mere 
intellectual, but to practical, judgment. It is such a 
knowledge of Christ as may fill tis with " all the fulness 
of God," Eph. iii. 18, 19 ; a knowledge that must work 
communion with Christ, and conformity unto him, Phil, 
iii. 10; a knowledge that must produce "a good con- 
versation," II James iii. 13. " He that saith, I know him, 
and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the 
truth is not in him," 1 John ii. 4. We know not Christ 
tUl we know him as our chiefest good, as our choicest 
" treasure," as our " unsearchable riches," as " elect " 
and " precious," as " altogether lovely," " the chiefest 
among ten thousand," and " worthy of all acceptation," 
in comparison of whom all the world besides is as 
" dung." The knowledge of Christ is not seeing only, 
but seeing and tasting, Psal. xxxiv. 8; cxix. 103. And 
therefore they who, in one sense, are said to have known 
God, Rom. i. 21, are yet a little after, ver. 28, said not 
to have God in their knowledge. The . 
philosopher well observes, That such as ■i^t^°o^Y<ni, 
every man is in himself, such is the end '"■'^'''"i ""' '"' 
to which he works, and such notions he of^cp. Aristoi. l j. 
has of that good which is his end. It is 



eandem quippe misericordiam pertiuet ut velimus. Aug. ad 
Simplician. lib. 1. qu. 2. Hacc gratia quae occulte humanis 
cordibus divina largitate tribuitur, a nullo duro corde respui- . 
tur. Ideo quippe tribuitur, ut cordis duritia primitus aufera- 
tur. De Praedestinat. Sanct. cap. S. et coutr. 2. Epist. Pelag. 
lib. 1. cap. 20. 

^ Cibus in soranis simillimus est cibis vigilantium, quo 
tamen dormientes non aluntur. Aug. Confess, lib. 3. cap. 6. 
Sol non omnes quibus lucet etiam calefacit : sic sapientia 
multos quos docet non continuo etiam accendit. Aliud est 
multas divitias scire, aliud possidere : nee notitia divitem 
facit, sed possessio. Bernard, in Cant. serm. 2.3. 

ll Tri^iia-is ivtoXlov ■yvmcris tov Qiov. Basil, de Martyr, 
manante. Hominis sapientia pietas est. Aug. Enchirid. cap. 
2. de Doctr. Christiana, lib. 2. cap. 6, 7. et lib. 1. cap. .35. 



672 



AN EXPOSITION OF 



CiiAP. XIV. 



impossible therefore that a wicked, debased heart can 
ever look on any spiritual object as its last end, or as 
principally desirable. If I sliould see a man choose a 
small trifle before a rich jewel, however he should pro- 
fess to know the excellency and to value the richness 
of that jewel, yet I should conclude that he did not 
indeed understand its worth aright. And, therefore, 
to the perfect and proper knowledge of supernatural, 
spiritual things, there is required a special work of the 
grace and Spirit of Christ opening tlie heart, and work- 
ing it to a spiritual constitution proportionable to those 

truths about which it is conversant. The 
^".SniiirKrXo. Scripture every where attributes this 
**""■ ^lu'r D«ill°" ^'^o''^ t° God, and his Spirit. It is he that 
ina. 1, 4. c. u. A eivetli " an heart to perceive, and eves 
quid dc Deo iiiieui- to sce, and ears to hear, JJeut. xsix. 
Kif;™it?'.S"h'ore. 4. It is he that givcth "an heart to 
cMJojitntur. Hi do lifiow" him, Jer. xxiv. 7. It is he that 

manifests himself to those who love him, 
John xiv. 21. It is he that reveals to us by his Spirit 
the things of God, 1 Cor. ii. 10. It is he that gives 
" us an understanding," 1 John v. 20, and that opens 
the understanding to " understand the Scriptures," Luke 
xxiv. 45 ; Acts xvi. 14. It is he that teaches us to call 
Christ our Lord, Matt. xvi. 17; 1 Cor. xii. .3; for the 
voice of carnal and corrupt reason is, " We will not 
have this man to reign over us," Luke xix. 14. Ever)' 
man naturally frames and shapes his notions of doc- 
trinal matters to the manner of his conscience and con- 
versation, embracing that which is consonant, and re- 
jecting that which is dissonant, Micah ii. 11 ; Isa. xxx. 
10, 11. To the unclean every thing is unclean, because 
the very " mind and conscience " of such men " is de- 
filed," Tit. i. lo. This, then, is the first work in effectual 
calling, the opening of the eye of the mind rightly to 
conceive of the things of God, of the guilt of sin, of 
the heaviness of wrath, of the peril of perishing, of 
the momentous import of damnation and salvation, of 
the things tliat concern its everlasting peace, of the 
righteousness of Christ, of the beauties of holiness, of 
the exceeding abundant weight of glory, of the com- 
forts of the Holy Spirit, and the unspeakable and 
glorious joy shed abroad in the heart by believing. 
These truths the heart is so convinced of, as seriously 
to ponder them ; they form the subject of its deepest 
and most solemn meditations. 

2. An act spiritually inclining and effectually deter- 
mining the will of man to embrace the ultimate dictate 
of a mind thus enlightened, and to make a most free, 
spontaneous, and joyful choice of spiritual good things 
thus rightly ai)])rehcnded, on a clear and deliberate 
consideration of their excellency above all other things, 
Phil. iii. 8. This act of choosing the Lord for our 
portion and chicfcst good, and of cleaving to him, we 
find often mentioned in the Scripture, Deut. xxx. 19 ; 
Josh. xxiv. 22; Psal. Ixxxiv. 10; cxix. 30, 31, 173; 
Acts xi. 23 ; Heb. xi. 25 : for when the soul of a man 
is so thoroughly, bj- God's teaching, convinced of the 
danger and mi.sery of sin, wlierein so long as a man 
continues, he lives only to dishonour God, and to undo 
himself; of the benefit of righteousness in Clirist, 
wliorcby he is reconciled to God, and adopted into a 
glorious inheritance ; and of the beauty of holiness, 
whereby he is conformed to Christ his Head, and fitted 

for the inheritance ; these previous acts 
2l!w'".',1id'J?ud of heavenly teaching are always seconded 
a".'"e?°o7'I"S^ with efl'ectual ojierations on the will, 
c'lmro'ium/'irf suitable to themselves: for the liberty of 
ii-.. f.c.i ui «umu. the will docs not consist in a peremptory 
^cZ'j:"TJrZ^ii indifference to any object whatsoever, 
A,^l ?.7l'i«! '■"'■ (else there should be no liberty in hca- 

• Coopcrando pcrficit quod opcrando incipit; ut velimus 
sine nobis opcratur, cum vulumns nobiscum cooporatur. Auf^. 
de Gral. ct Lib. Arbitr. c. 17. Eocliirid. cap. Z2. dc Nat. ct Grat. 



ven,) but in this, that being a reasonable appetite, it 
is apt to be led one way or another, to choose one thing 
or another, according to the dictates of reason, and 
servato online Jinis, with subjection to that which is 
made to appear to be tlie supreme end and hap])ines3 
of the soul ; for every faculty is naturally subver\ lent 
to the ultimate good of that nature whereof it is a 
faculty, and should monstrously exorbitate from its use 
and end, if it should put forth itself to the destruction, 
or refuse to close with, that which is the happiness of 
the soul to which it pertains. As soon as ever, there- 
fore, the Spirit of grace does, by such a spiritual and 
practical demonstration as has been described, set forth 
God in Clnist as the supreme and most unquestionable 
end and happiness of the soul, there are, consequently, 
suitable impressions on the will, determining it to 
operations conformable to such a beautiful and glo- 
rious object, and enlarging it to run to this centre, 
to renounce all other things, and to cleave to this 
alone. 

And these acts upon the will are efiectcd : 

1. By preventing grace, it is bended and excited to 
heavenly appetitions, and to the choice of such spiritual 
good things, the sovereign excellencies whereof have 
been so sweetly represented. Good is the object of the 
will ; we cannot wdl evil under the notion oi evil ; and 
among good things, that which is by the practical judg- 
ment resolved to be best, and that by the teaching of 
God himself, (who neitlier is deceived, nor can de- 
ceive,) becomes the object of the will's election. And 
thus God, by his exciting grace, works in us ipsum 
velle, that very act whereby we choose Clirist, and sub- 
scribe our name in the roll of his soldiers and serv- 
ants, answering the call of God with a most cheerful 
consent. 

2. By assisting and co-operating grace,* it is further 
enabled to put forth this good will into deed, and so 
to work towards its own salvation, Isa. xxvi. 12; 1 Cor. 
XV. 10. 

3. By subsequent grace, it is carried on towards 
perfection, to finish what was begun, and so to proceed 
from the beginning of faith in vocation, to the end of 
faith in salvation, the Spirit of Clirist working in us, 
as he himself did work for us to a consummatum eat, 
" It is finished ;" saving " them to the uttermost that 
come unto God by him," Phil. i. 6; Eph. iv. 13; Heb. 
vii. 25; xiii. 21. 

And by this means the native obstinacy of the will, 
both in and after conversion, is subdued, so that it 
neither does nor can overcome the grace of God work- 
ing effectually with his word. First, because of the pur- 
pose of God to show mercy where he will show mercy, 
wliich can in no wise be resisted. Secondly, because 
of the power of God in the effectual applying of that 
mercy to the souls of men, with admirable sweetness, 
with undeniable evidence, with ineffable persuasion, 
with omnipotent and invincible energy, which no hard- 
ness of heart is able to refuse, because the proper oper- 
ation of it is to take away that hardness which would 
refuse it, and that by an act of power equal to that 
whereby Christ was raised from the dead, which all the 
world was neither able to hinder nor prevent, Eph. i. 
19 ; Col. ii. 12 ; 1 Pet. i. 5. Thus we see, though wo 
desire, and endeavour, and purjiose, and covenant con- 
version and amendment of life ; yet the whole progress 
of conversion, our promises, our covenants, our abili- 
ties, our sufficiencies to make good any thing, do all 
receive their stability from the grace of God. 

From whence we learn. First, Not to put confidence 
in our own studies, vows, purposes, promises of new 
obedience. " All men arc liars," no sooner left to 

cap. 31. contr. 2. Episl. Pclag. lib. 2. cap. iilt. Xon inihi 
siitlicit quod seinel douavit nisi semper donaveiit.lVtu ul ac- 
cipiam, ct cum accepero, rursus pelu, &c. Hicr. Episi. 



Vee. 8. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



673 



themselves, but they become miserable 
rap.%tGrat.'i;?p.'ii. spectacles of weakness and mutability. 

Even Adam in innocency, when he was 
to be supported and persevere by his own strength, 
though he had no sin or inward corruption to betray 
him, how suddenly was he thi'own down from his ex- 
cellency by Satan with a poor and slender temptation ! 
how strangely did a creature of so high and noble a 
constitution exchange God himself for the fruit of a 
tree, believe a serpent before a Maker, and was so 
miserably cheated, as to suppose that by casting away 
God's image he should become the more like him ! 
AMro could have thought that David, a man after God's 
own heart, with one miscarrying glance of his eye 
should have been plunged into such a gulf of sin and 
misery ? that so spiritual and heavenly a soul should 
be so suddenly overcome with so sensual a temptation ? 
that so merciful and righteous a man should so greatly 
wrong a faithful servant as he did Uriah, and then 
make the imiocent blood of him whom he wronged a 
vt BeUerophoniite- mantle to palliate and to cover the wrong, 
ras in seipsam and USB lus fidelity to convey the letters 
uom. Hi. 2, et Hut. and instructions lor his own rum .'' W ho 
unosiiaie. (.Quid havB tliought tliat Lot, so soon 
after he had been delivered from fire and brimstone, 
and vexed with the filthy conversation of the Sodom- 
ites, should be himself inflamed with unnatural, in- 
cestuous lust ? "Who could have suspected that Peter, 
who had his name from a rock, should be so soon 
shaken like a reed ? and after so solemn a protestation 
not to forsake Christ, though all else should, that he 
should so soon be di'iven with the voice of a maid from 
his stedfastness, and be the first to deny him, and that 
with oaths and curses? Surely " every man in his best 
estate is altogether vanity." 

Therefore it behoves us to be always humbled in our 
own sight, and to be jealous, 1. Of our original impo- 
tency to the doing of any good, to the forbearing of any 
evil, to the repelling of any temptation by our own 
power. " By strength shall no man prevail," 1 Sam. ii. 
9. To be " sinners," and to be " without strength," 
are terms equivalent in the apostle, Rom. v. 6, S. Nay, 
even where there is a wiU to do good, there is a defect 
of power to perform it, Rom. vii. IS ; our strength is 
not in ourselves, but " in the Lord, and in the power of 
his might," and in the working of his Spirit in our inner 
man, Eph. vi. 10 ; iii. 16 ; Phil. iv. 13. If but a good 
thought arise in om- mind, or a good desire and motion 
stu- in our heart, or a good word drop from our lips, 
we have great cause to take notice of the grace of God 
that offered it to us, and wrought it in us, and to ad- 
mire how any of the fruit of paradise could grow in so 
heathy a wilderness. 

2. Of our natural antipathy and reluctance to holy 
duties ; our aptness to " di-aw back unto perdition," to 
refuse and thrust away the offers and motions of grace ; 
our rebellion which arises from the "law in" the 
" members" " against the law of" the " mind," Rom. vii. 
23 ; the continual di'oppings of a corrupt heart upon 
any of the tender buds and sproutings of piety that are 
wrought within us : our aptness to be " weary" of the 
yoke, and to shake off the burden of Christ from our 
shoulders, Isa. xliii. 22 ; our natm-al levity and incon- 
stancy of spirit in any holy resolutions, continuing but 
as " the early dew," which presently is dried up ; begin- 
ning in the Spirit and ending in the flesh, having in- 
terchangeable fits of the one and the other ; like the 

* 'MoxO^Jpol 'iv (ii^aLOv ovk I^ovulv oii 0£ yap avToU otu- 
fiimvdiv oiixoioi ouTEs. Aristot. Eth. 1. 8. SToo-iajEi ai- 
Twu S i/'i'X''- !<'■ h 9- <^' ■*■ Hoc habent inter caclcra boni 
mores, placent sibi et permanent. Levis est malilia, SKpe 
niutatur. Senec. Epist. 47. Maximum indicium est malae 
mentis, fluctuatio. Epist. 120. Vid. AtlienKUm, 1. 7. c. 19. 
Tertul. de Pall. c. 3. 

2 X 



chameleon, now of one coloui', again of another ; now 
hot with zeal, now cold with security ; now following 
Moses with songs of thanksgiving for deliverance out 
of Egypt, and quickly after thi'ustiug Moses away, and 
in heart returning to Egypt again.* Such a discom- 
posedness and natural instability there is in the spirit 
of man, that, like strings in an instrument, it is apt to 
be altered with every change of weather, nay, while you 
are playing on it, you must ever aad anon new screw 
it ; like water heated, which is always tending to re- 
duce itself to its own coldness. No longer sun, no 
longer light ; no longer Christ, no longer grace : if his 
back be at any time on us, our back will immediately 
be turned on him ; like those forgetful creatures in 
Seneca, who, even while they are eating, if they happen 
to look aside from their meat, immediately lose the re- 
membrance of it, and go about seeking for more. 

3. Of the manifold decays and abatements of the 
grace of God in us ; our aptness to leave our " first 
love," Rev. ii. 4. How did Hezekiah fall into an im- 
politic vain-glory ,t as soon as God left him to himself, 
in showing all his treasures to the ambassadors of a 
foreign prince, thereby kindling a desfre in him to be 
master of so rich a land! 2 Kings xx. 12, 13. How 
quickly, without continual husbandry, wUl a garden or 
vineyard be wasted and overgrown with weeds ! How 
easily is a ship, even at the very shore, carried with a 
storm back again into the sea ! How quickly will a 
curious watch, if it lie open, gather dust on the wheels 
and become out of order ! Tliough, therefore, thou have 
found sweetness in religion, joy in the Holy Spirit, 
comfort, yea, heaven, in good duties, power against 
corruptions, strength against temptations, triumph over 
afflictions, assurance of God's favour, vigour, life, and 
great enlargement of heart in tlie ways of godliness ; 
yet for all this " be not high-minded, but fear." Re- 
member, the flower that is wide open in the morning 
wiieu the sun shines upon it, may be shut up in the 
evening before night come. If the sun had not stood ' 
stUl, Joshua had not taken vengeance on the enemy, 
Josh. X. 13 ; and if the Sun of rigliteousness do not con- 
stantly shine on us and supply us, we shall not be able 
to pursue and carry on any victorious affections. T^Tiile 
God openeth his " hand" thou art " filled," but if he 
hide his " face" thou wilt be " troubled'' again, Psal. 
civ. 28, 29. Therefore take heed of resting on thine 
own wisdom or strength. Thou mayst after all this 
grieve the Spirit of God, and cause him to depart and 
hide himsell' from thee ; thou mayst fall from thy 
stedfastness, and lose thy wonted comforts ; thou 
mayst have a dead winter on the face of thy conscience, 
and be brought to such a sad and disconsolate con- 
dition, as to conclude that God hath " cast " thee " out 
of " his " sight," that he hath " forgotten to be gracious," 
and hath " in anger shut up his tender mercies ;" to 
roar out for anguish of spirit as one whose " bones '' 
are "broken;" thy soul may draw "nigh unto the 
grave," and thy life to the destroyers, and thou 
mayst find it a woeful and almost insuperable difiBculty 
to recover thy life and thy strength again. It was so 
with Job, chap. x. 16, 17 ; xiii. 26, 27 ; xvi. 9, 13 ; xxx. 
15, 31; xxxiii. 19—22: it was so with David, Psal. 
Ii. 8 ; Ixxvii. ■ 2 — 4 : it was so with Heman, Psal. 
Ixxxviii., and divers others; see PiaL cii. 3, 11 ; Isa. 
liv. 6, 11 ; Jonah ii. 3,4. Therefore we should still re- 
member in a calm to provide for a storm ; to stir up the 
graces of God continually in ourselves, that they be not 

t Lege imperial! interJicta vini, olei, liquamiuis exportatio, 
ne barbari eustu iliecti promptius invaderent fines Koman- 
orum, Leg. 1. Cod. qua; res exportari non debeant. Et apud 
Chinenses, exteri in loca regni interiora non admittuntur, 
tantum in oris maritimis conceditur commerciura. Boterus in 
catalog. Imperiorum. 



674 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



quenched, 2 Tim. i. 6 ; so to rejoice in the Lord, as 
witlial to " work out " our " salvation with fear and 
trembling," Psal. ii. 11; Phil. ii. 12, 13: never to let 
the grace of God puff us up, or make us forgetful of 
our own weakness ; but, as the apostle saith of himself 
in regard of God's grace, " when I am weak, then am 
I strong," 2 Cor. xii. 10, so to say of ourselves in re- 
gard of our own natural corruption, when I am strong, 
then am I weak. 

Secondly, This must not so humble us as to deject 
and dismay us, or make us give over the hope of hold- 
ing out to the end, although our nature is so weak, 
our enemies so strong, our temptations so many : but 
we must withal be quickened by these considerations, 
with prayer to implore, and with faith to rely on and 
draw, strength from the word and grace of God ; to 
have always the window of the soul open toward the 
Sun of righteousness, whereby the supplies of his grace 
to prevent, excite, assist, follow, establish us, and cany 
on ever)- good thing which he has begun for us, may 
be continually admitted. This is one of the most ne- 
cessai7 duties for a Christian, to hold constant and fixed 
purposes in godliness : the Scriptiu'c frequently calls 
upon us for them ; that " with purpose of heart " we 
" would cleave unto the Lord," Acts xi. 23 ; that we 
would " continue in the grace of God," Acts xiii. 43 ; 
that we would be "rooted and grounded in love," 
Eph. iii. 1"; that we would " hold fast the profession 
of our faith without wavering," Heb. x. 23 ; that we 
would be " stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in 
the work of the Lord," 1 Cor. sv. 58 ; that we would 
look to ourselves, that we " lose not those things which 
we have wrought," 2 John 8 ; that we would " hold 
fast" and "keep" the "works" of Clu-ist "unto the 
end," Rev. ii. 25, 26. And it is that which godly men 
are most earnestly solicitous about, and do strive after 
with the greatest importunity : " I am purposed that 
my mouth shall not transgress," Psal. xvii. 3. " Unite 
my heart to fear thy name," Psal. Ixxxvi. 11. "My 
heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed : I will sing and 
give praise," Psal. Ivii. 7. Therefore in this case it is 
necessary for us to draw nigh to God, who only can 
ratify all our pious resolutions; who " giveth power to 
the faint, and to them that have no might" " increaseth 
strength," Isa. xl. 29 ; who only can settle and estab- 
lish the hearts of men, 1 Pet. v. 10. The conscience 
of our duty, the sense of our frailty, the power, malice, 
and cunning of our enemies, the obligation of our cove- 
nant, should direct the soul perpetually to God for the 
sup])ly of his grace, that that may in all our weaknesses 
be sufficient for us, and " hold" us " up" that we may 
be " safe," and may never through infirmity or instabili- 
ty of spirit violate our own resolutions, Psal. cxix. 117. 

Thirdly, This is matter of great comfort to the godly, 
that in the midst of so many temptations, snares, im- 
pediments, amongst which we walk, not only the safety 
of our souls and security of our eternal salvation, but 
even our present condition in this life, our conversion, 
our obedience, all our ])ious purjjoscs of heart, all the 
])rogress which we make in a holy conversation, do 
not depend on the weakness and uncertainty of a 
human will ; but upnn the infallible truth, the constant 
j)romise, the immutable ])urposc, the invincible jiowcr, 
the free love, the absolute grace, the omnipotent wis- 
dom and working of Ciod, who doth according to his 
own pleasure both in heaven and earth, and worketli 
all thmgs after the counsel of his own will : " I am the 
Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob arc 
not consumed," Mai. iii. 6. AVe poor and weak men 
change with every wind, strong to-day, and weak to- 
morrow ; fixed and resolute to-day, shaken and stag- 
gering to-morrow; running forward to-dav, and re- 
volting as fast to-morrow ; no hold to be taken of our 
promises, no trust to be reposed in our covenants. 



Like Peter on the water, we tread securely one step, 
and, our faith faihng, sink the next. All our comfort 
is this, our strength and standing rest not on ourselves, 
but on the rock whereon we are built, and in the 
power of God, by which we are " kept through faitli 
unto salvation," "out of" whose "hand" none are able 
to " pluck " us ; our very actions are wrought in us, 
and carried on to their end by the power of Christ, who 
has mercy, wisdom, and strengtli enough to rescue us, 
as from the power of hell and death, so from the dan- 
ger of our own fickle and froward hearts. To see a 
man when he is half a mile from his enemy draw a 
sword to enconnter him, or take up a stone to hit him, 
would be but a ridiculous spectacle ; for what could he 
do with such weapons by his ovm strength at such a 
distance ? But if he mount a cannon, and point that 
level against the enemy, this we do not wonder at, 
though the distance be so great ; because though the 
action be originally his, yet the effect of it proceeds 
from the force of the materials and instruments em- 
])loyed, to wit, the powder, the bullet, the fire, and the 
cannon. It seemed absurd m the eye of the enemy, 
for little David, with a shepherd's bag and a sling, to 
go against Goliath, an armed giant ; and it produced in 
his proud heart much disdain. But when we hear 
David mention the name of God, in the strength and 
confidence whereof he came against so proud an ene- 
my, this makes us conclude weak Da^^d strong enough 
to encounter great Goliath, 1 Sam. xvii. 40 — 47. It is 
not our own strength, but the love of God, which is the 
foundation of our triumph over all om- enemies, Rom. 
viii. 35—39. 

But here some will say. Then we may be secure ; if 
God's grace and power be our alone strength, then let 
us commit ourselves and our salvation to him, and in 
the mean time give over all thoughts and care of it 
ourselves, and live as we list ; no act of ours can frus- 
trate the counsel or the love of God. To this we an- 
swer with the apostle, " God forbid." Though the ene- 
mies of free grace do thus argue, yet they who have 
indeed the grace of God in their hearts have "not so 
learned Christ." For it is against the essential nature 
of the grace and Spirit of Christ, to sufl'er those in whom 
it dwells to give themselves over to security and neg- 
lect of God ; for grace is a vital and active principle, 
and does so work in us as withal to dispose and direct 
us to working also. The property of grace is to fight 
against and to kill sin, as being most extremely con- 
trary to it ; and therefore it is a most irrational mode 
of arguing, to argue from the being of grace to the life 
of ,sin. "How shall we, that are dead to sifi, live any 
longer therein ?" Rom. vi. 2. If we be dead to sin, this 
is argument enough, in the apostle's judgment, why we 
should set our afl'ections on things above. Col. iii. 2, 3. 
The grace of God not only serves to bring salvation, 
but to teach us to deny " ungodliness and worldly 
lusLs," and to " live soberly, righteouslv, and godly, ip 
this present world," Tit. ii. 11, 12. fie who has de- 
creed salvation as the end, has decreed aUo all the 
antecedent means to that end, to be used in a manner 
suitable to the condition of reasonable and voluntary 
agents; to whom it belongs, having their minds by 
grace enlightened, and their wills by grace prevented, 
to co-operate with the same grace in the further pur- 
suance of their salvation. And if at any time cor- 
ruption shoidd in God's children abuse his grace and 
efiicacy to such presum])tuous resolutions, they would 
quickly rue so unreasonable and carnal a way of argu- 
ing, by the woeful sense of God's displeasure in with- 
drawing the comforts of his gruco from them, which 
would make them ever after take hied how they again 
turned the grace of God into licentiousness. Certainly, 
tlie more the servants of God are assured of his assist- 
ance, the more careful they ai'e in using it to his own 



Vee. 8. 



THE PROPHECY OF HUSEA. 



675 



service. Who more sure of the grace of God than the 
apostle Paul, who gloried of it as of that which made 
him what he was, " By the grace of God I am what I 
am;" who knew that God's "grace" was "sufficient" 
for him, and that nothing could " separate " him 
" from the love of Christ ;" who knew whom he had 
believed, and that " the grace of our Lord was exceed- 
ing abundant " towards him ? and yet who more tender 
and fearful of sin than he ? who more set against 
corruption, more abundant in duty, more pressing 
to perfection ? This is the nature of grace, to animate 
and actuate the faculties of the soul in God's service, to 
ratify om' covenants, and to enable us to perform them. 
Fourthly, As it is singular comfort to the servants of 
God, that their own wills and purposes are in God's 
keeping, and so they cannot ruin themselves ; so is it 
also, that aU other men's wills and resolutions are in 
God's keeping too, so that they shall not be able to 
purpose or resolve on any evil against the church, 
without leave from him. So then, 1. When the rage 
and passions of men break out, tribe divided against 
tribe, brother against brother, father against child, 
head against body; when the band of unity which was 
wont to knit together this flourishing kingdom, is 
broken like the prophet's staff, and therewithal the 
beauty of the nation miserably withered and decayed, 
(for these two go still together, Beauty and Bands, 
Zech. si. 10 — 14,) we must look on all tliis as God's 
own work. It was he that " sent an evil sphit be- 
tween Abimelech and the men of Shechem," for the 
mutual punishment of their sins, Judg. ix. 23. It 
was he M'ho "turned" the "hearts" of the Egj'ptians 
" to hate his people, and to deal subtilly with his serv- 
ants," Psal. cv. 25. He sent the Assyrian against his 
people, giving them " a charge to take the spoil, and 
to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mhe 
of the streets," Isa. x. 6. He appointed the sword of 
the king of Babylon, by his overruling direction, to go 
against Judah, and not against the Ammonites, Ezek. 
xxi. 19, 22. He, by the secret command of his provi- 
dence, marked some for safety, and gave commission 
to kill and slay others, Ezek. ix. 4, 5. It is he who 
giveth " iTacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers," 
and poureth out "upon him the strength of battle," 
Isa. xlii. 24, 25. If there be " evil in a city," in a king- 
dom, " the Lord hath done it," Amos iii. 6 ; Isa. xlv. 
1. This consideration is very useful both to humble 
us, when we consider that God has a controversy against 
the land, and that it is he with whom we have to do 
in these sad commotions that are in the kingdoms; 
and to quiet and silence us, that we may not dare to 
murmur at the course of his wise and righteous pro- 
ceedings mth us ; and to dhect us, with prayer, faith, 
and patience, to implore, and in his good time to 
expect, such an issue and close, as we are sure shall be 
for his own glory, and for the manifestation of his 
mercy towards his people, and his justice towards all 
that are implacable enemies to Zion. 

2. In the troubles of the church this is matter of 
singular comfort, that however enemies may say, This 
and that we wUl do, hither and thither we will go ; 
though they may combine together, and be mutually 
confederate, and ghd themselves, and take counsel, 
and speak the word, yet in all this God has tlie casting 
voice, Psal. Ixxxiii. 2 — 5. There is little heed to be 
given to what Ephraim saith, except God say the 
same : without him, whatsoever is counselled, " shall 
come to nought;" whatsoever is decreed or spoken, 
" shall not stand," Isa. viii. 9, 10. We have a lively 
hypotyposis or description of the swift, confident, and 
fiuious march of the great host of Sennacherib towards 
Jerusalem, with the terror and consternation of the 
people in every place where they came, weeping, fly- 
ing, removing their habitations ; and when he is ad- 



vanced to Nob, from which place " the hill of Jerusa- 
lem" might be seen, he there shook his hand against 
" the mount of the daughter of Zion," threatening 
what he would do unto it. And then when the waters 
were come to the very neck, and the Assp-ian was in 
the height of his pride and fury, God sent forth a pro- 
hibition against all their resolutions, and that huge 
army, which was for pi'ide and number like the thick 
trees of Lebanon, were suddenly cut down by " a 
mighty one," to wit, by the angel of the Lord, Isa. x. 
28 — 34, compared with Ezek. xxxi. 3, 10 ; Isa. xvii. 
12— 14; xxxvii. 36. Therefore, 

3. Oui' greatest business is to apply ourselves to 
God, who alone is "the Lord that healeth" us, who 
alone can join the two sticks of Ephraim and Judah, 
and make them one, Exod. xv. 26; Ezek. xxxvii. 19; 
that he would still the raging of the sea, and command 
a calm again. He can say, " Ephraim shall say" thus 
and thus : he has the hearts of kings, and conse- 
quently of all other men, in his hands, Prov. xxi. 1 ; 
and he can turn them, " as the rivers of water," 
"whithersoever he will :" as men by art can derive 
waters, and divert them from one course to another, (as 
they did in the siege of Babylon, as his- 
torians tell us, and the Scriptures seem "J^*?? hoi'^'io- 
to confii-m it, Isa. xHii. 15, 16; xhv. 27, p»:<i- iit. '■ saUjnui 
28 ; Jer. 1. 23 ; li. 36,) so he can sway, s 5,''ei"35i6. '} zr' 
alter, divert, overrule the purposes of ^''^aplM's."''"'"'' 
men as it pleases him ; reconciling lambs 
and lions to one another, Isa. xi. 6 ; making Israel, 
Egypt, and Assyi'ia agree together, Isa. xix. 24, 25. 
He can say to Balaam, Bless, when his mind was to 
curse. Josh. xxiv. 9, 10; he can tiu-n the wrath of 
Laban into a covenant of kindness with Jacob, Gen. 
xxxi. 24, 44 ; and when Esau had the desired op- 
portunity to execute his thi-eats against his brother, 
he can then turn resolutions of cruelty into kisses, 
Gen. xxxiii. 4 ; and when Saul has compassed David 
and his men round about, and is most likely to take 
them, he can even then draw him off by a necessary 
diversion, 1 Sam. xxiii. 26 — 28. This is the comfort 
of God's people, that whatever men say, except God 
say it too, it shall all come to nothing. He can "re- 
strain the wrath of man" whensoever it pleases him; 
and he will do it, when it has proceeded so far as to 
glorify' his power, and to make way for the more 
notable manifestation of his goodness to his people, 
Psal. Ixxvi. 10. And thus far of God's answer to the 
covenant of Ephraim. They promised to renounce 
idols, and here God promises that they should renounce 
them. But we shall here further, from the words 
themselves, more particularly, 

Obs. 2. In true conversion God makes our special 
sin to be the object of our greatest detestation : " What 
have I to do any more with idols ? " This point has been 
fully opened before. 

Obs. 3. It is the nature of true repentance, to break 
sin off, Dan. iv. 27, and not to suffer a man to continue 
any longer in it, Rom. vi. 1, 2: "AVhat have I to do 
anij more with idols?" It makes men esteem "the 
time past of " their " life maj' suffice " them " to have 
wrought the will of the Gentiles," 1 Pet. iv. 2, 3 ; and is 
exceeding thrifty of the time to come, so to redeem it 
as that God may have all : it does not linger, nor delay, 
nor make objections, nor raise doubts whether it be 
seasonable to go out of Egy])t and Sodom, or no : it 
uses not the sluggard's language modo el modo, " Yet 
a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the 
hands to sleep ; " nor Agrippa's language, " Almost 
thou persuadest me ; " nor Felix's language, " 'When 
I have a convenient season I will call for thee : " but 
" immediately " resolves, with Paul, not to confer " with 
fle«h and blood," Gal. i. 16; makes haste to flee from 
tlic wrath to come," while it is yet to come, Luke iiL 



C76 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



7. It makes no anxious nor cavilling questions, AMiat 
sliall I do for the hundi-ed talents? how shall I main- 
tain my life, my credit, my family ? how shall I keep 
my friends ? how shall I preserve mine interests, or 
sii])port mine estate ? but ventures the loss of all for 
"liic excellency of the knowledge of Christ," Slatt. 
xili. 46 ; Phil. iii. 7, 8 ; it is contented to part with 
a sky full of stars for one Sun of righteousness. The 
converts that return to Chi-ist, come like " di'omedaries," 
like " doves," like " ships ; " no wings, no sails, can 
carry them fast enough from their former courses unto 
him, Isa. Ix. C — 9. Abraham "rose up early in the 
nvirning," though his duty involved the sacrificing of 
his only son. Gen. xxii. 3. David " made haste, and 
d'layed not to keep " God's " commandments," Psal. 
cxix. 60. ^^^len Christ called his disciples, " they 
stiaightway left their nets," their " ship, and their 
iather, and followed him," Matt. iv. 20, 22. Such is 
the mighty power of repentance ; it does not give dila- 
tory answers ; it does not say to Christ, Go away now, 
and come to-morrow, then I will hear thee ; I am not 
yet old enough, or rich enough, I have not gotten yet 
pleasure, or honour, or profit, or preferment enough 
by my sins ; but presently it hears and entertains him. 
1 have sinned enough already to condemn, to shame, 
to slay me ; I have spent time and strength enough 
already upon it, for such miserable wages as shame and 
death come to j therefore I will never " any more " have 
to do with it. This is the sweet and most ingenuous 
voice of repentance ; " That which I see not teach 
thou me : if I have done iniquity, I will do no more," 
Job xxxiv. 32. There is no sin more contrary to repent- 
ance than apostacy ; for " godly sorrow vvorketh re- 
j)cnlance to salvation," which the soul never finds 
reason to repent of, 2 Cor. vii. 10, 11. Let us, there- 
fore, " take need " of " an evil heart of unbelief, in 
departing from the living God," Heb. iii. 12; and of 
drawing " back unto perdition," Heb. x. 39 ; of dis- 
missing our sins, as the Jews did their servants, Jer. 
.wxiv. 16, and calling them back again ; for Satan 
usually returns with seven more wicked sjjirits, and 
ni?l<eth "the last state" of such a man "worse than 
the first," Luke xi. 26. Ground which has been a long 
time laid down from tillage to pasture, if afterwards it 
be new broken, will yield a much greater crop of corn 
than it did formerly when it was a common field ; and 
so the heart which has been taken oft' from sin, if it 
return to it again, will be much more fruitful than be- 
fore. As lean bodies have many times the strongest 
a])petite, so lust, when it has been kept lean, returns 
wllli greater hunger to those objects which feed it. A 
stream which has been stopjjcd, will run more violently 
being once opened again. Therefore in rei)entance we 
must shake hands with sin for e\ er, and resolve never 
more to tamper with it. But further, 

Ubs. 4. God hears and answers the prayers of peni- 
tents only : " I have heard him, and observed him." 
A\'hen a man resolves, I will have no more to do with 
sin, then, not till then, does his prayer find way to 
soi.-nni-er.iooi God. Impcnitcncc clogs ihc wiug oi" dc- 
ni.iixii p.inr manui votiou, and stops its passagc to heaven. 
«r! . n. iirijon. de Tlic pcrson must be accepted before the 
rii'lm'lmpir'imtii- petition : Christ Jesus is the priest that 
'i"",'.Z "tchu/! TpoL offers, and the altar which sanctifies, all 
"l".M^'r«11ifi ""Th °'"" "Prvices, 1 Pet. ii. 5 ; Isa. hi. 7 ; and 
...rii.'.i ivi longe Christ will not be their advocate in hea- 
'""'^ ■ vcn, who refuse to have him as their king 

on earth. The Scripture is on no point more express 
than on this. " If 1 regard iniquity in my heart, the 
Lord will not hear me," Psal. Ixvi. 18 : prayer is a 
•muring out of the heart ; if iniquity be harboured 
Uiore, prayer is obstructed, and if it do break out, it 
will have the scent and savour of that iniquity upon it. 
" The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the 



Lord," Prov. xv. 8, both because it is impure in itself, 
and because it has no altar to sanctify it. " He that 
turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his 
prayer shall be abomination," Prov. xxviii. 9. Great 
reason that God should refuse to hear him who refuses 
to heal*God ; that he who will not let God beseech him 
(as he does in his word, 2 Cor. v. 20) should not be 
allowed to beseech God, Prov. i. 24, 28; Isa. i. la. 
His ear is not heav7 that " it cannot hear," but iniquity 
separates between us and him, and hides his face that 
" he will not hear," Isa. lix. 1,2; Ezek. viii. 18. " God 
hearcth not sinners," John ix. 31 ; the prevalence of 
prayer is this, that it is the prayer of " a righteous 
man," James v. 16. And indeed no wicked man can 
pray in the true and proper notion of prayer. It is 
true, there is a kind of prayer of nature, when men cry 
in their distresses to the God and author of nature, for 
such good things as nature feels the want of, which 
God, in the way of liis general providence and common 
mercies, is sometimes pleased to answer suitably to the 
natural desires of those that ask them. But " the 
prayer of faith" (which is the true notion of prayer, 
Rom. X. 14; James v. 15) goes not to God as the 
author of nature, but as the God of grace, and the 
Father of Christ ; and puts not up mere natural, but 
spiritual requests to him, as to a heavenly Father, 
which requests proceed from the Spu-it of grace and 
supplication, teaching us to pray as we ought, Zech. 
xii. 10 ; Rom. viii. 26, 27 ; Gal. iv. 6 ; so that they who 
have not the Spu'it of Christ, enabling them to cry, 
" Abba, Father," aje not able to pray a prayer of faith. 
Prayer, when right, has two wills concurring in it, our 
will put forth in desires, and God's will respected as 
the rule of those desires ; for we are not allowed to de- 
sire what we will ourselves of God, but we must ask 
"according to his will," 1 John v. 14. Xow, whenso- 
ever impenitent sinners pray for spiritual things, they 
ever pray contrary to one of these two wills : when 
they pray for mercy and pardon, they pray against 
God's will, for that which God will not give ; for mercy 
is proposed to and provided for those that forsake sin, 
Prov. xxviii. 13; he who chooses to hold fast sin, does 
by his own election forsake mercy ; for " the goodness 
of God leadeth to repentance," Rom. ii. 4 : God's 
mercy is a holy mercy, it will pardon sin ,„,^„„ „^„i„ 
forsaken, but it will not protect sin re- ix-umu^ quod i^.i- 
tained. Again, when they pray for grace, f,rrrt-inuiT«.idm 
they pray against their own will, for that liT'i'imuULtpT' 
which they themselves would not have : oi;"^',,;;;!.™';^™!^'' 
it is impossible that a man should formal- ^'j,^"'sj;;'''£"|,;l9i 
ly will the holding fast and continuing """' '"' '" 
in sin, (as every impenitent man does.) and with the 
same will should truly desire the receiving of grace, 
which is destructive to the continuance of sin. If a 
wicked man do truly will the grace of God when he 
prays for it, why does he refuse the same gi-ace when 
he hears it in the ministry of the word ottered to him ? 
If God offer it, and he desire it, how comes it not to 
be received ? Certainly, there is not any thing in the 
corrupt heart of man by nature, which can willingly 
close with any sanctifying grace of the Spirit of Christ. 
Self-denial is a concomitant in all acts of grace, and 
self-seeking in all acts of lust ; and therefore, where 
there is nothing but lust, there can be no real volition 
of grace, which is so contrary to it. 

'This teaches us to have penitent resolutions, and 
spiritual aims, in all our prayers, if we would have them 
prevail at the throne of grace. We are now under the 
heavy calamity of a civil war, and verj- desirous we arc 
that It should be removed. We suffer, and languish, and 
fret, and pine away, and we complain every where of 
want and violence; but who set themselves to cry 
mightily to God, and call on their souls, as the mariners 
on Jonah, " What meanest thou, O sleeper ? arise, call 



Vek. 8. 



THE PROrHECY OF HOSEA. 



C/7 



on thy God ? " Haply we go so far, we pray, and yet 
receive no answer, because we " ask amiss," James iv. 
1 — 3. We are troubled that our lusts are abridged of 
their fuel, or that our nature is deprived of her neces- 
saries, and for these things wc pray; but till our 
troubles bring us to seek God more than ourselves, 
make us more sensible of his wrath than of our own 
wants, more displeased at what offends him than at what 
pinches and oppresses ourselves, we cannot promise 
ourselves an answer of peace. The mariners cried, and 
the tempest continued still ; Jonah was to be cast over ; 
so long as there was a fugitive from God in the ship, 
the storm would not cease. Never can wc promise our- 
selves any comfortable fruit from our (irayers till the 
aim of them is spiritual, that God may be honoured, 
that his church may be cleansed and reformed, that our 
lives may be amended, that whatsoever forsakes God 
in us may be cast away. Till God's " whole work " be 
" performed upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem," we 
cannot promise ourselves that he will call in his com- 
mission and charge to take the spoil and the prey, Isa. 
X. 12. And therefore our greatest wisdom is to consider 
what God calls for, to make it our prayer and endea- 
vour that his will and counsel may be fulfilled. The 
more we make God our end, the sooner we shall recover 
our peace. 

Obs. 5. Our performance of duty depends much on 
God's hearing and answering our prayers. Ephraim 
will have no more to do with idols, because God has 
heard him. Prayer is the key of obedience, and the 
introduction to duty. The principles of duty are. Wis- 
dom to know and order; will to desire and intend; 
strength to perform and persevere : and all these are 
tlie product of prayer. " If any lack wisdom, let him 
ask of God," James i. 5. So Solomon, 1 Kings iii. 9. 
And, '■■ Who am I, and what is my people," saith David, 
" that we should be able to offer so willingly after this 
sort ? for all things come of thee," 1 Chron. xxix. 14. 
And the apostle prays for the Ephesians, that God would 
"grant" them, "according to the riches of his glory, 
to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the 
inner man," Eph. iii. 16. The principles of duty are 
the fruits of prayer, and therefore the performance of 
duty much depends on the hearing and answering of 
prayer. 

Ohs. 6. When we renounce all carnal and sinful con- 
fidences, and cast ourselves wholly upon God, engaging 
his eye of favour and providence to us, this will be a 
most sufficient protection against all the cruelties of 
men : " I have observed him." One would think, when 
we hear a sword threatened, dashing of infants, ripping 
of women, the prophet should have called on them to 
take to them weapons to make resistance ; (and cer- 
tainly the use of means in such eases is necessary ; the 
sword of the Lord does not exclude the sword of 
Gideon ;) one would think, I say, " Take with you 
words," were but a poor preparation against a destroy- 
ing enemy : yet this is all that the prophet insists on ; 
AVhen the Assyrian comes against you, do you "take 
with you words ;" your lips shall be able to defend more 
than his armies can annoy. AVords uttered from a 
penitent heart in times of trouble to God, are stronger 
than all the preparations of flesh and blood, because 
that way which prayer and repentance go, that way 
goes God too. Amalek fights, and Moses speaks to 
God in the behalf of Israel, and the lifting up of his 
hands prevails more than all the strength of Israel be- 
sides, Lxod. xvii. 11, 12. One man of God that knows 
how to manage the cause of Israel with him, is " the 
chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof," 2 Kings 
ii. 12. What huge armies did Asa and Jehoshaphat 
vanquish by the power of prayer! 2 Chron. xiv. 9 — 15; 
XX. 1 — 30. Till God forbid prayer, as he did to Jere- 
miah, chap. vii. 16; xi. 14, and take off the hearts of 



his servants from ciying to him in behalf of a people, 
we have reason to hope that he will at last entertain 
thoughts of mercy towards them, Exod. xxxii. 10, 14 ; 
and in the mean time, when they are reduced to the 
condition of fatherless children, he will be then' guai-dian, 
his eye of providence and tuition will observe them 
and take care of them. " A father of the fatherless, 
and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habita- 
tion," Psal. Ixviii. 5. 

Obs. 7. Whatsoever human wisdom, wealth, power, 
or other outward means men have wherewith to defend 
themselves, yet they shall never find any true and solid 
protection or shelter but in and from God, after sound 
conversion to him. " I am like a green fir tree." The 
fh' tree, Pliny saith, casts not its leaves, and so yields 
a perpetual shade botli in winter and in summer : thus 
sound conversion yields comfort in all conditions of 
life. " God is our refuge and strength, a very present 
hel]) in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the 
earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried 
into the midst of the sea," Psal. xlvi. 1, 2 ; Hab. iii. 
16 — IS. However it be, God is good to Israel, and it 
shall go well with the righteous ; he wdl be for a 
sanctuary to. his people, that they need not be afraid, 
Isa. viii. 12 — 14. If you would have your hearts raised 
above all the troubles of the world, get under this fir 
tree, cast yourselves under this protection, get into the 
chamber of God's providence and promises, and then, 
though the troubles of the world may strip you of all 
outward comforts, yet God will be all to you. 

Obs. S. Though good works be ours when they are 
done by us, yet they come from God, who enables us to 
do them ; we bear them, but God works and produces 
them in us ; the duty is ours, but the efficacy and 
blessing is his ; " From me is thy fruit found." This 
falls in with what has been treated of before, and there- 
fore I shall not now enlarge upon it. 

Ver. 9. JVlto in wise, and he shall understand these 
things ? prudent, and he shall know them ? for the vnys 
of the Lord are right, and the just shall ivalk in them ; 
but the transgressors shall fait therein. 

These words are a most pathetical close, and, as it 
were, a seal which the prophet sets to all the doctrine 
of his whole book, and the entire course of his minis- 
try ; implying, in their general sense, first, A strong 
asseveration of the truth of all those things which he 
had in the name of God delivered to them. Secondly, 
An elegant and forcible excitation of the people to a 
sad and serious pondering of them, laying to heart the 
sins therein charged, the duties therein required, the 
judgments therein threatened, the blessings therein 
promised. And thirdly, A tacit complaint of the paucity 
of those who were " wise unto salvation," and of the 
desperate use which wicked men make of the \\ ord of 
God, and the ministry of his grace ; namely, to stum- 
ble at it, and to turn it into an occasion of ruin to 
themselves. 

" Wio is wise, and he shall understand these things ? 
prudent, and he shall know them?" The interroga- 
tion here implies, 1. A secret exprobration of folly to 
his hearers, or the greater part of them ; for so this 
kind of inteiTogation frequently in Scrip- 
ture intimates either a negation, or at sl^.Tnota^ap'^s: 
least the rareness and difficulty of the 
thing spoken of: as, "Who hath known the mind of 
the Lord, that he may instruct him?" 1 Cor. ii. 16. 
" ^Yh.o shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect ? " 
Rom. viii. 33 : these are negatives. " Who knoweth 
the power of thine anger?" Psal. xc. 11. "Who 
among you will give ear to this?" Isa. xlii. 23. "Who 
hath beUeved our report ? and to whom is the arm of 
the Lord revealed ? " Isa. liii. 1 : these are resti-ictives. 



678 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



Who ? that is, few or none are such. 2. An earnest 
wish and desire of the prophet. Oh that men were wise 
to understand these thnigs, and lay them to heart ! as, 
" Who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? " 
that is, Oh that I were delivered, Kom. vii. 24. " Who 
will show us any good ? " that is. Oh that any could do 
it, Psal. iv. 6. 3. A strong affirmation or demonstra- 
tion wherein true wisdom does indeed consist ; and 
what men that are truly wise will do, when the ways of 
God are by the ministry of his servants set forth before 
them ; namely, ponder and consider their great and 
weighty import: as Jcr. ix. 12, 13, " '\Mio is the wise 
man, that may understand this ?" namely, as it follows, 
" for wliat the land pcrisheth, and is burned up like a 
wilderness, that none passeth through P And the Lord 
saith. Because they have forsaken my law which I si 
before them." This is the character of a wise man, to 
trace to their proper origin the judgments that are 
uj)on a people, and not to allege hoh causam pro causa, 
a false cause. 4. A vehement awakening and quick- 
ening of the people to this dut)- of sad attendance on 
the words which he had spoken to them : as Exod. 
xxxii. 26, " AVho is on the Lord's side ? let him 
come unto me." And 2 Kings ix. 32, " AVho is on my 
side? who?" So it is as if the prophet should have 
said, There are none of you who have been my l>earers, 
but would willingly retain the reputation of men of 
wisdom and understanding, and would esteem it a high 
indignity to be handed down to all ages a.s fools and 
mad-men. AA'cll, I have preached amongst you many 
years together, (sixty are the fewest that we can well 
compute, some say seventy, others, above eighty,) but, 
alas, what entertainment has mine embassage received ? 
what operation or success has it had amongst you ? are 
not the calves still standing at Dan and Beth-el ? do 
not carnal jjolicies prevail still against the express will 
of God ? O, if there be any wise, any prudent men 
amongst you, (and oh that all God's people were such !) 
let them, now at length in the close of my ministry, 
show their wisdom, by giving heed to what I have de- 
clared from the Lord, that they may learn to walk in 
God's righteous ways, and may not stumble and perish, 
and " fall therein." 

" AVho is wise, and he shall understand these things ? 
prudent, and he shall know them ? " Two words are 
here used to express the wisdom which God requues 
in those who would fruitfully hear his word ; * the one 
importing a mental knowledge of the things, and the 
Other a practical and ])rudential judgment in jiondcring 
them, and in discerning theii- great and momentous 
importance to our eternal weal or woe. So the apostle 
prays for the Colossians, that they might be filled with 
the knowledge of God's will " in all wisdom and spi- 
ritual understanding," Col. i. 9. In mere notional 
things, which are only to be known for themselves, 
and are not further reducible to use and practice, the 
bare knowledge of them is sufficient. But in things 
the knowledge whereof is ever in order to a further 
end, there is required, besides the knowledge itself,t a 
faculty of wisdom and judgment to apply and manage 
that knowledge to, and for the advancement of, that 
end. Now, we know that theological learning is all of 
it practical, and has an ir.trinsical respect and a direct 
tendency to enforce worship and obedience : I therefore 
it is called " the acknowledging of the truth which is 
after godliness," Tit. i. 1. " The fear of the Lord is 
the beginning of wisdom : a good understanding have 

• Dua; sunt partes rationis secundum philosophum, una 
iirtarrjfxoi'tKti, altera XoyttrriKt}, qiiie ratiocinamur et dehbe- 
mmus in ordine ad mures. Vide Arist. Ethic, lib. 6. cap. 2. 
el cap. 8. 

t Oi» T(o I't^hvat fiovov tppovtfioi &Wa Kui t« -wpdic^tKOi. 
Arist. Klliic. 1. 7. cap. II. 

i O't c t'tt> fitj ti'pi(TKOi/-rai l3iovi/Tii w9 ici6a^i, yvwpi^iv- 



all they that do his commandments," Psal. cxi. 10. 
" Keep therefore" his judgments " and do them; for 
this is your wisdom and your understanding," Deut. 
iv. 6. Therefore, besides the bare knowledge of truth, 
there is required wisdom and spiritual understanding, 
to direct that knowledge to those holy uses and saving 
ends for which it was intended. 

"AVho is wise, and he shall understand these things? 
prudent, and he shall know them ?" The doubling of 
the interrogation thus, augments the force of the words, 
and denotes that it is the supreme and most excellent 
act of wisdom and prudence, so to know the word and 
ways of God, as with a practical judgment to ponder 
tl;am in order to salvation. 

' For the ways of the Lord are right." We are to 
understand hereby, 1. Tlie ways of his judgments, and 
of his wonderful providence toward men ; which, how- 
ever, to the proud and contentious spirit of the wicked, 
they may seem perverse and inordinate, and to the 
eye of all men " unsearchable ;" § are yet by spiritual 
wisdom acknowledged to be most righteous and holy, 
to have no crookedness or disorder in them, but to be 
carried on in an even and straight course to the ends 
whereunto his holy counsel directs them. " His work 
is perfect : for all his ways are judgment," Deut. xxxii. 
4. AA'hen Jeremiah desired to plead with the Lord 
concerning his judgments, he yet premises this as a 
matter unquestionable, that God was righteous in 
them all, Jer. xii. 1. 

2. The ways of his Avill, word, and worship. So the 
word is often taken in Scripture, to signify the doctrine 
which men teach, as Matt. xxii. 16; Acts xiii. 10; 
xviii. 25 ; xxii. 4 ; and damnable heresies are called 
" pernicious ways," in opposition to " the way of truth," 
2 Pet. ii. 2 : and the rites or rules of corrupt worshij) 
are called by the propliet " The manner of Beersheba," 
Amos viii. 14. 'These ways of God are likewise veiy 
straight, caiTying men on in a " right" line to a happy 
end, Psal. xix. 8 ; whereas wicked ways have crooked- 
ness and perverseness in them, Psal. cxxv. 5 : and this 
seems here chiefly to be meant, because there follows, 
" the just shall walk in them ;" that is, they shall so 
ponder and judge of the righteous ways of God in his 
word, a.s to make choice of tliem for the way wherein 
they intend to walk, as the psalmist speaks, " I have 
chosen the way of truth," Psal. exLx. 30 : whereas wicked 
men Ijeinjr offended at the puritv of Di- .^^ ,. „ 

. ," ,, ,..,,• 't,. Child. Paraph. 

vme truth, stumble and fall mto perdition. 

The words thus opened, lead us to dwell especially 
on the powerful and pathetic call contained in them to 
the people of Israel, to consider maturely and obey 
implicitly the doctrines taught by the prophet through- 
out his whole ministration amongst them. The argu- 
ments which he uses aic di-awn from, 

I. The character of the persons : " AVTio is wise, and 
he shall understand these things? prudent, and he 
shall know them ? " 

II. The nature of the doctrines taught : " For the 
ways of the Lord are right." 

ill. The twofold use made thereof by different kinds 
pf men. 1. To the just, the Lord's ways are a way of 
happiness; '• The just shall walk in them." 2. To the 
wicked, an occasion of stumbling; "The transgressors 
shall fall therein." 

I. The character of the persons. And here two things 
present themselves : 1. The one intimated, their pau- 
city. 2. The other expressed, their prudence. 

dtotrav ftij ovrti XpiffTinl/oi, kAv \iyua-i &tA yXcomjc Tit 
TouXptaTovSitaynaTa. Justin Martyr. Apol. 2. Qui Chris- 
tiani uoiniuis iipus mm afit, Cbristianus nun esse videtur. 
Salvian. ilc Gubcni. Dei. lib. 1. 

^ .Indicia Dei plernnqiic occulta, nunquuni inju8ta. .\tiir. 
Serni. N^. *ie Tenijiiire. 'jV-ynt'i'j ijTnv Ofou itKaioiruvii. f"]em. 
AKx. Vid. Tcrtul. contra Marciun. lib. 2. cap. U — IG. 



Vek. 9. 



THE PllOPHECY OF HOSEA. 



679 



1. The paucity of the persons. This is intimated, as 
we have seen, by the interrogative form of the words, 
and leads us to 

06s. 1. There are few who are "wise unto salva- 
tion,'' few who seriously attend to and manage the 
ministry of the word to that end. If there be any 
accidental lenocinium to allure the fancies, or excite the 
curiosity or customary attendance of men on the ordi- 
nances, elegance in the speaker, novelty and quaint- 
ness in the matter, credit or advantage in the duty, on 
such inducements many will wait on the word : some to 
hear " a very lovely song," Ezek. xxxiii. 32, others to 
hear some " new doctrine," Acts xvii. 19 ; some for the 
loaves, to promote their secular advantages, John vi. 
26, having one and the selfsame reason for following 
Christ which the Gadarenes had when they entreated 
him to depart from their coasts. But 
SSi>ha"tu°'t?i"" fery few there are who do it propter xe, 
pian. p. de Escus. ^ud with rcspect to the ijrimarv use and 

Leg, 5. Rari quippe . . t> f ^ i 

boni, numero rix mtcution ot it. Our propliet seems to 
Th"b«™m™on«'vei do as the philosopher, who lighted a 
ji™ai'sai*'i'3! Candle at noon to find out a_man wise 
indeed : he seems to " run to and fro 
through the streets," and to " seek in the broad places 
thereof, if" he " can find a man, if there be any that ex- 
ecuteth judgment, that seeketh the truth," as the lord 
commanded the prophet Jeremiah, Jer. v. 1. How 
does the most elegant of all the prophets complain, 
"Who hath believed our report?" Isa. Uii. 1; xlix. 4. 
How does the most learned of the apostles complain, 
that the preaching of the gospel was esteemed " fool- 
ishness ! " 1 Cor. i. 23. Noah was a preacher of right- 
eousness to a whole world of men, and yet but " eight" 
persons were saved fi-om the flood, and some of them 
rather for their family's sake than their own, 1 Pet. 
iii. 20. Paul preacned to a whole academy at Athens, 
and yet but very few were converted, Acts xvii. 34 : 
some disputed, and others mocked, but few believed 
the things which they were not able to gainsay. Heze- 
kiah sent messengers into all Israel to invite them to 
the true worship of God at Jerusalem, but they were 
" laughed" " to scorn, and mocked," and a remnant 
only " humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem," 
2 Chron. xxx. 10, 11 : Isa. xvii. 6; xxiv. 13. Though 
a gun be discharged at a whole flight of birds, but few 
are killed. Though the net be spread over the whole 
pond, but a few fishes are taken; many thrust their 
heads into the mud and the net passes over them : and 
so most hearers busy their heads with their own sen- 
sual or worldly thoughts, and so escape the power of 
the word. Out of the richest mine there is much 
more earth and di'oss dug than pure metal. Christ's 
flock in every place is but " a little flock," Luke xii. 
32; "few chosen," Matt. xx. 16; "few saved," Luke 
xiii. 23; "few there be that find" the "narrow way 
which leadeth unto life," Matt. vii. 13, 14. The basest 
iv. ' lara ovo- creatiu'cs are usually the uiost uumcrous. 
TcSna -raviiiav ss flics and vemiiu ; those that are more 
Generat. Anima.iib. uoblc are likewise moro rare. "The 
4. cap. 4. people of the God of Abraham" are, in 

the Scripture style, "princes" and "noble," Psal. 
slvii. 9; Acts xvii. 11 : 1 Pet. ii. 9; and how few are 
there of such in comparison of the vulgar sort ! They 
are indeed many in themselves, Heb. ii. 10 : Kev. vii. 
9, but very few, and widely scattered, when compared 
with the rest of the world. 

We must therefore leani not to be offended or dis- 
couraged by the paucity of sincere professors, no more 

* Pudet doctos homines ex discipulis Platonis fieri discipu- 
los Christi, &c. Vid. Aug. de Civit. Dei, 1. 10. c. 29. et 1. 1.3. 
c. 16. et Ep. 102. 

f 'YiraKoOovariv i\jayy£Kiov irapaKovaaa-t KpiTnptov. 
Clem. Wen. io Protreph. 

X Vultures unguento fugantur et scarabei rosa. Plin. et 



than we are in a civil state by the comparative paucity 
of wise counsellors and politicians. It is no strange 
thing at all in any community to see the weaker part 
more numerous than the wiser. If but few attend the 
"right ways of the Lord," and "walk in them," re- 
member it is a work of wisdom, and such wisdom as 
Cometh from above, and has no seeds or principles in 
corrupt nature out of which it might be drawn ; nay, 
against which all the vigour of carnal reason exalts 
itself; so that the more natural wisdom men have, the 
more in danger they are to despise and undervalue the 
ways of God, as being better able to reason and to 
cavil against them,* Matt. xi. 25; Acts iv. 11; John 
vii. 48 ; 1 Cor. i. 20, 28 ; ii. 8 ; 2 Cor. x. 5, 6. Therefore, 

1. In the ministry of the word we must continue our 
labour, " though Israel be not gathered," Isa. xlix. 4, 5. 
We must stretch out our hands, though it be to " a dis- 
obedient and gainsaying people," Rom. x. 21 ; Isa. Ixv. 

2. "Whether they will hear, or whether they will for- 
bear," we must speak to them, be they never so re- 
belUous, Ezek. ii. 7. And the reason is, . because the 
word is never in vain, but it doth ever " prosper in the 
tiling whereto" God sends "it," Isa. Iv. 11. If men 
be righteous, they " walk ;" if wicked, they " stumble ;"t 
and in both there is " unto God a sweet savour," 
2 Cor. ii. 15. God's work is accomplished, his glory 
promoted, the power of his gospel commended, in the 
one and in the other ; as the virtue of a sweet savour 
is seen as well by the antipathy which one creature 
has to it, as by the refreshment which another receives 
from it :J the sti'ength of a rock, as by yielding fii-ra sup- 
port to the house that is buUt upon it, so by breaking 
in pieces the ship which dashes against it ; the force 
of the fire, as well by consuming the ih'oss as by re- 
fining the gold ; the power of the water, as well in 
sinking the leaky as in supporting the sound ship. 
The pillar of the cloud was as wonderful in the dark- 
ness which it cast on the Egj-jitians, as in the light 
which it gave to the Israelites, Exod. xiv. 20 ; the 
power of the angel as great in striking terror into the 
soldiers, as in speaking comfort to the women, Matt, 
xxviii. 4. 5. 2. In attendance on the word, we must 
resolve rather to walk with the wise, though few, than 
to follow a multitude to do evil, and to stumble with 
the wicked, though they be many: rather enter the 
ark with a few, than venture the flood with a world of 
sinners ; rather go three or four out of Sodom, than be 
burnt for company. We must not afiect a capricious 
or fastidious singularity in difi'ering unnecessarily from 
good men, being one for Paul against ApoUos. another 
for A])ollos against Cephas ; but we must ever affect a 
holv and pious singularity in walking contrary to evil 
men, in shining " as lights" "in the midst of a crooked 
and perverse nation," Phil. ii. 15 ; for " the righteous 
is more excellent than his neighbour," Prov. xii. 26. 
Though there be but few in the way, there will be 
many in the end of the journey. As the tribes and 
families went up divided toward Jerusalem, but when 
come thither, " every one of them in Zion appeareth 
before God," Psal. Ixxxiv. 7. 

2. The prudence of the persons: and in that the 
prophet calls upon his hearers to attend to his doctrine 
by this argument, that it will be an evidence of their 
prudence and wisdom, we are led to 

Obs. 2. True wisdom draws the heart to know aright, 
that is, to consider and ponder the judgments, bless- 
ings, wavs, and word of God in order to the chief ends, 
and according thereto to direct all the conversation : 

jElian. ILavdapov^ poolvu xp^^f'"'''"' M"?"? TtXtuTHw Xt- 
yova-L. Clem. Psedag. 1. 2. c. 8. '0 yap Stwikos tpuis, 
wmrep ol Kt'ti'Sapoi Xtyovrai to /iiv fivpoir a'TroXtiiriiv, ra if. 
cvauioti oioiKiLv. Plutarch. Nissen. Horn. 3. in Cantie. Tok 
aiKovpov oopL-t] pvptav ^KTapfiTsirSai Kai fxaivEtrdat \(yov(Ti. 
Plutarch, in Conjugalib. Priecept. 



680 



AX EXPOSITIOX OF 



CnAr. XIV. 



"Who is wise, and he shall uiulcrstand these things? 
])rudent, and he shall know them ?" In God's account, 
that knowledge which edifies not, is no knowledge at 
all, 1 Cor. viii. 2. None are his wise men who are not 
" wise unto salvation," 2 Tim. iii. 15 ; who do not draw 
their wisdom frofn his word, and from his command- 
ments, Psal. xix. 7 ; cxix. 98, 99 ; Jer. yiii. 9. 
r 1 • lis c - There is a twofold wisdom, according 
. cap. I. ^^ ^j^^ distinction of the philosopher, 
ao<pia Kara /iipog and iTo^in oXuq. Tlie former signifies 
wisdom in .some particulars : * thus we esteem every 
man who is excellent in his profession, a wise man, so 
far as concerns the managing of that profession ; we 
account him such when he knows all the necessary 
principles and maxims of his business, the right ends 
thereof, and the pro]ier conclusions deducible from 
those principles, and derigible to those ends. As to 
the latter, aoipia h\u>c, wisdom in general, and in per- 
fection, it regards those principles, ends, and conclu- 
sions, which are universally and most transcendently 
necessary to a man's chiefest and most general good : 
and this the philosopher calls the know- 
■zmmT/H^J."''' _ ledge of the most excellent and honour- 
n'otf^mKai'eau- *^l6 things, or of the last end and chief 
uan-rmi im^Tii- good of man. Now the end, by how 
i.c.\p. 37.rtMeia. much tile more supreme, perpetual, and 
p IV.. 1. 2. c. 2. ultimate it is, so mucli the more it has of 
excellency and goodness in it, as bearing thereby most 
exact proportion and adaptation to the soul of man ; 
for the soul being immortal itself, can have no final 
satisfaction from any good wliieh is mortal and perish- 
able : and being withal so large and unlimited, as that 
its reasonings and desires extend to the whole latitude 
of goodness, being not restrained to this or that kind, 
but capable of desh-ing and judging of all the difi'erent 
degrees of goodness whicli are in all the whole variety 
of things, it can therefore never finally acquiesce in 
any but the most universal and comprehensive good- 
ness, in the nearer or more remote participation where- 
of consists the different goodness of all other things. 

This supreme and absolute goodness can indeed be 
hut one, all other things being good by participation 
with that. " There is none good but one, that is, 
God," Matt. xix. 17. But because there are two sorts 
of men in the world, righteous and wicked, the seed of 
the woman and the seed of the serpent; therefore, 
consequently, there are two sorts of ends which these 
men do difi"erently pursue. The end of wicked men is 
a happiness which they, out of their own corrupt judg- 
ments, shape to themselves, and to which they finally 
carry all the motions of their souls, called in Scripture 
" the pleasures of sin," and " the wages of unrighteous- 
ness," Heb. xi. 25; 2 Pet. ii. 15; that thing, whatso- 
ever it is, to obtain which men direct all their other 
endeavours, as profit, pleasure, honour, or ])ower. And 
there are mediums exactly projiortionable to these 
ends ; namely, " the lust oi' the flesh, the lust of the 
eyes, and the pride of life," 1 John ii. 16. And there 
is a wisdom consonant to these means, and fit to direct 
and manage these lusts to the attaining of those ends ; 
which therefore the apostle calls tu ^porijfia -ijc aapK-oQ, 
the wisdom of the flesh or corrupt nature, Kom. viii. 
7 ; and St. James, a wisdom " earthly, sensual, devil- 
ish," James iii. 15: "earthly," managing "the lust of 
the eyes " to the ends of gain ; " sensual," managing 
"the lust of the flesh" to the ends of pleasure; and 
" devili.sh," managing " the pride of life " to the ends 
of power. But such wisdom as this God esteems very 
foolishness : " Jly people is foolish ; " " they are sottish 
chiliken, and they have none understanding." Why ? 
" They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have 
no knowledge," Jer. iv. 22. Wisdom is only to that 

uuxatptti> 7r/j(\s Ttva' ov5' uu tU ih Ttxc XoTT&Sai lyQvs t/i/iti- 



which is good ; he is the wisest man who is simple and 
ignorant in the trade of evil, Rom. xvi. 19. " If anv 

man among you seemcth to be wise in this world, let 

him become a fool, that he may be wise," 1 Cor. iii. 18. 

On the other side, the true and ultimate end of 

righteous men, is Almighty God, as most 



us ; or the seeking of his gloiT, that ho 
may lie honoured by us; and or our own confess. i. i.e. i. 
salvation, that we may be glorified by nHm'vrUt m'^n!m 
him. The fruition of him as the highest ?3''cfp"a'"'id.^'e' 
and first in senere vert, and the greatest ?'"",'Si''',*;.5- ^- ?° 

.D '_ ,.^ 1 ^-'*lt. Dvl,l.l2.c 1. 

and last m genere bom, the chiefest ob- 
ject for the mind to rest in by knowledge, and the 
heart by love ; this must needs be the best of all ends, 
both in regard of its excellency, as being „ ,;, . ^ 
infinitelv and most absolutely good ; and requlri", fruuionpm 
in regard of its eternity, so that the soul ET ^Su 
having once possession of it, can never Sr'TiU '[u'j. 
want that happiness which flows from <i^ civ. Dei, hb. li. 
it, John vi. 27. The proper means for 
the obtaining of this end, is the knowledge of God in 
Christ, as in his word he has revealed himself, to be 
known, worshipped, and obeyed; for there only does 
he teach us the way to himself: and true wisdom is 
the pursuing of this means in order to that end. For 
though many approaches may be made toward God by 
the search and contemplation of the creature, yet in 
his word he has shown us " a more " full and " excel- 
lent way," which only can make us " wise unto salva- 
tion through faith which is in Christ Jesus," 2 Tim. iii. 
15; Prov. ix. 10; Eccl. xii. 12, 13; Jer. ix. 23, 24. 

All the thoughts and wisdom of men are spent on 
one of these two heads, either the obtaining of the 
good which we want, oi' the avoiding and declining 
the evil which we fear. And by how much the more 
excellent and difficult the good is which we want, and 
by how much the more pernicious and imminent the 
eyil which we fear, by so much gi'eater is the wisdom 
which in both these procures the end at which we aim. 
Now, then, what are the most excellent good things 
whicli we want ? Food is common to us vid. .trisiot de iis 
with other creatures; raiment, houses, <iuic bon« sunt, et 

, , . ' . , qu(c melioni et 

lands, possessions, common to us with mnjora. Rhetor, 
the worst of men : take the most admu-ed ' ' ' "^' 
perfections which are not hea^■enly, and we may find 
very wicked men excel in them. All men will confess 
the soul to be more excellent than the body ; and 
therefore the good of the former to be more excellent 
than that of the latter ; and its chief good to be that 
which most advances it toward the Fountain of good- 
ness, where is fulness of perfection, and perpetuity of 
fruition. The excellency of every thing consists in 
two things ; the perfection of beauty wherein it was 
made, and the perfection of use for which it was made. 
The beauty of man, especially in his soul, consists in 
this, that he was made like to God, after his image, 
Gen. i. 26, 27 ; and his end and use in this, that he 
was made for God, first to serve him, and after to en- 
joy him : for " the Lord hath set apart him that is 
godly for himself," Psal. iv. 3. " This people have I 
formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise," 
Isa. xliii. 21. Therefore to recover the image of God, 
which is in " knowledge," " righteousness, and true 
holiness," Col. iii. 10 ; Eph. iv. 24; to work to the ser- 
vice and glory of God, John xv. 8 ; to aspire to and 
enjoy the possession and fruition of God, Exod. xxxiii. 
18; Phil. 1. 23; must needs be man's greatest good; 
and, consequently, to attend on the means thereof must 
needs be his greatest wisdom. 

'\\niat is the most pernicious and destructive evil 
which a man is in danger of? Not the loss of any out- 

\)j. 'AW* to-Tt TI9 f/i^(jV»jffts tv Tia irpiiyfiaTi. Philemon 
apud Athenxum, lib. 7. cap. 11. ct Liv. Vb. 39. 



Vee. 9. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



681 



ward good things whatsoever, for they are all in their 
nature perishable ; we enjoy them on the very condi- 
tion of parting with them again ; no wisdom can keep 
them : " Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats ; 
but God shall destroy both' it and them," 1 Cor. vi. 1.3. 
Not the suffering of any outward troubles, which the 
best of men have suffered and triumphed over. But 
the greatest loss is the loss of a precious soul, which is 
more worth than all the world, Matt. xvi. 2G ; and the 
greatest suffering is the wrath of God on the con- 
science, Psal. xc. 11 ; Isa. xxxiii. 14 ; Heb. x. 31 ; 
ISIatt. X. 28. Therefore, to avoid this danger, and to 
snatch this " darling from the paw of the lion,"' is of all 
other the greatest wisdom. It is wisdom to deliver a 
" city," EccL ix. 15 ; much more to deliver '• .souls,'' 
Prov. xi. 30. Angelical, seraphical knowledge, without 
this, is all worth " nothing," 1 Cor. xiii. 1, 2. 

Therefore we should learn to show ourselves wise 
indeed, by attendance on God's word. If the most 
glorious creatures for wisdom and knowledge that ever 
Tij nhir • ■ ^^"^ made, the blessed angels, were em- 

geii ei senDUs evan- ployed in publishing the law of God, 
i;Stoiic»piiSma"° Acts vii. 53: Gal. iii. 19, and did with 
sSom^^iSj?." great admiration "look into" the mys- 
han. Grejor xyssen. terics of the gospcl, and stoop down 

Horn. 8. in CaiitiC. • 1 ^ • p ii 

Tiieophyiact. et With their laccs towards the mercv-seat, 

tEcmnea.inEph.3. ^ pg^_ ;_ JO . Eph. iii. 10 ; Exod. XXXvii. 

9 ; it cannot but be also our chiefest wisdom to hide 
the word in our hearts, and to make it our companion 
and " counsellor," Psal. cxix. 21. We esteem him the 
wisest man who follows the best and safest counsel, and 
that which will most preserve and promote his interest, 
his honour, and his conscience. Herein was Rehoboam's 
weakness, that by rash and passionate counsels he suf- 
fered his honour to be stained, his interest to be weak- 
ened, and his conscience to be defiled with resolutions 
of violence and injustice. Now there is no counsel to 
be compared with that of God's word. It enlightens 
the eyes, it " maketh wise the simple," Psal. xix. 7, 8. 

It is able to make a man " wise " for him- 
Sc?,f '^''hS self, and '• unto salvation," which no other 
""'P?'- ""i^f-iis counsel can do, 2 Tim. iii. 15, 16. No 

case can be put, though of never so gi'eat 
intricacy and perplexity, no doubt so difficult, no 
temptation so knotty and involved, no condition where- 
into a man can be brought so desperate, no employment 
GO dark and uncouth, no service so arduous or full of 
discouragements, in all which, so far as respects con- 
science and salvation, there are not most clear and 
satisfactoiy expedients to be drawn out of God's word, 
if a man have his judgment and senses after a spiritual 
manner exercised therein. That we are so often at a 
stand how to state such a question, how to satisfy such 
a scruple, how to clear and expedite such a difficulty, 
how to repel such a temptation, how to manage such 
an action, how to order our ways with an even and 
composed spu'it in the various conditions whereinto we 
are cast in this world, arises not from any defect in the 
word of God, which is " perfect," and able to furnish us 
" unto every good work," but only from our own ignor- 
ance and imperfect acquaintance with it, who know not 
how to draw the general rule, and to apply it to our 
own particular cases. And this cannot but be matter 
of great humiliation to us in these sad and distracted 
times, when, besides our civil breaches, which thi-eaten 
desolation to the state, there are so many and such wide 
divisions in the church ; that, after so long enjoyment 
of the word of God, the Scripture should be to so many 
men as a sealed book, and they, like the Egj-ptians, 
have the dark side of this glorious pillar towards them 
still ; that men should be '• tossed to and fro" like chil- 
dren, " and carried about with every wind of doctrine," 
and suffer themselves to be bewitched, devoured, 
brought into bondage, spoiled, led away captive, un- 



skilful in the word of righteousness, unable to discern 
good and evil, to prove and " try the spirits whether 
they are of God," always learning, and 
never able to come to the knowledge of S" ".nllS ,i™ ukus 
the truth ; and this not only in matters cir?„;''^,.n.VTene-' 
problematical, or circumstantial, wherein !;';', ';;'„'. "."""vS 
learned and godly men may differ from Piuincii. jc supe'r- 
one another, and yet still the peace and 
unity of the church be preserved, (for things of this 
nature ought not to be occasions of schism, or seces- 
sions from one another,) but in matters which concern 
life and godliness, touching the power of God's law, 
the nature of free grace, the subjection of the conscience 
to moral precepts, confession and deprecation of sin in 
prayer to God ; the distinguishing true Christian 
liberty from loose, profane, and wanton licentiousness, 
and a hberty to vent and publish what perverse things 
soever men please ; the very being of churches, of 
ministers, of ordinances, in the world ; the necessity of 
humiliation and solemn repentance in times of public 
judgments ; the toleration of all kinds of religions in 
Christian commonwealths ; the mortality of the reason- 
able soul, and other the like pernicious and perverse 
doctrines of men of corrupt minds, (the devil's emissa- 
ries,) purposely by him stirred up to hinder and puzzle 
the reformation of the church. These things, I say, 
cannot but be matter of humiliation to aU that fear 
God, and love the prosperity of Zion; and occasions 
the more earnestly to excite them to this wisdom in the 
text, to hear what God the Lord says, and to lay his 
righteous ways so to heart, as to walk stedfastly in them, 
and never to stumble at them, or fall from them. 

Now there are two things which the prophet, in this 
close of his prophecy, seems to intimate should chiefly 
engage the attention and animate the obedience of the 
wise and prudent in times of trouble ; namely, 1. The 
judgments, and, 2. The blessings, of God; his righteous 
ways in his threatenings against impenitent, and in his 
promises made to penitent, sinners. These are the 
things which wise and prudent men will consider in 
times of trouble. 

1. The judgments of God. There is a twofold know- 
ledge of them ; the one natural, by sense ; the other 
spiritual, by faith. In the former way wicked men 
do abundantly know the afflictions which they suffer, 
even to vexation and anguish of spu'it. They "fret 
themselves," Isa. viii. 21; "gray hairs are here and 
there upon " them from very trouble and soitow, Hos. 
vii. 9 ; they gnaw " their tongues for pain," Rev. xvi. 
10; "they pine away in thek iniquities," Lev. xxvi. 
39 ; they are " mad " in theu' calamities, have "a trem- 
bling heart, and failing of eyes, and soiTow of mind," 
Deut. xxviii. 34, 65. In the latter, or spmtual sense, 
wicked men discern not, so they are said in the Scrip- 
ture, when they burn, when they consume, when they 
are devoured, not to know any of this, neither to lay it 
to heart, Isa. xlii. 25; Hos. vii. 9; Jer. xii. 11; and 
the reason is, because they know it not by faith, nor in 
a spiritual manner, leading them to God. They see 
not his name, nor bear his rod, nor consider his hand 
and counsel, in it ; nor measure his judgments by his 
word, nor look on them as the fi-uits of sin, leading to 
repentance and teaching righteousness ; nor as the 
arguments of God's displeasure, humbling us under his 
holy hand, and guiding us to seek his face, and to re- 
cover our peace with him. This is the spu-itual and 
prudent way of knowing judgments, !Micah vi. 9 ; Isa. 
xxvi. 8, 9 ; xxvii. 9 ; Lev. xxvi. 40 — 42. Scire est per 
causam scire. True wisdom looks on things in their 
causes ; resolves judgments into their causes ; our sins 
to be bewailed, God's wrath to be averted; it makes 
this observation upon them : Now I find by experience, 
that God is a God of truth ; often have I heard judg- 
ments threatened against sin, and now I see that God's 



682 



AX EXPOSITION OF 



Chap. XIV. 



threatenings are not empty wind, but that all his words 
have truth and substance in them. The first part of 
wisdom is, to see judgments in tlie word before they 
come, and to liide from them ; for as faith, in regard of 
promises, is " the substance of things hoped for," and can 
discern a being in them while they are yet but to come ; 
so, in respect of threatenings, it is the substance of things 
feared, and can sec a being in judgments before they 
are felt. The next part of wisdom is, to see God in 
judgments, in the rods when they are actually come, 
and to know them as leading to him. And that know- 
ledge consists in two things : fij'st, to resolve them into 
him as their author ; for nothing can hurt us without a 
commission from God, Job xix. 11. Satan spoils Job 
of his children, the Sabeans and Chaldeans strip him of 
his goods; but lie looks above all these to God, acknow- 
ledging his goodness in giving, his power in taking 
away, and blesses his name, Job i. 21. Joseph looks 
from the malice of his brethren to the providence of 
God; " God did send me before you to preserve life," 
Gen. xlv. 5. If the whale swallow Jonah, God pre- 
pares him, Jonah i. 17 : and if he vomit him up again, 
Godspcaksuntohim,ehap. ii. 10. Second- 
tem Jailmiu.'us'^t ly, to dlrcct them to him as the end; to 
Sp'^i'S™"!? te taught by them to seek the Lord, and 

D?'1. Levis'' '''"^' ''° ^^'^ °" ^™ '" ''^"^ ^^^y °* '^'^ judg- 
ments ; to be more penitent for sin, more 
fearful and watchful against it ; to study and practise 
the skill of suffering as Christians, according to the 
will of God, that he may be glorified, Psal. xciv. 12; 
cxix. 67, 71 ; Deut. viii. 16 ; Zech. xiii. 9 ; Isa. xxvi. 9 ; 
Heb. xii. 11; 1 Pet. iv. 16, 19. 

2. The blessings of God. There is a double know- 
ledge of them ; one sensual by the flesh, the other spi- 
ritual in the conscience. The former is but a brutish 
and epicurean feeding on them without fear, as Israel 



stop the mouths and dispel the cavils of all contradict- 
ers; so that they shall " not" be " able to resist," or 
speak against, the truth that is taught, John xvi. 8 ; 
Tit. i. 9, 10 ; Acts vi. 10 ; Matt. xxii. 34. And the apos- 
tle calls his ministry, a declaration and a _^ 
manifestation of the truth of God to the syiiopmi «:£i- 
consciences of men, 1 Cor. ii. 4 ; 2 Cor. to.'ALii*t''uiiT" 
iv. 2. And Apollos is said mightily to '■ ^ 
have " convinced the Jews," " showing" or demon- 
strating '• by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ," 
Acts xviii. 28. Therefore the apostle calls the devoting 
of ourselves to God, our " reasonable service," Rom. 
xii. 1 ; and those that obey not the word, are called 
" unreasonable" or absurd men, that have not wisdom 
to discern the truth and equity of the wavs of God, 2 
Thess. ill. 2. What can be more reasonable than that 
he who made all things for himself should be sen'ed 
by the creatm-es which he made ? that we should live 
to him who gave us our being ? that the supreme will 
should be obeyed, the infallible truth believed ? that 
he who can destroy should be feared ? that he who re- 
wards should be loved and trusted in ? that absolute 
justice should vindicate itself against presumptuous 
disobedience, and absolute goodness extend mercy to 
whom it pleases ? It is no marvel that 
the Holy Spu-it brands wicked men on"m"iIiu,'i.'"5i!' 
throughout the Scripture with the dis- "''■ ""^ 
graceful title of fools, because they reject that which is 
the supreme rale of wisdom, and has in it the greatest 
perfection and exactness of reason, Jer. viii. 9. 

2. In regard of their mutual agreement and har- 
mony.f As that which is right and straight has all its 
parts equal and agreeing one to another, so all the 
parts of Divine doctrine are exactly suitable and con- 
formed to each other. The promises of God are not 
yea and nay, but yea and Amen, 2 Cor. i. 19, 20. 



on the quails in the wilderness ; as swine, which feed However there may be seeming repugnances to a ear- 



on the fruit that falls down, but never look up to the 
tree whereon it grew ; to use blessings as Adam did 
the forbidden fruit, being dra\ni by the beauty of 
them to forget God, Hos. xiii. 6. But spiritual know- 
ledge of blessings, is to taste and see the goodness of 
the Lord in them : to look up to him as their author, 
acknowledging that it is he who " giveth" us "power 
to get wealth," and every other good thing, Deut. viii. 
17, 18 ; Psal. cxxvii. 1 ; 'Prov. x. 22 ; and to be drawn 
by them unto him as tlieir end, to the adoration of his 
bounty, to the admiration of his goodness, to more 
cheerfulness and stronger engagements to his service ; 
to say with Jacob, He gives me bread to eat. and rai- 
ment to put on, therefore he shall be my God, Gen. 
xxviii. 20, 21. He " giveth" me " richly all things to 
enjoy," therefore I will " tru.st in" him, 1 Tim. vi. 17. 
Catalogues of mercy should beget resolutions of obe- 
dience. Josh. xxiv. 2 — 14. 

II. The nature of the doctrines taught. " For the 
ways of the Lord arc right." This integrity the pro- 
phet urges as a motive to induce us to Cfiisider them 
the more matiu-ely, and obey them the more implicitly. 
Now the doctrine of God's judgments, precepts, and 
promises, is said to be right divers ways. 

1. In regard of their equity and reasonableness. 
There is nothing more ])rofoundly and exactly rational 
than true religion ; and therefore conversion is called 
by our Saviour conviction.* " And when he," the 
Spirit of truth, " is come," JXIylti, " he will convince the 
world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment," 
John xvi. 8. There is a power in the word of God to 

• Elonchus est syllopismus cum contradictione conchisionis. 
Arist. Elench. 1. 8. c. 1. Et eXi'yx"" "^s' ccrta argumenta- 
tione ilisputantem vincere. Stcph. ex Platonc. 

_t OiiSinia •ypn(/)>) Ttj iripa itiavria larw, aiPTOt /ji; voiiv 
^oXXoK 6^oXo7?i<7<n T.i ilpti'fiiua. Sec. Just. Marl. Dialog, 
cum Tryphon. yuod dc suo codice Justiuianiis, verius de 



nai and captious eye, (which may seem designedly al- 
lowed for the exercise of our diligence in seai'ching, 
and humility in adoring, the profoundness and perfec- 
tion of the word.) yet the Scriptures have no obliquity 
in them at all, but all the parts thereof do most inti- 
mately agree one with another, as being written by the 
Sphit of truth who cannot lie nor deceive, who is " the 
same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." 

3. In regai'd of their directness to that end for which 
they were revealed to men, being the strait road to 
eternal life, " able to build" us " up, and to give" us 
" an inheritance," Acts xx. 32. In which respect the 
word is called " the word of this life," Acts v. 20, and 
" the gospel of" " salvation," Eph. i. 13; yea, salvation 
itself, John iv. 22 ; xii. 50 ; Acts xxviii. 28, as being 
the way to it, and the instrument of it, 2 Tim. iii. 15 — 
17; James i. 21. 

4. In regard of their conformity to the holy nature 
and will of God, which is the original rule X of all rec- 
titude and perfection. Law is nothing but the will of 
the lawgiver, revealed with an intention to bind those 
that are under it, and for the ordering of whom it was 
revealed. That will being in God most holy and per- 
fect, the law or word, which is but the discovery of it, 
must needs be holy and i)crfect too ; therefore it is called 
the " acceptable and perfect will of God," Rom. xii. 2; 
Col. i. 9. It is also called a " word of truth," import- 
ing a conformity between the mind and will of the 
sjjeaker and the word which is spoken by him ; in 
which resjiect it is said to be " holy, and just, and 
good," Rom. vii. 12. 

sacro codice affirmatur, contrarium aliquid in hoc codice posi- 
tum. nullum sibi locum vindicabit, &c. Cod. de vctcre Jure 
cnuclcandii, 1. 2. sect. la. et 1. 3. sect. 15. 

1 Non idcirco juste voluit quia futurutn justum fuit quod 
voluit : scd quod voluit, idcirco justum fuit quia ipse voluil, 
&c. Hug. cle Sacrament, lib. 1. part. 4. cap. !■. 



Ver. 9. 



THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



683 



5. In regard of their plainness and perspicuity. They 
are doctrines in which men may walk surely, easily, 
without danger of wandering, stumbling, or miscar- 
riage ; as a man is out of danger of missing a way, if 
it be sU'aight and direct, without any turnings, and in 
no great danger of falling in it, if it be plain and 
smooth, and no stumbling-block left in it. Now such 
is the word of God to those who make it their way : a 
" straight " way, which looks dh'ectly forward, Psal. v. 
8 ; Heb. xii. 13. An " even" and smooth way, which 
has no offence or stumbling-block in it, Psal. xxvi. 12 ; 
cxix. 165. True, there are Svavotira, hard things, to 
exercise the study and diUgence, the faith and prayers, 
of the profoundest scholars ; water wherein an elephant 
may swim. But yet, as nature has made things of great- 
est necessity to be most obvious and common, as ajr, 
water, bread, and the like ; whereas things of greater 
rarity, as gems and jewels, are matters of honour and 
ornament, not of daily use : so the wisdom of God has 
so tempered the Scriptures, that from thence the wisest 
Solomon ma)- fetch jewels for ornament, and the poor- 
est Lazarus bread for life ; but those things which are 
of common necessity, as matters of faith, love, worship, 
obedience, which are universally requisite to " the 
common salvation," (as the apostle expresses it, Jude 
3 ; Tit, i. 4,) are so perspicuously set down in the Holy 
Scriptures, that every one who has the Spirit of Christ, 
has therewithal a judgment to discern so much of God's 
will as shall suffice to make him believe in Christ for 
righteousness, and by worship and obedience serve him 
unto salvation.* The way of holiness is so plain that 
simple men are made wise enough to find it out, and 
" the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err there- 
in," Psal. xis. 7 ; Isa. xxxii. 4 ; xxxv. 8 ; Matt. xi. 25. 
From all which 

Obs. 3. We should take heed of quarrelling with 
any word of God, or presuming to pass any bold and 
carnal censure of ours on his righteous ways. When 
God sets his word energetically in its power on the 
spii'it of any wicked man, making his conscience to 
hear it as the voice of God, it usually works one of 
these two effects : either it subdues the soul to obedi- 
ence by convincing, judging, and manifesting the se- 
crets of his heart, so that he falleth dovra on his face 
and worshippeth God, 1 Cor. xiv. 25 ; or else it does 
by accident excite and enrage the natural love which 
is in every man to his lusts, stirring up all the proud 
arts and reasonings which the forge of a corrupt heart 
can shape in defence of those lusts against the sword 
of the Spirit which would cut them off, as that which 
hinders the coui'se of a river, accidentally enrages its 
force, and causes it to swell and overrun the banks. 
And from hence arise gainsaying and contradiction 
against the word of gi'ace, and the ways of God, as 
imequal and unreasonable, too strict, too severe, too 
hard to be observed, Ezek. xviii. 25 ; snuffing at it, 
Mai. i. 13, gathering odious consequences from it, 
Rom. iii. 8, replying against it, Rom. ix. 19, 20, 
casting reproaches on it, Jer. xx. 8, 9, enviously swell- 

* In iis quse aperte in Scripturis posita simt iuveniimtur 
ilia omnia quae continent fidem, moresque vivendi. Aug. de 
Doct. Christian, lib. 2. c. 9. et Ep. 3. ad Volusian. et contr. 
Ep, Petilian. cap. 5. Vid. Theodoret. serm. 8. de Martyrib. 
f. 12. 

t Ut vernula ilia apud Senecam qua: cum caeca esset, cu- 
biculum esse tenebrosum querebatur. 'Ev Tm irvpiTBiv wiKpa 

TrdvTa Kal &i)dri xpaivETac yfyojutyoiS (iW ouK'ETt to 

TTuTov aWi TiV v6(Tov alTi.uifi.i8a. Plutarch, de Animi Tran- 
quillitate. 

X SiaX.oi'Tai TTpoi Ttis £7rt0i,/ii'(is Tiju ypatptjif. Clem. Alex. 
Strom, lib. 7. Eh Ta^ ISia^ fisTuyovn-i So^a^.lhid. KXin- 
TQvct Toy Kavova Ttj-s iKKXiftriai, Tali toiaii iiridufjiiaLi Kat 
fpiXoSo^tati X"P^^^;UEj/oi. Ibid. "EXkoutsi Trpdi ti)V 'iavTwv 
yjynu TO ivayyiXiov, &c. Justin. MartvT. Ep. ad Zenam. 
Simplicitatem sermonis ecclesiastici id volimt signiticare quod 
ipsi sentiunt. Hieron. Ep. Vid. Aug. de Doct. Christian, lib. 



, &c. Vid. 
rd. serm. 3. 
de Resiirrect. 



ing at it, Acts xiii. 45. There are few sins more 
dangerous than this of picking quarrels at God's word, 
and taking up weapons against it. It will prove " a 
burdensome stone for" "all that burden themselves 
with it," Zech. xii. 3 ; Matt. xxi. 44. Therefore when- 
ever our crooked and corrupt reason offers to except 
against the ways of God as unequal, we must presently 
conclude as God does, Ezek. xviii. 25, that the in- 
equality is in us, and not in them.t 'V\nien a lame 
man stumbles in a plain path, the fault is not in the 
way, but in the foot. Nor is the potion, but the palate, 
to blame, when a feverish distemper makes that seem 
bitter which is indeed sweet. He that removes in a 
boat from the shore, in the judgment of sense sees 
the houses or trees on the shore totter and move, 
whereas the motion is in the boat, and not in them. 
Unclean and corrupt hearts have unclean notions of 
the purest things, and conceive of God as if he were 
altogether such a one as themselves, Psal. 1. 21. 

Obs. 4. We should come to God's word always as to 
a rule by which we are to measure ourselves, and take 
heed of wresting it to the corrupt fancies of our own 
evU hearts, as the apostle saith some f.^^^^ voluntas pro- 
men do " unto their own destruction," p"" e^' n° 
2 Pet. iii. 16; Acts xiii. 10. Eveiy iiem.i;d. 
wicked man, though not formally and 
explicitly, yet really and in truth, sets up his own will 
against God's, resolving to do what pleases himself, 
and not that which may please God, and consequently 
follows that reason and counsel which wait upon his 
own will, and not that word which reveals God's. Yet 
because he that will serve himself would fain deceive 
himself too, (that so he may do it with less regxet of 
conscience,) and would fain seem God's servant, but 
be his own, therefore corrupt reason sets itself on work 
to excogitate such distinctions and evasions as may 
serve to reconcile God's word and a man's own lust to- 
gether. | Lust saith. Steal. God saith, No, thou shalt 
not steal. Carnal reason, the advocate of lust, comes 
in and makes some evasive distinctions ; I may not steal 
from a neighbour, but I may weaken an enemy, or pay 
myself the stipend that belongs to my service, if others 
do not : thus most innocent men may be made a prey 
to violent soldiers, who use the name of public interest 
to palliate their own rapacity. Certainly it is a high 
presumption to tamper with the word of truth, and 
make it bear false witness in favour of our own sins ; 
and God will bring it to a trial at last whose will shall 
stand, his or ours. 

Ob.i. 5. "The ways of the Lord" should be the 
boundary, both to the ministration of the preacher, 
and to the faith of the hearer. 1. To us in our minis- 
try, that we deliver nothing to the people but the 
"right" "ways of the Lord,"§ without any commix- 
tures or contemperations of our own. Mixtures are 
useful only for either of these two purposes, either to 
abate something that is excessive, or to supply some- 
thing that is deficient, and to collect a virtue and 
efficacy out of many things, each one of which alone 

3. cap. 10. Scripturas tenent ad speciem, non ad salutem. 
De Baptism, contr. Donat. lib. 3. cap. ult. Eas secundum 
suum sensum legunt. De Grat. Christ, lib. 1. c. 41. Sequitur 
voluptatem non quam audit, sed quam attulit, et vitia sua cum 
coepit putare similia praeceptis, indulget illis non timide nee 
obscure; luxnriatur etiam inoperto capite. Sen. de Vita Beata, 
cap. 13. Nondura haec negUgentia Deum venerat, nee inter- 
pretando sibi quisque jusjurandum et leges aptas faciebat, sed 
suos potins mores ad ea accommodabat. Liv. lib. .3. 

S Aurum accepisti, aurum redde; nolo mihi pro aliis alia sub- 
jicias; nolo pro auro aut impudenter plumbum, aul fraudulen- 
ter iEramenta supponas ; nolo auri speciem sed naturam plane. 
Vincent. Lirin. Lege Cornelia cavetur ut qui in aurum vitii 
quid addiderit, qui argenteos nummos adulterinos flaverit, 
falsi crimine teneasur. L. 9. P. Leg. Cornel, de Falsis. Qui 
tabulam legis refi.xerit vcl quid inde immutaverit, Lege Jidia 
peculatus tenetur. L. 8. P. ad Leg. Jul. Pecidat. 



6S4 



^\^■ EXPOSITIOX OF 



CuAP. XIV. 



■would have been ineffectuaL And so all heterogeneous 
mixtures do plainly intimate either a viciousness to be 
corrected, or a weakness to be supplied, in ever)- one 
of the simples which are by human wLsdom tempered 
together in order to some effect. Now it were great 
wickedness to charge either of these on the pure and 
perfect word of God, and, consequently, to use deceit 
and insincerity by adulterating it, either by such 
glosses as diminish and take away fi-om its force, as the 
Pharisees did in their carnal interpretations, (confuted 
by our Saviour, Matt. v. 21, 27, 38, 43,) or by such 
superinducements of human traditions as argue any 
defect, which they also used. Matt. xv. 2, 9. Human 
arts and learning are of excellent use, as instruments 
in the managing and searching, and as means and wit- 
nesses in the explication, of holy writ, when piously 
and prudently directed to such uses. But to stamp 
any thing of a mere human original with a Divine 
character, and obtrude it on the consciences of men, 
(as the papists do their imwritten traditions,) to bind 
to obedience ; to take any dead child of ours (as the 
harlot did, 1 Kings iii. 20) and lay it in the bosom of 
the Scripture, and father it on God; to build any 
structure of ours in the road to heaven, and stop up 
the way ; is one of the highest and most daring pre- 
sumptions to which the pride of man can aspire : to 
erect a throne in the consciences of his fellow crea- 
tures, and to counterfeit the great seal of heaven for 
the countenancing of one's own forgeries, is a sin most 
severely provided against by God, with special pro- 
hibitions and threatenings, Deut. sii. 32 ; xviii. 20 ; 
Prov. XXX. 6 ; Jer. xxvi. 2. This therefore must be 
the great care of the ministers of the gospel, to show 
their fidelity in delivering only the "counsel of God" 
to his people. Acts xx. 27 ; to be as the two golden 
pipes which received oil from the oUve branches, and 
then emptied it into the gold, Zech. iv. 12; first to 
receive from the Lord, and then to deliver to the peo- 
ple, Isa. xxi. 10 ; Ezek. ii. 7 ; iii. 4 ; 1 Cor. xi. 23 ; 
1 Pet. iv. 11. 2. The people are hereby taught, first, 
to examine the doctrines of men by the rule and 
standard of the word, and to measure them there, that 
so they may not be seduced by the craftiness of de- 
ceivers, and may be the more confirmed and comforted 
by the doctrine of sincere teachers; for though the 
judgment of interpretation belong principallv to the 
ministers of the word, yet God has given to all believ- 
Tid. mvenani-d. ^i^ ? judgment of discretion, to " try the 
fidS* cii°"a z\. ^P"^**'" ''"d to search " the Scriptures," 
" whether those things" which thev hear 
be so, 1 John iv. 1 ; Acts xvii. 11 ; 1 Thess. v. 21 ; for 
no man is to pin his own soul and salvation, by a 
blind obedience, on the words of a man who may mis- 
lead him ; nav, not on the words of an 
'^'Sl^ik''"''" angel, if it were possible for an angel to 
deceive. Gal. i. 8; 1 Kings xiii. 18, 21; 
but only and immediately on the Scripture : otherwise, 
when the " blind lead the blind," the leader only should 
" fall into the ditch," and the other go to heaven for 
his blind obedience in following his guides toward 
hell ; whereas our Saviour tells us " both shall fall into 
the ditch," though but one be the leader. Matt. xv. 14 ; 
xxiii. 15. Secondly, having proved all things, to " hold 
fast that which is good;" with all readiness to receive 
the righteous ways of God, and submit to them, how- 
mean soever the instrument be in our eves, how con- 
trary soever his message be to our wills and lusts. 
"When God manifests his Spirit and w-ord in the mouths 

• Criminosior culpa, ubi status honcstior. — Qui Chrisliani 
(licimur, si simile aliquid barbaronuu impuritatibus facimus, 
gravius crramus ; atrocius enim sub sancti nominis profcssione 
peccamus : ubi sublimior est prxrogativa, major est culpa, 
fjalyian.^ lib. 4. Pussunt nostra et barbaronuu vitia esse paria, 
«cu in his tamen vitiis uccessc est peccata nostra esse graviora 



of his ministers, we are not to consider the vessel, but 
the treasure, and to receive it as from Christ, who, 
" unto the end of the world," in the dispensation of his 
ordinances, " speaketh from heaven " unto the church. 
Matt, xxviii. 20; 2 Cor. v. 20; 1 Thess. ii. 13 ; Heb. 
xii. 25. 

HI. The twofold use made thereof by different kinds 
of men. 

1. To the just, the Lord's ways are a way of happi- 
ness : " The just shall walk in them." And this leads 
us to 

Obs. 6. Obedience, and walking in the right ways of 
the Lord, is the end of the ministry ; that the saints 
may be perfected, that the body of Christ may be edi- 
fied, that men may "grow up into" Christ "in all 
things." Eph. iv. 11 — 15 ; that their eyes may be open- 
ed, and they turned from " darkness to light, and from 
the power of Satan unto God," Acts xxvi. 16 — 18. 
The prophet concludes tliat he has " laboured in vain " 
if "Israel be not gathered," Isa. xlix. 4, 5; without 
this " the law of the Lord " is " in rain made," " the 
pen of the scribes is in vain," Jer. viii. 8 ; better not 
know " the way of righteousness," than, having known 
it, " to turn from the holy commandment delivered 
unto" us, 2 Pet. ii. 21. We should esteem it a great 
misery to be without preaching, without ordinance*, 
and so indeed it is ; of all famine, that of the word o; 
the Lord is tie most dreadful ; better be with GodV 
presence in a wilderness, than in Canaan without him. 
Exod. xxxiii. 15 ; better " the bread of adversity, and 
water of affliction," than " a famine " " of hearing the 
words of the Lord," Isa. xxx. 20; Amos viii. 11 : this 
is "mischief" "upon mischief," when "the law" doth 
" perish from the priest," and " a vision j,-,j j „, j,„j ,,,. 
of the prophet" is sought in vain, Ezek. J';!'' "'",'" f,,"^ 
vii. 26; and yet it is much better to be n-iiuirircjoicztni 
in this case, without a teaching priest, c'iSS!^="pSSI^ 
and without the law, than to enjoy them, *''''"• ''•• •• 
and not to walk answerably to them, ^^'here the word 
is not a savour of life, it is a " savour of death unto 
death," exceedingly multiplying the damnation of those 
that despise it, 2' Cor. ii.'l6; Matt. xi. 22, 24. 1. 
Those sins which it finds, it ripens ; making them much 
more sinful than in other men, because committed 
against greater light and more mercy.* One and the 
same sin in a heathen, is not so heinous and hatefid as 
in a Christian. Those trees on which the sun con- 
stantly shines, have their fruit become riper and larger 
than those which grow in a shady and cold place. 
The rain will hasten the grow-th as well of weeds as of 
com, and make them ranker than in a drj- and barren 
ground. 2. It superadds many more and greater ; for 
the greatest sins of all, are those wliich are committed 
against light and grace, John ix. 41 ; xv. 22 — 24 ; sins 
against the law and prophets, greater than those which 
are committed against the glimmerings of nature, Ezek. 
ii. 5 : iii. C, 7 ; and sins against Christ and the gospel, 
greater than those against the law, Heb. ii. 2, 3 ; x. 28, 
29 : such are, unbelief, impenitency, apostacy, despising 
of salvation, preferring death and sin before Christ and 
mercy ; judging ourselves unworthy of eternal life. 3. 
By tlicse means it both hastens and multiplies judg- 
ments. The sins of the church are much sooner ripe 
for the sickle than the sins of Amorites; they are 
" nigh unto cursing," Heb. vi. 8 ; " summer fruit," 
sooner shaken off than others, Amos viii. 1 ; Jer. i. 11, 
12. Christ comes "quickly" to remove his candlestick 
from the abusers of it, Rev. ii. 5. The word is a rich 

— NunquiJ dici de Hunnis potest, ecce quales sunt qui Chris- 
tiani esse dicuntur ? iiunquid de Saxonibus et Francis, ecce 
quid faciunt, qui se assorunt Cbristi esse cultores? Nunquid 
propter Mauroriun cfferos mores le\ sacro-sancta culpatur? — 
Evaogelia legunt, et impudici sunt; apostolos audiunt, et ine- 
briaiitur; Christum sequuatur, et rapiuQt, &c. Ibid. 



Vee. 9. 



THE rnOPIIECY OF HOSEA. 



685 



mercy in itself, but nothing makes it effectually and in 
the event a mercy to us but our walking in it. 

Obs. 1. We never make the Scriptures the rule of 
our life and conversation, till we be first justified. Our 
obedience to the rule of the law written in the Scrip- 
tures, proceeds from those suitable impressions of holi- 
ness wi-ought in the soul by the Sphit of regeneration, 
which is called the writing of the law in our hearts, 
Jer. xxxi. 33 ; 2 Cor. iii. 3 ; or the casting of the soul 
into the mould of the word, v^rimvuari Si sk Kagoiag £i'j 
ov 7rapet'60i;7£ tvitov ciSaxrK, llom. vi. 17. We are 
never fit to receive God's ti'uth in the love and obedi- 
ence of it, till we repent and be renewed. '• If God," 
saith the apostle, " will give repentance to the acknow- 
ledging of the truth," 2 Tim. ii. 25. " The wise in 
heart," that is, those that are truly godly, (for none but 
such are in the Scriptures accounted wise men,) these 
" will receive commandments : but a prating fool shall 
fall," Prov. X. 8 ; where by " prating " I understand 
cavilling, contradicting, taking exceptions at, and 
making objections against, the commandment, and so 
falling and stumbling. To such the apostle James saith, 
chap. i. 19, "Let every man be swift to hear," that is, 
ready to learn the will and to receive the command- 
ment of God : but '•■ slow to speak, slow to wrath," that 
is, careful that he suffer no pride and passion to rise 
up and speak against the things which are taught : as 
Job saith, " Teach me, and I will hold my tongue," Job 
vi. 24. For the only reason why men fret and swell, and 
speak against the truth of God, is because they will not 
work righteousness. " The wrath of man worketh not 
the righteousness of God," James i. 20. Therefore men 
are " contentious," because they love not to " obey the 
truth," Rom. ii. 8. Disobedience is the mother of gam- 
saying, Rom. X. 21. When we once resolve to "lay 
apart all filthiness," then we wiU " receive with meek- 
ness the engrafted word," James i. 21, and not before. 
Xone hear God's words but they who are of God, John 
viii. 47 ; none hear the voice of Christ but the sheep of 
Christ, John x. 4, 5. Christ preached is " the power of 
God, and the wisdom of God," but it is only " unto 
them which are called;" to others a stumbling-block, and 
foolishness, 1 Cor. i. 23, 24. " We speak wisdom," saith 
the apostle, but it is " among them that are perfect," 
1 Cor. ii. 6. He that is subject to one prince, cares not 
greatly to study the laws of another ; or if he do, it is 
in order to curiosity, and not to duty. So long as men 
resolve of Christ, " We will not have this man to reign 
over us," Luke xix. 14, so long either they study not 
his word at all, or it is in order to some carnal and cor- 
rupt ends, and not to obedience or salvation. 

Hereby we may try om- spiritual estate, whether we 
be just men or no ; if we make God's word our way, 
our rule, our delight, laying it up in our hearts, and 
labouring to be rich in it, that we may walk with more 
exactness. It was an ill sign of love to Christ, the 
blaster of the feast, when men chose rather to tend their 
cattle and grounds than to wait on him, Luke xiv. 18 ; 
an ill sign of valuing his doctrine, when the loss of 
their swine made the Gadarenes weary of his com- 
pany, Luke viii. 37. There was much work to do in 
the house, when Maiy neglected it all, and sat at her 
Lord's feet to hear his doctrine, and yet was commended 
by him for it. He was better pleased to see her hunger 
after the feast which he brought, than solicitous to 
provide a feast for him ; more delighted in her love to 
his doctrine, than her sister's care for his entertainment, 
Luke X. 41, 42. This is one of the surest characters 
of a godly man, that he makes the word in all things 
his rule and counsellor, labom'ii% continually to get 
thereby more acquaintance with God and his lioly will, 



_Oux 



u ypatpal yiyovamv aiiTols tuxi'ai dW i" aipuiu 
yppoGvv^. Athaaas. de Synod. Arim, et Seleuc. 



Prov. X. 14 ; John xv. 7 ; Col. iii. 16. It is his way ; 
and every man endeavours to be skilful in the way 
which he is to travel. It is his tool and instrument ; 
every workman must have that in readiness, to measure 
and carry on all the parts of his work. It is his wis- 
dom ; every one would be esteemed a wise man in that 
which is his proper function and profession. It is the 
mystery and trade to which he is bound ; and every 
man would have the reputation of skill in his own trade. 
It is his charter, which sccm-es all the privileges and 
immunities which belong to him ; and every citizen 
would willingly know the privileges to which he has a 
right. It is the testament and will of Clu-ist, wherein 
are given unto us " exceeding great and precious pro- 
mises ;" and what heir or child would be ignorant of 
the last will of bis father ? Lastly, it is the law of 
Christ's kingdom; and it concerns every subject to know 
the duties, the rewards, the punishments, which belong 
to him in that relation. 

2. To the wicked the holy and right ways of the 
Lord, in the ministry of his word, become an occasion 
of stumbling : " The transgressors shall fall therein." 
And that in two manner of ways : 1. Of scandal, they are 
offendedat them. 2. Of ruin, tliey are destroyed bythem. 

1. By way of scandal, they are offended at them. 
So it is prophesied of Christ, that as he should be for 
" a sanctuary" to liis people, so to others, who would 
not trust in him, but betake themselves to their own 
counsels, he should be for " a stone of stumbling and 
for a rock of offence ; for a gin and for a snare," Isa. 
viii. 14 ; " for the fall and rising again of many in Israel j 
and for a sign" to be "spoken against," Luke ii. 34. 
So he saith of himself, " For judgment I am come 
into this world, that they which see not might see ; and 
that they which see might be made blind," John ix. 
39. And this offence which wicked men „ 

. . „ . Bon« res neminem 

take at Christ, is irom the purity and scandafcant nisi 
holiness of his word, which they cannot tctS! de vdind. 
submit to: "a stone of stumbling" he "'"s-^p-^- 
is, " and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble 
at the word, being disobedient," 1 Pet. ii. 8 ; 2 Cor. ii. 
14, 15. Thus Clirist preached was "a sanctuary" to 
Sergius Paulus the deputy, and " a stumbling-block " to 
Elj-mas the sorcerer ; " a sanctuary " to Dionysius and 
Damaris, and "a stumbling-block" to the wits and 
philosophers of Athens ; " a sanctuary " to the Gentiles 
that begged the preaching of the gospel, and " a stum- 
bhng-block" to the Jews that conti'adicted and blas- 
phemed, Acts xiii. 42, 45 : the former primarily and 
per se ; for salvation was the purpose of his coming, 
there was sin enough to condemn the world before ; 
" I came not," saith he, " to judge the world, but to 
save the world," John xii. 47. The other 
occasionally, not by any mtrinsic evil ^■iJ-i^"»°^.ii>>-5- 
quality in the word, which is " holy, and 
just, and good," and deals with all meekness and be- 
seechings, even towards obstinate sinners ;* but by 
reason of the pride and stubbornness of those men 
who dash against it ; as that wholesome meat which 
ministers strength to a sound man, but feeds the disease 
of another that sits at the same table with him ; the 
same light which is a pleasure to a sti'ong eye, is a 
pain to a weak one ; the same sweet smells which de- 
light the brain, afflict the matrix when it is distem- 
pered ; and none of this by the infusion of malignant 
qualities, but only by an occasional working upon and 
exciting of those which were before present. 

And there are many things in the word of God at 
which the corrupt hearts of wicked men are apt to 
stumble and be offended. As, 1. Its profundity and 
depth,! as containing great mysteries above the dls- 

t Atl^ij \oyt(Tfxoi^ dv&puiirlvoi^ diiv^vviiv TuQi'ia, dWa 
■Trods TO ^ot/Xrlua Trjs ^icaffK'aXirtS tov TTVivfxaTO'S Ttov \6yiop 
iroti'i^at Tt'iv iKSrc(Ttv. Justin. Exposit. Fidei. 



AN EX1^0SmO\ OF 



Chap. XIV. 



covery or search of created reason. Such is the pride 
and wantonness of sinful wit, tliat it knows not how 
to believe what it cannot comprehend, and must have 
all doctrines tried at its own bar, and measured by its 
own balance ; as if a man should attempt to weigh out 
the earth in a pair of scales, or to empty the waters of 
the sea with a bucket. As soon as Paul mentioned 
the resurrection, presently the Athenian wits mocked 
his doctrine. Acts xvii. .32 ; and it was a great stum- 
bling-block to Nicodemus, to hear that a man " must 
be born again," John iii. 4. Sarah has mxich ado to 
believe beyond reason, Gen. xviii. 12 ; and Moses him- 
self was a little staggered by this temptation, Numb. 
xi. 21, 22. A very hard thing it is for busy and in- 
quisitive reason to rest in an i /3d9og, " Oh the depth of 
the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God !" 
and to adore the unsearchableness of his judgments, 
though even human laws tell us that the reason of law 
is not always to be inquired into.* The great heresies 
against the highest mysteries of Christian religion, the 
Trinity, the two natures of Christ, the hy])Ostatical 
union, the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, had their first 
rise among the Grecians, who were then the masters 
of wit and learning, and esteemed the rest of the world 
barbarous ; t and the old exception which they were 
wont to take at the doctrine of Clu'istianity, was its 
" foolishness," 1 Cor. i. 23. 

2. Its sanctity and strictness, as contrary to the car- 
nal wills and aft'ections of men: for as corruption deifies 
reason in the way of wisdom, not willingly allowing 
any mysteries above its own scrutiny and comprehen- 
sion ; so does it deify will with respect to liberty and 
power, and loves not to have any authority set over 
that which may confine or restrain it. As Joshua said 
to Israel, " Ye cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy 
God," Josh. xxiv. 19, we may say of the law. We cannot 
submit to the law, because it is a holy law. " The 
carnal mind" " is not," cannot be, " subject to the law 
of God," Kom. viii. 7. Heat and cold will ever be 
oflfensive to one another ; and such are flesh and Spirit, 
Gal. V. IT. Therefore, ordinarily, the arguments against 
the ways of God have been drawn from politic or car- 
nal interests. Jeroboam will not worship at Jerusalem, 
lest Israel revolt to the house of David, 1 Kings xii. 27. 
Amos must not prophesy against the idolatry of Israel, 
for " the land is not able to bear all his words," Amos 
vii. 10. The Jews conclude Christ must not be let 
alone, lest "the Romans" " come and take away both" 
their " place and nation," John xi. 48. Demetrius and 
the craftsmen will by no means have Diana spoken 
against, because by making shrines for her they got 
their wealth. Acts six. 24, 25. Corruption will "close 
with religion a great way, and " hear gladly," and do 
" many things" willingly, and part with much to escape 
damnation ; but there is a particular point of rigour 
and strictness in every unregenerate man's case, which, 
when pressed close upon, causes him to stumble, and 
to bo oft'ended, and to break the ticaty. The hypo- 
crites in the prophet will give " rams," and " rivers of 
oil," and their "first-bom," "the fruit of" their "body 
for the sin of" their " sou!:" "but to do justly, and 
to love mercy, and to walk humbly with" their "God ;" 
to do away " the treasures of wicketbiess," " the scant 
measure," " the bag of deceitful weights," " violence," 
" lies," the " deceitful " " tongue," " the statutes of 
Omri," or " the works of the house of Ahab ;" durus 
sernio, this is intolerable : they will rather venture 
"smiting" and "desolation," than be held to terms .so 
Bcvere, Micah vi. G — IG. The young man will come to 
Clirist, yea, i-un to him, and kneel, and desire instruc- 

* OitSt yap 0V9 Avdponroi vofiovi TiQitrrat Td fvXoyov 
airXwv lyova-i Kal 'jravroTt ^aivofifvov. Plutarch tie sera 
numinis vindicti. Non omnium quoe a majoribus coustituta 



tion touching the way to eternal life, and walk with 
much care in observation of the commandments ; but 
if he must ])art with all, and instead of great posses- 
sions, take up a cross and follow Christ, and fare as he 
fared, this is indeed a hard saying ; he that came 
" running," went away " grieved" and "sad," and on 
this one point do he and Christ part, Mark x. 17, 22. 
Herod will hear John gladly, and do many things, and 
observe and reverence him as a just and holy man ; 
but in the case of Herodia,s he must be excused, on 
this issue he and salvation shake hands, "Mark vi. 20, 
27. Tills is the difl'erence between hypocritical and 
sincere conversion : that goes far, and parts with much, 
and proceeds to almost ; but when it comes to the very 
turning point, and ultimate act of regeneration, it then 
plays the part of " an unwise son," and stays " long in 
the place of the breaking forth of children," Hos. xiii. 
13 ; as a foolish merchant, who, in a rich bargain of a 
thousand pounds, breaks upon a difference of twenty 
shillings. But the other is contented to part with all, 
to suffer the loss of all, to carry on the treaty to a full 
and final conclusion, to have all the armour of the 
strong man taken from him, that Christ may divide the 
spoils, Luke xi. 22 ; Psal. cxix. 128 ; to do the hardest 
duties if they be commanded, Gen. xxii. 3. 

3. The seaiching, convincing, and penetrating quality 
which is in the word, is a great matter of offence to 
wicked men, when it cuts them to the heai't, as Ste- 
phen's sermon did his hearers, Acts vii. 54. Light is 
of a discovering and manifesting property, Eph. v. 13, 
and for that reason is hated by " every one that doeth 
evil," John iii. 20 ; for though the pleasure of sin to a 
wicked man be sweet, yet there is bitterness in its root 
and issue ; he who loves to enjoy the pleasure cannot 
endure to hear of the guilt. Now the work of th9»^vord 
is to " take" men " in their own heart," Ezek. xiv. 5; 
to make " manifest" to a man " the secrets of his 
heart," 1 Cor. xiv. 25 ; to pierce like arrows " the heart 
of the king's enemies," Psal. xiv. 5 ; to divide asunder 
the " soul and spirit," " the joints and marrow," and 
to be '■ a discerner of tlie thoughts and intents of the 
heart," Heb. iv. 12 : Isa. xlix. 2. This act of discovery 
cannot but exceedingly gall the spii-its of wicked men ; 
it is like the voice of God unto Adam in Paradise, 
Adam, " where art thou ? " Gen. iii. 9 ; or like the voice 
of Ahijali to the wife of Jeroboam, " I am sent to thee 
with heavy tidings," 1 Kings xiv. 6. 

4. The plainness and simplicity of the gospel is 
likewise matter of offence to the wicked, 2 Cor. x. 10; 
and that partly for the preceding reason ; for the more 
plain the word is, the more immediate access has it to 
the conscience, and the more effect upon it. Mere 
human elegance, fineness of wit, and delicacy of ex- 
pression, oftentimes stop at fancy, and take possession 
of that, as the body of Asahel caused the passers-by to 
stand still and gaze, 2 Sam. ii. 23. And wicked men 
can be contented to admit the word any whither, so 
they can keep it out of their conscience, which is its 
only proper subject, 2 Cor. iv. 2. When I hear men 
magnify quaint and polite discourses in the ministrj' of 
the word, and speak against sermons that are plain and 
wholesome, I look upon it not so much as an act of 
pride, (though the wisdom of the flesh is very apt to 
scorn the simplicity of the gospel,) but indeed as an 
act of fear and cowardice ; because, where all other 
external trimmings and dresses arc wanting to tickle 
the fancy, there the word has the more weighty and 
downright operation on the conscience, and must con- 
sequently the more startle and terrify. 

5. The great diflidlilty, and indeed impossibility, of 

sunt ratin rcddi potest, et ideo rationes corumque cuustitu- 
unliir, inquiri non oportct. P. lib. 1. T. 4. Leg. 211, 21. 

t Vid. Hooker, lib. 5. 3. Mater omnium hxreticoruin 
supcrbia. Aug. de Gen. contr. Manichfcos, lib. 2. cap. 8. 



Vek. 9. 



THE PROPHECY OF ROSEA. 



687 



obeying the word in its strictness and rigour, is another 
ground of scandal ; that God in his word should com- 
mand men to do that which indeed cannot be done. 
This was matter of astonishment to the disciples them- 
selves, when our Saviour told them that it was " easier 
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than 
for a rich man to enter into the lungdom of God," 
Mark x. 25. This was the cavil of the disputant in 
the apostle against the counsels of God, " Why doth 
he yet find fault?" if he harden whom he will, why 
does he complain of our hardness, which it is impos- 
sible for us to prevent, because none can resist his 
will? Rom. ix. 19. Now to this scandal we answer, 
fii-st, that the law of God was not originally,* nor is it 
intrinsically or in the natm-e of the thing, impossible ; 
but accidentally, and by reason of natui'al corruption, 
which is enmity against it. A burden may be very 
portable in itself, which he who is a cripple may not 
be able to bear. The defect is not in the law, but in 
us, Rom. viii. 3. Secondly, that of this impossibility 
there may be made a most excellei.t use,t that being 
convinced of impotency in ourselves, we may have re- 
course to the perfect obedience and righteousness of 
Christ, to pai-don all our violations of it, Gal. iii. 21, 24. 
Thirdly, being regenerated and endued with the Spirit 
of Christ, the law becomes evangelically possible to 
us again ; J yea, not only possible, but sweet and easy, 
Rom. \ii. 22 ; 1 John v. 3 ; Matt. xi. 30 : though im- 
possible to the purpose of justification and legal cove- 
nant, which require perfection of obedience under pain 
of the curse. Gal. iii. 10; in which sense it is a yoke 
which cannot be borne. Acts xv. 10, a commandment 
which cannot be endured, Heb. xii. 20 ; yet possible to 
the purpose of the acceptation of our sernces done in 
obedience to it, the spiritual part of them being pre- 
sented by the intercession, and the carnal defects co- 
vered by the righteousness, of Christ, in whom the 
Father is always well pleased. Fourthly, if any wicked 
man presume to harden himself in the practice of sin 
under this pretence, that it is impossible for him to 
avoid it, because God hardeneth " whom he will," 
though the apostolical increpation be answer sufiicient, 
" Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against 
God ? " Rom. ix. 20 ; yet he must further know, that he 
is not only hardened judicially by the sentence of God, 
Cor ifipideiira non '^"'' most wilHngly also by his own stub- 
significat nisi d.iris- bom lovB of sin, and giving himself over 
et advtrsiis Deura to sinning with all gi'eediness, and there- 
dfGS!'ct"L.b*iub. by actively brings on himself those indis- 
'■ '*■ positions to diitj-, so that the law being 

impossible to be performed by him is indeed no other 
than he would himself have it to be, as bearing an ac- 
tive enmity and antipathy unto it. 

6. The mercy and free grace of God in the promises 
are to wicked men an occasion of stumbling, while they 
turn it into " lasciviousness," and " continue in sin that 
grace may abound," Rom. vi. 1 ; Jude 4 ; and venture 
to make work for the blood of Christ, not being led by 
"the goodness of God" "to repentance," but hard- 
ening themselves in impenitency because God is good, 
Rom. li. 4. There is not any thing at which wicked 
men more ordinarily stumble than at mercy, as glut- 
tons surfeit most on the greatest dainties ; venturing 
upon this ground to go on in sin, because they cannot 
out-sin mercy ; and to put off repentance from day to 
day, because they are still under the ofl'ers of mercy ; 

* Non fuit impossibile ^uando praeeeptum est, seel stultitia 
peccantis impossibile sibi fecit. Gul. Paris, de Vitiis et Pec- 
cat, cap. 10. Neque euirn sue vitio non implebatur le.^, sed 
vitio prudentiae carnis. Aug. de Spir. et Lit. cap. 19. 

t Nee latuit praeceptorem prcecepti pondus hominnm exce- 
dere vires; sed judicavit utile ex hoc ipso suae illos insuffici- 
cnliaa admoneri — Ergo mandando impossibilia non prcevari- 
catores homines fecit sed humiles, ut crane os obstruatur, et 



making mercy not a sanctuary to which to fly from 
sin, but a sanctuary to protect and countenance sin ; 
and so by profane and desperate presumption turning 
the very mercy of God into a judgment, and savour 
of death unto themselves, pretending liberty from siu 
that they may continue in it, and abuse God by his 
own gifts, Deut. xxix. 19, 20; Numb. xv. 30. 

7. The thi-eatenings of God set forth in his word, 
and executed in his judgments on wicked men, are 
great occasions of stumbling to them, when they are 
not thereby, with Manasses, humbled under God's 
mighty hand, but, with Pharaoh, hardened the more in 
their stubbornness against him. There is such des- 
perate wickedness in the hearts of some men, that they 
can even sit down and rest in the resolu- 
tions of perishing, resolving to enjoy the nipaia'pino, Bac- 
pleasures of sin while they may : " To- ai'ils.'io^eesii't'.iihe- 
morrow we die," therefore in the mean ^'^eUib'i';''' c*?."''' 
time " let us eat and diink," 1 Cor. xv. 
32. " Behold, this evil is of the Lord ; what should I 
wait for the Lord any longer ? " 2 Kings vi. 33. There 
are three men in the Scripture that have a special 
brand or mark of ignominy set upon them, Cain, 
Dathan, and Ahaz. " The Lord set a mark upon Cain," 
Gen. iv. 15. " This is that Dathan," and, " This is that 
king Ahaz," Numb. xxvi. 9 ; 2 Chron. xxviii. 22. And 
if we examine the reasons, we shall find that the sin of 
stubbornness had a special hand in it. Cain's offering 
was not accepted, on this he grew wroth and sullen, 
and stubborn against God's gentle warning, and slew 
his brother. Dathan and his companions, sent for by 
Moses, return a proud and stubborn answer, " We will 
not come up," "we will not come up," Numb. xvi. 12, 
14. Ahaz, greatly distressed by the king of Syria, by 
the Edomites, by the Philistines, by the Assyrian, and 
in the midst of all this distress stubborn still, and 
trespassing " yet more against the Lord," 2 Chrpn. 
xxviii. 22. It is one of the saddest symptoms in the 
world for a man, or a nation, not to be humbled under 
the correcting hand of God, but, like an anvil, to grow 
harder under blows ; and a most sure argument that 
God win not give over, but go on to multiply his judg- 
ments still, for he wiU overcome when he judgeth, and 
therefore will judge till he overcome. In musical notes 
there are but eight degrees, and then the same are re- 
peated again ; and philosophers, when they distinguish 
degrees in qualities, usually make the eighth degree 
the highest : but in the wrath of God against those 
who impenitently and stubbornly stand out against his 
judgments, we shall find no fewer than eight and 
twenty degrees threatened by God himself; " I will 
punish you seven times more," and yet " seven times 
more," and again, " yet seven times," and once more, 
" seven tiiiies for your sins," Lev. xxvi. 18, 21, 24, 28. 
Thus wicked men do not only stumble at the word by 
way of scandal, but also, 

2. By way of ruin, because they are sure in the end 
to be destroyed thereby ; for the rock stands still, the 
ship that dashes against it only is broken. God's word 
is and will be too hard for the pride of men ; the more 
they resist it, the mightier will it appear in their con- 
demnation. The weak corn which yields to the wind 
is not harmed by it ; but the proud oak which resists 
it is many times broken in pieces. The soul which 
submits to the word is saved by it ; the soul which re- 
bels against it is sure to perish. Therefore since the 

subditus fiat onmis mundus Deo, quia ex operibus legis non 
justificabitur omnis caro coram illo : accipientes quippe man- 
datum, et sentientes defectum, clamabimus in ccehuu et mise- 
rebitur nosti-i Deus. Bernard. Ser. 50. in Cantic. 

i Lex data, ut gratia quaereretur, gratia data ut lex imple- 
retur. Aug, de Sp, et Lit. c, 19. Omnia tiant charitati facilia. 
De Nat. et Grat. cap. 69. De Grat. Christ, cap. 9. De Grat. 
et Lib. Arb. cap. 15. 



AN EXPOSITION OF THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA. 



Cii.vr. XIV. 



■word conies not to any man in vain, but rctmns glory 
to God either in his conversion or in his hardening, 
it greatly concerns evei-y man to come to it with meek, 
penitent, docile, tractable, believing, obedient resolu- 
tions ; and to consider how vain and desperate a thing 
it is for a potsherd to strive with a rod of iron ; for the 
pride and wrath of man to give a challenge to the 
justice and power of God ; for briers and thorns to set 
themselves in battle against fire. As " our God is a 
consuming fue" himself, so his law is "a fiery law," 
Heb. xii. 29; Deut. xxxiii. 2; and his word in the 
mouths of his ministers " a fire," Jer. v. 14 ; xxiii. 29. 
If we be " gold " it will " purify " us ; if " thorns," it will 
" devour" and feed upon us. " This is the condemna- 
tion," saith our Saviour, " that light is come into the 
world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because 
then- deeds were evil," John iii. 19. There was con- 
demnation in the world before, while it lay in darkness 
and in mischief, and knew not whither it went ; but 
not so heavy condemnation as that which grows out of 
light. When physic, which should remove the disease, 
co-operates with' it, then death comes with the more 
pain and the more speed. The stronger the conviction 
of sin is, the deeper will be the wTath against it, if it be 
not by repentance avoided. No surfeit more danger- 
ous than that of bread, no judgment more terrible than 
that which grows out of mercy known and despised : 
"The word that I have spoken," saith Girist, __" the 
same shall judge" you "in the last day," John xii. 48. 
Every principle of truth which is by the word begotten 
in the hearts of disobedient sinners, and is held down 
and suppressed by unrighteousness, lies there like fire 



raked up under ashes, which at that great day will kindle 
into an unquenchable flame. Tlie word can bring much 
of hell upon the spirit of impenitent sinners here ; it 
can hew, and cut, and pierce, and burn, and torment, 
and root out, and pull down, and destroy, and strike 
with trembling and amazement, sinners the proudest 
and most secure, Hos. vi. 5 ; Acts vii. 54 ; Hcb. iv. 
12; Isa. xlix. 2; Psal. xlv. 5; Rev. xi. 5, 10; Jer. i. 
10 ; 2 Cor. X. 4 ; Acts xxiv. 2.5. We need no messenger 
from the dead to tell us of the torments there. All tlic 
rhetoric in hell cannot set forth hell more to the life 
than Moses and the prophets have done aheady, Luke 
xvi. 31. But oh what a hell will it be at last, when the 
word which warned us of it shall throw us into it ! 
when every offer of mercy which we have refused, 
and every threatening of wrath which we have de- 
spised, shall accompany us to the tribunal of Christ to 
testify against us, and into the fire of hell to upbraid 
us with our own perdition ! Oh the doleful condi- 
tion of impenitent sinners ! if they have not the word 
they perish for the want, and if they have it tliey 
perish doubly for the contempt of it. Oh that men 
would consider the teiTor of the Lord and be per- 
suaded ; and that they would learn so much wisdom as 
not to arm the very mercy of God against themselves ' 
A bj-idge is made to give us a safe passage over a 
dangerous river, but he who stumbles on the bridge is 
in danger to fall into the river. The word is given as 
a means to carry us over hell into heaven, but he who 
stumbles and quarrels at this means shall fall in 
thither, from whence otherwise he had been delivered 
by it. 



GENERAL INDEX. 



rAGE 

Abilities, natural . . . , . .59 

" Abominations according as they loved " . . 402, 403 

Abundance abused, leads to want . . . 106 

Abuse of tile poor, sign of a base spirit . . 2&4 

of God's mercies, some reason against the . 422 

of mercies forfeits mercies . . . 593 

Achor. valley of . . . . . .134 

Acq^uisitions. sinful, are cursed . . . 125 

Actions, wicked, what part God has in them . 303, 594 

Activity, Christian, its nature and necessity . 34, .35 

Administrations, God's, will be accomplished . . 307 

of God's grace are in Christ's bauds 21 

Admonishing, there is a time to give over . . 220 

Admonition, disregard to, a precursor of destruction 219 

Admonitions to those who serve a hard service . 540 

against ingratitude . . . 541 

to apostates .... 643 

against trusting in matters of faith and 

worship to our own imderslanilings . 551 
respecting the regulation of our desires 570, 571 
to unbelievers .... 589 

to presumptuous sinners . . 631 

Adornings, evil of outward .... 444 

Adulterers, Tertullian's sentiments respecting . 216 

Adultery, enormity of the sin of . . . 216 

Adversity, some effects of ... , 27 

Affections, sudden, not to be relied on . . . .548 

Affliction, supports of the soul in times of . 49, 92, 314 

times of, are night-times . . . 318 

men see their need of God in times of . 356 

knowledge is a working knowledge . . 397 

its two evils .... 619 

Afflictions of the church move God's compassion . 49 

increase with sin . . . . 89, 302 

in times of, God is the only rest for the soul 92 

often open the way to the'heart . 132 

great, tne time for God's special mercies . 1.33 
of the saints, the harbingers of mercy . 1.33 

the heaviest, should notlead usto forsake God 186 
sanctified, their effect . . . 193, 306 

their effect on men's spirits . . . 218 

compared to earthquakes . . 306 

the sorest, which befall the people of God, 

are intended for their good . . 308 

should not discourage us in seeking God . .308 
the church has none unfoUowed by a morning 318 
misery of the wicked in . " . . 440 

the deepest, sometimes precede the greatest 
mercy ..... 514 

Aqgravafions, divers, of men's sins .351, 406, 473, 481, 486. 502, 

522, 5.34, .537, 541, 548, 552, 560, 563, 60(J 

Agreement in error worse than division for truth's sake 39 

All sin must be renounced .... 620 

the good we have is from God ... 623 

Allure her," '-1 will ..... 1,30 

Alterations in a government . . , 546 

religion ..... 547 

God can soon make mighty . . 501 

Ambrose's expostulation with Theodosius . . 322 

Amendment, now conversion works a general . 641, 644 

Auaixhv of Ephraim ..... 608 

England ..... 6<_)8 

Ancestors, their piety should induce us to turn to God . 523 
divers remarks respecting our . 401, 540, 541 
" And," such particles have sometimes great force 73, 402 
Auger, Godknows them that trust him in the midst of his 27 
Answers to prayers ..... O-'jO 

Antichrist, remarks on ... . 201 

2 Y 



Antichristianism, peculiarity of ... 44 

Antinomianism .'.... 230, 674 

Apostacy, precedes rejection . . . .26 

Latimer's caution against . . 95 

Israel's civil ..... 357 

no stop in .... 548 

exhortation against .... 549 

there is a two-fold . . . 6.5.3 

Apostates, two sorts of . . . . .94 

their hearts much require comfort . 139 

are seldom inclined to return to God . 27.3 

admonition to . . . . 54.3 

some steps which mark their departure from 

God 549 

Appointment, God's, of a place or thing consecrates it 238 

Armies, their success depends on God . . 14 

great, the confidence of carnal hearts . . 457 

" Asshur shall not save us" . . , 628 

Assurance, a believer's duty and privilege . 590, 654 

Atheism, of Ephraim .... 6(J9 

England's sin .... 609 

Austin, quoted ..... 7 

an excellent speech of his . . . 463 

his opinion regarding an official lie . 509 

Authority, it is Satan's course to get false worship 

backed by .... 294 
man's, not sufficient in matters of religion 294 
-Authorities, constituted, what circumstances warrant 
us in disobeying, with cautions respect- 
ing it .... 395 
honour due to . . . . 645 



B 

Baal 97 

" he offended in .... 544 

" Baali," its signification . . . .146 

Babylon, spiritual, and its children . , 76 

Backsliders, reasonings of their hearts . . . 93. 94 

exhortations to . . . 94, 95, 365 

possibility of their attaining their former 

state . ' . . . .95 

admonition to . . . . 194 

some reasons why men become . . 488 

Backsliding, why that sin is particularized here . 649 

meaning of the word . . . 653 

caution against . . . 94, 654 

"Bands of lore" .... 474,476 

Base men will do base things . . . 420 

Beginnings of great excellencies sometimes very mean 

and low ..... 66 

we should not rest in stirrings and . 324 

the meaner are men's, the more imperious 

are they in power . . . 545 

Believers' children, groimds of comfort respecting them 409 

death . . . . .589 

assurance .... 590 

Bernard, quoted ...... 39 

Besetting sin, opposition to our, an argument of the sin- 

ceritv of our conversion . . . 643, 675 

Beth-a'rbel ...... 459 

Beth-aven, same as Beth-el .... 24S 

Beth-el 520 

"Betroth," why repeated thrice here . . . 173 

Birth-days, celebration of, and cautions respecting it 314 

Bishop, a, in the Scriptures, every presbvter . . 146 

Bitterness of sin . . " . ' . . 599,600 

wl.v th" w;, ; , .1 :iv ■ n- t =:;-<il.le i,{ the 699 



GENERAL INDEX. 



PACE 

Blessedness of heaven, in what it consists . 23 

Blessings, become sweeter by remembering God in them 557 

sin corrupts .... 619 

Blindness, when beneficial .... 90 

" Blood toucheth blood " . . . . 217 

Bolton's, Mr., death-bed address to his children . 77 

Bondage, of the creature . . . 117 

implies three things . . . . 140 

peculiar severities of the E^ptian . 140, 141 

Boundary, the proper, for the ministrations of the 

preacher, and the faith of the hearer . . 683 

Bounds, means given by God to keep princes within . 291 

B'jw, a, deceitful two ways .... -353 

Bravest, tears before God become the . . . 517 

" Bread of mourners " .... 391,392 

Britons, origin of their name . . . .66 

their low and mean beginnings . . 66 

Brotherly-kindness, necessity anil excellency of . 321 

" Burden of the king of princes" . . . 368,369 

Business, the Christian's most important . . 675 



527 



Canaanite, its primary signification 
Care and purpose of general amendment, the, wrought 
by conversion ..... 611 

Carnal obedience ..... 

hearts, mark not the withdrawals of God . 
make little conscience of duties 
not to be engaged by the greatness of 
God's love .... 
their selfishness 
vanity of their confidences 
their extenuations of their guilt 
confidences,God loves to pour contempt on 

true repentance takes the heart off 

from .... 

Cause, even the worst, will have learned and judicious 

advocates . . . . . •_ _ 

Causes, second, some observations on . .178,179 

their dependence on the first great Cause 669 
Chancels, remarks respecting them 
Cheat and oppress, some considerations for those who 
Cheraarim, signification of the word 
Children, may plead with their parents 

their different treatment at birth by different 
nations ..... 

little hope of those educated wickedly . 
usually follow their parents' example 
are committed to their parents by God . 
grievous to lose them in hopeful maturity 
why they should suffer for their parents' 

sins .... 407, 408, 602 

of believers, grounds of comfort respecting 
them ..... 

should requite their parents' love 
their parents' piety a reproach to wicked 
should not marry without or against the 
parents' consent 
Choleric disposition, a, none of God's image 
Christ, his supremacy over angels 

the sole legitimate Head of the church . 40, 

nothing gotten by departing from 

his blood alone sweetens the things of earth 

the strength of the church 

his death and resurrection a special help to faith 

in affliction .... 
our Gospel-altar 
all our fruit must bo given to 
in all he docs, God has reference to 
Christians, private, may plead with a church . 
Chrysostom on the value of the Scriptures . 
Church, God will always have a 
its increase from God 
its increase, a legitimate matter of joy 
God has a time in which he will bring peace 

to his . 
Christ the sole legitimate Head of the 
some things wherein it differs from other so 
cieties . . . . . 

three consequences which follow from Christ 

being the Head of the 
the greatness of its misery no hinderancc to 

the exhibition of God's mercy 
its members, their duty towards it 
its members should be enlightened 



644 
11 

2a) 

332 

402 
420 
457, 564 
.5.33 
564 

645 

398 



149 
529 
434 
57 

65 
76 
77 
2&3 

404 



409 
469 
511 

540 
495 

40 
48,60 

98 
117 
151 

314 
370 
420 
465 
60 
1 
18 
30 
31 

36 
40 

41,42 

44, 15 

48 
58 
58 



PASS 

61 
71 
71 
115 



318 
318 
390 
417 
462 
464 

516 

541 
647, 648 
601 

661 

665 

667 

67.^ 
336 
338 

60 
.336 
336 
.3.36 
3-36 
3'21 
496 
674 
118 
654 
131 
295 
3 



Church, a true, may have in it corruptions and omiuions 
of God, in itself God's garden . 
made " a wilderness " 
a national, involves national worship . 
the, must not worship God after the manner of 

idolaters . . • . 148, 150 

shoidd increase under the rain of God's 

blessing . . ' . 

its afflictions are ever followed by a morning 
of God. its excellency 
compared to a vine for many reasons . 
its privilege to be beloved of God 
God's first-born 

its time for prevailing is its hour of great- 
est weakness 
God often effects great things for it by 

small means 
its condition in this world 
compared to a tree inverted . 
its growth and spreading is derived from 
"The Branch" 
characteristics presented by the body of the 
the, its reformation, wherein it should resemble 

Paul's Epistles 
some matter of singular comfort in the troubles 
of the 
Cities of refuge .... 

there are all kinds of evil in great 
Clergy, the people so called in contradistinction to the 
ministers .... 

the, if wicked, are the worst of all men 
a wicked, ovenvhelms whole nations . 
Clergymen, none so cruel as wicked 

cruelty in them most abominable . 
Close-handed, a tnie Christian is not 
Closeness of walk with God begets security 
Comfort to the godly 
Comforts, much praise is due to God for outward 

Christian, their solid foundation . • 
"Comfortably," what is meant by speaking 
Commands for false worship easily prevail 
Commission, Hosea's, to Israel 
Commons, exhortations to the members of the house 

of 62-2, 623, 625 

Communion with a church, in what cases it may be 

declined . . . . 61, 62 

with God in holy things sanctifies the 

creature . . • .117 

of saints to be prized . . . 417,464 

with G(id. the trial and foundation of all 

our goodness . . . _ . 

of saints, much of it consists in joining in 

God's praises 
mutual, of the members of the church . 
Comparisons drawn by G"d from four sources 
Compassion for their oflspring should deter parents 
from sin . 
of God towards us should excite compas- 
sion in us . 
Concilium Antisidiorense .... 

Concord, between the will of man converted, and the 

grace of God converting ... 

Condescension of God .... 298, 305 

Condition, it is very useful for one to consider his 

former low . . . 09, 12-2 

a reconciled, is a singing . . 142 

God snoHlimes leaves his people in a dead 312 

faith realizes God's reviving mercies in 

the saddest .... 

Confidence can be reposed confidently in none but God 

Conscience, liberty of ... . 

it is a great evil to strive with one's 

the blessing of a clear 

Consciences, tender, should not be dealt with severely 

cauterized, many covetous men have 

Considerations, some, for those who cheat and oppress 

Consolation, humiliation precedes 

Contentions, God carries on no causeless . 206, 207 

Controversy, the impenitent soul's, with God . 202 

God's, with England . . 203, '208 

withJmLh ... 510 

Conversion, some considerations to quicken sinners to 584 

remarks on, and motives to . 610, 017, 675 

thankful obedience, a mark of true . G'29 

some tests to irv the truth of our . 638 

true, consists of' two parts . . &ll 

works a special cure against a man's 

more particular sins . . 643, 675 



024 



664 
592 



13 



320 
119 



670 



GENERAL INDEX. 



691 



PAGE 

Conversion, true, takes the iicart off from carnal con- 
fidences ...... G14 

Conviction, should precede correction ... 7 
should proceed at once to conversion . 583 
two great hinderanccs to . . . 5&1 
Convictions, inetficacy of mere . . . 423 
of the Spirit, we should beware of resist- 
ing them .... 584 

Cornelius a Lapiue, his audacious lie . . . 218 

Corrupt hearts, many things in God's word to offend 685 

Corruptions within breed our trouble and undoing . 298 
deviations in God's worship trifling in our 

eyes, God may account ^ross . . 387 

in worship causes God's withdrawal . 547 

Counsels, perplexed, ftireshadnw a fall . . . 244 

what should be sedulously kept from our 436 

some suggestions how to direct aright our . 436 

Covenant mercy is indeed excellent mercy . 154 

God's, with man .... 181 

its three-fold character . . . 3.34 

God's goodness enables us to enter into . 334 

God's constancy in his . . 334 
the sense of our obligations should keep us 

within the , . . . 334 

breach of, a most grievous aggravation of sin 335 
-breakers, men may do many services and 

yet be . . . . . 3.'^5 

with God, implies mercy to man . 335 

the great cause of man's breach of the . 335 
in what respects the heart may be false with 

regard to a . . . . 428 

the, the foimdation of the saints' comfort 519 
with God, some reasons to constrain its to 

enter into . . 629 — 631 

some remarks on man's . 632, 033 

some considerations to quicken 

our diligence in keeping 634, 635 

Creature, bondage of the .... 103 

-comforts avail little in the day of God's wrath 301 
man cannot impart holiness, much less di- 
vinity, to a . . . . 361 

-promises, we shall find them all but a lie 389 

the, its dependence on God . . . 405 

-engagements, their nature . . 412 
the, experience of its vanity leads not a carnal 

heart to seek God . . . 427 
some considerations which should be mi.xed 

with our enjoyment of the . . 554 

some reasons why we should not trust in the 646 

-helps, all defective in something . 663 

Creatures, God's, should be employed in God's service 100 

the, their dependence on man . . 219 

we should make a spiritual use of God's work 

in his . . . . . 319 

Cures, desperate sores require desperate . . 598 

Custom in evil excuses us not . . . 360 
Cyril, an excellent remark of his . . .64 



Danger apprehended as present and real affects the 
lieart most . ..... 9*<6 

■David their king" .... 194—197 

Day, God and his Jezreel shall have a great . .60,51 

" of Jezreel," in what respects great, and what 

motives result from its greatness . 51 — 54 
Days, hints for rightly setting apart . . 107,110 
.147 



of the week, their heathenish origin 

" " in the latter .... 2(X) 

Dead bodv, a, uncleanness from contact with . 391 
Death and resurrection of Christ a special help to faith 

in affliction ...... 314 

Deceit," " balances of .... 528 

Decision, some thoughts to lead to . . . 489 

exhortation to . . . . 490 

Deering's faithfulness, when preaching before Queen 

Elizabeth 69 

Deification of a creature .... 361 

Deliverance, God ties not himself to outward means in 22 
without bow and without sword, a great 

mercy ..... 22 

through Christ is especially sweet . 116 
from spiritual bondage is a mercy for ever 

to be celebrated . . . 116 

out of the hand of God there is no . .304 

what effect it should have on the heart 314 

God's, of his oeople, what it teaches . 315 



PAGB 

Deliverance, God's mode of, is gradual . . 318 

Despair, the wonderful evil of . . . . 440 

arguments against . 463, 467, 534, 654 

Devices, to promote superstition . . . 264 

man's, in the worship of God, do but pollute it 370 
Difference, between true and false worshippers God 

will make a . . . . 19 

a slight, in religion sometimes the source of 

bitter enmities ... 36 

between the scattering of the saints and the 

scattering of the sinners . . 38 

between officers in a civil state and officers 

in a church .... 41 

Difficulty, the best men are not to be depended on in 
times of ..... . 301 

Dii Jlinores of the heathen and papists . . 127 

Disappointment in a way of a sin is a great mercy 91 

Diseases, drunkenness is attended by . . 341, 345 

Dispensations, God's, are often disregarded . 98 

1 divisions resulting from truth better than the union 
that comes by error . . . .39,40 

Doctrine of papists and language of Scripture diametri- 
cally opposed . . : . . 224 
" Door of hope," difficulties lying at the nation's 135—1.37 
Dove, asiUy, Ephraim compa'red to . . 349 
the, not the eagle, to be offered in sacrifice . 355 
Drunkenness, is an old court sin . . . 345 
brings disease . . . 341, 345 
professors should especially beware of 345 
Duties, carnal, flow from a base heart . . . 260 
dependence on them creates a distraction of 
spirit . . . . . .278 

to find God in them the true end of all holy 279 

the, of the first and second table are to be joined 333 
should mightily engage us against sin . 352 

God remembers the sins of the ungodly, espe- 
cially in the performance of . . 382 
many love to hear of privileges, not of . . 584 



Eagle, the, in the law an unclean bird . . . .355 

Eagles, wicked men compared to . . . 355 

Early, when the Jews may be said to have sought God .308 

seeking is acceptable seekino; to God . 308 

when men are said to seek God . 308, 309 

'E7/.0/.. /3a,(7a(7e£ 128 

Election, doctrine of ... . 511, 512 

Engagements, we should labour to get our hearts oft" 

earthly 324 

England, God's controversy with, and its evidences 203, 204 
English ministers, some remarks on . . 210 

Ephod, the, remarks on ... 189, 190 

" Ephraim is joined to idols" . . . 251 

" " As a moth unto .... 296 

how he hath mi.'ied himself with the Gentiles .347 
is a cake not turned "... 348 
compared to a silly dove without heart 349 

compared to a wild ass . . . 366 

his weakness set forth by four similitudes 551 
Errand, Hosea's, to Israel .... .3 

Estrangement of the heart from the law of God, several 

degrees of it enumerated .... 379 

Eusebius's Antiquities quoted . . . 186, 476 

Evil, dishonour before lovers is a great and sore . 104 

present, apprehension of it terrifies the sotil . 396 

Example of others no excuse for us . . . 277 

Excellency, the, of saints, God has a time to convince 
men of it . . . . . .32 

Excellencies, great, their beginnings sometimes very 

low and mean . . . 6& 

manifold, in God's law . . 375 

Exhortations, God's, to a people argue their hopefulness 63 

Expiation, the feast of, divers things in . . 120, 121 

Exposition, an ancient practice ... 1 

Extremity, God often brings the wicked into hopeless 72 

I man's, is God's opportunity . . 367 

Eye of God is upon men's hearts . . . 268, 269 

is upon his people for their comfort . SlS 



Faith realizes God's reviving mercies in the saddest 

condition ..... 313 

raises the soul high .... 315 

has strength to wrestle even with Jehovah . 522 



GEN'ERAL IXDEX. 



PAOH 

Faithfulness of God .... 175, 502, 520 

wherein it consists . . . 5UG 

Falls of saints especiallv legardpd by the wicked 277 

Falsehood, the special characteristic of the wicked . 340 
Falsity in relations is the forerunner of great mischief 310 
Favour, God's, makes a man .... .383 

Fear of God ..... 197, 425, -131 

Feast, day of God's vengeance termed a . . 393 

Feasts, solemn . . . . . 115 

Feeding on wind, what is denoted by . . . 507 

Festival days are generally made days of provocation 3-14 
Fires, God's hand should be regarded in destructive . .384 
Folly, godliness does not sanctinn men in their . 349 

Forefathers, we are ready to imitate them in evil, not 
in good ...... .373 

Found, when God is not to be . . . . 279 

France, massacre of protestants in . . 215 

Free grace, God's, its characteristics . , 4G7, 'i2l 

Friends, carnal, follow the times . . . 104 



Gain, the greatest, should not draw us to false worship 367 

the least sin not to be adventured for the greatest .529 

Galesius, Marcus, the means of his conversion . . 167 

Gatherer, every child of God a . . . 39 

Gentle means rejected aggravate sin . . . 474 

Gently, God deals with people . . . 472 

Gibeah, notable for two things .... 400 

Gifts, much hypocrisv often veiled under many excellent HU 

gloried in, God often brings to shame . 227 

common, their trausiton' nature . . . 418 

God's, are not always given in love . . 546 

some notes wliereby to judge whether they 

are given in auger or in love . 567 — 570 

Gilead 537 

Gilgal, for what famous . . . 247, 410, 5.38 

GI017 from us, God will have . . . .9)6 

God, his compassion .... 49 

goodness . . . 198-200,591,0.39 
has a time to give men over to themselves . 253 
motives to continue seeking . . . 453 
his love to Israel, e-xpressed in three particulars 402 
grace, its characteristics . . . 407 
especially to be praised for preserving grace 409 
and man, difference between them in the execu- 
tion of their wrath .... 500 

in what he especially glories . . . .500 

a little with, is better than much without . .506 
his mercies should beget godliness . . 552 
goodness strangely contrasts with man's wick- 
edness ..... 5.5.3 

patience ... . 580, 603 

iorbearance is no acquittance . . . 58(J 

is a tower to the righteous . . . 587 

his decrees are infallible and unchangeable . 590 

the language becoming his ministers . . 591 

his judgments are irresistible . . 596 

justice . . . . . 015 

love to his people .... 015 

name and glory .... 610 

greatness ... . 6.39 

our trust should be reposed only in . . 047 

how to fit ourselves for the mercy of . 018 

his free love, its source . . . 019 

concord between his grace and man's will . 070 

his grace is a vital and active principle . 074 

not to be turned into licentiousness . 074 

Godfathers and godmothers .... H) 

Godliness, the bc^t ornament .... 103 

God's mercies should beget . . 552 
" Gomer the daughter of Diblaim" ... 9 
Good, God docs us much, unnoticed - . . 470 
Goodness, God's, strangely contrasts with man's wicked- 
ness ...... 55.3 

Gospel, the, a gospel of peace . . . . 3S 

-altar, Christ our .... 370 

-righteousness, nature of its acts . . 448 

the law makes way for the . . . 579 
-racrcy, a thorough acnuaintance with our 

spiritual sickness would lead us to prize 0.52 

we should endeavour zealously to promote the 604 
(1 rveriimeut appointed by God, rebellion against it 

most dangerous ..... 18 

(i'lvcrnors, evil, entail evil on a people . . 75,251 

it is sinful to obey the ungodly commands of 312 

(jrace, a test of growth in '. . . 2 



Grace, of the gospel ..... .33 

of God, its excellency in the saints . . 45 

the boundlessness of free . . 129, 1-30 

abuses of the doctrine of free . . 2.30 

takes the heart off from creature-helps . . 3lJ8 

of brotherlv kindness, necessity of it . .321 

alone enables us to keep the covenant . . 335 

God's, two of its most striking characteristics 467 

God is to be especially praised for preserving . 469 

free, its five gratations . . . 624 

backwardness of man to close with the offers of 

free . . . . . 043 

growth in knowledge and . . . 6t>^ 

free, some of its effects . . . 609 

sweet concord between man's will and God's . G70 

is a vital and active principle . . 074 

of God not to be turned into licentiousness . 074 

Gray hairs, some of the symptoms of a kingdom's 348 

Ground, fallow, men's hearts arc naturally like . 449 

Cirowth in knowledge and grace . . . 664 

Guardian, God is the Christian's . . . 648 



H 

Hand, God's, outstretched . . .288 

" Hatred in the house of his God" . . 398-^00 

Head of the church, Christ the sole legitimate 40 — 48 
Healer, the Lord is the true . . 338, 648, 649 

Healing, means of .... . 339 

bodily, more than soul healing regarded 470, 650 



89 

91 

. .3(Hi 

310 

426, 5.33 

428 

. 450 

500 

. 524 

163 

. 299 

300 

310 
310 

310 



Heart, frame of. for reading profitably the Scriptures 
the natural, is so pm'erse as to break through 

difficulties to sin 
the. until subdued, men become worse 
a hard, will not acknowledge God's hand 
a penitent, is not a discouraged 
a humbled, is a self-accusing 
the, may in divers ways be false in a coven 
ploughing of the ..... 
a gracious, shrinks not from humiliation 
a converting, must needs be a merciful . 
Hearts, guilt}', are full of suspicions 

pritle of men's ..... 

carnal, seek to the creature in trouble 

truly penitent, seek to get others to join with 

them in turning to God 

are not easily discouraged 

retain good thoughts of God in 

the greatest sufferings 

the eye of God is on men's . . 208, '209 

we should often examine the state of our 324, 341, 448 

many men's, like rough stones . . 320 

carnal, make little conscience of duties . .332 

their reliance on outward prosperity . 385 

their joy immoderate . . 386 

alwavs look to creature-help . . 395 

corrupt, will have corrupt ways . . 420 

carnal, love easy work . . . 4 13 

men's, are naturally as fallow ground . 449 

stubborn, their perverseness . . . 485 

men's, naturallv sink down to low and mean 

things ■ 490 

Hedges, alllictions are God's ... &S 

Heel, .Jacob's taking his brother by the . 511—513 

Heifer, Israel compared to a . . . 2.50 

Help, creature, sought by the carnal heart in difficulty 300 

much guilt coiitsactcd by reliance on creature 300 

grace takes off the heart from creature . . 308 

exists in God for man's greatest misery . 562 

Helper, God glories in being a . . . . 562 

Hemlock, three things especially recorded of it . 4'29 

stalks of it amongst us . . . 4.30 

Henry VIII. compared by Calvin to Jehu . 12 

Holiness and justice, necessary connexion between them 431 

source and reward of . . . 6'24 

should be the aim of all . . 606 

HoUinshed's Chronicle quoted ... 66 

Homer, a. capacity of . . . . . 184 

Honour, (Jod has little in the world . . 3t)8 

Honourably, Ciod deals with men . . . 47'2 

Honours, sin will bring down all men's . . 5^16 

House, God's own, no security to sin and wickedness 355, 41 1 

Howliiigs, prayers so termed in four respects . 351 

Humiliation without reformation insufficient . _i<? 

a gracious heart shrinks not from . 506, .53! 

precedes consolation . . . 579 

Humility, exhortation to . . . • G'£i 



GENERAL INDEX. 



693 



Humility, some reasons for 

Hypocrisy of the Jews, evidenced in three things . 
especially grieves the Spirit of God 
is full of danger to man 
Hypocrites, import of their desires 

confide much in their outward and formal 
» acknowledgment of God . 



TAGE 

073, 674 
321 

. 3-23 
323 
352 



I 

/, and uill, Luther's remarks on . . . 

Idolaters, it is difficult to convince them of their sin 

usually entertain good thoughts of their idols 
pursue with eagerness their idolatries 
the number of their idols 
the end of their worship is very low 
there should be no conformity between the 
church of God and 
: devoid of right understanding 



their hearts are strongly attached 
idolatries 

re deep in their policies . 
ulness of pride . 



to their 



their fu. 

are great oppressors 
further their false worship by lies 
their idols shall fail them at last 
their love for their idols 
Idolatry, a kind of spiritual fornication 

and sensuality usually conjoined 

continuance in it will strip a nation of all its 

, glory 

human nature prone to 

not easily expelled 

has many covers . 

most loathsome and abominabli 

the most trifling things tending to it must be 

avoided 

God's people should keep far off from 
hiiw far God's commands to the Jews respect- 
ing it bind us . 
is shameless and loves publicity 
is a lie in God's esteem 
is a kind of hereditary sin 
is a very growing sin 
and idolaters, general remarks on 433, 434, 438, 
547, 55U, 551 
Ignorance, affected, excuses not, but aggravates guilt . 

some of the causes of . . . 210, 

dangerous and destructive in many respects 
a great hiuderance to conviction 
Images and pictures, remarks on . . . 

not required by God's people 
Impatience of spirit in trouble to be guarded against 312, 
Impenitent sinners are unwise 
Impetuosity of spirit blinds the mind 
Importunities, extremities W'arrant . 
Impunity in sin, not to be secured by community 
Incense typical of prayer .... 

Inconstancy in religion especially provokes God's wrath 
Increase, Judah's and Israel's, its consequence 

of the church .... GGl- 

Individual arguments to turn to God should be con- 
sidered ...... 

Infants, God's secret ways in working on . 
little, are great sinners 
in what sense termed " innocents " 
Inferiors, we should preserve the honour of 
Ingratitude, admonitions against . 462, 163, 555- 

Iniquities, God's mercies are beyond men's 
Initiura maledictum, finis maledictus 
Injustice, the Christian's three resources in cases of 
Institutions, no new, can be introduced into the cluirch 

Divine, their nature 
Intimations of love, when God intends good he sends 
Interests, their own, weigh much with people 
Interrogations, four pathetical, which God asks himself 
Inventions, men's, are to be destroyed . 
Ireland, massacres in .... 

Irish priests, their attainments .... 

Irresistibility of God's judgments . 

Ishi, signification of the word .... 

Israel, its condition in Egypt 

its two-fold ground of confidence 

its childhood . . . . . ' 

God's bauds to draw . , . 474, 

seven reasons given for its anxiety to have a king 



PAG8 

Jacob, why the ten tribes are called by his name . 510 

his taking his brother by the heel . . 511 

wrestling with the angel . . . 513 

strength ..... 514 

weeping . . . _ . ,517 

prayer, excellent ingredients in it . 518 

interviews whh God at Bethel . . 519 

seed are inheritors of Canaan , . 519 

remarks on his primitive condition . . 5.38 

his flight into Syria . . . . 5.39 

twice seven years service for his wives . 539 

" Jehovah is his memorial" . . . 521 

what effect the consideration of the name 

should have on us . 

Jehu, character of his obedience and its consequence 

Jeroboam, character of 

Jerome, his remarks on the Jews being without an 

ephod ..... 
Jerusalem, remarks on . . . 

Jews, the calling in of the 
Jezreel, its signification 
John, the apostle, interesting anecdote of 
John II. of Portugal, his emblem . . 

Joy, three ingredients to be put always into the cup of 

the, of others aggravates a man's misery 
Jubilee, observations respecting the day of 
Jiidah, observations respecting God's controversy with 
Judgment, there will be a time when no help shall de. 
liver from . 
for God to tear and wound, and then to leave 

a people, is a heavy 
God has a fixed time for 
when men are hot in sin, God will be hot in 
the abiding of the sword is a sore 
■ the, soon gone when the heart is engaged 
Judgments, impending, should afl'ect 

threatened, should lead the saints to the 

promises .... 

suspended, fall heavily 
secret sins entail secret . 
God's least, can abase the proudest 
God's hand more immediate in some than 

in other .... 
God's remarkable hand in some, must h 

regarded .... 
God's, may be said to be concealed duriuj 

sinners' prosperity 
God's, are gradual 
God has his time to convince men by his 327, 3'J6 
God's ministers must not only proclaim 

mercies, but also . 
God's, against the wicked are only the be 

ginnings of further 
on us are nothing but recompences 
the saints cause the mitigation of . 
stupidity under, is a great Judgment . 
seldom go alone 
mercies spiritual should be sought in tern 

poral .... 

true ground for the removal of God's . 
Justice, corruption of courts of . 



523 

11 

573 

19-2 
64 

14'2 
ID 

476 
479 
386 
387 
114 
510 

290 

.304 
337 
347 
486 
402 
1.3, 459 

28 
124 

297, 298 
297 

303 

303 

32r 

.327 



354 

369 
3!!6 
5(12 
5SI 
5'J/ 

626 
655 
430 



Keys, four, kept in God's hand . 

Kindness of God to us in Christ, in what it consists 

King, seven reasons for Israel's anxiety to have a 

Kingdom's, a, sins are its sores 

Kings, the Persians' usage on the death of their 

and princes must have sin charged upon them 
due respect must be shown to . . 

and princes, when they may be said to be given 
in anger . . 

Knowledge, nature of the samts' 

the, of God, its influence on men . 

rejection of, a great sin . 
a very comfortable thing to the 

saints 
a gracious heart pants after 
more than burnt offerings" 
mo^t excellent 
gained in afflictions, a working 

knowledge , , 

is operative and working 



409 
Il;8 
565 
338 
18S 
262 
263 



209 
225 

316 
316 
a33 
333 

397 
55a 



GEXERAL IXDEX. 



Land, the Lord's, Canaan so peculiarly 
Language of Scripture, and doctrine of papists, diame- 
trically opposed .... 

to be used by ministers , 
Latimer's sentiments respecting backsliders 
Law, the grace of Uod under the gospel more full and 
glorious than under the .... 

God's, not only to be kept, but to be rejoiced in 
there are manilbld excellencies in God's 
the things of the. arc srreat things 
God's, in what respects accounted '" as a strange 
thing" ..... 

the, makes way for the gospel 
Laws, human, are of three sorts 
Layman's books, what are so termed 
Leagues much rejoiced in, may prove an occasion of 
sorrow ....... 

Lebanon," "small as .... 662, 

Leopard, God compared to a . 

Lessons taught the wicked when under the hand of God 

" Let him alone " . . . . 2.V2, 

" Let not Judah offend " . . . . 245, 

Liberty in judging attended with a two-fold peril 
Lie, a, the very foundation of popery 

an official, Austin's opinion regarding it . 
Lies, it is an evil thing to make men glad with 

" "the fruit of . . . . . 

in God's worship and in God's business not in- 
frequent ...... 

" "he daily increaseth 
divers wavs of multiplying and increasing 
sources of the raulliplication of 
Life, the seed-time for eternity .... 

Light abused, ushers in the grossest darkness 

God loves to draw forth great sinners to the 
" Like people, like priest" .... 

Lion," " he shall rriav like a .... 

God compared to a . . . . 306, 

Long-suffering of God must not be abused 
Lord of hosts, signification of the title 

how men may frame their doings to turn unto the 271, 
Christ is the ..... 

Lo-nihamah ...... 

I^oss of children in hopeful maturity 
Lost, in being willing to lose for God there is nothing 
Love, it greatly aggravates sin, to sin against much 182, 
useful to call to mind God's old . 
has strong bands .... 

exhortation to mutual . , . . 

God's, its characteristics . . . 479, 

difUculties fall before .... 

God's free, should beget thankfid obedience 
Loving-kindness of God, good to speak of the 
Lust, deadness in prayer often occasioned by some secret 
Luther, quoted ...... 

complains of the enmity of former friends 
his zeal ...... 

Lying, odiousness of the sin of . . 212, 

admonitions against .... 



Madmen, in what respects the wicked resemble 
llagistratcs, great wrath hangs over wicked 

what circumstances warrant us in disobey- 
ing, and cautions respecting it . 
Man, his perverseness . . . • 5> 

poverty ...... 

nature! weak and unsettled 
state truly sad when God is departed from him 
" " I drew them with the cords of a . 
difference in the execution of wrath between God 
and ...... 

Many are nearest to their undoing when they think 
thfm^elves most secure .... 

Marriage, caution to be used in contracting 
used to express gospel mysteries 
children should not contract it without, or 
against, their parents' consent 
Marricil c(mdition, four things most remarkable in a . 
Martyi '.■>, Peter, illustration of the excellencies of 
God's w.Tys ...... 

Martyrs, I'.ook of, quoted .... 

Means, in ilelivering a people, God ties not himself to 
outward .... 



224 
591 

95 

.3.3 
118 
375 
376 

378 
579 
43 
211 

385 
667 
558 
.396 
'255 
216 
43 
213 
509 
343 
455 

505 I 
.508 ' 
508 
509 
SK? ' 
224 I 
461 
230 
503 
.558 
547 

14 
272 
587 

16 
404 

29 
462 
462 
476 
478 
480 
540 
655 

54 
348 
2,3 

36 

58 
213 
.509 



PAQB 

Means, when public arc unavailing, there is little hope 

of private .... 22.3 

little, God often uses when he intends the 

greatest mercies .... 541 

Members of a church, the, should be enlightened . 58 

Memorial," "the Lord is his . . 521 

Men, God has a righteous hand in the worst actions of 303 

base, will do base things . . . 420 

their own counsels bring shame to them, especially 

in religion ..... 435 

estimate their sins by their success . . 532 

Merchant and Canaanite synonymous in Scripture 527 

the calling honourable, but may be rendered 

very contemptible . . . 528 

Mercies, God's, beyond man's . . . .62 

national, are but common . . 67 

forgotten, displease God . . .70 

disregarded, injure men ... 99 

God's, should beget godliness . . .99 

in great difEcullies are sweet . . 134 

restored ami recovered are sweet . . 144 

openi^ig into ordinances are precious . 14.5 

new, should recall the old . . . 145 

former, should strengthen our faith in future 145 
should be met with appropriate thankfulness 145 
God's, should lead to reformation . 145, 146 

covenant, especially sweet . . *. 154 

God's, are a depth swallowing up all sin and 

sorrow . . . .171 

their fulness in Christ . . 171 

special, if abused draw down special judgments 285 

after two days' death are reviving . - 313 

seasonable, some hints respecting them . 313 

the Lord's, are settled . . . 315 

God's, to his people are decreed . 318 

are both seasonable and 

suitable . 318,319 

God's redeeming, are great aggravations of 

our sins ..... 351 

promised, must be gotten by lawful means 358 

God's old, are engagements to duty, and ag- 
gravations of sin . . . 463,5.34 
prepared, provided, and laid before us, are to 

be prized .... 

God's, are beyond men's iniquities 
promised, should be believed 
little means often introduce the greatest 
saving, are great . . 
their abuse forfeits them 
spiritual, should be sought in times of temporal 
judgments ..... 
remarks on and promises of several special 466, 
552, 
Mercy, a time in which God will not have 

men best know its value when taken from them 
much, may be intended even to persons in great 

straits ..... 

peaceful deliverance a great 
what especially enhances a . 
God's, is a people's glory and beautv . 
for (im\ to make the way of sin di&cult is an 
especial ..... 

abuse of, causes its removal 
works of. may be done on the sabbath . 
a, when it mav be regarded as a warrant of an 

additional ' . . . 1X5,317- 

a great, to be delivered from outward bondage 
when magistrates and people unite m 
praising God 
times of, are times of union 
in time of God's, he puts a mighty spirit into 
men to seek him .... 

apprehension of, causes the heart to rejoice 
and not sacrifice "... 328- 

the Lord has a high esteem of 
" "reap in .... . 

reasons to move God to . . . 

the greatest, sometimes preceded by the deepest 

affliction . . . 

pre-eminence given to it over justice . 
and judgment, their due mixture commended 
visions multiplied are a great 
the higher tne, the deeper the judgment, if 
abused ..... 

Ministerial oftice, rejection from it, a great judgment 
Ministers, noisl expect a variety of conditions . 

their discredit is a hiuderance to their work 
impartiality, how very necessary for 



484 
493 
519 
541 
552 
593 

626 

482, 

668 

16 

17 

'i) 
22 
2A 
67 



GENERAL INDEX. 



PAGE 

Miiiistevs, it is a great assTravatiou of sin to strive with 

God's . . . 222,223 

their houses should be sanctuaries . 228 

and people, their mutual influence , 230, 231 

should especially regard those to whom they 

are bound by oflice . . . 245 

rebuking faithfully, God rebukes . 267 

their rebukes should be impartial rebukes . 268 
should realize what they preach . 286 

must proclaim judgments as well as mercies 287, 354 



God's, are hew 

are God's moutli to his people 
wicked, are most outrageous against those 

who secede from them 
God's, must not be weary of their work 



ind 



a36 
354 
. 363 
408 
466, 536 
469 



ce of 



when they may be said to sow the 
often perplexed by men's sins . 
amongst us, a proof of God's mercy 
should imitate God's tenderness 
must not he easily discouraged 
should guard against even the appear 

wrath ..... 

their painful labours God will take ac- 
count of .... 

God's,^must use plain and familiar language 
Ministry, the, not to be despised 

its end ..... 

Mirth and sin, their union is a forced union 

true, remarks on it 
Miseiy, a greater, to lose God himself than his gifts 

men will not seek help till made sensible of 
their ..... 

of the wicked in affliction 
help exists in God for men's greatest 
Miznah ....... 

Modesty of Scripture-language 
Morning," "in a 

Moses* song, six things remarkable respecting it 
Moth, wherein God compares himself to a 
Multitudes, their opposition no argument against the 
truth of a doctrine ..... 59 

Murder, character of the sin of . . . 213 



469 

495 

536 
591 
326 
684 
105 
106 
26 

299 
. 440 

562 
. 263 

582 
. 460 
139, 140 

296 



N 

Names, much danger in words and . . . 146- 

evil things are often veiled mider goodly . 532 
Nation, the priests are not infrequently tne causes of 

all the wickedness in, and judgments on a 261 

a defiled, is near to ruin . . 270 

Nature, human, its proneness to idolatry . . 88 

its characteristics . . . 334 

God deals with us suitably to our . . 474 

Nearness of a people to God exempts them not from 

punishment for sin .... 17, 201 

Neck," " her fair ..... 444 

Need of God, there is coming a time when even the 

most wicked will see their .... 278 

Nescientia, as distinguished from ignorantia . . 98 
New moons, how and why observed . . 110,111 
Nice, the council of . . . . .58 

Night-times, times of affliction are . . . 318 

"No more" ...... 411 

Nonconformists, remarks respecting the . . 550 



O 

Oaths, remarks respecting .... 551 

Obedience, perfect, in the desire and endeavour must be 

rendered to God . . . .12 

and protection conjoined . . 237 
remarks respecting that which should be 

rendered to God and man . 295 

God's three bands to bind man to . . 481 
no confidence to be reposed in our promises 

of new ..... 672 

the end of the ministry . . . 684 

Observed him," " I have .... 668 

Q^colampadius ..... 59 

Offence, God's command takes away all plea of . 7 
Officers in the church, all, even the meanest, depend 

on Christ . ..... 45 

Oil, the produce of Canaan .... 510 

Old age should produce abundant fruit . . 118 

Old Testament, the, remarks on it . . . 587 

Opposition to God vain ..... 544 



PAOE 

Oppress, some considerations for those who cheat and 529 

Oppression in trading .... 528, 529 

Ordinance, prayer is the great prevailing . . 518 

Ordinances, Go'd to be found, if at all, in his own . 279 

repenting hearts are solicitous about God's 307 

natural and instituted . . . 32S 

God's holiest, are corrupted through man's 

wickedness .... 335 

of God's appointment, if abused, to be pu- 
rified, not destroyed . . . 438 
Organs in churches, Justin >lartyr's sentiments re- 
specting ...... 34 

Ornament, godliness the best . . . 103 
Oiuselves, we are, our own worst and most effectual 

enemies ...... 561 



Pains, more, used to go to hell than to heaven . 454 

Paphnutius, remarkable circumstance recorded of him 58 

Papists and prelatists, character of their unity . 37 

unjust in their ceusures of those 

who plead against them . 60 
by their idolatries, the cause of 
the nation's evils . 66, 67 

are men of blood .... 142 

their abuse of places where some special events 

have happened . . . . 248 

Parents, should so live as to be an honour to their 

children .... 3 

should forbear to sin on accoimt of their off- 
spring ..... 1.3 
children may plead with their . . 57 
a special mercy to have godly . . 76 
should set good examples . . .77 
wicked, are a disgrace to their children . 78 
have their children committed to them by God 283 
exhortation to . . . 408, 409 
their love should be requited . . 469 
their piety a reproach to wicked children ^ . 511 
children should not marry without or against 

the consent of their . . . 540 

wicked, bring judgments on their posterity 601 

Particles, their occasional force in the Scriptures 73, 402 

Passover, remarks on the . . . .116 

Patience of God 580, 603 

exhortation to .... 625 
Peace with God brings peace with the creature . 153 
is a great and most desirable blessing . . 155 
may be bought at too high a price . . 155 
is God's peculiar work and gift . . 156, 157 
thorough reformation is the way to procure 156 
God's, alone brings security . . . 157 
in the heart confirms obedience . 666 
Pelagius. remarks on his doctrine . . .77 
Pelican, the, chosen as an emblem by John II. of Por- 
tugal 479 

Penitent, some advice to a true . . . 353 

some comforts for a sincere . . ; . • 585 
Penitents, smcere, remember former sins with indigna- 
tion .... 152 
turn to God that they may know 

God .... 316 

their prayers are heard and an- 
swered . . . 67 (J 
Pentecost, remarks on . . . . 117 — 119 
People, God's, sometimes lose their first joy . 143 
are the seed of the earth . . 179 
and minister, their influence on each other 230, 2-31 
a, little hope of them when succeeding gener- 
ations are wicked .... 284 
it is a great judgment for them to be under 

oppression ..... 293 
how God may be as a moth and rottenness to a 296 
God's, in their heaviest afflictions their good 

is intended .... 308 
account their life to consist in God's 

favour .... 318 

whence come their deliverances . 319 

sins of a, are seeds for a harvest of judgment .337 
a, their condition desperate when they Become 

worse under the means of healing . 339 

God's, their sins are aggravated sins . 388 

rejoice in their ministers keeping close 

with God . . . 398 

are subject to as sore evils here as the 
worst of men . 464, 468, 497, 504, 588 



GEXEKAL IXDEX. 



People God's, their sins are especially noticed by 

God . . ... . 497 

Perfidiousness of man's heart .... 634 

Perplexity of the wicked great in times of trouble 287 

moves not God . . . 305 
great, often caused to ministers and saints 

by men's sins .... 408 

Person, indelicate exposure of the, condemned . 63 

Petrus Waldensis ..... 58 

Perverseness of men .... 320 

Petitions, our, often answered more exceeding abun- 
dantly ...... 656 

Philadelphia, church of, compared to church of Scot- 
land .-.■.• • • J.?6 
Physician, characteristics of sin's . . . 651 
Places, idolatrous, we must not approach . . 2-19 
corrupted, lose their honour . . . 249 
set apart for God's worship, their corruption 

remarked on . . . . . 336 

Plato, some remarks of his on the true nature of sacrifice 230 
Pleaders, the devil never wants . . .57 

Pleading, God's . . . • . 206 

we should not neglect it . . 263 
Pleadings should be added to exhortations and admo- 
nitions . . . . .56 

reformation, and not contention, the true end 

ofall 62 

Plotted wickedness, its vileness . . . 336 

Plots of the wicked, God knows how to defeat them . 485 
Ploughshare, a few plain truths which should act on the 

heart as a . . . . . . 450 

I'olicv, sinful, leads to ruin .... 12 

Polytheism leads to atheism .... 609 

Poorness of man's natural condition . . 218 

Pope's, the, canon to silence opposition . . 222 

Popish bondage intolerable ... 69 

casuists, their vile obscenity . . . .582 

Posterity, eight sins which especially entail judgments 

on ...... . 602 

Power, the meaner men's beginnings are, the more 

imperious are they in . . . . 545 

Praise, the sacrifice of, considered in connexion with 

the covenant ...... 038 

Prayer, deadness in it, often occasioned by some secret 

lust 348 

saints should be hold in seeking God in . 496 
some encouragements to . . 498, 657 

is the great prevailing ordinance . 518 
of Jacob, excellent ingredients in it . .518 

omnipotency of . . . . 618 

causes of the miscarriage of . . . 627 

its efficacy .... 677 
exhortations to ... 54, 515 

Prayers denominated bowlings in four respects . 351 
Preface to the Book of Common Prayer, remarks on 

the . . . . ■ . . 211 

Preferment, Luther's contempt of . . .86 

its influence .... 86 

Preparation for our approaches to God . . 617 

Presages sometimes betoken future eminence . 513 

Presence, God's, constitutes the saint's morning' . 318 

Presumptuous sinners, an appeal to . . 631 

Prevalence with God insures prevalence with men . 515 

I'ride leads men to think Gou's ordinances too plain 210 

a secret and a witnessing . . 275, 276 

goes before a fall .... 276 

of men's hearts . . . . . 299 

ordinarily attends on prosperity . . 555 

evidences a mean, low spirit . . . 556 

Priests, their proper work .... 221 

Israel's, in Hosea's time, apt emblems of the 

present popish .... 229 
usually the causes of all the wickedness in, and 
judgments on, a nation . . 261, 335, 336 
Princes, their responsibility to God . . 291 
of Judah, four-fold character of their trans- 
gressions . . . . 291 
means given by God to keep them within 

bound! 291,292 

much need our prayers . . . 292 

wicked, give liberty to men's lusts . 296 

their obstinacy . . .411 

their vanity . . - 4.37 

Prison, Ridley and Latimer s sweet concord in . +13 

Privileges, none preserve tlie disobedient from ruin 51^2 

Professed sins are shameful sins . . . ^'1 

Profession, open, five reasons for it at all times . M 

Professors, their sins most offend God . . .217 



P.4CE 

Professors, their falls especially noticed by the ungodly 279 

formal, God delights not in their services . 280 
we may meet with worse usage from them 

than from non-professors . , . 4(H) 

their example ripens many for judgment 337 
a strong caution to them respecting the sin 

of drunkenness . . . 345 

backsliding, admonished . . . 365 

a word of caution to . . . 428 

sincere, their paucity . . . 679 

Progenitors' sins entail progenitors' judgments . 3S2 

Progeny, a numerous, accounted a great glory . 4tJ3 

Promises, the, adversity usually leads to forgetfulness of 27 

the strongest saints require a renewal of 519 

Prophets, the minor, Jerome's remarlcs on them . 1 

their falls are falls of the night . . 224 

Propriety, the, of all is in God . . . lUl 

Prosperity usually leads men to forget the threatcnings 27 

begets wantonness ... 99 

God's displeasure is often shown at the 

height of ... . 1"2 

God's sufferance of wicked . . 121,3(17 

outward, its transitory nature . 386,401,41:7 

in sin, to be prayed against . . . 532 

Proud men, their utter vanity . . . 551 

their forgetfulness of God . . . b'M 

Proudest, the, by his least judgments God can abase 

them . . . . . . .297 

Punislimeut, it is a sore, to ^o unpunished f jr sin . .^^l 

never nearer, than w hen least feared . 581 
Purity of religion in the church, incompatible with 

slavery in the state ..... 16 



Questions ami answers, some important, respecting the 
doctrine of imputed sin . . . 407, 408, 6i->2 



R 



31 s 



Rain of God's blessing .... 

Rational, the ways of God are very . . . 472 

Rationally, God deals with people . . . 471 

Reaping shall be as sowing .... 447. lo.') 

Reasons, for God's ultimate withdrawal of mercy . 17, IS' 

some, why men backslide . . 4nS 

Rebellion, greatness of the sin of . . 18, ti(..'3 

Rebukes, should be tempered with love . . 55, 56 

sin is exceeding sinful after . . . 268 

God has his set time for . . . 2St) 

whether sent in auger or in love . . 2n9 

Recompences, judgments on us are none other than 39'j 

Reconciliation with God, its attendants . . 1.'3 

Reformation, without humiliation, insufficient . S'S 

weakness of arguments to render final 

previous .... 96, 21 1 

glorious shows of, often come to nothing 322 

Reformers, the first English . . . '211 

Refuge, cities of . . . . . . 3-i» 

Reign, to serve God is to . . . . 60(j 

Rejection, apostacy precedes . . • .26 

of knowledge, a great sin . . 2'25 

" Rejoice with trembling" .... 38tj 

Relations, for their state we should be especially so- 
licitous ...... 56 

Relationship to God, its privileges . . . 497 

Religion, to subject it to carnal policy is shameful . 7S 
the most gainful, the must popular . t-.'i 

of those we love, siion adopted . . 403 

Remembrancers, the Lord's, their duty . . (ilS 

Remission of sins ..... 622 

Renovation of man's character . . . (>'-'2 

Repentance, must be proportionable to men's sins . 152 

wherein it truly consists . 273, .307, .349 

death-bed, little dependence to be placed 

on . . . . 391 

we should gather together every argument 
to incite lo . . . . 498 

exhortation to . . . . 498 

of no kind can be accepted without resti- 
tution . . . . . .■») 

remarks on . . . 560, 561 

an invitation to . . . . 616 

iustitution how to perform . . (i\7 

a Christian's work in trouble . . 618 

sweetens judgments . . . 619 



GENERAL INDEX. 



697 



Repentance, links of the golden chain of . . 628 
unsound, unaccompanied with thankful- 
ness . . . . . 639 

works a special care against besetting 
sins . . . . 643, 675 

true, takes the heart off from carnal con- 
fidences .... 644 

its proper work . . 645 

its roots .... 648 

Repenting church, the, answers to its doubts . ]58 
Reproach on God, divers ways whereby a creature can 

brinff ...... 543 

Reprobation, remarks on . , . 252, 254 

Reproofs, our misery great when we have succeeded in 

ridding ourselves of . , . . . 220 

Reprovers should be themselves unrebukable . 56 
Resolved spirits, their success . . . 546, 547 

Restitution, repentance altogether imperfect without 530 
Reviling speecnes, a foul evil . . . .61 

Revivals of God's people .... 312 

Rhemist Testament, tne .... 146 

Rich in this world, the. cautions to them . . 555 

Ridley and Hooper, the scene of their agreement 36, 443 

Righteousness," " sow to yourselves in . . 447 

signification of the word . . 452 

*' raining .... 452 

Rod, God's . . . . . .594 

Rods, the, of our affliction, by whom chosen . 442 

*' Root of Ephraim " . . . . . 414 

Roots, sinners' and nations', God has his time to dry 

them up ...... 414 

Rottenness," '* to the house of Judah as . . 296 
Ruin, God sometimes permits some revivals before 

utter ..... 24 

our, how sometimes prepared and accomplished 25 

no privileges can save the disobedient from 592 
no fortifications can secure a sinful people 

from 598 

Rulers, their duty to their people . . . 256 



S 

Sabbaths, the principal Jewish . . . 112 

Sacrifice," " mercy and not . . . 328 — 330 

remarks respecting the preferring of mercy 

to . , . . . 330-332 

Sacrifices, three things observable in the . . 189 

our, remarks respecting . . . 260 

in what sense termed "flesh" . , 380 

Saints, the, remarks on their condition . . .34 

are the seed of God ... 49 

God's, shall have their day . . .50 

should at all times entertain good thoughts 

ofGod . . . . .S3 
remains of sin in ... 87 
their mourning, a preparation for a ju- 
bilee .... 114 
the, should encourage themselves in their ulti- 
mate reward .... 125 
their afflictions, doors of hope . . 135 
their removal a heavy judgment . 252 
their falls especiaUv considered by the 

wicked . ' . . . 277 

their afflictions are rebukes . . 289 

their healing, a fruit of God's mercy . 311 

God's presence constitutes their morning . 318 
their sins in breaking covenant are must 

aggravated sins .... 335 
their privilege in prayer . . 496 
cause the mitigation of judgments . . 502 
their example .... 507 
in their greatest troubles, God sometimes ap- 
pears as the enemy of his dearest . 513 
the, their comfort founded on the covenant . 519 
the strongest, require a renewal of the promises 519 
Salvation of a sinner, importance of it in God's sight . 494 
God must be acknowledged in all . 552 
Samaria, description of . . . . . 596 
Samaria's king, his doom .... 437 
Sanctification, remarks on ... . 622 
Sanctified use of God's threatenings and judgments 627 
Satan, a special device of . . " . . 581 
Saul, character of . . . . . 572 
School of Christ, the first form in it . . . 584 
Scorners, Latimer's sentiments respecting . . 95 
sensual courtiers are generally . . 345 
Scripture-language, its modesty . . , 582 



Scriptures, the, Chrysostom's and Luther's estimation of 1, 2 
frame of heart necessaiy for studying them 

aright ..... 2 

delight in them, a proof of advance in grace 2 
the, we should regard them as concerning 

ourselves .... 375 

there is a sweet harmony and consent in 588 

the rule of our life after conversion 685 
contain many things to offend corrupt 

hearts .... 685—6.87 

Secret sins entail secret judgments . . 297, 298 

Security, closeness of walk with God begets . 49t> 

Seed, in what respects saints are God's . . 49 

-time, the. for eternity, life is . . . 363 

Seeds, men's actions are .... 447 

Seek the Lord, some reasons why we should now . 451 

Seekers aright, are effectual .... 453 

Seeking God early, enjoined and commended . 308, 3')9 

motives to continue . . . 453 

Self appears in sin, some respects in which , 5()1 

-love, some remarks on . . . . 279 

-seeking eats out all true devotion . . 380, 381 

-murderers, all that perish are . . . 561 

-destruction is the worst destruction . . 561 

one's, better to be given up to the devil than to . 561 

Selfishness, condemned .... 421 

Seneca, important quotation from . . . 332 

Sensual pleasures, tneir daughter ... 9 

negligent ministers usually become . . 235 

Sensuality, its besotting nature . . . 234 
Servants, merciful provision for them in the Jewish 

dispensation ..... 113, 114 

Service, the, of God's people is easy . . , 484 

admonition to those who serve a hard . 540 

love will can-y through long . . . 540 

Services, God has no need of our . . , 123 

all our, must be rendered to God . , 632 

Shalman ...... 459 

Shame, four things which principally cause . . 259 

Shameless, the, in evil, there is little hope of . 60 
Sickness, a thorough acquaintance with our spiritual, 

would lead us to prize gospel-mercy . . 652 

Silver," "their pleasant places for their . . 395 

Similitudes, remarks on . . . , 537 

Simplicity, sinful, inconsistent with true godliness . 349 
Sin, its wasting nature . . . 72,419,595 

and joy, no true union between . . . 105 

bestializes men .... 126 

will introduce trouble into the most pleasant places 135 

restraint includes not mortification of . . 217 
its progressive character . . . 220,357 

'• they eat up the sin of mv people " . 223 

God sometimes punishes sin with . . . 240 

of parents often punished in the offspring . 240 
its fruit . . . . . .276 

men more readily see their wound than their 299 

disturbs heaven and earth .... 3iJ5 

God, in punishing, manifests his remembrance of 341 

drunkenness is an old court- . . . 345 

God wiU be hot in judgment, when men are hot in 346 

in what its great evil consists . . . 351 

duties should mightily engage us against . 352 

God remembers the first and chief actors in . 373 
imputation of . . . . 407. 408, 602 

exceeding sinful in the midst of the testimonies of 

God's mercies ..... 410 

the fearful evil of ... . 442 

God's old mercies are aggravations to . . 463 

puts God to a stand .... 494 

the least, not to be ventured on for the greatest gain 529 

of covetousness .... 532 

will brin^ down men's honours . . . 546 
idolatry is a very growing . . . ■ 550 
some remarks on it in its own nature and with re- 
spect to God ..... 5S'2 

the bitterness of . . . . ,599 

corrupts blessings .... 619 

God in a four-fold manner heals . . . 648 

is both a sickness and a wound . . 650 
the proper passions and effects of most diseases 

meet in ..... 650 

characteristics of the Physician of . . 651 

Sinful acquisitions cursed . . . . 125 

actions of men, God's influence and providence 

in the _ 669 

Sinfulness after great mercies greatly aggravates our sin 352 
Sinners, old, exhortation to, with some encouragement 

for 193 



698 



GENERAL INDEX. 



Sinners, God has a set lime lo reckon with 
God's suflerancc of their prosperity 



in their self-created troubles, complain much 369 
their holy duties are aggravations of their sins 382 
the highest, to what compared in Scripture 437 
rich, why God is especially angry with . 558 
their destruction to be especially attri- 
buted to themselves . . 560 
presumptuous, appeal to them . . 631 
Sins, youth's, may prove the terrors of age . 13 
small, to be heedfuily avoided . . .25 
delil)erate. the most shameful ... 81 
afflictions sanctified bring men to see and ac- 
knowledge their .... .306 

mere confession of, not sufficient . . . 306 
of saints in breaking covenant, are aggravated 

sins ...... .335 

God knows how to make use of men's . 359 

provoking God's hatred are dreadful . . 411 

should not increase with mercies . . 422 

of ancestors continued in, are aggravated . 441 
greatness of men's, hinder not the working of 

God's mercies ..... 493 

special, must be reformed in our turning to God 524 

some, provoke God more than others . . 542 
eight, which especially bring judgments on our 

posterity ...... 602 

men's, some aggravations of, enumerated 351, 466, 473, 

474. 481, 482, 48G, 502, 52'2, 534, 536, 541, 548, 552, 
560, 563, 600 

Son, a, the privileges of .... 593 

" .Sons of the living God," what is implied in the ex- 
pression . . . . .33,-35 

of God not exempt from grievous trials . 464 

Soul-worship must be preferred before all otherworship 333 
Sound, denunciation of threatenings in God's name, is 

a terrible ...... 354 

Sour," "tlieir drink is .... 256 

Spirit, the bravest, tears before God become . . 517 

Stall' used in a peculiar form of idolatry . . 236 

State, a. its members should act towarcls it as a mother 58 

Sledfastness, difficulties try ... 441 
in the true worship when others fall off 

is commendable . . . 505 
Stirrings of mercy should prevail in our hearts, more 

than stirrings of wrath . . . , 499 

Straits, sanctified, a cause of rejoicing . . 143 
ignorance of God's mind in, grievous to the 

saints ...... 191 

it is God's usual wav to help his people in their 
greatest . ' . . . .267 

Strength, bodilv, restored should lead to increase of 

spi'ritual . . . . .352 

when God strives against any he gives cor- 
respondent .... 515 

Strivings, success at last will recompense all our . 516 
l^trokes, God's second, are usually more dreadful than 

the first ...... 17 

Stubborn, idolaters' hearts are .... 267 

Succession, a, in wickedness God cannot endure . 77 
Success, men ordinarily think the magnitude of the 

sin lessened by its . . . . 533 

Sufferings, in the heaviest, a truly penitent heart en- 
tertains good thoughts of God . 310 
Superstition, some signs of .... ,384 

.Superstitious vanities caused by low thoughts of God 177 
the, are abundant and costly in their ser- 
vices .... 278 

altars should be removed . . 424 

Supremacy, oath of, its origin ... 44 
the king has some, both in civil and church 

affairs ~ . . . . 45 

.Swearers, how punished by Louis the Ninth . . 212 
Swearing, enormity of the sin of . . 211,212 
Sword, the continuation of it on a people is a sore judg- 
ment ..... 486 

the, has its commission from God . . 487 

Sympathy of God for his people . . . 520 



Tabernacles, the feast of, three things chiefly aimed 
at in 121, 122 

Table, duties of (he second, must be regarded as well 
as duties of the first .... 524 

Tabor 263 

"Take away all iniquilv," five duties which spring 
r....-.u .. ■ ... fr21,622 



from these words 



2NT "' Take away all iniquity," three things desired in 

ShO, 3(>4 these word's ... . 6"22 

Tears before God become the bravest . . . 5I7 

Temple at Jerusalem, three things which made it holy 3^.3 

Temples, what constitutes the sin of building . . 383 

Teraphim, what it was .... 192 

TertuUian quoted . . . . .30 

de Habitu Muliebri ... 63 
de Velandis Virginibus . . .63 

de Corona Militis . . . 151 

de Adulteria ..... 216 

TertuUian 's sentiments respecting adulterers 216 

Testament, the Rhemist, quoted . . . 146 

Texts, some, are plainer unexplained . 590 

Thankful obedience of true conversion . 629 

Thanksgivings, remarks on . . . . 101 

Thought sins ...... 232 

Thoughts, some helps against discouraging . 501 

exhortation against .... 501 

1 Threatening, individual, effectual . . . 2"23 
Threatenings, prosperity usually leads men to forget all 27 
God's, always contain mercy on repent- 
ance, either expressed or implied . 63 
God is sincere in his . . 290 
Time, in which God will not have mercy . . 16 
God has a, in which he will bring peace to his 

church ...... 36 

of God's reviving his people, is long neither in 

God's nor in his saiuts' account . . 312 
God's, must be waited for, to derive comfort 

from his mercies .... 358 

the acceptable .... 451 

Times, in the most corrupt, God usually reserves a 

people ..... 56 

of trouble, a few props to lean on in . .311 

of aflflictions, are night times . . 318 

of deliverance are morning . . . 318 
of feasting, are times of danger . . 344, 345 
when public evils are threatened, good times to 

die in . . . . . 409 

of prosperity, their danger . . . 425 

Titles, their influence .... 397 

Trading, oppression in . . . . . 528 

Travailing, a woman, a frequent similitude in Scripture 582 

Treacherously," "they have dealt . . . 281 

Trees, reasons for sacrificing under . . 2.39 

Trouble, a few props to lean on in times of . . .311 
we should beware of an impatient spirit in 

times of . , . . .312 

the way to be safe in times of . . 616 
objects of trust in times of, must have certain 

qualifications .... &1G 

some considerations for times of . . 681 

Trumpets, the feast of, its use threefold . . 119 

ministers should blow their . . . 120 

Truth, multitudes no argument against the . 59 

clearly proved should be yielded to . . 397 

Tr\iths, unnecessary, not to be imperatively enforced 483 
Tumults, are a token of the great wrath of God on a 

people ..... 457 

causes of .... . 457 

miseries of . . . . . 458 

Turning to God, a united, is very honourable . . 310 

" Turn thou lo thy God" .... 6'24 

Tyrus, remarks on .... . 406 



U 



Uncertainty of things temporal 
Unclean, the, pursue with greediness their lusts 
God has a special controversy with 
sometimes make a show of religion 
Unclcanness, a reproach to anv family 
Understandings of men avail little in matters of wor- 
ship and of faith 
admonitionagaiust trusting in matters 
of faith and worship to our own 
Undertakings, unlawful, cannot prosper 
Unfaithfulness, provokes rejection from God 

ours lo God felt when those near to us 
are unfaithful to us 
Union, the stability of the church 
Universalilv not the mark of the true church 
Unlovely, llic, the means they use lo purchase love 
Unsettled, an, spirit, a judgment 

Unsteilfastness of our hearts . . . . 

Uprightly, he walks surely that walks 



102,122 
84 



216 
ai3 
241 



551 
233 

226 

241 
38 
.39 
366 
415 
6.31 
12 



GENERAL INDEX. 



PAGE 

Urim and Thummim, remarks on the . . . 191 

Use, its effects on men's minds . . . 548 



Vacuum, the worst possible .... 418 

Vanity of man's estate . . . 219 

proud men ..... 551 

Violence in sin entails violence in judgments . 416 

Visitation, God has his days of . . . . 232 



W 

Wait on God, how we are to . . . 526 

some reasons why we should . 526, 527 

exhortation to . . . 527 
Wantonness after deliverance from oppression is very 

sinful 482 

Wantons usually grow past feeling ... 81 
Wants of every kind, t^e supply must be from heaven 
for . . . . . . .661 

War, its signification in Scripture . . . 350 
sad, in which the conqueror must lament the 

conquest ..... 385 

Warning, the, to Lo-ruhamah implies two things . 23 

usually precedes smiting . . 597 

Warnings, divers, used bv God . . . 597 

Water,»holy, the heathens had their . . 148 

W^ay, evangelical, of seeking God . . . 195 

but one, leading to an eternity of happiness 225 

the, of God's people often very difficult . 468, 497 

Wavs, God will deal with men according to their pre- 

■ sent 269 

the, of the Lord are right . . . 678, 682 

Whirlwind, the, by whom justly reaped . . 364 

Whoredom, bodily or spiritual, especially shameful 79 

some of its effects on its votaries . . 80, 81 

TertuUian's sentiments respecting . 81 

is a costly sin ... . 124 

bodilv and spiritual, usually conjoined 235 

Whoredoms," " the spirit of . . . 236, 273 

Wicked men, God uses, yet punishes . . 11 

when God comes on them with wrath, his 

wrath is unmixed with mercy . 74 
whether their help can lawfully be used 
in any case . . . 300 
children are a great dishonour to their pa- 
rents . . • . • . ■ 251 
difference between God's dealings with the 

godly, and with the ... 74 

the great, God regards with contempt . 126 

to obey the unlawful connnands of governorsis 342 
the, their temporal prosperity should not dis- 
quiet us . . . . 367, 531 

remarks on their prosperity . . 5.33 

their activity and spiritual death co-exist 547 

a fourfold act of God in their actions . 594 

Wickedness has many covers . . . 104 

God has'a time to discover . . 104 

studied, the worst ... 232 
God's best ordinances are corrupted by 

man's .... 335 

plotted, the most vile . . . 336 

much, often lies hid in people . 339 

long ago committed, God remembers . 340 

a vue, to flatter princes . . 342 

obstinacy in, a great sin . . . 401 

its defenders must at last perish . 401 

of men, strangely contrasted with God's 

goodness • . . . . 553 

Wife, " a, of whoredoms " . . . , 78 

a good, though portionless, is a great blessing 540 

Wilderness state of the church .... 1-30 

how God may be said to have known Israel 

in the . . . . . 553 

Wilfulness in sin is a very great aggravation . 81 

precedes ruin . . . .81 

Will of man, and God's grace, concord between them 670 

God's act upon it twofold, and mode in 

which effected . . . 671 



Will of man,' its native obstinacy, by what means sub- 
dued ...... 

Willing obedience in evil brings much guilt on a people 
Wind, the, who may be said to sow 

what is denoted by feeding on . 
creature comforts will prove but 
" "an east ..... 

Wine of wrath ..... 

Wisdom, its twofold character .... 

of men, on what expended 
Withdrawings of God from his saints, in what they 
consist ...... 

Witnesses to his truth, God has never been without 
Wives of ministers, remarks on . . . 

Word, the, when it fails God has other means to convince 
of God, the only sure guide 
in what respects it is said to slay . 325, 684 

of God, its power and efficacy . . 327, 350 

the written, aloue, is sulKcicnt warrant for forms 
of worship . . ... 

the, its superiority to all other books 
sent especially to the church 
is full and perfect 

contains matter to exercise the greatest 
minds .... 

unfailing nature of its promises 
where it converts not, it hardens 
end of its ministry 
wilful inattention to it a great evil . 
of God, caution regarding our use of it 
Work, a, its matter may be rewarded, its manner cursed 

God provides suitable agents for his 
Works, God's, cautions respecting them 

our good, wrought oy God . 
Worship, false, (he more specious, the more dangerous 
defiled, defiles the soul 
false, especial source of oppression 

and tyranny, necessary union between 
them ..... 

the greatest gain should not draw us to 
'every age adds something to 
forms of, must be warranted by the written 

word 

God's, its importance 
impure, fearful for the saints to join in 
in God's, the word should guide us 
false, is a great sin . 
God's true, elevates 
Worshippers, the true, their service shoidd be propor- 
tioned to their ability . ' 
their duty to their families 
Wrath, when called to reveal God's, we should conceal 
our own 
what is meant by pure 
God's, its extent 

some of its effects on men here 
most fearful 

in what sense termed the wine of his 
wrath .... 
God rejoices in the execution of his 
God's, on a nation, tumults betoken it . 

proportioned to the sin of man 
difference between God and man in the execu 
tiou of . 
Wreaths, some, of the bands of God's love 



2.34 



373 
374 
375 
375 

377 
389 
467 
490 
490 
683 

II 
546 

11 
677 
246 
270 
294 

336 
367 
372 

373 
377 
390 
398 
438 
491 

422, 423 
432 

7 

74,75 

219 

298 

439, 559 

442 
442 

457 
460 

500 
476 



Years, expressed by days, why .... 201 

Young, the, sometimes employed about great works 4 

God takes it exceedingly ill that any should 

corrupt the .... 284 

Youth, dedicated to God, how sweet the fruits of . 117 

exhortation to godly . . . 136 

sins of, may prove the terrors of age . . 13 



Zeal, Jehu's, us character 
of idolaters 



11 
&1, 252, 366 



BA1.UKTYM 



EDINBDEcra. 



BS1565 .B972 

An exposition of the prophecy of Hosea 

Princeton Theological Semmary-Speer Library 



1 1012 00078 6436 



DATE DUE 







HIGHSMITH #45230