mh_parser/vol_split/28 - Hosea/0 - Introduction.xml
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<div2 id="Hos.i" n="i" next="Hos.ii" prev="Hos" progress="74.06%" title="Introduction">
<h2 id="Hos.i-p0.1">Hosea</h2>
<hr/>
<pb id="Hos.i-Page_1117" n="1117"/>
<div class="Center" id="Hos.i-p0.3">
<p id="Hos.i-p1" shownumber="no"><b>AN</b></p>
<h3 id="Hos.i-p1.1">EXPOSITION,</h3>
<h4 id="Hos.i-p1.2">W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E
R V A T I O N S,</h4>
<h5 id="Hos.i-p1.3">OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET</h5>
<h2 id="Hos.i-p1.4">H O S E A.</h2>
<hr style="width:2in"/>
</div>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.i-p2" shownumber="no"><span class="smallcaps" id="Hos.i-p2.1">I. We</span> have
now before us the twelve minor prophets, which some of the
ancients, in reckoning up the books of the Old Testament, put all
together, and reckon but as <i>one book.</i> They are called the
minor prophets, not because their writings are of any less
authority or usefulness than those of the greater prophets, or as
if these prophets were less in God's account or might be so in ours
than the other, but only because they are shorter, and less in
bulk, than the other. We have reason to think that these prophets
preached as much as the others, but that they did not write so
much, nor is so much of their preaching kept upon record. Many
excellent prophets wrote nothing, and others but little, who yet
were very useful in their day. And so in the Christian church there
have been many burning and shining lights, who are not known to
posterity by their writings, and yet were no way inferior in gifts,
and graces, and serviceableness to their own generation, than those
who are; and some who have left but little behind them, and make no
great figure among authors, were yet as valuable men as the more
voluminous writers. These twelve small prophets, Josephus says,
were put into one volume by the <i>men of the great synagogue</i>
in Ezra's time, of which learned and pious body of men the last
three of these twelve prophets are supposed to have been themselves
members. These are what remained of the scattered pieces of
inspired writing. Antiquaries value the <i>fragmenta veterum—the
fragments of antiquity;</i> these are the fragments of prophecy,
which are carefully gathered up by the divine Providence and the
care of the church, that nothing might be lost, as St. Paul's short
epistles after his long ones. The son of Sirach speaks of these
twelve prophets with honour, as men that <i>strengthened Jacob,</i>
<scripRef id="Hos.i-p2.2"><i>Ecclus.</i> xlix. 10</scripRef>. Nine of these prophets prophesied
before the captivity, and the last three after the return of the
Jews to their own land. Some difference there is in the order of
these books. We place them as the ancient Hebrew did; and all agree
to put Hosea first; but the ancient thing is not material. And, if
we covet to place them according to their seniority, as to some of
them we shall find no certainty.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.i-p3" shownumber="no">II. We have before us the prophecy of
Hosea, who was the first of all the writing prophets, being raised
up somewhat before the time of Isaiah. The ancients say, He was of
Bethshemesh, and of the tribe of Issachar. He continued very long a
prophet; the Jews reckoned that he prophesied nearly fourscore and
ten years; so that, as Jerome observes, he prophesied of the
destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes when it was at a great
distance, and lived himself to see and lament it, and to improve it
when it was over, for warning to its sister kingdom. The scope of
his prophecy is to discover sin, and to denounce the judgments of
God against a people that would not be reformed. The style is very
concise and sententious, above any of the prophets; and in some
places it seems to be like the book of Proverbs, without connexion,
and rather to be called Hosea's <i>sayings</i> than Hosea's
<i>sermons.</i> And a weighty adage may sometimes do more service
than a laboured discourse. Huetius observes that many passages in
the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel seem to refer to, and to be
borrowed from, the prophet Hosea, who wrote a good while before
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.
vii. 34; xvi. 9; xxv. 10; and Ezek. xxvi. 13</scripRef>, speak the
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
<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>, &amp;c., is
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
that promise of <i>serving the Lord their God,</i> and <i>David
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,
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.
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
confirms and corroborates another; and all these worketh that one
and the self-same Spirit.</p>
</div2>