79 lines
5.5 KiB
XML
79 lines
5.5 KiB
XML
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<div2 id="Hos.i" n="i" next="Hos.ii" prev="Hos" progress="74.06%" title="Introduction">
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<h2 id="Hos.i-p0.1">Hosea</h2>
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<hr/>
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<pb id="Hos.i-Page_1117" n="1117"/>
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<div class="Center" id="Hos.i-p0.3">
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<p id="Hos.i-p1" shownumber="no"><b>AN</b></p>
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<h3 id="Hos.i-p1.1">EXPOSITION,</h3>
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<h4 id="Hos.i-p1.2">W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E
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R V A T I O N S,</h4>
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<h5 id="Hos.i-p1.3">OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET</h5>
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<h2 id="Hos.i-p1.4">H O S E A.</h2>
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<hr style="width:2in"/>
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</div>
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<p class="indent" id="Hos.i-p2" shownumber="no"><span class="smallcaps" id="Hos.i-p2.1">I. We</span> have
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now before us the twelve minor prophets, which some of the
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ancients, in reckoning up the books of the Old Testament, put all
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together, and reckon but as <i>one book.</i> They are called the
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minor prophets, not because their writings are of any less
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authority or usefulness than those of the greater prophets, or as
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if these prophets were less in God's account or might be so in ours
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than the other, but only because they are shorter, and less in
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bulk, than the other. We have reason to think that these prophets
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preached as much as the others, but that they did not write so
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much, nor is so much of their preaching kept upon record. Many
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excellent prophets wrote nothing, and others but little, who yet
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were very useful in their day. And so in the Christian church there
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have been many burning and shining lights, who are not known to
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posterity by their writings, and yet were no way inferior in gifts,
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and graces, and serviceableness to their own generation, than those
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who are; and some who have left but little behind them, and make no
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great figure among authors, were yet as valuable men as the more
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voluminous writers. These twelve small prophets, Josephus says,
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were put into one volume by the <i>men of the great synagogue</i>
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in Ezra's time, of which learned and pious body of men the last
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three of these twelve prophets are supposed to have been themselves
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members. These are what remained of the scattered pieces of
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inspired writing. Antiquaries value the <i>fragmenta veterum—the
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fragments of antiquity;</i> these are the fragments of prophecy,
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which are carefully gathered up by the divine Providence and the
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care of the church, that nothing might be lost, as St. Paul's short
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epistles after his long ones. The son of Sirach speaks of these
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twelve prophets with honour, as men that <i>strengthened Jacob,</i>
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<scripRef id="Hos.i-p2.2"><i>Ecclus.</i> xlix. 10</scripRef>. Nine of these prophets prophesied
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before the captivity, and the last three after the return of the
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Jews to their own land. Some difference there is in the order of
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these books. We place them as the ancient Hebrew did; and all agree
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to put Hosea first; but the ancient thing is not material. And, if
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we covet to place them according to their seniority, as to some of
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them we shall find no certainty.</p>
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<p class="indent" id="Hos.i-p3" shownumber="no">II. We have before us the prophecy of
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Hosea, who was the first of all the writing prophets, being raised
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up somewhat before the time of Isaiah. The ancients say, He was of
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Bethshemesh, and of the tribe of Issachar. He continued very long a
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prophet; the Jews reckoned that he prophesied nearly fourscore and
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ten years; so that, as Jerome observes, he prophesied of the
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destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes when it was at a great
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distance, and lived himself to see and lament it, and to improve it
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when it was over, for warning to its sister kingdom. The scope of
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his prophecy is to discover sin, and to denounce the judgments of
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God against a people that would not be reformed. The style is very
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concise and sententious, above any of the prophets; and in some
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places it seems to be like the book of Proverbs, without connexion,
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and rather to be called Hosea's <i>sayings</i> than Hosea's
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<i>sermons.</i> And a weighty adage may sometimes do more service
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than a laboured discourse. Huetius observes that many passages in
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the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel seem to refer to, and to be
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borrowed from, the prophet Hosea, who wrote a good while before
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them. As <scripRef id="Hos.i-p3.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.7.34 Bible:Jer.16.9 Bible:Jer.25.10 Bible:Ezek.26.13" parsed="|Jer|7|34|0|0;|Jer|16|9|0|0;|Jer|25|10|0|0;|Ezek|26|13|0|0" passage="Jer 7:34,16:9.25:10,Eze 26:13">Jer.
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vii. 34; xvi. 9; xxv. 10; and Ezek. xxvi. 13</scripRef>, speak the
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same with <scripRef id="Hos.i-p3.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.11" parsed="|Hos|2|11|0|0" passage="Ho 2:11">Hos. ii. 11</scripRef>; so
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<scripRef id="Hos.i-p3.3" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.16" parsed="|Ezek|16|16|0|0" passage="Eze 16:16">Ezek. xvi. 16</scripRef>, &c., is
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taken from <scripRef id="Hos.i-p3.4" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.8" parsed="|Hos|2|8|0|0" passage="Ho 2:8">Hos. ii. 8</scripRef>. And
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that promise of <i>serving the Lord their God,</i> and <i>David
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their king,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.i-p3.5" osisRef="Bible:Jer.30.8-Jer.30.9" parsed="|Jer|30|8|30|9" passage="Jer 30:8,9">Jer. xxx. 8,
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9</scripRef>. <scripRef id="Hos.i-p3.6" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.34.23" parsed="|Ezek|34|23|0|0" passage="Eze 34:23">Ezek. xxxiv.
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23</scripRef>, <i>Hosea</i> had before, <scripRef id="Hos.i-p3.7" osisRef="Bible:Hos.3.5" parsed="|Hos|3|5|0|0" passage="Ho 3:5"><i>ch.</i> iii. 5</scripRef>. And <scripRef id="Hos.i-p3.8" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.19.12" parsed="|Ezek|19|12|0|0" passage="Eze 19:12">Ezek. xix. 12</scripRef> is taken from <scripRef id="Hos.i-p3.9" osisRef="Bible:Hos.13.15" parsed="|Hos|13|15|0|0" passage="Ho 13:15">Hos. xiii. 15</scripRef>. Thus one prophet
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confirms and corroborates another; and all these worketh that one
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and the self-same Spirit.</p>
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</div2>
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